Green Light with Chris Long - Ep. 27 - Ryen Russillo NBA updates. NFL Fox Sunday Curt Menefee on XFL Broadcast. Chicago Trivia with Chicagoans.

Episode Date: February 8, 2020

Welcome - 1:21. Favorite #27 - 2:40. Macon MRI - 11:00. Ben and Jerry’s - 17:50. Ryen Russillo - 23:10. Ryen’s 3 Minute NBA Update - 28:00. Chicagoans on Fantasy Football and Dyed Tips - 36:22. Chicago Trivia with Chicagoans - 50:25. Curt Menefee in XFL - 1:00:23. Chicagoans pt 2 - 1:19:45. Mailbag - 1:20:28. About Chalk Media: Following the unfiltered voice and vision of Chris Long, Chalk Media is the interactive online community for you, the intelligent and humorous sports fan. Driven by access, Chalk delivers a unique perspective that cuts through the canned talking points and provides a variety of content from your favorite sports and entertainment celebrities. Here at Chalk, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are rooted in challenging the perception of professional athletes. We embrace the “real” with a unique combination of humor and intelligence. Chalk is a community with a voice beyond 240 characters that brings a perspective and vibe to a traditionally brash and boastful sports media space. Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more. Nothing is off limits at Chalk - 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. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Greenlight Pod, episode 27. They told me to show more energy in these opens. You're yelling. I'm yelling into the microphone. I'm not cussing, though, because that's not good in the open, they say. We're going to talk about a lot today, including a medical update on my co-hosts part, Making Gunner got his MRI results, thoughts and prayers. Also, we're going to have the loser, the fabled loser of the Charlottesville gentleman's fantasy football league in the studio.

That's Matt Conrath, former NFL player. current donner of the dyed tips. The guy Fierre. He also might have a special guest, a cameo from Bad Back Backie, who slipped a disc, putting together a back machine famously in Charlottesville lore.

We're going to have him in Matt in studio. Also, Kurt Menafee, doing a lot of XFL stuff this year. Going to have him online. And Ryan Rosillo, a special, special guest, one of Macon's favorite people is going to call in and explain

what the hell's going on in the NBA because we haven't watched a bit of it. Also a mailbag. So stay tuned. So here we are. Episode 27. It's been a while. It has been a while.

The lights are a little brighter. Yeah. Rug smells a bit worse. Rug smells worse, really? Yeah. No shit. You shaved all the hair off the side of your head. Yeah, I got a little high and tight going.

And I also shaved a little bit of my beard, but I left a little bit of this mustache here. Dang. What do you think about leaving the beard to trail the mustache? I like that look. You like that look. Yep. I hope to one day be able to do something like, that with my face.

Well, there's still time. I mean, you're only 33. Ooh, docs. Before long, people are going to be able to figure out everything about me. Yeah, Wiki is a powerful force. We do a lot of our research on Wikipedia. Yeah. For the fellow who emailed me, medical advice, I appreciate you.

We'll get to that in a bit. Yeah. A bit of a misdiagnosis. I should introduce myself and my co-host because it has been a while now since we've been in the studio. I had to go down to Miami last week to do a bunch of stuff at the Super Bowl. I'm Chris Long. This is the Greenlight Pod.

And this is my esteemed co-host, Real Estate Extraordinaire, and just All-Star Wingman, making Gunner. So welcome, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. No problem. It's episode 27. So without further ado, let's get into our newly adopted tradition of listing

Our favorite are most notable. It is 27, yeah. It is 27. Yeah. Our jerseys or athletes who wore the jersey number corresponding with the show's episode. Episode. Well said.

Efficiently said by you. I'm trying. You or me. I think you should start. Okay, well, I want to shout out a couple of giants running backs. Brandon Jacobs, Ron Dane, Rodney Hampton. Non-giant, Steve Atwater, shout out. Gary Garrison.

Yeah. Now lock in with me here. I am. I'm also just looking at some people I need to shout out because I didn't know we were going to be able to shout out 50 people. You're Mr. and Mrs. Garrison. Yeah. It's January of 1944.

And you've been aware of your surname for a while. It's Garrison. Yeah. You have a son and you go Gary. I love the move. What do you? Gary Garrison is unbelievable. It's great.

Like what goes into that conversation? Right. Something goes into that conversation. There was a John Johnson who played basketball for Virginia back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just loved the move. I don't know, Long. No, no, no.

Lonnie, Lonnie Long. No, there's nothing you could do with Long to make it. Well, there are some things you could do with Long. Baseballers, Vlad Guerrero, Carlton Fisk, Juan Mirrishal. Yeah. Thanks for shouting out everybody with number 27. Okay, I got one more to shout out. Golly.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the football player. was born Sharman Shaw, okay? He played college football at UCLA, drafted by the Dolphins in 96, war number 27 with the Browns. He was given the name Karim Abdul-Jabbar. That's K-A-R-I-M by his Amam in 1995. Nice.

Okay. There was another Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who played at UCLA. Yeah. They both wore 33 in UCLA. I've heard of the other one. Well, listen, the controversy between people having similar names

eventually led to the basketball player suing the football player in 97 the lawsuit led to the football player changing his legal name from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Abdul-Kareem al-Jabbar Just mix it up a little bit Yeah Isn't that amazing though?

I respect that. It's like okay bro So the Kareem sued K-A-R-I-M and the guy was like Okay bro I'll now be Abdul Karim al-Jabar How many Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is there in the world?

I mean, why is he freaking out? I know. We need to look more into that particular lawsuit. But my 27, as seen on YouTube. Can you guys keep it down a little bit? Yeah, the Chicago folks who are going to be joining the pod in a few minutes or hammering beers. I've selected Eddie George.

And this is on the right you'll see on YouTube. Gorgeous. Gorses in Oilers, Jersey. Beautiful. And although I'm not a big buy. Buckeye guy. It's a pretty clean jersey on the left too. Those shoulder pads, I don't think you could stack

Michael Bennett's shoulder pads. Like 25 games worth, Eddie George has under his jersey right there. You're absolutely right. Asman Trophy winner. Huge numbers. Huge numbers. I mean, those shoulder numbers

are what you'll see now on a front or a back. I call those repugnant. Oh, really? Too big? Yeah, they're looking. little bit too big. Born September 24th, 1973. And we're talking about Eddie George here for the listeners, because I need to tie this back in, you know, you shouted out about 14 number 27s to be fair. Yep. Yep. Yep. You know. Born in Philly. Eddie? Yeah. Really? Really. Yeah. Fuma. Shat out to Fuma. So I did

see Eddie at the Super Bowl. They're nice. Yeah. Tennis program at Fuma, not so good. Really? Yeah. At least not. Because you used to take it to him behind the woodshed. I would. I would. but they're later in my career, it's kind of like, hey, why don't you sit this one out and get some rest? Oh, they became like a rest. Little load management. They used to load management. When you would go to Fluvana County.

Maybe they should have done that a little bit more because, well, we'll get to the MRI results in a bit here. Eddie George. Can I do, you want to guess my 27? I'll give you three guesses. There may be an Eddie George color scheme that corresponds with mine from a Jersey standpoint, a bit. Okay.

I'm not going to be able to guess it. I thought you would go Malcolm Jenkins. Well, I didn't want to be boring. Obviously, shout out to Malcolm Jenkins, who was, again, finalist for a man of the year. Didn't win, Callais won, but Malcolm does a lot of great work. And obviously a good buddy of mine. That's well documented.

So shout out to Malcolm. That would have been the easy, easy pick. Scott Niedermeyer. Didn't do Niedermeier. Ended up doing... Drum roll. Vladimir Guerrero, Sr. Is he senior?

he's senior now because you have to worry about. Yeah, Flaglad. Mentioned by me a few moments ago. Yeah. For those of you who were listening to me. So, yeah, well, you only shouted off 56 people. But I thought the expo, the expos get-ups were pretty iconic. And he was iconic.

I mean, obviously he's a Hallfamer, MVP. But what I loved about him is he wore no batting gloves. Yeah. That's what drew me and his swing. I loved his swing. but the fact that he just went up there and pine tart it you know blisters out the wazoo there used to be nothing worse

than baseball when you go play a tournament you do like double header after double header in the summer and your blisters would break on your hand that was terrible do you remember that when you played sports no I didn't play baseball because I was afraid of the ball yeah and tennis we have nice rubbery grips yeah so tennis is just all around I don't want to call it a softer sport, but in baseball?

Nah. One takes more athleticism, and that is tennis. One takes more endurance. Endurance, that's tennis. Hey, hold on to your hat. Tomorrow, Sunday, the ninth. Yeah. Vlad Glad's birthday.

Really? He will turn 45. Happy birthday, Vlad Glad. Also, you know, he got the, I was reading about him. I'm not even going to act like I'm retaining this information. I'm going to read it off my phone. Guerrero batted without wearing batting gloves, a custom rarely seen in modern baseball.

In an interview with Yahoo Sports, he attributed this to helping his grandfather pull cows home, barehanded as a young boy in the Dominican Republic. He swung at a higher percentage of pitches outside the strike zone, 45% than any other hitter in Major League Baseball up to that time. Yeah, he'd go down and get it. He hit a ball. that bounced for a double.

He also had one of the most iconic throws in Major League Baseball history that traveled like 300 feet just on a rope. So like anything Vlad did in a baseball in the diamond, I was going to say the arena, baseball watchers, we got to get the vernacular right, was a spectacle.

What do we call that up in Toronto? An arena. Yeah, it's pretty fucking ugly. he once hit a double off a one hop fastball yep by Carl Povano and then this is my favorite part of his bio Vladimir is a PlayStation addict his favorite thing to do is control himself as a batter go figure yeah that's a great pick by you yeah I think those are two good selections two really good selections and shout out to the other 46 that you included well hey number 27 isn't what I would deem sexy.

Yeah, no, no, no. So we're having to dig deep. We come across a lot of names. Although there's a few. It's better than some of the other numbers we've had to deal with. 25. 25 was really strange.

So we are episode 27, and kind of a watermark episode for Makin. He's had a, he's had it, for those of you who, and I want to be serious for a minute, For those of you who have been listening to the pod since this inception, Macon has been battling through a serious medical ailment.

And we finally got some news, and it's going to be a long road, a diagnosis, if you will. The self-diagnosis of a torn bicep, or if you want to be technical torn biceps, was not accurate. We need Mori to read this fucking diagnosis. You are not the father. It is not a torn biceps, but might be worse than that. MRI revealed a torn labrum, which... Oh, God.

I've never seen anybody battle back from one of those. I think it feels cooler to say, torn labrum. Yeah. In practice, though, it's going to stink. There's some surgery involved. You really have to get cut? Some people just let that heal. Yeah, it's not going to.

I've tried to let this heal since August. Yeah, well, that's a long time. And if you've potted through all this, you've sold real estate. That's right. What's the most challenging part of selling real estate with a torn labor? I would say opening the doors, the handles, mostly. That's got to be tough. It's harrowing.

Have you ever had a surgery before? I'm not going to. Oh, HIPPA. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right, you're right. I would never. They might have to reattach the biceps lower than where it's currently attached as well. How do you see this interfering with your day-to-day going forward?

Well, I'm immobile for six weeks. Yeah. And this is the right hand. Correct. I'm sorry, the right. The right. My dominant hand. Yeah.

So I probably have to invest in electric toothbrush, that sort of thing. A whole bunch of things are going to be different for you, you know? Yeah. Here's what you get when you tell people you have a torn labrum. How'd you do it? My answer is, I don't know. And then what is that exactly? To which I say, I don't know.

