Green Light with Chris Long - Ryen Russillo! Tuesday Football Recap, NFL Playoff Outlook, NBA Quick Hitters & Mailbag.

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

(2:52) - Hello, Layup Line, Eagles Beat the Football Team, Robert Quinn on Brink of Sack Record and CFB Bowl Traditions. (28:51) - Ryen Russillo on Tuesday Football, NFL Playoff Outlook and Most Trustworthy NFL Playoff Seventh Seeds. (1:11:56) - Ryen Russillo’s NBA Rundown: Kings Bad Luck, LeBron’s Stat Trends and Cavaliers Surprising Play an Anomaly? (1:19:18) - Ryen Mailbag: Worst Plane Rides, 2000s Big East College Basketball Players and More! Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Greenlight Podcast. Cowboy Reid is chilling with you. Today it's a Ryan Rissillo appearance. Chris and Ryan hit Monday night football recaps. Tuesday night football recaps. Go over the NFC and AFC playoff pictures. Most trustworthy seven seeds. Get into some NBA questions in a quick little mailbag.

Before Ryan, Chris gives a vacation recap. Talks Eagles and their Tuesday night win over the football team. And dishes on a little mayo. That's right. We talked the Duke's Mayo Bowl, the famous Idaho Potato Bowl, and some other interesting bowl celebrations. It all starts now. Enjoy. Youngstown, Ohio. Hello! I just wanted to see if anybody was actually listening to our podcast in Youngstown, Ohio. I feel like that's a tough place, like tough people living there. I feel like tough people don't listen to podcasts. What do you think? for sure not tough people watch TV Tough people watch TV

Cowboy Reed Do you watch TV a lot Very rarely Oh fuck Charo's gonna come in here And just roll over you dude Yeah I know I'm the first one he's taking out

You gotta watch more TV man We sit around and just watch Spike TV all day Put down the podcast But yeah Youngstown Ohio Anybody out there Youngstown Fucking working in a steel mill or some defunct American industry

listening to this podcast in an abandoned factory like I don't know maybe there's some other industry in Youngstown I didn't mean to turn this in minor league hockey team they have a minor league hockey team bro hometown Phantoms they're probably sick I would love a jersey a sweater

but it's been a while this is a minor league or or NHL team has sent me a sweater I think the last one might have been it was the Vegas Golden Night Yeah, the Vegas Golden Knights. Hey, Layup Line today. You guys realize this. I read this on a meme, and now it's the 20 seconds, so fuck me.

It's like about midnight here, but just got off the plane, by the way. I came right to the studio, watched the games. We're going to talk about the Tuesday night football games. So layup line. Yeah, fur came out for-de-up. Trip of homicide, put me in a chair, yeah. Trip across the club. We do not play fair.

Yeah. It's going to be 21 Savage, guys. It's going to be bank account by 21 Savage. Montclair, fur came off a bear. Triple Homicide put me in a chair. Yeah, that's a bar. And the reason I'm going a hard right turn to 21 Savage from whatever we picked last week, probably it was like, well, it was Willie Nelson.

It was whiskey river, which, by the way, is the steel pedal in that song. I know I said it on the last podcast. Outlaw country music. can be beach music so easily dude. But 21 Savage is going to be the layup line today. Uh, who actually like, I'm doing 21 Savage because it is the, as Reed just helped me finish the thought, it is the 21st of December in 2021 in the 21st century. Pick up the pieces of your head that just exploded.

I mean, wow. How about that? Reed, did you know that? Did you stop and think about that today? Nope. I did not. I had a lot of time sit on a plane and act like I was doing work. Sorry, I'm working.

So I do have Ryan Rissillo on today. Listen, I was coming back from vacation. You guys know that. I mean, I'm sorry. I know, like, when I go somewhere warm, I post like 18 pictures of palm trees. I'm that fucking guy, all right? Like, yeah, it's a point. palm tree, it looks really cool in person.

It looks really cool in person. I promise you. And listen, if anybody's rolling their eyes of me as I'm posting my palm trees or my picture of the sand, 18 different fucking ways, if you got an issue with that, then stop posting all those stupid solo pictures of you in a different outfit every week that looks pretty much like the same outfit. Like, you'll take a picture to tell me you're going to a bar and I can't take 18 pictures of a palm tree. I had a great vacation.

I'm back. I'll stop with the pictures. Virgin Gorda was awesome. What I realized the other night read, when I got done with the pod, and I was sitting down and signing a check at dinner, at the Little Dix Bay Resort, D-I-X guys, grow up in Virgin Gorda.

Signing it long in room 69. I realized that I actually gave my room number out on the podcast. And it was like a same day podcast and I had like another two nights in the in the fucking room. So I might be the first person in pod history to be like, hey, this is where room I'm in. Now luckily, I was like way far away.

I don't even think the resort probably got a call. So like totally good. Good to be home. Awesome trip. Whalen puked up a bunch of Cheetos on the plane. Luke was dejected because we went and saw some. Santa a week ago and Luke actually asked Santa Claus for Cheetos and paper. No idea, bro. Loves Cheetos. And when Whalen blue chunks and it was Cheetos, like Luke looks so fucking dejected.

Like, how could you? So it's been a long day. I get off the plane, eight hours of travel, and I jet here to catch these Tuesday night football games, which is basically football on meth, is what I was expecting. And it really wasn't that bad. I mean, the LA Seattle game was pretty uninspiring to watch. But big win for L.A. I thought probably not going to be pretty. I lean Seattle, you know, to cover that big spread because the law of averages, I said that on the pot on Monday,

it's like the Rams playing well against Arizona. You know they're going to get overvalued the next week, especially after you see the Arizona and Detroit game. I'm leaning Seattle. I decide to tease the Rams, and thank goodness I did because that was going to be a sweat fest. I was sweating my Eagles and under teaser on the other TV. But that game wasn't that entertaining to watch.

Jalen Ramsey, D.K. I mean, if you're into that, which I am too, if I wasn't watching the Eagles game, you know, you might enjoy watching Jalen give D.K. A lot of problems for like the fifth game here in his young career. I mean, that's a guy that hates being in that division. I'm not putting thoughts in his head or words in his own. mouth, he's a great competitor, but you gotta be like, fuck, dude, I gotta play Jalen Ramsey twice a year.

You know, like about one-eighth of my schedule. I know there's 17 games now are against this alien of a cornerback who has kind of my number right now. That sucks. But the fourth and six, I'll give you that. Seattle fans, that was PI at the end of the game. That was blatant PI. It was like good karma for the New Orleans thing a couple years ago. you know the infamous DPI down there who was that guy Roby Coleman

ended up in Philly I think last year where is he now? He's in Detroit he's in Detroit sketchy holding call on the drive that made it 1710 I believe it was Cooper Cup got held

quote unquote and it extended a drive that turned into a touchdown not much to see in that game Seattle's not going anywhere the Rams are trying to string together a nice little run here, even though they don't look right offensively.

I'll talk to Ryan about that. The Eagles, man, that was, I mean, I saw the first couple minutes of the game on the airplane, on the score app, because I didn't have the game per se. And watching them go down 10-0 at the beginning of that football game was like a,

what are we doing? this is this is going to be the longest week in in philadelphia like sports media history i mean w i p is going to be fucking nuts this week dude i was really glad for one week that i wasn't in philly when i'm looking at them going down 10 nothing to garret gilbert i mean you know you've got gott playing hacky sack with the football it's like my guy but holy shit he must have not felt it uh popped right up turns it into an interception. You know, I'm on the plane. I'm like, Jalen, what are we doing?

Then I see the replay on Twitter, and I'm like, oh my goodness. And by the way, Goddard had another drop, but he also had a couple big plays. He had a big catch. He took away from somebody that blocked to Spring Rager, which led to the Greg Ward touchdown. And good for Greg Ward, by the way, who was the guy that used to be our scout team quarterback. He was a Houston kind of do-it-all guy down there at University of Houston. And then ended up in Philly.

red jersey on whenever we played a moderately athletic quarterback and they just coached him to like make us look stupid. That guy shook me so fucking bad in practice one time. I walked right off the field to go see the film because I wanted to make sure like we'd set it on fire. Like I look so old and so bad and it was Greg Ward's fault and he's a great kid and I'm glad he played really well tonight. But you know, Dallas Goddard had a couple rough patches and that's tough for him because a couple weeks ago, he was like the guy in New York. And Jalen's feeling his way back into this thing. And I thought tonight was a really gutsy performance by him.

Play action, he was great. You know, I think Siriani had a great night. I'm going to talk to Ryan about that, but he stuck to his guns. I mean, they've run the football really well. Miles Sanders, I feel for him. I don't think he's gotten in the end zone. I want to be careful saying that about, is the Buda Baker rule, guys,

when I say that Miles Sanders has not been in the end zone. I don't think he has a touchdown this year, but he's got 100 yards again tonight. He's had a great year. That long run, he had Kelsey. Jason Kelsey's got to run like a 4-5 in the open field if you saw that play late. I mean, Kelsey is running with Miles Sanders. He's 38 years old or whatever he is, dude. He's one of my friends that when I see him on TV, I'm like, damn, you're still doing that.

come home dude retire live the good life but he's still playing like he's a fucking 23 year old all pro running with miles sanders in the open field they had 200 yards rushing again so good night for the eagles started off rough harold car michael was honored my dude they had his signature on the sideline that looked awesome d-line closed this thing out flex played well really really good win for the eagles it's all out in front of them they're not not like a contender, contender, but it's all out in front of them as far as what they've set out to do this year,

which is getting the dance for being realistic. So there's your Tuesday night football, a recap. We're going to talk more to Ryan about the NFL and that sort of thing in a little bit. Speaking of the NFL, before we get to this thing, I didn't mention the Jacksonville fan

that ended up in the end zone the other day, but Jacksonville fans are incredible, dude. they are like Dave Chappelle in the Red Ball skit. Like they have crackhead strength. Like Jacksonville fans have crackhead strength, bro. Like I heard the Dave Chappelle crackhead super human strength noise when the guy appeared on the field. It was incredible.

He was totally unacosted, just unabated to the end zone. He watched his favorite team score a touchdown from like 30 feet away. Do you know how rare that is? their offense is fucking terrible I mean think about this not only did he see his it was like a sort of like when the band was on the field

they saw their favorite team win yeah but this is like even more crazy because Jacksonville managed to score a touchdown and he was there and like they're they're just remarkable these Jacksonville fans I mean also like what a fan experience people talk about California

they're like it's the place that you can go skiing and surfing the same day in Jacksonville you can be in that pool and you can be in the end zone, same day. It's like the California fan experiences. I just, I can't give that guy enough credit for getting down there in the end zone. I think they should actually award him with,

like, season tickets for exposing how dog shit the security situation is there. I said this before. Jackson DeVille deserves to make more money because he's doing, like, anybody in Florida who's a mascot or, trampoline jumping and doing a flip and dunking or like, I don't know, doing a fucking mascot race around the baseball field can even be dangerous.

