The Ryen Russillo Podcast - An Awkward Interview With Tyson Fury, Plus NFL Week 3 Story Lines With Sheil Kapadia

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on some CFB blue bloods that have struggled in recent years (0:25), before talking with The Athletic’s Sheil Kapadia about some things to watch in NFL Week 3, including a concerning Chiefs defense heading into their matchup vs. the Chargers, what to expect from the volatile Cardinals, Saints-Patriots, fourth-down controversies, and more (14:25). Then Ryen is joined by heavyweight champion boxer Tyson Fury for a roller coaster of an interview just a few weeks away from his third match vs. Deontay Wilder (43:00). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:21:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Tyson Fury and Sheil Kapadia Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

packed packed podcast for you today shukapadia i do some nfl stuff at the beginning we do life advice we even recap other things and we recap the tyson fury interview where he was not into it the first few minutes and i thought it was going to be a disaster even though it's entertaining so check it out. We have a packed show, as we mentioned in the intro for you. The Tyson Fury interview, we'll get to that. Maybe even talk about it a little bit afterwards. But we also have Shil Kapadia going over our Week 2,

going into Week 3 stuff. That game last night, it was on the television. I can't tell you I was super locked into that one. I'll be honest. I love the NFL like everybody else does. But I guess I've always felt like maybe it goes oh three or oh four because I was doing radio and you know, look, I was, I was pretty good on the Celtics. So they were like, Hey, why don't you come by and do some stuff? And I was always available. So I would always say yes to stuff. Um, and I always felt like the guys that covered the pats, like look down on everybody else

who covered any of the other teams, even though the Red Sox have won a World Series. Again, this is pre-Celtics having the group in 2007 and in 2008. So I'll admit there are times when there's this kind of like, I'm an NFL guy thing where it's like, dude, the NFL is easy to cover. The games are basically all on the same day. It's once a week. It's the shortest season. Yes, there's off-season stuff that happens, but I just always felt like, and maybe it was

specific to Boston, it wouldn't be the most ridiculous city scouting report to be like, yeah, some of those guys are tough to deal with. But there was always this sense of, well, I love the NFL. I remember one boss at ESPN telling me, and this is so, so long ago, again,

this is somebody who wasn't even there that long, so this isn't like some bitchy rant thing, but was it was uh he'd be like you know we need to get your nfl up i'm like you think some of the guys here that are so good at the nfl are so good at the nfl because they tell you how much they love the nfl all the time like it's just so strange like whenever the nfl is about to happen it's like i the nfl is about to happen we're like yeah we know we all have the internet now. We know what's coming. I look at week one, the Vegas and Baltimore primetime game.

It was exciting as hell, but it wasn't good. That wasn't a good game, but it was really exciting. Then last night was Carolina and Houston was just off of the watch. Maybe it's just too many of the Giants primetime games, but I will give the Giants credit for this against the Washington football team. That was actually a really exciting game, despite some of the watch. And maybe it's just too many of the Giants' primetime games, but I will give the Giants credit for this

against the Washington football team. That was actually a really exciting game, despite some of the miscues. So the question is kind of this. The NFL can actually be a bad product, but if it's on, we're entertained. Which is like, imagine having a product like that. Imagine having a product where the game itself

can be a mess for three, imagine having a product where the game itself can be a mess for three, three plus hours. And if it's close, it would be like everyone striking out for eight innings, and then somebody hits a walk-off home run. Or if you watch an NBA game and nobody made a shot,

but it was 75-74, and it came down to the last few possessions, would we go, that was awesome? I don't think we would do that with the NBA because when we had games, playoff games in the 70s and 80s, I don't remember a ton of people thinking it was amazing unless it were Jordan and even some of that Knicks stuff. So look, it's just a thought. It's not critical of the NFL. It's actually complimentary to the NFL in a way because we can have an awful product certain nights and yet everybody's still happy with it. And I imagine the gambling and the

fantasy part of that is huge because if you're ever starting a business, and again, this is decades of the NFL here. So I think they have a headstart and a lot of you out there with startups. But if you can ever find a way to have your business not appeal just to your core fan base, but then other people, that's the goal of your business. How can we actually get people to care about this that have never, ever cared about this kind of stuff before? One part is gambling and what fantasy has done for football is off the charts. It's almost weird if you don't have a fantasy team. So if you have Christian McCaffrey, you're locked in. And if you have him, you're bummed out today.

It's very hard. Like if hockey ever had a secondary audience, they don't. Their core hockey NHL fans are amazing. The number just isn't big enough, right? All the expansion stuff that everybody gets really excited about. I mean, we can even go deeper where it's like the owners literally don't care about what any of us thought about them for the longest time. I doubt they do anymore now. They may just be smarter at not doing stuff that you'd be like, wait, why are you guys doing that?

And that went on for years. And yet we will always come back. I'm sure last night's game got a huge number. I had no, like, I was like like it's on because this is what I do for a living. If I didn't do this for a living, there's no way I'm staying in on a Thursday night to watch that game. Zero. But I watch them all because it's part of the gig. What I really want to get to though is college football and the state of four programs.

USC, Miami, Texas, and Florida State. I'm going to give you a little history and ask the question, should I hold out hope if I'm a fan of any of these teams? I can actually answer part of it now, and that would be yes, but you're not going to want the reason for it, and that's patience. But I want to run through some of the history, and it was kind of

motivated a little bit by Bruce Feldman and Antonio Morales, who did an incredible piece on USC for The Athletic. It was titled, How USC Crashed a Friggin' Ferrari, their words, friggin', of talent and what it means for the next head coach, who I still think is going to be James Franklin, just because I think he's absolutely wired to be an LA guy, to be the SC. He's everything that the LA fan base would want.

He would buy in 100%. The buyout isn't that much, but we'll see. We'll see what happens there. Because some of the other names I've heard, I'm like, what? Why would they do this? It's SC. And all you need is the next Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll was a monster at USC. Nine years, he won 84% of his games. The second year he was on campus, they won 11-2 and won a Rose Bowl. They finished in the top four seven straight years. Now, I'm going to use the AP final rankings for a lot of this stuff

or at some point just because it gives you a sense of where these schools were. All rankings aren't perfect, but then it's also going to tell you where they're at now because of the runs that some of these schools went on. Again, I'm focusing on these four programs. The first thing when I think about SC, it's like, okay, Pac-12 recruiting is not as intense as, let's just say, some other programs around the country. There's some high-profile guys they haven't been able to keep in state. there's some high profile guys they haven't been able to keep in state um price young the quarterback who's in la and uh who's in california uh pipeline to usc high school and ends up at

alabama like that's stuff that has to stop happening for the california schools and i would think for sc uh an nil deal now should be motivation enough to be able to keep some of these kids in state but the thing is SC's actually still recruited really well. I know not all of you love all the recruiting rankings, but when you have five top four finishes and nine top 10 finishes post Carroll in recruiting rankings, it tells me you're getting some guys in there, but then none of the guys are getting drafted. And that's what people would tell you around the SC program.

It's like, you know what? They're getting some guys in still. None of them develop. They just don't get better. The draft numbers when Carroll was there for nine years and the years after that, it's just not even close. It doesn't stand up, especially the top end draft picks. nationally the way the SEC is and for some of the other top programs like in Ohio State, Clemson, and look, Oregon has put together quite a recruiting class over the years. But SC was, I mean, they were every year, you're like, okay, well, this is the team that I have to just factor into the national championship conversation. And now we're like, maybe they

can win the Pac-12. And at the start of this season, they're already past their head coach, and we don't know what to make of them, even with Jackson Dart in play. Let's take a look at Miami. I don't know if that's ever going to turn around, but we'll get to that in a little bit. At their peak, and their peak lasted a really long time, and you can go from Schnellenberger to Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson, Bush Davis, Larry Coker.

They were ranked number one at one point 10 times in 20 years, throwing a couple national championships and now post-Coker, four coaches later, Randy Shannon, Al Golden, Mark Richt, and now Manny Diaz, and it's still early. The best finish

they've had post-Coker is 13th. You touch number one 10 times in 20 years and since Coker is 13th. You touch number one 10 times in 20 years. Since Coker now over a decade, the best finish was 13th in the AP poll. Let's take a look at Texas. They're on coach number three after Mack Brown. Mack Brown's last season was 2013.

He went eight and five. Mack Brown's eight and5 record in the year where everybody was sick of him down there. Remember, he didn't get Johnny Manziel. They're not putting... Look, they were doing a bad job getting guys drafted, but the Manziel stuff went on and on and on.

And poor Mack. When he started working with them, I wouldn't say Mack Brown hated Johnny Manziel. Just any time it was ever brought up, he's like, look, I get it. We didn't get Johnny Manziel. The guy won a national championship and turned Texas around. And by the end of it, he was old. And he would also say something else. I think he's only like a couple of years older

than Saban, but the perception was that Mack was like ready for a nursing home and Saban was running marathons. Can you double check that for me, Cerruti? All right. So Mack's eight and five record, which was his last season, that was better than any season Charlie Strong had. It was better than three of the four years that Tom Herman had. He hit the top five. Mac Brown was in the top five of the AP 11 times. Zero since Mac has been out. Now, finally, Florida State.

These numbers are always amazing, and they're always great to repeat. Bobby Bowden was there 34 years. They were a nothing program when they started independent football, 1954 to 1975. They were nothing before Bowden. Bowden was there 34 years. They were in the top five of the rankings at one point, 21 of his 34 seasons. Florida State finished top five. Finished finished not just ranked at some point they finished in the top 5 14 straight seasons it's actually a little weird they only had two national championships

under bowden and then they got another one with jimbo in 2013 so if you're comparing the most recent success among these four schools, Miami's not even close. Texas played for a national championship, which now is over a decade away. SC, you know, great win against Penn State in the Rose Bowl with Darnold, but there's not a lot of recent stuff for the last decade. At least Florida State could go, look, granted, it's now eight years ago and it looks terrible again with Norvell to start off this season. But this isn't Nebraska. And again, I'm not trying to take a shot at Nebraska. I'm just being factual about it. There are programs that have great history that I go, I don't know. I don't know if it's

ever going to get back to that. With Nebraska, it's not really, I don't know. I'm just pretty sure that's never happening again. If I were to say which of the four seems the most surprising that they've had this much of just a stale run for a decade, it's probably Texas. Miami always feels like a mess. Florida State, to me, is still fixable, but I think the two Florida schools, you'll hear stuff, especially with Miami and hurricanes, you'll hear stuff about like, yeah, the program is just not backed enough by the administration. You're like, all right, I'd have to be boots on the ground,

be covering the team every day to really know that stuff. And then you also hear like a lack of booster support with Florida State and that stuff too. And you're like, okay, fine. SC should not be this bad. It's just not. Everyone's going to have down stretches. Alabama couldn't get it right forever before Saban.

