Green Light with Chris Long - Michael Bennett on NFL Retirement & Space. Dragonfly Jonez on NBA Restart & LeBron James.

Episode Date: July 31, 2020

1:33 - Michael Bennett on NFL Retirement, Best Offensive and Defensive Retirement, Super Bowl Fight and Life in Outer Space. 42:38 - Quick Hitters with Michael Bennett. 55:53 - Dragonfly Jonez on NBA Restart, LeBron James, and Interior Decorating. Michael Bennett Twitter https://twitter.com/mosesbread72 Dragonfly Jonez Twitter https://twitter.com/DragonflyJonez Jenkins & Jonez Podcast Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whose fault was the brawl at the end of the Super Bowl? That was all of our fault. I think everybody was just, man, you know, it's not my fault. I don't know. I just always wanted to punch gronk in the face. I think he's a great guy, actually, but then at the time I had a chance to punch gronk.

Not the summer any of us planned or imagined, but it's the summer we got. So I hope everybody's making the best of it. Staying safe, having some fun. I'm up in Montana. I've been using some of my time to check out my tree dashers from all birds. So fishing, check. Boating, check, jet ski, check, hiking.

Definitely a check. I knew that in Virginia. And out here, the terrain's a little bit different, but still, same quality shoe. I'm even giving them a big old check for barbecue maintenance and monitoring, something I do really well at times and sometimes I fall short. They're light, they're tough, they're great. They look great. Again, look good, feel good, play good.

A fantastic athletic shoe, and I am so happy to be involved with Allbirds. They're our sponsor. They're a great sponsor, and I've loved working with them. Check out the tree dashers at allbirds.com. Happy Friday, everybody. About a week ago, Mike Bennett retired. So naturally, I figured I was probably in the front of the line when it came to landing an interview as a former teammate.

And he kept his word. So we got Mike Bennett on today, also later in the pod, Dragonfly Jones of Twitter fame. Great account to follow. Also really knowledgeable and stands out in NBA Twitter, which is hard to do because that is a cynical, miserable place. And his tweets are great.

He's also a good podcaster. Jenkins and Jones is the podcast. But we had two games and it was good to hear Kevin Harlan's voice. And first you'll hear from Mike, but after that, Dragonfly Jones, aka Tyler. So it is a pleasure, an honor. This is two times I've had my guy on. The newly retired washed up.

I can go out there right now and play great football, but... We're washed up now because we're not playing anymore. We're not playing by choice. There's a lot of people in the league right now that is, even at our age, people say they all-stars if they get six sacks or seven sacks, but we get seven sacks and 20 TFLs and 30 quarterback hits. People are like, oh, what's wrong with these guys? Oh yeah. Yeah, they're old.

Oh, but it's just like, you know how it is in the league. You know, so I'm excited about being out, honestly. Yeah, I know you are. We talked about it a lot. And like, you kind of did it low-key. You posted on IG. I know you had an article in The New Yorker. You talked about something in your Instagram caption, I think, was really poignant, depending on how you look at it. It's not a sad thing, but it's the death of self. I think it's actually a good thing.

What did you mean by that? I mean that like the death of ego. You know, I think when you're in the league and NFL, you create this ego about yourself and you kind of have this, you create this whole self, this whole image about yourself that, like at some point that image doesn't have the same value because you're not attached to the NFL anymore. But you get to recreate who you really are.

You know, this is what your really passions are, what you really, what you really love. And I think sometimes, you know, fans put like these stigma on players and they create images for players. But I feel like it's kind of, and there's also a death to something that you've been a part of for a long period of time. It's not like a physical death, but it feels like almost like a spiritual depth, you know,

like you're disconnecting from something that's been a part of your life for a long period of time. So it does feel like kind of a death to yourself in that sense. But it's also like a rebirth to like really figure out exactly what you really want to do. What's your true purpose? And I think sometimes you get a purpose misconstrued with, with our sport or our job and we slowly start to lose our identity. And I think this is an opportunity to, you know, reimagining what I can be or what I can do and not really focus on this thing

that's been a part of my life. Like, this is the first August that I'm ever going to be home in my whole life. Like I've never been, I've never been home in August. Bro, what the fuck is August? I had no idea until I retired. August was like just this month that only existed on a calendar.

It was just pointless. I've never been to anybody's house on Christmas. I've never been to Thanksgiving. Like, it's like nothing's like, I've always been, like I've never been a part of any of those things because I've been in league for so long. Like, you know, I was like, what is the weather like where I live?

I might not even like where I live at now because I'm probably using it in the spring. I might need to move. It's pretty cool because like I remember sitting down last Thanksgiving with my two brothers and we hadn't been able to really spend it as a family. And I was watching your ass, I think, on TV. But it's just like, it's just, different, man. It's just this whole world is freed up. And I think the best way I did, I think what you said about the ego is so true because that's, people ask me, what's the biggest thing about retirement?

I said, number one, you, you learn to manage your ego. You reshape it. And the misnomer is that, like, you can't get rid of your ego, technically speaking, everybody has an ego. It's just, is it healthy or not? In football, there's a sense of you that died, but it also kind of teaches you teamwork. And I think a lot of times, you just had this conversation with me being about players or whatever. And we were talking about, he was just saying like, oh, well,

he was talking about this one team that has really good players. I'm not going to say the team famous. And I was like, man, but they're consistently five and 11. How can you tell me that those guys are top players in the league when it's harder for them to win and then you don't really learn how to win until you become a team. And I think that's the thing I look forward to is that I feel like a lot of times

when you don't, when you are a part of the team and you become, and you were a part of team and you never really kind of got used to being on a team. and then you go home and you really not want to be on team with your wife and your kids. And then I feel like that's where the drama starts to happen. But I feel like if you were able to like start to control your ego and kind of like start to really work as a team and didn't see team as an issue, like it just makes being home a lot easier because it's like you are a part of something that's bigger than you that requires you to drop

your ego. And I think sometimes you want to be like, especially as a husband who's made a lot of money or something, you're like, well, I've made the money. So I get to do all the decisions. And it's like, that's not how this shit works. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think sometimes we forget about that. It is a team.

And like, Lord knows my wife Meg and I, you know Meg, she's a college athlete. So we're both competitors. And sometimes in a marriage, you compete unknowingly for control of the decision making or whatever. And I think that like it's very true. If you can, football can be a detriment to your home life or it can enhance your home life because you can be so thankful when you get home. And I like to say that by the time I had kids later in my career, I don't know. it would have been like being two and 14 and coming home every day in St. Louis if I had kids, thank goodness I didn't. But like by the time I had kids later in my career, I really felt like

I came home and I was happy. I had perspective. And also I had learned a lot from football that allowed me to like you're saying, be a better teammate. But you talk about being a teammate off the cuff here. I really think there's a like when we went to school, they never, they didn't offer credits for playing football. And they don't now. I think they should because I think that the things you learn on a team, the ultimate team sport, football, hold some academic value. Do you think that that teamwork can fall under the academic umbrella, like things we learn and football can count?

Yeah, I think sometimes people like, with, I also say two things, right? I think it's like, because that's a complex question too, because it's like, I also feel like there's some art in that too. Like there's some art in that too in football. Then I feel like there's this intellectual part of it that people like to downplay about football. You look at Bill Belichick and you think like, man, this guy is intellectual. Look at the way that he handles the game. Look how he thinks about football.

Look at his way that he has his perspective about. Look at it. He's a historian about it. And the way that you have to be able to maneuver pieces, I think there's a highly intellectual component to a sports that people tend to look over. And when we think about Tom Brady, we think that cerebral, like this is cerebral. the way that he is, it's obvious that he's intellectual when we think about the way that he's playing the game, Russell Wilson, the way to time up to run in a circle to come back around and throw the ball. There's some, there's some art, and it's art to it too. So I think it should

have. But you can get credits for art too. And we should celebrate the, and we should. But like, we celebrate the arts. We celebrate, you know, intellect. We celebrate the historian aspect of anything. And to your point, like, I feel like with players, there's a whole crowd that discounts all the brainpower that it takes to do what we did. And the social skills and the teamwork and the things that like really translate into corporate America into working with your family and and, you know, being a part of a team. And that's why I think. I think it's just like, you know, for a lot of NFL players to just recalibrate in those skills to fit into the new thing that they're trying to attempt. You know what I'm saying? I think sometimes like we just, that's all we need is because

we have all the component to be a great worker. We have teamwork. We have commitment. We We have hard work. We have dedication. We have love. We have passion. We have, so those are things that have any job that you have those. And we are enthusiastic about it. And I think those are things that each employer is looking for somebody like that.