So the labrum is a piece of fibro cartilage, which is rubbery tissue, as you well know. Attached to the rim of the shoulder socket that helps keep the ball of the joint in place. When this cartilage is torn, it is called a labral tear. Labral tears may result from injury or sometimes as part of the aging process.

So I had no injury. I think it's the latter. And I had... You're just getting old. I think I'm going. Hey, okay. And I did docs you. How'd I do it?

Kind of been caring a podcast for about 27 episodes. That's so good. That's so good. Well, we at the Greenlight Pod, and for anybody who listens to any of our content on chalk networks, I think I speak for everyone. when I say, get well soon. I really appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And after surgery, is there going to be a downtime? Can we get you in here hopped up on opioids? I don't know what I will be given. Yeah. Sure. Can I tell you what it's going to be like? Yeah. Since you've never had surgery.

Sure. Cotton mouth. You're going to not feel great. Okay, I love water. That's no problem. You're going to be immobile again. You know, if you're in a sling, that's really going to be tough. Driving.

I will be in a sling. Yeah, driving is going to be tough. 10 and 2 is not an option anymore. Opening doors, you know, like there's a whole host of things you do when you open car doors, you usually have something in the other hand. No more. What about if you put things in your right pocket, that's going to really suck? How many surgeries have you had?

A lot. Just joking. It's, it's, yeah, exactly. You just realized it. The joke. I mean, that's so bad that we're probably going to have to talk about that after we're done recording this. The joke's on me.

The joke's on me. So anyways, you were talking about your surgery. Yeah. I got to ask for my autograph. Yeah? In the context of the podcast. Somebody asked you for an autograph. Yeah.

Really? Yeah. That's pretty great. Or are you adjusting? It's a lot at the same time. You have to deal with, you know, becoming. becoming famous and becoming, you know, being rendered immobile for four to six weeks probably, right?

Yeah, yeah. That's a lot for anybody, let alone somebody like you. This was the first time I've ever been asked for my autograph. Yeah. It was your mom who asked me. And that's not like a yo mama joke. It was literally your mother. Delo.

Yeah. Delo asked you for an autograph. Yeah. She said she saw you the other day. Right. And when you bring up something like what you just broke up. brought up, which hopefully has been cut out of this show. We're going to bleep.

We're going to just go, like the whole time. Okay. It makes me think of some of the listeners like your mother, who don't need to hear things like that. Three boys in the house. And I said, you know, I said, no, no, Chris is the star of the show. Yeah, doing that whole thing. And then she was like, yeah, he is.

Yeah, but she doesn't, yeah. I don't think she cares for my content. I think she probably tunes in to see you. So shout out to Delo and best wishes and get well to you. Thanks, sir. Also putting on the various articles of clothing, like the layering that you do is going to be really tough. Think about all the button downs.

I wear shirts with buttons six days out of the year. Yeah, I go six days out of the week. You go at least six days out of the week, maybe seven. I hadn't thought about that. Sweeters over the button downs. I was told to bring a zip on. Putting shoes on. Putting shoes on.

All your shoes have laces. 50% of my shoes don't have laces. You might want to get some straps. Waylon has some shoes. They got straps on them if you want. On to the next thing? Yeah. I've got some Ben and Jerry's content.

Yeah, go ahead. Whole Foods Market is a grocery store. Yeah, it is. They had a two for $7. Ben and Jerry's pints. Yeah. Normally $4.99. Can't pass up something like that.

that. No, you can't. But they didn't have great flavors. So, I went. What did they have first off? Let me pivot. Can I tell you my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavors? Yeah. Chunky monkey. That would be the banana ice cream with fudge chunks and walnuts. We got a thumbs up from behind. Kathleen likes the chunky monkey. Boom. As well as New York super fudge chunk. He's just like the word chunk. That would be chocolate ice cream with white and dark fudge chunk. That would be chocolate ice cream with white and dark fudged chunks. Peacons. How do you say pecans? I mean, I guess pecan. Walnuts and fudge covered almonds. Now, what I purchased was very odd. Vanilla, one. And chocolate fudge brownie, too. Yeah. Very limited selections. While we're stuck on this, can I say one thing? Yeah. Pecan pie,

but it's pecanes if they're just alone. I would say pecan pie. Oh, pecan. No, I would say pecan pie. I say pecan pie. Pecan pie. Pecan pie. But if you were like, hey, that tree, what's growing in that tree? I'd say pecans. Pecans. Damn.

Macon? I do get called macon. A lot of people think your name is macon. Yeah. All right, go ahead. Now, my question to you, aside from what your favorite flavor is, how many sittings is a pint? Okay, so I've gone over this with some folks before. I think shamelessly, it can,

be one. Now that's going to be, that's a lot of calcium. My bones are going to get really strong. I have to, I have to contend with the fact that I can't break my bones anymore if I eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I tried to make it to four sittings. I only made it to three. So wait, you ate it in three sittings. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. If you eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's in three sittings or more, your restraint is unbelievable. Thank you. I will polish off. Do you want me to tell you what my favorite flavor is? It's Cherry Garcia.

Nice. I have an unconfirmed report, but a report nonetheless that my dad's favorite flavor is Cherry Garcia. Well, that makes sense. He's a distinguished gentleman like myself. I guess behind that it might be a merri-cone dream, the waffle cones. Shout out to Stephen Colbert.

Yeah, that was in there. I wasn't familiar enough to... Yeah, try it out. What the Long family will do, and I haven't tried the sorbets, by the way. I might dive into that at some point. What the Long family will do is we will have, like, in the summer a nice gathering. We got this table out in Montana that kind of spins around.

Get what you call those tables. Spin table. Lazy Susan? Susan, she's not doing shit. She's just spinning. Susan is out, by the way. Get a job, Susan. As a fucking name.

Susan is out. If there are babies being named Susan in 2020, I want to find those kids. kids. I want to tell them that their name is out. They might want to change their name. I like Susan fine. Really? Yeah. You know any Susan's? I do know Susan's. I knew some Susans. Oh. Not anymore. No, not like that. Goodness. Shout out to there was a lady named Susan. Used to be friends with my parents, but then we moved from California. Okay. So I don't know where she is now. But that's the only Susan I know. So the table, this lazy Susan, and it turns around and turns around.

What you do is you put all the flavors, you go to the grocery store, get 12 flavors, 12 pints of Ben and Jerry's. A cornucopia, if you will. And then it just spins and spins, and everybody at the table just samples. There's one spoon per pint thing, and you try not to get the spoon in your bowl

because you don't want to be swapping germs. I don't like germs. No. If you're alone, though, you would never scoop it out of the pint into a bowl, right? No, if I'm alone, I ate it right out of the... It's like the domestic version. When I was 23, and this came up recently because we were in Miami and there's bottle service

situations and stuff, my pound my chest moment would be when we went to a club, I would get my own bottle of champagne, drink it right out of the bottle. No glasses. That's a status symbol thing. Now in my 30s at 34, my status symbol is I get a fucking pint of Cherry Garcia and it's just mine. I eat it right out of the pint. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I think if you eat in one sitting, now adjust it for weight, maybe it's not okay that you eat in one sitting. Yeah, but I saw pictures of you from Miami, and you are wasting away. To 254, by the way. Our weights are getting closer by the day. Yeah, I'm 254 pounds. And I'm, what's it called when you're gaining?

Yeah, you're bulking. I'm like lean, bulking gain. I got bad news for you. That bulking is going to stop here real soon when they come. into your labrum. But can I, I'll just do a bunch of legs. Oh, Ryan Rissillo is calling the pod. Let's get him on real quick, your favorite guy.

Hey, Ryan Rissillo. Hey. Welcome to the green light pod, buddy. Thank you for having me on. Hi, Ryan. You're on with Macon and Chris. Okay. Now, we're going to keep it brief because you work really hard.

You do a bunch of pods. As the NFL season ended, I realized that we hadn't watched and we're not going to be posers and try to start picking up basketball like we've been watching. We haven't watched a single minute. I don't know if I'm speaking for you, Mike.

I probably stayed more with it, but I don't know if I've sat down and watched who. I haven't watched a game in its entirety, the entire NBA season. And who knows the NBA better than Ryan Rosillo? Plenty of folks. Woage. I was about to say Woage,

but other than that, So we're going to give Ryan What do you say? Plenty of folks Seems like a guest. Dudes are saying Dudes have argued. I used to love one

just to jump in and ruin your segment. No, don't ruin the segment the longer you spend here, the better. Now, Greenie is like the biggest hype man of any host you'll ever see

and he's great at it. It's a good thing. It's not a bad thing. But he just always get really frustrated with me because he'd be like, and you know, joining us here at the desk

to get up. Nobody knows the NBA better than him. Ryan Russell, I'd be like, whoa, he's back low, probably has more contact. And he would just look at me and be like, God, like, damn it. Like, just shut up. Bro, you know what I love? And now that I've realized when I

intro people, I do go back to the same and somebody's going to make some highlight real. Luckily, we don't have enough viewers yet, or listeners yet that somebody's going to actually take the time to do this. But if I were more successful at this, in this admission, every guest I intro, I kind of give the same adjectives.

You know, like, I'm like, my favorite coach, my favorite, like, this is one of the rising stars. Like, I need to work on new material, so I'm glad you brought that up. Well, you know, Scott and I used to have a lot of disagreements about our interviewing process when we did the show together. And I don't know that movie, The Long Goodbye, that's, I've never seen it, but it's a great title because he would, like, I used to get so annoyed whenever he'd intro anybody, it'd be like, how's the golf game?

Because, like, anytime anybody would do that, they're like, oh, hit them straight. Yeah, it's like, how's it's like, hey, pretty windy outside. Right, exactly, exactly. Like, how's it going over there? And then it became like a joke where I started asking guys in the middle of interviews how their golf game was. And so he could explore.

Right, it is. Like, honestly that he didn't slap me at some point that I deserved it. But, yeah, goodbyes, hello's. I say guys are the best all the time. So look, I'm still, I'm still, you know, we all have our crutches, man. Yeah, I've got a few of them. One of them is the devil's lettuce, if you haven't heard. Yeah, guys, there was a pod that you came on, you were really fired up.

I think it was our one where we were both super worked up on Sunday and then going into Monday. We were just letting dudes have it left and right. Yeah, oh, yeah. It's Cannell, Jacina. And then I saw Danny, real quick, Macon, you'll love this. I saw Danny Cannell, Radio Row, my last interview for my partnership. I was on Radio Row presenting. We walk around the corner, it's Danny Cannell sitting there at the desk,

and he just looks up and I look at him. And it's like, fuck. Not that I care, but I just, no, I mean, we talked it out. We talked it out. It was kind of something along lines of he like joked like, hey, man, are we going to fight now? Like, you know, not at all. I was like, you know, you just said a stupid thing. He's like, well, it wasn't that stupid.

And they were like, okay, three, two, one. And joining us. Like, I was like, okay, well, this is going to be awkward. But Danny, Danny, you know, Danny, Danny said a really fucking stupid thing. I still think so. But that doesn't mean I hate Danny. Yeah, and I'll tell you, Danny's going to live longer than all of us because he will not. Like, he's so not confrontational.

I'll go a couple days where if I don't have a confrontation, I kind of want one. Yeah. And he is like, okay, cool. Well, you got one. You might have one here with Macon, because Macon's had a few bones to pick. You know, you got this co-host rivalry. Hey, Ryan, I have a torn Labrum. Any advice to get through this while still?

