Green Light with Chris Long - Austin Ekeler Talks Chargers Season, His Fantasy Football Popularity and Justin Herbert. Jeff Passan On The 2021 MLB Playoffs.

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

(2:06) - Hello, Layup Line and Urban Meyer’s Predicament. (28:20) - Chris and Dr. Fax Recap Monday Night Football, Weather Delays in an Indoor Stadium and Justin Herbert’s Dominance. (39:34) - Austin Ekeler on Monday Night Football, Workout Routine, Coaches Brandon Staley and Joe Lombardi, Teammates Justin Herbert and Rashawn Slater, His Fantasy Football Profile and Favorite Charger Uniform Combo. (59:51) - Chris Receives Vegas Golden Knights Jersey. (1:04:27) - Jeff Passan on the 2021 MLB Playoffs, World Series Favorites, Relationship Between La Russa and Dusty Baker and Ohtani as MVP. (1:29:53) - MLB Playoffs Betting, Baseball First Pitches, Waterboys Foundation Livestream and Facebook Goes Down. Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Download the app. Bet big, win bigger. I got to tell you, I really like the sound of that. And with WinBet, it's just that easy. From boosted parlays to live in-game odds on every major sport, WinBet has what you need to win. So if you're in Colorado or in Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, or right here in Sweet Virginia,

sign up today to receive a special offer, risk-free, $500 sports bet. download the win bet app now or visit w-y-n-n-n-bett.com. Download the app, bet big win-bigger. And let's get after it. Terms and conditions apply must be 21 or older and present in state where win-bet is available. Gambling problem, call 1-800-2707-1-17. We're talking to Jeff Passen in a few, and everybody knows Jeff Pass, and if you know baseball, you know Jeff Passon.

If you don't know baseball like me, you should know Jeff Passon because you can have them on the podcast. and he can just make your day easy as we talk about the baseball slate coming up. I'm excited about the playoffs. This is where I check in. Okay? So a little Jeff Pass and a little playoff baseball. Dr. Fax is in the building. I'm going to talk Monday night football.

And this is a big surprise before we get to baseball. We get Austin Echler fresh off his big performance on Monday night. I love the guy. So I'm really excited he's coming on the show. And there's a good time to have him. There's going to be a wildcard game tonight, and it's going to be baseball. Facts, you're going to be watching some baseball tonight? Yeah, I might watch some.

I bet you I'm going to call my sister. I bet you she's annoyed with the type of traffic it is out there. Oh, she lives in Boston. Yeah. Well, as you're listening, this game happened last night for you. It's your last night, our tonight. We're gearing up for some baseball. I don't know what the hell is going to happen, but I bet the Yankees.

Spoiler alert. Let's go, Yankees. Are you a Yankees fan? Connecticut is a Yankees strong. stronghold. I'm from New York. Okay. My parents reside in Connecticut, but sounds like a technicality. The family were Yankees fans. When I was younger, I used to be a

Boston fan just despite my dad, but now I'm, like, I'm all in. I'm with, I'm from New York, so I'm going to go with the Yankees. Do you want to do the hello today, facts? Yeah. Hello to Westwood. See, Westwood, that sounds like California, but you're saying it's Massachusetts. It's Massachusetts. It's actually where my sister lives.

So shout out to her, big sis, best friend. She's great. Layup line today. Ain't too young to admit it. No, I'm not too old to lie. I'm just another empty head. Right on by ACDC. I don't really like all the other.

I mean, I like all the other songs. I like to jam out to the other songs with my kids and stuff. Friday Night Lights was made by an ACDC. but ride on's my favorite one that I actually listened to in the car and read was the one who tipped me off it was one of their birthdays uh today that's right brian johnson he's the uh third song uh third lead singer in the band's history he's the guy with the hat so he's alive he's alive yep the crazy thing to me about it is like holy shit like people did a lot of drugs back then but i feel like for some reason that acdc they were the tom brady of doing hard drugs or something

I don't know why I get that idea, maybe because they're all Australian, and I heard like there was a murder for hire thing, like in that band as well. Like there was a whole thing there, which is just sketchy. I feel like they did some sketchy shit. So happy birthday, Brian. I don't usually do birthdays, but good for you. I mean, it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. That's from a lyric in their song. That's one of their song.

Nice. Well, I prefer ride on. You know who might ride on? to the next city. Urban Meyer. I don't know. I mean, it sucks for Urban Meyer, but he created this mess. It really sucks for the players. And I'll tell you why in a little bit. It sucks for the players. At the center of a really lively trending topic, there are people that suffer as a result, and those are the players. And obviously, Urban's family, but that's not really what this conversation's about. I want to leave that out of this conversation. The news is that Jacksonville could be discussing

a moral clause and a for cause clause because of his actions. Hello, Doug Peterson. I know a guy, he's just sitting there, you know, Super Bowl champion. Hello, Doug Peterson. I don't know if he gets fired or not, and I'm not trying to bury the guy. We've all heard what happened. Urban Meyer went on a rampage in Cincinnati. He went on a midlife rampage.

I don't know, midlife. This guy's got good genes. He might live forever. seems like he's healthy on the surface, although Florida administrators would tell you otherwise probably. He's having an issue. I mean, he had, you know, he had a night on the town in Ohio,

and that would be okay except for the fact that he has a family and more importantly in the context of what we're talking about. He has a football team. That's 0 and 4. And I'm not trying to bury him. I'm more trying to explain why guys are upset, because I think there's a disconnect here. A lot of fans are like, well, what about this guy?

And what about this guy? Nobody's ever cheated on their wife before. Nobody's ever gotten a lap dance. I'm sure you players get lap dances. I like that. I like that voice. That's the sound of every fucking guy on Twitter that asked me stupid questions. Like intentionally missing the point, dude.

Intentionally missing the point. And, you know, Acho, who's made a nice name for himself talking about football and other sports on TV and he's very talented. I disagree with him wholeheartedly here. He had a tweet today that read, we've gotten far too comfortable condemning people who get caught in public doing what we do in private. And that's going to sound really good on speak for yourself.

And I would ask Ocho to speak for himself because not everybody does that in private. I'm not condemning, you know, Urban Meyer the man. I don't want to talk about his family. I don't want to talk about his infidelity. The fact of the matter is, is, and I talked to Emmanuel Ocho about this on Twitter, it's not about the infidelity for players. It's not about the cheating, at least not for most players. And by the way, if we started, you know,

condemning athletes and actors and actresses or politicians based on infidelity, we'd be rewriting the books of history. So I don't want to lose sight of that. I'm not wagging the finger, you know, here from a moral standpoint. I would have played for Tiger Woods circa 2009 if he was a fucking great football coach. Okay. Players want to win. I don't know if I play for him in 2013 or whatever it was, but like it's your business until it's not your business. And I think

that's the key part. The common theme here with Urban Myers is that he's above the law. He's unaccountable. When you look at it from an NFL standpoint, accountability is the single most central currency in a football building that makes it sacred. I mean, everybody

is accountable in a football building and that's, you know, they're a varying degree. of accountability, but at the end of the day, you have to be accountable. And this coach has proven time and time again that he thinks he's above the law. Okay, and I'm just calling it how I see it. I'm not trying to bury the guy. You know, the NFL is really unique, right? Nate and I have been in the NFL. It's grown men taking orders from other grown men. And they're not like, hey, can you get me that TPS report? It's like, motherfucker, like make that really difficult block or you expletive, expletive, like appealing to your masculinity, how did you not tackle that

Pro Bowl running back? You know, that's what it's about. And when the head honcho who controls everything in the building, and I'm not talking about just the white lines, I'm talking about what time to be there, you know, how much time to spend with your family, the fines, that sort of thing tucking your shirt in, all the little things to all the big things, you know, time management, how we spend the days before game. The head honcho doesn't hit anybody. He doesn't run. He doesn't drop passes. He doesn't have to deal with that stuff. He's not putting his body on the line. And when he's not accountable, how can you expect other people to be accountable? When you don't come home on the team plane, okay? And this is one of the biggest leads that was buried in this whole thing. You don't come home on the team plane. When I first

saw that Urban Meyer was out at the bar, I was like, oh, that really sucks. You know, that's a bad look for this football team and for him. But then when I realized that it was in Ohio and that he didn't board the plane to Jacksonville after a really late game against the Bengals that they lost and actually showed some life in, and I assumed that he got on a plane and came back to Ohio.

Players and coaches don't stay when the plane leaves. They don't. Not even week 17, not before a biweek, nothing. We had plenty of biweeks where I wanted to stay, you know, wherever we were. or we play in Miami before a biweek. Well, I wanna stay in Miami

because that's where I'm going on the biweek anyways. That's like an issue, okay? Like very rarely does a coach grant that, like rare, okay? Certainly a head coach doesn't usually stay over. So you set the framework of what you saw in the video with that and it's the common theme again, okay? Like I'm gonna stay in Ohio and I'm gonna create a distraction for an O and four football team

that is kind of maybe turning the corner a little bit. Trevor Lawrence looked a little bit more competitive. Then they're showing signs of life. And look what I do. I just bury it. I put myself first in this circumstance. And, you know, first it was a strength coach. You know, that's the way his team met Urban Meyer was framed with that context. Hey, I hired a strength coach who I probably shouldn't have hired if I was thinking at all. and maybe he was thinking but the common theme again is that I'm above the law it really doesn't matter what people are going to say or what they think

I want my friend to be my strength coach and then he's forced to fire him I mean that's the way he meets his team and then Tim Tebow which was a shit show to his credit he cut him but I don't think he had a choice again dude your team is own four you skip the charter home which by the way is going to get home at four or five in the morning

it is a pain in the ass to get home after a late game, especially after a loss. You give everybody off till Wednesday, and this is what you do. Get a hotel room, man. You know, it's your business. Get a hotel room. You know?

Like, be intelligent about it. I'm agnostic on his personal life. Okay? But what you do in your personal life is your business until it becomes my business as a player. And so, like, you know, we talk about distractions. This is a massive distraction. As a sidebar, everybody, it seems, like, is fumbling over themselves to get that perfect cap straw man tweet out.

Like, oh, Tim Tebow got an opportunity. Cap didn't. Like, I understand he gets you likes. It's a slam dunk. It's easy. It's low-hanging fruit. But they're always kind of a stretch. And I agree that Cap got blackball.