A lot of times people have those jobs, and they lack those skills. So I don't know. I feel that, you know, people overlook the intellectual part of sport. What part of that does football stunt, though? Because football does stunt certain things in your growth. I think football stunts, like, growth. It's like almost like you become, like, the hermit of something like you become, a student of this thing, but it doesn't allow you to grow into other parts of your life.

I think, like, it teaches you how to think at a high level and do all these different things, but it also, people also put athletes in a tunnel the whole way through life. And I think at the end of that tunnel, sometimes when you get out, it's overwhelming because that tunnel was shut, it was covering you from all the things that really, that you need to have in life to be successful. And I think when you come out at the end of your career, a lot of people have a lot of time, hard time being successful because they've been sheltered from so much their finances, it's sheltered from so many different things.

And now it's at the end, it's like, oh, my God, like, wait, I thought I had two million. I only got 500,000 like this, like those kind of things that happen to people all the time, you know, every single day. And then also when I think when you play football, you are so, you're grinding so hard year-round, like even in your off-season, your free time, like say you get your biggest chunk of free time right before camp. It's like a three-week period. I don't enjoy that time.

I can't get away. I can't grow. I can't truly be present because I have a dark cloud over my head that's called training camp. So like there's never a time that, you know, and I realize this when I retired, there's never a time that you've been able to comprehensively work on yourself. There are things you realize and learn about yourself that you did not learn in the first 35 years of your life, but 34 years of your life.

So it's cool. I mean, it is what you make it. But one thing you said about you and me, we decided when to get out. And there's guys that don't get, they don't make that decision. And I feel like that really can, can hamper the whole process because they're angry and they're looking back. Yeah, that's why I said in my post, you know, I said peace because peace is that. Peace is something like that people, you know, it's what the world fights for. It is peace, you know.

When you can have peace within yourself, it allows you not to have any regrets. And I can say like literally like I still know a lot of guys. Like they want to be done, but it's like they have so many regrets. It's like, I don't have any regrets. It's just like, man, I did everything that you could possibly do in NFL. So it's like, you know, at some point, I feel like you being a little greedy and seeing how things are unfolding and it just makes your decision a lot easier. I think, but I think a lot of guys are stuck with not having a choice to retire, not having those choices.

And it just makes you live with a regret. And it's like, what if I would have one more snack? What if I would have had one more chance? Like, baby, you know what I could have done? And it's like, I don't do that. I wake up and be like, oh, damn, no, thank you, Laura. I'm another day I woke up, God. I thought I was going to make it tomorrow.

Yeah, and you got, I mean, like you got 11 years in and obviously three Pro Bowls, 69 and a half sacks, a bunch of TFLs. That number really popped off the screen when I look at you, you're my boy, and we competed against each other for years. But, you know, to look at some of the numbers, I was just very proud of you as a friend and as somebody who competed against you. So I think the number one thing is you want to be respected when you get out. And that's what I think.

I think that's for me. That was the thing that I felt, you know what I'm saying? Because at the end of the day, like, I felt, in the NFL, like, you have to compromise a lot of times when it comes to your identity or compromise when it comes to your belief system. But for me, I feel like I'll always stay true to that. And I think I've got a lot of respect around the league because of that. You know what I'm saying?

Like, here's a guy that never really compromised his character into the situation, like, for anybody. Like, and so people like you and people like that, like I respect those type of people because I know like how you didn't compromise regardless of what happened. Like we could talk about, but we could just say like taking a knee or talking about political protests

or talking about like having out or just, you know, weighing it, weighing the fuck in. Because here's a white guy like, right? Like everybody was looking for it. Everybody thought the white guy was going to be like, there's Aaron Rogers or Joe Montana. And here's this guy who's like,

there's a defense event. To me, and it makes a lot of sense too when I come back and I start to think about. I'm like, a white defense event, I'm like, if anybody spent a lot of time with black people, it's a white deuce of it. Hey, we joke all the time. I'm like, the one place it's not good to be a white guy in the entire country is a defensive line room. You have respect for people like you and just, and that's the thing you really want in the league.

Respect for how you play on the field. And then also respect for how you cared of yourself off the field. Because we see a lot of guys who did great on the field, but we talk about them as individuals and persons and how they were. People hated them. It's like, you don't want to be that guy. was good at football. People talk about him, like, man, that guy was an asshole.

Yeah, you know what the biggest fear I could ever have would be like that I didn't know my teammates hated me? You know what I mean? Or like, yeah, and also the respect thing you mentioned is so true because fans don't know and I don't blame them. They're not in the locker room with guys. Like, we don't tear each other down. You know, that's kind of like,

seems to be an unspoken code, which sometimes I disagree with when a guy's wrong, you got to call them out and whatnot. But we don't tear each other down as a league. And so you're not going to just volunteer that somebody's actually a shithead. Like nobody's going to know that. Just the players know. So like the real ones know.

The players know who's who, who stands by their shit and who played the game the right way. So that's what you know. And that's crazy though because me and my brother talk about this all the time. It's like there's like, you know, there's so much fakeness. And there's so much like I hate that I, I hate that I grew up in the, in the, the situation where branding was so important. was more important than actual integrity and dignity. It was like, how did you brand yourself to have that? And I feel like you have so many people in NFL who have these brands that people fall in

love with, but they aren't truly who they say they are. They truly don't have their integrity. And I think, like you said, a lot of people, a lot of people you think people love, but they don't spend no time with their teammates. And I think, like, on D-Line, it was like, you have to spend time with your teammates. That's the only thing you could do. And it's like, you know, and it's just a different feeling. It's just a whole other vibe.

I mean, and so I don't know. It's just different when you are a part of something like that. That branding thing is a trap. And I know it makes some guys money, but you know what else makes people money? Authenticity. Now, the only thing, the only reason you'd be afraid of being authentic

is if you're actually just a fraud. But like, I like, no, I get that like you want to protect your wallet. And I've never been a guy that like signed huge endorsements or whatever. So I don't know if I would turn certain things down. But I'm always, I feel like, if you are yourself, you don't have to worry about your brand. You know, like, it's like telling a lie. Once you tell a lie, you have to always look over your shoulder and be like,

am I covering my tracks? Am I corroborating that story with my actions and who I, if you just are yourself, it's way easier and actually, believe it or not, fans like you. They do. And I think that's the thing that's the thing I enjoyed about Philly. Like people, I was like, oh, I was like, man, I love the city of Philly because it's just raw and real.

Like, raw. Don't get me wrong. Like, I love Seattle. Like, people like, oh, it's like, but you can love, you can love another city. And I think, like, Philly to me was just like, Seattle was like a great city. But Philly to me is just like, it was just raw and gritty. And it was like unpredictable. But at the same time, it was just real.

You know what I'm saying? Like, the fans, like, they'll call your ass out and say what they want to say about you. And I got a lot of shit for the same button, Nicole's shit on your iPhone. Did you really? Yeah, all I see people talking about that shit. You love to just stir shit up, though. So my question, do you would. be because I've known you since we got in the league and a lot of people forget that you were even

in Seattle for that first stint and I watched you in Tampa and fell in love with your game. I mean, I'd watch those years where because I was in the same boat. Nobody's watching us. Now I was a high pick and that sort of thing, but nobody gave a fuck about the bucks or the Rams. So I appreciated how undervalued you were and, you know, just watching you kind of growing in this guy that was like a face of a franchise. guys, if you look back and you're the retired Michael Bennett sitting here today, and you run into

the guy who had just signed with the bucks, you know, 23-year-old Michael Bennett, do you like that guy? What do you think of that guy? What are you going to tell him? I tell that guy. I mean, I like that guy. I think that guy was a really hungry girl. I was just tell him to stay humble the whole time and stay hungry. I think even though I stay hungry and humble the whole time. I would just always tell myself that because that's how I feel like I got to the league is that I always stay hungry. I always stay gritty. And I always tell myself and I would tell other rookies too, like, find a vet. Like people like look at people and see competition and be like, oh, I can't have a teammate for me. Like I used to love being in the room with great, great defense

alignment to learn from. So being a student of the game is something that I've always loved to do. Like, you know, with me and you just stay back, like the whole D-line leave and we're like, man, Let's watch 45 minutes or let's just because it was just fun talking football and like seeing where you seeing the game. I'm like, I didn't see that. You know what I'm saying? And like, so I always say continuously young players be students of the game because I hear so many young guys saying, oh, I don't watch film.

