The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Conference Title Picks, Harbaugh to the Chargers, and Belichick Finished With Daniel Jeremiah, Plus Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

Russillo is joined by NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah to break down both championship games, react to Jim Harbaugh agreeing to coach the Chargers, and share his thoughts on Bill Belichick’s future (0:33). Next, he welcomes Oregon head coach Dan Lanning to learn more about Bo Nix, discuss Oregon’s move to the Big Ten, and explain his decision not to pursue the Alabama job (32:48). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle! How should the person who hugged their boss the first time they met proceed (54:00)? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Daniel Jeremiah and Dan Lanning Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

two great guests we're talking football today getting ready for the conference championship games with daniel jeremiah the harbaugh to chargers move and also some draft stuff his latest mock is out and dan lanning head coach at o. Two seasons in, his story, and did he have to make a big-time decision to stay in Eugene? That and life advice in our same-game parlay for the NFC. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable.

Sunshine? That's no. A bottle of wine? Yeah. And a snow day? again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. My favorite weekend of the NFL season, it is the conference championship matchups that we have in the AFC and NFC and from NFL network at move the sticks. A guy that knows this stuff. Well, we'll get a little draft stuff, a little Harbaugh as well.

It's Daniel Jeremiah. Okay. I am a mess this week with this AFC game. I do not want to pick against my homes. It's pretty much a rule I have. And for some reason I kind of just bought into maybe it's the Bills' time. But watching this Baltimore defense, and I don't care that it was Houston because we've watched it for a good chunk of the season look like this.

I keep going in circles. And I keep coming back to, well, Miami didn't have any of their edge guys. They tried to pressure them, and that wasn't going to work. Buffalo was down all their linebackers, and the guys, again, they've had some other pieces out for a good chunk of the season. Is the reality that this Baltimore defense, we know it's much different, but it's also healthier than those two. So that's the circle, and I always seem to kind of come back to that.

Where are you right now? Yeah, I feel like the game will be decided with KC defense, Baltimore offense. I feel like KC defense has to get turnovers. This Baltimore defense is so suffocating. And the way that they're playing right now where they're getting so much pressure without sending a ton of rushers with all the sim blitzes and all the stuff that they're doing. they're doing. Their DBs play top down. They play flat footed. They drive on everything and they're not giving up any big plays because there's no time to get to the big plays. So to drive 80 yards against them, and it sounds crazy because I recognize Mahomes is the best player in the world. I still don't think they have enough that they can consistently drive the field against Baltimore's defense. They've just been too suffocating. So I come back to, can Kansas City's defense, you know, get some turnovers, give them some short fields. And then I think, you know, Casey can, can win the game and can capitalize on that. Um, and if you watch, you know, I, I almost feel like Casey knows that, you know, watching their playoff games, right? Right.

They, they are punching at every football on every tackle defensively. Like there seems like there is an insane focus for them on trying to get the ball out and get turnovers. And one thing I thought was very clear when you looked at what Kansas city wanted to do defensively against Buffalo, that was like, look, we're, we're going to let you have the runs and Buffalo actually had had some,

some success there. I think it was something like the first 31 rush you have the runs. Buffalo actually had some success there. I think it was something like the first 31 rush attempts in the game. They were only hit behind or at the line of scrimmage three of those 31. When you look at Gabe Davis being out in that matchup and then against those corners, I'd seen some arguments that Allen didn't have a good game because his yards per attempt was low. I was like, how could you come to that conclusion based on the way the game plan was designed, but what, what Kansas city wanted

to give him and what they wanted to take away. Right. So I thought Alan had a really good game, uh, despite the low yardage totals based on like everything that was happening and kind of the tendencies in that one. So then when I think about this receiving group for Baltimore, which is the best Lamar's ever had, I don't know if Kansas City's defense, like sure, they may shut down one guy, but Andrews is coming back, likely has been terrific. Zay is good. Odell has been better. There's at least depth there for a third wide receiver alignment where you don't feel like it's a complete disaster.

How do you see that matchup then as far as them passing? Well, I mean, look, Baltimore is the best group by far that Lamar's ever had. So you've got options inside. You've got options outside. I think the thing that kind of makes everything go to is the fear of just Lamar can take off at any point in time, which is going to grab attention, especially at the second level. And they're able to get guys behind linebackers and find completions there because you have to have focus. And the times were in the Houston game where you saw them turn their back to him. I mean, it was like, there's no hesitation. He's gone.

So the one thing that would give me hope, I think if I were the chiefs, you know, versus what we saw last week, there were times where, you know, everything would be covered up and Lamar's going to go. And it was Denzel Perriman is the lone Ranger waiting for him. And I'm like, I, I, Denzel Perriman played with the chargers. I love him. He's a great dude. He's a thumper. That's not the guy you want one-on-one in space with Lamar.

I feel like Casey with their linebackers, they have a better fighting chance there with how athletic they are at the second level. So, you know, that that's a big part of it. But in terms of the passing game, yeah, I mean, they've never had this. I mean, I, the history of the Ravens, they've never had this many guys, this many options. Can you give us specifics? Cause I always hear like, oh, it's just different. It's different this year with Lamar. And like, I know what I can see. And you know, granted, and it was always kind of weird with the Greg Roman thing. Cause I, it was felt like he got all this credit because it's like, look, he took a quarterback that was a very specifically talented player. They designed

everything around him. Like it really worked. It worked. And it's like, okay, but it's not, we have a ceiling on who we can be. They go with Munkin and it just feels like everybody is in agreement that Lamar is a different quarterback. What do you see that tells you that? I would say that early on in his career, even like the MVP year, like you had shots, home runs, like post deep overs, like throwing on top of the defense because the defense was so worried about him and the run game.

And so you had a condensed defense. He was able to get over the top. And then it was like bubbles and design quick hitters where literally I'm catch, rock, throw, the ball's gone, and then let guys run after the catch. Now you're seeing stuff where the defense expands and I'm seeing him get to the curl on the backside. He's just playing more quarterback in a traditional sense, doing some of those things, which is, you know, I know the numbers don't like jump off the page when you look at him, but I think he's, he's really grown in, in areas like that, where he's

playing some more kind of traditional quarterback, you know, sitting there in the, in the cockpit and getting the number three and, and throwing the, you know, the second level throws. He didn't really have to do that previously, and I think that's probably where the most growth is. On the other side of it, we've touched on this Baltimore defense here a little bit. One thing that I had looked up and seen is that if you zone up Mahomes, it's usually a recipe for disaster. If you look at the EPA stuff for him against zone versus man,

where a lot of teams did want to play man against him because they were just like we don't like your receivers we're not scared anybody we can look at rashid rice is still asking a lot in the afc championship game you know it felt like against miami it's like all right you know look rashid's probably going to have a couple plays but he also could have a week where it doesn't necessarily matter they're getting marlon humphrey back but mike mcdonald this defense, they like to play a lot of zone. How do you see that? At least the stats tell us one thing, but is that something where you'd expect some deviation from it?

Because then you'd also think, well, why would Baltimore ever want to change who they are at this stage? Yeah, no, that's a fascinating point. I just think that their zone still, you know, Mahomes thrives in space. So if you're going to play zone, obviously you're going to have more space than you would if you're playing, you know, man coverage. But Baltimore zone isn't a traditional zone in the sense that, you know, they're playing off and it's kind of a rally and tackle.

Like they are, a lot of times they're like at eight yards flat footed knowing that they're getting home with their rush. So even though they're in zone, it feels almost kind of more like a, like almost kind of like an amoeba zone. You know what I mean? Like where you've just got, they've got a lot of length, they've got a lot of speed and they're not backing up. So they're just jamming a bunch of bodies in that, you know, 15 yard box.

They don't have safeties, 22, 24 yards deep, you know yards deep. Some teams have played Kansas City that way and said, look, just get the safeties way the heck out of there. We're going to try and avoid giving up the 40, 50 plus yard shots. They play zone, but they don't do that. They don't have to do that because they have so much confidence in their pressures getting home. You mentioned the flat-footed thing, and I don't know if it was a tweet that you had about them, but watching that Houston game, here's a team that comes off the Cleveland game. Statistically, Cleveland was up there with anybody else defensively, depending on what you want to look at. Granted, there's some points there off the flack of mistakes as well, but a guy would catch a ball, not necessarily in the flat, but it wouldn't be like a go route, right? There'd be like some decision making that would have to happen after you caught the football.

And I don't know if that's what you meant by the flat footed part of the secondary because you think, well, why would you want to be that way? And then you'd be able to, it actually looks like they just destroy everything once the ball is caught because of that technique and some of the stuff that you noticed is that is that what we're all seeing because it was like man they are flying it's like three or four guys flying to the ball finishing these tackles it was scary yeah the great example that would uh would be you know i think of like if you want to watch the ultimate flat-footed example remember when miami played cover zero the whole game a couple years ago i think it was a Monday night game. It was against Lamar. And they sent everybody on every snap.

And then most people think of cover zero, okay, you're man, there's no help. You are man, locked in across the board. A lot of teams would do that. We're going to get up and press them. And then if the ball comes out, they're going to have to get it up over our head. They were playing cover zero at like eight to 10 yards,

knowing there's a free runner and they could just with no threat of anybody getting behind them and just not no backpedal, no steps, flat footed driving on everything. Well, they're playing that way without having to send the house. Like they're still covered. They're only rushing five, but they don't know where the five's coming from. They're getting free runners and then they're able to just play without any, any fear. And I think some of that too, is that Casey, you know, they don't have Tyree kill. They don't have that guy that even, you

know, you sit there and go, okay, well there's shoot, you know, I'm 10 yards off, but I still probably better get the heck out of here. Cause I can't take that chance that he's just going to go on me. So I think that's kind of the combination of it. But when I was talking about their tackling, they do such a good job of the first guy who arrives comes to balance. So like in scouting, we'll use that term, like he comes to balance in space as a tackler. Some guys will try and just run right through your hip. So they're going to try and get that inside hip and they don't break down. And then you'll have some fly by misses with that. Baltimore, the first guy gets there extremely fast, and then he settles his feet.

