The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Are the Ravens Actually Chokers? NFL Week 1 With Mike Sando. Plus, Oklahoma Is Relevant Again and More From Week 2 of College Football.

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Russillo opens the show by recapping Week 1 of the NFL and giving out his best win and worst loss. Then, Mike Sando joins to break down what Buffalo’s comeback means for both teams, discuss the Packers’ massive win, and preview Monday Night Football. Next, Russillo shares his thoughts on this week’s college football action, including Oklahoma’s win over Michigan and USF’s upset of Florida. Finally, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle! (0:00) Welcome to The Ryen Russillo Podcast! (6:49) Josh Allen had to be stupendous and he was (9:27) Green Bay needed this win (12:18) Aaron Rodgers looked good but so did Justin Fields (15:06) Russell Wilson is on bench watch (19:38) Cam Ward’s first start (25:00) Mike Sando joins the show! (30:39) No cause for concern for the Ravens (31:55) If these two teams meet again, who would you pick? (33:03) On the Packers' big win (45:55) Denver’s defense looked as elite as advertised (47:05) Most interesting thing about the Rodgers-Fields matchup (52:05) What did last week do for the Chiefs' doubters? (1:00:29) On Caleb Williams (1:06:58) The QB battle tonight will be interesting (1:09:14) College football review  (1:11:33) Let’s talk about John Mateer’s end-zone throw (1:14:38) Arch Manning still didn’t look great (1:17:33) Not an amazing response from Clemson (1:19:45) USF’s upset of Florida (1:21:14) Life Advice! (1:28:33) Help with my gym etiquette questions (1:36:07) Should I join a frat? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Mike Sando Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A ton of football for you. We got it for over two hours. Here's the deal. Baltimore lost that game. You probably know by now. All-time comeback by Buffalo. It might be the best game in the entire. I don't know.

We're going to be able to top that as far as the stakes, the teams that are involved. And is there anything to Baltimore's trend of some of these late-blown leads? We'll ask Mike Sando. that. We'll ask him about the impressive Packers, also the feedback that he got from NFC and AFC executives on power ranking the teams in both conferences. One guy had Detroit 11th. So we're going to have to talk about that, even though the Packers are dominant. All sorts of stuff from all over the NFL, including a look ahead to Caleb Williams,

not debut, but debut in year two with the new coaching staff and the debut of JJ McCarthy. And the Chiefs kind of lost in the schedule a bit. Anything alarming about their loss against the Charter. So a lot with Sandow. I'm going to do a bunch of stuff off a week one in the NFL more on Baltimore and Buffalo. And then I'm going to rip through a Saturday of college football results and life advice. This is the Ryan Rosillo podcast presented by Fandul and the NFL is officially back. So if you're going to be in it, be in it with Fandual. They've got the goods, futures, live betting, SGPs, that same game parlayes. Your way bets, all of it. The app's clean. It's fast. And yeah, when you win, you get paid instantly, which is.

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All time are last night with Buffalo's comeback win against Baltimore. So I'll run through a bunch of stuff from week one. Really excited about the Bears. We'll see. I'd like to do best win, worst loss every week. Good luck having a better win than what Buffalo pulled off. Good luck having a better win all season because that was just absolutely historic. So look, it was the Packers all day until we saw what happened last night.

So Baltimore felt unstoppable. Let's talk at least a little bit about how good they looked. And Collinsworth just gushing, which he should have been, because at one point, he's like, I don't know what you do. I don't know what you do with this Ravens offense. Henry had a 30-yard touchdown run where as soon as he gets to handoff when any kind of momentum, you're like, what's going to happen here? It's like your safety's not even going to touch him and get thrown to the ground. So they go up 10-7 on that one. He has a 49-yard run that set up the Lamar 10-yard touchdown run.

Henry, I think, should lead the league in this new statistic. called yards before decision because the defensive back strong was running side to side with Henry for about 20 yards before he finally figured out how to tackle him. So actually credit to Strong for even making the tackle. But if you look at, you know, when he's getting close to him and running with him, it goes on with what feels like forever until he's like, how am I going to get this guy after you just saw, I think it was Bishop get thrown to the ground on a previous touchdown run. So Lamar runs it in for 10 yards, completely untouched, because now you're completely freaked out about Henry, the bills went to a two deep safety look to try to stop the run

because they felt like, oh, maybe if we have a second guy coming into this and getting any kind of angle on Henry, Henry also at this age 31 at this size, we understand, like getting to what, 21 miles per hour when he had that huge run in the second half as well. So it's just, it feels like when Baltimore is rolling like this, it's just the worst for the defense. So we're looking at what the bills are going to do, which credit to the bills for getting three points out of the end of that first half, which ended up being huge later on. But you're looking at seeing what kind of adjustments you're going to get from Buffalo, and it was pretty apparent that they were going to try to sell out to do whatever they

could to just clog up everything around the line of scrimmage. And with that, then it just means Zay Flowers is wide open all over the place. So, and despite the comeback here for the bills, I think all of us should maybe, again, we're talking about the bills as a Super Bowl winning team, right? So we're going to hold them to a higher standard. With the changeover, some of the pieces on the defense, the secondary, I don't think necessarily had this great night. But it's the constant fear factor of whatever mesh point decision you're making against Lamar and Derek Henry. And then realizing these eight flowers one-on-one is just going to be open the entire time. And sometimes they just completely lost him. So I am a little worried other than Bedford, I

I am worried about this Bill's secondary. However, having said all of that, it's 40-25. I don't know what you're doing. Apparently some Bill's fans were leaving. Bill's fans, like, come on. You're the Buffalo Bills. What else are you going to do? So Buffalo is down 40-25.

Baltimore has the ball at 9-18 left of the fourth quarter. Teams are 53 and zero since 2000, up 15 points with 8 to 10 minutes left in the game. Baltimore goes three and out, a touchdown in 3-20. from Buffalo. You have the Henry Fumble, another touchdown from Buffalo in just a minute, eight, a three and out. Some people debating the fourth and three decision to punt, but it's 133

left. And granted, at this point, you kind of feel like both defenses are spent, even though they're stopping Baltimore here, which is something you just didn't even think was going to be possible from everything that happened earlier in the game, from them getting to 40 points. But I don't know, man. Fourth and three, your own 38.

If you don't get it, then it just feels like you're giving them, the field goal where I still think there's a devaluing of backing up a team and seeing them have to execute multiple times. But again, some of these games, the guys are so tired at the end of it, it just ends up being a free-for-all. So sometimes I don't even know that you can necessarily judge and go, okay, well, now what's wrong with Baltimore's defense and everything?

It's like, well, they were just out there for a time. But granted, you know, the same thing was happening in Buffalo, and they were able to shore it up. So I still think that you punt there because if you don't convert on fourth and three and there's a minute 33 left, like you're not asking Buffalo to do anything. However, Buffalo does everything they need, including Coleman, who looked like he was going to run him for a game-winning touchdown, which I would have been fine with, but you realize this actually may be better because now they're going to be able to run clock. They run clock.

We had the two-point conversion thing that ended up getting messed up for Buffalo because the receiver was out of bounds when he came in. They kicked the game-winning field goal with a guy that was working out of high school field earlier this week. So, Alan, you knew, as you were watching the game, you're like the only way this is even going to happen here for Buffalo because Baltimore felt like the superior team throughout much the night, which I still think it is important thing, like after these losses, after a win, and be like, who actually felt like they were the better team? Granted, I know no one's keeping

track in the standings of who felt better as opposed to wins and losses, but I still think it's an important exercise when you're watching these games. So you knew Alan was going to have to put on the cape. He does so. I don't think the MVP debate carryover now is like, see, I mean, Baltimore scored 40 points. At no point that I feel like, yeah, Lamar's a little limited with only 14 completions because I just don't think he needed to throw the ball a ton because of how they were dictating the line of scrimmage. Baltimore finished with eight yards per carry. No Henry fumbled, this is not the same headline.

And that's it, because I know that there's, and we'll get into this of Sando a little bit, this number. I also have it too from Ben Solac who tweeted out just the number of times now Baltimore's lost some of these games, and it's becoming like a Harbaugh issue. Yeah, sometimes. I mean, but last year the receiver was out of bounds against Kansas City.

Henry fumbles. If Henry doesn't fumble, like that's on Henry. as great as he was last night, and it looks like he's primed for another great season. You just can't fumble in that spot. And Buffalo needed something special, some kind of momentum turnover play to even get back into this game. And they got it. So if you're Baltimore this week, because it's a season group, and yes, coming up short in the playoffs all the time and this tendency to blow some of these games, I still think what you do is you look at last, I mean, I know this sounds hard, but you look at last night as a positive, like this is what we can do against one of the best teams in the NFL.