And you know where I stand on that. Like, Tim Tebow could have got signed by one team. And that was the team. His best friend was coaching. His neighbor was coaching. could have had five jobs. Urban Meyer was talking to Texas. Urban Meyer was talking to Cleveland before Stefansky got hired. Urban Meyer was linked to Detroit. Urban Meyer was linked to, I mean, the list goes on. He's linked to USC right now and he's got a coaching gig. Okay? So like plenty of

ADs and plenty of owners are lining up to, to hire this guy, even with all the baggage. And we haven't even talked about what he's been responsible for before Jacksonville. Like this guy's got a pattern of behavior here. We know who he is. And that's what drives me crazy about. And if I'm a player from the very beginning, you know who he was. I hate being right about something like that. He could have had five jobs. Okay. And I'm not appealing to your morality. I'm just saying the guy's a distraction who hasn't proven himself in the NFL. That's bad. Okay. The relationship is broken here. I said it on Twitter today. I don't even need to be in that locker room

or read Mike Silver's reports or anybody else who reports about the discord and how players don't trust them anymore. I tweeted this. If I'm a veteran player in Jacksonville, which I'd be one of like three, I am now my own boss. And what that means is pretty simple

because I don't want anybody to misconstrue that. I no longer want to do the little things that a coach asked me to do. I'm not buying into their culture. I'm not reading the stupid quotes on the, wall I'm not tucking my shirt in I'm not supporting the culture he's trying to implement I'm gonna handle my fucking business okay you want me in on Friday for an extra treatment if I've got a guy that I that I can get treatment with on my

own you know you're gonna threaten to find me you know all the stupid rules coaches have facts like I'm not listening to those anymore dude I'm just not listening anymore I'm gonna show up and maximize my potential as an independent contractor on Sunday and take care of the dudes that I care about which is the dudes to my left and my right and I don't give fuck what that coach has to say anymore. Okay, I'm not going to be a problem, but I work for myself. And speaking of the USC job,

I don't hire Urban Meyer if I'm USC. Because it only gets worse at the college level, okay? Players have no seat at the table, or at least now they do, but they're the ultimate, like, shut up and do what you're told group. And also they're supposedly kids. They're supposedly amateurs, right? You're supposed to, like, control that culture even more than an NFL locker room.

how are you going to tell 18 year old kids to stay home, make curfew, do all the little things in L.A. of all places. If there's a finger of you, if there's a video of you, you know the rest. Okay, I don't even want to say it. But like, if you can't control yourself and be accountable and you can't avoid putting your teams in this situation time and time again, if I'm an administrator at USC, Why would I want to roll the dice here? Because not only do you risk the distraction, but let's say it goes off without distraction for four years and you're better.

Your offense is explosive, all this stuff. We know these volatile coaches that are like time bombs. Sooner or later it's going to happen. When it happens, you're going to get caught with your pants down. As an organization or as an athletic department, you're not going to have a plan to replace this dynamo offensive play caller who you've had for three years now and all of a sudden he fucks up

or creates some big distraction or people can't get along with him. Like we know the book on him. So me personally, I wouldn't hire him. I don't care how good a football coach he is because he's not accountable and I'm not going to be able to plan

to have to replace him. Like there's not going to be like I get to control firing him when I want to fire him or I get to control like his exit. Like he's unpredictable. Can I ask one question? Yeah.

Do you think this is amplified as much as it is if they're four and no? Well, if they're 4-0, chances are he's not an accountability train wreck. So I think if they were 4-0 and the coach was out at the bar, he'd have to levy an apology and it would be ugly for a couple days. We wouldn't be talking about firing him. Because this is the first time he's in a losing situation like this. And he's obviously an avid line-crosser in all aspects of-

habitual line step-ro. in a lot of different aspects that's coming out now. But do you feel like all those things maybe weren't amplified because all these things were happening while he was winning? Well, he did get caught. I mean, he got caught, you know, while he was winning. And so, like, why, you know, like, I don't think you deal with some of this bullshit,

even if you're winning, like, you know, this to me is just the straw that broke the camel's back. And again, it's one of those things. I said this before, and you should don't, don't fucking bring the Kardashians into this but every dude that hangs out with the Kardashians is like I'm going to be the one to change her I'm going to be the one she's going to she's going to be no I think they go into it so every AD just like ADs do they go into you know exactly what they're getting they're going to get I feel like it's still it's the it's the risk

reward thing and you're always hoping on the yeah but it's it's It's ego that pulls you into that. I can be the one to keep his shit straight. Or I can be the one to Shod Khan's like, that's a problem with rich people hiring people, is they think they can do anything. You can't tame this guy. He's Urban Meyer, dude.

Or he's looking at percentages. If I'm a numbers guy, I'm looking at numbers, and I think that this coach has the right stats to make my team good. Well, you heard Jeff Schwartz a couple weeks ago, whoever was talking about recruiting in the Pac-12 and that sort of thing. Like if I'm a parent and I want to send somebody to USC,

yes, that's the issue. That's even worse than the pro game where grown men can be grown men and everybody has their own lives and everybody has their own like morality and different sets of circumstances in the college game like you're handing your kid over to somebody. And again, I'm not downing Urban Meyer the man. He can figure it out on his own.

His family and him can figure it out his own. People can redeem themselves. But like I'm talking about the football coach. And like what you're ending up in is one of these situations where it's dangerously close to, I'm going to be the next guy to date the Kardashians. The only guy who got out of it unscathed was that guy. Humphreys. Humphreys.

He quietly, you know, like, you're not going to be Humphreys. You're not going to be Chris Humphreys. Like, everybody thinks they can, like, manage the situation. You can't manage the situation. So you're not learning history. And the exit is going to be difficult. Like, no matter what. And Shod Khan didn't plan for this.

It's been a shit show from day one. Chris Doyle hire, again, the way he met his players. I think the NFL should give the players on the Jacksonville Jaguars rebates for this season, bro. You know, like when something gets canceled, like a voucher, like when a flight gets canceled, like give them a voucher because it is really hard. You pour your entire life's work into every year you step on the field. If it's not right for me, I can't waste a year of my life playing football. It's not like playing in the NBA. No offense to NBA players, but like these are car accidents. My life is being shortened. My lifespan is being shortened. And so I feel bad for the guys when they sign with Jacksonville that they're in for it.

Maybe the team's not great. New coach. It could be tough. He could be a hard-oh. You could lose a lot. But you didn't expect Pandora's box. Well, maybe you should have. I just think the NFL those, these guys are going to sit here for a year in this situation, maybe less. We'll see in like the next couple weeks. And I said this the other day. I think he's throwing this thing. It's one or two things you're throwing this thing because it makes too much like it's it's almost too ridiculous to be true or he's just really childish and either way it's an issue like how do you how do you get caught doing this in your own bar it's his bar it's his bar it's like he it's like he set the thing up and you know I don't know if he expected to lean into the bit

like the second video that came out if it's a big fix but like it's ugly and um I don't know man I don't know if he's throwing this thing, but I know that if I were USC, this is just me. I know a lot of people are going to be like, you're crazy. But I don't know if I want to deal with it, dude. There's enough good football coaches in the world. They're not all Urban Meyer from an offensive mind standpoint, but give me a Matt Campbell, not that they're growing on trees. So, yeah, Nate, the question is, what would you do if you were a Jacksonville football player

the rest of the year? You're speaking from the vet's perspective. I'm from a young guy's perspective I'm probably trying to suck up to him like to be totally honest it's hard to get on the field of the NFL like coach I hate what they did to you man is like yeah he probably needs

a friend he probably needs a friend and I feel like if I was a player and if I was someone maybe I go in there and I go pray with the guy tell him it's going to be all right pray with him hey hey you're going to hold his hand Maybe tell him about his head. You never know.

You're going to walk out. Oh, my God, dude. Yo, he's probably feeling like shit right now. Everyone on top of him. He doesn't care about those players. Hey, you don't know. You don't know. You don't know.

Maybe he starts caring now. I don't. I'm speaking, it's a business. I'm speaking from a business standpoint. At the end of the day, you don't know. Maybe this is a marketing thing, you don't know. You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know where he's.

he's going to end up. Hey, I might be nice to him now, and I might want a coaching job later on when I'm done with football. And he might remember that. You never know. It's one of those things. I also know that a lot of guys, like when I first saw the video, and I hear you, like, the human being in me always wants to give people a chance.

I know that sometimes on this pod, it might sound like it's just burying people. But it's more that some guys are just about football. They don't give a shit. They don't care about any of that other stuff. Like, they don't, like, it's a distraction. But someone like, like, yo, I. I can't speak for Marshawn Lynch, but he was a football guy. He don't care about me.

But he's not a head coach. No, no, no. But I'm just saying as a player standpoint, certain guys, they don't care about that. Oh, no, I got you. I got you. So it's just like they want to play. They got you, got you, got you. And that was me too, to a degree.

But let's be honest, the Jags are always bad, though. It's not like they're a team that it's different now. That's my thing. But that could change. Did you see some of the throws that Trevor Lawrence makes, even with all these picks like you have you're sitting on a gold mine that's another thing not just the the stray veteran who's like i'm wasting a year of my life like also you're sitting on like the guy sunshine from the movie remember the titans like he's they got rid of minchu they got rid of minshu

like they're they're a fucked up organization they don't know what they want they don't know what's going on i feel like they don't like like they had they had a good thing going yeah you get this guy and you get this new young guy, yes, the number one, the best player, all this stuff. It's one of those things. It's still the same results, though. It's the same. They're losing. I understand, but it looks way different than Minshu scoring 12 points for him last

year in some of these games and losing 1612. Same results, though. Bro, I don't know how that factors in. All I know is that if you're a player, you're not thinking about the organization and the franchise anyways, you're thinking about the way that you can maximize your potential as a football player on while you are on God's green earth and you are healthy and you have two good knees and you're out there fucking getting your ass kicked every Sunday. The last thing I want to do is get yelled at by a coach who can't keep his shit together. You're speaking from the vet starter and

I'm speaking from a guy. I'm walking in every week not knowing if I'm on the 53 or not. It may not be as important to you. But for people that care about winning and losing. Yeah, for sure. This and also not being told what to do and micromanaged by grown men who, aren't hitting people or tackling people or making blocks. Like you have to be perfect to order grown men around in a business where we generate the income for the NFL. Not the coaches, the players do.

