Green Light with Chris Long - Field Yates! DadLife & Fantasy Football. DeAndre Hopkins, Wimbledon & Coach Badke's Life Counseling

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

(2:17) - Birthday Boys Macon & Kingston Talk Wimbledon, DeAndre Hopkins and Mardy Fish vs Steph Curry (16:36) - ESPN's Field Yates joins Macon to Cover Fatherhood, Working with Bill Belichick in New England and Nick Sirianni in Kansas City, Entering Sports Media and Fantasy Football (1:12:21) - Coach Badke's Life Counseling This podcast is brought to you by Cash App. With multiple tools for saving, spending, and sending, Cash App is the easy way to stay in control of your money. Cash App is a financial platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Green Light's Top 10 Songs Playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jDt1UuSEstZ4gvEGxZX4R?si=64b0cc26608c477c Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b   Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42   Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenLightTube1   Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Greenlight podcast will see clearly now with Oakley jumping into the podcast game. Head to Oakley.com for the greatest shades in the game. Oakley even offers Prism Lens technology. What the hell is that you ask? It's a proprietary technology to Oakley and available for everyday settings as well. Want to know more? Head on over to oakley.com and do your own research. And while you're there, get yourself a pair of everyday glasses.

That'll be sure to change your look for the better. When you wear Oakley, there really is. more than meets the eye. Don't trust me. Try for yourself. I've worn a lot of sunglasses brands of my life and I can assure you Oakley is not only the best looking but the best quality out there. Head on over to oakley.com, O-A-K-L-E-Y for more information today. The Greenlight podcast welcomes you. Making drives the bus today, he's going to kick things off with Kingston. They do a big

old sports roundup from the weekend. It's just a couple of recent birthday boys having fun. And late last week, Macon interviewed Field Yates about football, family, fatherhood, and the fourth F fantasy. Field talks us through breaking into the NFL with the Patriots, the Chiefs, breaking into his media career, and the hardest part is about fantasy football. So big shout out to Field a long time Greenlight listener for jumping on the show with Macon. And after Field today, we're going to bring back, bad backy, who's going to pop in for a little life coaching. You'll learn a little something. And one more thing, you saw that Greenlight playlist that we announced. It had all the Greenlight personalities top 10 songs of all time at this current moment,

but it was done and honestly. You all didn't know which personalities was which song. You might have had an idea, but you don't know. Well, now you're going to find out on Thursday we will announce each personality's top 10 list, but up until Thursday you can guess. Go ahead over to Twitter. Make sure you respond to our tweet with your cash tag, the favorite song from that playlist,

and which Greenlight Personality pick that song and put it on the playlist. You respond to that tweet with all three of those things. and you might have a shot at some money from cash app. So freshen up on that playlist. Go back and take a look. It's also in the show notes. You can check it out there. But most important, enjoy today's episode.

We'll catch a Thursday with our Teen Cub movie review. It's Greenlight. It's Greenlight with Chris Long, without Chris Long. Kingston's next to me. I'm Macon. Corporate Scott's in the building. Nolan's here too, somewhere. Big show, okay?

Before you change the channel, know that Field Yates is on the program. Not only is Field Yates on the program, but Field Gates says the word sex. He talks ball. He talks ball, especially his relationship with a young grinder in Kansas City named Nick Siriani.

But he also divulges his current weight, Fields. He talks about his middle name, which is minister, and he says the word sex. So stay tuned. You'll hear the interview was, it was a lot of fun. It started with my being out of breath

for one. So you got like Big Cat and PFT move into this palatial warehouse in Chicago. They have like a full court, basketball court, espresso machines. Looks beautiful. Well, big changes on the horizon for Greenlight too. We've rewired the entire studio, I think, for the fourth time in six months under the watchful eye of corporate Scott. And does it sound better? I sure hope so. I feel better in these beautiful new chairs. Great chairs. They're blue. I think we've gone overboard with the green. These chairs are blue. That's a good move.

But in all seriousness, a very exciting fall on the horizon for green light. And a pretty dope little summer here. Great interview with Kenny Pickett that Chris did. Faxon, the King has dropped on this feed. Any given Sunday review not long ago. So keep it locked here. And we got Field Gates coming. And Kinkson and I will run through a couple items now

and we'll have a little fun on the back end as well. sports, yes? Yeah, big football news today. You see DeAndre Hopkins signed the two-year deal, 26 million guaranteed with the Titans, up to 32 million. Saw some people on the internet saying that, oh, he was just taking the money

and not playing for a competitive team. What did you think of that deal? I don't know. I guess I look at the division first, AFC South. Is it now going to be Jags and Titans for the right to lose the first game in the playoffs? I mean, here, I'll go all.

Jacksonville, I'm sorry. He doesn't mean that. I'll go all in on this being the year that Derek Henry takes a step back. Okay, we've all been waiting. Yeah. He seems like he's 34. He's not. He's 29.

He keeps on cranking out these amazing seasons. I'll say this is the year that he takes a step back. Tanna Hill is the quarterback. Levis seems to be the guy in waiting. The number two receiver will be Trailing Berks. Hopkins. DeAndre Hopkins, Nuke is 31 himself. So this doesn't really get my juices flowing.

But at the same time, I don't know if a New England fit would have either. Because I don't know that New England's competing with New York, Miami, Buffalo in that division. The Buffalo fit would have been cool. Yeah, they weren't willing to pay up. It looks like, and New England was willing to give them about equal money, but it would have been much more incentive-based, not guaranteed. And for my money, Mac Jones isn't better than Ryan Tannahill anyway. So I'm fine with it.

Fine with it. Did you watch Wimbledon? I love Wimbledon. Here are my favorite sports. One, college hoops, two college football. Three professional tennis, four professional football. Now that's not a very popular take on this particular program, but I love pro tennis.

We share that love. It doesn't get any better than Wimbledon. Quick, rank your top four slams, one to four. Okay. Wimbledon 1, U.S. Open 2, the French 3, and Aussie 4. Xenophobia. I just gave Wimbledon 1. Oh, yeah, right.

Are you talking about my English roots? Never mind. It's your anglophilia. Her Majesty Kate was in the royal box, you know? Yeah, I saw that with the Princess Charlotte, right? Yeah, and the little fella. Prince George. George and her husband, the other guy, William.

Yeah. Yeah, and then after the match, she's, she actually shook every ball chilled child's hand. Very polite. The pass cat used to go like he'd hit the first child and the fourth child and then the ninth one and have these little mini conversations. She would have many conversations with every other one, but she at least shook the hand of everyone. Yeah, I loved the celebrity sightings. My dad would be like, I'm supposed to know who that is, but I don't. Who was really hard to locate?

or to put a name to the face. It was, damn it, it was that hard. Who's the Wolverine guy? Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman, I think, was there. And I was like, who is that for a solid 30 seconds before coming up with Hugh Jackman? There was also tennis played.

Yeah. So Alcaraz, 20 years old, against the Joker 36, who was very gracious afterwards shortly after slamming his racket into an amazing racket destruction. It was pretty awesome. The ash was dinted, and then he keeps shaking his wrist, the entirety of the following game. Imagine that.

How? And maybe it did affect him. Who knows? Some gray hairs pop in there, too. I love it. Yeah. This was the most likable of the Joker's ever been, probably because it came in a loss,

and I think most everybody was rooting for the young gun. But the Joker said afterwards that Alcaraz has the goods. He has a little bit of himself in him, which, you know, fed himself on the back. But he has fed and Nadal too. He thinks Alcaraz has staying power. And how can he not? He's number one in the world. He's 20 years old and he seems to have every shot, including a dropper.

Unbelievable. He's serving for the Wimbledon title. He's up 5'4 and the 5th. And then he puts a dropper into the bottom of the net to go down Love 15. And it's like, holy smokes is the stage too big. And then he bounces right back. So he's got the mentals too. And he made that favorite shot, that like looper over Djokovic's head back behind him in a tense moment.

That's a tough shot. That's right. He dropped him right out for that again and then locked it over his head. So yeah, I love Wimbledon. I love all about it. I love everything about it. You were saying there needs to be cheering throughout the mash. Yeah.

It's ridiculous. They're like, please quiet, please quiet. And then one person in the crowd can scream during the serve and mess it up. If everybody's cheering, that one person has no power and the atmosphere is more fun. Yeah, it's a terrible take. They throw them out if you if you're vocal, say, in a ball toss. Okay. It's a gentleman in ladies sport, all right?

It's not this buffoonery of these of these American sports that you're used to. actually talk about tennis in America, the U.S. Open is extremely loud. If you ever go to the U.S. Open and you're at Arthur Ashe Stadium, people are drinking and talking throughout, and it's actually very loud and not terribly disruptive, maybe to prove your point. But tennis, we can keep all of the shouts out of that. Same thing in golf. We need more golf noise. This weekend. I can get on more with that. There was the American Century Championship.

