Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 284 | Episode 6 Changed Everything

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

episode 6 hit different. after everything we’d already been through, this one pushed us to dig deeper- emotionally and mentally. We open up about the moments that broke us, the lessons that stuck, and the parts you didn’t see on screen. From exhaustion to breakthroughs, this debrief goes beyond the show and into what it really felt like to live it. Honest, raw, and a little emotional- this is our real Episode 6. Kachava ▶ Your future self will thank you. Go to https://www.kachava.comand use code EASTFAM for 15% off your next order. Skims ▶ If you’re looking for the perfect cozy gift this season, Shop the best pajamas at https://www.SKIMS.com/couplethings. After you place your order, make sure to select “podcast” in the survey and choose Couple Things from the dropdown menu. Subscribe to our newsletter ▶ https://www.familymade.com/newsletterFollow our podcast Instagram ▶https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnsonFollow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnsonShop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnsonLike the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnsonFollow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEastAndrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Couple Things. With Sean and Andrew. What episode is this? Five? Episode five. This is my favorite one yet. I thought episode four was halfway through the season, but turns out I think Fox liked what they got and they made it nine episodes instead of eight. Yep. So everybody buckle up because we got four more seasons. Four more episodes. Four more episodes. I wish there were four more seasons. I know. No, I don't. I don't. This is a one and done thing for me. Was not that fun, to be honest. It was hard and painful. This was, what was this guy called?

Postman's Walk. The Postman's Walk and Murder Ball. Of all the episodes. Of all the episodes, this was the most surprisingly edited because I feel like they took out some crazy things that happened in real life. In real life, though, there was way too much stuff that happened in one day for them to possibly, it should be a three-part series, three weeks to cover one day. You guys. Let's first rewind. We just published last week the group interview that we did with the Nashville portion of the Special Forces cast.

Ridiculous. I don't recommend our own podcast often, but if you like this series and if you were going to listen to one of the Special Forces podcast that we did, I would say that that would be the best one. It's a great interview that encompasses everybody's personality. And that was everybody's personality on the show. It was great. It was, it was really fun. Lots of laughs. You'll get to know the, the perspectives and personalities, which is great.

And then I also, I came prepared with the whole notebook full of things that I want to discuss and monologue. There's not a single thing on that sheet. I'm just kidding. Yeah. The, uh, the episode four debrief that we did was controversial to say the least. Really? Well, some people, some people adamantly took my side and, and the, uh, the teamwork discussion that we had. And then some people thought it was absolutely useless.

and a waste of time. And some people Adam Lee took your side. So pretty fast. About the Andrew episode? Yeah. What do you mean in the teamwork? Fill me on here.

People thought like they said oh Andrew's Andrew's idea of humility or teamwork I agree with or they said I don't agree with that concept.

Honestly, I think it was the most engaged with podcasts we've had all year. I think you're perfect. I think you're perfect. I like you. Can I? Can I share one personal moment that was a highlight of my week last week?

We found ourselves in the kitchen. I think it was like our only time alone. We've been hosting people. It's been a blast. But when we host, usually there's not a lot of just Sean and Andrew time. Yeah. Anyway, we find ourselves in the kitchen. We looked at each other and started giggling.

We said, I love having you as my teammate. I love having you as my teammate, baby. We have any personal updates beyond that? No. I don't think so. We got through one of the craziest weeks of the year, which is Halloween, because it's Drew's birthday as well. So we had Drew's birthday and then Drew's birthday party and then all the Halloween parties at school and then Halloween. It was crazy. We had family coming to town, but it was a blast.

Drew's birthday was one of the best days of my life this year because she got celebrated and we got to do. a bunch of what felt like lifelong memory things Drew got honored at school it was very coincidental that happened to be her birthday but got called up in front of 400 kids at school

and honored for an extraordinary act of character pretty amazing bro pretty amazing I was a blubber I got in the car after that and called Andrew and I was a blubbering mess Sean does not cry often she was in tatter after that.

And then we also got to go have lunch with Drew at school, which they don't allow unless it's your kid's birthday. And I was in tears that whole time. You were crying the whole lunch. You just got, you know, you have these moments where you stop and reflect. And you're like, oh my gosh, we have a six-year-old. Think about all the times we've had together. I went back through our old photo album and just from the day she was born was like reliving some memories.

He was listening to on repeat the song slipping through my fingers. I was like, you're doing. doing this to yourself. But also my dad used to come me lunch with us at school and so that's that's like that aspect of it. And that's what I'm saying like this is the stuff that drew now at six will remember. Yeah. And then Halloween was my favorite year

yet too. We carved pumpkins. We had a huge group of people over which is a blast. And it wasn't even planned. I had a bunch of people text us and be like, what are you doing for Halloween? I said, or making chili cornbread hot dogs. Yeah. You're also, you're welcome to come over. Not knowing or expecting

you know anything. We had like Eight families show up. There's a lot of people, a lot of kids. We didn't take a single picture, which is totally fine. It's too chaotic. The kids were running, sprinting door to door. Which was new. This year, this year is the first year that Drew and Jet, like, did their own thing, which was, like, really fun to see, but also scary.

