The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Chiefs-Ravens Reactions and Super Bowl Picks With Marcus Spears. Plus, How to Be a Better Sports Bettor With Chad Millman.

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Russillo starts the show with his thoughts on Chiefs-Ravens and shares his picks for the season (0:42). Then, Marcus Spears joins the show to discuss why defense in the NFL has gotten so difficult, sh...are his Super Bowl pick, and talk about some college football (20:09). Next, The Action Network’s Chad Millman stops by to explain betting against the public, how sports betting has evolved, and how to account for luck (53:31). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle and Ceruti (92:57)! How do I approach my boyfriend not letting me look at his phone? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. 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: Marcus Spears and Chad Millman Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Loaded Friday! Trying to get you ready for the start of the NFL full slate and obviously college as well. I'll do an open on my NFL predictions. Also recap, Thursday night a win by the Chiefs. We're gonna do some of that with Marcus Spears and the turnover. Also some college ball, what he likes out of the SEC early into the season. And let's try to get smarter at gambling. Chad Millman, the Action Network, a friend, a founder, somebody that's just smart about it. So we're just gonna talk about how you can put together
Starting point is 00:00:36 a plan this fall. The Alliance picks off of that end, life advice. It's the Ryan Russo podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is finally back and you can dive into all the action with FanDuel. This is why I love FanDuel because actually a lot of times when I'm prepping out some of the segments, I'm like, who is the favorite in the big 12 this year?
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Starting point is 00:01:38 gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit RG dash help.com. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. You know, Amazon Prime is not just a shipping subscription, right? Amazon Prime isn't just one thing, but a collection of excellent services. Amazon Prime offers a range of services, including Prime Video, Amazon Music,
Starting point is 00:01:58 and Prime Fast Free Shipping. They also have great shows, great movies. Here's my favorite Amazon Prime thing, ready? So we do the rewatchables, right? And I always like to know like who the actor is. They have this really cool thing when you watch a movie called X-Ray. You can click on it as you're watching the movie
Starting point is 00:02:19 and the cast will pop up. And you can see who all the actors are. And it sounds dumb, but when you host a movie podcast, it's like the greatest thing ever. Anytime I rent or buy a movie, I buy it on Amazon Prime. That's true, I swear. On Prime, whatever you're into, or just getting into Prime service
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Starting point is 00:02:53 I'm gonna get to my conference championship picks, a couple other thoughts on playoff turnover, and just a lot of things here as you get ready for the season. Last night was great. Last night was just a reminder of like, when this game is right, it is so much fun. And I thought it was a, it wasn't that it was just exciting at the very end.
Starting point is 00:03:09 You look at those two teams and think, okay, you know, these are two really good football teams. So I have some chiefs thoughts, but I want to start with Baltimore and Lamar. Lamar checking in at two Oh five. Faster. Sure. Uh, if there was a guy that maybe didn't even need to be faster, it'd be him. I actually don't like it at 205. Taylor checking in.
Starting point is 00:03:26 Well, I don't want to look, I'm just giving you the full scope of the coverage, but, um, look pretty good down the tunnel. Not complaining. So Lamar 205 at 27 years old behind that offensive line, which struggled. I felt like last night. Um, it's not like the aging big man in the NBA where you think, you know, it'd be nice if he Duncan this and as Duncan extended his career, a lot of it had to do with him just deciding to play the lighter weight. So it's not even the same thing that we're talking about here, but I actually
Starting point is 00:03:54 thought he looked really skinny and everybody's raving about it, but I, I'm looking at it going with his style of play, even though I'd say as far as like any of the dual threat guys or open field guys, it's not like he's getting clean shots all that often. And he did a really good job of getting down and everything else. I don't think he was great last night, but he was also the main reason that Baltimore got back in this game. And then, well, it wasn't going to be tying it up because once they get the likely touchdown that then was ruled that he was out of bounds, they were going to go for two.
Starting point is 00:04:21 So who knows what happens in Lamar at that point, 12-1 and one against the spread as an underdog. So if they had not even got the two point conversion, it would have been another cover for Lamar as a dog, which is an incredible number. So as you're sitting there watching the score come off, because you see Likely's foot just on the white, barely there. And by the way, Likely looks terrific. And you could see his development as a Weapon at the end of last season with Andrews being down and it looked like they were going to him even more than Andrews As that game was closing out But let's go over some of Lamar stuff from last night because as you're sitting there watching the game
Starting point is 00:04:57 Sometimes you'll notice stuff that you're not even looking for other times You're looking for it depends on how you watch what your priorities are But at one point I just think it's like, where are any of the throws down the field? Um, and then as Chris Collins were told us as we finished up the first half, maybe it was back at the very start of the second half, he had mentioned that the average depth of target was only one yard beyond the line of scrimmage and watching the first half and the throws that either were available or the throws Lamar didn't want to make, uh, that was very evident. Cause like, I just kept thinking like where, God, a lot of these throws are just out to the side of the field. And the throws that either were available or the throws Lamar didn't want to make, that was very evident.
Starting point is 00:05:25 Because I just kept thinking like, we're, God, a lot of these throws are just out to the side the entire time. And with Zay Flowers in another season, you'd expect a little bit more of a deep threat. I think part of it is on that O-line. In the beginning of the game, when you're watching Lamar and Derrick Henry get it going, and you're thinking, okay, this is something that teams are going to have to worry about in theory, because if they want to hand it off to Henry as you start to wear down the defense, and then the moment where Lamar just catches it cheating and then he keeps it,
Starting point is 00:05:54 like that's a really dangerous thing. And maybe teams are going to have to load up on them in the box. And that means that some of those deep throws are going to be more available for them, which again, could very well happen this season, depending on what you think Henry is going to be for the long haul. But it didn't seem like Kansas City really worried about it other than the early part of the game. So when you watch the way Kansas City was aligned, and I didn't get to see any of it other than just some end zone replays, it looked like there weren't a lot of deep throws there, but they also at the
Starting point is 00:06:21 same time were not super committed to stopping anything upfront because they seem to just dismiss any of the Henry part of it because he was only 13 carries for 46 yards. Chris Jones also targeting specific offensive linemen throughout. Seth Walder ESPN does a really good job on some of these numbers after the fact. He had a really good number and that Jones lined up on 42% of his snaps at the edge positions. In comparison, he was only 18% on the edge last season overall. But Lamar did miss some throws downfield. There was a second down deep ball, the one-on-one to the middle of the field where
Starting point is 00:06:57 number 27 for Kansas City actually dropped the interception. The next play he had, say, Flowers down the right sideline. He under threw that one. He did hit likely on the touchdown that was second in 17, but a lot of that was after the catch. He missed a deep shot to Bateman. I think there was one in the end zone where he completely overthrew it. And then he had another one down the left sideline where it was a tougher throw.
Starting point is 00:07:14 He was going to have to get it down before the safety and then get it over the top of the corner. So not the easiest throw there, but the worst one was he completely missed, say, flowers wide open in the back of the net. So he had a really good throw there corner. So not the easiest throw there, but the worst one was he completely miss a flowers wide open in the back of the end zone before the likely TV that TD that was obviously overturned. We're on that one. He finally saw him, but then it was just all of his momentum to get turned and into the throw.
Starting point is 00:07:40 It wasn't even close, but he actually kept Baltimore in the game. earning into the throw, it wasn't even close. But he actually kept Baltimore in the game. So part of me, as I'm going through the throws, where I think after two MVPs and realizing he's one of the five best quarterbacks in the league, this isn't the relitigation of who Lamar Jackson is as quarterback, but yeah, I felt like there was some stuff that was out there, but at the same time with 16 carries for 122, he's the whole reason they were back in this thing at the end. Because like, can you imagine, especially week one,
Starting point is 00:08:11 and with the lack of preseason snaps that these guys have now having to chase Lamar around in the fourth quarter, like even if you get pressure, you're not going to get to him. Like he's going to step up. He's going to find a way around you and you could just see the defenders, especially upfront for Kansas city. Uh, they were just toast. Here's what I'd say about the chiefs. In the year you should have gotten them, they won the super bowl. You should have gotten them last year.
Starting point is 00:08:34 It's the worst Patrick Mahomes season of his career. Think about this is rookie really the first year he played, right? Cause he had to start in the technical rookie year. But in the first full year as a starter, he threw 50 touchdowns on 580 attempts. Last year, he threw 27 touchdowns on 597 attempts. There was a lot that just didn't look to the standard of Mahomes. And yet the guy wins a back to back Super Bowl. Yad and Xavier Worthy, who was so fast, it looked like Baltimore on that, on
Starting point is 00:09:09 that sweep, on that end around. He looked so fast that he almost looked like the handoff. He was there too quick. It almost looked a little clunky back there. And then once he took off, if you looked at the replay and the angles of pursuit, it was like, Oh wait, like we have no chance. Another year into his career from Rice, the screen game that is always going to be creative and always a pain in the ass.
Starting point is 00:09:33 The Noah Gray catch, the setup, the Pacheco touchdown. If you look at that route or everything, the combination of everything they're doing in that play, Kelsey basically takes out two defenders just on his route to the end zone. So that's better than a block. And then Gray just kind of turns around and follows all the space, takes it right down to the goal line. I love that kind of stuff because they're easy, they're safe throws.
Starting point is 00:09:55 And it makes sense with somebody like Kelsey, you've got somebody on the inside and somebody to the outside corner on them, because you can't just let him go one on one, because he's going to find a way to body up and make the catch. And as you're watching all of this stuff happen and combining that with a defense that was the youngest in the league last year. And by the way, one of my favorite things from last night's game was you know, with the misdirection stuff with Lamar and the constant fear of him breaking one and getting outside, because it's still going to happen a couple of times a game, but you're trying to limit it to 20 yards instead of like 60 yards.
Starting point is 00:10:30 The pursuit, the support, the way the other defenders that weren't maybe on the primary side of where the ball was going, the amount of activity that I saw from all these Kansas city defenders, I just loved it. I loved it. And yet this group, the youngest unit on defense in the NFL, that's when you're supposed to get them and they win a Superbowl. So that's why I'm picking Kansas city to three feet. It's boring as hell.
Starting point is 00:11:00 I tried to do something different in college football in the face of Ohio state and Georgia and picking Oregon. But I just don't feel like doing it again. Unless Taylor Attack, who's on pace now for 34 false starts, is going to just false start themselves out of the playoffs. He had 17 penalties last year, the most in the NFL for a player since 2015. So it's boring, but last year's the year they were supposed to not win the Superbowl. And you add another year with this defensive seasoning, Mahomes having better weapons,
Starting point is 00:11:29 likely not going to regress from what last year he was statistically. I can't come up with anything else. Last year I picked San Francisco over Buffalo. Um, so it still feels a little chalky conference picks. I'm going Kansas city over Cincinnati in the NFC. I'm going Green Bay over Dallas into the Super Bowl. Why Green Bay? Well, don't look at the defensive numbers. If you look at them last year, depending on which metric you want to look at, there's a number that has them 23rd in defense, 27th on defense and another one.
Starting point is 00:12:08 The offense was sixth in both of the metrics that I was looking at. I don't know that it's just Jordan Love, but man, it has a lot to do with him. He was a completely different guy week eight on. If you want to look at the close of the season, he finished six and two. He also led the NFL in QBR. And it really did feel like that moment where all of us that, you know, you're not just watching your team, but you're watching everything. Where you're hitting up one of your buddies, being like, are you watching Jordan Love? Like, did it? Did it? Click? Like, unless I'm convinced a quarterback whose draft is going to be terrible or is going to be great, it doesn't happen that often with the top picks. And with love, there wasn't a lot to go on, but it really felt like it was special watching it happen. And I don't say that very often about somebody who hasn't played that much. And Green Bay being a smarter organization, it's one thing to just pay the quarterback
Starting point is 00:12:58 because his contract's up and then you have to pay the market rate at $55 million guaranteed per year. up and then you have to pay the market rate at $55 million guaranteed per year. But when Green Bay does it, it makes me feel like it's a better decision. We know the receiver group is maybe without that headliner number one, but man, everyone seems to love this group, whether it's Watson, Dobbs, Wicks, the tight ends, it's the youngest team to win a playoff game since the NFL merger. So it feels like I'm buying in this a little bit. The defensive line is stacked.
Starting point is 00:13:32 They were 31st interceptions last season, but they added Xavier McKinney. They have a new defensive coordinator. They're going to play single high safety. They spent a second and fourth round pick on two safeties from big programs. So maybe I'm guilty of new, just defaulting to being better, but the camps by all accounts were really good back there from a group that didn't really provide a ton. They have one of the best corners in the league.
Starting point is 00:13:53 So I'm kind of falling in love with the Packers, not just because of Jordan love, but buying in the momentum of what we saw the second half of last season. Um, we could both agree that I'm making a lot of assumptions here. If you want to pick somebody else, I'm making a lot of assumptions here. If you want to pick somebody else, I can't even really tell you you're wrong, but I just didn't want to pick the 49ers again. So the exercise every year and trying to figure out the playoff field is replacing six teams with six new ones.
Starting point is 00:14:20 Um, I could do that and guess one through 14, but it would just be such a massive guess. I actually think it'd be a little pointless. Um, but if we look at some of the things that we probably should pay more attention to in that turnover, I think there's some pretty simple rules to apply. We know that six quarterbacks went in the first 12 picks. History tells us that three are going to be gone from these teams in three years, which has to be so depressing. One of the fan bases listening to that right now that have one of those guys in the top 12, you're like, can you stop saying that? Just think your rookie is going to have 360 yards in one of the games in four weeks in. You've nailed it. You've got this guy for 10
Starting point is 00:14:57 years and then he's on the practice squad somewhere else in three years. It's going to happen unless we just have an incredible outlier drive class where five of the six of the guys are terrific. Look, May's not playing right away. JJ's hurt. Penix is going to play it right away. So it's a little different than just all of a sudden six guys becoming the week one starters for the franchises.