Steph Curry won the celebrity tournament. Marty Fish, former pro tennis player on 18 in his back swing. Somebody screamed and he shanked it. So he gave Steph Curry the opportunity to win it with an eagle. Also had a hole in one that week. If everybody's screaming, that one person doesn't have any power. So, and especially golf, it's too quiet. Wouldn't you like to just hear some loud noises people are doing it the whole time?

I would be incredibly tense in a big back swing that somebody might make noise. I'd love to go to a tennis match with you and just break all the rules of etiquette. I would love to go to a tennis match period. It's been a long time. However, and we'll get to this in a little bit, maybe after field. I played tennis this weekend. No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How's your old elbow there? Thanks for the question. It's a shoulder.

And it held up. I assumed elbow because tennis elbow. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, common misconception. It's a torn labor on my right shoulder. I did because the kids were there. My parents popped by to watch the kids for a little bit while I was playing. I was playing with my lovely wife.

Nice. It wasn't a sanctioned event or anything. But I did. I cranked it a little bit and my serve, that is. And the shoulder held up. Let's go. Yeah. I always imagined you playing tennis into your older, into your twilight days.

I think I'm going to. Yeah, you're really, really good. I used to be. Thank you for saying that. I don't really get my flowers in the athletic. More of a served volley type guy. Like, I always felt like in a big baseline hitter. I felt like you could get a little bit overwhelmed by people that had crazy speed.

But you're a powerful player. Thank you. Thank you very much. We've buried the lead here. Happy birthday to Matt Kingston. Thanks, buddy. As of yesterday, you've joined the ranks of, of 37-year-olds everywhere.

We share a birthday a week apart. We do. And always have. We always will until one of us succumbs to death. Speaking of which, somebody was talking about prayer earlier, that doesn't work. Corporate Scott said to say a little prayer that all this audio is working.

So you might not be hearing any of this. This could be, and the video, this could be going into the void. Prayer. I've never been a big prayer person until I started having the kids. Oh, interesting. And it's not like I think that my prayers are being answered. Let me think through this. It's just like I, I don't know.

Different like existential perspective, perhaps. Yeah, I guess. It's like, hey, you know, if you are hanging out up there, look after those little tikes because they're special as hell. This video does appear to be working. I can't say I love being on video. I'm awfully pale when I look at myself. Oh, don't worry about the pale stuff.

Worry about the fat stuff. I'm looking at it, not you. Well, I don't know. 37. You don't bounce back at 37, like we did at 17. No. No, there's more around the neck for me and certainly around the belly,

which is covered mostly by the table. These chairs now go up and down. Beautiful. Chris is going to lose his mind. You say you want to, want to stay out of the sun and then we'll kick it to field. Sun seekers, you are not one. No, I don't like the sun at all.

I will cover my body in a long sleeve t-shirt even when it's super hot. Did you or did you not in high school go to tanning beds? In high school, when we were in high school, did you or did you not go to tanning beds to make yourself tanner? on less than four occasions, yes. Okay, all right. Okay. I'm glad that's out in the open.

It's pretty embarrassing. Yeah, I don't know what the hell y'all were doing then. I still don't know now what you were doing then. It's one of the strangest acts, I think. I don't know. I state my regret. I'm smart. Smart.

Now he's not a son seeker. Hey, we'd be remiss if we didn't say that Van, Van, Van, Van, Van, Van, Sova won the ladies final. You nailed that thing. You called that in the newsletter. Subscribe to the Greenlight Newsletter. Where can people do that? Greenlightpodcast.com, enter your email.

I will send you an email every Friday with Macon's picks and Macon's movie picks, too. Nice. Terrific. Coming up, Field Yates. This podcast is brought to you by Cash App, the ideal app for spending, sending, and setting easy to track savings goals. Personally, I love using Cash App Savings Tools. around planning a family vacation. I just took my first family vacation as a father. We went to

Italy, Kate, myself, and the baby. But keeping track of all our expenses can be tricky. And it was, but it wasn't as tricky with Cash App because when all the prices are in Euros, nobody knows what the hell is going on. So when we're renting a scooter, getting an espresso, or sitting down to a course of the Tagliatel, Cash app had us covered with a separate account that let me track spending and set goals. So whether you're saving up for a trip, a rainy day, or a sunny life cash app has the easy tools to help you take control of your money and financial life. Download it for free in the app store and Google Play and see why it's the number one finance app in the U.S. App Store. Good news. The Thursday show we do with Amp will continue 430 every Thursday, the Greenlight

team, Cowboy Reed, Fax, Kingston. I'll pop through there sometimes. On Amp, you can interact with us really easily. There's a call-in button. We invite call-ins all the time. You can talk directly to us, ask us questions, ask us our favorite music. We might even play some. There's also a live chat during the show. If you have a question about a topic we're talking about, fired off in the chat, we'll answer. We're going to be doing what we've been doing all fall every Thursday at 430 on amp. Check us out. It's Field Yates. He's a big star. We're happy to have him. what would you say it is you're doing field having two kids under two? I comprehend how you're doing it.

Yeah. But why are you doing it? Great question. You know, there was a time. So when we had our first daughter who's almost 18 months now, I remember my wife and I having the conversation as we thought about what the rest of our family growth process might look like. And we both kind of settled on the idea that rather than.

have a child, go through all the things that come along with a newborn child, specifically the, you know, the nighttime routine, which is as difficult as any night as any part of the day, obviously. It's, you know, it's a battle every night just to get a few hours of actual restful sleep. And we said, you know, wouldn't you rather just have like a really trying few years here as opposed to having a child, waiting some time, four or five years, whatever it might be? That child is no longer. longer, a child that requires like care to get to bed and things of that nature, and then restart the clock. And we settled on, let's just knock it out all at once, or not literally all at once, but let's do our best to have children quickly so that, you know, five or seven

years from now when we are no longer having children and are whatever children we have are growing up a little bit, we will just laugh at those long nights when we slept for like 45 minutes consecutively and we considered that a win. Yeah, I don't know any different. But I had somebody say, our kids are four years apart, but we were in diapers for 12 years. And then you can only hear, hey, from a doctor, it's a geriatric pregnancy, just so you guys know.

You can only hear that so many times. My lovely wife was 35, as was I, when we had our first, and now we are the ripe old age of 37 and expecting. our third. We're taking on that, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. I know you guys have talked about on the show before, but and I remember I remember the announcements that you made on Chris's behalf about his family growing as well, which is cool. I did do that. Yeah. I did do that. It's not all sunshine field. My two and a half year old daughter gave me a nickname a couple of weeks ago. and this is coming on the heels of my maybe putting on a couple of pounds,

like belly region, chin region. And I don't know if that's at all related to the nickname, but I am now Dadakow. So I'll walk in the door. Yeah, I'll say, hi, sweet girl, I love you so much. How's your day? And then she'll say, hello, Dadat Cow, which, I don't know. I think it's motivated.

Yeah, it is. It is. But hopefully not humbling at the same time. I would love that if my older daughter was, we're at 18 months and three weeks. So the, yes, the three week old has some prodigious qualities. I don't think her, like right now, I don't think it's her ability to speak. But the 18 month old, her bag of tricks is like sort of limited. But she is, you know, she's been speaking a little bit for a few months now.

Her favorite one is like she loves that when you ask her what a cow says. She's the best moor in all of pretty much the entire population under the age of two. So I would love it. If that evolved into me becoming dadat cow, well we could just move back and forth at each other in perpetuity. That might work actually. Yeah, I would start throwing in some moves maybe mention that you have spoken with a dad-dack cow recently. Yeah, it could be good.

I think you might have what it takes. Are you going to see the, I don't mean to speak, your personal business, are you going to see the grandma who's a prolific real estate agent? Ha, ha, wow, you did some great research. Yes. But I would say this. And, you know, my mom has, like you, she's been in real estate for quite some time. And I'm so proud of the business that she has grown. And what's really been, but she is a better grandma than she is a real estate agent, which I think is saying a lot. I am not one to, sometimes it's be uncomfortable, bragging about things that are close to you.

But when it comes to your parents, it's hard not to feel that pride sometimes. And she is an absolutely A-plus grandmother. I think one thing that I've realized is becoming a father is just how important that dynamic is in the early stages, just because any help that you can get, you will take my grandmother, or my mother, excuse me, who just turned 70. Like, she has more energy than my wife and I do sometimes to take care of these kids. And there's never any explanations. Right, which is almost always a thing, whether it's a babysitter, whether it's a grandparent, whether it's a friend who's coming over to aid and help you out, if my mom just woke up three hours before my wife and I did, which we never sleep that late, so I guess it's impossible.