Like if you're thinking of basketball, just run out, close out. You close out, and you settle your feet. When the ball carrier pauses, dude, it is a matter of seconds, and then you see the Calvaries coming, man. They are six dudes sprinting to the ball. So it's fun to watch how they swarm. Week two, 2021,

they faced each other. Spagnuolo splits, uh, 44% of the time. Is it safe to say? Cause, well, I don't want to say,

Hey, they're not going to do that again. And I even think Spagnuolo against Buffalo where you're going like, Oh man, it doesn't seem like he's dialing up as many pressures as he traditionally does. Like we just always think of him and be like, Hey, any down that matters, you're sending pressure, you're sending pressure. But against Houston, it felt like in the first half, Houston was making

an impact at least with their pressure. They may not get to them, but it was impacting what Baltimore could do at least in the first half, you know, 10, 10 points there. Is there anything to take from that? Or is this deep or is this offense, I should say, on the Baltimore side that much different now that you just throw away that game from over two years ago? Yeah, it's such a different group, man. I'm going to have to go back through and look at that roster, but I would imagine their third-best option this year,

you could make a case, was better than their best option that year. They just have so much more depth and so many more guys they can get involved. And Zay Flowers is just kind of unique. When we talk about the fear thing and can you stress a defense, he can give you that as well. The interesting thing for Baltimore to me is how much too tight end stuff are we going to see since Lightly's exploded with Andrews gone? Are we going to see them lean into that a little bit more if andrews is back and how does that

change things um but you know the the scary thing with lamar man is like you want to blitz him like you better get home um because if he creases you you're you're in big trouble um so that's always the thought process there is if you're going to go, you've got to get there. There's definitely a risk involved. Traditionally, most people against him in the past have wanted to just say, we want all eyes on him, so we're going to play zone, all eyes on him. Then if he goes, we can get him.

But, man, he's evolved to the point where that's not as easy as it used to be to be able to play him like that. Right, and in that game, by the way, Baltimore won a shootout. Lamar had a couple picks, but they ran up to 251 against them, against that Kansas City defense. So, again, probably throw it away, but just something at least based on the same defensive coordinator, same quarterback. But you're right, that was Hollywood Brown.

Those were Hollywood Brown days as the number one option. Let's look at the NFC. Debo limited in practice on Thursday. We know historically without Debo, it's about three points less per game. And I think you could see it immediately. So I don't know if it's the Debo part. I don't know if it's also the rain. It feels like it's all of that. How did you feel about Purdy? And I know we're doing legacy updates on quarterback far too often here, but your thoughts on him and then kind of looking ahead, if any lingering effect of some of the impressions you had from Purdy in that game. Yeah. I mean, there was just more, there was more just pure drop back than I ever thought I would ever see, uh, with, with Kyle, you know, like there's, there's a reason why that stat that they flew about the 30 straight losses,

you know, and come from behind situations because the whole thing is based off the run and the illusion of run. And when you don't have that, the physical traits of the quarterback come more into play. And I thought they were on verge of losing the game because they didn't just turn around and give it to McCaffrey. I thought they could erode McCaffrey in that game and didn't choose to. We are going to win or lose this game with Brock Purdy, which to me was an interesting choice.

He eventually made the plays on the final drive, but man, I don't think it needed to be that hard. So that was kind of the fascinating aspect of that game. I'd be curious if having a chance to look back on how close they came to to being done uh and going back and studying that if kyle doesn't say okay look i gotta be smarter about this thing like we're gonna try and ride christian here uh this next week but the party debate's kind of funny to me when you're in teams in the draft room like we would always say like and some teams aren't like the teams i worked with the good ones were we have nine picks. I care about the nine guys that we get. If somebody goes somewhere else and is great, I don't care. If somebody goes somewhere else and doesn't play well that we had high,

I don't care. We have to get the guys that fit us that are perfect for what we do. I don't know why reasonable people can't just say like Brock Purdy is a perfect fit for, for San Francisco. He fits perfectly there. You can, you know, debate, well, does he work in these other places? And what if this other player was there? Like, that's not, who cares? Like he's there. They, his skillset perfectly fits what Kyle wants from the quarterback in terms of decision

making and accuracy. So that's, that's it. That's it. He's a good player who fits perfectly what they do. Well, I'm sure Shanahan, part of his prep, is looking at the corners for Detroit because you've got one corner who's giving up the most yards per attempt,

and the other guy's giving up the most yards total when targeted. So what is it with the Detroit corners? Is that solvable, or is that really what San Francisco looks to attack anyway? Well, the fascinating thing to me is there are two middle-of-the-field offenses. So, you know, both these offenses

want to work and live in the middle of the field. And the ironic thing is, I think, whoever can attack on the outside, I think San Francisco's most vulnerable on the corner on the outside as well. So, whoever can play kind of out of their their normal uh process and live outside the numbers which neither one of these teams do whoever i think there's success to be found there and i know the numbers with detroit you know you just rattle them off um aren't great but i would argue

that san francisco like if they lose it's because they're gonna struggle on the outside and down the field there were some shots available there last week with uh with green bay so um i think on the outside and down the field. There were some shots available there last week with Green Bay. So I think on the Detroit side of things, you had LaPorta and St. Brown, I think, had 17 catches combined last week. So they live in the middle of the field. The difference in the game why I like San Francisco is just because if you're going to say the game's going to be played in the middle and you've got Greenlaw and you've got Fred Warner,

I'll take them over what Detroit's running out. They're not, Jack Campbell's got a chance to be a good player. Anzalone's a solid player. That's not San Francisco in the middle. No, you're right. That's exactly where Goff wants to live. And it's the first thing I thought of. And that's why I would be shocked if Detroit wins this game. I just would be. I mean, granted, there's always the turnover part of this, but if you look at where Goff likes to throw, which is funny because it's a lot like the Shanahan stuff, and it's kind of what I thought became really predictable with Garoppolo,

but overall the roster is better. Now, Goff historically hasn't been great against pressure, but you've got a Detroit O-line that's really good, but their guard is out. Ragnall's definitely hurting at the end of that game. And yeah, I know all the names in the front for San Francisco, and it still just does not feel like it's paying off based on the talent expectations.

No, they didn't get home as much as I thought they would last week. I agree Bay's got a good group up front, and they've been good protecting all year long. But the other thing with Detroit, they'll move the pocket too. So, Goff's going to get the ball out quick, and then they'll move him. I'll bet you, I shouldn't say that, but if the first play is not a boot, I'll be shocked in this game. They will start off the game by saying,

Jared's not going to set up in the same spot at the same depth. Don't get comfortable rushing a spot because we are going to show you from the very first play that he's on the move. We're not going to let him set up back there. But yeah, I thought San Francisco's front would be a little more dynamic. It'll be interesting to see the copycat effect of what's going on because the Eagles had 70 sacks, primarily rushing four the year before. Now the Ravens lead the league in sacks this year with all their same pressures and all the chaos that they kind of create. So it's like,

that's two totally different styles of playing defense that have been the best in the league the last two years. And by the way, some of the pennies, Sewell pulls have right tackle. That's a big man. The stuff they do with him or just what they can do with him versus you know and look i realize trent williams is is a god at the left tackle position as well but there's just

a lot of stuff with sewell where you know you're supposed to kind of pay attention to where people are blocking i mean it's where you can also get fooled but more often than not you're following different things like hey this is where the ball is going to be if this is what they're doing and some of the stuff that i was looking at this morning that they do with Sewell, it's like, I don't know, he's so good. He's just getting in places where you're just not expecting tackles to be. No, that's a good point. I was going to ask you about this too, but I thought this was like the interesting aspect of this game

because Brad Holmes, to me, I don't know if he ended up getting executive of the year. He should have. I don't know. I didn't see if that came out yet or not. But the fascinating thing to me is he goes from the Rams to Detroit. And I think the expectation would be he will try and recreate what they had in L.A. And in fact, he recreated San Francisco, like having a chance to have an up-close view of San Francisco in that division.

And really outside of the Rams beating them in the playoffs, San Francisco's had their number and he saw up close what that looked like. So I was going through it. I'm like, accurate quarterback is a good decision maker. You get a top five pick from the Big Ten edge rusher with Hutchinson and Bosa. You've got a big time offensive tackle from Trent Williams to Pene Sewell. You've got tough rack type receivers with Amon Ra compared to Debo you've got a tight end from Iowa you've got a first round running back that has a varied skill set

I said earlier it felt like their JV team you're just watching the same system the same guys maybe just a tiny notch below but they did they recreated the 49ers. That's a great way to end it there. And I just hope Laporte is healthy because, you know, they bring in Ertz during the week, you hear he's limited. But like, as soon as I saw that, and I felt like there was that one play where the way he got up from the

weight, it wasn't something where like everything was going to stop, but just watching him and how he got up, I was like, Oh, because if they don't have him at full strength, it's going to be, I think it's going to be really tough. All right. There's a couple of other things that I want to do with you here. Uh, as people know, you worked in the front office for a long time. You had a really good tweet, which I think is a good lesson. It's one thing to be a great interview. It's another thing to be a great coach. Uh, I imagine Harbaugh, um, I don't know that his interviews would be great, but the resume is so good. Why are you saying no?