NFL at their place, and it sucks what happened at the end, and it's a horribly, I mean, this is one of the all-time games that we're this lucky to get this on Sunday night to start the season, but you should be motivated about what you're capable of, and you also should be motivated to be completely pissed off that you gave this game away. So that's it. I mean, it's a tough first half schedule for Baltimore, much like last year, they'll get Cleveland, but then it's Detroit, Kansas City, Houston, the Rams, the four after the Cleveland game. Remember, they were two and two last year. They did get it to 7 and 3. And there was talk, you know, about Kyle Hamilton and moving to safety. And then that changed the defense around it. It also changed the defense around that

they played a much easier group of quarterbacks the second half of the season. So we'll see where they're outstandings-wise, because if they don't get off to a great start, it might have more to do the schedule than some sort of mental hangover. You would think this group has been around enough now, even with their playoff disappointments, to not have some sort of mental hangover blowing that game. As devastating as it was, this group should be still seasoned enough to get through it and they should be pissed by it, not disappointed. Well, I guess they should be disappointed, but you get the point. All right, Green Bay, they needed this one, big time. 2713, they're up 24-6 on Detroit, total domination throughout this game. Late score, they're

from Detroit, whatever. They've been one and six in their last seven against the Lions. Love finishes with the QBR at 92. He had 10 different players with a reception. The opening TD throw to the tight-end craft was just beautiful. It's that linebacker throw where the linebacker has, these quarterbacks know this. The linebacker, when he has turned chasing a tight end on that throw, the linebacker almost never has a chance of making the play. So it's over the linebacker who's like kind of blind of the whole throw. He's watching the hands of the receiver. And then inside of the safety coming over, just an absolutely gorgeous throw from Love who last year did not build on the momentum that we had off of 23, whether it was health or whatever. But I think

it was fair as excited as we were about this Packers roster to go, like, is there a chance? Because we've already talked about this kind of stuff. I think at least for an afternoon, it was great. This wide receiver group I've mentioned before, Dobbs felt like the primary guy, even though I think Reed ended up with more targets. Then you've got Wicks, then you get Watson.

And of course, Matthew Golden was the first round pick. So Watson, who's out, I think, with the ACL injury until midseason. I don't know. He's on the Pupp list right now. But you figure if they have that entire group healthy, even if I've at times thought, is Reed going to be nasty? Is Watson going to be the one that's really nasty? Is Dobbs actually the best of the entire group?

It feels like it's a group where you're expecting one to really stand out. I know that at least I have at different times with all of them, but maybe the point is that this doesn't really matter. Because with Kraft and those four guys, if Watson comes back this year and has any kind of impact, it's a pretty nasty group of receivers. The O line held up great against a healthy front from Detroit. I love Detroit's roster.

I still love their roster, even with this kind of game. But this defense for Green Bay, whether it's Gary, who now gets Parsons on the other side, Van Ness making plays, Wyatt, a defensive tackle. My guy, Edger and Cooper leading the team with 12 tackles. They held Detroit to 46 yards on the ground, two yards per carry. And even when there was a completion, it felt like two or three Packers were there to clean it up for really nothing after the catch other than that one Laporte. to play where there was a pretty big yard after the catch number on that one. So dominant from them, they needed it maybe more than anybody that's at least considered a Super Bowl contender, considering the history against Detroit. Not worried about Detroit. Yeah, the coordinators. The

interior of the offensive line was definitely a mess, but I still think it's too talented of a roster. And it was kind of nice to be like, oh, yeah, when this team is healthy, there's all of these guys even on defense that I really like. But again, that D-line was neutralized quite a bit by the offensive line of the Packers. So the best early game, I think it's the Steelers win against the Jets. Rogers, four touchdowns, three touchdowns off of play action, his most play action touchdowns in the game since 2016. And they come back and pull out the win in New York, which I'm sure meant a ton to Rogers. He again found a way to have kind of like a weird quote after it, but I'm sure it felt really good for him because none of these guys that are that special ever think. And this is

kind of part of what makes them special. They never think that any of this stuff ever could have been on them and his exit was nasty. So I'm sure for an afternoon, he felt great about himself. The Steelers defense, I don't know. I mean, it fell off in the second half of last year. This just defense that I want to get to here is one of the more interesting groups because of so many of the dudes that I like. Again, another group where I like their personnel, but the numbers didn't show up at least for a day yesterday. But Fields is kind of the story here, even in the loss. It's his 45th career start yesterday. We use, and we use it with Sando all the time, the expected points added numbers for offense. This is Fields' best EPA in a game of any of his 45 career starts.

So some really nice stuff on third down, you know, being the threat to run, not every third down work for him on some of the keepers, but you give him the rushing output that you're going to get like most quarterbacks are going to look pretty good. And then you on top of that, the physical gifts that made him a first round pick in the first place and why so many Fields defenders still exist today. I did think it was kind of interesting, like, do Bears fans or Steelers fans, would they be more disappointed if Fields turned into something? Because the Steelers were off of him quick, which I don't know that was that big of a mistake,

but the Steelers' issues in the second half of the season last year, really I thought had more to do with their defense. But Fields was terrific, at least for a day. So we'll see. But again, 182 yards on the ground from the Jets for a team last year that had the second lowest rushing yards per game of any team in the NFL. Vegas was the only team that was worse than them. And again, this Jets personnel on defense, though what the fuck is, or who the

fuck is that guy? Edger and Cooper Award, probably Will McDonald, the first round pick out of Iowa State, Edge third year now. He was fantastic, just chaotic all day long. But this Jets D, think about this. Last year, third in yards allowed per game. So third best team when it comes to that, 20th and points per game. out. That's hard to do. A lot of it has to do with penalties from last year. They put up

the graphic during the game, how many penalties they had had, how bad it was, or at least penalty yards. I think it was the more damning number for them. The worst team when it came to miss tackles, but there's still a lot of guys in the front and, of course, sauce as well. But the field story, you know, I don't know. I'm certainly not here to make any definitive statement of the guy that I haven't had a ton of faith in, but could he possibly be the rare fifth year success story. Staying in New York with the quarterbacks. I thought watching Wilson struggled yesterday against the commanders,

I was like, I think he's going to be the first quarterback benched this season because of play. I thought it was insightful early in the game. By the time the game was over and you saw the media rounds, it's not insightful because it feels like it's going to happen. James inactive yesterday. I was wondering, but look, it was week one for me too, a little behind on the deactivated players list.

I don't think it makes a ton of sense to put. dart in there this soon. The Giants defense actually, again, another group. I like a lot of the names held up pretty well, but the offense couldn't do anything. Let's talk about Red Zone, Russell Wilson, because this is a carryover. If you looked at the play calling with the Steelers last year, how much they didn't trust him because they just didn't feel like he could rip the ball, didn't feel like he could get out and get anything going with his legs. Let's run through these red zone possessions here for the Giants yesterday against Washington. So the first one, pass minus two yards, incomplete, third down, he tries to run it, he gets cracked, fumbles, is

able to recover his own fumble. They're going for it on fourth down. It's an incomplete. They get a penalty. Then Scataboo runs for a negative yard. After an incompletion, third and goal incompletion, they kick the field goal. The next red zone possession, which was set up on a fourth and two at the Washington 33, where Wilson threw a pick, but it was roughing the passer. They start over at the Washington 18. First and 10, Wilson, a one-yard touchdown run. The second down, he hits a 14-yard pass. So here we go. First and goal at the three Giants football. Incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion. The thing about Wilson is that, well, obviously, it looks like it might be over. But the longer he's allowed to play, and it looks like this, the

worst it's going to go for him, which in New York, in a major market, which is really important to him, like a lot of this stuff, which we've already covered now for years. I mean, I've been talking about this for a long time, is he had a quote yesterday. It was like, and again, mid-quote you can tell he doesn't really know where he's going to land the plane, but he's just making sure he's checking all the boxes and saying all the right things. But in his effort to do that, it just feels so like, I don't know if disingenuous is the right word. But again, we've covered all this stuff with the Wilson quotes. But if he's in New York in that media market every single week doing the same thing after bad performances, it might be better for him and the brand

focus to just move on to somebody else because that market is going to lose their minds if that's the kind of postgame stuff they're getting after those kinds of games. Worst loss, Miami. I mean, does it get worse than being down 30 to zero to the Colts and having Daniel Jones score in every single possession? I guess something. Manning and Luck never did in a game. Early, healthy Miami, you're like, all right, let's figure it out too. We'll get there. Start slinging it.

That didn't work. It seems like a million years ago, but it was only two years ago, Miami was five and one with a week three win against Denver where they won 70 to 20. And all of us are kind of losing our minds being like, what is this team capable of? But it's a mess. And McDaniel now moves to the front of the list for the first, at least the betting odds, for the first head coach to be fired at plus 200. Dable's second, Stuyken is third.

But maybe you feel a little bit better about him after yesterday's win. Okay, some numbers for you every week. Do you know how easy this is for me? Do you have any fucking idea how easy this? This is a fucking joke. The Ravens have lost eight games since 2021 where they had a win probability of at least 90%, three more than anyone else. That's from our good friend Ben Solac.

The Browns held Cincinnati to seven yards in the second half. It's the fewest yards in the second half for a winning team. 25 years. Speaking of win probabilities, I appreciate the Fox broadcast when it was 10-7 Seattle against San Francisco, 11-14 left in the third quarter. They threw up a win-probability number, 61% for the Seahawks. I was having fun with that game, but once I saw that, I was like, okay, now I'm in. Incredible comeback from Purdy without Kittle, hitting the backup tight end for the game-winning touchdown. Minnesota gets, or excuse me, Minnesota, Darnold, now on Seattle, gets it down. I'll be honest, I actually felt a little bad for Darnold on that fumble.

