The Ryen Russillo Podcast - LeBron’s 180 on Bronny. Plus, NFL Combine Rumors and the Future for Fields, Higgins, Wilson, and Cousins With Albert Breer.

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Russillo kicks off the show with a reaction to LeBron James’s tweet about the mock draft and their placement of Bronny James (0:38). Then he is joined by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, who is ...live from the NFL draft combine. They discuss the market, what the NFL combine will look like if the top 10 picks do not attend, the new salary cap number, and more (13:05). The guys close it out with their FanDuel alliance picks (54:28) and some listener-submitted Life Advice questions, (60:10). 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 Guest: Albert Breer Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's podcast we're back we are live in LeBron James taking a ton of heat for a tweet about his son. Let's examine that discussion from last night. But more importantly NFL free agency draft, combine rumors, everything. We may even make up a couple from si.com. It's Burr-Perir. And we're back with life advice and the Alliance NBA style. Bet 1 starts tonight. I normally would start with some NBA games, but Sunday pods have started up with Bill,
Starting point is 00:00:42 so we're Tuesday, Thursday all the time. Big win for the Heat last night in Sacramento. No butler, no hero. That was impressive. Hock has Jr. Again, terrific. But I think the biggest story for the NBA was LeBron James, and it was a tweet.
Starting point is 00:00:53 And it was a tweet about his son, Brony James, being removed from ESPN.com's 2024 mock draft. That's two rounds. He wasn't in the first round. He wasn't in the second round either. So LeBron saw this on Twitter and tweeted this, quote, tweeted the removal of his son from the mock draft and said, quote, can you all please just let the kid be a kid and enjoy college basketball? The work and results will ultimately do the talking no matter what he decides to do. If you all don't know, he doesn't care what a Mock Draft says. He let's examine this story from as many angles as we can.
Starting point is 00:01:46 Let's start with the nice stuff. Is a dad talking up his kid? I'd rather have my dad talk me up than tell me I suck every day, all right? Like everything, there's a balance to this. And I know that there's certain guys in my life, friend group and whatsoever. Like I feel like I can guess
Starting point is 00:02:04 with a pretty good amount of accuracy. I can kind of guess. Like I wonder what this kid's upbringing was like because there's some guys that are delusionally confident, um, where that can be annoying too. And then there's other guys that just feel like they're completely defeated. And it's like, was there just too much tough love? Was it a dad that was like, I'm going to make it really hard on my son, maybe the oldest son, and I'm going to make sure like I'm just going to wear them down.
Starting point is 00:02:26 And you're like, all right, well, that's a little bit too much. I mean, that's going to be one of the great challenges. Maybe the toughest challenging with parenting is figuring out what that perfect mix is for a kid. And then knowing that it's going to be different for every other kid, it's a lot like coaching, except these kids don't go home. They go back with you. Right. Hey, I can say this to this kid, but the middle kid, I've got to be a little bit different. And the youngest, I'm going to have to handle that one because everybody's personalities are a little bit different and how everyone's going to respond to some of this stuff. So in this case, for LeBron James and Ronnie Jr., the oldest with this, like he's been talking him up for a long
Starting point is 00:02:56 time. So I think especially knowing LeBron's own upbringing, knowing that his father was not part of the picture, there is something you can look at this and say, hey, this is endearing. This is somewhat endearing that he has been just to the mat for his son from the jump. But unfortunately, the rules change when the stuff becomes a public spotlight conversation. So let's look at the media's role in all of this. When I say we in the media, when I'm pointing out something the media does does that I don't like, I actually really don't mean we. I think we just, I think we say it a lot. There's stuff that's happened in the media coverage with his son that I'm like, I don't want anything to do with that.
Starting point is 00:03:37 Let's talk about the mock draft. So he's been dropped to the 25 class. If you read any of the piece on ESPN.com, he had a heart attack that he's coming back from. So that has to be mentioned. But I asked this, have you watched him at SC this year? I've watched a few games. And unless you're looking for him, you don't really notice him. He's sixth in minutes on the second worst team in probably the worst power conference in college basketball. He started six and nineteen games. His averages are five and a half points three boards two and a half assists shooting splits are thirty seven twenty seven and sixty two.
Starting point is 00:04:16 He's six foot four. That's what he's listed at two ten. I don't see a crazy level of athleticism. Um, you know maybe he's a late bloomer. He's a freshman, but he's a role player who for a few years now, we've been talking about what he projects at as an NBA player and he doesn't stand out with this SC team. Again, that's, that's not very good. ESPN.com one year ago, February 22nd, 2023, you can look it up. Hadam is the 10th pick in their first mock draft for the 24 class. The 10th pick lottery. You want to do real talk here
Starting point is 00:04:55 when that came out. And, you know, I'm a drive by draft guy, I don't have time to do it year round, but I do still love it. I don't do as much work with it as I should, as I want to, but I still go to the combine. I still go to the camps. I still talk to people. When that came out, people were laughing in the NBA. They're like, are you fucking kidding me?
Starting point is 00:05:17 They put him 10th. Why did dot com do it? I don't know, but I've got a pretty good guess. Why did dot com do it? I don't know, but I've got a pretty good guess that they probably just said, Deffit, put him 10th. That drafts in a year and a half. Who cares? Just do it.
Starting point is 00:05:36 We'll get a little buzz. We'll get some clicks. That's my guess. So that's the media's fault too. This is also the media's fault too. This is also the media's fault. The game graphic where there was an SC game on and it shows Collier stats, Boogie stats, and then there's a graphic of Bronnie James and there's two parts with no stats. One says winner, the other says team player. I know exactly what that is because I've worked on television a long time. Somebody on the game production staff was like, look, people are going to be watching this game because of Ronnie James.
Starting point is 00:06:10 We have to get him in the graphic. There's probably somebody else who said, well, we can't put up with stats. They're like, look, we have to get him in the graphic. And it's like, well, how do we put him in the graphic when his stats aren't any good? And he's not even a starter. I don't know. Team player, done and done. You'd like to think someone would stand up and go, we can't do that. It looks so stupid. And it's not even Bronnie James
Starting point is 00:06:31 fault. But that's the TV world. So a lot of those things didn't make any sense as they happen. Let's get to LeBron's role in all this. So if you go back over history here, there's some tweets that are putting a lot of pressure on his kid. So this was from March of last year, not even a year ago. LeBron's tweet, quote, man, Bronnie definitely better than some of these cats I've been watching on League Pass today. shit lightweight hilarious for crying, laughing emojis. There was also a report after a loss to the Grizzlies. This is January 6th of this year,
Starting point is 00:07:17 where during Anthony Davis's availability to the media, there was a question to LeBron about Bronny's game tomorrow and if he'd be starting and LeBron said he thought it was time and loudly said quote he could play for us right now. Easy, easy. And then you have last night him taking a
Starting point is 00:07:39 complete 180. Like those other two comments don't sound like, Hey, let a kid be a kid. So when brought in was younger in high school and we had known, I mean, this has been talked about for like five years, LeBron's goal at some point was to play in an NBA game with his son. Right. Cool thing. So now the sun is on the radar.
Starting point is 00:08:02 The sun was going to be on the radar no matter what, unless he just decided at an early age. I actually don't like hoops. All right. If he was going to be playing basketball, he was going to have a tough, tough time and have all this pressure on him just because of the name and who his father is. But his father added to that with his own commentary. So then to last night when he's dropped from the mock draft to be like, Hey, just let a kid be a kid. And then that's why he got destroyed. And then that's why he got destroyed. And then that's why he deleted it. I remember having a pod with Bill where Bronte starts playing in high school here in the area.
Starting point is 00:08:33 And I was like, look, man, how old is he, 15 maybe at the time? I really don't feel super comfortable like dissecting a guy's game like this. And knowing at this point, you're gonna be really critical of at that time, a kid. Okay. But now that he's part of the draft conversation, like he was at the mock a year ago, and now we're moved from it last night. Okay, now that it's
Starting point is 00:08:55 real, it's the same as when we watch women Yama internationally before he was even eligible to be in a draft class the same way we watched scooting the G League because he was there for two years, the same way we watched scootin' the G League because he was there for two years, the same way we watched all the guys before the one and done arrow who were jumping from high school to the NBA, we watched high school kids and we asked ourselves a simple question, can this kid play? Alright, whether we complimented them or
Starting point is 00:09:19 criticized them, it's because it's what we do. We watch basketball players before the draft and we look at who's eligible for the draft class and we ask, can the kid play? So it doesn't matter who you're related to. All right. LeBron's motivation behind all of it. I got to be honest with you. I think those guys have so much power that sometimes I wonder if it's manipulative.
Starting point is 00:09:42 It's an educated guess, but last year at the All-Star Break, when LeBron was talking up Oklahoma City out of nowhere and how amazing Presti is, and look, I'm a huge Presti fan. I was like, man, that's really sort of specific. And I was like, I wonder if it's because of Thunder have all those picks. And we've touched on this before, because I just don't think,
Starting point is 00:10:03 any of you know how Presti operates. You imagine Presti being like, all right, well, I've got the 37th pick and, you know, there's like four guys I have greater or higher than the Brownie James. But man, LeBron was really nice about me at the All-Star break in 23. Fuck it, I'll take his kid. It doesn't sound like Presti to me. But I think there is a motivation of talking up Brony Jr. where it's like, wait, is LeBron trying to trick the NBA into taking his kid? Now this league is so weird sometimes.
Starting point is 00:10:36 Like there's not enough available onto Tacumpos out there for other teams. If Yanis were a free agent this summer and he had 12, they'd all have a roster spot. So this league can do some weird stuff by putting him in a, so I'm not, I'm not even ruling out that Ronnie James could be on a roster because there might be a team that feels like they want to do LeBron the favor or the agency a favor or whatever. But look, it's not like he's 32 LeBron James and coming to your team
Starting point is 00:11:05 potentially in free agency, but there always feels like there's this, this motivating sort of manipulative factor with him because there's been so many things that LeBron has done on his own in the past to kind of get his way. And by the way, it's worked. The most part, it's always worked out other than maybe some of the more recent transactions. So to close, like I said in the beginning, I think it's great. If you just take it by itself and go, hey, it's a dad who has his sons back.