Starting point is 00:15:16 Or you could have not the outlier class. You could have the outlier class going the other way, the 2021 class where five of the top 15 picks were quarterbacks and four of those other than Trevor Lawrence are already on other teams. But I do think Caleb Williams is the guy. So if you're looking at the Houston model for turnover in the playoffs and for the Bears on the NFC side of this, I rarely am this free of worry for a rookie quarterback because when I've watched Caleb the last couple of years, I just marvel at his
Starting point is 00:15:48 ability and I said it, I think with Booger where I went, he does the hard things easy already. And I'd rather start from there. I want to see 13, 14 picks from him. I don't want to see a clean. I mean, sure, it'd be great statistically if he throws 30 touchdowns and has eight picks, but I'm not going to worry about it because I'd rather somebody raise their level of risk and make a few mistakes and start to figure out like, hey, that's covered in the NFL
Starting point is 00:16:14 versus being covered in college and not lose his confidence throughout that process because I want to see a guy trusting his ability. Although Josh Allen, I remember talking with Chris Long was like, eventually after I threw those three picks, I think in the first half against New England, he said, maybe, maybe I have to dial down the risk a little bit. So I think the Bears fit a profile here of one of those teams that could jump in. I know this is a bit of a trendy pick, but they were seven and 10 last year. They had an average defense, but now you're adding an average defense that probably felt like, you know, I feel like defensive units that can be good.
Starting point is 00:16:49 After like week 10, you're like, this just, I mean, they were kind of a different team, but there's some teams that I think start the year with a really good defense. And then the defense knows because the quarterback play, they're so helpless that the defensive numbers don't even really match how good they can actually be. There's no way even in a rookie year, I would think Caleb Williams is the net negative a quarterback the Bears have had the last couple of years. So maybe that's part of it looking for that Because the other element with Houston is if you look at them and you go is it all just CJ is an improving defense Well, sometimes it's as simple as turnovers and I cannot emphasize this point enough when you're trying to think about Turnover and these close games and how did the bad team stay in the game with the good team?
Starting point is 00:17:24 But when you play 17 of these and you have between what 12 and 15 possessions a game, and if you start to give the ball away one and a half more times one year than the other year, or get the ball back one and a half more times more per week than you did the previous year. Like it just, it completely changes the way we look at you as a team. A lot of times, unless you just have the most turnover prone quarterback ever, a lot of times it could just be the luck of the bounces and we can't figure out why we didn't see the five-win team making the playoffs
Starting point is 00:17:55 the next year. If you look at Houston, they were a minus one on turnover differential in 22. Last year they were plus 10. And you throw it in with one of the most efficient rookie seasons we've seen in NFL history. Sometimes teams just figure it out. Detroit could be an example of that.
Starting point is 00:18:12 Everything coming together or really more specifically with Detroit, it's a terrible defense goes to what? A slightly below average defense paired with a really good offense, a quarterback that is a guy that took a little bit longer than I ever thought it would, or I should say, I didn't think it would work out because it was taking so long and combining that with all of these great offensive weapons. You also have the quarterback part of it where you go, how did that happen? Well, let's review.
Starting point is 00:18:38 Cincinnati goes from 12 and four with Burrow to nine and eight last year. Burrow barely playing 10 games out of the playoffs. And aside, Cincinnati going nine and eight last year, considering what was happening with Burrow, it was probably one of the best coaching jobs we had in the league last year, but they're out of the playoffs. Nobody really cares. And sometimes your division is just awful. Like was Tampa the sneaky team last year? Or did they go eight and nine in an awful division?
Starting point is 00:19:01 last year, where did they go? Eight and nine in an awful division. So that ends up having probably more to do with the turnover than it is. Everyone just completely misjudging who a team is. Tell me what your turnover differential was from one year to the next. Tell me what happened with your starting quarterback. Tell me who your division was, or in the case of Detroit, one of the favorites in the NFC, maybe it's just growing at the right time, but I'm going to try. Or in the case of Detroit, one of the favorites in the NFC, maybe it's just growing at the right time,
Starting point is 00:19:27 but I'm gonna try to get in front of it with Green Bay. Final note, because I like to update everyone on this, quarterback captains have been named. And the media loves when a rookie quarterback is named a captain. Because then the media will be like, well, it's a team boat, man. This guy, locker room already respects him. Or the coach is like, you have to make the quarterback
Starting point is 00:19:53 one of the captains because if you don't, it looks terrible. Let me get some Connor cook stuff. Does Connor work? So let's run through it. 32 teams, 27 quarterbacks are captains. Oh, wait a minute, what about the other five? Hold on. Four teams name captains every week. So that means like Lamar Jackson's probably a captain a lot. I imagine Jordan Love of Green Bay will be a captain a lot. Seattle's doing it weekly.
Starting point is 00:20:27 I don't know if that's a Baltimore thing. With McDonald there, carryover, I'm gonna do it like Harbaugh did. Washington also does it weekly apparently, unless some of this information is outdated. The one that's left out, the Raiders, who on Wikipedia have Jimmy Garoppolo named as one of their captains. I don't think that's going to happen. So what we're really looking at here is 28 of the 28 teams that name captains for the season all have quarterbacks as captains.
Starting point is 00:21:02 The Bears have eight captains. So it was because Caleb Williams already owns the room. Does Bo Nicks own the room? Like Will Levis is a captain. It's because you have to make your quarterback the captain. So don't, I'm not trying to dump on all the new guys here, but next time you see a tweet from somebody saying someone has been named captain, it means nothing.
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Starting point is 00:22:58 We got Marcus Spears, NFL Live ESPN and he has a big announcement as well, Swagu, the podcast. Now out Wednesdays and Fridays. What's up, man? It's good to see you. You too, brother. Good to see you, man. It looked good in that background.
Starting point is 00:23:10 It's the water behind you. It is. Oh my God, bro. You know, I gotta get the blinds back up again, but you know how it is. Like sometimes you'll just do something like, why has that been this way in the house for six months? Like- No doubt.
Starting point is 00:23:23 Yeah, so maybe once you get through week one, we'll open that back up again. Look, I want to talk some college at some point. Let's not make the mistake of ignoring any of that, but I do want to start with some of the NFL stuff that I opened the show with, and that's just always trying to figure out that turnover. Now, as going back through your career, you really only had the one down year there with Dallas in 2010. When you go from an 11 and five to a six and 10 team, do you feel it in August?
Starting point is 00:23:52 Or is it the randomness? Like it's very specific to the team. So everybody has a different story for falling off a bit, but what do you remember about the expectations and then realizing like we're not the same group? Well, we got really young, man. Um, we got really young after that 11 and five year. I think that was the year T.O. left. We had some offensive linemen that were either traded away or went to other teams.
Starting point is 00:24:18 So the personality of the team changed, the veteran presence of the team, meaning, you know, with Wade Phillips, man, you are responsible for being a man and taking care of your business more than when I came from Bill Parcell's, when, you know, they want to know every minute of the day what you're doing and where you're at, how you're working out, who you with. Wade was more of a, when we in this building, we locked in on football and when you leave, it's about your family. And I think we had a lot of veteran guys that knew how to manage that time.
Starting point is 00:25:00 And then the following year, that six and 10 year, we got young, man. Head coaching change, change. I think that was the mid season change or early in the season to Jason Garrett. Like it was just a lot. It was a lot of newness and a lot of difference in that team. So I think that was more of, that was more about change and not having the same team and personality. Yeah, look, I mean, there's probably Cowboys fans going, why not remind everybody that
Starting point is 00:25:33 Romo missed games too? Yeah, for sure. Which is obviously maybe the simplest answer of the whole thing. I just was wondering, because we sit here every year through the summer trying to figure out like, all right, who's in that's out and who's out. That's going to be in. Uh, did you have a Superbowl pick already for NFL live? Yeah, jeez. Okay.
Starting point is 00:25:51 I mean, right. I'm, I couldn't be more aligned. I don't know how you argue anyone else unless you just want to pick somebody else, which is totally fine. Cause this doesn't happen. And you know what we got to stop doing, man. We got to stop for the sake of, now here's the caveat. Would I love a different alternative?
Starting point is 00:26:09 Probably. It would probably be more exciting, right? To get down to the end. But again, I don't know how exciting, how more exciting it'll be than a team potentially three-peating. I don't know how more exciting it'll be to see Patrick Mahomes magic in the playoffs once again. Like when we looking at those
Starting point is 00:26:30 three-hour window games in the playoffs as much as you know other teams hate the Chiefs and where they are right now, we want to see Patrick Mahomes in big games. Like that's given us Jordan S. Phil. That's given us the times that we talk about other leagues back in the day when I was there and I was watching and you should have been you should have seen my homes in that era, right? Like so, you know, we got this thing in media or that we we wanna move on to the next thing so quick after we are we
Starting point is 00:27:04 had enough of that. Let's move on to the next thing so quick after we are, we had enough of that, let's move on to the next thing. And I liken it a lot to basketball. Man, Steph Curry is still hitting threes. You know, LeBron James still dominating games, being a point forward. Kevin Durant is still one of the most prolific scorers we've ever seen.
Starting point is 00:27:20 That doesn't take away from the newness of Anthony Edwards or the newness of Luca Doncias. That doesn't take away from the newness of Anthony Edwards or the newness of Luca Doncias. That doesn't take away from it, but we got to just be careful sometimes of moving on. So I took the Chiefs because one, I think they're a better team than last year. If you were gonna get them, it was last year to get them. And I mean now, I mean we saw a little bit last night that wasn't even a clean game by them And I think Baltimore may be the second best team in the league
Starting point is 00:27:48 Who'd you have another the NSE? Eagles Okay, so that's going against it a little bit because yeah people talk about them like they won four games last year I'm nervous as hell, but it's the Eagles right? Like I think it was more about their obviously we throw this term around culture. Um, I Got Jason this year on Monday night countdown Kelsey And I haven't really dug deep into it, but we have Philly week two and I'm gonna ask him what the hell happened um
Starting point is 00:28:22 It was it was definitely It was definitely not about skill set or talent, because we saw them win 11 games still. It was more of, are y'all interested? Like, you know, if something happened in Monday through Saturday, that's causing you guys to not perform on Sunday like we have grown accustomed to the past two years. So tonight is gonna be a big litmus test for that as well but more importantly man like we forget dude the eat first of
Starting point is 00:28:56 all I don't know if anybody has been good as has been as good as Howie Roseman in bringing talent. With the two new coroners in Queen Young Mitchell and Cooper DeGene, that's a really good draft. You obviously go get Saquon Barkley and Free Agency. I don't know what the hell the Giants was thinking. And Jaylen Hurst should be, you got, and then too, these coordinator changes to me are huge.
Starting point is 00:29:27 Vic Fangio already has a, he has a system in the way that he does. Oh, they also brought in Devin White, who is, I know out for this game, high level linebacker in this league. Fell out of favor in Tampa, I don't know why, but played at a high level. He's a Super Bowl champion already.
Starting point is 00:29:47 This team is littered with talent. It's about putting them in the right position to be successful. And then too, we heard some of the problems that Sirianni and Jaylen had communication wise and philosophically about what they wanted to do. So hopefully they got that fix and rectify. You'd mentioned Parcells earlier, we were talking Cowboys and I think it plays in
Starting point is 00:30:11 some of the culture stuff you're talking here, but I have to ask, is one of the rare guys that played for Saban when he won a national title and plays for Parcells. I don't want to hear about how they're the same. I want to hear about how they're different. Maybe you got Nick, you know, when it's 20 years ago, it's probably a little different version of Nick than the one we just, unfortunately saw leave college football, but give me something that would say, hey, this is actually something that's different
Starting point is 00:30:35 about the two that you might not know. Well, I mean, I think a lot of people learning about Nick now, Nick is a dude, bro. Like, very robotic when he was coaching, didn't want to misspeak much, played the game perfectly, right? Outside of being the greatest college football coach to ever live, in my opinion. But he played the media perfectly.
Starting point is 00:30:59 It never was a sound bite given that was negative or it was always a, it was always poignant and you could take something away from it. In real life, drink beer, chill, like, hip, understands the culture on both sides. His wife, Miss Terry, they like teenagers. They like it in love, bro, it's sickening. I think that's more of what people don't know about Nick. They'll get to see it on game day. He already gave a little bit of a tidbit and a nugget.
Starting point is 00:31:44 With Bill, it was always more guarded, privately as well. I don't think Bill did much outside of football. Like both of these guys devoted their life to football. I don't think Bill paid attention to much more outside of football. Other than boxing, other than boxing in the same gym with LL Cool J. But no, man, I think the personalities
Starting point is 00:32:15 are completely different. Coaching styles, very similar. Bill seemed, and too, like we gotta, I gotta preface it by saying Nick was dealing with 17 through 19, right? Bill had rosters of 20 through 35. Bill actually, as he got older, and I had him in Dallas, I think he foundationally, football wise, I think he's the reason why I was able to be a pro for so long. But I think he refused to adapt to the new athlete. And man, it happens.
Starting point is 00:33:05 Like you have principles and you have a foundation of the way you do things and you've had success doing it so you don't think you ever deviate away from that. But could you imagine Bill Parcells in a locker room while somebody on IG live? No. You know, Saban dealt with that and was able to, because he had to connect with a younger audience, but as far as his team, um, but I think it was more
Starting point is 00:33:34 about Bill just, Bill was just a football guy, man. Yeah. I'd look, you played for Nick. I was lucky enough to interview him a million times and get some time with him all the years of the ESPN and everything. And I just would always hear like, always just like Belichick and Belichick and I was like, no, they're not. I was like, they're not, they're not.