What am I doing? I'm gaining mass. I'm in the process of gaining mass. But I'm going to be immobilized for about six weeks. Do you just go straight legs? Do you go on the other side? I heard some guys, I don't know what your bench numbers were before, but I've had a few buddies that have gone through it.

They've never been the same. So you might want to try to get on some sort of program. Oh, man. At least you got some cushion. 350 is a good number. So you got some cushion there. You could supplement. Yeah.

135's in my rear view, I guess. So the reason we had Ryan on, is we want to know what the hell is going on in the NBA. We haven't watched a single game. And I said, I texted him earlier, I go, do you think you could do a three-minute rundown timed, like as if you were explaining the NBA to aliens that just landed on our planet and there was no language barrier?

Do you think you could do that? No problem. Yeah. Okay. Do you want me to do the, the making you do the time? Yep, I got it. With sound effects? That's right.

Okay. You want to give me like lap times? Like so at one minute. We'll tell you at every minute. Two minutes, one minute remaining in a countdown from 10 maybe. Yep, that's right. This is the most furious, fast and furious three minutes in the NBA. All right.

I'm ready. Okay. Ready? Macon, you got a sound effect you want to use? Milwaukee Box, Milwaukee located in the north central part of the country, best record in the league, a point differential that's historic, maybe the best of all time. They're the best team.

they have the best player, but they haven't won a title in 50 years, so there's still always some apprehension. Speaking of titles, Toronto won it last year. They lost maybe the second best player in the league and Kauai player in the league. But you know what? They've got a great set of guards and that great depth. They've got a great coach. They've got a great fun of office.

So surprising two seats so far. Celtics' top four players are terrific. That's really good if you match them up against everybody else, but they don't have a big, they only big really tweets all the time. I don't like his content. He's multi-dimensional, all sorts of things they can throw out to you. You probably don't like their number two guy that much unless it's a guy. who has become an unbelievable center overnight.

The Pacers, tough team. Alina, they're best player back in Oladipo. Philadelphia is the most disappointing team in the league, a six-seat. 13 and a half games will have one seed. They're two best players can't play together. I can't play together. They're better without a parent. Orlando, they're actually in the playoffs.

Sorry, massive disappointment. Their best player sucks. Detroit just traded the player for the captain. The Wizards have the best offense in the league. That's not a mistake, except they're 17 and 13. Charlotte, I thought, had the world roster, so at 35, I'm actually impressed. Knicks are boring. It has a really scoring, a big kind of scoring player, who I don't necessarily love all the time.

And in Cleveland, I have no idea what they're doing. The Los Angeles City in California, that's the farthest west pretty much of the country. They have two teams, and one teams like Leo DiCaprio in Gatsby, and the other team is a little bit like Leo and Gilbert Great. But they're both really good. Denver has the hottest fans. I'm kidding. they're actually unattractive collectively. They're a three seed, but they get really, really heated.

This is all kind of new for me right now, because I'm still a little bitter because I love the city, but they've never done anything in a decade. They got to the second round last year, almost after beating a bad spurs team in the first round, but they think they're pretty sweet. Houston's as unwatchable as anything. If you were to the land in Houston,

your spaceship, just turn around, go back to the moon. Utah, I do like it. But they've lost five in a row once a schedule. Got tougher. Oklahoma City is, I think, one of the coolest stories in the NBA this year because all of their fans stuck up for Westbrook brainwashed almost while he was destroying what they were

because he stayed and Durant didn't. Durant's this other guy's not playing this year. Don't worry about it. And they have a much better point guard and Chris Paul because they're guys all want to leave this year and you could argue they're a better basketball team. Dallas just wins all the time. They have this guy that's impossible compared to black players

but he actually plays like black players. Memphis is actually 26 and 25. in this really good guard who's a rookie, he's young, he tweets too, and it looks like he's going to die in every dunk attempt, but it's actually because he doesn't ever die, so it's not that dangerous. Portland's a bit of a disappointment in the Western Conference finals last year, but it turned things around. San Antonio, a total year run.

This was long overdue to be under 500, but they're boring as hell. New Orleans has the most exciting player in Zion City, Sacramento, Minnesota, Golden State, you don't need to know anything about them, except Golden State will be good again next year when they get all the players. They're pretty good the last five years. That was really well done, right? Did you breathe? I don't know.

I'm a classically trained base, too, so I don't know if you knew that. Oh, classically. Well, that makes a difference. Ryan, I know Houston Unwatchable is the common take. Isn't it sort of intriguing, at least here at the beginning, when they play all guys are height? You know what? I thought last night was hilarious, right?

Because you're watching it and you're going, are you guys serious? Now, I actually think at some point, Daryl's going to add someone. I thought that. second move when, or rumors that second move was already in place for that to happen, to add at least a serviceable big for 20 minutes or in some kind of playoff matchup where you just kind of need some fouls. So I think the Lakers are so thrown off by it. They actually play terrible because I was like, this is sort of weird. It's so weird. I mean, they're tallest guy. Like

Eric Gordon would end up with switches on Andy Davis. And if you were telling me the brilliance of this lineup is now that everybody freaks out, doesn't want to take threes, and they keep trying to beat you in the paint, but if you double the right times, you're not just going to score because you have his advantage of the post, I think Barkley's point was awesome. He goes, fine, Houston won. I'm surprised. He was like, I didn't expect it. He goes to the idea that your team is going to hold up over the course of the next however many weeks, you know, all of February, March, and April, and then into the playoffs without anybody over 6-6. He's like, that's insane. He's like, physically you're going to absolutely wear out.

After those three minutes, I feel, after those three minutes, I can't disagree with my wealth of NBA knowledge. Yeah, right. You're on it now. Hey, real quick, before we let you go, because we do have a Philly, you know, a little bit of a Philly connection here. What the fuck is wrong with the Sixers? And how do you fix them? You're eventually going to have to break those two guys up. Simmons and Embed are the worst pairing of really talented players I've seen in a long time.

And I'm not really even anti-Benn anymore. You know, Ben, I think it's proven. And I think what that showed, and they've been trying to separate those guys more as far as their minutes, because I've gone back and looked at their minute pairings, and Brett Brown has broken them up more. But he can't, Brett Brown can't figure out how to get these guys going. And I actually am shocked. He came back, and you can say they're a bounce away from maybe beating the Raptors,

and then who knows what's going to happen. But their offensive efficiency with those two has been in decline now for three straight years, and it's a center who plays a little perimeter-based, and it's a point guard that wants nothing to do with that. the perimeter. Right. That makes sense. It's not even a knock on those two guys. I just, I don't know how much longer, how many more numbers. We can do this for another year, four years of these

numbers and what our eyes tell us, but those two guys should not be playing next to each other. You shouldn't, and it's not really even a knock on either guy now. Quick note for your future pods, best pacer's not Vic Oladipo, but Malcolm Humble Moses, Brogden. He's been better this year, but

been better this year. Been better this year. There's 31 20 because of Malcolm Brogden. Yeah, well, I don't know. I think peak Ola Depot last year was better than what we've seen for Brock. Well, I would agree with that. I would agree with that. Yeah, I think what Ola Depot was the first few months of last year was insane.

So, you know, I'm hoping to see them get back to that. But Brogner's a great man. Well, that was the NBA with our good friend, Ryan Rosillo. Do you feel infringed upon making that he joined the pod for? No, I really like Ryan. Yeah, it's always great having Ryan on. Yeah. Rye, short goodbye.

Thank you, bro. Peace. Yes, that was Ryan Rissila. Do we have anything else we want to talk about before we get to these Chicago low-life? Really bummer of a credit card roulette, but let's talk about it when they're in here. Oh, yeah, let's do it.

Let's bring on, you know, the fame, the infamous died tips loser from our fantasy football league, Matt Conrath, and Bad Back Back. key who also uh oh he's in the bathroom he's bad back bag he just so we'll take a bathroom a bathroom break he's in the bathroom and we'll get these two guys out here in a minute and welcoming to the pod two friends of the program two friends in real life here members of the men's lunch alliance yeah y'all are welcome for the lunch today yeah popped for it over here uh that was uh that

was a credit card roulette for those of y'all out there who don't play you put cards in the and whoever gets picked. Last, that's who's got to pay. I'm making, picked it up today. $88. Yeah, right before Bad Back Backy was about to pay for the meal. That's Bad Back Backy right here to my right. And that is...

Happy to be here. I mean, if you were wondering who the NFL player was, that is the former NFL player, Matt Conrad, the guy with the died tips. So why don't you guys introduce yourselves? Do you guys have long lists of accolades athletically and in the world? I want to leave it to you guys.

Want to start with Back Back Backy? Kevin Backy from Evergreen Park, Illinois. EPA Boys Club All-Star. All-Star? Yeah. 19992. Is that the South Side? Yeah, that would be the South Side, Chris.

That's considered the South Side. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know if I could trust Matt. I mean, St. Rita's, I don't know, the Northside School. The Russian Catholics Right The Russian Catholic That is true

Hey very much Arrival But you know what At the end of the day We all went to In like good Catholic school And Good Catholic guys here

Yeah Very much so Just the geis Happy to be here Yeah I'm a former teammate of yours Yes I was back

First year Yeah When you were a fourth year here And then Played three years with you And I took him on his visit I took Matt On the visit

What do you remember The first people I had the Fred when you were staying there. Yeah, that was one of the reasons why I ended up coming. Yeah, I'm a great host. Did not know that. I'm a great host, and little did you know that, you know, years later you would be wearing Guy Fiery tips because of your influence, actually. Yeah, yeah.

So the fantasy football league, and obviously Matt, you know, we're down playing Matt's football success played, you know. Do you guys get the tips? Would you play? Almost five in the league? Five? Four. Yeah, about five years in the league.

San Luis Ram. Zach Drew Breeze. We were both there. Yeah, we were both there. And, you know, Kev, he does a lot, you know, valiantly, athletically. We've covered it on the pod lately. I mean, he was a great athlete in his own right in his earlier years and now. He slipped a disc recently, so we've got the walking wounded here with Make.

And Kev, how's your back? It's better. The listeners are concerned. Yeah. I appreciate the shout out on that. It's better. Rehab. Yeah, rehab, doing a lot of rehab.

What kind of rea? Mini, mini cobras. A lot of mini cobras. You don't want to do the big cobras. They told me to do that 10 times a day, mini cobras, which is tough to do. What are you at this juncture in today? Right now. Two.

You got eight cobras to go. Got eight littlebers to go. And they're mini cobras. So it's not a big deal. what does a mini cobra a mini cobra you can do it on the floor or against the wall

and it's basically this it's a little bit of a thrust so you don't want to do that in public correct you want to do all your mini cobras in private Chris that is correct we're on YouTube.com are we on YouTube? Are we on YouTube?

Yeah, I can't really so the background here is our fantasy football league we were all members of this league it started out so promising I mean, we, Boylan Heights, we, Kev shut it down for us and we did a nice, a beautiful draft up in the second floor of Boilin Heights.

And everybody's team was so promising, including Matt's team and the loser of the league, the last place guy who surely was not going to be an NFL player, not going to be mere Matt, couldn't be, would have to get dyed tips. That was the penalty this year. And as you can see, Matt's got these luscious, you know, what is it?

How would you classify the color at this point? because you've had them a couple weeks. I mean, it has ambered out a little bit. 3-11. It's been nice. Yeah. I was a teenager. I was a teenager one.

