The Johnny Salami Podcast - Ricky G

Episode Date: January 3, 2021

On this episode I sit down with my old friend Ricky to discuss his time playing D1 football, his aspirations of becoming a teacher, and much more.

We were selling like a $200 sword for like 50 bucks. I was like, holy shit, dude. Excellent. That's good for like robberies, dude. Someone just comes in, you just fucking start swinging a sword everywhere. Yeah. I mean, if you can't see though, that might be bad, you know. What's going on, everyone?

Welcome to a new episode. Today's guest is Ricky Goodrow. Ricky, good to see you, man. Thanks for coming. I'm glad you invited me. I know we had a talk like, you know, a few months ago. Sorry it took so long, man. But, you it's i've just been out here banging chicks you know so it's been busy i expect nothing less yeah we had a good talk man that was nice was nice nice

weather out dude i didn't even know you were coaching for the uh the track team man but that's cool you know yeah got roped into that faith concern cumberland parents set me up with that job really have you been fucking slitting throats out there uh no we had the pandemic shut everything down right as it was getting geared up oh really yeah we had i was there for the because they have the two seasons indoor and outdoor so they brought me on about three quarters of the way into the indoor season so like december last year i finished that out and then before we got to start that outdoor stuff everything shut down so yeah just been playing it by ear when you were throwing

like i know you were pretty good i don't really know much about track but like were you breaking records out there um i know that i i think i hold like the fourth best shot put throw i didn't unfortunately i didn't take it very seriously so yeah i remember going to one of those practices dude they like took me from the gym they were like we need you and i like tried to throw it like a baseball dude just like tore my labrum yeah uh no i i really tried to be good at it i wanted to be but just like most other things i just expected things to happen and yeah i i didn't put in the effort that I really needed to. That basically sums up high school, man. Just like thinking shit's going to happen and just like not working for it.

Yeah. And I got the big break when we played football. I definitely wasn't the strongest guy or the fastest guy or anything like that, but I ended up going and playing at URI, and that was like the big break. I didn't get offered any money. I was a preferred walk-on. So when they took me, I was like, absolutely, I'll finally start trying. And I literally put everything I had on the line, balls to the wall for that thing, and got a concussion on the third day. Really?

Yeah. So that was like my 10th concussion. So I just said, you know what? I'll finish the season and I'll call it there. I didn't know that, dude. I thought it was just like the workload, like you can handle the workload. No, I, actually, I got an award from the school. I had the highest GPA on the team for that one season that I was there.

I finished with 3.6. And it's been downhill ever since. Well, dude, you have like the, what, the study hall hours, so you have to, like – Dude, that was – the study hall hours were probably the craziest part. We had more study hall hours, I feel, than, like, practice. Yeah. I was in there as a freshman. We had to have – I think it was, like, 21 total hours,

and, like, five of them were mandatory on Monday, four on Tuesday, and then, then like six on saturday morning and then after that seriously or were you just looking up like naked pictures of chicks i honestly i had a pretty easy class load so i got most of my stuff done on like that monday night and i had nothing to do so i'd end up like helping other guys do their homework and they slimed me a dollar here and there for damn dude giving them giving them under the table dude yeah tax-free baby damn bro but so you want to be a teacher now though right yes i'm i switched i graduated from uri and now i'm over at rick getting the teacher cert so shit dude you're gonna be in school forever man yeah it's uh

exactly what i was hoping for wait so what'd you when you went in like what were you uh when you went to uri, did you have any plans? Or were you just like, fuck this, I'm going to tear it up? I was a 17-year-old boy with my brain in my nuts and had no clue what was up and down. Yeah. I went in undecided. I lived in the slums. Yeah, I never saw you, dude.

I don't think I ever saw you. Well, where did you live? Fuck, dude. Bresler, i think that's what it was called like i that's miles away like on campus it's like maybe like 300 300 yards away but yeah dude i was right across from the uh like the nursing uh yeah their residence dude so i would just see hot chicks all the time like not in my building but like across the way i would just be like I wonder what it would be like to just, like, go over there, you know? You don't want to realize how shitty that building is until you step inside over at Hillside. Nurses don't get the best over there. Really?

It's, like, hot as balls. No AC. Like, the building's less than 10 years old. They didn't install AC, so it's, like, 1,000 degrees, shit like that. Yeah, man. Fucking college, dude. So you just went in. You were like, fuck it like fuck it man I mean that's what I did I was just like dude I'm gonna not pull out and just you know see what happens I had no idea I was I was definitely not prepared for

college like mentally yeah like I had very minimal life experience and some real bad opinions on like how to live life so i i definitely got shit on in that first year and fell into like crazy depression yeah and on top of the concussion that lasted like a month i just never healed i was just like i yeah i probably should have either taken a year off or tried something different because i was messed what do you do when you're depressed like jerk off or like um you watch like star wars and shit oh well i i do i watch star wars even if i'm not depressed but yeah that probably helps though right yeah i i have little gimmicks i wouldn't say that they're like uh like nervous tics or anything but yeah you know i i lay back on um now it's my recent thing is dungeons and dragons big into that okay so like that's like a card game right uh less cards more dice a lot of role playing you know i i don't role play dude yeah bro not in bed at a table

with a bunch of guys our own age it doesn't like translate over no no like what uh i would never disrespect nadia like that damn dude dude you gotta spice it up dude oh i don't think she i i try to keep it distant from her i think the elves and the dwarves and oh you know tieflings bro yeah that you come and like dress like a fucking elf, dude. Oh, yeah. Elf? Yeah. That'd get me hard, dude. I fit right in with their... Yeah. I don't even talk to girls, dude, but if we were role-playing, bro... That'd be your choice.