I'm just like, what? Like, that's not like a good thing to say. No, you should have said it out loud. That's like saying I don't read. Like I'm like, you don't read. But so it's like, I would say, man, tell myself to continue to be a student in the game. And that's the thing I love. And I think I can tell myself to always take risk.

I think sometimes in the NFL, we're scared to take those risks on certain plays. And we end up not making the plays we're supposed to make because we just so risky. Like trust yourself. Like trust your study, trust your habits and know that, you know, that you can do what you can do. Who really pushed you over the finish line and making this decision? I remember how afraid I was, even though I fantasized about retirement, you know how much I talked about it. All we did was talking about it. I can't wait to be done with this shit.

But we love the game though. We love Sunday. Yeah. And then we love the moments like, you know, where you go out to eat, you me, Fletch, BG, whoever, and, you know, like, BG didn't come. BG didn't come sometimes. Helodi did.

I still talk to Hologi, man. But you're about to have a big. Big age. But yeah, I mean, like, I needed a little bit of nudging. Like, for me, it was, all right, I know I want to do this, but I got to have a, I had a party and I invited like 15, 20, my closest friends. I told him what it was about.

And I said, like, I'm posting it during the party because I knew that I might be too chicken shit if I didn't put it out there. And there was no going back once everybody showed at my house with balloons and shit. For you, did anybody nudge you over the line? No, actually, I told the Cowboys at the end of the season, like our last game against the Redskins.

I was pretty too much told the whole D-line and the whole defense that, but this is my last game in the NFL. I think I just wanted to, I just had a whole conversation to the young players and kind of just told them how much I love the game and just some, you know, it's hard to walk away from something that you love, but you have to know that your health is more important. And I just kind of told the D-line that I just told the whole defense that.

And for me, that was pretty much the turning moment for me. I knew if I said it to them, if I was able to muster those words in front of that D-line and told them that I respected them because, man, I love Robert Quinn, like saying, talking to them and just having that conversation with them and hearing, you know, my teammates being like, man, I'm hoping we could get to that point too. So I think it's just, like you said, you kind of get to the realization that you know, like, man, I'm at a good health part. You know what I'm saying? Like the thing my wife asked me yesterday, she was like, what are you looking forward to being doing this offseason?

And I was like, I mean, being doing this season, I said to be healthy, right? Because it's always like when you play the game the way that mean, you play the game. Like there's a lot of people who played the game not to get off the question, but nobody really nudged me. I kind of nudge myself. I kind of talked to like, I was talking to Renee Brown about. by retirement and and and then i was kind of texting back with her about it and we kind of talk about i was starting about her new documentary that she had on on netflix and she was saying some powerful stuff in there and and i was talking about it and i said you know i'm going to have the

courage to do the same thing you know what i mean to really take that step that you know was right but um that's pretty much it but it wasn't nobody really much it was just like i talked to a couple people and wasn't really about like helping make a decision it was just hearing some stuff that they said it was like that's so true and applying that to my life. It's just crazy, though, when you do hit send, because you think about that day for years. I thought about retirement because I've grappled with, I know I'm not just a football player. I got to live another 50 years, maybe more. Now this science shit is coming out that says we might live to 150.

I don't know. Yeah, white people usually live longer than everybody else. So you got a good, you get a good extra 10 years. You talk about life privilege. Hey, so that begs the question then, because I did read that article as a tangent. They're saying 150 is within reach. Do you even want to live to 150? I mean, 150, if I'm healthy enough, like, it depends, too, because, I mean, like you said,

science is going to be real different. You might be, you might get to the point where you get in the next couple of years, where 50, you get to stay looking the same is 150. What was that one thing that we had? Oh, bro, I'm more jacked than I've ever been at 35 right now. Oh, yeah. I do think, you know, 150, as long as you feel good and you're not at the point where you feel like you like a vegetable and you're trying to stay alive just to be staying alive, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, if I can look like the Nugetics guy at 150, I'm down. I'm down. The only problem is if everybody lives to 150, we can barely, we can barely make it work for everybody on Earth right now. Think about how many people are going to be alive. That's why they go into space now. What planet are you eyeing up? I don't know. I can't see them. I can't see a planet where black people are allowed it right now. Listen, dude, we had a black astronomer on yesterday. day. Earth is already hard enough. Earth is already hard enough for black people.

Just imagine space, like, talking about segregation. But I was actually, no, the funny part that you said that, though. I was actually talking to my wife because I was saying, like, there's some people in this world. There's, like, they spend up $50 million to go to space. I was like, if I had that type of money, I would just go to space and then put on my Instagram and never put anything else on there. I would just keep reposting it every day. You had one post?

Yeah. You did what? You didn't go to fucking space. And you know what I'm saying? Like, oh, you didn't go to space, man. I was in space. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, it's the ultimate Trump card. Like, you can win any argument. Would you play this year if you were still? No, I wouldn't play. I think you see a lot of guys. I was so surprised that guys were opting out. I couldn't believe some of the, like, Dante Hightower. Like, I know, me, you both know how.

Like, he's one of the most team, team guys that you can possibly. He's a machine, dude. Yeah, he's like one of the best players that people don't talk about. Oh my God, he's so good. Yeah, and he's not a great pass rusher, but he does some good moves. But overall, football player? For a backer, though, I mean, for a guy who played, like, you show me a backer who can play inside and rush the edge the way he rushes it. Yeah.

No, I think he's up there. I think he's one of it. I think he's one of, like I said, I think he's one of the best players like I've been around. Who are the best leaders you had been around on our side of the ball? Offensively, I would start offensively. Yeah, go with the offense. first. I think Russell Wilson, Doug Baldwin. Doug's great. I actually like Jason Peters. I thought Jason Peters was a good leader whenever he like, he would open his, he always said things at the right

time. Like it was never like the wrong. It's like he didn't say much, but when he did say it was like, damn, we needed to hear that. You know what I'm saying? Like the gravity of somebody who's that great and still playing and has so much experience. And I think he's like a football life or he knows so much. He could easily coach the O'Lyme better than 27 out of the 32 coaches at that position. He's pretty awesome. So the Russell thing, he's a great leader. That thing was kind of blown out of proportion in Seattle, like a locker room divided and shit like that. No, that was blown out of proportion. I think any great team people are going to say, like, which I think a lot of time, the media wanted us to be there. Because, I mean, I mean, contraryly, I mean, if Russell was playing

that the way he's playing right now with that defense, we probably would have one like, won four Super Bowls. Yeah, because our defense was like, I was telling, I was telling a couple of my, bro, we went to games winning, we go to three overtimes with the, I mean, to overtime, the score being three to six, like, like hardcore defense.

And that's why you should love playing the Rams, but, but, um, Russell was a great leader. I think he was, he never, he never, buckets against you guys, but we never got wins. Russell was a great leader, Doug Baldwin,

Jason Peters. I thought Julian Ellman was a good leader when I was in with Patriots. Yeah, Jewel is a hell of a player and a really good, really good teammate too. I think, of course, Tom Brady. Defensively, I would say, I definitely say higher tower. Even though Devin McCordy get on my fucking nerves,

he is a good leader. He's a great leader. Yeah, he's great. I can't even lie. He gets on my fucking nerves, but he's great. I think Cam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, all of the guys on Seattle was really great. Yeah, that you had a lot of leadership,

leadership there. In Philly on defense? Oh, Sean Lee, man. Sean Lee was one of my favorite. I still talked to Sean Lee. That was one of my favorite people who ever played in the league. Great leader, great guy, great team players, player. Everything that people said about him was true.

Yeah, yeah. Let me see. Philly I'm trying to think in Philly because I was trying to think outside of D-Line. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, you know, it's Malcolm. I think Jink is a great leader. I think, but he's always, it's always like, I don't know. Jink is a great leader.

but he's quiet that's the thing that some guys don't understand is like malch is just going to go under the radar for most of it until he explodes yeah yeah he i thought you was a great leader i thought that's that's pretty much oh yeah oh ronde barbara i forgot i didn't even go back to tampa jare mccor is a great leader rondea barbore galie man it's funny as you because you're low for tutu you're one of the best players i've ever seen that had a lot of stops because early on you you had seattle tampa then Seattle again and then towards the end there was a flurry of new destinations do you regret that last year like playing no i regret leaving philly though it was like one of those things where it was like i don't know i feel like i could have stayed but then it was kind of like uh i just didn't like the idea

of not being not having an opportunity to compete i didn't like that part but um no i thought i learned a lot with the patrons i think i learned a lot about football being with the patrons i mean i didn't like the i mean they switched the defense that's what made it hard and i mean yeah we're talking about this all the time. First, I was going to run four three, but then they decided to do like a three, four. And like, I was like, the way that they run the one or three four isn't the typical, the way that how JJ, like, you get to go free. It was more like you're holding people kind of thing. I didn't have a ring at the, like when you were in New England, you already had your ring. And like, for me, I was like, I'm here to try to win a ring. So whatever I got to do, I'll do it.