We had, again, we had eight families. So that was eight moms and dads who, also, I learned this from our neighbor. Highly recommend. But every year for Halloween, she does this, and she brought it over for our kids this year. buy some sort of unique glow in the dark items that parents and kids wear that are unique to your group and it's like a easier way to kind of like oh that's what joe was wearing yeah oh it's an easier way if they for some reason get separated and in crowd to be like oh yeah that's my kid wow that's a great trick but with all of those moms and dads we were like i've got them i've got them

i'm going that way you're going that way we were not together at all that night no um the weather was also really nice here in Nashville so like the neighborhood was just coming alive and then they shut down like this neighboring streets to our house it's such a vibe for trick-or-treating around our house because they literally shut them down and people from all over the city drive to like this area people make haunted houses in their front yard like with tarps and everything some are a little too scary like even for me I was like this is a little crazy but then Sean also another hack you filled the kids baskets with tortilla chips which like they would just kind of snack on and kind of fill their belly and they didn't eat as much candy 100% they did not eat so much candy we didn't even make it to the end of the street

and jet and his little buddy both looked at each other and like we've got enough candy we're gonna go back I was like wow yeah it's great fun times um anyway we got to jump in let's do it a lot to cover let's do okay so this episode was postman's walk and murder ball if you watch you will know what we're talking about let me add it was workout and then postman's walk and then murder ball it was a big day we did a lot so we woke up had breakfast had to go into the square and do a workout yes the workout was like holding the bag above our head it was doing burpees and squat holds and doing a run around um the square it was probably like a 20 minute workout it wasn't terrible but it was a workout we didn't have to do as much crawling that day thank goodness

so then we load up to go to postman's walk we don't know it's postman's walk by the way like all of these are always a surprise. They tell us literally nothing. But we get there, and my worst nightmare happens. If you follow the show well enough, and if you've seen all of the other seasons, around midway in the show, they usually do something endurance, meaning a run, a hike, a really long event, and we hadn't done it yet. And I'll never forget, they get out of the cars, we got our bergans on, and they say,

what is it, line up, rank order or whatever. Yeah. And I think it was Rudy Leading, who's not wearing bergans, by the way, even though if they had bergans on, they'd be so fast. They just say, keep up. And it was in my mind, it switched.

And I was like, frick, this is it. This is it. And we were on rugged terrain, not flat. There wasn't even a path. We were just going over the rocks randomly. We were running. It was like a run, jog, walk. And I will just say,

this it was it had to have been over two miles i think we were walking for like an hour sorry walk running so i would say it would be like two and a half three miles yeah if we were out there for an hour and all i remember thinking is like we would go on these running stints and right at my panic moment because i'm not a runner and trying to carry the bergen and like keep up and everything right at like my panic moment where i'm like are we is how long is it's going to be we would start walking. Yeah. And then we'd take off running again.

And I thought it was fascinating. In the show, in the edit, they didn't show this. They showed us running for maybe five seconds. I can't believe how little of this they showed and the after postman walk workout. They just kind of glaced through it. And the whole setup is this is what made Chanel tap out because it was very difficult.

Chanel tapped out on the run to postman's walk, so she didn't make it to postman's walk. But it was brutal. It was always this idea of like, if you can't keep up, we're going to pull your arm band. And that was hard. It was a hard run, trying to run over rocks and get, like, the three miles in. I will never forget when we were doing this.

I had two songs that I kept in my head, the you, you, you, whatever. Or Frank. Yeah. Celebration. I would sing that in my head because it was like a pace that I could follow with my feet. This is the only thing in my brain at the time. or I would switch to 99 bottles of beer on the wall and I would just keep singing.

This is sidebar conversation. I've had conversations with crossfitters or like high-level athletes about the ability to distract yourself in times of physical pain. I think you're probably pretty good at that if I had to guess. This was brutal and there's also the second time. I don't know how they do this so well,

but remember on day one after the helicopter when our team lost, we did the same walk run. And it was the same thing where like, I guess they have a really good beat on how long is reasonable to run because it takes you right to the threshold and then they would like do a walk stint. And you're like, oh my gosh, thank goodness. And it was brutal. You're out there with your bags on these rocks, super uneven footing. Like it was a sketchy situation. You're on the top of this ridge and the Atlas Mountains. Really shocked. Nobody like broken ankle. Yeah. Me too. With the Bergens and Seth. I'm looking back at my notes. On day six, we woke up at seven. This was also the day they put the Kim games in place, the keep in memory games, where we had, they give us these sheets of paper. Oh my gosh. Do you remember that? They bring it into breakfast.

It's a full sheet of paper with all of these statistics about Morocco on it. Like very specific statistics, like 1,758,251,251,000, 251, whatever. and they're like, you better know it. And then they just walk out. Yeah, they said memorize this. Didn't say when we would need to know the knowledge. I remember when we had to know it. Oh, on the dance?

No, no, no. Oh, my gosh. I don't know why I forgot this. During the workout in the square where we're holding the bags above our head. At the 9 a.m. B sting? Yes. The 9 a.m. B sting.

So it was a couple hours later after breakfast. You see a very small glimpse of us standing in the square and everybody is like struggling to hold the Bergen above their head, they're calling each person, remember that, and asking you one of the statistics. We crushed it too. We did. So woke up at 7, 8 a.m. They gave us a sheet.

