The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NBA Blowout Theories, NFL Wild-Card Picks With Sheil Kapadia and the Belichick-Mayo Succession With Tom Curran

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Russillo starts the show by digging into why the NBA has so many blowouts right now (0:37). Then, he’s joined by The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia to break down all six wild-card matchups (20:46) before welcoming in NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran to discuss the Patriots' decision to move on from Bill Belichick, hiring Jerod Mayo, and what happens next in New England (46:19). Plus, Life Advice! Is it OK to only want to date younger women (63:13)? The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Sheil Kapadia and Tom Curran Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

packed podcast for you today we start with the nba blowouts what's going on is this more do we have theories nba sources have reached out i will share those quotes with you we pick every wild card game a stat and a storyline with shield kapadia and the final days of Bill Belichick as the head coach of the New England Patriots and what's next for him and who is Gerard Mayo as a head coach. Tom Curran, my guy back in Boston, has all of the details and life advice. Enjoy your Friday. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping,

total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Can I interest you in an NBA blowout? Because I have a lot of choices from the menu. So, you know, I'm going into last night's games. There was some, some stuff where I'm like, okay, we may learn some stuff here. This would be interesting. And then the bucks are up 75, 38 in the Celtics, the half apparently, and this was TNT's number, that deficit for Boston was their worst first half deficit since 1967. So I know that I resist a lot of the back-to-back stuff because I just get so sick of hearing about like a team loses and you go, oh, well, it was back-to-back-to-back. And you're like, okay, as if no team has ever lost or ever won a back to back. Right. Um, so I think that there's a

really good Milwaukee part of it where you go, okay, how many teams could have done that to Boston in the NBA, even with the back to back stuff in Minnesota and overtime the night before, like that's a really short list. And for Milwaukee who, despite the really good record in the seed, um, they are in that group of a team that we have expectations to be like, can this team win a title? But then we look at the rotations, we look at the defense, and there's stuff with Milwaukee. You're like, man, I don't like that number, or that's a little weird, or what's going on there? Although I would say Middleton, who on the perimeter didn't look great in the first matchup against Boston, I thought he just looks better. He looks better

physically. I thought he was holding up in some of the possessions that actually still mattered before this game was an 18-point blowout in the first quarter. I would look at Jackson and Marchand as real rotational pieces that are just different players in a good way so that maybe Milwaukee has a little bit more there. But when the first line of defense goes from Drew Holiday to Dane Lillard, your defensive numbers are going to struggle. But maybe the way this game is played now, it might not really matter if you're that horrified with the Lillard-Yannis matchup on one side and the way both can kind of initiate the offense.

So there's a positive there, even if there's a lot of people that want to look at the result and just be so dismissive of it. And of course, if you go back to not even a year ago, when you had a regular season matchup with Boston last year, they played three games. Boston won two of the three. It was a win by Boston with no Middleton in the first one. It was the overtime win by Milwaukee when Boston was playing Blake Griffin, Hauser, Muscala, Derek White, and Grant as the starters. And you're like, what's going on here? Like, why did this? But it's kind of the Doc Rivers rule, right?

Where Doc Rivers has always said, I'd rather have everybody play than nobody play because your team will just kind of mail it in. So then you had the last regular season matchup where Boston destroys them on March 30th, 140 to 89. But Milwaukee was coming off of a back-to-back where they did travel a 149, 136 win against the Pacers. It was five and seven nights, just like Boston last night was five games and seven nights on the back-to-back on a travel there. If you want to go the Boston side of it, you're like, okay, yeah. But in the back-to-back

on March 30th of last year, Giannis Lopez and Drew played 32-31 in 32 minutes, and then the Boston guys in overtime against Minnesota on Wednesday, Tatum played 42, Brown 43, White 43, Drew 40 minutes. You can't completely dismiss it from the five and seven nights, from the five and seven nights, but I don't really want to do that. I think the result is real in the sense that, okay, Milwaukee has something to point to. Milwaukee has a bit of their own wake-up call. While I don't wake up this morning or look at those games last night thinking simultaneously like, oh no, what's wrong with Boston? I think we all know what's wrong with Boston if it doesn't work out for them. Some those late possessions i've dug in some of the isolation things are there too many times where they settle do they not play as connected as you'd want them to but then i

watch minnesota's offense with a night another you know campaign as a title contending team and look at their offense late and go okay hard, hard double teams on Anthony Edwards, couple turnovers there late. What are they doing to unlock their offense? I think it can be both things. It is not a write-off of Boston getting smashed like that, but a reminder of maybe what Milwaukee is capable of. But there's a bigger thing going on, and that is just the blowouts in general. I have a bunch of numbers for you. So you're going to have to bear with me to get to the end of this, because I also reached out to a bunch of different NBA sources last night, just whether it was front office, coaching staff guys, where I go, okay, look, it feels like the eye test is telling us now we're having more blowouts than ever.

Do you have any theories? And so I've got a bunch of quotes that I'm going to read from guys that I was texting with last night because last night got really ugly. I mean, Oklahoma City beat Portland. The final score in that one was 139-77, which ties for the fifth largest margin of victory. Then you had Phoenix and LA. I mean, granted, that's not historically, but it's like, okay, so if we're all watching these games every single night and we're seeing these scores, like, is there something that actually is going on that's a little bit different? So before we get to the theories that are sourced, let's get through where we're at offensively.

The top eight offensive ratings in league history are all the last eight seasons. Okay. Offensive rating is points per 100 possessions. Three years ago, it was 112. This year, it is an all-time record of 115.7 points per 100 possessions. For context, the best Suns team during the seven seconds or less run, their best offensive rating was 110.2, which would be the 26th best offense in today's NBA. Let's look at pace, which is an estimate of possessions per 48 minutes.

It's always a little weird because it peaked in the 70s, but it didn't start tracking until 73, 74. If you watch old films prior to that, going back even further, it was just absurd the way they played. They dribbled it up, they shot, and they didn't make it. And they just kept doing it over and over again. So the pace is even higher then. But pace has been around this 100 number about the last six years, which is a significant jump from about 10 years ago, where the pace averaged about 90 possessions per 48 minutes. 23-24 is the 14th best field goal percentage league-wide. So this year, if you look at the shooting numbers, this is the 14th best shooting percentage season we have had tracking like 72 years of it,

maybe 74 years of it, okay? It's about the same number as last year. The other top 12. So if you go say last year and this year of 13 and 14, the top 12 shooting seasons, all time in NBA history are all the seventies or eighties with one of those 80 seasons being in 89, 90 year. So, okay. The shooting is better historically this year. Like That's a pretty big number if all the other years were 40 to 30 years ago. But you're telling me that with more three-point attempts that this season has a really good field goal percentage number. Because if we look at the

three-point attempts league-wide per team, the league has basically peaked around 35 three-point attempts per game per team over the course of a season. It's flattened a bit, but that's kind of where we've been the last couple of years. So now you're taking a more difficult shot that traditionally is a lower percentage, about 36% from three league-wide. percentage, about 36% from three league wide. And you're telling me that in this year and last year, you have a much better overall field goal percentage historically. Like that tells you that the shot making is just that much better, which I think all of us would agree. The eye test tells us there's more players on the floor that can make more and more difficult shots as the evolution of the game is getting better and better. So for the 23-24 season to have the 12th best field goal percentage season, 12th or 13th, with 73 point attempts per game,

this is real, right? The shot making part of this is real. I have one more thought on free throws because I believe the free throw problem is real, but there's really not any numbers that tell me that it's as much of a problem as I think it is when I'm sitting at home on the couch. The numbers don't back up what I think is a free throw issue. The free throw attempts per game for 23-24 is 72nd all time. There's a lot more free throw data if you look back at it historically. But if you look at having more threes, that's of course going to equal less attempts to be fouled on. I think that's pretty easy to understand. The other part of it is I go, well, maybe it's that the high usage players are getting more free throw attempts. So because we have more

high usage players, it just means more free throw attempts. It doesn't mean necessarily players are getting more calls. It just means, well, no, they're getting more calls because they have the ball more and more. And I think what happened about six or seven years ago is some of the smarter analytic teams just looked at it and said, well, look, if this certain player has the ball and this is what he scores points per possession, why are we having him have the ball less? I just think there's a separation between that being something you can work and bank on in the playoffs versus it being a lot

easier in the regular season. So my free throw theories, it's hard to find a number where I feel like it backs up what I'm seeing. And I've read a lot of stuff that tells you this actually isn't any different. And there's other seasons where the free throw rates were way beyond what we're seeing now. If you go back 20 years ago, and I had this line where it was like, how many players are taking seven free throw attempts or more per game? 20 years ago, it was eight. 10 years ago, it was nine. This year, it's 16. That doesn't really mean all that much. It could just be personally for me, it could be the handful of players that just pissed me off every night with the way they're officiated which makes me think that free throw rate for those

players is still kind of absurd watching the Atlanta Philly overtime game and how that played out where Trey Young drove in a Tyrese Maxey and got the call and fouled Maxey out a call I just don't think should exist where the offensive player initiates all of that contact and we just give them the foul every single time I didn't have much sympathy for Sixers fans specifically on Maxie in that play because it's the same fucking thing that he does all the time. Trey right now, who is now the headliner now that Harden just doesn't take as many free throws, Trey is the headliner, the poster boy for this. As great as he is, probably the best lob threat in the entire league. He's fascinating.

He's incredibly talented. Ice water in his veins in playoff moments. I'll sign up for all of it. But the free throw part of it, he's going to very quickly here, for players who played in 400 games, he will average 7.8 free throw attempts per game, which is going to be 21st all-time. Kobe was at 7.4. Jordan was at 8.2. Embiid, by the way, is third all-time with 10 free throw attempts per game, which is going to be 21st all-time. Kobe was at 7.4. Jordan was at 8.2. Embiid, by the way, is third all-time with 10 free throw attempts per game behind Wilton, another old timer. So it may be more about what I'm seeing and what I don't like with a very small select group of players, even if I just feel like there's some nights where you just get a whistle where it's like you're giving the offensive player literally everything. So now that I've given you the kind of an update of where we're at offensively, it's okay. So what does that mean about the actual blowouts? So let's go

through some source stuff here. Here's one advanced scout, his quote, I think you're seeing more effort game to game, and if you don't bring it every night right now, it shows and you get blown out. Sounds simple, but that's what I see. Also, coaches seem quick to go to subs, deep bench when they get down, say, 20, which normally doesn't happen. Some coaches even go with bench guys

and start second half, which rarely used to happen. We saw that last night with Boston. Here's a coach. I asked him why so many blowouts. His theory, quote, X and O's wise, I think it's all tied to the offense this season. Teams are in rhythm and making shots at an all-time high. I've seen bad shooting teams have hot nights and they're able to score 120, 130. Overall, I think as tight as the standings are, teams are hitting the dog days of the season, and during this time of year, there's usually inconsistency.