All right. They went through a handful of guys. Dennis Franchione left Alabama, wanted to leave to go to Texas A&M. So as bad as it is when you look in the mirror right now, it doesn't mean it's going to be this bad forever. It just isn't. Texas is probably the most confusing. I'll go over some of the NFL player stuff.

By state, most NFL players by state. Florida actually leads the way with 212. California is 191 and Texas has 179. After that, it's Georgia to 120. Then there's a massive drop off where it's Ohio at 82. Alabama has 62 players

in the NFL. Saban just runs it. You could even argue if you're in Alabama, there's less recruiting rivals. That's where Georgia comes in here because argue if you're in Alabama, there's less recruiting rivals. That's where Georgia comes in here because Georgia is just loaded with talent. And there's just not going to be a ton of kids that are going to want to go to Georgia Tech instead of going to Athens. California, you have people all over the state coming after the kids, even though there's more numbers here. Miami itself has 25 players in the NFL.

But I do wonder if there's kids that grow up in Miami that are like, actually, I want to go somewhere else, go to an ACC school and just get out of here and not stay in the same city where I went to high school. Of the four, though, again, I can't believe Texas is going to be bad forever. There's just no way. Miami, bad forever? No, but they clearly can't get it right. I mentioned some of the Florida State issues, but of the four that I would rank most likely to be like, hey, you're going to get

this back. Because think of it this way too. If you had a business where you knew no matter how bad you ran it, you were still going to be profitable, that's what college football is. The money is only going to increase. Have you seen some of the rumors on the TV rights of the college football playoff? It could almost triple just with this expansion, which again is a big reason why they're doing it. So you can do a bad job running the program, but you know that check. Imagine if you were a sales guy and you're like, I've never been worse.

Yep, but the check that comes to you every two weeks has never been higher. Maybe that's the motivation or the lack of motivation behind it with some of these schools. I don't think that's the case at Texas. Clearly, they want to get this right. SC is obviously going to try to figure out the right guy. I know patience is not what you want to hear, but this stuff becomes cyclical. But you have four name brands right now that have started off another season where it feels like you're not even close. where it feels like you're not even close.

We're big fans of his work, Shiel Kapadia, of the athletic covering the NFL. A bunch of stuff that I want to get to. I still want to carry over a couple things because you had a piece on all these thoughts from week two. And that is Baltimore's win against Kansas City. Baltimore, by the way, 481 yards, 31 first downs.

Give me a sense of what you saw from them and also how they're finding a way to restock a D-line we thought they lost a couple pieces from, because personnel-wise, we know they're already thin going into it, but they're finding a way, at least at this point. Yeah. To me, that was just like an infrastructure win. It's like you have organizations that you look at and you're just like, all right, they've probably earned the benefit of the doubt. They had a nightmarish August, a nightmarish September. You're down by 11 points to the best quarterback, the best player in the world. And you come back and win.

So that run game is just so creative and can be such a problem when it's clicking. And I think you saw that. And they just find guys to kind of come in and fill in with these roles. They draft Odafe Owe from Penn State. You know, he gets ripped for not having any sacks last year, but they're like, all right, we, you know, there are pressures. He's affecting the game. We're watching the film.

And I was at their camp in August and it was like, all right, you see this guy up close. He's just a freak athlete and you can kind of see what they see in him. And so between him and, you know, Calais Campbell, Justin Houston, like I think their D-line and their pass rush is going to be okay. So that was an impressive win. I think it's like a springboard win that,

hey, you know, we're still here. Like, don't forget about us type thing. They still have issues, but they're going to be competitive all year. I said this at the beginning of the week. Kansas City was bad defensively in basically every metric. They were terrible in the red zone on touchdown percentage, which is a real sign of how bad are you.

When they gave up, I think, what, 73% of the time they gave up touchdowns. It was worse in the NFL. Now they've allowed eight touchdowns and eight red zone possessions. The thing is, I put those numbers together from last year, and you're like, yeah, they were still 14-1 in my home starts. But it's worse. It's early. So what are you seeing? What do you think? And I know some of the numbers tell you like, hey, we know it was bad last year. It wasn't a fatal flaw. Could it be that this year? It's the formula in the NFL where it's like great offense. You really need like a below average defense. You don't need to be a juggernaut

on defense, but you can't totally suck. And they've totally sucked through the first two weeks. I mean, worst defense in the NFL by really any statistical metric. So I'm inclined to say it's early. Let's see them figure out some of their personnel a little bit. You know, I do think they need more pass rush other than Chris Jones. They're going to scheme stuff up with Steve Spagnuolo, but you're right. I mean, we could be looking at this like early January, and it's like, oh, the Chiefs have the worst defense in the NFL. They're the one seed in the AFC. It doesn't matter.

So to me, it's kind of like a leverage, you know, a high leverage situation they need to come through, whether it's a playoff game, a certain possession in a close game in the fourth quarter. But they just had that luxury where they don't have to be that great on that side of the ball. So, you know, Tyron Matthew didn't play week one. Frank Clark didn't play week one.

So they get some guys healthy. They have some young guys like Nick Bolton, the linebacker they drafted. Maybe those guys improve and they're okay. So I'm not hitting the panic button, but yeah, it has been terrible through the first two weeks. I was surprised that Sando was your co-worker over there where he was doing the average ages of the rosters. And the Chiefs are actually the youngest roster in the NFL as far as guys playing, right? Yeah, yeah, that surprised me as well. They are relying on some young guys. They got younger, I think, up front offensively in the offseason. Orlando Brown, that trade, he's in his early

mid-20s, so they're not relying on a bunch of older players who you're worried about injuries and decline. That's actually a point in their favor that you could have some young guys improve as the season goes on. This is a good transition on the great offense, let's hope for mediocre defense and see what we have here. I think that's what everybody said about Dallas. We now have over 20 games of Kellen Moore and Dak. And when they're together, it's amazing. Yeah, there's you can't whatever you thought Dak's floor was like. Everybody has to kind of collectively be like, look, this is let me actually just throw that one at you. Who would you rather have right now?

Quarterback in your team, Dak or Lamar? It's I think I would say Dak. It's a tough one, but I think Lamar, you're building the whole operation from top to bottom around Lamar, the run game, you know, personnel wise, that's kind of the foundation of everything you do. You know, I think he's fine as a passer, but certainly not as consistent. Dak doesn't get credit for how smart he is. I mean, week one against Todd Bowles, he's coming off an ankle injury. He's got a shoulder issue. He's clearly not himself physically.

And the guy just before the snap knew what was coming, knew where to go with the ball. So his accuracy, his decision-making his smarts before the snap, like that lets you kind of have, you know, weaknesses in other parts of the roster that he can make up for. So I think I would say Dak,

but I do think it is close. Okay. So now back to the Dallas thing, because we are probably the two biggest non chargers, guys, charger supporters last year. I think the first time we talked, I was like, Because we were probably the two biggest non-Chargers guys, Chargers supporters. Last year, I think the first time we talked, I was like, I love that you love this Chargers depth right now.

And you're like, yeah, absolutely. Look how good this team could be. And then it didn't quite work out. But then you have the quarterback part of this. You're like, wait, no, we're back. We're back in. Different coaching staff. Guys will be healthy because they're never not healthy

if they weren't healthy the year before. I thought that was a really nice win against the L.A. We're back in. Different coaching staff. Guys will be healthy because they're never not healthy if they weren't healthy the year before. I thought that was a really nice win against the L.A. Chargers for Dallas. And the Chargers, if you're on that side of it, you say they pissed away with a bunch of penalties, a couple decisions here or there. But just anything, any semblance of hope defensively for Dallas has to be a huge, well, I don't want to say sigh of relief for the rest of the season, but any sign of it is an improvement over what the expectations were for that unit going into August.

Yeah. Last year was such a disaster. I think we know they're not going to be a stout defense that's forcing three and outs on like every other possession. They have to be opportunistic, which is where I'm going to be a little cautious in heaping praise on them so far. They've had six takeaways in two games. We know that's not sustainable. Now, you can kind of live that way, where if you just are getting those takeaways, you don't have to be great defensively. You can give up some yards. You can be bend, don't break, come through in the red zone. That's going to have to be the type of defense they are. But they do deserve credit because Dan Quinn comes over, and he's not doing what he was doing in Atlanta and in Seattle before that. Everyone looked, everyone looked at those defenses where you're just playing with a single high safety and you're

sort of predictable. He has changed those things up where they were playing a lot of split safety coverages last week. And so I will give him credit. I think it's a positive sign that he's willing to adapt. I don't think they're going to be a defensive juggernaut, but like you said, they got to be mediocre, slightly below average. They've got some young pieces, Micah Parsons, Trevon Diggs, where you've got to be pumped about what those guys have shown so far. I would say cautiously optimistic for the Cowboys.

Arizona's my favorite team that's not the Chargers. I'm just kind of making fun of myself here. I love watching Arizona, the Kyler part of it. We knew the secondary was going to be an issue. We felt really good about the second. Again, these are just a couple of weak samples of this whole deal. But the fact that they would shut down a Tennessee team with that passing game and Jones and A.J.

And then you see Seattle couldn't defend them when they're trying to get back to that. But Minnesota did move the ball until the very end. They miss a kick. That game could have clearly gone the other way. Give me your assessment the ball until the very end. They miss a kick. That game could have clearly gone the other way. Give me your assessment of who Arizona is right now, the Kyler part of it, and also a secondary we're probably still scared of. Yeah, I had such a tough time coming up with a strong take on Arizona coming into the season because you look at it, the first half of last year, when Kyler Murray's healthy, they have like a top seven, top eight offense

in the NFL. And then he suffers that shoulder injury and it all falls apart in the second half of the season. And so you're going, all right, well, is it a matter of just Kyler Murray being healthy or were there more issues there? And I still think what worries me about the Cardinals and I'm with you. They're like the most fun team to watch right now through the first two weeks. Every other play is a highlight. I'm a little worried how much Kyler Murray has to do. I mean, a quarterback just putting the entire operation on his back. That's what it looks like to me. They're not scheming things up. It's not, you

know, easy plays here and there. You're not getting layups a lot of the time. It's just like, holy cow, how did he just make that play? But he's doing it over and over again. And so I want to see that sustain a little bit longer and make sure he's healthy and that he's able to do that. But man, he's been fun to watch. And then defensively, it's going to have to just be their pass rush, making up for everything else with Chandler Jones and JJ Watt. I mean, Malcolm Butler,

the cornerback, he retires right before, right before the season starts. So they're not really talented back there, but I will give their coordinator Vance Joseph credit. I mean, last year they were banged up. They didn't have a lot of talent.

And by some of the advanced stuff, they were like a top 10 defense last year. So he can scheme stuff up with their blitz schemes and the other stuff that they do. And so I've been excited to watch them so far. Can you just give us a little on J.J. Watt, the perception of who he is as a player and actually who he still has been defensively?