I hear what you're saying, but I don't believe that's true because at the end of the day, it just goes down to I need to go to work and do what I'm like supposed. That's not to say anybody's going to stop playing and stop supporting their family. We're talking about urban. The monologue is about urban. being hypocritical by nature because he's telling players what to do on a daily basis and he's creating distractions for them. And the cap thing is true. He had every opportunity

and who, like the entire national media has descended upon Jacksonville. I'm just saying, dude, like you're a marketing guy. I would close on this. You're a big marketing guy, right? Yep. Shot Khan, what do you think he's all about at the end of the day? Marketing. He's about selling tickets for his ball club, TV money, movie. moving to London, not moving to London, the brand of his football team. Why do you think there are reports that they're looking at the contract and saying like, you know, there's essentially a morality clause or an at will clause or a for cause clause, like that's why they're in there, dude, so we can get out of a shitty situation.

We don't want anything to do with Urban Meyer. Now I saw there was a statement today that said like we've talked about it, that sort of thing. But that could just be buying time. The NFL doesn't want that to happen. The NFL doesn't want that to happen. Doesn't want what to happen. If they fire him and they use that clause thing, I think there is going to be maybe a domino effect of videos of coaches. It would be.

It's going to open up Pandora's box. And I'm for speaking for marketing, I don't think the NFL would want that. Well, that's the way they get his money back. And, and hey, I think they go through, like, litigation and things like that, like, on the backside. But I feel like if they haven't already just said, and it's only a couple of days, I feel like if they already hasn't been like, hey, he's out of here, they're probably hesitant for many reasons, like having to do with, like, legality and what that could look like, and what can come. like come from that.

No, I mean, like, listen, this is just the way to get the money back from what I understand. They can still fire him. And I think that very well may happen. No, the money's gone. Yeah, if they fire them, they're going to have to, they're going to have to, chalk it has lost. Yo, hey, yo, you lost.

You double down. It's one of those things, like we said before. You know what you're getting when you're hiring someone like this. You look at the past. You do background checks. You do all this stuff. And you have to, you have to factor in the risk and the reward. This is what happens when you take gambols.

Yeah, listen, he's a human being. Human beings can make a lot of mistakes, okay? And we forgive and we forgive, but football coaches can't make mistakes over and over again. I think there's a clear line in the sand here that people are missing at home. I'm not standing up there and being like holier than now, you know, and also the atcho tweet. He among us who hasn't done XYZ, like in his four-month tenure in Jacksonville throw the first, stone. Well, let me throw that stone, bro. Because I didn't do, like, we haven't even gotten to the infidelity. It's not even, I don't know that he took these women home, but I mean, this is something

that for sure you're getting, you're getting, you're in the doghouse for some time. But I'm just saying, this is one of those things where, uh, you can't, you can't, heavy as a head that wears a crown. It's not like the 53rd man on the roster. Okay. It's, it's much different. You're supposed to be a leader of men. If that's not true, let the, the, the, the, the, the players coached the football teams. Monday at football, talking about actual football. You watched the game? Yes, I did.

Man, and in reality, there wasn't a lot of close action, but I sat there last night and was like, this is great football. Maybe because I love the Chargers, maybe because I love Justin Herbert. But it was great football. And we had to wait a little bit. Lightning delay indoor.

Did you see the video when they showed John Gruden getting explained? Yeah. That, like, he was not happy. Well, he was confused also as to how there was a lightning delay. I was very confused. $5 billion.

It's not outdoors. Indoor's. Yeah. And lightning. Yeah. Of all things. Makes no sense. And of all places to have a big glass building and like leave it open a little bit.

Like LA is an insane place to do that. Like you've got glass as a player. I'm thinking about the falling glass. I'm thinking about earthquakes. It's a glass roof, dude. I'm thinking about Cessna's, like Grand Theft Auto, Cessna situations. I'm thinking about hail,

earthquakes, all this stuff, dude. L.A. is the one place that I feel like it's so volatile. The big earthquake is coming, man. I don't want to be in that stadium when the big earthquake happens. That's the one reason I think you trade Justin Herbert. You trade Justin Herbert because you want to protect him. America does not need him getting crushed by that giant oval scoreboard that Macon pointed out very astutely

that only the bench players are going to get killed by when it falls. The one in Dallas is enormous, but it's not going to fall. There's no earthquakes in Dallas. I used to stand there and stare at that motherfucker just waiting, bro. I was like, golly. That one falls. Everybody on the field is toast.

This one falls in L.A. It's all the bench players. And I just pray Justin Herbert isn't reading a clipboard when the 9.2 magnitude earthquake shakes that fucker. The cowboy one, if that falls, everyone's dead. Nah, dude. Yes, bro. Because y'all are assuming it's just going to fall straight down.

Those things are going to flap out. Those TVs are going to flap out. Everyone's done. Get hit by a giant. What the hell? That shit is huge. And just like you said, I'm staring at playing in there. But the delay was so trippy because a lot of times on Monday nights,

I try to spend a lot of time with my kids. And my kids go to bed about eight. So like if I haven't got my bed in on the game, like by the time the kids go down, like I'm shit out of luck. And I try to remember it's chaotic. You know, you're getting kids a bath. or supporting getting the kids of bath and doing that sort of thing. Well, I put Whalen to bed and I usually lay there and talk to him for like 10, 15 minutes if I can

because he goes to school now and I miss him and we spend a little time. But I'll be damned if at 819, when I saw on his little clock that it said 819, I was like, well, all right, good night, son, because I needed to get that bed in. I ran out in the hallway and mashed the Chargers money line. And when I got downstairs, I realized that I shouldn't have been in a rush at all. I could have gone back upstairs and put Whalen to bed again. But I got the charges bet in. Raiders burnt two timeouts in the first half.

Gruden got out coached. He really did in the first half, at least from an offensive standpoint. The team looked dead coming out of the delay. They looked a little shell-shocked. I didn't want to say that. I didn't want to tweet that because I don't want to end up looking like an idiot. But, you know, I don't want to over-cycle analyze the team, but you can tell right under the tunnel there were two different energies.

And people were talking about it's a home game for the Raiders, and they do travel well. and LA is trying to establish themselves as a football place in and of itself, but the Chargers, like the Chargers were hype coming out of the tunnel and they took over early. The Raiders didn't target like Waller

until damn near the second half. So I think there was a lot that, and maybe that was Brandon Staley taking them away, but it just was one of those games where I felt like the Chargers were much more prepared offensively. And a big deal here is that, you know, we look at the, you know, that big game they won last week against the Chiefs, rather.

A lot of teams, cliche, we'll have a letdown, right? You know, a lot of teams might run out of the tunnel. There might be a delay. You lose your juice as the home team. You see there's Raiders fans in the crowd. Like everything about last night pointed to the Raiders making that a game. But this is a well-coached football team. You know, I know they've made some mistakes early, but from a mentality standpoint.

Look at Brandon Staley breaking that team down at the end. I learned something. breakdown. You know, like he's teaching football, he's reinforcing football, even after a big game like that. They got great energy. Lombardi, the new coordinator, I thought he was damn near the MVP. Justin Herbert threw the ball 22 times or something. I had 22 completions. He didn't light up the scoreboard or he didn't light up the stat sheet. I mean, he was in the 200s, a couple touchdowns a wildly efficient day. The first 15 was fired, dude. As a D-Lyman watching that game, watching Max Crosby

Unique in Gagway or Yonik and Gagway trying to get into a rhythm I felt for them because there were so many tight ends there was tight ends in front of you all the time they would go draw they would go power

they would take a shot and everything was just so beautifully laid out for that Chargers offense it made things so tough for those D-Ly I remember watching Crosby that hurry up not hurry up that they run exactly that's the fucking worst

That's the worst. That's the worst because it's like, oh, it's hurry up. Maybe I'm about to jump this snap. And then it's like, no. No. And interior. Max is all size ones. Yep.

And as an interior guy, if you're not allowed to really stand, if your coach is a stickler about you like standing up or you, you really can't. You have to be ready. You have to have your hand down and just being able to get your win back a little bit in a ready stance. That's really tough. That's a great point, Nate, is that like you're tired because they've been jamming the ball down your throat with Echler. They've been taking a shot. You know, they're going sideline to sideline.

They're mixing it up. You're trying to catch your breath. You're expecting tempo. Get down in your stance. And now you've got to catch your breath doing basically a plank. You know what I mean? Or, you know, like some sort of an exercise, like a core exercise. That's tough.

They mix the tempos up. I thought they were great. And second or third play the game. I'm watching Max Crawley. And this kid, 70 is such a stud. I mean, Max is in like a five, and, you know, 70 comes off the ball and moves him. And when you do that early to rushers,

like it doesn't appeal to their manhood. Max isn't afraid. He's just more thoughtful. He's more thoughtful about, okay, now I've got to deal with, you know, him fanning out to block me. I've got to deal with all these tight ends. I can't just go. It slows you down.

It makes you think and slows you down just enough for you to not get that, get that inch for a sack or to a tackle. And that's what happens when. Every little beat out of your stance counts. And if you make plays in the first quarter as a rusher, it's playing with house money. You always play better, more loose, like everything, more dangerous, the second and third and fourth quarter. You can't get started.

They did a good job of doing that. And it really got tight for a little bit there. It got tight for a little bit there. But I thought the charges did a really good job of every time the Raiders did something they responded. I think at one point it was 21-14 in the fourth, but coming out of the half, which the Raiders were terrible in that first half, more penalty yards than actual yards.

Coming out of that half, one of the first plays of the second half was Michael Davis, suplexes Josh Jacobs on a checkdown. Suplexes, not to mention on fourth down, they checked the ball down on like fourth and three. It was like a Steelers swing pass on fourth and ten. Michael Davis, Josh Jacobs.

And the building goes fucking wild, dude. And that defense was so fast, top down. It looks like a fun group. You got Joey Bosa up front, who's second to none as far as, like, being a technician. Like, Miles Garrett, wows you, like the way he ran over 69 for the Vikings the other day. It looked like you got hit by a small bus, dude.

My guy, Linville Joseph, pushing the pocket in the inside. Well, all I'm saying is, in the inside, the utility had a nice game, like guys like that. But Joey Bose is a straw that. stirs the drink, but Derwin James is another straw, and you've got a guy at, you know, at every level of defense, because you got 44 who was making plays last night, Qazir White, I think is his name.

He's the guy from West Virginia a couple years ago. He was knifing in and making plays in the run game. I saw him come down in a pressure at one point where, you know, he's supposed to loop around two interior guys. He runs down, smacks the guard, knocks the guard on his ass, dude, because he are white. and then loops around and misses a sack. He had himself a game, but that defense gives them a different kind of energy.

You got a top 5E quarterback. I'm calling him top 5E because I want to give it another year before I just say it. I think I've probably already said it before. Fuck it. And then you have a defense like that. Teams are not going to want to play these guys in December. And I love watching the energy that they bring. The officiating was terrible.