We had an hour to memorize it before the hour of being you're right at 9. But we were freaking out because we thought they kind of set it up like, hey, this is your alibi. And I thought it was going to be something we needed to know for the next few days. Yeah, so we memorized it. And they said, you have an hour with the sheet. And then after that, we're going to take it away. And so we're all like scrambling. They're also like, don't write anything down because if you get captured, then they might see that you have these notes taken and it'd be suspicious.

It was such a racket, though, because the amount of time we freaked out about trying to memorize this versus the four seconds they spent quizzing us in the courtyard was just disproportionate. So then we go out in the car. We do this three mile hike. We may get to post fans walk. Which you come up on this chasm. this cliff and you're like oh my gosh this is sick first of all do you remember the view that we had of wars azat this like you're on top of this mountain in the sahara you look out there's just one little village in the distance there's also you could see this on the episode where we did the dam rappel

there's solar tower in the distance that was just captivating it's like this this glowing ball of it's a tower that like it's a it's solar energy plant but it you could see it clear as day like no matter where you are and you're just like looking out there's a huge drop where you are and then they're like all right you're going to do a postman's walk and they set it up first of all they didn't show any of the like setup that they said where you had to you had to first get this huge box of ammo you had to attach it to the rope and then and then kind of like parlay it across which was a big deal they made it seem like in person yeah um and then everybody had a crossover and then you had to get another ammo box over or something like that i think it was

two total boxes but meanwhile if you weren't going you were sitting on they didn't show this either you were sitting on this like two foot wide ledge yeah looking which was like you're attached to a rope but you're also right on the cliff so like you're there for quite quite a while it was a long one and it it was not like a chill let's kick back and relax it was like oh no we're on the edge of a mountain yeah i remember with this one it was interesting foxy demonstration it and when Foxy demonstrated it he obviously did it with ease but like you could still tell it was challenging and then I think I was actually the first group to go up I think you were first group but I was like the last person and so I had set my expectations like this was going to be hard

you're going to be balancing whatever I think I got the easiest I drew the you know the easiest one. Why? Because I was so disproportionately smaller, or like small, comparatively speaking, to like Foxy and you and Decker and Randall, I wasn't heavy enough to move the wire. Oh, like sink it down, but no foot, yeah. So it didn't really even move. And I remember thinking like even the top wire was heavy enough that instead of trying to keep it stable, I was kind of hanging from it. Wow. Does that make sense?

That's crazy. Yeah. So I really think I, it was way easier for me than any, than most people. No, but look at the other smaller people on the show. There was still a lot of, I don't want to say this was like a crazy hard challenge, but you crushed it. Thank you. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. But I also wasn't scared of the height and I wasn't, like there was nothing about this that psyched me out except for having to go first. I didn't really, you can't watch that and know what it's going to feel like. Like it looks very, you're like, I don't know, I've never done something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, confession time. There was a stretch this fall where I was living off of nothing but a coffee and whatever

random snack I could grab between shoots. I'd tell myself, I'll make something healthier later. And then somehow I would end up at a drive-thru instead. Yeah, or the, I'll just grab a quick rap moment that turns into a $15 lunch. That's fine, but not actually filling. Exactly. That's why we started using Kachava more. It's made our lives so much easier and honestly, way healthier. It is the whole body meal that gives you real nutrition without sacrificing convenience. Each shake has 25 grams of 100% plant-based protein. And with every two scoops, you're getting 85 plus superfoods, nutrients and plant-based ingredients. It's packed with all the good stuff and there's no artificial flavors, no gluten, no soy, and no preservatives. I personally love the chai flavor right now. It's perfect for the fall. I'll blend it with it.

With almond milk, a little peanut butter, some ice, and it feels like a cozy treat that's actually good for you. My God 2 is the chocolate one after a workout. It helps with the recovery and gives me steady energy throughout the day. Plus, it's super quick to make, which means no excuses. Seriously, Kachava has been a game changer for keeping us fueled, even on the busiest days. Your future self will thank you. Go to Kachava.com and use code E-S-Fam for 15% off your next order. That's Kachava. K-A-V-A-V-A-com. Code Eastpham for 15.com. 15% off. So your weight was a disadvantage when it came to repelling, but an advantage when it came to this.

Yeah. It isn't. They did a good job at balancing things out. Like if you were in an advantageous situation here, they'd like balance it out. And I just remember getting across and Foxy laughing at me. He's like, you're like a new species of rodent. What the hell was that? That was, like I was just laughing.

So the setup of this. When it was my turn, I went after you. And by the way, in my mind, I was thinking, game on. We're going to time this. Sean made, I mean, it probably took you less than 45 seconds. Yeah, I was pretty fast. She's kind of humming. And her arms were above her the whole time.

That's what you were saying, like, the weight didn't separate the rope. So it was kind of easy for her to just shuffle across. But when we went up, you get off the little two-foot ledge that you've been sitting on. You have to climb up, which is also sketchy. It's precarious. Like, it's. And then, honestly, that, honestly, that. That was maybe the sketchiest situation we were in safety-wise

because there's a portion where you're just not linked into a rope and you're like looking down this rock cliff. Little asterisk here, you can always tell. It's not something that I realized until just now. You can tell Billy is the goat because he's always the last person you see before any challenge. Yeah. And I actually think that's like because of his position.