Right. So what do you think about Harvard or the Chargers? Well, it's done a couple of things immediately. It brought buzz and attention, which, you know, that whatever you think that's worth it, you know, in a market like LA, as you know, like it's crowded space, man. And they, they kind of made some noise with that one, got some attention. So that, you know, that's on the marketing side of things, but on the football side of things, this team had like real, identity, and they weren't tough enough.

And to me, I think he comes in. Every team he's ever coached has been tough. They've had that as their identity. They're not going to shriek from any challenges. I was joking with somebody the other day. I said, how long before he publicly calls out the Chiefs in a real understated way? I mean, he went to Stanford. He called out USC. He went to Michigan.

Obviously, Ohio State had the bullseye on them. Once they got through Ohio State, the word got out that they had a period in practice called the Georgia period because he put the mark on the SEC because that's who he had to go through to get a championship. KC has dominated this thing for so long

and I just think Jim's going to come in there and say okay that's what it is that's who they are and now you know we get to work to go to go beat him and i think he'll publicly say something i think i don't think he'll be able to help himself no he won't i mean definitely dialed it down at michigan and that's why i think there was just an extra level of criticism for him it's like hey man you showed up with like the full parade and the hype videos and the whole deal and you're losing ohio state all the time like make less videos if you're going to do this kind of stuff so i mean did he like didn't he do the didn't he have like a day comment pretty

early like maybe or maybe that was obviously urban had had had beat him you know at the beginning but then he did he do that when you were born on third base thing as the coach and all that uh the third base thing i thought he said something about some people you know they're born on third base and act like they hit a triple or something like that like it was yeah no he said it to him uh after they beat him of course that was in 21 so the first time he beat him he said quote some people are born on third base and act like they've hit a triple but they didn't look i'll be honest the first time I heard the born on third base thing, I was like, God, that's brilliant. It was like 20 something years ago. Yeah, I'm a little tired now. I've heard it so many times. It's like the first time when I heard the definition of insanity. I just went like, whoa, that's amazing.

Oh, that's great. And then I hear it like on Saturday and Sunday pregames every week now for two decades. And you're just like, Hey man, I got it. The Jimmy's and Joe's. The best, the best, the best part of it though, is like the raised eyebrows, like, wait for it. You're not going to believe how this line ends. And everybody's like, yeah, yeah. I've heard it a hundred times.

That's a pretty nasty swipe at your rival though. Like that's old school to say that the other coach, but you're right. He just, he can't help himself at times. arrival though like that's old school to say that yeah the other coach but you're right he just he can't help himself at times belichick this is maybe not shocking i i thought atlanta the dallas thing never made any sense to me honestly i don't think it should have made sense to anybody that's paid attention to how jerry jones runs the operation and then what bill would want to be involved with um you know i don't think the chargers were going to want to do that, but then the Atlanta part, I kept thinking like Arthur blank at this stage of

his life would probably be like, oh my God, like imagine Belichick sitting down across from you going like, I can fix this. Cause of course he's going to say he can fix it. But I don't know how anybody with internet access could look up his tracker here as a GM and be like, yeah, I not only want you to coach, I want you to be in charge of the whole thing. So when you heard that he was coming in for a second interview, I'm like, wait, Bill Belichick has to come in for a second interview. It reminded me of a couple of friends I had that wanted to do a podcast and somebody was like, can you, can you do a demo?

You're kind of famous. Don't really think we should have to do a demo. It's not the exact same thing, but how did you see that story playing out? Yeah, I was with you on the second interview thing. To me, it was the first interview thing and how it was even like, to me, I'm Bill Belichick. When that call comes in, it's I'll meet with you. You want to meet? I'll meet. But like, don't even label this an interview.

That's insulting. Like, don't, don't use that word. But I'll meet with you to see? I'll meet. But like, don't even label this an interview. That's insulting. Like, don't use that word. But I'll meet with you to see if I'm interested. You know, like that. What are you going to ask him? Like, what are you going to learn from him that his resumes? It's all there. Like, what do you.

And if you're Bill Belichick, like, do you show up? Do you wear your rings? Like, do you just be like, what are we doing here, guys? Come on. Look at these things. Fill up two hands. That made no sense to me. But I do think the reason why it didn't happen is because there still are a lot of cooks.

And he's been a solo chef for a very long time. And he's probably coming in there saying, I want to run the whole thing. And like you pointed out, the personnel side hasn't been great. And they were probably reluctant to give him all that. I wonder if there were the people that were still there telling blank, like pretty nuts. And by the way, self-preservation of the job. Oh yeah. First and foremost. Yeah. Do you think he coaches again? I don't. To me, like there's, you're chasing, you can chase the Shula thing, but then you also have in the back of your mind you

want to protect the legacy that you've already built and established um you know and i don't know how much you could hurt yourself um at this late portion of your career but it would be kind of the last taste everybody had and as bad as it got in new england honestly because of all the quarterbacks and all the other stuff going in the NFL, I feel like nobody even paid attention nationally. Like if you asked an average fan, like, did like, how many years have the Patriots been struggling? I think this year was a tough year. And I think they have a high pick this year. I don't think they played as good this year.

They won't know that this has not been good for a few years now. All right. Speaking of picks your recent mock up right now on NFL.com just days old. How locked in are you to the order of Caleb, Drake May, Jaden Daniels? Because that's who you have, one, two, and three. Yeah, I mean, I feel pretty locked in in the fact that we're going to get the three quarterbacks.

I mean, it's so early to make a prediction like this, but I don't see how any of those three teams trade off those picks in terms of where they're located and with the need at the position. So I feel great about the quarterbacks. I feel great about Caleb being the first one. I don't, I mean, to me, flip a coin on two, three at this point in time, like that's, that's wide open between Jayden Daniels and Drake May. I could, I could make a strong argument for either guy, you know, in terms of the, you know, the fits and the talent and all that kind of stuff. But I think that's going going to be i think that's going to be something that rides all the way through the whole process what's the biggest quarterback argument you've ever had in the

draft room uh it was weird but this like personally the one that i was involved in was uh derrick anderson over ryan fitzpatrick is that pretty was that a Is that a big one? I love it. Take us through it. I was scouting the West Coast, but I also did all the quarterbacks. Derek Anderson was just huge and had the upside. We had the argument of Fitzpatrick, we thought. Which team again? I was with Baltimore. I was with Baltimore. Fitzpatrick, I went and seen him play love, you know, love the competitiveness and all that kind of stuff. But I thought, man, Derek Anderson,

ceiling wise, he just has, there's just more there. Cause he's just so, he's so big arm is so big, all that kind of stuff. And I thought Fitzpatrick was going to be okay. You take him, we're talking about in the sixth round, I believe when we, when we made this decision. So, um, uh, Fitzpatrick, I thought he's going to be a lifetime two. Like he's going to be a really smart two that can get you out of a couple games if you need to. Whereas I thought Derek Anderson had the potential to be a starter. You know, you're going to have to be more patient with him,

but I thought the payout could be big. So we went back and forth on those two guys. I believe they were both there when we picked, and we ended up with Derek Anderson. We selected him. And then, of course, following their careers, Derek Anderson mixed in a Pro Bowl early with the Cleveland Browns and then just disappeared, was a much more successful NFL career. But it was a ceiling floor debate in the sixth round that was kind of interesting. Was he a Pro Bowl alternate? I just use Pro Bowl, Ryan. Whenever you've gone to bat for a sixth round pick, technically, Tyler Hundley, Pro Bowler.

There should be a different category. There should just be, there should be like a verified pro bowl and then a non verified one. I don't know. You should have to pay a monthly fee. Yeah. Well, it's bold and italics. Like we should probably distinguish, but that's okay.

Okay. So it sounds like both of us are leaning, uh, not leaning, just saying definitively San Francisco. Where are you with the AFC? Yeah, I went Baltimore. Um, I, I just felt like when you're picking these these things i don't know if it's the right way but i just thought if they both bring their a game i think baltimore's better you know so i picked baltimore i'm picking san francisco and i'm picking baltimore yeah i mean i feel really

confident but we both feel really confident about san francisco which means we're gonna like totally screw that one up. Right. I just don't know how Detroit does it. They're going to have to play so outside their normal way. Just be something. Not to say that San Francisco turns the ball over a ton, but I think a lot of times you look for answers on matchups and what happened here. They had three turnovers.

They had one. There you go. Missed a kick. All right. Well, enjoy it, man. We had one. There you go. Missed a kick. Alright. Well, enjoy it, man. And we're going to have you on again, hopefully a couple times before the draft. So, thanks. I appreciate it. See you, man. When it comes to the NFL playoffs, you've got to win

one game at a time. But when you bet the NFL playoffs on FanDuel, one game can mean a lot of wins. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, has all your favorite bets, like the money line and the spread, plus all sorts of prop bets. Okay, folks, we feel great. We decided to dial down the ambition a little bit after last week. Here's where we're at.

Alternate spread, Niners, minus 2.5. Laporta, under 48.5 receiving yards. A little worried about the injury. Also, the linebackers, where golf likes to throw the football. I'm also going to go under 51.5 on the total, and then McCaffrey, any time touchdown score. We were just a little aggressive on the odds last week. Didn't work out. So we put this one together for you. It's plus 401 right now. Last night was actually even a little bit better. So I feel good about that. The direction that it's trending. So that is there for you on Vandal Sportsbook. Right now, every day, there's an NFL playoff game. Vandal is giving

all customers a no-sweat same-game parlay. That means when you combine all your bets for a chance at a bigger payday, you'll get bonus bets back if your same-game parlay doesn't win. Just visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N. If you don't already have an account, make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. 21 and older, present in select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit TheRinger.com forward slash R-G. I like doing this.