Sarah at Adera Salon. Shout out. She did a great job. Two and a half hours. I think we have the pictures. Yeah, we'll put the pictures back up and post to when they were fresh. I went through with, you know, the tinfoil, everything. So two and a half hours.

Describe your build for those people listening so they can... My build? Yeah, just put a build in a face with the visualization of dyed tips. Yeah, 6-7, 245. Used to be how much, how much did you use the way when you played? 305 was the heaviest I ever tipped the scales with rock. Tipped the scale. Tipped it.

Nice play on words. Yeah. Yeah. So how's the experience been after walking around with these tips for a couple weeks? Not going to lie, I've gotten some compliments. I think they look fantastic. People that didn't know that this was a joke. So, yeah, I mean, there have been some looks, but I'm pretty comfortable by now.

I was worried about you in the O-O-R because you do work in the medical field. Yes, I do. But so we wear what we call a bouffant. Yeah, okay. Or a hat, cat, you know, so there's a whole sterility. I don't know, Lloyd, the French are assholes. Well, you know, I mean. So basically.

you're in the door, but you have a hat on. But your first day, what's it like when you show up? Did anybody bring it up when you had to, you walked in with the tips? Yeah, I actually got to talk with the doctor and he thought it was hilarious. So it was great. I think you talked about it being a good icebreaker. Yeah. And, yeah, I was able to play it off.

Do you have a significant other? I do. Katie was not a fan. Huh. That's weird because I think you look great. Well, it was more so the fact that I paid into. this and then and then had to pay again

to get the diet tips how much to do a pair of die tips? How much of diet tips called? And Sarah at Adaris Lyme hooked it up Oh yeah Maybe we're getting some kickbacks here Well I mean I'm a loyal customer

So we can all go in for Well I'm not comfortable with that Because then we say we're going to pay The league should pay for that Yeah we should pay for the tips Yeah that's not right That's not right There was a rumor floating around that you guys

Had highlights in High school, we dyed her hair. We dyed her hair like slim shady. Like together? All of them. Me, him, Matt Kingston. Is her pictures of that? There are.

They're out there floating somewhere. But you can't really tell. It wasn't like... Weirdly normal. They looked pretty normal. You know, this was circa 2000 now. I mean, you know, 2000, anything went. Back Street was back.

This is not 2020, bro. And so let's not try to equate your tips. I did... Some high school was fucking around with hair dye. I did take my daughter today to the mall. Yeah. And I stepped in American Eagle. There were no Pugachshel necklaces

I don't know if that's not good. That would have gone great with the tips. Spring break, 2002. Yeah, I get it. And couldn't find it at them all. For the people out there suffering through consensual died tips who died their tips, not losing a bet,

thought it might be a, you know, good decision. What do you have to say to them? Yeah, I don't want to offend them. I don't want to put that out there. I think I've gotten compliments. Yeah. So, you know, more power to you. Yeah.

And it should be mentioned if Matt starts D.K. Metcalfe instead of Stefan Diggs. Yeah. And whichever week it was, maybe 14, it's bad back bag. With the tips. Wow. And they go back to the south side with those tips. Are you kidding me? No way.

What happens if you go back to the south side with those tips? You get into why? Right? So it's probably a good thing that this big ass dude. Well, here's the thing. I mean, he's a little bigger than me. Yeah. You know what I mean?

He's lefty. You don't even see it coming. You know what I mean? I got a couple guys coming at me. Hey, Matt, can you walk us through Antonio Brown in round two? Yeah, so that kind of derailed. Right. I thought that was.

I thought it was a great pick. I thought it was a great pick. Well, actually, can we go back to my first round pick? James Connor, yeah. I've never played fantasy football before, so I see everyone drafting running backs. No kidding. So, yeah, so I think, oh, running back, he's receiver. Yeah, he likes to catch the ball out of that.

He didn't do much this year, though. The PPR League is what they said. So your prep was, didn't know what that was. Your prep was watching Picks 1 through 7 is what you're saying before you started. Pretty much. I saw people arrive with papers and research, laptops. That's right. Had none of that.

That made me on. uncomfortable. So very. So clearly. I'm out of the word. What has you prep, Kev? Prep? No.

And Kev goes, Devante Adams, Michael Thomas won too. Nice. That paid off. Yeah, it paid off well. Kept you out of the tips race.

I don't even know what you just said. Michael Thomas, he got the audience. He's just staring at the camera. But they also selected about seven Detroit Lions, which is an interesting strategy. I thought the lines were going to have a good year. Shut out.

Shut out, Danny. every good year. Shout out Danny Amadola. I remember vividly picking him. Chris saying that was not a great selection. I was worried about his health. You never know a wide receiver, especially a white wide receiver north of 30, well into his 30s, playing

under Matt Patricia, who wears players down. I worried, but this goes to show how big of an iron man, Dana Amadola is. He ended up winning me some games. Yeah, yeah. Danny was the end of a stretch of golf, Trey Burton, Tareke Cohen, Danny Dolah. That hurts in rounds five through. That's where you win the draft in the middle.

Well, the only thing is every one of my Detroit Lions got hurt. Huh? Every one of my Detroit Lions got hurt. So I was right in a sense. He was worried about the Lions. You picked D.K. in the last round, round 16. And he would have been the one that had gotten me out of the diet tips. And you know what?

I'm mad I gave you bad advice. So, okay, can we set the table for what happened last weekend? Can you set the table? You're the word, Smith. Well, I don't know if I can. all I know is that Matt was asking for advice, and it really came down to Stefan Diggs or D.K. They were playing each other.

It was in Seattle. Minnesota ended up, I think, winning 3431 or something. It was a tight ball game. And all that matters is that it came down to Diggs and Metcalf. And he had to start one. Started Diggs. Per my advice, but also per James Coe's advice, who's like the Babe Ruth of fantasy football.

And, you know, sometimes James gets it wrong. I don't know who that is. Well, he got it wrong and died tips are the reasons. The Vikings also had the ball with maybe, we're receiving a kickoff with about 40 seconds, and we're going to have to throw it. Yes. And fumbled that kickoff to give it back into the ball game.

He needed one catch, one catch to find it. Would have probably kept you from looking. I was asleep for that game. I did not watch that. And I woke up. to numerous things. I was living and dying with that. I saw that.

I appreciate it. That's amazing that you were asleep. I was too. I was too. I was completely asleep. I knew Macon had it. Like if I needed any type of information I'm going to Macon.

Yeah. The group text just got a little disruptive by the end of years. Because I was trying to stay away at different times. I was not setting my line up. I wasn't answering the group. You didn't set your line up

half the year. And I still didn't come in last clip. I kind of, did you want diet tips? No, I didn't want diet tips. I thought, well, I thought bright side, I was like, well, if I end up with diet tips, maybe it's good for the content. Right. But in retrospect, I'm really glad that I didn't get it.

Not that it doesn't look good. I think he nailed it. It was a little bit like Christmas, where I was like, I was committed to whatever it was going to be and woke up. Yeah. And woke up to the text messages that. that Kurt Cousins did not throw to... What would your life have been like Kev?

A little different than his. How would that have played out? I don't get to wear a... What's it called? A bouffant. Yeah, I don't get a bouffant. You know? What do you get?

Proper turn. I don't fucking get me anything. I don't get anything. I don't get anything. You know, I got to go in. I got to go to the bar. Your hair is much shorter, which it would have had the Geifiery effect. It would look more, yeah.

We didn't have that clause when I had to spike it. out, so I'm not spiking it out. Yeah. So I actually think it looks really good. I've been saying that since the beginning. Is there any part of Chicago you can go back to it, those tips? Yeah, any part of Northside. Just not south.

Oh, Northside for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, East Loop. Oh, well, East Loop. You don't know none about the Loop. Greg Lee Bill. This guy doesn't know. It needs to be mentioned that Matt was the general manager of a club that included

Lamar Jackson, who had perhaps the greatest fantasy season of all time. I think we're in a very competitive league. Yeah, you went four and nine. It's not like you went 0 and 13. There were some weeks where I thought I had it. Yeah. And, you know, week one, starred Jared Goff. Didn't know Lamar Jackson was going to be the guy.

Very true. To buzz in, you guys are going to have to say buzz, okay? Oh, we're playing trivia now. Okay. Let's do the Chicago trivia. These are obviously two esteemed gentlemen from Chicago. they often, they often, they're disapproving of my Chicago accent.

Awful. Yeah. It's so terrible. It's more Boston, I think. Oh, get. What is that? I don't know what that is. That's been going on for a while.

I don't know what that is. Yeah. I don't know what that is. It's fucking go to the Walter Payton, hell and run some sprints. That's where I'm going to take you. Don't bring up Walter. I'm going to take the wall.

Hey, Waltz, hey, Walter Payton man of the year here. That's sacred. I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. , former. I'm washed up now.

I can't put you down and get you a Chicago dog, okay? Mike Dick can used to do. Relish. That's it. I think. That's it. Definitely not ketchup. We don't fucking put a fucking catch up on the...

What we do, running through the garden. Huh? Running through the garden. Yeah, whatever he said. Running through the garden. We're going to do some trivia, okay? Because we got Kurt Meneffey coming up. He's actually a real famous person unlike the four of us.

So we're going to find a... fucking, uh, breeze through this fucking trivia, okay? Uh, y'all can actually both participate in this one. How many residents would the city of Chicago? What is the loser? What does the loser get? Or what, what happens to loser? What's happening right now? It's trivia. We're going to ask you some Chicago trivia. Okay. And if you lose, you just can't go home. Okay. Yeah, they just can't go home.

I got to go home. I got to fly her back tomorrow. Oh, shit. Midway, Midway's a fucking fundraiser. Uh, midway's a fucking nightmare. Hey, shout out to be Rice. I'll shout out to Brother Rice. St. Reader as well. Okay, but what happens if I get one, you know what, we'll leave it to them. Okay. We'll do it. Well, yeah.

Okay. Here's, the loser has to go to Jack and Jills today and eat two Charlottesful hot dogs. There's such a thing. What's on a Charlottesville hot dogs? Cetchup. No. No. I'm not too.

I'm not feeding it to my kids. I get my dog. I get ketchup and mustard. I'm all right with that. Mine, I get mustard. I get ketchup, ketchup. That's disgusting. This is taking too long.

How many residents are in the city of Chicago? You got a lot of land area? Sure. As per chalk media research. Three mil. Yeah, I was going to say around three million. You can't answer the same. All right, 3.5.

Kevin Backy's one or 2.7 million. Wow. Little city, we're good, to be honest. I think it's the third largest in America. Isn't it? I mean, we might be playing some trivia here, but. We start talking second. Confirm.

It's third largest, but he's had. Point to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's had, he's had time. You know how it was 2.7, but he was like, oh, three million. No, that was, that was, that was, that was back. I just, I said, that was off the cuff. That was off the cup.

When was the Great Chicago Fire? 1905. No, 1870? 1871. Wow. Backy. Bangarang. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But coming. My dad's a history teacher So that's not Oh yeah That makes it look like At St. Rita

You can't throw them Docks your own dad The south side of Chicago Has a population of His face when I realize he docks his dad All 10,000 subscribers are going to just be On his ass St. Rita

Go ahead Population of Southside South Siders Hold on Oh, you're going to say that's not a thing? A million. Are you going south of the loop? Yeah, what's the parameters?

You're going south of Madison? I mean, this is a, yeah, I'm going under, no, 500,000. Closer to 800,000. I was going to say, 7.52. I get that point. 3 and O? What's the name of y'all's NLS team? Who got that?

Who got that one? Fire. Fire. I knew that. How do you say fire? Oh, this guy. How you say fire? Why does fire have two syllables?