Joey Bosa got mugged. What is up with that? Did you see that? I was like, oh, they got him on a hold. I tweeted before the ball hit the receiver. I tweeted they held Joey Bosa. Oh, there's the flag. It was on him complaining about the hold.

He got turned around, dude. Max Crosby got hooked on a run play. And it was like right in front of the official. But yeah, no, again, like 2114, fourth and two, you know, wheelbarrow moment for Brandon Staley. Because I think he called this play. I don't think it was a check. You know, back shoulder to Jared Cook, who's still going.

Awesome. Got him on my fantasy. Yeah, he's the man. It's fourth and two, man. You're a midfield, dude. They've been moving the ball on you. Like, this game could get away from you. Any other team is thinking, it's, I'm feeling tight.

You know, like, damn, we were up 14. We were up 21, 7 or whatever was, and then they're back in it. It could go the other way. Fuck it. Let's not even, we're not even going to, throw a, we're not going to throw a safe, we're not going to make a safe throw. We're going to throw like a picture perfect throw that like only a couple guys can make. But what a luxury throwing passes to guys six, seven plus.

Oh, it's beautiful. They got Jared Cook, they got the other Pritchard or whatever his name is. He's like six nine. He doesn't even look tall out there because the two receivers are, the two receivers are six five or whatever the fuck they are. I'm not saying they're that tall. Nobody, people are going to tweet me the program. You know what I mean.

Donald Parham, I'll get there. They're all tall, okay? All I'm saying, Chargers might be America's team. And you know who America's favorite player is? Who's that? Besides Justin Herbert, Austin Echler, because everybody plays fantasy football. That is very true.

We've got to get Austin Echler on the line. I'm pretty excited. We've been talking about having him on for a little bit, but I figure we save him for after he had a big, big night. Let's get Austin Echler on the phone. So here we are. We got the most important guy in fantasy football, but also one of the most important guys on the field in the entire league.

You know if you listen to the pod, the Chargers are my side team. They're my favorite team outside of the Philadelphia Eagles. And this is one of my favorite guys. Austin Neckler, two touchdowns, 145 yards last night. Are you tired, man? Yeah, I'm a little tired, you know. We just got done playing like, what, six hours ago or whatever it was,

seven, eight hours ago. That's what it feels like anyways. But yeah, no, I appreciate you having me on, Chris. Dude, great having you on. And I know like with that delay, I was sitting there at home. I thought it was late to sit down and watch the game. And I was like, oh, you know, it didn't start. But as a player has sat through delays before.

One time when I was in St. Louis, the field caught on fire. That was a unique one. Wow. Yeah, we had an opposite setup of that palace, y'all play it. Oh, my God. The Super Bowl delays, the long waits. I thought about you guys wanting to jump, you know, the Raiders at home. Like, that's the mentality.

This is our house. We want to prove it. How hard is it to sit and that? locker room and how did brandon staley kind of refocus you guys yeah you know we were we were pretty juiced ready to go um kind of everyone getting into the routine kind of just heard like hey like there's some lightning storm or something and everyone was like lightning storm we're an indoor stadium but apparently lightning actually struck the building so it's like oh okay like that that makes a difference now like if there's lightning around that's one thing but yeah the lights like flickered and it's like

what was that yeah so apparently the building got struck by lightning which makes it a little bit more of a hazard, just making sure everything's okay. Everything's functioning, you know, how it's supposed to be. It's a glass roof. It's a glass roof, lightning glass roof. I don't know what happens when the glass roof like gets hit my lightning. I was like, did anyone else see that? But yeah, there was a video of just lightning just drill in the top of Sofi Stadium. So that was wild. But yeah, no, he just, you know, had us keep our heads, just told us, you know, hey, like, you know, we're going to go warm up, do all that stuff. So it really didn't affect us as much. We were just in there for like 20, 30 minutes. So we were.

we were good but you can answer you get tight too like I got to move around like I you know guys like like take us inside a locker room when there's a 30 minute delay are you walking through a guy just jumping up and down because I've been there it's tough oh yeah that's that's how I am before the game too right before the game I'm always visualizing one-on-ones one-on-ones catching the ball yeah for catch the ball one-on-one so I'm doing my routine then I'm just like okay now I'm sitting now I'm kind of just like losing my little edge you get before you know the game starts so you just say I pick it back up with the warm up and all right Let's go, hit the ground running.

Are you listening to Disturbed before you go out? Did I hear that right? I'll jam some disturbs and slip knot, hey, man. The three days grace, man, someone screamed in my ear, you know, just about being just an absolute animal. Yeah. You think you're the foremost expert in heavy metal out of all the running backs in the NFL? I'm going to say probably none.

Slim to none of them actually listen to heavy metal. So yeah, I'm going to say yes, even though I don't have like a vast knowledge of it. But I'm just going to say, yeah. So you hit the end zone twice last night. Are you like me where, you know, obviously I never scored touchdowns, but on defense, like, I'm not thinking about those two touchdowns. I'm thinking about the one that could have been the third one. Yeah, yeah, man.

The draw. Oh, my gosh. I know, man. I know. And that's when I hurt my ankle on. I'm just like, I tell my coach, I'm like, man, if I didn't suck on that play and didn't make that guy, if made that guy miss, I wouldn't have been hurt. And it would score a touchdown.

I got to get better. But you're hard on yourself. That's the mindset. Like, literally if I was better in that situation, and I blame my short arms because I didn't put a nasty stiff arm, but literally my stiff arm is like half of, you know, his arm. And so I still got tackled. Oh, that's great. That's great.

How did it feel in the new stadium? Like, I know we went and played y'all at the, that kind of spot your ticket city or stub hub city. Yeah. Stubhub. Yeah. Bro, like, I know you don't have to down the place, but I was just like, I felt bad for y'all because, you know, it felt like you were kind of this transition stage. And we, y'all had to go on a silent count when the Eagles came to town. And like, it just got to feel good to get in that new house. Well, here's the thing. It's the same way. It's the same way. We haven't earned the respect of L.A. yet. And look, it's a hard market. There's so much stuff going on. So we got to, we got to earn those fans out here. We got to convert people.

you do that we got to win games but we were on silent count yesterday there was ton of raiders fans there and honestly I didn't mind it because I felt the energy of so fine because of that like I was like wow this place can get lit like this place is so like my ears were ringing after the game it's just like it was so loud the entire time and we operated at Kansas City the week before so it's basically the same thing we're on side of count then we do it at home too we prepared for it I mean it's one thing to be on silent count at home you know in a 20,000 seat stadium because that was a really tiny stadium

and then like you guys get in that big palace and actually I was excited for you all because when you did prove yourselves like early and often it got loud like and I felt like it was a Super Bowl atmosphere the way you got like the way I put it because there were fans from both teams and it was the same thing with the chiefs who

travel well of course and that sort of thing but it was awesome man and that stadium looks gorgeous you couldn't see it because you were playing but the shots of the city and you can see the ocean and the stadium It's a nice little setup there. That's great. Hey, not a bad place to be playing.

Is the turf fast there? Yeah, I like the turf there. I mean, it's a little scratchy, so it definitely got me taped up, you know, getting the raspberries all over your body. It's never a good thing. So, no, turf's fine and soft. Like, I'm loving it out there right now. Give me, like, in one word, and I have an answer in my head, but like Brandon Staley's culture, this team, like one word that describes you all. methodical. I think he's really in tune with the game plan as far as how do I beat this individual

team. I think a lot of, I think a lot of coaches are like, hey, this is our identity. This is what we do. This is how we're going to win games. It's like with him, it's not like that. It's like, how do we have to attack these people on defense? What are they strengths? How do we stop that? It's not about this is what we do and we have our pride is so strong that we don't change. It's like, No, we're going to change the way we play. We're going to change the way we play Patrick Holmes and try to keep him in the pocket, stuff like that. Because that's how we have to do to win that game. We got to tell our rushes, hey, bro, you guys got to, you guys cannot be going 30 yards up 20, 12 yards up the field because he's going to go right underneath you.

And like, just the way he attacks, hey, this is how we're going to attack these, these rushers on the edge on offense. Like we're going to, we're going to chip them. We're going to have motions. We're going to put a tight end over. Like just the way he approaches how we beat individual teams and presents that to the offense. how we practice or just the team. And then how we practice it throughout the week is it's next level that I've never been around.

It's like, this man really is game planning individual teams and not just the chargers. And I'm like, that's something different. And it's been working for us. And we have the guys that can execute, you know, his game plan. So that also helps as well. So kind of reminds me of the guy I played for in Bill Belichick, who that's not a bad guy to be like a lot of people think Patriot way, very stringent, very like, we do what we do.

But in actuality, if you're in that building, It's like we can morphin whoever we need to be to win that week. And a lot of it is, who are we attacking? You know, what are our weaknesses, you know, that sort of thing last night. Like, I love the way you guys muddied it up because they were two very good rushers. You know, there were a lot of big bodies in front of those guys, like that they had to sift through to rush the passer. And I thought Storm did a good job of right tackle too. Talk about how big him stepping in has been.

Yeah, it's been huge. You know, we had, you know, Brian Belaga go down. And so Storm, you know, who was the backup spot in that position. He had some, you know, experience starting. He's back up again. He's back up again. You know, he struggled a little bit the week before. We made sure we chipped.

Like, we're chipping, we're chipping. Like, we're helping him, helping him get underneath himself. And it just takes a little bit of time, right, to get that starting spot. You know, he's the only couple of games in. And so now it's like, hey, he's starting to get a grasp on it. You know, Rishon Slater on the other end, lock down right now. He's so boring, good. Oh, my God.

Yeah, he literally just like, all right, you're blocked. And then you're like your blocks in the run game too. Yes. And early and early I mean like you don't have anything about this but I'm watching the game as a rusher and I'm watching Max and those guys and you guys establish that run early. And it's one of those things you slow those rushers down. You're like, okay, well, I'm in a five and then Rishon Slater is going to fan out and move me.