I like doing this. At this point in the season, we have a chance to reflect, to look ahead. A little origin story. He's one of the best coaches in college football his second year through Oregon. It's Dan Lanning. Thanks for doing this, man. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. So let's talk about the season. I think I can

tell from your competitive vibe that you're not going to feel like it was great, but you did some things. But as the season was playing out, I was like, I think these guys have a chance to do the whole thing. And I'm not trying to bring back bad memories here. How do you look back at 2023 for this group? I'm really proud of how our team worked and developed and grew over time. But certainly for me, I wake up and I think about a couple of games. And that's just the way I'm wired. I'll probably always be that way.

Even the year we won the national championship at Georgia, I think about another game that we didn't win. So that's kind of me. But I am proud of our team. I'm proud of the work they did, proud of our coaching staff and what we've been able to build here at Oregon. How did you turn Bo Nix into one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the history of the game? I didn't turn Bo into anything. You know, Bo, you know, we don't play the game, right? The players play the game. What we did is we gave Bo the tools and the ability to go take advantage of everything that exists here and be able to go up there and play quarterback like he knows how to play quarterback.

And I think what that requires is great communication. You have to be in sync with your quarterback. You got to be in sync with your team and understand their strengths, their weaknesses. But I didn't turn Bo into anything. I let Bo do what Bo does. And our coaching staff did a great job of letting Bo do what Bo does, which is being an intelligent player, getting us into the right play,

making great decisions. And then when there's moments of growth, point it out to him. And he wants to be coached as hard as anybody I've coached. And I certainly appreciate that. Maybe I should ask it this way. When you're looking at the portal and you're, and you're seeing who's available and it's like, okay, well, if this guy's in the portal, like either it was lower level, he wants to go somewhere else, or maybe it didn't really work out.

Like maybe what did you see with him? What do you use as some sort of identifying trait when you're trying to figure out like, hey, this guy just needs something a little bit different. I knew Bo, one, from going against him when I was at Georgia, but also, you know, in his recruitment, I think everyone knew he was probably gonna end up at Auburn,

you know, coming out of high school, but it didn't mean he wasn't a guy that we didn't all recruit. And this guy's a winner. And I think that's, you know, the thing, everybody's talented when they get to our level.

Everybody, you know, has a lot of elite traits from a physical standpoint, but it's hard to measure heart and going against Bo, you could see at heart, um, the way he competed. Um, and then your couple of conversations, you realize the intelligence, this guy has the competitive toughness and nature of him. So that's what you look for. You look for guys that have talent and you got to check that box, but you know, how big

is the chip on their shoulder, right? How much heart do they have? And he's the guy that had, uh, you know, how big is the chip on their shoulder, right? How much heart do they have? And he's the guy that had, you know, both those things. When NFL scouts ask you about them, how do you balance, I want to sell them on my guy? You know, and look, this is even a Bo Nix question. It's just kind of in general of like, and then also feeling like if you have relationships in the NFL, you don't want to steer anybody wrong.

Yeah, I always try to be honest with the teams we talk to. And, you know, I think that's really important. But it's an easy sell for me with Bo. You know, I think you look at his film the last two years and what he's done. I just always talk to teams as if, hey, if I'm taking over a team tomorrow, do I want him on my team? Absolutely. I would do anything I could to get him on my team.

And you try to be open and honest with every team that comes through here because, you know, we're going to have a lot of players that have the opportunity to go to the league. And I want them to understand when I, when I stand on the table for a guy, there's a reason. Let's go to your origin story here. I love it. It's inspiring to a lot of people. I was texting a few people in the college football world last night and like, Oh, you got to ask them about Pitt. You got to ask them about Pitt. I know I've read what I've read, but I'm going to ask you, you're coaching high school. Clearly you want to be a coach and you get Todd Graham to bring you on the staff. How did that go down? What actually happened? Yeah, I feel like I've told this a million times, but I, you know,

really I just, I did, I was in high school ball and I had a really, I had an itch to coach at a higher level. I didn't know what that was. You know, I grew up knowing I wanted to coach, but I didn't know what level that was. I was the guy that would send letters and emails and phone calls to everybody in the country and honestly didn't get a lot of responses. I didn't know a lot of Division I coaches. When there was a transition at Pitt, their staff just left Tulsa and gone to Pitt and was able to connect the dots at one point. A guy had called me and said,

Hey, we might have something for you after signing day. And the phone call never came. So I got in my car and I drove to Pitt. I went and taught, you know, elementary PE that morning and did weights after school. And then got in my car and drove through the night, threw on a suit right before I got to the facility and waited there in the lobby until I realized

that the coaching staff actually wasn't there that day. They were somewhere else doing a clinic. So I got to stick around, wait that night. When you drive 13 hours, you're going to wait until you get to meet with somebody. So I waited, met with Coach Patterson, the defensive coordinator there, now the head coach, Davlin Christian. And he said, hey, we got a job. It's 800 bucks a month.

I don't think I told him that my wife was pregnant and we had a one-year-old because I didn't want him to not offer me a job. So that was kind of my foot in the door. Started there and then was able to take off from there, be around some really elite coaches and have some fun in that process. Yeah, Arizona State, Sam Houston after that.

But at Bama, you're still a GA, right? Yeah, so I've taken a full-time job at Sam Houston State. I was working with the defensive backs, the corners there, and really enjoyed that experience. But I still have a voicemail saved on my phone from Coach Saban when he called. That's one of those ones you don't ever delete. But called and had an opportunity to go be a GA. I went and interviewed, but to go be a GA at Alabama,

for me it was never about chasing the dollars, about chasing the opportunity. And it probably ended up being the best decision in my career of picking a place where to go, where I could learn, be around great people, be around great players. And got to be on a staff there with Kirby Smart, Mario Cristobal, Lane Kiffin, Billy Napier, Mel Tucker. It's just an elite group. And then obviously, Nick Saban. So getting to coach with some of those guys and be on a staff like that,

and we won a championship that year, probably propelled my career more than anything I did. What's the biggest Saban lesson from that time for you? Consistency. I've never been more impressed with the consistency of a coach um than coach saving you know just watching him every day you know it was almost robotic how well he was able to move but robotic and adaptable you know i think there's a lot of people that have

come from that tree and some that have had a lot of success and some that haven't you know i feel like the ones that maybe haven't had as much success they try to be nick you know nick was nick you know nick coach savingan was himself every day. And that's something I appreciated and learned kind of from him that, you know, whenever you get your opportunity, you got to be you. But you better be the definition of consistency if you want to, you know, last in this profession. You end up at Georgia, and at that point,

like, people are starting to talk about you. You know, they're at least the people that are, you know, really into it. And they're going like, yeah, this guy might be like the next guy, but he's young. So, you know, who knows what's going to happen? What was that? Like, let me ask it this way. I know all of you expect to be a head coach. You want to be a head coach. You're thinking how you would be as a head coach. What was that preparation like for you going, okay, this could be getting close here where I could have my own program. What kind of things were you thinking about what you wanted? What did you want to take from other places once

you got your own gig? You know, I've always made, you know, notes, you know, when I'm, whether it was with coach Saban or coach Norvell or coach smart about just, you know, little things that I liked, things that I wanted to kind of carry over. But I'll be honest, you know, after my wife got diagnosed with cancer, it was kind of a reset for me. And that goal that I wanted to kind of carry over. But I'll be honest, after my wife got diagnosed with cancer, it was kind of a reset for me. And that goal that I used to have a goal of, like, I want to be a head coach. And it was a timeline. Everything was about advancing to the next job

and what's next and coaching elite players. But I really kind of hit the reset after my time in Memphis and my wife getting sick to where that wasn't a huge priority. But I still did take, you know, meticulous notes on how would I do it? What would it look like? Who would I want to build it around? What kind of people would I want to be with? And, you know, I got a chance to be around some of the

best. I think, you know, even though I'm relatively young, the quality and the variety of experience of coaches that I got to work with is what really prepared me, you know, to sit in my seat. So I don't know that I ever knew that it would happen or when it would happen. A lot of it's God's timing. And I just knew that I wanted to be ready for it if it did happen and was fortunate enough to be in a position where I was. I can't imagine what that was like for you. And especially when you think about the age and how long you've been together and you know i was kind of looking at your your bio going man this guy's a 29 year old ga like she's she's a saint yeah yeah i'm really lucky there um you know beyond lucky there and um i still remember we're sitting in our living room in huntsville texas and i think we listened to the voicemail from coach saban probably like 15 times we just kept hitting play

and she said you can't say no to nick saban. I said, yeah, you're right. Like, I mean, I already knew I was taking the job since then. I've done a lot better job of saying, Hey babe, what do you think about this job? But at that point I knew we were doing it, but it was pretty refreshing. And we always prepared, you know, like even when I took the GA job at Pitt, I say prepared, I don't know if we prepared well, but we always had like a plan, you know? So when I went, went to Pitt to be a GA or a quality control for 800 bucks a month, I

pulled out my teaching retirement. It was $18,000. Right. So I pulled that out and I said, okay, we're going to figure out how to, you know, use that. And, um, when I, when I worked at Sam Houston state, we weren't making crazy money, but we were, we were making a living with three boys, but we saved a ton of it. And we saved it for the purpose of, I knew that lad, that was the last year I could have

been a GA the year that I went to Alabama. So I knew like, this was my last opportunity to, to GA again. And it just felt like it was the absolute right thing to do. And I'm lucky enough thatia didn't mind eating ramen a little bit more than uh steak at the time so this is what i like about your story and i try to tell people this you know that are younger whatever it's like the rest of the world's just not on your schedule you know and then there are moments where you feel like you're lagging behind everybody and then the great part about life is that all of a sudden you're like wait am i just

lapping every like now i'm way ahead of schedule. So to go from what, six years later to getting the call at Oregon, what was it like when you got offered the job? Every day for me, you wake up and you pinch yourself and you got to remind yourself how lucky you are to do what you get to do. And I've been around some unbelievable coaches that could certainly be sitting in this seat and would do a phenomenal job. You know, I think the thing that maybe has been separating for me is what I've said before is I never really cared about what I was going to make. I always chased opportunity rather than chasing the dollar. And I always really valued experience around really good people. And, you know, whenever you look at it like that, you know, where can you go when, where can you learn how to win

championships, where can you learn what, you learn what elite recruiting looks like, what elite development looks like? And you make that the priority over what somebody in the world might tell you is a bad decision. What are you doing for your family? How are you going to support? And I think a lot of people are really focused on being comfortable. And early in my career, I was focused on being uncomfortable and growing. And that's really what paid off. How are you preparing for the transition to the Big Ten? Yeah, you know, it starts with our team.