Starting point is 00:33:50 And you know, it's rare, but when Sabo would let you in and you know, the adaption part of it too is what I love. Cause I remember when everything was changing really quickly with the way offenses were being run and the way the clock was running. And I remember Nick giving that press conference, just basically warning everybody like, is this what you want it to be? Like, is this what you want football to be? Like, okay. And somebody else with his resume at his age is far less likely than him to say,
Starting point is 00:34:16 okay, fine. This is what we're doing now. Yeah, we'll do it. We'll do it. And I'm going to keep winning. And did he hire Lane Kiff? Yeah. Right.
Starting point is 00:34:24 Who ran a great offense. Yeah. Probably Nick couldn't get him out of there quick enough. Couldn't get him out of there quick enough. We'll do it and I'm going to keep winning. And then he hired Lane Kiff. Yeah. Who? Right. Who? Who ran a great offense. Yeah. Probably Nick couldn't get him out of there quick enough. Couldn't get him out of there fast enough.
Starting point is 00:34:30 Yup. Hey, this is a good, this is a good transition then because, you know, as everybody knows, as an LSU guy, um, I have the hardest time with the rookie quarterbacks and Jayden, Jayden's a little bit like Burrow. You know, Burrow's first year at LSU was okay. There's some stability at the position and then it's being the quarterback of one of the greatest runs we've ever seen for a single season in college football history. Um, very similar to what Jayden did from his first year in Baton Rouge to what we saw
Starting point is 00:35:02 last year, I mean, that was a leap that I didn't expect the same way I didn't expect from Burrow. What do you expect from him and his rookie season? I think Jayden is going to be phenomenal. And the reason why we starting to see this a lot is you remember, and you did it for a long time covering it. You remember when that jump from the NFL and the type of play was so drastically different than college and quarterbacks had to know three or five step drops, they played from under center so much. It was still a run heavy league. So a lot of it was play action. Dudes wasn't this big and physical and fast, right?
Starting point is 00:35:45 What big, but not this fast and physical and more space. The game now is basketball on grass. We saw last night, like it is quick hitters, it's quarterbacks being athletic and mobile, it's having a really good deep ball when you wanna push the ball down the field. But the game is being played within the pocket, technically, but it's not.
Starting point is 00:36:14 Like when I played against Payton and Tom and Breeze, I knew where they were going to be. They just were so quick with getting the ball out and understanding coverage and moving the chains methodically. Bro, these dudes explosive now. Like, these dudes have a third and 15 and they pick up 40 yards without throwing the ball. So I think his game just translates.
Starting point is 00:36:46 One thing that a lot of people don't get Burrow and no credit for, Burrow is an athletic quarterback, bro. Like, so when you- My people have been trying to say it. I'm telling you, man, when you look across the league, I saw Joe make so many plays with his legs. We talk about that 2019 season and because Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson
Starting point is 00:37:04 and so many good players on that team, bro, I don't know if people realize how many clutch plays Joe made with his legs that year to win games and extend plays, but that's these, these quarterbacks are coming in now with all recall. It's all recall. It's all like, oh, I know that coverage. I played out the shotgun. I know this type of athlete. I know the space that's going to be created before we even snap the ball. And last
Starting point is 00:37:36 but not least, I'm faster than you. So I think it's going to translate. Yeah, I was watching, and I don't know if you as a former defensive lineman had the same level of sympathy I had for the chief's pass rush on those last couple drives. But like, but Chris Jones, now that Donald's gone, there's not much of a conversation about the interior guy, even though he was lining up on the edge quite a bit last night for him.
Starting point is 00:38:00 It was, it was just, you could just see like laid out of the stance. And I'm not even talking about just, but just, and then to add in, hey, you're tired. Hey, it's the Thursday game. It's week one. You can think your conditioning is good. It's not.
Starting point is 00:38:16 And now even when you think, like even when you're fresh and you think you have an angle on Lamar, you don't have it. Like I saw guys going, let me just make it look like I got some penetration. Yep. And then, you know, hopefully these linebackers clean this stuff up. Or you hoping you can funnel or you hoping you get lucky and he makes a mistake. It's the same thing with Pat though. Like I hate to be the Grinch.
Starting point is 00:38:48 It's so hard to play defense now, man. Like, and I know people hate when we say it. It's like last night, for example, I think Ja'Juan Teller was all was was false start. I think he false started 14 times in the game. And I don't, I can't figure, by the way, I watch it so much now because of how absurd it was last year that I look for it. They let him lean back. Cause it's almost like they feel bad.
Starting point is 00:39:19 He starts before the ball moves. He doesn't take his kickstep before the ball moves. He doesn't take his kick step before the ball moves. He starts leaning before the ball. When I was in the NFL, as soon as we saw that hitch, it was time to go. They would call us offsides. DeMarcus Ware would never be able to rest the pass against him.
Starting point is 00:39:43 I love Taylor on one of the false starts where he patted his chest like, hey, that's on me. We're like, no kidding. No kidding, bro. Like the one that they caught you, right? But I think it's just so difficult, man, because one, the rules obviously,
Starting point is 00:39:58 but you also deal with so much space. Like I sound so old, but I I mean it was 24. I've been out the league 10 years now 11 years. I think you sound like a defensive player before you sound old. I mean we played but we played in a phone booth bro. Like I enjoyed playing games like games Derrick Henry played. Like where it's like you man to man, you win your block, you defeat your block, you make a tackle. Dude, we got reverses with dudes running four twos.
Starting point is 00:40:36 We got receivers like Tyreek Hill who runs a three nine 40 and you can't touch him after five yards. Like bro, that's damn near impossible to deal with. So I think a lot of it is, it's more exciting. I mean, obviously it's more exciting. The game is at an all time high with viewership and people that's interested in the game, more relatable because points are relatable.
Starting point is 00:41:02 But I just think now with the talent of these guys coupled with how you have to play, it's difficult, man. I wanna pivot this into some college ball just because you know how much we both love talking about it. Did you have a title game pick? Did you have to actually do an official one? So I don't wanna put you on the spot here, but I'm sure you have some thoughts Georgia over Georgia.
Starting point is 00:41:27 Um, I could see Texas and Sark getting there. I liked their defensive line a lot. I think even with the losses to the NFL, he still liked the D line. Yeah, I still like their D line. I think they he's recruited well over there. Um, I still don't, I, I. I still don't root out Michigan. This will be a great test this week. Ohio State obviously with the talent that they have.
Starting point is 00:41:56 I mean the usual suspects. A Dark Horse for me. I don't... Listen, man. I know they beat us. I think USC beat us. I think USC is good. OK, so I was at the game and I left the stadium going. I think both these teams are good. Yeah. Now, and we get 12, right?
Starting point is 00:42:16 We get 12 of them in there. Yeah. And, you know, on the LSU side, if we want to start there, like I didn't really have a lot of concerns with Nussmeyer. From everything you had heard, I was like, I think he's going to be good. You know, I think he's want to start there, like I didn't really have a lot of concerns with Nussmeier. From everything he had heard, I was like, I think he's going to be good. You know, I don't think he's going to win the Heisman like these guys.
Starting point is 00:42:30 You could see that Lacey last year was going to be a stud once the other guys were gone. So even though you lose to your first rounders, we know the offensive line. It is weird though, when you think about LSU and you're like, okay, with this line and then Caleb at running back, even though Emery, the bad news there, you're like, how come they can't just churn out these short yardage things?
Starting point is 00:42:48 Like what, why is that not in their DNA anymore? Cause it was funny cause I was talking with some LSU fans and one guy said like, to ever think, even when we weren't good, we knew we'd have a great defensive line and we'd be able to run the football. And now I think the corners still could be a bit of an issue, but it may actually be like, I didn't leave there going, Oh, LSU was screwed. I I'm with you.
Starting point is 00:43:10 I thought it was a really, it was a testament to Moss, a quarterback of all their playmakers, their defense, you know, stepping up when they needed to. Um, I was impressed. I was impressed with them, but I was impressed too. I was, you know, obviously I'm going to be more critical of LSU Um, I was impressed. I was impressed with them, but I'm not like right. I was impressed too. I was, you know, obviously I'm gonna be more critical of LSU, but I was impressed with USC, um, especially the playmakers. Um, they got the ball out to everybody, man. Everybody, everybody tight ends involved Hudson making phenomenal
Starting point is 00:43:40 catches, clutch catch at the end of the game. Moss put it right in the, it was a cover too. Moss put it right in the, it was a cover too. He put it right in the, in the hole between the safety and the corner. Um, USC made more plays, man. That's what it brought down to. And then too, we had our cornerback play for, for a school that has been known to have dudes, like top five dudes at those positions, it feels like we've, not feels like, we have regrets.
Starting point is 00:44:18 They'll get better, but it's, the past interferences were devastating. But again, I thought it was two good football teams playing against each other. And I think that's gonna be a lot of college football this year, outside of the top, the, you know, the Georges and the Texas and Bama probably still gonna be in that conversation.
Starting point is 00:44:44 I'm super interested in that situation. Um, but yeah, that boat not going to be in the conversation. Oh yeah. So you're already done with Clemson, bro. That sounds like a defiant, bro. We need to have a conversation. Um, I feel bad for thatabo. Let me say that. You just talked about, when we were talking about Saban, the ability to evolve. And you have principles. You have a foundation as a head coach. You have this belief system that things should be done a certain way. But it's that's over. It's over in the way he thinks that you can build a football team. It may come back based on NCAA rules or whatever agreements
Starting point is 00:45:36 that people make, but you're not taking a freshman and grooming him until he's a sophomore, junior, and win it, championships like that. You're not. And I don't think, I think because of the president that Dabo said at Clemson by moving them into the national conversation consistently, it's more pressure for him because we think of that program as a certain way. Can you be solid and win some games? Yeah, absolutely. But he said a president of championships
Starting point is 00:46:13 and talent wise. I don't see it, bro. I know it was Chattanooga and Tennessee just put a huge, huge number up on them. And, you know, when we talk about Nico Iamaleava, it's, it's this conversation that started with an NIL deal and then we get to see the bowl game. But man, if there is ever like, Hey, who looks like he's playing seven on seven on Saturdays, he is the poster child for, I mean, again, it's not great competition, but my God, watching the highlights from that game, from Nico, were just absurd.
Starting point is 00:46:55 And it makes me think, you know, Tennessee's in the conversation. Yeah, we can take some, Tennessee is in the conversation. And we can take, look Look, man I always say this You're supposed to look good against teams that are inferior Right. We deal with that in college where you you know that they don't have the the talent that's close or whatever Tennessee did what they were supposed to do Um, and that's always the
Starting point is 00:47:23 You know, you can make a case for, well, it's a different set of DBs, it's a different D line. All of that matters. Absolutely. But, but certain things translate. Like, how beautiful the ball is coming out of his hand, the timing in which they play with, the fact that he's in a hypo offense. Those things translate.
Starting point is 00:47:43 I'm interested to see them. And then too, as the season goes along, Ole Miss as well. Ole Miss, high powered, explosive lane obviously, one of the best minds in offensive football. You know, college is in a good place because college, you almost can't tell the difference in college and pros now. Yeah, and I think that speaks a lot
Starting point is 00:48:04 to some of the stuff that you were talking about, especially watching last night's game. Like why not make it easier for these quarterbacks, even though the hit rate still isn't there yet. Okay. Last thing before we let you go. Um, I don't want to get the message boards on fire here, but what is it like when your son is being recruited? He's a top recruit in basketball. I think I saw the offer from Texas.
Starting point is 00:48:23 I'd imagine, you know, with your Texas history, but also a son of Baton Rouge, like how much does it suck for the recruiters to have to recruit somebody who is the son of somebody like you. And, and, and his mom, my wife. Right. Right. I'm sorry. I want to leave her off the resume.
Starting point is 00:48:40 I just, it's tough. We sift through the bush. We're't want to move her off the resume. I just, it's tough. We sift through the bullshit. And two, like it's a new era of recruiting. There's money involved, there's cars involved. Okay, has anyone ever said, because you've done well in your career,
Starting point is 00:49:02 maybe your son doesn't need enough? No. Because I imagine, well, I don well in your career, maybe your son doesn't need enough? No. Because I imagine, well, I don't know. No, listen, no, I'm telling you. So it's funny because, you know, my son is 15, 6'8", right? Really good basketball player. My wife was the seventh overall pick in the WNBA. I played in the NFL.
Starting point is 00:49:25 I was a high level basketball player coming out of high school as well. He is so much more talented than we were at our age. Obviously we weren't 6'8". But the way that college basketball is now. But is she, is your wife as tall as you are? No, she's six two. I'm six five.
Starting point is 00:49:49 All right, all right. Sorry, I didn't want to. No, it's okay. Some of these pictures here. Maybe they're heels. Yeah, it's one of the events. In her heels, I feel weird. Because we out of that.
Starting point is 00:50:01 But again, like, and so round, but my oldest daughter, we've dealt with her being number one volleyball player in the country for the last three years. And she's going to Texas to play volleyball. So for him, it's just a different animal because it's agents and shoe people. And like, he just got invited to USA, Junior National mini camps,
Starting point is 00:50:35 which gets you in the USA system. It gets like NBA scouts to be at, he's going to a camp, John Lucas, you know, I'm sure you know who John Lucas is, but John Lucas putting on a big camp in Houston where it'd be NBA scouts. Like it's just, it's a whirlwind of things that's happening super fast.