You know, and even though the scheme didn't agree with me either, I know that we talked about this before. It's like, our first couple games there when I was in New England, I was like, damn, we're running a four-three. I'm even playing some left end and that sort of thing, but then they switched the whole game up. Yeah, that was so. But no, I think at the end, though, I feel like Philly was great.

I had a great year in Philly. I mean, there was a lot of people that wanted me to come play from after the year in Philly. I think Philly was just like, I was a guy. I mean, I don't think they knew that we was going to put them type of stats up, especially that, you know, me and you were going out there. I think they didn't.

I don't know if they knew, like, that we were going to jail like that, like me. Like, they thought, you they was like, oh, maybe, but then, like, You know, they never really thought that, you know, they thought that one of us would be out. Then Darry Barnet got hurt and then we kind of just, right. We kind of went dumb out there. We was kind of killing out there, honestly, huh?

Yeah, like the old folks home that was jumping. Yeah, like, we started because at the beginning it was like, you were so rushing from different styles. Like in the middle of the season, it was like, okay, now we know how each other rush. Yeah, because at first I was like, get the fuck down, bro, like move into a real three technique. I used to joke. I told people that I said, you need to write a book called What Makes White Pass Rushers Uncomfortable. I know, bro.

But we started that we started clicking, though, me and you in Fletch, because me and Fletch on the inside, we just started going like we were two D tackles, really. They put up 20 sacks, you know, 21 sacks. And then you on the left side, we had 30 something TFLs, 50 quarterback hits, like 16 sacks. Yep, we had a lot of hit. So what's, so before we move on. to everything else post football. Give me, and the grab bag here, give me, I want to play a quick game with you here. Word association, one word for each destination that you played in the NFL

at. So we'll start with Tampa because I'm not going to count Seattle until the second stop. Tampa, I would say diligent. Diligent. It was diligent. I'll say diligent. It took me like, yeah, it was a lot of like, I had to be patient. I had, you know what I'm saying? So I had to be, so diligent, was something that I would say. How about Seattle, the longest stop? Uphoric. Yeah, you had to just, that crowd had to just get you drunk every game. I did.

I mean, that crowd in Seattle was like crazy because, I don't know, just one of those things like, it's just felt euphoric when you go out there. It's like you float with all my mom's and some of the games we played in, some of the people that I met, it felt like a lifetime. Yeah, great culture up there, man. How about Philly? Oh, Philly. Oh, Philly.

It's a weird year. Gritty. Gritty. I thought that whole season was gritty. It was like we, like I was telling somebody not to go on track, but I was telling somebody about that first time went to New Orleans and they just whipped our ass, boy, they whipped us. Boy, they whipped us there early, bro.

Oh, my. I said that second time, we were like, man, fuck that. We're about to whip their fucking ass. If Flesh don't get hurt and you don't get hurt a little bit, I think we pull off that one. Yeah, here's the deal, bro. That first game down there. I think we were dead. I think we were run down.

We had so many injuries and guys were just dead. And honestly, I thought we just did everything better the second game from the top to the bottom, coaching, playing, the whole thing. But I just remember, you're not supposed to get beat 48 to 7 in the NFL. And that's not something you're really used to with your history. Like I had a little bit more experience of it, but it's almost worse when I'm like, man, I know this feeling. And this is just, I never thought I'd feel it again.

But those oysters still tasted fucking good out of it. They did. The horses taste great. But so I think that's it. That was a greedy season. Because we should have, I mean, like, listen, I don't like doing the shit of thing. And I don't, I never liked it when, when New Orleans, like, some of those players were like, oh, if we'd have beaten Minnesota, we'd have beat the Eagles. This was the year before you got there. No, they wouldn't.

No, they wouldn't. And that's not how it works. It's just not how it fucking works. But I do feel like we went toe to toe And a lot of ways we outplayed them But they ended up with the win Because Sean Payton had that ballsy fake punt That fourth down in the red zone

You know Brooks got hurt That was a big deal So listen while they won it fair and square It felt like you know Night and day between the first game And the second year New England give me one word Humbling

It was humbling and it was stimulating at the same time Humbling and stimulating. Two word alert for Michael Bennett in New England. Dallas. Ronchy. What do you mean, Ronchy? I don't know. It was just like, I don't know. It was just different thing. It was just not. I just like it was just like, I just saying like it was just like, I don't know, it just was different from being in like, you know, Seattle or Philly and New England. Like when I say humbling and stimulate, because it was humbling, like not getting to play

and I do all this stuff. But it was stimulate at the same time to be in the locker room and learn so much about football and being such a like, you know, like just to think about like, like here's a defense that we never did, never stick to the same script

to every game. Like every game literally, they're changing. And it's like, that might wish I was a lineback because it should be way better. But at the same time because, so it was good in that respect.

But I guess it was raunchy. But overall, I don't know, top five defense lines that I was on. Top five? Yeah. That's pretty good because you were on some good one. Was the Seattle defense the best of all time? Yeah, yeah.

But defense in line-wise, I'll say 2013 and 2016. Hold on. It feels like you're skirting that question. Was that Seattle defense you were on the best of all time? I think the Seattle defense is the best of all time. One of the best of all times. And in this decade, I think it's the best in our decade. I think that's a pretty,

I mean, Denver is the other one, right? Yeah, yeah. I think us in Denver was the top defensive, and you put Panthers down there at number three. And a group that should have had two rings. What do you look back at that? And you're just, what do you feel? But that's my problem with, like, a lot of teams right now

because I feel like there's a lot of, like, I take the charge it, for example. Like, they got two rush ends. They got all this stuff, but they seem to under, underachieve, you know what I'm saying? And in a sense that they never ever, like, really get over their hump. They got all this talent and those 5 and 11, like, every year back to back. The secondary is very good.

And this year, they could turn the corner as a team. But they're either going to need tie rod to play really well in a division that's relatively stacked. And an AFC where there's only a few, you know, teams that aren't going to be in the wild card hunt. So, you know, when you talk about the Chargers, because it's funny, there was a mailback question and I guess we're kind of getting to it indirectly but yeah their defense is ridiculous it really is uh but it's ridiculously talent but they underachieve you know what I'm saying and I would say that

like the thing about I feel like in Seattle we didn't have all the first round picks that like all these teams got you know every year you know you think about the Rams like okay let's just talk about D line drives you drive Michael Brockers you drive Aaron Donnell you drive a Robert Quinn you draft Chris long like it wasn't a year yeah we we had William Hayes was there He wasn't the first rounder, but we had a lot of studs. Now, the problem what we had was the offense. But that's what I'm saying. I'm saying that, like, so it's different when you're able to take that talent and

everybody is able to come together and figure out how to win. And there's no selfishness and no levels. I would contend that there were even more personalities in Seattle. You guys made it work. No, I was just going to say. I didn't say, I didn't say, yeah, I was selfish. That's all I was saying. I was just saying it's something about, like, there's a lot of team with a lot of talent.

for some reason we were able to put it together in a way that just was it required and we demanded a lot from each other in a way that like nobody took anything personal like you know sometimes like like you'll come to somebody and be like man Stan you're fucking gap and people will be like what you really always is like nah I wasn't in my gap I'll be there next play you know what I'm saying like it was that type of vibe and I feel like there's a lot of teams that like a lot of people a lot of players get a lot of credit for being good players but they don't demand it. from their teammates in the level that, you know, when you're on a Patriots, it's demanded that you in your place every single time or it's not going to be, or you're not just going to be out there. And I say that's bad doesn't have. I think another thing is the knowledge as a player that you will be replaced if you're not doing your job. You know, like in New England, you know if you don't do your job, they're going to find

the new guy. And that doesn't matter how good you are for the most part. You know, when you play certain places they're trying to get over the hump, they really can't dangle that carrot the way they do or they can't threaten that outcome the way they do an established program. I think a lot of it comes down to coaching. I mean, you know, coaching and building a culture and you guys had a really good culture there. It felt like, you know, it felt like, you know, something that's established. Yeah. And I think, I think a lot of times, you know, it takes the players to build that kind of culture too in a way, you know what I'm saying?