Fire. What's the name of the... Don't cut that. What's the name of the WMBA team? This guy. Becky, feel free to jump in at any point. Backy, feel free to care about the WBAC. Here's the thing.

I didn't know we're doing the buzz thing. Oh, that's just first... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I was giving you... I was being polite. It was a little slow. Hey St. Patrick's Day

What happens around those parts? He died of the river green. Which river? Well, actually, Chicago River. The Chicago River. By Chicago Cut, it runs right by Chicago Cut. Here's the thing.

When he does this? Here's the thing. I got it. It's not about the river. It's so bad. It's a Southside Irish parade, though. Correct. And what's they took away and they brought back, it's phenomenal.

So for Charleston. I love it when he says that word. Hey, the other part, the downtown parade, Nobody on the Southside cares about No, it's like our Foxx... It's like our Foxfields for the Charlottesville people watching. Nobody cares. Nobody cares.

Nobody cares at the end of that? Foxfields? No, bro. Well, when Chris starts saying St. Rita, then I'll start. Okay. St. Rita's. Yeah, see. So there you go.

She was a fucking saint. Her name was St. Rita. I got an aunt called Rita because of St. Rita. Because my grandfather was the head basketball coach at St. Rita. I got more Rita blood than this. Hell yeah, he's a hosur questionable. Downtown paraders.

You used to go to the downtown parade. It's not question. Your gym is... The hallway leading up to the gym. Okay. The hallway leading to the gym is what? Barney Backy Hallway. Barney Beckie.

Barney Beckie. Yeah. They wear the White Sox play these days. Comisky. Oh, that was slow by you. No, he's right. Kamisky Park. Always commisky.

It's called Guarantee Rate Park right now, but nobody says that. Yeah. Guaranteed rate field if we're being technically. Whatever. Correct. At time of taping, folks, it's 2 o'clock on a Friday in Chicago. I didn't know we were letting people know that. Yeah.

What's the temperature? 34. I would say 38 degrees. It's 35 degrees right now. Wow. They all are pretty good. Yeah. They look pretty good.

Is that considering the wind show? No. Is that acueather? It's called 34 and I'm closer than you. I actually remember getting reprimanded by Macon for using the iPhone. And then he said acueather is... I don't know what y'all are talking about. I was answering a text.

That means we're boring him. No, no, no. We got Kurt Meneffey's up in three minutes. Hey, talk to us about the Blues Brothers. What do you want to know? first names. Elroy. Elwood.

Yeah. Great movie. And Joliet Jake. Oh, Julia. Do you know where Juliet's at? Juliet Illinois. Yeah. A great casinos.

And the home of St. Francis, University of St. Francis. My brother went there. Oh, yeah? Yeah. The Fighting Saints. And also home of Gordy Gillespie. Hey, Gordy Gillespie.

Winning his baseball coach. Gordy Gillespie won a lot of baseball. games. It's great. When was Chicago settled? Oh, wow. Is it settled? 18.

After a fire? No. No. I'm going to go 1802. Okay. I was settled in 1780. When it became an incorporated town in 1833. And you had to go with that.

I'll give him it. His dad's a history. Greek teacher. He already said that. Do you know the motto of Chicago? The Windy City? Oh yeah, this is a good one. It's more of a nickname, I would say, than a motto. I don't know that. Okay. What would the nickname be? That's like eating deep dish pizza. Hey, that's like eating deep dish pizza. Like, nobody eats deep dish pizza. Really? Yeah, no. Talk about that. No. Nobody eats deep dish. It's called tavern style, cut and squares. Correct. Pizza tastes better cutting squares. Correct. Okay. It's more of a tourist thing.

Take your word for it. Um. Deep dish. It's a good switch up every now and then. Lumamottis, Giordano's. Who's the best football player of all term? And why? Walter Payton. And why?

Because he'll win you a game. If you need a quarterback, he'll play quarterback and win that game. What else could he play? Hunter. Anything. Place kicker. Yeah?

Whatever. What do you need? Other sports? You could probably play hockey. You need my Land Rover serviced? Can he service one? I don't want Walter working on your car. No, you don't.

He's above that. I like, hey, Jared's a great guy. Jared is a great guy. Friend of yours, friend of the program. Yeah, I don't Jared. He's a good dude. I saw him in, uh, yeah. I saw him in, uh, in, in Miami.

I knew Jared back in, uh, back in high school. And then, uh, when he was at Miami with a couple friends of mine when we used to go down there and have a good time. Have a good time. Great time. Great time. Great time. Kevin.

Back back. Thanks for him. Appreciate you, man. A little Chicago knowledge. Oh, you're going to pound it? You didn't watch your hands early? Exactly. I'll pound because I'll go back in the green room.

Yeah, you guys can hang out in the green room. The green room is very luxurious here. And we have Kurt Meneffi calling it in a second. So can we clear the set guys? So yeah, that's, yeah, I hate to bust my buddy's balls, but this is, you know, as far as the famous people quotient, we've got Kurt Meneffi on now. This is a big step up.

We just did our fantasy football rundown. Now we've got the golden voice of NFL Fox Sunday. Kurt Manafi, good friend of mine and a friend of my pops, Kurt, how are we doing? Good, man. That means you actually run out of people already to have on your show? No, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what happened. This is no bullshit. It was, we were supposed, you know, like you wake up, and this is my first foray into this stuff,

my first fall, and it ends, and I'm thinking to myself, oh, the offseason is going to be great. There's so much more I can talk about than football. And I'm looking around in the first week, and I'm like, what the hell's going on? Well, there's a reason the XFL is starting soon. I think it's got a nice little niche you guys can occupy. And I say, you guys, because Kurt is not only does he do a great job on Fox Sunday, I think he's the guy that keeps that ship afloat with all those personalities. But he's doing play-by-play now.

And you did play-by-play last year in the NFL. You're doing it with the XFL now. Tell me a little bit about what you got going with them. Yeah, so I'm going to be the lead play-by-play guy on the Fox broadcast. for the XFL along with Joel Clatt, who will be our analyst. Brock Heward's going to be with us on the sidelines this week. And, you know, I mean, the league is starting up, and hopefully people got a chance to see the, you know,

promotion during the Super Bowl, they ran a commercial or you've heard about it, but it's the 18 spring football league that's kind of starting up. And I think if you're a football fan, you're going to be some names that are familiar to you. Some of them may be whatever happened to that guy, and now here he is, but they're still young enough to play. But, I mean, I think when you look around the quarterback, Jackson's League. I mean, you get guys like

Josh Johnson, who obviously if you're an NFL team, he's probably been on yours. He's been on 13 teams in 11 years, but he was a starter, one of those games I did last year for Washington. So he started in the NFL as recently. I played in that game. Yeah, you did?

Well, we played against Josh the last game of the year. Yeah. And that's when he came down the stretch, and they still had a chance to kind of make the playoffs. Yeah. And he's a guy that you root for and I bet there's like you know as you play in the NFL a long time you realize

that there are a lot of guys that don't get the same opportunities and you know the quarterback position for sure but position players as well who are some guys that you're sitting there and you're in you're pulling for as you watch these XFL games and other some names that you might you might hear and go yeah that guy yeah well you start talking about it and then

me Josh is the quarterback but as I'm saying Connor Cook you know who started that playoff game for the Raiders Matt McGloin who's there Cardale Jones obviously won a national championship at Ohio State. Landry Jones, former Oklahoma quarterback, is reunited with Bob Stoops, who's the head coach of the Dallas team. So you get those guys.

But then you get a guy like today, we're here, we're doing the game between L.A. and Houston tomorrow. The roughness. It's a guy. It was a third-round pick of the Steelers, and he just couldn't stay healthy and kind of bounced around, but he's still 26 years old. He's kind of refocused his life, I think, you know,

you know how it is part of it, and then we saw that with Andrew Luck a little bit. Guys, you get beat up physically, and after a while he gets you mentally. And him kind of being away from football last year because he went to training camp for the chiefs and that kind of thing. But being away from it, he said his allowed his body to get healthy and his mind to get right. And he's refocused and you look at a guy like that. You go, that's the kind of guy you're pulling for who's got the physical skills. And for whatever reason, you know, the body betrayed him early.

Hopefully if you can get it right, there was a reason he was a third round pick and we can see, you know, a guy like that Excel or Eli Rogers who played in business. or Lance Dunbar, who is with the Cowboys. I mean, so you get guys that are familiar names if you're a football fan, and you want them to get another chance. Yeah, absolutely. I think we all pull for guys like that. And I looked at this, and I'm wondering if the XFL's strategy in recruiting players playing in the league,

is there kind of a mission statement for them behind closed doors if they said, you know, this is going to be our priority, bigger name guys, or maybe not so much bigger name guys. We're actually just going with guys that we can rely upon being on our roster at the end of the year, we're not necessarily trying to, you know, be this farm system where our best players are getting plucked all the time. What's that kind of dilemma like for them? Yeah, and I think that's true.

I mean, I think it's like anything else. Look, the guys that are here, they're committed to being here the full season. If they sign a contract to play in the XFL, they're not free until May 1st, you know, which is a week after the NFL draft. So they'd be able to spend the rest of the offseason with teams. And, you know, anybody would be lying if they said, everybody's here, at least you from a player standpoint, maybe even some of the coaches, because you want to advance your career.

You know, and the NFL is the dream job. But this is not a developmental league per se to get guys there. But you know that in the end, if you can have a Sammy coach come out and do what he, you know, is supposed to do or Landry Jones or Cardell Jones, and they wind up back in the NFL, it's also, you know, it's a notch in the belt for the league and what guys can do and saying that, okay, you may not be there right now,

but you can get back there. And I always go back to, like, my experience. I did NFL Europe for 10 years. You know, I did play-by-play at Fox before I was in the studio, and part of that was NFL Europe. And I always go, yeah, there was a couple of guys, you know, Lawrence Phillips or those kind of names that you knew going into the season.

But at the end of the season, it always was, I mean, Kurt Warner, obviously everyone knows his story. He was on a team. Jake Dallone was the backup quarterback. Both those guys went and played the Super Bowl. But when we went into the season in the NFL Europe, and that was an off-season thing, We're like, if these guys could just make a practice squad, it'll be a really cool story.

Yeah. You know, and they wound up doing more than that. James Harrison was over there. Adam Venetary, you know, who's on the all-time 100 team. So sometimes guys just need an opportunity, man. And so I'm always in favor of if you can give a guy a chance and then let him prove himself, then why wouldn't you? Kurt Menifee is our guest, getting ready to call XFL this weekend on Fox. Kurt, take this in any direction you like.

I'm curious about maybe. the most bonkers rule the XFL has, one that you think might make a whole lot of sense, and how difficult is it for you coming off the NFL season to prepare to call an XFL game with so many different rules? Yeah, you know, the one thing I will say, if you watch it, it's going to be, I mean, for the most part, the rules are the same as football, you know, whether it's college or pro. You know, you only have to get one body part down, whether it's one foot or, you know, an elbow, whatever, not two feet, to make a catch that's different than the NFL.

The play clock is 25 seconds, but they have an official ball spotter. That's a little bit different. But it's really about 30 seconds between plays and the way teams run hurry up offenses and spread offenses in college now, it's really not that big difference. I think the two places you'll notice are both special teams area in that, and this is, I think the NFL is going this way anyway. If you look at it, not to bore people with statistics, but kickoffs are only 6% of plays in an NFL.