Starting point is 00:50:57 Paul B. and Carter just ranked him 20th in the country on ESPN ranking. He's ninth in the country on Rivals ranking. So they are, you know how it goes, man. Like these kids are now being followed every day. They coaches showing up to practice. They, and being 15, that's a lot to manage. Difference is, again, two parents that were pros,
Starting point is 00:51:23 a sister that went through a crazy recruiting situation. And now he's in the middle of it and he has some time left. But the thing about the kid, man, he just wants to hoop. He's a really good student. All he want to do is hoop, eat, and chill. And he works his ass off, which me and his mama tells him all the time, like it don't matter what you doing if you ain't working. So he got a good vibe going, man. But yeah, they gonna have hell coming in this house
Starting point is 00:52:09 with bull crap because we didn't hurt at all. Well, little did your wife know that when she transferred to LSU, you guys would be starting a Spears athlete factory a couple of decades later. Actually, it is on her. My girlfriend prior to her was short. And when she first saw her, she was like, I saved your life. So I call all three. My 11 year old daughter is the best athlete
Starting point is 00:52:38 out of the older two. She's a volleyball player as well, but they my little insurance policies. Well, it looks like the premiums are a little bit lower than maybe for you than everybody else. And look, you and Aisha should be incredibly proud too. Yeah, we happy. We're proud of them, man. Well, look, check out Swagu, his podcast, Wednesdays, Fridays, just launching every day on NFL Live. Thanks, Marci.
Starting point is 00:53:07 You gonna come on before we go? You gonna come on? Whatever you need. Whatever you need. You know you're my guy. Much love, man. Enjoy that sunshine and them waves and the seagulls and shit howling back there.
Starting point is 00:53:19 You make it out to LA for one of the Monday Nighters. You let me know right down the street. How many rooms you got in there? We got one for you. Not as many as you'd think. We try to maximize the entertainment. The entertainment space? All right, yeah, that kitchen looks very nice back there.
Starting point is 00:53:33 Ain't no cooking going on. We'll get some of that fish fry going over here. I got you, I'm gonna see you some of you. All right, man, I'll take care, bro. It's been too long and we're headed back on the road. And this time we have a special one of the works. We're headed to Philly and I'll be joined by my friend and your favorite former Eagle, Super Bowl champ,
Starting point is 00:53:48 Chris Long. It'll be Tuesday, October 1st at 8 p.m. We'll be live from the Fillmore, Philadelphia. We'll talk headlines with Dishout Life Advice, Kyle and Sruti, and of course catch up and talk a ton of ball with Chris Long. Again, that's Tuesday, October 1st at the Fillmore, Philadelphia.
Starting point is 00:54:02 Tickets are on sale now. Go to theringer.com slash events for more information. See you there. This episode is brought to you by Vitamin Water. So much of what the world is obsessed with starts out in New York City. It's a place full of style and character that has something for everyone,
Starting point is 00:54:23 with a range of flavors to meet any kind of taste, it's no wonder Vitamin Water was born there. Colorful, flavorful, anything but boring, Vitamin Water injects a daily dose of vibrancy into a watered-down life. Grab a Vitamin Water today. Now to a special part of today's episode, sponsored by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. There's only one way to get serious about football this season, and it starts with NFL Sunday Ticket, with features like MultiView, where you can watch up to four games at once, and the stats and fantasy views to keep track of teams and players.
Starting point is 00:54:58 It's a must for any football fan. And when you bundle NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game every Sunday It's the most live NFL games all in one place a must for any football fan Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games Excludes digital only games device and content restrictions apply I am fired up because we know that YouTube was on it with NFL Sunday ticket. Because now I can just design my own little multi-view. And in that early window, where will I be focused? Well, I could tell you I'd want to see Josh Allen, just cause it's fun. Don't know how long I'll stay with that one.
Starting point is 00:55:38 I could tell you I want to see Joey B again with Cincinnati and healthy against the team I used to root for in the New England Patriots. I don't know though. Anthony Richardson though, for reals, that's enticing. Miami, they're going to put a 40 again, first half of the season, scare everyone. How about the Giants? I gave them out, plus one and a half at home. I'll tell you the game that I'm most interested in, in that window, and this is how I'm going to build it.
Starting point is 00:56:01 Caleb Williams, he's going to be on for three and a half hours. Prime real Estate. I'm going to plug him in with Cincinnati and I want to watch Anthony Richardson and I'm going to throw a little buffalo on there unless Russell Wilson's calf improves. So yeah, I think Chicago is probably my number one draft pick, which will be by design in any of my multi-view options, which you can of course have right now. Thanks again to our friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. Don't miss a moment of the action. Watch every game every Sunday when you bundle
Starting point is 00:56:30 NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. Sign up today at youtube.com slash Rosillo R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games. Excludes digital only games. Device and content restrictions apply. This episode is brought to you by Mitsubishi. What does the ambition look like to you?
Starting point is 00:56:51 These days, it would be easy to mistake it for suits, awards, money, fame, but it's an incomplete picture because actually, ambition is on the inside. It's an invisible grind, a pursue, and it's yours. No one can take it from you. So that thing you love, maybe it's taking a road trip, maybe it's being the ultimate sports parent for your kids, maybe it's just power walking every day around LA like me. Keep doing it.
Starting point is 00:57:19 Even if it doesn't look like earning millions, going pro, or winning a Nobel Prize, Mitsubishi Motors is there to champion your next goal, adventure, or passion. Mitsubishi, drive your ambition. Chad Millman is an enjoyable guest and I consider him a bit of a friend and he joins us now and this all goes back to the origin conversation of a couple of months ago where I said, Chad, this gambling thing is really tough. And I dabbled when I was younger quite a bit,
Starting point is 00:57:48 and luckily never got too bad. But now that I'm doing it constantly, I would like to get better at it. And I would like the audience to become more informed. So Chad Millman, who's the Chief Content Officer of the Action Network, also a co-founder joins us now. And I guess, jump in wherever you want. The call I think was earlier this summer.
Starting point is 00:58:06 And I said, I want to come up with a three way look at NFL standards, who still already do the Alliance for college football. So I wanted to put together like my gut reaction for watching a million games, which is probably the worst way to go. Um, there's some public money fading stuff that we can explore. And then I don't want to call it the sharp money because I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to have access to all of this great information, but maybe put together three picks like that every single week, keep a standing of it, and
Starting point is 00:58:32 then have Chad kind of check in with us throughout the season a couple of times, if he's willing to in his busy schedule. So that's how the conversation started. And here we are before week one of the NFL season. So what's up? How you doing, brother? Listen, I'm excited to do it. Uh, I love checking in with you, I'm excited to do it. Uh,
Starting point is 00:58:49 I love checking in with you. I'm excited to have the conversation. You tend to think about this in a way that is different than I think a lot of people in media who are taking in sports betting. Think about it. There's a there's a handful of people who want to think about it more deeply than, here's the winner, here's the loser. You're trying to get better at it. Our good friend Colin Cowher does the same thing, trying to take the knowledge in and figure out how you can put it out.
Starting point is 00:59:17 Because it is not easy. It is super hard. A couple of things you mentioned off the top, where is the public money, who is the sharp money? Those things are good sort of tent poles, but they are also rapidly changing because so many more people are in sports betting. So it's not as simple as fade the public,
Starting point is 00:59:37 bet with the sharps. It's just, it's getting harder. So it's getting harder is what you're like. I know that people can go over historical points of the gambling timeline and say, they hadn't adjusted for this shit, right? This was a market that wasn't quite discovered. And once it is discovered and it's working, it's like, you don't want to tell anybody
Starting point is 00:59:55 on top of everything else. Your history with trying to pick the right side, what's the briefest way you can share that with the audience? Well, my history with trying to pick the right side started with, I don't know anything about picking the right side. And I was mostly interested in you being, listen, you and I have done segments together for a long time going back to ESPN. And we have talked about how you could critique when I was the interim chief of the magazine
Starting point is 01:00:23 and I'd come on with you and Scott on ESPN. And you could come after me for lines in a story that you would only know were kind of crap lines if you were in the middle of editing the story or reading really closely. So I say that to set up that I wasn't getting into sports betting to try to figure out the right side. I got into it because I like the characters, I like the psychology, I like the fact that there is this massive industry that was affecting all of our fandom and at the time, nobody
Starting point is 01:00:56 was really talking about. And so, I ended up writing this book called The Odds 20 something years ago where I was tracking these guys who bet on sports for a living and these bookmakers in Vegas. And that's really how I got into it and what was fascinating to me other than the narrative, which was great for these guys, but also the decisions that were being made by the professional bettors that completely went against what you would consider to be sort of the defined logic of a fan. And so that's where it started to spin for me, okay, the public money is the opposite of where you want to be. You want to be tracking how the lines are
Starting point is 01:01:34 moving in relation to where that money is going, where those preponderance of betting tickets are. And to me that emerged into sort of a theme where I could try to thread the needle on what was really interesting and fascinating. Ultimately that is what led to doing more and more of ESPN and then leaving ESPN to work with a company called the Cherno Group to launch Action, which we did about six years ago. Right. And you hit it at the perfect time, which I think was some really smart people that already had a background in the world going, okay, this stuff is going to explode and there's going to be all sorts of opportunity and you were ahead of the market on it.
Starting point is 01:02:10 All right. So the reason why I do love the Action Network and I check in on it every week when I'm trying to put together these picks, and this goes back to when Ben Pell and I were doing the show together. He obviously is super into it. He was in it at a time where there was still stigma around it. I remember him giving out a side, I think on Sports Center, and they called him into the principal's office. I feel like you're not supposed to do that. Look, it's just the way the world was and now
Starting point is 01:02:26 everybody doesn't care anymore because of the money that's involved. So when he would give out his strategies, which was essentially fading the public and it worked, he won more than he lost. I sat there every week next to him for those six years. He was terrific at it for somebody having to give
Starting point is 01:02:40 out picks on a show. The irony of it was that every time he gave out those picks, it would be the worst team. For somebody having to give out picks on a show. The irony of it was that every time he gave out those picks, it would be the worst team, it would be the worst number. Like if Arizona was terrible and you're thinking, okay, well they have to be like an eight point dog here, it'd be the stinkiest version of the number.
Starting point is 01:02:56 So it'd be six and a half and you're thinking like, how can that happen? And we didn't have access to all the public money part of it. So when I look at like the public money bets for week one in the NFL, it looks like the biggest public play right now is the Steelers plus three and a half at Atlanta with 71% of the money coming in.
Starting point is 01:03:13 If you don't know, like, and as somebody who watches a lot, knowing how hard it is going, if I'm going to keep track of the supposed sharp info, I may or may not be able to get my hands on, fading the public. Like I'm coming in third. I'm probably going to come in third here. But what happened with the public money last year if you took that stretch? If you went with the public last year, you were a winner.
Starting point is 01:03:37 It was the first time Action Network has a database that tracks literally millions of points of data for betting across a wide array from systems. You know, how do teams do when they are three-point favorites on the road, coming off a loss, playing against a team that won, all that kind of stuff. But we've also just been tracking in general, how does the public do. Going back to 2003, we've also just been tracking in general, how does the public do going back to 2003. We've never seen a year where the public wanted 53% or more. 53% for those who don't know, you got to pay a commission, what's called the VIG on any kind of bet. Normally
Starting point is 01:04:17 it's minus 110. Normally it's a 10% commission. You want to win $100 on your bet, you got to bet $110 and hope that you win. Right? So over the course of a season, you have to win 53% of the time in order to reap a profit. Last year, the public won 53% of the time. If you bet with the public $100, you would have won $1,000. That's essentially what that is saying. That's never happened before, Ryan.
Starting point is 01:04:47 And what that is indicative of is, say, the last six years, and this has been a pretty common theme in the sports betting community. The last six years, since it became legal, there are so many more bettors in the market, and there are so many more what we call outs, right? You can bet at DraftKings, you can bet at Fandual, you can bet at MGM, you bet in Vegas, and like it is becoming easier for people to put money into the market and get better
Starting point is 01:05:16 at this. There is a democratization of data. You have access to so much more information that makes you feel smarter and And more people giving it out, like Action and you and everyone at the Ringer. And so- And Fandu. And Fandu, right. So like it, exactly. So it's become a little bit easier to be smart and sharp,
Starting point is 01:05:37 which means professional bettors have to adjust last year, the public one. What will be interesting this year is, is there a regression? There's always a regression in betting. So all of a sudden will it go back to the days where betting against the public is the way to go. Okay, and I cannot emphasize this enough
Starting point is 01:05:57 in me trying to figure out like, hey, see, I feel like I'm overstating it. And in the gambling world, I really hear the guys trying to like give out a pick, the right side, the unpopular thing on Friday. So I cannot emphasize how much I'm not trying to oversell that part of it. I was just trying to figure out a way to be like, every now and then you'd hear from somebody in Vegas
Starting point is 01:06:15 and be like, yeah, why don't you guys came in on the Lions this week? Like back when the Lions wasn't the popular play in the NSC like they are this year. What do you have anything in your world that's like this is actually what the smarter guys are doing, whether it's a week one pick or it's a season long total?
Starting point is 01:06:35 Well, for the week one picks, I got a whole litany of picks, right? But one of the things that we look at now, and you and I have talked about this, the factor of luck in these games, randomness in these games just can't be discounted. That is something that we have been trying to collect, say, the last two or three years in
Starting point is 01:07:00 something that we call the luck rankings. It basically takes all these random factors and tries to account for what would the winning percentage expectation be for a particular team in a game if you would have eliminated these luck factors, if you're just taking the baseline stats, right? And the flip side is, what should their expectation for losing have been if they hadn't gotten lucky? So we've been collecting this data for the past three or four years. We have a couple of brilliant data analysts who look at this stuff. And what's fascinating, and this has become a real sort of anchor for us, is to look at these to try to find the signal and the noise, for lack of a better
Starting point is 01:07:45 term, and determine which teams are lucky and how do you bet on that regression for them and which teams have been unlucky and how do you find value in the market. What you're seeing is that there is actually as much value in that as there is in trying to glean the psychological state of public bettors and how they feel about the cowboys this week. Yeah, I'm glad you said it. And I even touched on it too when I talked about replacing the traditional six teams in the playoffs every single year. And, you know, once we have the results, we're great with answers. We're like, oh, coaching and the culture. There was a grit to this team and it was all these things and you'll just go, like, I don't know, their turnover differential was better.