And that if you're repelling onto the field like Jackson DeVille, you deserve a higher salary because it's like the Wild West down there. You got fans on the field and shit. So shout out to that fan. And also shout out to Robert Quinn and Max Crosby on a serious note. Two of my favorite rushers. Okay, one from, from, you know, personal experience. and one who's just the fucking he's hell on wheels he's max crosbie i love him i mean five sacks but

it doesn't matter it ain't all about those numbers i mean he he was a terror hits hurries pressures like you know that's how you know if a guy is in every down rusher like that's for average as well you know what i mean there's not going to be a lot of rushes that he's out of like show me a guy hit a home run once every 10 plays. That's cool. That guy, if you didn't watch the game, everybody's going to say, holy shit. How about that guy?

Max Crosby affects passers with regularity every single rush. Technician wins a ton of different ways. Some went on inside out spin this year. It was awesome. The only guys you see do that are like the Marcus Ware against like Joe Staley or something. Like to have the balls to try that.

Fucking our guy Robert Mathis. And then Max Crosby. good company to being hitting that move in a game but yeah like good for Max I mean he talked this week about two years ago he was in rehab now he's at the Pro Bowl

you didn't need the Pro Bowl man you already won man Max Crosby already won one of my favorite players and he's a success story I remember when they drafted him Mayock was like I kind of reminds me to Jared Allen like you know like he's got that kind of ridiculously long frame,

play sped up. He's awesome. But my dude, Robert Quinn, okay, I am so happy about this. Pro Bowl, no pro bowl,

you know, we talk about that often. Like, that doesn't make, you know, a great year. Robert Quinn had a great year. And I was worried

that he wasn't going to get recognized for it. I mean, when I tweeted last week that I was, you know, concerned he was going to get snub because of where he played or not where he played because if you play in chicago that gives you a nice little bump but like the team he's playing on you know you're not supposed to be a rusher and make

the pro bowl on a team like that you're not supposed to be a rusher and do the numbers he's done on a team like that he has 15 sacks for the chicago bears who we watched play the other night their defense plays really hard 16 now came into the game the other night with 14 he's making a run at richard dense record dude I heard that on the broadcast the other night. I almost cried. I was like, oh my God. Not just because that's my buddy and it's awesome. But that's how good he is, bro.

There have been a ton of rushers since Richard Dent. And to think that he has a shot at that record on a team like this that's so unremarkable, not a ton of leads. And he's only been in Chicago like a year or two. Like, they're going to love this guy. Even if he leaves next year or the year, after, like, they'll remember this season. I hope he breaks the damn record, man.

And the craziest part about the context, of course, is that I saw him with 19 in a single season. Broke the St. Louis sack record. Oh, my God. He could have two team records. He could have a record on the Rams and a record on the Bears. I know some people are going to say, I'm crazy, but put that guy in the Hall of Fame. He's like 32 years old, 31 years old.

He's going to play another while, bro. He's got 100 sacks already, I think. He's got 98.5, so he will have 100 very soon. Oh, my God, dude. Is the record 17? Richard Dent's record, I think, is 17 or 17. But imagine him hitting the century mark and breaking Richard Dent's record, the same play.

Is that going to line up mathematically? 17 and a half. So he could with 1.5 more sacks. hit the century mark and he could two more sacks let's make it two that's the math we're looking for two more sacks

Robert Quinn same play Richard Dent's record second pro football franchise that you hold a single season sack record for and the century mark did I fuck that up

he's at 98 and a half career sacks right now bro I am going to fucking throw a party. I'm going to invite a bunch of people. They're not going to know why I threw the party. Robert Quinn did all that shit,

one sack. So who they play this week? They play at Seattle. Oh my God, Quinny goes off against the Hawks, bro. This is poetry. This is poetry, bro. We used to get hat tricks against Russell Wilson. He's going to get a damn hat trick this week.

Break the record. So Robert Quinn for his career averages 1.2 sacks against Seattle. You're damn right he does. Cowboy. We said it. It's happening. I don't think anybody put this together yet. Congratulations.

Robert Quinn. Here's the crazy part. A bunch of back injuries. They thought he was dead. They thought he was washed. He's second league in sacks. Nobody's talking about defensive player a year for him. Maybe they should.

I'm just fucking with you guys. Obviously you have to be on a winning team and that sort of thing. But you know what I'm saying? It's provocative. I don't know what it means, but it's provocative. One bit of college football news. So, Reid, we were talking about the famous Idaho potato bowl, which I've essentially played in.

I played in the Micron PC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho. So you got to go to Boise, you got to play on the blue turf, it's fucking cold. Not a lot to do, nothing against Boise, but it wasn't like the place for a college kid to hang out. Not Al Groh wouldn't let us hang out. I'll put it that way. Although I think I could tear Boise up right about now at 36. Didn't even get any potatoes. Just got some computers and computer products that would be like,

fucking out of style in six months you know how computers do um we got beat by Fresno State anyways yeah these two teams yellow pants both of them so Wyoming and

Ken State didn't like call each other have a fucking meeting about their uniforms like hey we both wear you know yellow if you haven't noticed like maybe let's make sure we don't wear the same kind of of yellow or like both wear yellow pants playing on blue turf wearing yellow pants so the opposite of

the bevel conway do not approve of that me and makin will talk more about unis and bowl games and by the way Wyoming their uniforms are awesome maybe not that combo but is that the game where they dumped the french fries on the coach yes so here's the thing dude i i saw a viral video today of uh coach like he was like oh god they're gonna gatorade bath me and it like took a second and it kind of the gatorade didn't like just cascade out it kind of just fell out and i was like what the fuck and i was like well i'll be damn those are french fries better than fingerling potatoes totally and by the way matt did you see the post i go to dinner at the resort which was lovely shout out to marcus he was awesome he was an awesome uh he was running the show there at the uh the sugar mill

they're at little dicks bay they gave us fingerling potatoes which a lot of people like but i just cracked up as soon as the fingerling potatoes like i heard they had potatoes on the side they didn't they obviously don't listen to the podcast i don't do fingerling potatoes and i had to explain to my wife who also doesn't listen to the podcast obviously why i was cracking up um and i tried them dude they're just like get a baked potato no point but i wanted to say this i found out today they're going to dump mayonnaise on a coach after the Mayo Bowl. And I think it's one of the most fucked up things I've ever heard.

Like if I'm coaching in that bowl game, I lose on purpose. No chance. No chance at all. And here's what makes it worse. Duke's Mayo Bowl, whoever runs the account for that fucking that bowl game that pays homage to the devil's nectar. It's disgusting.

They think it's fun to fuck with me online. Big mayonnaise is fucking with your boy online And they're like tweeting Eyeballs at me and shit like at 2 in the afternoon I'm like get a life What what I'm Googling Duke's Mailball I'm like is it today?

Get a life I'm trying to enjoy a vacation with my family I'm dry heaving On the ferry back to St. Thomas Because I'm reading about Just looking at I anyways

I found out you guys are pouring mayonnaise on the winning coach so don't make this a thing dude don't make this a thing and don't make like what are some of the

other bowl games like what are you gonna dump uh to stito chips on somebody at the Fiesta Bowl what kind of stupid shit is that they're gonna drop a bunch of

mini fighter jets in the Lockheed Martin Bowl no Lockheed Martin Bowl the fucking coach just gets blown up. Fucking hit a game winning field goal. Everybody's like, oh, fireworks. No, they just executed the coach.

The Myrtle Beach Bowl, they just immediately give you a lot. They just dump a bunch of hookers on them. They just back a pickup truck full of hookers up. Tropical smoothie bowl. Oh, yeah, that's one. That's one. I might not actually mind that. I might not mind that.

And by the way, to put a bow on this thing and move on to Ryan, tropical smoothie bowl, they thought they had the setup. Let's do a nice, clean little Tuesday bowl. People are going to watch San Diego State and that other team. Who was the other team? Reed. It's San Diego State UTSA. UTSA.

Texas Southern. San Antonio. Yep. Shout out to Texas Southern. But like anyways, by the way, I had a grambling sweatshirt in middle school. Had no idea. It was HBCU. my dad's one of my dad's best friends

Sean Jones sent it to me and I was just rocking it at school if we're like, does he know? Tropical smoothie bowl, they thought they had the setup, man. They thought we got this shit on lock Tuesday slot. Nah, COVID. Gonna stick the Rams and the fucking Seahawks there and the Eagles in Washington, bro.

If it wasn't enough to have like the best defensive players, in football and all that stuff and one game. You got two of the biggest football markets in pro football. So Tropical smoothie bowl they were in a blender tonight.

How about the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl? What would happen there? What does the winning coach get? Just crushed by debt. Just get flattened by debt. Like one of the Mario carts, when they get run over, just flattened by debt.

You know, any other bowl games for me? Maybe we should get to Ryan Roussella. Well, there's the Wasabi Fenway Bowl. Send him Bronco out with a win, and we're not dumping wasabi on Bronco. Okay? We're going to get that dub. Bronco's going to ride off in the sunset.

Tony Elliott era begins. And Ryan Rassillo begins right now. Tick Pick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging any service fees ever. Visit ticpick.com. That's T-I-C-K, P-I-C-K, got rid of all the service fees that the other side's charge. Tick-Pick guarantees the best prices on all of their NFL games. If you can find better prices for the same seats on another ticket site,

Tick-Pick will give you 110% of the difference in the purchase price. If you're like me and you can't wait to get back into an NFL stadium, visit Tickpick.com. Fresh off my beach vacation, I need a pod and a pinch. I called my old buddy Double R. Ryan Rusillo. What's up, dude? What's up, man? You look rested. Rested tan. How's the brood?

Is that my family? Yeah. My family's good. On the way home from the beach just hours ago. You said rested. It's funny because I can't help but think about whaling vomiting Cheetos all over the airplane seat on the way home. It was like a full day getting back.

You know the trip to the beach is always perfectly acceptable. no matter the length on the way back, it's always tough, especially with kids. Yeah, I hear you. I know that. Do you know how that feels? Do you know how that feels? I don't know how that came. Hey, do you know who I was vacationing with by on the beach this weekend?

You know, I had. Merrill Street. No, it was Ryan Seacrest. Yeah, you know, last time wasn't it? It was Bieber. Oh, it was Bieber. I've now vacationed with Bieber and Seacrest. I called them both by their last names.

Wow. So you are nailing a certain lane of white guy. That sounded bad. No, I vacation next to all the people in us weekly. Nobody gives a shit about me, but I'm vacationing next to Ryan Seacrest and Justin Bieber. I told you about the time I was down in the Bahamas and Justin Bieber was in the wait room next to me.