NFL game, but 20% of the head injuries come on kickoffs. Yeah. And so everybody's trying to find a way to reduce that. So what they've done here with the XFL is both teams, you'll see the kicker is lined up at the 30-yard line, but both the receiving team and the coverage team are lined up on the receiving teams end of the field five yards apart. So you don't get that 30-yard running head start and no one can move until the deep man touches the football, or it's on the ground for three seconds and official blows the whistle. But anyway, so the point is, you don't get that 30 yard of one guy trying to brace himself

with someone else running into him full speed. And that hopefully will reduce collisions and reduce head injuries. And I think that's one direction. The NFL, I mean, we saw at the Pro Bowl, they're trying to experiment with fourth and 15, whatever they can do to take that out of the game. So I think that's a smart aspect of it. There's more about health and safety. And then from an entertainment standpoint, there are no extra points.

So when teams score touchdowns, you either go for one, points inversion from the two-yard line, two-point conversion from the five, or three points from the 10. So even if you're down by 18 points in the fourth quarter, it's still two scores. So it adds excitement. It takes out what was a routine, just lined up and kick an extra point and adds a different level to it. But I think fans are really going to love.

Kurt, if you're the coach and you've got great football knowledge, are you first touchdown? Are you going for one, two, or three, was it? Yeah, you can go for it. What are you doing? What's Coach Medafee doing? Well, Coach Menofee is, well, it depends on what kind of offense I'm going to how much I trust my quarterback. But I think I'd go for two or three out of the gate.

And one of the things, June Jones is coaching the Houston team, and we're talking to him about it today. And he said his inclination at first was to go for three, maybe not every time. But, you know, use it the majority of times because he said, if you get it once, that makes up for the one and two. So, like, you're not taking points the rest of the day. He says, but now that he's kind of done the math on a little bit more, but he probably, would lean towards going for two, but he is certainly not opposed to going for three in a scenario where the scoreboard doesn't necessarily say we're down and we need these points. He thinks that it can be a dagger if you can add three, four points and you wind up with a nine point touchdown

instead of getting a seven point touchdown. You mentioned these coaches. You say June Jones, you say Bob Stoops, like, who are some of the names in coaching? Tressman, the names and coaching that popped up because I figure the coaching names are huge. And what's, and what is, you know, motivating these coaches to join this league? Is it just love for the game? Are they bored? Do they see this as a pipeline to get back in the league? I think it's a variety of things.

I think you kind of hit on it. You get a guy like June Jones, you know, who's approaching 70 and, you know, he's coached in the NFL, he's coached in college at Hawaii at SMU, and they've been coaching in the CFL the last couple of years. And I think this is just, you know, he loves football. So this keeps him around the sport. He's an innovator. I mean, one of the innovators for the run and shoot,

which is really kind of how the spread offense got started. And he just loves doing it. Ted Cottrell's his defensive coordinator who's been around the NFL for forever. And I think older guys like that, it is their chance to really stay involved in it and keep teaching because that's what they are, really, teachers. And I don't want to speak for anybody else, but you get some of the younger guys.

You look at Mark Tressman, I think, you know, was coach of the Bears, and I think he still probably thinks he has a, an NFL future. Pep Hamilton, who's the coach in D.C., you know, he was a quarterback's coach in Indy with Andrew Luck and Stanford with Luck and Harbaugh. And so he's never had a chance to be a head coach before.

And I think that this is a different opportunity for him, rather than bouncing around and being a position guy in the NFL, get some head coaching experience, and then you can go back with that as well. So, again, this is me speaking. Yeah. Yeah. But you look at a guy like that. And you can see there are different reasons for different guys.

So are there days shorter than NFL days? Because I'm like thinking of myself, I'm like, you know, some of these guys, they're making 55K for 10 games. You know, some of the quarterbacks are making half a mill. Maybe I'm going to get my ass off the couch and playing the XFL if they don't have as many meetings and shit. I tell you what, and the practices, I don't know, maybe they do a little bit more hitting than you guys. Yeah, well, no, thank you. You stop me right there.

Stop me in my tracks right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so who's just so current. I think it's really cool, like to talk to some of these guys again. I talk to Sammy Coach or Connie Ely, you know. Yeah, God, he was a really good player. Yeah, he was the second round pick of the Carolina Panthers and that Super Bowl against Denver.

Three sacks. He had three sacks, three sacks, an interception and a fumble recoup. Yeah. I mean, he would have been the MVP. He had Carolina won that game, but he's another one. It's just kind of like injuries and the mental aspect of it, and he took a year off in football. Yeah.

And now he wants to find his way back. And again, he's another guy. He's 26, 27, you know, but as a defensive lineman, if he can get going again, he's going to get an opportunity. And if he gets an opportunity, he can get another seven, eight, ten years out of this thing, you know? Yeah. What does it mean to St. Louis to get a team? When you look at the ticket sales for this league so far, Seattle is up there. Houston has done really well.

I'm told at least the number one place for season tickets has been St. Louis. And they believe that a lot of that is, one, there's a thirst for football. I mean, you played there. You know, I mean, the fan base is solid. They know their game. But I think a lot of them also are glad to have it back, you know, in whatever capacity they can. And maybe part of it is to kind of stick it to stand cronkey is there have been some

groups that say we want to show as a city of St. Louis that we can support a football organization. Now, it's obviously not the NFL, but I think there is that base that's there. But as of now, at least last I heard, the number one place as far as season tickets go. So I think they're thrilled and really excited. And, you know, right now on paper you go they should be a competitive team, but we don't know. Yeah. One of the weird things, too, you know, you're putting all these teams together, 52-man rosters, coaching staffs.

None of them have ever worked together. None of them have done for adversity together. So we'll see how it winds up being, you know, the best team on paper is not always the best team on the field at the end of the season. Before we hit you with one or two non-XFL questions before we get you out of here, it's been great talking to Kurt Meneffi, who's doing a bunch of play-by-play for the XFL, Fox NFL Sunday. straight man, guy that keeps the ship afloat, as I said earlier. But do you have a prediction after you just told me how unpredictable it is in the championship game in the XFL? Give me the two teams who are going to be in it.

All right. Well, so there are four teams in the east, four teams in the west. I would say, again, it being unpredictable, my prediction will be probably DC, the DC defenders. Out of the East, that's the team that Pep Hamilton is the head coach of Cardell Jones, quarterback. Oh, I like that. And then out of the West, I kind of like, if you look at it, the only team I think that is going to be built around defense is the Los Angeles Wildcats. And Winston Moss is their head coach, Pepper Johnson's, their defense coordinator. Norm Chow's the officer guys who follow college football. And I think they're going to be able to score enough points while being defensive focus.

and I think most of the other teams are going to be sitting around offense. I do like this Houston team with June Jones, the head coach, and a kid, PJ Walker is the starting quarterback. He beat out Connick Cook in training camp. Walker went to Temple. He was in that Matt Rule system. And I think they're going to be really good, but I would say only because of the defensive aspect of it,

Josh Johnson is their starting quarterback right now. I go with L.A. So let's go L.A.D.C. I like that. I like that. Two major cities, East Coast, West Coast. That's going to be good for the league. Yeah.

Like, you had some non-XFL questions. Yeah, Kurt, you have to take a 12-hour road trip with one of the following. Who are you picking Bradshaw, Long, Strayhan, or Johnson? Well, now, look, I'm on here with Howie's son. Yeah. Oh, yeah. People forget that. This is not a fair.

Yeah, you've never heard that. No, but also, Kurt, but if I had to guess how he's going to be up there, because he's probably a good travel mate. I mean, he's low maintenance. Absolutely. He's low maintenance. And I think I could talk to Howie about almost anything. Yes.

You know, it could be about movies. It could be about football. Well, he can really talk about football. But it could be about politics. It could be about anything. And so that's kind of part that you want to have on a road trip. We can have a variety of conversation. But I see, Howie would be up there.

And then Strayham would probably be very close because that 12-hour road trip would certainly be in a private plane, I guess. Yeah, with the money he's got. That's what I'm talking about. That's a good way to answer that question. Yeah, so one last question, because we're uniform snobs here since we do have a minute or two I'm seeing. I'm looking at all the logos.

I don't know how much of a uniform or logo snob you are. I know what I like here. I haven't seen the uniforms. Do you have a favorite logo? Do you think anybody's got a really elite get-up out of these teams? Well, I'll say, again, I like the D.C. defender's logo. That's a good logo. Do you have that in front of you?

Yeah. Yeah. So it's nice and clean. I like the, you know, kind of X, if you will. But I do like the Houston roughnecks because it kind of harkens back to the Houston Oilers days. And, you know, it feels like it's Texas and tradition and football. And so I think that's cool. Yeah.

I like the Seattle Dragons because I did NFL Europe and I love the Barcelona Dragons. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Same color, you know, and a similar logo. Yeah. But if you had me take one, I just take, because I think Houston. wraps up everything. It wraps up football. It wraps up the tradition here. So that'd probably be the one I'd go with. What say you make?

Yeah, I liked all of those. I'll go DC Defenders in a close one. Collie, at first glance, I was looking at the Dallas Renegades because of the color palette, you know, that I got going. But the DC Defender's logo is great. It's kind of like what the Titans logo might have should have been. You know, so look good, feel good, play good. And, you know, Kurt is going to be in the booth. Yes, exactly. So it all stems back to uniforms, which we talk about all the time on this spot.

Kurt's going to be in the booth all the time. What's the first one you're going to be in the booth for? What's the first game? It's this weekend, L.A. at Houston tomorrow. I'll be doing games with Joel Klapp every Saturday, 5 o'clock Eastern time on Fox. And I think that's one of the things that's really cool about this league. you know, everybody keeps going on.

We've seen these other startup leads and they don't go. They don't go. One, I don't know any that have had the financial backing that this one has. But secondly, every Saturday and every Sunday, the game times are locked down and they're on a network. Yeah. Saturdays at 2 o'clock, they're on ABC. At 5 o'clock, they're on Fox.

And so you know, when you get home and you want to turn the TV on, hey, it's, you know, 3.30, there's a game on my local station here. So I think that's going to help out a lot, just people knowing where it is and where to find it. You're on the Green Light Pod, which is a part of Chalk Media. Kurt, throw us the word chalk in the first quarter. We'll be watching. We'll be listening. And all of our listeners and viewers will know what you're talking about.

No, no, no, no. This is going to be actually easier than you think. It will be. Because they are going to be very public about betting. Oh, yeah, yeah. And all we talk about, we talk about a lot of gambling. Yeah, at the start of the games, you know, we're going to give the point spread and, you know, what the overrunner is. so, you know, we can talk about the chalk.

There we go. Beautiful. There we go. Well, the beer drinker me is very happy because now I have something to watch on Saturdays football related. There we go. It's not the CFL. It's not some alien-looking football game. It is American football.

And it will be, you know, serenated with the play-by-play. Your TV set will be set, your living room will be serenated with the golden voice of Kurt Meneffi. Dulcet tones. The dulcet tones. That's what I'm looking for. I appreciate you, Kurt. We'll talk to you soon and good luck this season. You don't get a break.

All right. Anytime, guys. They're always glad to be with you. See you, bud. Thank you. All right, so we're back. These dudes who are just in our green light green room. Pretty nice back there, right?

That's great. Really hospitable. Yeah, thank you. Love it. Thank you. They're back. So we had to interview Kurt Meneffi, and now I got my boys back on the pod,

Bad Backy, and Diet Tips. Conrath, two elite athletes, and now podcasters. Yeah, I feel good about it. You might get your own pod, you said? I think you can do something. Yeah. This is a nice setup.