Cam Ward, he had the second lowest QBR of any quarterback opening week. Only better than Tua. He also had a lot of drops there. That guy's just out there, rifling it. So against that Denver defense, Cam Ward, you know, look, first start. I thought that was a really tough spot for him. They kind of hung in there. So I guess you give him a little bit of credit. The overall numbers are not really great. But Denver's defense, once they were able to just send the pass rush and Ward was getting it out.

But it was definitely a mess. And then he didn't even see the blitzer off his right side on that last throw. Travis Hunter, 39 snaps on offense for his Jags debut, six snaps on defense, dominant win for Jacksonville against Carolina. where Bryce Young very quickly ruined some of the momentum he had coming out of the 25 season. Okay, we're going to rank stuff here. It's just a general observation. If you're dealing with something, you're in a bit of a controversy. What is the best way to post?

What is the best way to just tweak through it? I was thinking about some examples recently, and there's always you go with the child. Here's my kid. I know everybody's pissed at me. Here's my kid. After that, I think I've seen the move. with a dog after Jackson Hole I thought about adopting a dog to be like all right but here's my dog everybody back off um or you could just say huge third down here which is um guys that just live

tweet games constantly and it's like third and eight late in the game it's like this is a big third down it's like no shit so if you had to rank them i think dog has i think dogs in general have a higher approval rating the people. Not even sure that's debatable anymore. So it feels like dog one, child two, huge third down three. The Rhymer's Fillo podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. Football fans, week one isn't over yet. And Fandual is the best place to keep celebrating because they're giving all customers a no sweat NFL bet on tonight's game. From the money line to player props, the same game parlay as your no sweat bet can be used on any NFL wager type. And if it doesn't win, you'll get bonus bets back.

Okay, Monday night football in Chicago. How about this line? Chicago at home plus one and a half against the Vikings. It's pretty clear. It doesn't feel like anybody really knows what to do with setting a number on this one because, I mean, it's JJ McCarthy in his first career start. Granted all the great things the Vikings did, a lot of the personnel being there, but the fact that JJ's a one and a half point favorite on the road in his first start ever

probably tells you that, man, doesn't matter what the Bears did this off season. And no one knows really what to expect. The total felt like a big lower scoring Sunday, so maybe under is to play 43.5. I'm going bears plus one and a half. I'm going to keep my stupid bears and Caleb Williams' thoughts coming. Maybe week eight, I'll give up. But here's the number I like the most. Chicago Bears drive one, a player to catch a pass, Colquette plus 450.

You know, Ben Johnson, this offense, Caleb, feeling it out. How about a little rollout to commit? Five yards. down line from the line of scrimmage, right? So that's what I like. I like that one better than any other thing that I look there. So again, Colcombe, to catch a pass on the bear's first drive plus $4.50. We gave out chargers because we hated the line.

Outright winner on Friday. He gave out bailer plus the points, outright winner against SMU. And it should have been three straight wins until Lane Kiffin. It was up 10 and Kentucky kicked a field goal. So great. I guess Van Pelt was tweeting about being on the right side. Kentucky is not the right side in that game. I'm sorry.

Ole Miss was the better team. It's very fluky, very weird. Both teams are lesser quarterbacks. All right, I've got to get over that loss and move on and continue to read the ad because Fandul is where you want to get it done. So this season, make Fandul your go-to app for any snap. Just visit fandul.com slash Ryan, RYE, N to kick off the NFL season with a no sweat bet every game day during week one. Play your game with Fandul, an official sports betting partner of the NN.

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base plan required, renews every month during the 2025, a regular season only, your membership for the following one that could be canceled anytime before your renewal date, terms, restrictions, and embargoes apply, commercial use, exclusive. Thank you, Mike Sando joins us to start our NFL coverage. We love having a Mon. He does a QV tiers. He also did something I thought was really interesting

where he had eight executives power rank, both the AFC and NFC. So we'll kind of get into that as we go through some of the results. But we have to start with what we had in Buffalo last night, all-time comeback. Look, I think Baltimore is great, as they proved, for 57 minutes of that game there.

but is there anything to the losses where they have more losses in these spots? Because that's being discussed a bit today, whether it's a style or Harbaugh thing. I mean, look, Henry doesn't fumble the football. We don't have this discussion here today. But is there anything to this that you think is more than just a random occurrence of luck here? Yeah, I think sometimes these things can become mental, you know. And what's interesting is Baltimore more than any team, but if you just went back five, 10 years, and asked, hey, who's on top of the game management and all of this stuff?

You'd say it's them, right? There's been stories written about their processes, and everyone would say, the Ravens are basically a model organization and everything they do, wouldn't you say? I mean, scouting, how they work the comp pick system, all of these things. And then on top of that, we've seen, I think, tremendous growth with Lamar Jackson as the leader of the team and more than just an athletic quarterback, but a guy who really, I think, since he signed the contract, gets it. Like, I mean, I feel better about the Ravens, really, now that I did a year ago,

two years ago, three years ago, I do. But it's hard to ignore that they've lost so many big leads. And so to contextualize it, I look at, okay, number one, they have more big leads than other teams, right? So you're going to lose more big leads. Carolina is not worried about blowing big leads, right? They don't have to have a plan for blowing big leads. They're never up.

So in fairness to them, they've lost, I believe, six games since 2022, where they led by two scores, you know, nine to 16 points in the fourth quarter. And it's by far more than the other team. And so what I did is I looked at like, okay, who's the five or six other teams that have a similar number of big leads? And it's still Baltimore blowing the most. It's like six of them out of something like 28. And, you know, the chiefs are like 24 and O in those games, okay, for an example. And there's a couple other teams that have one, two, you know, one or two losses in those.

So there's something there with them. And you wouldn't think it would be an issue because they're set up to milk the clock, right? They're set up to milk the clock. So my concern for them, and I still have it a little bit with Buffalo, especially when they play canceling the playoffs, is just being more on point throughout the whole game. Like, I felt like Baltimore, and I think Buffalo last year in their playoff loss, too, where they were sloppy a little bit early in the game, right? They just weren't buttoned up the whole way. And I think that's a work in progress for them a little bit, just the details of everything.

And I think Lamar's gotten better at that in terms of his game. It's not just him. It's just sort of a whole thing. And so I'm kind of waiting for that to resolve itself in some of these moments. at how last season it began. They lose stepping out of bounds. And look how it ended. They dropped the key pass, right? And you wouldn't necessarily fault Isaiah likely for stepping out of bounds. He's trying to make a great play, you know, and Andrews had a great career. But when they start to pile up, I do think there can be some emotional baggage on it that

can become its own thing to overcome. I like where you started it because when you think about like model organizations, this is the one. I mean, granted, yes, it would be nice to have a Super Bowl in there with this group, but they, they do already have one. And I think the Harbaugh stuff in those lean years and like the mid-teens when, I don't know if it was the hot seat, but maybe it was the warm seat and it was at least discussed. And maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong about it in this stuff, but it was like Harbaugh is going to get fired? there like could he could he be out because i think other franchises may have gone hey we're just stale you know we've had this they had a you know a rough record stretch and i always felt like well if they like them if the owner likes him if they feel like he's doing the right job and he's the right

guy like the other franchises would have just done something different to do something different which again is an example of what i think most franchises aspire to is this stability right Like this whole Pittsburgh thing is really funny because it's like, oh, why can't we just do what they're doing? It's like, well, because none of you have the stones to keep a guy around for a fourth season when you think that it's not working out. And credit to the history that you've had in Pittsburgh, it's like, well, those three coaches, like no one ever really needed to fire any of it wasn't like. Yeah. So I know the record. I know the number. And you're right. Like, I think it's a good point where will this now be a team in the next big spot that starts waiting for the bad thing to happen? which is the irony of ironies that it happens against a Buffalo franchise that has a fan base that expects the exact same thing.

What I saw was a really impressive football team for most of the night that, you know, finds a way to blow a game that none of us expected. So I guess I just can't be that pissed at the Ravens today. They're going to be there. The Ravens are still going to be there in the end. You know, I think it's great for Buffalo. They've been on too many of the other ends of these. And I think it's very helpful for them to get some wins in it.

You know, when you've, I mean, shoot, they were, they were running McDermen out of town not that long ago, you know, and they couldn't manage the end of a half or the end of a game and shoot. For them, it's just great. And I think for all of us, it's awesome. And it's a great game. It's a great game. So it's week one.

I don't think this is going to doom Baltimore. But it's just one of those things that, you know, we're sort of keeping a tally on the side on here. And when you don't get over the top, that eventually can be. your legacy. I do wonder about the Jire Alexander acquisition, though, because I know based on his rep in the name, and it's like, oh, man, they got him. It's kind of the same as like Bosa on the other side.