You know, and there's going to be some things that are different about the Big Ten. I have to do some studies on, you know, travel, what travel would look like and how that might look different. But there isn't as much travel as people think. It's not as, you know, we travel a good amount and the league we were just in.

So we're going to be going to LA for an away game. That's very similar to what we would have done last year. So that's something I got to be able to assess and look at differently. I think at the end of the day, the big 10 is going to have to prepare for us and what we do different, you know, for that league, but great football is great football. I'm glad to be in one of the two conferences in college football that are elite um i'm glad to get to go play some of the elite teams go look at the national championship and that was two big 10 teams you know that were squaring off so i think

the the challenge in front of us is a lot of fun um and i don't think anybody gets in this profession to say give me the easy road so being in a conference that's uh has competitive you know a competitive nature that has really good football, that plays a physical brand of football, that's something I'm excited about. I love Eugene. I was lucky enough to go up there a bunch during the Chip Kelly start. And, you know, you spend all the time. Look, I've been everywhere now for all the years that I've been doing the college football thing. So I like the perspective that I have.

And, you know, it's like, hey, man, LSU on a Saturday night night stuff to be, you know, I always thought when Athens was right, that was just a really fun atmosphere. You know, Tuscaloosa is almost spoiled. So there's certain nights you're like, wait, are they just, what's going on here? But it's still great when it's great. And I've been there for some of the great nights and I know I'm leaving a ton out, but I would be like, look, when Oregon is rolling that place, and I know it's not the same size, that is an unbelievable experience, the way the campus is kind of nestled in there. What's it like to be the guy in charge of it all? There's moments that you don't even realize how special this place is.

I still remember the first game that I'm coaching here, and in the third quarter, a shout comes on, and the entire stadium is going absolutely nuts, you know, and that's, that's an experience that's special. You know, we were the NFL team of the state, you know, there isn't, there isn't another draw and we, you know, a lot of times, you know, being in Athens, I liken it to having an SEC team get plopped right here in the middle of Oregon.

And it's a really special feeling when you have that much support, you know, fans that care, but are also like great people to be able to support and, and you know, go win for. So it's been a fun experience. I mean, there's some things about Eugene that I never realized for the first time in my life. If I get an opportunity, I love just going out and doing like a 15 minute walk or a 20 minute walk around this area. Cause it's so beautiful and special. So been really blessed to be here,

but certainly blessed to have fans like we have there. There's nothing quite like, you know, awesome when it's rocking, like you said. Do you have like a philosophical set of rules on, on your approach to recruiting? Like who's somebody you want versus somebody you're like,

nope, doesn't fit what we're doing. Yeah, it's a feel. No, there's not like a hard set of rules. I think everybody has to check that talent box. Something that was said to me early in my career that I really valued,

Coach Saban, I think it may have came from. But in the NFL, you get one first-round pick. And in recruiting, if you're willing to work, you can have as many first-round picks as you want. You have to outwork the competition. You have to be in the conversation at the very end. And you know, that's the life, but you can pretend to be a really great coach, but you know, you're a really good coach when you have really good players. So we want to go get as many first round picks as we can get.

And now the measure is every guy that steps into our program, they're really talented. They were all the best player on their high school team. You know, every one of them was really good. And the separating factors and things I talked about with Bill Nix, it's the heart, it's the chip on their shoulder. It's, you know, what, what's going to make them work a little bit harder than the guys that are around them. And that's the part that I think you have to identify and recruiting to say, okay, this guy's got a chance. There's a couple more things that I want to get to. But the hype videos were you a writer do you have a team of writers a writer room what's what's going on with the the message behind that you know we have a we have a theme that we kind

of roll into with every week and i think our you know creative department our video department do an unbelievable job of capturing that you know we don't really even notice them a lot of times they're just kind of flies on the wall and around the room. But I think they do a great job of sharing that message, that theme that we carry kind of in each week. And they're always maybe capturing something. And sometimes you don't realize what it might be for. And then they put together this really cool recap, you know, or video that, that kind of, you know,

enhances our message and what we're sharing, you know, with the players. I know a lot of times people think it's for people outside the program, but just as often it's for the people inside the program and the people that we're recruiting to come be a part of our program. Yeah, the Colorado speech is a great example of that because if people were pro-Colorado, they were like, well, this guy just wants the attention. If people hated Colorado, they were like, awesome, that's great. He's calling them all out. I think I've met enough coaches to understand that you're trying to find that motivating factor for each week's matchup.

If you can find something that's just a little bit more specific that the kids are going to feel like, wait, there's something else here. You knew, look, the camera was on you. How much was that about the attention and how much was that about a specific thing that maybe was different for a group of players? Yeah, that's really a unique experience, to be honest. At that point, I think I've coached 17 games as a head coach and I never had a crew ask, hey, can we be in the locker room? And I'll be honest, I thought that there was a lot that would be trimmed out. I wasn't necessarily, because you leave the locker room, you go straight to the

field. And obviously that didn't happen. So I wouldn't say if you were asking me, was that going to play out like it played out? It didn't play out like I thought it would play out. I thought there were some really cool things in there about us talking about connection with our team and the roots of a tree and what that looks like. And that's not, I guess that's not as good for TV. So some people pulled out what I didn't anticipate would be on there. Now that being said, I don't regret anything that happened that locker room,

but I don't know that I'll ever have a camera in the locker room. Again, this is not coming from our, our staff or our people. Um, that was for our team. I was talking to our team and some people try to, you know, happen to capture a moment that it got released out for anyone to think that, you know, I'm in the first quarter coaching that game and saying, okay, yeah, that's good. You can run with that and you should take that out. That's not really the way that worked. Again, if, if it all happened again,

I think it would probably look a little bit different, but maybe give a picture of what it looks like in our locker room and what it looks like, you know, it's that house, the house for our players. Most people get to look through the window of the house. Like I get to stand in the middle of that room and that's our team inside that house and that was maybe a glimpse into that window but that was all about the message for our players that day and getting ready to go out there on the field welcome to television production who knows we my my producers might say hey cut out that clip that's the best clip there you go well so i'll say this people have asked since can hey can we

throw a camera in the locker room i learned my lesson can I, can we throw a camera in the locker room? I learned my lesson. So no, you can't have a camera in our locker room anymore. It's the first time I was ever asked to have a camera in the locker room. It was the last time I'll probably have one in there. So, um,

was it a bad thing for Oregon? No. I mean, at the end of the day, it ended up being a good thing for Oregon, but, um, it was never about any other team than us.

You know, that's, that's what, what that was about. Not like the speech didn't work that first half. The players worked, man. The speeches are overrated. The players worked.

They're definitely overrated, but you guys came out on fire on that one. You could have had 70 in that game. Seriously. It was a big part of why I was such a fan of the way this team closed it out. And look, we've already covered it at the beginning. I got to ask this because of the way out.

Rob Mullins, you already mentioned AD. I think the world of him, I think he's great at the job. I've joked to other people he should just start a search firm because it feels like he gets poached all the time. Saban retires. Everybody starts speculating. Was there ever a moment for you where you had to talk with your family about, like, I have to actually make a decision on this? No. I mean, the decision was made long before

the season started, long before I took this job. You know, Oregon took a chance on me. I truly believe that this is a job that we can make the best job in college football. And when you feel that way, then like, let's put some blood, sweat and tears and sweat equity into making that the job you think you can be and um i you know i'm living my dream i'm at a place that i think we can accomplish every goal we want i made a commitment to players you know you sit down and people see the commitment you know publicly but they don't see when you sit down on a couch with a family and tell them that you're going to be here what that looks like so um some coaches say that and it doesn't necessarily mean

anything for me that means something and um i'm committed to being here. I got a 10 year old. I got to get him through high school. And the only way that doesn't happen is I don't win enough. So to put my, my focus on something else other than Oregon football, that's going to be a distraction to us accomplishing that goal. So it was never really a thought in our mind. You know, I love coach Saban and gosh, I can't tell you how much he's done for my career and where I'm at. Um, but I think we can make Oregon the best job in college football. And that, that happens with folks on where we're at.

I can imagine your 10 year olds like dad. I don't want to not be able to get this duck skier. Yeah. These dudes are tired of changing schools and locations. I can promise you that. And you know what? They, uh, they, they've earned that, you know, they've been, I've got unbelievable boys.