Thank you. This is beautiful. Thanks for having us. No problem. Thanks for having us. So we're going to do the mailbag here, and you guys, we figured it would be great to have you along for the mailback. So chime in.

Just love to listen. You know, whenever you see fit. Becca Mitch says My Falcons went six and two to close the season And that's not a question But to be fair I did ask for people to sell me On why their shitty teams will be better In 2020

And Becca who is a long time follower I appreciate you Asked about the Falcons The Falcons went six and two after the buy They Their six and two record was the best in the NFC That's actually a bit of a shock to me Wow after that point in the season

So I love the Falcons to turn it around next year. You have that unique situation where you've got an elite quarterback and a shitty record and a chance to turn it around. They beat San Francisco up there, right? They beat New Orleans.

They reshuffles their coaches. That was a really big one. A mustard fumble. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They have three top 55 selections in the draft. They got the second rounder from New England. Sunoo, stealing. Not that they would have been stealing if New England had capitalized on that.

But Lindstrom was their first round. He was the guard last year. He only played in five games, so you're going to get him back, and you're going to need those young guys back in the fold. Matt Ryan was sacked 48 times. It's the most in the league. Julio Jones got to start scoring touchdowns at some point. No one's doubting the fact that he's elite.

He's got to get more out of him. He scored like zero touchdowns in 11 and last 12 games. It's insane. They can fix that. And the rest of the NFC South has quarterback problems or questions, possibly problems down the line. I know what's going to happen with Drew Brees, but you don't really know.

Cam, you legitimately don't know in James. I bet he gets franchise, but that might come up later in the mailbag. And the Atlantic defense was the biggest improvement after the buy-day. 22 points or less in six of eight games. You get Neil. I don't know what's going on with Neil,

but he got hurt in like the first three games and the opener last two years. And the biggest thing next year, one out of five of non-divisional home games will be versus teams that had winning records last year. And that's the Seahawks. Shane French asked. If you could play any other sport

Other than the four major ones in the U.S., which sport and why Also can you beat Lane in a race. International soccer. Curling. Really? Squash. Not international soccer?

No. Think about the lifestyle. Curling's phenomenal. What's that lifestyle like? I don't know. But all I know is I've done it, enjoyed it. Yeah.

And I'll do it again. My. It's great. Bad back, but are you going to be recovered by the time we get to curling? You know what? Right now the back's ready for curling. Okay. Mm-hmm.

I just need ice. I need ice. Ice and stem. No, I need ice. Oh, you need ice. Okay. That's all you need. Yeah.

Curling field. Sean Leonard asks, if Stafford stays healthy, are the Lions a divisional round team or a championship round team? Yes. Oh, man. I love, love the under-the-radar lions. It's not, listen, people give me shit for this because I do like Matt Patricia. And I got to interview him in Miami. That was actually fun.

It was good to see my old coach. But if Stafford stays healthy, yes, that's the big key. I don't know about the recovery from that injury. But I think they're a playoff team. I don't know if they're a championship round team. But if you look at the quarterbacks, you don't like it. You guys don't think the. Here's my, the Chicago thing.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bears. The Bears. No. Well, I mean, they got to step up. Yeah, you're right. They do. They do.

On one hand, Chicago has to step up. That's true. But the problem is, and speaking of your bears and the rest of the NFC North, the bears have 21 free agents this year. They have the six worst amount of cap space, and the Packers are bottom 10 as well. So there's turmoil on the rest of the NFC North. You know, quarterback situations in Chicago. you've got Stefansky leaving Minnesota.

You don't know what effect that's going to have. You have the Packers who couldn't play fucking defense. They couldn't stop a toddler from running for 100 yards. You know, so the rest of the division's in a bit of underrated turmoil. Gallaudet, you got him. He led the NFL in the cakes. St. Reed? Yeah, he was.

Galdade St. Rita kid? He went to my high school, yes. Wow. He's south side. I'll own him. I'll own him. Yeah, no. Kevin, actually,

took him in the draft. Yeah. The round. I was playing on taking Kenny. But when Stafford left after week nine is the figure

I feel like this is a whole other this figure's crazy. You know what I mean? He was number one in past yards per game, number two in passing touchdowns, number four in yards per attempt, 391 yards a game.

That was fifth in the NFL for the Lions as a team. And after he was going to drop the 28th, Blow is not getting it done the same way. Wow. Blow! Again, next year,

four of five, non-divisional road games will be versus non-playoff teams so that's huge you watch them this year the Packers game the hands to the face with Trey Flowers the tie they blew it down in the desert to open I mean they started off with some promise and it all imploded they were 0 and 8 without

Stafford you look at the playoffs this year in the NFC Kirk Cousins Jimmy G Carson Wentz Aaron Rogers and then there's Russ and Drew but those four I mentioned off the bat they all have they all had Knox this year right even A-Rod I mean his number weren't great. Kirk Cousins is Kirk Cousins. Jimmy G. Carson Wentz. You know,

Carson's got his doubters. If Stafford's in that group, you feel pretty good about him. So I think they're a playoff team. You said A Rod, and it is a Friday show. I downloaded Let's Get Loud by Jennifer Lopez after the Super Bowl. Oh, did you? Yeah. How'd you like that halftime show? It was fine. Yeah, it was just fine. Yeah. Okay. Matt Guffin asks, you look lean. What are you weighing in at these days? You know, I'm glad you asked because I tipped the scale at $250. I want to chime in on this a little bit. Because you know why?

I don't, the weighing in at, like, that's not a big thing for me. I try balking you up. Let's talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I'm trying to gain. What am I, am I lean gaining? No, you're bulking. You're just straight bulking. Oh, we got you got in the supplement.

No, the supplements. Right. Yeah. What are you weighing, Matt? I haven't, I told you to. the day I haven't stepped on a scale. And yet you gave us your weight about 15 minutes ago on the show. If I was gestimating, I would say it was somewhere.

So yeah, here's the thing that people don't understand is I wasn't that fucking big. If you'd have seen me outside of my pads the last couple years of my career, I was skinny. I was shocked. I was, yeah. So now all the people. Flippable. Someone's saying flippable. There's a, I wanted this to come up.

One time I flipped Matt Conrath over my head. This is when he was 300 pounds. We get a little howie on the phone. And just smashed him. Yeah, we need to get my brother on the phone. But there's this longstanding debate here with me and Conrath. And we were teammates on the Rams. We were training in Charlottesville.

One day we went tubing, had a great time, got a little tipsy. It's a good time. Got back to the apartment to pregame for the night out and got to wrestling. And, you know, two-man enter, one man leaves. Yeah, who made it out? So my hamstring exploded because I flipped a 300-pound man onto my extended leg. I flipped you over my head. You try to jump on my back.

And I fucking basically, can I finish? I jet lead you. I jet lead you in slow motion. And then you just, your big body landed on my knee. And I had to give my hamstring up for the victory. But I wouldn't have changed the thing. I get a rebuttal. Yeah.

So what had happened was. Yeah, when it starts with that. Chris had jumped on my back. Oh, it's a complete. So I flipped him over my back. Yeah. And being 300 pounds, when I landed on him, he kind of, I believe Matt

He yelled out in pain I was in college However went down He jumped on somebody he shouldn't have jumped on Here goes this This Chicago tribalism here We walked to Boilin Heights So here's the funniest part

I had to get ready for camp I'm two weeks out of camp And I had to miss a couple practices Because I was hand cleaning And the bar fell on my leg What they didn't realize is this big soft piece of 300-pound meat. You didn't tell the truth? Huh?

You didn't tell the truth? The truth was that. You just went out there on day one and you're like, oh. Well, I just said, hey, Reg. You know, I was doing a hand clean and the bar landed on my, you know, something happened. Something happened. Something fucking, so the refrigerator fell off a fucking truck. You know, what I'm going to say?

It happens. Soving-Yong-Bonk asks, if you could change one thing, What would you do differently in high school or college, if anything, to better prepare for your career? You know what? I'm going to ask Matt this as well. What? I don't want to put you on the spot. Yeah, you're right.

There are other athletes here, but Matt played in the NFL. So, like, was there anything that you would have different? Well, Kevin and I also have careers. This doesn't say football career. Well, it was posed to me. Can I cross my legs here? Okay, let's go around the room then. Me?

Out of that question, I probably would have left after my junior year. Oh, you jerk. we had a great time that last year we did have a great time but you went number two in the draft and I could have gone number 25 to some cushy fucking team

where everybody's watching you you get leads and there's coverage you end up winning big sitting hates St. Louis it happened later in life it happened it happened

goes around comes around this is great what would you all have changed I mean honestly go back to birth I would have been born five weeks later. So, so.

It's not high school or college. Let's break this down. Chris, I think I think you guys got, you got held back. Yeah, I got held back. So I was the, the curriculum was a little much for me. I was the youngest in my class. I was the August birthday. Yeah, you wanted that good little league.

But I was also four weeks early. Uh-huh. I was, I was almost an 11-pound baby. That's next level. They asked, they asked about high school and college. Matt said I would have been born later. So that way, I would have gotten recruited by... So you're saying in the womb five weeks later.

I mean, sorry putting this out there on the interweb, but... Lay my parents a little bit. Yeah, for sure. For sure. They definitely could have done something differently about that. Wow. Anything from you, make? Yes.

I would have walked to class at the university. Instead, I drove about three-quarters of a mile, accrued many parking tickets, and became fat. Can we pull that picture? No, we can't. At some point. Listen.

I got fat. And now I love walking. Wasn't fat. There's nothing better than walking. You weren't fat. And I wish I had discovered that. Walking is great. You know, we were, we, we are australopithecine.

How do you say that? Austroletecent. How do you say that? I have no idea what you're trying to say. The fucking Neanderthal. Sapiens. Our sapiens. The book.

It's a great book, by the way. I'm done. That's what we were. made to do to be by penal and in college and in college where I was not learning how to pronounce that that word that challenging word maybe I got it right making look like you got stung by a bunch of bees for about a year there I mean I wouldn't say I was shocked when he showed me the picture it was a long couple years yeah a lot of college in how much did you weigh uh 208 but I'm now yeah like 172 okay kev do you have a do you have an adjustment

Oh, for myself? Yeah, for high school, college. Oh, yeah. You could have gone back and changed things. Backy's a hawk guy. Yeah. Folks. Go Hawks.

Go Crusaders. That's right. You know what? I think I would have worked a little harder. You know? Would have worked a little harder. Yeah. That's motivational as hell, man.

I'm putting that on a t-shirt. That's what you tell your employees right now. Just work a little harder. Yeah, I know. I thought I was working hard. but I wasn't. You know? Chris Miller asks,

if the bucks keep James and he drops his interceptions by half, how far do you see the bucks going to the playoffs? I like this is a football one. I had some stuff jotted down here. If he drops his interceptions by half, snap your fingers. 30 to 15. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, one of eight, 5,000 yard years among quarterbacks in the history of our game, also the first to go for 30 and 30. It's touchdowns and picks. If you cut that in half now, you're still Jimmy G.

You're still Jared Gough. You're still, you know, I got a couple guys here. The next highest pick guy was who? Baker with 21. So there's like a 10-pick gap between the two. If you cut it in half, I don't know. I think they're a lot better. Now, what I think they're going to do with him is they got no choice but to franchise them.

