The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Rodgers’s Big Night, Ohtani’s 50/50, and a New Ben Simmons Video, Plus Willie Colon Talks NFL Week 3 and a Funny Mike Vick Story

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

Ryen kicks off the show with a reason why his day will be good, and it involves something broken and a cardboard box (:50). Then he shares his thoughts on Aaron Rodgers’s big night on ‘Thursday Night Football’ in the Jets’ dominant win over the Patriots (1:20). Plus, he talks Shohei Ohtani’s record-setting night and how it is viewed differently today than how it would have been 25 years ago (9:55), and quickly discusses the newest Ben Simmons video (16:13). Then he is joined by Willie Colon, who discusses how the Jets look after their win, whether or not the Steelers should stick with Justin Fields over Russell Wilson, and a funny Michael Vick story from their time together in New York (19:53). Plus another Alliance bet and Life Advice with Kyle and Ceruti (55:50). Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Willie Colon Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Open, a bunch of different things. Roger's big Thursday night. We've also got to talk about Atani's 50-50. And yes, I've seen the Ben Simmons videos. Willie Colon, always great catching up with our guy. We're going to talk about his jets and then also some Steelers stuff. Even though he played there, it's more about the Fields-Wilson dynamic. He's all in in New Orleans. He's disappointed in Philly and some awesome Mike Vick stories from his days as his teammate in New York. We've got the Alliance ready to go. Kyle is really feeling himself, but I love it.

I'd rather have confidence than doubt and life advice. I'm not going back to university to be your friend. I'm going so I can get Uber One for students. It saves you on Uber and Uber Eats. I'm there for $0 delivery fee on cheeseburgers, up to 5% off smoothies and 5% Uber cash back on rides. Just to be clear, I'm there for savings, not whatever you think university is for.

Get Uber One for Students, a membership to save on Uber and Uber Eats. With deals this good, everyone wants to be a student. Join for just $4.99 a month. Savings may vary. Eligibility and member terms apply. It's a new day. How can you make the most of it

with your membership rewards points? Earn points on everyday purchases. Use them for that long-awaited vacation. You can earn points almost anywhere, and they never expire. Treat your friends or spoil your family. Earn them on your adventure and use them how you want, when you want. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Learn more at mx.ca slash ymx, terms apply. Today's open is going to be all over the place, which is fine. I'm in a great mood.

I'm going to try a couple of different things here. There was something broken, a little plastic thing. They've been sitting in the hallway for a little while. I don't have anybody to clean up for, so nobody was telling me to pick it up. And I looked at it and was like, pick it up. What are you doing? And as I picked it up, there I looked at it and was like, pick it up. What are you doing? And as I picked it up, there was a cardboard box

down the hallway about 20 feet away, smaller than a shoe box. And I was like, I'm gonna throw this into that box. And it went in. It was like perfect. As soon as it was out of my fingers, I was like, that's going in. So great start, probably gonna be a great weekend.

All right, great night last night, Thursday night football for the Jets, dominant win over the Pathats, 24-3. The first time Aaron Rodgers has in midlife since we saw him leave with a torn Achilles. And if you think about Jets fans and where the Jets are in the landscape of the AFC, going into last year, what we saw last night is the hope

of what 23 was supposed to be. And even though he's older, there's still this excitement of having a guy that you think can solve your problems at the position, and that's what he looked supposed to be. And even though he's older, like there's still this excitement of having a guy that you think can solve your problems at the position and that's what he looked like last night. So I think the chance, a celebration, maybe a year later than everybody wanted it to be, but the fact that like that moment happened for Jets fans is just, and I think everybody should kind of feel good about that unless you hit the Jets.

All right. I think part of the problem for Rogers is it's not that like I'm, when Sando did the quarterback tiers thing and I, I pointed like different quotes, again, he's talking to 50, five zero different people in the NFL coaches and executives. One of the ones that I jumped on was how did somebody talk about Roger saying in those four snaps he looked slow. And I guess part of the defense is that he had looked slow at the end of 22 to him or he looked old, he looked old. And I'm like, I don't that he had looked slow at the end of 22 to him or

he looked old. He looked old. And I'm like, I don't know, man. That seemed ridiculous. And then it's about looking like last night and then hoping you can maintain that. But I think part of the annoyance was Rogers and there's a lot of things, right? But that we were getting constant updates that he was going to somehow defeat an Achilles tear and come back sooner than anybody had ever thought.

Um, that probably made it even worse because I think a lot of that stuff was motivated by him, but I don't, maybe he was, he was doing a guest Malzahn. I don't know how many of you caught this, but David Pollock, a friend who worked at ESPN has a podcast out and he was talking to Eli Drinkwitz, the head coach of Missouri, who's terrific, who was on Malzahn's staff years and years ago, and he was talking about his food orders. And at one point, Eli was in the other room and he heard Malzahn

saying, stop it, stop it. And Drinkwitz was like, what's going on? And he was like, I coughed and I'm telling myself I don't get sick. So maybe, maybe that's just what Rogers was doing. He was going to keep talking himself into the idea that he was going to come back earlier from an Achilles injury that ultimately never really happened. But none of it matters, right? None of it matters anymore. Cause last night he was 27 to 35, 281 yards, two touchdowns.

The second touchdown throw to the corner of the pylon. Again, not the back corner, but at the front1 yards, two touchdowns. The second touchdown throw to the corner of the pylon. Again, not the back corner, but at the front, the pylon, the goal line to Wilson was just an incredible throw. Dangerous for some, not for Rogers. His movement in the pocket to get free, his movement out of the pocket where, you know, I don't know that I want him running to the sidelines all the time. The accuracy on throws that led to yards after the catch, uh, the accuracy on some of these throws,

it feels like half the league won't even attempt at the quarterback position. And that gets back to like something that just dawned on me late after watching, you know, I think Lamar was taking what Kansas city was giving him in that season opener where the first half of the game, there just wasn't really that much there. Then he started dialing things up a little bit. Look, they almost won that football game despite the fact they're 0-2 right now.

But there's just a lot of quarterbacks. I remember that night, the whole first day of week one, I was sitting at home going, what the hell is happening? Now we've been talking about this too high safety stuff and what's going on. It's also making me appreciate Geno Smith in a way that I've never appreciated him before. I probably thought two years ago was still a little fluky, regressed a bit last year,

but just watching him play the majority of these last two weeks, like at least he's out there looking like he wants to be a quarterback. Where some of these dudes, I think they're just completely afraid. And with Rogers, it's just a nice reminder, right? A reminder of what it's like to watch a master at his position, uh, what it can look like

when somebody like that level of understanding and still has, uh, I don't, you know, look, you can't sit there and pretend that it's peak Roger's arm strength, but it's still really good. And you're like, oh yeah, that's, that's what it's supposed to look like. And for Jets fans, like that's what it was supposed to look like last year. I wonder sometimes about the disconnect between athletes and normal people, injuries, age, because as Roger's at 40, the oldest player in the league, by the way, is he, is he better than most 40 year olds or more damaged than most 40 year olds because he's played football? My guess is probably better than most 40 year olds. And maybe it's because as I get older

and I think about 40 and you're like, you know, look, if you're a professional athlete, basketball is a little tough at 40, but if you're a professional athlete, and especially what we saw from Brady, like is there, is there a lack of understanding? Like are we applying too many average guy theories to like, oh no, Roger's just fell down. Like, is he going to get back up? Like, yeah, he's, he's not 80. He's 40. So sometimes I think athletes deserve way more credit than they get because of what they're able

to do physically. And then other times I think we apply such every man sensibility to like what a dude's doing on a quarter on a field. It's like, what do you think these guys do? An example, not perfect, but I'm gonna do it anyway. I dunked for the first time at 45 years old. I don't know why, finally unlocked the calves. Don't know what to tell you. Decent sized calves, couldn't dunk when I was in my 20s. I don't know, I don't get it.

And for big guys that have huge calves, like if you're just huge, you're doing calf raises every day. So I'm not giving you the same amount of credit. So when I told a couple buddies, instead of like, that's awesome, it was met with classic, no one's actually rooting for you vibes. Right. And I'm not even talking specific to me. I think it's a good lesson for all of us to understand. And I was like, yeah, I don't know. I kind of changed up some of the workout. I was always really close.

I could always hang on it, but I could just never, I think part of it was like a mental part of just going like, just get it up there. All right. And then when I did it, it was like, oh, this is cool. And I told my friends, and this is a few years ago, he was like, dude, didn't you see the Tom Segura video? Tom Segura, who I think broke half of his body when he went up for a dunk

attempt. I was like, yeah, I did see it. Like you think we're doing the same thing every week? I'm not comparing myself to Aaron Rodgers if you think this is where this is going, but I'm pretty sure at that time, Sega looks great now, borderline hot, right? But at that time, I don't know that he was at the peak of his athletic abilities. And so when he's going up for a dunk, I'm expecting a different result than say somebody that was actually like trying to figure it out. Maybe that didn't make any sense, but I think for some of you, it did. Not everything has to relate to everybody.

Anyway, the Jets, um, love the linebackers, studs, best corner, maybe in the league, best interior D lineman, like, yeah, it's Chris Jones, but Chris Jones is going to line up all over the place. Quinn and Williams is terrific. You got Breece Hall, who, you know, this running back hierarchy of who the best running back is every single year. It feels like it changes twice a season, but he's in the conversation. Garrett Wilson is great.