Trade rumors and coaching change narratives are starting to swirl. Connectivity is being tested, and because tensions are at an all-time high during this time of year, teams are either pressing or relaxing, which creates inconsistency. Teams seem to be riding the roller coaster. Okay, good stuff there. This is another scout with a front office. His quote, my two theories are, one, teams players know they need to play a certain amount

of games now, so the corpses come out and take the tip. And once the game remotely starts getting away, it's easy excuse to give guys a night off without actually doing so. Second theory, talent gap between haves and have-nots is greater than it's been in years, so bad teams are going to look even worse. That second part may be becoming true here. When I look at Portland, I see a couple of guys in their rotation that are playing that I don't think would play in the Pistons rotation. The Pistons record is abysmal. I still think that team sweeps the hinky Sixers.

Neither team would be in the playoffs. I think we've had. I don't know that we have more bad teams. I think we have still some more talented stuff, but clearly the offensive theories or the first part of that quote being like, we may just see people waving the white flag more than we've ever seen it before, but it's harder to find the data that totally backs that up. Here's another front office member. His quote, as three-point volume, the biggest one, pace scoring increased league-wide, the way it's, as some of this is actually pretty predictable. Inevitably, there will be nights where some teams make a bunch of shots and some teams

miss a bunch of shots. And on a night when both things could happen, it could lead to pretty catastrophic score outcomes. Quote, shooting luck is the worst thing you can say to explain a game because it's so ambiguous, but it's more of a driver of results than people realize. All teams have some sort of given the shots taken that was supposed to happen. Again, shot quality, how well did you, you'll hear it. Your coach, you know, your favorite teams, like, hey, we like the looks tonight.

I know you never want to hear it, but that's exactly what this guy's saying. His quote continues. Everybody has that in the postgame model, and I bet a lot of these blowouts were expected to be closer than they were. It's harder to have crazy blowouts when every game is 101 to 90. The sheer scoring volume by teams is going to lead to crazy lopsided outcomes. So that's the reason I went through

all that offensive stuff, because that quote connects to what I was talking about. When you have some of the best shooting seasons with a three-point run and a jump from pace pretty significantly from 10 years ago that when you're adding that all together you're like when it gets real sideways in some of these

games that might be why we're seeing more blowouts um here's a here's a coach because i really like this and then i'll read one more after this his quote, I think it's a combo of pace, threes, pro-offensive officiating, and how most teams are built. Two to three offensive focal points with non-scoring role players around them. When a guy is hurt or doesn't have it going, teams can have a really hard time scoring. The travel this year has been worse than usual because of the in-season tournament. Offensive rating is also an all-time high, so guessing that leads to higher probability of catching some extreme hot streaks from teams. So he mentioned the in-season tournament, which I'm not going to read every single

quote that I got last night because some of it doubles up. The off-season tournament was pointed to a few times, and one of my rules is what? When something's different, that becomes the excuse of why we think we're seeing the things that we're seeing. So if you look at some of the numbers that we have, and we look this up, we're seeing from the first in-season tournament Friday, So we're seeing from the first in-season tournament Friday, there was a 10-year record on number of close games from which is about 20 to 25 additional blowouts over the course of the season so far compared to last season. So not 20 to 25 total over the course of the season, 20 to 25 more blowouts than where we were at this time of the season in comparison to last year.

So that is a real thing. What we are seeing, I believe with that number is backing it up, but there's also a very important part to add to that. I believe with that number, is backing it up. But there's also a very important part to add to that. Does that mean that's what we're going to see now for the rest of the season? Or are we just in this really weird stretch of 60 plus days where certain nights you're throwing it on and you're going, what the hell happened to the league pass that I thought I knew? There's just not enough data here to say that this is what it is and what it will be moving forward. I just thought that was really interesting to share a lot of that stuff. But I think the main thing we could all agree on is the offense

having never been better than it is right now, leading to just games where it gets absurd because the shot making is the best we've ever seen. When it comes to the NFL playoffs, you've got to win one game at a time. But when you bet the NFL playoffs on FanDuel, one game can mean a lot of wins. FanDuel, America's number one sports book, has all your favorite bets like the money line and the spread, plus all sorts of prop bets. Okay, I'm going to share a prop bet I wouldn't do, and then I'm just going to give you my straight bet. I'll give you the straight bet first.

I know no one likes Philadelphia anymore, but I just don't think Tampa's all that good. I'm giving the Eagles, giving up three here, so minus three at Tampa for your last playoff game of the weekend. That Green Bay-Dallas thing is tempting, but now it's at seven. It was at seven and a half before. I don't know what you do with Miami and Kansas City with that weather. That number is still pretty high at a total of 43 and a half with that weather. Although I just do wonder, there was this one hurricane, I remember one year, and it was like, man, this is the end

of days. It was just a little windy. I don't know if that's what's going to happen to us with some of these projections of how cold that game's actually going to be. I just don't know that I'd want to get into the nine and a half points range with Pittsburgh and Buffalo. I like how Sheil earlier was talking about, look, take the nine and a half because of Buffalo making mistakes, even if they pull this thing off. But I'm going with Philadelphia as a bit of a momentum zag of how they've closed the season and looking at Tampa as a team that, again, in a better division, we're not even talking about them as a playoff winner. One prop that I don't love, CJ Stroud and Mahomes to combine for over 550 passing yards. It's plus 260 right now, so you bet 10 bucks to win 26. I don't know how you take the over until you actually see what the weather is going to look

like. So I know that one's tempting. Hey, two guys, 550 yards. That shouldn't be hard to do with Mahomes in there. It might be damn near impossible until we actually see what it looks like and kick off against the Dolphins. So right now, every day, there's an NFL playoff game. FanDuel is giving all customers a no sweat,weat same-game parlay. That means when you combine all your bets for a chance at a bigger payday, you'll get bonus bets back if your same-game parlay doesn't win. Just visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N, if you don't already have an account. Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL.

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We got six games, and I want to break them all down with a bit of a gimmick here, a stat that we like from this and a storyline that could develop out of it from the Ringers NFL coverage. Shil Kapadiaia on the podcast again thanks for doing this man i'm i'm looking forward to it yeah absolutely six games uh a lot of storylines we'll get to them i like it okay so cleveland houston um let's see here i've got a joe flacco stat for you a nine-year playoff gap between starts second longest in nfl. Flutie was 12 years. He's won four of his last five starts. Four of those starts, he had a QBR of 58 or lower. He's been a turnover machine. And I feel like when you look back at his Super Bowl run, which is,

you know, no one's expecting that. His QB rating, he turned into Joe Montana for four weeks. It was an average of 117 in that playoff run, which is not who he was in the playoffs. It's not who he was before. It's not who he was after. And I remember having to do the radio show with Van Pelt. He's like, can you finally admit you were wrong about Flacco? I was like, I kind of still don't want to. But man, that was a really good month here. It's going up against a rookie QB in Stroud, which I really wouldn't want

to do and pick the rookie QB against this Cleveland defense. But that's my Flacco number. And the Flacco storyline will be unavoidable with some of the absurd questions we'll start asking about what he's capable of doing, knowing that it was a fluke 10 years ago when he did it. Yeah. And this is like such a different way he's playing than at least what I remember from Joe Flacco was like, all right, this is like the most boring quarterback in the NFL. And now he's just, you can see it on his face and the way he plays. He's like, I might never throw a football after this run. So I'm going out slinging it. I mean, he's throwing the football downfield

more than almost any quarterback in the NFL here. And the way the Browns are playing is different. I'm glad you gave those numbers at the top with Flacco because I do think there's this perception that they've turned into this like great offense with Flacco. That really hasn't been the case. If you isolate just like the Flacco starts, they've gotten to like that mediocre competent, you know, 15 to 20 range. This is still a team

that needs to win with its defense primarily. And then like Flacco go make some plays downfield, which he has done at a very high rate. So they kind of have a high variance offense where he'll make some mistakes, but he'll also make those explosive plays. And when your defense is this good, that's kind of a fine way to play. They've won a lot of games doing that. So where are you on Stroud? Because he wasn't available to concussion on the earlier regular season matchup. So you sort of throw those numbers out and I'm, you know, maybe fluke sounds a little hard about that Flacco run because he did it and he did it for a month over that, but it's just not who he is. It's not who he's been as a quarterback. So maybe that's the best way that I could describe it. And then I don't think it has any relevance whatsoever to what's

about to happen here other than, okay, at least he's played in some of these games, even though it was a long time ago. Where are you with Stroud and basically one receiver going up against, and I know Denzel Ward had the injury issue this week in practice, but look, the corners are terrific. The line is terrific defensively. I have a hard time. His greatest drought has been, this game would have to get really weird. Granted, they're probably going to get a couple of turnovers with the way Flacco's played. I'm still leaning Cleveland because of the defense and because I think just the overwhelming matchup of the throws down the field because Cleveland has a secondary to do it. Yeah, you nailed it. My number was just Stroud against man coverage this year is 27 among starters. And I don't think that's a reflection of Stroud. I love Stroud. I think if they win this game, that'll be the storyline. It'll be like, well, what quarterbacks would you not trade, you know, for CJ Stroud straight

up for right now? I think he's going to be awesome for years to come. But the matchup here is what concerns me for Houston. Like they just, Nico Collins has been terrific, but they just don't have that firepower to match up with these Browns corners. Like the Browns are not a team that tries to disguise and scare you. They're kind of like, we're in your face. We're going to play man coverage

where the whole league has shifted to more zone. They're like, we're going to be a man-heavy team and our front four is going to win with our pass rush. And like, I think that's a pretty good way to play against this Texans team. So I think the matchup favors the Browns. I like the Browns in this game. I think they're two and a half point favorites

as we record this. But man, if Stroud comes out and just like, I'm putting the team on my back and I'm throwing for 300 against the top three defense in the NFL, I do think that'll be one of the bigger storylines out of the weekend. Okay. So that's your storyline. I think that's really good because you do the trade value part of it. It would be even Stroud getting one, and then the second game could be a disaster, but getting a win your rookie year in the playoffs, then it'll start becoming like, I'll be looking forward to Sandoz QB tiers and like how high will Stroud be at the beginning of next year? I think that's a really

good storyline. All right. Miami at Kansas city, give us your number and then give you your storyline. And then I'll jump in after. All right. My number is the chiefs are 27th against the run. If you look at the advanced stuff like, like DVO way. And so we look at this game and we say dolphins, warm weather team, go into Kansas city where it's going to be what my minus five degrees or something absurd there, uh, Saturday night and dolphins also unproven really against every playoff team, except for the Cowboys. They have not performed well, but I give the Dolphins more of a chance, I think in this game than most people, because they can run the football. It's not that power running game that, you know, we grew up with it's it's built on speed. It's built on the scheme and the motion

and all this stuff that Mike McDaniel does, but they've been a very efficient running team all season long. So I know we'll get to the storyline and I'm sure Tua is going to factor in there. But to me, this is about, can the Dolphins run the ball efficiently? Can they kind of shrink the game and limit the number of possessions Patrick Mahomes has?

