The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Lions' Bold Call, a Steelers Doubt Debate, and Rodgers's Future With Willie Colon. Plus, Chris Fallica on CFB Conference Championship Weekend.

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Russillo starts the show with his thoughts on the Lions' victory over the Packers and Dan Campbell’s fourth-down decisions (0:34). Then, he’s joined by Willie Colon to discuss the Lions, what makes Mike Tomlin special, and Aaron Rodgers (10:09). Next, Chris Fallica comes on to explain how he thinks the playoff committee has erred and share who he thinks has the edge in the conference championship games (42:15). Finally, another edition of the Alliance (70:51) and Life Advice (74:45). Has my friend overstayed his welcome? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Willie Colon and Chris Fallica Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Detroit football isn't the best. We'll discuss after the win on Thursday night against Green Bay. We'll do some of that with Willie Colon as well. His thoughts on the Steelers and the future of Aaron Rodgers. We've got Chris Filiqua, the bear from Fox Sports. We love talking college ball with him. We'll talk about the committee and the future of Aaron Rodgers. We've got Chris Felica, the bear from Fox Sports. We love talking college ball with him. We'll talk about the committee and the potential rankings and preview all the conference championship games.

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See app for details. Are you ready for some Thursday night football? Recap, I am, so let's do it. Last night was a special game, big game, bunch of different reasons, and man Campbell going for it on fourth down to run out the clock before the game winning field goal. So a lot of different stuff that I want to get to here,

but let's start with the Lions and who they are right now. 12 and one, first time in team history. 11 straight wins, first time in team history. They've clinched a playoff spot. If they finish three and one with a tough schedule, it's actually the fifth toughest remaining strength. The schedule, we've got a Bills game in nine days. They're at the Bears. They are at the Niners, their home against the Vikings. So we have, uh, you know, who knows, who knows what the Niners are like, or the Vikings fighting for a seed or the Niners just trying to fight to get in this entire thing, but again, three in one clinches the number one seed for a team

that is, uh, really looked probably the steadiest all season long, even with Kansas City losing last. Uh, so Detroit's also in line to win the toughest division that we've seen perhaps in NFL history since the merger. Based on how many games over 500, three teams are right now, um, since the merger again, back in 1970, this is the first division, the NFC North to have three teams with at least eight victories through week 12 and obviously, um, we have 12, 10 and nine.

So they're doing this, uh, despite this division on top of everything else. If you look at outside the division, Detroit's eight and one, Minnesota's nine and one, Green Bay's eight and one, Chicago's even four and five, despite the four and eight overall record. So last night, Detroit without what you would call. A full lineup defensively because they're adding new pieces.

I thought the pass rusher was really good. It was disruptive to Green Bay. Green Bay looked a little rattled their first three possessions, punt, punt, fumble, 10-0 lead Detroit Lions. However, Jordan Love and the reason we all really like him a lot, I think most of us do, he's just really good, man. He's really good. And he's still in this game against the lines defense. They were probably figuring out a little bit because, uh, the reason I like them. And I think we saw the evidence of it last night, despite the slow start that five of the next six real possessions, you had four touchdowns and a field goal

and just one punt, including a go ahead touchdown that made it 28, 24. That was only a four play 30 yard yard drive because Detroit, once again, went for it on fourth down from like their own 30 plus yard line. Those are the ones where I can go through, let me go through the fourth downs here a little bit. I try not to be just results based and like the ones that work and hate the ones that don't work, but they had the fourth and goal at the two where Gibbs runs this incredible route that just loses

the linebacker on him, catches it to the right side, right into the end zone. Right. Um, and then you've got the other fourth and goal to Green Bay three, where it's a Tim Patrick touchdown, one of his two, where it's a different, it's a different player, but it felt like the same concept where you get one route to go out to the flat or stress the pylon. where it's a different, it's a different player, but it felt like the same concept

where you get one route to go out to the flat or stress the pylon. And then you come in behind that where Gibbs is running a different route because it was just so ridiculous what he did on the cut inside. But actually Detroit's attacking the same part of the field. And you wonder, was there something that they liked on that matchup or whatever? So they convert both of those fourth downs. So then it leads to the decision last night after the short field one that didn't work, it's 31 31, it's fourth in one at the green Bay 21, 43 seconds are

left and we're looking at it as a game winning field goal attempt on that fourth down. Um, I was shocked. They didn't kick it. Now I shouldn't be shocked with Dan Campbell. Right. And I thought Herb Street even was like, Oh, well, he's gonna, you gotta kick this thing.

Right. Uh, my rules are pretty simple. I don't actually love the ones at the end of a first half where if you don't get it, then you're not rewarded with awesome field position. And of course Detroit did that too, at the end of the first half and it worked. But those are the ones where if you don't have the benefit of the field position, it depends on the opponent kind of depends on who you think you are. And I know who the lions think they are.

They think they have the best offensive line and the most physical, and they're going to convert those all the time. Uh, they're 15 to 22 on the season, 68%. That's six, uh, six best in the NFL. Buffalo Washington actually converting their fourth downs at a lead leading 87%. Detroit's 22 attempts are the sixth most, but other than Atlanta, the other four teams just aren't very good. So you'd imagine bad teams more likely to be going for it more often in fourth

down because, well, you're just stuck a lot and you've got to go ahead and do it. So, none of this should be surprising at all, even if when you go for it and there's still time left and you're going to get that field position and the team is usually backed up that much going to be kind of conservative, I feel like the expected points added after that position are still like decent enough where you're probably going to get a field goal. But again, it's Detroit and this is what they're going to do. And Campbell has told us that this is what he's going to do. So we go back to that field goal situation because at the 21, again,

it's fourth down, there's 43 seconds left. It's going to be a 38 yard field goal attempt to go up 34, 31. Green Bay doesn't have any timeouts. They're probably going to get the ball back with 37 seconds. Like what's wrong with that scenario? What's wrong with the other team after you've kicked the game winning field goal, kicking it off to them and them having like 30 seconds left like, what's wrong with that scenario? What's wrong with the other team after you've kicked the game, winning field goal, kicking it off to them and them having like 30 seconds left with no

timeouts just to get into field goal range. Well, it could be the problem is your lack of confidence in your own defense. Or again, it got back to that string of possessions where it felt like Green Bay was always going to score and Green Bay's last field goal. Remember they were backed up twice as they were moving the ball down the field again. So that's, that's the out. I guess I'm just surprised that many people, and maybe it's only And Green Bay's last field goal, remember they were backed up twice as they were moving the ball down the field again. So that's, that's the out.

I guess I'm just surprised that many people, and maybe it's only because it worked how many people were like, yeah, no, that's the way to do it. I'm like, is it, is it always the way to do it? But apparently Campbell is going to do this and maybe they deserve the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it is the O line. Maybe it is the defense. Maybe it's Jordan Lowe.

Maybe it's all these different things, but think about who they are right now. Lions, Lions football. If they're the one seed playing at home with these offensive weapons and this Tim Patrick development where you're like, this guy actually looks like he's pretty good. Alliance team that had historic expectations on them in the preseason. They had the third best Superbowl odds behind Kansas City and behind San Francisco. And you go back to this summer, you add up all these home games in the preseason. They had the third best Super Bowl odds behind Kansas City and behind San Francisco. When you go back to this summer, you add up all these home games in the playoffs and that the Super Bowl would be in New Orleans. It's incredible that even with the expectations,

and maybe we should have just thought it was the talent and the coaching and all this stuff, but I just kind of love this story. I think this is an awesome neutral fan story where most neutral people are like, I imagine the Lions winning a Superbowl. Do they feel like the favorite right now in the NFL because of the Chiefs, despite the record, you're like, what do I make of them? Philadelphia being red hot, but it's true. Like the Lions, I think if you were just going, Hey, who do you think has the best

chance to win this thing? Other than the Mahomes fear, it's the Lions and sure the defense is a concern. Um, there's 16th and opposing yards for play, but last year it was 29th and the scoring defense is actually at 18 points per game, the third best in the NFL. The injuries may add up, but other teams are hurt too. Uh, but this is a team right now with these massive expectations and last night's win were actually feel good about green Bay still too, but with this win, their number one in point differential at plus 183, 52 points better than number two Buffalo.

So yeah, say it out loud. The Lions are the Superbowl favorites. Sometimes in basketball, 30 points could be worth more than 30 points. And now you can get a 30% profit boost from the Ringer with Fandul's 30 on 30 during Friday's NBA action. That's right. The Ringer is teaming up with America's number one sportsbook to give you a 30% profit boost when you either pick a player to score more than 30 points or bet on our new exclusive 30 on 30 special markets like any game to have both teams score 30 plus points in the first quarter. We thought this would be a lot of fun. Bill, reach out to FanDuel and hook this up for all of us.

You're welcome. Just looking at the Friday slate, there's a lot to like and we always like Giannis in a matchup. So we're two for two on these where one didn't count because LaMelo didn't play in that 9am game after Thanksgiving. So I'm going gonna go with Giannis again because if you look at his history against the Celtics, you'd be like, why would you pick him against the Celtics? Celtics are really good, Ryan. Do you even watch ball? Are you a ball knower?

Well, here's what I know about this is Giannis has taken 26 and 29 shots in his two games against the Celtics, 43 a month ago and going back to October when they lost. I just think that there's a lot of shots here because I think boss is going to stay at home defense play him fairly straight up. And if he goes off, whatever. I don't think, but Milwaukee's turned things around here, which I'm actually glad to see because I just didn't want to see Giannis have this disastrous team season because he is, yeah, I think he's pretty clearly the number two guy in the league. So whether you want to ride with my picks or make your own, just look for 30 on 30

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Good friend Willie Colon, former NFL vet, SNY, Fox Sports 1, our guy. What is up my man? What's going on? Happy holidays, man. I haven't talked to you in a while. Yeah. You think that's a little early though? What's number six? We just passed.

What do you mean? Thanksgiving's already in the bag. Uh, Christmas is ahead of us. New Year's. Wait, this is the season. We are in this season. So you gotta say happy holidays. Okay. All right. I just, now I'm aware and I'll start throwing it out there. You don't seem like a holiday guy. Do you not celebrate the holidays? You not get work?

Well, that's, that's, I mean, that's sort of mean. I love Christmas. This guy loves Christmas. Okay. It's just, you know, I mean, what am I supposed to do? This guy loves Christmas, okay? It's just, you know, I mean, what am I supposed to do? Like. I don't see a Christmas tree yet. I don't see any lights. I don't see, you don't look very festive. It's December 6th, man.

I think you're holding me to a standard here. It's a little tough. Now have I done like single guy Christmas tree? Never. What's the point? I gotta put it up. I don't even have that much storage here right now. So, um, some people do for nostalgia. Yeah.