The old line ceiling. And then of course, our guy, Braylin Allen, youngest player in the NFL. I've probably heard that a couple of times. Jaylen, Jaylen hurts squats, by the way. Um, I just hope with Braylin Allen, like when he came on the scene in Wisconsin as a freshman and then the numbers don't drop off dramatically, but his best year was his freshman year. So let's not hope or let's hope. I should say, um, that we don't,

it's not going to be the same timeline for that. Anyway, the Pats are boring as hell on a two year run of God, this team is boring. Um, but it won't be boring when Drake may, uh, plays because it'll be exciting just to see something different and see how he does as a rookie. He's probably going to struggle with everybody else. Uh, I do want to look back though. I might do this week eight, week nine, where I'll look at week two storylines.

Remember this, because the Pats beating Cincinnati will feel like one of the handful of games, halfway through, maybe after the season is over. Like, remember when that happened? That's weird. And look, they were in that game with Seattle too, as well. The Pats had four first downs in the first half last night. That's the fewest first downs of any half

for the Patriots since 2000. Moving on, let's talk a little baseball and the movement of information. Shohei Atani, 50-50 guy, never been done, did it last night in dramatic fashion, six for six, three home runs, five extra base hits, two stolen bases, 10 RBIs. Just about as dominant a night you can possibly have at the plate. Dave Schoenfeld from ESPN had this note, only two players have ever had 50 home

runs in a season and then also 50 stolen bases in another season. So basically you got to look at it and like, have anyone who's ever hit 50 home runs, have they ever at any other point had 50 stolen bases? Only two have done it. Barry Bonds, which you probably could have guessed, and Brady Anderson, which you may not have guessed. So Otani is going to have his third MVP in seven seasons. He's not even pitching this year, as we know. And I thought about this moment last night because it was one of those all time moments and of course, because I was so obsessed with baseball and everything that went through being obsessed with baseball and recognizing,

honoring history, caring about history so much in a way that we didn't with the other sports, I thought about this moment and was like, what would it have been like 25 years ago? And again, this is not profound. I'm sure you have, it's been talked about. I mean, look, I can't do 15 minutes on him just being great because I would probably just be listing stats and I don't know if that's the best listen.

But again, I have the platform, so it's like, okay, well, you could do some more. I think we've done three like full blown botani interviews just to try to feel like you're doing the right thing because this dude is right now. Like, I don't think it is hyperbole to be like, what is this going to be? What's the end of this going to be if this is what he's going to do? And then he's going to potentially pitch again. He was fourth in Cy Young one year. So we all know that he's great, but I know that the moment will not be recognized the same way it would have been when I was younger.

And I don't know if that's a baseball thing or a technology thing. I'm writing this book right now and it's almost done. And there's a few things that I need to do a better job with. But one of the things I wanna talk about is the speed of movement of like information, right? Like how quickly we will be told something. And then it's like, that seems like a big deal. Then like the next day we just don't have enough time. There's too many other things to keep track of. And it can really come down to you, like what you actually want to

prioritize or whatever, but if you just kind of look at like the landscape of, of our consciousness in the country with big stories and for me at sports, cause that's what I'm doing every single day. It's like, well, this should be a bigger deal. And a Tony should be the biggest deal. Last night should be a huge deal. I don't know if a quarterback threw for 700 yards, say in a football game,

like would everybody just be doing the 700 yard game the next day on their shows? I mean, TV shows would get it in, radio shows would get it in radio shows would get it in but Would you find ways to create talking points in different segments and be like we need to stay on this the entire show? Because it's that big of a deal with baseball if you would have the equivalent of this if this is if this is 1995 with a tawny most but most like shows would start to finish be talking about it because it would be that big of a deal because we had

Those things with the home run chases and all those things. And yeah, I think either we've been desensitized by the history or felt a little betrayed and all those different things, but that's not happening here with Otani. But it's still going to get lost. Like you're gonna be thinking about your parlays

by the end of today. You're gonna be watching College, you read all over the NFL and then there may be a moment even next week, you're like, what did he do? And I don't think that happens years ago. So back to like the speed of movement of information, but really I could call it just the speed of movement of things. I want to use an example from the past.

If you're of a certain age, you remember the movie Adam, right? John Walsh America's Most Wanted, awful story. Son was abducted, killed in 1981. And if you were a kid at that time, like I was this movie, Adam came out on NBC and 38 million people watched it on NBC. 38 million. It was so popular, they re-aired it again in 1984, and then again, a year later in 1985. Now granted, we had three channels, no internet, so there weren't a ton of options.

But when one of those networks decided something was going to be a big deal, it was going to be a big deal. And it was so much of our daily consciousness that if you walked away from your mom at Marshall's, you got screamed, you just saw mom screaming at their kids everywhere because every kid thought someone was going to steal them and every parent thought their kid was going to be stolen because we stayed on this, which again, it was an important story, but we stayed on it. It was part, there was no speed of movement is my point. Things moved so slow that we didn't really have the thing that we all were talking about,

thinking about. We didn't have the next thing to necessarily replace it. And today we have things in the afternoon that will replace things that I thought should have been a big deal in the morning. I remember when there was a 10th planet, potentially Gong Gong, and then we found out that it was just a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet, which, you know, huge disappointment. But at the time of its supposed discovery, I remember thinking like, shouldn't this be a bigger deal that there could be a 10th planet?

It's like, no, it isn a bigger deal that there could be a 10th planet? It's like no It isn't there's there's other stuff already So I don't know if the Atani part of the story is that it's a baseball thing that we've all covered and I again sampled here a bit as Much as it's just we don't we do there's something else. There's already something else. So yeah, awesome job Thanks. Thanks for what you did last night, but we're not going to talk about this for more than the day window. Okay. Last thing, Ben Simmons video.

Thank you to everyone that is sent to me. I am aware of the Ben Simmons workout videos. Um, a couple of things. I think the first one, the first release was, was there a net site? I don't know if it was a nets, like official net site or if it was, you know, a really popular nets content. Feed. And of course, like it was like lookout, uh, putting in the work.

Okay. And it's fine. I mean, if it's a fan site, that's what happens. I know, I think a trainer got involved too, saying like lookout. And by the way, I don't even really get mad at the trainers. I mean, that's not true. I understand what the trainers are doing, so I shouldn't get mad about it. Even if there are plenty of times where I'm like, this is annoying.

Okay. about it even if there are plenty of times where I'm like this is annoying okay so we see the video clips and he you know he makes three shots in a row shots he's never gonna take in games three in a row is not a ton but whatever he's played 113 games in the last four years combined here's what I think is the most alarming and this is always my point when I talked about his interview with JJ Reddick on the podcast where I got done with that episode. It's like, Whoa. Um, if I'm Ben Simmons, like what I would do now, be like, Hey, maybe we stopped posting videos and I'm back and look out flame

emojis. Maybe I put in the work and hopefully everything is aligned and the health feels good and I just get back out there and play because I'm still young enough and talented enough that you think he has some kind of role in this league. That to me would signify growth. That would be real growth instead of yeah I barely play and kind of disappointment and there's massive flaws in my game, but like edit three jumpers going in a row. Yep. Post that and then say like big things come in this season or maybe the eye emoji, which

indicates awareness that people need to have awareness about me. Nope. Nope, nope. It'd be awesome if he's just like, let's stop doing this, this summer. Let's not do a long form interview with somebody where it's like, I'm keeping notes. Like I really think it was, it was peering into the soul of an athlete.

When Nick Friedle on April 16th, I looked it up again this morning. Remember Simmons hadn't played the entire season. Nets are ending the playoffs. There were players telling Friedle that are like, man, Simmons is like little hoppin' and step practice like around the facility. Nash is even thinking, okay, maybe I have him as, as a defensive option in the playoffs, right?

We're not going to run our offense through him because those other dudes are still there. And then during a practice session on the 16th, Simmons looked at Ferdel, said, quote, make sure you get this and then dunk the ball. Again, 6'10", kind of young still. No, like it was just the rim was there. Wasn't a drill, you just dunked it.

And then said, quote, there you go. And Friedle asked him, can I post this? And he was like, yeah, post it. And then what happened? He didn't play in the playoffs. I can't wait. I can't wait. I can't wait for the long form. No one's been more back without being back.

It's football season and it took a little longer than I wanted to, but we got Willie Colon, SNY on the Jets, pre and post. Also, breakfast ball with Carton. So, good to have you back in the mix, man. We're gonna visit a few times this year. How are you? Yeah, I'm excited, man.

I'm sorry I didn't get to you enough last year. I was busy, you were busy, and we couldn't really make Kool-Aid together, which I love. So hopefully we can change that this year. Let's talk Jets. It's your squad. Well, you got two squads, Steelers and Jets.

We're gonna talk about both of them. How good is this team? They looked good last night. What's the Pats? So give it to us. Well, I don't know because I think this is, this is my biggest, and I guess we're kind of, I think last night was important from one standpoint. I think if you go into the San Francisco game week one, I think the number one question is this team for real or are they frauds?

And then they went against a team who was in the Super Bowl last year and they look like they didn't have, they weren't even worthy of being on the same damn field with them, right? They got kicked, they got their ass kicked in every phase. And then they played Tennessee and they don't look good in the first quarter,

but Aaron Rodgers comes alive, has some big third down plays, the office of line protected their ass off, defense has some stops, yada, yada, yada. Didn't say, okay, the Jets are good. I thought last night was indicative of two things. One, and Rogers is still elite. Two, this defense, even though they lack the efficiency and size from a defensive line standpoint, they can still get after it. And three, the Jets have legit weapons. You know, the fact that Mike

Williams is no longer on the pitch count. I tied in this came alive with Conklin and Roker. And two stuff runabouts we got between Breland Allen and Bruce Hall, a legit anti-offensive line. You know, I think PFF gave him a ranking of number six overall. They're legit. And then you see Aaron Rodgers throwing the X-Factor. The X-Factor is nobody expected his ass to get mobile last night. I think that really messed the Patriots up. I think there was a perception that he's going to sit stoic in the pocket.