Because on paper, you would say yes, there's a top five running team against the bottom five rushing defense. So that's when I've got my eye on. I think Raheem Mostert is questionable for this game, but they still have A-Chan who has been terrific for them.

Very explosive runner. So it shouldn't be the type of game where you say the Dolphins can go in there and their style of play can work. But I actually think that that's underrated, that maybe it can.

So this is Kansas City's 14th straight home playoff game, which is absurd. Their defense, opponents' points per drive, is third in the NFL this year, behind only Baltimore and Cleveland. The previous best number this defense has had with Mahomes during this run is 13th in opponents points per drive. So this defense is real. We all understand that. And it's, it's just so funny because if Mahomes wasn't Mahomes, you'd be like, you know, he's doing just enough to win some games. He plays, he's complimentary of this defense, but it's just, wait, this is the dude who we could say at the end of this is the best that's ever done it. And when it doesn't look that way and you can get on him a little bit,

cause all those loose throws that we always love when they don't work out, it's like, oh, is he getting a little too loose? But the receivers are a big part of this, whether it's the drops and then the drops or tips leading to just disastrous turnovers on top of everything everything else. I wish Miami had a healthier defense. It's pretty slim, but even with their depth at the edge, when you look at the depth chart now, you're like, all right, there's still a possibility here. But I think the storyline from all of this is going to be, we may get a result where we're going to say, oh, Mahomes is back. Here we go. It's the playoffs. Or it's everybody doubted Tua. He went into Kansas City with this weather. We're going to get a result where one of these quarterbacks wins, where we're definitely going to overstate what it means because this

could be just a really odd outcome game because of that weather. It could be the dumbest game ever. The wrong team could win based on what the 60 minutes look like. This game may actually mean nothing, but we won't treat it that way when weather could essentially be the biggest factor in giving us just a completely different version of what we're used to seeing for three hours. Yeah, you gave the narratives are right for the team that wins. I mean, you nailed it with Tua and Mahomes. And then for the team that loses, like if the Dolphins lose this game right now, Dolphins were one in five with a minus 91 point differential against playoff teams in the regular season. The Commanders and the Giants were the only teams that had a worse point differential against playoff teams.

So if the Dolphins come out here and lay an egg, and you're right, it might just be a fluky game and it might be weather, but man, we are going to ask questions about was this team just, you know, was it fraudulent? Did they just beat up on bad teams and run the score up in September and October? They're putting up 70 points, but man, every time they got tested this year, they weren't the team that some people thought they were. So that's it from a Miami perspective. And from the Chiefs perspective, man, if you lose this game and I've just been saying all year, I sort of feel like the Chiefs have sabotaged Patrick Mahomes this year. I know what you're saying about, yeah, you can point to stuff on film. He's not. But it's like they've given him no reason to trust these receivers.

And I think it got to the point in week 13 or week 14 where he's probably looking at Andy Reid going, this was supposed to be solved by now. Like I went along with it. You guys told me these are young guys. We'll work with them. And I kept my cool, but it reaches a point where you get to December and he's looking around going, I can't trust any of these guys. And by the way, not only receivers, offensive tackle is not a strength for this football team either. So what you said earlier is right. The way Mahomes has had to play, they're not able to push the ball downfield. I still think, obviously, you know, I think he's the best quarterback in the NFL. I don't think this season is a reflection of him at all, but I think they got to take a hard look at this if they lose this round or really if they

lose next round too. Like, did we make some mistakes in building this thing or some of the things we thought we could get away with and how do we address that in the off season? So both of us taking Kansas city to home, I'm taking the dolphins and the points it's four and a half. I flip-flopped all week long. I feel like most people are on Kansas city. All the trends say Kansas city. I don't trust their offense. I'm thinking maybe Vic Fangio has some type of special game plan. I think the dolphins canins can run the ball. So this is one of those, I don't feel good about it. I'm going to be sitting here Saturday night and they might be down 21-0 at halftime and I'm going to go, what were you thinking, Sheil? But I'm taking the Dolphins and the points plus four and a half. Okay. I'm going to go quicker on this one. Pittsburgh at Buffalo. All right. Mason Rudolph

has three starts to close the season. The QBR numbers are 80, 71, and 69. No interceptions. Completion percentage over those three games, 63%, 75%, and then 18 to 20 for 90% against the Baltimore team that was not prioritizing that last game of the regular season. My storyline for this is that Allen has the most at stake as far as any of the QB perception stuff. And I know a lot of the storylines seem to be landing on the QBs. I almost find it unavoidable with this one. But if Allen continues the interception run that we saw with his 18 league leading interceptions of the season, a loss for him in this game against a Pittsburgh team that is not good. They're just in the playoffs. And I don't know that they're fixed with Mason Rudolph, although I still don't understand how you can have Rudolph in house and then think

Trubisky was the fix. But again, maybe they had Rudolph in house and they were just surprised by how this is closed. But Allen is the guy that's going to have the hardest loss week if that were what happens here of any quarterback in the playoff field. Yeah, my storyline is similar. It's kind of like, what now for the Bills? Not only with Josh Allen, but if they lose this game, they've had such a top seed. It feels like they've had four different seasons this year where we countered them out. I mean, this is a team where the head coach was mired in a 9-11 controversy like a month ago, and now they're the two seed in the AFC. I mean, it's been one of the most absurd seasons we've seen for an NFL team. So if they go out and they lose,

it's like, what moves do they have to make going into next year? Like, I don't think they're going to change the coach or the GM or anything like that, but you obviously have to shake something up because I know there's been this ongoing conversation about, is there window open?

Is it closed? We all thought, you know, again, middle of the season, it was like, that might be it for this bill's run and they need to have a version 2.0. So I think that conversation resurfaces if they lose this game. And then my number here, it's not a fancy one, but just

Bills are fourth and point differential this year. No team has beaten them by more than six points. Again, an absurd season where they're doing all sorts of stupid things. They nearly lost to Easton Stick, but they're in every single game this season and all kind of the advanced stats love them. And the Steelers are the opposite team.

I mean, they've had a minus 20 point differential, 21st in the NFL. Like you said, this has been a mediocre team, but Tomlin finds a way somehow and you might have some bad weather there as well. So how many times this year do you look up,

or even during this Tomlin run where it's like the fourth quarter and you're like, how is this team up by three points in this game? This could be one of those games with the weather and the amount of mistakes that the Bills make. Right, and with no T.J. Watt, this also changed. I mean, we're talking about somebody up for defensive player of the year here. So, all right, let's go to the NFC. It sounds like we both like Buffalo, unless you're doing some weird zag with Pittsburgh.

I'm taking the points with the Steelers just at 10. Buffalo makes so many mistakes, but yeah, I like Buffalo to win the game. All right, NFC. Green Bay at Dallas. Dallas' run D has been a topic of conversation all season long. Now, the funny thing is, if you really want to dig through the different stuff, if you go opponents yards per carry, which I think is a pretty standard thing to look at here, they're more middle of the pack than you would think. Because there's been times, speaking of the Buffalo matchup there, we were like, wow, that's great. I love what they did. Completely changed the game plan and just gashed them the whole game. But they're only 4 it's not a strength for them and then going up against green bay that's not something we're like oh how are you going to stop their rushing attack because jordan love is the story there but we know dallas has been two different teams home and away but the there's just rushing stats that would tell you that it's a little bit better although

not something you're excited about than maybe the eye test certain weeks where it felt like they were helpless. when he's off the field. I think there's a chance he comes back for this game, although I'm not positive. So, yeah, I think that has a lot to do with it. You're right about the Packers running the football in general.

When Aaron, since Aaron Jones has come back, though, it has been, you know, pretty impressive. I think he does give them a little bit of a boost. So I think if you're the Packers, that is a key here

because Packers defense versus Dak, that to me is a disaster. Like, I don't think they have any shot at slowing down Dak Prescott and that offense. So I do think you need to limit the number of possessions that the Cowboys have. You can do that with running the ball. You can do that with passing the ball efficiently, which Jordan Love has proven he can do. So I think it's got to be that kind of game for the Packers where it might not necessarily be a shootout. I think it

could be a shootout, but I think it has to be one of those where you look up and you say, wow, the Cowboys only had eight possessions in this game instead of 11. And you forced a turnover on a couple of them. And that's how you kind of stayed in the game. So I do think like the offense has to help the defense for Green Bay to win this game.

Storyline will also land too on Dak if they were to lose this one. It's asking a lot of a young team here. And as much as I've just enjoyed seeing Jordan Love be this guy in the second half of the season, we're still talking about a primarily offensive skill guys of like first and second year players, which, you know, to go on the road playoffs, who Dallas has been at home. But Dak was awesome this year. You know, when it's all said and done, you look at the full season and be like, okay, he is one of the better starting quarterbacks. Not saying he's perfect. Maybe he never cracks into that top five whole deal here, but the way Dallas operates, if they were to lose this as

a heavy favorite to Green Bay, this young team, I always feel like the Vrabel thing is a really good example. You can be disappointed, but don't be stupid. Getting rid of Vrabel was stupid. That was not a great roster over the years. I think they dramatically overachieved for the most part. I know the last couple of seasons were down. Nobody really liked that team going into this year. If Vrabel wanted to stay, it sounds like there are a lot of egos and all this different stuff going on.