Like I'm not thinking about pass rush now. The first thing I'm thinking about is Roshan Slater. How about tempo? Because you guys do a great job of that. And like I don't know if people realize that tempo is not. always about like, hey, hurry up, hurry up, let's use no huddle. You guys vary snap counts. You guys, like, if I was a defender, I'm like, I don't know, are you guys going to go quick? Are you guys going to take your time and run it down to zero? Is that something you

guys talk about? Something that's kind of like, I feel like no one really made this assumption or talked about. But when we go on silent count, I feel like it's easier to switch up and vary the cadence because when we're on when it's not silent count and we're yelling hot hot like there's the instance like you want to jump but if we're on silent count we're watching the ball it doesn't even matter like I can't even hear J. Hurr I'm six seven seven yards behind him I'm watching the ball so like it's that's really interesting yeah it's really actually I think a benefit when we go on silent count because we can vary our cadence so much and everyone's watching the ball and you're less likely to jump on offense defense though you know you guys are looking at the tendency we love it

We love that. We love that. But it's true. You guys love it too as well because I see you guys jump off sometimes and I guess the inflection of hard. Who's got the tougher hard count to sit in on Phil or Justin? I would say Phil. I would say Phil. We haven't done much with Jay Herb yet.

The one's not been signing yet. Again, I thought one of the MVPs of the game, if not you, or you got the game ball, congrats. And that means a lot, you know, in an NFL locker room to get that ball tossed to you. I mean people see it on the internet, but they mean a lot. I got a shelf and they mean a lot. So Lombardi, he's a guy that kind of to me shine last night. How I was worried about the transition coordinator-coordinator and ruining one of the best young quarterbacks I've ever seen in Justin.

I love the guy. And I just want to see him play well and I was worried. But this has been a seamless transition. It seems what goes into a coordinator coming in and not reinventing the wheel for Justin, but accentuating his talents? I think something that really stands out is how little is on the play call sheet. like before we get a play call sheet man this thing is just jam packed like three font you know how it's

like jam and it's just lines and so like when i see the play call sheet i'm like these are the plays we got this week like this is sick like look at these like we got like 50 60 plays that's it like it's so manageable you know half them a run you know half a pack that's so manageable and so for j hurt was like he's not thinking about all these different plays now how you can focus on hey I know these plays really well. I know how to attack defense, whether it's zone, whether it's man. I have both my, you know, man zone beaters. And now he's focused on that.

He understands them, right? And as he gets older, he's going to start, you know, being able to take on more and more and more. But I think we're doing a really good job. And not making it simple, definitely not making simple, but making it very specific. Dude, that's so cool. It's like, man, if you're a player, you want to play for the Chargers.

This sounds amazing. Like, simple, you know, innovative, no egos in the coaching staff. like really an impressive program in the first year. And then the autonomy. I mean, Herbert, I didn't know he checked that fade to win the Kansas City game. At first I was like, check out the balls on. I mean, but yeah, Brendan Staley's balls are not on trial. But what did you think when Herbert dropped his sack and through that fade by his own volition at the end of that Kansas City game?

Yeah. I'm convinced that Kansas City was going to last score at the end of the game because the line. The timebackers literally did not move when we hiked the ball. So I'm a little salty, you know, I kind of have to touch that. But, you know, hey, we'll get a big Mike one. You know, I'm not selfish. It's all good. Fantasy owner is a little pissed, but it's what it is.

But yeah, I think it was great for Mike to even just grab that ball, just confidence. Because that's what he can do. Like, dude's 6-4 and he can jump. Like, all right, throw it up to him. And so I think it's good for him and for Jay Herb and Mike Williams to get that chemistry going because we're going to need that throughout the year. Yeah. You're the only guy.

not six, eight that Justin's selling the ball to. It's crazy, including Cook. By the way, tell Cook I said, what's up? That's my dude from St. Louis in the dark days before life was good out there in L.A. Also, you know, 45 seconds before that first Chiefs game last year, where we all got introduced to Justin Herbert by way of, you know, an unfortunate circumstance.

Where were you, and what do you remember thinking when you got the news? Yeah, I was, I'm on the sideline and all the doctors and trainers around Tyrod, who was going to be a presumably starter, and they're around him. I was like, something's going on.

And sure enough, we were receiving the ball and Justin Herbert's running on the field. And not everyone saw that. I remember Hunter Henry's like, we got to, I was like, what are you doing here? Like, he literally asked, like, what are you doing here? There's like really, like, actually confused.

And it's like, all right, well, let's go. I guess we're going with Jay Herb this game. And that just started a journey. He basically just forced his way into the starting role. You guys a little surprised how well he played. Like in the beginning, I mean, nobody could have assumed that he'd be like a top five guy. Especially now that I see these rookie quarterbacks right now and how they're performing.

I'm like, wow, Justin was definitely special in his rookie year. Because they are struggling right now. COVID era. No prep. No preseason. 45 seconds. I mean, maybe that's the best way to play a guy. Don't give him a week to think about it or whatever.

So he hits you on that beauty. I mean, you run the wheel last night or whatever it was. He hits you in stride. You didn't have to worry about where the ball is. It's just right here. He hits Cook. His touch passes are beautiful. Everybody's seeing the big like QB pouring the deep outs and stuff.

But what's your favorite ball that you've seen Justin throw that you're like, that that's impressive. That's different that he throws that ball, that route. My favorite ball is got to be the back shoulders to Mike Williams. Yeah. It's crazy because it, the thing is when he throws it, when I watched it on film, I'm like, he's throwing it like out in front, but ends up being back shoulder. And so I'm just like, it's like, I don't know. I don't know how you're doing that, but I keep doing that because that looks freaking amazing. Yeah.

He's outthrowing a guy who runs under it and then ends up being back shoulder. So the chemistry, those guys have built. Oh, love to see it. Oh, I hope we watch them for a long time. And then, yeah, I got to ask you because we are a big uniform pod before I get into the fantasy and everybody wants to hear about that. Give me your favorite Chargers Uni combo because you guys have this thing on lock, but it's like which beautiful set of, you know, pant and Jersey do we want to wear this game? Right.

I like the all whites or the nades. They're like the old the Danian Tomlinson's. I actually think those are super underrated, the all blue top they used to wear with the blue helmet. Austin Echler is one of the most famous football players in the world. And hear me out on this because, like, everybody plays. fantasy football. So like I don't care if you know, LA and the Chargers aren't the biggest market yet. I don't care if people don't catch West Coast games. I don't care if you're not a perennial pro bowler yet. People know you dude. And I heard about the Rain Wilson thing. And you know

you've made it when Rain Wilson is your bulletin board material. So he traded you, huh? Oh, man. I got on him. I just finished my episode of Eclose Edge. I was shouting back out out to him. like, hey, man, you traded me away, but because he even said, he's like, I traded you away. He's like, I overpaid for you. Like, he said this to me. I'm like, bro, I'm right here, man. Right to my face, Dwight. I was like, damn.

Oh, no. It's like, I'm not performing well enough, I guess, for him. Somebody that would, it would break your heart if they traded you, a celebrity out there. Ah, I feel like, I don't know. I feel like it'd be more heartbroken if, like, one of the people in my community traded me. Like, I have my own fantasy leagues. If someone in my community trading me. me, right? One of my friends is trading me. Like, what do you trade me for? Like, they would,

they would never trade me. They probably understand a fantasy football a little bit more than rain does. Um, obviously. I'm crying, dude. Oh, that's good. Um, my dad auto drafted you. I got, I got my dad, you know, old man, how he getting in the league and, uh, and I tried to explain fantasy doing. He was in panic. He couldn't sign in the app. And he's like, oh, my team just drafted Austin Echler. I'm like, that's a good thing, dude. I don't know if you know how this works, but Autodraft is doing you good in this situation. You've got Gridiron Gaming Group. You have Echler's Edge.

These are all things you're involved with off the field. How about a foundation plug here? I know you got a foundation as well. Yeah. Really just kind of the theme behind what I'm involved in off the field is really just trying to connect people in a sense to help people grow and help people learn skills about themselves. So that's what the foundation does.

The Austin Eklis Foundation really just focusing on. implement resources and communities like we built a gym for Santa Barbara high school. It's a weight room. I say gym though. And just we're raising $20,000 for, you know, people in Englewood to help put in resource for football teams. And so we're just doing various projects like that just to help help people go out and do things that experience life, which in turn helps you build skills, mental toughness,

social life, you know, how to work as a team, things that you like and don't like. You know, you learn those by doing things. And so that's what it really focuses on, just helping people develop themselves into older adults that kind of have more of a vision of who they are as themselves. So that's what we're focusing on yet. You can find us at Austin Epler.com, find all the information on that. But yeah, it's just about connecting the community. That's why I'm so big in the fantasy football community just because like it's cool. I think it's cool.

You like a lot of players are like, you know, Martellis Bennett, who I played with used to say like, fuck your fantasy team. But Austin Echler is like, I want to talk to you about your fantasy team. And I happen to be one of the most prolific players in fantasy football. It's cool. It's humanizing. And your work, you know, you talk about like help people figure out who they are, but also self-esteem, you know, getting out and doing things and accomplishing things and working out one day you can look like Austin Eccler if you spend enough time in the gym. So last question before I let you go. And again, you've been gracious with your time. My five-year-old son, Whalen, when I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up, it is not a LA Charger. It's not a Philadelphia Eagle. It's an American Ninja Warrior. And I saw you last night doing a pull-up with one arm. I mean, that told me, I'm good on the couch right where I am. So, Austin, if you had one piece of advice from my five-year-old Wayland, how to become an American Ninja Warrior, what would it be? American Ninja Warrior, climb on everything.

There's climb on stuff. He's already got that covered. Yeah, he's five years old, man. He used to go smaller, you know, climb on everything. Be like, hmm, can I hang on that? Let's see, you know, can I jump over this? No, try stuff. All right, we're cutting this.

We're cutting this part. Oh man Austin Eccler I appreciate the time dude And it's nice to finally meet you Love watching you play dude I appreciate you Chris Thanks for having me on man

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You know who I want to hire for the Jacksonville Jaguars job? Who? Austin Echler. Be the head coach and a player. He can do it all, bro. Love the guy. Talk to him for 15, 20 minutes hired. Has there ever been to player coach?

It's like in the past old days. That's time. That'll probably be, yeah, it is time. Actually, I think there's been player coaches in Italy. Yeah. Real quick, before we talk a little diamond, let's talk gold. Diamonds and gold.

Got a Vegas Knights sweater here, guys. So I didn't even ask for this directly. You know, I just put the ask out. I said, if you got a hockey team, I was thinking we get some minor league clubs to. They sent that to you? Fuck yeah, they sent it to me. The Vegas Knights sent this to me.

Are they going to send his tickets? Can we go to a game? Hell yeah, we can go. They got drumsticks of chicken there and fucking like medieval times nights and like jousting and flames. Like it's basically like medieval times, which was awesome. I went to medieval times like two months ago. There's one in Maryland. They exist.