It's like, oh, the bill's out of Bosa. It's like, well, we'll see. We'll see what it actually looks like and how healthy he can be. And Alexander had two specific plays, the PI, and then getting beat on the other throw where you're like, all right, like, I know what the. rep is and Baltimore's thinking, okay, we already have these safeties in place. We've got Humphrey, like, we should be able to, like, add to this group and he's been through it in the past. But if you had to pick, if they were playing in the playoffs tomorrow, like, who would

you pick? Would you pick Baltimore again? I think I'd pick where for the games being played. I think that's probably what I do. And I have felt, I felt coming into the year that Baltimore probably had, you know, a little bit of a better roster. And I might, you know, lean towards then, but when you take the other stuff into factor, like Buffalo's schedule, you know, they can end up with the, and that they've won this game, right? I mean, I feel like it may go through Buffalo in the end. Yeah, that's what could have been decided is where this game is going to be played if these two teams play each other in the playoffs. I do want to ask you a chief question a little bit later, but let's go with Green Bay's win because it was dominant. I mean, the score, I don't think at the end of it, like, you know, when we get week seven, week eight or whatever, it will be, because sometimes we do that with these NFL scores. will remember the game an entirely different way because it's like, oh, that wasn't that bad of a game. It's like, no, this is a bad game. This was an absolute ass kicking.

You had a lot of people talking up the Packers. And I thought immediately it was like, oh, this is the recency bias acquisition of the Parsons trade. But you had a lot of NFC and AFC executives all over this Packers team prior to them, correct? So where did they rank as far as like where the people that work in the league looked at them in comparison to the other NFC teams. Well, they were second to Philly. I think everyone, you know, gives Philly it's due.

You know, they won the Super Bowl and we'll see. So there were, I think, six of the executives made Philly number one. The other two had Green Bay number one, and there was Green Bay above Detroit. So I think, you know, Detroit's losses on the coaching staff probably made a little easier to push Green Bay up. But, you know, I was struck by, you know, one of the guys I really respect that I was talking to and just he couldn't really come up with a weakness on their roster. And he said something like, they may end up having the best receivers in the league, which, I mean, come on, right?

You think it's Cincinnati, the high end guys, but just maybe as a group of guys, you know, that's been a little bit of a disappointing position for them a little bit in recent years. And so to think that that could be the case. And he basically concluded, if I had to find a weakness, you know, is it the quarterback? I think he'll be fine. But, you know, that's pretty good if Jordan Love, who people are really pretty high on is a little bit of the uncertain link. know, I do think yesterday was huge for them. I think losing that game would have been tough mentally because, you know, then what's changed, right? Detroit took care of him. Detroit always beats them. I thought it was huge for them to get it and not just win,

but it was easy. It was an easy win. They left points on the table. They could have scored even more. So that's, the optimism on Green Bay was before the Parsons acquisition. And what's interesting is in the league, it's not like everyone in the league is like, oh my gosh, great Parsons acquisition. There's still, you know, there's still people in the league who wonder if it's going to end up being the greatest thing for anyone involved other than, you know, probably the agent for Michael Parsons and the bank account for Michael Parsons, which are going to definitely win in this thing. but I didn't sense that people were riding the wave of Parsons. They saw it from both sides.

Dallas and Green Bay thought it could have been handled better by the Cowboys, but weren't like, oh my gosh, this is what puts them over the top. I think people like the addition, but just really like that team in a roster too. One of your voters on the NFC side had Detroit 11th. Yeah, well, it's funny in the NFC story. That's 11th in the NFC. NFC, it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous. And I talked to the guy yesterday. I was like, well, I mean, I guess you can take a victory lap after week one, you know. But I think in the NFC also, it feels to me like teams four through 13 are kind of, you could probably throw them into a hat and not be super surprised. So Detroit is third. So they're a little bit above that to me. To me, I would give Detroit more the benefit of the doubt.

But, you know, I think you got to remember as great a job as Dan Campbell's done. And certainly, the last few years, they've had great coordinators. I mean, when he went into the job, he hired Anthony Allen as his coordinator and did a great job going to Ben Johnson, but they may have not gotten another Ben Johnson. So it was, there were some real questions before they had Ben Johnson. And you give Dan Campbell and the Lions credit for keeping him, developing him, identifying him. But I don't get the sense looking at it myself or talking to other people in the league that they think they've found the next guy to run that offense. So, look, they're not going to play Green Bay every week.

They may win next week by three touchdowns. They're still a very good team and roster, I think. But, yeah, the 11 vote tells you that there's some people, maybe just one person, maybe I've got the only person who, you know, question where they're at. And I do think that Dan Campbell had a right out if they lost that playoff game at San Francisco. He was really honest about that may have been our best chance. And part of me believes that with this group. Eleven's ridiculous. I'm sorry. It is. It is. It's just we get into the coordinators and everything. But it's just too talented of a roster to have 10 other teams in the

NFC ahead of them. Tampa says two, three, three, two, two, four. You know, that's where that's what should be. Tampa, I think maybe some people would surprise as high as three, but no lower than six. And as they were losing to Atlanta during the stretch yesterday, I thought, well, this is probably good for Tampa because they beat everybody else in the division. They always used to Atlanta and they've won the division all of these years. Tampa feels like, and granted, part of it's the missed kick by Atlanta there, but this team, it just feels like a max ceiling is lower than the other team. There's a ton of respect. People almost feel bad, not talking about more, but collectively fair or not, they have, it's like they have a lot. a lesser salary cap for expectations and not money.

So when I did this poll, what I did from there was I looked at kind of the way, I looked at, okay, what's the median vote for each team? And then where are the shelves, right? Where are there sort of tiers within the NFC? And there were clearly. Philly, Green Bay, Detroit were in the top three clearly. Detroit's, our Tampa's kind of on an island as the fourth team, which may be a safer bet than any of the others, but we're not really seeing them go higher than that, right?

I think they're their own entity as sort of the respected next team that's probably not going to go to the Super Bowl, but also a high floor, they're probably going to win 10 games, right? And then there's a group of three teams with the Rams, Washington, and San Francisco that have all sort of, you know, been to a championship game recently. You wouldn't be shocked if they did it, but you have some questions about them, too. But they're definitely respected in the top half of the conference. And then you get into like Minnesota and Seattle is kind of the next tier where there are there people see them above Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago, but not in the same mix as the Rams, the commanders in 40. And that feels right to me. They've got new quarterbacks. I think they've got good coaches, but they've got some question marks too.

So I think there's definitely separation in there. And you mentioned Tampa. I think they're kind of on an island there without an elevator that probably goes up much higher. Yeah. Just less stories. And again, it may be unfair, but that just seems where everybody's been with them, or at least for a couple of years here. Yeah.

Did the person who voted Detroit 11th also have Miami 6th in the AFC? That's a good question. He had, I think this person was in it last year, and I believe that he had Washington 6th in the NFC last year. I believe, yeah, he called it. I mean, look, I love it when guys don't do just absolute chalk. You know, they're going to be wrong some, but they're going to get some stuff, too. So let me see. You were asking if this person, what was your question again?

If this, I got it in front of me. If the Detroit borough had them 11th had Miami 6th, which was their highest. No, he had Miami 10th. Someone else had Miami. Yeah, Miami was 10, 10, 10, 9, 13, 11, 9, 6, 9. So 6 was the highest for them. Yeah, it looks like at 6. Maybe I left off the 1.

16th must have been the vote for Miami after yesterday. So I shared the odds that McDaniel would be now. I mean, he's plus 200. I mean, it feels a little nasty when you're talking about guys' careers. But look, this is what we do and it's sports. It's simple to point to the two a part of the health. But what do you think happen? What do people say in the NFL about where this team has gone from where it was at

the beginning of 23? So I think big picture coaching-wise, it's easier to put the head. hammer down for early and then ease off later than it is to be Mr. Nice Guy early and then put the hammer down. The problem for Mike McDaniel was they were coming off Brian Flores and he was the hammer. So a lot of times you pivot, it was like, hey, that was tough. They thought he was too tough on Tua and was just a little too hard nose. So you go with a guy in McDaniel who's, you know, by all accounts nicer, offensive side of the ball, just a totally different type of a person, obviously very quirky. And it works for a while. But I,

I think I have felt like a little bit of a lack of institutional control there, right? I mean, you just sort of felt like it's been out of his control at this point. And there's not enough scheming you can do to make it all right. And they've also brought in, you know, Tyreek Hill is somebody probably best managed by an Andy Reed, right? Who's going to a little bit more of, you know, skins on the wall. He's a little bit more iron-fisted. And guys will play for him. They will put aside stuff for him for the chance to win the Super Bowl, right?

He can bring in somebody who there's a little bit of a character concern here. You know what? We'll bring in Frank Clark and we'll win the Super Bowl, right? And I don't think that Mike McDaniel is that type of coach. And I don't think that after coming in as a nice guy, you can tighten the reins as much later when you need to. I think it's just hard to do. I want to talk to Amber. We knew their defense last year.

It almost statistically was even better in 24 than. where you would put them, right? And it's easy to look at the Denver playoff loss and go, like, what did you expect with O'Nicks in that game? So, if anything, the 24 seasons is this massive, massive success. It was going to be a really tough spot for Cam Ward. They come in, and over the course of a game, 2.4 yards per play, which is the best of any opening weekend.