That'd just be it for me in life. If you came in as the elf or if she came in as the elf? I mean, we talked about this on one podcast, dude. And it got pretty fucked up. I'm not going to lie. We were talking about like the uh we were talking about like the exorcist well i was talking to this kid he has a girlfriend and she's pretty hot dude and uh i was asking him like if he role plays and uh i was asking him if like if you ever like casted spells on that pussy and when i said that like he just like shut

it all off he was like yeah we can't talk about this dude and she was probably listening too so yeah man I'd probably do like I'd probably do like some Harry Potter shit man like just cast some spells on that pussy dude you know what I'm saying I gotcha yeah that's I I can't say that I've dealt in I I skipped over that whole Harry Potter fat like I I'm a big nerd like i all all of like the mainstream stuff and a few of the niche things but i never really got into harry potter i know i'm a hufflepuff that's about it a lot of people are into like anime and stuff man but like speaking of depression dude when i used to get uh when i used to get bullied as a child dude um dude one of uh this kid dylan i grew up with dude his dad would make like wands

in the garage like harry potter wands uh-huh like he would write our names on him dude oh shit so like dude i got a fucking wand and shit and i was so like dumb and fat and like delusional dude like if somebody picked on me i would legit cast spells on them and i'd think like they'd go away and then once i got like my ass fingered i'd be like all right maybe it was the wrong spell you know what i'm saying so man that was me with with lightsabers though i i was like a weird you know those like drawstring backpacks that you carry around yeah little cloth ones i think probably until even actually it's actually probably when i was like a sophomore in high school i'd have one of those like foldable lightsabers where you pull down

the little button and just like sling it out. Yeah, fucking, yeah. Like if I had to kick anyone's ass, I wasn't doing it with my hands. I was doing it with a plastic stick. Yeah. Absolute loser. Hilarious.

Now I've used some of those, man, the ones that just like pop out. Yeah. That's fucking sick, dude. And now I pay like $300 for the realistic metal model ones. Really? Yeah. Do you have any like, dude, I've never, honestly, man, I feel bad saying this,

I've never watched Star Wars and I want to, I just feel like there's, it reminds me of like Game of Thrones, like there's so many, dude, I just feel like I couldn't catch up. No, it's like I, so I didn't watch Game of Thrones

until right before the final season which came out like last spring, you know, and I think it was seven seasons of shit and like by the end of it they're doing like six episodes a season and they're like 42 minutes long so i i binge watched it all because that's when i am depressed i just binge watch television really and like rage about it on the internet um damn dude so like game of thrones i blew through it in like a week which is ungodly i just shut down don't do anything for a week, just watch all of it.

Damn, dude. But Star Wars is, you know, the movies, there are certain ones that are just not worth watching, I would say. And the TV shows are definitely better than the movies, especially recently. So if you're like wicking into Star Wars, do you just like fucking hate Star Trek? So I've never watched star trek really yeah my my uncles introduced me to star wars early on because my dad was you know just the super jock never never had time for that shit you know so he he let the uncles show me that shit once i once i got onto it like they like star trek and i was like that's's fucking dumb. This is more interesting. You're like, fuck that shit, dude.

Yeah. So I slashed onto Star Wars and never let it go. Fuck, dude. I always see the shirts at Target. I'm like, dude, if I was into this, I'd probably buy one. Right? I don't fit in them, so I don't buy any. Like, my girlfriend got this for me for Christmas.

Really? This might be the newest sweatshirt. I mean, dude, I'm a XXL. They had some for me, man. Yeah. I'm not a XXL. Really? Well, dude, the XXL bigirt i mean dude i'm a double xl they had some for me man yeah i'm i'm not a double x really we'll do the double xl big and tall dude i i don't think i've been a 3xl since maybe my first senior year of college have you ever tried big and tall dude i i've never

stopped by i well dude they sell them at like regular stores like Burlington and stuff. Oh. And I order them online, big and tall, dude. That's how you get bitches, man. Listen, now I'm going to go. I have time. I'll go look it up. Dude, this is a XXL big and tall, man. Oh, shit. Yeah, dude.

Tell them I'm a big boy, man. Maybe I'll start looking good now. I've just been a slob for years. I'm just honestly, man, I'm trying to get eyes out. Just hit me up and just ask me if I want to model for them. Yeah. Because I see some of those models. I'm i'm like dude these guys are pussies man like you got to give me at least a fucking chance you know have me out there in like a meadow or something fucking cutting the grass and shit no shirt on dude i can make a good fucking commercial for eyes odd man i listen it's 2021 now anyone could do anything yeah i wonder if they like accept

submissions or anything like that dude uh i i haven't i haven't cared about how i look for so long and that's like it's sad but like dude it takes a toll man it does dude it takes like so much mental toughness to just wear this shit and just be like fuck all of you but i mean i think it's worth it man dude i'm like i'm wearing sweatpants right now man i'm comfy all the time but as far as like communicating with women like it's not you know it's not good man dude i remember like uh what was it like a year ago maybe two years ago i was going through a phase where like i would go out to the bar and i would like actually try to be a fucking douche not really try to be a douche but just like dress up and stuff like wear tight shirts and shit yeah and uh dude i wore like a tight hawaiian shirt dude and a wife beater underneath bro and you could see the wife beater and like to this day

i'm just like depressed at the fact that i would even attempt that dude but it worked man there were so many fucking chicks that were all over you. And I didn't even talk to him, dude. You know, it's just like, dude, it haunts me. Like, I just want to talk to like a genuine human being, man, you know, but it just seems like, you know, like, I don't want to talk to a chick who's like, putting up pictures of her like bending over in front of Starbucks. Yeah. And then writes a caption about like perseverance and like never giving up, you know, like, Like that shit's going to fuck me up, you know? So, dude, then I made the switch to Izod, man.