My, my three kids are, um, unreal. They're awesome. And they've earned the right to be able to live in the same state for a couple of years. So we just,

like I said, we just got to keep winning. That's the secret. It's a special place. And I'm happy for you, man. Can't wait for year three. Thank you.

Appreciate it. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. This segment is called Life Advice. The email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. A quick follow-up, you know, throwing a few of these in there every now and then. We had some people that are much more educated on the car buying process than I think the three of us, but I think people were nice about it, by the way. They weren't like, you can have that happen every now and then where you

say something based on a topic and then somebody's the expert and it's just like, hey, you guys are fucking morons. And you're like, all right, take it easy. But a lot of people said, don't even go to the dealership the first time around. Email, like don't go in. Research and in research yeah just just go in and then almost with the idea of like you've negotiated at all because it's just different you know like people i'll admit even times like when the sales guy's coming up to you back like we don't even have that stuff anymore you're going to circuit city and you're really close to getting a dual cassette deck and you're just like and you're like hey you need help you're like back off man back off

i remember we went with a buddy and he haggled he was like can we haggle and the guy's like what do you want to do and he's like yeah you take like 15 bucks off of it and the guy's like yeah i can take 15 bucks off of it like and he's like all right he's like dude can you do something with me here to work with me a bit like that always sunny episode at the market you need 15 bucks off of this to feel like you won cool man imagine you probably just felt bad but he's like yeah man i'll take that on my own pay account like geez man 15 bucks christ Have some respect for yourself. It was exactly that. It's even worse than I'm explaining. I think we were on the South Shore.

It was my roommate from college, his older brother, who's a character and a half. And he just was like, he wasn't paying full price. He wasn't going to pay the sticker price. And it wasn't even like, it wasn't even something you normally would haggle over. But back then at like Circuit City, you might be able to haggle a little bit you know the concept of going to best buy now and being like you know what's the best price on this xbox like the one that's underneath it is hey can i get five can i get five bucks off balder's gate three the guy's like the price is the price man i don't know what to tell you also i've been a best buy rewards member for eight

years i bought a tv here last year and and I somehow only have $5 in rewards. Get it together. This is not a system that actually rewards you. Uh-oh. Don't like it. I think they were a sponsor at one point. Take it easy. I'm going to put a stop to that right now. I know it's all about revenues, but they are really... I just feel like I've been just getting punched by them for the last eight years. I don't know why I keep going back. There's just not a good alternative. What are you talking about? The rewards you bought a TV years ago and you think you're supposed to get rewards every year? I make all my big electronic purchases through there. I mean, I bought like a TV, like I bought a TV that kind of put me in debt, you know, for a little, I'm completely out of that debt. Good debt. Good debt. I think it's actually the resale. I mean, I don't think it depreciates as fast as a car or anything, but like it's, I mean,

I bought a desktop computer and a nice one to play my Age of Empires 3 on it. Got a nice monitor, two keyboards, all my electronic needs. Got my smart bulbs from there. And it's just like, I never get the rewards. And I've got, I spent thousands and thousands of dollars and it's never any more than like, here's five bucks. It's just, I don't know. I think there should be, these are where you go to make your big purchases and there's just nothing. There's just nothing. I get more of a reward from fucking buying Mac Jones, t-shirt jerseys and Jack Jones, fucking, you know, lower tier jerseys than I do from buying my electronics i just think we should figure this

out best but wow i don't even know what to do let's just start reading emails there's nothing there's no follow-up there um okay i hugged my boss the first time we met this is such a great title as soon as i saw kyle said that i was like yeah like that's the perfect title to get us to read it hey boys long time listener let's just jump right into this i hugged my boss for the first time we met on wednesday i write this to you from the couch as i prepare for my first conference as a new hire tomorrow normally an event like this is something i look forward to but due to my unforeseen gesture of introduction,

I have feelings of dread, feelings of dread and unknown. I just moved to Texas from Philadelphia earlier this month. My boss serves as the head of communication department of my medium-sized privately-owned company. I do not interact with her in person too often as she is in between Texas and the Rocky Mountains. We meet weekly on Zoom, and she was the person who hired me. In fact, I was told when I received my offer letter that this woman, let's call her Sally, was the reason I got hired. She trumped everyone in the division and said I was her favorite

candidate. I only include these details because this is not some gigantic media glomerate where I can avoid this person for the rest of my life. Now to the details of the hug. I was headed downstairs in the elevator lobby when Sally got off at my floor with three other department heads all people i've met over zoom sally exclaimed well he uses his real name here let's just call him um tyler so nice to see you doug doug's been getting worn out doug's usage rate is like westbrook 17 so uh well uh, well, I just said his name. Ah, you can cut that out, Mike. Yeah.

Tyler. Uh, so again, so nice to meet you with one arm up and extended. I did not initially see if it was a handshake or a hugging gesture as I was caught off guard

by someone in the building recognizing me as I'm so new. Once I realized this person knew me, my eyes scanned the lobby to see the other familiar faces and I attempted to quickly read the room to establish the vibe. I reached out my hand to shake but was caught cross-body as I extended my left instead of my right. Her left was full with a Starbucks cup and when we both realized the handshake would be awkward, i leaned down with one arm and hugged

her to which she seemingly reciprocated i don't even remember the next 45 seconds of the interaction because all i could think of was yeah holy shit why did you just hug hug sally i think of myself as someone who almost always reacts well in social situations or easy conversationalist uh an easy conversationalist and a guy who makes good first impressions. Even when meeting mutual friends, unless they extend the gesture, I tend not to hug and attempt to overstep boundaries. Please, fellas, what is the next move? Do I make a joke at the conference? Ask a coworker about Sally's temperament and overall friendliness?

Do I keenly watch to see how she greets others? Any tips to cool the hot flashes of embarrassment I've been feeling or personal stories of your own to make me feel better my parents and siblings have been laughing for the past 24 hours with little little advice to give um you're probably fine right like 99 chance you're fine you're overthinking it you're a little weirded out i mean look that the ever since covid i mean once the potato really started taking over the potato handshake thing, like I'm still fucking it up and fucking that up for a decade. But COVID really added another layer of like, what's the proper greeting? I mean, at least it's a male female deal here, which I know some would say, OK, maybe that's the thing you do have to worry

about. But, you know, being a guy and like sometimes it's like a really good friend you haven't seen in a while, but you're like, is hugger do i hug this guy like i'll get in there and give you a good one you know i don't care i'm not gonna worry about it i feel great about myself but this is uh a little different she was excited the hand thing is in your favor i don't know why you went left hand your advanced scouting obviously was pretty bad on all this, but as far as addressing it, it feels like you're, you would be addressing it. Cause clearly like whatever conference you're presenting at or whatever, when your time is, it's your turn to go up there and talk to everybody. Like, yeah, you could do a joke, but then if you say like, Hey, I'm going

to try not to hug everybody here. Nobody's going to get the joke except for maybe Sally. But what you're really doing is you're kind of talking about it to make yourself feel better when she has likely turned the page. So to then remind everybody of the awkwardness might actually be worse than just the awkwardness that you felt. Because right now it's just basically your awkwardness. And I know what you're trying to do. You're like, hey, how do I, like if I address it publicly with other people, does it make everything better? And really you're only talking about getting yourself through it and you're already going to get through this and it's not going to matter. She thinks you're awesome, right? She hired you. So maybe she just thinks, Hey, this guy's from

Philly. People from Philly are incredibly friendly. They're the friendliest guys you're ever going to meet. And I think you're fine. I wouldn't overthink it. And I really wouldn't even bring it up again. Yeah. I think, I think, you know,

people can like sniff that, like genuine, genuine ity, genuineness on you. If you're like for something like that, if you're just like, Oh, Holy shit,

there you are. Like, I think that that could be, it's not like you like smell like weed or something. Right. It's like, it's like, this is just a normal, like, Oh, this is the person that hired me.

You guys have your own thing. You're recognized. It was in passing. I think that's totally cool. And also, I think for dudes, we just need to work on this. Like when I was in high school, it was pretty much dudes get daps, girls get hugs. That's what it was. In college, you kind of caught in that in-between thing.

Dude introduces you to somebody and like, or you meet two people at the same time and there's a guy and a girl and you like you dab the dude up and then you're like i guess i'm gonna hug this guy's girlfriend like i don't know so then you sort of as you as you grow up you learn like you know handshakes or or like hellos without touching or something but it's ingrained in you at least in us and in high school it was like you girls get hugs dudes get dabs so maybe if we just get the youth on the fast track to normal hellos, instead of every girl gets a hug and every dude gets a, you know, so I don't know.

That's just a thought I had. I do. I'm trying to remember because I think it's also depends on like the, the girl, the girl or the woman in this case, like what, what is her, you know,

is she more business? Like, is she a little bit like very buttoned up or is it kind of a loose and casual thing? Cause I'm trying, the first time I think I went out to LA, I'm trying to remember. And the first time I ever met like Mallory Rubin and Juliette Littman, who are obviously,

you know, two of our bigger people here at the ringer. I think I gave them hugs and I don't think it was weird at all. I definitely hugged Elizabeth the first time I met her, our ops person. And she's definitely like my boss when I'm in Oxford or something. Right. Like she's definitely my boss.