I had to like ask him if I could work out over here. You know what I mean? Like that kind of conversation? Yeah, we get mad at you as your friends to be like you can't go up to Bebe's. and just, who knows, you could have been friends with them now for years if you were just like, hey, man, I'm fan, you know, senior Rita. I love that song. And then you're like, I don't know any of his music at all.

Yeah, you just go, hey, I'm Chris Long. And then if he doesn't know that, you're like, I'm Howie Long's. Exactly. You've seen the guy with the flat top. Do you watch Fox on Sunday? Seacrest would have loved you. And if Beaver, you know, you catch Bieber on the right day from what I hear. Beber did like me.

It sounded like. I mean, you know, he was really friendly. I think Justin Bieber is okay in my book. I think he's misunderstood. I don't know much about him, but in my 12 seconds of interaction with him, he was very misunderstood. Didn't get a chance to talk to Seacrest,

maybe next time. Hey, Ryan, where are you on the last day at the beach? We always talk about this. The last day you wake up at the beach when you have to leave at like noon, do you bother, like,

actually acting like you're at the beach because to me, that's a waste day. I try to sneak in as much beach time as I figured you would. I figured you're on the beach with a book or you're writing or something you're soaking up every last minute of it. I just sit in the room. It's like denial. No, I try to get like I really like the beach. That was a big reason why I moved where I moved because I just love it. And no matter what's going on, no matter how you're feeling, no one I can be like, I can be on the beach in two minutes and this is what I'm going to go do.

It's a great, it's a great way to live. If you like to be, some people don't like the beach, you know, like I like lakes too. But when people start telling me during the summer, lakes, Arrow Beach, I'm just like, all right, whatever. Oh, dude, I'm going to tell you that. You just wait. We'll have this conversation in the summer. And you know this about me. You visited me at the lake. Yeah. Your lake setups unbelievable. Okay, except for when there's a forest fire. And by the way, we're evacuated by the authorities.

We just talked about this actually like a week ago. I decided that was the worst hangover of my life was this summer. You visiting me on Flathead Lake. There was a forest fire. We went to the bar. The fire jumped the interstate. We had to drive all the way around the lake at 3rd. in the morning. It took three, four hours, woke up in a sweat at 6 a.m. sleeping in the same room

with my entire family. No AC. It's 99 degrees outside. Ryan's sleeping in a trailer. That's the worst hangover of my life. I'm at the bar and you just come flying over and you're like, hey, massive four, that forest fire that we were like, hey, that's, that looks a little nasty. It's crossed, we got to go, dude. Yeah. So, yeah. So shout out to us for actually being responsible and leaving the bar. But that, we determined that was the worst, worst hangover of maybe the last calendar year. I'll put it that way. You had to deal with more than I did.

We stayed late and that ride back took it up a notch once the cranberries are involved. The cranberries, man. The cranberries. You get the zombie bump in at 2 a.m. And it makes it all better. Hey, Succession, we've been talking about it. I was catching up on the beach for the people at home. I am now five episodes in.

I'm totally in. The night that I made the decision, it was like literally go upstairs, never watch Succession again. or stick it out. I called my buddy Ryan to figure out if I should because what I did is what I did with the Grateful Dead documentary. It's what I did with Squid Game. I accidentally jumped to the last episode. And I was like literally seven minutes into the season three finale of succession

thinking it was episode three. And I said, God damn, Kendall cut his hair. He's wearing weird necklaces. They're on a boat. They're in Lake Cuomo. I mean, this guy just had a heart attack. was just in the hospital. Now he's in Italy.

Ryan told me it doesn't matter. It's not about the outcome of the show. It's about the characters. So I have stuck with it, and it's a tremendous show. I wanted to thank you for that. That's a really weird habit. You've done this three times

where you skipped ahead of the season finale. I have not just that season, but the end of the show. Yeah, I think my cable. I'm a cable guy. Okay, I like cable. I have a difficulty operating smart TVs and that sort of thing.

I think smart TV is the biggest oxymoron in the world because it's the dumbest shit ever that I have to X out of this cable provider to get to, you know, Roku, to get to Hulu to watch this show, that show. I struggle with that, Ryan. And it's happening with Squid Game. Don't care. That show sucks. It happened to me with the Grateful Dead documentary. We were talking about Jerry Garcia's heart attack like in the second episode of what's the name of this documentary, Matt? long strange trip. I'm like, holy shit, dude, that escalated quickly. I mean, they just jumped right ahead to Jerry Garcia dying. Yeah, it happens to me a lot, Rai. Yeah, that's a terrible habit.

You're going to have to start that one over. Although, I'll admit, on Apple TV, sometimes it'll bring you back to the first episode of a season when you're four or five in. But that's not nearly as problematic of all of a sudden if you were just like watching Star Wars and never seen it before. And all of a sudden, you're at the end of the Empire Strikes Back scene. and he's like, I'm your dad. Fuck. Fuck. Like, that's two hours of space travel.

That's just not going to, I can't consume this the way normally people would consume it. But yeah, successions, succession's an easy watch because it's not really about, some of the stuff that you were saying about what you thought was the finale of season three, some of your conclusions were actually inaccurate too. So you'll figure that out. Yeah, I had peg died. Certain things happened. And you were like, dude, don't worry about it.

Just go right back. I mean, here are the guys. suck besides everybody. I'm really like five episodes in. I fucking hate Connor. The guy announced the guy announced that he was going steady with somebody at Thanksgiving. Right.

Would you announce, right. Would you announce, wait, no, you're going to tell me I'm going to end up liking Connor? You're going to end up liking Connor. Because he feels a little bit like Tobias Harris on the Sixers sometimes.

We were like, oh, he's on the Sixers. Don't do that to the Pius Harris. Yeah. So, so, No, I just, I have this thing where three times a year, I forget Tobias Harris.

Tobias Harris yells at all the people making, you know, the, the ballroom dinner. That sucked. He comes back there and he just starts to touch. No, he's too nice. He would never do that. He's not Connor. He's telling you in the three seasons that you're watching this, there's going to be a pivot with Connor, not some dramatic thing, but it's almost like Connor just sort of hangs in

the back a little bit with the storyline. so you forget about him. And then all the other people do so many things you're not going to like that you end up kind of liking Connor more by default because so many people have dropped down. Well, you know what he said early in one of the episodes was I'm like UN. You know, like, and I was like, that's a fucking weird thing to say because clearly you're not. But maybe he does take a back seat and he becomes like, you know, the guy that wins by you not hating him. I guess I could put it that way.

Kendall sucks. He let his dad do that thing to his son that I don't want to know, spoilers here, but if you're like four episodes in, you see what Logan... Four years behind? Yeah, if you're four years behind like me, fuck it. Logan hits Kendall's son and he just fucking stands there. I'm like, are you kidding me? Everybody in the show sucks, especially the guy that jacked off on the window.

He just cannot get enough of himself. I mean, he's not as smart as he thinks he is. Well, he does have a moment, though, in that first season where he says, I'm dumb, but I'm kind of smart. And I think that's a good way of describing him. him jerking off in the window, I always wonder about writing something like that where you go. Yeah, you're a writer. Really. Yeah, right. Pitch that. Like, yeah, how do I, how do I, like, what do we do to just kind of

show his deviation? Like, what can we do? We're like, all right, he jerks off in a window. I'm like, okay, fine. We get, he's jerking off in the window. I could have done with the, without the cleanup scene. The cleanup scene was a lot. I mean, you have, you have, yeah, you've, you've got ejaculate on the window. You have urine in the office. I mean, like this, this whole, Anyway, Succession, I'm in, five episodes in. I can't wait to catch up and we can talk about it in all its glory. But the show is right up your alley. It's very smart.

It's fast-paced and it's all about characters. It's a Ryan Rissillo show. What Ryan Rissillo is not into, he told me on the phone earlier, is these sloppy-ass, COVID, you know, disrupted Monday, Tuesday split games. Like, you're not into watching bad football. No, I don't, it's not that. at, although there have been a few games. I go, you know what I'm not watching this game anymore?

Like Cleveland, Las Vegas, I wasn't making sure I was home by 2 o'clock Pacific time. You know, I had stuff going on. I'd tape my own stuff in the morning. And I go, you know what, I'm not treating this like a normal Sunday kickoff. I'm not treating this like Thursday. I'm not treating it like Monday night. If you like football, fine. But I think my big pushback is I just don't understand this kind of this award that people seem

to want for going, oh, this game's awful. and I can't get enough of the NFL. You know you're talking to a guy who loves shitty football. Right, but you played and it's a little different. Yeah, I also came up in that. So it's like kind of a thing like if you grow up with a fucked up childhood, you kind of act that way as an adult and it plays itself out that way. Like I grew up with a fucked up football childhood in St. Louis.

So I like these games. Right. That is totally different though. Then I feel like there's this almost like look how amazing I am. I still am watching the NFL. the NFL's like we get it. Everybody does, dude. Like they print money on these stupid games.

Minnesota, Chicago, Kingston told me here that it was the fucking highest. Yeah, highest rated Monday Night Football game in a different. How? I mean, it's incredible. The NFL has to look up. I'd have to look up what the numbers are because sometimes people can, well, you can do things where you go like total number of eyes as opposed to actual number of like your share of the pot.

Right. So, you know, there's always kind of a thing where you're like, okay, but more and more TVs, more and more devices. We're counting all of this stuff. I'm not saying that the game did poorly. I was incredible. I'm just saying it's somebody who's understood and lived in the ratings game for a long time and even worked at ESPN for almost 15 years. There were always some clever ways of, but it very well may have been by the standard, the highest share. So I'm not disputing. Even so, dude, ratings guy. Even so, I mean, and what you're saying is totally correct, because I'm the dummy that just looks at them.

like, oh yeah, the ratings were high, like the highest ratings in 10 years. Like, I don't even, I don't even think twice about it. But the NFL prints money on these games, whether it was or it wasn't, I mean, like a lot of people were watching that football game. A lot of people were watching, like you said, 2 o'clock fucking Monday afternoon on the West Coast. I'm sure a bunch of people were running to their TVs to watch that game. Same thing tonight. I could not wait to watch Philly Washington. Part of it was because I bet that game and I bet the Rams game, which we'll talk about in a minute.

But like, I like sloppy football games, but you're right. People have to have a contest to see who likes being glued to the TV when two teams that are out of it are playing. I mean, it has become a badge of honor for people. Right. As we're all watching it, as the person is bragging about watching it. Yeah, dude. We got it, dude. I'm here, too.

Yeah, I'm here too. I'm also watching Nick Mullins. And by the way, the funniest shit tonight for the second. for the second time in the last calendar year. Okay, so I bet Pittsburgh last year when they were good or when we didn't know they were bad, they were playing the Cowboys. And there was a guy named Garrett Gilbert

who slid in and inexplicably covered that spread. Like it wasn't even close. Like it was a death grip, the whole game. I forgot about it. And tonight saw his name again and bet the Eagles. Like, fucking Garrett Gilbert. how could I go wrong betting the Eagles?