Starting point is 01:08:31 I know a lot of times. That's kind of it. Yeah, and that's kind of it because sometimes the one score game thing can be your answer. I love it when it's a team that has six wins. The previous year, they come into camp and they're like, we had eight one score games. You're like, by the way, the entire league has like half of their
Starting point is 01:08:48 schedule is, is one score game. So it's super easy to say in front of the local media hoard because you're not really thinking of it. It's like the bigger picture of like, wait, isn't the whole reason why Sunday is so successful is because so many of these games, even with teams that seem like they're not a match for each other, it ends up coming down to this last second field goal attempt. Like how did that happen again? Well, usually it happens again because of the turnovers, but the luck part of it. Um, I think sometimes the one score games can be dismissed like, okay, this
Starting point is 01:09:15 team, we don't think they're going to be as good this year because they want all these one score games, but sometimes it's a bit like the great closer in baseball where there's so much randomness, except for the elite of the elites. And if it's a really good quarterback quarterback I think that has more to do with it than some of the randomness. So when you're looking at your luck rankings and trying to go through like okay this team was extremely unlucky lucky is there anything else that's baked into this that is helpful for us to understand? Well look it's all based on conversions of particular downs and turnovers and calls.
Starting point is 01:09:48 It's all the things that you look at in a game that make up sort of the scary moments that cost you a bet or win you a bet, right? There's six, seven, eight, nine, 10 different factors. But if you look at last year, like you're talking about one score games, right? The Carolina Panthers last year, if you account for luck and sort of the expectation for them to have won a game, they probably should have won a game and a half
Starting point is 01:10:19 to two more games than they did. Their season win total this year started at four and a half. Slowly but surely throughout the off season, that line moved up to five. It moved up to five and a half because professional betters were way ahead of the market in seeing that, wait a second, this team had some really bad luck last year.
Starting point is 01:10:44 And if they can get a little bit better, again, none of this team had some really bad luck last year. And if they can get a little bit better, again, none of this happens in a vacuum. If it's a bad team, you kind of make your own bad luck. But if it's a really unlucky team and they then layer on some improvements, the public perception for that team is still going to be terrible. Right now, if you look at the odds for worst record in the NFL, the shortest odds are the Panthers, the Patriots, the Titans, the Giants. All of those teams could conceivably be better, but they had such bad perception last year that they are
Starting point is 01:11:18 of course going to be the teams that have the lowest odds to have the worst record in the NFL. The Panthers, they got better coaches. They vastly improved their offensive line. They vastly improved their receiving core. You have to believe Dave Canales, when he was in Seattle, Geno Smith went from journeyman quarterback to pro bowler. When he was in Tampa Bay, Baker Mayfield went from journeyman quarterback to pro bowler. When he was in Tampa Bay, Baker Mayfield went from journeyman quarterback to leading the Bucs to the Plows. If Bryce Young is only a little bit better, with a better offensive line, better receivers, and better coach, this team all of a sudden exceeds its win total significantly. So that's why when
Starting point is 01:12:01 you take a look into consideration with all these other factors, you get a lot of people looking at the Panthers and saying, huh, there's a lot of value there. Yeah. I know that I've started years where I went, who has the lowest win total? And then with the randomness of the NFL is like, maybe you're just better off taking the three lowest totals and just playing the season long over on all three of those, knowing that it's still kind of hard to lose three out of every four games in the league because of some of the randomness. So you're telling me that Carolina over five and a half wins is something smarter people seem to be on.
Starting point is 01:12:37 100%. Carolina over five and a half wins. And, you know, heading into week one, I know people might hear this after, but heading into into week one Carolina on the road at the Saints professional bettors have been betting that right that line was four and a half as a Friday when we're recording this it's down to four and you combine a lot of the luck factors along with how the rosters have developed what people perceive as a coaching advantage for the Panthers. All of a sudden you start to build a narrative that makes you think, oh, this could be good.
Starting point is 01:13:11 But again, it goes back to what you said in the beginning. A lot of betting, it's just gross. I'm in a couple of different survivor pools, and one of my team names in a survivor pool is literally just gross. Like I know there's going to be times where I am sick to my stomach because I'm going to be making really disgusting pics. I know that like we're telling the listeners of my podcast, the favorites, that in week
Starting point is 01:13:41 one, yeah, we're going to be on the giants. We're going to be on the Panthers. We're going to be on the Colts as home underdogs against the Texans. And there's, there's good reasons for that, but it doesn't make anyone comfortable. Pete Okay. Let's dig into the number here and I'm bringing up FanDuel with some of the odds where, okay, 62% of the public money is on the Rams plus four and a half at Detroit. So, um, and I believe it opened, uh, at the Rams
Starting point is 01:14:13 three and a half. I may like the Rams. Okay. Right. So I may like the Rams before I see the number, like momentum. McVeigh always seems to figure it out. You know, everybody's coming in healthy, which
Starting point is 01:14:23 is a huge part of the Rams deal. Detroit has all these expectations. A lot of people's pick to get out of the NFC. Like what an incredible story that would be. I think I'd be more inclined to bet the Rams have were plus two and a half. But when I see it at plus four and a half, knowing that everybody's like, Hey, the Rams are pretty good, like I'm getting more than a field goal. And some like now it scares me.
Starting point is 01:14:45 So even though the side that I would like, maybe my first reaction, seeing the number be bigger than I would expect it to be, then makes me scared of even picking the game. Why does that happen? Why are you scared or why does it, why does the line go up like that? I can tell you, you understand what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:02 Right. I know why you're scared is because you're a thoughtful person who is wrestling with the nationwide impact of sports betting's influence on the media we create and how you can communicate that to your fans. Hey, look, and I've never tried to pretend anything, okay? Like, we make more money now because of it, okay?
Starting point is 01:15:22 Of course. And that's the reality of what the business is. I'm not going to pretend that that isn't a huge motivation, but as I've done it now the last couple of years, with Fandu, I'm like, is there any way I can try to get better at it? Is there any way I can make the audience understand it a little bit better if we can be doing this all the time? That's essentially what we're trying to do here. You're scared in this particular instance forgetting about the existential psychoanalysis is
Starting point is 01:15:50 the line opened at three and a half it is now at four and a half yet you're seeing all the public money the betting percentages the tickets coming in on the Rams and so one of the sort of nuances as people look at this, where they look at Fandl, we have it on action too, is you can see the betting percentages. That is the total volume of tickets that are coming in. That usually represents what the public is doing.
Starting point is 01:16:21 And then you can see the money percentages. Money percentages are usually representative of what the professional betters are doing. And oftentimes there will be a split. And so with this game, you are somewhat concerned because you're seeing a lot of the tickets come in on the Rams, and yet the line has moved from three and a half to four and a half because professional bettors are coming in on the lines. And so that is what's concerning you because you probably would want to take the lions except now the line is so big, you've actually lost value and there is an old axiom in betting
Starting point is 01:17:02 that professionals use. You want to get the best of the number, right? And so if the line has gone from three and a half to four and a half, there is value lost. It's like buying a stock. You're just not going to make as much money or have as good of a chance to win or profit in the long term if you're not getting the best of the number. Staying with the Panthers here, I think you see the opening week and you go, okay, the Saints aren't great. Maybe the defense is getting even older, which technically it is,
Starting point is 01:17:30 but it can't be as bad as Carolina. And then you see it not be, you know, minus six and a half. It's minus four. And you're like, that number is just really weird for all of the expectations. That means the smarter people are looking at this game differently than just your gut reaction of like, Oh, of course it'll, you know, no one's going to pull that one out.
Starting point is 01:17:51 Um, when you see a number like that, when you see a number that most people would expect to be six and a half, seven in that weird four range, does that motivate you to just step away from, step away from the tick? No. Okay. I'll tell you exactly what happens. Number one, professional betters have this game lined at about three. Home field advantage in the NFL was generally worth three points, which means professional betters think if this was on a neutral field, it would be a pick. They're giving the
Starting point is 01:18:20 Saints the three points because it's on home field. The bookmakers made it at four and a half because bookmakers know that the public perception is the Saints have historically been good. They have a little bit more public favor than the Panthers. Even though they have been without Sean Payton and Drew Brees, they have still been- Well, look, it'd be hard to have less public favor than the Panthers. Right. The Saints have still been competitive. The Panthers, the public perception is they are the worst team in the NFL and they have been a joke of a franchise for the past two years. And Bryce Young looks like a fifth grader who is a human bobblehead when he's playing
Starting point is 01:18:57 on the field, right? But the public isn't taking into account what everyone else who's paying attention all off season are taking into account, which is the roster's got better, which is Dennis Allen and Derek Carr in their respective categories as coach and quarterback are two of the historically worst against the spread. They are not taking into account that this team, the optimism for this team, according to surveys of every fan base, the Saints have the lowest optimism from their fans, that Dennis Allen has the shortest odds to be the first coach fired. So the wise guys are still seeing that four and a half and saying, oh, I'm going to hit
Starting point is 01:19:41 that. I'm going to take it at four. And the bookmakers can't go crazy and say it's going to be six because they know that like, if they set it at six, they are just going to get flooded with tons of big money bets from professional bettors. And then they're going to be lopsided
Starting point is 01:19:58 and they can't really afford that. So that's how you end up at a number like four and a half or four. Would you rather bet week one or week five? Week five, you know, it's nice to have four weeks of data. What I really like doing is betting week three because you're still, you can still be a week ahead of the market and you get two weeks of games. You start to get a little bit more in terms of tendencies. The enthusiasm for the beginning of the season hasn't worn off. So you still have a lot of people who might still be betting because
Starting point is 01:20:32 maybe they won one week and lost another week. And so they still have a little bit of money in their pocket and they're not discouraged yet. And so they're willing to go into the market. And you know, bookmakers are going to set lines on certain what we call public teams a little bit higher still. So once you get into week three, I think there's a little bit more of an advantage. Week five, all of a sudden, you know, dumb money for lack of a better term starts to leave the market. People lose their enthusiasm and lines start to settle a little bit more. How often do the smartest gamblers watch the NFL?
Starting point is 01:21:06 Well, it depends. Everyone's different, right? There are sort of the analytics leaning bettors who don't watch the games. They ingest all of the data and all of the play-by-play and all the stats from the games. They work it through their model, their models punch out a number, and then they bet almost blindly what they see on the board next week. Right? Could be, you know, the Bears are four-point underdogs against the Packers in Chicago,
Starting point is 01:21:42 and in that scenario, they know they are going to bet the Bears no matter what. Then there are people who are sort of more naturalistic for lack of a better term and they are certainly creating power ratings and they're looking at different numbers and incorporating them into what their models. Everyone's got a model now. It just used to be you would do it on pen and paper and create your power ratings in a three-ring binder. Now everyone's doing it in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. But a lot of people, they're watching the games, they like to see the flow of the games,
Starting point is 01:22:18 they like to see tendencies, they like to see matchups, they like to see who the backup tackle is. That's why a lot of wise guys watch preseason, they like to see who the backup tackle is. That's why a lot of wise guys watch preseason, they wanna see who the backup tackle is. So if a first string tackle goes out, that will have an impact on how people look at games. So there's different ways to do it.
Starting point is 01:22:36 Has anyone ever shown you their model and you looked at it and said, this is just division? You know what's funny? No one's ever shown me their model. They will tell me what's in it, but showing me a model would be like me trying to learn Latin, you know? Like it wouldn't do anything.
Starting point is 01:22:56 Really? You wouldn't? Come on. I don't think you could, like, I understand what you're saying is that there maybe is a separation of understanding the math principles behind it, but like it wouldn't be,
Starting point is 01:23:05 I think you'd probably be able to follow the flow of what they were trying to come up with. Yeah, but it's definitely gonna be more than division, right, because you are weighting certain factors differently and you're making adjustments over the course of the year. I don't wanna overinflate their brilliance. I mean, we do this with every industry,
Starting point is 01:23:27 and we've especially done it with betters, with people in finance, people in private equity, where people believe they are leaning into models and algorithms and things that give them a superpower to make decisions and take risk out of the factors in terms of the conversation of how they are making decisions. I think that, A, it's a little bit dangerous because your model is still created by a human, so no matter how much historical data you're ingesting, there are still going to be risk
Starting point is 01:24:01 factors. I could not create a model. I would never try to say I could create a model. If I looked at a model, I would say, all right, is this the right waiting? Is this the right way to go? I do think it's interesting that just culturally, I think that we have always described
Starting point is 01:24:22 superhero supernatural power to people who that we have always ascribed superhero, supernatural power to people who instinctively know how to predict what's going to happen next. I do think that the model components of this have elevated that because now you think this person is brilliant, and they've got an impenetrable formula to winning, um, which makes people feel, I think a little bit too safe about some of the financial decisions they make.
Starting point is 01:24:54 Yeah. That's really interesting that you brought that up because I was working on something recently where I was talking about my pursuit of when I got into this. I didn't want to be in the media. I wanted to work in a front office and I was convinced that my pursuit of when I got into this, I didn't want to be in the media. I wanted to work in a front office. And I was convinced that there was this lens that was developed that basketball people, baseball people, that they watched the game through this lens that mere mortals couldn't understand. And one of my favorite things about getting older and enough life experience, and even
Starting point is 01:25:21 though I've been in sports, like you're just open to a bunch of different industries is that there's like two different times people here. One person wants you to believe that what they have developed is so incredibly special and so unobtainable because it makes themselves feel better about what they've accomplished. Right. Then there's the other person that's like, yeah, you just do it long enough. You start to figure some shit out. And that's what I've learned. I think more so with basketball is that I was convinced there was this way that
Starting point is 01:25:48 you had to learn how to watch that you couldn't understand until you finally accomplished it, that everybody was in charge of rosters. Like they all had this secret. They all shared the secret way. And then the reality is, is if you spend decades watching this one thing over and over and over again, you would hope you would pick it up in the same way with game. If you're putting years, if this is your priority, it may not be some magical formula that the
Starting point is 01:26:16 public could never comprehend. It's just that you have to, it kind of defaults back to that 10,000 hour thing here again. But when there's just such a separation of understanding is you're just like, I can't, I can't fathom, like how do these guys, they're like, I'll go to a book, I'll watch everybody in there and I'll think, what are they doing? You know, what is it? And then you realize even the smartest guys, the margins are just like, they're so disciplined.