I feel like the Titans did something just to feel like they needed to do it. I think it happens in football and college football. Oh, well, hey, do you like your coach? Yeah, we like him. He's a really good coach, but you know what? We just were disappointing. So we have to find somebody else. I don't know if that happens for McCarthy. It definitely shouldn't happen with Dak. I think we all need to kind of sit down and have some peace summit where all of us in content have to agree that like, look, Dak's pretty good. It's not the best, but it's not even after a loss,

it's not something you need to start questioning who he is. The easiest thing in the world is to take the best player in a basketball team or take the star quarterback and be like, you're never going to win it with this guy because the odds are in your favor that that's actually going to happen. But to start doing drastic overhaul type assessments of the Cowboys, as disappointing as this home loss would be. I think this year with CeeDee Lamb breaking out and becoming the star that he is, and Dak carrying this team without much of a rush offense, I just, you know, this is who you are, and you would just saddle up and see if you can do it again next year. You ended up being a two seed

when that felt like it was impossible halfway through the season. Yeah, I think for the reasons you laid out, and you're right, I mean, it'll always be Dak, quarterback, people, that is good for content. I think the more realistic conversation will be about Mike McCarthy. If they have a first-round exit once again under McCarthy, and you look at the coaching candidates that are out there, does Jerry Jones have that conversation? Is McCarthy definitely out? Is it something they look at or behind the scenes try to gauge somebody's interest out there who's in the coaching market? Where's McCarthy back? I mean, Cowboys last three seasons under McCarthy, 36 regular season wins. That's second to the Chiefs, which shocked me when I first looked

it up. It's more than Kyle Shanahan. That's more than the Eagles. That's more than the Bills. when I first looked it up. I guess more than Kyle Shanahan. That's more than the Eagles. That's more than the Bills. Like 36 regular season wins in three years. Like that's the sustained success that a lot of organizations are looking for. Now you have to win in the playoffs.

It's been what, 27 years since they've been out of the divisional round. And so I think this really feels like their best chance. I mean, Dak was awesome in the regular season, like legit top three MVP candidates. So they have a nice straw here. They're not going to have to face the 49ers until potentially the NFC championship. They're going to be at home where they've been so good this season. So it's almost one of those things where I could see you looking at it and go, if you lose here, like if it doesn't happen this year for them, where they at least make a little bit of a run, then when is it going to happen for them? So I think that's the biggest storyline. And then my stats on the other side, I mean, I, I love Jordan. Jordan loves been incredible. I mean, to be fourth, they're fourth in passing efficiency in the first year post Aaron Rogers with this supporting cast of all first in year, uh, first and second year players. Like that's been, uh, just incredible

to me. I think the Packers have a chance in this game. I like taking them with the points here. They're seven-point underdogs in this game. I could be regretting that because, again, I hate their defense. I don't like their special teams. But I've just been so impressed with Love the second half of the season, the last 10 games, that I think they have a chance to move the football and keep this game close.

I love the playoff drought stuff because it's a reminder of how hard this actually is. You can look at the Pats, you can look at Mahomes, the Eagles run of certain years, and then you're like, okay, so wait a minute. So Miami hasn't won a playoff game in two decades. Imagine going like, hey, Dave wants that Jay Fiedler. You guys win this game. And by the way, Dolphins fan, just so you know you're signing up for you're gonna go two plus decades and who knows how long it goes if they don't get the Kansas City one that's how long it's going to be before your next and you'll be like well no way like no there's no way that's going to happen um and it happens all the time Dallas

has had their ridiculous ones in the past um and then we have Detroit whose last playoff win was 1991, I believe. They hosted the game in 1993. So give me a number for this one and this matchup in the storyline. All right. I'm going under the radar. You know, Dak is good for content. Special teams talk is not good for content, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. Rams have the worst special teams in the NFL.

Not only the worst this year, but like a historically bad special teams there. They've had issues in the kicking game. They've had issues in coverage. They lost that Ravens game because they couldn't cover a punt. This has been an issue for them over and over and over again. And the Lions have pretty good special teams. So like I was going back and forth all week. Who am I going to pick in this game? I started out. I Who am I going to pick in this game? I started out. I said, I like the Rams in this game. Then I moved to the Lions because I just think this is a game where both offenses are going

to be able to move the football. I think it's going to come down to something very small and minor and under the radar. And I think that thing could be special teams in this game. I think the Lions have a big edge there. So we analyze everything with the quarterbacks and the defenses and everything else. But I think this could be one of those weird games where it could come down to someone making a play

in the kicking game, in the punt game or whatever. Opponents yards per play, Detroit is 26th worth of any of the playoff teams. But I'm picking Detroit in this one because I think what happened in the final week, Laporta gets the injury. The reports from this week was optimistic after some on-field stuff. And of course, when you're playing at the end of the season and the unlikeliness that they could actually go from the three seed to the two seed with the other things that had to happen

playing in that last game, I thought it was important that Campbell, and maybe this is just the meathead part of it, but the Dallas loss was so disappointing and golf wasn't good. I think Campbell's like, let's get a good one under our belt here. And there is still something, although the odds are against us to play for here, because look, if Detroit were to lose this one, then I think people are going to point to everybody playing, oh, Laporta was diminished and all this different stuff. But I get what Campbell wanted to do in that he didn't want the Dallas game to be the last game that these guys were thinking about as they were watching Week 18 play out. And Goff was really good.

We know the defense has been the story all season long with them. But if they were to lose, I think the storyline will be about the way Campbell managed it. When, in fact, I kind of agree with his approach of what he wanted to do to have just a good feeling for what's been an awesome season for a franchise that doesn't have many seasons like this. Okay, last one. Philly at Tampa. I'm taking Philly. There's no number that tells me that I should because of their defense. They've lost five of the last six.

They're 27th in turnover margin per game. Actually, Kansas City's 28th. They're 31st against third down, which you've been great on. They're 30th in opponents red zone touchdown percentage you know oddly last year they weren't great at either but I mean again when you're one of the three worst this is not the profile of a team that you expect to go into the playoffs but I think Tampa's nine and eight I think Baker has a rib injury I think the Baker stuff is really cool for him because statistically the last two years the last three stops he was

terrible but you're comparing this year to those terrible numbers where you're like, okay, he was all right. He was a bit of an answer. But if Tampa's in a halfway decent division, I think the entire Tampa product is looked at differently. But now they're hosting a game against a team that everybody feels is dead. That's why I like Philadelphia in this spot.

I'm on the other side. It might be that I'm too close to it and I've had to watch this Eagles defense over the past few weeks. I mean, they can't rush the passer. They can't cover. They can't stop the run. They can't get lined up right. It's a clear, it looks to me so clearly that it's players who don't know what's being asked of them by the coaching staff, this Eagles defense. Now you're right. That Bucs offense stunk last week. So like the Eagles are favored. I mean, Eagles absolutely could win this game,

but I just look at their defense and I'm like, that's not gonna feel right if I take the Eagles and have to watch that defense on Monday night against the Bucs. And then other side of the ball, thing to watch, number Bucs blitz at the third highest rate of any team in the NFL. This Eagles offense, the entire season, no answers against the Blitz.

You look at all of Jalen Hurts' numbers against the Blitz. They've got nothing. They don't do a good job with their scheme, with their coaching, and he hasn't done a good job against the Blitz this year. So that's something to keep an eye on. I think Todd Bowles is just going to be so aggressive, throwing guys at Jalen Hurts. And based on what we've seen, Eagles are not going to have an answer for that. So it's going to be so aggressive, throwing guys at jail and hurts. And based on what we've seen,

Eagles are not going to have an answer for that. So it's going to be an ugly game. I don't know, something dumb is going to happen, but I like the Bucs to win this game outright. All right, awesome stuff. Shio Kapadia, the ringer. He has all of his wildcard picks against the spread up right now on theringer.com. Tom Curran is a friend.

Tom Curran is an excellent reporter at NBC Sports Boston, a former colleague of mine, and he was all over the Belichick story. You know, they say, hey, you'd rather be right than first. Well, he was so first that people questioned whether or not he was right. Belichick, after 24 seasons out, you had tweeted months ago a decision had been made. Can you take us through the series of events of when you kind of had it, and then it felt like everybody kind of was on you because it felt like it was so early. I mean, it was just a weird time to have this story,

and then you had to kind of almost lay out for a bit to see how things played out. Yeah, you reached out to me the day after it kind of broke. I was, it was made very clear to me. I'll use the same verbiage I did. It was made very clear to me in the days after the loss to the Colts in Germany that the Patriots had made a decision to move on from Bill Belichick. He wouldn't be fired. There would be a mutual parting of the ways. That's not to say that the Patriots said, oh, we lost in Germany. We're done.

It had been building. And in being told that at that juncture, I understood, okay, well, there's eight games left or whatever there was at that time seven and a lot can happen even if a decision is made say Mac Jones goes on to throw for 400 yards and five games in a row and the team wins each one by 30 points well they might rethink it but it was indicated to me in very clear terms that the decision was made so as it played out, I felt honestly, as we sat there, Ryan, over the next three weeks until after the Pittsburgh win, and then the week where Bill was in the plaza, we're sitting there on set and they're like, well, did Bill save his job? Is Bill coming back? He beat Pittsburgh. Everybody loves him here. It was great. And I just

felt disingenuous to sit there and waffle and say, well, maybe this or that when I knew what the answer was. So I said, the decision has been made. They will part ways. Now, still at that point, there was time left on the clock, but as I stated, it was 28 to three. The opportunity for them to come, for him to change their minds was virtually impossible and as was borne out down the stretch. But the stretch. So that's where it came from. And I don't want to talk too long, but you understand. You've followed this team. You parse the words.

