So... Alright - Bouncing Around

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

In this week's episode, Geoff dipstick into the cruise well, covers a question regarding addiction, and talks about high drama in the NFL Draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And chicken chicken, talking to chicken, talking to chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, baby, baby, baby, baby. So a couple of things to talk about today. A little fragmented. There's um. There's a lot going on behind the scenes with regulation these days. And it's keeping me pretty busy and away from the microphone.

But I am excited to talk to you guys about a few things. Have you been following any sports drama? I'm not gonna go deep into sports drama today. I know some of y'all vehemently hate it and then other people seem to enjoy it, but just really brief, it was just the NFL draft. And if you're a big NFL fan, then you were all over it. It was a pretty big one. And if you're not an NFL fan, then you were all over it. It was a pretty big one.

And if you're not an NFL fan, you may still be aware of it because of the Shadour Sanders controversy and saga. If you don't know who Shadour Sanders is, he was a Colorado quarterback. His father is Deion Sanders, who was the coach at Colorado. Initially, he played at Jackson State, where his father became the head coach

and had a lot of success. Then Colorado hired Dion and he moved to coach that much larger team. And he. Transfer portaled his son with him and immediately named him their new starting quarterback, which caused the quite a bit of controversy, as you can imagine. We in the sports world have recently watched the similar saga of Brawny James coming into the NBA and then kind of being forcefully signed to his dad's team so that his father, LeBron, and Brawny could play on the same team together, which I think is a really cool idea and it's not the first time it's happened.

It's pretty rare, but King Griffey Senior and King Griffey Junior played together briefly. So it does happen. This situation is a little different because Dion's the coach and Shador was the quarterback, but they both go to Colorado. It's an interesting career at Colorado. I will say, I thought Shidor was a pretty solid quarterback.

I think maybe a better quarterback than his dad as a coach, but I don't know. I'm not the smartest football guy in the world. Anyway, so Shidor enters into the draft as a hot quarterback prospect, and estimates are that he could be maybe the second highest quarterback selected in the draft. It's not considered an overly strong draft, especially from quarterbacks, but the consensus

favorite is the quarterback from Miami, Cam Ward, who ended up going first, right? A lot of people thought that after him, Shador would be the next quarterback drafted. There was a lot of speculation on where he would fall in the first round or even potentially to the second round. A lot of people weren't sure on him. And there were a lot of, just a lot, there was a lot of oddness being reported out of his interviews with NFL teams and kind of the spectacle that surrounded him,

the entourage, his dad. A lot of people seem to think that wherever he goes, his dad's gonna try to crowbar in a coaching job. There'd be a whole lot that goes with drafting Shador other than a potential quarterback prospect. Everybody was kind of watching, even those of us who don't care so much about the draft, just to see like where's Shador gonna land?

You know, what's this next iteration of LeBron Bronny gonna look like? What's this iteration of LeVar and Lonzo and LaMelo Ball gonna look like? This hyperactive manager, helicopter parent, Hall of Famer dad getting involved in his kid's burgeoning NFL career. How's it going to shake out? Right. Well, Chador didn't get drafted in the first round.

Big surprise. No problem. Felt bad for the duty at a big party and everything. Actually, the kid of some other NFL player, I think is another NFL player, called and did a very highly publicized prank call where he told him he got drafted and he didn't. I thought that was real shitty personally, you know? But it got a lot of traction on social media.

Second round comes up the next day, because they only draft the first round on the first night and then next day is second round. He doesn't get drafted. Then it becomes a holy shit. How far down the ladder is he gonna go? He doesn't get drafted. Then it becomes a holy shit. How far down the ladder is he going to go? Is he going to get drafted? Well, he eventually did get drafted in the fifth round. I believe he got drafted 144th. So there were some projections that he could

go as high as third or fourth in the draft. And instead he fell to 144th. Lot of industry insiders piping up with reasons why here and there, but the general consensus just seems to be a lack of professionalism and chaos and too much spectacle surrounding his interviews with NFL teams and his time at the combine, I guess. So that was kind of crazy to watch and a little bit of knowledge for you. If you had heard of it, you didn't know what it was about.