Starting point is 00:11:34 All right. But we're not talking about minutes for a high school lacrosse team. All right. This isn't about you, the dad, and some of you listening to this right now have done it. Maybe your dad did it for you. You're thinking about doing it. You've seen other parents do it and you're cringing because when it comes to your kid, you can lose any reasonable approach about whether or not you think your kid is getting messed with by the
Starting point is 00:11:59 coach and you sports or the high school level. But we're not talking about minutes for Plymouth here. We're talking about an NBA roster spot. And once you're eligible for that year's draft class, the kid being a kid argument doesn't hold up anymore. Get buckets with your first bet on Fanduil America's number one sports book because right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets
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Starting point is 00:13:08 He's at the combine. He's in his hotel. He's done us the favor of being able to join us for a little while here from Sports Illustrated senior NFL writer. It is Albert Brewer. What's up, man? Good to see you. What's happening, Ryan? Okay. So your first piece this week is Marvin Harrison, Jr. who's one of the best wide receiver prospects we've seen in a really long time out of your Ohio State. He's just skipping this whole thing. Does this mean anything?
Starting point is 00:13:31 Yeah, I mean, I think it could like long term. For him, I don't think it'll affect him much at all. Now he will come here and meet with teams, but he's not gonna run a 40. He's not gonna go through drills. He's not gonna do the bench or the shuttles or anything like that. And he doesn't plan to do that at his pro day either, which is different for sure.
Starting point is 00:13:52 But he doesn't have an agent and he's winding up saving whatever it is, six figures in combine training and that sort of stuff by not doing it. And he's working with the Ohio State strength guys and some of the other coaches there to get himself ready for his rookie year. And you know, it's funny, Ryan, I can remember my first year covering the league. The Patriots drafted this tackle out of Oklahoma State. I can't remember his name, but you remember Dante Scarnacchi and how intense he was. And they weren't like a rookie mini camp, right? And it was the first weekend for all those guys as pro football players. And I will never get the image of the guy throwing up in the corner of the
Starting point is 00:14:30 fieldhouse out of my head when it comes to this sort of stuff. And his explanation after was, well, I was training for like the Olympics. I wasn't training for to play football. And so, you know, so many of these guys have to reset after they get drafted and aren't able to hit the ground running. And I think here you have a kid who's got the leverage to say, I don't need to train for any of that. I don't need to waste the money.
Starting point is 00:14:53 I don't need an agent. I don't need agent to waste the money on me going and training somewhere. I'm going to get ready to play football and I'm going to be able to hit the ground running. When I get to rookie mini camp in May, and I jump into OTAs with my veteran teammates. And there aren't very many guys that have the leverage to do it. But he's won. And this would potentially be a real concern for the NFL
Starting point is 00:15:18 in general going forward, because it's like if it gets to the point where top 10 picks, top 15 picks aren't showing up here, and know, and they're gonna, again, they can, they show up and they talk and they meet with teams. But if they aren't doing the drills, well, what becomes of this as an entertainment property? It's sort of an interesting dynamic. And I think Marvin Harrison certainly could be a trendsetter for, again, just like the very elite kid who doesn't need to run a 40 or a shuttle or bench or
Starting point is 00:15:46 any of that stuff to prove who he is. Yeah, that's what was interesting about it for me is that when I go to the NBA combine, nobody plays in it. You'll be lucky to get a projected first rounder out there. I mean, it happens. You know, there's been a few guys that went on the first round that went out there to play and there's a lot of players that I've seen go out there and improve their stock by going out there and actually playing. But what it becomes is, oh, wait, I'm
Starting point is 00:16:09 the number one pick while I'm not doing it. And then it evolves into like, oh, I'm a lottery pick. Well, I'm not doing it. And it's like, well, I'm a first rounder. Like, I know I'm going in the first round. There's no question. Like, I'm not doing it. And then it's like, I'm not even going to get measured. I don't want to do any of this stuff. And so, I mean, the NBA combine is, you know, at least they're playing games, it's not like they're going to be playing games at the NFL combine. But when I saw your report, I was wondering if this will be the first step of the high, high level guys, the top five, the top 10 projected guys going like, actually, I don't need to go out there and run, man.
Starting point is 00:16:49 I'm, I'm projected to be a top 10 pick. I don't need to go and do this stuff. I, I bet that it would happen. And it's like, you see with the quarterbacks too. I don't know if you've seen this, but, um, the top three quarterbacks, right? Caleb Williams, Drake, May, Jayden Daniels, none of them are throwing here. The next three quarterbacks are JJ McCarthyJ. McCarthy, Bonix, and Michael Penix. Well, why is that? Because the top three have more to lose by throwing, and the next three probably have more to gain by throwing. And I think that that's the
Starting point is 00:17:16 calculus in these kids' heads. And, you know, I think the next step to that is, well, if I'm not going to do it at the combine. Do I really need to do it my pro day? Or can I just point to my tape and just tell them, hey, you know who I am, you've seen it. I think more and more the players are looking at these things as cold business decisions. Why do I need to show that guy that I'm a competitor? Why do I have to prove that I've got fire in my gut after I just played three years of football of college football? like the right business decision for me is to sit this one out and to stand on my tape and
Starting point is 00:17:55 Yeah, I mean I didn't know in depth like the way the NBA works But it sounds like the same sort of like math that these guys are doing in their head It sounds like the same sort of like math that these guys are doing in their head. Is there anything that you know, because you talked to so many teams where you've gotten any sense of how the top of this thing is gonna play out. So go in any direction you want,
Starting point is 00:18:14 because I feel like I've asked the same question now to all of our football guys for months and months and months and I still have two more months to do it. So as far as fields and how he plays into all this, the Caleb part, the moving around, what do you have for us as far as the combine getting started, like just kind of the buzz around that whole start of the draft? Well, I mean, I think the Bears are going to take Caleb. And I think I kind of feel like we've gotten to the stage of this process with Caleb where
Starting point is 00:18:40 all this left to do is knock him down, right? And like, if you remember, like we got to that point with Trevor Lawrence where people were like, I don't know, Zach Wilson might be as good as him. And same thing with Andrew Luck. Andrew Luck's name had been out there for so long, people were like, maybe Robert Griffin and everyone. I bet a first take producer skip
Starting point is 00:19:01 would be an RG3 guy before that trap. Yeah, probably, you probably would get up. No, I was like, it hadn't happened yet. I was like, we were hanging out and there was a guy like in the show and I was like, I bet you skip decides just out of nowhere. He's an RG three guy because everybody talked about luck for months and months and he was like, no, I was like, I'll bet you dinner. Didn't get that dinner. But go ahead. Oh, it didn't happen. No, it did happen. Oh, it did happen. Oh, it did happen, but you didn't get the payoff. Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:25 Yeah. So I, I mean, I think that's sort of where we are with Caleb where people are gonna, because we have two months to talk about this, talk themselves into thinking like, oh yeah, like Jaden or Caleb could, or Jaden or Drake could pass Caleb. And I, that's just not the reality of it. I don't think so.
Starting point is 00:19:42 Then Caleb solid number one, you know, and all likelihood go into Chicago They still have to dig through some of the stuff with his dad and everything else but I think they'll get there and they'll wind up trading Justin Fields and You know the teams I've talked to Ryan like There's some teams that where like in their draft rooms Jaden Daniels caught Drake May. And Drake was considered a really solid number two coming into the year. I think at any rate,
Starting point is 00:20:09 both those guys are really, really solid like top five in any draft types of prospects. And so it's gonna sort of depend on what you're looking for. I mean, the commanders hired Cliff Kingsbury as their offensive coordinator. So does that tell you they might want the more mobile guy? Well, that commanders hired Cliff Kingsbury as their offensive coordinator. So does that tell you they might want the more mobile guy? Well, that's what Cliff wanted in Arizona
Starting point is 00:20:29 when he drafted Kyler Murray and got rid of Josh Rosen. So I certainly think, you know, I think that's an open discussion for the commanders. Drake May is not a slam dunk there. Jaden Daniels could be the second overall pick. And then I think for New England, it's do we like the quarterback who falls in our lap? Because we don't have control over that.
Starting point is 00:20:49 And if we don't, what can we get in a trade down? And that's when you start to get to the discussion about the Atlanas, the Vegas's, the Minnesotas, the Denver's. Like I think that there's gonna be a fair number of teams that are gonna be fishing around about trading up. What's the market for fields then? So like the consistent package that I've heard
Starting point is 00:21:12 that fields would be moved for would be a day two pick and a day three pick. I do understand that that's sort of a, there's a wide range of outcomes there, like a three and a seven is much different than a two and a four, right? But I think it's somewhere in that ballpark. So part of it depends on how many teams are stepping up and want to bring them in.
Starting point is 00:21:29 And one thing that's hard with him is the contract. He's in the last year of his rookie contract. So you can either have him cheap for right now, which I think it'd be about three million bucks for this year. But then if he plays well, you're going to have to give him a crap load of money next year. Or you can pick up the fifth year option and then try and talk to him about spreading out the 26 or 27 or 28 million dollars. Over the next two years which is essentially with the packers did with Jordan love and then you have two years of runway with Justin fields say 14 million dollars a year. So like I think that's something that team training forums gonna have to reckon with like how much are we willing to pay him?
Starting point is 00:22:06 Yeah, and then I think the nice thing about trading for Justin right now if you were giving up say a three and a five to go and get him is that like you could bring him in and That's a swing at getting a having a young quarterback in your roster It could be your guy for the next five or ten years But it doesn't preclude you from taking another swing, right? So if you're say Atlanta and Raheem Morris is coming in as your first year head coach, and you don't like that second tier of quarterback, like JJ, the Penex, the Knicks, well, then you can look at it and say, we're going to go bring in Justin Fields.