Yeah, I thought he's been really good through the first two weeks. I don't know what his stats are, but you see him making plays behind the line of scrimmage. He kind of knows when to gamble. He's got the veteran savvy, I guess you could say. My question when they made that trade is just, is he going to be able to stay healthy? Because he stayed healthy last year.

The previous four seasons, he missed 32 games. And so you're looking at a guy in his early 30s. It's not likely that he's going to be healthy the entire season. But when he's out there, you know, between him and Chandler Jones, they've been pretty good. But I think the other thing, even though he's missed, you know, all of those games, that when he was playing, he was still good. I feel like there's two parts of it. You're healthy, so the public becomes sick of talking about you,

but they're also holding you to the standard of when you're defensive player of the year like he was. He's not that, but he's still, I just feel like J.J. Watt's still a lot better than people want to give him credit for when he's out there. Yeah, I would agree with that. And the attention you see offenses give to him when they're playing him, I mean, that suggests that offensive coordinators probably think the same thing. Okay, so you were talking coordinators there, Vance Joseph. Who do you think right now when you're talking to teams,

who are the guys considered the best in-game at calling plays for both offense and defense? I think it's probably been the two same guys for like a decade now. And Andy Reid and Sean Payton, I feel like, are sort of the universally thought of as ahead of the curve, can do more with less type guys. Now, we'll see with Payton this year whether that holds true with the quarterbacks he has. in this year, whether that holds true with the quarterbacks he has, but just in terms of like the film and the scheme that every coach seems to watch in the off season, it's usually the Saints where they want to steal from. And then Andy Reid, I mean, he's just been ahead of the curve in terms of the solution to every problem is to pass the ball more and to like bombs away downfield, you know, that can solve everything. I don't know. That just might be a personal

preference of mine where I'm like, yup, that seems like the right attitude to take. But I mean, look at the efficiency when he had Alex Smith or when he's got Michael Vick, you know, in his second run. I mean, those offenses were really good. So it's easy to look at it and say, give me a break. He's got Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelsey. And that's true, but he's done it with lesser talent in the past. And now it's just like far and away been the best offense year to year over the past few years.

I'll give you a hot take though on, you know, I haven't heard other people say this, but John Gruden needs to get some respect as an in-game play caller. I mean, John Gruden, personnel guy, you know, been a bit of a train wreck, head scratchers every year. You don't know what he's doing, but look at what he's done the last three years. I mean, they've had a top 10 offense since the start of 2019 and look at who he's doing it with. I mean, they've had a top 10 offense since the start of 2019. And look at who he's doing it with. I mean, Derek Carr, mediocre, above average. I mean, he's not an elite quarterback. You got guys like Nelson Aguilar having career years. You got guys like Brian Edwards stepping up. So I feel like Gruden has sort of become this caricature that everybody makes fun of.

And I get it. That's fun to do. But when you look, just watch the Raiders week to week, like they almost every week are moving the ball down the field, doing creative stuff. And I feel like he's been, it's been really impressive how he was away and is back as a schemer and play caller and done such a good job. So give me your quick, because this does not sound like a very pro Derek Carr segment of the interview here.

No, I mean, I think Carr is good. I think he's fine. I think he's in that middle tier of quarterback. You know, Because this does not sound like a very pro Derek Carr segment of the interview here. No, I mean, I think Carr is good. I think he's fine. I think he's in that middle tier of quarterback. You know, the Kirk Cousins, Jimmy Garoppolo's, Derek Carr. You know, you could probably throw, maybe you throw Tannehill in there. Guys where it's really going to be based on their surroundings, their coaching, their supporting cast. But he's been very efficient. I don't know that a quarterback has a better understanding of what their coach wants

than Derek Carr, because I don't think Gruden's easy to play for. Every offseason, there's a rumor that they want to get rid of Carr, and he's just come back, and he's gotten better and better and better, and he's really pushing the ball downfield this season, which I think has been the big difference. So no, it's not an anti-Carr take, but it was just

I think Gruden really deserves a lot of respect. Were you in Philadelphia, because I know that's kind of where you're based out of that's where you're still now right yes yeah yeah were you covering the team when everybody thought andy reed was the dumbest human being ever towards the end because i don't know if that was a philly thing or whatever like was the clock management truly as bad because as people made it out to be all the time because i remember thinking it was because that's all anybody ever brought up. And then when he was on his way out, it was just like, you know, it's time to move on. And it's kind of funny because at the top of the segment, I did this thing on college

football coaches where you're like, oh, we can do better this. We can do better this. Sometimes when you think you can, you end up not. So yeah, I started covering the Eagles his last year. So they were four and 12 and they were a disaster. And then he leaves after the season the previous year. He was eight and eight. You know, I do think he was kind of out of ideas

with this group and it had gotten stale. And the clock management was terrible. Here's what, watch a Chiefs game now, their clock management. It's not Andy Reid has figured it out. It's Mahomes waving him off saying, dude, I got this. Like, I don't want anyone to tell me what to do. I noticed that two years ago

where they called a timeout or something and Mahomes is going to the sideline, barking, going, dude, what are you doing? I've got this. Like, I don't need anyone to tell me what to do. I noticed that two years ago where they called a timeout or something and Mahomes is going to the sideline barking, going, dude, what are you doing? I've got this. Like, I don't need anyone helping me with this. And so I feel like, well, you know, Reid has been like, all right, you know, go ahead. You've got this. I don't think Reid has figured that part out. That was always a weakness, even now.

I mean, they'll kick some of these field goals or punt where I'm like, you know who your quarterback is, where he's, Reid is so aggressive in every other aspect of what he does. But sometimes with the game management stuff, it still kind of creeps up on him a little bit. I thought the opener against the Browns, like I thought Stefanski in that game was giving the Browns much more of an edge with his in-game stuff.

Whereas Reid was being a little bit conservative there. So it's kind of something to watch where the rare occasions where the Chiefs lose a close game or a playoff game, it could still creep up if Mahomes doesn't just take over. Okay, you know I read every word you type, all right? So this might be a little bit more specific. And I'm coming at this with, I don't know that you're wrong. I'm not sure that I'm right either.

But I've noticed a fourth down obsession with everybody, okay? And I've noticed that if you're a coach that not sure that i'm right either but i've noticed a fourth down obsession with everybody okay and i've noticed that like if you're a coach that doesn't go for one now you're the dumbest fucking person walking the planet and it's never about the specific nature of the game it's never about your personnel it's never about like it's only no no no you're supposed to go like cully last night didn't go for it in one spot, went for it in another, and then he was an idiot because he wasn't doing it. So my question to you would be, like, there's – I forget which game. I think there was a Dallas game you were upset about that you were writing, and it wasn't just the Zerline, you know, clock thing.

I think there was a fourth down. Who was – no, it was Atlanta. It was Arthur Spence. It was the Falcons, yes. It was the Falcons because you felt like, hey, what's your plan? If your plan is this – and my counter to you would be, is it okay to do it once and then not do it another time? Or do you have to always go for it all the time

or never go for it based on what you're campaigning as your team's identity? Maybe it was the Atlanta part and Arthur Smith where I was like, wait, what are you asking for here? Yeah, well, the old line is you can't date the analytics. You got to marry the analytics. Because if you want to get the edge over a large sample, and Kevin Stefanski, when I visited Brown's camp this summer,

was basically saying, you're saying over a long period of time, this is going to give you an edge. But I did a story on the Ravens a couple of years ago when they go 14-2 and was talking to Harbaugh about it. And he said, yes, sometimes you have more information than the statistical model that you have has. And I was talking to their analytics guys and they said, yeah, that's true. Like Harbaugh knows whether his right guard has lost complete confidence right now and is getting his butt kicked. And the play we have in the game plan for fourth and two is to run behind the right guard.

And he doesn't want to do that right now. And so he's, you know, we're fine with him making that decision. So I think that's fine. The Arthur Smith thing annoyed me because it was the first possession of the game. And they're, I think fourth and one on the Tampa side of the field. And they do this thing, which I can't stand where it's, Hey, try to draw them off sides. And then, you know, we'll just take the delay and go ahead and punt. And it's like, just, you know, go ahead and go for it. Give me a break. But then the next possession, he's got fourth and two from his own side of the field

and they go for it. So to me, I'm like, where's the unit? It just made me question. You're right. I should be fair. I haven't talked to Arthur Smith about this. But in terms of your process, when you're having your game planning meeting

on Friday or Saturday, do you have a plan? Or are you going into a game like this after you put in hours of film breakdown and game planning and scheming and these high leverage situations? You're just saying, well, what do I feel like doing here? What's my gut say? Because that part does sort of annoy me. And you're right. I probably do obsess over it in my writing quite a bit. But it felt like a bigger annoyance with Atlanta in general as far as team building.

I think sometimes I'm more simplistic and it doesn't make me right, but I'll go, alright, well maybe their scouting department didn't like where they're going to be in the draft with these quarterbacks. They didn't like the offers they got for Ryan and they go, you know, for three more years of Ryan, let's just kind of see what we have. We'll give him another weapon in pits because

he grades out maybe higher than any single person in this draft and then we'll see what we have. It's been another weapon in pits because he grades out maybe higher than any single person in this draft and then we'll see what we have and you know it's been a defense that could never get it out of its own way i would say they've had a run there what for like three or four years roster wise the amount of health problems they had that was probably on the extreme of bad luck for them or perhaps it's just signing guys that are hurt and you know if you sign somebody who's hurt all the time i think he's just going to magically be helping with you we've seen teams do that i guess sometimes I'll just be like, maybe they just wanted

to keep Ryan and they didn't like the offers and then that's what they're doing. And then I'll look at like, here's a good example, Tennessee Vrabel. All right, so when Vrabel went for it,

what was it against the Colts? Is it two years ago? I'm trying to remember because it was like a big Monday thing. Okay. They went, I don't know,

I'll have to maybe look this up on the fly as I'm talking about it. But basically, Vrabel went for it on a fourth down, I think on the own side of his field. And he's like, hey, we're doing this because we want to show that we're a winning football team, that we're playing winning football. And it's like, man, look at this guy in the vest. He's huge.