Yeah. But he is the last person to check. you over and send you off always and they always put him at the like the top of the dam or the beginning of the postman's walk the edge of the cliff um so you get up there he gives you this really brief tutorial again he has an accent so i'm picking up maybe 70% of what he's saying which whatever but uh but he loops you in there and he gives you a quick like uh he gives you like a couple hints yeah i'm saying of hey don't lean back try to stay right on your feet and actually he said the quicker you move the the easier it will be

I think yeah but if you get if you're moving quick and you get out of whack then you're done yeah because it's kind of that like um the shakes like when it resonates yeah and it just kind of amplifies yes so there's a couple people who really struggle with that because I think he he Billy did not say Always have the rope Chest high So like, no But that's how Foxy demonstrated it

Yeah, which was a big thing Anytime they did the demonstration Watching their technique was crucial But for the people who really wanted to go their own route It was kind of like you just watch the pros do it We should be doing it the way the pros do it I was surprised to see like Decker Went rogue bro

Eric It is tempting because you get up there You're like oh I've never done this before to your point so what's the right technique and let me go to what's comfortable to me but what's comfortable right now might not be good in about five yards decker was perpendicular i can't believe he didn't fall horizontal what oh my gosh uh sideways yeah he was i think both work yeah um anyway so i get up there you kind of like the first step again was nerve wracking because it's just like the trust thing that makes your hand sweat

and my hands are sweating right now then you go out there and it is pretty awkward to go all of your weight is focused on your hands right and so when you shift from having your elbows above to below it's another awkward movement

that's like you could get thrown off but see that's why I also had an advantage I never had to shift I was too small so I was always just here that's how you started my only worry was like in the middle was I gonna be dangling oh man

so you actually had to like shift which was sketchy to watch yeah and then there's a ton of stuff like the harness you have your water bottle that it could get stuck on you see gea the rope got stuck on her helmet and then you're like in this weird situation where you can't adjust too much because you'll fall so anyway we made it we both made it across pretty quickly which i think is probably why they didn't show us much on this one boxy gave me a hard time way to get giggle like do you always are you always competing yeah bro I had a good little cheeky moment. But then what they don't show,

it's like we all get through this, and then we have to run back. Yep. The three miles. And then they left this out. So we run the three miles back. Wait, sorry. Speaking of Gia,

there's a couple things that they kind of hinted at, but didn't fully show. Billy would always play games at the beginning. And so he kind of knew who might be most nervous or he just kind of had his thing that he wanted to do. And so whether it was at the top of the dam where he'd like pretend like he's thrown you over. Yeah.

With Gia, I think he did the same thing where he like, and started, she yelled at him. Yeah. Which they do not like. No. So Billy's yelling back at Gia. And then at the end, Gia was nervous because of the helmet snag situation. So Billy's then yelling at, or sorry, Foxy's yelling at Gia.

And then Gia's yelling back at Foxy. Yeah. Like with, with sass. A lot of passion. Yeah. And so that happened with. Yeah, I think it happened like two or three other times. But then she got off the rope after yelling and he's telling her you can't do that and she's kind of mouthing back at him.

And then she rolls her eyes at him. Oh my gosh. Also, while this is happening, we had a rock slide that I think while you were on the rope, like, again, we're on the side of this cliff. There's these huge boulders that started just tumbling. One guy lost his camera down the hill and it was like it was kind of like a. What? It was sketchy. So anyway, there's a lot of yelling that they did not show.

which again I'm surprised by because it was a heated moment full of full yeah it was full but anyway carry on so then we get back having had all this happen and now by now I want to give you guys like a temperature check of like the whole group we've just lost Chanel she's left and I would say with the group that's left we are now like super bonded yeah it's a small enough group that we're comfortable enough calling each other out on things and saying like tight tight up here or like you've got this um we know how to motivate each other we know it like really pisses each other off like we've learned that in a very short amount of time yeah this is day six so like we've we've been with each other a lot so i remember gia comes off the mountain and we can hear all of this and we're like jia tighten up like stop mouth and back at ds and we're all rooting for each other to make it to the end we're like we all have to make it to the end and i will say this is the first group where we were there were six of us by that by now seven oh 10 Because Eric and Jesse are still there.

Murder ball has not happened yet. So I think there's 10 or 11. Okay. So by now we're all like, we're all getting there. So then we have to line back up and we're like, oh, frick, now we've got to run back. We run the three miles back. We get back in sight of the cars. We're probably 20 yards from the cars.

And they stop. We're still doing the memorization things, by the way, that happened this morning. We thought they were going to bring it back up at some point. But we see the cars. And they line us up. And I don't think this was scripted. I think this was like on the fly and the DS added this in.