Starting point is 00:22:38 We can build an offense for him here. And then if it doesn't work out a year from now, we just draft one. And it's not like 14 million bucks a year is that much for a starting quarterback. So I think that that would be the sort of scenario where you have a team that's drafting later in the first round, save five and below, and maybe isn't wild about the second cluster of quarterbacks that's going to be available in the draft. Okay. The new cap number, the projection is a 255 million. It's about, I don't know, 13, 14 million
Starting point is 00:23:07 more than teams thought they were going to be working with. So that's good news. Everybody gets excited about it. The cap was only 208 million two years ago. So that is a massive spike, historically a massive spike. But what it really means is everybody just costs more. So, you know, the idea like, Hey, we have all this extra cap space. Well, it also means now that everybody else does and guys are going to cause more. So what's the reaction bend of how that will impact the off season? Yeah, it's a good point, Ryan. Like the, the pie is bigger. The pieces are going to be bigger, right? Like, so like, that's the way that the agents are going to look at this is like a certain percentage of the cap.
Starting point is 00:23:41 And if you have a team that's like in a negotiation with a player right now, like let's take, I don't know, the Ravens and Justin Madabouke, who's been great at defensive tackle for them. And let's say they're, you know, $5 million apart, something like that. Well, now that agent is going to take a much harder line, or maybe even ask for more, right? Like, so I think with some of the existing negotiations, it could make them more difficult. Does that lead to more guys getting tagged because long-term deals are harder to reach over the next week? I think that's certainly possible. I also think for teams like San Francisco, where they've, you know, there's like a log jam of big cap numbers, it could mean like hanging on
Starting point is 00:24:19 to a guy or two that maybe you were planning on getting rid of. And it gives teams more room to work on getting their own guys in, whether they're up or they're up in a year or they're up in two years. And so I actually think to some degree, it might soften the free agent market a little bit, just in that you'll have less guys getting cut and hitting the market that way. You'll have more teams that really want to keep their
Starting point is 00:24:45 guys that may go the extra mile now to keep them. It's easier to tag guys because even though the tag numbers are higher, it's easier to tag guys. I just think for, you know, in general, it probably makes it so there's a few less top end guys that make it to the market in a few weeks. You brought up a really good point about Cincinnati. You know, when boroughs healthy, you feel really good about the roster, about their chances in a stacked AFC. But boroughs expensive for a good reason.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Chase is going to be expensive on a new deal for a good reason. They franchise tag. They franchise T Higgins. So like what kind of number could we be looking at as far as the cap number for those three players combined, even with a cap number for teams that's at a quarter of a billion dollars right now? Yeah, I mean, you can always manipulate this stuff, but I mean, you be talking about like on a per year average,
Starting point is 00:25:36 like over 110 million potentially, because whatever you signed T Higgins for, if you do sign them to a long-term deal, like that's the floor for Jamar Chase, right? Like so then you're talking about adding that on. And now, I mean, you're getting close to what? Whatever the cap is in a year or two, like 40% of your cap on three players,
Starting point is 00:25:56 like all in offense, right? And you've already invested in your offensive line and you've got some expensive pieces on defense. So I think it's a real thing that they have to look at. You know, now I know Zach Taylor wants to keep T Higgins. I know Joe Burrow wants to keep T Higgins, but let me ask you this, like would you rather have that set up, right?
Starting point is 00:26:17 Where you have those three guys like 110 million or how would you feel about like if you could get, I don't know, get like a bottom of the top 10 pick for T. Higgins and now you have say Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase and Roma Dunze, right? For the next, you know, three, four years at a much lower rate. Is T. Higgins getting you that?
Starting point is 00:26:43 Cause I think I would just rather have Rome. Yeah. On top of the built in understanding of the finances, which would be a lot less than a franchise tag for T. Right. And that's part of it. And that's part of the whole thing is like, so can you find a team that's got, you know, a rookie quarterback on a rookie deal, right?
Starting point is 00:27:00 Like that has the flexibility to do that, that wants to give that to their rookie quarterback, right? I mean, could you get Chicago to give up the ninth pick for T Higgins? And now they've got T Higgins and DJ Moore for, for Caleb Williams, right? Is that worth the ninth pick to the bears? Maybe it is, you know? Yeah, I mean, is it do you think it's what now, how enamored we are with draft picks, it always plays into this. Like I'll watch an NBA guy. It's like, man, that guy went sixth and you couldn't trade him for like two seconds right now. Okay. Um, the difference here is that I'm predicting that a Malik neighbors is better than T Higgins.
Starting point is 00:27:38 I think Roma Dunze is going to be better than T Higgins. T Higgins is a nice player, but it's like when you're saying it, like you can't do that because it's so exciting. But the other side of it is it you're going, yeah, but at least I know with T right now when he shows up next week, we know exactly who he is because there's always that worry that what if you take the stuff, I just have a hard time believing that neighbors in Rome would be bad in the NFL. It's especially like the way Rome, but don't say it's wired. There's just no way. There's no way that guy's gonna be bad So, well, let me ask you this then so what if it was the pick that the
Starting point is 00:28:11 Titans got for so this happened a couple years ago with AJ Brown So Titans get like a whatever. I think it was 20 21 22 somewhere in there back And they they wind up drafting the receiver out of Arkansas. Right? Yeah. And so like I, you know, that's sort of the equation. And you look at that and you say like the Eagles made out like bandits there, right?
Starting point is 00:28:34 So if it's a lower first round pick, you know, if it's AD Mitchell from Texas or it's Xavier Worthy from Texas, it's one of those guys, you know, like, do you you are you willing to do that? You know, there are different levels to it. And I think a lot of it would come down to like what level of pick could they get? And it's, it's just hard because like, you have to shop your player around to do that. You know what I mean? Looks like a poison negotiation. So it's, I think it's a complicated situation, but you know, the Bengals do have options. You know,
Starting point is 00:29:10 they can pay T Higgins and they can go in on that model that we just talked about, which is three players making a crap load of money for the foreseeable future, or they can look to get a younger player to pair with Chase long term at receiver. Okay. Uh, Sam Howell, is there any smoke there with Washington maybe wanting to trade him depending on what happens with the draft? Yeah. I've seen some of the stuff out there. Um, I think Washington will take a quarter back at two.
Starting point is 00:29:39 Um, it's, it's just so valuable to have a guy who has like as much starting experience as Sam Howell does now at the price that he had, the price that he's at. I mean, like, I think they would listen, but I just, what would be worth it for you? You know what I mean? Like, if somebody offered you a five for Sam Howell, I think I'm keeping Sam Howell, right? Like, so yeah, I get the pick back, but what's that five going to become? And we've seen how important these insurance policies can be. And on top of that, it gives me the option to sit Drake, May, or Jay, and Daniels, they
Starting point is 00:30:12 need to sit, right, with a quarterback that like the team can rally around. So I think that there's very real value to me in the idea of hanging on to Sam Howell. And I think it's just, I think you'd have to get into like a four or a three for me to think about moving Sam Howell because his contract is such an asset because he has starting experience because there is some belief in him in the locker room and because he would give you some flexibility with your rookie quarterback. Yeah, I don't know what to make of him because it looked like he, they were trying to get him killed and maybe get to life insurance policy.
Starting point is 00:30:49 Well, part of the problem was, I mean, part of the problem, Ryan, was they were, they abandoned the running game really fast in a lot of points last year and they put him in a tough spot. He played pretty well through November. Yeah. I know like some people felt like the enemy was quick to bail from the game plan when they fell behind late in the year. And that really affected the way that Sam Howard was playing as a young quarterback. So I think there's a way to get really like, at least average quarterback play out of him. And again, at his price, there's real value there.
Starting point is 00:31:29 Yeah, it's the price there. And he looks like maybe, you know, he could do it. And if he's a backup that has to play a couple of games, there's still a ton of value in that because we just turned the page on the backup so much. I mean, the lack of experience, the backup quarterback position is because everybody just replaces them. I mean, I've done the work on this. I'll do it again this
Starting point is 00:31:47 summer with however the depth charts play out. But these teams are littered with guys that don't play because you think you have the asset because you don't know the answer yet, where how that is worse is still an NFL rostered player. What if Joe Flacco was a jet this year again? You know what I mean? The value of backup quarterback, maybe Aaron Rodgers plays. Maybe Joe Flacco's good enough for them to sneak into the playoffs,
Starting point is 00:32:13 because the AFC wasn't nearly as tough as we thought it would be at the beginning of the year, right? So with that defense, with their running game, could Joe Flacco have snuck the Jets into the playoffs and now you've got Aaron Rod Rogers in the divisional round. You know what I mean? Like I, I, I always think about things like that because it's, you know, the, the value of, and especially if it's like a shorter term injury like that,
Starting point is 00:32:34 than that, if your starter goes down for four weeks, for six weeks, it can save your season having a competent backup. Absolutely. Yeah. But, um, it's not cool to be the backup that can't be a starter. You know, I think there's some front offices that are just still excited about, Hey, we have this guy and his ceiling could be this, but we don't even know if you can play.
Starting point is 00:32:54 And, you know, for the most part, you only have two of those spots. Well, it's like you either use that position as a developmental position or you use that position as real depth. And like that to me is like, what's sort of unique about howl, right? Like howl you can kind of use it as both, right? Right. Yeah. That's why I would think there'd be some, you know, we'll see what happens with the draft here. It's like Gardner Minshew. Gardner Minshew is that guy. Like he's still young enough where you can consider him like, hey, he's developing here through our system.
Starting point is 00:33:21 You know what I mean? Like, and he may have crossed the line on that now where he's more of a veteran backup, but for a while there, he was sort of that guy. And I think Sam Howell can easily be that guy too. Yeah, because I was looking at some of the Russell Wilson stuff, which I think is hilarious. That is like the first time he's ever said anything with any authenticity to it, because he's just trying to make sure that the story is spun in his favor. And it's like, well, look, you haven't been any good, you know, you were bad last year, you were unplayable two years ago. And there's a real money decision that Denver's looking at and people can be mad about the way they handled it.
Starting point is 00:33:52 But if you're a front office, if you're a GM, and if I'm the owner of the team, I'm like, actually we are doing this. This is what we're going to do to protect ourselves. I mean, it's- To me, the Broncos have, I mean, I know they're saying all the right things, but there's no decision here.