But if she was ever awake and had either of our daughters for three hours by herself, she would know exactly what to do. So it has been a massive, massive help to have her for the first 18 months of being parents. and it will be a bigger help having her when we have two children under her roof at the same time. That's awesome. We were just at the beach. We had my parents and my two kids, and there was nothing cooler than seeing the two-year-old

and then my 82-year-old dad just cracking each other up. Yeah. It's like, it's the best. Why am I having these kids feel? It's the vanity, I guess. Of course. vain than thinking, what does this world need more of me?

You know? This guy, a little bit more of me. My Instagram stories have become far more prolific since becoming a father, and they are exclusively tied to my daughter. I mean, if you don't think that was a significant consideration when we decided about building a family, then you have really aired fairly gravely. You're absolutely right. Vanity is at least two-thirds of the equation for having a child.

that's father of the year field yates let's let's turn it back about 20 years yeah to high schooler field yates can you tell us what the mascot of the belmont hill school is yeah i believe we go by the sextants now which for those unfamiliar with nautical terms sextant and i should know this and i should know this perfectly but a sextant i believe is a nautical tool for navigation, right? It helps you when you're on the waters, trying to figure out exactly which way the ship should be steered, so to speak. But we never had a mascot. Oftentimes, if our school was written up in the paper, they'd say the Hillies, which was never our actual mascot. So I always wanted to write into the editor and say that they have done us a great disservice, but the Belmont Hill

Sextons was the actual mascot for our school. The sextant is an instrument for determining the angle between the horizon and a celestial body such as the sun, the moon, or a star. It is used in celestial navigation to determine latitude and longitude. Now, Field, I've been going back and forth on what's better, like a boom, boom, boom, go, sex, go. Or like a boom, boom, boom, let's go, sex. what did the school use to cheer on their very good football and lacrosse teams? Maybe a better question is what did the opposing schools say to you guys? You know what?

I can't recall, I think we used Let's Go Hill more often than we did Let's Go Sex. My favorite, and this is 100% outing me, is like a guy who comes from super preppy, nerdy school, but listen, you're familiar with some of that in the Charlottesville area. I believe, and some of my memory is fading. I will be, I'm 36, so I'm, what, more than half my life, or almost more than, maybe almost exactly half my life has been spent as a high school graduate, as opposed to not having yet graduated high school. But there was a basketball game where I recall us being up big on an opponent

in our league. And, you know, the typical scoreboard chance came up when the opponent who was down, it was like 20 points, did something flashy for attention or celebrated like a made shot with like four minutes to go down by 20 points. And we did the whole scoreboard chant on our sideline. And they returned the favor with board scores, a reference, of course, to the standard aptitude test to help you get into college. If I've, nothing has ever been nerderier.

in the history of sports competition. But that is a part of my history. It's all right. It's okay. You're going to work for us someday. There it is. Yep. Yeah.

That might be more of a UVA thing than my prep school, but none of it's great. Yeah. Good idea. Field, I think I've really settled in from the whole commute to work. Are you ready to start? Let's do it. Born ready. Okay.

It's a little joke. It's a podcasting joke. The huge neck picture field, it made the rounds again yesterday. Happens often. One of my favorite pictures, it makes you look like Teddy Bruske's large adult son in my mind. The internet has you, at some point in your life, 5'11, 200 pounds. Are those current measurables or are those Wesleyan measurables? Those are Wesleyan measurables.

I recently had to take a physical, was right before our daughter, our second daughter was born. I had my annual physical. The 5-11 part is intact. I believe I was 174 pounds during the physical. Wow. We've trimmed down, which was, you know, you think about the contributing factors to a much more narrow figure.

And first of all, you know, college affords you a certain lifestyle of being very beverage heavy for, what, three, four, five nights a week, depending on how much of a party animal you are. And you know me, a little bit of a party animal inside of me. And then also, like, there was a time in my life where, like, if you told me to run two miles, I'd be like, I don't know that I'm physically capable of doing that. Like, and once I got into weightlifting, look at how macho we are talking about weightlifting. I just, you know, like it just, that seemed like it was the thing that you were supposed to do. And I was so concerned about games, less concerned about being, like, twitchy and being and having great cardio endurance.

So I got puffy for a handful of years there. But that photo, that photo was probably worth it. There's no doubt about it. Like most high schoolers, I guess, you bridged your high school and college years with a four-summer gig working for the New England Patriots. Quote, Yates said his gig with the Patriots resulted from simply being in the right place at the right time. I was picked out of the crowd to serve as a ball boy during one of their rookie mini camps. I guess my question is, what is the actual story? Yeah, I was going to say, that's the very cliff notes version.

So back in, I want to say my freshman or sophomore year of high school, there was someone that I knew that knew a member of the Patriots organization. And there was a Patriots rookie minicamp, which we still have in the NFL to these days. It's to much more fanfare these days than it was back in 2000. whatever it was called 2000, maybe a little bit later than that. And someone said, you want to come down and do sort of run some drills, be kind of a ballboy for this rookie minicamp,

which involved me basically like, you know, catching passes from the quarterbacks as they got warmed up, standing as a dummy for various drills, and it kind of lit a flame that to me seems like my football destiny. And so a couple of summers later, I started going in every summer with the Patriots. And alongside friend of the program, Steve Belichick, who him and I are the same age. And he's got slightly better football credentials than I do.

But oftentimes if you saw a Patriot's training camp practice taking place, you'd see two very unathletic, relatively small-statured individuals, at least relative to the – compared to the NFL population, running around as sort of ball boys slash, I would say like, just basically like human traffic cones for drills. And so that was the start of it. And I did that for, as you mentioned, four total summers. And then I had a bridge summer. My last summer before I graduated from college, I took a more traditional internship down in Washington, D.C.,

which was fun, but different. And the rationale behind that was just make sure that you haven't pigeonholed yourself too much before you've graduated from college and set yourself up to only have one destiny in the real world. And that led to me being hired with the Chiefs. And the way I got hired with the Chiefs is that Scott Pioly was part of the Patriots organization for many, many years, did great success. NFL executive of the decade, I believe a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots. And him and I developed a stronger and stronger bond over those years. And he gave me a chance in that post-college world. So I went to Kansas City.

When I got on the plane, I thought I was going to Kansas, not realizing I was moving to Missouri. And my first job out of college was an operations intern up in River Falls, Wisconsin, which is a teeny tiny town that used to host Cheeps training camp. and it was one of the most pleasant communities that you will ever meet. You paid pennies in the parking meters. I think they still have parking meters there, which most places it's all app driven now. The town's claim to fame beyond hosting Chiefs training camp was there was one restaurant that Joe Montana during his tenure with the Chiefs believed had a legendary pizza.

And so it became the place that Joe Montana had given a stamp of approval. so business was always robust at that restaurant. And that was the start of my football journey. Okay. Right back to New England quickly. Much time as you need. It's a summer. But are you ever in the building with Bill or Tom?

Are they ever saying, what is this high schooler doing, walking down the same hallway? Funny. So I feel like when you talk about either Brady or Belichick, and you do so in like a particularly favorable light, I think that people just basically chalk it up to like this is the prototypical brown nosing like just trying to curry favor. I did spend a lot of time inside the building. Yeah.

And basically every like there are photos. I used to spend every home game going with the team during like winter break in college, which at least at the college that I went to was often five weeks. I would kind of resume the internship. I am going to sound probably a little nerdy, probably a little cliche here. But I think it's the truth. And I do think that the secret sauce is maybe much more visible than people realize. But both Brady and Belichick were the most singularly focused people that I've ever been around.

I remember Wes Welker once said this about Brady publicly, not to me, that every decision that Tom Brady made in his life was dedicated towards becoming a better football player and staying in the NFL at a high level for as long as possible. And it really resonated. And the same thing with Bill Belichick, I have never been around a more consistent person in my life. And I think that has added tremendous impact on players at the highest levels. I think it also had a massive impact on guys who were fringe roster players that either became something great or were not able to hold up that standard of consistent. consistency and we're out of the building. And I learned a lot about that. Not that I was ever going to be an NFL player or anything close to it, but that consistency and that singular focus from each of them, I think is somebody that is applicable in whatever you might do. In my case, it's talking about football now.

That's great. See, Long says they were both sons of bitches, which doesn't quite track with what you're saying. And we ever talk about this? Like, can we do it aside here? And maybe you're too close to it to see it this way. I was thinking about this, though, do you think C-Long is the most universally well-liked teammate in team sports? History? I mean, I don't know. Let's call it 10 years, 15 years. You can assign an era if you want.