Again, a lot of that stuff doesn't really matter because it's scheduled-based. But once they had to, even though it was a game that probably a lot of us didn't expect that was going to be even that competitive towards first start, in Denver, of all places. But that was as exciting as Baltimore's offense was, I'd even do a college thing, as exciting as Oregon's offense was. You're like, what the hell is this going to be on Saturday?

I think that Denver defense to close out that game, even with the Ridley drops and Ward just slinging it out there, just total control, complete control of the situation, despite it being a closer game than I think any of us could have imagined. Yeah, I think they, what was Ward 12 of 28? I mean, that's tough. And then I think I looked at, you know, all the weak ones starched by rookies over a certain amount of period.

There was something like 38 of them, however long I was looking at it up. And this was like the 37th worst, you know, by Cam Ward. And I'm giving Denver's defense all the credit. And it's going to be their best friend. It really is. I mean, it's just, the defense raises, gives you a high floor. It just does. It's just so easy to, when I remember, you know, 10 years ago doing a study.

before we kind of had EPA and that type of stuff is mainstreamed. And it was like, I think I looked at when the opposing team, you know, doesn't score 17 or more points and something like that, like everybody wins 97%. Like Alex Smith has the same record as Tom Brady or whatever, right? It was just an amazing equalizer for you. And it doesn't raise your ceiling always. You still got to be able to score and play offense.

But, man, it means you're going to be a tough out and you're going to probably have a close to a winning record. the offensive side of the ball for Denver and just the overall temperament and I mean the overall messaging from Sean Payton and just you know Super Bowl throwing the challenge flag all the time. Bo Nicks thrown caution to the wind. That was a little not complimentary to what their team is, I think, to me. And Sean Payton just is hilarious to me sometimes.

Like I just felt like they got full of themselves this upseason a little bit. And then we're lucky they had that defense, or we'd be talking about, can you believe Denver lost to Tennessee after talking about the Super Bowl? Don't you feel that? Totally. I mean, it was wild, and it was part of me was wondering. It's like, okay, well, maybe they thought in the game plan, like Tennessee's just not going to have a chance against this defense first NFL career. Start for Word. It doesn't matter.

He's a number one pick. So maybe we're going to show some of the stuff that we've been working on. I mean, they threw it, what, 45 times in this game? 40 times. They weren't very good on third down. I don't know. I just think this defense is so filthy. Like there's some certain numbers too,

like his tracking stuff. I think there was like one actual attempt towards him. And he was following, you know, Ridley, who would be considered the number one for Tennessee in this offense. And just there's all these defensive numbers.

Benito's stuff. When you look at his pressure on like the 15 specific plays you would focus in on, I don't, I maybe I'm guilty. of it. Like when I think of personnel and other groups defensively, I'm like, all right, you know, there's still a bunch of defenses I would like.

I probably felt this way more in 24. And then Zach Allen, you know, coming onto the scene as well. But yeah, they're good. It's just, it's just worth at least like, I don't know how many weeks we'll be going in, but I wonder how many other defenses we're going to think are better than Denver's. That's all.

I'm totally with you. And then I think over the course of the year, Sean Payton will figure it, the offense will get figured out. I think they're better than that. So right yesterday, it was like that defense lets you, you know, go into the club and talk total smack. That's like Sean Payton was like, that's what that game was on offense. Like you can just say whatever you want because your friend could kick everybody's butt, you know, that's what it felt like.

But I know Sean Payton's good. I know they got some weapons and I like what Bo Nix did last year. I think they'll get that side figured out. But the gap between those two was hilarious, comical almost. Yeah, Nick's as I was pulling up the first. 40 attempts. It was sixth in the NFL in attempts last year. So it's just higher than you would have thought with Peyton first year. But he does throw it a lot. So we'll see. But you're right. They have a massive get out of jail free card with that defense and so many of the guys that we like from

them. What did you think is the most interesting thing from the Rogers Field Showdown that we had in New York yesterday. Yeah. To me, Rogers, I think the fact that I wrote about this, like Rogers has been betrayed so many times by Green Bay's special teams, he would have lost that game as a Packer. They would have had something happen. So in that game, I was really struck by, hey, they're forcing a fumble and a return to get the ball back for him on a short field. They're making 60 and 56-yard field goals.

That's our total Roger's loss, and they were able to win the game. So I think that was one. And then the second thing is he can really still make spectacular plays and throws. Just not sure how sustainable it is when five, six, seven, eight times a game, you're throwing the ball with your feet off the ground and that type of stuff. There was a couple of near picks in the game. I think some of that stuff's going to even out for him over the course of the years. He gets banged up a little bit. And so I think he's got to be a little wary. It felt great. Four touchdowns, no interceptions, and there were some amazing throws, but he can't move. And some of those spectacular throws are going to come back to bite you. So that's about it.

For me, from a Rogers standpoint, I think you had to like it. You just had to like it a lot to get that many points. I don't remember any, you know, sideline flare-ups or any of that type of thing that was going on. And it looked way more of a seamless operation than you thought it would be. Like, how can, what are the chiefs thinking watching that? Like, how bad their offense was and they've been together all these times and put in all the whole offseason and a long training camp. And everyone was there the whole time. Like, that was a, that was the pretty cool for Pittsburgh to be able to do that with this guy showing up in June or whatever it was. Love the way through the ball.

Just the full display of, like, I can fit it in here. I can lead this guy. I can throw the baseball pass. But he also kind of got his ass kicked a little bit in this game. And look, there was a couple spots where it looked like it was going to be an interception. So I think on the whole, considering how it's looked now for even going back to the last Green Bay year, like for an afternoon, it's like, okay, this is where the bet is that, you know, we have somebody. that can make some of these third and long throws that we just haven't had here in Pittsburgh now for a little while.

And if you keep the sky upright, it gives you a much better chance than whatever they put together a quarterback the last two years in Pittsburgh. So I think that part of it's good. Did you have any Fields supporters? It looked like you had another Rogers point, but I do have a Fields follow-up. Yeah.

Yeah, no. You know, I think we're good on Rogers. Yeah, I thought Fields looked great. I was very pleasantly surprised from their stamp. But they have such an unknown offensive coordinator, you know, in Tanner Inkstra. And I don't know much about them. I mean, he hasn't called the games. And then you think, hey, you know, he gets out of Detroit.

You know, so I just wondered how it was all going to come together with this very specific type of quarterback. At the same time, they do have Scott Turner there who was with Cam Newton as well. You know, so they have some experience with, you know, a quarterback who probably needs to rely someone on his legs to be effective. I just, that was better than I expected to be. I thought he passed it better than expected. So just a real nice positive first game. I think statistically it was maybe his best game ever, you know, EPA per play or EPA per pass play, that type of a thing in 45, 46 starts. It was number one or number two.

So not going to happen every week, obviously. I think he's somebody that, you know, is not hard to figure out. But what a great first game for him. Bummer, they lost it. I'm going to do another college football NFL thing here. Arizona State, unbelievable story, picked last in the Big 12 and 24, making the playoff and hang tough in the playoff effort, winning the Big 12. But the carryover is, okay, now you're 100.

And also, you know, something we always look at in both levels of football is what was your one score, one score game record? And it feels like with Arizona State, with the way the rankings came out, it's like, all right, enough of you guys. Yeah. Do you think what you saw from Kansas City against the Chargers on Friday was like, okay, a little bit of a carryover of like, this is where the doubters are that it still seems a little ridiculous. They're like, hey, this one score record run that they had, which is an absurd number. Like, that's the first one-score game they ended up losing in such a long time. But they still made it to the Super Bowl. So it's not like they got through, got the seat, and then lost early.

But I think for the Chiefs Doubters, that game was this is a carryover of all the things that we didn't like about the Chiefs in 24, and they finally didn't win it. Yeah, I'm with you. Also, you know, Andy Reid going up there talking about the energy wasn't there for, it's week one. But I think they have struggled with this, and it's just human nature, you know, when you've been to the mountaintop so many times, it's just hard to, it's hard to get up for, you know, just a game, isn't it? Don't you think when you're just, you know, you can't, I'm a, I was, it used to be a big boxing fan, you know, like, Muhammad Ali didn't get up for every fight. I mean, he had some, like, you know, kind of lame fights against some guys that were not close to being in his class. Because when you have the highs be so high, it's just like, can you really pretend that can you really be as up for stuff? And I think they have put it together when they need to, even in the course of games, that's kind of been their thing, right?

hey, we're here. We'll find a way. We'll pull it out when we have to. But how sustainable is that when you've got these other really good teams in the conference and you've now had an injury to Xavier Worthy? You know, there's maybe some questions about their roster. I certainly like the addition of their left tackle coming into the season. I thought they would have a better year. And I thought they would do more offensively. Maybe they still will. But that, Andy Reid knows his team. And for him to say that after the first game of the year, Hey, we just got to bring more fire kind of. I was like, hmm, yeah, that sounds like a team that's, it's hard to get them to, it's hard to get him going. You know, Andy Reach mentor, Mike Holmgren, and I covered him for years when he was in Seattle. Remember when they had that second Super Bowl lost to Denver? They won the Super Bowl and then they lost the next year. And I remember him saying, I had a hard time getting them to believe, you know, that whatever Denver was that good. It was like, you've been so good.