Starting point is 00:34:04 They have to move on. There's no decision here, you To me, the Broncos have, I mean, I know they're saying all the right things, but there's no decision here. They have to move on. There's no decision here, you know, with the Broncos. It's, I, like, do you really want to saddle yourself with all of that? Well, you just went through the last two years, you know, even if he does agree to, you know, to push back the trigger date on the guarantees for 2025, like, I think it's, for Sean Payton, like, this is his opportunity to reset at that position. You know, I mean, it's not like Russell Wilson's 25. Like, how much better is that going to get? You know?
Starting point is 00:34:32 No, I mean, for Russ, it'd be like, I'm going to get two Super Bowls the next five years. Dude, you need to be a starter. Some like, you know, as the holder. So, I don't know, that whole story is just really strange because it's kind of like everybody got what they deserve. But then you you take it to with Wilson's not there. You know, what would what would fit and you know, Sam Darnall's name came up again. I was like, man, we cannot quit Sam Darnall. And most of us were so excited too. And we thought Purdy was going to miss the game for don't remember it was like Donald was going to play all good. He looked pretty good against
Starting point is 00:35:09 the Ravens. I know nobody watched that because it was the end of a blowout. But right. Like I thought he like actually moved around pretty well. He looked like explosive throwing the ball like it's sort of you're right. Like there's that whole thing we can't quit. I'm like I kind of have that in my head or I'm like, man, like could he be like this year's Baker Mayfield? You know what I mean? Like, cause Baker really,
Starting point is 00:35:29 and Baker played better in Cleveland than Sam ever did in New York. So we can be clear about that. But like Baker got in the right situation in Tampa and it worked, could Sam find that sort of place? I mean, if you were to go to Atlanta where they run the same offense they did in San Francisco or they're going to, you know, could it work?
Starting point is 00:35:46 I don't know. How about the lead? Sam Darnold, Justin Fields, open competition in Atlanta. The winner gets to throw to Drake London and Kyle Pitts and have Bijan Robinson behind them. What do you think Denver would do? Do you have a guess, an educated guess, if they go post Russell Wilson?
Starting point is 00:36:06 I think they're gonna look at trading up. I think they're one of the teams that's gonna kind of fish around on it. I will be interested to see what Sean paid, because Sean, Sean's an interesting figure because he's gonna have his own, like he's not gonna follow group think on the quarterbacks. And I just sort of, I mean,
Starting point is 00:36:24 you've watched a lot of JJ McCarthy and Bo Nix, right? Both those guys, you can sort of get yourself to a place watching them where you could say, that sort of looks like a Sean Payton quarterback. You know what I mean? Like, I just feel like with both those guys, there's like a little bit of the move around the playmaker, the ability to fit the ball into tight spots, the competitiveness. I sort of feel like with both those guys, each of them, you could kind of get yourself to a place where it's like, this guy makes sense for Sean Payton. So I think they probably look at trading up
Starting point is 00:37:00 and then I would not be stunned if one of the two guys I named winds up, you know, we wake up on April 26th and one of those two guys was, wow, like the 12th pick in the draft or whatever it is they have. I have two more topics that I want to hit on here. Let's talk Minnesota, Justin Jefferson. Um, what do you think happens there? And then you can take that into the Kirk Cousins decision because like as much as I've not been a Kirk guy, I thought he played really well last year.
Starting point is 00:37:26 I feel like it was a different, maybe the numbers are going to tell you it's the exact same thing. I just thought he was better last year. He gets hurt and you realize, you know, that guy's still worth a lot of money, especially with the new cap, probably taking a shorter deal. His history of deals have worked out at every step of the turn because Washington, it was funny when I look back at what Washington did with him, I was like, I kind of respect that they go, Hey, we just don't really think you're awesome. So we don't want to pay
Starting point is 00:37:49 you this. And then you realize, well, not awesome is a lot better than nobody back there. Minnesota's like, we're good. And then because they gave him the guaranteed money on the three year deal, they had to keep reworking it. So he was winning every single time he went back, he's gonna win again. I don't know where and I don't know what the number is. So give us the Minnesota big picture stuff here in the offseason. Yeah, so you wanna start with Jefferson.
Starting point is 00:38:11 Yeah. They love, love, love, love, love, love him. And this was before Kevin O'Connell and Quacy Adolf Amensa had a game, had a single game with him after they got there in 2022. They believe he is one of one and he's still only 24 years old. So they are going to try like hell to get a contract done with him. I do think they made a mistake in not doing it last year because everything we talked about the rising cap right and you're using last year's cap numbers
Starting point is 00:38:40 for his extension. And so now it's like a completely different ballpark, correct? And if you're a football player, like, you know, this has been drilled into my head over 20 years covering the league. It's like the fact that you took on an extra year of injury risk is very real, right? Like, and he got hurt. And you're thinking like, wait a minute, like I took on that extra year.
Starting point is 00:39:00 I took that extra year of injury risk off your hands and put it on my shoulders. So I'm gonna be less less willing, by rule, less willing to give you a break on a new contract. So I think it's going to be a difficult negotiation. I don't think it's going to be easy, but I think they're motivated to get it done. And I think they will get it done with the caveat that I also know that in these sorts of high-end contract negotiations, things can go sideways. They will get calls if things do go sideways. I'm willing to offer you this crazy package or that crazy package. I wouldn't rule anything out, but I think the likelihood is
Starting point is 00:39:37 they get a long-term deal done with him at some point before the season. Kirk's different. at some point before the season. Kirk's different. My understanding is communicated to them, to Kirk's camp a year ago, like, we love Kirk, we want him back, we're not going down the road we have with a full guarantee contract again. So we'd love to get something done at some point with Kirk. It's just not going to look the same way that it did before. And so I think, to some degree, this could be determined by the market with Kirk. And I think the relationship's in a decent place. I don't think it's like one of these things where FU, like I'm going to the market and see you later if I get something equal.
Starting point is 00:40:17 I think that the negotiation will continue once he hits the market. And I think a lot of it's going to come down to what's out there for him and is the three-year fully guaranteed deal out there for him the same way it was in 2018 and the same way it was when they when they renegotiated after a couple of years. I can't say for sure whether it will be or not, but you're right. Like I think I don't know, Ryan, like don't you feel like even with the Achilles, even coming back off the Achilles, like he's head and shoulders better than the rest of the guys that are out there, you know Like yeah, I mean think about who we just talked about we talked about how? Darnold Russell Wilson and you know we were set like Baker, you know bakers like I guess close
Starting point is 00:40:58 But I don't think bakers is I wouldn't put a good Kirk cousins category, you know I wouldn't and Kirk is like Kirk's a guy who again If like let's say you're Atlanta, I keep using Atlanta or let's say you're Vegas like right like so if you're Vegas It's yeah, we pay this guy. We've got cap space. We pay this guy. He'll give us Three years to go find the next guy. You know what I mean? Like that's the way you have to look at it It's like Alex Smith in Kansas City, right? Alex Smith gave Andy Reed and his group five years to find their next guy and allowed them to be patient.
Starting point is 00:41:30 It allowed them to take their time. It allowed them to wait for something that they thought was truly special and they were building up the roster as they went along and then they identify my homes, they get aggressive, they go up and get them. Like Kirk Cousins, I think, provided that everything checks out medically coming back off the Achilles
Starting point is 00:41:45 Can be that guy for you where you can buy you at least a few years of Good play where you can build the roster up and you can be patient finding your next quarterback Okay, last thing here big college football fans There has been a lot of stories about the college guys leaving. Yep to just go to the NFL stories about the college guys leaving. Yep, to just go to the NFL. You know, Jeff Halfley is a weird situation to be in charge of Boston College and be like, No, I'm cool going to the NFL. And then I think now what it's happening though is it's turning into every time a college guy leaves for an NFL job. It's like, Okay, the college football system is broken now, which it
Starting point is 00:42:23 may be, it may be broken, but let's not pretend this is the first year in 2024 where college guys got staff jobs in the NFL. Yeah. You know, sometimes with like the SC McDonald, his, the running backs coach, you could have been an offensive coordinator reportedly, and then he decides to go to the church. Maybe he just wanted to be in the NFL. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with anything. But like, look, you talked to a lot of these people.
Starting point is 00:42:43 I thought the Bill O'Brien sit down with Thamel was interesting in the way he was like, man, it'll Ohio State, at Alabama, there's like a GM, the lines are blurred. It's like, well, what do you mean, organized? Like, shouldn't every college football program aspire to be as organized as the ones they're doing it, better than everybody else?
Starting point is 00:43:01 All right, boots on the ground though. Like, is this just an off season where it happened or is it something? Is this something where we're seeing more and more guys in college ball go, I want nothing to do with this product, I just want to be in the NFL. I mean, look, like I think it, I think this has existed for a long time.
Starting point is 00:43:18 There are a lot of coaches that don't like recruiting and didn't like recruiting 10, 15 years ago, didn't like the fact that dinner with your wife is interrupted because you're texting with a 16 year old. You know what I mean? Like that's not new. Like that's existed for a long time. I mean, I, you know, talk about Boston college, right? Jeff Hathley doing that.
Starting point is 00:43:36 Jeff Jagazinski did the same thing, what, 14, 15 years ago, BC, you know? Like he got fired because he wanted to go interview for the Jets Offensive Coordinator job and wound up going and working in Tampa so this has existed for a while, I do think it's worse now and Just I I know half leave relatively well. I know Chip relatively well You know, I've known both those guys for a long time. I think for both of them. It was I I'm not even coaching football anymore You know like with the fundraising and the and I and all that different stuff like the
Starting point is 00:44:08 Transfer portal having to recruit guys on your roster back onto your roster and having to manage all of these different things It's you know, I think I think it's become a lot And so for somebody like Jeff Hathley who might have been a year or two away from being in trouble at Boston College It makes sense to go back for the pros and for somebody like Chip who's in the back end of his career and just wants to coach It makes sense College football can fix this like they can and it's gonna take resources is gonna take more schools doing what you were talking about Which is taking some of that burden off the head coaches, right? They're always gonna have to be the politician and they're always gonna have to be the front man for some stuff.
