The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Actor Tom Pelphrey Talks ‘Task’, Being a Giants Fan and Throwing Out a First Pitch. Plus Some 'TNF', Texans, and Cam Ward Thoughts.

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Russillo starts with some thoughts on 'Thursday Night Football', including how to judge the start to Marvin Harrison Jr’s career. Plus, can the Texans' season be saved? Shedeur Sanders comments on being ready, and Cam Ward’s struggles. Then Russillo chats with actor Tom Pelphrey about his new hit show “Task”, plus the struggles of being a Giants fan and throwing out the first pitch at the Phillies game. Finally, they close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice, including a ridiculous bedroom setup. (00:00) Welcome to the show! (2:15) TNF: Seahawks-Cardinals / What’s up with Marvin Harrison Jr? (10:58) Sam Darnold looks good again (12:52) Are the Texans done? (16:28) Cam Ward’s struggles (18:13) Shedeur says he’s ready (24:15) Tom Pelphrey joins the show to talk HBO’s 'Task' (47:05) Being a Giants fan (50:11) Throwing out a first pitch at the Phillies game (1:01:36) Life Advice Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Tom Pelphrey Producers: Kyle Crichton, Steve Ceruti, and Jonathan Frias _ _ _ Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at Verizon The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, this is what we're doing. We've got a few NFL topics in when I get to. Recapping Thursday night football, but specifically Marv's tough nights and Tyler numbers that are alarming, Donald's carryover from Minnesota. So it's not all Thursday night. It's not going to be 20 minutes of that. That game does deserve that kind of recognition.

Recap. But also just a few other things. Houston, I'm not going to say we have a problem. Their own three, is there anything to salvage from the start considering they've been in these games? Historic note on their bad start, talking about CJ Stride and the offense a little bit. And I want to talk about Chidor Sanders' comments about being ready and being better than other quarterbacks right now in the league and why there's a perfect example of why that may not actually be happening. So we've got that.

And we love the show Task on HBO. Brad Ingallsby created it. We had him on The Star. He plays Robbie with Ruffalo. It is Tom Pelfrey. So he's going to hang out with us for a little while. I'll talk about his career and what the hell's going on with the Giants? Because imagine being a Giants fan and you're like,

we're already on to the other quarterback and Daniel Jones is the MVP. The Daniel Jones part of it just makes the current reality that's in your zip code that much worse every time. And we have an extended life advice. This is the Ryan Rosillo podcast, presented by Fandul, and the NFL is officially back. So if you're going to be in it, be in it with Fandul. They've got the goods, futures, live betting, SGPs, that same game parlayes.

Your way bets, all of it. The app's clean, it's fast, and yeah, when you win, you get paid instantly, which is nice because Sunday patience doesn't exist. So get your bets in, build something bold, and make every game feel bigger. Download the Fandul app or head to fandul.com slash Ryan, RYEN to get started. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit RG-Help.com to learn more about the resources. and help lines available, and listen to the end of the episode for additional details.

Must be 21 and older, and present in select states are 18 plus in present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming, gambling, problem call 100 gambler. Visit rg-dash-help.com. Call 888-7-8-7-7, or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut paid endorsement. I don't know if Thursday night football was like monologue worthy, but let's talk about it because you did have football last night. And then a few other headlines from around the NFL. So it was going to be this bad first, slash second impression for Marvin Harrison, Jr. And that's probably not entirely true because he had a rookie year already

and he hasn't had a great start this year. So I think first and second impressions have been made. But primetime game impressions, we talk about that quite a bit, what a disastrous start means for a quarterback on Sunday, Monday, and even Thursday night football. It doesn't happen with the receiver a lot, but Harrison Jr. was having one of those games.

The first interception, I think that's on Murray, too high safety look. I don't think you're supposed to throw it. So even though Harrison does stop running his route from the right side and cutting it across the middle of the field, I still don't think it's a great throw by Murray, even though this is a lot of fun interception analysis after the fact. Like, how many different theories could we come up with? I don't know. Might have just been a bad throw, man. It might have been the simplest explanation for all this kind of stuff. The second interception is 100% on Harrison. That's not

debated by anybody. The ball is bobbled. And then it's a turnover. And you're watching this guy who was one of the cleanest prospects, not just a receiver, but in the draft, although I do remember, and I'm not taking any credit for this, as we get closer to the draft, how often McShea was like, man, I'm not like neighbors is nasty. But still, we saw what Harrison Jr. was the most dominant receipt. I mean, it feels like you're not giving him enough credit, one of the most dominant players in college football at the time that he played. And so was there like, ooh, is he a little slow out of his brakes like you're trying to find anything for somebody again who was such a clean prospect that's like is there anything to kind of ding him for a little bit and then you're watching

last night going where is this guy um i started watching him block just because i wanted to see how bad all of it was there's plenty of time i don't care who you are as a receiver if the run plays to the other side you get out of your you know they snap the ball you kind of get up put your hands on the corner i think there's kind of a gentleman's agreement there of like hey if the plays of the other side. Let's not kill each other here for all these plays that have nothing to do with us. So those are the ones that I would give them a pass. And we know that some receivers just aren't interested. Not all of these guys are built like Heinz Ward, where I would think it would be fun. They're like, hey, I want to see if I can manhandle this other person. If I was big, it'd be great.

And if I were small, I'd be like, let me see if I can surprise this guy. Again, you're going up against corners most of the time. So somebody Harrison Jr. size, you should think you'd be excited to try to just impose your will on the opponent and wear them down. When they would run plays to his side, he wasn't even blocking, which then motivated me to send McShay texts. And I'm thinking, hey, was he like an uninterested, like, what was he? He's like, he wasn't as good as some of the other guys at Ohio State that took some real pride in it. But it wasn't bad. And it certainly wasn't this.

And that's the part where you're going, okay, well, is it routes? Because there's the miscommunication on that route to the right side where he just keeps going. Kyler throws into the dirt and clearly like this many years in for Kyler I imagine that mistakes 100% on Harrison Jr. So you're seeing all this happen and everybody's talking about it and then Herb Street's kind of

hinting at it and you would think Herb Street would probably know when it's an Ohio state guy, maybe a little bit more than anybody else would that would be on a broadcast and you're just like how is this like going to happen? Is this guy

Peter Warwick to this day and Peter Warwick had a decent NFL career, but he had to watch him in college to understand. Like, it was horrifying, all right? Jesse Palmer tells these amazing stories about playing against Florida State when he was at Florida, and these corners just lining up across from Peter Warwick

being absolutely scared of death. And he just made things happen throughout an entire football game. Gets the NFL, he's okay, but not nearly the same thing. Harrison Jr., you know, it's obviously I'm not in right off mode here

but it was just that bad it was so bad and what really always frustrates me with the blocking stuff is hey effort's a decision you may not get balls thrown your way you may be getting double coverage somebody else might be hot

the quarterback might be having a bad night you might be getting no flags whatsoever with interference so now the corners think they can get away with murder for the next three hours like there's stuff that's not going to go your way playing that position it's why these guys

lose their minds because they run and run and run. And if you get two targets all night, they're kind of selfish a little bit too. And it pisses a lot of these guys off. But blocking and effort, that's up to you. Then we have the fourth quarter. So what was 17-6 game in the fourth quarter

ends up being a 2020 game. Seattle then goes 26 yards and 28 seconds, kicks the game winning field goal after Rylan hits from 44, after missing from 53, which was the preview. possession, which probably would have put the game away. But at least for Harrison Jr., he was four or four on four targets, four catches, and the touchdown. He looked like he gave birth after the touchdown. That's how just emotionally drained he was after his rough night. So a really, I don't know if it's promising, because I still feel like the first three quarters

is like, what's going on? But maybe none of it matters. Maybe it's these young, a couple games in, frustrated night. Maybe he thought his uniform was dirty ahead of time. I don't know if you saw the alternate Arizona jerseys, I did something weird where I threw on TNF tonight, Carissa in the gang, and they were interviewing Buda Baker. And then I thought, like, for just a, this is probably going to happen to you as you get a little bit older, but there was just a brief sliver. I don't even know if I'll give it a full second count, just a sliver of a moment where I thought, was this like a one o'clock West Coast kickoff? Because why is his uniform already dirty and he's sweating? Like, why is there rubber debris all over it? I was like, this is the

pregame you moron. It's kicking off at five. something normal scheduled time you knew that it was like a bit of a freak of like how long would i nap what day is it does anyone have any applesauce uh so all said if i want to wrap up this entire game and i probably spent a lot of time on it already the right team won seattle was the better football team but in that classic NFL fashion and the thing i would preach all week long if i were on a staff stay in the game stay in the game this sport this league has a way of of keeping you in the game, whether it's the team that's up,

you're getting conservative, the team that's down, raising their risk level, a turnover here, a miskick there, the odd bounce of this ball, like we don't have to be better than them. We just have to stay in this game,

and you can steal some wins in this league, and we see it every single week. And it felt like Arizona, like, are they going to actually steal this one? So I still feel like Seattle winning or hitting the game winning kickoff. Field goal,

game winning kickoffs don't happen a lot. It was just the right, It was the right side. I don't even, not even from a gambling perspective, but Seattle was just better than them throughout the entire night. So I thought they deserved to win. Arizona looked rough on offense. I don't know if I can keep doing legacy updates on all these different quarterbacks,

certainly not with Kyler every week. Although you could ask Kyler Murray what's going on with his decision-making when you decide to put on a Mike Vic jersey and pose with your pit bull trunks. He did apologize for the post that did take it down. But like that's somebody where I'm going, if you are going to think that's a good decision, are you going to see the safety all the time? Are you going to rip it?