But I was thinking about it, like it feels like the most relatable teammate that I can think of who everybody just love. Like, there are definitely gregarious, fun-loving characters that I think a lot of players loved. But I feel like even fans that didn't root for the Rams or the Patriots or the Eagles still love them. Yeah, I think he's in that conversation. And probably because he's so freaking genuine. I mean, he's nice and smart and funny and humble, but he's really an authentic guy. I remember when he was starting this, he said to a reporter, you know, I don't really care about the following.

I'm just, I'm going to walk this way and see if anybody walks behind me. So he's never putting on for anybody. And while he really contributed in a big way to those Pats and Eagles teams, I'm sure the front office was like, get this guy in our locker room? Yeah, that would that would be a positive. Yeah. That would be a good thing. And he has, and he has a seven million friends, you know, he doesn't really know a stranger. He's one of those types. And if you roll up on him and say, hey, can I get a picture in an autograph? He's, he's happy to oblige. He's, he's one of those obnoxiously, uh, kind people. So yeah, that's a fair point. I don't think it's too different, uh, than,

field Yates, in that Simmons and Riscilla were talking the other day about people in media who nobody hates, the Mike Breen's of the world. Does anybody dislike you? I'm sure there are many. To my face, I'm trying to think of like public bad blood that I've had. I'm sure there are many. I would say that. But I don't know. I think I was raised a particular way. And you mentioned that you mentioned how C-Long is one of those guys that you can always stand for an autograph, stand for a photo or sign an autograph. I'll go back to my Kansas City days here for a second. So my first year with the Chiefs, 2010 draft, so 2009 into the 2010 draft, we had the fifth pick,

and we took Eric Berry, legendary player Tennessee. And in my role, which was absolutely, like Grindr is, you know, like a, you know, like a, I mean, I was as low on the totem pole as you could possibly be. And I'm not trying to be humble or anything when I say that. One of my jobs during the pre-draft process was we'd bring these players in for these, they call them the pre-draft business now. You get 30 per team. And from start to finish, I would kind of be the chauffeur for the player.

You pick the guy up at the airport, bring him to the hotel, if it's the night before the visit, get him up in the morning, pick him up to go to the medical side and bring him into the building. and he talks for all the coaches and the scouts, and then you bring him back to the airport, whatever it might be. And I remember Eric Berry was the single most impressive young man that I'd ever been around to the point that, like,

I almost felt compelled to go to Scott Peel and RGM, this is me, 22-year-old me who'd been scouting for like five minutes, to say, like, if we don't take this guy, it'll be an error. And I remember something, this is where I was getting, is that Eric Barry talked about how he, one of his favorite players growing up, he went to a camp or was that a game or somewhere in a public setting where he tried to get an autograph from an NFL player and the guy just breathed right past him. And he's like, I'll never,

in my entire NFL career, ever let a kid have that same experience with me. And that resonated with me. This was the guy who was the king of Tennessee had an amazing career. It wasn't the apex of volunteer football, but still, really good player. You know, the guy that mattered the most in Knoxville for three years. And the NFL was, he became at one point the highest paid safety ever. all pro player for multiple years. And I've always felt like that's an important sort of credo to live by as like those who can really should. And I felt like Eric Barry was a good embodiment of that.

So I don't know, it feels weird to talk about yourself as a kind human. But if I would like to consider myself somebody who tries to follow some of the things that I just referenced. When you're picking a kid up at the airport, do you, are you getting out of an idling car with like a last name on a piece of paper? How do they know to come to you? Yes. Well, the good news was that in Kansas City, there was one terminal at the time, small airport. And usually, you know, I knew what the player looked like. But yes, I did have Chiefs Garb head to toe. And if I needed a board that indicated, you know, who, like, who I was or who I was looking for. And I will say

this, like, maybe it's just the distance from those visits that has made them like a bit of a nostalgic experience for me. But I always remember, like, some of the players and, like, how they comported themselves and how I thought that might matter in the NFL. It wasn't right on all of them. But like I mentioned, Eric Berry was, I always told me, he was like borderline presidential. And I mean that in a very positive way with the way that he carried himself, showed up in a suit, like that, you know, looked like he was ready to go for, you know, a Fortune 500 interview

as opposed to a football visit and treated every person. even a slapy like me is a you know somebody who had thought you know somebody who was important um and there you know russell o kung who just recently retired has had an incredible post career transition like i remember thinking to myself he's a damn good football player but like this guy's got a whole lot more to offer than just football like i wonder what what it will be like for him beyond the field because he was one of the smartest guys i'd ever spent time with And I thought those were cool. Like those guys in most instances thought nothing of me being around them for 24 hours.

And 24 hours is far from enough to figure out everything you need to know about an athlete. But if you are a believer in first impressions at all, and I do think there's some serious value in them, those visits were like actually a pretty formidable experience, in my opinion. Last show for a question. Does everybody get in the front seat of the car? or did some guys get in the backseat? Most of them got in the backseat. And some of them, like, when they got, and this is their prerogative. It's not like they owed me anything, but there were some guys that got in the back seat, headphones on, see you at the hotel.

And, you know, like, does it matter? No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't mean that they can't play football at an extremely high level. But, you know, it was always kind of like, you know, we're not going that far. You know, it's not like a two-hour drive where you've got time to take a nap. You know, if you want to make small talk for 15 minutes, that would be fun. But, you know, I'm sure there are hopefully there are some young scouts out there that are listening to this episode that can relate to this exact dynamic because every team is different though in the way in which they have these players traveling like some teams no matter what caliber of the player limo picking them up at the airport somebody you know car service unaffiliated with the team and their other

teams and at the time when i was in kansas city we were one of them where it was a guy in the scouting staff driving a suburban was bringing these players to and from the various stops on the tour for the 24 or so hours that they were in town. On the flip side, I was at the final four in Minneapolis in 2019, and we see Josh Paster across the street. Then we see an Uber slowly roll up to pick up Josh Paster, and we take nothing of it. Then Josh Paster, he gets into the front seat of an Uber, which is some of the most questionable behavior I've ever witnessed.

Now, I really like Josh Paster because he's been. very nice to coach Bennett when the who's get him by 18 most times out. But that's perhaps the Eric Berry corollary is how we'll go to it. Hey, Nick Siriani, did he always have the goods? So, you know, it's so funny because I don't want to come across as thinking it like I had it all figured out. But I remember, so Nick Siriani and I, it's actually really cool. I feel I'm so happy to see these guys succeed.

But the first, like young hires, meaning like first football job in the NFL in my, I'll call it class. I get to Kansas City, and Nick Siriani had just been hired as the offensive quality control coach. Ryan Poles had just been hired as a scouting assistant, the same job that I got. He's now the Bears GM. Mike Borgonzi had also just been hired as a scouting assistant. He's now the chief's assistant GM. And, you know, when you see those like lists of future GMs in the NFL, he's always on it. There were others that were also hired not like within a few other months.

Brent Tillis, who's now oversees the chief's cap job, is interviewed for for GM jobs as well. Ryan, like all these guys that, you know, are all part of the same class that are doing. huge things. But what I remember most about Nick was that football coaching is a completely unrelenting position. The hours are truly brutal. And I'm not trying to mitigate the work that other people do in different fields. But it's one of the most brutal life setups that you can have just from a pure hour standpoint. I always say that half the teams in the NFL work a hundred plus hours each week to lose, right? I mean, like, if you're, you know, a wide receivers coach on the Packers and you grind

100 hours and you lose by 25 on Sunday against the Vikings, like you could have also not showed up to work and also lost by 25, right? But Nick was being grinded to the bone. And when you're the offensive quality control coach, in a lot of ways you are an extension of the offensive coordinator. you're kind of like an appendage for the offensive coordinator. My first year in Kansas City, we had Chan Galey on staff, the longtime NFL coach, head coach, coordinator,

and he was retained by Todd Haley, who was hired as the head coach. And then so basically for the first like six, seven months that Nick was there, he was Chan's right-hand man. And then Chan was relieved of his duties. It was like August 15th. was like the middle of training camp, which never happens, right? I mean, that, that happens extremely infrequently in the NFL. So all of a sudden he becomes Todd Haley, who took over to the offensive coordinator, his right-hand man. And, you know, the head coach has a lot more to do besides just

coordinate one side of the ball. Following year, we hired Charlie Weiss, he becomes his right-hand man. And I get it. Like, you know, being a right-hand man is a pretty typical job description for somebody. But every head coach, every coordinator is such a different way of like going about their business. Charlie Weiss was like everybody on the staff meets at like 5 a.m. Monday through Friday. And he was a morning guy. And it was like we start this day exactly at this time. And Nick, like you're playing by like a different, it's like speaking a different language with each coordinator. And I just remember Nick had like this.

It was almost like freakish to me ability to just power through and like seem to be enjoying. it and had a relatability to the players that you could see. And I think probably some of that stem from the fact that, like, he was a sick football player himself. Like he played at Mount Union, one of the best D3 programs, probably the best D3 program at the country, was like a legitimately awesome receiver for them. So I think they have like a little bit of a swagger for him that I think was, like, made him more relatable to the players.