I just feel like, you know, a genuine human being do. Changed your life. It did, man. That should be our commercial like that right there. My coming of age tale. I found Izod. Dude, Izod changed my life. I think I really do.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the only time I – like I've cared so little about what I wear. I'm the guy – like right now I'm wearing this t-shirt underneath. It's one of the like blank just colored t-shirts that you pick up at a Walmart for like $4. Oh, yeah. I got a bunch of those, yeah. So like that's what I rock. I don't like decals, anything like that. I feel like it just makes too much – the shirts don't extend with my body the way that I rock. I don't like decals, anything like that. I feel like it just makes too much.

The shirts don't extend with my body the way that I feel comfortable with. Yeah. So other than that, I think only my girlfriend has bought me clothing in that long. And it's always, you know, it's all real nice stuff and it all fits. I just don't have the confidence to wear. I'm speaking because one of them is an Izod black polo, I guess. And it fits perfectly. And I'm just like, unless I'm going somewhere where I know I won't be judged,

I wouldn't even consider putting it on. You got to wear that shit, man. I'd be rock hard if I saw that, dude. Us together, bro, side by side. I'll wear this one. You wear that one, dude. I was stalking your Instagram for a little bit, dude uh yeah so you have a girlfriend man how's that going like we're good she's she's probably the kindest person that i've ever met one of the like most caring

souls that it was just a privilege i was in a really bad place. I met her in my sophomore year at URI. And she just showed up and everything changed. Things didn't seem so doom and gloom all the time. Do you have any tips, dude? I was going to ask you that. Do you have any tips for me? Oh, I think my biggest thing was like I was a shill. I don't know how political you get on this stuff, but like, I was like alt-right,

like angry, like hate the world. Trump's the greatest man in the history of the universe. Oh shit. Like I was, I was bat and like all of a sudden I'm a like uber left socialist because I took the time to educate myself and get that exposure at URI and through her I think I became more open to or at least susceptible to those things and then on top of it I had a whole bunch of people but I think that the biggest thing was just being willing to recognize that people are people and that like no one owes you anything anymore you know i'm gonna take out the sword

dude pull it out yeah no i i really do think that that was the biggest tip that i could give is that you just need to recognize that people are people and treat them with the utmost respect in any scenario that you're in yeah i feel like i'm already doing that man it's not really working too well for me but i i i find personally i get along a lot more with people that i never would have considered talking to or would have thought like before i even met them i would have made judgments about and then yeah now i'm like advocating for them and going to rallies and things like that and protesting for you know black lives matter and things like that and protesting for you know black lives matter and things like that and people see that and of course not everyone agrees with that sort of stuff but like people see that and they're just like wow i really do think that

there's a purpose behind what he's doing and he might be you know i'm definitely not the typical person to be out protesting with Black Lives Matter. Yeah, bro. They see it and they're like, wow. Yeah, bro. I don't think, like, honestly, within my lifetime I'll go to a protest. Yeah. But I feel like I've always, like, avoided politics.

You know what I mean? But, like, I don't know, man. I feel like either side, you know. Like, I've met dicks on the right, dicks on the left. Absolutely. I've always gotten along the best with people who are kind of in the middle, who are just kind of like,'t know, man. I feel like either side, you know, like I've met dicks on the right, dicks on the left. I've always gotten along the best with people who are kind of in the middle, who are just kind of like, you know, let's not be divided. Let's just like think rationally. Yeah. And I mean, that's always helped me, but like just avoiding politics in general has always

been like my, you know. Yeah. And I, maybe it's just like Cumberland because I think before I left, I spent a lot of time here, even in those first like three years at URI. I was here a lot. And the people that I was with and the people like not not my family, because not all of them think this way. But it's just a very small minded, not willing to engage in those conversations, sorts of things. Yeah, like at the dinner table and shit. Yeah. Like I'm all for,

I told you earlier, like I just say whatever. I don't really care. You know, like I'm all for shutting a family dinner down because like someone said something racist and just shouting at them from across the room. Oh yeah, of course, man. You know, like some some

people are like that's in bad taste handle it behind a closed door or whatever and i'm just like nah man don't worry about it like this this stuff needs to uh be addressed and like i had a disagreement with my mother earlier this week and she was saying like just some crazy shit about how you know guys with badges deserve the utmost respect and i i was like yeah mom we we should respect them but like you have to be cautious and aware of what's going on and it turned into a debate which ended with me presenting her a meme that was like someone was saying hey we we can have differing opinions and still be friends and the person goes well yeah we can like disagree on what the best pizza topping is but we can't disagree that racism's a problem you know yeah so i was like that that's

that's the life that i've currently been living is mostly just proactive get out there have an opinion share the opinion advocate for people and the rest of it's just laying in my bed sad and working in security i feel like you know like everyone obviously everyone has their own opinion man it's just like the idea of like agreeing to disagree you know i mean i feel like it always ends fucking terribly like if i'm at the dinner table and my aunt's just like so john like who'd you vote for and i'm just like i didn't vote and then you know she's just like freaking the fuck out and then she just talks for like five more minutes and i'm just sitting there for like five minutes like not saying anything and then eventually i'm like

uh aunt patty relax can you please just pass the mashed potatoes like it's all i fucking want you know yeah i just like dude i don't have fucking energy to argue over shit i can't control you know what i mean i'd rather just be a good person you know absolute and that's the key i don't know man the thing with like um like obviously you know i'm in like the whole like i'm chasing the comedy thing and the thing with the far left obviously i would say i'm somewhere in between, but it's, like, the whole censorship thing. Absolutely.