Um, I'm kind of, I told him, I don't want to make a, my position near public, unlike that. I'm sitting it out. It's just, I mean, last year I went to New Zealand. All right. So I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

I was there. I got two Christmases because theirs was early and then I had the American Christmas or checking in with family. So they give it that way. Yeah. It's pretty good. Pretty good. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I was there. I got two Christmases because theirs was early. And then I had the American Christmas or I was checking in with family. So they give it that way. Yeah. It's pretty good.

Pretty good stuff. Um, all right, let's get to this. Let's start with last night. I already talked about it in the open here on the fourth down decisions. Uh, we know what Detroit is going to do. We know what Dan Campbell is talking about. He even referenced, you know, this game from a couple of years ago where he regretted not going for it.

It was like this epiphany where he was like, I'm never gonna allow that to happen again. I guess I just ask you, what's wrong with kicking a game-winning field goal from that distance? And once the clock runs, the other team having 37 seconds left with no timeouts. Like, is that really still that bad?

Because it feels like everyone, maybe it's the result-based part of it, it felt like everybody loved that he did this, even though Herb Street was on the broadcast going like, he's not gonna kick this, and he didn't kick it. And he runs it for down, convert, game winner. Yeah, I think 31 other teams kick it, to your point. I think solely Dan Campbell and his belief that,

hey, you know, I believe in my big right tackle, Sunipal, I believe in David Montgomery, and I believe in my big right tackle Sunni Paul. I believe in David Montgomery and I believe in this offensive line and I think he just was able to execute it. And I also think if you think about it from the defensive side, they were riddled with injuries, man. They were extremely thin on the defensive line. I just felt like in his head, I'm not giving the ball back to the Green Bay Packers. I'm going to win this game. And after watching how this team performed and how he continues to be this guy with the big gonads, man, I think right now they're the best team in the NFC, hands down. I know there's a lot of talk about the Philadelphia Eagles and what Saquon is doing

in that office line, yada, yada, yada. But when you're able to play big time football with your third and second string guys and you make it when you find a way to get it done, I think that screams a Super Bowl contender. That's how I got to Super Bowl. Both times I went to the Super Bowl, we didn't walk on the field with our best. We had second string guys and third string guys in the lineup that was able to play at a high level and get us over the threshold I Like that point but I want to stand at Troy for a second here cuz like I left the game feeling good about Green Bay

Too. Oh, I'm gonna be honest. They just got to start faster, you know They started slow against Detroit last night to start a slow against my senior, Minnesota And right now if you're Jordan Love, you have to be, you have to be, you have to have, I guess, some type of solace and some type of confidence. We can go on the road and we can go knuckle knuckle with the bull, right?

And we can rally in the second half. So if I'm green bay, yeah, we lost, but it wasn't like they whooped us, right? Like you ever had that conversation with your dad? Like, yeah, you lost, but you didn't take a whooping, right? You stood up and you knuckled up. You didn't get the best of it, but it's something to take off the field.

I feel like Green Bay has to feel confident. Like, man, if we see them again, it's gonna be a different, we may get them. Yeah, I didn't feel bad. Like it was one of those games where I enjoyed it so much, right? I enjoyed just the level of football that was being played. I don't know if you agree, but when I watched Detroit and the design of what they do and how

they stress you, they stress every inch of the field. You have to be thinking and they give you different looks. Obviously they have certain things, tendency wise, that they favor because of, hey, who's more comfortable doing this or doing all that kind of stuff. But I really think there's a difference with, with the special offenses and everybody being on the same page and that same group being there. Where, you know, there's moments with love and the receivers and Jacob's getting going where I'm like, Hey, I still feel good about Green Bay. I'm going to feel good about either team.

I'll come in off of this with a loss. But I really think there's something special about the way Detroit forces you to think about so many different things when you're defending them. Well think about this, Ryan. Like from the Detroit standpoint, up front, they weren't their greatest, right? I think they were only averaging 3.3 yards a pop in the run game. What killed them, what killed Green Bay was the fact that Detroit was able to absolutely dice them up in the screen game, right? Those end breaking routes was killing them. They had that big reception to Armand,

Saint Brown late in the game. I mean, and the fact that Jared Goff was also, I mean, he threw a pick last night and he was still able to rally. So I think this offense for the Detroit Lions has layers. And I think when you just kind of think about them in one, in kind of one way, they show you they could do

a multitude of things, but doing it in a simplistic way. And they kill you, and they're relentless, and they're resilient at it. Because there was times last night where Green Bay wouldn't let them get to the edge, right? And even when they tried, they was there to stop them. This was just a matter of Detroit screening the hell out of them and also

realizing like hey man we got we we're more resilient and tougher and grittier than you and we're going to get it done. I thought it was interesting during the broadcast when Herb Street talked about St. Brown and he's like hey he's one of the best receivers in the league and I don't mean and none of us are putting him necessarily like in that elite line with Jefferson and Chase and whoever else you want to throw in that group. But he's really, really good. He's been really productive here for a long time. And he made a point during the broadcast to be like,

all right, he hasn't gotten the looks, but he's going to be part of this game. He did have that huge catch. So like storyline, storytelling way, it definitely worked out. But I don't know if that was a message to all the other receivers. Cause like, as much as I like Jameson Williams, I watch him in games.

I mean, like, what the fuck are you doing? And I imagine he and Pickens are on a text thread being like, can you understand why like, like, yeah, what's, what's the big deal, man? Like everybody else is wrong with this. Uh, what is it like? And I don't know if you have a story for us or whatever, I mean, I don't wanna turn it back into Antonio Brown stuff, but when you're on a team

where it feels like every team has a receiver right now, where you're like, what's your goal? What are you here for each week? Because the thing that Jamison has to worry about here a little bit is Tim Patrick looks like a dude. Two touchdowns. He hadn't played in a while. If you've been watching the last couple of weeks, you're like, this guy feels like he's

emerging here a little bit and clearly was a matchup they liked last night. So wherever you want to go with that. So I guess the question is, have I ever played with a receiver that's kind of shot out or kind of just, you know, meaning like they're just kind of on their own boat, wireless runner? I have. And those are the guys who you need. You know, those are the guys when all else, all else fails. They somehow just because who they are and mentally where they at, they don't get caught up, right?

They like, they feel like everybody's solely there to watch them. AB was obviously like that. Even with the great San Antonio Homes. Tone was like that a lot. San Antonio, he was tough. He was a damn good blocker at the receiver position. But sometimes you see him do things and you're just like, okay, I guess that's where we at. I guess this is where we're at today. You know what I mean? Mentally. And so I don't know. I think those type of guys you need because those type of guys pop up

in the most opportunistic situations. I go back to the AFC Championship game where Steelers versus Baltimore, you know, we're playing to go to our Superbowl. This is, you know, we beat Baltimore and we go on to Cardinals. But anyway, go back to the AFC Championship game. If you watched that game,

San Antonio took over that game, right? That wasn't Hines, that wasn't anybody else but Ben to San Antonio and San Antonio making play after play because he didn't get caught up, right? He felt like I'm the show, it's AFC Championship, I'm gonna ball out and I'm gonna do whatever I want. And he was able to expose that secondary that had Ed Reed and company So certain receivers just you just gotta leave them be man

Like you just gotta leave them be and hopefully they don't hurt you along the way with some of their answers It's a really good point. It's a way of answering the question that maybe I wasn't expecting but when I think about There was a run throughout baseball where the leading home run guy You know know, the leader in home runs, that team didn't win a world series for like all these different years. You're like, okay, does that actually mean that it's bad to have somebody hit all these home runs or is this just something that's happened? And then it, then guess what? It, it wasn't a thing.

So you'd have this trend. I think there was also a time, like if you had a receiver making over a certain amount of money, you know, if you were paying like one of the prime guys, there was a run of teams winning super bowls without these like say top five number one options. I'm not just talking about number one options across the board, like the dudes, the best, the best receivers in the game. But the way this game is played and we know the importance of the quarterback

and all these other things I am, I think I'm, I am a kind of on your side of that. It feels like if you don't have one of those dudes that finds a way to get separation, that catches the ball in traffic, that finds a way to make a play on a ball on third and 10 when you absolutely need it and part of it's to throw and everything else too, that it may just be hard. It just may happen. It feels like it's more of a priority or maybe there's more value. And then because of that value and how hard that

position is, you're running all day, you get three fucking targets, you're super mad. You know, like I, I understand those guys being upset. I just don't like when it crosses into the selfishness part of it, but it does seem like that special group of pass catchers just adds an element that's just, it makes it harder to

defend you. I know that sounds fairly obvious, but I'm kind of back on that where I used to think that overpaid, not overpaid, but spending all your cap space on these guys when they weren't winning Super Bowls maybe was a thing, but I don't know. Yeah. I mean, every offense needs that superhero, right? Like the Eagles need, as great as St. Croix and Barkley is playing, you still need AJ Brown to be him, right?

As well as Russell Wilson and Nasir Harris is playing, you still need A.J. Brown to be him, right? As well as Russell Wilson and Nazareth Harris are playing, you still need George Picken to be him. Like on and on, you need those guys. And because at the end of the day, sometimes the defense just has your number, but you need that one special player to make that one special play to get you out the building with the W.

That's very necessary. Like for Christ sakes, and I agree with your point, as much as I love St. Brown and as much as I love women's Sonic and Knuckles and the whole thing they got going. I really like Tim Patrick. I think he was kind of on the

outs these last, you know, seven games. But yesterday I think he emerged. I think he had his coming out party last night and him catching that touchdown. I was like, yep, better watch out. The Lions are getting strong,

believe it or not. All right, let's go around then and let's talk a little Steelers here because- Here we go. I said that- Even after- Here we go, Steelers, sorry. You didn't get the joke, I apologize. Just looked at me like, what?

Like, what the fuck did you just say? Sorry about that. Now I understand what you were doing. So that's my fault. I get that. It was actually pretty simple to follow. You gave it the same look my wife gives me when I kind of have like a bit of the Tourette's.

I'll just yell out something. She'd be like, what? Did you trip? What the hell was that? That just fumbled out of your mouth. So I apologize. It was actually perfectly timed. I did a bad job as your partner on that one.

Maybe it was Orlovsky and it was after the Baltimore win. I think it was. And he was just like, look, there's still not Super Bowl contenders and everybody get pissed at him. It's like, you can't win games like that just kicking field goals. They're like, they just did. They just beat a division rival.

But I agreed with his point because it's gonna be hard for me with Russell Wilson to pick him against those other guys. The audience already knows this part of it. So I do wanna ask you in that. Maybe, you know, you look at the shootout with Cincinnati going, Hey, they have this in them now. Um, maybe it's also maybe Cincinnati's defense here, but how many teams like.