Starting point is 01:26:40 They know when they see a bad number, they're on it. You know, they're adjusting essentially money units, being like, okay, this is a much bigger play. And I'm not sitting there trying to hammer this and go seven and three on 10 games every single week. But yeah, that's something that I feel like I've discovered in my own journey of trying to understand industries I didn't think I understood in the beginning
Starting point is 01:27:06 Okay, a lot what happens is yeah you develop a natural instinct for What you think is going to work And you and I both experienced this just as members of the media and people who create contact Where oh, yeah this segment, I totally get it. I know why it's gonna work. I know what makes sense.
Starting point is 01:27:30 I know why it's gonna resonate with people. I don't need to test it. I don't need to do the market research. I just get it. I know when we start something new at Action, or when we started something new at ESPN, I knew if it was going to resonate or if it wasn't going to resonate.
Starting point is 01:27:47 That's not because there was a ton of data behind it that we did for that specific segment, show, article, new project, whatever. It's because we had done so many of these things before, you naturally get it. When it comes to betting, what's really interesting is you just said you're not going to go seven and three. The margin is that thin. I just said, you went 53% of the time as a better. You're one of the best in the world, which also means you're losing 47% of the time. And that's where a lot of these things become complicated
Starting point is 01:28:29 for people who are new to bedding, for people like you, for people like me who are trying to communicate this and it can become real conflicting. And me and my co-host on The Favorites just talked about this yesterday. Early in the season, week one, week two, you lean into trends a little bit more because you don't have tendencies, you don't have what you've seen on
Starting point is 01:28:50 the field yet. You can't sort of play against public perception based on what's really happened. So there are these trends like divisional dogs the last 10 years cover at a 71% clip against the spread or dogs between one and five and a half points the last 10 years cover at a 60% clip or favorites between one and three and a half points do not cover. Uh, that's why I love, I love, I love the game one and NBA playoffs. Like who came off the series in a game seven and then the team that the team that won game seven loses game one against the spread. Like it was an overwhelming number. Of course.
Starting point is 01:29:37 Right. Like, but then there you have last night with Lamar Jackson, you're like, he's 12, one and one all time as a dog against the spread. That number was so absurd. It would scare me to be like, well, I'm just gonna be late. I'll just be like, I can't, he's not gonna go 13. But here's the thing with those numbers.
Starting point is 01:29:56 The other side of it is you win four of those 10 bets. You win six if you play the trend, but you win four if you don't play the trend. So the idea is you're playing the trend and like, we will give away picks and we will go through our logic and we're really detailed and we try to be analytical and we try to explain to people the pluses and the minuses and why we're making these decisions. But we also make these decisions every single week, right? We are grinding it out over the course of a season so we can win 15 units, 20 units,
Starting point is 01:30:34 and you play those consistency over time. You're gonna consistently over time, you're gonna win those bets. But in a one week sample size, you might not. And that's the challenge I think, you know, and something that you grapple with, certainly something we grapple with, as we are communicating this to users is, who are especially new to this, we're not a clown show here. Like, we're not telling you and like carnival barkers saying, hey, you got to bet it this way, this week. Like, we don't give away
Starting point is 01:30:59 locks, we're just telling you what the percentages are. And if you do that right over time, you're going to find positive ROI. Like that 900 number you call desperate one weekend in college and the guy never stops calling you and you're listening to the spiel. Yeah, you know why? Because that 900 number, he's got a recording that is giving away bets saying that he's winning on these. But if you call the same number at a different time, he's got the other side. Oh, I know, no. It was like, whatever the pitch was,
Starting point is 01:31:31 even if you were so uneducated, you'd be like, this doesn't make any, like, why are you calling me? Why are you calling me if you're seven and oh and one in the last eight Monday nighters? Right, why aren't you retired? Why aren't you putting everything you have on this? But I'll tell you, you get some roommates there at 18, 19, they're like, this guy's on fire.
Starting point is 01:31:49 We got to bet him. We got to tail this guy. And look, sometimes in the simplest form, sometimes it is just fun. I was traveling, it was a UFC main event. I paid a cover charge to go into a place just to watch it, have a couple beers. And I went, you know what? I'm just going gonna bet the fight because it's gonna be a little bit more fun.
Starting point is 01:32:07 And sometimes that's kind of lost in the 30 minutes that we're sitting here trying to dissect this. Okay, before we say goodbye. It's supposed to be fun. It's only supposed to be fun. Right. Promote the podcast. And then I have another quick followup.
Starting point is 01:32:20 Everyone should listen to the favorites podcast. Me, my co-host professional better, Simon Hunter. By the way, we go through Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, we review the games that we bet, and then preview the early lines for the games coming up in the following week. Right now, we are doing a $100,000 free-to- play pro football pick-em contest. Sign up for free, get a chance to win a cash pool of $100,000.
Starting point is 01:32:52 First place gets 40, second place 10, five picks a week. You can drop your first, your two worst weeks. So if you hear this after week one, you still got a chance to sign up. Favorites.actionnetwork.com. Go sign up and listen to the favorites podcast. Okay. Give me the smart pick this week then for the audience.
Starting point is 01:33:14 Well, after we've gone through and said we don't give away picks and we're not carnival barkers. No, but I need one for the exercise. Yeah, of course. You can't be, you know, I can't be bugging you every week. I will say this. I will say I am definitely on the exercise. I need, because you can't be, you know, I can't be bugging you every week. I will, I will say this. I will say, I am definitely on the Panthers, 100%. I am definitely on the Colts, 100%. I will be on the Giants.
Starting point is 01:33:37 These are disgusting, terrible, gross things. But a game that I do like, you talked about the Rams and the Lions. I love the Lions. And like, I don't want to. This is what we all grapple with. I want to fade the Lions. I think they're too overhyped.
Starting point is 01:33:54 I think that public perception is making everyone believe they are a Super Bowl team, which they could be. But it makes everyone more excited to bet them. But a lot of bettors think about it from the inside out, right? Fundamentals. How good are you on the offensive and defensive line? Forget about the fact that Dan Campbell is the best coach against the spread the past five years, that Jared Goff is literally undefeated in week one as a quarterback, or that he's
Starting point is 01:34:17 25 and nine in indoor games as a quarterback against the spread, right? And when I say undefeated, I mean undefeated against the spread, right? And when I say undefeated, I mean undefeated against the spread. These, the Lions offensive and defensive line are top five in the league. And that is fundamentally sound, especially when you're going up against a defensive line that is without Aaron Donald
Starting point is 01:34:39 and trying to figure out how to plug those gaps, even though they had really good draft picks the past couple of years, and an offensive line that is still struggling, you're getting a really good team and a really fast track with great talent at home in perfect conditions. So I did bet the lines and I'm going to be sweating it on Sunday night. We're going Panthers is our submission here. And if we were going public money, public bets, again, being two different things, it seems like most of the public money is on Pittsburgh in Atlanta for week one, but then the public betting number actually is different on that.
Starting point is 01:35:17 So should we go money or betting? Go with money on that. And the Steelers are a really interesting one too, right? Like the Steelers, Mike Tomlin in the past 20 years, not just best coach against the spread as an underdog, best coach winning outright as an underdog. When this team has TJ Watt on the field, they are a much different team than when they don't. So I think I give the benefit of the doubt to the Steelers and a coach who's been there for a while
Starting point is 01:35:47 Versus a coach in his first year with a quarterback who's coming off in Achilles tear Considering Pittsburgh 71% of the public money on this one That means the fade the public play is Atlanta minus three and a half and I'm just gonna go with gut week one guy stuff I'm gonna go Giants plus the point and a half at home against Minnesota. So why does your gut tell you that? Just think it's such a garbage number. Your game, people like Darnold probably more than they should.
Starting point is 01:36:17 Um, people are super down on the giants at home week one. Why not? I just thought it was like the ugliest thing I could see this week. By the way, you basically just did exactly what professional betters do. Well, you know, like I said, try to get better this summer. You lift all those weights for a reason. Gains, everyday gains.
Starting point is 01:36:38 Hey, no one who was stronger ever was mad they were stronger. Look, man, this was a lot of fun. Thanks for taking the time to do this. And hopefully we can check back in, check our work, and see how we're doing a couple of times this season if you're cool with it. Always, brother. All right, he's the best, Chad Mimlin.
Starting point is 01:36:59 The Alliance. Missed it by that much, week one. It's all right, it happens. One week, one of us will always, well, except for the weeks we win. But there usually would be somebody to blame there. Sucks it had to be LSU too, but yeah. It sucks it for 24 hours.
Starting point is 01:37:14 We're like, all right, three and oh, start on this one. And then it just goes the wrong way, even with the alt spread. But Kyle, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Focus about it in the building. Was there, was excited, and then I wasn't at the end. So, Kyle, do you wanna go first?
Starting point is 01:37:28 Switch it up? Yep, still going vibes. You're not gonna get me to spend my whole Saturday watching football as well as Sunday. So, sorry about that. But if you guys know me, you know I've been really into, but here's my thing. Can't name one guy.
Starting point is 01:37:42 Mine's seven and a half. If you guys know me, you know, I've really thrown myself back into the college basketball space over the last couple of years and I really didn't want to bet against NC State because I do love their big boy, DJ burns. And they did, I think they made him the alpha wolf starter. If you guys know what that is for the football team. So I don't want to go against them,
Starting point is 01:38:02 but I can't pick for them. So I'm going to take the under the adjusted under in this game. 64 and a half. That way I'm not going for I'm not going against but it's just vibes. Okay. Okay. I'll just jump in here. I'm wondering.
Starting point is 01:38:22 You know, look, Tennessee, as we talked about with Spears demolishing an outman team, like what did you really learn? NC State in their opener against an inferior opponent took until the fourth quarter to wake up and wake up they did. You know, it wasn't some crazy turnover thing that separated, they did outgain them, but you know, it was one of those games where I'm like, is, is there any way we can get ahead of Tennessee spreads being bigger and then this number not being as big because there's still a thought that, you know, NC state is a preseason ranked team and one of the dark
Starting point is 01:38:57 horse in the ACC. So look, that's what I'm going with here, but I'm going all line because as Rudy points out, we're trying to put these picks together to pay out at plus 400. So since it's a four leg this season, as opposed to, well, we did four last year and then three, I think the year before that. The line on FanDuel right now is Tennessee minus nine and a half at NC State, but we're gonna move that down to minus six and a half, correct Saruti?
Starting point is 01:39:22 So just update us on what the number is. Yeah, right. Yeah, just to get under a touchdown. So that's fair. All right, Wargon, you want to go? Yeah, sure. I'm looking at Clemson, App State. I think Clemson looked pretty bad last week,
Starting point is 01:39:33 but I think everyone's going to kind of look bad against Georgia. So Death Valley night game. I like Clemson to bounce back, but App State getting 17, their last eight games against power five opponents, all one score games. And 17 is just a big number.
Starting point is 01:39:48 So we look at the outline, we can get 21 and a half minus 188. I just like AppState to kind of keep this close and stay within that number. That's what research looks like. Sorry, you're never gonna get that from me, fellas. That was, he is research. What's the number on that work on two? What was it? Plus 21 and a half. 21 and a half 21 a half
Starting point is 01:40:06 Okay. All right. Looks good. I'm gonna close it out. This is kind of weird because The original number though just is minus 16 and a half on the open right and you're you're moving it up I thought it was minus 17. I might have moved. Okay. No, no, it's fine It would be what you probably find it at 16 and a half 17 or you want to look for it? But I just want to double check that Well speaking of moving when I was looking earlier Oregon was a 21 and a half point favorite against Boise State at home and since then like the two hours since I looked at that now we're actually recording this segment it's moved two points less and it's now 18 and a half which I don't I guess is good
Starting point is 01:40:41 news because now I can get this as an alt spread of minus 13 and a half, which I don't, I guess is good news because now I can get this as an all spread of minus 13 and a half under minus two, under that's minus 194. So I don't know why it would have moved down two points in the two hours that we're talking and whether or not that should be a red flag, but I love Dylan Gabriel and I feel like Boise State gave up a ton of points to Georgia, whatever Southern last week and Oregon's gonna score.
Starting point is 01:41:03 So I just, I'm gonna take the all spread here minus 13 and a half Oregon to beat Boise State at home. And so if you pair all those together, that's four legs. That gets us to plus 453 guys, decent payout. Let's get it. Right on the money. All right, that's good. And we'll keep track of individual standings
Starting point is 01:41:18 or a contest that we will never follow through on. 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.
Starting point is 01:41:38 So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. The email address for submissions. Get them in. You get something a little different. We're open to it. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com. Checking in with the gang.
Starting point is 01:41:50 How is everybody? Pretty good. Friday, dude. Here we are. Can I have a Friday beer set for Kyle? Yeah, you send me something free. It's coming. It will be worn.
Starting point is 01:42:01 I'm also wearing the Rassillo hat that I've gotten a lot of requests from people, either a donation to a charity or just straight up like how much do you want for you're looking to donate some stuff. I don't know what I'm gonna do with it yet. I feel like I got it. I feel like I got to hold onto them. I don't know if I could just start giving these away. They might be waiting over 10 years, you know, it's like a tripling price donation to charity. What is that? Like the 2008 Patriot Superbowl t-shirts. What are we talking about?shirts What kind of what kind of donation like just the proceeds that you from the yeah Like you know, I would care I'm not just trying to pocket like the money from fans Like, you know, I don't need to a charity, but I don't know. I don't feel I don't feel I'm not gonna start You know pawn it off stuff. That's you know, basically Ryan's name image and likeness over here
Starting point is 01:42:41 Things are fine Things are fine. If you want to sell something. I don't want to sell anything. I don't want to be that guy, but I'm holding on to it. I'm going to hold on to this stuff. Maybe talk to me another couple of years. If somebody said I'll give you $500 for that hat, you're selling the hat. Done. I feel like I have integrity. I'll get it signed by Ryan. Yeah. I mean, what's the back story? I got a 450.