So, like, ruining content, like, taking it down, like, that's a big fucking red flag for me, you know what I mean? Like, even if someone, like, say someone watched this podcast and they took it down, like, that's, like, big tech. Like, that's a far left idea, you know what I mean? Like, that's censorship at its core, and that's, you know, something I disagree with, but I don't know, man. I've never, like, experienced it, you know what i mean like that censorship at its core and that's that's you know something i disagree with but i don't know man i've never like experienced it you know what i mean like no

one's ever taken down my shit or anything like that or like freaked out like no one's ever sent me like a hateful message like dude you fucking think farts are funny man i'm gonna fucking kill you like so like i don't know man i've never experienced it but i mean you hear like some of the podcasts i watch some of the content i watch like it gets taken down because it's so like controversial and it's like i don't know man like what happened to like fucking you know freedom dude yeah no i get it i so like i've i was uh i worked at the poll right up the road at mccourt for this election you know and it was like all in response to something that was said by the

current president in one of the debates about standing by and standing down. I was like, I'll do my civil duty and go check it out and be there to make sure that things go smoothly. And I, I really do think that it's, it's almost arbitrary. Like you put it really well like how can you how do you change something that you can't really have any impact on you know and i guess it's just like i've found the passion in that and through like what i'm doing with teaching and stuff like i i see that as an opportunity to improve things so like i when i'm wasting my time with you know dungeons and dragons or star wars and shit like it's it's all just relaxing so that when i have to put my game face on and focus on that purpose that i found that's what i'm going for yeah yeah so yeah man you used to have like

um you definitely seem more calm now like more like uh relaxed yeah well i i assume this would come up right do you remember in like basketball when i would just fucking rage yeah that's all i was thinking about it's like yeah man that's like i couldn't i like it's embarrassing i reflect on that time of my life funny though i i like part of me is like hopeful that there's like videos like they filmed games or some shit where like I just raged because it didn't really happen at football. It was really only basketball. And I think it was because I was just so fucking bad. I mean, dude, like we were like when we were in middle school, we were all like kind of scared of you.

But like I think you working with like Jack Madden, like I think like he basically like taught you how to play basketball. Right. That's what I needed. So you were like filthy. Jack Madden, I think he basically taught you how to play basketball, right? That's what I needed, yeah. So you were filthy, and then I'm not going to blame it on the coaches later on, but I think if you had Jack as a coach your whole life. Yeah, you definitely. I don't know what your experience was with the basketball,

but Jack Madden would have off-season practices with me and set me up with specifically big men coaches. Do you remember the Mike-in drill where it was just like mind numbing and you just threw the ball at the backboard for like three hours i'd literally go to practice in like middle of massachusetts like on tuesday nights and just do the mic and drill for like an hour and a half with this guy and it was like the stupidest thing i'd ever done, but it made me good, you know? So I definitely tipped off, but I honestly think it was you guys, like you, you were an athlete, even though like Josh was an athlete. Joe was an athlete.

Grant was an athlete. With tits. Yeah. But you guys, like you were quick. You were on the fly. You, you made great moves and I, i never was able to keep up with that particularly i think that being a meatball with toothpick legs really slowed me down yeah you were a big man though dude yeah but like uh dude that was so fucking funny man like you fucking

dude like if that happened nowadays like you'd be on like barstool dude yeah like punching dudes in the back of the head yeah dude when you punch that kid in the back of the head dude i was pissing laughing i was like i was like did that really just happen bro i don't even think you got it dude i think you got like what like a tech probably yeah they were just like you can stay in the game but better fucking calm down i remember a fucking premiano freaking out at halftime dude like throwing the fucking marker and shit dude dude i cannot stop laughing but there was a time in middle school like obviously with josh where there was like a jump ball or whatever and he threw you to the ground man and like everyone was like pissing laughing and like i wasn't even like laughing but like everyone else was laughing and i remember

joe was trying not to laugh dude and i was standing behind our coach like going like this and he just started dying laughing dude we had to run so much because of that like we had to run for like days dude like dude i i chose basketball this is this is an embarrassing story this is good content here i watched high school musical and my life goal was to be troy bolton man And that was never going to happen. Is he the one with the afro? No, no. Because I definitely looked more like with the afro

with those long red curls. It was like Zac Efron. Yeah, Zac Efron. That's who I wanted to be. Oh, his name was Troy in the movie? Yeah, man. Holy shit, dude. Who was the other guy?