Starting point is 00:44:45 But if you give them enough resources and you give them like a full on scouting department, that takes some of the weight off of them. I mean, it sounds crazy, but maybe you hire a cap guy, right? Like here's the amount of money that we have from our donors and like here's what we're dealing with and you gotta help us manage that. You can fix this if you're a big time college football
Starting point is 00:45:06 program by throwing resources at it. And the NCAA can help fix it by creating some structure to it. Now, you know more about this than me, Ryan, but it seems like maybe the toothpaste is out of the tube on that, like it might be tough to put it back in, right? I just don't think there's anything where you can compare it to like the NFL or the NBA, where at least you know somebody's in charge. You know, you have the commissioner's office, you're like, Hey, this is a good thing.
Starting point is 00:45:34 Hey, this is a bad thing. OK, well, let's call everybody up and get everybody aligned here. It doesn't mean that it's executed perfectly. But college football is a very selfish industry. And what's good for one conference isn't good for the other. What's good for one school president might not be good for the other. And the school president doesn't care about
Starting point is 00:45:51 any of the other schools, the other conferences don't care about any of the other conferences. And they have a very hard time getting aligned. Like people can talk about a commissioner in college football, like what's that gonna solve? Cause everyone of those school presidents would be like, cool title, bro.
Starting point is 00:46:03 It's like, I don't give a shit. Right. You know, like we can look at all of this conference realignment and how many different times do we hear about like, oh, now we've got these exit fees and we've got this and we've got the alliance and we've got all these different things. That shit doesn't even make it a year and nobody cares. And where they find a way to try to break the contract legally because every, so I don't know that it's, so then your answer, then your answer is just throw
Starting point is 00:46:26 resources at it. Right? Um, you know, whatever, they're making enough money to pay all the coaches before they wanted to pay anybody else. So they should have the money for it, even though they always try to claim that they're broke because I think they just spend their money as soon as they get it in. Uh, if you told Brian did a great job with Samuel though, like kind of breaking that down where he was like, yeah, like, so it's basically our pro scouting departments,
Starting point is 00:46:47 the transfer portal people, like the transfer portal scouts. And then the high school scouts are the equivalent of a college scouting department. And then I don't know if we'll call it a GM, but we'll put that guy over the top. Like that all makes sense to me, you know? And the head coach-
Starting point is 00:47:01 It does, but guys are still gonna be asking for NIL money, which I think is gonna dry up a little, in relation to what it was in the beginning, because it was exciting for everybody. And then every single program that hadn't been good was selling all their alums on like, Hey, we can actually have this collective and now we can be competitive. It's same thing as the cap space all going up. The cap space goes up for everybody. It means everybody has more money to spend.
Starting point is 00:47:22 So if everybody has a collective and everybody has NIL money, that just means that you're competing the same way you were before, but now it's just going to cost you more money out of your pocket. That was the whole thing that didn't make sense to me, though, Ryan. Like when there were all the rumors about Texas A&M throwing $30 million or whatever it is at that one recruiting
Starting point is 00:47:40 class, I was like, my first thought was, OK, but what about next year? Like are those same donors? Is it is a payroll now? Like, or there'll be a one time donation, you know, there should be a doc on the that class. It was like the NBA salary cap spike when John Wall is like, why is Reggie Jackson making more money than me? You know, which I agreed with John Wall at the time when he said it, there's going to be like those dudes that were in it on the ground floor where it's like,
Starting point is 00:48:05 everyone can give us money now that's related to the school, not that they weren't getting it before, but those, there was a lot of people that wanted to be involved in it that were like, wait, was this worth it? Where's the return? Wait, that guy's at Wake Forest now? Like, what the fuck do we do?
Starting point is 00:48:22 It's so funny how it's hit the league too. Cause it's like, I was talking to a scout over the summer and he was like, he went and did like a bunch of school calls at SEC schools and had just come back. And he was like, he's like, dude, like I go out there. Like I literally am like, oh, like that guy was at Arizona last year. Oh, like I was at Maryland last year.
Starting point is 00:48:42 Like they legitimately need like a roster and they spend half their time out there Relying everybody who's out there, but there's benefit to it too because like it was fun I was talking to Jim Nagy about this over the weekend and he was he mentioned how You know with bow Knicks and with Michael Penix and and with Jaden Daniels with those three guys Those guys have both been like multi-year starters at different schools, right? So the amount of people you can talk to and you know how those kids are gonna handle money because they've handled They've had money now like there's a lot of it that actually winds up benefiting the NFL So I don't know how much you're gonna help you to get from the league and and and fixing all this
Starting point is 00:49:20 You're not you know And I don't blame the league for not wanting to get involved in it because I just think there's too many people that only care about what's happening on their own campus and I kind of get it But I think they're really messing up a spore and I'm not even talking about So yeah, I mean what you're saying is what motivation does Alabama or Ohio State or Texas have to make things fair for Mississippi State or Indiana or whoever else. Yeah. I mean, the Pac-12 abandoned two of their programs. They were like, cool. You know, and people are going to tell Washington State or Oregon State to handle it better. You know,
Starting point is 00:49:56 like, you know how ridiculous that is to tell those two awesome fan bases like, nah, you know, whatever. Like, it's the same as like, you actually need somewhat like you, you need some level of competition for the whole brand to be good. Yeah. And it's just it's just mercenaries out there right now. But this isn't, this is a bigger thing I've already covered it a million times before there's just too much change for college football and too short of amount of time. I think there's some unintended consequences that are coming along that people aren't talking
Starting point is 00:50:24 about. But as it relates to the coaches- And I think it hurts the kids too. No one wants to hear that, but I do think it hurts the kids too. Like, I will say that. Like, I think you're having kids who've been at three and four different schools, they're not plugged into the networks that can help them professionally when they get done playing, right? Like, they, in a lot of cases, don't have any degree. And I know people are like, Oh, well, who cares about the degree? Well, it does matter, you know. So like you have these kids that are just being kind of churned
Starting point is 00:50:47 through the system. And at the end, they're gonna have a whole lot to show for it. Because what sounds like a lot of money when you're like 20 years old, isn't a lot of money, you know, five years from then 10 years from then. And I just think it winds up hurting a lot of those kids in the long run. Yeah, I'm glad though that we started on the coaching thing because if you are an end of the world college football, and I'm not even there with it, okay?
Starting point is 00:51:09 Uh, you're selling any college guy going to the NFL as, oh, this is another sign. And I've seen it where I wondered like, wait, didn't we? Like, this is the first, this is the first year the college guy said I want to go to the NFL. Like some guys that are in college, we both know are dying to get back to the NFL. Yeah. It's not like, and it's not, and not every one of them, like Cliff, for example,
Starting point is 00:51:32 I love Cliff, right? Like, but Cliff was the quarterback's coach at USC. He's going to be the offensive coordinator of the commanders. Of course he, like that's a very clear promotion. Yeah. I don't think that had anything to do with the NIL. I don't, I, you know, and I look up chip had left UCLA for the NFL. And I think there was definitely some interest for him
Starting point is 00:51:50 to do that. Is it because of transfers? Is it because of recruiting? Like I don't know that he ever loved recruiting going all the way back to Oregon. All right. Is it because of what it is right now? Or is it because you know, if they go eight wins, seven wins at UCLA, he's out of a job anyway and instead he can go back with Ryan Day have some of the best talent in college football the day relationship with him is as strong as you're going to have and then he can just go ahead and coach so 60 so it's just like I just want to coach he looks great though totally get it huh it's great you're past 56 in a second that's what
Starting point is 00:52:20 that's what living in Manhattan Beach will do for you. Right? Yeah, exactly. Blue zone over here. Thank you, Albert. Have a great time at the combine. And this was a huge help, man. So appreciate the time. Awesome. Thanks, Ryan. And now it's time for it takes to shout out to Rob base and all new segment brought to you by State Farm. Having good teammates is like having a winning playbook. It's the secret weapon that turns individual skills into a championship performance. We've seen some pretty iconic team ups in sporting history like, well, the Pippin Jordan one seems to be estranged to say the least. I guess that's what happens when like a 10 part documentary comes out and I don't know. I've never quite understood like what did Pippin expect to have more people pay
Starting point is 00:53:06 attention to him than Jordan or maybe it was just a really tough hang despite all the winning. So I'm open to it not being the best time ever, but I've just never quite understood that one because it's like, well, yeah, Scott, you could have played like somewhere else and not won six titles, but maybe this is not the way he thinks. Um, I used to love Ralph Sampson and the team Elijah one. It just seemed like a circus act. And then a team probably goes down as the most underrated player of his era.
Starting point is 00:53:31 Maybe all time. Ralph didn't stick around as long, but it was a lot of fun. Twin towers of Houston. When it happened, it was a big deal. There were posters and everything. What do we have right now in the NBA with that? Well, I guess you could go with Yolkach and Jamal Murray with the title win last year and how important they both are for each other. You've got Jaylen Brown and Tatum, which
Starting point is 00:53:51 is weird because it seemed like everybody wanted to break it up and if they get a title this year, everybody's gonna tell us it was awesome and the whole thing worked out. So there you go. Trying to think of other ones. Double Team, the movie with Van Damme and Rodman another bull keeping it NBA related on the court. It's just as important to have someone backing you up just like a great teammate. State Farm is there to help you feel supported and to answer insurance questions about your car your home and other things that matter to you whether it's on the phone online or the award-winning State Farm mobile app like a good neighbor State
Starting point is 00:54:22 Farm is there. The Alliance is back NBA style. We did it for you during college football season. We each pick a leg of a three leg parlay. And then within that, we had our own contest on that one. We actually never came up with what the winner got and what the losers would have to do. So I don't know that we feel fit. I won with a 500 record again. Captain 500 over here. That awesome. A8 and 1, 0 and 5 with games involving Alabama to cover or lose. So that's hard to do. Every time
Starting point is 00:55:00 I pick Bama, I lost the five times I picked them and then eight and three in the other games. If I sound bitter, I can't believe I would go on five on Alabama picks. So anyway, because I picked them to win and I picked them to lose and I still couldn't get right with them. All right, we're going to do it again reset. We're hitting the reset button with this one. But apparently through these slight variation on this one, right? Yes.