I forgot this kid was drafted. He played with me on the Rams. I don't remember him at all, dude. No offense to Garrett Gilbert. There were like 100 motherfucking Garrett Gilberts that came through St. Louis between 2008 and 2014. So for the second time, I won't apologize to Garrett Gilbert,

but I got my money back tonight. The Eagles got the win. I talked about it in the open. Hey, by the way, do you not remember who Garrett Gilbert was in God? college. Not really, dude. You'd have to jog my memory. Remember when Colt McCoy had a shoulder blast out in the title game against Bama? Garrett Gilbert came in in that game.

And the thing the deal was is Garrett Gilbert, like, even though they lost that game, you were kind of like, man, Texas has got something serious here at quarterback. And I barely remember that title game. Yeah. What year is that? Like 2010? 09, man, right on it. Wow. Incredible. I mean, Garrett Gilbert, he, Garrett Gilbert,

His escapability when it comes to my brain is like, it's Lamar Jackson level escapeability. I mean, I forgot about him in the national championship. I forgot about him last year, taking my money. And I'll probably forget about him again tonight. But we were teammates. Shout out to Garrett Gilbert. He played his ass off tonight.

I mean, they were up 10-0. The Eagles battled back. I talked about it earlier. You know, like I think Seriani's doing a nice job. But you talk about the seven seeds in the NFC. like the guys were going to just slide in if they are the Vikings who have been surging if you want to call it that the Eagles who have been up and down in the Saints who like if they're not playing the bucks they are trash like who do you trust to actually win a playoff game that could slide in in that seven spot well I guess you're not letting me count San Francisco as a six seat here because I mean obviously things could shift around yeah sure yeah I mean they're they're the easy answer all right yeah maybe that's too easy. I mean, they've won, what, five or six. They actually, if you look at the weighted stuff, they're a top 10 offense and defense. They're really good. Yeah, we're just ready to write them off

because it was two and four and then three and five. And since that point, I mean, the only game that was in the L column was that Seattle game, it was kind of a weird game all together, too, a really weird game. It was a one score loss. So San Francisco, I always have a little bit more faith in because of the whole thing. I'm not the biggest Jimmy G guy. We both know that. I feel like I've been proven right on that one, especially when the team themselves moves up to take a guy that's going to replace him. So I'm not saying I have all the trust in them, but they're playing good football again. Like if you throw on a San Francisco game and you go, oh, wait, and they were just so easy to be dismissed. But yeah, I get it.

Maybe that's cheating a little bit because they're the six. Minnesota, I think this record is still intact. I don't know if it changed. I'll have to, I don't know if I'll be able to double check it on the fly here. But they're the only team in the NFL this season that led every opponent. by seven points, like every single week. Bro, they've been playing some mind-numbingly exciting football as just if you're just down to watch some chaotic shit,

a bunch of one-score games. Yeah, so I think the Lions one again, this isn't the most interesting part of it. Yep. Now, they were getting, they were getting smoked by them. So maybe that streak is over now. Yeah, I think it is. Needless to say, though, they're dangerous.

I mean, I look at them as being dangerous. Why is the defense so bad? though like that's the one thing with them rushers i mean you know the griffin stuff uh hunter who to me you know if he's healthy and he's rolling he's in that category of guys who could get 15 to 20 buckets in a year it's kind of funny to me because it feels like as their window has opened offensively the window defensively has closed a little bit for them and for zimmer i mean like you want to hang your hat on this stuff so here you are with a Gary running attack when Dalvin's healthy.

And Kirk, who I think the world's coming around on the fact that he's not as bad as we want to make him out to be. He's just not an incredibly likable guy. I mean, like people don't like Kirk. He might be relative to his likability, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Like people don't like him, but he's actually decent. Wow, that's a fascinating discussion. Yeah, likeability.

Where would Russell be on that? Depends on who you ask. Yeah, I don't think we have to worry about Seattle at 5 and 9 after that loss tonight. All right, talk to me about your Rams. I don't know, man. Where does this team? The Rams. And by the way, to answer my own question, I don't trust the Vikings.

I don't trust the Saints. It's going to have to be the Eagles. The Eagles, if they played the Bucks coming out like 7-2, because I think the Bucks end up too, I do because I think the Packers, as I told you on your pod weeks ago, are like Super Bowl. good. Yeah, they still don't have, they still have Zendarius back. They don't, they don't have Jire Alexander back who's one of the better court. And then they were missing one of their interior D-Linman this past week too. Yeah, so they're good. They're really good. And the Cardinals you've seen like, I'm not saying the Cardinals couldn't get hot, but like, you know, you expect

me to put a team that just could get hot in the Super Bowl in December, like coming off of those two losses. The Bucks have the easiest schedule down the stretch. We'll talk. We'll talk. about the injuries, but I think they end up like two. And the Eagles actually played them pretty tough late, you know, in the middle of the season. So wait, maybe, maybe we should stay with you answering that because I'm just not on the Eagles thing. I think it's amazing what they've done by overhauling. What was almost the most past happy offense in the NFL the first few weeks of the season? They went on six weeks or so, which just didn't make any sense. Yeah. They're like, hey, look, you may try to figure this out with Jaylin and want to evaluate him so you have an

answer to whether or not you have a quarterback in 2021. But let's not turn this into fucking Jim Kelly here. And that's what it felt like in the beginning. And then they completely overhaul it where they're one of the least pass aggressive teams. But then I think they've kind of tasted, they've sampled it again. So, you know, Philly, I worry about them in a playoff game, maybe being two one dimensional in comparison to the Minnesota where Kirk has a game. Right. I still feel like some of his numbers look better than they are because he's more risk-averse than other quarterbacks. How about that punt he threw Monday? Yeah, but I looked like the guy gets his feet caught up. Maybe so. Yeah.

Yeah, no question. I think this is the year, like with football analysis and fans in general, that we finally realize that all throws aren't as bad as they look. Like, things happen. You know, it's been a trend to actually acknowledge that sometimes receivers run the wrong routes, that sort of thing. But to answer your question, I actually, like, it's almost a by default, you know, answer. I don't think the Eagles are winning a couple playoff games.

But I think that, like, you get them in the right spot, the right matchup, a team that can run the ball like they have and a team that when they're healthy up front is pretty fucking good and a quarterback who gives you nightmares like rushing. I'm not saying he's throwing the ball tremendously consistently all year. I think he's

been incredibly up and down and I think like if you're an Eagles fan or if you're an Eagles front office dude especially with the you know the veteran carousel coming in and the ability to snag somebody like a Malik Willis who I'm saying his name twice and two pods like in the middle rounds

to compete with somebody. I don't think you've got your guy here in the future. I don't think you're sure about that. But what you can do is you can make things help for somebody any given Sunday. Because this guy can create. I still think they're good up front. Malik Jackson, Fletcher Cox had one of his best games of the year tonight. And Sweat, Barnett, those guys, they've had better linebacker play than they have in the past.

Singleton's played really well. And Darius Slay has been great for them. A guy who people were kind of on his ass, his rookie year in Philly. a big off-season pickup, he's really turned it around. So I think, honestly, they're the scrappy-type team that you don't want to see in the first round. And Siriani's done a good job, man.

I know, listen, if you're not buying it, like, I get it. I'm not even like, you know, because it's like I said, it's more of a default thing in the NFC. Like, fuck, who wants it? Who wants the seven-seat? And the AFC, it's incredibly deep.

But I want to say this. Nick Siriani has done a great job this year. It was funny, like, who are the offensive head coaches that were hired this all? season. Urban Meyer, okay, Arthur Smith down in Atlanta, who we kind of knew what to expect with him, and he's done a nice job with not a lot of talent. When I look and see Atlanta, there's two records all season long where I go, what? Yeah, I can't believe it. The most impressive stat in the NFL this

season is seven, seven wins for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Because if you watch the Steelers this year, and you're like, they're over 500 and they're in the mix still for a seven seed, that and the fact that Atlanta is six and eight. I think Atlanta is more impressive. to me. All right. There you go. But, you know, you're asking me for a seven seed here. I'll take Philly over, you know, New Orleans. Yeah, no question. I think, yeah. Washington, you know, even Atlanta, six and eight, we can't really rule them out because we're talking about seven and seven teams. But yeah, I think there's, I think there's a bit of a gap between what I've seen out of San Francisco now for a month and a half and what Philadelphia. No question. There's a fucking giant ledge.

But when, when Philly and San Fran were fully healthy, like in the beginning of the season, they played each other. And yes, teams change a lot, but one team got a lot, but they both got a lot better. Eagles got better. That was a physical football game. That felt like a playoff game. Those two teams before Brandon Graham got hurt and that sort of thing, like the Eagles were really rolling defensively early in the season. To finish what I was saying, Siriani deserves a lot of credit. You know, like you get these offensive head coaching hires. He turns out to be the one that's maybe coached over his head the most. I mean that is a compliment. Like as far as like what people expected, it was a guy that couldn't get through the press conference. People were

ripping him to shreds. Not that that fucking matters anymore. the guy has gone to this deal where he's getting 50 yards rushing from three different players a game. You're averaging 200 a game. It went from the Andy Reeditis where you're like oh my God, like are they ever going to run the ball to holy shit, this is smash mouth

football and he's been he's held Jalen accountable. I mean, you saw him night getting after him. Tonight he stuck to his game playing he went down 10-0, didn't flinch. And you know what? Even the fourth and ones, which you didn't see, people were freaking out. It's analytics week. Fourth and one.

they're up, yeah, they're up seven, it's fourth and one, and Washington hasn't been able to move the ball since the beginning of the game. So they kick late in the game, fourth and one, they kick. Two scores is a big difference, so I have no problem with that, same thing early in the game. I think Siriani's done a really nice job. By the way, I want to get your take on this. I'm Harbaugh, you're a player. Hey, what do you want to do, overtime or win it right here?

I'm always going to say win it right here. Who's not going to say win it right here, dude? Like that fucking clip, and I love Jim Harbaugh, but people jump out of the gym on the internet, bro. Like, what do you think the player is going to say? Oh, by the way, the Chiefs one was the first one where it was like, hey, what do you want to do? Do you want to go for it? You want to go for it? I mean, what the hell was Lamar Jackson going to say in that game?