They want to double cover Garrett Wilson, force the Jets to run the ball. They'll load the box. They'll win. They get out the building with the dub. That didn't happen. I think the fact that he was mobile, he was able to extend plays, throw off platform, be pretty much be Aaron Rodgers from 08.

And the Patriots didn't have anything for it, man. And then, I mean, they were 10 for 15 on third down. I think they were 40 minutes, they held the ball for like 40 minutes or something throughout the game. They were just, they were it, man. And they look good, they look confident. And I gotta say this,

I've covered, not only playing for the Jets, and covered the Jets. This is the first time, and I dare say this during the, and I love Ryan Fitzpatrick, he's my dog. But this is the first time I think I've actually watched this team look confident and competent through all four quarters.

And that felt like, that felt like a blow job on Easter Sunday. It was refreshing. And so it's just, you know, it's something that you just, Jets fans have never ever seen. They just haven't seen. I don't know, I mean, you're the guy.

Have you seen another quarterback that confident and confident in a Jets uniform? I don't know. Not like that. I mean, I thought he diced them up last night and second and 17, okay, no problem. And then he just, it's that mobility, not outside of the pocket. It's the mobility inside of the pocket where he's kind of backstep and backstep

it and he's figuring out like the launch angle of everything. And it's just these things that you're just not going to see from a lot of dudes out there on Sunday because they're not as smart as he is. And, um, whatever you think about his availability or what version of them you're going to get this season. There's just so many moments last night where I thought, okay, well, that's, that's what somebody who's really confident in creating, like unsolving all those little problems. And I, I, yeah, when you think Jets football, that's not what you think, but I think it's important that you brought up

San Francisco and then this Titans game where they could have been down 10-0. And the reason I look at them today going, okay, well that was really good to see last night because you go, all right, it was a Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore, you know, there's weight non Jacksonville stuff that seems pointless, Miami, which is now without two, no idea.

The Jets roster is a talented roster. And so if the Rogers piece is gonna be there consistently for 17 games, then I do think, despite them getting dump trucked against the Niners, because that was a lot, you're like, wait, what's going on with this defense? Mason is gonna tear you guys up here? What happened?

But week to week, there's just no way this Jets defense is gonna be bad with the week, there's just no way this just defense is going to be bad with the personnel. There's no way. I love so many guys that are on this roster. So I think last night, even though I think the Pats are terrible, and they'll likely be terrible despite a competitive week two and a week one win against what we think is going to be a good team in Cincinnati that needs to be thrown back into that AOC mix as well, despite their record and the whole

thing, it, it makes me look at the Jets like, you might have to start thinking about them seriously, despite how disappointed week one was. Yeah, I was nervous, man. I was nervous because I think one thing that got exposed week one against the Niners was, when the Niners, when the Jets took away the edge for the Niners, and they were forced to make it

a foam booth game, and which they did. They were just like, all right, we're not going outside. We're just gonna go downhill and we'll let you figure it out. I think our corners, meaning DJ Reed and Solace Garner, weren't prepared for the physicality of that game, and they were forced to tackle, and they got hurt. And I thought going into this game, with the Patriots showing up, having six down linemen, going jumbo package,

they were gonna force these corners to get up, stand up and tackle. And Credit Sherwood, cause this just were out CJ Mosley, obviously Jermaine Johnson was down, but I thought I saw us going, and DJ Reed, Chuck Clark, and all those guys, they really stepped up to the plate

and showed a level of physicality we haven't seen this year. So I was nervous. I thought this was going to be a phone booth game. I thought it was like, man, we're just going to punch each other in the face and figure it out. And Rodgers becoming mobile, the Titans coming alive, Mike Williams not being on a pitch count, them actually targeting him, getting him the ball, and the offensive line just

standing up and really playing and bully football. Really, really kind of, I think it was like, okay, the jets, there may be something that this, this is the jets I want to see every Sunday. The O line, you know, the names, you know, the investment. And obviously Smith at left tackle is kind of like, well, if this works out, you know, we're thrilled, but you know, at the same time it's like, is it actually going to work out?

Yeah. Well, how much variance do you have from like the best version to the worst version of what it could be this year? Well, listen, I think the fact that they've been able to pass protect going into, I mean, now it's week three, as well as they have is, I think speaks to values. Listen, office of line play takes a while. I mean, that's just, it just takes a while to get together. This is a group that hasn't played a lot together.

I think when you talk about the addition of Morgan Moses and John Simpson, both of these guys have played the Niners prior to week one and didn't let up any sacks, pressures, or hits. So I knew they were, they were ready for the fight. As far as Tyron Smith, at times he does look a little aged, but he's an absolute battle horse, man. And I think the fact that his pride in his heart,

in his grit, and he's, I didn't expect him to be as physical and efficient as he has been in the run game. He's done a hell of a job in the run game. And I think the biggest caveat to that line is the young fella in the middle, Joe Tippman, man. He's done a great job of being an extension of Ryan Rogers and really just playing at an elite level. When you got Lajavere Tucker to the right, you got Simpson to the left, now he doesn't have to worry about fixing any deficiencies, which really great centers have to do, especially when you have a guard that don't have range. He

can just be a young fella getting it done. And I think he's done a great job doing that. So I think the line is, is hungry. They're hungry. They're ready. They just got to stay healthy, man. Right now they look healthy. Right now they look ready. They were up for the fight last night.

The energy was different last night. I don't know if you watched it from, from kickoff to end, but it was different. They do. They seem like there was like, all right, this is going to be a backyard brawl and they signed up for it and they was ready to go. I don't think I saw that in San Francisco. Valor's week one, you can't put too much on the road, Levi's stadium, yada, yada, yada, but your last night seemed like they were ready to fight and, uh, it was

good to see that side of the jets. They brought out the entire toolbox. This is what it felt like last night. And we got some pats, you know, Drake may getting into the game is, is exciting, but ultimately like that'll be the probably the only interesting thing will be once you starting at some point this season and what it looks like.

I'm going to be honest with you cause I thought Drake may was going, he was going to get, he looked like he was about to get the captains on the field. Like I, I know it's a suck. I know it was a tough situation to throw the rook in, but I felt sorry for him. I mean, he took one or two hits and he, first of all, the first ball he threw almost got picked off. Which I thought that was a setup job.

Like you don't throw the rook out there and you throw the ball right off the rip. Like hand it off, throw a crack, do something. He almost throws a pick. And then the next, I think the next two plays, he gets slammed to the ground and then he picks his helmet up and I'm like, oh, this is not how you want to start your NFL career, getting slammed on the turf

and that life with garbage time. Like it just felt like a rough out for a guy that's sure you want to build his confidence up. So felt bad for the kid. Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't pretty, wasn't great. Yeah, I was thinking, I was wondering if it was a decision if it was, hey, instead of the buildup of the first moment,

the first series when he's named a starter, eventually this season let him just go out there now and it doesn't matter, but the defensive guys of that group, because I feel like the Jets front, they just have, look, I'll say the entire 11 guys, even though they're missing a couple of dudes last night, there does seem to be an attitude with that group and look, maybe I didn't see that attitude two weeks ago.

So maybe I'm victim of just what I saw last night, but it's not like they're going to be like, Hey, this game's in our back pocket. It's like, dude, let's kill the rookie. He's definitely not going to know he's, he's doing out there. And that's, it was that anyway. All right. Look on, on the younger quarterbacks in general, and I spent a good chunk on this cause I, I think it's kind of fun to talk about all the guys, but they're going to

struggle and most of them are supposed to struggle, uh, for some of them, the struggles have looked brutal. It also kind of makes you think about CJ Stroud's rookie year. And you're like, how did a rookie do what that guy did? Maybe that means he is going to be that special. But when you're watching rookies, and I always love whenever you tell any stories, with the younger guys,

like what do you see is the biggest disconnect from them kind of understanding what it takes, even if they have all the physical ability? Oh man, you know, the only way I can answer that question is put myself in it in that spot when I was just a young dumb fuck who, you know, was just extremely happy to just be in NFL coming out of Hofstra. I think for me, you know, the biggest thing I didn't realize being a young guy trying to, trying to get it.

Cause you know, my first year in the league, I didn't, I didn't, I started the last two games. My first, my first start was like Christmas weekend against Baltimore and I can remember man and how that happened was cause we were playing the Carolina Panthers the week before and Max Starks was out starting to write tackle. And he actually tore his ACL doing a lap around the field before the game. And yeah, think about this, warming up,

just going around, keep warming up, steps in like a little pothole in the field, knee goes wobble, wobble. Going to the training room, he's like, you know, my knee is not feeling well. Turned around to be his MCL, ACL or something. They was like, well, we don't have any backup tackles. You got to go.

They brace him up, cast, you know, brace him up, wrap him up. And he's going against Julius Peppers. And I'm like, this is about to be a massacre because we're in Carolina. And we go on to win that game and Max puts the shutout. And I'm saying to myself, that's all dog right there. We comes up, Russ Graham is our office line coach at the time.