As players, sometimes we don't look, we don't realize that we put so much on the culture. that were like, oh, the culture wasn't good. But it's also like the players. I feel like in New England, you know that the players hold, it's a culture, but it's the players holding that culture, you know, those players meetings. It's like players taking on to their own hand, not just leaving up to it.

I got a job and I just leave. It's like, they got a job, but they want to achieve the highest of their job, you know? It's like, it's just not a pass or fail type of ratio. It's like, we want to get a, like, we want to be the best. And so it's like, it's very rare that you run into that. And so, I don't know.

Yeah, I just think, you know, before we move on the next topic, The big difference between the lowly Rams and the Seattle Seahawks was three letters, L-O-B. So go to the next thing. What about your brother? You guys never got to play with each other. Were you close to going to Chicago in 14? I was real close to going to Chicago, man.

I was so close. Like, the thing that really turned to besides my brother was that I was talking to them, to the damn GM and the defensive the defensive coach. And I was like, oh, man, I'm looking forward to getting a chance to play with Julius Peppers. And it was like, oh, I don't know if Julius Pepper is going to be here when you get here. Like, you're going to replace him. I was like, man, going there if Julius Pepper is not there. Right, right.

Like, I wanted to go with Julius Peppers. Like, I wanted to be like, you know, be on a good defensive line. Like, they was getting rid of everybody, you know what I'm saying? I was like, I might as well stay in the place to. establishing, like, they offer me more money, too. But I just stay, I was just like, you know, this is the better team, better situation. Julius Papers will stay because they are probably going to win. What about, so you were never like, you don't feel like you missed out and not playing with Marty?

Because I don't really feel like I missed out and not playing with Kyle. I think a lot of people assume that like. No, I think it's better that way, actually, because it's like everybody gets to have their own identity. Yeah, because it and also it's hard. If you're in a locker room, like people don't understand, it's hard enough to see your friends get hurt, get cut. get cut, get yelled at on the field, get like in the doghouse. Like imagine if you're watching your brother fail and you're succeeding or vice versa. Like that's really hard to see up close.

Like I don't know how I would have been like the years Kyle got hurt in Chicago. You know, I don't know how I would have been able to be. He's my little brother. Like I don't know how I would have been able to handle that. And I don't know how much that would have distracted me from being like kind of putting that armor on mentally. And just saying, I don't give a fuck about anything but getting my job done. Exactly, and that's hard to do when you, like you said, when your brother and everything's their working out. But like you said, it allows us because as brothers, we can spend so much time together already.

So, you know, have an opportunity to build who you are as a character. And it's always good that when some people, when people talk about your brother and they talk about him and what he's doing or what it just makes you feel good because you're like, oh, that's my brother. He respected. So that's really good. Whose fault was the brawl at the end of the Super Bowl? That was all of our fault I think everybody was just mad You know

It's not my fault I mean I was just wanted to punch Was that the right call at the goal line I don't know I just always wanted to punch Grunk in the face I just I just felt like

Grant got away with so much stuff that other people in NFL couldn't get away from it I think I was a little bit jealous Yeah because you didn't get away with shit No not like him Like he did he say some stuff He'd be like

Did he just say that Can he do it? He just he had a damn a boat for a romance boat where people were like all kinds of stuff like some of stuff he did you're like how do he even

how did that okay how did they even come to the conversation like you know it's funny to me he was actually a model citizen as a teammate he never partied you know he was always diligent and studious and I think

the image with Gronk is of just this big meatball you know just doesn't doesn't have a thought in his head and he's just a party animal and that sort of thing. Like in my experience in Foxborough, because I was, you know, I showed up right before camp and I left afterwards,

you know, he was pretty, he was pretty under the radar. He's, I think he's a great guy actually, but I just thought he just, so at the end of time I had a chance to punch Gronk, I was just like,

I didn't get him to get him to get him. I had to take advantage. Is that I mean, I'm crazy to get to punch groan. Yeah, how much times I get the punch in? Okay, my grab bag here. And then we'll get out of here.

Mike, why do we pray before football games? Does God care who wins? I don't know. I actually think people say politics and religion. Politics and sports shouldn't be mixed. I actually think religion and sport shouldn't be mixed because I don't think anything about football has got me. And I always got me.

I always thought that, like, you know, it was almost like, it almost felt sometimes just being like, why are we praying right now? Because it's like, you're going to cut this man or you're going to get rid of him. It's just such a dirty game to how people do you. in the league. I was like, don't think God wants anything to do with this business.

Also, like, also are we more in favor of our creator because we played this really arbitrary sport well? Like, just because it's very popular, that praise is like, is man-given. So I don't feel like, as somebody who believes in God and a higher power, if he's looking down, do you really think he's like checking the line on, you know, Chiefs Jaguars? He doesn't care who wins. He or she does not care who wins. Yeah, I don't know why, I always thought that, too. That's a good question here to ask that question because it never. Oh, that was me.

Oh, that was your question. Okay. Yeah. Well, great question from you because I always thought like, man, there's nothing that we have. There's nothing about what we're doing here is godly. Like everything, everything we do in there just be like, how is this? So y'all going to break, you know, some of the stuff that you see in the NFL,

like when guys get hurt and the team are like, yeah, come out to practice, man. We can't wait to see you get out there. We love you. You want the best dude, like, we can't win this game without you. Dude is hurrying up, getting ready in there, stretching his knee, coming back from injury early. So as he good done with practice. He can't even make it to the water thing.

They cut them. Yeah. Yeah, they get you out there to play. And then, and also, I mean, like, shit, I played in 100 straight games in St. Louis was a team captain, got hurt. And I could feel the eyeballs on me pretty quickly. Like, all of a sudden, like, I'm some injury liability. You know what I mean?

They get you out there to play. They're like, we're not going to hold it against you. If you're listening and you're an NFL player, don't believe that shit. They'll always hold it against you. They always hold that shit against you. Good luck we're not being that shit holding against you because that's the end of it when they hold it against you. Please, if you're a player, protect yourself, man. And me and Chris can tell you numerous of guys that you won't know them because you can't know them because they got cut because we can't break them up to you because we've seen it so many times where guys that went out there and got cut because they thought that the team had their best interest.

We're looking at it right now with COVID-19. You can't tell me that each team cares about the players in a way that in a way about humanity almost because they know that people are going to get sick, but they're just saying like we hope enough. Yeah, not even the players. How about the coaches? The coaches don't have an opportunity to opt out, and they're all unhealthy and older. Yeah, so it's like you know that capitalism is the most important thing in sport. And I think sometimes as a football player, you know, we kind of forget that sometime. And we end up getting the short end of the stick.

It's like people always get mad at the guy who holds out. I can't believe this guy's fucking holding out, man. This guy's holding out. He's not coming to campus. Like, no, man, let that man hold out. Let him get his capital right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

And it's often always leveraged against you that brotherhood that you talked about. And we talked about earlier, the coaches who are going to cut every single motherfucker on that field. Just if I took a screenshot of it all 22, all those guys are getting cut or they're going to retire like us if they're lucky on our own terms. But like all those guys are going to get fired. And the coaches who are controlling that end zone tape are going to appeal to your sensibilities as a teammate always. And the truth about teammates are, we know who's really trying to get back. We know who's milking something and we know who's protecting themselves. And we don't judge guys who protect themselves.

So one great decision you made in your career, the best decision you made in your career. Ooh, best decision that I made in my career. Invest in what? In what? Some investments that I've made over the time and now coming back and being like, okay, you know, Yeah, so I think investing, I think a lot of times as players, you talk about a lot when we were there, like, just about like investing and talk about money and different things. But I think that's not a conversation that we have enough in NFL about financial literacy and being able to invest and make, you know, far stocks and things like that. Like, guys don't want to do that or investing in their future.

There aren't a lot of guys doing it. So being able to have that conversation and do that, I think investing was one of the best thing I did as a young person, young player. Check out if you have a chance because you do play the market prestige worldwide. It's a really good stock. Okay. Okay. Check that one out. I am mad about the Zoom one, though.

Oh, yeah, that you didn't invest in Zoom there just cleaning up. No, when I looked at the beginning of the year, I was like, I was like, that jumped and jumped up about quadruple now. Golly, dude. Whoever got on Zoom, I feel like you were insider trading and you knew about this shit. Yeah. Like, you took 20,000 right now. That job, it would be, you didn't make so much money right now. Like, it was just like 20,000.