Robert Kraft walked Bill Belichick to the end of the plank in the offseason, right? Yeah, I want to hit on that because, you know, I'd heard it for years and look, it was, this wasn't a secret, uh, certainly locally that, you know, bill isn't always the easiest guy. And yet when you put together the greatest run, the sport has ever seen, like, you know, plenty of owners would sign up for that. Um, but they weren't going to do him any favors because of the relationship. They weren't, I don't think they were going to say, hey man, we owe you everything. You know, this is all going to be on your terms. If there was a better relationship between

Jonathan and Robert and Bill Belichick collectively, maybe this works out. Again, that's me assuming, like how much do you think the strained relationship had to do with them going, look, we're not delaying this any longer because it's very clear Bill still wants to coach. They needed to change the tenor of their organization as I think it was Peter King might have had. There's been a lot of stories, but Peter King said that when Pat Bowen moved on from, I believe it was Mike Shanahan, he wanted his franchise back. It might not have been Shanahan. Oh, Dan Reeves. He wanted his franchise back. And I think the Patriots, look, the Patriots will countenance eight and nine. We're nine and eight.

We're 10 and seven because of what Bill's done. Four and 13 is a bridge too far if he is going to be somebody who's extremely difficult to work with. And I think the 2022 decision, if you say, well, why didn't they give Bill more latitude? They gave him the latitude in 2022 to replace Josh McDaniels with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. And the answers that we got as media, my understanding is the owners were getting the same answers in the same tone. See how it goes. I mean, no, good coaches. That, to me, there was absolutely no bending of the knee or genuflecting or, hey, we're going to try this. We'll see how it works.

We don't know. Free selling of this might not work out. And the only, and I think Bill believed it would. So I think that the relationship 1 million percent enters into it. And I think of Robert Kraft, Brian, too. What is he most proud of? What does he trumpet most when he talks about his role? I kept those guys together, meaning Bill and Tom, and how difficult it was to toe the line with their relationship when both of them are coming at Robert to complain about the other, which I

think you're going to see in very full view shortly on that dynasty series that's coming out on Apple TV. Bill, you know, we know Bill, the GM, you know, didn't do Bill, the coach, any favors here. You know, I would go through, I remember just years and years ago, even still back, I think with Van Pelt, I was like, what's going on with the drafts? You know, it was like, what's, what's going on here? And it was like, have you guys been paying attention? And then it just continues and it's on and on and there's certain positions. And then, you know, because the draft hadn't worked out, he had all that cap space that year. And then I remember one year looking at it going like, wait, the Patriots have spent more money on tight ends and wide receivers. That cap number is the largest in the NFL. It's like, wait,

where are the guys? And then you throw in the Patricia thing for year two with Mac Jones, even though I may not have been in love with Mac. It's like, why would you be doing this? Then we had Sando on who does a really good job of sharing what NFL people are saying. And they were like, older coaches and they want to be able to recruit someone on the staff that understands them because they don't have to want to teach coaches how to coach. 100%. But then it just keeps happening. You're like, which is the decision that I'm supposed to point to here where I feel good

about it? And I guess the Mayo backup plan, as I had read and you've talked about, that the way this was aligned, it was like, hey, it's almost as if bill got jimmy in a way where it's like all right i have this jimmy garoppolo plan set the succession plan for brady um you could see that bill was doing it and brady resented the shit out of it and then but the different craft family right craft does it Mayo, and then Bill resents that, which I found kind of ironic. Yeah, and the thing is, but Bill never had a 28-3 moment the way Brady did. And Bill never was the MVP in 2017.

Instead, he went 4-13 with the chips pushed up into the middle of the table. Now, you could say, well, and this is, I think, the Patriots fans, you know them, very well-read, very critical thinkers in some cases, and they'll say, well, how helpful was it for Bill to know that his successor was in the building here on that side of the ball? Did that help? Well, shit, man, the defense was as good as anybody's in the NFL, and Mayo's running that.

It's not a, you know, he does the game planning. He's at the front of the room. Bill was over helping out with the offensive line. So it's Mayo and Steve Belichick is the play caller on game day, but it's kind of Mayo's defense, the same way it was Flores' defense, the same way it was Patricia's defense. Bill's blueprint, yeah. Those guys executed and moved the pawns around on the chessboard as they see fit. So to me, there was, you know, it sucked. It's not a, the crafts were so concerned about losing Mayo after having lost so many other coaches, whether it be Patricia, Flores, McDaniels, Judge, all of them. And you

can say whatever happened when they went to these places, but they said, you know what? We're not going to lose this guy. So what we'll do is we'll write a contract. We're never going to shit the bed. Can I swear on this podcast? Yes. We're never going to shit the bed. So we'll just write this contract. We'll go two years. Bill will get his 18 wins. He'll break Shula's record. He'll be 73. We'll reconvene. Most likely, we'll be able to move on to Gerard.

He's pushing, you know, he's an older fella. So that's what we're going to do. But going 4-13 and having an absolutely unwatchable offense accelerated that. Do you think it's true then the idea that there was real distance that the Mayo-Belichick relationship changed dramatically with that contract structuring going into 23? Yes, I think it's been strained throughout 2023 in a way that it previously was not strained. You know, Bill, Mayo was working for Optum and working with me on a weekly show, Quicksilence, and doing podcasts with me. So that was his football involvement.

Bill really wanted Mayo to come back to his staff. And this is, again, what we're talking about with the coaches, whether it's Troy Brown, whether it's Gerard Mayo, whether it's Billy Yates who does the offensive line. Bill doesn't want to have to teach new guys new things. Let's just get Mayo back. Guy's a frigging genius. He's first of all, I love him. Let's get him back here. So they did that.

And Mayo went back and, you know, his Mayo star rose and people looked at him as a very intelligent, very accomplished, tremendous leader. It became obvious that this is a guy you want to keep around. Now, did the Crafts do Mayo a favor by last offseason sending out a release saying, we are renegotiating a contract with Gerard Mayo to keep around a long time in an unprecedented move? Did the Crafts do Mayo a favor in calling him the heir apparent in a conversation with the NFL Network at the end of March?

Probably not. It still doesn't explain 4 and 13. So I don't think Mayo had been set up necessarily to succeed. And I think that right now he's not necessarily set up spectacularly to succeed, which isn't to say he's going to fail. And it's not to say you're making excuses for him, but you're setting off a year earlier than you expected to. You know, Mayo, as the audience may have just been learning here now, you work with him quite a bit.

What's he going to be like as a head coach? Unbelievably fun to work for. He is a blast. I mean, he would come in even to our studios, and within three minutes of walking in, he would have the entire – it didn't matter if you were an intern. You've been in those studios up in Burlington. That's where he would come. It doesn't matter if you're an intern or you were the GM. He was calling out to you across the newsroom and just lightening the entire mood by people and just joking around.

But the thing is, as I talked to him, got to know him, he was teaching himself Mandarin. He was talking about philosophy with me. He was, he just did so many. Meanwhile, he was an executive at Optum and he wasn't just a handshaker. He was involved in board meetings and decision-making at Optum. So they're getting a guy who's unbelievably enthusiastic, charismatic, smart, football smart, and has tireless energy. How does he make up for the learning curve? Can he beat D'Amico Ryans? I don't freaking know.

Because he doesn't have C.J. Stroud right know. Cause he doesn't have CJ Stroud right now. And he doesn't have a tight end under contract and he doesn't have a wide receiver who's a one or a two and he doesn't have an offensive line. I mean, it's nuts when you look Ryan at this roster and say, well, who do they have under contract? It's expansion level. Do you think there was any fear? Now look, 4-13 is what it is. The offensive installing, one of my biggest issues with Bill and the personnel side is like, all right, you want to get ahead of the Brady curve, but you want to be smarter than everybody else? You want to be the one franchise that would ever do something like this when Brady doesn't want

to leave? And you could tell how weird it was too, that Brady went out of his way to make sure that robert wasn't caught in the crossfire of boston rage of brady moving on somewhere you know what i mean like brady went out of his way to be like just so you know and then robert's like i had nothing to do with it and all this kind of stuff and i was like all right fine fine you know because like that last year with brady you could find some numbers or some red zone numbers in there but then you also looked at the skill guys and be like they're not exactly doing him any favors either my My biggest issue with, if you want to be ahead of the curve, then what's your backup plan? And if your backup plan was Stidham, Cam Newton on a discount, and then ultimately Mac Jones, that wasn't really any kind of plan whatsoever.

And knowing that Bill will historically, and look, it's worked for him. Imagine Bill Belichick listening to any of this stuff being like, wait, I did a bad job. I didn't know what I was doing. What's wrong with you idiots? I wouldn't blame himichick listening to any of this stuff being like, wait, I did a bad job. Like I didn't know what I was doing. Like what's wrong with you idiots? Like I wouldn't blame him for thinking that of any of the criticism of him, which may have been the issue to begin with. But was there any fear that if they gave Bill one more year that with the number three pick, they go, what if he trades out? What if he doesn't take the third quarterback in this class? Which, you know, I'm not saying Daniels is a slam dunk after May and Caleb Williams, but was there any fear of starting a new regime with a new high-profile top draft pick,

knowing what it's been like with Belichick and the offensive staff and the lack of development? Yes. No one specifically said we can't have Bill. No one specifically said to me we can't have Bill lead a rebuild. But if you look at the decline of Mac Jones and what a trigger issue that is for the crafts and how they openly spoke about how disappointed they were with the decline of him. When they speak about the expense in free agency in 2021, they spent more than $170 million worth of guaranteed money, $170 million of money you're not going to get back. So this conversation here that, oh, crafts are cheap.

They spent $170 million in guaranteed money and more than $250 million on those contracts. And what did they get? Not much. So now you have the third most cap space in the league, and you have the third overall pick, and you need a quarterback. Should you give Bill a mulligan two years later to author another rebuild when he just butchered the last one after having not drafted well?

These are the details that you're not going to hear when people talk about the brilliance of Belichick with confetti raining down and him hoisting Lombardi's. And they speak, how could this happen? Because they don't look at the full context of the decision. I mean, 2021, he was the executive of the year, right, for what he did. And who worked out? Judon, Hunter Henry, Kendrick Bourne a little bit, Devon Godshaw, Christian Barmore. But Johnnie Smith couldn't play. Nelson Aguilar couldn't play. And Jalen Mills was a mixed bag. And Mac Jones is now literally unusable. So there you have it.

Yeah, I'll never get over. And you can correct me on the numbers because you'll know it better than me. But in March of 2020, he doesn't want to give Brady two years and $50 million. And then he spends $170 million on that free agent class. Wild. Yeah, I mean, it's no coincidence, Ryanyan you look at the contract he signed in tampa two years 50 million dollars all guaranteed 25 million dollars a year that was to me this is what you could have had the greatest quarterback of all time for meanwhile two years later, you're spending $35 million to employ Daniel Jones.