Maybe unfair, but I don't know. I mean, that might be a new category. That could be an award. I may reference that later on in the season, maybe for years. The rest of my life, be like, is that a good decision? Is it a Mike Vic Jersey with a pit bull decision? I wouldn't do that then. Td Bank knows that running a small business is a journey,

from startup to growing and managing your business. That's why they have a dedicated small business advice hub on their website to provide tips and insights on business banking to entrepreneurs. No matter the stage of business you're in, visit td.com slash small business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager. So, Kyler, when they needed it, did step it up a bit. He converted three third downs on those last two drives.

And the only third that he didn't get, he got on the fourth down. He hit Harrison Jr. again for the touchdown. But we're in season seven. And I think with Kyler, there's going to be some great plays, plays that you feel like only he can do. There are going to be injuries. And I think there are going to be limitations at time. So I don't think this is anything new.

One number that is alarming to start. start the 25 season for Kyler. I like to look at the number of throws on target, so the percentage of your throws that are on target. He's 76%, which is a pretty good number for his entire career. So far this season, 49%. So it's looked rough while also facing the lowest pressure rate of his entire career. Donald, four games into the Seattle part of it,

I'm sure you, like me, like so many of us, are like, what it's Donald going to be post-Oconnell? Is it going to fall apart? Well, four games in, it looks great. There's some numbers that are a tick down, but it's looking like he's just juicing the football right now. Yards per attempt, career high. There were throws that he didn't connect on

that I thought were incredible throws. The goal line throw that was incomplete, the anticipation to the left side of the end zone, and then on the field goal that would have put him up two scores, the 50-plus yard that Rhinel missed. But on that drive, there's a third and six. he hits Jackson Smith and Jigba for a big game. And he had somebody underneath right at the sticks that was wide open.

And so, you know, you want to take, I think Daniel General Lines taught us this one to like take the cheese, right? Like just take the easy stuff. But if he misses it, we're probably criticizing Donald today. Like, oh, it was right there. And, you know, who knows? Like, that could have been a crucial decision. But him ripping that throw. And loving the stop and go route of Smith and Jigbut and the anticipation that he threw with.

And I thought he was just kind of dialed in all night, even though the box score is not going to tell you. It's not like he threw for like 350 yards, like 240. But there's a confidence there with Donald that I think speaks to that throw where he's like, I'm taking this right now. And then again, when he needs to go to the field to set up the game winning field goal, they were able to do it. So I think Seattle's off to a really nice start here. It's not just record. It's not just schedule. It's just Donald look.

like the guy that we saw in Minnesota and for, yeah, four games. He looks a bit like the guy who finished 10th in MVP voting in 24. A couple other thoughts from around the NFL. Houston's own three. They've been in every game. They've got the Titans at home. Thank you if I'm a Texans fan. You think they get right this week.

O-line was the off-season issue. sure I'd label it a priority with the names they brought in, but four new guys next to a right tackle was kind of a utility guy, because as the season went along, we saw it towards the end. You're like, Stroud doesn't even have a chance here. And I think we all, I still like CJ Straub. There you go. I said it. Yeah, I said it, folks. So let's look at some of the pressure rate here. Stroud pressure rate, it's gone from 22% his rookie year, 28% last year. This year, it's at 20%. But if you look at pass block win rate by his group, again, only three games in, this Texans group that they're playing on the O line is 26th in the NFL.

So could that be Tampa, though? You know, sometimes early on here, you start looking at some of these schedules like in college football when it's like, hey, we played three directional schools. Look at our, look at our yards per attempt. You're like, no, I won't look at your fucking yards per attempt, play somebody. So in this case, Houston has played somebody, specifically when you're talking about this overhauling the offensive line that seems to be this like diabolical issue that's derailing C.J. Stroud's year and this offense the last two seasons. And again, I mean, when I say the last two seasons, I'm talking 24 and the pieces that we have in 25. But, you know, Tampa Bay that night was horrible. Reference its ton, enjoyed the hell out of just watching that game, not red zone

in it, seen the entire story for three plus hours. But Tampa has like, killers on that D-line. They're sixth in past rush win rate. Let's look at the rest of the schedule. Like Rams, they get a couple of dudes. They're 9th. Jacksonville's actually seven. So it hasn't looked good. I'm not telling you

it's looked good, but they've gone up against three teams now that are winning their past rush battles. I don't think that's going to happen against the Titans again. I wouldn't think. But it's something to look at there

the schedule. Mike Sandel pointed out that the Texans are the first team to start 0 and 3 without allowing a team to score more than 20 points in a game since 2000. And really when you look at the spread between who this team was in Stroud's rookie year, where it felt like an average offense with an okay defense where they kind of complimented each other. Maybe it's a weak division. Maybe it's people not having a game plan against Stroud. And it was just a really nice story. They got it right with Domeco Ryan's. They get it right with Stroud. Stroud's better than Bryce Young. All of that stuff from the 23 season. Well, the alarming thing that continues to happen is that the defense is going one way and the offense is going the other, where it keeps getting worse.

If you go expected points at it, this offense was 15th in the NFL, Stroud's rookie year. You'd expect just as a rookie quarterback to be able to build on that, even though, of course, we always worry about kind of that sophomore slump part of this. 25th last year, 30th this year. So they're one of the worst offenses in the entire league, and they're becoming an offense that can't even help. compliment a defense that, you know, it doesn't have a chance with this offense. You know, we spent so much time talking about quarterbacks, like, hey, you need a defense, you need a defense. We never seem to ever feel bad. Look, we've done it, but it's talked about far less because it's not this one single person

that we're wondering about. But the defense is being let down by this offense. We'll see. Every Cam Ward stat, speaking of the Titans, is pretty bad. He's 31 out of 31 QBs on success rate on throws. I love the success rate number. It tells you how often quarterbacks get you 40% of the first down needed on, on, actually 40% of the first and 10 on first down, 60% on second down, or 100% on third and fourth down. And it's a really good indicator.

It's an indicator of like, are you making the plays and you need to make them? And are you throwing it short of sticks the entire fucking time and going, look at my completion percentage. and I didn't throw any picks again this week. Cool, man. On third and eight, we're throwing screens all the time. So, Cam Ward, all these numbers are pretty bad. He's third in sack percentage.

His QBR is 19.8. It's last. I don't care about any of them. He's a rookie quarterback in a team that's in full reset year. You know, it's actually an old Saruti theory, but it was like, if you're this bad, should you not even take the quarterback one? Well, granted, you're going to keep taking the quarterback,

so I can't say yes to that, but it's at least an interesting question to ask yourself, going if we're so not ready to bring somebody in do we bring them in well you do although you could have made an argument where cam ward stacked up as a number one pick or even as a top 10 top 15 pick in the first round like how many of these other guys the last few years is he behind and it felt like the evaluators had them behind a lot of these guys but you're also on the other side of being going to go we don't know we're going to have a chance to bring in somebody that's this talented so we just take the qb now so they were not ready for cam work so i'm not going to get on his case about any of these

numbers. The interception percentage, low. There you go. He's not throwing picks, despite everything else not working around him. Now, again, to emphasize, I do not care. This is not me being critical with Cam Ward. What I do care about is the Jadour Sanders conversation. Luckily, I was traveling around the world and got to tap out on a lot of this shit this summer because I saw it. I observed it from a distance, from a beach. But we're a mountain. You know, the quote this week that he's like, look, I'm ready to play right now. Great. You have confidence.

You're a young man. I don't, I think we, you know, we want our quarterbacks to say, but I think was it RG3 once at some point, like when it was kind of on the back side of it, it was like I still think of the best quarterback in the league. I forget if he had said that or not. He got crushed for it, but what was he going to say? Maybe you could say something a little different, right? So Shador, maybe you can find something else.

You know, is it disrespectful to Flacco? Is it disrespectful to anybody else? Or is it just him talking about his ability saying, I'm ready to play right now. all right fine let's give him a pass on that but to say that while we're watching the number one pick struggle this bad you know because you're probably not ready you're probably not ready and you know the chester story from a couple weeks ago that said he told the ravens i don't want to come here and it plays back into what happened during the draft and what's going on with him in the preseason and just there's so much conversation around him that's bullshit and i find

myself not necessarily I'm not rooting against you or Sanders I'm older and successful like what the fuck do I care but what I find myself doing is rooting against the people that have awful theories on how his career has started because look it's not apples to apples but a 60 minutes wants to interview me they probably don't that's not breaking news that's not where I'm going um if they were like hey we we want you to work here and I was like well I'm not going to be like sitting a stool in front of the graphic guy I'm doing features boots on the send me to Somalia. They're like, we don't think you're ready for that.