Like Corey? Chad? Chad. I watched that shit. As soon as they dropped that on Disney+, I ran out of mandalorian stuff to watch i was like oh well i better start watching i'm not gonna lie man i watched high school musical too back in the day i used to sing the songs and stuff man i still

sing those songs really yeah not embarrassed really damn dude i wish i had that confidence man that's it is a new growing confidence that i've gained in like the last two years where I'm just like, I don't like clothing's one thing, my outward presentation. But like when I was at URI, I was an RA. We had a private bathroom that was like a handicap stall that we would share with anyone who, you know, needed a special place to shower. But the RAs would use it because we had access and we i would just be like in the shower for like two hours straight belting out fucking really show tunes or whatever take some mean shits in there of course dude and then the girls that i worked with would be like what the fuck was that really why would you it was like co-ed yeah it was like it was a one stall

one shower thing it was like locked so no one could, one shower thing. It was like locked. That's not safe, man. So no one could get in. Hey. Yeah. I walked in on their shit. You fucking hurt some people, dude. Dude, there's this comedian like when I was like 20, I think, I got on this wicked good show. And like I was so excited, dude.

It was like my first ever big show. And it was at like Mohegan Sun. It was like sold out, dude. And this comedian was on the show with me and i like i loved like his content like i was a big fan of his so i'm like hey what's up man like he just kind of like ignores me or whatever i'm just like all right fuck like dude so i go in the back to take a shit like a massive shit and i come out and he's walking in to take a shit and i go yo dude i just took a massive shit in there. And he goes, I'm good.

How are you? And I was like, what, dude? That was our only interaction. And he just walked right in. And I was like, well, there goes my chances, man. Ever since, man, we just like, we haven't been able to hit it off. So I'm just saying, man, you know, you could ruin some relationships like that. Yeah.

Luckily, I think they all still adore me. We text all the time so so if you were like taking a big shit and you would just finish and you were walking out like another girl was walking in i give them the i give them the red light don't head in there i don't know man i'd probably just look them in the eyes and be like go get them you know i was i was the only so they only i think they had two of them in the building and it was a small building and it was communal bathrooms otherwise so yeah like we the first year i was like the only guy it was all girls so my second year there when i had another guy we

like organized it so the guys shared one and the girls shared another. And then the third year, it was the same thing, but it was, it was definitely a learning experience being, cause I have two sisters shared a bathroom with them and, you know, we'd have our fights, but it was never, never intense. So when I got there, I had, you know, I, I didn't, I didn't really think about it. I thought the world owed me something, whatever. Walked around with my head held high and got put in my place a few more times. And eventually I smartened up and I was like, this is good. Some humility is what I needed. That's all you need, man.

Yeah. When you walked on though, like at URI, what was that process like? That was a... Were you at a dark point in your life? Were you kind of like— So I didn't even like—it wasn't like a real walk-on. The preferred walk-on process is like, we'll take you on the team, but you don't have to do the tryouts or anything.

We're just not going to give you money. Okay. So did they know who you were before you— Yeah. Skirka hooked me up, and I got real lucky because i was going to go to rhode island college because that's where the teaching program was and uris is garbage so i was going to go there and do the um track and field throw you know and it would have been d3

whatever i would have been a d3 superstar and you know inflated my ego whatever but I on like the day after whatever the down payments were due and you had to have your decisions made I went to Skirka I was like I want to play football he was like let me see what I could do he was the dean of discipline at that point so he had no other real job to do so he just sat there and I'm sending I'm assuming he sent all this stuff out to random coaches in the area and the URI team was getting a new head coach because they were trash and they thought if they brought someone in who had turned around a few other programs they would uh start improving so this guy saw my tape said he he liked me he loved to have more URI or Rhode Island talent on the team because most of the kids are from like

New Jersey he was like yeah I'll definitely take this kid we can't give him any money but he can i showed up for the first day of camp i was there and it was day three that i had the the pig concussion happened but it was it was pretty uh the process was ugly i would compare it to like the military at least for me i felt like it was literally only three days oh no i was there i got there on like august 8th or something like that and school didn't start until like a week into september and it was just the football team there for that time and eventually like other sports teams started showing up and things but we were living all together in one building and they took our car key i didn't have in one building and they took our car key. I didn't have a car, but like they took guys' car keys. They took your phones for like

the entire day until like 10 o'clock PM. You had to turn it in at five in the morning when you woke up. It was, it was, uh, like it wasn't like they had the double sessions and things, you know, but I didn't really hit the weight room in high school. I didn't do much of like the conditioning workouts outside of practice. I just would get a little bit in shape during the preseason for football, show up, run my balls off and try. And then once it was over, it was basketball season, whatever, you know, like I didn't really pay much attention to it,

but these guys are like living, breathing football. And as much as URI is not the greatest they are still a D1 program so yeah when you show up they take it they took it seriously because the guys running the program weren't the the guys that had been there forever it was a new a new group of coaches so they treated it like it was Akron I think where most of the guys came from before that so Ohio yeah yeah so like did you like drop a lot of pounds? Like, were you like kind of running your balls off? Yeah, I was. So like, it was crazy. Like I said, I'd never been like lifting at all. I was 17 years old. I think the next youngest kids were already 18. Most of them were like prep school kids. So I was, I was doing like huge numbers. Like I had like a 500 pound squat after

like three weeks and they were like, how did this happen? You've never touched this shit. And I was just like, I really have no answer for you. I think I went in at like 311 pounds of fat and walked out with like 315 pounds of muscle. What did you weigh in high school, like 285? No, I was over 300 all probably maybe not freshman year, but sophomore, junior, and senior year. I was like 300 pounds, 305. Fuck, dude. Like I was fat. It was funny.