He goes, all right, all right, Willie, you're up. And I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm like, what do you mean I'm up? To me in my head, this is a red shirt year. I'm having a great time on this championship outfit. People, you know, fans don't know who's on the team. They just know you're a stealer. So prior to my rookie year, we had won the Super Bowl.

So I'm really, I'm on the parade and I didn't add anything to it. So I'm kind of going around town, just enjoying myself, the nightlife and everything that comes around with it. And Russ Green gives me the nod, like, Hey, bud, party's over, you're up. And my first start is against the Baltimore Ravens. Now, imagine your first start, bro.

In Pittsburgh, Christmas weekend, I'm looking across the field. Mind you, I'm from Hofstra, right? I'm not from Alabama. I didn't come from LSU. I wasn't used to seeing decorated athletes of that caliber. I look across it's T sucks. Ray Lewis, Chris McAllister, Bart Scott.

He says, yeah. And so I'm saying to myself, what this is real. Like, doesn't matter if you stayed out of holiday and last night, kid, you're but you're going in the game. And it was so funny, I can remember, today I was known for getting into fights and practice, kind of being this hard-o a little bit. And I remember, you know, as the line,

my line at the time was Alan Fandica, Marviel Smith, Justin Harding, Kendall Simmons, and I was at Right Tackle. And I'm walking down the sideline, and we had a young, not a young at the time, he was a vet, Tyrone Carter, right? He was sitting on the DB bench, he pops out, punches, like pushes me in my chest.

He's like, you bad, right? You bad? All that shit you been talking? All that shit you been doing? Yeah, this is time to go do it. Show them what you got. And I remember saying to myself, I'm gonna throw up. Like, I'm gonna, I'm going to throw the fuck up

and walking on that field of my line and turning around and seeing, by the way, I got Trevor Price. I mean, I'm looking at the Baltimore Ravens and I'm like, oh, you done fucked up now. Like this is, now you're an NFL kid, knuckle up. And the first play, bro, the first play. Now, mind you, Trevor Price was known for lining up

at four eye and he's all of six, eight, he's like six, seven. He's a big man. He's enormous. He's enormous. Bro, he had a, he had a patented move where he would rip across your face and rip so high in the sky and he would just take you to the quarterback. I had practiced against that move all week. Damn to the point I was tapping older guys like Aaron Smith and Brett Keiser like hey man this is what

Trevor Price does. Just give me some reps let me just kind of feel it. You're taller guy I'm you know I'm only 6'3 these guys are like 6'4 6'5. Trevor Price is 6'7. No problem They give me the reps. Game time happens. First play I think we throw the ball. Bro, he rips across my face up in the sky and carries me to Ben Roffesberger, knocks me down. Ben gets the ball out last minute. Ben looks at me, I'm like laying at his feet.

He's looking at me like, are you serious kid? I look at my sideline. My guys, the other fat guys that look like me, and they look mortified. They look like, all right, you're not gonna make it, kid. Three and out, go to the sideline, Russ Graham goes to me, he goes, listen, I don't care if you have to block this son of a bitch backwards.

Don't let him hit seven again. And then from that point on, I was just like, all right, I gotta fight for my life. And so I just always, from that point in my career, play with that sense of urgency. From that play on, like, you're in a fight for your life. Even though you're happy to be in the NFL, this is a dogfight,

and you're playing against the best of the best. And I think for a lot of young guys, they have to understand that you have to go through the fire to get better. Like, just what you did in college doesn't matter. Being a part of a program, doing your due diligence, studying, being everything you could be that you have to go through the fire to get better. Like just what you did in college doesn't matter. Being a part of a program, doing your due diligence, studying and being everything you can be

so you can actually fight your ass off on Sunday comes with time and maturation. And so I think the biggest disconnect is a lot of these kids just think they can just turn it on. Like, it's just, oh, I'm here. Like there's a lot that goes into being the best you can be each and every day. I mean, for Christ's sake, Brady himself to go

can preach about preparation and time and effort and just being the all around ball player. What things you can't be the same? Like you're not worthy or you don't feel like you got, you know, you think you just skip that part of the game. So I just don't see enough guys putting it into work. Long story short. By the way, your pro football reference picture on your page.

Absolute 10 out of 10 Harto. Have you seen it? No, I haven't. Were you, did you think deep down you weren't tough or was it because of the Hofstra thing, was there a compensation thing where like deep down you're like, maybe I'm not as tough as these guys or was it strictly Hofstra and you knew you were actually tough, but. I knew I was tough, but it was Hofstra.

When you, you know, when you're lining up against guys who, you know, played at a lot of schools you love to watch on Saturday and you know their names and you know how decorated they are and how much they're praise you like, damn man. Like, I got it. Do I, am I worthy of being here? And then my only answer was to just fight them. Like just like, I gotta, I gotta just go at this guy and let my presence be known.

And it's just, it was definitely from a place of insecurity, 100%. But then once you bang, you kind of get in your thing, you're like, oh, it's just a guy. Let's play football. Who should be the starter with the Steelers? Justin Fields. Even if Russ is healthy, if Russ is back and healthy,

you would stay with Fields. I think he's earned it, bro. Like, so for me, and I know that's like, well, what does that mean? Russ was hurt, right? If he earned, I think there's a couple of things. I understand in the preseason why Justin didn't get the job. His footwork was bad,

which led a lot of times to him being inaccurate. He uses his athleticism more than kind of sitting in the pocket at times and delivering the football, kind of working within the offense. And then at times he held on a ball too long. Kind of some of the stuff we saw within Chicago. I think the last two weeks we've seen this kid approve. You see, there's one shot against last week's man,

and I think the play ended up getting called back. The second and 18 down the right sideline. Yeah. It was one of the best throws I've seen all season. It was unbelievable. But that's confidence, Ryan. You know what I mean? We just haven't seen that level.

We knew he had it, but that's confidence. And to be able to get out of there and drop it on a dime between two, I'm saying to myself, yeah, the kids are raw. He's the hot hand. I'm not just saying Russ isn't worthy of that, of starting. I just, right now, with him growing within the offense and him gaining confidence as he goes,

why go backwards, right? There seems to be a connection with him and Pickens. He seems to look more efficient. And then we have a run game. And I say this, and I don't think this was talked about enough. When it came down to choosing between Fields and Russ, man, I think Mike Tomlin did a great job of, I'm trying to say this the right way. So I think we look at Coach Tomlin as a coach,

but I also think he's been able to talk through a lot of interviews that he's turned into this father figure. I think Russ being in his 30s, been there, done that, accomplished a lot. He's starting to see the ceiling. I think with Justin Fields being on the bubble, I thought sitting Justin Fields was a way to protect him because he, one, he knew starting to see the ceiling. I think we're with Justin Fields being on the bubble. I thought sitting Justin Fields was a way to protect him because he one, he knew he wasn't ready.

And to him being a bubble guy, if he wasn't to me, if he was not to make it on the steeler team, I don't know if you can just now consider him a quarterback, right? You start thinking about him in other in other ways in other positions. And so I think this is a way to say, hey, they still work to be done with this kid. We can polish him up as the season go, let Russ have it. And if need be, we have a kid that we've worked on his mechanics and grew him with an offense where we can kind of say, all right,

he's now ready to play quarterback for the Steelers. So I think Tom's emotional connection to fields Really was like I think this is probably best for this kid's development and confidence And I think that's one of the reasons why he went with Russ Okay Even though I would agree with you on a couple of these throws in the confidence and all that stuff with fields There's also the part where they have one touchdown on 21 possessions, right? So like if they're O and two, they miss a couple kicks, then everybody, he's the same exact guy,

and they're going, we're just not moving the ball enough. You know, like you would never go like, yeah, what, there could be one possession out of the 21 where I'm not being entirely fair on, you know, did it not matter, but I'd have to go through it again. So like make it 20, make it 21. I thought Fields would win the locker room because I think Russ is the opposite of what

the Steelers are about. And I don't know it. I think the Steelers take themselves seriously and And I think Russell Wilson's about Russell Wilson. Okay. But I don't know, like I was ready to make fun of him being in full uniform and then taking snaps. But if he was actually just trying to see how he felt, you know, and then I couldn't tell if it was just like,

was there some Russell Wilson propaganda that it was actually the emergency quarterback? Right. And it's like, yeah, but then you're not supposed to do it. So like I left that one alone. To me, that was not the Packers simulated game that he went through because it was prime time because he wanted everybody to see him doing that. Even though like, I think it was the Packers.

The Packers game, I think is the one that he played in that the Seattle guys were upset that he came back to play because they hadn't prepped for it. Anyway, there's a lot of different stuff there. The point that I would make though is, okay, let's, can we go back to, Gino was a rookie your second year with the Jets, correct? My first year. That was your first year. Okay, so 2013 was your first year with them.

All right, so two, yeah, that's right, 2013. So he comes in second round pick and he actually starts all 16 games. Yeah, because Revis was gone by then. They had got at the locker room. A lot of the guys prior to that year had left. Revis had left and we at the time we were the second youngest team in the NFL would have

started with a rookie starting quarterback. Is you know Smith. Right way 8 and 8. The next year it's Gino and it's Vic. Was there any? And I'm not, this is not the same as Fields Wilson, but Vic is like a superhero to NFL dudes. I mean, I've seen it. It's not hard. You don't have to see it to understand it, but this isn't just somebody that was awesome at quarterback. He is like an icon, all right? An icon to these dudes.