Are you picking them in an AFC championship game against any of the other teams at the top of the AFC? I don't know why people won't believe. Yeah, okay, here we go. I really don't, I think it's like, cause it's not the traditional way. It's not a way that you would say, oh yeah, I'm gonna put my finger on that,

that's why I can see them being a Super Bowl champ or contenders for that much. Listen, the bottom line is, it's about winning, right? It doesn't matter how you get there. So if you start with Russell Wilson, I was a little bit on board with that because I was like, hey man, these moon balls running a game, the running game, short throws, I get that, but we're going to have to attack the middle of the field. Russell's going to have to find a way to attack the middle of the field by throwing the football. And he did that against Cincinnati. So I was like, boom, we got better.

And then I'm looking at our defense. I'm like, okay, you know, we don't have Highsmith. You know, I'm a little worried about that. I always knew, I knew Herbig was gonna be a dog. Answered the bell. Okay, we can stop the run. I get that. And I'm not gonna BS you, right?

Cincinnati's really bad on defense. Right? So that helps. But overall, I'm a believer that Mike Tomlin is always going to find a way to win. Just like Dan Campbell. It's not traditional. A lot of teams will not go for it on that, on that, on that, you know, that possession, but that's what they do. This is what Mike Tomlin does. He's going to find a way to get out the building with W. If it comes down to kicking a field goal or it comes down to Russell Wilson Wilson having to put the team on his back, he's gonna find a way.

And the defense is gonna do what the defense did. Herbig, by the way, in his second year, okay, you're like, oh, okay, so we got another one? What do they do at that franchise to figure out where it feels like an endless string, even if the injury report is scary, an endless string of just dudes on the edge making plays They just know their guy. I don't know how they said I've had this conversations

conversation with multiple people Great organizations know what they're looking at. They have a mold and there's a model in which they had adhered by Even like I I look at her big and everybody's like, man, you know, this is a mold, right? Like he looks like a shorter version of TJ. He's relentless like TJ is get off. I he how he moves. Like there's a mold in a model in which they look for and what they want and they go get it.

They don't they don't kind of jump all over the place and say, let's just get the next big shiny thing. There's a guy that walks like how they want their Steelers to walk and they have an eye for it. Most organizations don't have that. I think that's why most organizations struggle. They try to just get guys who are bigger, faster, stronger, instead of saying, you know, no, no, no, that's our guy, right? We're going to get that guy. I think they just have an eye for it. The Steelers just continue to do it with these edge guys and you look at Herbigs a fourth, Highsmiths a third, Wilson's a third. They just, you know, and again, maybe it's a Tomlin question. Like what's,

what's unique about Tomlin? I mean, we didn't always been around forever. We know he doesn't have losing seasons, but, but you were there. Give me a better understanding of what it is like to have that guy in charge. You know, I just had a conversation with the athletic about what makes Mike Tomlin special off the field. And I think a lot of my own personal experience with him is him being able to have a pulse on each and every guy in the locker room and who he coaches. And there was times, like, you know,

I was injured a bunch in my career. And there was a time where I was in a dark placement. Like I was just, I was bad. I had gone through back to back IRs, played one game in two seasons. And I'm thinking I'm done as a Pittsburgh Steeler. And this dude, the second time I got placed on IR because I tore my tricep week one against Baltimore, I thought I was done, man. I mean, I an IR because I tore my tricep, we went against Baltimore, I thought I was done. I mean, I was drinking, I was doing everything you shouldn't do when it comes to recovery. I was in a bad place. And I was hanging around with the wrong people, doing a lot of stuff, man. And I remember him, I remember one time I walked into practice

and I came into practice wet, Brian. Meaning like, you could tell I had been drinking all night. I had this big, gray sweatsuit on. And I looked like I had packed on about 30 pounds. And he was like, whoa, you know, you don't look like you're getting ready. Like, this is what's going on with you. And I was, you know, I was depressed. I was pissed off.

Like, how am I here? You know, I'm giving out my best years in ball and I was all. I was pissed off. Like, how am I here? I'm giving it my best years in ball. And I was all over the place. We had just drafted Marquis Pouncy and all these guys. Casper was here and Marcus Gilbert. The new line, the new wave of the Steelers are behind me and I'm going backwards while these guys are moving forward. And I was in a very dark place. And it was Mike Tomlin said, hey man, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna get you right,

but you're gonna travel with the team. Everywhere we go, you're gonna go. And it was also my office line coach, Sean Kubler, who was like, every Wednesday, you're gonna bring your ass in here and you're gonna prep alongside of me. You're gonna get a scouting report and you're going to stand in front of these guys and you're going to go case by case on a guy's worst and best moves and what do we have to look out for as an

offensive line. Ryan Broad, that saved my life, dog. I can't tell you that saved my life because I can't tell you that saved my life because I was drinking. I was in a bad place, man. And that year that I did that, 2010, that was our Super Bowl year, excuse my hair my mom, Floze L Adams steps in and they go on to the Super Bowl. And they take me to the Super Bowl in Dallas against Green Bay.

And if it wasn't for Mike Tomlin, if it wasn't for Sean Coogler, just keeping me, keeping me active, man, just keeping my mind on solely that I'm going to get out of this. I don't know if I make it through that season without me in the end, ending up on ESPN doing something stupid or getting in a back alley fight or just doing, just doing something that would have been out of character solely because I felt like I had been kicked out of, or I'd been placed to the side or ostracized in any way. And it was my time, man, that just saved me.

Because I remember those days sitting in the damn shower for an hour, or with a half a cup of Patron in the shower. or with a half a cup of Patron in the shower. I remember staying in my room with my down, because I lived in a townhouse, I would stay in my room and in my kitchen, everybody, it sounded like a goddamn rave was going on. And I lived in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. And so when I think about what he means to me, and a lot of other

guys who have either played for him or played with him, it's not just a coach who's coaching ball, he's a guy who cares about you as an individual and who sees you as a person, right? Not just another guy with a helmet. And that speaks volumes, right? And that's why he continues to build equity with his players. Because when he talks, you listen and it's not bullshit. And he'll tell you, it's very black and white with him, right? And he'll tell you firsthand, you know, if you tend to dwell in the gray, it gets very cloudy and guys kind of get lost. It's not like that. He'll tell you what it is, he'll tell you what it isn't. And he'll tell you where you need to go and how you should pursue it. And it's on cloudy and guys kind of get lost. It's not like that he'll tell you what it is, he'll tell you what it is, and he'll tell you where you need to go

and how you should pursue it. And it's on you to move forward with it. And that's how he operates. And I think that's why he gets the responses and kind of the feedback he gets from his players. And I think that's why people continue to follow him 18 seasons in. And that's just what he meant to me.

That's a heavy story, man. And, uh, it gives me the perspective that I've heard from other players that have played for him. Like, I remember when I was, I had this stretch where I was starting to go like, is he really as good of a coach as everybody says he is, you know, there's a couple of playoff losses and it's like, well, you can't seem to get through these guys. So I was, I was questioning his, his status in the lead,

just as a guy with a fucking talk show. Right. And Ryan Clark was around, like he was in studio that day and he heard me talking about it. And for those that don't remember going back to 2012, because of, um, Ryan Clark, like a sickle cell trait that Tomlin wouldn't let him play in the game at Denver. And I was there. Clark like was behind the glass. Kind of motherfucking me. And I was on the air still. So I was like, what's going on back there?

And then he, I went to commercial and he came running in and was like, can't believe you would say that. Like that guy's, you know, cared about my life and all this kind of stuff. I was like, well, I wasn't getting into his, his care for your wellbeing. I was looking at the playoff record, man. Like this is the only thing I was doing, but your story, first of all, obviously intense and personal, so thanks again for that.

But it's, I think when you have that kind of buy-in and a relationship with, with a guy like that who doesn't, he doesn't, I think allow the public to see that it's very straightforward. It's kind he doesn't, I think, allow the public to see that. It's very straightforward. It's kind of hard edge, you know, what he shares and then to know that he can do that and have that kind of relationship with all of you that have played for him. That's, that's probably part of the buy-in and the response of why this team is always good or at least always competitive every year. Even in the down years, there are years we've gone through that quarterback

situation in Pittsburgh as they've shuffled through this now. Duck Hodges. Right. Mason Rudolf. They're still competitive. Right. Exactly. No, I agree.

I think if, and I'll say this, I think if you was to ask him about certain stories that players have kind of give this open testimony about how he treated them, he would probably most likely not talk about it, right? And I think most of the time he's like, that's not for everybody. And I think it's us, the players, president and former who say, no, he is not just about preparation.

It's not just about strategy with this dude. This son of a bitch is tapped in. It's tapped into everybody that's wearing a Pittsburgh Steeler helmet. And that I've been around, listen, I had Bill Cower. I've had Mike Taulman. I've had Rex Ryan. I've had Todd Bolts. All great in their own individual right. But nobody's like my team solely because his person to person ability, his player to person ability is like no other I've ever seen. And I think this generation

responds more than that than just some stoic guy like, oh, let's go get them type guy. I think most guys don't respond to that anymore. Okay, good transition then, because Mike Tomlin leader, Aaron Rodgers leader, you cover the Jets. Why did you smile? Why?

Why did you let? It was a bit of a delay the way I didn't sell your Steelers chant. Look, man, I mean, the scary part of all of this is he's just not that great right now. He's okay. But there was the Pats game where I'm like, man, third long, he's throwing past the sticks. Like, here we go. There's a couple other things and you know, that Seahawks game was, was a weird game for, for a bunch of different reasons, but we've had a, we've had a bunch of games here.

And yeah, I know he's older and he's coming off the injury, but you overhauled all of this stuff for him, the roster, then the coach, and then the GM, which I think most football people felt like Joe I, I don't know why people would argue like every time I look at that defense, I'm like, man, they did a really good job of putting this group together and the pieces on offense. And Rogers is just playing probably the worst football of his life, which maybe should have been expected to this age posts the Achilles, but this is not working. Yeah, I think, you know, I think it's a good thing that he's playing the best football in the world.