But they line us up and they give us a chewout moment where they're like no attitude, no talking back, no yelling at us, no rolling your eyes. And we all know like what they're referencing. But if someone does something,

it's like a team thing. We all suffer the consequences. So then they say turn around and look back up the mountain. And Rudy is probably standing 200, guards up the mountain and they say on the on the count three sprint and i will never forget he just says it pays to win you're going to run to rudy and run back it's all he says it pays to win so they say go and we just start sprinting and we have to sprint all the way up the mountain back to root

up to rudy and back down keep in mind still rocky still have our bags on yeah have our boots on still sketchy we get back and they're like go again and there was no there's no reward for the winter. Not yet. Not yet. We did three laps like looping up and down this mountain. It was a steep slope. It was rocky and sketchy. And I remember on the third one, I think if I remember correctly, it was Q and Foxy at the bottom, Rudy in the middle, and then Billy at the top. And Rudy, by the time we got to him on the third one, it was me, Cody and Randall were kind of at the front of the pack. Rudy looked, he was like, are they sending you back up again? Like he was showing. He was shocked. He was like, I can't believe you're doing it three times. Also, by the way, they showed

a quick clip of this in the episode. It was taken out of context because it wasn't at the beginning. But when he first had us do this lap, Cody Randall Decker and I took off up the mountain. We thought we were just going to do one. Cody is a gazelle. This guy, I don't know what his regimen is. I don't get it. But Randall and I are both trying to keep up with Cody. We're looking and each other like. He's flying by. Randall's an NFL wide receiver. I think he ran a four three at his prime. And Cody's blowing by them. And we're 20, 30 years younger. Don't understand it, but it was hilarious and like we were just honestly impressed. Okay. So three laps in. Now Cody has finished first

or whoever. No, I think you were the first one. No, Cody's finished first. No reward. These first three. Okay. So then it's a fourth lap? Yes. Okay. So now we're all on our fourth lap. Guys, we're dying. They've switched it up to, like, do lunges, jumps. Carry it like a baby. Oh, my gosh. You're bergin like a baby, which is like 40 pounds. And they just keep saying it pays to win.

So then on the fourth lap, the first person who crosses back down to the finish line, they're like, you're done, everyone else, go again. Which was me. I was the first person. I lost the first and second lap, but I had greater endurance. Yeah. Because you're endurance. Yeah.

So then the next lap goes, and the first person to make it back down who was like Randall or Cody, they're done. And they're like, everyone else, go. again. And I was like, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Like, it was so much running. I was probably sixth because I was behind all the guys. It was you, Decker, Randall, Cody, Christy. Oh, Christy, because she was so fast. And after we, like, one by one, we're going again and again and again and again and again. And I was just like, this sucks. So at a minimum, you did four laps. I only did four. But since there was 10 or 11 people,

You could have at max done like 13 or 14. So I think I was at lap 10 when I finally got called done. And then, so everyone finishes on lap 13 or 14. And then they're like getting a plank. We have our Bergen's on our back. And they're just like, hold it. And this is where they're like reinforcing, we're not going to take any attitude, any sass, whatever.

Decker keeps falling down. No, it was so hard, Sean. Because we're trying to do a extended high plank on rock. So it's like. Sean. I'm smaller than you. I had the same amount of weight in my backpack as you. We're doing this high plank with our 40-pound Bergen's on. And I was fine. It hurt like crap, but I was up. I was so mad at you guys when I saw you drop. I was like, I just ran six more laps than you. We're not all. And I'm still, it was miserable. Okay. Anyway, so we finally finished this workout.

They call us up. They said, get in your cars. Now, jump to the little clip on the show where Decker is throwing up out of the window, it was because of this workout. But they didn't show a second of it. No. No. Which was crazy. I mean, I get it. It's not like a helicopter.

It's not like some crazy backdrop. It was probably the hardest workout we did. Yes. But they didn't show any of it. And then there was a clip where we were back at the barracks. And Bree was like, my legs are dead. That's why. It wasn't because of postman dog.

It's because of that freaking workout. Yeah. And so Gia is, by the way, crying. Crying on the last lap. I think it was her, Brie and Mark finished the last. Is that right? Yeah, it was brutal.

But at least Gia was crying. I think two of the three of them were crying. We're crying. And I thought Gia was going to tap out here. I know. She said several times, I can't do this. I'm done.

I was so impressed that she didn't. But she kept with it. It was crazy. We gave back in the car. We were all like, wow, that was serious. So then we go back to the base. having done all this nonsense and

we have lunch and then we have maybe our biggest break from the whole show we had from two to five they pushed in a lot of interviews in the set so interviews being

when they would call someone into like the interrogation room and we always knew if someone if they called someone into the interrogation room there would be about an hour before we were going to do something yeah And I think they called three people in back to back.

And someone was asking us the other day. So I was like, oh, so you had like three hours of downtime? And it was like, no, not really. You're mending wounds. You're like putting band-aids or wrap back on. You have to weigh your bag constantly. You're packing and repacking things from your shoe locker. You're washing your clothes.

Washing your clothes. There's all this like kind of housekeeping. If you're of toilet duty, you're doing that, washing dishes. And you're just on edge because you don't know when you're going to get called. Yeah. It's, it's, you're constantly. on on like awareness mode so then it's probably what four five yeah it's five o'clock we left they finally call us back and we're like oh frick this is like we're all gassed and we don't drive very

far but we i remember we get out of the car and we start running again and i was like jeez can't get away from it it's probably a mile run yeah and we show up to this mud pit field and we're like what is happening and they go on to explain the rules we are playing murder ball we're going to separate you into two teams there's no rules anything goes but get the ball across the opposing people's line and the way it worked is bill would throw the ball up and call any amount of people from either side so like you'll see they call the numbers 10 and 11 so one team one person from one side and one person for another or they would throw the ball up and call three and three or four and four and it was just

balls to the wall, do whatever you want, and try to score. I don't know how people didn't get more hurt. This one, it was fun. It was fun. It was the least serious thing we did. It felt like we were truly playing. But it was so dangerous. I never hit the point of feeling like I was having fun.