I'm like, well, then I'm not doing it. They're probably not hiring me. So if you're a marginal quarterback prospect, telling NFL front offices, like, you guys got a starter here in place? I'm not coming here. Because that story told me that it wasn't just that he said that to Baltimore,

which is, again, another issue. Probably shouldn't have fallen as far as he fell. But, like, all of this is happening. And yet, people want to come up with other reasons why it's happening. And I'm not, again, I'm not even rooting against the player, I'm rooting against the people in their theories. And when I hear him say, hey, I'm ready to go. It's like the number one pick doesn't look fucking ready. Sure, we could say

it's confidence, but I think it's also okay for me to not like it. And now it's time for a special part of today's episode. Brought you by NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. If you're an NFL fan, there's one move to make this season, and that's subscribing to NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. every game, every Sunday, all in one place, and you can watch up to four games at once with multi-view, so you never miss a key moment on the field. With NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games and YouTube-based plan for local and national games, requires base plan, excludes digital-only games and commercially used, terms embargoes, and restrictions apply. No refunds. All right, dream lineup time. This is what we're doing. Because, man, it can change on the fly. Because if you

were building your multi-view box last week for the NFL, would you have Green Bay and Cleveland in it? Maybe. Maybe you're a huge Tommy Reese fan. I totally get it. I like the guy too. But you probably were like, I need to change around my multi-view here a little bit because what is going on? Are we talking about blueprint games against the Ravens, blueprint games against the Packers? What is Cleveland doing up there? Why is DeFansky always in these games all the time? So I'm glad. I'm glad I had YouTube TV because I was able to just go, look, I need to get on this other game. All right. So, Dreambox scenario.

We have only three, no, four, 101 five and 125 kickoffs. We have the Ireland game. That's 630 Eastern for me out here. I usually boycott the London games. I don't want to say it's because of Joseph Warren, but

it wouldn't be a mistake to wonder if that was a factor in this entire thing. So here's what we got. Could it be Rattler starting his career with zero wins and double-digit losses. That doesn't seem like it's the best thing ever. I think it's Chargers and Giants, Jackson Dart. It's Philly and Tampa. Tampa has Hertz number for some reason. I want to see Colts and Rams, but that's a little bit later, so I'll be able to see that anyway. So let's go back

to the 10 o'clock, 1 o'clock Eastern games. Give me a little Cleveland, Detroit. Let's stay on the blueprint. How about this Cleveland schedule, by the way? And what else? What else? What else? Washington, Atlanta. I just love that Rahim Morris was like, we're not benching Pennix. Like, it's not even close between these two guys. So that's what I'd be doing. How about you? Share your thoughts wherever you need to. With every game, every Sunday at your fingertips, choosing the ones that deserve spot on your multi-view screen is serious business. Seriously, fun business. Never miss a moment of the action with NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. And right now you can get NFL Sunday ticket month to month and cancel any time. Go to YouTube.com

slash Rosillo, R-U-S-I-L-L-O. I wish I had used that promo code to sign up now. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games, excludes digital-only games, base plan required, renews every month during the 20-25 regular season only. Your membership for the following month can be canceled at any time before your renewal date. Terms, restrictions, and

embargoes apply commercial use excluded. This episode is brought to you by Verizon. The new iPhone 17 Pro just dropped and honestly, why would you get it anywhere but Verizon? With the best 5G network in America, you can catch every play, every game, no problem, new, and

existing customers can get the new iPhone 17 Pro designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever with eligible phone trade-in and unlimited ultimate any condition guaranteed best 5G source root metrics data United States first half 2025 all rights reserved additional terms and conditions apply for phone offers see verizon.com for details uh we were lucky enough to have the creator brad inglesby uh the creator of task on the show and joining us now because we were like give us all the task content. He plays Robbie. He's the main character and his Tom Pelfrey. How are you, man? Good to see you. Good. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Right. Good to see you too. So I'll just carry over from Brad's impression of you reading for Robbie. I actually kind of want to start here. When you're

reading for a part that you know is important, like the rest of us can have our days be like, oh, today's super busy. Like I've got a ton of meetings. What is what is the preparation? Because I imagine too after like mayor you're thinking i really kind of would love to have this HBO angles me the whole thing what is is it days prior that morning what's that like for your life to go all right i'm reading for this super important part yeah i mean it doesn't when i was younger it would be a nerves thing but it's not that anymore i mean if if you don't learn how to have like a different relationship to it, unless you're wildly successful all the time, I think you kind of lose your mind. You know, I think that's where a lot of people just kind of give up on it.

So now it's more just, you know, it's kind of a moment where you get to execute what you can do to your own satisfaction and send it on. And so that's really all I focus on, you know. And in task in particular, when I read it, I thought I understood the character immediately. you know on on some level i could i didn't even try and do the accent in the audition you know i knew that was going to take time um but you know for that one in particular i think i did like one take of each scene i did it outside because there was something too pretty about being inside and the lighting and the zoom set you know like all this kind of set up so i just went outside it was like an overcast day

and strung a hoodie and taped like two scenes real quick the audio wasn't good it was windy can hear like dogs barking in the background but I just

it was like this is this is it this is right you know I don't know if you know what happened but Brad told us one of the other producers called him immediately

after he saw your your read and was like did you see it did you see it and he was like yeah we've got Robbie Did you know that or maybe at some point early on in the process, you knew you had the advantage?

The process was quick. Once I sent them the tape, I knew I had the job in a few days, but it's not always like that. And you know, it's you just don't know everything that has to go into that decision. You know, and that's what I'm kind of saying to your first question is like you really learn how to separate yourself from the attachment to the result. not always not a hundred percent but like it used to be that you get an audition like that and it felt like my entire life was on the line you know everything was hinging on how do i do in this and and do i get the job or not and it's just exhausting you know especially when when i was younger um the business has changed a bit but when you're younger you're doing multiple of these a week

and your life is just like this roller coaster you know because you're taking everything personally. And it's like if I don't get it, I'm not a good actor or whatever. And if I do get it, I'm king of the world. And both aren't true, you know? And so you learn to survive and to persevere and to keep doing this thing. You learn how to have a healthy relationship, which is like, I know what I can do. I know what I'm responsible for. I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. And then you kind of let it go. What are some of the things from when you were younger that, I mean, had to do wrong to make you the success you are today. Gosh. I mean, I remember having a few auditions with the great Sam Mendys for theater. And one time in particular was went in for a

small role. I was young. I was in my early 20s and went in and read for him for him for this great play he was doing with like Julianne Moore and Bill Knight and it was a small role and I auditioned he was so lovely and we auditioned and played around the scene and he's like you know um I actually think you might be right to read for this lead role there was like a third lead but it was a British person I'm like oh no can I can I just have the small one but okay so you prepare all that and blah blah blah and work on the accent and don't end up getting that part the next time they called and said, you know, Sam wants to see you again for this new thing. And it was Shakespeare. And I remember I built up this idea of working with him so much in my mind that I went

into the audition. And I'm going to do some prop acting here. Legit, right. I had my sides just shaken. Shaking from nerves. And you know, and you have those moments. And I knew. I mean, I was like, this poor guy, and he was trying his best to, like, calm me down and help me. But you learn, like, okay, that's not going to work. So now how do I start to think about this stuff in a way that's helpful for me and for him? Because he wanted me to do well. You know, I can tell he did, but he's like, okay, this guy's in the day. And that happens too.

And it really is, it becomes, I found that it became like a refinement process of like, am I grounded, am I centered in myself? Because our business is also so weird and so crazy. And sometimes you get a call the day before that you're going to fly somewhere and meet somebody watched their work your whole life. And, you know, it's not always, it's calm down a bit in terms of that. I have more of a, I can see things coming better now. but when you're younger, wild.

Yeah, I can't even imagine, like, just all the meetings, you're like, this is going to be the meeting. And you're like, that was not the meeting. That was not the meeting. And then you could just be older and be like, this may not be the meeting, but I'm going to go to it, you know, as opposed to like this just kind of, I don't know, I think some of that youthful desperation is fuel.

I think it can be really good. I think being delusional can be like really good in this kind of stuff. But, yeah, I mean, you have to go through all of that, I'm sure to get to the point you're right now. 100%. And I also genuinely believe in a spiritual sense that any good effort is not wasted. And I've also had it happen in a literal sense where a certain meeting or audition with certain people didn't work out. And three years later, they're giving me a job doing something else because maybe they couldn't have given me that job. But they were like, like the way he showed up, like the way he did his thing, think he's good.

they keep you in mind it works out later you know when you're reading Robbie and I feel like sometimes my questions to actors are just fucking terrible because like a lot of times I'll just go well how did you do this thing or what were you doing when you did that you know and I'm trying to avoid that

even if I want answers to some of that stuff but you know we on the outside can forget like hey this is my job this is like what I train myself to do to be able to do all of things that you know you guys can't seem to figure out but specific to robbie like the physical part you've got it the look you've got it the east coast new york thing you know and even though new york and philly would tell you they're not the same everybody outside of that area as i told brad like there are similarities with the mindset and the approach of like how the aday is attacked

so there's a lot of things that you already come into this with where it's like i'm from jersey just to clarify. And Jersey is even more similar to Philly than New York in my opinion. But yeah, yeah. Yeah, I guess I'm thinking like Rutgers, I spent time in Trenton, not in the prison. I was working for a baseball team. But like, there was a lot of, as a

Massachusetts guy, I was like, where does this PA thing melting into Jersey? Like, where is it, where are the actual lines? I know it's supposed to be the water, but there's a lot of similarities. So, right. Now, I'm glad you clarified that for the rest the audience because we need to get some more context on this Philly's first pitch.