But it was one of my biggest insecurities. And when I went there, I was the smallest guy on the offensive line and getting wrecked by guys that were like 26 years old as a 17 year old and just totally demolished. And I had no, there was nothing I could do. And that's why I got the concussion. I just wasn't prepared. So during that time I had mostly just running workouts and it was,

it was good. Yeah, man. That was my, like after that though, where you kind running workouts and it was, it was good. Yeah, man, that was my, like after that though, where you kind of like, you know, when you get the concussion, like when you recovered from the concussion, where you kind of like, all right, this is like a good thing. Like this was a blessing in disguise. It'd be kind of like, fuck. I, I hated every moment of it other than when I was actually in the middle of like practicing lifting study hall. If I wasn't doing the stuff that was football related, I was like, I don't want to be there. I don't want to have anything to do with it. I w I was definitely like, it was depression,

like full, full fledged depression. I was horribly just angry, upset. I remember like during the training camp, I was concussed. I wasn't even practicing. And I was just sitting there. I'd like call my mom at like 9 o'clock at night and be like, Mom, I want to leave. Come save me. And my mom's on the other end of the phone crying,

and my dad's yelling at her like, you can't go pick him up. He has to follow through on this. And I'm like, no, please save me. I'm literally – it was it was ugly yeah that's how i felt man i wanted to leave i did leave i was like fuck this fucking out of here man well you you played rugby right for you all right for a little bit man um i didn't want to be there though man i fucking hated it at uri yeah't like it, man. I didn't fit in at all. I didn't have any friends. I had Chris Hayes as a friend.

That was really it. So I fucking hated it, man. I was fat as tits. I was fucking doing terrible in school. I think my GPA was like 2.8. I was taking fucking Latin, dude. Yeah. Just fucking writing backwards and shit, dude.

Like, it was fucking terrible, man. I was wicked depressed. Yeah, man. Like, for me like it was fucking terrible man i was wicked depressed um yeah man like for me it was the opposite like once i left i was like i was like fuck yeah man like new beginning dude and then i went to ccri which i would never recommend anyone going to and that's when like real depression hit and i was like wow dude you were actually like in a good spot before like you fucked up big time so i don't know man i was i was kind of like you like a roller coaster but yeah man you or i was kind of like you have like all the resources like you have the food there's chicks bending over all around you dude like it's so easy for guys to get laid and stuff and like school's really not that hard like your freshman year i feel like i don't know man maybe maybe it's just that first year that you have to get by but i was like fuck this man i'm out dude i don't know dude this is

how i was man i wasn't like mentally tough at all just like fuck this man like i'm out that that was i think the mental toughness was the thing that i needed to learn yeah like i was at uri for five years and i i got a history degree know, like I didn't get anything profound. I just, I finished strong. I put everything into one basket and ran with it for as long as I could. I applied, got into their teaching program. I didn't enjoy it. I stepped back. I applied for other like political science and anthropology and things like that, stepped back. And it was just the thing that I had the most credits for was history. So I was able to finish with it. At one point I was going to be like a French teacher or something like that. And then that, that fell through. So I, I followed through and it took me five years to get a what should have been a three-year degree at URI you know so like when you're a teacher though like uh or when you go into the program like um is that basically just like a master's like in history URI or at Rick like so you're basically

just getting a master's in history or it's like an actual program it's like a program so I'm like I guess when you're taking teaching classes it's like you double major in education and whatever content area you want to teach. So I'm, because I already have the content certification in history, all I need is the teaching stuff. So I do like half the course load of a regular full-time student over at Rick. So I'm in like two classes a semester. over at uh at rick so i'm in like two classes this semester and run with is that like uh so like you probably have like history down like yeah realistically but like as far as like teaching goes is that like handling kids like yelling penis in class and stuff like that or is it like um a lot of it is like theory which is like probably the most boring part of it. It's like studying the psychologists and why, how do you put what they believe into action to properly teach kids?

And it's a matter of whether or not you have the wherewithal to just understand how to engage with kids will be whether or not you handled them well. Yeah. with kids will be whether or not you handled them well yeah you know like you either have your mr butler that just doesn't care and lets them say what they want and thinks it's funny anyway or you know a teacher that takes it real seriously and will yell at you and like send you if you scream penis down to the dean of discipline yeah bro i'm not gonna lie man like i'm not trying to be controversial bro but i just feel like everyone who i like know who's like becoming a teacher is kind of like mentally unstable like obviously not you like i think you'd be a great teacher yeah you know like i think obviously like i've been in classes with you like you're smart like

you're calm like you're respectable dude but like some of the people i know that are getting a teaching i'm like dude i don't know if i'd want my like child in that class bro it's it's well i think we're all i think as an adult I've come to realize that most of us are just not mentally stable whatsoever, you know? And like, you could put on a show. I hope I've put on a show for the fans, but like, even I, like I go home and I, I cry. I, I scream. Sometimes I rage, like I'm in eighth grade playing basketball, getting my ass ripped by this dude, you know? rage like I'm in eighth grade playing basketball getting my ass right by this dude you know like whatever happens it's you know you go through however you cope with it you cope with it yeah but you're definitely right that there's a lot of people I I don't remember what movie it is but I

remember we used to bust skirk his balls over it all the time and we'd use the quote like those who can't do teach and those who can't teach teach gym gym. But it's absolutely true. Like if you, if you can't accomplish the big thing, most people will just turn to teaching. You know, if you don't, if you want to be an accountant or something like that, that works with numbers, you know, you go to business school and you can't, you know, it's not for you, but you know, that math is, you turn to teaching, you know, like it's, it's almost like you settle for it unless it's something you're really passionate for and it puts a lot of people in a shitty position where who wants to send their kid to a teacher who doesn't actually care you know i'm just thinking