Was there any element of that in the locker room once the team is struggling where you're thinking, and I don't remember everything, it's 10 years ago, so I don't know, injury coming into any of that, where there were guys that were just like, we want to see Vic because it's fucking Michael Vick in our locker room. Ryan, I remember when Vic first showed up to the locker room, man, and I had never witnessed this. And I played with Paul Marlowe Ben and Porter and all these guys where guys were actually in their locker room, just staring at them because that was the guy they were playing with in the video game. Right.

That was the guy they were wearing their sneakers. That was the guy who had the Nike commercials that they loved. And they were looking at this guy. It took our team, I'ma be dead ass, from our locker room to our coaching staff, probably a month to get over Michael Vick was on the team. Like they were just there,

there was just kind of this, in fact, and I get it to your point, he's a superhero to a lot of guys who are football enthusiasts, but I remember we walked on the field for walkthrough and they were kind of just tossing the ball around and he threw a ball like 50 yards on a rope and it just shot out his hand. And everybody was just like,

like it's real, like he's alive. And I was fortunate enough to really become close with Vic because we sat next to each other on the field. I mean, excuse me, on the plane, on the way trips. So I got to know him on a personal level. And I remember the dynamic between him and Gino was, Gino was expected to take the leap. It wasn't happening.

It wasn't happening at a rate which was, you know, that was helping us win. And I remember we were in San Diego. We rex is at, or obviously Rex is our coach and we were stinking it up is bad. This is like, this is the weekend where Gino supposedly went to the movie theater and all this other now he was late to the bench in that game. Yes. And so halftime Rex comes into the locker room and he slammed his shit. He's cussing. He's, he's burning hot and he goes, Vic you're up and I can remember cause I'm sitting right across from Michael Vick. One, he didn't know where his helmet was. And two,

they didn't prepare him for that week. He was only getting, he was getting minimal reps. Like he was just, this was Gino's show and he was well aware of it. But we were playing so bad, Rex didn't give a shit, right? So he's like, Vic you up. And I can remember Vic grabbing, he's like, oh shit, where's my helmet? He didn't feel as prepared as he should have been.

And Gino obviously being pissed. But I can remember looking at the rest of the line and we was like, hell yeah. Like it was like unlocking rest of the line and we was like, hell yeah. Like it was like unlocking fucking Optimus Prime. We were like, hell yeah. Like we, now we got down, because at this point we're all older dogs, you know what I mean? Like I'm an old dog, Nick Mangold, Austin Howard,

Brickshaw, like we all came up in that same old dog generation. So we're like, hell yeah. And I can tell you our spirits, like we were just like, like finally we unlocked the hot rod. We done polished up and had in this goddamn garage all this time, like now we can get this shit moving. We didn't do well in the second half.

It was bad. We gave it a week. It was, I don't even think we crossed a 50 in the second half. But I think the next week, I think the next week we went on to beat the Steelers with Vic at starting quarterback. Uh, and so, but I can't remember.

It wasn't the next week. It was, it was a little later in the season. Okay. So, yeah, you guys lost 31, nothing. I mean, Dick came in and threw some passes, but running for his life half the second half. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God, I love those times.

Okay, are the Saints for real on offense? I love them, man. Do you believe? I always wanna believe. I love that Derek Carr is a bit like seasonal moons. We're just like when you're ready to write them off. Like there it is. I compare it to Auburn.

I don't even know. I think my Auburn one is better. It's just when you're ready to just completely write off Auburn, then they beat Alabama. You're like, how did that happen? They've got a national title in there. I don't know if the car has the equivalent of that, but like car goes from,

what could this guy, I remember doing an ESPN radio show, we were like talking about potential MVPs and he had momentum going in. It might've been like seven years ago, but it was, hey, he was this and now if he's this and you get another year of this. And I'm like, Derek Carr's gonna win an MVP? And then last year, I was really in on him.

They were super disappointing. And now I don't know if it's all Clint Kubiak or not, but it's just nice to see Alvin Kamara again. I think that's hey that guy should have the ball more so good for them. So you seem like you're all the way in. I obviously am living a life filled with doubt. Well listen the Saints, listen they're showing up with the 11th personnel. They're doing a great job of throwing motion in there so it gives Derrick a time to kind of cipher out the defense. love that.

And on top of that, they're playing big boy football. You know, they showing up, they showing up in heavy and they're coming downhill. And you know, last week against, I think the Cowboys, I think he ran a ball 20 times for 115 yards, three touchdowns, man. And valid to that, the Cowboys defense is absolute trash and Zimmerman has a problem, Mike Zimmerman has a problem.

But to see them the way they were efficient to go in Dallas, to put the boots on the Cowboys, I was like, OK, I get it. Like them beating the Panthers is like, come on, there's an XFL team that can beat the Panthers right now. Right. They're just not a talented group and Bryce Young is hanging on for their life. But I think them going into Dallas winning in a fashion They won Alva Kamara leaving it leading the charge Derek Carr playing out of his mind. I'm just a believer I'm just a believer what they can do right now

And I like that the fact that Clint Kubiak got them looking efficient. They look efficient. They look they look steady So we three but I'm a believer as of right now Eagles defense considering the names most disappointing unit in the NFL. By far. Wow. By far? Yeah. Defensively, yeah. I found, I saw that I read this, that off today, on the Carter show, Jordan Love, not Jordan Love. Who's the big fella? No, Jaylen Carter had zero solo tackles. Right? Jordan Love, not Jordan Love, who's the big fella?

No, Jalen Carter had zero solo tackles, right? Jordan Davis has one solo tackle. Davis makes a little bit more sense just because of who he is and what kind of position he's gonna play, but you're right, like that first number, I didn't realize that, that's true. What are we talking about right now?

That D-line, Bryce Huff, who I loved when he was a Jett, this can't set the edge and get in his ass kick. Because when he was with the Jets, he was a third down guy, right? He just let him go off the rip. But now he's playing more and he's getting his ass put in a blender out there. So this D-line can't stop anybody.

And the secondary comes down, they miss a ton of tackles. So they look bad. And I thought this was going to be a unit that looked way better. I just thought they were going to be tougher. I know they're going to be better. And they're disappointing, man. They look real bad.

So I think for me, EU's defense by far. Do you have a new potentially favorite dude? Any side of the ball, but maybe younger. You know, every now and then there'll be some safety that's just kind of off of my radar where I go, you know who I love is like this dude. I put you on the spot here a little bit,

but there's probably somebody that's popped up on a Sunday where you go. I got somebody for your ass. The linebacker for you, the linebacker for, I'm gonna mess his name up, but I know you're gonna know who I'm talking about because I'm horrible with names. Houston Tech, I think I already know and I'm already mess his name up, but I know you're gonna know who I'm talking about because I'm horrible at names. Houston Texas-

I think I already know and I'm already looking up. Al Shire? No. Houston Texas, middle linebacker from Alabama, rookie. Oh, Toe Toe? Love him. Love him. Love him.

Love them in Bamham. Love him more. Love him. Love him. I got and bam him. Love him more. Love him. Love him. I got that, I'm the kid just banks. Run sideline to sideline, downhill, banks. Love him. I couldn't believe like the talking point

was that he got smaller. I mean, he was a fifth round pick. It was a big deal when Tennessee got him. And then when he transferred, I remember talking to some people that felt like they, people I trust, they were like, ah, he's a little overrated. And I was like, all right, okay. Cause I just remember reading about him all the time. He had, he had a night the other night and with, with some of the stuff that

we're seeing, you know, whether it's this, this too high safety stuff that everyone's in the session right now. But again, I feel like there's certain games I watch where I go, okay, this quarterback just does not want to make any throws. So the counter has to be running the football and maybe that's what the saints are doing with balance. I think it was really awesome beyond what Rogers did last night going, we're going to hit you with Hall and Allen all night. And like if that holds up, that's an awesome one to punch.

Cause Allen was so good his freshman year at Wisconsin, he was, he was that good. And then it was just kind of like off the radar. Well, he's so happy too. He got a hold on to the rock and it was one point last night. He, he got hit on a ball. I thought he was going to cough it up, but he held on to it. He's just got to take care of the ball.

The hit from behind. I thought for sure. Right. When he broke one for a little bit and I'm like, is he going to, uh, uh, toe toe though for them to talk up, like he's listed at 62, 28. I don't think that's big. He might not even be 62, 28.

He may be six feet, barely. I'm not gonna flick, man. Media guides, if I had known. I didn't realize on my license I could just put down whatever I wanted. But then, you know, somebody finds your license, you're gonna be a huge disappointment. Who's going to find your license?

Dude, my phone, I don't use a wallet. So when I pull my phone out all the time, just licenses all over the place. I always find it. Yeah. All right, cool. Good way to end it. That Vic stuff was awesome. God, that story is so good.

You're so good at the storytelling. We even crazy about it too. Vick. I wish you'd seen Vick's face. I wish I could have snapshot his face when he, when Rex comes. Bro, imagine you all week thinking like, I'm not playing. This is Gino's show. I'm not playing. Vick was chilling, like chilling. Like, ah Jets, we're not doing well. I'm just, you know, I can kind of get what's going on here. Rex comes in that bitch. This is fucking embarrassing, da da da da da. Vic, you're up, and he's like, oh, what the fuck?

Can't find, he's like looking for his keys. He's like, and we're like, and mind you, the officer line, we're like, yeah! He's like, hold on, fellas. Like, what the fuck is going on here? What were the huddles like? What were you doing like coming out? I'm gonna see him Tuesday for his Amazon premiere.