Like, everybody loved it. He went for it, or he didn't go for it against Seattle, and they missed the field goal. Then they went for it, and they didn the field goal. Then they went for it and they didn't get it. And then they're like, is he going to go for two or is he just going to tie it up and go to overtime? And it's like, nah, we're going to go to overtime here. Like we're just going to go to overtime. And I thought, well, would that be him contradicting himself? Like, no, he was, he was kind of looking at, I just feel like the whole fourth down obsession, which we're seeing all the time. It's like, you're an idiot if you don't go for it every time. I don't think we're factoring in enough of who are we today? Who is my team? Who are we today? How do we like this matchup? Okay, maybe I didn't go for it before, you know, and I didn't get it. And now with the game and clock and all these different things, like, I just think there's more factors than just whenever anybody puts up the graphic like nfl fourth down conversion here's the percentage you're like that's every fourth down attempt on all 32 teams

over an entire three-hour game like that that's not specific enough to what i have to factor in as a head coach i think that's right i think you have to it's i think i want to see a basically what i want to see is a plan consistency and coaches that have thought about this before and then coaches that know their team but you're right even like let you know last night you know on Thursday night with Carolina versus Houston the Panthers kicked the field goal there I think they were what inside the five where they took a timeout and then they kicked the field goal where probably the the models would say go for it but in that situation I'm it's fine like you're like all right Davis Mills is on the other side. The Texans haven't done anything all game long. We can go

ahead and kick the field goal here. And that's right. But I do think the culture thing is a factor here. Like, I don't know if you saw the Ravens had like a video during their post game speech after the chiefs win and Harbaugh was basically saying it came down to that fourth down and like the D line coach is saying, you better go for it. And like a linebacker saying, we're going for this. Right. And so when you do this and I cover that Eagles team that won the Superbowl, like there's just this built-in thing where the players are like, it's okay if we don't get it once, like, it's not going to be the end of the world. If we don't get it in a big spot, we like that we're being aggressive. The coach is showing confidence in us. And so I do think that type of consistency where it's part of sort of the entire organization and the game plan and the scheming and the planning,

I do think that helps when it comes down to some of this stuff. Yeah. It's a 2018 game here. That's what it was. I guess it was Vrabel and Frank Reich. Okay. Yeah. Reich's been really aggressive. Yeah. And it worked out for Vrabel.el. It's funny because as I was looking this up, in 2019 when Tennessee had a stretch of not converting fourth downs, it's like Vrabel to blame for fourth down aggression. Everybody wanted to turn him into a superhero

when he did it against the Colts. Anyway, enough on fourth downs. I thought your Jalen Hurts stuff was terrific because it looked like they used him brilliantly in week one. I watched the entire San Francisco game because I'm very interested in watching a guy in college in Hertz, where I thought I was pretty well-educated on the shortcomings to seeing what he could be. And it was two completely different guys.

Was it his approach on deep throws, or do you think that that's what they were calling for against San Francisco in their loss? No, I think it was a game plan thing. They thought in week one, it was a great game plan against Atlanta. It was a lot of layups, a lot of short throws, get the ball out, let guys make plays. And then week two, the 49ers had that banged up secondary specifically at cornerback. And I think they thought, all right, we can attack these guys downfield. It wasn't the worst game plan. I mean, if you look at it, there were like a couple situations in that game where it really could have been a different result. And I usually hate when coaches say that, because you can say that about every single game, but I do think it was true there.

He just got the ball out late. I thought a couple of times Devante Smith gets open deep, has a staff and the ball comes out a little bit late. And then it looks like an underthrow and, you know, they have a situation where it's, you know, first down from the San Francisco one and they don't score there. So what I want to see from Hurts and that offense is for him to be used more as a runner creatively. I just feel like it's such a huge advantage. It answers so many questions when you have a quarterback where you can design these runs,

whether it's short yardage, red zone, whatever, where it's not just an occasional zone read. I mean, he has been scrambling very well, but I want to see some of the designed quarterback runs. And I do wonder if we'll see that as a bigger part of the game plan Monday night against Dallas. Okay. Give me your thoughts on your Chargers at Kansas City this weekend. I feel good about them. I feel good about the Chargers after the first two weeks. I mean, they've played better. I'm not, I was going to say I'm a Chargers homer. I don't live in Los Angeles. I have literally no connection to the franchise other than my

sort of obsession with Justin Herbert, I guess, of late, but you know, it was a tough break. As you alluded to earlier last week, they have 12 penalties for 99 yards. They have two touchdowns called back. They have a 31 yard completion called back. So I think their offense is fine. You know, I think Herbert's been very good through the first two weeks. I think they're going to be competitive in that game. I don't know if they're going to win it, but I do think they're going to be competitive in that game. And I haven't lost any faith. I haven't cursed them yet. So I'm still on the Chargers bandwagon. That's a playoff team to me. What do you make of the Saints at New England? The Saints are two

entirely different teams and New England could be 2-0 and I know everybody loves Mac Jones maybe just because of watching Cam Newton last year but I swear, like some of the stuff that Mac is doing I mean, the defense looks like it's going to be solid. Damian Harris is one of the most underrated skill guys in the league.

I wouldn't put him in that tier one with running backs like Derrick Henry and Dalvin Cook who Dalvin in week two, man, that guy's a beast. I mean, he was getting his ass kicked, and he just kept coming back for more and more. I love Dalvin Cook. But I don't know that I'm on the same page as everybody else with Mac Jones on some of this stuff. He's not really doing that much at all. Then there's some numbers that'll tell you.

You want to start talking about tosses to the sticks. This is not. Yeah. And the irony is that people are like, oh, it want to start talking about tosses to the sticks. Like, this is not. Yeah. And the irony is that people are like, oh, it's just like Brady. And they're kind of kidding around. I know this is amazing to younger people, but Brady was the absolute don't throw it down the field. Easy throws, defense.

We're going to. They picked up the running game. Like, he became somebody year three that he wasn't physically his first year playing with the pats they didn't let him do anything and that's the part that reminds me of mac jones not the not the peak brady 50 touchdown mvp brady yeah i think mac jones when he's asked to just operate from the pocket and make good decisions and throw the ball accurately that part has all been impressive i i think i think people have gone way too overboard with the Patriots and Matt Jones so far. I mean, like last week

it was back, do not lose this game for us. And he still had a fumble. They recover it. Otherwise, that's a turnover. He had an interception that was dropped where if that's caught, we're having a different conversation. He had that intentional grounding during the two-minute drill at the end of the first half. So it's just funny. That's three plays where if a little bit of luck goes another way,

like if they miss the field goal, we're saying, ooh. And that's not me crushing Mac Jones. That's what you see from rookie quarterbacks. That's totally normal growing pains, but they did not ask him to do a lot at all in that game. So I think Sean Payton and Bill Belichick are just going to have three-hour meetings with their quarterbacks this week saying, do not lose this game for us. We, we, we don't need you to carry us on your back. I mean, really that's going to be the game plan for both of them. The Saints are going to say, let's limit what Jameis has to do here. Maybe Camara can get going. Maybe our defense can fluster Mac Jones a little bit. And then Belichick is going to say the same thing. Just wait for Jameis to throw us an interception. That will be enough. But I just feel like that Patriots supporting cast,

you know, they spent all this money in the off season, but like they, they went from terrible to like mediocre to slightly below average, you know, like the Saints are not going to be losing sleep this week thinking about how do we game plan for Nelson Aguilar, Kendrick Bourne, John Smith and Hunter Henry. I mean, it's just not on the same level as the other defenses they face. So Damian Harris was terrific last week. That's legit. Their O-line is very good.

So the pieces are in place for him to be successful, but I still think it's going to be kind of like, don't lose the game for us. Make good decisions. Do you have any other game coming up that you're really excited about that you maybe already know you're starting to write on? Or is there one you're going to?

I don't know. I'm intrigued by Packers 49ers on Sunday night because you mentioned the Niners against the Eagles last week. Jimmy G was not good in that game. I mean, talk about- No, I don't believe that. I mean, talk about treating a veteran quarterback like this is his first game in the NFL. I mean, his average throw went 3.7 yards past the line of scrimmage last week.

And when they asked him to hit some of these routine throws in the intermediate part of the field, his accuracy was all over the place. And so I was at halftime going, is Shanahan going to pull the plug here? Now they won the game. I get it. Their record is unbelievable with Garoppolo as the starter. But if he has a couple more games like that and they end up losing those games, I don't think it's going to be long before Shanahan makes a decision there because I really thought he struggled. And the thing is, if you're

going to treat your quarterback like that, then why not go ahead and go with the rookie and he'll give you something, a little boost in the run game. So Niners fans are very sensitive. I know they're not going to like hearing this. They don't like when anyone mentions it, but that's kind of how I saw that game. So that's an interesting game to me. That's Shio Kapati. You could read him on The Athletic.

He is a must-read for NFL coverage. He's terrific, and we're happy we have some time with him. Thanks, man. Thanks for having me. Kyle, that Mac Jones segment bummed me out a little bit? It did not, actually. It's stuff that I haven't really said out loud, but the first segment bummed me out a little bit. It did not, actually. I just did stuff that I haven't really said out loud. But the first game really scared me when he like his first debut pass and he like threw it on the ground.

You know, like the first pass anyone saw from Mac Jones in the regular season. That wasn't great. And then, yeah, last week it hasn't been awesome. But honestly, I didn't love the Jimmy G stuff either. So I might just cut that all out. You know what Max Belt Backwards is, right? Oh yeah. It's camp.

Just making sure. Not too late to bring him back. If anyone watched the first fight or the second fight, I'm sure they're looking forward to part three of Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, October 9th. And we have Tyson with us now. Okay, so heavyweight champ of the world at this point. This has been a journey, not only for you, but just to get to this third fight.

I know the Anthony Joshua deal and all that. There have been some comments recently where their camp was really upset with the timing of all of this. Where are you at right now just in what you think of Wilder, the fighter and the person? I think Wilder's a piece of shit as a fighter, an even bigger piece of shit as a person.

That's what I think about him. Now, is that specific to him calling you guys liars and basically saying he hopes your camp burns in hell? I mean, he got pretty specific. No, no, no, no, no. Listen, he can say what he wants.

It's all bullshit. I don't take any notice to what people say it's just their opinions and everybody's allowed their opinion um but yeah what wilder says goes in there and out of there man's a shithouse piece of shit coward no good piece of bum rubbish. That's all he is. Did you feel that way prior to the first fight? No. I thought he was an alright man in the first fight, but the amount of excuses that this man's come out with is ridiculous.

What pissed you off the most then? Nothing. This is all bullshit. Everything he says is bullshit these days. He's mentally unstable and I'm going to put that final nail coffin in when I destroy him on two, three weeks time.

The first fight you came in at 257. Your stamina, Tyson, is unbelievable for somebody your size. Where did you learn how to fight this way? I know your family and I know the background, but how did you figure out to have this much movement,

this much stamina that late into the first fight? I was born like this. I come out of my mother's womb like this. Now, you weighed 273 in the second fight. How did that help you

finish that one earlier? Didn't. If I weighed 222 or 292, the outcome would have been the same. Now, I know he bulked up. Did you think he was slower, another 12 pounds up? It doesn't make a difference to me if they come in slow or fast or whatever.

The outcome's always going to be the same. They're going to get annihilated. You had mentioned in an interview that you weren't sure of his power leading up to it, and it felt like you respected his power more after that first fight. Is that accurate? Because it doesn't seem like you respect him right now that much.