about the teachers i had and i'm like thank god i didn't take it seriously man you know what i'm saying yeah like dude don't get me wrong there were some teachers like i really looked up to man i was like i ever fucking respect this person. But others, I was just like, holy fucking shit. Why are you here? What the fuck happened? And that they probably had that, you know, I say, I tell people it was like a fucking there was a guy at our high school that like circle jerks in a movie theater, right? Probably. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I can't remember who it is. I remember someone told it it's only that i'm like wait a second like how do you circle jerk in a movie theater like the

seats aren't even set up like that and then somebody sent me the article and it was literally like guys circle jerks with group at a movie theater i was like this is unbelievable like we had i know there was one guy who was my, I think he was my homeroom teacher in like seventh grade who had like a reputation for watching porn on his computer and had like the computer specifically turned away from the classroom. Dude, we had a guy like that too. He'd like drop, like accidentally bump pencils off a girl's desk so he could bend down and check them out.

And it was always girls wearing skirts. It was just like, what is going on? What the fuck, dude? You know, like as a kid, you think it's funny because what is going on what the fuck dude you know like as a kid you think it's funny because you're not not the brightest but yeah like as an adult you're like that's really that's really dangerous we should be addressing that more yeah dude there was a guy we had middle school who was like dude he had that reputation too like he was watching bang bus in the middle of like lessons dude and like someone caught on and they like they just gave him like a verbal warning they were like look we like we

looked at your history dude like we get you're into like you know hardcore shit but like you need to fucking calm down dude can you imagine that dude i i promise i won't i won't i won't be doing anything like that yeah dude that's fucking wild bro you just give a lesson about like the industrial revolution next thing you know you're watching some chick get her titty slapped bro yeah i can see why that'd be a problem oh man but like dude like when we were when we were in high school like history specifically there was like a bunch of conflict in that one hallway because like everyone was so different but i feel like every history teacher just didn't do anything that's like i i hate to criticize these people because like they've been there for so long and who am i as someone learning i mean do they kind

of deserve it though but like you look at it and it's like one of them's wearing shorts to school and like it's shorts and a sweatshirt every day and just hanging around talking with kids the whole time and then there was one of the like um miss who like brought kids to argentina and like got in trouble for giving them alcohol and shit like i'm fired you know like the it like the people that were there like i look at me like that's a stand-up guy josh i think it was josh pizzarelli put like in an essay the labeled mac and cheese like directions that you put on like the little cans of craft mac and cheese and like copy and pasted it on into the middle of his essay and the guy gave him a b because he was like the rest of it was good like wow yeah you messed up there but like it's fine it's wild man you know like it's

they're clowns a lot of them are clowns yeah man i don't know it's just like but they still have that job you know i wonder like what goes through their like their heads though like when they're like hey listen like i'm a teacher like i can change kids lives like let me just fucking fuck it all up like they know that they'll once once you're tenured it's really hard to get your job taken away so you could just sit there and do whatever you want i just we had this one teacher who uh you know i really looked up to man i respected him um i'm obviously not gonna say his name dude but i remember one day he just came to class and he just started fucking freaking out he's like

these fucking teachers need to fucking teach like if they don't fucking teach get them the fuck out and he was like, like, so right. I was like, dude, like. Bravo. Yeah, like, finally someone says it. Like, that takes some balls to say, too. Even if you're not in that position, man. Like, just be like, dude, just get the fuck out, man.

Like, the only thing that fucked me, I didn't say anything in class. It was just, like, the judgments. It's like, dude, if you're teaching a fucking sociology class and you're telling kids, like, listen, this is right, this is wrong. Sometimes it's subjective. Just don't take a shit in the middle of the highway like you shouldn't be judging people you know what i mean yeah like it should just be like open discussion like this is what i think this is what you think let's agree to disagree it shouldn't be like you know you shouldn't be fucking roasting kids and that's like when i when i get in there because that's what i'd be teaching socially any any history social social studies, that's what I'd be working with.

I think that's something that because I've been on both sides, I've seen both sides, and I may have my own opinions, I'm willing to understand that people are going to have those differing opinions. So if I'm in that setting, I'll be able to handle that better than someone who's set in their ways and only believes that there's a right and a wrong you know yeah because you've been on like both sides you think you'd be a good mediator you know what i mean yeah i i think that's like say like you met a kid who was like hey listen like i'm far right and like it kind of reminds you of like where you were would you kind of like try to like would you like share that experience yeah i think i think i think that's like part of the responsibility and a lot of the problem with the teachers we had was there

were of course there were the few that would like reach out and be like hey like i'd want to know you on a personal level and help you grow as a person but a lot of them just were there to collect the check and didn't really give a shit so yeah she gets summers off yeah you know so when you see a kid that may be in a position that's vulnerable like that or need a little more guidance being the one that's able to recognize that and conscientiously handled it in a constructive ways are really good a good thing that i i think that i do well i think people that i know would agree that i'm good at that so i i'm not i'm not concerned about handling those sorts of situations but yeah if i saw a kid like that that was in a similar

like if he's raging on the basketball court i'll step in yeah be like punch him in the back of the head let him know what the deal is fucking hangmakers dude i i'm thinking like i can't stop thinking about it i still have a like a bum the bones never grew back like right in this hand from we were running suicides in basketball practice and i was like fucking pissed for whatever reason with with geiselman oh yeah and it was like you know how he used to run with us like during the during the conditioning it was like the coolest thing because he was like if i can't do it you guys aren't doing it so we're running it together it was awesome but i remember it must have been like ryan cotter or something pissed me off and you know he like bumped me the wrong way and i