So. Okay. Last thing. Yes, sir. Give me like Bill wants to coach again. You think he gets a job this cycle? I definitely do. And I trust Mike Lombardi, who's obviously really well plugged in with Bill and has mentioned Atlanta as somebody who would be coming hard for him. So the Commanders just hired Adam Peters for their personnel job.

So I don't know if even though Bill does know Adam Peters because he worked in New England, I believe. We'll see if that's a draw for Bill or Bill will say, yeah, that's nice. Who's that kid again? So he might more likely fit better in Atlanta. Tom Curran, NBC Sports Boston. He was on this first. You deserve all the credit for that, man.

I love catching up with you. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate you. Have a great year. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. On a Friday, let's do it.

The email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. We've got Steve. We've got Kyle. I don't think we need to update anything. Although I do like a couple follow-ups here. We had somebody chime in on the divorce rate scenario that we were talking about. And I would admit when Kyle sends me a couple that I don't love where it's like, hey, what you guys missed? And you're like, yeah, you're right. There's like a hundred different things that we

could have suggested here. And we got to like, I don't know, 12 of them. But this guy chimed in, I thought it was good. Quick email, because I'm sure others have weighed in. One of the biggest drivers of divorce rates was the legalization of divorce in the US starting broadly in the 1970s. Divorce was a state by state law. I did not know that. Thus, it's hard to compare divorce rates was the legalization of divorce in the US starting broadly in the 1970s. Divorce was a state-by-state law. I did not know that. Thus, it's hard to compare divorce rates prior to the 70s today, but I think it's safe to say divorce rates spiked once legalized to end many of the four-month engagements of the 1930s. I heard it referred to as the free love generation after the 70s as women now had an option to pursue divorce. I'd say we'll probably see divorce rates normalize somewhere in the 30% number going forward under the new legal structure, but great call

by you guys by saying the divorce rate also went down because of a lower marriage rate. You want to talk bad divorce scenarios, read Hamilton. That guy's mom hosed back then. No, I mean, it was like basically if you were the guy, you just had to be like, yeah, she was sketchy. It's like, okay, here's all of her stuff and she gets none of it. It's bad, bad news. Yeah. Glad we've seen some reform in that regard. Okay. Another one that I think is worth following up. Cause I didn't, I didn't know about this story because it actually never happened. Um, 26 year old living nebraska pretty unimpressive gym stats just got a new gym rack for the house so on my path to get rassilo jacked hey man uh been called the tj mcconnell

in my men's league which i've mentally spun as a compliment it could be it also could be a harsh criticism of like hey man tone man, tone it down a bit. No, I think that's a compliment. I think that means you're not super skilled, but you're a valuable player. I love TJ McConnell. Yeah, same. So everybody could use a TJ McConnell in their life. And would I want him to be my starting point guard?

No. But I'd love to have his. And so maybe you're always winning. I feel like T.J. McConnell's in pickup games stay on the court. Yeah, he gets all the guys to ball. Speaking of basketball, I love the new Tatums. Played in them a couple times. Light, but yet supportive.

They've got a weird sole kind of foundational construction, but you feel it a bit in, in the heel and the base of the foot below the, I guess the bridge of the toes. And so if everything hurts all the time, uh, this guy gives a high recommend. I had never worn a pair before. I was like, let me try some of the Tatums. What's your go-to shoe? a high recommend. I had never worn a pair before. I was like, let me try some of the Tatums. What's your go-to shoe? They've been the Durants forever.

Yeah, those are sick. I mean, I had a pair of fives that I still have never thrown out because they're just like, there's so many points in them. But I can't wear them anymore. I like the Kyries too. I don't like saying that, but I do like the Kyries. I heard they were incredible. Wouldn't blame them. Fair. Kyrie? Kyle? I'd play in some Kyles. were incredible wouldn't blame him fair kairi uh kairi kyle i planned some kyle's what are the

what do the kyle's look like uh right now they're a pair of the zip up lebrons from a while ago um i just needed to feel i need to feel secure out there boy so i'm not i'm not a low top guy ever so um i used to have the old pair of kgs the adidas uh that i would lace up super tight uh they were super ugly uh but i felt yeah malik malik sealy shout out had the d roses those i don't believe were super those weren't high tops and i think i got hurt in there them a couple times but he was so good and at that time the early d roses were great they were sick yeah i was getting hurt getting hurt and, and hurt, and hurt. Adidas sent those to us when Van Pelt and I were doing the show,

and I played in them. That's probably the only pair of Adidas I think I've ever played in. Actually, I think there was this one stretch. Maybe it was like the low, or no, it was like a mid-black with the three-stripe thing that I played in. It was a long time ago, but I did like those. Charles Barkley, somebody sent me a pair of those years ago, the remake, the reissue of those. You better have some kind of post game if you're going to play in those.

The first Penny Hardaways, I would say is probably one of my top three picks of all time of what to play in the first editions of those flights i believe light incredibly light flying all over the place new shoes running through the store look mom look how fast i am i don't think i've worn an adidas basketball shoe since like the t-mac threes um which i had every version of the t-max obviously uh but didn't one of those have like a faux hardwood thing like some kind of insert that made it look like it was the floor. That I did not have. I did have the Sprewell spinners, though.

Those are sick. I didn't play basketball on them a ton, but I just bought them kind of ironically. Were those Dottas? I think they were Dottas. No, are they Dottas? Dottas were sick. Yeah. Shout out to East Bay. I mean, remember getting the East Bay catalog?

Yeah. Like, how many Dottas did they come out with this month? Above the Rim. in the east bay catalog yeah like how many daughters did they come out with this month uh above the rim remember the above the rim reba connection collection those were cool too the two basketballs life the rest is just details okay so back to this anyway it's not even about tj mcconnell no life advice but listening to local talk radio heard a brief story in which they were hinting around an encounter involving Rosillo, Stanford, Steve, Brad Edwards, and Bo Pelini prior to the Miami Nebraska game. They gave a PG version of the story, but love to hear it from Ryan's perspective. Sorry if I've already missed the story on previous episodes. I've never

been in Lincoln, so it might've been Steve and I got lumped into it. But when they went to Lincoln for game day, it was the year before I was on the show. So it could have been, I don't, I don't know what happened. I wasn't a huge Bo Pelini fan because I felt like they'd have a decent record and then they weren't actually good because they didn't play anybody out of conference in the way the big 10 had set up, like there were just years with certain, I mean,

it can kind of happen in a lot of conferences, but it feels like it happens in the big 10 more recent memory of like, wait, look at that team's record. Anyway, I don't know unless there's something I'm, I'm completely missing, but I was not.

Details on the story. Is that a good story? A bad story? It doesn't sound like a great one. He's telling you to give the PG version of it. Well, he wants the non PG version. Okay.

And I would tell you, I, I don't. So I think it's Stanford feedback on. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Steve's going to send me a text by the end of the day going,

Hey, this is, this is what happened. I mean, if you're telling me that when he was the head coach there and he wasn't awesome to some dudes from the media, I'm not going to be shocked, but if it wasn't, it wasn't me, unless you're mistaking Polini for a different coach. But again, if it was on a local radio, I don't know why they'd be talking about something that had nothing to do with Nebraska. So I need the full story on that one. Okay. All right. Let's get to it.

This one's titled finding women, my age unattractive six to one 65, no athletic or gym accomplishments to speak of just a 30 to 40 minute cardio and sauna kind of guy. Hey man, that's a great guy to be too late thirties bachelor. No kids. I make decent money. I've been blessed and cursed with a baby face appearance. I've always done okay with women, but cursed in the sense that most women, especially at first glance, have always assumed I am much younger than I actually am. My buddies are all married with kids and their cool wives constantly try to set me up with careerist female friends. I genuinely value, appreciate their eagerness to help but all the women uh are there slash our age so they have baggage like little kids divorces baggage wow we got a dicaprio on our hands here

do you say baggage to the well i don't know if they're still still trying to set you up then apparently like they still like you enough so that's at least a positive well it's not you know he still looks young he's got money i mean he's you know he's a catch i would assume yeah i'm slim so in addition to the baggage there's that word again uh by the way at a certain age you have to get over the idea that divorce is baggage like that is entirely unfair now to say kids are baggage isn't great. Yeah, are they a juvie? What do you mean?

Yeah, but. Are their old parents baggage? It's like, ah, she's got to go visit them. Fucking baggage. I think that's fair, though. I mean, some people, you know, if you're not that into kids, like, that's a totally reasonable thing to not be interested in somebody. It doesn't mean that, like, you're a terrible person. Yeah, but baggage is like.

It changes the game. Extra shit that's not good. Like, I don't know. Well, I mean, if you're not a person but it changes the game extra shit that's not good like i don't know well i mean if you're not a kid person that's that's what a kid yeah all right i guess if it's if it's all subjective i think it's one of those conversations when you say it out loud you're just gonna get shit knowing privately there's a lot of people that would agree with you that you were talking to your best friend and you if you were 40 and said hey i'd prefer to meet someone who doesn't have kids with somebody else because then you're thinking about who that guy is and you're going to be helping raise that kid i don't think it's wrong

i don't think it makes you a bad person if you're saying i'd prefer a different situation but as you get older you better start redefining baggage because it's not like you know at least over i'm just telling you about it right i i then for the record for the record as you get older you just like oh you know this is this is cool or whatever but i i do think it's kind of one of those, those public private things that are consumed or judged differently. Um, so our guy's just letting it fly. So, um, he says, look, that's stuff I don't want to deal with between me and you and, and a million people listening. They're frankly not as attractive as the women, uh, age 24 to 30. No way. Uh, that he says that he can date thanks to looking their age. Of course that comes with

ridicule as I look like a creeper. I guess I brought a 24 year old medical student to a wedding last summer and got roasted for the next six months so he was 37 and brought a 24 year old date uh hey you may have been roasted six months seems like a long time by the way as a date to the wedding i'm telling you right now more than 50 of your buddies would probably trade with you yeah and now they may not trade they may not trade in the sense of like now i have kids and i have a wife and that's not really what I'm interested in. But I just, I think I know men pretty well. A lot of them are sizing up the scenario like with some envy in there too, which probably is the fuel of the ridicule. You know, you'd like to think you'd have a couple buddies that would be like, that's amazing, dude.

buddies that would be like, that's amazing, dude. Anyway, is there a non-prick way, but direct way to say thanks, but no thanks on them constantly trying to set me up with 35 to 40 year old women and telling me my target preference and telling them that my target preference is 24 to 30. So this guy wants to stay in that hot zone to mid to late twenties. I'd like kids one day. So there's also some biology involved in finding a future wife that's on the younger side. I got to be honest, I can't believe your friends' wives haven't given up at this point, especially after the wedding date. Like, why are they bothering? I think the best way that's very direct, you just cut. I mean, this is the way we should all try to operate to be more efficient. But the next time one of the wives tries to set you up, you just stare right in

the eyes and go, how old is she? Could she fit in a rowboat? Good call, Kyle. How many years she's been at that 401k? Do you think that's wrong? Do you think it's wrong to just start with, Hey, I want to introduce you to my friend. How old is she? No, I don't think it's wrong. Because I think that just cuts. I can't believe they haven't figured out that scattering report on you yet and that you're still in this kind of gray area of them trying. You must be a catch. You know, there's some guys listening right now. It'd be like, it'd be nice if somebody tried to set me up.