And I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good thing. on offense and Rogers is just playing probably the worst football of his life, which maybe should have been expected to this age posts the Achilles. Um, but this is not working. Yeah, I think this is not working out is understatement. It's an absolute, it's an absolute dumpster fire, man. It's brutal. It's absolutely fucking brutal. And I have to live it Sunday after Sunday after Sunday of the same old

Goddamn jets and I'm tired of talking about the jets. This times why I'm on set. I'm like, I don't want to talk about the jets I'd rather talk about Love is blind. I don't know. I'd rather talk about you know, the penguin which is on Netflix, which is kicking ass The jets are absolutely brutal. I think it's on It's on Max. Whatever, whatever the fuck ever. I know I'm just so frustrated and people get mad at me and like, well, really, you know, listen, what was frustrating, and I think I've said this before

on here, what's frustrating is man, when you watch Quentin Williams coming out of Alabama you watch sauce gardener coming out of Cincinnati Garrett Wilson coming out of Ohio State these guys come from winning programs, right? And these and there's a core There was a court I was drafted to the New York Jets to believe like these views are gonna be the guys that because of their Talent their grit their character to go to change around they're gonna change the perception in the New York Jets. That has not happened. And when Zach Wilson, that whole debacle

dealing with Zach Wilson, that once that left the building and you brought in Aaron Rodgers, these guys brought it, they're like, all right, we got a hall of fame quarterback and all we have to do is let Aaron Rodgers be and let him do what he's been doing for the end for all of his career all of his career and I'm sitting there Sunday after Sunday

watch this guy go backwards man. You talk about how the injuries you talk about the miscues between him and Garrett Wilson like he missed a slogan a wide open slogan Sunday against the Seahawks and And I'm saying to myself, anybody in high school can make that thrill, right? Like how is- You almost said me, but I appreciate you. You, but my point is like, this is a four time MVP. He should be able to make that throw in his sleep and he missed them.

And we can go down to rabbit hole with Todd Downing and what he's been able to do and not been able to do we could Talk about the firing of Robert Salah since they fired him. They're wanting five No, we could talk about this defense who valid their scheming salad, but personnel wise they're struggling They don't have the beef eaters they had last year like Al Woods Quentin Jefferson and JfM are no longer there so now you're playing with a bunch of Decent rotate rotational guys like Ken Lawrence, Solomon Thomas, those guys, they're not great, right?

Those are guys you throw in for a play two to give your starters a breather. And so, and with the loss of Jermaine Johnson, who was great at setting the edge, and now you have Hassan Reddick who's like, listen, I'm not about to die for this team. I'm about to do what I need to do so I can get the hell up out of here. So, and then now you talk about Woody Johnson. I mean, Woody Johnson came down from his chair and wanted to bench Tony Adams, right? He fired Rex Hogan, you know Joe Douglas's Assistant GM and now you talk about Joe Douglas is gone

Salah's gone like the whole thing is it's it's it's a mess. It's a mess and it starts with Woody Johnson and starts with Aaron Rodgers, because when you soldier soldier Aaron Rodgers and he brought on his own circus, whether it was Alan Lazar, Randall Cobb, Devontae Adams, Nathaniel Hackett, nothing's worked. Nothing's fucking worked. And he hasn't worked. And if anything, he looks like he's getting worse.

And so I'm saying to myself, I'm tired of watching it. Right? How many times do you watch a shit show to realize this whole thing is just shit? And I'm tired of watching it. How many times do you watch a shit show to realize this whole thing is just shit? And I'm tired of talking about it. Not that I don't want to talk about it with you, I'm just saying, it's fucking brutal. It's brutal.

The whole fucking- All right, I do have a follow-up though. Do you want him back as quarterback this year? No, no. Get him the fuck out of New York. Go now. Thank you, don't come back. Bye.

I don't care who hates me for saying that. I don't give a shit. Like I don't care. I'd rather start Tyrod Taylor. I know he's fucking made of plastic, but I just know what I got with him. I know he's a bridge quarterback. I don't care.

Tyrod. I don't want to see it no more. Don't. He's 41 years old, and for the neck up, as sharp as can be. I give't care. Tied to Aaron Rodgers. I don't want to see it no more. Don't. He's 41 years old, and for the neck up, as sharp as can be. I give him that. Put his neck down, bro, he's shot. That happens.

Every great ballplayer goes that way, right? Like, what I was in my early 20s, Herculean, late or early 30s, I was built like I was a mattress seller, right?? I wasn't I did was just is what it is But it there's too much There's too much on his shoulders right now and they're asking him to be to be a world-beater and he just doesn't have I don't Think and I don't even care and I said this I said this on My post game. I don't care that he's

Smug and somewhat cocky. I don't care about that because I was okay with that when he was playing like an MVP. I could take that. But when you don't play like an MVP and you're smug and you're calling out Mike Williams and you're saying, you know, and your press are like, well, it's not just me out there. There's 11 other guys. Yeah. But not one guy of those 11 guys who say, hey, if you want me, you got to bring on five other people and we got to do things my way. Doesn't happen. So you are different. And you have to add a he to that.

You are special. You were born special Aaron Rodgers and we invested and we brought in for that, for you to be that guy and it hasn't worked. And so now you're talking about 40 bringing a 42 year old quarterback who can barely recover from a strain hamstring or ankle. Sorry, that was a lot. Just didn't mean to go into rant there. It's just pending me.

Sorry about that. I don't know where else to go here. So let me just, let me finish here. Let me finish here. And I don't hate them. I'm just pissed off at the whole situation. I don't hate them. And I think people can hate me. I don't hate you. Doesn't sound hate you. It doesn't sound like you like that. You're right.

I'm just frustrated. I'm just frustrated. Yeah. Well, we can hear it. That was, sounded like you needed to say that. Okay. Let me- And I've said it before.

I guess I didn't know it was that much left in me. I'm sorry. Let's do this quick exercise. So the way the AFC seedings are today, Kansas City, one seed. So we're gonna, uh, Bill's Brock, would you pick the Steelers in the rematch at home against the Ravens? Yeah, why not? I mean, what are Marge Jackson's bulls? All right.

Hands down. So say it goes chalk. Would you pick Pittsburgh at Buffalo? That one scares me. That scares me because I get a gauge. Yeah, that scares me That one scares me. That scares me because. You want to get a gauge. Yeah, that scares me because of Josh Allen. And offensively, I mean, they beat you up.

And with his ability to tuck it and run, his ability to improv and the Steelers right now, Valor was stout against the run. And our second debris scares me. We got to figure it out in the back end. We haven't been in solid, especially I think that proved The Steelers right now, Valor, we're stout against the run and our second derby scares me. We got to figure it out in the back end. We haven't been in solid, especially I think that proved that Sunday against the Bengals. But Buffalo scared me. So I'm a little timid against Buffalo. I just wanted to get the timidity ranking off of you. That's all. Always great catching up my man. Have a great weekend. Willie Colon.

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and will vary based on account balance. Visit www.scotia-bank.com. slash RightSize Savings for full details. Okay, conference championship games this weekend and some of the playoff talk. And I got to be honest, I'm sick of some of my own ideas about this. But Chris Filiqa, the bear from Fox Sports, you knew him from game day and now you know him going to the other side of the coast for all this kind of stuff. So what's up, man? Good to catch up. Yeah, definitely good to catch up. Yeah, I've enjoyed listening on the way out here to Boise to you and, uh, Todd yesterday.

So that was, uh, some good to get the lay of the land from you guys. And we were in agreement on a lot of things. That's for sure. Yeah. See, that's what I'm afraid of here a little bit, but let's just start with something that I think we, well, I know we agree with because I think a sane person should agree with it. And I don't know why this isn't a bigger deal, at least when it's being discussed.

Um, because we both knew that this would happen with the expansion and how different the schedule experience is for teams within the same conference. And yet it feels like the committee is just kind of into the standings and clearly they liked the big 10. Um, and that's fine. You know, like, I don't really want to turn this into this constant stuff that I know that I am guilty of. But do you think this has to happen for a year before more people start to kind of realize like, do you realize what is happening with the teams within the schedules

and how many of these teams that we think are good are avoiding playing really a competitive schedule within the conference itself. I don't I think maybe we I don't want to say care too much maybe we're too dialed in maybe we're too aware maybe we knew it was going to happen maybe we're looking for it maybe we're giving the committee too much credit for thinking that they're going to go this deep into looking at but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to look at SMU schedule and figure out that they played eight conference games and five of them were against teams that had a losing record in the ACC. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to look at Texas's schedule and realize that there were

six teams other than them that won nine games in the SEC and they only played one of them, Georgia. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to look at Iowa State schedule in the big 12 and realize that there were seven teams that finished with a losing record and Iowa State played five of them. And I was thinking about this. I'm like, I used to be anti-division. I loved what the big 12 did when they expanded to nine and they had the first place team play the second place team. But I think at this point now we're at a point where after this year they need to reassess

and I know they probably think just having their top two teams automatically means that they're going to get both of those teams in the playoff. We'll see if that happens with the ACC. But with 16 and 18 team leagues, you gotta break it up into divisions. At least you know you play everybody on your side and maybe one or two crossover games. At least there's some type of structure that you know you're getting division winner A

versus division winner B. And at least there's some level of like clarity and qualification to get in there and you're going to eliminate all the ridiculous tie breaks like we had in the Big 12 last week, figuring out nobody controlled their destiny and the fact that Texas Tech lost or won whatever it was, that meant BYU was out. At least when you're narrowing it down to like just an eight or a nine division league, at least there's something that fans can kind of get a clearer picture as to what the hell's going on here.

Yeah, and by the way, the results may be right. I mean, Texas may be the best team in the SEC. When I watch SMU, I'm like, that's a good team. And I think the beginning of the year, there was a bit of a BYU hangover because I think BYU was picked 13th in the conference. And then we realized, like, even though BYU stumbles here towards the end,

BYU's a tough out. I think SMU was like a double digit favorite at home. And then we realized like, even though BYU stumbles here towards the end, BYU's a tough out. I think SMU was like a double digit favorite at home. And then they lose that one and you're like, okay, well what's up with SMU? So I don't really have, you know, I'm with you. Like they're gonna have to figure something out. I guess I'm just shocked at the void of just the discussion. I don't see it on game day.

I don't really even see it on your show. I don't know when they do the playoff releasing show if they're really digging into, do you see what is happening? And that makes me wonder if that conversation is even happening. Cause like I'll point and again, it's just going to sound like. An SEC thing for me, but how does Georgia lose at old miss on the road and drop nine spots and Ohio state loses a home to Michigan and they dropped four spots and that's the kind of stuff where I was like, they look, Penn State is still up

there. Penn State could end up being the one seed. If they beat Oregon, I don't even know that I'm going to have that much of an issue with that. I won't be doing a next day. I can't believe Penn State's in the morning team in the country, although it still feels a little weird to say that out loud. But, but hey, you know, look, an Oregon win is going to be a massive win if they can pull that kind of stuff off. So I don't like making arguments where I'm like, now I don't have anything else to offer. And I'm just tearing this whole thing apart.

It just feels like there is a void of that being part of the discussion where it, when it's 12 teams, I don't mind if someone goes, yeah, I know they have an extra loss, but if we're just going one loss, two loss, three loss, then what's the point of even having a committee? Just tell me what the standings are and I'll watch the playoffs. Yeah, I think this committee did a pretty bad job all along. I think they were really just doing what you said,

a lot of loss ordering, hoping that it was going to play itself out and they weren't gonna have to make a difficult decision. And now they probably are maybe in a position where if SMU were to lose, they may have to put themselves in making a difficult position. Two things getting to what you were talking about. The first one with the Ohio State drop and the Georgia drop.