So the context of this is we get out of the car, we do this mile walk, we're going to this village, and then you pop out in this like riverbed. Yeah. And it's kind of like this, there was through the town this one strip of palm trees, which is where we kind of debriefed for the tunnel exercise where, like, we're in the jungle it felt like. You pop out on this riverbed and there's this like little mud portion of it that they had looked like they made it muddy. Yeah. And it's Mark, Christy, Cody, Jesse and I. Yeah.

Yeah. On one team. Versus Decker, Sean, Gia, Bree, and Randall. Randall. And then it's Decker and I are the first two call. And I like, I felt like the first three steps, oh my gosh, this is going to be so much fun. Yeah. But then as soon as I realized and saw how fast Decker was running, I was like, oh, no.

Yeah. What is this situation? It's like dangerous. It was dangerous. It was fun because it was a game. It wasn't like someone's screaming at you. You're not trying to, you know, jump out of a helicopter. It was fun because it was a game.

But it was so dangerous. Especially with all of us athletes out there who are like so hyper aware of your body and the rules and like what smart mud terrifying ACLs joints slipping no body gear you have massive discrepancies of weight and size three NFL players out there versus 411 120 pounds versus almost 300 pounds with Cody and his full co-ed so they could call a boy and a girl or whatever combination of that. They called me and Cody. Which is... Comical. Okay. Let's talk pajamas for a second. I used to just throw on any old t-shirt and call it a night.

But lately, I have realized what I wear to bed actually matters. When I feel good, I sleep better. And these new skim's sleep sets are next level. Yeah, I can confirm. Sean converted me. I never used to wear real pajamas, but now I'm all in. These are honestly the softest things I've ever slept in. Right?

Wait, I had told you guys about their underwear and what the game changer it was. Now it's the PJs. So the first time I put mine on, I was like, oh, this is dangerous. The fabric is buttery soft, super lightweight, and somehow makes me feel instantly relaxed. We have been living in ours lately, morning coffee, movie nights, all of it. And Skims has something for everyone, women's, men's, kids, even pets. So the whole family can match for the holidays. We've kind of made it a little tradition now.

Matching PJs, Hot Coco, a holiday movie. And yes, Andrew's officially a matching PJ guy now. Only during the holidays. Only during the holidays. And I'm proud of it. Seriously, these are the best pajamas we have ever owned. So if you're looking for the perfect cozy gift this season, shop the best PJs at skims.com slash couple things.

After you place your order, make sure to select podcast in the survey and choose couple things from the drop-down menu. And if you're looking for the perfect gifts for everyone on your list, the skims holiday shop is now open at skims.com. That's skims.com slash couple things. I don't even know. Were they aware of the numbers they were calling and who? For sure.

oh my gosh but okay so they called and decker and you guys went at it yeah i i caught the ball first because i thought that would be the strategy is like get the ball and then we're gonna play like tackle football and then decker brings me down we figure out how slippery and muddy it is because as soon as uh he got me down i lost the ball and then we were like you can't get up in that kind of type of mud very quickly so he gets the ball and scores which they did not show shout out fox for not making me look bad but then He scored so many times. But then they did multi-people, like several people. That's where it got so sketchy.

And I think your concussion happened early on. No, it was towards the end. It was the second to last play. Because it was after that, yeah, I remember. Well, I think maybe then it was my second time going that Randall Cobb gets the ball. He broke the case. And they would also vary the timing of your number called. So they might call Randall and give him time to catch the ball

and give him time to make it 80% down the field. our end zone and then on this one they called my number very last minute so i come running trying to prevent him from scoring and tackle him and i just feel the right side of my body collapse lose like get the wind knocked out of me which i haven't happened in a long time and i thought this is i just broke a rib i can't move i'm done so later on when when we're finally home let me just say that we do go on to find out and her had broken two ribs just a rip one rib oh just one but i was in so much pain and that's why again i was not like this is so much fun i know i was injured and then i realize i look at christie who they were sending her out there like

every other run she scored eight times we probably did 30 total reps is that right yeah she was going every other time also like she was made to do that Olympic soccer player she's just Like, she turned on a different level of intensity that was terrifying out there. But it wasn't worth it. No. No. Because then she starts coughing. Yeah.

And she's gassed. And I won't spoil this one. But like murder ball was a pivot point. It was. And the DS didn't realize that until afterwards either. So then my concussion, which they didn't show, which probably smart on their part, they had called a group of us. So I think it was two and two where I find myself in the middle of a. wrestling match, which I think happened eight times.

It was me and Jesse. Just a scrum. Jesse has claws of steel. I do not understand. She would always end up with the ball on the ground, and I'd be trying to pry it out of her hands, and it wouldn't budge. At one point, I was trying to pick her up because I was like, there's no chance of getting this, whatever.