Now, am I going to sit here and tell you that, like, anybody can tell you with absolute certainty that a 24, whatever he was, 25-year-old quality control coach is destined to become head coach in the NFL that within two years was coaching the Super Bowl. I'm not that smart, but I remember thinking to myself, like, this guy has a lot of, like, the extremely special traits that are required to be a great coach, and I can't wait to follow his journey. And it's been so awesome to see him continue to rise to the ranks, like really organically. And I know I'm going to sound like I'm being just a trumpet for Nick and saying this, But, like, there were times where I was almost annoyed by how little Nick was willing to do his own horn over the past 10 or 12 years.

I kept telling him, I'm like, man, you have to understand this. Like, I'm not saying that coaches that get jobs are only tired because, you know, they sort of advocate for themselves. But we're not dumb. Like, you and I both see it as football observers. Like, there are coaches who let the world know through the media. just how good they are, right? And I felt like Nick took the opposite path and he got rewarded because he eventually got that head coaching job. And I remember being so protective when he first got that job in Philly. And you're going to have every head coaching hire is going to have the,

you know, the people that are in favor and the detractors. I remember just being so, like, way too emotionally invested in what people were saying about the hire and just saying like, let this guy coach a game before you actually cast judgment on him. And here we are two years later. And I'm like, well, that was wasted energy because like his cue scores off the charts, right? Like he's an absolute, I mean, everybody loves him in Philly right now. And the team looks prime to be awesome for a long time. Consistent grinder. Sounds like a common denominator with with some of these guys. And I know that sounds, I don't mean to be to cut you off there. But just I will say like, People like, okay, great, like work hard and you've got it.

I hear you. Like that's a thing that is, that is pertinent and relevant in a lot of industries. But like football is an easy path to walk away from because when you're in that first day, like I made $22,000 my first year out of college, which, you know, I didn't have a lot of stuff. I didn't have kids. I didn't have, you know, some hefty mortgage or anything, right? But it's like, trust me, if someone offered me 80K to go work in finance, like a four-time raise would be pretty enticing, even if it was an entirely different path than I wanted to be on. The hour sucked. Like, I missed, and we'll talk about my, it sounds like we'll talk about my next steps after that.

But like, you just miss a lot of stuff at that early age. It's easy to walk away. You can go coach high school and make more money than being an entry-level head coach, sorry, an entry-level coach in the NFL or entry-level scout in the NFL. So that dedication and determination, like, it paid off in a major way. And it's easy to say, like, I've got the goods. But the attrition rate is extremely high amongst young coaches in the NFL. But the gear, the team issued gear. I've still got stuff.

I've got a closet right here that I think has, might be, I have that downstairs, but I've got like some old school chief gear that will one day be on eBay for a lot of money. Well, yeah, if you're checking in at 174, it'll probably be on. on eBay sooner rather than later. None of that stuff can be worn. How much do we owe to Mike Reese for opening a door in media? I'm glad you asked that. What a pure human Mike Reese is.

You know, I tell people often, like some of what goes into success in the world of sports media is just good luck and good fortune. And Mike Reese was my good fortune, I often say. You know, I did be very typical when I decided. that I wanted to leave football, I did not know what I wanted to do next. And I'm not being insincere in saying that. I thought that I would be closer to home, which is from Massachusetts, as we mentioned earlier. And truthfully, like the weight of, I remember, like, my five-year high school reunion came and went.

And I was like, I was like one of two guys in my Enclire class that didn't show up. And then first wedding came up. Couldn't make it do a wedding for a friend because it was in football season. And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, a lot of my buddies are in one of the major cities, Boston, New York, D.C. They're meeting up for every, you know, every month or every couple months. And to the point that it's like, yeah, we can just take you off the group thread so that we don't give you, you know, we don't make you feel left out here. And it started. Sounds like a dream.

Yeah, the group type. And now, oh, my God, now it would be. But at the time, like, you know, it felt like some big life moments were kind of passing me by. but I did the typical send your resume to a million different places. And like I don't keep a, I'm pretty good about organizing the Gmail. I never will be caught with like, you know, 8,000 unread emails.

But there are some that stay in there forever. And the response back that I got from Mike Reese was one that will never go away because for some reason, after I wanted to follow you in your footsteps and get a real estate license, I decided to go back into the world of football somehow. And Mike Reese, I started a blog. This is very 2012 of me.

It was on Tumblr frequently, a little bit of tweeting here and there as well, some Facebook links. I think I might have had some LinkedIn action as well. And Mike Reese was one of very, very few people to even acknowledge my email. And his response was so sincere and genuine. And he was the one that followed up with me after that initial chorus. I assume when he said, hey, he reached back out to me initially in the middle of the football season. He covers the Patriots for those unacquainted.

And he said, hey, let's talk again during the offseason once the dust settles. Patriots ended up going to the Super Bowl. So it was a long season. And I sort of figured maybe we get a month out, maybe more. And I'll reach back out to him. I feel like three days after the football season was over, Mike sent me an email to check in. on me. And it was my, you know, sort of metaphorical lifeline. And we talk, if not every day, probably five times a week, probably on the phone at least once or twice a week. And it's often

about football. But what's been really rewarding is that over the past couple of years, it's meant about fatherhood. And I don't mean to sound like a sap, but, you know, you and I joked over text, we could probably do the entire show today, just on being to debt. And I'm not sure. too many people have influenced me as a dad in quite the way that Mike Reese has. And now some years later you have essentially every job at ESPN, at least NFL related. What's the most difficult of all these gigs? We see on TV most days. Okay, two-parter.

What's the most difficult job? Tell us about your day today, for instance. All right. So today we're doing this Thursday, July 13. So we had, so right now I am filling in for Laura Rutledge as the host of NFL live because she is on maternity leave. Her son and my daughter, we have already, Laura and her husband, Josh, are very good friends of my wife and I. So we spent a lot of time with them with our older daughters and we can't wait to spend a bunch of time with them with our younger children too, more so than we have already. But she's on maternity leave, I think until closer to the football season.

And so I'm pulling in for our NFL live, but today we also were taping a show that'll air, I believe, Sunday, July 23rd. It's a Madden's ratings special show. And so we had three different player interviews, one former two current player interviews. And as is often the case with podcast guests, you're very much bending to their schedule, right? So today I left the house. We got a fresh cut of the lawn before I left. So that was very important. Had to get the lawn cut.

This time of the year, let it grow up. a little bit longer than normal, you know, things dry out quickly, but I had to get a good fresh lawn cut this morning. That's my therapy for 30 minutes. Get to the office. Ooh, some long. You know, it's just got a couple of weird corners that you got to kind of go around a few times. I can do it efficiently in like 15 or 18 minutes, but I take my time on a couple of those. Get to the office. We had a, so we did an interview with Chad Ocho Cinco Johnson,

did an interview with Josh Allen, interview with Soss Gardner, each of those different windows and then we also taped the show taping a show a TV show always takes longer than the allotted time of the show when it airs live so a one hour show for some reason take it an hour and a half every time and then once we wrapped up with that turn right back to NFL live mode so that prep it's kind of all morning a little bit less so this time of the year because there's so little little news but you know we kind of get get the show run down in there we have couple of production meetings, including one with the analysts on the show that day, and then we

hit the air at 4 p.m. for 4 to 5. So in the office until 5, and then I live about 20 minutes from ESPN Studio, and so here we are talking shop. But yeah, I would say the hardest part of the job, I'd say for me, I think there's a lot of benefit to wearing several different hats, and I take a lot of pride in having different responsibilities. There are times, though, that sometimes I wonder, am I, like, are there times where certain hats that I wear, I'm not pulling my weight enough, right? Am I, if I'm hosting NFL live, am I, does that mean that I need to be more intentional with my fantasy football prep is the football season's coming around the corner?

Or in the middle of fantasy football season, am I not mindful enough of the upcoming NFL draft. I've had a great pleasure of working with Mel Kuyper and Todd McShay and love Todd. I know he'll live on his feet soon on the first draft podcast, but that's a, that's a 365 day a year job for them, that draft stuff. So it's always like, am I giving enough to everything? Because I do feel like every sector probably deserves my full attention. And does it come at a cost? is the draft coverage or the fantasy coverage not as good if you're too focused in on something else that you're doing well and then you have somebody ask you to do a podcast for 30 minutes and now here we are at minute 45 and no hey I will do this until you had the you had to

make the decision 64 east or west like I know that this is more of an effort for you than me so I'll be here until I don't know is there there's like does this does this riverside have like a programming limit like are we only afforded a certain number of minutes I'll keep going six hours six hours yeah right well we get over here until midnight a little after yeah we'll be fine um do you ever find it challenging I guess especially in the fantasy realm to repackage recycle content or is it the exact opposite today we're mock drafting running backs tomorrow were mock drafting running backs you may not have thought of. Thursday would be receivers.