I think with the Georgia drop at the time, remember they did not have a win over Tennessee. So that win over Tennessee, I think really was able to rebuild a lot of the respect and status that they lost with the with the other loss that they had at Ole Miss where they really were not competitive for most of the game there. And I was having this kind of and I have taken a lot of incoming from people about this like when you when Ohio State lost at least like you're dropping them and you're comparing them to Everyone else. Yeah, that was a brutal awful terrible loss But you still had a win over Penn State in State College where they didn't score an offensive touchdown

You still had a win over Indiana Indiana We don't think Indiana is great But the committee does and the committee still has them as a top-10 team and their other loss Was a one-point loss on the road against a team that's number one in the country So I think over the body of work and the add 12 games that to factor everything in Who would you put ahead of Ohio State? Even off of a terrible loss? I had fun this week going through, just kind of shooting holes and like the playing water cooler fan for all these other teams. Like, hey, Tennessee, well, you lost to a team that lost to a team

that went to winless in the Big 12. Like if you want to get like that dumb, like a lot of fans do. So I could get that. And then the other thing you mentioned about Penn State being the number one team. And I don't want to say a hard time with it. It's amazing that it could happen because I don't think, like you said, anyone throughout the course of the year thought Penn State would be possibly to be the number one team in the country. But I almost wonder if there's a scenario where say both underdogs win tomorrow say Penn State wins say Georgia wins I why wouldn't Georgia? Have a chance to be the number one overall seed you could potentially have

Four wins over playoff teams you could have two wins over Texas. Yeah, the win over Tennessee Clemson were to beat SMU. That's for Pin Penn State. Yeah, you beat number one Oregon but the same, that's four. In Penn State, yeah, you beat number one, Oregon, but the same, that's it. Illinois, yeah, you beat Illinois at home in October or whatever, great. But you can make a really good case that based on the computer ratings, schedules, record, quality wins, number of quality. Georgia would have an excellent case to being the number one seat. Now will the committee do it? No, I think they take the easy way out and put Penn State,

but I don't think that that is college football fans and reporters and people who love and discussed a sport that that should just be rubber stamped. Yeah. Penn State would be one. I really do think so. If you had the Georgia win over Texas and Penn State over Oregon, because they've had a chance unless they just want to reset the decks. And I do think that there is some value in kind of going, all right, we've got the 12 games, we've got the conference championship weekend behind us. Now let's look at the total picture here.

And that's been kind of my Georgia point throughout all of this. Like go through that. I mean, how many other teams have had to even come close to that kind of challenge and throwing in what could in theory be another Texas win. Um, but I don't think that's what would happen here because they have really liked Penn State. They've obviously really liked Indiana. They moved SMU up, you know, clearly with the, with the Indiana loss part of it. The other part of this too, and I, you know, I used to talk about this with the BCS. I'm sure you did as well where the BCS lucked out so many years.

There were so many years you're like, how is this going to happen? What are they going to do? And then there were just be these disastrous losses at the end of the season. And I always felt like, you know years you're like, how is this going to happen? What are they going to do? And then there would just be these disastrous losses at the end of the season. And I always felt like the BCS gets so lucky. They get so lucky with how this happens. And yet, and I think we all know, and this is, this is part of it too.

It's like, oh, Hey, here's the system. Okay. Well now let me spend years and years and years ripping apart the system as if there's this perfect solution to all of this. And there really isn't, but a flawed system is flawed, not just in the years that it shows us flaws, but in the first version of this, with what we have with potential buys for an ACC championship for a group of five team that represents the playoff seating, it feels like, Hey, you needed it to happen to visually see like, wait,

those teams are getting buys and the five 12 matchup is actually, it's the extra game, but you know, I might, I'd rather be in that scenario and all this kind of stuff. Do you think that there's already going to be some remorse if some of the seating holds up the way it's been? Absolutely. Like how, how could you sit there and say come Sunday afternoon that potentially you have Iowa State and S.N. and Boise State is the four and the three or the three and the four well where it works out and both of those teams are getting buys and you've got Tennessee playing Ohio State, Georgia playing whomever up Penn State in a first round game.

It's like really? Like again, I don't know if they completely thought it through. I don't know if this was just a byproduct of the only way of being able to get all of the conferences to agree with this that you're putting the four best conference champions as a team that they get by and then nobody really assuming that the ACC and the Big 12 would kind of be both be as poor as they've been and that Boise would have the type of year that they have. But yeah, Reese Davis has kind of championed this as well. You're going to have to essentially just rank them one through 12. You want to put the conference

champion at fine I think we all can agree like winning a conference championship does not make you better than necessarily a team that Wins it doesn't win a conference champion like it's just a way that they justify having the the games and keeping them around But you're gonna have to just essentially give the top four seeds buys or figure out a way to just rank them where you're doing it more based on merit than just saying, oh, you want a league. I don't care if it was the American or the Mountain West or whomever. You're better than the Big 12 champ or the SEC champ, so we're going

to give you a buy. But it's ridiculous that we could have some of these mattresses. Look at what, say Oregon were to win, and you're the one seed, your reward in the eight, nine game could be Tennessee or Ohio State. How fair is that? Yeah, I know what they tried. I think you nailed them to the beginning. They finally did something that everybody could agree on. And I think the fear would have been in an SEC heavy year. And it's really not this year because you can't tell if it's a scheduling thing or if it's a lack of a top heavy, you know, that's some of, sometimes I think we screw that up a little bit. We're like, Oh, that conference is down.

And I'm not even talking specifically to the SEC. Like I kind of loved the big 12 again this year. I have certain years with the big 12 with their death and you're watching those games going like, I think this is a really good conference, but without the 12 and O team, that's a huge favor in their conference championship game that we think is capable of winning a national championship. If, if a conference doesn't have one or two of those, then we're like, Oh,

that conference just kind of sucks. Uh, which I think in times could be unfair. And maybe that's the thing that we're getting right now. But I think they had to figure out some kind of system where the group of five was like, Hey, can we not just make this the power five imitational? And can we please do buys and seating with conference championships? Because there would be fear that with other committees that I think like the SEC better than this one certainly does. They'd have three of the four top seeds, SEC schools, and everybody's just

going to lose their shit, even if it was justifiable in the strong SEC year. Are you not necessarily segue off though for that? No, go. I love it. That's what I was thinking about how the whole like blast team in Alabama, Miami, what I think is at the end of the line, Ole Miss, South Carolina. I think they're ultimately going to land on Alabama Ole Miss, South Carolina. Like, I think they're ultimately going to land on Alabama. But, and I was kind of anti Ole Miss. I'm like, yeah, you lost

three games to unranked teams that are unranked and you lost Kentucky only one, one SEC game. And it was that, but I've kind of like done a little mental gymnastics in my head. Like, I kind of think they have it wrong. I've kind of come around on Ole Miss. Like I hate to be like the, like the, the, the coach. And I think some people have brought this up. Like when you talk about the NCAA tournament, like what team would you least want to play if you're a draw, one of those teams in the first round or in the playoffs, like what team would you least want to play? Like Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, wouldn't you at least rather play Ole Miss? Uh, first of all, I'm totally with you on Alabama.

I mean, everybody just thinks that I love them all the time. I argued against him in the TCU thing because TCU had like a really good resume. Now we do like, what do you think is who's better? Like there's plenty of years where we would always kind of default to be like, okay, do you really think there's four teams better than Alabama, college, you know, football landscape? And the answer felt like no, a lot of times, but they had two losses that year and TCU had real ranked wins.

And even though there was all sorts of close games and all that stuff, and it's like, well, they beat Michigan, but it doesn't devalue it because Georgia housed them. I'm in the same boat again now. Like I kind of pushed them back up a few weeks. I reassessed it. I don't like the quarterback. I think their front seven gets gashed every third game. Um, the offensive line seems hit or miss.

It's one receiver and then kind of like, I hope the other guys step up. I mean, I think their second seat receiver a little bit. So I would have bam a third of all of these, these SEC teams that we're talking about, um, and I could also, and I think this is what the committee is supposed to do when it's this close. You go, let's run through all the losses here a little bit. And the South Carolina LSU loss, they got hosed. And I'd be okay in the room saying that kind of thing. And I'm with you.

I would have, like, I can tear the stuff apart. We all know the game. Like I know what the anti Ole Miss argument would be, but I think the Oklahoma loss is so much worse than the Florida loss. It's terrible. And I know it's a short field against an offensive struggling, but whatever think the Oklahoma loss is so much worse than the Florida loss. It's terrible. It's terrible. And I know it's a short field against an offensive struggling, but whatever, like you got smoked in that place.

Figure it out. And Miller made two of the worst throws you'd ever see a quarterback make. So, you know, and even I hate it because of the head to head stuff. I mean, Ole Miss stomping South Carolina is kind of hard to work through. And Bama held on, you know, even though I thought that was another Millrow game that I didn't necessarily love. Nobody wants to hear anymore. My Millrow takes, uh, I am, I am not aligned. I am not aligned at all with the committee on, on having Bama up there.

I think where you lose me is when it is, as you alluded to the Miami Bama lose me is when it is, as you alluded to the Miami Bama ranking where, um, you know, look, they just have Miami, the committee, the committee built on Miami. And it seems like everybody else had, even though they're 12th, um, as of right now, but that doesn't include Arizona state being, uh, ranked behind them as the top big 12 team. Look, and I'm, and I'm a Miami guy. And it's funny, like, if you're a little bit of a house of cards, a little bit uh rank behind them as the top big 12 team look and i'm i'm a miami guy and it's funny like

if you're a little bit of a house of cards a little bit of fugazi and a little bit of a Fault your your record really doesn't indicate how good you are If you've got the the zero in the last column or the one in the last column You're going to get a benefit out of the doubt And then when that second loss comes that's when the more representative ranking is going to get a benefit out of the doubt. And then when that second loss comes, that's when the more representative ranking is going to happen. And again, that was another inexcusable type loss that Miami had. You're up 21-0.

I mean, make a stop. Again, you'll look up later and they couldn't stop. We're on a terrible coaching decision. And I'm in gonna big Miami group thread Chad and there and I hate being the bad guy because these are my friends I have friends with work with the team and work with programming and cover the team But I'm like look like like what are you hanging your hat on? With Miami to say that they deserve to be in the playoff

Their power ratings are the lowest of the worst of any of them Their strength schedule is the worst of any of them. They don't have a win to hang their hat on that Yeah, yes, you're basically saying cam ward and we went 10 and two in the acc okay, but you also have the worst defense of any of the The playoff contenders by a lot in just nothing to hang your head on every game by a lot and just nothing to hang your head on. Every game that you played over the last two months of the year, with the exception of the FSU game, was either you were trailing 0-4 or you're led by

less than a touchdown. So putting Miami in would have been maybe the path of least resistance because they had the fewest losses, but at the same time it would not have been the right thing to do based on quality wins and how good these teams actually are. Yeah. I know there's some defensive numbers floating around there where Bama is actually behind Miami and some of them.