And that tags the tune of $26 million. You got to do it by March 10th. The market's not going to be there for him. I think at some point he's going to realize that maybe it's a two-year deal with the bucks. I got to keep him if on the bucks. It's tantalizing, and this is the second year, of course, with the quarterback whisper, Bruce Ariens. So I got to keep him. You've got 2,000-yard receivers.

You've got deep threat impairment that's emerging late in the year. and you got a good defense with bowls. Philip Rivers is the one people are floating around. Now, all Philip Rivers is done lately is throw picks. So you're going to replace James Winston because he's throwing a lot of picks with Philip Rivers, who's definitely an all-time great, but he's also only trails Jameses in the last five years

as far as throwing picks. So 112 points off turnovers this past year. That's not getting it done. I'd say if you cut that down to 55, if you're cutting them in half, and that's no exact science, they're plus nine in the point differential. Shout out to Cowboy Reed for pulling that stat. They'll be a lot better.

I would keep James. I'd franchise tag him, give yourself a little bit of freedom in a year. Owen Martin asks, if Drew Locke was never on IR and replaced Flacco earlier, did the Broncos make the playoffs? I love Drew Locke.

You know, it's also, let's not be the victim of getting out ahead of our skates here on a small sample size, but I like Drew Locke. People you talk to says he's got all the intangibles. And, you know, his teammates really like him.

And that's a big test when you read the quotes from his teammates. You can kind of read between the lines and see they really like him. And all I know is that they lost five, one score games. And they went seven to nine. So Titans of the Bills made it with nine and ten wins respectively. I think had Drew Locke been in there the whole time, he's got more time to learn, maybe you win some of those close ball games. The toughest thing for them going next year is they have, you know, their division,

which is going to improve, I think if San Diego finds a quarterback. And, you know, even if the Raiders don't find a quarterback, and they just incrementally continue to improve the Las Vegas Raiders. Either of those two places could be landing places for Tom Brady, some other quarterback. That division is going to improve. And of course, you have the Chiefs who are on top of the football world right now. Sharif Del Monte at Headband Fever asks. Oh, that's a tough headband fever.

Favorite next Pat's quarterback, Minchu, Mariotta, Rosen, or Dalton. I was going to toss this one to Kev. Say it again. Favorite new Pat's quarterback. Quarterback for the Pats. Patriots. Minchu, Marioita. It's Marcus Marietta.

Rosen or Dalton? That'd be Josh or Andy. I was going to ask you who... Take your time. Los Angeles's... The Chargers' backup was. Was it Tyraud Taylor? It was it Taylor?

Was it Tyraud Taylor? Well, it's Tarad these days, first of all. I saw Tarad in Miami. as well. Another Miami acquaintance. I told him we got you this year, fucker. I could see Mariotta going to the Pats and doing well. I really can.

I worry about Mariotta. You know what? I think he likes Mariotta. He likes to be Marcus Marrota. Mar-Mar-Mar-Mar. Okay. Mar-Mar-Mar-A-Del-Mariotta. Del Mar-Mariotta. Boom. All right. I can see him

going to the Patriots and doing well because they just, it's a quick pass. System. Nice. I like that. Okay. I don't like Marcus Variota in New England. I worry about the way he grips the ball and the cold.

Honestly, when you talk to quarterbacks. Well, shit. I don't know that. Well, no, I don't know. I mean, in general, I think the biggest thing for him is his mechanics. Like, when you do talk to quarterbacks, you know, he's kind of a, he kind of cups the ball and kind of shop puts a little bit. That's why I worry that, like, for him, it's not a destination thing.

It's more of a mechanics thing. Now, Andy Dalton is crazy that sounds as some people might be saying, yuck. I actually think a guy with a ton of experience with a good arm, I can make a lot of throws. He's got a great arm. With Josh McDaniels. Yeah, I mean, you know, Minshu, listen, I like Minshu. Again, I think we're also swooning over a smaller sample size,

and we did it early in the year. Nick came in, you know, wasn't much different. That offense was in shambles. And who else did he ask about? Who was the fourth? Dalton, Rosen. Rosen. Now that's an intriguing one because we haven't seen a lot of Rosen.

And Rosen is kind of a blank canvas. And I know that the Pat's liked him, I think, coming out. So, you know, if I had to guess, it might be Dalton or Rosen out of those four. I'll go Jacob Easton. Ooh. I think he's a phenomenal quarterback. That's right. That's right.

A phenomenal quarterback. Yes, sir. You want to hit all of these? I know Matt needs a haircut. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. If he's got a roll, he's got a roll. I don't.

Monolith. Darnold. Oh, monolith, Sam Darnold. Do the Jets go 9 and 7, Tyler asks? I would say yes, but have you seen their schedule? Their schedule is fucking brutal. It's the second hardest in the league. Let me read some of these off.

At Kansas City. Loss. At L.A. Chargers. Win. Depends on who the quarterback is. That's a good football team. Lost a lot of... At L.A. Rams.

Loss. At Miami. Win. Just big trips. At Seattle. loss. So with all those West Coast trips, and then at home you got San Francisco, you got the Vegas Raiders. Again, second hardest schedule.

Miami's on the West Coast now? No, I'm saying West Coast. Sorry, sorry. Big trips. I said big trips. Okay. So West Coast, and then you've got to go all the way down to Miami, which you do every year. But, I mean, when you add in Miami to that slate of West Coast games, it's tough.

Vegas Raiders. Vegas Raiders. That's the first time I ever heard that. Gase hasn't made the playoffs in three years as a head coach. And there's a ton of question. marks in that division, of course. You know, they started one in seven after he drank a drink after somebody with Mono. I'm sure that's how it happened.

And then they won six of the last nine. So, you know, Robbie Anderson's up. I don't know what they're going to do. They need to give him more weapons, not less. They do have two third round picks, and they have four top 79 picks next year. They need to invest that offense, though. They actually were seventh in defense this year. Shout out to Greg Williams.

And I love Joe Douglas. I think they'll get it done. I just think next year. year is going to be tough. Not of the last 10 picks were defense. Now it's time. Not in the last 10 top picks were defense. Darnell was the only one who they didn't pick defensively with that top pick.

They need to really invest in the offense. They'll turn it around. But not next year. I don't think so. Darnell was six and two in the last eight starts. Only Lamar has more wins in that span. Lou T. asks, what's the over-under on the number of games Big Ben plays in 2020? I'm going to set it at, at, at, at, at, at, at, at, at,

12 and a half. What say y'all? Over. Over. Under. The tough thing is I know he's going to miss two, three games. Something's going to pop up. He's going to miss two, three games, but he's got a lot to be excited about up there.

I mean, that defense is fucking humming. If he'd have been healthy this year, you know, I think they would have made a run at it. I really do. I think this was their window. I think he saw that with the pads down a little bit, and he was probably bummed. He's probably chomping at the bit to get out there. He does a great job of managing the game. So if they have a good defense, he's good to go.

How about that? Game manager. Always Sonny asks, over under 5% of NBA players can play in the NFL. Under. What would that number be? 5% of NBA players, how many players on each team? Technically what? Technically 15 times 32. A couple DBs.

15 times 10 is 150 times 3 is 450. Yeah. So you're going to tell me that. you know, more than 20-something guys could play in the NFL, no. You want 5% of 480? Yeah. I'll tell you 10% of 40, it's 48.

Yeah, so it's 24. Yeah, you're going to tell me that 24 more guys are going to play in the NFL? Nope. Under, agree. Under. Under. Not for longer than a couple games.

Jeremy Morris asks for an entire year, you have to, one, introduce yourself as Chris Long, NFL's 2018 Walter Player Man of the Year. To everyone you meet and interact with. It's a Walter Payton man of the year. What I say? Walter Player Man of the Year.

Damn. Walter Payton. The rare verbal missed that by you. It's the greatest player to ever play the game. You're going to disrespect Walter Payton in front of the mob here? It's the greatest player to ever play a game. I'm sorry. You don't know over here.

Or two. I have to chime in on that one. You have to wear roller blades at all times and less sleeping or showering. I'm going to sequester myself. like Bonnie Vair doing a fucking album in Wisconsin and just do content and I'm going to take option A. There's no way I'm wearing. But everyone you interact with too. So if you come to men's lunch, you would have to say,

hey guys, I'm Chris. By the way. People I meet. People I meet. People I meet, right? No, no, meet slash interact with. But they know it's part of the bet, though. Well, sure. But you, you sidle up to men's lunch. Hi, I'm Chris Long, 2018's Walter Payton. Peyton Man of the Year. I'm just going to be pretty antisocial and take option A. Roller blades are not an option for me. I tried to do ice skating once, fell and hit my head.

That's my only diagnosed concussion of my life. Really? Yeah. That's awesome questionable. That's great. That's good. Yeah. I could have diagnosed you with a concussion.

San Francisco? No, Arizona. We were out there. Yeah, I know Mike's a little low here. Arizona at Arizona. You looked at me. Didn't know what Saw was. Oh, Saw, that's, I got to slant inside on Saw.

Everybody. Everyone knows what's like? What the fuck is the play? Yeah, I'm like, it's Saw, man. It's Sam Will. It was also Play 80 of the game. So, that's the mailbag. That's right.

Let me, uh, hold on. That's funny. We don't get political in this. Oh, that's what you were doing. Let me ask you this. Yeah. Besides the Patriots, the Patriots. who does well with late many draft picks?

You know what? I think about different teams like develop different positions well. Like, you know, the Steelers do a really good job of wideouts. You know, the Ravens have drafted really well over the years. I think about their front office as being really prolific. You know, the Pats haven't hit on their mid-round picks in a while. So like I think just different teams, they get these. these bad raps and oh god yeah you're you're fondling your mic right now oh i am see i don't know

that i don't know what i'm doing here so i think i just asked a great fucking question you did ask a great question sorry sorry you got to yeah i also think i also think some teams like get burdened by loot like they end up in a in a in a in a rut with losing and they up with high picks over and over again high picks it's kind of like it's kind of a shiny object but it's not necessarily like it's almost better to have way it's better you got to be good and then kind of maintain you know a level you know i think if you're picking in in the middle of the first round that's nice i think that's a good good place to be if you're trying to rebuild that that that that top five pick is is is kind of a shit show and it's you're batting 50 50 you really are so i don't know do you

remember a team i think pittsburgh does it does a really good job with their draft picks yeah no wide receivers wide receivers for sure i saw that when i was there just for the little bit that I was. I'd have to look, I mean, I'd have to look a little closer at that. That's a really good question. I mean, I always think of Baltimore as being really good at picking in general. So.

Macon asks, when do you see this podcast wrapping up? Right now. Nice. So thank you for joining us for this. Stop touching your mic. Sorry, man. He's just fondling his mic. It just is new to me. You know what you want to do? What do you want me to do?

What do you want to do? I don't know. Just be you. I appreciate me. This is great. Yeah, well, we had our boys from Chicago in here. Bad Back Backy and Big Big, Big Just the Tips, Conrad. You know, next year is going to be better in fantasy football. It might be me with the tips.

I'm not going to take your advice next year. Yeah, don't take my advice. I like that at the end. I'm glad you did. No excuses, but. It's like the coach that gets at the podium. It's like, I'm not going to make any excuses. I'm not going to make excuses about this injury, that injury.

It was an ESPN fantasy football. James Co. Blame it on James Coe. I don't know who that guy is, but he should have some highlights. I was on that text thread. Yeah. I saw it. On behalf of the entire.

Thank you, everyone. Greenlight for listening. Conglomerate. Have a great fucking weekend. And we'll see you next week with some floating content. We got Greenlight Pod next week, at least one with me and making. Y'all take care. Y'all take care.