You've had so much success. It's sometimes hard to just be up for every game or team. I wonder about that. Yeah, and for Ali, the reason he probably didn't get up for the ones at the end is because everybody close to him was making him fight for a paycheck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But through the 70s, like, I've watched all of his fights. And it was like, you know, he'd hang around.

He would just sort of stand there with Ron Lyle for 10 rounds. And then in the 11th round, when the announcer's going, ah, geez, I don't know if he can do it. Then he leases a seven-punched flurry and the guy's out, you know, and you're like, oh, okay, he could still do that when he needed to, but he didn't do it for 10 rounds. Yeah, the Houser, the Thomas Houser, Life in Times book, which is the first one I read a really long time ago because it came out in 1989.

Yeah, early 90s. Yeah. I just remember how disgusted I was with the end of the story. And it's why, like, when Floyd Mayweather had said, you know, again, Floyd quotes, I don't know how much you want to be, you know, Floyd Mayweather's making you that upset about a quote. And, you know, maybe you shouldn't be gone to something else.

But I did get upset about this one when he's comparing himself to Ali. He started bringing up the losses at the end. I just like you read the end of that book from Hauser and you're so disgusted with the people that are supposed to care about Muhammad Ali the most. And it felt like they'd give a shit about him at all. He was so done. He was so done for so long, but he could still rally when he had to. And that's a little bit where the chiefs were at.

watch the, I love the Eliezer on YouTube, go to the last two minutes of Muhammad Ali fighting Ernie Shavers, okay? It's awesome on YouTube. I don't get goosebumps doing it, watching it. I watch it two times a year probably. I love it. But, I mean, it's sad because

he's so much of a better fighter, but he's done. But when he had to do it, I mean, he rallied, he could rally like none other. And that's kind of, yeah, a little bit of a parallel letter maybe to the chiefs. We'll see, it's one game. I mean, they could, they could, They could be 10 in one still.

I actually thought they would do more offensively, but, you know, didn't look good at the first game. They looked very disjointed, didn't they? Maybe Andy Reid was going with, like, the Brazil and then Ali's last fight being in the Bahamas in 81. Burbock, Trevor Burbank, right? Right, right. Because when I've watched that fight on YouTube, I'm like, what the hell is this? It looks like a community center where you're thinking, this is a Muhammad Ali fight. Yeah, it's so sad.

The point is, is the Chiefs, it's week one of the NFL. It's not the Bahamas, even though it was a result game. They should be fine. Did you ever watch the documentary Facing Ollie? I've watched most of it, but I don't know if I've, no, I've watched most of his stuff, but I don't think I have that one. Just trust me, find that one. What they do is they get about six guys that fought them, you know, from Henry Cooper to

George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ernie Shavers, George Chavalo, amazing story. And they talk to them, and all these guys just about are dead now. But they talked to them about what fighting Ali meant to them. You know, it meant, it changed their lives. But then you also get their stories. And it is amazing with the backstories and stuff and their perspectives on things. I just, that's another one. I will watch, I'll watch that once a year. I love, I love the old stuff. I haven't seen. I can't believe. I haven't seen that because I remember going to Yeah

Whenever I see When We Were Kings, I want to run through a fucking wall Winner Kings is great too I think I've seen all of them I mean I used to collect fights before you could even get them Before there was YouTube I used to get them 30 plus years ago I used to get them on VHS There was this dude in L.A. who would like advertise in Ring magazine That was the only way you could watch them

So I had to get these grainy VHS tapes of fights from back in the day I loved all that stuff and And I think Facing Ali is probably my number one favorite one to watch. Did you ever read the Larry Sloan-Tyson book? I did not. No, I should. It was great. It's incredible because, you know, it's Mike first person, basically, but, you know, Sloan does a great job with it. And I'd say there's probably 200 pages.

You're like, all right, it sounds like you really liked cocaine, man. I got it. But Tyson goes through every single fight. So I would read that book and then watch the fight on YouTube after hearing how he would describe it. I mean, the whole of field stuff alone. I love that. So if you ever are going to get a Tyson book, I haven't read all of them, but I would get that one because he just starts from the very first fight and then goes all the way through. And it's so much fun to read his perspective on the fight. And then, I mean, it's a long book. And like I said, there's during the real bad times where he's just a mess. And he's totally like telling you about everything. He gets in all of his legal stuff. It goes on because that was a big part of the Tyson story. But when it's just the fights and then you can go watch all of these, it's so much fun. Because, you know, they've seen all these fights as a little kid growing up. And then it's like, okay, so now it's like the guy's almost sitting next to you telling you, here's what was happening here. Here's what I was thinking there. The lead up to the Buster Douglas fight, I'm not going to spoil it for you. But what he's talking about that he's going through and the shit that he's doing

leading up to that fight, I mean, I can't believe he lasts as long as did. Yeah, the guys in his corner where it was amateur hour. Yeah, I remember that. That was one of my happiest nights of sports in my life because I was a big, I was a big, uh, Ali defender, you know, when it went all my friends, uh, I was Tyson era, you know, so I was. Sure. you know, I was 21, 20 years old when Douglas beat him.

So I had been saying, hey, I know Tyson's great, but don't forget these other guys. I mean, this era of the 70s was unbelievable. And so when he lost, Douglas, I was like, yes, these guys can finally, you know, I don't have to listen to Tyson was the greatest ever. He was great, though. Is Caleb Williams potentially going to be the Floyd Patterson of number one picks? Well, last year, we talked about it when quarter of bacterias came out. That was, you know, last year, I still remember that over that. That was only a couple months ago.

I mean, last month, yeah, last month about last year and people really questioning his processing. And then, you know, this piece came out by Tyler Dunn, you know, were he quoted about 250 people just shredding Caleb Williams' work ethic, all this stuff. And, you know, part of me is like. Hey, let's just let him play his second season. But the other part of me is, are you seeing a long line of people coming out and saying it's not true? Like, I want to have Ben Johnson or all these guys that are working with him now or the teammates say absolutely false.

This guy is putting in another time. He's a great teammate, all this type of stuff. So it's very interesting to me to have that heavy. I remember Tyler Dunn wrote the thing on Sean McDermott a couple years ago. It was pretty devastating to talk to a lot of people around him. And Sean McDermott is still there. He's a good coach. Maybe he even learned from some of those criticisms.

But this is odd. This is just weird for somebody who was the consensus number one overall pick, didn't go out and rob a bank or anything that I know of. You know, it was a tough season. you maybe would have liked him to be more accountable or something, but this was like some really strong stuff stood against them. And then while I've seen a few people, you know, I saw Kyle Long saying this is cowardly, you know, people to say this, they should be happy to have them.

I would like to hear more of that from the people around Caleb Williams, on the Bears, that type of stuff. It'll be moot if he goes out and just plays great, but there's something there that's a little bit unsettling to me if I were a Bears fan or that I want to see you kind of resolved. That makes sense to you? Yeah, I just would like to see him play with Ben Johnson. Yeah.

Man in the ship and then see what happens because, you know, I've said it. I'll say it again. The people that didn't like him didn't like the nail polish. They didn't like the quote that wasn't even his quote that was attributed to him about ownership and all the stuff. and it was an agent and the crying part of it. Like I never heard anybody knock his football ability. I never really like I thought the two years ago at SC was incredible or the second second to last year.

Then his last year that team was a mess. So I still like believed in him trying to figure out how to save that team on all these Saturday. So from a football standpoint, I've never heard anybody prior to the draft pick. You're like, oh, he's just not good at all these things. Then you had your piece where it sounded like you took it. easy on them by not just unloading the full clip on them of all the stuff you had when you had told me hey there was like this isn't five people that watched the tape that didn't like it's like 20 people so then you're like oh my god is it really going to be this bad is it is it a football conversation and not a

personality conversation and this piece felt like it was all of it so that's the part where i'm kind of shocked that a guy that goes number one overall that that i understood why people didn't like but I never felt like it was about the actual football, and now it feels like it's the actual football. So that's the part. Yeah. Yeah. And then a new coach coming in who isn't necessarily tied to him. I think the perception from the outside was, oh, Ben Johnson came to Chicago because of Caleb Williams. I don't think that's true. And in talking to people that investigated that as a job and thought, hey, maybe I have a chance to get interviewed. Maybe I'm going to be interviewed. I'd like to be interviewed there. There were a number of those people in the

not seasoned who really looked at the tape, you know, and then called around, talk to people, hey, what? And a couple of them that was telling were like, what I learned wasn't enough for me to not take the job, but like Caleb Williams wouldn't be the reason I was taking it. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, I'm, I'm dumbfounded a year later. I'm, like, that shocks me. Yeah, so, like, I felt, obviously the tenor to the quarterback tier stuff was, hey, a lot of people mentioned is processing, there's concerns. But part of me, too, is like, hey, he's played one year, you know, we'll have time for all of that. I didn't unload everything that I have heard on him, you know, but at the same time, like I said, I would like somebody to be, I'd like more people

to be pushing back. And I'm not hearing it. I don't have, there's not like people I'm talking to behind the scenes or other people who are like, this is all BS. No one's, no one's really saying that that I know of. Yeah, normally you hear some people make up some shit that sounded good, right? Like, there's nothing funnier than we all know it's not true, but you're just at the podium going, this is what I have to do, and I have to back my guys, I have to back guys that are in the locker room. The thing that I think kind of sucks for him is that it's a Monday nighter. Like, it would have been really nice if he could just settled in with this new offense and, you know,

the new hopes for a second season with him and one o'clock start gets buried with the rest of the stuff. If he's bad night against bad tonight against a Vikings defense that's, you know, going to have a plan for him, it's going to be a rough, rough start. Yeah, I feel like Ben Johnson has put him on alert more than tried to build him up publicly. And so when you like see Jim Harbaugh goes someplace, like Jim Harbaugh goes to San Francisco and he's like, hey, Alex Smith is elite. And all he'll talk about is Alex Smith's great, this and that. Justin Herbert is, you know.