But if you go yards per play, that might tell the better. There's some metrics that would... So we can dance around all that stuff and then you can just start talking about opponents. But I just don't know how anybody could watch Miami all year and not come to kind of the 12 game conclusion of, well, you know, this was, it felt dangerous all the time and are they really worthy of jumping some of these three losses, you see teams Bama. And again, I don't need to repeat myself all over again.

If somebody else would say, Hey, Bama's out. Like I'm not going to tell them that they're wrong. It doesn't seem like the committee's leaning that way, but it sounds like you would have Bama, or excuse me, Ole Miss, Bama, and South Carolina ahead of Miami. Yeah, I absolutely would have all three of them. What about Arizona State? What about Arizona State today?

Because the AP and the committee are not doing that. Excuse me, the AP is, the committee is not. Yeah, I think I'm okay. I don't feel strongly either way About that may as use defenses and great and now that'll be interested to see how they do on Saturday without Really their only wide receiver in the lineup and I know Iowa State is Struggled stopping the run all year long But with that without without Jordan out there like does that make Iowa State's task a little bit easy in terms of stopping scatter.

But you don't necessarily have to devote resources to stopping the passing game and love it as well. So be curious to see how that plays. I don't feel strongly either way about the AISG Miami argument. Real quick to put a bow on it. I think the Syracuse loss is still better than the Oklahoma loss. Like who do you think is better right now? Syracuse or Oklahoma? Syracuse. I kind of like Syracuse.

The amazing thing is you look at Syracuse, like how the hell did that team lose at home to Stanford? I know, right? Well, look man, maybe the ACC, a little tougher than we realized. Yeah, exactly. Throw the records out when it's Q's and Stanford. Throw it, throw it. It's funny. I'm trying to like, we talked about the SEC and like how it's not the conference that it's been and how it is not as strong as it's been. You look,

you look at how the power four is done against each other in these non-conference games. Like there's still the only conference with a winning record against the rest of the Power Four. You've got both Georgia and South Carolina beat the ACC potential champion or a team that at least is in the conference title game in Clemson. You look at the ACC, they didn't beat a single team in nine against the power five that that's currently ranked. So it's like, again, we talked about like, does the committee look at like, who you're missing in the schedule and who you're playing in the schedule? Probably not. I don't even think they're going that far to look like ranked opponents in non conference games

as well. It's just, I like doing these the end of the season filters to kind of like, just throw stuff out there and have people get mad at me. Or you can do the Danny Cannell argument, Georgia Tech Georgia, where you're like, look at what Georgia Tech did against Miami, but look what they did against Georgia. They scored 42 points against Georgia, conveniently leaving out the eight over times of scoring.

Yeah, I was going to say that you factor in what, like 16 points, I think for overtime. Yeah, they had 15, 17, 15 and eight over times. But look, you know, if it looks good, tweet it. All right, let's do some of the conference championship games in the last few minutes. By the way, how didn't Georgia Tech just run Haynes King a couple of times

in some of those earlier over times? Like if you do that, you probably win. I love that kid, man. I mean, think about, you know what I'm talking about, Q's and some of the other like depth teams. And this is the going through three months of watching it. But you're like, when Georgia Tech had him, like that's a good team.

They're not, you know, so it makes it sound like you're kind of a pilot, but I totally get in the play call and maybe they were afraid he was going to die. It's also true, right? Cause he looked like he needed medical attention for the last hour of that. That's, well, that was a Friday night game, right? Okay, let's go through it.

Give me your confidence to least confidence of the conference championship games. Most confident? I'm gonna say Georgia. I feel pretty good about Georgia's matchup against Texas. I think that their defensive line, the way they handle Texas's offensive line in that first meeting, that they're getting healthier now. And on the flip side, Georgia didn't have, I believe, their starting right guard and

right tackle in that meeting down in Austin. It just could be one of those things that it's a bad matchup for Texas. Quinn Ewer is like you think because you hear like number one recruit and how he transferred and where he was, but you think he's going to be this all world quarterback. It doesn't add up necessarily with what I've seen. I'm curious if we get some archmantic because I think if you look at Georgia, they do much better against offenses that do not have a running quarterback. And I think obviously most defenses do, but they stop running backs from running. We're just talking about Ainskane. If you don't have a running threat as a quarterback,

maybe this is why maybe we see some arch manning, but I think Georgia does win. I think they beat Texas for a second time. So that's my most confident. You know, it's funny though, the running quarterback thing, I used to always love it when Saban was in Bama and it's like, you know, that guy is damn, they're pretty good in Bama, but they struggle against those running quarterbacks. You're like, you mean Cam Newton, Sean Watson, you mean all the Heisman guys like what in NFL players? Yeah, no way. I can't believe they struggled against him. I look, I think there's a Sark part of this where because of what they experienced the first half, which was, I think the most dominant weird, like that was so horrifying what George was able to do, especially with those three guys in the front seven. Okay, so I'm thinking, could Sarko,

all right boys, now we know what they can do. Now we're a little bit ready. I completely agree with you Arch. I worry about the tackles injury report because he's still on it now, Banks. But in Beck, by the way, like Beck is not somebody that I dial in for like, I expect a great game out of Carson Beck.

I just, the kickoff, I just kind of shrug him like, we'll see what we got today. But I'm more aligned with you. He's been better the last few weeks. He hasn't thrown a pick. So he has been better. Yeah, but the Georgia Tech games, something was going on in the first half.

He like, he threw a third down pass in the dark, Tate Ratledge grabbed him on the sideline and was kind of like, you need to fucking wake up. That's what it felt like. Maybe he, maybe I was reading it wrong, but it was clear that Tate was like you something needs to change here and he woke up in the Tennessee game. That was a bit of a slow start or whatever. So like I am aligned though with you. I feel like it might just be a bad matchup. So I know you're going to run here. So let's just

run through your picks for the rest of the conference games. I do like Clemson plus the point is vegas is going to be their vegas oddsmaker is just going to be that wrong To open up clemson is a three-point favorite and have this thing flip all the way to the other side clump to Have smu minus two and a half or three Yeah, there's more pressure on smu now But the fact that the fact that clemson I think the front that they have even though it's not a typically great Clemson defense, I think they can give Jennings and that often some problems. Club Nick has had a very low key great year and you know, and you know how dabo dabo roles

like you'll get all wound up emotional and a little old Clemson three losses yet. We're still the kings of the ACC and basically a home games. I do like Clemson and I like Iowa State for the reasons I talked about earlier. Just wondering about ASU and kind of being one dimensional now. Iowa State's got two really good wide receivers and I think the clones have been a little underrated and a little slept on that league all year long. The game that I'm worried about, I wanna bring it back to kinda how we started with Penn State, Oregon. Like, again, I look at these numbers

and I look at the odds and maybe I'm an idiot for reading too much into it. But I haven't heard one person pick Penn State yet. And this number is held solid at Oregon minus three and a half all week. I mean, that would worry me if I were an Oregon backer and I like Oregon minus three and a half all week. I mean, that would worry me if I were an Oregon backer and I like Oregon minus three and a half and a lot of people have their power ratings with Oregon being like a five or a five and a half point favorite in this game.

And the number hasn't budged. That tells me the odds makers are very comfortable booking the Oregon money. They think Penn State potentially is the right side. And I know they have not done well in the role of underdog under James Franklin. I know they have not done well against top five and top ten teams against James Franklin, but they'll probably have a pretty good crowd advantage there again. Is that ultimately they're gonna win the game? No, but it feels like the oddsmakers in Las Vegas are telling you that Penn State is probably the right side here.

Yeah, I don't know if it's a Penn State is probably the right side here. Yeah. I don't know if it's a Penn State history thing, I feel like, oh, but it's new history because they haven't had a face in Oregon in some of this stuff. And I've pointed out like, you know, it's been a while since there's been a really good Penn State win and I think it's the Utah Rose Bowl game, but there's some flaws in that one because of the rising injury. Um, and as soon as they brought in the backup, I think he threw a pick. So, um, but I do like Penn State.

Like I've watched them enough this year. I think I liked them better this year. The Ohio State thing is repetitive and it's frustrating and all that stuff. But at least I know like talent wise, there's some dudes they can throw out there against an Oregon team that's been number one in the country here for a while. I don't know if it's a lack of travel. Cause the Ducks normally do travel, but then when you're asking, it's like, okay, you're going to travel for this game and you're going to travel for your first playoff game.

So I know that the ticket part of it for Indianapolis has been pretty underwhelming. And you would imagine it's still going to be a heavier Penn State thing because it's just a little bit easier. But yeah, that line, when that came out, I'm like, man, you know, because you're figuring based on both teams, you're like, it, you know, because you're figuring based on both teams, you're like, it's probably minus six and a half. It's minus six. Like Oregon should feel like they should be an overwhelming favorite in that. And it's not. So it scared the shit out of me.

So, uh, again, we are aligned. Hey man, great work. It's always great catching up to you. Love catching up. Appreciate you checking out the pod and, uh, enjoy the run, man. We'll see where this all goes. I will. Absolutely. We'll, uh, will absolutely will will will do it again soon to come Once we actually know these playoff matchup and get closer to that and come on March madness Perfect perfect Chris Felica Fox Sports the bear A courtside legend is born

The Raptor chicken nacho poutine from McDonald's our Our world famous fries topped with seasoned chicken, gravy, stringy cheese curds, tortilla strips and drizzled with nacho cheese sauce. Get your claws on it. For a limited time only, at participating McDonald's restaurants in Ontario. The Alliance marches into Conference Championship Week undaunted, just like the Hoosiers. All right. Um, maybe be a little daunted. Yes, I am.

So, uh, we just missed it. We went no special sauce last week and we missed it on a field goal. Kyle, you have nothing to apologize for. I'm supposed to be the anchor. I'm supposed to be the, not the anchor, the rudder of this ship. And I, you know, I, I would say it's been off, misaligned throughout, but, uh, three in one, but we missed it on an army field goal. Yeah.

That would have made basically our money back too, for the season would have broke even, but Hey, we're onto, we're onto conference championship week. Let's go. We're on to conference championship week. Absolutely. Okay. Um, who wants to go first? Oregon, why don't you go first?

You just run the world. Yeah, I'm going to the Penn State game. I think I like Oregon in the game, but Penn State plus one and a half, the third quarter spread. This guy's just taking his shirt off. They're a second half team, even against Ohio state. They would have covered this. So it's minus one 56 plus one and a half for the third quarter. What an incredible bet. Okay. So to be clear, the outcome of this game is open, right? It's just

the third quarter. Just the third quarter. I got to lose by 50. But if they win the third quarter, exactly. We're back. Well, then we'll just we'll just keep the through line here. I found Oregon, you can get Oregon at plus one and a half. Um, and I'll just, I'll do that. It's just close. I don't know. It's less than a field goal. Right guys.