Starting point is 00:55:22 So what we're going to do is we're going to build a four leg NBA same game parlay every Tuesday. I think what we just decided was whatever the marquee game is, and this isn't the most marquee game ever, it's not the best slate, but usually one of the TNT games. We'll pick one of the TNT games. And we will each contribute one leg and then we'll decide on the fourth leg. So that'll be four total legs, somewhere between plus 300 plus 400, I don't know, somewhere around there. And we'll keep track of, I guess, our own individual records
Starting point is 00:55:51 and then the record of the Parley itself. Okay, so. And you can find it, you can find it on the app, you can find it on the website, it'll be up there for everyone to pick. All right, perfect. So it's there. There's a boost right now for this game that's absurd.
Starting point is 00:56:01 And you go through it, it's like, you're gonna have to hit a couple overs on some guys, but the payout on it is, is incredible. And so, you know, to try to make it a little bit more realistic to win, especially with four legs, you know, I don't know that it's going to be looking for those, those plus 1000 boosts for us. No, you know, I want to try to make this somewhat obtainable for these. I learned halfway through our college football alliance last year, you're like, hey, guys, you know, the point is so that these all hit, right?
Starting point is 00:56:32 Like, oh yeah. Well, no, you were picking something that was plus 240 and Brian and I were picking like minus 110. We're like, dude, we're trying to win this. Great, we have a plus 10,000, but it's never gonna hit. You know what though? That's what Kyle, Kyle, he's just out there. He's Matt Rampard with, baby. Parley's.
Starting point is 00:56:45 But that's the point of this is that the three of us, we are not going to necessarily be picking stuff. That's like even odds because we're putting this in a parlay. So we're taking like all all totals, you know, all rebounds, all points, like made three is like stuff. That's maybe like minus 200 on the individual bets and then, you know, gets you to a decent number when you put them all together. Right. They have a five leg up. No wonder it's plus 1700. It's over Paul Reed, eight and a half points over a five and a half put them all together. Right. They have a five leg up. No wonder it's plus 1700. It's over Paul Reed, eight and a half points over a five and a half
Starting point is 00:57:08 assists for Maxi over five and a half assists for Tatum over two and a half. So you're basically going to make plus you're taking the over on two and a half threes for Maxi and then drew holiday one and a half. So you're like, Hey, wait, that shouldn't be that hard. Read nine points. Maxi six assists Tatum six assists is struggling with that hard. Read nine points. Maxi six assists Tatum six assists. Struggling with that one Maxi three threes drew two threes plus 1700. Yeah, well, because it's five legs. So all right. So Rudy, will you be in charge of checking all these because when
Starting point is 00:57:37 you go to the same I got it up on my app right now. Do you want to go first? I don't care. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. So we we're gonna do sixers Celtics tonight. Obviously the TNT game I'm gonna take buddy healed three plus made threes. He's done it in every single game as a sixer I know Boston's three point defense is pretty good But I think either way in this game. He's probably chucking even if it gets out of hand like he's probably just shucking threes He takes like 10 a game. So he's got to hit three of them. I think that's pretty reasonable That's minus one 48 on its own. So that'll be my first bet.
Starting point is 00:58:07 Okay. And I like that too. Cause healed with Philadelphia, especially like, you know, you keep looking up at the standings, but then you're trying to figure out like, look, the heat from the jump now have, have come out hot after a really bad stretch. Um, so you start looking at his standings going to like, wait a minute, like how many teams is Philadelphia going to be behind here as we wait for the reevaluation of Embiid. So I like that cause he'll is taking 15 shots a game with Philly since he's led, he was
Starting point is 00:58:30 that 10 a game with the Pacers. So you're right. He's letting it fly at 15. All right, Kyle. I like Jaylen Brown over five and a half rebounds, just made a new character on a 2k. My player, big guy, really passionate about blocks and rebounds these days. So I think that he's averaging five and a half rebounds a game. So I think that's probably that's a give me.
Starting point is 00:58:49 Okay. Check's out. Uh, prosengas has made two or more threes in 11 to 12 games. So give me, uh, him over one and a half threes made. So that puts us at that puts us at plus three sixties. So we got to add a fourth light. We want to just put like Celtics Moneyline in there. Yeah, I say go Celtics Moneyline, Philadelphia,
Starting point is 00:59:08 because I was looking for some stuff. And I mean, I, you know, this is the part where we can get a little tricky. Like no dunk the first three minutes of the game. Yeah, that's like tempting. They've got a first bucket. What's it going to be? Yeah, the first bucket one though.
Starting point is 00:59:24 I feel like if you get that one wrong, then the whole point of everything else you've done, you just, you're sitting there, you build your parlay and then it's done in 10 seconds. So I don't really want to do that to anybody. Philadelphia since MB went down in that Warriors game. So that was January 30th, 31st on to today. It's the 28th ranked defense. So they're actually a mess defensively to be expected as they kind of try to figure out who they are in his absence and hoping to
Starting point is 00:59:49 I mean, I the most recent thing I saw is maybe they get him back 1517 games left But we don't even know until the knee injury is reevaluated. So do you want to just go money line there? So yeah, that takes us to plus 416, which is a great number. I like this better life It's a perfect first bed. Yeah. All right. So we got Jaylen Brown over 5 and 1 half rebounds, Buddy Heald, 3 plus 3s, Chris Houseport, Zengas 2 plus 3s, and the Celtics money line. There you go. So let's keep track of whose legs hit and who's done.
Starting point is 01:00:14 Of course. Of course. We don't have to do that. Do we have to do that? No, whoever comes in last loses a toe. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up?
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Starting point is 01:01:20 gmail.com it's been a bit man the group is back together we did give you content on the week off. Um, little, little fly fishing and aspen 35 degree water temp. Well, is that, uh, does that take a while? Like, is that one of those things you got to be patient for? I always thought it would be like it's kind of a lot of standing, right? And back and forth. It can be awful. Um, but at least you're outside and especially if I don't have access to just a river mountains, you know, I don't live near that. I'm pretty
Starting point is 01:01:51 happy with where I live. The beach is pretty cool. Consolation prize. I don't know why I almost said consolation, but we'll get into the stars alignment a little bit later. Yeah, yeah. But it was unbelievable. It was beginning a mid-hatching season up there. So it was unfair to the fish. I felt bad for the fish. It was just, yeah. It was like after five hours, I'm with the guy
Starting point is 01:02:17 and the guy's like, what do you want to do? Give these guys a break. Fuck the camera. I appreciate everything everyone said about the New Zealand travel pod. It was really nice to hear from people on that one. There's one just absolutely terrible pronunciation. I don't know how that happened. Sometimes like when I figure out the origin of me fucking up something kind of like the student loan debt relief programs, which is a pretty big fuckup by me. But there was an origin because I'd read the debt trap. We just had the author on at the beginning, it was LBJ arguing with the bankers over how much interest they were going to make on a student loan
Starting point is 01:02:59 project that LBJ was very, if you read his history and everything, which you shouldn't, because this is fucking super boring already. But there's usually like an origin of me messing up something, but you know, look, the international stuff, I feel terrible about it. It's bothered me for days. I mean, it's not gonna ruin next week, but anyway, so I appreciate the kind words on that.
Starting point is 01:03:18 We have had off of the Friday feedback, just a lit screed of, a lot of content in that one. That was good. Yeah. Of, of NBA comps. So I want to read one. I'm not nervous again. You're not even in it.
Starting point is 01:03:37 So you don't have to worry about it. Good. All right. This is about us deliberating for nine minutes about, uh, if Jimmy Butler was successful enough for Ryan's comp. I think the where we landed is he just doesn't work enough. Yeah. Right. That's it. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:58 I saw somebody that was like, hey, you know, well, he did. He did make the finals last year and you're like, all right, like this. What is that? Does that not equal anything that Ryan's done? Like, I don't know. I feel like, you know, you've been doing some stuff. Like, it's not like you haven't made the equivalent of the finals and whatever industry you're in. I think you just have to quantify it, right?
Starting point is 01:04:15 What is the finals? I don't know. Is it a webby? I don't hope not. No, I don't think it's an award. Here's what I would say. I'll know, I'll know what it is. And I'll let everybody know too.
Starting point is 01:04:26 How about that? Yeah, but it hasn't happened yet. Whatever the ring is for me, it hasn't happened. So I know you're getting a million of these. Yeah, Rosillis Copp is Jalen Brunson. I know Ryan's been around longer than Jalen, but can you really compare radio careers and NBA careers? You kind of can't.
Starting point is 01:04:43 We've been trying though for a week. I've been trying. Right. Like Ryan, he had to work for everything he's gotten. He wasn't a first round pick or a superstar coming to the league. He's hardworking and smart. Like Ryan was with SVP. He was overshadowed early in his career by a giant white guy who was clearly
Starting point is 01:04:57 the star, but once he got his own spot, he started to shine. Hmm. Kind of selling us on it. Well, I like it. A little bit. Kind of like Brunson. Well, I like it a little bit. Kind of like Brunson. Like if you like Brunson, you like Brunson. I think he was clear the year it wasn't he in college? Did you have like a moment like that?
Starting point is 01:05:14 You go to you, your one shining podcast. That's I think he was player there. Yeah. It's your IT on that. So, uh, I don't, I don't hate it at all. I think it's great. While the die hard recilio. Oh, sorry, sorry. No, I think this hate it at all. I think it's great. While the diehard recilio, sorry, sorry. No, I think this year, like if you had said this before this year, I think
Starting point is 01:05:29 it would be a little bit of an insult to you, but he's, I mean, he's blown up this year. He should have probably been an all star starter. Just, just to be clear, we are aware of how absurd the idea is that you think like anyone that's not a top 10 player is an insult to me. Okay. So we're, we're aware of that. So thank you, Siruti.