But we're going to save that for later. But when you're playing somebody who's we want to have so much sympathy for but also is doing terrible things, how do you figure the best way to attack that part of it? Because it's one thing to just be the good guy or the bad guy, but Robbie's both guys. Yeah. Well, I mean, with every role, it's my job. And I feel very, I take this very seriously, like it's my, it's my job to, I have to work until I, Tom, am convinced that every choice is the absolute and only choice that character could make.

And so you just have to like, you know, it's always a mysterious thing. You do it different ways, different times. But it's like the amount to which you are judging what the characters do. is the amount to which, in my opinion, you're not doing your job. You know, like, I have to be that character. I'm that character's advocate. Like, I become their avatar, in a sense. And, like, when we go through life, like, whatever you've done,

maybe you've made choices you're proud of, maybe you made some choices you regret. But, like, I would wager that in that moment, maybe you made a bad decision. you didn't suddenly become a villain. You know, maybe you were having a hard day. Maybe you were sad, maybe whatever, blah, blah, blah, but your decision came out of where you were as a person in that moment and the circumstances.

And you have to find that, you know, because otherwise, in my opinion, otherwise you're judging these characters and you keep them at arm's length. You, like, decide what they are, which is, I think not good in acting. I think it's also not good in life. But, you know, so then your job is to just make it personal, to pull it into yourself to where I, Tom, am looking at all of this and saying,

yeah, we got to take that kid. It's, you know, at the end of the day, Brad is writing this roadmap. And we got to get in and, drive the cars, you know, and it's got to feel like, the more it feels like I understand perfectly and can relate perfectly to whatever the character's doing, I think the better it comes off, because I'm never thinking, and I, you know, I think this is like the kiss of death. I'm never thinking, how do I make this guy likable? You know, I'm always thinking, how do I make this

honest? Because let's face it, like, again, unless you're playing a, serial killer people are not good or bad you know they're human beings it's complex it's very complicated and in some moments they're beautiful and in some moments they make bad choices it's not for me to judge it when I'm playing them you know when you I know I know each show is different right like some shows it's like thanks for the script please go away now because then the writer starts freaking out seeing the lines changing and you know shows are shot in different ways. Like I've gone back and read like I love Succession.

Everybody loves it. But I've gone back and read the scripts. And it is amazing like as that show evolves, the freedom. And it also makes sense. It's like, are they writing this dialogue? And it's like, hey, this is kind of the foundation. And then like there's this line. I'm getting derailed here a little bit.

We can get this in. But I was watching Hearts Darkness last night, the documentary in Apocalypse now. I hadn't watched it like years and years and years. And Dennis Hopper won't remember any of his lines. And Coppola is like, look. you the lines are there for you to forget so at least learn them and then work off of those so we can spend some time on that because i have kind of a follow-up on that but brad in particular

the the relationship of he has it all in his head you're there to execute the plan what is that dynamic like specific to this show for you yeah i mean look brad's writing in particular is exceptional i mean i think his words on the page are beautiful super clear very detailed very specific brad really cares about characters in a way that not every writer works from you know brad really is more interested in character and then will kind of retrofit a story in to figure out how he can spend time with these people i think a lot of writers work from a story and then fit characters in um so i i was trained in theater and in theater you can't change a word so that's that's my baseline you know and you you know and somebody works on a

play usually they've worked on it for a few years they've chosen the words and the order and that's part of a rhythm and it's part of a style if you think like if you ever seen a david mammoth play maybe you've seen a david mammoth movie that's a very particular style and speed and when you watch those movies all of those uh uh uh it's written in that's on the page that's on the page It's wild reading one of his plays. You're like, how are we going to do this naturally? You have to work so hard to make it sound so sloppy. But he was writing all that stuff.

And I say that to say my first impulse is always to just honor the words as they're written. That being said, obviously sometimes go away and work on it. You come back. And, you know, your job is sort of, you understand the world, you understand the big picture. And then I sort of put the blinders on. And maybe I can start noticing. thing here or there and I say hey Brad thinking about this and then maybe we change it or work on it together and then there's also the Jeremiah was one of the directors on task and he loves a little

improv which I love too you know but he created an environment where you know he wanted us sometimes we took a page of dialogue and threw it out the window where he just said if we move this way you go here and we bring the camera there and i see your faces we understand what we would have gotten out of that page of words which is beautiful which is really the kind of heart of film right it's like the moving picture tells the story um and brad was totally supportive of that you know and this is again something that makes him special and so awesome to work for is like he's not hyper precious. He wants the essence of the scene for the sake of the story. He doesn't care that every single one of his words is said exactly how he wrote it. Now, sometimes they should be.

Often, I think almost always they should be. But he's willing to let that go for the sake of something better. You know, not every writer is like that. Here's another thing that I was wondering about is that, you know, just the shooting schedule alone, and it's not even specific to this show, and I was thinking about your role in Ozark and the comfort of who you become when you're when you're working on that character, but then also have to maintain that consistency. Like, I'd imagine being Robbie a month later is a little bit easier than being Robbie on the first day of shooting. But Robbie has to be Robbie the entire time. And I think it's like a very underrated part of this, especially when that character is like a bit more extreme, like your character is Wendy's

brother dealing with mental illness in Ozark, where I think even that was its own challenge, because it's like anybody that's had any loved one or family member that's dealing with any sort of mental illness challenges, it's like, look, it's not 24-7. They're not on display the entire time. So a lesser actor may go into it with like, all right, well, I'm just going to like unload the trunk. And it's just like, well, that's not really how that goes. So how do you work on maintaining a consistency, even though just human nature would lead you to be way more comfortable as the character months after shooting as opposed to the first day? Well, that's a great question. That's a really smart, insightful quote. You were beating

yourself up before for the quality of your questions. That's a really, no, it's a really interesting question. Sometimes I just want to ask dumb ones, time, like what was going on there? You know, actually, Laura Lennie working on Ozark, help me with this, because the other wild thing that you can throw into that mix is that you're filming out of order right so you know when we did ozark the last four episodes we shot them all together so it was like you'd be doing episode six one day and then that afternoon doing like the last scene of episode nine and then the next day you're back in episode five you know it was just wild but she helped me with this this sort of system where you can get it out and get it to where you can look at it. So whatever I'm working on something,

whatever office space I have becomes just like the walls are plastered, you know, and basically like have a version of the entire story where I can see it so that I can like, every day even before I go to work, I can just like quickly like go through the story. And you work on it, you work on it so that when you see it, you, like, you have a, you have a shorthand with what it means, like, meaning you read the scripts enough so that if you just looked at a quick breakdown of it, you would go, right, I remember exactly that. And maybe there's notes and maybe, you know, there's things about levels and all this. And so you can look at it and, like, ground yourself of like, okay, we just, in the story, we just were here

and did all this, and then today I'm going to go film this scene here. Right. So I remember that. I remember what's coming next. You know, like, it sounds so simple, but that becomes, especially with these TV shows, especially when you're filming out of order, becomes a huge part of it. And then to your point, you're absolutely right. I mean, the first day of filming, you're not as comfortable as you are, you know, a few months in. And so that's just like, you know, I got kind of lucky on task. We had a lot of time. I had a lot of time where I knew I was going to do the job before I had to start the job. And that's like such a gift. There's nothing more useful than having time to spend with something because then it kind of gets in your bones, you know,

like with so much time that I'm just sending Brad like three page emails about a new tattoo that I want for the character and where I want it. You know, but so by the time, by the time we got there, it never feels as comfortable on day one, but I felt pretty good about where I was. But yes, to your point, like what you hope, what you hope to address what you're saying is, is that everybody is aware of this.

Yeah, what you hope is that they schedule the, the shoot in such a way that you can start with some very, easy scenes like some gentle let me just be in this character in front of a camera on set settle in feel this a little bit you you hope they're not throwing you into the deep end yeah that would make sense um the the accent you touched on it uh it's a it's a weird mix you know it's i can see like certain characters getting excited to say water in the show like hey this one I'm comfortable with. You know, my guy Van Pelt, he's just another level as a Montgomery County, Maryland guy.

So there's, there's whatever that Delco, you know, it kind of carries all into it. And look, that's not the Jersey accent at all. It is just something that happens a little south of all the Jersey, New York stuff. When did you become like, you know, you're getting it. So I think to have Brad give you the sign off is probably a great feeling. but like, what did you do to get yourself ready for? Because it seems like everyone in the show is having a little fun with it. Yeah, I know.