Yeah, exactly. But he always said the guy was great, you know. And I think Ben Johnson has gone in there and sort of let some of this stuff linger like, hey, I want to see what Caleb's all about. We're going to keep some pressure on him. And everybody, he's done that with everybody. I mean, he's made it clear he's upset when someone's in the training room too much or, you know, not on point in practice.

So he's taking a real, a different kind of approach to it. And I'm very anxious to see in the game, you know, the Monday night game, is he tailoring things to, uh, to Caleb? to give them the best chance, or is she throwing them in the deep end and saying, hey, number one pick, can you do it? Like, maybe we'll get a sense for that. Do you think they win tonight? I don't know about that.

I think it's, I'm glad I don't have any money on it because I don't know what JJ McCarthy's going to do either. I mean, that's a total wild card. Can you find a 14-win team that turned it over like that voluntarily? I know John Elway retired and they went to. to Brian Greasy, but they really retired. They couldn't have kept Elway, they could have kept

Darnold. I don't begrudge him for not, but this is a strange situation, isn't it? Yeah, we touched on it before the season just because you think about that team I've got the 14 wins. They lose the way they do at the end of the regular season with the seating,

then they lose in the playoffs. And it's like everybody seemed to be totally okay with a team turning the page after a 14 and three season. And that's, That's crazy. But, you know, maybe think how much they must like him. Whenever a team drafts a guy, shocker, they usually like him. Although I don't know if Belichick loved Mack Jones.

Sometimes it becomes a quarterback need thing. But if you're going to take McCarthy that high when you already had things in place, although it was still an uncertainty with Donald. So I can't really say it's that much of a certainty because we didn't expect. We didn't know what to do. It was another stop for Donald. There's rumblings about, there's rumblings about JJ this offseason two. Leadership of the team and all that type of stuff.

I mean, it's interesting. I can't wait. I can't wait. And either way, whatever the result is, it's going to be, you know, it's that first impression. It's a new first impression for Caleb Williams, the first impression for JJ McCarthy. And, you know, I just hope it's a good game. I mean, look, I have all this Caleb stock that I, you know, I have people close to me being like, need to dump all of this. You need to dump all of it.

You need to get out. I just want to see what it looks like tonight. But if it's bad, it's going to be a rough, rough week in Chicago for what was supposed to be the face of the franchise. Mike Sando, I don't know if he's the face of the athletic. That might be unfair over here. We just appreciate his work so much. You can read all this stuff, including that executive poll stuff, which is always interesting. It is pick six column every Monday, and it's up for you after a week in the NFL.

So thanks, Mike. Thank you. I'm ordering that Larry Sloman book. I just found it now on Amazon while you were finishing up there. You're going to love it. Thanks. Appreciate it. Yep.

Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. Callers. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. As we get deeper into the college football season, I'll start putting together my playoff grouping, but I just don't feel like doing that. I might not even do anything until after week four. So Oklahoma, Michigan, that's the headliner. Everybody's watching that game that was into it because we had a pretty lean slate on Saturday, 2413 win in Norman.

And just when Norman's right, man, it's a tough spot. And even more so for Bryce Underwood, Michigan's all everything recruit, it's a tough spot for him. So look, he goes 9 to 24, 3 of 14 on third down for Michigan's offense. I think there's some really good stuff in there. The McCulley deep throw is just a thing of beauty. Has McCulley just kind of running one-on-one with somebody. He's got to lead him perfectly.

He does. He had that first drive throw to Morgan with pressure right in his face. I mean, physically, all the stuff that you would want. I mean, the reason why this guy is this kind of like all-time recruit and why LSU and Michigan are fighting over him. Like, you see all of this stuff. And anyway, I think it was, it was really good to see him kind of on the stage, even though the numbers weren't very good. The bad stuff is, yeah, sure, I could sit here and talk about the rollout to his right side where he misses a really great developing play, misses the player entirely. I mean, it's just a miss.

I think the more frustrating thing if you're a Michigan fan is what the fuck are you guys doing on play action? started to be so harsh about it, but the mechanics of the play action stuff with Underwood is terrible. I don't know if that's on him or can't somebody just pull him aside and be like, hey, this is kind of how play action is supposed to work. So the fake handoffs

are terrible. Nobody should be budding on any of that stuff. And it was happening all night. And then I feel like there's a couple plays where they had the running back on the wrong side or he was going to play action fake to the wrong side of the running back. So I don't know whose fault that was

but that was really messy and that should be a little bit easier to clean up so until that's cleaned up like nobody's going to bite on any of that stuff if you can't at least just whatever kind of magic show you're supposed to have back there on the play action they were lacking

so that's the Michigan side of it then you've got Oklahoma's defense which the college football world got to see this is what it's supposed to look like in Norman this is what it's supposed to look like with all these guys flying around killing everybody and certainly with Brett Venables as the head coach this is what Oklahoma fans should expect.

And they saw that. And then you have John Mateer, who I'm so happy in a way that it was a lean slate that this many people got to see why this guy's this big of a deal. He is unbelievable. And I mean this is a compliment. His open field running, the change of direction from a quarterback, you don't see that a lot. There was a goal line hesitation where I don't want to call him White Lamar because I feel like it's insulting to Lamar.

But Lamar, my favorite thing about him. at Louisville was it'd be some kind of goal line run and everyone is so afraid of what the next move is that he could then just walk straight in. And it wasn't because nobody went to go tackle them. It was they were so afraid to move and be out of position. They would just kind of sit there. It was a lot like the Steve Nash stuff where everyone was so worried about the assist. Nash could just dribble right to the hoop because you would just be waiting. be like, well, there's no way he's actually going to do this. Lamar could just walk in with these moves, just foot in the ground, you know, and right in.

And look, I'm not saying Meteer's Lamar. I almost, it is a compliment, but again, I don't want to be coming off as like I'm even comparing anyone to Lamar Jackson because that Louisville stuff is still some of my favorite stuff I've ever seen in college football. Let's talk about the end zone throw because McShay broke it down on the tape. I retweeted it last night. So they get backed up after a penalty. Mateer is deep in his own end zone. And he's actually waiting for the right side, the route on his right side to develop. So he realizes like it's not really a double move, but he's going to get the receiver clear of the corner with the way the throw is being set up.

And he's doing this all while deep in his own end zone. And there's a linebacker running free ready to kill him. I've told the story a couple times. I remember watching a game earlier. early on at ESPN. Mike Ditkin and I are hanging out in a little side studio where he'd have like eight screens up. Brett Farv waited on a third down for the tight end, I think, to clear from the defender. Farv knew he was going to get killed, but he had to hold the ball to wait for the tight end to get some kind of separation. He completes the pass. I think it ended up being a

touchdown. And Dickett jumps up, like I thought he was kind of out of it, jumps up, freaks out. He's like, Farv, man, he's got the goddamn balls of a mountain lion. Farv wasn't in his own end zone. That's the kind of throw that mater, like, this is the kind of stuff. I think the people that really do this, the guys that do the full evaluations of these players, like, I like when they're explaining to us, like, this isn't just a sick throw. Like, think about all of the other circumstances around him to complete this kind of ball. Oklahoma schedule, have you looked at it? You know what?

That'll be homework. You have to look at it. It gets a little rough those last seven matches. But a nice night in Norman for a program that is used to that kind of defensive output. And now they have a quarterback to go through it. Go go with it. And a linebacker now playing tight end who's just out there crushing dudes.

I watched Arch Manning's second game against San Jose State, a bit of a zag. If you look at the box scores and you see the four touchdowns, I was it four touchdowns in like, five plus minutes, you're going to be like, all right, and figure out. And look, it's a second kind of real start here in 25 after the Ohio State game where he wasn't very good and got crushed because everyone was watching it. I don't think many people were watching this game. I watched the entire first half because I wanted to see how he looked. I didn't think you looked that great.

It doesn't mean anything. But I think it's a different experience of watching that first half when they were up 28 nothing versus just looking at the box score. So it's not like, hey, this is alarming, but it wasn't like he was super crisp all day long. And maybe, again, I'm holding him to too high of a standard after going like, look, he wasn't good against Ohio State. No big deal. first star at Columbus.

Like, did you think it was going to go great? San Jose State for the first 30 minutes this game looked like the most miserable football team. I think I saw all of Saturday. Luke Altmire for Illinois. Terrific against Duke. Like, look, at least I'll always give you credit. You're playing, did you schedule a decent power for out of conference?