Starting point is 01:05:47 Um, while the diehard, we're still on X fans will take a bullet for their guy and are convinced he can be the number one guy in a championship team. The national media is still skeptical and doesn't give them the respect they've earned true story. My boss said to me when I said, we're still, I was my favorite media guy quote, Ryan's great, but your goal is not to be Ryan Rosillo. So this guy, this guy apparently works in the industry. I feel like that perfectly sums up the national narrative about
Starting point is 01:06:16 Rosillo. Finish email. Wow. Fine with me. You wait, you said this guy works in the industry. Works in the industry. He went to his You said this guy works in the industry. Works in the industry. He went to his, his boss who was in the industry. He said, you don't want to be a Ryan Russelo. And he, and his boss said, you don't want to be a Ryan Russelo. Uh, sounds like I might have to send that boss a little domicile listing. Tell him to fuck himself in the ear.
Starting point is 01:06:42 People don't forget. Yeah. Oh, you're still working in local radio managing. Okay. Got it. Leave that one alone. Yeah, we're leaving that one. I like it though. I don't even like that.
Starting point is 01:06:55 I said it. So apologize. All the local radio program directors out there. It's a tough job. But, you know, come on man. But yeah, I don't know. Kind of sold the son out a little bit. I like it. I think it's a good one.
Starting point is 01:07:08 Do I like it better than Jimmy Butler? Do you like it better than Jimmy Butler? I love the Van Pelt, Luca thing. I love the media part of it. Can't be a number one. I don't know. Now, it just feels weird because like, what if I say like, hey, I have a better chance of being a one
Starting point is 01:07:25 than Jalen Brunson, I just feel so disrespectful to an NBA guy who's making it all start to, you know, like I'm trying to get them on the pod. So I guess we can, yeah, I don't want to be, the ego is healthy, but that sounds like diabolical ego mania. I didn't want to do that. So he comes on the pod. What up twin? I gotta be honest with you. I'm now regretting how I went at local radio in general because that's not really what I wanted to make it sound like.
Starting point is 01:07:52 But I'm thinking about one person in particular, as I said that, and it's not even this person. So that's a me thing. Again, shout out to the local affiliates. Okay. Okay. Uh, let's do some parent stuff. But not what you would think. Are you ready for this one? My mom is having more sex than I am. Hi, Kyle, Steve and Ryan, aka Lou Will, Shane, Badi, and Jimmy buckets. Another one for Butler. I have an embarrassing yet critical problem that I need some advice on. 64230 NBA comp, Jared Sullinger, slow and heavy-footed
Starting point is 01:08:29 but a solid post-game, nice touch around the basket. It's good, I like that one. My parents divorced when I was 18 years old, right after I moved across the country for college. Now I'm 23 years old and returned to the house I grew up to live with my mom and her new boyfriend while I figure out my life. My room is across the hall from my mother's room
Starting point is 01:08:43 so we usually conf faintly hear each other for talking in a regular voice. This was never a problem growing up because my parents' sex life was as lifeless as Rosillo's musical career. Or at least respectful guy. Jesus Christ. I don't know what that one means, but I guess maybe it's just not existent. And that's the whole point. All right, noted. And we get it. Now has become an unbearable issue that I'm having trouble figuring out the proper way to address
Starting point is 01:09:06 Do you think it's dude? You're that's the nicest sentence ever to explain something that's just absolute hell for any of us even having to think about it Every weekend my mom and her boyfriend like to get frisky and getting some sex on the odd weekend night. I stay home I hear my mom Moaning literally all night and I can't sleep. I'm happy that my mom has found someone that makes her happy. But for fuck's sake, I can't deal with this any longer. How do I bring this up to my mom or do I just leave the house every weekend to make sure I never have to hear that again? My
Starting point is 01:09:36 sex life isn't terrible. I get lucky once in a while and have girls over the house. But I doesn't save the sex when I have the house to myself. I don't know if my mom realizes how loud she's being so I don't want to embarrass her But I'm not sure how to deal with the situation any longer Is it as simple as just move out as soon as possible? And this is the consequences of returning home after college any advice or insights on how to approach a situation be greatly appreciated? I as bad as this is The next worst thing or the even worst thing is, hey, mom, can we talk?
Starting point is 01:10:05 Yeah, talking about it. Yeah, totally. Totally. There's nothing to be said. They're just this. This is always look at the finish line. I had a buddy in high school whose parents were this way. I mean, they didn't care.
Starting point is 01:10:14 There was three of us over. It's like, you know, after school, it's like three o'clock. He was a mechanic. I don't think she worked. They were always home. It was just, they didn't give a shit. They didn't give a shit. It was very uncomfortable. He got out of there. I think as he turned 18
Starting point is 01:10:26 So I think the answer is eyes on the prize does this house have a basement is it halfway finished like I mean I don't stay away all the time. Maybe you maybe you hang out with your buddy who's got an apartment already Like make all the moves but not like hey, do you think you could like tone it down mom a little bit? This is this is never to be discussed. I think this is on you. You're in her house, remember that? And it sounds like you do know that. You're like, is this just what happens when you come home from college?
Starting point is 01:10:51 Yeah, I mean, you know, they've had that. She's had the house to herself. This is her routine. You can't really break that. So I'd say stay away and then get out. Just get out, get a roommate, whatever. You can't save this much. Sorry.
Starting point is 01:11:02 Yeah, to be honest, like, you know, it's, yeah, you said it's her house. Like, what are you gonna say? Like, don't do this, and it's cool. Like, you don't have to live here either. Sorry. Yeah, to be honest, like, you know, it's, yeah, you said it's her house. Like what are you going to say? Like don't do this. You're cool. Like you don't have to live here either. Like we're doing you a favor. We're a dull state.
Starting point is 01:11:10 Yeah. I got, you know, so I think, you know, do you have any buddies, couches you can sleep on for the, in the meantime? Like she should probably start going out more on the weekends and staying over different dudes places. Maybe camping, just any excuse to go out of the house. Camping.
Starting point is 01:11:23 Maybe not, maybe not sleep there. I would just say. 27 peaker or whatever, when you get all the Adirondacks or something, wherever you are. The good thing is like, this should be just incredible career motivation for you to just figure your shit out.
Starting point is 01:11:36 So. Grinding. Yeah. So I think there's a lot of good benefits to this, but talking about it is definitely not an option. Why is Doug still at the office? It's Friday. He's grinding. He'd excise? It's Friday. He's grinding. He's grinding.
Starting point is 01:11:46 He's putting the hours. He's grinding. I think he's got a cot. It's all he has a cot in his office. Comes in early, stays late, first one in. This guy's the Brady, a second. Yeah. Saw brushes teeth the other morning.
Starting point is 01:11:58 What's that about? No days off. There you go. So we're all in strong agreement. There's no discussion here. Correct. None. Right. Because I still think it's worse to talk to her about it than to hear it. Yeah. And you'd be in the wrong too. Right. And I never want to be comfortable enough with a parent to have this conversation.
Starting point is 01:12:16 Right. Correct. I don't care. Some of you out there have the weirdest relationships. Maybe it's the healthiest, that everything's just so open and everything. I've never wanted that. I will never pursue it. I don't want it ever. Um, I think it's just like, just like Kyle said, though, we had like one buddy back in the mix a long time ago and the dad didn't care. Pound town, whenever it was asleep over.
Starting point is 01:12:40 And then guys would give him the hardest time. And it's like, you know, you can understand it. Dad's like, this is my house, my rules. You're like, I don't know, have a couple more rules. Right. I'm going to see her in six hours. She's going to be giving me a bowl of cereal. And I just got to, whatever.
Starting point is 01:12:58 Just to back up a little bit. Can't handle this. About you talking about parent relationships with their kids, I will say, I do think the mother son in this situation is probably the worst case scenario too, right? Yep. Yeah, probably. Yeah, because dad to dad, mom to, or dad to son,
Starting point is 01:13:15 mom to daughter, all right, you know, having the birds and the bees talk maybe. I think it's still all pretty bad. Yeah, I get it, but I know what you're saying. But I think this is actually the worst one. Yeah, I see what you're saying. If we're going to, you know, go country to rank them. It's capital and we're drawing the line. This would be the one you really, yeah, that's a dicey one. But I'm just telling you right now, somebody that did it very quickly.
Starting point is 01:13:41 If you're in college and you listen to this. Try to avoid the scenario with every ounce of your being. Try to figure out a way to not be the person that moves on. I get rent and saving money and the student loans and all that stuff. It's not everything. I... I... I...
Starting point is 01:14:00 Default isn't a terrible option on the student loan. People come back from bankruptcy all the time. Right, yeah. I mean, early on, the Perkins loan, they're like, ah, all right, don't worry about it. Is bankruptcy sneaky underrated? I wouldn't go that far, but I'd be calling to defer all this shit to avoid this, because I had to move home
Starting point is 01:14:20 after I finally was done, done, because I just thought it was something that I needed to do. And I was home. I think I was there three months and I went, you've got to be fucking kidding me. I'm like, I'll go back to my dumpy apartment with no life and no prospects. And at least I won't be at my parents' house.
Starting point is 01:14:39 And that is, if I show up, if I'm a freshman getting ready like this summer, you know, you get in there three days early orientation, hey, what's going on there'm a freshman getting ready, like this summer, you know, you get in there three days early orientation, hey, what's going on there? Oh, cool, I have this hat. I'm a hat guy back home. This is my hat.
Starting point is 01:14:53 Like I stand apart from everybody else, even though we're all looking the same. You should be like, I have a four year plan and it's to never move home ever again. But some of you want to and the finances of it, I get it. And some people actually really love their parents on a heavy, heavy intimate level, which I never aspire to. Okay, let's stay with the parenting one. Can you parent your parents? All right, another one. See, we tricked everybody. Because there's just so many people who get upset whenever we do parenting stuff. And now we're actually doing it the other way around. I
Starting point is 01:15:27 guess that we're qualified for. Yeah, right. Me too. I think all three of us actually. Good day, Ryan, Steve and Kyle. I've been listening since the jump show. It gets me through a stressful job. See below. Don't read. Okay. Oh, yeah. Stressful job. Won't share. 6,3, 280. Thick. But he carries it well though. Just getting back into the gym stats are TBD goals are high though. Current exercise regime weekly basketball game. My basketball comp is Minnesota Kevin Love a better number three than a number one. I rebound and throw sweet outlet passes and should probably work myself in a better shape. I grew up never seeing my parents together the split before my memory fully developed. Oh, wait, they split up right before my memory fully
Starting point is 01:16:09 developed. When you give me a full, give me your first memory, fully developed memory. Yeah, I think like kindergarten at four getting yelled at, but four. Yeah, I was afraid because you were so advanced. No, it was just, it was a November birthday. So it was just like, No, it was just a November birthday. So it was just like a free daycare. I think they're like, he's November. They're like, you could wait and they're like, fuck that. We both got jobs.