So you're still dealing from a position of being positive. I mean, what are we really talking about? Being asked to go out with somebody you don't want to go out with. That's pretty quick to get over. Like you can get through that, right? That's not a real problem. The fact that people are women, this age range are still interested in you. That's also a positive. So I still think you have a lot of positives, but I'll admit like there's a guy that's even older than you. And somebody would be like, Oh, you have to meet our friend. I'll be like, how old is she?

The divorce thing doesn't bother me. Kids thing has never bothered me. But there's and I don't even know if it's the biology part of it, but it's just a very clear thing. Like, OK, how old? And are you asking because you want to make sure she's above some bar or below some bar? Both. Well, no, I'm talking about ryan specifically uh i don't know because now i feel like i'm the emailer well i mean what it's i mean what would i say on the podcast or what would i what would i say to you guys uh i would say i'm like on the edge of my seat right now

it's not as likely that I would be like hey you know wow she's the same age we have the same interests awesome she remembers Y2K after college

has this ever happened to you Ryan be more specific. You know, where like somebody, because I know that some people, you know, your dating status is a topic of conversation. And I think even your own friend circles. And I assume that, you know, they're trying to hook you up with people.

And I know where you would probably lean on this situation. Have you just been like, no, she's too old for me? I don't remember. Is that please? I don't think it's unfair. I don't recall. Here's what I would say. I agree with you, Saruti.

I don't think it's unfair. And yet here I have some hesitancy just because it feels like a dick thing to say. But I don't think... Look, if I have interest in somebody and somebody comes back to me and she's like, yeah, she's a little bit younger and she doesn't want a guy who...

She's like a guy with a full head of hair. You go, eh. Point taken. I too. Yeah, I too would want to date somebody with a full head of hair. I will work on it. You know?

Yeah, there's just... Like if somebody goes, no, you're not full head of hair. I will work on it. You know? Yeah. Like if somebody goes, no, you're not that person's type. I go, cool. But for whatever reason, there's certain things that are totally accepted as like, ah, that's not what I'm into. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. thing, it can seem like it's, it's, I don't know, in a different category of like, you're not supposed to say that when, when like, would you rather me waste your time? Yeah. I think there's a, there's a big, I referenced DiCaprio earlier. There's a big difference between like exclusively dating girls, like between 19 and 25 and just like being into girls that are like five to 10

years younger than you. That that's that's totally okay in my book uh so and and you know there's gonna probably be a lot of people um who aren't cool with that i just i don't know i just let's be let's be honest with each other like you're into what you're into you know so i i think to answer the guy's question i would just say can you just be yourself and tell them how you feel like i don't like you're probably gonna get probably going to get some shit and they're going to call you, you know, they're going to make jokes, but they're already making jokes when you bring the 24 year old to the wedding. So what do you have to lose anyway? Just be honest about it. Yeah. I guess the other thing is just like, if you know, this is like the, their network of people that they're going to

be bringing your way, just tell them you're not looking for anything right now. You're not looking for anything serious. There you go. Lie to them and just say that you know if you know if you know that this group of people are not going to bring anyone that's like that's hits your parameters then why even why even like go through it just be like you know what i can do this on my own i'm a handsome dude i can you know i can i can figure this out myself i don't i don't need to keep we don't't need to keep the charades going. So you could just say like, I'm not really there right now. I'll let you know if I change my mind.

Thank you though. And I don't know what the numbers would be on. This would be simply the eye test of it. But I think men generally are attracted to youth in a way that women aren't. And maybe women deserve more credit for that i have noticed that by the way for feeling like you know you don't have to be the youngest looking guy you just have to have a thing about you you know you have to you have to kind of have a confidence you

have to have a way you carry yourself you have to kind of have your shit together, you know? Like, there's guys out there that would date a disaster of a human being if she's hot and 15 years younger than her, okay? I think women deserve credit for, I would say the norm is not that. Like, I would just want to meet a fucking disaster of a dude at 24 who, like, gets blacked out and gets in a street fights and shit yeah like i just i don't yeah right like he doesn't have a mattress cover you know so i thought

about that i don't think that happens as much now you could go the other way where you'd be like i don't think i'd ever marry a 70 year old woman for money in a beach house so do does the guy team get a point for that one uh i don't know you know i don't know how the scores are tabulated at the end of the day with all this but i think our emailer here you're probably like a couple years away of not giving a about any of this because if you stay in your lane and it seems like women you know 10 to 14 years younger than you still are attracted to you and you know maybe you find somebody that you're going to start a family with and that whole part of it is obviously a real real piece of the math here but it sounds like the only thing is like a bit of a perception thing that you i think you're a

couple years of getting older you're like what do i I even care? Like if I'm still pulling this off, why would I care what anybody else thinks? Cause clearly this is my deal and my preference. If you want to make yourself feel better about this, cause I clearly you're a little bit conflicted. Uh, like it's not like you're just dating younger women to like be in the party playboy lifestyle. Like you do want, you said you want a kid, you want like that whole life. You just life you just just prefer it with somebody a little bit younger in the timeline so i i again to me it's not it's not i don't think you should be ashamed can you just tell your butt like your buddies can't help

you out at all either with their wives like they they know you they know your preferences like can they just be like hey we got to stop bringing you know your late 30s 40s friends around he's just not it's just never going to be a go. Right. He's not looking for a pitcher at the trade deadline. He needs another back. Exactly. Okay.

All right. False advertising. Roommate edition. 29 years old. 6'4". 200 pounds. Skinny faddish. High school, I played football.

Quarterback two and punter. He also was a swimmer sub 47 second, 100 yard freestyle. Uh, I'm going to tell you one time I had a friend who, uh, was a swimmer. It was like a really good, like state champion level swimmer. And he was like, let's do the 50 free, you know, decent swimmer lifeguard lifeguard nbd uh when you don't swim versus people that actually competitively swim it's like it's ridiculous some it's like racing an infant fucking embarrassing yeah it's it's so uh i think well whatever clearly if he i don't know how to know where 47 seconds is on the on I don't think it matters. Let's get to the email.

He was also a shortstop. All right. What else did you do? What did you hit in junior high? As an adult, golf is what I do. Six to eight handicap. Best score is a 70. All right. So we have an in-depth athletic background on this guy. In June of 2023, I began looking for a roommate to move in with. The last year living alone was not enjoyable. Being a single guy, there's a select group of people to ask luckily for me in the midst of my search one of my longtime friends broke up with his girlfriend is six years luckily for me uh he let me in on the details and it was messy exclamation point so messy the courts got involved that sounds good when the courts get involved with just a girlfriend that's usually that's a little

tougher yeah uh after he agreed agreed excuse excuse me, to room with me, try that sentence again. I made sure to get details on what he needs in a roommate. We discussed who gets what bedroom, who gets the garage parking spot. After those matters were in order, he made sure to put an emphasis on the importance of having a clean roommate. I'll never forget him looking me in my eyes and saying, quote, I just really need a clean roommate. I was excited to hear this as I felt the same way. I always try to keep my space clean as if someone I admired was coming to my apartment. That's a nice standard at 29.

Way to be. We're now five months into our lease. What was that, Kyle? I said way to be. Yeah, right? Props to you. So five months in, and this dude is the messiest roommate I've ever lived with in my life. It consistently looks like a bomb went off in his room, which I don't care too much about

because it's his room. Yep, shouldn't care. He has cats. He doesn't sweep up after the litter. I guess he got the cats in the court ruling. He doesn't sweep up the litter that gets carried out of their litter boxes in the common areas. Most importantly, he doesn't clean up after himself in the kitchen. In our time together, I have never seen him clean anything. He's a big eater, as lifting is his favorite hobby.

With this comes many more dirty dishes. I am always on top of keeping the apartment stocked with household items like dishwasher pods, cleaning solution, paper towels, etc. Last week, I went to start a load of dishes, reach under the sink to grab a dishwasher pod, only to find out they were all gone. I just got a 30-pack of pods about two weeks ago and used three to four pods myself. I asked him if we were out, and he said, yeah, we ran out yesterday. Remember, I buy this stuff for us. I've never asked for help with it.

I figured it's my duty for it to be stocked with what we need. I guess I would hope he would feel the same way, but after he used 20 pods. Wait, you've never seen him clean anything? The guy used 20 pods? What's he doing with these things? Yeah. So he's 20 pods in two weeks is an absurd ratio. That's like D'Angelo Russell

in the G League. I've had enough. I went to buy more pods, but this time they're mine, not his. Write your name on them. Like a meatball, like half a meatball sub at work. All right. Since then, there's no sign of the new dishwasher pods.