It was essentially this Dion Sanders son was entered into the NFL draft. A lot of people thought he was going to go very highly. He did not. He went very, very, very, very low in the draft. I think he was not even I think he was like maybe the fifth or sixth quarterback drafted, which in a not particularly strong quarterback draft class is a is a pretty big indictment on either what they think of his abilities, or just they think of the spectacle that goes along with having him on the team.

He did go to the Cleveland Browns, which, interestingly enough, were the team projected to draft him in the first round anyway. So they got him. They just got him, you know, deep into the fifth round and were able to use those other picks on other people. They prized more, I guess. So kudos to the Browns for getting the guy that everybody thought they were going to get anyway.

They just got a lot of other people out of the way first Anyway, now if anybody brings it up you can speak a little intelligently on it or have some sort of maybe you know You can at least be like, oh, yeah, I know the draft order 144 I don't know if you're watching the NBA playoffs right now. God knows I am Where we sit right now? Once again, I'm not gonna go super deep in it for you. Just gonna give you a heads up Now, God knows I am where we sit right now. Once again, I'm not gonna go super deep in it for you. Just gonna give you a heads up.

We had been tracking the Luka AD trade fallout and drama. The Dallas Mavericks did not make it past the play-in. They did not make it into the playoffs, unfortunately for them. It looked like Anthony Davis got hurt in their final play-in game. He had a monster game up until then but yeah he He wasn't looking so hot by the end of it that being said the Lakers did make the playoffs in third place so they got one of the coveted home field advantage slots in the top one through four get and

It's not going great for them, but we'll catch up to that right now The Oklahoma City Thunder have eliminated the Memphis Grizzlies in four straight games. It was a brutal ass beating. It really was. I thought Memphis was going to be able to take at least one game, potentially two. They did not. It was, man, that was a rock fight in some of those games. It was, it was a lot of fun. Even, even to watch the Thunder go for, oh, it was a rock fight in some of those games. It was a lot of fun. Even to watch the Thunder go 4-0, it was a lot of fun to watch. Some great basketball there.

The most evenly matched series in the entire playoff so far though is the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers. Nuggets are fourth place, Clippers are fifth. Series is tied two to two. I have no fucking clue who's gonna win that. In my fantasy bracket, I picked the Clippers to win. I genuinely don't know though.

I genuinely don't know. However, the winner of that series has to go on to play the Thunder, and I think that that's gonna be an ass kicking regardless. So, well, ultimately might not really matter who wins this series. The Lakers, aforementioned Lakers are playing, third place Lakers are playing the sixth place Minnesota Timberwolves they are down

three to one and I believe they play Wednesday night if the Lakers don't eke out a victory here and and get it to three to their season's over and pretty disappointing I would say for LeBron and Luca to be bounced in the first round by the sixth place team when you were comfortably sitting in third place. The Houston Rockets are down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors and that breaks my heart. Rockets are a really good, young, exciting team. They finished second place in the West, which itself is pretty impressive. And they're just going up against the most seasoned of NBA veterans in Steph Curry and Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler and Coach Steve Kerr.

And I hate to say it. I hate to say it, but I imagine Golden State wraps it up here Wednesday night and then it'll be, I guess, probably the Timberwolves versus the Warriors, which I hate to say it, I probably give the edge to the Warriors, which means potentially OKC, I just don't wanna see, I don't know. I'll be honest, I'm ready for the new guard.