Would you imagine somebody who put like two, three million in that thing? Man, come on. We'd be on Mars. We would, we would both be on our way to. But you're right, though. The government probably will come check us out, though, because they'll be like, how did you know that? Like, how did you know that they were going to do with their thing?

That's textbook insider trading. How about? The other best thing that I did was go to Seattle. I think that was one of the best things ever did was go to Seattle. Because I had a chance to go to Seattle. because I had a chance to go to like some other teams at that time. I had went down to Miami. Actually, Mark Dominic was like,

we're not going to franchise you, but we're going to pay you just like a couple million under the franchise. Like it was like, I think the franchise was like 11. And he was like, well, we're going to give you eight or something like that. And I was like, right, you know, I'm, how are you going to do that to me?

You know what I'm saying? Because I just came out the first and third round Tinder or whatever. So you almost ended up a dolphin. Yeah. And I was in Miami and I went down in Miami. and I was like, oh, there's, I knew that was an issue because I was like, wait, is Kenway going to play the right side? Because I'm not the right end.

Yeah, we both. I didn't. I can't lie. I did do good at right in. Really, I was out there. Yeah, you would. You'd be like, oh, I can't play right end. And then you'd go over there and, like, do something really good at right end.

And I'd be like, well, stay the fuck over there. Could you? So we can just, like, ease up this log jam at left end. I mean, we had like eight left ends. Jesus. I know. Old like I guess the short end of the stick. people didn't understand like left in was like it's like a different position like it's like

right side it's like 95 on man on the left side you go to the right side it's like 70 bro i'm telling you i was like i was like drunk it right in uh how about best o line battle now that you're retired you can talk up o lineman you played was there one that you really i could talk man my top five o lineman that i played against in the league i start with defense line and then i do i'm not I start office line, you not go deeper. 10 office alarm that I've ever played against. I don't know if I'd say five. I'll say Walter Jones, Carl Nix, Donald Penn when he was going, Jason Peters,

Lane Johnson, Tyron Smith, Jake Long was good before he got injured. He was very good. And Zach Martin was good, too. The office of guards and then Jabari Evans was really good, too. Yeah, because the guards, I mean, that's where you did a lot of your work, too, was down there. So you got experience and, you know, all up and down the line. So. Hold on me do my top.

D line before I go. Okay, that's true. Let me do top seven defensive ends and top seven D tackles while I thought I was fine. Okay. Top defensive ends. Because I think sometimes with defensive ends, the outside linebackers who play defensive ends on some plays get so much credit for like Khalil Maccles. I don't even know if you put his hand down every time because I feel like

hand down has to be 80% of the time. We can't be talking about like you get down 30, 40% of time you're defensive end. Yeah. So I would say in the decade that I was in a little, I would say you, Rob, Kalesz Campbell, Cliff, Dwight Freeney. Oh, are you kidding me? Golly. And John Abraham, to me in the decade, those were the best, and Justin Smith, like,

those are the best defensive ends, true defensive ends that played every time. I know they did the all-decade team, and they just kind of, you know, oh, and JJ White, JJ, JJ, so I forget about it. Listen, you can just slide me out of there, buddy, but, I mean, as far as true defensive end, there aren't very many left. I would put you, I would put you in the top 10 defensive ends of the decade. Well, listen, there was, there was a previous span where I was, I was getting buckets. But, I mean, like, you know, it's, it's, it's very nice you might.

It's very nice you to come on the podcast and do that. Oh, no, I think, I, for sure think you're the top 10, top 10 defensive ends of our decade. I don't think there was too many guys in our decade that was, you know, as a true defensive end, Like, you don't know. Tackles. Daniel Dawkins. Gerald McCoy. Fletch is on the bubble for me right now.

Fletch is in my top ten easy. I'm going to have to call Fletch. He's going to freak out. Fletch. He's kind of, I say, Aaron Donald, Sue. Ooh, the good. Boy, it was another guy in, Colin Jenkins. Colin Jenkins, yeah.

Boy, he was nice, bro. Yes, he was. Hand, swipe, everything. He didn't get, and, oh, I forgot about Aaron Kat. I forgot. Gino, Atkins. Gino Atkins. You know who else I forgot, though?

You put him in there? Yeah, you know who I forgot, though, is really one of the best defensive events that people didn't really pay attention to? Kind of. You made, like, two or three pro bros. I forgot. I forgot to say Mario William.

and I forgot to say Aaron Schobel. Aaron Schoble was a dog. Oh, man, Shoble, I used to because my coach coached him in college. So that was a guy that I looked at Aaron Schoble, Julius Peppers, those guys were. Let me give you one that in Shoble's neck of the woods there that you forgot. Kyle Williams. Did he tackle? Yes.

I didn't finish him. Of course, he's in there. He's in there. He's in there. He's in there. He definitely in there. Yeah. I think of anybody.

There was another guy named Williams, the part of the Williams brother who was, Corey Williams, I think his name was Corey Williams. You pay for a Detroit line in the Cleveland Browns. He was good, too. Well, I know we're forgetting some people, but that's a pretty good book there.

It was great too. And it's funny because, like, you, me, Cliff, were three, quote-unquote, defensive ends, all with very different games, but all, you know, kind of, I felt like in that NFC West,

I loved kind of compete with you guys. Oh, man. That's what I said. Like, there's some talent about because when I rank defensive end, it's kind of hard, too, because a lot of defensive events, like, they get looked over if they're a good, if they're a good overall defense defenders. You know what I'm saying? And I felt like we was one of the people that was just good overall defenders.

Like there's some people who are afraid of pass rush, but you put them out against the run their liabilities. I feel like we were able to do both. And I think there's not a lot of guys that can do both. So before you go, what's next for you, Mike? man, I don't know, man, so many different things. I mean, I think going back to school right now, I think just taking some time off right now.

I think some taking some time off to really evaluate that. You know, I think that's important. I think what I've heard from a lot of people, a lot of different players who retire always say they get too busy that they just kind of didn't even get a chance to like really reevaluate what they wanted to do because they just jumped in to things to get busy. And they got so busy that they forgot. They actually worked against them.

So I think I want to spend some time and just kind of keep mapping that out. You still want to do the naked and afraid? I don't mean that's the weird question to ask on the podcast. But you. Yeah, me. So naked and afraid, me and Chris talked about this all. But the only thing neck and afraid is that we want to wear pants. We'll do everything.

We'll do the whole thing because we think that we can survive naked and afraid. If neck and afraid is listening, you take me and Chris and take us over there, but we want to wear pants. But don't take us to like the swamp. I want some say over which climate. Yeah, just don't do us cold and don't take us to the swamp, but we could do neck and the frame, but not with clothes on. But we always said, man, let's do neck and the fray because we always watch that show. And we had real conversations about it.

Yeah. So, yeah, so neck and afraid, if y'all are listening, if you end up listening to the podcast, call us. We'll do it. But we get to wear pants. Yeah, Speedo. I'll wear a Speedo, dude. I'm, I'm wearing some boxers, man.

I can't wear a box. You can wear a box. You can wear boxers. I got this wolf speedo that like the mouth of the wolf is right down. down there. It's pretty aggressive. I think it would be perfect for naked and afraid. If y'all are listening, just call us. Mike Bennett, 11-year pro, recently retired. And I can't wait to see what's next. One of my favorites, congratulations, buddy. Thanks for coming on the pot. Thank you, man. Thank you, thank you, man. That was Mike. Let's get Dragonfly Jones on.

What's up, dude? Chris. What's up? Dog. What's the word, man? Yes. Yes. Off the timeline onto the screen. For sure, for sure, man. And look at us with the motherfucking, the bamboo wood shades in the back. Oh, shit, dude. We got the same fucking shades. That's what I said. That's that Virginia shit, man.

Like, we appreciate fine wood around. Yeah. Virginia decor, you know? Yes, sir. Do people in Richmond go to Farmville to shop for their fucking furniture? Hell yeah. Farmville is Virginia's high point, if any North Carolina people. Yes, yes.

Yeah, yeah. High Point is like where Motherfuckers in North Carolina's a long ass fucking steak, right? Yes. And High Point is like, all right. So North Carolina is like, you know, it looks like a fucking like a soggy ass like chicken drumstick bone, right?

It's like that. And motherfuckers will come. Yeah, motherfuckers will come. And Highpoint's up this way. Motherfuckers will come all away from like fucking Asheville in the corner by Tennessee and shit all the way up the fucking high point. On the skinny parts.