So it's me and Jesse, I'm pinned on the bottom, and my head is kind of sticking out, and that's when they're calling more people in. So they call Christian and Bree. come running and it was a complete accident christie didn't see it but christie olympic soccer player makes connection with my head with her leg with her head with her leg and i think i've had a concussion in my life from like falls and gymnastics and i don't even know how to i'm so self-aware of my body i don't even know how to explain it but it was like when i got kicked i was in space i was floating and in

In my head, I'm like, I'm good, I'm good. I'm totally fine. I'm totally fine, but I was like, something feels weird. Now, the sounds you were making did not sound fine. And so everyone's now cleared the field, and I'm just trying to stand up, and you're in mud, and I was already a little discombobulated, but I go to stand up and I can't stand up. And I was like, this is weird. This is weird.

Balance is normally fine. And I was just like, I just need a second. And I remember the only thing I kept thinking is, I just need a second. I just need a second. And I remember Foxy calls out me And he's like, you good? And I was like, yeah, I think so, I'm good. And I just had my eyes closed.

And then Billy comes, and then Jesse comes, and then Andrew comes. Again, I felt perfectly fine. I just felt weird, which is probably a bad sign. Billy's brushing off Jesse. He's brushing off you. He's like saying, go back. And I just remember he grabs my hand

and I'm just squeezing two of his fingers. And I'm squinting one eye. And he's like, are you okay? And I was like, yep. And he goes, how many fingers am I holding up? I was like, two. But I, like, couldn't open my eyes. And then I turned to walk back, and it kind of started straightening out, you know, the world.

And I just get back to the sideline where Decker was. And he, Billy had called you back to your side. And so Decker grabs my face and looks at me. And he's like, are you good? I was like, yeah, I think I'm fine. But I will say, fast forward. Probably should have gone under concussion protocol. but like we had to run a mile back

I was very self-aware of like I was trying to look at the sun to see if my eyes were sensitive if I had a headache if I felt nauseous if I was dizzy if I was unstable I didn't feel anything after that it was like just for that three minutes

I was I did not enjoy that floating in space when you tried like you're on all fours at one point and then you tried to stand up and you were just stuttering backwards and then I try to go out there and meet you and they're yelling at me like we got her love and it's like

okay it's my wife yeah honestly I was like this part of the show was frustrating where it's like let me check on my wife yeah they bring that up in my interview because like at this time my interview had technically already happened they just haven't shown it yet and they're like he's just always like there he's like he can't even let us take care of and they tried to paint this as a bad thing and I was like I was overbearing incredibly endearing But also, I was not like, this was the only time where I kind of broke outside the rules. And they were yelling to me. They were like, she's on the other team.

We got her. Go back to your sideline. It's like, I'm going to meet her at midfield here. And I'm going to check to make sure she's okay. It was comical. I mean, overbearing is absolutely comical for our dynamic. Oh, my gosh. We're literally the ones yelling at each other.

Jump off the clip. You know, whatever. I don't know. So the rib thing happens. Their concussion happens. Randall tackled me and forgot literally he said oh I forgot we're wearing helmets he went nose to nose with me and so I got a second bloody nose and then he also thought he broke his nose Mark got hurt yep Mark got tackled real bad and then so at the end do you remember

Cody got like shoved in the face not once but twice by Billy by Billy Cody was I I forget what happened, but he just wouldn't stop talking. And so Billy takes a ball and, like, shoves it in Cody's face, pretty much punches him. Yeah, but with the ball. Yeah. A lot of this happened, and we were all pretty torn up afterwards, and it wasn't until the game was over that I saw Decker for the first time was in really bad shape. Decker got really hurt. By the way, we're all, like, just covered in mud, and they have us, we got one water break in this 45-minute game.

We probably did 30 reps again. But we got one water break, sucking in all this dirt. It was brutal physically. So I remember that my concussion thing happened. And that was probably 75% of the way through this whole challenge, which is probably 30 some minutes in. While I was on the sideline, they called one other team to go, a one-on-one or a two-on-two, came back.

And remember, that's when they called team-on-team. Oh, my gosh. And the producers cut it. they were going to have five versus five. That would have been bad. So the evolution of the game went from like people initially going for the ball early to realizing that it's always going to end in a scrum and it's better to be second to the ball and tackle that person who initially gets it.

And then my favorite moment, I'm curious what yours was, was when they called Sean and Cody, at one point Sean just monkey grass. his neck like it just on his back i think you had a bit a choke hole trying to bring him down and it was like i just choking him out it was just a hilarious depiction of an incredible competitor like sean totally physically mismatched in a sport she never played before but you're still like doing an excellent job i was like what the frick am i supposed to do here you called me against a 300 pound man you did the thing you did your job i was choking him out i had like a i had this on one of his thighs and then on his neck

and I was just like maybe this will and I just kept squeezing oh my gosh but when they called team on team you could tell there was like a disagreement with the cameras who are supposed to be completely quiet like behind the scenes it was almost like this we're done but

medics were on the side watching again we didn't have any interaction with medics but they were always watching and I do think when they called team on team there was like this consensus of I think we're done

we're all too hurt trying to think other like highlight moments from that I remember on the run back because it was the mile run back all the DS were running side by side with us

and you could see it was like one DS after another was going up to Decker to Randall to you to me to Mark and they're like give me an inventory here how hurt are we

are you okay they showed one clip of Billy talking to Decker and that's where you could tell it was bad I tried to take Decker's back because I was running in line with him

he was We had to stop multiple times Or he fell behind the group Just because his I think it was his hip right His hip and he slipped a disc Really bad Was just in bad shape