Wow. We have a lot of stuff going on here. We're going to get this is this Jesus. I should give me tape rat lich. I like that bet. Uh, okay. That like that bet. Okay. That seems, man. That's allowed, right?

That seems allowed. It is. Maybe this isn't the one you parlay, but okay. Alright, we'll do that one. Somebody's just like this. Alright. I'm just trying to help people out there. I don't know. Yeah, what can we do with Georgia? Another one that just give me a different one.

Cause if we should trust one of us, we should trust works so I mean that's yeah, I still like Oregon for the game. I kind of like it. I think yeah, let's trust war. It's so crazy. Yes, just my right. We got his blessing. I'm good. I'm I'm totally fine with it. Give me Georgia plus whatever I know it's

plus two and a half right now, but to get us into that window, let me know. Yeah, let's just you want to just take's plus two and a half right now, but to get us into that window, let me know. Uh, yeah, let's just, you want to just take a plus three and a half, get the full field goal. Let's do that. Sure. All right. Let me throw that in the mixer. Uh, and I'm going to go, I'm going to go with the Leica. I think Clemson win the game. Uh, I'll take the two and a half, but you know, I guess maybe I should stretch that to three and a half to get us a little bit of juice.

Just in case something goes down, let me see what that is. Hold on. Clemson plus three and a half. All right, so we do Penn State third quarter plus one and a half. Oregon in the game plus one and a half. Ryan's got Georgia plus three and a half, and I'm going to take Clemson plus three and a half. That gets us to almost plus 800, boys. Not quite making it all back, but at least not a terrible loss for the season.

So, feeling good. This might be our last one. I don't know, I don't know if we're gonna do a bowl thing. We're gonna pick bowl games, but until NBA season. You promise? You promise? You promise? You promise?

Okay, couch money research. The couch play as of right now is Cincinnati minus five and a half at Dallas. The money play is you're taking the Rams plus one at home against the Bills and the sharp play is Jags plus three and a half at Tennessee. So good luck. There you go. Yep. Good luck with all that. We've got an NBA pick for you.

Those have been going pretty well actually. So don't worry about it. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine.

And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Today's Life Advice is presented by State Farm. When it comes to football season, some things are just better together, like chips and dip for your favorite jersey and your lucky pregame ritual.

You know what else is better together? Bundling your home and auto insurance with the personal price plan from State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And we are here for you. Life advice, life advice, rr at gmail.com. Before we get into it though, I think we need to do a little friendship recap.

Post the live show in Denver. Never felt closer to you guys. That was a, it was a great time. Genuinely, it was a great time. Core's lights were had. Core's lights were had multiple Core's lights. And that was kind of the deal is we were at the Fillmore. We were in Denver.

We went to the game together on Tuesday. Guys got a little annoyed at me for leaving, but I had to look at a farm on Wednesday. I also had to do my top 100 list that I threw away by mistake after the live show. So I do not have my NBA top 100 to the editors of the Ringer.com, the new and improved Ringer.com by the way. So check it out. Um, but I have, uh, quite the Denver crew and they were in attendance and they were

like, we're across the street. Like, all right, I'm out of here. We're not doing pictures. We don't do pictures at bill shows. So I went across the street and then, all right, I'm out of here. We're not doing pictures. We don't do pictures at bill shows. So I went across the street and then I sent a text to the guys. I said, we are across the street and everybody hung out. And we saw a near fight between skateboard meth guys,

I think. Yeah. Yeah. One of those guys kept coming up to me and just like chatting me up and he smelled so bad. Give us a good idea of what this total was. I tried to give him a pep talk. I'm like, stop getting trapped.

And he's like, I know, it's just my personality. I'm like, stop getting trapped over there, man. You tried to work it out, wasn't you? I don't know. He was just like, I can't, I don't know. I don't have it in me to say like, hey guy, get away from me. So I was like, hey, just give me a look.

But he never looked at me. He said, that's how good of a guy he is. Yeah, he came up to me at the jukebox and was like, I hope you put together a real, like, you better hit this right. And at first I was like, oh yeah, no, I'm picking out. So he's like, I'm watching you. I was like, now we're done, now we're done talking.

Too far, too far. I'm not that good. And then there was one, there was one female in the bar the entire time. So Denver living up to its early 2000s nickname of Menver. And she had- She had a weird outfit on, didn't she? Well, it wasn't just a weird outfit.

She had a pony on a stick. So she was walking around riding this, like, if you were a little kid dressed up as a witch for Halloween and you would ride a broom around the neighborhood getting candy, she had a pony at the end of hers. And she would go from spot to spot in the bar writing this. Then asked the bartender to stash it in the storage room. He was, I was like, what happened? She leave it here?

He's like, oh, no, that's like the guy's girlfriend. I don't know. It's just, I'm just going to put it back here. Like he does it often. Okay. Cool. Bill hung out with us too. So we went deep.

Dude, he went from like, I'm just going to go home to, I'm saying Ryan's Ryan just said he's literally next door and he was like, all right. And then he stayed till like 1 30 in the morning. Awesome. It was good. Bill needs every now and then. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, it was good.

It's good to see it. He completely hit it off. He was a big fan of Ryan's friends. I have this friend, Tim Walsh, who just everybody likes him and he's good at it and it's not and it's, it's actually very genuine genuine he's not a phony about it Saruti met him the night before and then yeah Bill sent me a text is Tim there I was blown away my friend my friend group is like freaking out about the whole thing but then there was a couple ex-military there that were

talking up the recent news and then taking Bill through the whole thing and then the next day Bill was like I was ready to just hand those guys microphones and podcasting equipment and being like, all right, you're our conspiracy theory podcast. Go, you guys start tonight. So it was good. Everybody hung out. And then the funniest part is on the plane back to LA the next day, none of us had talked about what our itinerary was. And I walked right in front row, Kyle, empty seat, Bill, And then the three of us. Front row class. How about that?

First class Kyle. First class Kyle. Let's go. First class Kyle. I saw Bill's like face when he, when he like turned around and saw that I was already in the same row as him, he was like, did they upgrade you? I was like, nah, I did it myself. And I think, uh, grown ass man.

Yeah. I think I scored a couple of points there. It was also funny because dudes were furiously getting in debts based on their location for the Fandual app. And then Kyle was, Kyle had an Ocean's 11, 12, 13 decision to make. And then Bill was sending me clips of the headline saying, Bill Simmons ripped for comparing his pickup game to LeBron James, which made the rounds. Which really abiserates Bill Simmons.

Yeah. And then I started my Henry the fifth book, which is awesome, by the way. Really excited about it. Okay. All right. Anything else to add? Great time. The vibes are back boys.

Good to see you guys. Denver's a nice city. Yep. Enjoyed it. Is that your first time? I'll say that. I've never been. Wait, what'd you say Kyle?

I said Saruti left first. That's all I'll say. I left first. What do you mean? Oh, in the morning? The bar? Bar. We all left at the same time.

Nah, I don't think so, bub. It was all pretty close. It was over. No, we were all leaving. My Uber came first. I don't like that at all. Kyle, I over. We were all leaving. I was over. It came first. I don't, I don't like that at all. I had a cigarette with you outside. Like I don't, I don't need my, I don't need my, dudes that didn't smoke started smoking. I was starting to get nervous near the end. I was like,

I don't know if I brought enough for you guys. I broke my, uh, my only bachelor parties and's rule for Kyle. It was great and I was happy. I take it back, cut that out, we're gonna. Thank you. Yeah, no, leave it in. But I think what happened was Sarutti announced to the group that he was leaving a little bit earlier

and then maybe we're losing a bit of time on that. He was still there. Cause I remember when he said goodbye to me and then I looked up like 30 minutes later and he was still talking to one of my friends. So I- I just remember Bill saying, "'Sarutti left?'

I was like, wow, that's like a weird thing to hear him say. We were all leaving. We were all outside. What is it? It was over about 20 minutes before we left. And we still were there. Yeah, I guess I didn't, yeah, I thought it was, it was like 1 a.m.

All right, anyway, okay. I got back at two, that's all I'll say. Anyway. What did you do? Where'd. That's all I'll say anyway. What did you do? Where'd you go? What do you mean? Like it was like one 50. They kept the bar open an extra while. Yeah. Cause that turned into a nice little Wednesday for that staff. Out of nowhere there was 30 dudes in there. Um, and then my favorite move was I stopped in the ride home and I, I pounded one of those PD lights before I went to bed. I cannot,

I cannot express how amazing it's one of the smartest things I've done in years. Okay. Let's see here. Let's see emails. Let's get to them. Is a friend overstaying welcome? Okay. Player comp is Ohio State Mark Club Trill Titus.

No stats, but we'll give you a lot of great high fives. Nice. Dude, if you ever played in like a pickup game with Titus, you would wonder why I wasn't in the NBA. A few months ago, a friend of mine decided to move to the same city as me, like a friend should do. I offered my guest room for him to crash. While he looked for his own place, he is a good roommate,

helps my dog, cleans up after himself, and doesn't make a lot of noise. But it has now been two and a half months and he hasn't looked at any places or made any effort to. I understand that it takes time in a new city, but also I want my place back to myself. Another feeling. How long do I have to give him until I say something?

How do I approach it without affecting relationship? I should mention I'm also his boss at work. I put the question on there. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you have the juice. It's your place and he works for you. You're fired.

Right. So here's the deal. The clock starts now because if you haven't said anything in two and a half months, his uncomfortability meter hasn't even like started yet. So you have to start the clock. Doesn't mean he's going to be out of there next week. Doesn't mean you have to say you have 30 days you're out of here.

Cause it sounds like you don't want to be like that stern, stern, but fair. But a lot of friendships in this dynamic don't want to be that stern. Right. Uh, so you need to start the conversation so that the meter of him realizing like I'm not just going to stay here. Cause some people that are totally fine taking advantage of the situation and look, I get it. I can understand his side of it.

It kind of sucks, but he might be saying to himself, I'm going to push this. What are you talking about? Yeah. He might be thinking like, I am going to push this until it gets to the point of like awkwardness, cause this is awesome. It's free. And like, I'm doing what I can't even block this dog. Like he's falling for that kind of stuff.

If you have not started, you know, it's almost like a save the date, but not good news. You need, you need to have the verbal save the date with him. Be like, Hey, just want to know. Not super urgent, but I'd like to know like, where do you think you'll be at? Let's, let's talk about a timeline for you

getting your own place. Your five week plan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got some people maybe coming in the spring or, or, you know, early, like late winter, I just, you know, I just, I was just thinking, have you, have you even seen anything yet, like, do you need help or whatever?