I'm sick of LeBron, I'm sick of Steph, I'm sick of this previous generation. They're phenomenal, I know I should be appreciating the truly spectacular things they're doing in terms of longevity of career But I'm just so tired of LeBron and Steph Going deep in the playoffs and I just want to be past that era so that the Anthony Edwards and the the Jamarant's and the Paulo Banqueros and the Jason Tatum's and the

Jalen Brunson's and the Shay Gilgis Alexander's can really take over the league. You know, the Lucas, the you know, I guess you could say like Joker and Janis are essentially there. But Yana, that that Milwaukee Bucks, that's a whole other can of worms right there. We should get into that. Over on the East Side, the Cleveland Cavaliers have eliminated the Miami Heat in some of the most embarrassing basketball I have ever seen.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say most of the Heat players booked their Cancun vacations before the first game even started because man, that team did not seem to want to play. They really didn't. It was a I'm glad I'm not a Heat fan because I would have been really hard to watch. The Indiana Pacers are beating the dog shit out of the Milwaukee Bucks right now. They're up three to one. I think

Potentially the final game is tonight If you didn't see it the second best player on the Milwaukee Bucks Damien Lillard Hall of Fame guard Damien Lillard came back from a blood clot issue that he was fighting for about a month and Second game back in tore his left Achilles. That puts him out for a year and a half probably. He will not touch the basketball court next year as a Milwaukee Buck. Heartbreaking considering he'll be 37 probably

when he comes back, if he comes back. So a 37 year old with a repaired ACL whose game was predicated on his unique physical ability, it's gonna, it's entirely possible not to be a doomer, but it's entirely possible that Damien Lillard has played his last meaningful NBA game, which puts the Bucks in a really dogshit position, because they have no draft picks go until like 2030. They have no trade capital, and they're going to have a very disgruntled Janus who wants

out. So I imagine this off season we're going to see Janus get traded maybe to the Knicks or the Nets. Houston would be a potential. I'm just thinking of places that have assets that might want them. Orlando. I don't know if they want them, but they definitely have the draft assets for it. Anyway, that's going to be interesting to watch unfold because that team just fell apart

It's gonna be really interesting to watch the Pacers and the Cavs go at it in the next round of the playoffs Then of course the Knicks are leading the Pistons three to one that has been a Much closer series than the score would lead you to believe that Pistons have lost the last two games by a total of three points. They lost game three by two points and game four by one point and they were right in it all the way through. I think the Knicks probably take this thing.

Teams that go up three one in a series have like a 90% chance to win. I would love to see the Pistons fight back and win at least one more and slow these Knicks down. I, you gotta be frustrated if you're a Pistons fan because the games have been so close, but you gotta also be really excited about the future of the Pistons because they're gonna come back better next year. They're gonna have Jayden Ivy back next year. They're gonna have a year of playoff Kade under their belt. It's a, it's a, it's a bright future ahead for the Pistons. And if they make one or two off season moves to get like a really solid number two

or number three for the team, they've did a lot by getting Tim Hardaway and Tobias Harris, those guys have really helped buoy that team. If they could find another Tobias Harris level vet who could slot in, you know, I think that would be really like, I think like a buddy healed type guy.

I'm not saying they should get buddy healed at all, but you know, like Harrison Barnes, buddy healed type guy that could come in and just a really good glue guy who puts up efficient numbers isn't going to compete with Cade for the top spot, but is just gonna be happy to go in and do the yeoman's work and just help them get to the next level.

I'm really, really excited for the Pistons and the Pistons fans right now. And then of course the final series is the Boston Celtics versus the Orlando Magic. Celtics are up three to one. That's been a closer series than I would like. I knew going into it that the magic were kind of uniquely built to be difficult for the Celtics. They're a little bigger and stronger than us, and they have been

beating the shit out of us for sure. Tatum went out with a wrist injury. Drew Holliday is still out. He's been out for three games now. Chris, that's poor thing. It's got elbowed so hard in the head he had to get a bunch of stitches and he was covered in blood in the game which was fucking cool to watch.

Jalen Brown missed a game because of some soreness. It's been a tough fight. That's a rock fight and a half, but we're up three one and hopefully we'll close it out tonight. And that's your NBA playoffs update. No more sports for you. Looking like it's gonna be be and this is just a prediction

I don't it couldn't be I could be wrong I could be wrong but it's looking like the second round is gonna be the Thunder versus maybe the Clippers and The Timberwolves versus the Warriors over in the West then the Cavs versus the Pacers Which is gonna be a lot of fun to watch and then Nick's Celtics Which I hopefully we just beat the dog shit out of them, but we'll see we'll see everything's still shaping up to be a Thunder Celtics finals, which is what I predicted.