This is the beginning of the year. I think Lamar's like, I don't know, pinching the A gap a little. Let's kick this. Let's kick this one away. There's no one, every fucking quarterback in every level as soon as the sport down turns the sideline being like, we can go, we got it, we got it, we got it. Bro. And a lot of times the coach is like, get the hell out of there. It's fourth and seven. We can't block anybody. That part of it, the only thing that I thought was like my personal rule, which maybe, if you're not as good as the team that you're going for two against, go for two. Yes. It's, it's, Green Bay was up 31.17. We both know what happens in that fourth quarter. you're not exactly fighting the way that you were the first 45 minutes

of the game and you're like, is Huntley guy, whatever. And the next thing you know, it's, you know, you're like, holy shit,

they're pointing away from tying this thing up. When the team isn't as good, and they've sort of backed their way into potentially stealing a win, I think that's when you always go for two. Now, if it were Green Bay on the other side,

turnovers, fluky, late comeback, and they have to tie it. Hey, your Green Bay, you're at home. You might be the best team in the NFL. Just kick the ball and keep playing football

because there's a good chance you're going to win. You want to play more football? We're the Packers. You want to play more football? And by the way, the Packers need to fix their special teams, including that last drive. The only reason that they're in that game is because of special teams. And so good job Harbaugh there.

That's his kind of thing. Do you know what their rank right now is? Yeah, Green Bay is like, if you look at the weighted stuff, they are dramatically worse than everybody else. They're not just last in the NFL on what. your expected point allowed and some of the DVOA stuff. Green Bay is 32nd, but with like the gap between them and 31 is the gap between 10 teams. Incredible. Incredible. And that's a big, that's a big ugly sore there. They got to clean up. But yeah, like you look at the bucks. I was

going to ask you this. Do you still trust them? Because when Steve and I taped the pod the other day, I had just heard that Godwin was coming back and that they dodged a bullet. And then by the afternoon and I hear ACL. Okay, like that's like the Rams trying to relearn how to play offense without Robert Woods and trying to replace. Like, you're bringing A-B on, okay, like A-B's still got juice,

but that's a different kind of player than Godwin. Like, if you had to put, you know, hey, Tom, out there with the game on the line, who you're throwing an in-cut to? Like, it can't be gronk. It's got to be somebody over the middle of the field that you need 12 yards. His Edelman, in a way,

in Tampa has been, Godwin and then you lose Fournette with a hamstring. Like that's the reason they were good down the stretch last year. So do you trust the bucks? I mean, can they still, I mean, they can still win a Super Bowl, but you know what I mean. I do. And I'm just not ready to write it off because basically I've seen Brady for all those other games throughout the two decades, figuring out a way to adjust with what he has.

I mean, he had a couple games there. Like one of the losses that Denver, they had those back to back. I don't know if it was back to back. I think it was two and three years where he had no. to throw to. And he was trying to go into Denver to beat the Broncos. And he still found a way to keep those games close where they had a chance. Stephen Jackson was playing in that game, running back for the Patriots. Yeah. So I think between A.B. coming back, you know, Evans, as much as I love him, always seems to be a guy that like has a hobble moment almost every single week.

We were like, oh, is Evans hurt again? The Godwin part of it sucks. But as long as Gronk is there, and I do like Jones, who was, you know, always been pretty talented and kind of, you know, lost his spot to four net. Vaughn, who dropped a ball and then also fell down on what was kind of a dump down route, sucked. But you know who I kind of like? And I can't tell if it's just because he's big and looks good running around is the

second year kid out of Minnesota, Tyler Johnson. Yeah. So, you know, it might just be a, hey, Tyler, now you have to step up. Like those, those routes where you thought I was never coming to you, now I'm coming to you. Yeah. And I know they still have. Scotty Miller, but it was very clear that

Scottie Miller was going to have a hard time, even with his speed, beating anybody down the field. And look, they've lost the Saints four times. Last year was one of the ugliest games I've ever seen Brady have. I mean, it was a disaster last year. I lost the sedan on that game, dude. That was the worst loss of my gambling career, dude.

Not a high-end sedan, but like a gently used mid-level kind of model. Yeah, I was chasing Sunday night. I was like, Buck's Money Line. They're at home. Brady's mad. They lost them early in the season.

They're rolling 38 to 3. Never bet on the bucks against the Saints anymore. Ever again. I don't care if Brady plays another eight years. Don't do it. Yeah. Look, they got to be the one that mattered last year in the playoffs. Stay away for me.

It's fucking, hey, New Orleans slides in. That's a stay away for your boy. I just, I don't know. Like, you know, these injuries are going to be tough for them to overcome. But you're right. I'm not going to be the guy that writes Brady off. I'm not too, because I've just seen him too many times go, all right, this is what I'm working with,

and it's not falling apart in the game. It's now I have a week to know what I'm working with, and now you know what I expected you. That's different. And I'm just telling you, I don't, I think I know it as well as anybody. You're right. That's big, Ryan.

And you just made a great point, which is that, like, they have time to adjust. Like, and not only that, they have the easiest schedule remaining of any of the top seat NFC guys. I think they have Carolina twice and maybe like Atlanta or something like it's a Carolina twice and then Giants maybe I have already played the Giants thinking it's a New York team I don't know it's the Jets it's the Jets so there you go like like they have a preseason

it's the NFL you know like we've seen double digit dogs win in the last couple days multiple but these are not matchups that scare Tom like I can guarantee you Tom knew that that was going to be a tight game the other night. Vegas didn't know it. I didn't know it, but Tom knew it. He's going to have time to figure this shit out. But you asked about the Rams earlier.

And by the way, Cooper Cup, 1,500 yards, 10 straight 90-yard ball games. That guy's just a football player, man. And then they have that deep punt that checks up about the five and he just goes last minute. I'm going to push this guy, this gunner on coverage. He's like, I'm just going to knock him out of the way.

And then the ball goes in for a touchback. I mean, the amount of shit that that guy does in the football field. And it's just, I don't know if it's a McBay thing or if it's a front office thing because Robert Woods, who obviously is a loss for them and it isn't just his ability to catch because nobody would look at Robert Woods and go, hey, he's the number one and changes your franchise. But the blocking that Robert Woods puts in, the knowing where to be all the time, like he's

a basketball player like set screens, re-screens, moves off the basketball. I love how I wonder if Odell's like, holy shit, you guys do a lot of stuff here. Yeah. Well, and here's the thing. It's like your safety valve when you need, you know, to get your running. game going in a way where you just get the ball out on the perimeter or, you know, you know, in a pinch, your third and medium. That was your guy. So I worry about that. I mean, like, listen, they won tonight. And by the way, the thing that stood out to me about

Cooper Cup broke the franchise reception record from the great Isaac Bruce, absolute legend, and did it in how many games here? 14 games. And the craziest thing about that, and maybe I'm missing something is Isaac Bruce is competing for catches with a few people. So on the Isaac Bruce Tori Hall. Yeah. I mean like crazy you get that many catches in such a prolific offense. So some interesting stuff there with Cooper Cup. But the O line's not as good as it was. No home field advantage, really to speak of. No disrespect to that beautiful stadium. But I don't think it's a place people are afraid to come play yet. People go on dates there, man. Yeah, it's like a date place. And you know, Michelle's getting rolling and that's good. But,

The run game hadn't been scary and they haven't stopped the run. So like I respect the Rams. They can make a run. They may well do it. But let's not jump out of the gym off this Cardinals wing because you see who the Cardinals are. You never know week to week. All right. Yeah.

And that's the thing with the Cardinals. And Kyler's hurt. And you could see at the end of the L.A. game where he couldn't get out of a pressure. And you're like, all right. So here we go. And I watch this team pretty closely because I just enjoy Kyler that much. And then, you know, it's one thing to be frustrated by losing in Detroit, who is not a good team, despite how competitive they've been in a lot of games. And Kyler's just desponded on the bench on the sideline.

And I didn't see a guy that was just frustrated about the score. I think it's a guy that's still hurt. And then when he went to roll out of that second sack that he got hit with, he doesn't get tackled. That's the healthy Kyler Murray doesn't get tackled in that spot. He couldn't get away and gets tripped up. Yeah. It was a great play by the defensive end. He kind of came crashing down on him.

So you add in that Hopkins, who you taught me, this one. We can talk about the other guys that are supposedly better than him. I don't know if there's anybody short goal to go that I want in the end zone more than DeAndre Hopkins because he makes it's not the straight line speed.

He makes catches every week where you're like, who the fuck is this guy? So now you take away that safety blanket and I mentioned this on my podcast. Kyler's career numbers with DeAndre Hopkins versus without in games. He's 30 points lower in the

QB rating. So it's very clear, and I still think he's dinged up. But, you know, much like the Rams who had their O for November, we could be looking at the Cardinals, maybe, you know, maybe figuring it out, if Kyler can kind of turn things around here and figure out how to get balls to the rest of the guys, because there's still some guys that I like with football in their hands on his team. And that's another thing is like we just talked about Kyler being hurt. That's part of the deal. We're talking about it. You know, every time I've said that Matt Stafford's hurt, I imagine people rolling their eyes at home because Troy and Joe said it the first time. And of course, course they're they're caping for matt stafford i mean matt stafford has had back issues for years he's

got a litany of smaller issues going on right now i mean like it's no secret so i worry about his health and we just went through it with kiler i mean like when the guy under center is not healthy it's a big question mark i caught a little of that game tonight not much to take away from it but you made an interesting point about russell that i wanted you to share yeah yeah i don't look i look at russell Wilson, the quarterback, and he's a guy I trust probably as much as anybody. Now, you know, look, is he, is he Rogers? You know, does he have the Brady resume? No, absolutely not. But what I love about Wilson is, you know, that third and seven, which is basically where these guys separate themselves, you know, third and seven, what are you doing? You know, you chucking at two yards

or four the sticks with two guys coming to tap on your tight end. Tight end never gets the first down in that spot. Russell Wilson, you know, rolls it out, throws a little pop up over a linebacker it's caught in the middle of a decision. I love Russell Wilson, the quarterback. But watching him tonight, as this team continues to struggle, like he looks like he's just chucking the ball everywhere without any real, like, there's, it's just, hey, here's the arm power. But there's just not the precision that I'm used to with him.

That deep throw to D.K. Metcalf that Jalen didn't even, it looked like Jalen was beat. And Jalen's like, are you serious? Yeah, that was a great play by Jalen, too. It was bad pass, but like way too much moon under that moon ball. but like that was straight up and then he had to throw to number one um that was like a fastball through everybody out of the end zone and it was still a chance and then you know he should have had the PI on the Dallas throw I know this okay and I'm not a reporter but there are

people that think that Russell Wilson came back and it's always a tough spot because if you're the quarterback you're always supposed to come back even if you're not healthy but I felt like this was him proving something which really mirror this whole bullshit deal in the lead-up of him being her where he wanted to prove that like he was built so differently that he could come back. It's very clear even with the pop, the juice on the football, the precision part of it is not there. And that's because I hold him, Chris, to such a high standard as a quarterback. I think the world of him is a quarterback. Yeah, he's awesome.