So, yeah, I and I. So I and I didn't think that was why I didn't I didn't second guess it for for for a second. And so I don't know, maybe if she's wearing like a full sort of like, you know, Hillary Clinton, like pantsuit situation, she's like one of those that might you want to be a little more formal in that situation. But like, there is a weird, we have to acknowledge

that there is like a weird, like there is a, like it's a little bit blurry. It's a little bit gray. It's kind of a gray area of like when you formally meet a woman

in a professional environment. Do you do the hug? Do you do the hand? Because the handshake seems weird too. It seems too formal. Even for guys sometimes I feel like it's a little bit too formal so i i will say to this guy's credit like i don't think you totally screwed it up it is like a little bit of a blurred line and

it doesn't seem like she was that offended or weirded out by it so i definitely wouldn't bring it up again and it's one of those things where yeah i get you're gonna be like laying in bed and she can like hit you and you're gonna be so ashamed like a few years from now it's gonna be one of those things that kind of repeats over the lifetime but it kind of doesn't seem like you screwed up that badly so i i don't know i don't maybe i'm missing something but i think you're actually fine yeah because you're her guy right that's the other thing like i don't know how this guy found out that like she's the one that pushed and loved him so much i don't know if someone else told him that or if she said that to him but like if if she knows that like you know if she knows

that you know that she got you in, to the extent that you know, I know that was the craziest sentence I've ever said, but if you guys understand that she was the one that went to bat for you, and this is the first time, you've probably spent a good amount of time on Zooms together and emails, and you finally, this is the in-person thing.

I actually think a hug could be called for. Might be a little strange that she just got out of an elevator surrounded by other executives. Probably a better place and time, but sometimes you don't get to pick this shit, so I think it's totally fine. I forgot Juliet's name the first two times I met her, and then she told me. So it was the opposite

of a hug. No hugs for Ursula. Rough start. Alright, good, good. Tough. Bad start. Great middle. Alright right. Good. Good. Tough. Bad start. Great middle. All right. Public speaking. 29, 6'1 I was going to say, and the thought of being nervous didn't even cross my mind at any point before it was my time to speak. However, as soon as the host of the meeting passed me the mic, my hand began noticeably shaking, which threw me off entirely as it was on the forefront of my mind from start

to finish of my short segment. Ultimately, I got through my talking points and communicated what needed to be said, but your boy was not exuding supreme confidence. This frustrates me because I'm confident in what I do. I communicate effectively when leading my staff or any other context of people in positions of power. And I'm a mellow person who takes pride in staying calm and adapting in stressful situations. I had zero reason to be nervous. I was actually looking forward to sharing some positive information with the group, but this random adrenaline rush just took over and was embarrassing. I was talking in front of a significant number of folks I hadn't met, but there was also plenty of others in attendance that I interact with regularly and have built

rapport with. Obviously, your career centers around publicly speaking on a daily basis in a different context. You have enough reps in front of large crowds at this point, but I'm wondering what tips you,yle steve may have for overcoming the issue yeah that sucks because you were like ready to go and then something happened that you weren't even expecting like it's one thing to expect to be nervous and then actually be nervous but then all of a sudden you're like feel like you're you've got you're sick up there or something um i don't know you guys you guys want to go first on this one I think I think it's a trap game I think this was just a trap game like you were good and everyone like I don't know why

I don't know why UConn lost to uh Providence or something it's just like I think it was just a it was a trap game and like this happened to me recently it was over zoom like I I mean we've been over this I get so nervous before I get to go on stage, but I know I'm going to be nervous when we go to live shows. You know, I told you sometimes I have to take a bunch of dumps before. I just can't stop it. And like, I just, I'm like, I'm like pacing around.

I'm not trying to be around you guys. Like I'm walking, you're like, where did, where is he going now? I'm just like walking. That that's the case. I get up there and I'm fine. But it was, we had the Zoom thing where we're like, you know, some of the producers were taking

some of the newer hires just to be like, here's how we do stuff faster. And I had all my points down. I'm ready. Like I enjoy this stuff. Like I enjoy doing it like quickly. And I feel like I found some like good tips to share. And I'm like, I'm on what zoom called like six people. And I'm looking at my list and all of a sudden I feel like I'm getting like warm. I could see my face turning red and I'm like, what the fuck is going on? I didn't? I didn't expect to be nervous at all for that, so I think that was just a trap game. I've done another one since, and I was fine, but it just snuck up on me. I don't know. I was supremely confident going in, and I'm not worried that it'll happen again, unless, of course, we're going up on stage somewhere, and then I'll be terrified, and then it'll be fine once I go out there.

I'm a very hit-or-miss public speaker, public speaker too like i don't sometimes if i'm comfortable and it's the right setting and i'm you know i just woke up in a good mood that day like i could be all right and then there are other days where even listening in zoom meetings like sometimes i'm just like more engaging in zoom meetings and other times i'm just kind of like why did you say that you sound like an idiot and i'm like doing basically and i'm and i'm doing what our last email was doing and just like thinking about that two days from now being like what the hell did I talk? Like, why did I make that joke? So, yeah, I don't I honestly I'm kind of the wrong person to ask because it's very different.

Whenever people ask, it's very different doing the pod over Zoom when there's like four of us in the Zoom. And as Kyle said, doing like a live show like it's not just because we talk a lot doesn't mean you could be a good public speaker. And I don't think I am. So I don't know that I have a ton of like advice for you but i i would say i kind of agree with kyle it seems like it might just been a blip like i wouldn't beat yourself up over it the only thing and first of all you're right what we do is not public speaking okay this is i'm looking at a zoom with two guys i've known a while and you always kind of forget there's well you don't forget there's, well, you don't forget there's an audience, but you don't do the show thinking about, oh, there's all these people

listening to it. And it was the same thing. Go ahead and edit that out too. Yeah, right. So, you know, as far as being live on radio for all those years, it got to the point where I wouldn't even thinking about it. I wasn't thinking about people being in their car. I mean, I know you're supposed to, and clearly you're aware of of it but you're just not even thinking um there's probably been a couple tv shows where i was a little bit more like all right let's go i wasn't nervous to go out there and do first take whenever i was doing first take or any of the nba stuff they'd let me do towards the end it wasn't being nervous it was just wanting to to prove all these people wrong that thought i sucked on tv you know so i was just like to prove all these people wrong that thought I sucked

on TV. So I was just like, that would be the only thing that would be a negative thing that I'm thinking about. But as far as the public part of it, the first live show that we did in Denver, I was determined to do some kind of monologue for however many minutes it went. Maybe it was seven minutes. And I did feel it a little bit because that's not something I would normally do where you're going to go, okay, you think you're going to do a sports monologue with a couple little jokes in there and then, you know, get the crowd in there. And the best feeling was the audience was drinking and it was later at night and I came out and I knew like within the first 10 seconds, I was like, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Like I got it.

The New York one was a little tougher. It was a bigger room. Rowdy. And I wasn't trying to like do stand up or anything. I was just trying to like tell a story and, you know, talk about the city and ultimately coming around and kind of like love in New York City. The Utah one went really well. But those are definitely moments for me. And I think the reason I do them because I want

to feel that, like I want to feel a little uncomfortable. I want to see if I can pull it off. But I would say this to anybody that has to do that, like in obviously the workspace, you're on a stage hosting a show, know how you're going to finish. Literally everything I do, know how you're going to finish literally everything I do, whether it's the monologue on a podcast, an interview, or the point that I was making on the radio shows, or when they throw it to you when you're sitting at a desk, whether it was first take or some of the NBA stuff, have an ending that you're working towards. And if you know where you're going to end, the journey there is like way more comfortable. Because again, there's plenty of times I've kind of like had it and I go, I don't really know where the hell this is going. And those are like the best, the highest level

guys. That's why I always think like Tirico is so good at his job. Can the rare, rare chance he's ever off or sort of making a mistake. He corrects it on the fly where almost no one noticed that he may have said something out of order and then fixes it in this way that just nobody could even ever tell. So it probably holds up the same way for the public speaking part of it. You're just going to be a lot. Look, some people just can't handle it. I don't have, I don't, I don't know how to talk to that person, right? I don't, I don't have tips for you. Just like my greatest fear is public speaking. And that's the case for a lot of people. And you know, I don't, I don't know what the tricks would be to get through that. Yeah. Right.

But I always feel way better about anything I'm doing when I know what the end is. I think writing is the same deal. Like, okay, you're going to write all this stuff, but how does this end? What's the end? And it's probably the most important thing. I remind myself of everything that I do. And I think it would relate some way to some of the public speaking stuff. If you're confident about how you're going to finish, then you're just going to be more

confident on the way there. I think that's great advice, dude. Yeah. I mean, this sounds basic, too, but just like be prepared to the more whenever I have to talk or doing something like that, like if I wing it, I'm usually terrible at it, even if I know what I'm talking about. And if I actually have just some sort of like an outline or anything like I'm definitely better, even if I'm still nervous.