And it was awesome. They exist. They exist. Okay. More on that in a second. But I think these are essentially, it's like putting a hockey game inside of a medieval times medieval times which is a foolproof business strategy so i think it's genius and it's also oh my god the vagus nights are my second favorite team in the hl they might be my side team i don't need a side

team for the record i love the blues let's go blues but think about that three reasons it's the most brilliant business decision of all the time one medieval times everybody loves that two they put a hockey rink in the middle of it everybody loves hockey three it's fucking hot in the desert It's Vegas. So it's like free air conditioning. Big guys need a break. You know, they sweated through their outfit.

They sweated all the Bacardi and the Miller Light and the Mick Ultra out of their pores and into their pits. You need a break. It's the way your clothes dry. And then you can go out afterwards feeling fresh. No, in my head, I feel like you're getting hammered in there because you're comfortable and you're not hot. It's too hot outside to get drunk.

And I don't want to get drunk in those casino I do every time. but you know but they're pumping the oxygen so it's different they pump the oxygen they pump it big time you feel great when you're in casino hotels win i love it the oxygen that they pump into the win is some of my favorite in the world win bet being the title sponsor this podcast can you guys you guys always ask me is there anything we can do for you can you send me some of that air uh send me a little of that air huh how about we go down makes you look younger feel younger. How about we go experience some of it? How about they give us a big sweet? How about they give us a big sweet so we can experience a pod while we're inhaling that good win bet air? Yes. And here's the thing about

that is like I don't want to just mail the ad reads and I don't want to do ad reads. You know, a picture's worth a thousand words. Okay. I need to go to Vegas to really feel the ad read for me to really Joaquin Phoenix these win bet ad reads. I need some of that fucking air. Okay. So send me some of that air. We're going to talk to Jeff Passing for a little bit. But first, thanks to the Vegas, uh, golden nights. And how could I not? I mean, this, this is, we're about to go to the diamonds, but this is the most golden. Look, how gold is this? That's lit. I don't have a hockey team. So if you guys want to send me a jersey, I'll take one too, guys. So, hey, if anybody wants to send any hockey teams, want to send Dr. Fax's a jersey, can you put the name plate on the back? That would be

awesome. I'm going to read this entire Vegas golden nights card that they sent me. This is in the top. Part of owner Bill Foley's mantra is always advanced, never retreat. That phrase is inscribed inside the collar. He always thinks about the next step, the next acquisition, the next goal, the next project.

He really wanted to focus on an alternate jersey and he wanted it to be bold and bright, reflective of Vegas. And it is, Bill. Thank you. Chris, heard the jersey call on the pod. Vegas nights listen to our podcast. and wanted to send the NHL's brightest.

All that shimmers is gold. Thanks for your support of hockey over the years. Enjoy the jersey, and hopefully you'll make your way to Vegas one day to experience the best show in the NHL. Always advance, never retreat. Vegas Golden Knights. How about that?

That is lit. Did we just become friends? Yep. Let's talk to Jeff Passon. Hey, I feel lucky. I got Jeff Passon on the eve of baseball playoffs, So I feel like the pod is going well. We got friends in high places.

Jeff, how are you? Could not be better, my friend. How are you? I'm great, dude. It's been a while. I'm excited. I'm not excited about the Phillies. I bet them to win the United States after they had that big winning streak.

And as a gambler, I should know. You should know. It's the Phillies. Never bet the Phillies. Honestly. Oh, fuck. Will that rule ever change? No.

Of course not. God, I hate you. Well, let's talk about the playoff teams, okay? The wild card games start tonight. And we've got the AL first. We're going to talk about the Yankees and the Red Sox, but obviously you, the listener, will have known what happens in that game as we discussed.

So, Jeff, one of these two teams is going home tonight, and it's going to be a long off season. What in these two respective really tough markets are they going to be complaining about if their team loses going in the offseason. At the risk of sounding stupid, I do think the Yankees are going to win this game. So like receipts just on the table right here.

Got it. There will. I hope I look smart, quite often don't. And the thing we have to recognize about these games, the Yankees and Red Sox are evenly matched. The Dodgers and Cardinals who are playing in the NL are not. The games are still coin flips. I mean, the Dodgers could go out and face the worst team in baseball a hundred times,

and they'd still win probably at most 75 of them. Like, it's just such a different sport than football or basketball. When you have more talent, you're almost always going to win. In baseball, that's not the case. But the fact that the Red Sox and Yankees are both extremely talented teams and both extremely flawed teams, illustrates that, you know, as much as they want to have World Series aspirations this year, it's going to be tough for either of them to get there because they do have holes. And the Yankees, if they got bounced, there are going to be calls for Aaron Boone's head.

He is their much malign manager who has had the support of Brian Cashman, their long time, you know, quarter century now general manager. And the question with the Yankees is going to be number one is Boone back. And number two, if Boone isn't, is Brian Cashman potentially gone as well? Then you get to the offseason. And the Yankees clearly need more pitching. I mean, Garrett Cole going in a winner takes all game is exactly why they signed him for $324 million. But beyond that, their rotation, Corey Klobber, Jordan Montgomery, it's just, you know,

it's not very deep at this point. And the Yankees need that pitching depth to compete in a division, Chris, that had 490 win teams this year. You know, the blue jays are really good. The Red Sox have been solid. And Tampa Bay is ridiculous, 100 wins and still has one of the best farm systems in baseball. So the Yankees need some help on the pitching side.

I think they need a little more balance on the hitting side. but I'm always okay with teams that hit home runs. The Red Sox, on the other hand, are in a bit of a different position. It's shocking, honestly, to see them here. Right. Having made, having made the wild card game with Alex Cora back on the bench, only 20% of the season Chris Sale was pitching, all kinds of pitching problems,

top to bottom with the rotation depth and with their bullpen. but they hit. Raphael Devers is a monster. Xander Bogartz is great. J.D. Martinez is fantastic when he doesn't sprain his ankle running out to right field and slipping on second base, which I'm not sure if you saw that, but I'm curious, as a football player, you got the shit beaten out of you for 60 minutes a game. Yes. He sprained his ankle slipping on second base. How does that make you feel? Dude, I swear to you, the other night I was at a Chris Stapleton concert, and my production crew was there, and I came back to my seat, and I almost tore my ACL at the Stapleton concert,

and I was thinking to myself I'd been through all these car accidents. I slipped going down the stairs. It was dark, and I damn near totaled my knee. It's much worse to get hurt running out on the field or doing something non-competitive. When we talk about the wild card, it's so foreign to me because in the NFL, we're used to one pressure-pack game, but we didn't play 106 games to get there. or we didn't win 106 games to get there rather like the Dodgers did. You pointed out in your column, which by the way is awesome.

It's on ESPN right now. Like, do you like the wild card? Where do you rank this atmosphere that it creates in pro sports as far as like a pressure pack situation? Yeah, I just love the notion of a winner takes all game. Like, you know, when we were kids, we took do or die shots all the time, right? Like, that's how you, when you were out playing with your friends, you ended it with do or die. And either you did or you died.

And I love that feeling in baseball. At the same time, while it feels unfair that the Dodgers can go out, play about as close to a perfect season as you can have for a baseball team and have one game, a total crapshoot where it can all fall apart, it does tell you when your division,

win your division and none of this is a problem. And the Dodgers did everything they could to win their division. The Giants just did a little bit more. And it's an incredible story what the Giants have been able to do, not just resurrecting Buster Posey and Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford and seeing them toward the tail ends of their contracts when most guys are going south in their mid-30s turning on and playing at an elite level. But the Giants are such a testament to depth.

And depth, in football, I feel like depth is a thing that really matters. In baseball, it hasn't for a long time. And the Padres are an example of that. The Padres have been a team that's been consolidating. They had great prospect depth. And they went out and traded a bunch of guys to go and get top tier players, Darish, Musgrove, Snell. You know, they wanted to get as many star caliber players on the roster as they could.

In the end, lack of depth is what did them in. The Dodgers and the rays and now the Giants are teams that have built themselves on the idea of depth. And you hope that as you're bringing guys up through your system, you can create stars as well. And you can use player development techniques and systems to turn guys from good into great. But the thing that underpins all of that is you need a bunch of guys who are good. And that's really all that it takes to be a good Major League Baseball team in 2021. Speaking of depth, we have a depth issue at play or lack of a depth issue that might pay off for the Dodgers. What do they do at first base?

Do we see our old friend in St. Louis Albert Poo-Holes? He's still rolling. I didn't even know he was on the Dodgers, dude. I'm not going to lie. You know, and is it him or is it Bellinger? It could be Pooholz, it could be Bellinger, it could be Matt Bady, it all depends on the matchup. And that, I mean, doesn't that speak to the depth right there? The fact that I brought up three guys who could fill in for one of the best hitters in their lineup.

And I mean, I understand Albert Pujols isn't what he once was. Cody Bellinger didn't look like an MVP at any point this season. But the reality is you feel comfortable enough there. You don't feel like you're scrambling. And it's the same thing with Brandon Belt in San Francisco. You know, he's been one of their best players this year. Super unfortunate injury, takes a pitch on the thumb, breaks it, probably going to be out for the whole postseason.

And who do the Giants have to go to? Wilmer Flores, who's been a right-handed monster this year. And Lamont Wade, who's hitting 700 in the ninth inning and beyond and has reams of game-winning RBIs this year has been about as clutch a guy as you've seen in his first full year in the big league. So there's a reason why these teams are as good as they are. It's because when you turn to that second or third guy, the drop off isn't so significant that you feel like you're lacking.

Talking about Wayne O and Scherzer, and I remember Wayne Wright when I was in St. Louis. I've been hearing his name for years and he's 40 now. I mean, first, is he a Hall of Fame? And secondly, how do these guys stay young and how does age factor into this postseason run? Like what are the conversations going on? Like let's get ready for this push. Like how do we take care of pitchers and how do we calculate this as we're going through

this season? I think he's just short of the Hall of Fame. I think he's like top tier Hall of very good. And they're going to be people who definitely vote for him. All of Fame, I have a higher standard and threshold than most, I think. I don't vote anymore because I think the process is corrupted and kind of bullshit. But Adam Wainwright, to me, is a guy who's been a linch pit and a fulcrum for that team for a decade and a half. And longevity to me does go a really, really long way in baseball.

You can pitch effectively until you're 40. I mean, you look at Wainwright and actually for the entirety of his career has looked like somebody who's going to age well. You know, he's tall, he's fit, he's got a clean delivery. Sounds like me. Yeah, looking good these days. Thanks, I appreciate it. You should go pitch for the Cardinals. I did pitch for the Cardinals.