I know. We had a great dialect coach, Suzanne Selby. And then from my brain, though, like, I couldn't let it go until I heard a real human being with that accent speaking freely. You know, like not an accent coach, not somebody who's recording their voice for me to hear where they know that's what I'm listening for. one of the girls worked with on on production she put me in touch with her cousin Ryan and he's from Delco and full-on accent and so I would call him and uh cool dude and he we both

love football so we could talk about football and he would like he could but we could get lost in the conversation in a way that I can really hear like oh okay that that's how that sound goes when you hear like a real speaker using it. And this is where it gets like ratcheted up if he's excited or pissed. And this is where like you can kind of lose some of the things that are like on paper the accent. You know what I mean? Like it's not it's not really as consistent as you would think. You can't like sit down. And so that was the final straw for me that like helped me feel comfortable. It's like the more I felt like I could sound like he sounded on the phone in terms of sound you know that was when i felt like i could i could do this so if you were talking

to him about football though shouldn't you as a giants fan been far more pissed off than he probably was on the phone i was how are you how are you doing i mean it's just how do you and by the way then to have daniel jones do this the first three weeks that literally what was about to come out of my mouth how do you watch what daniel jones is doing an indie as a giants fan and not want to jump Yeah, I mean, it's just insane. It's like Daniel Jones is the answer. Daniel Jones is like a franchise quarterback. You're like, oh, wow, it wasn't a Daniel Jones problem.

Yeah, it's frustrating. Darts exciting. I think he looks like a stud. Cam Scataboo is amazing. I mean, like, I think everybody in football is jealous of us having Cam Scataboo at this point because of how hilarious and exciting is. But like our defense that was supposed to be. Off the chart shows up and gives up four loses, you know, gives up 40 to the cab.

It's like, what's going on? What's going on? Brian, you tell me. I thought the Russell Wilson thing was so dumb. He's, he'd been shot for a while here. And then to go, well, this is like a good bridge. It's like, just play James. At least the locker room would like James.

Like, if you want to hold off on the dart part of it, I just don't like when a coach is in a spot like Dable where this is basically it for you and you're already breaking the emergency glass after three weeks with DART. And all you're hoping is with Dable's background and some of the stuff he's been able to do with other coaches. And it's like, can he show Giants ownership in the front office like enough of a runway? Can he Freddie Kitchens Baker Mayfield this? And granted, Freddie was the OC and then became the head coach because there was like this window. So I see this happen far too often.

And I just, I liked Art a lot. He's a lot of fun. He's a baller. He's aggressive as hell. He's going to have to never attack defenders the way he did running the football as he did in college or he's going to be hurt in two weeks. The Russell Wilson Red Zone stuff was, I mean, even I, who was probably been a little critical of him over the years just to keep you up to date, Tom, here. That was, I felt bad for him. Like when you're throwing it out of bounds, it just was over.

But it just feels like way too, or not even through September, man. and you're already changing course of all the off-season planning, unless he really was that great in practices and had that much command, but I never believe any of that shit, really. No, I know. But there's also, like that's, like you said, that's literally the only trail left where in this regime stays in their jobs. Right.

DART is the dude, you know, and that's a ton of pressure to put on him. I mean, he seems like the kind of guy who can handle it, I agree with you. Yeah, I mean, if anything, throw J-Mo in there. That'll be fun. Yeah, it'll be fun for everybody. The defense. I love that guy.

So you threw out the first pitch for the Phillies, but you're a Yankees fan. So does everybody just think you're from Philly now? Is that why you had a little bit of attitude? Just remind me that you were from New Jersey in the beginning of the interview to be like, dude, this whole Philly Delco thing. No, it's it. The attitude is like, Yeah, New Jersey, we're always going to have a chip on our shoulders.

We're talking about the Giants who play football in New Jersey and are called the New York Giants. The Jets play football in New Jersey. Half the people don't even realize this. Like, New Jersey is just completely overlooked. If you live far enough north in New Jersey, New York claims that you're just another borough. Which town are you from? Where did you go to high school? Howell, Howell Township, Mammoth County, like by the shore.

And if you live far enough south in Jersey, Philadelphia just claimed you, You're like just an extension of Philadelphia. It's like, no, we're our own damn state. But, yeah, I had a tricky weekend. We had to go to Philadelphia to do press. And like, if I'm diehard, psycho, anything, it's a Giants fan. Like, that's where I can't, I can't budge. I won't give you an inch.

And so, you know, we got to go to the Phillies game. And they wanted me to wear a jersey. I was like, absolutely not. No way. and they're like will you wear green and i was like absolutely not i can't do that uh and then you know they have us go out before the game to do the eagle song and with le garret blount blunt blount yeah awesome like yeah so cool talking emily's brother uh yeah right right but and we did they did the song and i didn't i didn't sing a word and i didn't flap my arms i smiled and i cheered when it was

done. Good for you. Well, you're walking a tightrope because it's like, it's amazing that they invited us to go. It's really cool, obviously. And I understand that. And I'm respectful of that. And I had a great time. But I also, you don't want to like, also with like Philly and New Jersey people,

are you kidding? They'll all kill you for that. Nobody's interested in you pretending something. You know what I mean? So that I couldn't do. And then we go to the Phillies game two nights later. I get to throw out the opening pitch. And I love the Yankees.

I'm not as psychotic about the Yankees as I am about the Giants. Once Jeter retired, I basically became a casual Yankees fan because I used to be obsessed. I mean, I would watch almost every game, like psychotic. I love the Yankees. Andy Pettit pitching Mike Musina. I mean, like the memories I have of watching those guys play, that's like baseball for me.

Mo, obviously. But since Cheater retired, I'm more of a casual Yankees fan. So when they made me a jersey, it had my name on it. It was like, I got to meet like everyone in the Phillies organization. They're so lovely.

They were like so friendly. Get to go meet John Kruk. Yeah. The announcers in the booth. It was like, I felt like I was at somebody's house with their family. You know, it was, I got to admit,

it was very, you know, it's like, all right, give me that jersey. Let's go to it. this pitch so what was ruffalo doing fully decked in eagles gear because i was like i looked at him i was like you're gonna go get an eagle's tattoo on your chest tonight i was like you're really just giving over here that's great good for you though because you know what i mean it's like

the afflick thing and in gone girl where it's like they were supposed to his character they're supposed to have a Yankees hat on New York City. And Affleck's like, look, you don't get it, you know? I mean, I like that you guys are doing that kind of stuff. You know, that stuff's rare now. Last thing. You grow up in a certain culture, but that's, I mean, with my family, truly, like, that's where the giant stuff comes from.

It's like, you know, the Giants would lose the game. My grandfather wouldn't talk for the rest of the day. You know, it was like, it was life or death, and the whole family's on the same page about that. That's, like, such a part of how I understand myself. that you just have to say like, oh, man, that's one. I can't, I can't dishonor that. Yeah, you can't be sitting there doing an Eagles chant, man.

Yeah. And they have to respect that, too. They should be like, hey, fuck that guy. But we like the way he liked to cut out of his gym. Dude, what a game, too, that Eagles game. That was wild. I know. You were wild.

We've had some awesome games to start the season. Okay, I did want to finish with this, and I'll let you get back to your day. But, you know, you do this for a reason, right? You do this to have these moments and you kind of touch in the ups and downs. And it's a really, really tough career with some tough lows and some awesome highs. Do you notice a little bit of a different vibe walking around being back in L.A. when you're on a hit show as the lead for an HBO deal and an Inglesbee thing?

Like, do you notice it's just a little bit different when you're on this kind of run? Yeah. I mean, I noticed it a few times in Philly, I guess, but also like, you know, I'll tell you a quick story about this. It'll make you laugh and literally happen yesterday because this always seems to happen to me. But I got in the plane to fly back to L.A. and I sit down and the guy across the aisle turns to the person who's sitting in front of me and they say, I love task. I love task to the person in front of me. I'm like, who's in front of me?

So then I stand up and I hear Ruffalo's voice. I didn't even know we're on the same plane. And I go, oh, Mark! And he pops up, give him a hug. And I sit down and the guy turns to me and he goes, do you work on task? And I was like, Yeah. And he goes, are you a writer, producer? I was like, I'm a producer.

So straight up, someone who loves the show is obsessed with the show is looking me dead in the eyes from two feet away and has no clue that I'm the guy he's watching on Sunday night. So look, I'll take that. I would prefer that. The other end of things seems a little uncomfortable. comfortable for for my taste do you have an EP credit maybe that's maybe no I'm not a producer at all okay I'm just not going to sit there like an asshole and convince this guy that I am well I say I am yeah Robbie hey no I'm the actor in the show he's like no you're not actually had more lines than Mark did in in right yeah well that's funny man that's that's really funny it's not as funny as I think the times where people

will go up to Van Pelt and say, Stu Scott. But that's happened to him. So, look, we're happy for you. And we love the show. Everybody here on the podcast is like just texting every week about it. So I can't wait to see where it goes. I was offered the rest of the episodes of screeners. And I was like, no, I want to just look forward to it every Sunday night.

I don't want to binge it at any point. I want to get back to enjoying this stuff once a week in the anticipation. And I'm sure I'll have it Sunday nights on HBO. Joe, Tass. Thanks, Tom. That's awesome. Thanks, Brian. This episode is brought to by Tron Aries. For the first time, the captivating world of Tron breaks out of the grid. Aries, a highly advanced program, journeys into our world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind's first encounter with AI beings.