I didn't respect him in the second fight at all. I walked right through him. I didn't give a fuck about his power. It's heavyweight boxing. They can all punch, every one of them. The first fight, though, it was a glancing blow, the first knockdown. The second knockdown, I've seen you in other interviews saying,

whoa, that kind of surprised me. I look up, I see the ref with a four, but your eyes were clear immediately. How quick was that recovery on the second knockdown? I don't remember last week, mate, never mind three years ago. I don't remember what I had for fucking dinner this morning. Never mind three or four years ago. I remember what I had for fucking dinner this morning. Never mind three or four years ago.

Come on. Get with it. Get with the script, Baldy. We're not fighting, so I don't... Go on. I like all this talk. Get fierce. We're in fucking fight mode.

All right. Give me more of a background on how you figured out to have this much movement. Because big guys don't fight the way you fight. Listen, honestly, right? The questions you're asking me, I have no answers to. It's a God-given talent. I didn't figure anything out. I box like this because it's a natural thing.

I didn't figure it. I didn't practice it. It's natural It's nothing I can answer, I can't answer that question Because there's no answer to the question It's God given ability Talent, whatever you want to call it How close was this fight to not happening then With all the other bullshit you had to deal with

Yeah that's a bad question, fucking come on You've answered this question With other people so maybe it's just a fight week I've not done any interviews at all for like six seven months I've done maybe one or two interviews I've not been doing interviews I saw the beach interview and I thought it was a great

interview I've been out of the media completely alright so this fight was close to not happening because Wilder and his contract expired and I was about to fight Anthony Joshua for the big bucks in Saudi Arabia and then that got fucked up by Wilder.

So here we are again. I'll just take it all out on Wilder's face and then I'll go and fuck up AJ as well afterwards. So double bubble where I come from. How often do you have to think about the right hand from Wilder? Don't. I don't think about anything. I go in there, do what I do,

fuck shit up. What's the best bar fight you've ever been in? Best bar fight? Yeah. Probably about two months ago. I was all in a fucking big bar in England, and all of a sudden, next minute, I've been crashed in the back of the head. I've looked around.

Someone's cracked me. They hit me with an uppercut. Bang. My mate Tim's grabbed a stool and someone over the head with it. It was like a proper Western movie brawl fight. And you don't have to hit anybody? Do you just stand there or do you take care of it? I just let them fly. Whoever comes forward can get it.

Self-protection. What's it called? Self-defense. In England, if somebody hits me, I'm in me with me rights to it and back the self-defense at what point if i hit them first then i'm in trouble yeah i would i would imagine and you probably somebody would try to find a way to get you into trouble anyway uh you were you were an astonishingly good looking guy when you were younger i was looking at all the pictures of you do you is an astonishingly good looking guy when you were younger i was looking at all the pictures of you do you is that why you're so angry because you were you were model attractive with a full head of hair back in the day as somebody who struggled with that too i'll

look at pictures yeah it was like prince charming back in the day but i'm not like a fucking beast animal so i like it better like this anyway when i yeah I was younger, I used to shave my hair off so it didn't get in the way when I fight. And now I don't even have to worry about it because I'm a bald-headed ugly bastard. So it doesn't really matter to me. Okay, so when does the switch go on? Because I get it, man.

You're doing something that nobody has the balls to do. There's very few people, and that's why I have so much respect for anybody that's in combat sports. You come out of that tunnel, and you're doing the shit that a lot of people wish they could do, but they're just not wired that way. When do you know to start ramping it up that way where you're looking at this as just battle, like medieval shit? I'm ready to go now.

I've still got like two and a half weeks to go, but I'm very eager to get going. I've done all my training. I've done two training camps. I've overcome a lot of hurdles. So I'm ready to go. So I'm really fired up all the way through. But I can't wait for the night. What goes through your head when you're coming out of the tunnel?

Destroy. Seek and destroy. Smash. Hulk smash. That's what I feel like when I'm walking through the tunnels and see all the crowd and it gets me all going and I feel like, yep, this is it. Don't get scared now. What was it like when you did get scared? I didn't get scared ever.

You never? You said you don't get scared now. So I didn't know. When you were younger, unproven, you never scared? Never scared. Never nervous? You can't be a fighting man and be scared to go in a boxing ring. It's not possible. I think there's some guys that can be scared. If you're scared, you're not going to be a true champion, are you?

Because it's only a man with a pair of gloves on or not, and you're going to go do a fight. You've been trained. He's been trained. You're going to meet up, do some combat, and then go and get absolutely smashed afterwards. That's how we roll. How pissed off were you after the first fight?

Pretty pissed off. You live and you learn, and you move forward, and you get over stuff quite quickly, I believe. Could you ever sense when someone was scared against you then? Yeah, you can sense it for sure. What do you notice? You notice body language. I'm out of questions.

I thought we were going to go longer. You're in a mood right now, and you're ready to go. I don't know. I mean, you know, I know you... I'm not in a mood. I'm in a happy mood. I'm not in a bad mood. I'm in a good mood. I can tell you're kind of in a good mood, but I don't want to be...

I feel like I'm fucking up your day a little bit here. No, you're not fucking up my day. It's cool. I'm in a good mood. I can tell you're kind of in a good mood, but I don't want to be, I feel like I'm fucking up your day a little bit here. No, you're not fucking up my day. It's cool. I'm not doing anything. I've done my training today. I've had my dinner. I've drunk my water. You know, I've had my minerals and vitamins. I'm ready. So what's it like when you're done? What's the rest of your day

like in Vegas? Because you've got like two weeks, three weeks here. Yeah, I got two weeks on Saturday. So I wake up quite early because I get to bed early. I wake up at like 6am. I'll come downstairs, have a coffee, wake up the rest of the house because I don't like everyone sleeping while

I'm awake. So we all get up, have a little coffee together, a little reunion coffee every morning. Sometimes I go to the shop and get an energy drink, like a caffeinated drink. I'm not going to say any names because I'm not getting paid. And then about 8 o'clock, 7.30, I have breakfast.

10 o'clock, I go to the gym. Come back at 12, 12, 1 o'clock, I'll have my lunch. And then I'll rest until four, train again and then I'll have my lunch, my tea about 6.30, do a little bit of R&R,

rest and recover, watch a few movies and then get to bed. I'm tired by about nine o'clock, absolutely falling asleep. Get to bed, get up the next day, do exactly the same thing.

Pretty boring, actually. Very boring, I'd say. Training camp life is the most solitude, boring thing that anybody could ever do. Imagine just doing that exactly what I've just said there for like 10 weeks without even having any breaks anywhere, taking any days off. That's it, really. I look forward to it. Because, you know, look, I've been following you now I've read everything I've

watched everything and I always think of like if you're a fighter which I'm not but you know to be at peace the way you are in your life which you shared with so many people I think a lot of people from the outside could be like hey is that actually detrimental to being a fighter to be at peace

but you being at peace has made you into the best version of you. Have you ever thought about that, how those two things kind of fight with each other? Yeah, I believe that when a fighter's happy at home and within his own skin and happy with who he is, then you get the best results. And for a long time, I was battling mentally with my own self.

It took a lot out of me. It took a lot of time, a lot of effort to be comfortable with who i am and just be myself all the time um and when i got to grips with that there's you've still got to manage and maintain if you suffer with mental health problems like i do then i could drift back a wall again quite quickly so i got i've got to live like a military type lifestyle where i'm always training. Everything's a routine.

I love a routine structured way of life. And if I do that, then I find I go straight through life on a nice, easy sailing path. But if I start going back and not training or whatever, no routine, then I can easily go mentally unwell quite quickly. Because what you guys do is so hard.

I mean, it's not just hard, the show that we get to see on a Saturday night, all the stuff you're talking about, the 10 weeks, the regiment, but it's almost like that's perfect for you now because of everything that you've gone through, which actually makes you a better fighter. I mean, is that fair?

Yeah, I think the last three years I've been most dedicated I've ever been in my whole career. I've had the easiest training camps because I've come in on weight. Usually, I'd have to lose like 110 pounds on average every training camp. This time, I come in, I'm on weight. I've not got to worry about losing weight. Just eat clean and do plenty of training. It's good fun.

Before, it wasn't fun. It was a horrible job and I hated it it was a a burden to me where now I just I love training camp I could do it every day

and I absolutely love training and they always say you realise when you're at the end of your career a lot of football players a lot of hockey everybody

they all realise if they were when they were young they were undedicated. When they get to the 30s, they really dedicate themselves. Better late than never, that's what I always say. Because I've heard you talk about Klitschko. That was the guy that you had in your targets. We'll always hear about the contender.

You're sitting there and you're working towards something. You're thinking about it for years. Then once you accomplish it, that's when things fall of fall apart not just for you as you've admitted but it happens once you reach that top um how how much was that all right hey i did it i did the thing i always wanted to do and then i felt like all right i'm already done yeah it's called paradise syndrome you put all your eggs in one basket you set an unreachable goal you achieve it. And it becomes you don't have any goals anymore, you don't have any targets. It's almost like you've completed your journey.

It's your Mount Everest. And it's pretty difficult to switch to another goal when you've achieved the unreachable goal. Then you struggle a lot. And I found out, I've done a lot of research on it, and a lot of people, not just fighters, other people, whether it's business, whether it's leisure,

whatever their target may be, once they reach that unreachable goal, it's almost like they don't have any more goals anymore and it's pretty difficult to switch to something else. How do the other heavyweights in history treat you you know the guys that are still walking around with us i mean i know the mike tyson part of it i always thought was funny i was watching an interview talking about you he's like well i root for tyson because he's named after me so yeah i'm a little biased um what's what's the conversation with mike tyson like when you run

into him oh me and mike are pretty cool you know he's a really cool guy i'm named after him i got a lot of respect for him i admire him and he's a great person you know he's been really cool guy i'm named after him i got a lot of respect for him i admire him and he's a great person you know he's been for a lot in his life and career and he's come out the other side and he's doing really well so i'm very happy for him um all the heavyweights i don't really have a lot to uh to do with them um i speak to lennox lewis now and again and he's pretty cool guy um he's a great career and you know it's it's admirable respect because it's a VIP members-only club to be the heavyweight champion of the world, and there's not so many people who've been it.

So I think everyone deserves respect who's been there and done that. I was watching some of the videos from your hometown, where you live now, not Manchester, but you could describe it as Alcatraz. It's an unbelievable setting. I kind of fell in love with the place and just researching it as Alcatraz. It's an unbelievable setting. I mean, I kind of fell in love with the place and just researching a little bit more. Can you tell us more about where you're stationed now? Yeah, I'm stationed at a small seaside town in the north of England called Morecambe Bay.