I'd say the trickiest part of fantasy football to me is that we joke about there's a lot of podcast in general. There are a lot of fantasy football podcasts and a lot of fantasy football websites. A lot of people that use Twitter exclusively for fantasy football content. While once the season begins, things. move and get shuffled around. Going into the season, there are a lot of things

that basically any reasonable fantasy analysts agrees on. Right? Like, there's not too many lists where someone's top five quarterback rankings include like, yeah, I've got Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins,

Bryce Young, and somebody else as the top five fantasy quarterbacks or two other guys. Most people are in some order attached to the names like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts and Justin Fields and Lamar Jackson as an example. So I think what's tricky is that it's not that my takes that I might have on my show are decidedly different every single segment of every single show than the takes that you

or anybody else with a fantasy football opinion has. You're just more handsome. Gosh, make me blush. I just that you hope that you can deliver it more in a more entertaining fashion, right? A fashion that I think people gravitate back towards. And I think, you know, as I think about where this industry is going, I don't want to sound like, you know, too philosophical right now. But I think something that you guys, and I'm not blowing smoke and saying this, but something that you guys have achieved to an extremely high level is that obviously there are things that the sports calendar naturally dictates we discuss.

We're in the slow period right now. Like if you guys woke up tomorrow and you decided you wanted to do a two hour episode on like the process of, you know, renovating a bathroom in your home, you'd probably find a way to make it interesting. It's not interesting, but you guys have found a way, right? Like, you're relatable. I just want to hear about, I want to hear your thoughts about sports, but like I'm just as compelled by making the dad or, you know, hey, your real estate endeavors or your thoughts on, you know, T-shirts with pockets as opposed to teachers about. out pockets, right? Like anything. To me, that is part of the secret sauce of even fantasy football coverage. I hope that when people listen to our show, you want good, solid fantasy football advice, but you want to feel like for an hour, however long the episode is, that you're kind

of, it's like a suspension of reality for a little bit where you get to get your mind off of stuff and you get to hear things that you either agree or disagree upon. And if we deviate off of Justin Jefferson is awesome to a five-minute discussion on whether when the plane lands, it's appropriate to stand up or if you should just wait until your aisle is actually de-plaining, that you're not going to say, shut the hell up and get back to Justin Jefferson, but instead you're going to say, dude, I totally agree. Like, it is so annoying when everybody stands up the second the plan lanes. And then we all stand there for 12 minutes and don't move an inch.

So I kind of feel like that's, like as much as every podcast kind of has a hook tied to the topic, I think it's the people that make the podcast. I really have sort of the feel like that more and more and more. And you're one of the best. You sincerely are. We'll get you out of here with a little bit of fantasy content for the audience. Let's do it. You don't need to pull out any rankings. Just general ADP in your head.

Are you higher or lower on these, we'll call it three names? I got three great names for you. All righty. First one is Calvin Ridley. I am a little bit lower probably than where I'll end up being drafted. I'm not trying to fence it here. I would just note that I'm always amazed when we go to the ADP data on ESPN. Big names get drafted way higher than sort of fantasy nerds would draft them.

Like Patrick Mahomes will always be like one of the eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, 12 highest drafted players, even though in every league that I plan, he'll last a little bit longer than that, right? I think Ridley will end up being drafted higher because it's kind of the shiny object syndrome. Very, I mean, love the player, love the story. I'm probably a little bit lower. And if I had to sort of like state the concern, it would be just that the Jaguars had like this perfectly balanced offense last year. And everybody that was on that offense is, back. So I don't know if Calvin Ridley definitely is the number one wide receiver in Jacksonville this year. Christian Kirk could very easily be that. And Calvin Ridley could very easily be the two

or even like the two slash three because Zay Jones was really good as well last season. I have them like around wide receiver 28, I think, in my most recent rankings. Yeah. There's that in the gambling addiction. So you don't know if it's a thing of the past. Yeah. tight end New York Giants, Darren Waller, is he on the back into things here, or is he still a stud? I think he is in a really sweet spot right now for where things go this season because, first of all, I don't know sounds like a therapist, but it's good when family business is good, right? it did not. Him and Josh McDaniels clearly didn't seem to see eye to eye. So it's good that he's in a place where he feels valued and feels motivated.

He plays a position where we are desperate for players. And he is, at least in my estimation, clearly the most talented Giants pass catcher. So I think he's due for a season much more in line with where he was prior to like the past season and a half. And at tight end, we are not just looking for volume, but like just big playability and red zone aptitude really matter. Waller last year, even in the tiny sample size, second amongst all tight ends and yards per catch. Like, he's one of the freakiest athletes in all of sports. If he's healthy and it sounds like he is in a good space, he should have a really good season. Third and final name, Ramandre Stevenson, are you higher or lower than average ADP?

right on the button. Yeah, I'm probably right on the button here for Ramandre. And just feels like it'd be tough for Ramondre to really fail this season, absent health, which is a caveat for every player. But even if his receiving goes down, he actually was third amongst running backs and catches last year. Only Christian McAfrian, Austin Eccler were behind him. But even if that number drops, which is reasonable to expect because the Patriots will have more, more high functioning offense this year and have a lot of pass catchers, even if not a star pass catcher yet. That number could drop, but the rushing feels so stable because the backfield depth behind him is, you know, the NFL has shown us you can find running back kind of out of

nowhere, but he is, it's still like a pretty small sample size of like football of NFL evidence for like Pierre Strong and Kevin Harris behind him. So just feels like he's due for a very, very good role. He is super talented, like take away just like the number of opportunities. Like you watch them on a play-by-play basis. I think the Patriots were one of the least watchable offenses that I can recall in a long time last year. But Ramander Stephenson, when he had the ball, made it worth my time. Okay. Last fantasy question. A guy who has never ended up on one of your squads.

Yeah. But your favorite guy who has never landed on one of your squads. Mine, his name's Amin-Ross, St. Bray. out. I can never get him. I love him. And he performs. Yeah, he does. He's also, this is, so it's because I play in so many leagues and it's sort of, I call it market research, right? You kind of have to. I have had a lot of exposure to players. But guys that I feel like I've been under exposed to in my most recent years, it's like you're in very able to have the Cooper Cups and the Jeffersons and the, you know, whatever, the star running backs, the Ecclars,

and the Capri's. He's young. It's only his third year. But I haven't, and I know it's a small, small run of this, but I haven't had the Justin Fields experience yet. And I'm looking forward to that one, just because even if they run him a lot less this year, which with a much better group of pass catchers, they probably will. He's lightning in a bottle, man, and he is, I don't want to be hyperbolic.

but one of the best athletes that we've ever seen at the quarterback position. And I think that sometimes when teams say they're going to run a quarterback a lot less, it sounds good in May and June. But when wins and losses are on the line, I think it feels a lot different. And we've seen this at a Buffalo in the past. Josh Allen is going to run the ball less and then he runs the ball more. That could be the case with Justin Fields. It may not be quite as many carries, but he still could have 110 attempts next year

and it wouldn't surprise me a bit. Field, you're the man. I only got to half this stuff. Dang. Well, we still have five more, half more hours. We're going to have to have you back on, and especially when the big guy gets back from Montana. I asked this with respect as someone who has an unconventional name.

Field Minister Yates, were your parents filling out a MADlib, where they just needed two nouns when you were born? Yeah. Yeah, so minister is the easy part. It's my mother's maiden name. That's what Macon is for me, Field. Yeah, yeah. Oh, is that, okay, yeah, there you go.

And then, my mom is, I think my mom would admit that she was more influential in the decisions for our, for the, I'm one of three. My sister is caddy, like a golf caddy. My brother's Taylor, which I suppose is like a little unique, but it feels very, very mainstream compared to the rest of the other two. But my mom was adamant that she wanted to have very unique names. And Field had been like a middle name before and I think it had been a two-part name before, but she was adamant that she wanted Field as a name at some point in her, in her, however many children she had. And it's tied quite nicely with the career that I have. I'll admit though, and I don't know if you felt the same way.

Like, growing up, like, it was a little bit, I didn't have, like, you know, super scarring experiences. But it was a little tough every once in a while when, like, you know, kids poke fun at your name. And it's like, I had zero authority in the matter here. Recall that, like, my name was field, not because I had any inclination to be that, to have that as my name. It was because I was assigned to this. But I'm very, I feel very fortunate now because it is fun with what I do. So Field Minister Yates, if anybody sounds prepier, let me know. I'm giving you a run for your money.