He did like a documentary on a black quarterback and shout out to Vic and it's some really good stories. It's gonna happen at the Apollo Theater. I'm gonna be in the house for that. I remember when he first got in the huddle coming out of halftime, he goes, listen fellas, you know I ain't prepared a whole lot man, but listen, they ain't, you know,

they ain't give me a lot of rest, but I'm gonna get the ball out fast and we'll get this thing done. All right, it's on one. We're in San Diego! It's beaming white hot! We're down a thousand points. It doesn't matter.

Cause we have Michael Vick actually speaking to us, bringing us some type of life. He could have said, listen guys, I just showed up two hours. I just finished a whole bag of rallies. We're going to win this thing. I would have shit orange sherbet of happiness. Just to see him on my huddle. It felt like God existed

And we did shit the bed Did his iconic status take a slight hit the following week? No No, right no, no cuz we it wasn't deep was horrible We shit running the balls. It was we had bigger issues than Michael Vick, right? It was it was it was a lot going on. We had bigger issues than Michael Vick, right? It was a lot going on. But defensively, we were atrocious that day. So it was just awesome to see somebody you grew up idolizing in the huddle

with you talking about, yeah, listen, I don't know how this is gonna work, but I'm here. So let's figure it out together. And one, on one, let's go. Good stuff, man. Willie Colon, Jets pre and post with carton, breakfast ball. We'll check in again soon. Peace.

The Alliance, Wargon is off, not the Ducks. Didn't want to show his face, huh? Saru have his pick. Yeah, Kyle, very, very sizzly today. What happened last week? I lost. I was the only one that won but oh so that's why it's doing it that's totally gonna depend on how I my tone in this segment every week so I don't want to be a dick

but Kyle's the only the reason week one that we didn't actually hit the bet so like you know I'm not like I know you know not trying to be an asshole here but you know we'd be in the money if it wasn't for Kyle right now. Just saying. But not a good week overall, good week for Kyle. So yeah, one and three last week and back on the horse this week. So we were what? Three and one, two and two, one and three?

Correct. All right, Kyle, why don't you take it? The board is yours. Sounds about right. Okay, so this one, Tate and I had jumped over from UCLA to USC, so we're taking LSU minus 16 and a half adjusted versus UCLA because those people are dead to me now. It's an adjusted line. It gives you around minus 230, which it should stack up with all of our bets to get in us

in that 450 range. Yeah, that's the other thing. Right. And it's minus 22 and a half on FanDuel, the real line. Okay, cool. That's the real one. Okay, cool. For the record, Kyle's, his line here, minus 230, as you mentioned, is by far the, you know, the biggest line out there.

So the easiest one to hit, should I say, so. Give yourself, when you're trying to hit four, okay, yeah, but you know, we're supposed to all win, right? That's, that's the point. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, that's the truth. Truth hurts, you know? I'll go, cause I got two and I'll give Wargon's. Wargon for some reason is taking Florida State plus two and a half.

He's taking it through. I love it. He's taking it through. Okay, all right, there's two people. I just would not bet Florida State, but hey. So he's got Florida State plus two and a half. That's an alt line. And I'm going to take the under in Tennessee, Oklahoma.

I'm going to bump it all the way up to 61 and a half. This to me, freshman quarterback going on the road in Norman, first SEC game in Norman for Oklahoma. Tennessee might win, I just think this is gonna be a grind out game and I think it goes under 61 and a half. So give me that. Okay, I will go with USC on the road minus five and a half at Michigan.

I think the quarterback part of this is alarming. Go ahead. We could actually bump that to minus five and a half at Michigan. I think the quarterback part of this is alarming. Go ahead. I actually, we could actually bump that to, to minus two and a half. If you want to just say, Hey, they went by a field goal. And that gets us to our goal. If you want to do that. So it puts us, it puts us in the plus 400 range. Yeah. That's plus all those. Doesn't that make the bet easier to win? And don't we hate that or, oh no, it's just me. Well, okay. Here we go. Yeah. But that put us at plus four 71. So that's a good number. That's the, it's just me. Well, okay. Yeah, but that put us at plus 471. So that's a good number That's that's the so the alt spread USC

Just my two and a half minus two and a half Plus 470 done Yeah, all right. There you go There you go. All right, and week three couch research money our NFL exercise Where we go with my pick from the couch, fading the public money, and then also a tidbit from those that do this. It's one in five. It's been awful to start. So, you know, having Carolina in the mix a couple of times, Detroit covering that was the only winner. The public is hot.

Okay, all right. So couch version of this, just me, just a dude sitting on his couch watching stuff. Give me the Bears plus one and a half at the Colts. The fading the public money, we're gonna go with the Rams plus, what do we got here? I think it's, I just wanna get the latest that I have here.

It's plus six and a half, um, at home against the Niners, which doesn't feel awesome. And then the research part of this, um, there's a few different picks. I think, I think the only one of all the research that I got last week is the one that gave out. Cause I was like, all right, that seems to be the one that the most common Ended up losing a bunch of the other ones one

So that's always a little dicey here, but it feels like people are on Minnesota so Right now the line is Minnesota plus two and a half at home against the Texans. So those are the official picks. You want details? Buy. I drive a Ferrari.

355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Okay, it's Friday.

Kyle's got some toot to him already. I love it though. It's good toot, positivity, he's rocking the Johnnies. I should have brought up the Johnnies when we talked about rooting, not rooting, but it was just kind of tough to keep up with. You root for the old Johnnys, right? That's all you do.

That's really it. Because every time I talk about the Johnny's, he's like, look, it's never gonna be like it was. I'm like, all right, that wasn't really where I was going with this. I just like these Johnnys. I'm on it from a distance. Anyway, Life Advice, the email address,

lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. I do think we should do a laugh track for an episode. That doesn't make any sense during a super intense part of the open and then just drop the laugh track in there. And then maybe after the guest is done and they share some like, oh, his usage rate is this. And then, you know, like when people would make out in a sitcom, like, oh, his usage rate is this. And then, you know, like when the people would make out in a sitcom, like, ooh, you know, yeah.

If we could do that, I'd like like six, I'd like like six or seven. Well, when guests come on, we should just have the, yeah, like thunder and applause, you know, kind of thing. That'd be good. It boosts everybody's ego. Yeah, yeah. Like when Kramer would enter, did they clap for Seinfeld?

I always felt it was like one day at a time and Schneider would stop by. Now I've lost, now I've lost you guys. Okay. You would have loved one day at a time, Kyle. You would have, oh my God. That would have been rock-a-bye. Is there a Schneider pitch for that show you could give me? People livin', man. My type of show. In the mime. It's give me people living man. My type of show. And the mom, like, I don't know if it was every episode, but it always feels like the mom would get super pissed off at somebody and it would

be like this emotional crescendo. I don't know if they could pull that club out of the bag every episode, but it felt like it happened a lot. Okay. Close friend keeps interrupting my wife. 42 years old, five eight,", 180, former D1, women's hoop scrimmage quad guy. Oh, all right, yeah.

So, no, he played against him. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Basketball comp, poor man's fat lever due to superior short guy rebounding skills. Fat lever getting a lot of love on the pod lately. Gym stats, badass. He was a civilian scrimmaging

against the women basketball team, Is that really what it is? Sounds like it's the mafia, but yeah pretty much There's a isn't there a term for that. What's that called? Medagang Don't worry is it no, I'm doing the sopranos thing. I just rewatching after the doc. That's are you yeah, join it loving it Yeah, Good show. It's a comedy really. I'm kidding. No, that's like just one of the things I was like, okay, everybody agrees. No,

let's actually make it this like, yeah, but it isn't, but it isn't, uh, Jim stats, bad ass alert popped off 60 reps of a 40 pound dumbbell bench press while watching Furiosa the other night. Great movie. Wow. That's a, 60 reps is a lot. And maybe, I don't know, I've never tried that pre-workout, during the workout, little Mad Max.

The light's low. It's low, so you can't see the pain. All right, my wife and I live in a large southern city with no family and have two elementary aged kids. After we moved here, we convinced a friend who I'll call Greg. Greg moved in with us for a bit and was a fantastic roommate who helped with our kids

and cooked meals while he saved up for a house nearby. How about these people? Wow, they've got to be Midwesterners. You pick your family, huh? Yeah. After a year, I wonder if a family would let me live with them. After a year, Greg found a house, uh, close to us and has remained close with our family. He is single and has no interest in having kids,

but is a fantastic de facto uncle Greg to our kids. Hopefully not like cousin Greg. Yeah. Strong, strong for a man. Um, he takes them to special meals, movies, and gives them thoughtful gifts for their birthdays. He also helped me coach one of my kids in the little league. He's an awesome guy and all the honorary uncles out there. You guys are heroes and you probably have no idea how helpful you truly are. To my problem, Greg keeps cutting off my wife when she's talking. He does this to me,

but it's worse with her. It's not something he used to do, but it's something that has developed since he's lived alone. Uh-oh. Do you know that though? Come on. I do it. But I think I do it because I've been hosting shows for 20 years. Where the second I go on, yeah, the second, no, the second I'll hear like a drop in the silence, I'll just jump in and then I realized like, you're kind of tough to talk to on the phone the first five minutes.

Saruti's like, go ahead, Saruti. You can. No, you, you've admitted this. You talked about it with Brian with Curtis, you know, you hop on the phone with Curtis and you just talk for the first 10 minutes and it's like, I thought this was supposed to be a back and forth, you would you've admitted this. You talked about it with Brian with Curtis, you know, you hop on the phone with Curtis and you just talk for the first 10 minutes and it's like about this supposed to be a back and forth. You own it. So at least you're aware of it. That's fine. That's the first 10 is long. Okay.