Yeah. Because I used to work at a fucking furniture warehouse and High Point. Did you really? Dude, dude, my fucking, my fucking alumni mug, A&C. Wait, did you really? Yeah, I went to college in Greensboro. I worked at a fucking furniture shop at High Point.

Well, you know, one of my best buddies was my longtime teammate of Winston-Salem, State fame, William Hayes. He's from High Point, the furniture center of the state. Oh, fucking, yeah, all that fucking hard cherry wood shit, man. They love. Our Terry Wood shit, dude. Straight old people. But you know what?

I do have to give it to Farmville and shout out Farmville for anybody listening. Greenfront is a good spot. They do have some modern shit coming up there and they've got some nice rugs, some good values. Go see Glenda, okay? For those of you all listening in need of a rug, you college students bringing COVID back on the campuses. Hey, with the name like Glenda, I know she knows her fucking rugs. That is a rug lady named, though. Glinda.

Yeah, yeah. Linda, you're the best. I don't know if you're listening. So, dude, this is a long time coming, but I guess it's a good night to get you on because you had your big victory tonight. I want to congratulate you, man. It's Christmas in July, like, whatever the fuck that shit means. Like, I saw that, I've seen that shit my whole life for, like, fucking sales.

When motherfuckers don't have money. But this shit was really Christmas in July. Like, Doc, did you see the way that shit ended in? Yes, dude. I know your Twitter well enough, and I know your tendencies on NBA Twitter well enough to know that you just, you wanted to drop that bomb.

And there was no bomb for a while. Yeah, I mean, it started. Yeah, it was a real ugly game on both parts. You know, people were getting back into it. Like, if you look at the pump fake that Kauai did with the game on the line, like, it was ugly. He pumped faked with his whole upper body. Like, and he's a dude who moves so fluid, like,

Like, this is not hyperbole. When I look at Kauai and I see his free dribble moves. Yes. I see MJ, bro. I legit. Yeah, and on steroids. Yeah, yeah. And that's who fucking Kauai studied.

Like, you know, so this isn't some shit I'm pulling out my ass. But he looks so robotic with that game on the line, dude. Like, like, if you're pup taken from your pelvis. Yeah. No. No. No. He did an adjustment.

You need an adjustment. You need a good gyro there at Disney World. But it makes me feel good that the best fucking. athletes in the world get rusty. Yeah. Yeah. It's that's something to, that's something to take away from tonight.

Right, right? Because we see these news in just day in and day out, like on fucking December 18th, you'll, be watching Sports Center at 3 o'clock and you'll see Russ do a fucking 720 from the top of the key. You're like, who the fuck is with these guys? So it is kind of, you know, it does make you realize these dudes are humans.

Yeah, it made me feel good. And the whole thing was great. I needed Kevin Harlan's voice more than I knew. He damn near cured the pandemic for me for a minute. And I saw you tweet that Reggie Miller didn't even annoy you to know. I wasn't even annoyed at Reggie Miller. I was like, I was like, bro, if this is the deal we had to make to get basketball back. Yeah.

Listen to to Reggie Miller, that's the deal we just got to make, man. But let's talk the NBA because that's why you're here. You basically got a four-month offseason and now you're playing a shorter. Now, they've condensed the games probably slightly. Yeah, they're doing eight seeding games where, you know, they sort shit out. You know, they've got 22 teams there, you know, 30 teams in the league, 22 teams there now. So, you know, there's a few bottom tier teams fighting for the seven, you know, the eight spot there. Yeah.

But it's all for jockeying for position right now. Yeah, I just feel like they should have rode in like however they could. And it seems like maybe we're trying to that Zion has to get in the playoffs. He's a star. Like, why would you not want him there? man like but if Memphis pulls it off and they get it there but you get jaw then I mean you get job great I guess like okay so this is the would an NBA Twitter person kind of you know Zieg instead of Zag on this one but who would you rather see get get in the playoffs and see them make their debut

Zion or Jha um you know I'm a big fan of both those I hate to be at both sides playing the defense to you but I love both of those guys I feel like all rookies matter sure yeah oh I'm But I feel like Jod does things that, you know, a guy his size doesn't do. You know what I mean? And I feel like, and I feel like Zion does things that, holy shit, how does a guy this size do that? You know what I mean? Yeah. It's a different type of appreciation where you're marveling at at 6-8, 690, Zion jumping out the jamming.

And then you're also marveling. We got fucking Jowl who's fucking 111 pounds jumping out for gym to and yamming all folks. You know what I mean? Who's Jaws? Who's Jaws? Like, I don't know, football. does the comp thing. So who's Jaws comp? I'd say Tariq Hill, maybe.

I feel like I feel like Tariq Hill's a good fit for him. Like, you know, the life guy has been just, you know, maneuvering. You don't know, you know, how he's moving and it's just blow past you. And then once, you know, all this shit comes together is too late. I feel like that's Tariq and that's job too. Man, I hadn't heard that one. Actually, I hadn't heard that one. So the first game today, you got Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, who,

according to Twitter are getting along because they connected it on an alley-up is that true? Yeah, yeah, Rudy Rudy had after being the first after being patient zero for COVID with the NBA, Rudy had the first bucket of, you know,

the reconvening of the NBA season. And I was like, oh, who the fuck scripted this bullshit? Yeah, I was... Then he hit the free throws at the end to make it like definitely a whole sentimental scene. I was like, bro, I will never root for Rudy Gobert ever in my life. You can't.

You can't force it. You can't. You can't. You can't. I mean, French people are already hard to sympathize with. But then a French motherfucker with COVID who got, you know. But I don't want to put that on him. COVID seems inevitable.

You know what I mean? No. I mean, this was the fucked up draw for him. And it's kind of like the Lou Williams thing. Like, Lou Williams did something kind of reckless. I know, like, no one's going to be. like really wagging their finger at Lou Williams because everybody knows you. I feel like with everything I'm hearing more, I absolutely believe he just went there to pick up

some lane. I know, I believe that. I believe that. But he knew the optics of what it could be, you know, stop and taking pictures with people. Like, that's the only thing is like he knew that probably it wouldn't be a good thing if it got back. But did he know, though? Because I don't know. Look, I'll put it like this.

Lou Will. Louill is like a sneaky 35. Like a lot of people, you know, he's, he's got the big. baby face and, you know, he's really energetic. And a lot of people think he's like 27, 28. Lou Will is like 35, bro. Like, I know. I know.

Yeah, so I can completely understand. And Jack Harlow is like 21, 22. I completely understand him taking a picture with Jack like, yo, yo, this my dog. We're just going to flick it up. And how to heck that he feels just dry snitching like that on Lou Williams, the coolest guy in the NBA. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think, but that's all thing. Yeah, Lou cool as fuck. I think Jack Howard didn't know it was going to be that big of because 21 year olds post every fucking day. But you got to realize that the people you're taking flicks with our fucking 33-year-olds with jobs and bosses and eyes. Yes. You know?

No. So for me, okay, so here's the deal. I know, I know how strong strip club chicken is. So I did this whole fucking segment on it in the fall. Coincidentally, I almost pulled it out this week, but I don't know if it was insensitive. But like, strip club chicken's elite, bro. Have you been to Tutsis? I've never been to any Atlanta shipbook.

Well, Tutsis, Tutsis, I think they got one in Atlanta, but the one you need to go to is in Miami. Now it's two floors. Yeah, I've never been to have food, bro that, like, you're just, you could literally, like, people are geo-tagging their meals in there, like, they're at a fucking Michelin Star Restaurant. And, and you can't, like, your wife can't even get mad at you because you're like, I'm at a restaurant, okay?

Like, and I've heard about the, way. I've heard about the food at Magic's. city and it looked delicious. Somebody posted a picture. I'm not mad at Lou Williams at all, okay? At all. But I am saying it's funny to see the reaction of how people hated Gobert. And Lou, everybody was like, ah, it's just Lou.

Strip-Claude chickens. All that tells me is that Rudy Go-Bair, like people don't like it. It's that simple. I mean, I don't know how else to put it because I remember, like, when he got his all-star selection, and, you know, people were talking about snug players. I was like, bro, like, don't talk about how Russ might not be deserving this year. Let's talk about Rudy Gobert. I'm like, nobody wants to see screen assist in the all-star game.

Nobody was to see rent protection in the All-Star game. No, you're right about that. Yeah, yeah, it's just he is, I think what doesn't work for him is he's a center who plays, you know, grimy center basketball. He's back in the basket, you know. Yeah, that, that, That's over. Yeah, yeah.