And he's all over the place right now. Yeah. I just, I think that I think him coming back from the finger was some sort of message that he wanted to get out and to prove to everybody what he was capable of more so than maybe everybody feeling like, hey, come back when you're ready. Yeah, I think also, it's one of the, because they don't as a team look like that much better than when

Gino was there. And we know Russell is a much better player, right? I mean, just like, there's not some like, hey, he's back and now they're just firing on all cylinders. I don't know if it's the coordinator change, which is funky to me because, you know, I don't think they could wait

to get the last guy out of town. And I won games. You know, that's the thing that always pissed me off about like, oh, Wilson's going to ask guys going to ask out. It's like, did you guys act like this as the Texans? Yeah. Again, up until this year, they were winning double digit games every season. Yeah, and this was the year, I don't know, it just felt like it was time to hop off the bandwagon because they're not great in a bunch of spots on the roster like they've been before where they can support him. And I do think he's back now trying to prove something,

whether it's, hey, I can come back super quick or, or hey, I'm auditioning to the number of teams that I hope to be playing for next year, which I wouldn't blame him for, because the end is near in Seattle. I think this is it for this cast, the characters there. Is there somewhere you'd like to see Russ next year? Maybe America's got talent.

Oh, totally. Totally. You know where I want to see Russell? On the TV, where Mario Lopez is usually. Lopez went on part of my take, and they talked about the extra thing, which is the craziest thing.

You know, when you go in your hotel, room and you get too lazy or the remote's lost like and you're just hanging out with maria lopez on loop for an hour i'd like i think russia wilson could get into that into that he'd be he'd be so good at it uh yeah there's nothing like you know i finally got some traveling going again and i as soon as i turn it on and mario lopez is telling me how great these fucking bracelets are i go man things are getting back to normal things are back to normal things are back to normal things are back to maria lopez trying to sell me these stupid fucking beated beating back next thing you know is going to be russ as an old bartender, the amount of infomercials that we would watch counting out tips,

having a couple CELs, you know, just, just winding the night down, taking you through the timeline of events depending how the night went. And then we just throw it on and we just watch these. And the flavor injector, the fucking rotissory thing, the home rotisserie. And I could see Russell Wilson with an apron on turning to like the guy who like really knows how everything works. Just being like, and so wait, I can do vegetables. while my chicken is cooking.

Okay, wait a minute. Craig, how long does this take? And where's the number I have to call? Right. And then you go to the audience and then in yours, like I just want one person, just one person ever in the history of any food infomercial.

When they take a bite of something, be like, eh. Russell Wilson's going to get so famous, people are going to forget he played football, which is incredible because it's one of the best ever. First of all, that's his goal.

And it will happen. And I could watch country gold box. cassette infomercials on loop for like you ever seen it like not the infomercials but the really long ones that kind of go on for 20 minutes and that you know it's like I could sit like music yeah you start going you're sitting there going I like that song too holy shit another one another one all right so who's your dp Oi before we move on uh to to greener pastures here and stop talking about football it's your boy er donald it just is um I know Michael Parsons it has the sizzle but Aaron's getting better and better every week here as he closes this thing out

or other guys look like they're losing a step. And I think he's taking advantage of everybody else being beat up because he's superhuman. So I just think he impacts the game. Like I think Chris Jones is maybe as important as maybe any other defensive player there is because you can see it significantly whether the Chiefs had him outside, put him back inside when he's not there. You know, that Chargers win. Last third.

Right. I mean, they're just gashing the Chiefs, even though Kansas City pulls that one out. but I just, I don't know, I think Aaron Donald's one of those deals where he should just win it like 10 years in a row. Yeah, you know what? It's funny because if we're having the conversation about best defensive player on the planet, you're going to give it to him every year. Now, if we're doing the, who's having that Heisman kind of year on that side of the football, I think like T.J. Watt deserves a lot of credit. I do. I think, you know, like this could be his year because Miles is going to be out this week. It sounds like, you know, people up last week. Yeah. Or last, like, excuse me, yesterday.

TJ just makes so many plays all over the field in so many different ways. I think it's incredible. To have a brother that's like one of the best of all time and you're like, I got to live up to that. And then you're like better than him? You think he's better than peak JJ? He's an edge defender, like a true edge defender and a JJ moved up and down the line. I don't know.

Peak JJ for those three years, dude. Dude, TJ Watt has been a league five years, dude. I'm not saying peak JJ, but what I am saying is that when it's all said and done, I'm saying that TJ might have better. numbers and a better like, damn, his career finished. And part of that is because he didn't play inside as much. He won't have played inside as much so you can last longer. Some of the injuries

that have slowed JJ down. But I'm just telling you. Jay J.J. by the way, is still good. I mean, I know he's hurt, but he was, he was really good. It's just that whenever you're holding J.J. Watt to the standard of PJJ. Watt, just you, it's a waste of time because I think for those three

years, it was fucking absurd. How about peak Aaron Donald or peak J.J. Watt? I'm sorry. I don't know. I think I have to defer to you on that one. Anyways, but TJ, I think this could be his year. So we'll see. If you're in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, Tennessee, or Virginia, and you haven't yet tried the Winbet app, I've got great news for you. Winbet is now offering a 200% wager match for new users up to $1,500. That's just an incredible offer.

win bet is basically giving you double your first wager in free bets don't pass it up download the win bet app today terms and conditions apply must be 21 or older and present in a state where win bet is available gambling problem in arizona call 1 800 next step in colorado indiana new jersey and virginia call 1 800 gambler and in michigan 1 800 270717 tennessee y'all 2 800 889 9789 Hey, I got a guy on staff here now that gives a fuck about, knows the NBA, watches the NBA, actually subjects himself to that shit like you, random Tuesdays in October and November. And do they play in October? Yeah, they start in October.

Hey, Kingston, you got a couple questions for Rissolo before we get to the mailbag? Sure, just got to hit a couple real quick. What's up, Brian? So the calves are 19 and 12. they're over 14 points per 100 processions better than they were last season. Like Mobley looks amazing, obviously. Yeah. Is it sustainable?

Usually young teams don't play good defense and they're playing ridiculous defense. And Mobley's a big part of that. I don't know what the latest numbers were, but I think a couple weeks back we're talking about a rookie hero's contested the most shots in the league. Everybody's always kind of looking for that active big that can switch on a small guy's and also still rim protect. And they basically have two of them because Jared Allen's fucking awesome too. like every team would want Jared Allen.

And Mobley, you could see with his movement stuff, even if you didn't like the fact that he wasn't always the most aggressive guy for his one year at USC. Movement alone, I remember doing draft stuff for him. And I mean, sometimes you're blown away by watching some of these guys. But I remember I was,

I don't know, I was doing clips that day. And I think I was like 30 minutes into the clips. And I would go, he hasn't had a bad play in like 40 clips. Like he hasn't had a bad play. It hasn't been a play where I'm like, what was he doing there?

And he's that special. Darius Garland, who didn't play a ton of Vandy, I compared him knowing that it was wrong. He reminded me a little bit of Kyrie because how quick he was in his shake, and the shooting numbers were really good. And I think Sexton, the weird part of him being hurt is that it actually allows Darius to kind of run the offense without feeling like he has to take turns. A Coro started to shoot the ball a little bit better.

They have love back because not always part of the closing group. But they have guys between Okoro, Mowgli, and Allen, if you're filtering people defensively, they're a lot of fun to watch. So, you know, I still wouldn't put them in a tier with a healthy Milwaukee, Brooklyn, you know, Chicago's been really, really good. But I think, I think Cleveland's going to be a playoff team. Good for them, though. Good for them.

Yeah, because they were arguably, you know, for a while they're one of the worst franchises in the NBA. And I think they've done an awesome job. And the Mobley Allen thing working together is, you know, sometimes you get too bigs and you go, oh, shit, now what do we do? And these guys are figuring it out. So how about the crater that LeBron leaves a crew? crater there as like some, you know, like fringe NBA fan. I'm like, how do you recover from that?

Like, what's the equivalent of that? Like, that guy just up and leaving and you're just left there with your dick in your hand. You got one championship out of it and a bunch of young talent. Well, you get a championship out of it. If you're Cleveland and it's 60 years or so without any of them in any of the major sports, you go ahead and take it. But, you know, this thing looked pretty bad. And look, they gave Kevin Love a four-year extension kind of as like a spite extension to be like, Now, we're still good. We still have a plan. Yeah, we're still trying.

Is that what they're saying? We're still trying. It worked out great for Kevin Love. I've been talking to somebody, and I was like, dude, that was aggressive. Do you think I look like Kevin Love? A little bit. I think you'd like Kevin Love. Oh, I think he's great.

I think you guys would like hanging out. Make that happen. Me and Kevin Love, we got to be boys. Hey, and Kingston, I like this question about the Kings. Yeah, so the Kings are dumpster fire, obviously, fired Luke Walton into the season. any hope from them. I heard Deeran Fox might be on the trading block. Does he actually have any value at this point?

Now, the question you asked to be real in pre-production was like, you were like, hey, you should ask Ryan if the Kings are the worst run organization in pro sports. So you took a little heat off that fastball there. You fucking really don't like the Kings. So, Rye, is he being hard on the Kings? Well, first of all, Deeran Fox would have value.

You know, he just would. I'm not going to sit here and say that. he doesn't have value even if there's parts of his game. You know, the weird thing about basketball, I mean, they're best defensively again. They're actually okay in offense. But there are a lot of players to have a ton of skill that can score points and it doesn't really mean anything. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but like there was a staff today.

I was watching the Knicks game as they beat the Pistons. And it was like, there's three players in the NBA that are 19, 9 and 5. 19 points, nine boards, five assists, right? 19 or more, 19 plus. It's Janice, it's Jokic. Those guys are pretty good. And then it's Julius Randall. And you're like, oh, okay.

So there are guys that I've seen, you know, Kevin Porter had 50 in a game for Houston. And I wouldn't want him on my basketball team. I'm not putting Dearon Fox in that group. But I worry, you know, you're in the league a couple of years. You start putting up some numbers. And he's an awesome guy. I've met him a couple times. I didn't think anybody that ever comes across and you end up liking him.

he's capable of doing some really special things in a basketball court, but, you know, they're still kind of a mess. Even though I would say, you know, this year, there's a little bit of hope. They're flirting with it, right? They're flirting with the idea of potentially being a playoff team with the extra playing game. Yeah, they're actually 10th now. They're tied with Portland. All right, Ryan, last NBA question real quick.

So LeBron is averaging the most three-point attempts and the least free throw attempts per game in his entire career. Is that from like the natural aging evolution of his game? Or is that a reflection of a problem with the fit with this roster? No, I think it's pretty clear you watch him. I mean, he's ridiculous that he's still 26, 7 and 7. And he coasts. I mean, he's been cut. He'll pick his spots and he coasts a little bit more.

I think the other number two is he's down to six and a half rebounds, which is right around where his career low would be too. So, you know, you start taking less free. throws, it means you don't want to drive as much. You start taking more threes. It means you don't want to drive as much. You start to get less rebounds. It means you just, you know, boxing out to pain in the ass.