Not much goes on there. It's not even a tourist destination. It's more like a retirement residential seaside town. The nearest big towns are like Liverpool and manchester which are about an hour away um and it's pretty there's nothing much to do there everyone knows each other and you just crack on it's very small and like i say it keeps me out of trouble because there's absolutely zero that you can do there apart from train eat sleep repeat um if i want to go and go for a meal or something, then I do have to drive to Manchester or Liverpool

to go out for like a fancy meal with my wife or meet up with the family or whatever. So it works for me. It wouldn't work for everybody. A lot of people say, why do you live here? It's like, there's nothing here. But I've been there 13 years and it's kept me grounded and it keeps me motivated

and keeps me being a normal person. What's it like for you walking around? I mean, people, you've been there 13 years. Everybody knows who you are. Is it almost that everybody knows who you are and they're over it already? Like nobody even... Yeah, you know, everyone knows me. Actually, Morecombe is like a solitude place for me where I'm sort of left alone.

Apart from weekends, like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, bank holiday Mondays when people come to the beach and everybody comes to the house knocking on the door and stuff like that. So it's not great, especially when I've got kids in the house and families and stuff. But you learn to live with it. Carrying this title and being

who i am it's all a part of that um that status of being heavyweight champion of the world people want to come see the champ people want to take a picture people want autographs you know great um it means that i've been successful at my job because if i was totally dog shit then people wouldn't want to get her picture would they so? So, you know, you can't blame people. If I knew where Muhammad Ali lived and I could go see him back in the day, then I'd have probably went around to his house too. So, you know, good on him.

Yeah, and it used to happen to him all the time. People stopped by, especially when he was in Chicago. I was reading about it recently. So when you go to Vegas then, look, I kind of get it. I've been running around long enough that, I mean, it's just lockdown for you. I mean, you go someplace to get food or you don't even bother with that?

No, no. I have my own nutritionist cook, George Lockhart. He does all the cooking for me. I don't eat out at all when I'm in training camp. I always eat in, especially now with the COVID-19. Can't risk going out of the house. And if anyone goes out, then they have to have a hand sanitizer and a mask on at all times

because it's just too risky. And you can come down with COVID within a week to go, so it's crazy. How many times have you watched Inception? Yeah, I've watched Inception a few times. Really good movie. Have you found that maybe there are some dream flaws in there because it's such an important topic to you? I used to want to be able to control time. Now I just want to live in it.

I'm happy to live in time. With the small amount of time that we're given, I'm happy. Because if I would be able to live forever, then nothing could be precious. Because we're on a borrowed amount of time, then everything's precious. I enjoy every day I wake up. Every day I wake up is a blessing, a gift from God that I've woke up alive and I'm healthy and well. And everything else is just a bonus.

When you've got that outlook on life, nothing really matters. We're here today, gone tomorrow. So in a minute, it'll be like, oh, remember that interview we did with Tyson when he was in his house? That was like two years ago. And it'd go by like that, bang, flash. So enjoy your time, you know, because we're not promised tomorrow. And life can be turned upside down with a flick of a light switch. You can be absolutely fantastic today and find out tomorrow you've got cancer. So while the good times are happening, you must enjoy them. And it was so hard for me to do that for such a long time

because I wasn't living in the moment. I was always planning what I wanted to do in the future, mainly with boxing. But now I'm at grips with myself and I'm able to enjoy every day as it comes. Then I don't look forward to the future at all. I look forward to today. And tomorrow will be another day, another blessing. And I'll enjoy that too, if it comes. Do you have a song picked out to sing, if this goes your way? Oh, this will go my way. And I'll probably sing Frank Sinatra, I did it my way.

But I don't know. You know, my mind changes quite quickly, so who knows. So do you have a plan how long you'll stay in Vegas after this fight or will it be out of there in the morning? I fight on Saturday and I believe I'm flying back out on Monday. That's good. Because I wanted to stay here until all of October, November, December, January. But I probably will come back late, probably in November.

Because my wife's got a book tour. She's releasing a book back in England and she has to do that the following week. So she supported me in my book tour, so I'll support her in her book tour. Tyson, I do appreciate this, man. It's been a lot of fun. I can't wait for the third installment of this

and be watching October 9th, man. All the best, guys. Thank you. We felt like we needed to do just a few minutes on a wrap-up of the Tyson Fury interview because both Kyle and Cerruti watched it live. I'll just set the scene for you. I think I saw Mannix's video out. He clearly interviewed

him the same day. Tyson's at his compound in Vegas. One of his guys comes over to set it up. Really nice. Tyson's just in the background of boxers, like as comfortable as hell, comes over. I just thought it was kind of funny. Then he sat down. I probably prepped for that interview for about three hours.

I'd like to have those hours back. I was watching all these different things that he had done. I was thinking of all these different angles. I had an entire legal pad full of one page, not all the pages, of questions. I had all this stuff based around the dionte wilder fights and like hey you had said this you had said this about his power that it surprised you thought it was make-believe and then once you get hit the glancing blow the

first knockdown where it doesn't even look like he gets you clean in the first fight um and he just when you go one word answers and i seriously was like shit i looked down at the deal and i'm like i'm five minutes in and he's already fired through everything and he doesn't seem to be interested in doing this at all. So I love the beginning because he's like, all right, he doesn't like Wilder. But then it was weird. And I just knew the whole time, I'm like, you got to come up with a different tactic. I mean, there's a couple of questions in there that I'd rather not even bothered asking, but I just felt like I have to figure out a way to save this. Or then I was like, maybe it won't be saved and we'll have a five minute interview with Tyson Fury and that's how

we'll advertise it. So I don't know. I don't know what you guys thought, Rudy, but I know we're all kind of watching it going, all right, what's going to happen here? Yeah. I mean, it was weird. It was uncomfortable. But, you know, and watching it when you called him out, like about 10 minutes in, have you ripped through about what, 25 questions or so? And you're just like, hey, when you called him out about 10 minutes in, after you ripped through 25 questions or so, and you're just like, hey, do you not want to be here? What's going on? I don't know if he didn't want to talk about the fight and he was just annoyed that you kept asking him.

I mean, I'm not trying to blow smoke, but I thought your questions were obviously good and interesting. He just wanted nothing to do with the fight other than saying that he hated Wilder, which is fine. And then as soon as you called him out, of tone changed and he started giving you longer answers then we got into you know some christopher nolan movies and space time travel which listen i'm all i'm all for but i don't know if i don't know if it changed because you called him out or he realized he was being a dick or he just didn't want to talk about the fight i i don't i don't really know

kyle you got anything there I thought it was actually magnificent. Like, you've done some, you've navigated some strange interviews, maybe the best being the wrong Brandon Marshall interview, but I thought that that was so good when it was like, alright, you just said I'm out of questions, and you were like,

what are you going to do with this information? I'm out of questions. And I even kind of enjoyed his shithead questions at the beginning. Loved his accent and uh he called him a fucking shit and i thought that was really funny he said that a bunch of times i actually liked it from the beginning from the weird oh my god we're not getting anything out of this to the cards on the table you can just leave if you want because i don't have anything else to then him sort of backtrack be like well hold on i got nothing else to do today. And then it got weird from there. It was like, honestly, this should be a Wednesday episode.

It should be like a weird Wednesday episode. I'm happy we're doing it on Friday. But I actually enjoyed it. It was a roller coaster front to back. And I just hope that's how everybody else looks at it. No, that's a good point. Because I think, Ryan, it's not the interview you wanted to do, which is why I think you're rightfully annoyed about that.

But I actually think it was pretty entertaining. The beginning was actually like, oh, here we go. Buckle up. This is going to be great. But the thing is, is he's talked about Wilder in such detailed ways before that I had it all mapped out.

I was going to start asking about different combinations that he threw because whatever you think of Wilder, Wilder can take a punch. I went back and watched both fights that morning, which again, waste of time. But I was actually more impressed with Wilder taking a punch. And then the weight thing was a big deal. And everybody's talked about it because Wilder put on all this weight for the second fight. But I mean, Wilder is a horrible excuse maker.

I mean, if you know anything about the personalities and you've followed this, Wilder will say some shit where you're like, what are you talking about? And then when he said his costume was too heavy and it wore him out as he entered into the second fight. But I was more impressed with Wilder's ability to take a punch after watching him again than I thought I was more impressed with Wilder's ability to take a punch after watching him again than I thought I was.

You know, again, you're just when you're watching, knowing the outcome, you actually retain way more stuff the second time you watch stuff. So I had all of this because he did this detailed answer with these other guys about Wilder's power. And Wilder's just such a weird fighter to fight because it's like he's going to throw 250 haymaker right hands at you. And you can kind of tell it's coming, but it's going to be incredibly stressful. And so he's given that answer. And I wanted to share it with the audience because I thought it was such a great answer. That just wasn't the day. Now, fighters are different.

Okay. And if you have to start gearing yourself up to be like, fuck everybody, I'm a fighter. I have no problem with that. I have no, like all the respect in the world. But it was very clear once I was like, I guess I'm done, man. And we were looking at each other and there's something happened with him where he clicked, where it was like, you know what? Maybe this hasn't been the greatest interview.

I never thought, like, I always thought we were going to run it because it was always entertaining. Like, even if we'd only gotten the first five minutes when I'm finally like, hey, I guess I'm done, man. I still wanted to run it because I did like some of the stuff. But his whole face changed where he kind of was like, you know what? I'm not really playing the game here that much. And then he went on with Mannix, and I knew it was the same day

because it's the same setting. And when he was on with us, he said, is that the only one I have to do to do today so we got him first so i don't know if that's part of it coming out of training and then he's you know he's in a mode and then he's right with us so i don't have a problem with anything he did it just i had to finally change the interview i had to i had to break it down to be like hey i guess i'm done like you're annoyed with me or like what what the fuck are we doing because i can't like if we're done, we're done, and that's fine, but there's not really... You're not going to play with me here today, so that's fine. We're done. I think that

my favorite question was, I saw you when you were younger, and you were actually really handsome. Is that why you're so angry? And he called himself an ugly, bald fuck. I think that was perfect. I think he called you ugly too, and then the other thing too was... Didn't he call me ugly? I think he did because he said you guys kind of looked alike he called you

baldy didn't he also say that one of your questions was stupid or terrible he's like yeah question i forget which one it was but he just straight up called the terrible question which i think was interesting i don't know if that's ever happened before he was like these are terrible questions like come on right didn't he didn't he say that yeah so and again we're talking about this not minutes after we just did the interview we're doing it 48 hours later so some of the recall is not going to be the same as it would have been if we just taped this right after we had him on i i never had a problem with any of the but it but it was very clear like i was like i have to do something to fix this. And if you really listen, you're going to hear me off my game a little being like, I guess I'll ask this. I was never going to ask him about being hot when he was younger.

But I saw a picture of him with his dad and he had this long flowing hair. And I was like, oh, shit. He was like, I can't. That guy was a decent looking guy back in the day. Now he looks like, I'm surprised he never got into the Game of Thrones thing. How could they have never cast him for something? Just to give him a couple lines. No one should ever fix the mountain, okay?