And so that you could always kind of fall back on that. So be, be prepared, I guess is, I mean, it sounds stupid and basic, but it actually is true. No, but anytime I have a bad show or I have an interview that I'm like, that just wasn't that good. I'll just go back to like, did you prepare enough? And I always feel like I prepare enough, but then it'll be like, well, did you prepare the right way? Or did you have a theory in your head? And then you were so determined to prove the theory that you didn't really prove the theory as hard as you. And then once you heard yourself actually talk it out, you know, like that didn't really hit the way you wanted. You know, that's why I just love those John Oliver monologues so much because, you know, you just put a ton of

work into it, but they, whether you agree or disagree, the payoff is is always there. And look, they're putting a ton of production into those. I don't think it's realistic to do a podcast three days a week and do a John Oliver level monologue. I just I just don't think you could do it. I think that would be the goal. If anybody could ever figure out how to do it and do it and pull it off in sports. But, you know, I don't know. They've tried a bunch of those versions of that show of sports and it just doesn't ever

really seem to click the same way. Okay. Uh, so maybe that was good advice. Let's give some bad advice. Female listener, growing demographic. She tells us pregnant friend group advice. Are you sure you're a listener? Okay. That's good. I live in a big city, basketball comp, Leandro Barbosa. Wow. Too bad she's off the market, gang. I'm in my 30s, and most of my friend group is pregnant. I, too, am now pregnant. I'm newest to the pregnancy game, and I'm finding that my pregnant friend group just constantly complains about how fat they're getting keep in mind they aren't getting fat they're

simply pregnant all right wow i'm gonna leave that one now the jury's still out huh wow i'm just offering that not everyone is just pregnant okay fair i mean it's science dude take a stand i love it that's the hill you're gonna die on this isn't a hill to die on far too long no i agree i'm agreeing with her but i don't think it's a hundred percent of the time sure i would agree with that yeah yeah yeah yeah so glad we covered that that's awesome fucking fridays i'd love i'd love if my wife were pregnant and then just balloon and then i'd be like this is some guys are really into that well no i don't mean it that way i mean it like thank you though was like, make sure you say the next sentence quicker. And I didn't get it in quick enough. I just think like I used to not, well, this is, I used to like

just have terrible hair and then get a really good haircut. I could never understand how the guy would get his haircut like every 28 days. Like you never look any different your entire life. Like, let it go, let it look bad. And then it's a massive improvement. Like you never look any different your entire life. Like let it go, let it look bad. And then it's a massive improvement. Like you don't want me after a bad day. I do want me after a bad show. You don't want me. If you got me coming off of something bad, look out. Same thing with haircuts. I don't have that option anymore, but yeah, my wife dealing with pregnancy, you know, like I'd be like, okay, I can't wait to get back to work here. Like you look, you know, like I'd be like, okay, I can't wait to get back to work here. Like you look, you know, just I'll, I'll ride the waves. I don't want the same all the time.

You know, it's not reality. Yeah. Okay. That'll probably go over well. Yep. All right. So back to the email on top of the fat comments that are always, uh, they're always discussing how horrible it is being pregnant. And it started to make me spiral when I was having a very blissful pregnancy before I told them. Their negativity is an energy drain, and I don't know how to address the situation to get them to chill out. I know none of you have been pregnant, noted, but I love life advice and would love to hear your best guesses on how to handle the situation. Well, Steve, we're going to start with you. Yeah, I have intimate knowledge of handle the situation. Well, Steve, we're going to start with you. Yeah, I have intimate knowledge of a pregnant person.

Yeah, Matt, you know, Matt, man, big. How big did she get? How big did she get? You know what's funny is actually I look back and in real time I was like, oh, you look the same. You don't look any different to me. And I've said this to her. This isn't like I'm not saying anything out of turn here. And I was like, well, I actually didn't realize how big you actually did get.

She's kind of back to sort of her normal size now. And it was shitty for my wife because she had like right basically the lead up. Our daughter was born in October. We had four weddings in September and early October two of them I was in so she was there's a million pictures of her too and she looks great but like I I didn't really notice until like now that she's kind of like gone back to sort of her her you know pre-pregnancy some whatever pre-pregnancy side and she's done a great job of working out so I'll add that too just for anyone who's who wants to knock me um So, man, it's tough

because I do think that she would say a lot of things about like, oh, this sucks or that sucks. And I kind of thought she was doing a great job. So I was sort of oblivious to a lot of this stuff most of the time. She didn't have any weird cravings.

And I think she was really uncomfortable at the end. And I think she definitely had friends who got in her head a little bit. But she had a relatively straightforward pregnancy, I think, which was good. But her friends definitely got in her head about that bit, but she had a relatively straightforward pregnancy, I think, which was good. But her friends definitely got in her head about that stuff. So I would say just because your friends are talking about this stuff, every... I mean,

again, from a non-pregnant person or someone who has never been pregnant, it is the fact that all pregnancies are different. Some people just have worse morning sickness. Some people get bigger. Some people show earlier than they show later. Just because your friends are having a shitty time and you've had a good time so far doesn't sickness. Some people get bigger. Some people show earlier than they show later. Like just because your friends are having a shitty time and you've had a good time so far doesn't mean that your pregnancy is always going to turn shitty. So I also think that like people just like to complain to this isn't a pregnancy thing. They just like when when you're doing something, when something when you're going through something in life, like you like to talk about it. Like if

you're doing if you're trying to, you know, I don't know, do anything. You know, you want people to know that you're going through this situation. So I wouldn't know, do anything, you know, you want people to know that you're going through this situation. So I wouldn't I wouldn't let it. I know. I know why it's bogging you down. But I just you can still have a really great pregnancy and everything can be totally fine, even though people around you are acting like, you know, the sky is falling. Yeah. And the other complaining thing, every time I turn my ankle, dudes know about it.

I'll tell you that you do a little. I'm dealing with some heavy shit right now. Um, so make sure the tape is showing, you know, you're like, Oh yeah, I got a tape.

Oh man. Yeah. Do a little rotation. Yeah. I think NBA players do that. Like LeBron does that. Like, you know,

he wants, like if he gets hurt, like, and he throws himself on the ground and acts like, you know, he just got punched in the face, like sucker punched in the face. Like he wants people to know that he's kind of a warrior

and I'm working through this. Like, okay, I got hurt. That's just like a human, that's human nature. I guess the one thing I would say is like, could you, is your area like, have like a group? I can't believe you compared pregnant women to LeBron, but yeah, keep going. This is great.

Fucking Fridays. is there like could you like tony soprano i think that's the least the second least controversial thing could you like tony soprano dr melfi this like go go someplace and like is there like positive mom someplace she doesn't need to do that she's the one that has a level head like you deserve credit the email deserves credit all right i'm like these people are getting in my head the only people i have to talk about this with are bitching constantly. I'm sorry if that was offensive, but I don't know. I think it's okay to say bitching now.

You should feel better. No, you should feel better that you're like, hey, I don't feel like any of this stuff. So what's the advice then? I say you pivot where you're like, I had an awesome day. Just counter their negativity with your positivity. And it could be your own little game because you know i don't think so rudy said something i doubt it's going to be very popular with the female listeners but there's like this because this is the most unchecked thing ever you

can't ever say anything like if your wife's like yes oh i'm going through this and then you're like not today not today like i can't we get it so yeah we still got six months to go all right i don't want to hear about it um you can't ever do that i mean you can if you're an asshole but you're probably thinking it but that's one of those deals you're just like you you just can't actually say that when you're when your wife is complaining about dealing with the pregnancy stuff but the other thing is sort of said like yeah like look I've been around enough people that have been pregnant and it's all over the map. It is all over the map. So maybe you're the lucky one out of that group. So even though this is driving you crazy, like I had one friend, she was pregnant twins and she was laughing. She goes, this is,

this is so much easier than I thought it was going to be. And I was how's it going she's like they sleep all the time she's like everybody bitches about their situation being pregnant giving birth and then the same deal and and she's like i feel so guilty because i'm not feeling any of the things that they're feeling this couldn't be easier now granted you know it brings its own challenge actually raising a kid and all that stuff but in those initial phases she was the one that didn't want to tell everybody like how great it was going because she felt guilty because of all the complaints. It's kind of like what Saruti was saying, right? Yeah. I think I do think there's a, you know, obviously there's a correlation between like that and having kids like, right. I think there are a lot of people

that like to complain about how difficult their life is now that they have kids and i think some people's lives are really difficult like i'm i'm in a sort of like a fortunate position where i work at home right so i'm it's kind of like i have a pretty flexible schedule but also like our daughter sleeps really well and she doesn't really complain a ton and i'm sure there are kids parents out there like cool my kid cries all the time and hasn't slept since he was born or she was born. And that's definitely true. And I think the people that are going through that shit

like to talk about how shitty their life is and how terrible it is and how lack of sleep I get. It doesn't mean it's not real, but it also doesn't mean that it's going to ruin my day. Like, I'm good.

So I think that's kind of the attitude that you have to take is, you know, I'm sure it gets annoying listening to people complain about this stuff all the time, but also know that, hey, like this isn't, this isn't how I'm dealing with it. So this is awesome. Like I have, I, if anything, like you're relatively

speaking, like you're in a way better position and that should make you feel better about it. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know that we came up with any advice other than, you know, one of the things I always like doing is just embrace the hell out of it. Be like, Oh, I felt awesome today. Slept all day. Great day great i'm gonna get a run in later shirt still fits that's terrible oh that's awful yeah like just keep count stacking your w's but apparently you feel like you have to kind of you can't just leave the thread i mean of course you could always just stop paying attention to it you could just slide out of the thread every now and then um but that probably isn't a realistic thing i think you just use it use it to use it to realize how good you have it at least right now be like oh man i could be i could be

like a huge debbie downer and annoying everybody and i actually could genuinely be going through shit where i just feel like crap but i don't so it's kind of like a good thing a thing of like hey i actually have it pretty good. Pregnant yoga near me. They actually call it prenatal yoga, but, uh, I don't know. You guys just shout all over my advice that I've, I kind of was going somewhere. It's like, could you just find like positive moms? Like maybe yoga, maybe they go do something. And like those people probably aren't like, uh, today she's not going to leave her friend group. No, I'm saying, could you also find a thing like to balance it out where you go once a week for 45 minutes and you be

around a bunch of happy mom to bees. Maybe she brings them. Maybe there's a promo code. Maybe Groupon. Check it out. All right. That probably isn't going to be everybody's favorite. We've ever done. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks, Steve. Thanks to

Oregon. Ryan Rusillo. Thanks to Oregon. Ryan Russillo podcast. We're here right back. Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana. 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana.

Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Visit 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.