Yeah, we are. Making bacon for the first 16 years of my life. It's okay. It's worked out. I love it. Field, thank you. Keep showing up on our TVs every day. We'll keep watching.

I'll do my best. That sounds good. And early congrats, by the way. I know that I think having two kids is a lot. Having three kids, my friend. I know you guys will navigate it well. but best of luck to you. That'll be a lot of fun.

Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm so excited to announce our new sponsor, Oakley. Express your style and build a look that's made for you. You all know I spend a good bit of time on the river and in the woods, and I need something that protects the eyeballs, but gives me a clean, fresh look.

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me. Try for yourself. I've worn a lot of sunglasses brands in my life and I can assure you Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality out there. Head on over to oakley.com, O-A-K-L-E-Y for more information today. Okay, so Coach Bagkey's here. Tell the people what you do for a living. I run a concession stand and coach Little League. Right, and he's also my life coach. So we were looking at that little real estate the other day

if I can give the people of people on the curtain. I dabble in real estate as well. And I was wearing an Apple Watch, which I was gifted by my parents for my 37th birthday. and you roasted me. That's a roast? I was self-conscious because I had been roasted earlier in the day. You were self-conscious literally about the socks you're wearing. That's true.

I mean, there's levels of this. I walked into my office and this gentleman, who I guess is some sort of misogynist said, oh, you went with the girl one, huh? There's a 41-millimeter face, and there's a 45-millimeter face, with the 41. I have dainty. I have smaller wrists. Okay. And then it, so it was a smaller watch. It was the darker band. It kind of looked like a fit bit. But then you told me, what the

fuck are we doing with the mic here, guys? I mean, holy hell, where does it need to be? It's got to get closer to Kevin's mouth. Okay. All right. It's a tight chip. We've rewired the whole thing. This is good. We're in good shape. Just the joy, you know, just pure joy. They called me, they call my five now. What the fuck was that? They called me, did you see they called me Mr. Miserable in the fantasy football chat the other day? Rightfully so. And don't tell me you didn't wear that with like a badge of courage.

I did like that, actually. Beautiful. I did like it. I told the people that the entry fee goes up $10 for every thumbs up you make, for every heart you like on a text. I get those. There are notifications that come to my telephone, even when they're muted. I have to clear those. So a thumbs up and a heart you want to.

find somebody. Think about what you just said. Yeah. They're called impressions. But think of, I mean, positive things, you want to find somebody for. There's a thumbs down. That's a fine. Exclamation. We could talk about fines, missing cut off guys. That's a fine. That's a fine. Not running things out. That's a fine. But what you pointed out, which might be the truest thing I heard the entire one day that I wore an Apple Watch, was that I wore it too high on my arm. I don't even want to say wrist. Like everybody's got a wrist bone and you got a little nub right there and I was above the nub. You had some dusty baker going dude. You had the, you had it up here and it just, it wasn't right. And I said bring it down and you blamed it on your wrist bone. Yeah. Well, I didn't want to be,

you want to make good contact and I didn't want to be hovering above the wrist bone. And then maybe I have long hands or fingers. It just, it, the, the proportion of my arm is not right. That's called your dangley. Dangly. Dengly. Dingly. You're dingly. Okay. All right. Cousin of Gangly, maybe? No, dangly. Could be both. At any rate, I wanted the accountability of the Apple Watch because, look, 37 years old, don't bounce back like I used to, okay? The metabolism is gone, and with the children, I'm not at the gym.

Even if it was just a hot boy walk at the gym, I was getting that hot boy walk in every day, and now I'm not. And so I figured this wearable tech, I put on. It's going to make me accountable. You've got to be standing. You got to be burning calories. You got to be walking around, what have you. But it looked so bad on my person that I have since returned it. Now, Apple, they make these freaking, you know, things with these beautiful packages. You got to unwrap seven different things to get to the thing. I was worried taking it back to Best Buy. By the way, Best Buy, you want things not taken back as much. Have some

things out for people to sample and try. I couldn't put on the freaking bigger Apple Watch because they didn't have anything out there. At any rate, I put it back. I put it back nicely too. Okay. I unpaired it with my phone. Maybe they still have my data, whatever. You know, a little more data out there, not the worst thing in the world. It happens. They took it back. So, um, okay. Oh, here's another thing. You said my parents shouldn't be getting me gifts because I'm almost 40 years old. They love getting me gifts. I think the key word or key part of this is gifts. Oh yeah. Like, no, they brought in bags of wrapped up presents. I haven't got gifts from a family member in, I think since I've been seven. Honestly, allowing me, allowing me, my allowing them to give me gifts is a gift from me to them.

Understand what I'm saying? Is it supposed to stop once you have kids? Once you have kids, the gifts go to the children. They give gifts to the kids too, but I'm also still a kid. Oh, you're not. You're not a kid. There's a difference. You're done, dude. I mean, I think it happens for certain parents at certain times.

Like, hey, we're done with you. Here's an Eddie Bauer's sweater, you know what I mean, and move on, which I've gotten 215 from my mom from. But, you know, and different parents at different times, I think decide that you're just the lucky one that has continued getting gifts. Yeah, we're at Thanksgiving. It's hey, makes, can you start to put together your Christmas list? Because we don't have a lot of fine left here. You are in the 0.001% of that. Do you put together a list? I put together the list. But it's painful. It's painful to make a list of gifts for yourself. I don't want more stuff. Do you take things out of the

on cart to put them in the wish list and then do not buy them for yourself i don't do i don't buy anything for myself it's why all my pants have holes in them and stuff so it turns into yeah can i get a pant can i get a gift certificate for a pant which by the way i don't know where to get a pant i wear i wear a chino every day people are saying banana republic the bonobos they have that silly liner in them now and a weird zipper the bonobos are let's keep it simple kiss yeah keep it simple but where but where i still need to wear i don't have a wear it's a shallisville's tough with shopping I have to go to the mall anymore. The wrist watch is gone.

I'm not saying it's gone forever. Can we get back to it? Yeah. What was your objective with the Apple Watch? Like at the end of the day, if I haven't burned enough calories, now maybe I'm the psycho who's walking up and down the block trying to get the steps in, but I just wanted to say, hey, 100 push-ups will probably get you there.

Get down, give me 100. because now it's, you know, tomorrow. I got kids tomorrow. I got the chocolate cake to eat. I mean, I'm convinced the thing doesn't work. I don't think Apple. I think it's such a, there's no way a thing on your,

can say how long you go and how long you. You don't believe the technology? Absolutely not. I think it is such a farce and is not even close to accurate. Is this like how you think every single number one overall pick is not going to pan out.

Do they? Sometimes, on occasion, they do. I know you're a big Bryce young guy. Sorry. Hey, I want them to work out. It's just not going to. You've been in my life for, I don't know, a decade. This is bad back backy, by the way, for the folks who are wondering.

Great to be here. Yeah, happy to have you. I guess the big guy's got to get out of here for me to get in the chair again. No, you're going to be in the rotation. Unbelievable. You're going to be in the rotation as a life coach. You're your life coach, okay? And part because you're, I don't mean to gas you up, a bit of a diesel, you know, you're always in the gym.

You know, we're shaping my life right now. Really? But guess what? It's going to change. Yeah? Yeah, I got a whole plan. Apple Watch? That's what we need to talk about.

Plan. No, because that is not accurate. When you left me the other day, you like slapped both of your bare wrists and you're like heading to the gym without the Apple Watch. Correct. And meanwhile, the day I returned the Apple Watch, the day following that's the first time. I've had a good sweat and, I don't know, two years. That's exactly my point. What we're talking about here, right?

The analytics, the technology, that's all great, okay? But at the end of the day, it's how you feel. Yeah. Right here. Terrible. It's kind of like managing baseball. Let's get a little personal feel here. I've put together a little spreadsheet for the second half of the year.

And so I put a check mark. Second half of what year? 2023. For like your personal? Yeah, personal. Okay. See Long just texting me. God, I hope he's not listening to this via some sort of Riverside feed at the moment. So it's no bread. If I do no bread, if I do no bread, I get a check mark.

If Zoe gets her walk after dinner, I get a check mark. A hundred ounces of water, that's easy. How many push-ups? I did 26 push-ups last week, all right? Hold on. The whole week? The whole week. And then no dessert. I haven't gotten that yet. We got to talk. And then workout. I hit one work. That was the tennis playing.

So that's my, so at least I'm tracking things now. Well, that's great. And I wish I could do that. But that's on the spreadsheet for Excel. Don't do Excel, Coach. My problem with your program is I don't like putting things in my body that make me P brown or dark green. And then.

It's more of a neon color, wasn't it? And then you're like, hey, you know. That means it working. seven reps eight times or whatever of a Roman deadlift, whatever the hell that is. And I got to go to Google to watch a YouTube video of somebody deadlifting. I don't know how to do it.