So he's like Grunting Heavy breathing Not in a good spot This is why I could not have fun Because it was such a dangerous situation And again as athletes You can, you can truly see pain and you can see like, yeah, there's a difference between

like pain that is pain and it's there and you can work through it. And there's a difference between like that and like injury. And we could all feel it. Decker was hurt and he was hurt bad. It was a pivot point physically. It also felt like a pivot point with the DS understanding what they, they were putting us through and it shifted tones, I feel like on their end. But the whole run back, Decker was on bad, bad shape.

I was in bad shape you were in bad shape and Voxy came up to me he was like did you have fun I was like that was my least favorite thing we've done just because it was like darnage yeah total carnage

I would also be so curious to ask the DS we're gonna try to get all the DS on a podcast if we went harder than they expected us to go on that because I think what maybe was intended to be like a, I don't know, I just think we all went balls to the wall with more intensity than maybe

everyone was expecting. Yeah. Well, frankly, I ended up, this is the one time I dropped an F bomb was during murder ball, because my strategy shifted from, oh, let me go try to score points to all right, let me play. I played safer on this one. After I cracked my rib, I was like, oh, I'm just going to like try not to get hurt. And I was also yelling at the team. I was like, stay on your freaking feet and keep her head out of it. Yeah. And don't get hurt. because none of us have any protection on, no helmet, no shoulder. We had a mouth guard. That was it.

But let's see, we got done with that at seven. We had dinner. And from that point forward, like, Decker went to go see the medic several times. He was kind of laying on his cot, rolling out. Him and Jesse were having sidebar conversations. We all start falling asleep. And then at 11 o'clock, Eric and Jesse say, we're done. We're done.

He got medically withdrawn. And then Jesse. VW'd. Yeah, to go along with him. that was a huge blow to the whole dynamic of the whole group. Jesse and Eric were like a very pivotal central like morale for all of us. And we lost three people in one day, which was like crazy. I remember I will never forget waking up the next morning without Jesse and Eric and it being like, frick.

Like it feels different. And now at this point, the barracks and the bunk room. are feeling super lean and super sparse um just wait yeah just wait uh i'm trying to think of other parts of this episode that they missed um i mean are we going to talk about you laying out brie no i just brie i'm sorry there was one moment where they had brie running full speed and then they called me again last minute to get brie and i just i just felt shame after that where it's like, I have, I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm just, I felt like a pawn that was just doing as I was told.

I mean, thoughtlessly. Don't, I don't think there was anything wrong with it. I had been laid out by three different guys by then. Man. You're just too kind of a soul. So it honestly, when we went back and we were washing all the mud off our clothes and getting changed, it was just kind of like this decompression time of like, what did we just all experience? It felt like the most amount of pain and suffering,

but also as a result of that, the most bonding. Yeah. The amount of giggles we had after the fact were hilarious. Also, it was at this point, pretty much moving forward, I was, I couldn't sleep because my rib. I couldn't lay down horizontally. So I was in a real bad spot. They didn't show any of you trying to work on me when my back did.

Not on the episode, but like we have footage that we can show. I was trying to like massage. you thinking you had like really bad knots which is not uncommon for you little did we know you had broken bones yeah sorry I'm trying to think through all the nuances of what happened with Eric and Jesse too with Eric he asked for a shot right yeah cortisol shot cortisol shot but they didn't have it and also this is when we learned that you don't want to go see the medic because Eric didn't really want to he didn't want to leave all he wanted was was some medical help but at some point I think there's a threshold where the doctor's like

hey if you didn't come see me I'd let you stay or you could have stayed but now that I see the condition you're in yeah which like it makes sense he was in too rough of a place yeah wasn't good even stand up even thinking about like the next he would not have made it yeah it was it was really bad I don't even know how he got on a flight home without getting serious medicals yeah but pretty much the takeaway for us was like don't go see the doctor no matter if you have a broken rib or whatever else I mean so anyway crazy episode we'll show all the highlights in a main channel YouTube video where it's like Sean and Andrew clips so there'll be some fun murder ball takeaways there and also you could see our postman's walk which is fun and then we also need to work on scheduling the DS to come here in Nashville I know got to do it but or at least get them virtual I would love to get them in person, though. I was looking for questions that people had from our live stream, but did you see any questions that people asked that we could address here?

We need to do another Q&A, specifically just focus on Q&A. Because there's a lot of good ones. We'll probably go one more episode and then let you guys ask all the questions. Another one recap episode? Probably. And then do another Q&A? Probably. What do you think? I don't know. I don't know. It'll fall. We'll see.

It's fun to see how much y'all are enjoying this. So thanks for listening. If you haven't yet, please subscribe to the show and give it a like no matter what platform. They also gave a little quick preview of next week, which was Andrew and I bawling our eyes out. So get ready for that. Yeah, I mean, it felt like out of context, but fine, it's whatever. It's going to be a good one. Anyway, that's all we got. I'm Andrew. I'm Sean.

Until next time.