I threw the first pitch out like now 15 years ago, almost my rookie year. And I almost, I hit the backstop there and it rolled all the way to first base. So you had a shitty first pitch? Well, depending on who you asked, because if you ask the World War II vet, I almost drilled in the side of the head who was getting recognized. It was a shitty first pitch. But if you ask the catcher who has warmed me up in the bullpen, he said, just don't bounce it. I did not bounce it.

I sailed it. All right. I mean, was it like McGregor? Did you see Conner? It wasn't a publicity stunt. I think that McGregor thing was a publicity stunt. We're grasping at straws here, Connor, you know, sailing first pitches to get people to talk about you. I was talking something about football the other day and speed players, it goes first.

That's why, like a JJ Watt game's weight going to Arizona because, like, like to survive, you have to be more of a power player into your 30s. Like the reason I was able to play a little longer than some guys who had better careers than me was probably because I was more of a power of player. Here's the thing. Like, I'm looking at baseball and I have no idea what matters when it comes to a pitcher and his longevity. Is it less off speed stuff?

Is it like, like what kind of pitcher lasts the longest? This may sound like a cop out. Yeah. I think it's luck. It's luck. Yeah. Now, that's not to take away the idea that you have to keep yourself in decent shape and that some guys are more prone to injuries, whether when they were pitching, when they were younger and were overused there, or, you know, high stress pitches, I think, have something to do with it too. And I sit here and say, oh, the guys who are fit are going to, you know, pitch the longest.

Bartolo Cologne is the sloppiest mess of a baseball player I have ever seen. And that guy pitched till he was like 45. That's like the guy that smokes cigarettes his whole life and his 105 and all the people that were vegans died off at 72. Like it just doesn't make sense. He's the baseball version of that. Yeah. I mean, I just think, listen, I think all professional athletes are freak of some manner of variety.

Yeah. They are just the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. of the 1% that's just the reality. Most of them have a gift. Some of them have been able to have a slight gift and train themselves into excellence. But by and large, pro athletes are just given something that most human beings aren't. And even among that 1% of 1% of 1% there's another 1%. And those are the guys who pitch until they're 40. So Brandon Bell, 29 homers, he leads that ball club and homers and they lead, I guess, the NL in home runs. And, that's pretty rare because I'm looking at a team that leads and growing up you'd have a guy

north of 45 or something like how rare is it to have them that evenly dispersed and can they overcome that kind of loss the giants yeah it gets back to their depth though right they they may not have somebody who's hit in 30 but they have a bunch of guys who are hitting 20 and they have and that goes to the fact that the giants have really bought into this system that Farhan Zaidee, their president of baseball operations brought over. He was reared in the Oakland A's front office. He went down to the Dodgers and was GM there and then started running his own shop up with the Giants and has taken a lot of the principals from both places and brought him there. And the Giants have done a really good job of creating culture there. I know it's difficult to

quantify culture from the outside. Guys can talk about it. Guys can say, you know, this is a good place to play. We like it here. But the way that they have gotten players to buy in to different roles, roles that may not be what they're accustomed to or what they desire, but that are best for the team. As I've gotten older, I've learned to appreciate more and more the idea of good managers. And I don't mean managers like the guys who are on the field. I mean people who are atop leadership structures who are able to get those underneath them to buy into the ideals that they're preaching. Managing is hard. Getting people to buy into something is difficult. In those who are capable of doing so, whether it's because their ideas are better, whether

it's because their motivation tactics are good, whether it's because the relationship building is solid, whatever it takes, if you can get the people who are beneath you to a place where they're able to perform best. You are doing your job. And that's a rarity, I think, not just in sports, but across life. Managers, man, this is one of my favorite storylines of the playoffs. Because Larissa, I knew him a little bit in St. Louis. I know, like, he's an old man yelling at the cloud a little bit.

I know that there was, you know, some rumblings that people weren't happy in Chicago when he got hired. Has that gone away with the season of winning, or are his reviews still kind of relatively negative? he was always going to stay there no matter what because he was hired as Jerry Reinsorp, the owner doing a Mia Kopa for letting him go with the White Sox decades earlier. And there have been some moments that Tony Larissa hasn't looked the best this year. And I mean, he even admitted at the end of the season, anyone could have managed this team. That's how talented they are.

I don't think he's that wrong. They were in a bad division in the American League Central. it's going to be very interesting to see how Tony Larusa stacks up in the playoffs. Let's remember he made his bones as a tactician. He was the guy who brought about the modern bullpen. It exists because of Tony Larissa's machinations when he was with the Oakland A's. And he's going to be facing Dusty Baker, another guy who's long in the tooth in the first round against the Astros. They got a Highlander situation going.

It's like they've known each. other for multiple lives, dude. Think about this. 89 World Series, O2 World Series. They've seen each other a bunch in between and they were what, teammates at one point or something crazy like that. What's their relationship? Like, what are two managers who've known each other their whole lives? Do they get a beer before a series like this? I mean, what happens when you get two old guys together? They just talk about a bunch of shit and how it used to be, right? Yeah, dude. Like, hey, remember when social media didn't exist. was awesome. Yesterday. And then and then and then the other one says what's social media.

Yeah. And then they like old old man conversations are kind of the best. Are they not? The best. They need a managers and cars thing. You know like comedians in cars. They need to put Dusty Baker and Tony LaRouccia in a fucking Fiat and just drive them around for two hours because I would love to hear the stories. Well, Dusty Baker might be the coolest person I've ever met. like okay a few things number one um dusty chews a toothpick all the time do you know anyone who sits there chewing toothpicks i tried who is not so self-confident and and and just dope like that guy uh dusty lives in kawai he just goes there and gets spiritual in the off season dusty you know back in the 70s,

just, he was practically touring with like funk bands. I don't know if he smoked grass in the 70s, I mean. Oh, no,

he definitely did. 100%. Do you know that Dusty Baker is believed to have invented the high five? Stop it. Yeah.

No. I'm telling you, Dusty Baker is cool as fuck. Holy shit. Yeah, I guess you never saw like anybody in World War II high five in each other.

It didn't happen until Dusty Baker came along. Yeah. Holy shit, dude. Yeah, no, I'm excited about this one, man. And I guess one of the biggest questions for me with Dusty is, like, he's brought in for stability. He's a stability hire, right? Like, he calmed them, okay?

Like, after all the crazy shit, they've been through the past couple years. Like, he, even as a football player, I know a Dusty Baker type coach when I see one, it's like, this guy's just, he's a Xanax for this program. if they win it all, they have second best odds to win it all. Does this become a thing where their last title gets legitimized a little bit more? I know there's not totally a ton of crossover

with the manager and I don't want to, I don't conflate the two teams, but. That's fair. Might validate at least a little bit of maybe we didn't need the trash cans. I think people know, though, that they didn't need the trash cans. That's the, it almost, like,

I look back at the Astros in 2017, like I look at Alex Rodriguez's career, like I look at Barry Bond's career. You were great already. This wasn't necessary. This was excessive. This was the desire to win and the acknowledgement that the sport you play is extremely hard and random overcoming the principle that should be there and the confidence that you should have in yourself all right. And it's a shame that we sit here and talk about Bonds and Rodriguez's accomplishments in the way that we do because they were all-time great players. And the fact that there is an asterisk by what they did is a shame because if there weren't one, we would be talking Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds, who was the greatest hitter of all time without any questions.

You know, with Babe Ruth, you can look at it. Okay, he was during segregated baseball. So maybe if black players and Latin players more prevalent like they were in Barry Bonds' era, it would be, I was going to say, it would be a little bit easier to compare. I like the fact that we can talk about Otani the way that we can, which is a hundred years later, how much better is this guy than the original? I mean, that's interesting. And you're talking about Barry Bonds. I mean, like, there's a whole generation of guys.

He delegitimized his own body of work. nobody remembers Pittsburgh Barry Bonds like everybody remembers swall 65 homers into the drink out there Barry Bonds like there was so much more to him as like just a natural hitter all right let's go on to the NLDS on Friday that's Braves Brewers

Milwaukee is not hot okay I noticed that in your article I mean what like four and nine in the last 13 or something yeah and they were resting guys but still so how much that matters a lot because I'm looking at the Cardinals and they surge big time

in the last week or two. Does that stuff really matter going to the playoffs? I don't think so. I think, listen, there are cases that we can look at and say, hey, this team was super hot going in

and they won. There's a difference between causation and correlation. And there's just nothing to say that winning at a great clip before the playoffs, is causative to winning in the postseason. It can correlate sometimes, but there have been plenty of hot teams that have gone into

the playoffs and laid a turk. And, you know, I look at the brewers and what concerns me more than that 4-9 record over the last two weeks of the regular season is the fact that their lineup was just sort of mediocre for the second half. And Atlanta surged. Atlanta's got a really good rotation with Max Fried and Charlie Morton and Ian Anderson and Wascarinoa that may not be as good at the top end as Corvin Burns and Brandon Woodruff and Freddie Ferralta. And I understand that Craig Counsel, to me, maybe the best manager in baseball right now.

And his ability to leverage Milwaukee's bullpen is really good. But those brewers batch are the biggest concern to me at this point. Yeah, and the Braves. I mean, I'm sure the MLB, big market hitting team would rather see the Braves move on. but Jeff doesn't have to comment on that. I want to get one prediction from you, and I want to ask you about Shohei Otani in the MVP race,

which should be wrapped up. So first off, who's going to win it all? I got the Dodgers, and this may be a totally freezing cold take by Thursday, but I just think they're the best team, and I bet on talent, man. Putting his balls in the wheelbarrow. That's what we like to call a Randy Marsh situation here.

I mean, this, he could be, sounding just ridiculous today as you listen. Okay, the Show Hey, Otani MVP thing, I mean, like he's got great odds to win it. I was like, hey, has there ever been somebody from that part of the world that's won the MVP and it's been 20 years since Itchero? But I feel like it's got to be a little bit different right now. Like, what would that do for the sport globally? The world is so much more connected now and the game, I'm sure, is trying to grow in different

ways. Itiro walked so Otani could run. and what Ichero did in opening up the pipeline from Japan to Major League Baseball was monumental. And I don't know if Shohei Otani exists as he does right now, if not for Ichero and the impact that he made in Major League Baseball showing that, yes, not only can Japanese players come here and succeed, but they can win the damn MVP. And I have won of 30 votes this year. I am filing my ballot today. And Chohay Otani will very easily be at the top of it. An incredible season.