Starting point is 01:16:33 So I think I remember being yelled at by kindergarten teacher. I think I was like hiding under a table not wanting to go to kindergarten. I think that was one of my some hot start. But yeah, that was one of my first memories. I had a weird check. Like she's experienced too, I remember. Like the Mad men ad. What do you mean?
Starting point is 01:16:50 When he's the chair. No, no, I don't. I haven't seen that man. I know I'm sorry. You've never seen it. Yeah, I dropped the ball. I don't know. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't like to admit that.
Starting point is 01:17:00 But yeah, it's too bad because when the show's on now, you can never see it doesn't exist anywhere. So it's too bad you missed it. True. You're right. I just I did We shouldn't even get into the shows that I've missed because you guys we just get mad so just move fast Knowing you though and how much you love Chalamet. I can't believe you haven't watched Mad Men just dapper motherfuckers left and right So did you read that poem to Chalamet? Sorry the one from what was it Josh Brolin, right? Yeah. I did not something I would subscribe to, but hey,
Starting point is 01:17:30 he's comfortable. His own skin writing poems about, you know, it's coworkers. That's kind of weird, but I wouldn't do it, but happy for him. Hey, man, actors just seeing the world different. I like him too. I like Brolin a lot, anyway. Yeah, I just remember a green turtle pool front yard,'s house very early though, very early. Didn't have a shirt on then.
Starting point is 01:17:50 Alright, so. Alright, I like he said grew up never seeing my parents together split before memory fully developed. I'm told it wasn't the healthy relationships. However, they were great parents. They were always amicable with each other and raised me into an all right human who's now a husband and father recently 30 years later. They both got out of long term relationships and got back together 30 year break. No one, no one's going to go wrong. Sounds like every divorced family's child's dream, right? That one's, that one's a little more rare. That one's a little more rare. I worry the rekindling of an old flame as
Starting point is 01:18:27 a result of two people who were hurt using each other as a familiar crutch. And once the haze clears and might go south, I've tried to explain jumping into anything too serious too soon will only result in pain. They act like everybody's hunky dory is if the last 30 years didn't happen. So much so they didn't bother to tell me they were back together knowing I was going to figure it out. Also, when I try to talk with them, they dismiss me as if I'm the child telling his parents what to do, which is true, I guess, and tell me I'm not rooting for them. It's made
Starting point is 01:18:53 things strange as they have basically asked me to be more supportive while acting uncomfortable around me. I eat my dad removed the army had around my mom's shoulder when they walked into a room. I said aloud that made it weird. I honestly am indifferent to the situation. I just feel like I know how the movie ends and want to press pause. Am I the asshole for just not being glad my mom and dad are back together? Thanks for the advice. Alright, so if we're talking about them breaking up before memory fully developed, so I this guy we're gonna pin this guy mid 30s right mid 30s. Yeah,
Starting point is 01:19:22 yeah, you're married. You're a father now. I think there's always going to be hesitation. Like if, look, everybody has to do this at some point. If your parents are older, you're going to have to, hey, you can't do this, you know, if you're going to go here, make somebody so goes with you, hey, we get to start talking about whether or not you should be driving at night, and then maybe it's driving ever. And then you're going to have some really, really tough conversations. And, you know, those aren't fun, but it's just a part of life, right? The cycle of life and all those things that have to go on. This isn't really one of those. I don't know, like, I can't say
Starting point is 01:19:57 I because I don't want to sound dismissive of it like why would you care? But that's kind of where I feel like I'm going with it. Like if they want to be back together and you know, look man, think how lonely it can get at that age, you know? Friends, how often are people seeing each other in their friend groups? Like guys have a hard enough time in the 30s and 40s,
Starting point is 01:20:19 like just 50, 60, it's not going to happen. There's obviously a common ground there and maybe it can feel a little forced, and maybe it goes right, but if it goes south, let it go south on its own. And for you to say, like, hey, this is every divorced kid's dream, yeah, it was a dream when you're like 10, you know, or eight or 15 or in college or however many times you may have had it happen to you. And then you get a little bit older and you're kind of like, well, I don't really care one way or the other. So it's, you know, look, I get it.
Starting point is 01:20:52 You're, you're seeing something you never actually really experienced. So it's a little awkward for you. Uh, if you're telling him that you're indifferent to this whole thing, and if it fails, let it fail on its own. And that's on them, but it's really not changing anything in your day to day is if you were a child or a teenager, like them being together, them being apart, isn't going to impact you the same way it would have impacted any of us when we were younger and our parents split up. So I would just roll with it, man, on this one.
Starting point is 01:21:19 And I can understand a parent being like, dude, this isn't really up to you. And and I think that's, I know that's how I would be. I'd be like, hey, there's a certain age where I'm not gonna listen to you. And it's probably starts with a four. I mean, it's like a whiff of him treating his parents like teenagers, right? Like, oh, just don't do this.
Starting point is 01:21:41 You already went through this breakup. It's like you come back home from college. Like you're dating him again. Didn't he just call the house a year ago crying? Like, don't do this. You already went through this breakup. It's like you come back home from college, like you're dating him again, didn't he just call the house a year ago crying? Like don't do this. Like you're treating them like they're teenagers and you know best and you really don't, right? And then the other thing is it doesn't sound like
Starting point is 01:21:55 they're shoving it in everyone's face. And you said they're acting honky-dory. Was that your quote? But like he's saying that like they're acting like nothing happened. It's like, well, not true, right? Because like, he's saying that like they're acting like nothing happened. It's like, well, not true, right? Because they didn't rush to tell you. And like, it sounds like they're actually taking it slow
Starting point is 01:22:10 and feeling this out. So I think you're just off the top of the dome thinking, this is weird, I don't like it, I'm out. But I don't know if you're actually really looking at some of the signs here is like, they're not like all over each other. And they're like, I don't even know have they moved in with each other.
Starting point is 01:22:23 Like, I don't know. Like they have two separate lives, right? So I think, I think they're probably taking it slower than you think. It's all fast to you because you've never seen these people together and can only imagine what it looks like. And so, hey, I think, I think they're probably being a little more responsible about it than you're giving them credit for it. But I think it's, you're just too close. You got to zoom out a little bit. I hate to disagree with you, but I, the way I read it was, I kind of feel like they didn't tell you because they know what your reaction is going
Starting point is 01:22:50 to be and that you probably wouldn't approve. And that maybe other people also don't think it's a good idea. And so they're just kind of trying to keep it under wraps. Now I, I've seen circumstances where like when, when people get older and things happen to their spouse, whether, you know, it's a divorce or whatever, anything happens in life and you have somebody who's newly single. Like, yeah, you said, Ryan, like it sucks to be lonely at that age in your life and your 50s and 60s and you're like, man, like this is how I'm going to see out the rest of my
Starting point is 01:23:15 days. So I usually try to look at this as like, you know, with a, with like a kind eye of like, hey, even though I don't think this is the greatest idea in the world, like people need companionship, like they need to be with someone. So I think you need to cut your parents in slack because they need, well, sorry, except for not everybody, but most people, but I think, especially people that have been in relationships, Ryan, like, I mean, obviously, you know, like if you've been with somebody for so long, and all of a sudden you're single, it's like, Oh, this is the only life I know. So maybe they want
Starting point is 01:23:41 to get back together because they want to rekindle whatever thing that they have that they feel like they lost and their days are obviously are numbered as they get older. But I do think it is a little bit telling that they didn't want to tell you because I feel like that's kind of a tell that maybe they also don't, other people don't think it's a good idea and they're just kind of trying to kind of walk on eggshells around everybody. Sometimes parents don't like to overshare though. That's the thing. Like even if you're even if this happened, some do. See, when you're a kid. That's right. Even, but Like even if you're, even if this happened- Some do.
Starting point is 01:24:05 When you're a kid. When you're a kid. Yeah, that's right. Even, but like even when you're a kid, if they're dating a new guy, it's not like, here, come meet my kid. I know this is not the same thing, but it's just like, they're not broadcasting everything they're thinking. So that's why I'm saying this could also just be like, hey, let's just figure this out.
Starting point is 01:24:19 Obviously, we like what's going on. We like where we're going, but let's not just tell everyone. That could be that too. That could be actually responsible. So I would just say- I don't think you have any, I don't think you're wrong to not be pumped about it though Like they let it don't be like a you know your parents a home record for your parents here and just like you know Be a stake in the middle of the two of these I mean clearly he shares with us more of his pessimism pessimism towards the whole thing
Starting point is 01:24:42 I'm sorry, I jumped you there a bit so finish your no you're you're good. I was just gonna say, don't be the guy that like breaks them up. But like, let as you said, run, let it happen naturally. If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. Yeah, that's my biggest like dividing line of all this, I understand all your concerns. It's still sort of weird. It's not really even anything you experience. So it's not the happy ending at the end of the 90 minutes where hey, my parents go back together. And this is awesome, because you didn't really even know what that was like.
Starting point is 01:25:06 But I think the downside of this is far less impactful because of your age and your priorities and where you're at in your life than the downside would normally be for a kid going through this. Even though if sometimes, you know, the initial downside part of it, you know, this becomes a debate on the whole thing. Do you want your parents to stay together when they probably shouldn't? Because that's worse than them breaking up. Okay, that is life advice. Make sure you send in your emails, life advice, rrgmail.com. Thanks to Brian on the show today. Suri, Kyle, Ryan,
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