Featuring an electrifying original soundtrack by 9-inch nails. Tron Aries is a must-see movie event, filmed for IMAX and made for the big screen. Brain. Experience it only in theaters, October 10. Get tickets now. Hey, before we get to the life advice, we like Fanduel a lot. We have been happy to work with them just because of the back and forth, the feedback. I'm not involved in very much of it, but just kind of the surreutie stuff and everything. So we had the alliance a couple years ago. We lost Wargon to the Alliance, not a casualty. but you know what does wargon start with what letters to start with Kyle big W capital w yeah well fucking big 10 wargon was on an absolute tear so I don't know if maybe Fandu'll have something to do with that but what I do know is that we weren't asked to do this we want

to do this so instead of just giving out a college football pick I want to just do the alliance three-way this have surreity build it you know Lego Steve just sitting there with the foundation getting ready to space out the three blockers. So let's throw together a three-leger here for the people from sportsbook. fandle.com. What do you got, Kyle? This was a year that I'm going to pick South. I thought we were going to do the Alliance this year.

I kind of got froze out of that, but we're back. So I'm going to just continue doing what I was going to do. I was going to pick South Carolina most weeks, and I like a minus five and a half versus Kentucky. That's going to be minus 108 odds. Okay. All right. So Rudy, you've got something tricky for us. Um, well, I got two things in my head, like in honor of Oregon, because he wasn't afraid to fade his Penn State Nittany lines. And I'm like, do I take Oregon plus three and a half? Or do I take Alabama plus three and a half? Which I also like against Georgia. So a lot of betting on the Oregon side. Okay. So maybe we'll go Alabama. We'll take Alabama. No, I'm not discouraging you. I'm just saying that has been a very, I don't like to be Joe public. I don't want to be Joe public if Oregon's public. It's funny that that can go either way. Like you could totally make a case that, yeah, it seems like people with brains are betting.

on Oregon or you can be like, no, I don't want to do that. Interesting. I'm traditionally a zagger, so I'm not going to, I'm not going to go with the Joe Pop boy. Could be wrong, but I'll take Alabama plus three. I'm actually, it's the spreads two and a half. I'm just, I'm getting the full number. So it's minus 125, three and a half, Alabama. All right.

Right. I moved a line as insurance on the Tampa winner on the Monday night. And then I added another one as insurance against it. And the gambling guys that are pretty. pretty fun group to engage with just regularly they didn't like that loss of value on that insurance all. All right. LSU's plus one and a half at Ole Miss minus minus one and a half. I would think before, I mean, imagine what that line would have been for this game, say after week one if you could have gotten a line on it. I don't think you ever would have thought it was going to

be LSU plus one and a half. However, as much as you may think, he's like, well, he's just going to take LSU and the points. I went to this game two years ago. it never stopped. The offense, just a flood, a flood of offense in this game. Gross. And Ole Miss took the W. The total's 57.5. Right now, I'm going to go with the under.

So give me the under minus 110. Can you build that for us for the alliance? Yeah. All right. So we've got Alabama, plus three and a half against Georgia, South Carolina minus five and a half against Kentucky and the under 57.5 and LSU Ole Miss that pays out about five and a half to one,

so it's plus 5.61. Okay, there you go. Check it out. You can build it. A three-leg alliance, like the old 23 days, from sportsbook.handle.com. You want details? Bye.

I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every tour you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, life advice, RR at gmail.com.

Kyle and Sirruti, join the show. What are you guys doing? Had some undercooked steak. Just not great. I think that's what it is. No, no, no, no. I'm off that train. I'm off that train.

Steaks in the morning? It's not unheard of. But, yeah, taking eggs. Yeah, I mean, have you ever done steak and eggs? Like on purpose? Yeah, it's too much. Even I would tell you that's too much. I actually disagree.

Well, I don't know that I have like a full New York strip and eggs on the side, but if we do like some sort of grilling situation, I'm cooking steaks and I've got some leftover, I'll like slice it up thin and make like a like a steak egg and cheese sandwich in the morning and if your boy got 80s and above for the report cards, like I could expect the steak and eggs from my mouth. How often did that happen? That's why we could expect it. You know, I think she'd maybe let a 79 slide once and be like, all right. Yeah, that's fair. We'll get this going for you. But I've always felt terrible after eating a steak and eggs breakfast because it usually comes with potatoes. And then it's like, I guess I'll go back to bed or I'll just lay in this restaurant booth.

What's your go-to breakfast diner order? Dude, I mean, I'll take a look. I'll look around and be like, is this a place where I can order eggs Benedict or no? I'll look around. I do love that. Sometimes I'll maybe a Denver onlet, like I'll see what kind of omelets they have there. But generally I'm not like pancakes or French toast or any of the ready shit.

I only ask because I am a, I love corned beef hash. Oh, dude, I love corned beef hash too. That's my go too. Yeah. What about Scrapple? No Scrapple. There's a Philly guy in the Frog room that tells me all about Scrapple.

And I don't know. It doesn't sound great. He's really trying to pitch me on it. I'm like, dude, this sounds terrible. He's like, there's like hoofs and snouts in it i mean we don't really ask yeah yeah it was just because of task and pelfrey being on the show today there was a scrapple mention yeah there was a scraple mention in the wire too do they guess i missed that yeah um there's it's during the stretch where

mcnulty's turning the homeless murders or homeless deaths into a serial killer and he runs into some other detective, which there's hints at a previous rendezvous, this blonde woman. And they're actually at the morgue, I think, which maybe put her in the mood for Scrapple. She's like, fine, miss Scrapple. Nice. No, thanks. I don't think I'm interested in trying it. Never had it.

Never will. Yeah. Yep. Yep. No diner order for you. We'll just, we'll give ours and we'll move on. Scrabbled eggs, bacon, wheat toast. All right.

Grilled potatoes. That's exactly how you say it to her, too, right? Just like kind of one long word. Yep. Grubloat bacon, wheat toast. You're like, hey, you're potatoes fried? They are. No, thanks.

There's a place that grills them. Is that a health thing or is that a flavor thing? Because I would argue that fried potatoes are better, but I understand why you don't want to be eating those all the time. I don't want to be eating them all the time. And I just think grilled potatoes when they're grilled, you know, when they're. They got to be well done, though. They can't be left.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a must. I'm with you. I'm with you a little seasoning on there. But I just think they hit right where if you're early in the morning and you're

basically just eating French fries from a diner, and it's a bit like back to the state conversation. I don't want to just house a shorter vertical French fries is all we're really talking about here. If you really want to get in the weeds, you're right. Yeah. Shapes, yeah. That's all we're talking about. Don't get me started on hot dogs, dude.

I know. we're simpletons man sometimes you know there's a lot of stuff that's really good about us I do subscribe to the theory that most of us kind of want the right things but then there's just dumb shit that we do where it's like no one would ever think I'm going to have french fries at 6 a.m. It's like okay well what if I make them smaller? Sure. Okay. And what if they're a diced?

Yeah. Absolutely in. All right. That we solved those problems. problems. Follow up to the Chipotle Bogo email from last Friday. We got a million of these. Hello, Life Advice crew.

You were completely correct on the Chipotle buy one. What is it? Is that what we're talking about or is it actually pronounced bogo? I don't know. There was a, you know, Payless had a big bogo campaign. It was like all over the all over the TVs. But yeah, some people will say bogo, but yeah.

Buy one, get one. Yeah. Email from last week. In fact, the letter. writer's friend probably wasted two Chipotle trips limited to five free menu items per check and his subject availability. Then he sends us the link, college, Bogo to Chipotle should just write us a check. A number of times we've mentioned them. I went after that life advice, by the way. What's that? I went after that life advice to grab some Tripoli, but like I said,

didn't have a college jersey. And it wasn't a Saturday. You should ask for my Rob Conrad. Yeah. next time the letter writer should at least check the terms before bitching at his friend harsh but fair he's one of us yeah be nice okay let's go back to you soccer

no gym stats to be proud of yet I love the positivity but I've joined a soccer league and I'm gaining stamina every day chiming in from Rhode Island shout out to the Providence for silos appreciate it I'll keep it quick

but I have a question on what I should have done after making a comment my son is seven years old and playing soccer for a few years now and loving it this past weekend we've gone up against a team with a kid playing for the first time a real bruiser like jay mcguar yeah great retention out of you podcast legends yeah yeah this is the bottom of that one through one zone yeah go ahead surrey i just said he's getting a lot of love it is what's you up to now no idea this a rec league they all chased the ball in a herd so this bruiser had elbows out shoving everyone, no skill, not going for the ball, just attacking the other team. I'd never like this kid when I was young.

So I don't think I'm making fun of a kid now as an older person. But even if I were seven and the other guy were seven, like your skill is fat. You know? Yeah, I just, it just used to drive me crazy. Even as a little kid. Like you, I don't have a guy. It's one of the littler guys out there. Yeah.

Yeah, especially skinny. just skinny as a rail you know must have been tough I don't know about it with my UNICEF box is this for you um

all right so no skill just attacking the other team the coach is doing his best trying to refocus him on just playing the ball I'm usually very vocal when my boy scores not when the game is out of control though keep it classy so after a few times my son got pushed the couple next to me yelled out

keep your elbows down or stop pushing. I figured it was his parents. Oh, wow. I thought to myself, what would Ryan and company do? And I thought it would be appropriate to make light of the situation. So I leaned over and said, quote, looks like he'll be a great football player, huh? To his parents. The mom and dad did more of a nervous laugh and said, yeah, he's very competitive.

And it's his first time trying soccer. We left it at that and never spoke again. We won the game in a blowout, even though they don't officially keep score. It was 12-1. This guy was keeping score. Yeah, yeah. He's got a notepad. What are you doing?