But Tyson's size in his speech, I can't believe he couldn't have just been some, like, woods dweller who got a few lines. The hound maybe would have fought him in a bar somewhere in some backwoods town. Yep. Exactly. That got a few lines. The Hound maybe would have fought him in a bar somewhere in some backwoods town. Exactly. That's a great call. Maybe you could do that for season

whatever. Spinoff's coming, I think. I've heard. One of the guys from Mastodon was in Game of Thrones. Checks out. Was that the most uncomfortable you've ever been in an interview i was trying to think about that no other shit what would i mean other than like the

brand of marshall thing as kyle brought up because for a totally different reason i don't think any has anyone ever gone at you like that though and personally attacked your questions and just not wanted any because you you know you've gone at it with guys and they've given you shitty answers but i don't think the entire interview was as weird as that one was so i don't know what else is weirder jose canseco was a fucking dick um which i know is not surprising to anyone when he was promoting the book juiced and then i mean the title was like juiced rampant dingers like roids and how baseball got big so i was like hey well how did steroids how did you feel it actually help you he was like well how do you know how did you feel it actually help you? And he was like, well, how do you know I did steroids? I was like, are you serious?

He's like, that's you in the media again, just assuming everything. And I was like, dude, the book is juiced. Everybody, we got a page from your publisher that says you're going to talk about steroid use. And he's like, oh, I guess you're just going to have to read the book. He came on to promote the book, and he thought, I'm going to do awful awful interviews never tell you anything and you're gonna be so amazed by the mystery of jose canseco that you're gonna all run out and buy the book i mean it was

it was still to this day one of the worst interviews i've ever done and i think it was my first year ever being on a talk show so that's 2003 and he was sucked um boogie cousins did you ever i forget he's got uncomfortable yeah because i just said look i can't be critical of this guy all the time and then have him on and then not ask about some of the parts of his game so i said look you know i watch you guys all the time which i do i go everybody knows how talented you are but i think there are times when you are checked out like you can get into it with the refs, and then you'll be gone for a couple possessions.

I was like, when you're watching that on film, do you guys ever talk about that? And first of all, that's the problem with some of those guys. You just can't talk to them anyway. So he was like, nah. He just thought he was doing a fun little phoner to promote the All-Star weekend, and he was like, what? No.

Not so fast. Yeah. And I've never wanted to be an on-air guy that was like oh i'm gonna go at people you know i'm gonna i'm gonna go at these guys and start these fights i remember one of the first shows i ever did and the show didn't have much of a chance and it lasted three months but um one of my co-hosts just got into this weird argument with bob ryan like just started going at bob ryan was like totally weird And he started going at him. And we went to commercial break. I was like, what were you doing? I'm like, that wasn't even a real argument. He goes, now I have for my resume

tape, me arguing with Bob Ryan, and that'll be on my tape. And he's like, you don't know what you're talking about. And I was like, that's a dick thing to do. That's why you did that? You just started a fake argument so you'd have your resume tape with you argue with Bob Ryan. He was like, yep. And I was like, whatever, dude. But remember, you're also the opposite, though, and that like you wouldn't have Boogie Cousin on and be like, hey, what's up, dude? I want to talk to you.

Big fan, you know, or like the same thing. You've always talked about it with Russell Wilson. You wouldn't have Russell Wilson on and ignore like the criticisms of who we think he is. So I don't know. This is right. Keeping it real. But I don't know. That is Rye keeping it real. But I don't know. I've never seen you burn through that many questions and be like, oh shit, what's going to happen next? So it was exciting for us to watch. I always liked Mello because I was starting to

go down a road with him and he just stopped me in my tracks and said, no, he goes, no, that's not what happened. And he was like, this is what's up. And he was cool as hell about it. And most people wouldn't do that. Steven Jackson hung up on me when I asked, hey, do you think it's all a little weird that you got the extension with Golden State and as soon as the ink was on the paper, you demanded a trade? And he was like, oh, I can't hear you.

And then hung up on me on the air. He actually said, yeah, he's like, oh, what? Oh, no, I can't hear you. He's like, I don't know. So I appreciate you saying that, though, because I just hate frauds. I hate frauds. And I'm not going to have somebody on if I've been not just critical about one thing, but it was very clear.

There are two people. There are people that think Boogie Cousins is awesome. It's everybody else's fault. And then there's people like me who watched him all the time and realized he's part of the problem. And so I can't say those things for as long as I did, because I would argue with people about Boogie Cousins all the time. And I just be like,

look, I'm sorry. Like, I actually don't respect your opinion on basketball. Then if this is how you feel about the Boogie Cousins story. And so when we got him on, they're like, Hey,

we got him on. They're like, do you want him? And I was like, yeah, but I'm like, I can't be, I can't be a bitch about this and he didn't he was like he did not like it at all which again is kind of the point but when somebody else from a team was like you think anyone has ever sat in a film room with boogie cousins sacramento like a teammate and gone hey man you're gonna need a little more effort on that screen.

That would be awesome. They're like, you don't think you might try it once with them. And then it's, it's never going to work. Hey, when you got teed up that first time, did you immediately want to get teed up the second time?

Cause you were done playing for the night. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Hey, when you got called for an illegal screen, cause it was illegal and you stared at the ref for seven possessions up and down the court didn't look at the basket didn't set a screen didn't go past the three-point line on either of either side of the court and you were just checked out for like a

good two and a half minutes can you tell us what you were thinking during that time yeah was that a winning play mode no good times i i went on i went on uh when i first moved to la 710 the espn affiliate was like hey if you're around do you want to come by and do like an hour with us do some nba stuff um at at staples center and i was like yeah i guess i don't know i i guess i i would probably never do that now but i was like yeah i'll come by and hang out for a bit. So I hung out. It was Keyshawn. Keyshawn at that point was cool with me.

I know Key can be a little difficult, and he was with me in the beginning, but he was cool at this point. And the reason I'm bringing this up is they were talking about Boogie Cousins. This was back when everybody still wanted him all the time. And so it was a live show. cousins this is back when everybody still wanted them all the time and so it was a live show and i did my whole boogie cousins rant of like hey this is actually who he is as a player and if you don't see that then i i can't help you i can't help you and i'm i'm emphatic there's plenty of things i'm like hey that's how i feel it could be wrong i'm not wrong about this i never happened and there was a dude who was like super laker guy in like a laker tank with a blazer

over him he's a short older black guy and so i'm doing my my boogie cousins rant and he is not having it he's not so he stands up and he's like pacing in front of the the studio not even the studio because it's a live show so it's like a desk you know table setup and he's like you're wrong he's a fucking beast and he was saying it so that it would hopefully like carry over the airwaves but he was also like staring me down a little and i'm just kind of like going you'd be kidding me and he just like boogie man boogie a fucking beast and he just kept like pacing and swearing about boogie cousins the whole time trying to like i don't know it was weird it was like are you trying to intimidate me with your boogie take like what's what's going on

here and he just wasn't having it and then i just we got done and we kind of smiled at each other so i it was it was fun what's your first question to Russell Wilson I really like you as a quarterback but there's no way I don't be coming to he'd have to know I feel

like there's been too many instances where he's been brought up where he wouldn't he wouldn't know he would not know I should say here's if I were Russell Wilson the amount of time I would spend worrying about what brian rusillo thought of me it would be it would be such a you couldn't calculate the number and i'm and i know that's that's what the number is for him he is he is much bigger things he at this point in his life has been far more successful than i have been um so if i were part of the reason i don't always love this job is like hey i'm pointing out this stuff about a guy who at this point is younger than me and is absolutely crushing it. Although I don't know why he keeps releasing those boxing videos because they just don't look that tight.

We've had mutual friends over the years. I just think the pursuit of being everything and being this perfect soundbite every single time hurts your authenticity. And I think the people would like to know you better. And that would be my tactic of it. Because I just think it's so rehearsed and so polished that it can be too rehearsed and it can be too polished. And then you feel like there's no authenticity there in the person. But look, I've always said he's one of my favorite quarterbacks to watch. I've argued him against other guys for years.

I try to separate the two things, but I don't think I would get through it. He would probably just be like, oh, Ryan, that's amazing. That's so good. I love that. I love that about, you know, we're going to just get better. Go Hawks. Can't get comfortable. It would just be, it would be pointless because I've been told that it's just part of the entire package of his pursuit of being something way beyond what he is right now. And if that's the way he feels he has to go about it, that's fine.

And honestly, man, it's not like things haven't worked out for the dude. So I would just leave it at that. If I'm him, none of this stuff would bother me. I just, I don't know. I like authenticity with people. And I don't feel like we always get it from him. I think Tyson's authentic for the most part. Yeah, that was the real deal.

Yeah. So, all right, let's do Life Advice. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could 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 is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. I want to say thank you to a bunch of people around my age that wanted to back me up on the wings in the 90s boom uh they were like yeah that's true which i know is tough i know look not all of us are the same age we have different experiences uh this one's titled am i a scumbag all right i feel like kind of a scumbag i'm 25

recently just got out of a long term over three years. Relationship. We met at school. She's graduated now. And I'm not. Oh, so he's. Hey, man. Cool.

Dana Senior. Distance was too much now and in the future. So we called it off because our families live in different parts of the country. We both want to be close to them as we grow old. But that's whatever. About a week after I became single, I met this girl at a party. We hit it off, instant connection. We're having fun all night.

At the end of the night, we exchanged numbers. But right after we exchanged numbers, she told me she had a boyfriend. Long distance relationship too. I thought, hmm, this is kind of weird, but it's just one night of singing and dancing, and that will be it. We got a song and dance man here. Two days later, I get a text from the girl. It's Sunday night, but Monday's a holiday, so the city's buzzing two days later i get a text from the girl it's

sunday night but monday's a holiday so the city's buzzing a little and everyone's out in the town i end up meeting up with this girl again and we have another awesome night at the end of the night we're just walking around the city at 4 a.m i know pretty late but i'm confident my ability to protect myself and others and a badass uh unless of course the person has a gun. Jesus Christ. What the fuck is this email about? What is happening? Now I want to give it more time. So a night of singing and dancing, 4 a.m., they're just walking around the city. It's a glow with energy.

It's pretty late, he says, but he is confident in his abilities to protect myself and others, unless, of course, the person has a gun. Seems, so far, there's nothing inaccurate. Straightforward. That doesn't really matter because if someone

has a gun and wants to shoot you, there's really nothing you can do anyway. Noted. So I walk back to her apartment. It's about 5 a.m., just about the time my mom wakes up for the gym. Shout out to your mom who works out early my mom calls me and asks me where i am i tell her mom i'm still in the city she gets mad at me because it's dangerous and then i call an uber and got home she was upset but not too mad because

she made me some breakfast before i went to bed what this isn't can't real. I don't think it's real, but let's keep reading it. Or it's like talking to me. Like, he's just... He's like, we haven't even got to the point yet. Once he said the eggs, now I think I'm out on this, but we're going to stay in. This is all happening the start of August.