And obviously I predict the Celtics to win that final, but we will see. Moving on. I wanted to actually talk about, I know we talked about cruise ships last week, but after I ended the recording, I wasn't quite done looking. And I found some more interesting looking and I did, I found

some more interesting facts that I just thought I would throw your throw your way. For instance, did you know what the very first cruise ship was? I do now. It was the Princess Victoria Louise. It was the first purpose built cruise ship and it launched its first cruise around the Mediterranean from the 22nd of January to the 22nd of March in 1891 with 241 passengers aboard. That's your first ever cruise, 1891, if you ever wondered. Also, how much money does the cruise ship industry generate each year?

I only have numbers up to 20, 23, but you care to take a guess? I was way under on my guess. I guess like maybe 40 or 50 billion. It is 168.6 billion globally, which was a 9% increase to 2023 from 2019. Of course, these facts are two years old, so who knows what it's at right now,

but the economic impact is said to have led to a creation of 1.6 million incremental jobs and $56.9 billion in wages. The US cruise industry alone has contributed approximately $55 billion to the US economy in 2019. So a lot of people pay a lot of money to go on cruises. Also if you had to guess, how many cruise ships do you think there are like currently operating in the world? That was an easy one to figure out. There are 323 active

cruise ships worldwide that includes ocean and river cruises. They're operated by 51 different ocean cruise lines and 27 river cruise lines. The combined capacity of all of these ships, The combined capacity of all of these ships, 664,602 passengers. So if every cruise ship is active at the same time, there are more than 600,000 people on cruises at any one time in the world. Another thing that I meant to talk about last week that I didn't get to is, you know, I was just on a cruise with mostly retirees. So people in their 60s and 70s and 80s. And as with most things, the first thing I notice is footwear.

I don't know why, but it is always the first thing I notice. And I have assumed for a while now, based on commercials and guss, that Skechers is kind of cornering the market on old people feet. So I was excited to be trapped on a cruise with 240 people where I could just stare at their feet the whole time Believe me. I'm sounding like Nick. I was very surprised to find out sketchers in in my

Humble estimation from my figures was a kind of a distant third Second, can you guess what second place was an old people feet? Hoka lot of hokas out there that has become a pretty popular brand with old people. However, I would say the Hokas and the Skechers put together didn't equal what was the number one footwear choice for retirees on cruises. Hands down, old people love Brooks. You know those running shoes Brooks? Apparently, those are like the number one shoes for old people.

They were everywhere. Every old person has Brooks on. If they don't, they've got Hoka and if they don't, they've got Skechers. But I'm telling you, Hoka and Skechers together doesn't come close to what Brooks represented on that cruise. So do you know an old person in your life? Are you an old person in your own life? Do you wear Brooks shoes? Are you a young person that wears Brooks shoes? Do you know that they're popular with old people? I'd love to know what you've got going on.

Email me at ericatjeffsboss.com. One other thing I wanted to cover today briefly, I've got a bunch of emails to catch up on clearly. There was a ton of interest in all the cruise talk and then plus just being gone for three weeks and I wasn't monitoring the inbox but One email kind of stuck out that I saw recently from someone who had mentioned that they appreciate whenever I talked about

issues with addiction and Asked why I don't do it more often and then I haven't really covered it a lot and so alright Which is not entirely true. I encourage you to go back and listen to one of the first episodes. Oh gosh, I don't know what number it was, but it was pretty, it would have been in the first 20 probably,

and it was sort of an apology to my friends where I explained what it took for me to get, what it took for me to get and stay sober and how it affected my relationships, my friendships and kind of the things that I had to go through that kind of created a self-imposed, I don't know, closing off, siloing, hermiting for a while, just while I had, it wasn't something