I just, uh, maybe it's you put something that's like out of your hands. On the books. And it's just like, you know, I kind of need a room. So I just want to, I just want to know what, what the plan is. Like you, if you really don't want to be like, dude, you seriously not even like seen one place yet. If you don't want to do that, which I think most dudes could handle honestly, um, if you're close enough, but if you have, you know, if you, if you want to keep the,

the awkwardness out of it, maybe you can just be like, Hey, there's something coming down the pike. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page here. Yeah, maybe he just thinks you guys are having a great time. He's like, let's just let the good times keep rolling. Like Tony and Ari Uco. Just like, dude, how great is this? He's like, I'm helping this.

He's giving me a room. I'm giving him some camaraderie. This is great. My mother's house all alone, why not? Morale is being boosted all around. So maybe he just needs to know. It's totally within reason. Kyle, you're correct,

but I also don't think you need to sugar coat it. Like, hey man, you've been here for this long. Like what's the point? Yeah, things can handle this stuff, I think. Yeah. Friends, friends. And if he kind of takes that personally, that's a weird move on him.

The boss employee dynamic is a massive advantage because he's already used to you having some role of power over him. I mean, unless he's the most disrespectful shithead of all time, where he's like, actually doesn't listen to me at work, but I would assume in most scenarios like this, he has to answer to you.

So that road's already been plowed. Like, why can't you also- You put it in his interview review. Didn't move out in time. Right, apply that dynamic? You'd be like, hey, you know, I want to talk about your work here the last six months. I'd like to talk about your living situation here

the last two and a half months. So, but it's up to you, man. It's up to you to start that clock. And it sounds like if you're emailing us and you haven't even started it, maybe that's a bit of a challenge for you is you don't be confrontational. And you know, you've done, this guy is solid,

but there are people out there that you do them a solid. Like their entire life is about people doing them solids. Like I have this one dude is sort of an outer moon, I would say. So certainly not like a core guy, but I replayed our history together and all it's been is him asking for stuff, like for years and years and years. And it blows my mind. It's just like, okay, this dude again, just pay checking in cool, you're going to send me the fake

what's up, power things. And the third text is going to be an ask. Um, and he's just okay with it. He's okay living his life that way and having most people like that guy sucks. He gets high off of wins like that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Haven't had a home game in years. He's okay living his life that way and having most people like that guy sucks. He gets high off of wins like that, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Haven't had a home game in years. Okay. Why Ryan is an asshole. This sounds like the wrong category. It is Friday though. It'll take me an hour drive, an hour to hang out with coworkers and colleagues and lifelong friends.

I can't possibly do that. Take a day and hang out, man. It means a lot to Kyle and Van and he still won't do it. Um, lifelong friends, Kyle. How long? I mean, no, I'm not even going to add. Yeah. I met your lifelong friends. Those guys are awesome.

Van lifelong friend. Love Van. Not a lifelong friend. I may just do it. You know what I might do? I might just go on a two day love Van. Not a lifelong friend. I may just do it. You know what I might do? I might just go on a two day fucking bender and do a Monday show and go.

Stay at the Roosevelt. No, just go, hey, I didn't watch any football. Start Monday show that way. We're gonna read an ad and do three life advices, but I just didn't watch anything. It was a friendship. Segment one is all hot takes. Please subscribe.

Yeah. Just reading box scores. Yeah, we're not, hey, which rappers are like wide receivers? Just for the record, I cannot believe some stuff Meek Mill tweets. It's like he's just, yeah, he's just he'll be like, I don't care. I'm tweeting again. All right.

Do have another email here. It's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. But yeah, in the future, we'll just try to put those in those in the Friday feedback. All right. Uh, I don't know. This one's pretty straightforward too. I'll keep it short and sweet. 25, five 11, three quarter, five 11 and three quarter.

Excuse me. Six one in air force ones. Nice. 95 pound dumbbell bench, 225 thick pickup comp, a European Chris Paul, less scoring, more passing, or a San Antonio spur Chris Paul. I got drunk and downloaded Tinder. Uh, and to my surprise, I matched with a good friend of my sister.

I went to an event and all of her friends came up to me last night and said, quote, Mr. Short-term open to long. So I guess that's how he described himself. Yeah. Is that bad? That feels like, that feels like he described himself. His bio. Oh no. Is that bad? That feels honest. That feels like they're making fun of you,

but I don't know. It is exactly that. Yeah. Like what else would it be? Yeah, right. I think Saru is trying to be nice. They are absolutely making fun of you. Multiple people from the same friend group have to.

Tinder's a part of life. It's not like they saw you in fucking Craigslist. You know what I mean? It's like, this is just a part of life now. Right. Ken live at my house for sex. Like what? Yeah, dude, don't worry about it.

There's way worse, you know, solicitation out there. So this guy was just on Tinder and described himself as Mr. Short-T Term, open to long. I don't know what's wrong with that. I don't know. It's like an adjustable mortgage. You know what you're signing up for. Although my buddy, did I ever tell the story of my buddy? No one did. My buddy put his credit

score in his, in his Tinder while back in the day and actually pretty good. Oh, he's good. It was good. So that was the kind of a selling. Give me a number. It was high sevens. I'd imagine. There you go. I love it.

If a guy would be like six 40 looking for a boost by low. Yeah. Fixer upper with upside. What if a guy was like high FICO low, low credit? That was me for so long. You were Mr. FICO. Dude, when I, we, we went over the car max thing, uh, with Bill and how, like, uh, I was like pretty feeling pretty good going in there.

And I was just like, you know, I'm like seven 25 and they're like, we found one that's got you at like six, six 48. Or I'm like, well, but here, look, this one's right here. And they were like, yeah, we got to pick the lowest one, man. I was like, that seems kind of fucked up. Actually, they're not supposed to. I thought they were supposed to drop the lowest of the three. This whole, this whole car thing keeps getting just like,

Kyle got absolutely hosed in this. I've heard this story a hundred times and every time, like, how did this happen? Like, how did this happen? Anyway. Why, what's going on? What's your payment a month? 465, 11%65. 11% interest.

11% interest. He got $25,000 and somehow lost money. That's what happened. Listen, it's probably more like 40% me being Kyle and 60% CarMax being CarMax, but you know. Sounds like we're not going to be doing any of their reads anytime soon. It's been a while. It's been a while. We, I think we were doing their reads at some point. So 11% seems a little high, but I mean, are you thinking about 11% when the wind's going through your hair and you're on the highway?

Not at all. Probably not. But I am looking at the gas mileage, it's like, what the fuck, man? We're down to a quarter tank. I feel like I just filled this thing up before I left. 14 miles per gallon. Another reason not to drive down. V8s, man. I feel like I just filled this thing up before I left. 14 miles is a gallon. Another reason not to drive down. V8s, man.

I'd invite you down, but the gas alone. Okay, all right, so back to our email here. I rarely do this. Decent looking guy. He sent a picture. Good looking cat, nice little smile. Intense eyes though. I rarely do this.

Decent looking guy. I'm now super embarrassed. I didn't even mean to match with her. Another one of my friends is way hotter. Am I done for? Uh, I like this. I like, I like rough intros. I like, so you both swiped right. That's interesting. So she swiped right and then told her friends and then they made fun of you. That's a, that sucks. Yeah. Well you guys take me through this.

Cause I still don't really understand. Well yeah, they both swiped right. If they matched, right? Yeah. Yeah. So they had to both actively do something to match. understand. Well, yeah, they both wipe right if they match. If they matched, right? Yeah. So they had to both actively do something to match. Yeah, it's not. Here's what they're doing. You're 25, you know? You had a few, you download the app,

people have been there. To Suri's point, at least you weren't on Craigslist or not having an ad, which is another tier of shame. And then, you know, they just kind of wanted it. It's almost like adults throwing rocks at each other in a playground. Like I actually think it's a little flirty and I think it's a good start for you. Now you may have burned it with the friend where you even in the game to begin with, you know, let's be honest, let's do some self assessment here, but you have something funny the next time that you see them where you can all kind of laugh about it.

I actually think there's a massive, those rocky, you know? How you handle those type of... Still land the plane, right? You know, like, hey, what the hell's going on with this crosswind? But you still got to where you needed to go. And I think these can actually pay off a little bit, because now you have something a little bit different

than everybody else, even if, and by the way, I don't even think you should be that embarrassed. I mean, yeah, who cares? It's not like, you know, you got into like some real deep messaging and then, you know, she showed you like your paragraphs that you sent. But the other thing is, you know, I think, and I've seen like videos of this where,

I think girls like maybe get together and watch one of their friends like just go through Tinder. So like, I wonder if it's a, oh my God fucking mic matches me. And then she like screenshotted it sent to everyone or they were all together like, no, no. Oh my God, is that mic? Like, I don't know, I don't know which one it was.

I don't know if that makes you feel better or worse, but like, it might not have been like, look how hilarious this is. I'm gonna send it around. Maybe there are just all, you know, gathered around this phone. I'm gonna send it around Maybe there are just all you know gathered around This phone I just I know I've seen that in video So, I mean, I don't think dudes up right that way, but I think that's just one of those divides So who knows? Yeah, it probably feels worse after that possibility. Yeah, it's been a minute

But I you know since I was in the app game was probably 2014 I don't know who knows 13, 13, 10 years ago. And I was only a kinder. But you know, you'd run into the, you know, so I have two younger sisters, you'd run into like, yeah, you get one of their friends. That was always like, no, no, absolutely not. Like you just, I just don't think you can cross

pollinate there. It's always too weird. Also the drunk guy might not even be looking. He's just like, how fast can my finger swipe right? And I'll weed it out later. It's just like, yeah, let me just use up all my, you know, swipes for the day and we'll see, we'll see if there's any bites.

Then we'll decide what to do. The ultimate green light guy, yeah. Guy hits a new story. I don't know, I think if they give you a hard time. It's around 20 mile range. Just tell them like, at least I know where my head is at and what my priorities are. What are your bios?

Health and wellness? You know, what you see is what you get. Maybe make a shirt, wear it out with all of them. They're like, he's so funny. The Tinder bio shirt. Yeah. All right, that's life advice. Today's life advice was presented by State Farm.

The personal price plan lets you call the place so you can choose the right coverage at a price that's right for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings, and eligibility vary by state. All right, thanks to Kyle, thanks to Wargon, thanks to Saruti, that is the Ryan Russo podcast.

We are back, normal schedule next week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We'll have a conference championships. Live on Monday. Oh, that's right, we're breaking it down live with McShay after the conference championship game stuff, and then I guess I'm gonna do an NFL Open as well, so excited. Yeah, we'll be live on YouTube and check out our YouTube page as well

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