And the reality is, if he stays healthy, he's probably going to win MVP every year he plays. Like, that's how good he is. He's two players in one. Like, there's nothing more you can say than he brings the value of two elite guys. and happens to be a single human being. That's beautifully put. Yes or no to playoff expansion and we'll let you go. I work at ESPN, so the answer is yes.

Jeff Passett, thank you for being a friend of the program, man. He's the only guy to talk to about baseball. I'm so excited to have them on. I am actually looking forward to this, even without the Phillies. Sorry about that, but yeah, don't get your hopes up there, buddy. See you next time, dude. Thank you so much. See you, brother.

Twitter, we got our shit together, okay? We got a real handle reflective of the name of the podcast. Guys, we did it. Applawed. And now go follow us at Greenlight. Twitter is at Greenlight. We also have a new YouTube channel name as well, Green Light Tube. Hope you guys like that.

Jeff Pass in my favorite baseball personality, followed by John Crook. their neck and neck and then it's eric mcgrane wookie shout out oh yeah i just realized this too we should try to go down watch a game get you to shoot the puck and we're back to hockey we're back to gold we're just on diamonds back to hockey so i could live through you because i fucking tore my ACL three days before i was supposed to shoot the puck at the black hawks game oh my god i forgot about this but i threw a strike at the white socks so i'm still i still have that you got a leg up on me because I didn't throw a strike when I threw it. I just told Jeff Passing this story.

I just sailed the ball and almost hit a guy. You tried to like, you tried to like throw a fast. I tried to hit 80. So they played me. They told me you're gonna get a practice and all this stuff. And they made me do all this media stuff. And I didn't get no practice throw. And I was like, I'm just gonna like lob this.

And it was just like a perfect throw. The catcher, he told me he was like, I've done this so many times. And I've never seen anyone throw a strike. I think if you don't know how to throw a baseball that well, like you actually have a better shot sometimes. My misconception when I was out there is how high the mound is. That's the problem. You do bullpen in your backyard.

You're like, I'm not going to fuck this up. And I knew that. I had a chance of redemption at the Charlottesville Tom Sox. And I practice on a mound. It's a real incline. I didn't know it was a real incline that you can actually like fall off. Yeah. Yeah.

And then with all the lights, when you're standing out there, I gain a lot of respect for pitchers. Hell yeah, dude. For sure. They should have everybody throw out a first pitch so we can appreciate pitchers. You'll be scared. Like, you'll be like nervous. It's like being in the middle of a concert.

Like, and everyone's just staring at you. Nate, um, yesterday some shit happened with, uh, Instagram. I had to upload a video like thanking NYU, uh, women's basketball because they, uh, did a hike for her, which is basically, uh, raising awareness for Water for her, which is a women's initiative that we've rolled out side by side with Water Boys. And so shout out to the NYU women's basketball team and to Lauren Gass. But also, big shout out to the people in Philly who showed up to that tailgate on Sunday. That was kickass.

That was awesome. Love y'all. We raised a lot of money. I got to meet Gio. Yeah, big shout out to Gio. Gio came through. It was a great pod. I listened to it on my way back from Northern Virginia.

and whoever the DJ was on the front end of that, kudos. It was great. It was about 30 minutes where it just had Chris Long Foundation leading up to the live show. And the selected tracks, it, like, it was a smooth ride. So you could watch that part, too? Well, I think it wasn't, it actually wasn't the live. I think you guys had just went off and it was, I just watched it on the YouTube. Yeah, that's actually cool.

You're, like, committed to this pod, bro. Makin, not so much. Macon doesn't watch. or listen to anything what i realize 30 minutes early well well the live stream listening to the elevator music you guys if you don't have youtube premium you just have to get youtube premium because in the car like you can play stuff and not have the screen so the premium's worth it is that for any site that you could be on on the internet what do you i'm talking about you too no i'm just joking a family show a big shout out to uh to the people in philly who showed up and then also to the people

who it meant a lot that you guys if you guys if you're just a family show you're just a family show you guys if you listening got on the it feels very it's personal do a podcast i feel like there's two sides to you like you know you play a personality here this is me but like you know i also care a lot about about other shit deeply and i try not to pepper you guys with that shit so when you guys popped on the live stream however many of you all did i heard it was like two million yeah there was a lot the chat was going crazy and we have to make a name for our fans like the green like we have to give them you're right like a mop maybe like the green the green mob or something.

We have to think of something. No, I've been thinking about that. So any suggestions hit us up. But shout out to all those folks. For sure. I just shout it out. It's like a big shoutout fest. I had a little FOMO sitting at home.

I know. Because you were like, yeah, we're not going to do anything. And then boom, I get an alert on my phone. And I was like, live stream? Chris? The guy who hates live stream? I do hate live streams. But we're doing them more.

Every fourth quarter of the Sunday night game now. Nate, you were explaining to me what happened with Instagram yesterday because I started the story. I was using IG to shout out NYU women's hoops. So I couldn't load the story up. I was very frustrated. So basically, Facebook shut down for maybe two to three hours yesterday. And everyone is an assumption. What did everybody's aunt do for three hours?

I don't know. But I'm more about the backstory of it. that a whistleblower came out and gave the ends and out of Instagram saying how they monetize the fact that younger girls get on Instagram and end up hating themselves, in turn, makes them love the site even more, and they know how to monetize that. And instead, they know how to stop that. And instead of stopping it, they're monetizing it. and a whistleblower came out with facts, receipts about all this.

The next day, they shut down for a period of time, which I think they're probably on the back end, switching things up, doing their due diligence. And the results of all of it, Mark Zuckerberg lost $7 billion because of the stock dropped while all this was happening. And this was all Facebook or Instagram, too? It's all owned.

It was Facebook and Instagram simultaneously. So they all had the algorithm. rhythms, you know, like the knowledge of what was working, what wasn't working, what was affecting more like self-loathing. Yep. And they just were like, juicy. Bro, fuck those platforms, dude. Yo, it's crazy.

It is. And it's not good for the pod, but I kind of want to get off Instagram. And that's the dilemma with it because it's the business of it. Like you need it. Like, it's like you almost need it for business. Like with podcast and anything digital, you almost need it. You don't absolutely need it, but it's one of those things where a lot of businesses, they do lean on social media like Facebook and Instagram, but it's just the dark side of

the other stuff. Wow. More to come on that. But golly, there's just some evil people in this world, bro. I'm on it. I'm guilty. Okay? Like, we're all guilty, but I am very aware that it is an insidious thing going on.

And it's definitely like. But to get caught red-handed, like, very intentionally that way, not just like, hey, it kind of is what it is. Because it's definitely a different experience for females, for sure. But for males, too. Hell yeah. Like, we do it too. I can only imagine.

You look at dudes working out and you look at dudes' bodies and you're like, oh, like, it's like a macho thing sometimes. No, you're right. You're right. Like, you know what I used to be like that. But like then after a while, you're just like, but it's more when I was playing. Even as a player, like you, you see guys highlights and stuff like that. If you're insecure about what's at, because I meet a lot of fame.

But not even, but not even insecure. It's more like. No, I'm not. talking to you. I'm talking to people at home. Oh yeah, yeah. I totally get where you're coming from. I'm never going to be jacked, bro. I was a pro football player my entire life and worked so hard to be jacked. And like I was jacked for like a hiccup in my, in my, in the prime of my life. That is over, bro. And like Instagram does not make that easier. But I will tell you this. If you're at home and you're insecure and you're worried about it, I meet a lot of famous people the way you would coin famous.

Because I know some people would mean you're like, I've never met a famous person. I'm like, well, you still haven't. But I've met a lot. of famous motherfuckers dude people with blue check marks that would be the way you constitute somebody famous they ain't good looking in person okay i'm not hey this ain't a subliminal this goes for everybody this goes for me this goes for your favorite supermodel there are very few people who are better looking in person than they are online okay and when you see somebody's fucking i'll meet somebody that i've been friends with on twitter for five years they don't even look like the same person sometimes when I meet them. Because you know how you tweet with somebody so much.

It's like the avatar morphs into that person's identity. When I meet people, I'm like, you don't even look like the same person. And on IG, it is a contest. So you can imagine that the delta between the way somebody actually looks and the way their pictures do. Yeah. It's not real, guys.

It's not. Some of the muscle shit is real. Miles Garrett posted his muscles the other day. The motherfucker's that big in person, but he's an alien. So I mean, God, he's not real. been wearing sleeves his entire NFL career he doesn't wear sleeves on Sunday and I'm like I've never seen his arms dude holy shit they're like quads he's got legs for arms you got drug

tests in the next day drug testing today too he's the he's one of the ambassadors for water boys he's the head of the whole the active players but I want him drug tested again just because it hurts my ego because of Instagram yeah that dude's but um I'm gonna put in a baseball bet I'm betting the yanks right now money line. I don't know if that's what they call it in baseball. They're betting so fucked up, but I'll tell you who understands baseball betting and who just phoned in a bet. So you all know, it's a

Red Sox Cardinals Parlay. Kingston just did it. That's great. Okay, I'm going to do that too. So you heard what Make and put it in. You got any bets, facts? You got a 19 team parlay. There's two baseball teams playing tonight. You're going to find 19 pro sports teams

that are playing. I don't know what is playing and that's what I was saying. I was going to be a little bit of a villain and just bet against you guys. You're like the hamburger. Yeah, because I just in my head,

because in my head, there's no way Vegas is going to let us all win with the same bet. So like I might as well. What a menace you are fading us. Bet the Red Sox and the Dodgers. Okay, socks, Dodgers. And see what happened.

Okay, see what happened. Are you guys betting the over under? Like baseball over under, like that shit is like torture. That's torture. We got to close the show. You're an addict too. Yeah. You're both addicts.

We give you $100 every Sunday. It's like a hit of dope. Man. This is your guys's fault, man. It's my fault. It's my fault. What if in 40 years you guys are both just broke on the side of the road and they're like it's because you started a podcast, you asshole.

Fucking asshole, man. Let me tell you. you all right oh man yeah we got to go yeah we got to go because i have a story man fucking justin jackson your boy eckler got hurt for a second i had five dollars to win 170 i justin jackson to score the first touchdown and he had a chance he had a chance think about me in the house bro you could have won 170 one off of five dollars and it had to be it had to be an injury bro he was he was and it was the best possible outcome because Echler came right back in the game. Oh my God.

Winbet makes football so fun. It really does. And excruciating. It really does. Y'all take care.