I need to be back to school by the start of September. Oh, so he was living with his parents, and he was out until 5 a.m. But again, if a guy had a gun, there's really not much any of us can do. Although I think there's probably a lot more guys trying to defend themselves against guns because of the Instagram videos that are like, hey, this is

what you do. Like, yeah, that I don't know if that works. I don't know if that one will work. And not everybody can be just take it out of his hand. Yeah, it's easy when you have a gun in your face. Oh, yeah. Just do this little technique where you just rip his arm down. Then all of a sudden you have the gun.

Now go to your right. His left. Make sure that your arm. If you can get his wrist and turn it, then it's a major pressure point. He'll just drop it. He'll just drop the gun, dude. Simple. This is terrible

because you know what's happened. The kid was like, eh, I saw this video. Hold on. Let me sit my feet. Okay, this is all happening at the start of August, but for the whole month of August, me and this girl will grow closer from hanging out in group settings and slowly morph to one-on-one chill sessions.

I think it might be real. The whole time she has a boyfriend, one weekend she even goes and spends a weekend with him, but that's okay. I can't be upset. She literally has a boyfriend. Okay. Every day until I leave for school, we hang out somewhere or another, created a strong connection. We both have said we have feelings for each other, but she says she loves her boyfriend still very much and doesn't want to break up with him. With all that being said, she'll still call me multiple times throughout the day to just check up on me. Annoying. See how I'm doing and fill me in on her day. Also annoying. I don't see

her anymore because I'm adding in the annoyance, by the way. Those are ad libs. I left for school and live 17 hours away from where she is. I've told her multiple times that I think this should stop so I can focus on other things and meet some new girls instead of dragging this whole situation out. Oh, again, by the way, the first relationship that we had has nothing to do with this either. of dragging this whole situation out. Oh, again, by the way, the first relationship that we had has nothing to do with this either. Whenever I tell her that she gets upset

and she says she doesn't want to see me with anyone else but her, but of course she still won't break up with her boyfriend. I just told her I'm not talking to her for the whole week to see if it will help clear our heads and bring the intensity

of our relationship down a little bit. I do really like this girl. She's told me many times she feels the same. I used to not care about the other guy, but now I just feel bad. Just wondering what I should do if I'm a scumbag for doing this. First of all,

you're an incredibly detailed storyteller. We've got almost your origin story. If you were a superhero, we already have the script for Origins after the first part. I wouldn't beat up on yourself here too much. None of you guys are marrying anybody.

This whole transaction of people, likely. She had a summer thing with you while she has a boyfriend. It'd be great if everybody signed permission slips on this kind of stuff. It's not the way life works. That's not the real world. So this is not that weird. I wouldn't start beating yourself up for this.

If 20 years old, if you wanted to be holding yourself to the highest moral standards and saying this isn't exactly something that i want to do all right good for you give yourself credit for it but the credit that you deserve for that and you would deserve credit if you did it you didn't do it but i also wouldn't like say the inverse is the now that you have to beat up on yourself the entire time because honestly that shit's a complete waste of time and i'm telling you now in a few years you're not even going to think you're actually going to at one point unless you're really weird you're just going to go i don't even know why i cared about it or get that worried about it now she if this is all true is an asshole um because she's doing the i want

you to be this thing for me while i have this thing which is the main boyfriend back where she is in college all right she wants both most of us want everything from the buffet. You know, sometimes you'll have situations where you don't even necessarily care about the person that you were with, but you still want to know that it's there in case. And that can be an ego thing. That can be an attachment thing. Be a lot of different things that are going on with this. You know what, Mike, if you really liked her, which I would say, just move on, just move on. You actually aren't going to carry it. If girls actually like you this much too, by the way, Mike? If you really liked her, which I would say, just move on. Just move on. You actually aren't going to care. If girls actually like you this much too, by the way, man, then you're just going to

meet somebody else anyway, and you're going to be fine. Now, again, there are those few through our lives that you have that little extra connection. There's just something a little there. The way you'll look at that person, you look at them, they look back at you, it's just a little bit different from all the other people you've hung out with. Okay? Those are real things. It's going to happen. If that's who this girl is and you actually do really care and you do want a relationship with her

and you want her to break up with her boyfriend, I can tell you the only way to handle this is ignore for a really long stretch. If you really want her, just ignore her and she's going to go crazy about it. Then you're probably going to get everything you want because this is 101. And if it were inverted the other way, male, female, I'd say the female to do the exact same thing to the male. If there are these kinds of relationships where she kind of is selfish

and she wants to know that you're there, even if she can't be with you all the time, the best way to actually get what you want out of it is to punish her by not letting her talk to you all the time the best way to actually get what you want out of it is to punish her by not letting her talk to you all the time i mean it's fucked up but it's kind of normal and um that would be my advice yeah dude um here's a nice thing shout out to the pause notifications feature on iphones that way you don't or block her if you want unless she sends you like boob pictures at midnight sometimes and that's what you like boob pictures at midnight sometimes.

And that's what you like. But I mean, I guess what I'm saying is you can do it. You make it a lot easier for yourself. I don't know. You know, sometimes you have one of those things where it's like, yeah, we're not really talking. But every once in a while, one of us is drunk. You cover all the bases.

Yes. So but what I think this guy should do is if he doesn't want the credit for blocking her because they can find out if they're like, hey, I called you and it went straight to voicemail a couple of times. Did you seriously block me? Had somebody hit me up on LinkedIn a couple of years ago? Like, did you really block me? But what the nice feature about the pause notifications thing is like, you'll see it if you're scrolling through your text, but it's not going to like interrupt your day if you're out. Like you're not going to get pinged

if she calls you or text you. But if you go into your inbox, you can see that she does text you. That might be easier for your thing. But yeah, I totally agree with you. Leave her alone. You're like 17 hours away or whatever he said. And then you can revisit anything that she says to you on your own time. And then my last question is, I know your stance on guns. How do you feel about other melee weapons like knives or machetes? Just walking around with them? No, I mean, he says he, I know how he feels about how he could defend himself with a gun. He's probably not there, but he's kind of made it seem like only. So maybe he feels like he's good with small knives.

But what if somebody has like a machete? Do you think he would, he would run then too? Or I don't know. He said he could handle himself. I feel like he's at least thought about it. He's definitely thought about it. He said he could handle himself. I feel like he's at least thought about it. He's definitely thought about it. He put it in the email. I mean, he told us he likes

his chances of being able to check people walk around the city late at night. I'm assuming this is New York City. Here's the thing. He's so detailed, too, that if he was worried about knives, he would put that in the email. Also a great point. But the machete has got a pretty good length to it. No, I mean,

the machete, there's a lot of room for error. Like, if the guy's got a long reach plus a machete, I don't think he would like his chances.

There's no chance of the three of us that any of us know more about machetes than Kyle. That's true. If I had one friend who would be a machete expert,

Kyle would be the guest. Kyle, how many machetes have you owned in your life? It was more of a my parents machete situation but did you take it with you back to your apartment? No no of course not slashing bamboo sticks? I did get a baseball bat once but that was some guys came to my

when I was actually suspended and I moved out of my dad's house because he started charging me rent because he could not believe I got suspended. So I got, I moved in an apartment. I'm freshly 19. And me and my buddy, shout out to Pauly Piff, were roommates. And then he kind of went down the hard drug trail and I did not. down the like the hard drug trail and i did not and so there was guys like from the city of poughkeepsie once that like showed up knocked on my door asking where he was because he owed him 15 dollars and

like the kind of guy that's going to show up to your door looking for 15 saying he's gonna have to hurt your roommate i was like i was working at modell's at the time so i went and bought a mizuno wooden bat and i was like that so i had a bat by the door for that turns out you know the kicker is that my dad was gonna give me all the money back when i went back to school after my suspension but he thought i was such an idiot for trying to move out he was never gonna tell me that okay um when you were deciding which bat you're gonna get why did you go with the mizuno wood bat um well i Well, I got a pretty good discount on it. I've been eyeing bats for a while,

and I definitely knew I wanted wood, and it was black and brown, which I really liked. And it was on sale because I was actually this department manager for sporting goods, so I had to mark stuff down, and it was like, well, that's definitely the best bang for your buck, so to speak. Did you consider any other weapons? Or was it bat all the way? No, no, that's definitely the best bang for your buck, so to speak. Did you consider any

other weapons or was it bat all the way? No, no, I wasn't going to get a discount on anything but a bat. Okay. They had lacrosse sticks, but I didn't I like my chances with a bat. Nah, hollow. Yeah, lacrosse sticks not going to do anything. I did get a Nike lacrosse stick though, just to have

had the grip on it like the rubber grip sort of instead of the metal pole. It was a metal pole it like the uh like the rubber grip sort of instead of the metal pole it was a metal pole but it had like the rubber grip around it just to like cradle around the apartment yeah i brought it to college when i came back tried to fake being a lax bro but it didn't work i did that for a year you fake being a lax not a lax bro i didn't like dress weird with the shorts and stuff and the pennies but i just like only yeah but there were guys in the yard and i i just i sucked with it i never got got better and they were like clearly pretty good but not good enough to get on a team so it was like what do i do with this group here just chalked

it up to trying i'll be honest i have a couple other emails i could read i just don't want to do it now i want to just i want to just end on this note of Kyle buying a bat that he was able to discount. Did you discount it yourself because you were in charge of that department? Yeah. Yeah.

Nice. Because I caught that too. So not only did you buy a wooden bat because you thought it was the best to defend yourself against a guy who's going to show up and beat up your roommate for 15 fucking dollars.

You also, because you were in charge of marking down items as the manager at a modell sporting goods store you purposely mark down the wooden bat so that it would be even cheaper with your discount again to use not for baseball but to beat somebody up well you have to run it by the general manager i was just a department manager for sporting goods you know there was a footwear manager and apparel manager i was the sporting goods manager but so yeah like i would get the the word would come down for her what to what to mark down and what to not mark down i just had a good idea and you're like hey these

these mazunos have been sitting around yeah it's like come on these are the expensive ones people don't come in here looking for wood they come in with the with the aluminum bats can we do something i mean this had these two for a couple years now i mean since before i started working here do you want to start making room you're doing them a favor honestly yeah yeah we gotta move product we can't have this stuff and the 2017s are coming in soon totally all right we're done we're done for the day uh that was that what did it what a pod today it didn't start very good but um we we got but we got there. Please subscribe to the Ryan Rosillo Podcast. Thank you to Kyle

and Saruti as always. Make sure you subscribe, rate, review, and check out all the pods in the ring. Outro Music