With like virtual pods and zoom meetings and everything, like you kind of do have to power through guys talking. Otherwise you will get, you know, your producer will just have the note where it's like, Oh, sorry, you know, you go ahead. And I think, you know, your producer will just have the note where it's like, oh, sorry, you, no, you go ahead. And I think, you know, you and Bill do a good job of, I even noticed Tate does this, is he'll just like, all right, you're trying to talk, but I'm gonna finish this.

I'm just gonna, it's sometimes it's gonna be two sentences where you're trying to talk to me. And I just find it interesting. I think it takes guts to start doing that, but probably once you've been doing it for a while, it just comes natural. So I'm to the emailer who's not, I'm telling you him living alone will impact

the way he talks once he's around other people. I think if you are by yourself a lot, then when you're with other people, I don't think it's as evil as like a narcissism. You're just not used to. Like other people, you just used to get all your thoughts out. Yeah.

Uninterrupted. When you talk to yourself regularly, there's no one else to lay out for. Uh, Greg also works a weird work schedule where he works overnight, three to four nights a week and vacillates between night schedules and day schedules. God, that can, I can just mess up the brain waves. He doesn't talk to his coworkers. His hobby is watching movies, isn't terribly social in general. So his friend's circle is pretty small.

So yeah, this guy's on the solo train, man. I can't tell if he knows he's cutting us off. He definitely doesn't. For example, who finished a sentence pause and my wife will start to respond and he'll start talking and answer his own question or just increase his voice and drown out my wife. I've witnessed him do this. Then watch my wife storm out of the room while he's still talking. He does this to me to a lesser extent, though I sometimes tap into my public speaking training and raise a hand and

start talking as he stops. Geez, that's a lot of functions, just counter. Find an on-ramp. May I counter share? Gotta give him to 65 real quick, it's a fast highway. What an understanding main guy, the emailer. But it's got to the point with my wife that she's genuinely upset

and we're trying to figure out how to approach talking to him. The other thing about Greg is that he's notoriously hard on himself, like peak Midwestern guilt, hard on himself. So we're trying to figure out how to bring this up without causing him to recede further into his shell. Any advice or do we just say, hey man, knock it off? Yeah, sure, I mean, like that'd be the easiest thing, but I think instead of just saying that

and then moving on to the next email, it is important to kind of understand. I do think him being by himself impacts it. I notice it with me a little bit, but I don't think it's an ego thing. It's just, but I also think with me, it can be whenever I hear like dead air, if your profession was to make sure

there was never ever dead air, but I don't give the other person. I'm not talking, this is strictly on the phone, person to person, no issues, but on the phone, if there's like an, just a split second of dead air, I can't help myself. I'll just be like, Oh, they're, they're not ready yet. It's fucking, it's annoying. Okay. I'm annoyed at myself talking about it. Uh, but there you go, you know, self-awareness guy. So it, at least give me credit for that. There's a bunch of things you could do.

You could make it a game with your wife. Be like, no matter what happens, just flow of the tide, don't stop talking. When he raises his foot. Or you go the other way, when he interrupts you, everyone just stop and then fold your arms and then look at him. And then when he finishes his point,

be like, okay. And then you can be like, all right, deep breath. And then when he does it to you again, just keep doing it. You can come up with like, hey, tonight's approach is this. Cause clearly you like this guy. You've said some awesome things about him. And it speaks also to your patience, but you're living with your wife.

You're not living with Greg. So you're gonna fix this for your wife. And just because he's really hard on himself doesn't mean he gets to be this route. And I don't think he's doing it like out of just being an asshole. My guess is he's completely unaware. He's probably really excited. Hey people, adrenaline, he's over the house. He's rattling off stories. Also, when you're by yourself a lot, you think everybody wants to hear these fucking updates updates on what you've been doing. Because how would they know otherwise?

Yeah, right. And the reality is they don't want to know. Most of the stuff you think is important, it's like, yeah, I don't know. That's a cool story, man. I'm 48. I don't give a shit. I don't know if we're talking about Greg anymore, but So I don't know if we're talking about Greg anymore, but, uh, I would make a game of it, but do not let this continue to happen. Try to figure out a way to increase his awareness of what is happening because you like them, but you can't continue this.

So can I just ask a question really quick before you go, Kyle? What's the other thing that I was saying as before you go Kyle? What's worse though? Well the other thing that I was saying. As I interrupt, yeah. What's worse though, like pulling him aside, because I feel like pulling him aside and just being like, hey dude, you have this habit of doing that, that's actually worse than correcting him like,

Totally agree. In the moment. So that's what I would do, I would just be like, hey dude, like we're talking, and just don't make it a big deal, just say that and then keep going, and then he'll, if he's smart, he'll eventually just catch the hint. And maybe he's not,

but I was gonna say there needs to be two, one, you gotta run a little damage control with your wife. She's like storming out of rooms when it's clearly, like one would assume it's not on purpose, but it's just a guy who just can't help himself and doesn't know. Like, I don't know, I would, listen, I wouldn't tell my wife to relax,

we've been over that. That's probably, that's like a, I would listen, I wouldn't tell my wife to relax. We've been over that. That's probably that's like a break. Not even a breaking case of emergency sort of phrase you want to use. But I feel like I would be like, like what Ryan said, like I was going to say, make jokes or the game is pretty fun too. When you guys can both have a thing where, you know, she's frustrated, but then she remembers in that moment when she just got cut off, like, oh, we're going to do a thing now.

I think that's the best. It was either that or jokes. But yeah, pulling the guy aside and be like, like it's a performance review. Be like, you know, this cannot go on. This is sort of a formal warning. Like that's not good. But I would definitely talk to your wife about like,

you know, it's not on purpose. I know it's not on purpose, but I think we gotta give, we gotta coach our boy up a little bit. So what do you think about this? I think that it's not on purpose. I know it's not on purpose, but I think we got to give, we got to coach our boy up a little bit. So what do you think about this? I think that's, that's a perfect game plan. It was either going to be jokes or, or a little game like Ryan said.

So I'd say pick your poison there. Interruption jar. You interrupt your wife. You're like, oh, that's a dollar. Do it in front of them. And then just started looking, giving them eyes the entire night. Like.

Yeah, look, we could have done it in 30 seconds to say pull them aside, but I agree with Saruti. Like if he's, it sounds like you're describing somebody that's pretty sensitive about things. I don't know if that's an automatic marriage of if you're really, really down on yourself all the time, would you also be really sensitive about things? I would say likely, uh, let's guess.

But with this, I think to make it playful and your might, your wife might get it. Like it might be kind of funny to have everybody, you know, and it should be in front of the wife in a way, because if he's doing it to her, like get it all out on the table, have it, because then if you pull them aside in the garage for the pep talk, and then he's going to go back into the kitchen, and at least for that night, it's going to be in his head and it's going to be so fucking weird. And then the wife's going to look at you and be like, Oh, you talk to him.

You guys are going to have the eye signals going and everything. But it sounds like you want him to still be your friend, but yeah. And you also said he doesn't want a kid. So like, does he have a. Um, but it sounds like you want him to still be your friend, but yeah. And you also said he doesn't want to kids. So like, does he have a girlfriend or whatever? It sounds like this guy is very lonely and he cares about you two a ton. And there's this weird, like he re orbits into people thing and he's, he's not doing a great job at it because he's so excited.

He's probably so excited to go over there because if you were all cool and being on the same page with this other guy living with you, helping with the kids, it sounds like it really worked out. He probably misses it in a way, even if he's still thrilled that he saved enough to get his own living situation going, but it might just be like, you know, a dog when a new person is there. You're like, Oh, don't worry. He'll calm down. He's usually, he's usually really good with friend of the family, right?

You don't want him to be dad's friend. And that's the thing. If he, if he gets a whiff that like, you know, my wife's really upset about this stuff, like it might just end up being like, you've now forked, you hit a fork in the road and now he's just dad's friend instead of, you know, uncle Greg and, you know, you guys are, you know, enjoy time together. So I think it's important to not make it feel like, you know, she really wanted me to talk to you about this or my wife, you know, she's really, she's really upset when this happens.

So I think if you could get away from all that and just keep it like a level above, keep it, keep it surface level instead of like a deep cut. That's the move. Okay, I like it. All right, we got another one here. 6'2", 265. Big boy on the roof. No gym stats, basketball comp.

Is that from something or is that just off the dome? It's from something I think. I may have got the quote wrong, but, uh, Gustavo Ione and Boris Diao, if they merged into one player. Okay. Gustavo, former magic green. Let's go. Uh, there was, did we talk about this Saruti with why we're not doing any

49ers updates with you because we trust your magic takes more? Wait, what? I'm not even really, I'm, why we're not doing any 49ers updates with you? Because we trust your magic takes more? Wait, what? I'm not even really, I'm not even really a 49ers fan anymore. We talked about this. Like about being jaded. Okay. Jaded, jaded NFL, Saruti. All right.

32 year old, uh, not single guy living in a major city, we'll leave it out, who has been actively trying to date and find the one. I have my degree in engineering, a good job. Mostly have my stuff together, despite some credit card debt. Hear that. Shout out to those APRs, bro. Look, try to find a way.

Like if you have anything that's worth anything, see if you can get a lower fucking APR line of credit on those to pay them down. Anyway, I don't know. I got something to mail the other day. I know I got something in the mail the other day and was like, Oh, I'm going to throw this away, but that looks like a much better rate. All right. For the past few months, I was dating a girl.