You just, there's certain guy, you know, you just be the point where like, I just don't feel like closing this guy off or finding somebody. Got to be over 82 games or whatever. I mean, like, goddamn. But, you know, for one night, I could box out. I box out my ass off, but like 82 of them? Not at 37 years old. I always think it's funny, too, and like, people are looking at edge guys, right?

And coming into the draft, we're like, oh, I'll take a couple plays off. Like, no shit he took a couple plays off. It's like, hey, two last car accidents a game. Maybe sometimes that adds up in a positive way. Yeah. Now, again, if you're taking off every other snap, then that's a problem. So is it alarming like, oh, no, here we go. Because, you know, as we all wait for this Brady thing to end,

because it actually, I still believe it will happen. It's going to happen to LeBron at some point. But I don't think it's a Lakers fit thing. Look, 80 needs to be better when he's actually playing. And now he's going to miss a ton of time. I think Westbrook has moments where it looks like he's trying really hard to fit in. They don't have enough shooting. I mean, Rondo the other night fouled with 10 seconds left on the shot clock, 15 in the game clock, down one in that loss of the bulls.

And then you got Mello telling Rondo like, what the fuck are you doing? So Mello's on on Rondo's team, what the fuck is going on these days? There was a night where it was Rondo, Dwight, and Mello running around together. And I'm like, this is this is absolutely crazy. You know, like an old NBA street game? All right, mailbag here, and I got one to start off that's basketball themed, Brian. I made this one up. Well, today, Ney Smith, 130 years ago today, Ney Smith gifted us this great game, basketball,

the association. It's grown to be. How many years back would Ryan Riscilla have to go to make an NBA roster? Like, what year would it be? Probably the 40s. Do you think the 40s? Yeah, I think if you drop me into the 40s right now, you start dribbling and you start posting guys up and, you know, although they had the cagers, I think, in the 20s, and those guys

used to beat the shit out of each other. It was like old New York City Jewish basketball. I think we used to do a thing where we used to look up like 40s basketball players way back in the day when I was on your podcast. So the 40s, Ryan's, Ryan, you play in the 40s. I think I could play in the 40s, yeah. I mean, we used to do this on the radio show. Phent Pelt was beside himself with this thought. I was like, you don't think that there's some date and time where I could get to a time machine and just get out and start playing. there's not there's course there's a date if you could play pro football at one point no pro football I probably have a better chance in the 40s for sure the late 38 me on the align eye dick night train

lane would have fucking decapitated you though he would have killed me he would have killed me no question i i think there's some stuff what if i what if i did a fucking zone read in 1938 guys was guys would have been like who the fuck is this guy you would have been one of the most jack guys on the fucking field. Modern nutrition? This guy worked out of the equinox. You walk, if you walked fucking Chuck Bednarik into an equinox,

his head would explode. I think about this stuff all the time because I love reading about the history of boxing. Like, if I watch John L. Sullivan in my head, because you can't see it. There's no footage, but he's like the first real heavyweight world title holder, a guy from Boston,

I know John Sullivan, used to drink a ton. You used to get shit-faced all the time. The whole thing checks out. Right. And then he fell off the back of a train. they thought he was dead and he was hanging off of the back of it and was like, I'm fine. And then he'd always quit.

He would have like massive benders and he would say he was done and no one ever believed him. And then just one day he stopped drinking altogether. But he would go and fuck people up in these barren knuckles things. And then I go, okay, but what would happen if like I decided a box at 2.30 knowing that I wasn't going to just stand there with like, you know, the Duke of fucking Luxembourg with your fists out underneath and just kind of like doing this weird underhanded jab thing. Could you beat up either of the Paul brothers? Because that's the burning question.

I think you might be next. No, I just, no, I'm not going to say that. I have too respect for the amount of work that they put in. If they're conditioning and that kind of shit, they're conditioning and the fact that they actually can throw some combinations. Listen, they would kick so many guys' asses that it's not even debatable. Well, here's the problem. One of them, right, is a really good wrestler. Yeah.

Well, I thought they both wrestled. I don't know what they're. So they both. So, because usually if a guy can box, you're like, well, what if we took the gloves off? You know, like, but these guys... And by the way, if you're a good wrestler, that means you've gotten your mind tuned to a way where the pain and the hurt and the fucking, I don't want to do this anymore, you've surpassed

that. You've been able to fight through that mentally. So those aren't guys you usually want to fucking fight. Yeah, and they're dangerous because, like, they got nothing to lose. Like, they're quote unquote YouTubers or one of them is, right? I'm totally confused with this whole thing. No, they were. I mean, look, if you have the Bama bangs and you're a teenager and you're doing stupid fucking videos with mentos and soda. Didn't they get kicked out of the suicide force in Japan at one point?

Well, yeah. How do you go from the suicide forest to like, I mean, what a glow up? People, you know, people move on from shit as bad as that was. But nobody wants to admit it. And I just think it's so funny, the timeline of events with every one of these fights. It's like, oh, these idiots, I hate these guys. YouTube shitheads with all their cars. Fuck these guys.

No, they finally earned their, yeah. And guess what? Then they beat the shit out of somebody. And then all of a sudden, pivots. Like, remember the Nate Robinson thing? Nate Robinson is going to crush him. And then as soon as Nate gets work, it's, oh, well, that's not fair because Nate doesn't know how to fight.

You know, so people are, no question, but you know, they're handpicking their guys. Like, they're going to, next thing they're call, like, you know, Mossoud on that sort of thing, who's scary as fuck. But, like, they're not calling any boxers. Just call a box. You know, like Tommy Fury is a boxer, isn't he? Or he's also on a reality TV show. Yeah, I think

Tommy Fury is like, he's a bachelor-looking motherfucker. Like, Tommy Fury, he's too good looking to get to, to beat up one of the Paul brothers. Do you remember that when he came out in the ring? I was like, who the fuck is this guy? He's got perfect hair. Oh, no, he's a good looking at a cat. Yeah, good for him. By the way, for the record, I don't think I could get a time machine and beat up John L. Sullivan. I do think that I could get to a time machine and maybe hit noodles Han.

You know, if our, you know, Fenway Park, 19, 1921. Yeah. Okay. we're not going to do a Paul Rasillo fight. All right. I know because I'd lose. This comes from Kai. Scariest plane ride experience. Easy.

The one time I filled in play-by-play for the Boston Celtics, so I did two home games where I was the analyst because I worked for the radio affiliate and I was actually a play-by-play guy technically for minor league baseball. More you can do. Yeah, even though I was terrible at it and ended up I was going to lose my gig. So I told minor league baseball, we are done here. So I'm working for the affiliate. They go, hey, we need a fill them.

for play by play because the main guy was doing the Frozen Four. So I got on the Celtics Charter. So it was Doc Rivers. It was Paul Pierce, Ricky Davis. It was Gary Payton was on that team. And right as we took off from Hanscom on the Celtics Charter, I think there was some smaller plane that wasn't talking to the tower that took off like in our takeoff pattern.

And all of a sudden, our plane stalled and like free-fall. and the guy, which you're supposed to be able to do. I did it my first pilot's lesson where you stall the engine and then you restart in the air. It's a fucking weird-ass feeling. But we were doing it while we were on the plane. And people were screaming, Ricky Davis was in the background, screaming, stop fucking playing. Stop fucking playing. How was Paul Pearson this whole thing?

They were playing cards. They played talk and boo-ray, I think. Talk was just talk. Yeah, you weren't worried about anything. You were playing talk. Yeah. Yeah. Doc Rivers never looked up from his DVD player just watching, watching the opponent.

And so I was playing free falling. Dr. Rivers is completely unfazed. It's unbelievable. Watching the Kings. So I'm sitting there and they get the plane back. We're fine. We land in Newark. So it was a quick flight.

And when we landed, the pilot came out of the cockpit, kind of going like thumbs up, hands up, high five and people being like, whoa, Tommy Heitzen, who's been on a few planes, rest of peace. goes worst flight i've ever been on yeah yeah so there was there was a small window where me at 26 27 i would probably 27 or 28 where i go are you telling me the one time i fill in the one fucking time i'm ever going to be on the celtics broadcast is the play by play guy i'm going to die yeah dude yeah i would die if i could do that you know like no actually you will die in a plane crash. And then later that night, I was at the Ritz Carlton Bar on Central Park and Gary Payton's there with this crew. And I was like, I got to go out for a little bit even though it was a day game.

So I had a couple beers down in the lobby and Gary Payton was holding court and everybody, he was like, how much does Allen Houston make? And they were like, 20 mil, GP. He's like, how many all first team defense, Alan Houston had? And they'd be like, not as many as you, GP. He'd be like, fucking straight. And so this went on. This routine went on for like a few minutes. And then there was like, he was like, how much does so and some other guy? How much does he make? And they'll be like more than you, GP. And then he goes, that fucking guy going to be in the Hall of Fame. And they're like, hell no, GP. And then so this is where I get this is the punchline. I'm sitting with like my back glued to the bar of the wall, the wall. Like just I'm not,

I'm observing when I'm not in the group. And I, you know, I take a. some of my beer. And I go, hey, you know, he's not going to be in the Hall of Fame GP is that fucking pilot. Record scratch. No. The record scratch. No. And all of his guys, there's a couple women there, all of his guys, like, turned to be like,

why did the fucking white guy say something, right? Like one of those moments. Like, who's this guy? Why is he listening to us? Why is he standing here? What is he saying? And then they looked at Gary Payton. and Gary Payton looks at me

and he's like, you got that right, motherfucker? And then comes over and hugs me and then it was on. And then I was in and I hung out with him for, you know, a couple of times. But again, it was like a day. It was like a Saturday broadcast during the day. And the reason I remember is because Doc Rivers got thrown out within 12 seconds, went in the back and

watched the Masters. He lasted, I think, 12 seconds the game that I was calling. But I remember I was like, all right, look, you know, a couple beers, got to live it up, feel what it felt like. And then Gary Payton just kept going. I've never seen you like that.

It's incredible that Gary lifted you up in that moment. Yeah, because had he not? Could have got ugly. Just could have been super awkward. Could have just been super uncomfortable. I mean, how do you feel that silence? Going to be hard to compete with that mailback.

Reid, go to the next one real quick. We're going to rapid fire. The rest of that was fucking good, dude. Coldest game you've played in. Oh, yeah, the Dallas Cowboys game. Week 17, 2000, and it would have been 18 at this point, the Super Bowl year.

And my 34-year-old ass is out there with a bunch of rookies and guys that I remember from like the Arena League and shit. And I played 40 snaps in a game that we had the whole thing wrapped up. It was zero degrees. Zero degrees out there. It was awful. 96, UVM intermurals. I knew UVM was. Yeah.