Starting point is 01:43:03 I don't think I'm going to sell them. I have like five and I don't know. I mean, what's the backstory? I might get out a 450. I don't think I'm gonna sell them. I don't have like, I have like five and I don't know. I don't, you know, it's gonna hold for now. See what happens. 500's not enough. We talked about, we talked about like doing some sort of like, here's the potpourri of all the leftover stuff. And then somebody said something like, how great would it be if you hung onto it
Starting point is 01:43:22 and your grandchildren got to see it? And we go, well, fucking, grandchildren? Yeah. You gotta pick up the pace here. Just a point out of this point, yeah. Like, hi, I'm not that into you, but I have all these shirts and I wanna start a family. I've got a heart out.
Starting point is 01:43:40 How do you feel about separate houses? Not because I'm going to cheat on you, but because I just maybe by myself a lot. Let's get started. I want to read through June busy most nights. Yeah. Do you want to go to San Tropez in July, early August? I'm your guy. We'll take the boat out every now and then.
Starting point is 01:44:01 No problem. Do you want to not have to talk to me for a really long time? I can also provide that. All right, let's get to it. Speaking of boats, we had a boat guy chime in who just got upset a little bit about, a person complaining about their parents later in life purchases, especially boats,
Starting point is 01:44:20 it's ridiculous. It's something he is doing to make sure you all wanna be around and spend time with him as a family. My dad has boats in three states, boat guy alert, six of them, six boats in three states, captain's a Caribbean one. If you think your dad's boats are pointless, you don't like fun. I think our email is coming at this from a very specific angle. Your dad's a boat captain in the Caribbean, which is one of my fallback plans.
Starting point is 01:44:44 Right. your dad's a boat captain in the Caribbean, which is one of my fallback plans. So that's an entirely different, he also signed it first made out, which I respect the hell out of. I think the emailer here is right, but specific to the inventory lineup that we had from the previous emailer, it sounds like his dad also likes just buying the stuff quite a bit. But yeah, the goal is to make sure everybody's around a little bit. Maybe our previous emailer was just upset about a lack of storage. He's looking at the square footage part of it being like, I'm losing square footage by the season here. Six boats in three states. That guy really likes boating. But again, if he's actually captaining boats in the Caribbean, I would never buy, get another one actually captaining boats, a captaining, excuse me, boats in the Caribbean,
Starting point is 01:45:25 like I would never buy, get another one. Good for you, catamaran on sale. That's what I've been hearing. I think that was kind of baked into our answer. It was like, that's why we're like, you know, we're talking, you know, we're using the kid gloves and we quote unquote confront the dad about this because we're like, he probably does have,
Starting point is 01:45:42 he probably does think you like, it's like parents talking about, oh, maybe we'll get a lake house now that our kids are all grown up and you know my my dad's kicking it around but he's like not a money spender so it's just the idea of getting a lake house but then we're you know we gotta go we can't be like why are you buying a lake house he's like i want you guys to hang out with so i think that's why we kind of we're like you know approach it nicely uh because we we understand okay question for you did we do this one from the girlfriend
Starting point is 01:46:05 about the boyfriend's phone? That's not nearly specific enough for me to remember something. Let's read it. I remember reading it when it was sent to me and then flagging it and thinking, okay, because it kind of sucks. I don't really think there's much debate on this one,
Starting point is 01:46:19 but we'd like to talk to the female women that chime in. So, hey guys, I've been listening to Life Advice for a year plus now. And since my boyfriend, uh, boyfriend turned me on the podcast, I have a question I think is best answered by men and the people that don't know me or my boyfriend, um, boyfriend knows us though. So this could get a little dicey. Uh, I think it's vague enough though.
Starting point is 01:46:39 You guys would remember, I don't know why I've like a slight August in September gap. I like forgot an NFL head coach the other day I was like, hey, you need to tighten your shit up. All right We've been together for about three years and are currently living together as well relationship is normal Wait three years and living together Relationship is normie Normal healthy loving relationship with regular ups and downs one things been bothering me lately and that's I feel like he doesn't want me
Starting point is 01:47:01 To see his phone and it's weird about me going on it It's not often that I try to see his phone or go on it, but when I do, he acts strange and wants to take it from me quickly. Something silly like me putting an address in the GPS or looking at a song on Spotify seems to make him nervous. I know the phones are very personal, but should I be worried? Short answer, yes. Yeah, it's a simple one. Yeah. I'm not sure how to talk to him about it because it makes me seem super insecure and that's never a good look. Any advice or thoughts would be much appreciated.
Starting point is 01:47:27 Love the pod, you guys are great. This isn't good. It's not good. It doesn't make any sense. I mean, some guys are just so worried about being that guy that they'll just hand you the phone to put in the song, to plug in the address, going like, what are the chances
Starting point is 01:47:39 that I'm actually gonna get busted on maybe some kind of conversation that I'm having? Look, I'm gonna tell you right now. Do you wanna use my phone to take the picture? It's got a better camera. Yeah, right, like people come over your place and you're like, no, why don't you hook up to the Bluetooth? Pick whatever song you want.
Starting point is 01:47:54 Look, I'm gonna tell you that seeing someone go back together, first lunch date on the rekindling of the vibes. She immediately turned the phone over on the table. And I went, this isn't going to be good. And it didn't work out. We were always a face up phone couple. And then it was, I'm turning it over and I've never gone through someone else's phone I think it's like one of the ultimate fucking betrayals. It's lame. Yeah, I think it's the lamest fucking thing you can do
Starting point is 01:48:35 especially if you're not like Getting married to the person, you know But you know what else is lame is being weird about your girlfriend touching your phone. Who lives with you. Yeah, that's also pretty weird. Now look, you want to just play out some scenarios. Maybe he just complains about you a lot. Probably not what you were hoping to hear, but maybe that's it. Um, maybe he texts inappropriate jokes with his buddies.
Starting point is 01:49:05 And that's the only thing. Maybe he is a fraud financially and you don't know it yet. And he doesn't want to see the E-Trade thing where it's like, is that all the numbers added up or is that each account? Like what's going on? Like, I thought you said you had done well. Wait, you have 12 shares of
Starting point is 01:49:25 NVIDIA? So, um, which would be a nice little vacation. You're doing the math on it. I, I don't know how to tell you this other than this is super alarming. And it's, it's be one thing if it's like, Hey, we're six months in, he doesn't want to see the phone. Maybe there's, maybe there's a bit of a hangover, bit of the relationship where he's still talking
Starting point is 01:49:45 to somebody from his past, but it's not like the really bad stuff where it's clear he's keeping on this sexual relationship through texting. I just think that it's an awful, awful sign that he has that much anxiety about it and you live with him. So I wouldn't go through the phone, okay,
Starting point is 01:50:03 but you have to, you have to at some point, maybe you just set it up that way, maybe it's the drive back after something, but you have to stop thinking about this because that's not normal behavior of somebody that you're expecting to marry, all right? Yeah, I think you're, I don't really have anything else to say, but to your point,
Starting point is 01:50:19 I thought that sometimes the turn the phone over was sort of like, I'm not gonna even glance at it while you're telling me this work story or something. Like I thought it was kind of respectful, but. I think you're right. I think that's a nice scenario, except when you were always phones facing up a couple. Okay.
Starting point is 01:50:35 So like you're just getting back together with somebody, it's a little tense, you're not really sure who has the upper hand. Don't know why I was gonna pronounce the word that way. But. That you're up for it. Yeah. I don't really understand about the phone up thing word that way. Upper hand, that you're up to. Yeah. I don't really understand about the phone up thing, phone down thing. It wouldn't really bother me.
Starting point is 01:50:49 Unless you're one of those people, like you have the thing where it says the texts, it's like a preview of what the text is so you can see what the actual stuff is. If he's fucking around, he wouldn't have that stuff. Or it would just say like so-and-so texted you because like, I don't know. Let's not get bogged down on what that is, okay? That was very specific to me. Yeah, right. It was a really long time ago.
Starting point is 01:51:05 I knew the difference, okay? I knew the difference. I knew it was a bad sign. I just was like, we're fucked. You knew it was dead, yeah. And soon thereafter, it did not work. I wonder. So this is much more serious.
Starting point is 01:51:18 This is a- San Diego. Right, this is a really big deal because the emailer here feels the shitty about it. And think about where her head is at. Again, we can only hear her side of the story, but based on this, she's such a sweet person that she has more anxiety about actually figuring out a way to ask about this as opposed to assuming all the worst, which now she's going to do after listening to this email. But I just think it's, I don't, what's the other side of this? Like, hey, maybe it's one of those weird, don't worry about about it things maybe he's talking about getting you an engagement ring with his sister or whatever, you know, but
Starting point is 01:51:52 Yeah, right. So Rudy the you know, it's weird about it out you know what I hate the most about this is the email or is Seems like a good nice person who's trying to like not seems like that about it. Not like the worst. When she, you know, she's saying, oh, you know, I don't want to be, you know, act like I'm going through a stop or being too overbearing when it's totally within your right to be like, dude, why are you being so weird with your phone? Like you're being weird with your phone. Like clearly you've noticed it.
Starting point is 01:52:17 It is a weird act. And she's like, trying to make excuses for why she shouldn't think it's weird or shouldn't act upon or ask him about it when it's totally normal to be like, why are you being weird with your phone? And so I, I personally, I mean, you know, again, like what, what, what's the end game here? Like are you willing to, you know, ask a question that you don't want to know the answer to? Um, cause if you start kind of barking up that tree, maybe some stuff that you're not gonna like, it's going to come out, but I'd want to know. And I think it's totally within your right to be like, what's going
Starting point is 01:52:46 on here? You've been weird with your phone for however many months and it's not normal. Yeah, I think the observation, I think you nailed it where it's like just the straight up observation announcement. Like, hey, I'm just noticing you're being sketchy all the time now. And you're the person I'm with the most and you're sketchy all the time because your phone's always on that's i think that's perfectly within your right to say it's all the table you're not snooping you know feel bad about that stuff what thing i was wondering is like maybe like. No some kids like what i have tbs in their house or something like that and like you know my brother had a girlfriend like that she come over and like. and like it was just like TV time at our house because like she, we're like, wait, so you go home
Starting point is 01:53:25 and your parents just said that we don't do TV. It's not allowed. And it's like, you know, the mid 2000s or something. Maybe this was a guy who's like, parents was like, you can have a cell phone but I'm checking it every day. And maybe he's like got PTSD from it. Just cause he's a listener,
Starting point is 01:53:37 I want it to not be the worst thing but there's a ton of smoke here. So there's probably fire. But just thought maybe he's, maybe had a weird upbringing and his parents were like, you like you know maybe didn't have a door on his bedroom and they were checking his phone checking his AIM every day I don't know. It's making you feel this way okay so that's ultimately on him and I think Surrey's advice was actually the best advice is that you need to figure out a
Starting point is 01:53:58 way the advice is figure out a way to get to that entry point. It sounds like he's so weird about it so often. There's going to be plenty of opportunities. Maybe it's not on the ride up to San Francisco on a three day weekend. Stop it in wine country. Um, maybe it is the next time you're at the house, you're both there and you're just like, okay, hey, you're being weird about this again. And you just start it that way. You're like, what, what is the issue with you and the phone? And you're going to, if you know him this well, and you've been dating with
Starting point is 01:54:26 three years, you've been living with him, you're going to, you're probably going to be able to figure out if he's full of shit or not, you know? And the good news is that, you know, you live together. So it's not like when you're together, you're like doing something. It's not like, ah, you had to do this on the way to the wine bar. What the hell? But like, you know, you guys are, you guys are home all the time. So there's, there's a lot of entry points there.
Starting point is 01:54:45 Okay. A lot of entry points.. Okay, a lot of entry points. What else do we have here? Okay, Moving Cross Country, 6'2", 180, Jeff Hornacek from my eighth grade squad. I'll get right to it. My wife and I just had our first child, congrats. Eight month old daughter who's incredible, no dad strength and we're holding her yet, Saruti,
Starting point is 01:55:00 so we're tracking that. Where were you on that again? You know, now that she's about 27 ish pounds now, and it's not, it wasn't when she was a baby. It's really more now that she's like a toddler because she's heavy, man. But now I'm not like really carrying her for like long distances anywhere, but it's way more now than it was when she was a baby. The baby was easy. She was like, you know, seven, eight pounds, 10 pounds, whatever. Now, so I, I'll report back in a few months because I do feel like, you know,
Starting point is 01:55:31 I'm not saying that you're switching or anything. Are you switching? I'm a left, I'm a left, I'm a righty, but I'm a hold the baby in the left arm guy. I don't know why. Maybe that's a normal thing. So if you did free throw shooting contest, you would shoot them right-handed because you hold your baby left handed. Oh, just gonna leave that there. Um, anyway, no one, no realized gains yet, but I will say I'll report back. Does feel it. I do feel stronger.
Starting point is 01:55:53 I want that to happen. I want Saruti to be in an offhand free throw shooting contest. And he just tells all of his teammates on team USA and he's like, what? I hold my baby left handed. What's the issue here? One, I won. Okay. Uh, I won. Okay. Uh, all right.