Um, let's call her Jen. He changed the name. She was great. Like to do everything I do. Got along really well. Communication was probably one of the best I've had with a girl. Things were going well,

but she lives an hour and a half away from me. Five months into dating, she reveals she's still legally married to her ex-husband, but they've been separated for three plus years. This is a surprise, but whatever. Okay, yeah, we'll allow it, I think. Stuff happens. The wheels of time.

She also informed. She also informed me she's not filed her taxes for multiple years. Okay. Add into that suspect pile. Um, and she has a mountain of debt from her previous marriage. Her and her ex husband had a plumbing business together and apparently she put all the business expenses under her name because he was not from the country. I'm not gonna say where he's from, but he's not from here.

She found him cheating, left him, and got stuck with all the debt. I was left with a sour taste. This information being revealed to me and the timing of it left me thinking she was not honest and upfront with me. Towards the end, I would also see multiple Tinder notifications pop up in her phone when I'd be hanging out with her, which didn't sit well with me. We agreed to go

our separate ways and I went back into the dating field. Yeah, you think? Oh, are we together? Who's Jeff? Since then, I've gone on a few dates, but nothing has sparked up from any of those. Dating can be difficult for an average, below average looking guy who's slowly losing his hair. Sorry, man. I find myself wondering if I've made a mistake. Jen wasn't perfect, but things were mostly good until she revealed her baggage, which I thought was a bit too much.

Did I react too harshly by calling it quits? How much is one supposed to compromise except in a relationship before it's too much? Thanks. Love the pod. Keep up the good work. Okay, man, your confidence is down right now. Happens to everybody. Well, there's probably some guys that are just awesome, but um, you're,

you know, the peaks and valleys of your own confidence and what you think you deserve, and then, you know, when the confidence is low and things may be a little slow on the female front, then you start thinking back to like, oh, maybe, you know, whatever, like, I think it's very normal, you know, when the confidence is low and things may be a little slow on the female front, then you start thinking back to like, maybe, you know, whatever. Like I think it's very normal, you know? But this is, if you read this out loud, if your buddy described his new girlfriend this way to you, what would you say to your buddy? Right? You doesn't even have to be your buddy.

There's not one single person listening to this email that thinks that you made a mistake because here's the most important part. And again, I think a lot of it has to do with where you're at right now. And you're just like, well, look, if things aren't going really well right now, and I'm looking in the mirror like an archaeologist at my fucking hair, and I'm trying to figure things out, and maybe, you know, we kind of got along, and the husband thing isn't really that big of a deal. Maybe we weren't. Like, I know exactly what you are doing because so many of us have done it

because when you're not feeling confident about yourself, you start thinking back to the options that you thought you were 1.2 good for. And yes, you are too good for this. And the major, major red flag of all of this is that as you describe her backstory to us, my guess is the version you got is probably bullshit and it's even worse. Okay.

And here was what it was the separated three years marriage. Okay. Fine. It happens all the time. Five months in probably could have told you sooner. What I think is very alarming is that all the plumbing debt is all on her because of the ex-husband and that's the story she sold you. If she's willing to not tell you five months in

that she's legally married, if she's telling you she has all this debt but it's actually not her fault, which is what so many of these people, it's actually not my fault. And then by the way, I'm also keeping my options open with Tinder. You don't want this person back in your life. And I know being lonely sucks, but be lonely. Be lonely for a little bit because you're not getting the truth if somebody is willing to be this devious. There's three different things in here that you gave us and you don't want to deal with this person. Right, right. Yeah, right. Yeah. By themselves, you could, I think the first one is, Hey man, modern times, you know, things happen. Maybe it's like, look, I didn't want to

say this beginning. I liked your little five months seems a little too long to be dating somebody. But I think all the plumbing debt, like, yeah, all those fixtures, all of them are on my credit score. Now, I think that's total bullshit. By the way, taxes are for suckers. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I don't file my taxes, but let's get married. What's your down payment situation on a condo? Cause you may not want to put my name on the paperwork until after though you buy it. And then I do want my name on the paperwork because that way, you know, I don't impact our, our mortgage rate. I love you.

I, the lonely thing you've nailed it, that's what it is. Like when I first moved out here, which is I guess going on nine years now, I had a good like opening month by like week five, six. Was like, man, there are a lot of hot dudes around here and I'm not, I don't think I'm making the cut. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on. I'm making the cut. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on.

I'm just talking about competition wise. Yes, once you finish the sentence. A lot of strong jawlines and I'm like, you know, I'm not really where I used to be. Kyle came in real hot and aggressive on the pod today, just calling everybody out and listen, comes back around like. If you can't look at a piece of art and decide

it looks good. I was like, what the fuck is he doing? Now we're on it looks good. I just don't stack up as well. I don't know. I think I got in my own head and probably got into my approach as well. It wasn't stealing deals for a while. A couple weeks of that, I'm making phone calls to people I should never make phone calls to. Just like, that was good. What if this? what if that?

And you throw a little booze in there, my mom's like, did you tell your crazy ex-girlfriend that you would move her out here? And I was like, why do you know that? And that's because loneliness will make you do some things. By the way, how did she know that? Did the girlfriend tell your mom? Family friend introduced a long time ago,

dated for a little while. Really, I mean, it was, couldn't be more clear that we shouldn't be together, but it does look good. So that was like- Hey dude, I get it, okay? I'm just saying, like stuff that I've been off of for years and then, you know, five, six weeks of like not sealing the deal and you're like,

wonder what she's up to, you know what I mean? Like, was it really that of like not sealing a deal. And you're like, what are what she's up to? You know what I mean? Like, was it really that bad? I don't know. And it's like, yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, now my mom thinks I'm an idiot. So that was a roundabout way. Wish I could take maybe 30% of that story back

off the air, but I'm just saying I understand. And it can mess with your head. Yeah, you can talk yourself into a lot of things. Yes, thank you. With loneliness, being the driving force. You know, it's also like a classic case of like the head versus the heart, right? Like your head is telling you like,

I should not be with this person, but you know, you had some good conversations and you kind of felt like you had some connections, but I don't know, like when you're in a real, real dry slum or when you're in a real bad place like you really latch on to like the one or two good things that anyone brings to the table and like it's the same thing like when you break up with something Kyle you I'm sure this is part of it but like when you break up with somebody and it was like terrible and you should have broke up broken up with them all you do is remember like oh yeah but we used

to love this movie together and then we did the end like all you remember is the good stuff when all your friends and buddies are like, dude, she sucked. Like why was this a Saint? Am I right? Come on. And so that's just, that's the stage of life that you're in. I think I'm glad you emailed us. Cause I think you just needed the three of us to kind of reiterate that for you

that you made the right call, but you know, this is, this is something that I feel like most people go through. So it's not like, you know, it's all right. You'll be all right. There'll be, there'll be better and brighter days ahead for you, but you made the right call. Now you got to kind of get, you know, put yourself out there and find somebody else.

I'm going to tell you a story and it'll be quick here, but the first time this phenomenon dawned on me was when it was a few years removed from the worst year I've ever had. Okay. Working for the Trenton Thunder, I have no money. Okay. My girlfriend has dumped me for a guy she's already been talking to and then broke up with him and then was dating somebody in my friend circle. And then I wasn't like allowed to go back to Vermont.

Right. Like the whole thing sucked. I proposed to her. She said, no, uh, the job sucked. I proposed to her, she said, no. The job I was gonna make 12,000 base. I said I'd make that, like, again, I've been over these things enough. So for some of the newer listeners,

I think there's like a pod from 18 where I go through it all with Bill. If you're really bored. But the point is, is I was at, it's the worst I've ever felt. So bad that I couldn't eat my back hurt from being sad and I was rapidly losing weight. Okay. And I was 26 years old.

Or you just like hushed over the whole time like literally head down. No, I just, I physically, I couldn't, all the gains like I finally started filling out around that time, you know, cause I was taking it seriously and thank God I had the gym. But then I was like so, I just was fucked up, man. All right? And I would come back if I had any free time from when the baseball season started, because you were working like 80 hours a week. If I had any free time, Final Fantasy couch, didn't care, couldn't really sleep.

Just was absolutely like, when I felt like the guy that was running the team had completely lied to me in the interview. And it's like, man, every single week I'm going into the red here. Like it's getting worse and worse and worse. And I had a moment, I don't know, five years after that, where I was in Boston the Boston years weren't exactly killer either, but I was, I was upset about something. And then I romanticize this idea of like, you know, what was kind of fun was that routine I had when I lived in Jersey.

And then I stopped myself. I was like, what are you doing? Like that's insane. What you just did. You created a scenario in your head where you actually like missed the apartment and missed your setup. It's like, dude, there was nothing good about any of it. None of it was good.

None of it was good. Like you'll never forget that year because you'll know how bad you felt. And it was like, I can't feel like this anymore. And yet I somehow tricked myself years later into this weird window of when I also wasn't feeling great, you know, it was pre ESPN, the place I worked at was falling apart and I was like, God, my place sucks. My friends can do things like nothing's working out, still miss the girl. And I found a path to pretend something that was even worse was actually better. And when I realized I had done it, I'm like, okay, you just learned something today.

You can create a lie in your head that makes you feel better about the past when the past is so much worse than right now. So get out there, buddy. All right. That's life advice. Thanks to Brian for helping out today on the pod. So Rudy and Kyle, our YouTube page will have a Friday feedback. Up now. It's out right now. So we'll get that out there. Yeah. Friday Feedback video, limited edition, video only. We didn't have room for it for a podcast. So please subscribe to that. And as always, the Ryan Russell podcast,

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