And it was the semifinals getting a championship game. And our team did go undefeated back-to-back years. What was the time? Vermont once it gets below Kelvin nobody knows they just are like oh it's cold again it's fucking cold it gets real it gets like Kelvin huh tragically cold yeah

just as you just walk outside and it's like light blue but but not nice it's mean blue is what the color should be called Kelvin most impactful football hip ever witnessed Greg Jones Greg Jones

actually ran over who was a Dexter Dexter Reed from the Tar Heels You remember this game That Florida State UNC was like 90s Bro his helmet popped off

I thought his head popped off his shoulders Bro And Greg Jones is one of the most Physical football players like ever I played against him when he was in Jacksonville And he was actually a full back at that point But Greg Jones in college Running over Dexter Reed

In college man Absolutely that's a great call Bro and when you go back to look at it the fucking game it's like ac c espn saturday night bullshit with the old red and white logo uh in the you know the like but it's so sd you can like if you could have seen that hidden hd if i could get any like 90s early 2000s play in hd like history in color i want that play how about you uh gordy lockbomb holy cross i think it was a cordel game totally totally dude He was there live.

I was there in person. Next. Best time zone for football watching. Okay. You tell me if you agree with this. It's right where Ryan is right now. It's Manhattan Beach time. It's the best time as a podcaster because you're not up till 4 a.m.,

I would imagine. It's great. You know, like Sunday night football game ends. It's fucking 9.30. Awesome. Isn't that about what time it is when Sunday night football game ends for you people out there? Oh, shit.

It's like 830, man. Fucking hey, dude. Okay. But what I'll tell you, the difference is, is that 9 a.m. shit for college on Saturday, I hate it. Yeah, I got, I'm, that, that sucks, okay? But I'm just thinking about, I'm selfishly thinking about work here. So I think, I think West Coast seems pretty cool to be able to finish and be done. But when you said that earlier about the Browns games at 2 p.m., like, no thanks. Not that you get a lot of 5 p.m.s.

I'm not outside enough because of all the sports I run. watch. So for me, everybody says it's specific time. Most people would agree with you. I get it. I understand, especially, you know, because most people have reproduced. I selfishly kind of liked my East Coast routine where I get out of the house Saturday and Sunday morning and then I come right back in before kickoff or 12 or 1. Because you know what? Even if I was watching football until one in the morning on Saturday and then, you know, almost 1130 midnight with some horrible NFC East game on NBC that we always seem to be the case

when I'm still living in Connecticut when I'm done here at 830 like what am I going to do? Like go visit somebody like the night's early so I would rather just be up late watching basketball and watching football but have to come back in at 7 o'clock

instead of these times where NBA playoffs I mean shit even NBA regular season I'm looking at the schedule going well I probably have to be back in the house by 430 and I don't I don't like that because I'll get done taping early. And for podcasting, it's actually worse because

you guys are on the East Coast. I'll have Friday pods that don't get released until like two, three o'clock East Coast time. So it's actually podcasting is the worst. I changed my mind. I changed my mind because I just realized something. Saturday and I, if I get really fucked up, there's one thing I want on TV at the bar

college football and I don't want it to be Hawaii. Like I want like that late night game. Like I want that thing. Oregon game. Yeah. I want to be. I want to be. I want to be. watching that with no sound at the bar. I don't go out that much, you know, in general. Like, I'll do my thing every now and then, but at least in Connecticut, I could go,

well, it would be by myself. I could, like, go and kind of lock into some Pac-12 game or something like that. After 9 o'clock, that's just not even happening. Also, no nap in the morning for you West Coasters after a rough night before the 1 p.m. kick. Not that the kids or my lovely wife really are conducive to that happening in my house, but I would. read next rapid fire and get out of here dumbest impulse buy i don't know you got one i just just had one i want i wanted i wanted a new fly rod and reel and i don't know what the hell i was thinking when i ordered

this one it showed up it was like fluorescent turquoise and then the reel was charteroise and i was like i don't know what kind of message you sent it out there in the flyfish community with this rod and this setup so i looked at it for not even two minutes and pack it back up it already i already sent it back today. So 96 Impala totaled it. Third day I was driving it. I've told that story about you the other day. Yeah, well, maybe the people here haven't I just,

it hit me because I don't know if I've told this story on the pod, but I got it. I was really in the movie drive. Meg got me the scorpion jacket, the whole thing like for Christmas, like as a joke, but I really wanted to wear it because I thought gossin was so tight in that movie.

And his name was Driver. Okay. So fucking got this Burgundy SS. 5,000 miles bro like it's a fucking time capsule third day Kyle's actually visiting the Rams so this is 2014 or something

whatever year it was no not 14 whatever year Kyle came in the league and I'm getting on the interstate and fucking gun it getting getting on it's a little bit wet and fish tail into the divider 40, 50 miles an hour at least and it's like slow motion I'm watching the car

like just explode in front of me and I'm like sideways and there's traffic coming at me and this guy like fucking T-bones the back of the car, spins me around. The last time I saw that thing, it was getting loaded on the tow truck. I was equal parts embarrassed

and ashamed of myself. So that was the dumbest impulse by I've ever had. I used to fucking drive around and that thing listening to the drive soundtrack for the three days I had it. Didn't have a CD player had to like hook up the little like the adapter. Cassette? I don't know if it was a cassette tape,

but yeah, it was kind of like that. dude had the and you know how like people uh the day before I wrecked it thank God Kyle wouldn't in the car how bad would that have been he had to go to the facility early to get his like physical and shit but the day before I was like Kyle check this out fucking put a wrist watch on the in the middle of the dash and anyway you know how Goss used to just hang out outside the Staples Center with his watch anyways yeah that's the dumbest impulse by I've ever had Top five early 2000s Big East players. This was actually pretty good.

You don't have to give five of them. Fuck, dude. That was a great time in college basketball. Is there somebody that stands out, nostalgia-wise? The 2000 St. John's team with Bootsie Thornton and Lovar Postel, those guys coming over. And they beat Duke. Duke was number two in the country. They went down to camera as an unranked team and beat Duke.

I was 24. I remember being in my little apartment above this restaurant. I was still in Burlington, still grinding away with no plan whatsoever. So I wasn't really grinding at all. I know that I think about it. But I remember just a cold Vermont afternoon and watching St. John's beat Duke. I think it was the first time Duke had lost to an unranked non-conference in like 25 years. And I was so fucking pumped.

I mean, Bootsie Thornton hit this three in the corner. And I just, I remember like fuck. And then, you know, that early St. John's team, it's not like Pete, Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, really glass, Malik, Seeley, that kind of shit. but there was this run where they had our test. They won a big East title the year before that. They beat Duke in 2000. And then I actually went to go see him play in the garden because I was living in Jersey

for six months. And it was Marcus Hatton. Whose nickname was Marcus Manhattan? He was a Baltimore kid, I think. And a buddy of mine from MSG got me that. I was like, is there any way you get your hands on the Marcus Manhattan poster for me? And he was like, done. I got it.

And it sat in his office for like five years. And he was so annoyed with me. And I go, why can you can just mail it somewhere? he's like, I chucked it. So, you know, I don't think they made a ton of those Marcus Manhattan posters. No, you can probably sell the fuck out of that on eBay now. I tried to reach out to St. John's. Like, is there any way you have any of these Marcus Manhattan posters left over from 20 years ago?

But those early St. John's teams that weren't the peak of my St. John's fanhood. But I loved those teams. I love there. There was just something about those teams. Anthony Glover, who was there for a million years. I love those basketball teams. How about these polls, man, for anybody who knows who the fuck these guys are? I mean, I know a lot of people do.

Matt Kingston knows who they are. Like, I just, I do not remember all these names from the early 2000s, but you said it. You were prime of your life, 24. You were living it. I would go time machine right now, but I beat the shit out of that guy. Okay, so here's the last hypothetical. It's the last question, it's hypothetical.

You know, do you see the Tom Seguer breaking his leg and his arm, same dunk attempt? Have you seen this yet? Wait, was it a dunk attempt or was he trying to just get the rim? He was trying to actually dunk. I didn't see this then. Oh shit, really? You didn't see this? No, I don't like watching guys fuck themselves out.

You're not going to want to see this. But somebody asked me, you go check it out as worth. Like, he's okay now. He's good now. I don't like watching it. Like when I'm in some video scrolling through and some kid who's going to kill himself on some bicycle trick,

I don't like watching that shit. Yeah. And when he lands in his arms sideways, everybody just goes, oh, and holds the phone instead of helping him. Yeah, I didn't used to be able to watch football videos. I thought there was a karma thing. Now I can actually watch them.

But yeah, the question was dunk like Tom Segora, or go two and 14 again, live the whole season. I'd probably rather live the whole season than dunk like Tom Segura. It's like if you're never going to see it right, but it's awful. Broke his arm and his leg the same play. Could he dunk? What was he trying to do? He was trying to dunk on a nine-foot rim, dude. It was him.

and I guess Bert, we talked about Bert recently. Yeah, my guy, Bert. Your guy, Bert. They taught a class on him at UVM, right? Well, he was part of the class. It was a sociology class on deviant behavior. And we studied like, I don't know,

six or seven lessons. And Bert was one of the lessons because those that don't understand or don't know this, if you Google Bert, Rolling Stone, Florida State, I think it was 1998. The article came out, something like that. Burt was considered the number one partyer at the number one party school in the country, which has essentially made him the biggest college party. But he was like a sixth year guy having Peachtree schnapps in the morning and then he would like skip

class. Not impressed. Not impressed. Show me the guy at fucking at BYU who's managing to party like that. Like the atmosphere is conducive to you partying down there, Florida State. You, by the way, you'll read this. And if you apply today's sensibilities to the Rolling Stone article, you're going to be like, oh, this bird guy's a dick.

when I got done reading it, I think I was 21 or 22. And then we talked about him for two weeks in this UVM course. And I remember being like, I should probably start going on more often. That's incredible that he became a famous comedian, but he was also a famous, like, degenerate at some point. That's incredible. It's like having two Hall of Fame careers. It's like Brady. Yeah.

It's not even Brady. It's like it's Taylor Sheridan. It's being on Sons of Anarchy as an actor and then writing Sikari. wind river, hell or high water, and then creating yellow stone. Oh, that's incredible. Maybe we're giving him too much credit. But yeah, I would rather go to in 14. Tom and Bert, go check out the video. Or don't. Hey, Rye, thank you so much. We went way over. I was like, he was like, what are we going to do? Like, we're going to, all this shit. We're going to hit the NFL,

NBA, mailbag. I said, we're going to be on for 45 minutes. So an hour and a half later. You can see the rundown and I go, how many days are we doing this podcast? Hey, man. No, no, no, 45 minutes. No, we're good, man. Thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you, bro.

Thank you. Thank you. You want to come on tomorrow? No. Okay. I actually, I have shit to do. Take care, Rai. Thank you.