I'm a poet. You're just over there writing? Like, yeah. Tracking, passing success. Should I have apologized? I was annoyed in the moment. Didn't want anyone to get hurt so the kids should keep his elbows down. But was there a true need to make the parents feel bad?

They were already aware of yelling and yelling for their son to keep his body to himself. Yeah, he probably didn't need. I would have apologized if I thought about it afterwards. Like, hey, sorry, I just got all worked up. I think, you know, think you guys might even have been dirty. I think if you thought about it, yeah, that's totally. That's an adult thing to do. That's a thing that, like, would never happen if you're, like, in one of these situations

in high school or college. But you're adults now. You can totally do that. You can totally apologize without looking like a bitch or whatever, whatever the word is that, you know, you don't want to be called. You can totally do that as an adult. And everyone respects it for the most part. Yeah, because, you know what?

That probably stung them later because they're like, man. Like, we know that we know he's a bit of a bruiser. We're trying to get it under control. You know, there's like little things that, you know, again, my daughter's only three, but like there's little things that she does. You're like, you're trying to kind of correct them on the fly. And when people notice them, like, you can become self-conscious about it. And so I'm sure that didn't help them, but I don't know.

I don't think an apology was necessary. You're a good dude clearly for thinking about this. Like many people would just say something and not even think about it. So at least take solace of that. The fact that they were yelling at their own kid to keep his arms down. Probably had a handle on it. Yeah. I think that would have been good enough for most people.

But I don't, I don't know. There was really any long-term damage done here. Yeah. I agree. I think we're all going to be okay. Let's see here. Oh, this is terrible. It's not even an email about a thing.

It's not a question. I mean, I guess technically all emails are about something, just some less interesting than others. 32, 511, 185. I don't move an impressive amount of weight, but I hit my workouts consistently. Player Comp, Tashon Prince. Ooh.

Speaking of elbows. Yeah. During my senior year of high school, every student was required to complete a senior project to graduate. Wow. High school senior thesis? Pretty standard, huh? Did you have to do that?

Yeah, I did not. You didn't have a project that you needed to pass in one of your classes that you needed to graduate? I mean, like, all of the classes you need to pass. I guess am I hearing this wrong? I mean, there's some of that, like, got to get through that last English course and there's going to be a big paper at the end of that. Like, are we talking, like, in addition to all your classes?

This feels like a specific project that's part of the senior curriculum. I don't, I understand what you're saying, Kyle. Yes, we had papers and tests at our schools, too. I'm sorry, then. I'm sorry. It's hard to focus. I told you, I had some undercooked steak, and I've just, I got an internal clock in my head here.

yeah no i hear you man i ate a spicy dip chicken parm sandwich last night and i'm like yeah i'm like what the fuck are you doing and it was right in the part of the heart of darkness apocalypse now documentary where charlie sheens recovering from a heart attack and i'm like i don't i don't what t minus what what what's the number i don't know i don't know i never do that stuff anymore and just last night i was like i'm If the game was over early. What am I going to do with myself? I don't know what I was thinking.

Yeah. Because I was looking at it going and there was even something where it was like, do you want extra prep and prosceny on it? I'm like, no. Or peppercini? Pepperuccini? Oh, right. Yeah.

All right, back to the project. So they have to do, this feels very specific to the way. We've got to do a senior project to graduate. All right. I jumped the gun there. Sorry. The way he said it, every student was required to complete a senior project to graduate. If you're not familiar, it's a student-chosen project meant to demonstrate interest in

potential. We could have just kept reading. God damn it. I'm sorry. And potential career paths culminating in a final presentation. So, yep, I think it's a little bit more than just. Got some life advice of my own. Got some life advice of my own on this one. See an algebra, boys. Just shut up and listen sometimes, buddy.

How are you doing on your handsmaid's tail paper? Dude, I didn't even read it. Did you guys read all the books? I'm reading them now. I faked all the books. I'm reading them now. I faked most of them, too. Lord of the Flies I finished.

If I could go back in time, I wouldn't do that, but I did. Lord of the, I might throw a Catcher in the Rye in there. I did read a Mice and Men, I think. But, yeah, Catcher in the Rye's on the list. You know what? Lord of the Flies totally should have been on that list. That was good. Yeah.

Liked her in the Rye blew my mind as a high school kid. I was excited. It's like, what else do you? I haven't listened. I haven't listened. I'll probably. I'm not going to tell you I was super locked in on some of the college assignments early on. you know but the funny thing about college professors they can usually tell when you didn't read

the book yeah and then you write a paper on that book that you didn't read they're quick man all right the idea now that at this age and being too like to sit there at 20 and think or really it's 18 19 and then things picked up but let's say 19 to go yeah I'm going to I'm going to pull this off I'm not going to read a book confidently a decent enough college and write a paper on this book and get a passing grade. Like, this will work. Too much to ask or be. Yeah.

All right. I found that out the hard way freshman year of college because I was, I was one of those skate by high school kids and then it's like, oh, I actually have to do stuff now. What is this? Yeah. I'm not a genius. All right. We've murdered this guy's email and story telling.

So, uh, student chose project meant to demonstrate interest in potential and potential career past culminating a final decision or final president. presentation, not decision. God, I'm sorry, man. Sorry. So let's get to the Friday. Friday, long open. Felt free. Sorry, it was perfect. A few friends and I decided to coach recreational basketball teams for fifth and sixth graders as their project. That age group ended up with five teams total. Four of them coached by seniors like us and one coached by a dad. That guy must have hated you, dude. Before the season started, we held an open gym evaluation. All the coaches watch the kids run drills and scrimmages, then rank each player from

one to three to help organize the draft. We knew that dad would have to use his first pick of the round on his own son, no matter which ranking group he fell into. All wanting to win and being of the age we were, we decided to rank his son as a one, even though realistically he was more of a fringe too. The dad pushed back against our evaluation, but there wasn't much he could do. The draft one on his plan and he chose his son with a second overall pick that season his team ended up winning only one game at the time i didn't think twice about it but looking back now i feel bad not only do we sabotage his team's season but we also put him in the painful position of having to argue that his own son wasn't as good as we said he was you guys are jerks

you guys are jerks did we take it too far well yes you did um you were high school kids yeah I think the good thing. I don't know how often it will happen to you, but like I'll have a moment every now and then where I remember just whether it's a comment or an act or just something. And it's almost like a kidney pain where I'll just go, oh!

And it's like five seconds of just shame and regret. And then I'll go. Oh, man, too much. What else? Like, all right, you just remembered this thing. You haven't thought about in years. I'm doing it right now. Now what do you want to do?

like you want to have it linger all day long just like move on it's okay like where's the whiskey I feel like every dude has like a roll a roller deck of like five cringe things he's done in his life and do they just periodically come up and you're like

it just ruins your day it's just ah man day yeah I guess your life who knows like 20 years later on some of these yeah so what you did I think falls into that like you're telling the dad

while over evaluating him to mess up the draft process and then his dad has to be like my kid's not that good what's wrong with you guys and you're like no no he's awesome he's awesome it's kind of funny

like this isn't this isn't my top 10 I'm taking that right now but when you think about the psychological stress you put on that dad maybe it creeps up the rankings a little bit for you but certainly

wouldn't be in my profile. It's just one of those high school kid things where like you just don't know how out of touch with the real world. You are like you wouldn't even think that that's a thing. And then like you get older and you're like, yeah, that was a dick move. Yes, totally. Totally. Okay. On this one, I'm going to need to forward an email. Oh, no, you got to be kidding. I'm going to have one of these in a while. Yeah, all right Kyle, can you How can this

So I've never forwarded an email Oh, there it is Well, we don't do it very often No, we don't The old Gmail Okay All right So as soon as you get it

Just open it up while I'm reading Okay All right So interrupt me 65-195 Sweet Squat 2.15 and only dumbbell press now repping 90s for four sets of eight. That's great.

Player comp, skinny Draymond Green, not much scoring, but can rebound, play defense, and had my fair share of technicals back in the day. Have a dilemma developing in my new apartment that I used some advice on. I recently moved to New York City with a friend. File apparently has received the email. That was perfect. It was like it was scripted. Am I on this email, Kyle?

Oh, I'll get you. There we go. Packer? No, packaging. We moved in September 1st, and we've got along decently well. Don't think we will be best friends, but we both have our own established friend groups here and are rarely home. Here's the problem. He refuses to buy a bed. See his room attached.

this is a work of art if you told me you had a hostage at your apartment and you weren't sure how to get out of it and this is where he lives I would forward this email to the authorities if you said hey

at my house me and my roommates reenact inside man when we print it out to screenplay and we read all the different parts and this is Clive Owen's spot I would believe that you guys loved inside man I think there's like hostels in Mexico City that's got more room than this guy has

shout out Kim director go ahead there are just so many parts that are like potentially my favorite part like I think the loose cables on the floor what about the Trader Joe's bag that may actually be storage it is it is you can tell that's that's as much clothes as he could fit in there

that's his laundry basket yeah it's a trader joe's paper bag there's a power strip just in case he brings in anything that needs power because there's nothing that needs power he's also got a fold up chair in the corner just in case

he has company come by it's unbelievable that one window is the width of a toothpick oh my god this is a work of art and the best part is that the sleeping bag that's on kind of like it's not even a sleeping bag it's a yoga mat it's like a yoga mat it's like a yoga mat and then that sleeping bag i don't even know if it can handle below 60 degrees Fahrenheit the fact that it's army

issue is and i don't know that it is but if it is that guy's fine he didn't buy that yeah right and then he received that somehow it's not even just the sleeping bag the pillow cases are army green i don't know if i'd fucking suggest anything to this guy what book is that hold on that second that second picture is our emailers room this is yeah the distribution of wells in this apartment is out of control he says to be fair that he does pay more but that's insane i mean that guy what bed fits in that room by the way uh the full maybe right that one Oh, my God. That's, yeah.