was just a ball ready to explode you know so i as soon as i did i i like punched the floor yeah he's got like god on both knees and punched the floor i think i fell down and i punched the floor in anger and then i went and i i threw in a track meet like within an hour. Like I left practice early to go throw in Providence with a broken hand and totally destroyed my hand. And I still haven't fixed it. So like I think like I think back to the silly things that I used to rage about. And I'm like, yeah, I really needed someone to, you know, punch me in the back of the head and tell me what was up yeah man you used to fucking rage dude so many good memories though like it's so funny now yeah it'd be kind of weird now if you were raging i mean it would still be fucking

hilarious but be like all right ricky like fucking yeah dude grow up yeah fucking what are you dude 24 it was funny when you were 10 15 yeah why uh like why history though man like is there like um i mean it seems like you kind of like just studied every subject and you were just like all right history's it like is there like a reason for that yeah i started with french just because like in high school it was like the thing that i excelled at i didn't take history or social studies seriously you know like i took all the classes but i never like they were easy a's to me and then I I really got interested in the it was like at URI I took a Rhode Island history class and that ended up being like what I focused on when I was

at URI so like I did a whole like 40 page paper on Rhode Island history as my capstone project it was great but the uh the history really drew me in when I started like seeing, it was like connecting the dots. You know, like you see in the movies, like they have the cork board with the strings connected with tacks and shit. Like for me, it was like, I can explain almost anything that's going on in my life just by looking at the strings that are connected to it. Damn, bro. And I could do that with others. And I can do that with the world politically, the world geographically, all that. And I was like, it was like a puzzle that I just had fall into my lap.

And I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. And through it, I was able, you know, I think I became more progressive in the way I looked at things just because some of the strings are hidden in that metaphorical representation. Yeah. You know, so like for me, it was like uncovering those, the strings are hidden in that metaphorical representation. Yeah. You know? So, like, for me, it was, like, uncovering those, the truths and things like that. I was, like, this is more interesting than, you know, repeating all of the body parts for an anatomy class or... Yeah, just memorizing shit. You know?

Like, because it wasn't ever, it stopped being, like, names and dates for history class. And it started being, like, why for history class and it started being like why things happen why do we do the things that we do and i was like this is the coolest shit ever so i brought some deep shit man i latched on and yes i think it's like more critical thinking than it is just like memorization absolutely because none of like yeah the the memorization stuff matters but like you don't really need to know who or why or what. You just need to know, or you do need to know why. You need to know the whys and hows, you know?

The whos and the whats don't matter, but the whys and the hows do. It's like, because that's how you can, I, all of the crazy things that I've learned since leaving Cumberland high school i would say are because of that journey of just learning truths seeing the real world and the things like that it got pretty intense but yeah man so you think your perspective has changed completely man entirely yeah like i i i'm here and i'm bored i don't know if you get bored just like hanging around in

cumberland but like oh yeah man shit shit that's why i do shit like this nine o'clock yeah like i thought about starting podcasts and shit and i'm just like yeah i i make twelve dollars an hour and don't have the time to you know buy fancy mics and cameras and shit yet maybe one day i will but i don't know it'll i don't know man cumberland's nice man i've been to like i've been to other areas and i've just been like wow this is like shittier than i thought so i think once you travel man you kind of like open up your mind i think that's why a lot of people come back um i mean i think cumberland's like a good place to raise a family and whatnot absolute it's a good place to teach it's really safe if you go to other like i deliver

packages in massachusetts and everyone's a fucking dickhead dude like dude i'll talk to people i'll be like hey how you doing they just won't answer and it's just like can i can i shout you out for a moment you had me dying in that last video you posted of you delivering the fucking dick in the box i lost it i didn't see it coming and i like it was like two in the morning when i saw it and my mom came up like yelling like what what the hell's happening i'm like pissing my pants and i'm it was like out of the blue i just never expected it i thought it was the funniest fucking thing yeah man i like to throw people off dude i don't want them to like uh predict what's gonna happen

but like i said man delivering to massachusetts like you go to areas that are kind of like Cumberland and you're like, wow, this is like nice and stuff. But then you talk to the people and you're like, why are you guys a fucking racist, man? Like dude, Massachusetts is racist as fuck.

Yeah. And, uh, dude, just like a bunch of fucking dickheads, man. Shout out Massachusetts. Like,

don't get me wrong. Like some people are fucking genuine, dude. But like when you come back to Cumberland, like, I mean, don't get me wrong. Like, you know, to expect here when you come back to cumberland like i mean don't get me wrong like you know to expect here like everybody knows each other but people are so way nicer here you know it's definitely a nice little bubble and like it's

for me it's like a safe space that i can just go back to if if i'm you know i'm out at uri for however long like i knew that if i needed time away cumberland was a space where i could just go and hang and nothing. The world's pressure is going to be riding on my shoulders for that time. And then, you know, once I've recuperated, I can head back out and start working hard again. Yeah, man. I think there's a certain age where, like, you know, you're just going to have to move on and fucking just keep fucking up. But, like, you know, you know what to expect here, obviously.

But, yeah, man, it's good to know that, you know, you know what to expect here, obviously. Um, but yeah, man, it's good to know that, you know, you're doing better. Like, like I said, man, you look fucking way better mentally. Like you look fucking calm, man. You look happier, dude. So I mean, dude, thanks for coming, bro. I appreciate it. It's good to see you, man. It's good to talk and catch up, bro. And, uh, I wish you the best, man. Absolutely. I wish you good times too.