Starting point is 01:56:07 Good on that. Maybe we could attract that a little bit better. We could have done some strength agility stuff, but then if you stayed with the routine, you could have just gotten stronger for the routine and then not the baby and then the science is all wrong. And you know, next thing you know, Harvard medical reviews writing a peace sign and you're like, Oh my God, you guys didn't even, you didn't have a control. Which would be terrible in that community.
Starting point is 01:56:26 All right. So we have a really nice, yeah. How embarrassing. Have a really nice house in the suburb outside of a big city in the South. Both have great jobs. She's an operations manager at a large chemical company and a project manager at an engineering firm. Sounds like a real adult crew here.
Starting point is 01:56:40 My dad and my brother, his family live about 45 minutes from us and maybe it was wishful thinking, but we were hoping they would have been a bigger help with our new daughter through the first eight months they visited once so far. And we ended up having to make the drive if we want to hang out. On the other hand, her parents live in the Midwest
Starting point is 01:56:55 have been incredible. They've flown down five or six times already, that a huge help because of that, my wife is wanting to move back home or really just get out of where we are. And we've had many discussions on the pros and cons. Sounds like we have a lot of both columns. Do we move back to a smaller Midwest town to be close to her family?
Starting point is 01:57:12 It would probably be a suburb outside of Chicago. Number two though, we love hiking backpacking. So we've talked about going somewhere, Denver, Seattle, California, knowing we'd be by zero family, but I'd love for my daughter to grow up in the outdoors. My wife and I have to find new jobs, but I think our experience should be fine. I'm currently working three days a week from home, so I'm optimistic I could parlay that into a full remote if we decided to move. It's daunting to think about finding new jobs and new living
Starting point is 01:57:36 arrangements, especially halfway across the country, but we have some good friends that we'd be leaving behind. Sorry for the long email. Not a long email. Pretty straightforward. that we'd be leaving behind. Sorry for the long email. Not a long email. Pretty straightforward. Look, your side of the family not helping out is certainly a bummer. I mean, Saruti, you have a lot of help. Do you think of, and part of it's just the adaptation, or adaptation, I should say, excuse me, the adaptation of what your opportunities or what your resources are. In this case, you have a lot of help. If you removed yourself from that, like what if I moved to California and we had no family help, like how would I even do this? Well, you would just do it, right?
Starting point is 01:58:12 You would actually just do it. But man, it must be really nice having so much help the way you do right now, which is why, you know, it's tough to tell people to not do it. Um, so why don't you answer this one before I throw my theories in there? Yeah, I just wanted to point out him moving to like Denver or Texas or California, whatever, to go, to be outside. You can go outside anywhere, man. Like there's cool stuff in the Northeast. Like there's probably no stuff. New York, cool stuff in Chicago. I got in the suburbs. I'd imagine there's a lake.
Starting point is 01:58:38 That's a big lake around there. It's probably pretty fun. Um, so anyway, Western mass February killer. Beautiful. Amazing. Yeah. So my, my parents live about a couple hours away. Um, I get the, the only part there is like, they always want to FaceTime and I hate FaceTiming. So that's kind of like, you know, it'd almost be easier if they were closer because they could just like come over and like, you know, I don't know, just that, that, that personally annoys me,
Starting point is 01:59:04 even though I realized that I'm very grateful and should be grateful to have. No, but it's like, Hey, can we FaceTime every day, every day, every day. And it's like the same conversation over. I love my parents. They're great. Obviously they help out a ton. Brian's met my dad a bunch of times, Mr. Fixit, Joe Cerruti, but you know, it's like, you just do the talk on the phone. I wish you were my dad. No, I'm just kidding. Fair enough. Listen, I'm a loving guy. No, no, no. I just, phone. I wish you were my dad. No, I'm just kidding. Fair enough.
Starting point is 01:59:25 I'm a loving guy. No, no, no. Everybody knows how much I love my dad. I just, I could not say it at the time. My dad, not as good a basketball player as your dad, unfortunately, but we all have our pros and cons. But yeah, it drastically changes my happiness and my mood.
Starting point is 01:59:40 Yeah, actually, I want my dad back. Sorry, it was good of me. All right, you thought about it. Yeah, the basketball is clenched. Yeah, actually I want my dad back. Sorry. All right. You thought about it. Good. Good. Yeah. The basketball is plunger. Yep. You, you, my mood would be drastically different. I feel like me as a parent would be drastically different if I didn't have any help. We talked about this with daycare. We talked about this with my parents, coming over her parents coming over, like you need to do stuff. Like we still do stuff. We go out to dinner, we, you know,
Starting point is 02:00:00 go to concerts and if we didn't have people around and we didn't know anybody, you know, it's just kind of tough to leave her with strangers or even just like other daycare parents you don't really know. So we probably would do less and my life would be more miserable. So, um, I don't know, like if it is kind of an awkward situation too, because then like it's, it's your parents versus the in-laws and like, there's always kind of like a little tug of war there too, of like, you know, who gets more credit or who, you know, I don't know who's the better situation to be around that could create some arguments, but I, I would want the help.'s the better situation to be around. That could create some arguments,
Starting point is 02:00:25 but I would want the help. I'd want a situation where I had help and when I need one to go out or how to do something, or like we do a live show and I gotta leave and Maddie wants to come with me, like we could leave the kid with our parents for a weekend. Like that to me makes me a better parent, it makes me a better person.
Starting point is 02:00:40 So I would personally advocate for that. It sounds like you've got, I think parents when they get older, they even family members, like grandparents, especially like they kind of fall into two camps. It's either like, how can I help? Like, what are you, what are you free? When can I drop in? And the other one is like, you haven't come to see me in a while. You know what I mean? It's like Livia soprano. And it's just like, you know, I talked to, I talked to Gladys and her son calls her twice a week. And it's just like, like, I'm not doing it.
Starting point is 02:01:06 You come to me. Now is the time when you take care of me. And it sounds like that's kind of where your parents are, not to like talk bad about them. They just view things differently. It's like, all right, we're done. We're aging. Now you come check on us and you bring us to grandkids.
Starting point is 02:01:17 And then if you don't, you know, then we'll say we haven't seen them in a while. What's going on? Even though it's, you know, 40 minutes away. So I think that's just the kind of family you have. And it sounds like your, you know, your brother's just is Down to take the same path when it's like yeah, dude when you're going over mom and dad's let me know we'll pop over but I think for me family matters it does it would matter and
Starting point is 02:01:37 Maybe you try try the wife's I mean suburbs of secop great show the suburbs of Chicago sounds fine to me Honestly, it really does and I like you said, anywhere that's not a city, there's tons of outside. So you have to drive 20 minutes to hike, big deal. It's half the distance to your parents' house now. If it was me, I would try to stay somewhere close to family. I don't think there's anything wrong with staying put either, to be honest. You've got friends and stuff like that, and you're close to one side of the family. Are you going to use all your free time to go see these people around the world?
Starting point is 02:02:09 I mean, at least, at least would you be using all your free time to go see your family who doesn't go anywhere to meet you halfway? So I don't know. It sounds like the wife, you know, she would want the help in this situation. She's the one pushing for the move to outside Chicago. And if she wants that to happen. Yeah. I think you're kind of, your hands are kind of tied there.
Starting point is 02:02:29 I think, you know, I think there's upside there. That's what I would say. And it's like cooler than moving just nothing. Cause you're like, you'll meet friends through your kid's parents. Right? It's not like, Hey, we both work for Mo and we're going to. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. Cause no, if you move, like if you moved to Colorado and didn't know anybody,
Starting point is 02:02:43 that's like, that's a pretty drastic change with a kid, you know, cause then it's just kind of the three of you and it's, it's, it's really isolating. Like I, I need to call my buddy, Mark. Yeah. What's up, Mark? I would need to like see and talk to people that I already know. Like I'm, you know, maybe you're like a social butterfly and you're easy at making friends and it'll be fine. And whatever you start hanging out with people. But I don't know. I like to see the people that I've known for a while and at least be around some of them or at least successful with some of them. You move somewhere random with a kid that just that's that's that had more
Starting point is 02:03:12 stress to your life that I don't know that you need. Side note, Rizzle had a great Colorado crew. I don't know how many of those dudes were local, but what a time. Good, great Colorado crew. Good group. I mean deep, well deep. Yeah. There's like nine of you guys. Uh, well nine Great Colorado crew. Good group. I mean deep, well deep. Yeah.
Starting point is 02:03:25 It was like nine of you guys. Well, nine that stayed out on a school night. Yeah. So maybe. But I think there was like 20 guys local that showed up to the show. Good turnout. I mean, that was almost the tiebreaker
Starting point is 02:03:37 between friendship and ocean, ocean one. It was close though. No, I thought about, I actually thought about post Connecticut. I go, okay, if it's not Manhattan beach, what's number two? And I was like, it's Denver, but you know, I had some other goals. I had some other goals that were not going to be at that time fulfilled in Denver, but it was like, Hey, this might be fun. You can have friends, you can have somebody to call Friday.
Starting point is 02:04:00 No offense to college traffic. You know, it's the deal by the way, family matters. Family matters. Family matters. Nine seasons on the year television. I'd say deservedly. What's our number one rule about Chicago? If you marry a girl from Chicago, you have to move back to Chicago. So I think we have to factor that in the doing stuff outside suburbs of Chicago.
Starting point is 02:04:23 Have you guys been there? That's not a long window. It's not a long window. It's tough. have to factor that in the doing stuff outside suburbs of Chicago. Have you guys been there? That's not a long window. It's not a long window. It's tough. Those are some tough seasons. Um, so if you're really about the outdoors, like, look, it sounds like the family side on your part isn't enough to keep you there. If it actually is that flexible for you to find these other job opportunities,
Starting point is 02:04:42 I'm all in favor of moving. I think you become, I don't know if it's a better person, but with the experience, you're just going to gain things from it. There are going to be valuable parts of your life from that move that are going to make you appreciate when you go back, which I've always told every single young person that ever suggests, should I move in an email? I'm like, yeah, move. You're young.
Starting point is 02:04:59 Who cares? The good thing here is your daughter is so young. It's not like you're ripping her out of school and say you go to the greater Colorado area, which I'm a huge fan of. Denver itself is kind of being stretched at the seams. Even though there's still some great surrounding neighborhoods, the city is just, it was not designed to have this many people live there. And it's very different. Each year I go, I'm like, man, this place is really, really having a hard time maintaining this population spike that they've had. And I don't know the latest numbers,
Starting point is 02:05:37 but it was a significant spike over a while. I like where your head's at. Hey, is there a way to kind of get eight to nine months? Cause that's the other thing. Denver's weather is one of the more misunderstood climates in the United States too, because there's just way more opportunity to do stuff outside, uh, longer throughout the year. If, if you know, you know, so you wouldn't be like disrupting your family. Uh, in the sense that if you had a kid who were like seven and five is like,
Starting point is 02:06:04 all right, now we're moving to this other place. Cause then you could decide, okay, we like this and we got her out, but now maybe we do want to be back. I think this is now the time for you to be able to pull this off with the correction of likely not going back to where you're living now, because you don't feel like it's that much support. And then potentially going to the suburb of Chicago where some of the stuff that you think you're going to be doing as you keep growing your family,
Starting point is 02:06:23 you're probably not gonna have that much free time to do in the first place, but then it can, again, start to get a little bit more complicated. support and then potentially going to the suburb of Chicago where some of the stuff that you think you're going to be doing as you keep growing your family, you're probably going to have the most free time to do in the first place. But then it can again circle back around to friendship because how many emailers do we have here every month? They move to a new town, don't know how to meet anybody. I sometimes replaying and I think you should do this without sitting there on your couch by yourself having constant regrets. I wonder like, hey, if I prioritized friends
Starting point is 02:06:48 and being around friends, like how differently would things played out? And for my specific industry, you wouldn't know who the fuck I was, okay? If I prioritized it, none of this ever happens. But it doesn't mean it doesn't bum me out sometimes. I think about like even the Denver thing is reminiscent. I was like, yeah, who knows? Maybe that would have been awesome.
Starting point is 02:07:07 And if it were just podcasting and I were at this point, now I could just move wherever I want. But look, this is about me. It's about this hell of a little daughter here who's apparently one side of the in-laws have no interest in, which sucks. How could you not want to see a kid? Well, I would like to know what they're...
Starting point is 02:07:24 Kyle, you mentioned, Kyle, I wonder what would like to know what they're Kyle. You mentioned how like, I wonder what their situation is. Are they, are they way older? Are they retired yet? I don't know. Maybe their situation isn't just as fucked. This happens though. It happens. It's an outlook on life. I think they're just, you know, maybe their parents were just like, you know, you come pay tribute to us. We're not going to like, we don't care if you've got a show you want to go to. It really doesn't matter. You come see me and maybe that's how they are. Imagine how bored you're going to be, Kyle, at like 75. Yeah, totally. Right.
Starting point is 02:07:48 Well, I'm already bummed out about it. Maybe his dad's got six boats in three states. I don't know, maybe. I'll be on St. Barts with fucking dude. Just going like, yeah, no, Chris Berman was cool. I'd interact with him a lot though. So anyway, we have a yellowfin tuna to start.
Starting point is 02:08:07 Anyway, yeah, yeah. Like we're not married, but I met her online. She's like 38. I don't really know what the deal is. I'm trying to get her papers in order. Okay, I think that's enough for today. Good bye me. Didn't watch Family Matters, Kyle?
Starting point is 02:08:23 Totally watched Family Matters. Yeah, I did. I think Carl Winslow is one of the top TV dads. Yeah, that was a lot. I've never talked to you about it. There's no way me knowing you would think that you didn't know Family Matters inside and out. Okay, that's enough for today.
Starting point is 02:08:36 Thanks to Mike Wargon. Thanks to Saruti. Who people still think it's two words. Yep. And to Kyle. Check out our YouTube page who people still think it's two words. Yep. And to Kyle, check out our YouTube page and always subscribe to the Ryan Russo podcast for your spot. Must be 21 and older.
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