And nobody, that's not sexy anymore. Like, I heard Jalen Rose calling it like, like today on Jalen Jacoby, who was talking about like the evolution of the positions. And he's like, everybody initiates offense. You know, it's so there's no like everybody's a point guard. Like, so stop saying small ball. It's tall ball. Like that was his thing today.

And, you know, it's just interesting. Because like when I was an NBA fan, the reason I fucking fell in love with the Knicks, everything was just so one, two, three, four. four or five. You know, you could, you could predict the shape and size of every dude

on the court based on where they aligned. Yeah. And basketball is just different. And I took some years off and now I'm finding out as I watch. But I guess the question was for me, because you watched the game,

I didn't. I assume you watched this game. People were freaking out about Zion's minutes. And, you know, the fact that in the last three minutes and you talked about resting people and all that shit,

he's sitting on the bench in a tight ball game, especially exacerbated by the fact they're fucking in the hunt. They're like on the bubble right now. Yeah. You know, like I said, I'm all for, you know, thank you guys throughout the course of the season. But these last eight games, these are four playoff spots.

Yeah. So, yeah, so, so I didn't, I didn't get that there at all. But, I mean, I kind of do get it because, I mean, how fucking far the Pelican is going to go if they get? You know what I mean? That's just going to be extra miles on your guy for no fucking reason. So I can get that too. Yeah.

No, they're not, they're not, they're definitely not beating the fucking Lakers. Absolutely not. So, and then game two, where we got to, we got serenated by Reggie and Kevin. And we saw, I saw Charles again. I saw fucking Kenny and the whole gang, Shaq, Kevin Hart. Do you see Kevin Hart go on there after the game? I did. And Chuck lit his ass up.

He's like, you always wear them little shirt, shot it looks small. Like, wearing shirt that fits. Chuck did light him up, but then they ran out of gas. And then Ernie had to pick it up and, like, move the segment along. It was like the dudes didn't know when to stop because they got their jokes for an entire quarantine. Yeah, it's, you know, Beth's the thing. When you get people who don't know when the joking session is always, like, bro, we're just going to keep going all night. And the joke's going to get.

They trade jab for jab for jab for jab. And, you know, Shaq, Shaq is a sneaky one of those guys, too. Like, you have never seen someone get something off on Shaq, and Shaq just laughs and takes it. No, he does not. He does not. He does not. Shaq will try to talk over the laughter of people laughing at him. Okay, well, you don't remember back in 1993 in Denver that that weekend.

Bro, nobody cares. You just got your ass lit up. Take that. Charge it to the game. Bro. The most ironic, funny part is Shaq's the most accomplished, like, dude. Like, bro, Shaq, Zach, lots of us think you're the greatest center. You're the goat.

I promise you there's no reason to get mad at fucking, you know, Rick Smith's talking shit about you fucking 30 years later. No, definitely not. Definitely not. But like I just felt like tonight, sports, I don't know if I would have thought sports got back to normal if I watched the first game. I felt like it was fucking normal again. We even had Skip Bayless tweeting about LeBron's beard. So like I know things are getting back to normal.

Yeah, yeah. Skip's just fucking hate for no reason. You know, like, yeah, I'm like, okay, we're back. You had people arguing on Twitter. I did check the timeline a little bit tonight. Was LeBron off or like, what did you make of that? It's not a big deal in my eyes. I think it was

I say this about LeBron I think he had an off game I don't think he was not prepared because Braun everything is about preparation with him you know what I mean shit just wasn't fall for him tonight but the shit that needed to fall fall

he had the game winner then he came down and fucking you know locked up Kauai and had Kauai hand off a grenade to BG and then he locked BG up for a terrible shot yeah

yeah so I mean literally won the game got the bucket that won the game and then locked up, you know, the clips on the next possession. So, yeah, I was going to say, like, if he had his off night, I mean, I'm looking up at one point and he has like 16 and I'm like, what, like, and they still win. So, you know, don't tell me they can't be competitive with these guys. I mean, as good as that Flipper's roster is, I mean, it's just, but who's going to be the guy this year that's going to be uncomfortable first, walk into the ice machine running into LeBron in the hallway? Because if LeBron's not happy with you and you can go home to your mansion in the Hollywood Hills, that's one thing.

But like, when you meet this motherfucker at the ice machine every night, who's going to be that guy that pisses LeBron off first this year? I feel like Pat Bev says some slick shit about, you know, when things were up in the air and if the season was going to resume. Yeah, Pat was like, well, ask LeBron. He's the one, you know, what he says goes. You know what I mean? And the thing is, I don't want to be a motherfucker name dropping motherfucker, but I talked to him like a week earlier on like some. I saw on your deal. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and he was like, bro, I'm ready to get back out there. I'm ready. But I get it, though. That's gamesmanship. You know, that's your rival. That's who you might probably going to meet in the conference finals. So get your digs in however you can. But, yeah.

How about a teammate? Because that's, I feel like that'll happen before something. Oh, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, who's going to be in the doghouse first? Coos, this is, cool. If Coos doesn't show out now, he's out here. Because the thing is, Zach Levine said, yo, I would love to play with LeBron. Right. And the Bulls know he's not flirting back, bro.

Right, right. And the Bulls know he's not resigning that, right? And the Bulls also know that, you know, the Lakers would give up Coos to get him. So that could absolutely be a deal that gets done if Coos thinks it up. Yeah. What's the worst possible finals that's actually plausible this year? Because, I mean, do you think of no teams, the ratings are, it's a captive audience, but

is it like, it's got to have, is it Milwaukee or is it Toronto in the east for this combination? I like, I like the way Yonah's place. I don't put it in that way. Yeah, it's got to be Toronto because there's no fucking, I mean, Siakam's awesome, but people don't think of them

as a star. Yeah, yeah. I heard somebody justifying how exciting they are. I think it was Kendrick Perkins today, talking about Van Fleet. I was like, bro, nobody. Nobody's watching them. Like, no disrespect to, but the star power. Yeah, yeah.

I think Toronto, um, Toronto clips will be a really good finals and I don't think anybody besides basketball that hards will give a shit about it. You know, it will be one of those matchups, you know what I mean? But, but yeah, I went about that. I guess if you had, if Denver got in, you know, I'd enjoy it. But yeah, Toronto, Toronto. Toronto I'm thinking of the worst one

Toronto Utah which is probably not going to happen but that would be just Yeah I don't want to see Utah after the first round That's like That's where I'm at with Utah dog Like

Uh huh no no How about the Who's the first guy Who's going to do the smoke detector At Disney this year Shit It's probably going to be J.R. Smith

Look, Braun has got J.R. Smith Dion Waiters Javelle McGee on the same team The loudest wing of Disney World of all time Dog that shit is going to sound like a pack soon as you walk in that motherfucker

But yeah like I don't know how Those guys are not going to get high But do you think J.R. is a out the window guy or towel under the door or does he hit the parking lot Or is he just vaping? I feel like J.R. is definitely a fucking

towel under the door lean and smoke a blunt. Like like like like he would think that's enough precaution. I don't think he's I don't think he's. I don't think Jarre's super duper fucking reckless. I think he makes that the precautions he makes aren't you know precautionary enough. I think that's yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And then that that option is not a fail safe for anybody listening. Not at all. Yeah. Do you not do that shit? Bro, like one time I tripped it at my house and the fire trucks came and I was upstairs taking a nap and my wife blared at me like, you know, like, you know, like you know you just got the fucking fire trucks called but i flipped that shit i said to my son

i said it's pretty cool the fireman came came to your house huh you got it's like oh yeah i'm like you didn't even need a fucking birthday party i brought the fucking fire trucks to your house buddy um we were talking about doing going through the ugliest cars of all time we were talking about uh doing car superlatives but that's for another night. Fun, man. It was fun. It was fun.

Yeah, it was good to connect, man. Come back another time. And again, one more time, let me plug the show and the new deal you all got going on. Yes. Jenkins and Jones. Jenkins spelled the Jenkins way Jones spelled with the Z. You can check my Twitter page, Dragonfly Jones, Jones with the Z. My shit's always pin.

It is always. It's working. It's always working. In that day, there were no verified accounts. You were like the king of it. Yeah. I firmly asserted myself as such a great. My crown has since been usurped.

Yo, and one more thing. Why isn't it Jones and Jenkins? Did you all ever have this argument? I feel like Jenkins and Jones just holds better. Tomato, bro. Tomato tomato tomato. We'll get you on another time. Jones and Jenkins, as I like to call it.

Check it out. All right, bro. Appreciate it, brother.