I really had a choice in, it just was the one I had to do to get sober. And so I went into that in pretty good detail. So if you haven't heard that one, I recommend you go back to it. But it did kind of stick with me because, you know, I've been alcohol free now for a little over eight years. And I wish I could say that I don't talk about it because I don't ever think about

it and it's never an issue. But that's genuinely not the truth. It might be the truth for 300 out of 365 days in a year, but it's something that I still deal with and that I think all addicts deal with and I'll deal with till the day I die. It gets a little bit easier every year or a lot easier depending on the year, but it is still present. And so there are still moments that it rears its very painful head. And I had one recently, so I thought maybe

I'd share that with you and maybe help in some way. One thing that bugs me, and I know it shouldn't, but I don't, I'm not good at bragging. I don't like to talk about accomplishments. I don't even really like to talk about my birthday. It vexes Emily, but I prefer just to ignore it. But March 17th is the day I got sober. March 17th this year was my eighth anniversary.

And that day is very quietly the most important day in my year. I care much more about that than my birthday. I didn't get to pick my birthday. I didn't really have anything to do with it. I was just born and thrown into the world. That's just the day that it happened on. But March 17th is the day that I chose to change my life for the better. And then more ways than

one it's kind of become a new birthday for me. And that's a pretty important day. I don't talk about it because I'm not comfortable. Here I am talking about it, but I'm not comfortable just being like, it's my sobriety day, day You know and I've done it a few times on social media And I was I know it's not but it feels kind of like pandering and I don't know even though it's not it's and I'm Allowed to be proud of the accomplishment. You know it just it is what it is right. I've always just felt a little uncomfortable celebrating things publicly I don't know why but

I celebrating things publicly. I don't know why. But I will say, I take notice, this isn't to be a dick, but I take notice of the people in my life who wish me a happy March 17th, congratulate me on the accomplishment and the people who don't. And that's not to call anybody out in my personal life, it's just something that I've noticed and I can't help but see every March 17th. And I feel comfortable saying

this here because I know that the people who mean the most to me in my life don't listen to my podcast, couldn't care less about it. So they're not going to hear me bitching. But it hurts when people that matter to me don't acknowledge it. And I'm sure it's just not top of mind and I'm not doing a good job of reminding them. You know what I mean? So it's like a self-fulfilling thing. But I would be lying if I said it didn't affect me when what I consider to be the greatest accomplishment of my life goes unnoticed by people that mean so much to me So that's always kind of a bummer

But like I said, that's probably as much my fault as anybody else's because I don't do a good job of reminding people of the day, you know So it is what it is the other the other thing that I struggle with and I very rarely struggle with but it did just happen So I'll bring it up. 99 point something percent of the time I am bulletproof when it comes to being around alcohol. There is one specific instance where it gets under my skin. And nine times out of 10, it doesn't, even in that instance. But every once in a while, when you're in a celebratory space

and you are sitting like, say, at a table with six or seven or eight people that all know each other and that are close and that love each other, or are friends or family or whatever, that love each other or friends or family or whatever. And everyone is celebrating by drinking the same thing like, oh, let's try the cab or a round of this drink for the for the groom. And then I have to pipe up and go, oh, I like to buy a Coke, please. Not like I said, nine times out of ten, that does not bother me. But every once in a while it.

It gets to me watching people get to experience something together that I have to sit out of something is dumb is just like sharing a glass of champagne or, I don't know, some wine with with a dinner or whatever it is. Every once in a while. That just like pierces me. Yeah, that's a good that's a good way to describe it. It pierces me and.