There have been dirty dishes sitting in the sink for multiple days, as well as counter space being cluttered with dirty and clean dishes alike. Early this week, he ran the dishwasher and has not emptied it after four days. So when I walk into the kitchen today, I'm looking at a sink full of dirty dishes, a counter full of clean and dirty dishes, plus a dishwasher full of his quote, clean dishes, picture attached. The picture's rough, stuff everywhere. I think there are many factors that play into his messiness. Perhaps his ex-girlfriend did all the cleaning at their old place and made him believe that he is a clean guy. Perhaps he is extremely depressed with the situation,

doesn't feel he can clean up after himself. I'm extremely sympathetic to this. Or maybe he's just a piece of shit who expects others to do basic life tasks for him. For some context, I can be a bit of a ball buster when I'm around people who know me well. They typically understand where I'm coming from, but I'm also a Minnesotan and I have a tendency to be passive aggressive in some situations with the person on the other end may not understand the nuances of my personality. My roommate falls into the latter category. I'd like to confront him on this, but I also think this is something for a parent to talk to their prepubescent kid about. I did not need a roommate, but I prefer to have one, but I cannot continue to live with this messy nonsense, especially after my roommate told me that cleanliness

is something he prioritized. How do I confront this? I think I should check on it as well being, um, and then bring up the elephant in the room. I shouldn't have to think about this, but unfortunately it's my reality. Yeah, look, it sucks. I talked for a while there. So why don't you guys jump in first? Um, I dealt with this. I brought my buddy in. I told, I, I told you years ago how, how that went. I wasn't proud of how we got him in there. We kind of pushed the third guy out and he turned out to be a way worse roommate than the guy i pushed out and uh i was kind of stuck with it i would i would talk to him about the stuff and be like dude there's dishes everywhere like you know you're making these uh peanut butter sandwiches or just like peanut butter knives all

over the fucking place like uh like he was doing he was, he was doing like some, some gym health stuff. So he was, he was getting a little creative with the dishes. They were everywhere. The bathroom was crazy. Um, it was just, he would started burning sage at one point. I'm like, now it just smells weird in here on top of the weird smell in the kitchen. Uh, there was a lot of stuff going on. I would, I would talk to him about it and he wasn't going to change.

It was clear, but we did, we did, we had a lot of talks, uh, and it was clear that it wasn't going to change it was clear but we did we had a lot of talks uh and it was clear that it wasn't going to change and i was like okay all right there's now now there's no more he didn't buy stuff either that would suck and then he would like then we had a whole thing where he got mad because i was like oh i'll start using his stuff and then he's like well don't use my stuff because i don't have it so but then he would go back on that whenever it was convenient for him he was like i need i know i know he said we shouldn't eat other each other stuff but i needed to and it's just like all right so there's no there's no code he said i needed to i need to eat your stuff he said that

out loud there was nothing else yeah he was just like i had to do it bro i just had to do it you get it right i'm like no i don't he was laughing like you get it bro but he was like you ever been there where like you just had to you know you shouldn't but like you get it and i was like no i don't i get it if i could do it to you but like this is just not working out so but we had conversations about all this stuff and we were like really like best of friends and so we could talk about this we used to fight all the time about this stuff um but i think you just you'll know if when you get when you gauge the reaction i let this go on for a little too long with him, but I knew, I really knew within like,

you know, for the first couple of confrontations about this. So you need to get, you need to get that at least the first one out of the way. So you can see who you're dealing with here. I've never really had a, we had a roommate that we didn't like, but we didn't,

he wasn't, he wasn't, you know, a slob or anything like that. So I don't really have a ton of firsthand experience on this, but like, I would say, I think you just got to start itemizing and making lists and schedules like that. So I don't really have a ton of firsthand experience on this, but like I would say,

I think you just got to start itemizing and making lists and schedules. Like that just, that, and then, and then when that way, at least like he knows what he should be doing. And then, and then once he doesn't follow those rules, then you can really start hammering him. Because right now he might not even know. Like some people grow up in houses

where they just don't, like, this isn't like a part. Yeah, this isn't a part of like what they're like you know their parents probably did everything for them or whatever like when i was a kid like we did our own laundry we cleaned up after ourselves like you know we got jobs like it just that's how that's that's what my upbringing was like some people don't necessarily have that and they are oblivious to the things that they should be doing when they live on their own so i think you have to just make a list of like here's the schedule of who will be cleaning each week here is the list of things that we are buying and that we're splitting it up. Like it all has, there has to be a paper trail of this. And when this person doesn't follow those rules,

then you can start hammering them on like, Hey, this was your week to do this. And you didn't fucking do it. Like what the hell is going on? And cause, cause he might just be oblivious. He might just not know. And he might need to like, just kind of get a kick in the ass to figure out what life is like. Yeah, that might be it. I mean, I still can't get over kyle's guy like it's one thing to be hammered and eat somebody else's food and be like yeah my bad but this guy felt like there was some philosophical belief of like this is how it works you know you know what it's like it's like yeah i get it how many times did he do it uh it was several times like more than more than is acceptable okay he would get really high and then just like kind of see what was around but like it would he would specifically be like

don't eat my shit you got it it's like i get it and stuff yeah no uh like suri i think some sort of regimen makes sense what i would avoid at all cost is the note thing like don't not saying anything to him and then leaving a note being like, Hey, empty these. Cause then you just, you're signing up for a much bigger fight. Uh, I think also him looking at you saying cleanliness is a top priority and then not being clean at all is frustrating, but it kind of makes me think about people that talk about off-season workouts, like athletes going like, man, I put in the work. It's like you may have, or you also may be an incredibly lazy person

who's never done anything. And you bench pressed and did some elliptical and you were like, I've absolutely kicked ass this off season. And it's like, like well you kicked ass based on your standards but your standards are delusional because you've never really been one to ever kind of do any of this stuff you know like whenever you know i i think about manual labor a lot i'm very happy that i did it how often you think good more or less the Roman empire. I just think it, it starts a really good foundation of like, you know, when you have no choice,

when it's like, no, this is what you're doing today. And this is what you're doing all summer. And I think if you can get that in a kid early on, it makes you just kind of understand hard work tasks, accomplishing things. So I,

I think it's like a really good thing you could have for any kid out there. Um, because it, it, it makes you get over a lot. Like there's no HR on the job site. You know, there's no, there's just, yeah. Do you don't like it? You know, you can leave that, you know, there's no, we're not going to talk about any of this stuff. So the reason I even bring that up is, is if you've ever worked with somebody or had to do anything that's like manual labor with somebody that doesn't ever have any of that in them has never had to then they an hour or two in are almost like oh my god like what is this like when do we get to stop do we have to do this all today like shouldn't we hire somebody you know and all these different things just like no that's not not how it works like we got to get this shit done? Like, shouldn't we hire somebody, you know, in all these different states? He's just like, no, that's not how it works.

Like, we got to get this shit done. And I actually think I'm kind of getting worse at it as I get older. But that's where there could be this disconnect of his concept of clean. Like, did you ever see the place before him? And maybe it was the girlfriend that was cleaning everything. And he just was coming home being like, awesome, the place is clean without ever doing anything. So you might be right on there. The roommate battle is a tough one. Look, I haven't had a real roommate since 1999, other than a weird stretch where I rented a room in Somerville in 2003, which wasn't the

greatest living experience ever. And when I think back to college, it was six of us. And when I think back to college, it was six of us. And some guys were actually clean, whether it was they grew up with it being a priority. And then there was the other group where I wasn't clean. My room was never clean. I would leave shit around all the time. I think I was decent in the kitchen because I always felt like that was kind of selfish. If you were going to use something, knowing somebody else needed it. So it wasn't like you were just messing up your place.

You were messing up the entire rotation of stuff to use. But I remember there was one guy that used to get really pissed about stuff being left around all the time. And I looked at mail as like the archives where I'd get mail and it just immediately went on this table. And then this table would get covered with all sorts of stuff. And he just got so sick of it one day, he threw out fucking everything. And then me and one of the other guys were like, what are you doing? Like, what right do you have to just throw away all this stuff? He's like, dude, one thing had been there for six months unopened. And I go, yeah, but I may at some point need to go into the archives and be like, what does this student loan thing say? Like, oh, what was I supposed to do

with this? What was the deadline? November, whatever. Like, okay, at least I can track all this stuff down. Cause it's like, not like you had full blown internet back then to like look everything up with accounts and stuff. And we got really pissed at him, but yet he was probably right. So that was just a disconnect of like not having enough life experience to go like, Hey, I've got to do these kinds of things. Look, I think the solution to this is, is not to attack, right? Because it sounds like that's in your nature too, but you're not wrong here with all of this, where I don't know that you have to say, hey, six o'clock note on the TV house meeting topics. Here are the minutes, cleanliness, dish pods ratio. You know, it, you're just going to drive yourself crazy if you don't get to the

root of it. And maybe your aunt, his answers, like, what if he says if you don't get to the root of it and maybe your aunt his answer like what if he says i don't think it's that bad when he sent the picture and it's terrible by the way if he's like i don't really think this is that bad then it's probably unsolvable but if you never say anything to him then you know like a lot of this stuff then it's kind of on you yeah i agree nice get some answers pal so rudy were you give yourself a clean ranking in college versus now one out of ten uh seven i was pretty clean but like my room would get your but i wouldn't the common areas i wouldn't leave shit in common areas and i would clean up my dishes kyle come on i i think i was like i think i was like a

maybe a six and then my first apartment in LA, I was probably a five, and now I'm like an eight. I'm like scrubbing toilets and shit. I'm like, I got nothing to do. Pop some headphones in. It's therapeutic for me now. Can I just suggest it never looks like an eight on the Zoom? Oh, this is the office, buddy.

This is the office. Okay. All right. This is the office. This is clothes that don't fit in the drawers right now that's fine I was up till 1 in the morning I didn't have shit to do after I posted the Bill Simmons

podcast just went and grabbed the magic eraser went around all the cabinets my father-in-law might be coming over today I was like great we'll do this it was like 1.30 I was like you know what get some sleep we'll start scrubbing toilets in the morning I could say that I resent what you just said but I get it this is my space this is my safety safe it's allowed to be like this i take pride in the in the main part of the house but um okay yeah i just you know it's kind of back

to the the the working out analogy that it's like you may think you crushed it this off season um so when you said eight just now, I could only go with eight. I'll give you that. Right. I'll give you that. I could only go with the evidence that I have. That's fine.

We'll do a walk. Maybe I'll do like a Bill Simmons walk and talk through the apartment. Yeah, you should, you should send that to the video team. I actually think you giving us kind of a crib style breakdown and just having us posted to some video thing would help us. And then have you rebound for the self-assessment of an eight out of 10. That'd be great. All right.

I'll work on my angle. Horizontal probably, right? Not vertical. Right, Steve? We go horizontal? Yeah, we go horizontal now. Okay, got it. Thanks.

Yeah. Social team will thank you later. All right. Thanks to them too. Thanks to Steve. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to them too. Thanks to Steve. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Wargon. And thanks to you,

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