I mean, this is, this is an insane space. I can't believe this guy owns two suitcases, or unless he's just on the go. Like a go bag? Not here for a long time, just a good time, yeah. This is a closet, man. This is this, New York City. He's got a nine millimeter in there and 20 grand in bills just in case. All right.

So he's got a lot of cables. Yeah, there's the laptop and the, in the box of cables on the windowsill, too. There's a lot going on. He's cable ready. Is that a first aid kit behind there, too? it's red I think it is a first aid kit this is that an axe in the other one? Can we put this photo in this is bad

radio for anyone who can't see like this is just bad I think we're going to put it in the video I think we have to I don't know if we can I don't know if we can break that did he say not to is that book what book is that if that were the giving tree I'd be super fucking I tried zoom and it's too blurry I can't figure it out but I feel like that cover somewhat it looks like a book that wouldn't be fun to read yeah it looks like something that you'd be like I can I can get a paper out of this I don't need to read the whole thing

I feel like I've seen that cover before though I don't know all right all right uh here's a problem he refuses to buy a bed at first it was a good topic of conversation my friends all thought it was funny how I had a randomish roommate who sleeps on the floor now we were a month in and he has still made no effort to buy a bed I've talked to him about the decision he said multiple times it's not a cost thing but a lifestyle change and he has decided to take it on whoa dude i'm a very clean guy love to have a great set up see my room attach and be fair i pay more in rent for the better room yeah i hope so you're like four of his rooms i'm 50 and i want my room to look like that one day you know well two things is that a bear blanket on his bed it's uh it looks like what's going on there

Grateful dead, right? Oh, okay. I wouldn't art. Fucking dark. Surrity. Wow, sorry, guys. Try listening to one thing older than you one time. Come on.

That's the grateful day. Oh, that's your favorite, dude. Well, I know Althea. I know a couple songs. Yeah. Sure. I said, no, that was their thing. Sorry.

Second point. Is there enough room in that, is there enough room in that room for a bed? That's what I'm saying, dude. Like, maybe he could do one of those camping cots where it, like, keeps you off the ground. He probably like that. He probably would. I mean, it'd certainly be an upgrade.

I mean, as funny and weird as this is, like, it's shocking how little space there is in this room. That room looks like the size of a twin bed. It doesn't look wide, Sir Rudy. You're not wrong there. Hardwood flooring. And then if you put a twin in there and it covers up all the hardwood flooring, I got to know, does this guy plan on never hooking up. Because he's doing a great job if that was the plan. The best movie, you know, the guy hits this up in the follow up.

He's like, he actually does pretty well. of course he does so uh the lifestyle change she's decided to take on i'm a very clean guy we already covered this at a certain point i feel like his mess and lack of a bed is a poor reflection on me right dude yeah yeah close his fucking door then just close his door every time you walk past it if he's not screwing up the dish thing and he's not screwing up the living room this is like this is why you either do or don't have roommates but like that's that's not your space if it don't, if it don't stink and you can just close the door, I don't, I don't think you got to like to stand up. I don't see any ages in here, but I would imagine, like, if you're in your 20s, this is,

it's not on you if your roommate's a, a slob. Yeah, I mean, this guy has like a legit duvet cover that matches the shams to go along with his Grateful Dead. Yeah. Throw. You guys, it's not a full blank. That's for sure. You know, like when you go to hotels and there's that runner on the bottom of the bed, you know, and it's like if you sit down on the top of the covers and you have your shoot, you're like, man, this is, this is living. I could do this more. It's like, you're going to put a runner down over your duvet once and then you're going to take it off and then you're never going to put it back. So, you know, that to me as being efficient. All right, so at a certain point, I feel like his mess and lack of bed, again, poor reflection on me. How do I bring a friend

or a girl home and explain how my wacky roommate has shoes in everywhere and no bed? At what point do I need to seriously consider asking him to clean up his act and invests in some upgrades for a situation or I just let him be, let him be him and deal with it. Yeah, let him be him. This guy has just wired a little different. And I don't, like, I love the email, but I kind of don't love you emailing and saying, will this be seen as a poor reflection on me? It says, Choate. It says maybe two older sisters. it says to me like not everything not every fucking thing in your orbit is a representation of you

so don't don't worry about it you know giving you a little tough love here but if you are like hey dude i want to like i thought maybe it was you're going to get him a bed because he can't afford one or he doesn't want to do that or whatever and if it were something you could pull off then fine but when he closes that door that's his time that's his room you know whatever that meridian is yeah and i guess the last thing i'll say just to try to give this guy a little bit of like um food for thought or maybe a piece of mind when either i for your thoughts yeah even when like whether when i'm going to visit a friend friends coming over my house who went to go on dates with a girl girl came over my house i wasn't like let me show you my

roommate's room never once was i invited to go see you know her roommate's room like it was never really a part of the guests that you're worried about having over i think think this is drilling into your brain because you don't like the fact of it all. But it's really, that's not part of the apartment tour. You're like, oh, yeah, that's Todd's room. That's it. Boom. She's not like, oh, what's he working with in there? You know, do you think he feels bad? Is that really? Is that it? Like, yeah, but once the guy's like, no, man, it's, it's not that I need any help. I know, but it's hard not to be like, man, I have this, like, you know, I have the bigger room. Like, even if you're paying more, you still feel a little

self-conscious. Maybe that's where our guy's at and just be like, ah, like this guy, I'm making this guy live like this even though you're really not um maybe when he's fully stretched out in his queen tucking his feet under that grateful dead maybe he's thinking about it but you know they both signed alice so you said you this was your buddy's buddy too right so maybe ask him like hey what's this guy's deal yeah i didn't get a heads up that he's like a you i don't know i think it's a hell of a conversation starter honestly it might make you might might actually shoot you up the rankings in some of these uh you know with some of these girls it's like you know it's sometimes it's nice to have a no sometimes it's nice to have like a comedic relief

friend over there sometimes that's really nice honestly like the girl on tv that has heavy set friends like sometimes yeah sometimes it does wonders just to be like you know so you guys both be like there's jake i don't know what he's up to we don't have to talk about whatever our issues are because of that's crazy yeah but i almost feel like it's an attraction you know you've gone on a couple dates hey what's your roommate do well he's not into interior design and then you have this like it's almost like you're a prop comic you really do want to see it yeah and sometimes like the friend now you don't even have to you don't even have to talk about feelings anymore you're going to be covering this bedroom you're going to have some laughs you're

going to see it the same way you're going to get along next thing you know you're getting married just because of the setup here Kyle well sometimes the friends of dudes can be like drive a wedge in a certain way just like they don't share the same values of the girl or whatever but you're like this guy's harmless he sleeps on the floor you know his hamper's a traitor joe's bag like harmless though there feels like a bit of rambo first blood vibes to this room okay all right well i don't know that i'd call him harmless well it like you can sell like you can sell it like so you know rustic used to be old or you know you know old used to be bad and now it's rustic maybe you can dress it up in a certain sort of bohemian way i don't know um that's an fbi watch list

way with that up he's got too much stuff though i'm trying to look in the closet like he's got maybe you can try to get him like some storage stuff that he would use maybe there's anyone like draw about a bench that opens up we can put shit in the bench there you go then what's he going to do he doesn't room for a bench in there that's where yeah just that no that whole left side just like it's a bench it's a skinny one but it does open up it has some storage he could sit on it instead of that chair you know think about christmas is coming bench for life yeah see what IKEA's got cooking up no one can draw right on the show

no definitely no terrible I can't believe how bad I am at it actually I bet your war gun can draw no doubt probably no fucking doubt in my mind such a good draw especially Disney characters but he drew that tattoo he got

he was the best miss that guy what do you think he's doing right now I know what he's doing right now I know what he's doing right now practice him for a marathon he's probably just sniffing coffee beans and singing a show tune you know but like in a manly way yeah then he's probably drawing he's probably looking out of his window wherever he is in manhattan and he's like look at that willow tree he's like what

if it could speak next thing you know fucking pixar against him paul just just sketching yeah yeah long strokes the key to willow trees war gone says is They've got to be sad. Fuck. All right. That'll do it for the show today. Thanks to Sir Rudy. Thanks to Kyle.

Thanks to Jonathan Freas. Thanks to Wargón, too, dude. Yeah. Thanks to Wargone. Yeah. Whatever he's doing. Probably something cool. The Ryan Rusillo podcast is on YouTube

and, of course, our Spotify app. Ryan Russoil podcast is part of Ringers Spotify. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. My dad was like, I don't think you can live up to it, so they named me Michael Jared. Must be 21 and older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 100 gambler or visit RG dash health.

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