I can't see it coming, and I don't know when it's going to happen, because, like I said, probably 19 times out of 20 in that situation, it doesn't even cross my mind, you know? But that 20th time, it just, God, it's like a pinprick that just goes straight through me and it lets in, it lets in this feeling of loneliness, of not being able to share in something

that other people can. It makes me feel, even though I know it doesn't make any sense, and it's not the case, it makes me feel slightly like an outsider in that group, whether it's friends or family or whatever. And it takes me completely out of where I am and what I'm doing. And I have to fight to get back into it, to enjoy it,

because all I can see is five or six or seven people around me participating and celebrating and enjoying something that I can't in the same way as them. That's the key. Obviously I can continue to enjoy things, but I can't enjoy it in the same way that they're doing it, whatever that ritual or that shared thing is. And that makes me, and this I've done a lot of therapy, years and years of therapy about this,

that makes me hate myself so much. It makes me hate myself for feeling like a failure. It makes me hate myself for the thing inside of me That's broken that won't allow me to enjoy things in the way that everybody else does It makes me long for the ability to be a different person so that I can enjoy the world in the way that everybody else gets to you know and Like I said, I've been in therapy about this for years. And so conversely, I know that the opposite is true, that it's actually a tremendous show of strength that

I'm able to restrain myself and that I don't have to participate in that way. And that I can sit at that table and be the only one not participating in that way and pull it off. And I understand intellectually all those things, but it doesn't do a fuck of a lot to change the way it feels, you know? You just feel small and left out and lonely and alone small and left out and lonely and alone. And it is in those moments, only those moments,

I would give anything to be with somebody else who feels and understands it the way I do. I've tried to talk about it with people who aren't addicts and I just, I don't have, there's not a, I just don't think there's a vocabulary that covers it. And when I'm with someone else who has gone through what I've gone through, with a shared experience, no matter what the addiction is, there's a shorthand. There's an intuiting of emotion that I think this is why people go to AA, I guess, right? To find other people with shared experiences who can understand what

you're going through. But I just bring all this up to say that like, I don't not talk, I don't avoid talking about my addiction in Content I just I don't want to hammer it. You know I don't want to talk about too much I don't like to think about it to be honest with you But it's disingenuous to act like I don't still experience or deal with issues related to addiction from time to time issues related to addiction from time to time, very rarely, but they do come up, you know. A month ago it happened to me.

And more than eight years off the wagon. On the wagon, off the wagon, more than eight years not drinking. It still happens. It may only happen once a year, but it's like a little personal hell when it does. And I have tools and I have practice and I have years and years and years

of working on this under my belt. So I'm able to get a hold of it before it plunges me too deeply down a spiral of self-loathing, you know? But, you know, even that process, even knowing how to do it and being able to do it and to pull yourself out of the spiral requires a hell of a lot of effort.

And yeah, so to the person that sent that email, if talking about it a little bit on occasion in content helps other people, I'm certainly willing to do that. If you have specific questions about it, you wanted to ask, you know, you know, my email address, ericatjessboss.com. I just don't think to bring it up in content because it's pretty, it's kind of an emotional minefield to go through, you know. But there you go. I still do on a very rare occasion have some difficulty. Not like, oh, don't pick up the drink, put it down. You're going to

do it. Don't break your streak. You know, nothing like that. Just living with the pain feeling less than and the hardest part of all that is just the knowledge that it's all self-inflicted. That's a really hard thing to live with sometimes, but only sometimes. Let's see, that's probably pretty good for today. Maybe we should oh man I want to talk about this new artist I discovered is a vaporwave artist, but we'll do that next week I owe you guys a song of the episode. Let's see what that is How about Papa was a rodeo by the Magnetic Fields? It's off their album 69 songs about love and Was concept album obviously walk about love and was concept album

Obviously walk a walk about a fantastic album start to finish a lot of great songs on it Papa was already it was easily one of the most enjoyable and fun to listen to I think you'll love it At least I hope you do If you don't let me know Erica Jess boss calm as always open to any and all correspondence Let me know what you want me to talk about next time if I didn't cover it this week. Thank you for hanging in there with me for one more episode of So Alright. I'll be back here next week. We'll do this whole thing again.

Don't forget I'm on Cameo at Jeff L. Ramsey. Check me out on Twitch at Fake Jeff and please above all else, listen to the Regulation Podcast. That'll do it. I'll talk to you next week. All right.