I mean, do you want to make games or not? And you want to put a little bulk on. Here's the thing. Everyone needs to be on board here for this. Okay? Yeah. So not only do I need to talk with you and get you on board, we got to talk to Kate.

Yeah. And we got to make sure that, hey, there needs to be time. for makes the bulk up. Well, maybe the onus is upon me to carve out a little in the middle of the day, you know? Interest rates are high. We know. Coach. Coach, we know.

It might be a little less real estate being sold the next six to 18 months. Oh. So maybe we... I'm going to help you out with that. Maybe we take an hour. Hey, Kate said something really nice the other day when I was complaining about what a fat fuck I am. And she said, you know, it's just a phase of our... If you're a fan fuck.

Look, I got issues, coach. Well, it really is the skinny fat thing and the dad-bod thing that's not good. But she said it's just a phase of our lives where number one priority is our kids. That's called a motor, coach. That's not an anchor. Well, hold on. Hold on. Can we circle back to that?

Please. What I said to her was, yeah, I appreciate that. That's nice. And I said, you know, for me, actually, the kids will be my top priority for the rest of my life. And then the conversation sort of ended. She didn't really appreciate that as much. Okay. You know. Let's remember you guys were similar mindset, you know, for her. Motor, anchor?

Yeah. Go ahead. I mean, you're either a motor or you're an anchor. You got to pick one, you know, and you want your significant other to be a motor, not an anchor. Yeah. You know. You want your life coach. I'm a motor. Yeah. I'm not putting any of this on Kate. No. It's all you. But it helps when you get a nice little pump me up right there. Well, your official life coach of the Greenlight Pod from here on out, C-Long is greenlit this. I mean, C-Long, hey, he doesn't have it all figured out. Sometimes, sometimes he says, hey, I need to tune up with X, Y, or Z. It's typically not fitness, right? But you're going to be the one, one person removed.

That's going to say, hey, guys, you know, you see things clearly. You got a lot of wisdom up there. I appreciate that. Never thought of myself as wise. You said you were old. Yeah, basically. Yeah. Just because I'm older than you guys.

You are an older cat, but you got the, shoot, you got the rocking bod of a 22-year-old, and you got the youthful exuberance of a 33-year-old. Hey, guys, gassing up guys, you know. But point being, the plan we've been on thus far, which is like, hey, here's a workout, or, hey, here's some pills, which, you know, have no label on them, hasn't worked. Okay. That, yes, and part of this process is that,

to know what you want to do, what we want to do together, and you got to be on board. I mean, you have to show the initiative. Okay, all right. And getting an Apple Watch isn't that. Okay, yeah, I thought it'd be a cure-all. Maybe we need to listen to what Field Yates just said about the Nick Siriannis of the world.

You know, they get into the building early. They don't ask any questions. They just grind it out, you know. Was that a shot, the early thing? Oh, yeah, you were nine minutes late. That's true. Hey, no. I was doing real estate stuff.

Nobody, without me? Just clean up stuff. You want to clean up and get new tenants in? No, I don't. Let me know when we're buying a property. You get the closer over here. So, Coach, you good? I mean, this is just a little teaser for what,

for what's going to be. I'm great. I'm great. It's good to know what I'm walking into a little bit, and I'm happy to be here. Happy to be, you know, I want to, just want to help. Yeah. Any thoughts on Ricky Henderson?

Greatest player ever to play the game of baseball. Holy smokes. Ever. Okay. Without a doubt. Five tool played for 32 years, barely got hurt. Stud. When I teach, when I want to teach kids how to steal a base,

you go to the Ricky Henderson film. Correct. He's more skiing than he is running with the side-to-side power motions. There is a chin-to-hip thing going that is just top-notch. He is one of the ultimate motherfuckers. And I mean that in the most sincere, endearing way I can. He doesn't care. He just wants to win ball games, and he wants to do well.

And nobody's going to get in his way to do that. And I just, you don't see that a lot anymore. and I got to say the last guy that I think reminded me a little bit of him was Jose Reyes with the Mets. He had a little bit of a motherfucker in him, a lot of it, and he would bite your face off to get an extra base, and I really, really appreciate that, and I don't think you see that as often. And I think a lot of that has gone away because small ball isn't even around anymore, which is so disheartening. I grew up, I'm a Sox fan, I live by Wrigley Field,

worked for Budweiser forever, so I used to go to a lot of games, and I go to a lot of Cubs games because I live right there. I was a nine iron from Wrigley Field, right? I would stand up when a Cubs player bunted the ball over and got a runner over. I'd stand up and clap because I clap for good baseball. You just don't see a lot of good baseball anymore. For me, you don't see any baseball.

Shout out to the National League. Yeah. And I'll take home the... For the first time in a long time, I think like 12 years. Any stakes to that? Or did we do away with home field? Yeah, I think it's actually, I'm not sure. I don't remember.

They've made so many damn changes in baseball that I can't. I thought that was great because it meant something. I mean, I think the problem with All-Star games was they didn't mean anything. And with that, and I get that it's a lot of hoopla and all that. And it's a show. But to have it mean something, I think. was very significant for the sport. I thought Seattle did.

I thought Seattle's getting rave reviews for what. I mean, the stadium looked awesome. They did a great job. Well, in that game, we need to have the home team wearing home jerseys, all the white jerseys, a white team wearing all the gray jerseys. Wear your actual jersey.

Don't wear these silly duds that they print up just to make a buck. I guess that's our answer, though, though. That's the answer. It's the alt jersey for them. It's a dollar. Real quick on Ray is one thing. He did sit out a game to win the batting title, so demotions on that, big demotions on that.

I agreed, and that was later on. That was later on. That was later on in the career. But I did like the way he played the game. Yeah. But that is not okay. That is not okay. No.

That is a fine. That's a fine. Coach Bakke, thank you. Thanks for having me. Any action items here? I'm trying to be a big, beefy boy, all right? Action items. down and talk and you got to stick with the program. What are we doing here? What is this?

But we got to stick with the program. I mean, I gave it to one program and you say you don't want to do seven reps. Well, how do you want to, you mean, I don't just like, I need deadlift. Don't know how to do a deadlift. Like I went in there one day, like my back was all curved. I couldn't stand up. That was bad. Oh, not good. That was. Yeah. Got my phone in my hand looking at how to do one. You were like, you went from 32 to like 80 quick. Not good. It was not good. I think you can get up to five pushups the day though. Oh, dog, I was doing a hundred a day for a long time. Felt great. You just told us you did 26 in a week. Yeah. Let me pull that up. Not a day. A week. I did 13 one day, 13 the next day, and then no others for the rest of the weeks.

Backy, have you seen one of these pushups? Oh, no. No. Now the form is right. Are we sure? Yes. So are you saying that your pushup is maybe worth a pushup and a half? I'm saying I'm saying the form cannot be improved on my push-ups. up. That's what I'm saying. Because that's a big deal. There's a lot of people that think they're doing push-ups when they're not remotely close to being. Couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more. It's about form. And that's what we're going to talk about when we're doing deadlifts. We need to spend time together in the gym. That's right. That's what we need to do. Yeah. I think that is, I think that is an answer.

Okay. We can work on that. Thank you to Field Yates for being on this program. We've got a 10-cup. Oh, should I have said that? We've got the best. golf movie of all time movie review coming out let me know it's tin cup y'all if you haven't seen tin cup watch it watch tin cup we review it on friday show is that being released friday thursday thursday nailing this nailing this promo uh that was a delight it was chris kyle me we had a lot of fun renne rousseau she's a gem and uh you got a birthday shout out you want to make and i have a birthday shout out i want to make I want to silence this spam telephone call, and I want to pull up a message. I got one announcement while you're doing that.

So we have a contest on Greenlight this week. Check out our social media. You can guess who picked which song for their 10 favorite, and you can win money, and there will be reveals throughout the week. So check it out. Special shout out, okay, big Greenlight fan, Big Eagles fan, Trey S. we're not revealing his full identity. Because when you're a birds fan,

you know, that can be embarrassing. When you're a green light fan, you know, it's not everybody's cup of tea. Trey S. Happy birthday. His birthday is on the 20th. Happy early birthday, Trey. Parker and Page love you very much.

Go birds, they say. Trey, big ups, buddy. Have a great birthday. Happy birthday. It could be Trey, Sermon. I'm not clear. I don't think he's 20, though. Kingston, thank you, Nolan, thank you, Corporate Scott, thank you. Cowboy Reed.

Is he among the living? Have we heard from Cowboy Reed? He's helping facilitate this whole process remotely. Remotely. Either way, thanks to Cowboy Reed. All righty, y'all take care of yourself. Thanks to Kevin, Kevin Bagkey. Thanks to Coach Badkekekekew're on it. Great to be here. Bye-bye.