You know, in Duke, there's some expectation with their transfer coming in a quarterback who still looks like he's defaulting to run a little bit more. but on Saturday Altmeyer was on fire. He's been on fire to start the season, 75% completion rates, six touchdowns, zero picks, 10 yards per attempt. Great versus Duke. I think if you allow me to go a little McShillow here, it's not his mobility, it's his movement in the pocket, staying in the pocket, clearing himself with pressure, getting to the throwing lane. And I think with Altmeier and Illinois in the past, like those Penn State games bugged the shit out of me of taking them really serious. I think that win against South Carolina for that program was massive in the bowl game.

It was one of the best bowl games. And it was like, you know, a lot of us had a lot of South Carolina momentum, the SEC Big Ten stuff. But that's a really good win from them that they've now carried over into 25. So Altmire, I don't know what that means other than he's on the radar now. Mississippi State, up 17, nothing against Arizona State, down 2017. I'm like, there's no way they're winning this game. Arizona's Levitt's out there just bawling. He's got his receiver back. I'm like, man, this team is just tough mentally cowbells. And again, nobody thinks Mississippi State's any good because of what they did last year. But last year is in the past now.

Blake looks even better in a second year of Mississippi State. And then you've got Brennan Thompson, who was at Texas, who was at OU, who on his first touchdown hit 22 miles per hour and then breaks free for the game winner. I can't believe Mississippi State up 17-0, getting outscored 20 Zip came back and won that football game. Arizona State drops out of the AP ranking. That feels a little harsh. It feels like voters are like, all right, enough of you guys.

They're 26th, technically, because they're first and others receiving votes. And it has a lot to do with Mississippi State and who they were last year, but that was an incredible game. Clemson, down 16, nothing, at home to Troy, not the way you want to see a team or respond after losing a big one against LSU. Goose Crowder at quarterback for Troy, Troy team that went four and eight last year. so Clemson did close this 127 nothing and held on for the win I don't know how this game is going to play out because it feels like after the LSU loss you'd like to see Clemson come out just destroy a non-power team right

and that was not the case but it was also a very weird first half including a pick six from Clubnik at his own like one yard line so Troy was playing Goose was dealing So it wasn't like a kickoff return pick six fumble at the one where it's just like how does it? But there was a lot of stuff in this game that was a little weird. And it feels like I don't know if it's just, hey, everyone's off Clemson as a title contender because I think that would be a mistake. But that was not what everybody wanted to see.

But if you'd watch the first half of it, I do think more reasonable people could go, okay, this is just kind of a weird deal because you're thinking there shouldn't be any LSU hangover. you should be mad at the world, even down, I think, three important starters, including Williams and receiver. But again, it was Troy. So nobody's going to feel bad for you when you're missing a couple of dudes and you're Clemson because then you look at like a team like Bama who responds, 73-0-0 against Louis Innaman-Roe. You may remember Louis-Intyman-Roe in the Bama history books because in Sabin's first season in

2006, he lost Louise Inam-M-Roe, second to last game of the season before losing to Auburn and the Iron Bowl to finish out six and six. They won the bowl game seven and six. So I remember, I was like, man, this Saban guy, like this was actually happening. Like, I thought this guy was going to be good. They lost to you L. Monroe. It worked out because he only had, it's the only, obviously, six loss season he had at Bama. He only had a three loss season one other time. And it did work out. So if you look at those other 16 years after the first season in 2007, Sabin, average 1.43 losses per season. I love saving facts. I and do them all day.

USF, game winning kick to walk it off in Gainesville from unranked to 18th in the AP poll. The coaches poll needs more data, apparently. Sometimes we're in favor of that. They had them at 23rd. This was supposed to be the easy game for the Gators, considering their schedule, because now they've got at LSU, at Miami, Texas, at A&M, Mississippi State. Who are they now?

They've got Georgia. They finish with at Ole Miss Tennessee floor state. I don't know. They might be still good. not be able to survive it. I know that there was a lot of leg up. Gainesville. Again, I'm talking about Danny Cannell in particular, posted video immediately after not talking about any of the power four conferences and how they matched up against each other after they played these first two weeks. But what if USF is just good? Goalish, that coach, I don't know how long

he's going to be there because this is back-to-back weeks where they've looked tough. They've responded, Brown, a quarterback, it feels like he's been there forever. And last thought, Oregon might be horrifying. Three plays up 13-0 against Oklahoma State, who also, coincidentally, may be terrible. But another quarterback for Will Stein, who might be the best coordinator at all of college football. It's a really long list. It'd probably be hotly debated. But more comes in. We weren't sure of what it was. Yeah, sure, easy start to the year. But

horrifying stuff from the Ducks in Eugene in that game. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. The email address is Life Advice. R.R. at gmail.com. We're doing Ladies Week. Soon. But we don't know.

We're trying to get small men on. Yeah, we will. We will. She's just so busy on sportsman like every morning on your ESPN radio doc. All right. What do we got? We got emails here. I didn't want to start with this.

Have you guys watched Taskin on HBO from our guy Inglesby? The creator of mayor of Easttown? I'll watch it either tonight or tomorrow night. We're having on Wednesday. so yeah watch a pilot this week it's fucking incredible really the pilot was unbelievable so we'll see where there's big expectations for this show he's awesome he's i think we've just i think we've talked about this into the furnace is like one of the i feel like the most underrated movies for the last is that the prequel what it's out of the furnace oh out of the furnace sorry

it's been a minute great movie shout to the Christian Bale it's a great movie I don't understand why that movie is not should be way bigger I don't even know the name of it so apparently there'd be some trouble with the branding there but there's a furnace involved don't worry

something's going on with you I'm just trying to think like who are your auto like who's your number one this guy is in it I'm giving it a chance well it's probably Tom Hardy for you right Hardy's hardy's up there I remember I remember when and this is going to be so basic of me but I remember when I had even read the first article about McConaughey working with no one on interstellar and I was like you space Christopher Nolan Matthew McConaughey like three things that I if I was making a movie that's how I would start it with three things so that

was, uh, that was pretty incredible. But as far as just like a dude that I'm, I'm in on, yeah, Tom Hardy's pretty, pretty up there. Mobland, sick. I'll tell you a guy who's snuck into that for me a little bit, Taryn Edgerton, that guy who did Blackbird and a bunch of other stuff. I think that guy could be like, if they wanted to go young James Bond, I think there we go. I think that guy's been great and a lot of stuff. Is that Joel's brother? Are they brothers? I don't know. I didn't, didn't look at it up right now. Love that guy too, though. only because I just watched a show with Joel dark matter yeah I don't see it I don't see it on his Wikipedia I think it's actually spelled differently too there you go maybe he was uh he played

uh Elton John right he did that was an interesting branding you didn't in the queue yeah so I guess like I said it's new for me to be like I'm not going to see everything he's in but if I if I you know if it flashes on the the title screen I'm like oh put that on the list so typically Joan Hall's in this for me as well, but I actually haven't seen the new Roadhouse movie that he's in. I haven't either, and I don't know.

It just wasn't that interested, but maybe I'll get around to it. Yeah, that's a good question. Because then I started thinking, like when I said Q, like, is there somebody still sending in DVDs to Netflix?

So I quickly checked. Imagine there's just with one guy still at HQ. It's like, Jesus, this guy in Tennessee. The department's been gutted. And I'm like, I'm the only guy left.

It's like, do we have this available? Yeah, it's available. They stopped doing it in 2020, September. So it's only been two years, maybe a little bit later than people thought that we've done. Still have a Netflix DVD. It was the, what was that movie? It was Tom Hardy movie. It was Hardy and Shilobuff.

Remember they were like outlaw guys? What the heck was that movie called? It's pretty good. Still have the DVD. So we don't have a definitive answer then, right? So your go-to? Because Hardy might be it for me. after Warrior.

Oh, great movie. Yep. He was also so great, Peaky Blinders, but. Taboo, you were all over it. Taboo was great. You wanted to learn more about the trading companies.

I used to be able to say Will Smith confidently. I can't do that anymore. Oh, man. What is going on? Just can't do it anymore. You know, I love that it was Will Smith for a while, though.

Totally. I love that it was. So you don't have an answer either, Kyle. I mean, I think I would defer to Hardy. I mean, I always like, when I see Leo's going to be in a new movie, I'm like, that's got to be worth it, right? And honestly, this one battle after another, it looks like it's going to skyrocket him right back to the top of my list. But we'll see. September 26th.

Yeah, with PTA. I mean, talk about, yeah. Talk about a match. Yeah. People are probably expecting me to say Sholome, too. It's actually, it's not because I haven't, I haven't seen Wonka. I haven't actually seen the Bob Dylan movie. I'm not that interested in the Bob Dylan movie.

I don't really like Bob Dylan. No offense. I mean, I'm sure he's, you know, people like him. I get it. I'm just not that interested. You've always appreciated the abilities of lyricist. True. You've got that conversation privately, but yeah, just somebody you were like, I'm on record, yeah, lyrics, yeah, lyrics hold up.

I get it. I get that part of it. If we could bring Morgan in here for a second, because I mean, if he says, this fucking Raiders gear, let's get it over with. It's a big win, dude. Just get it over with. It was, yeah. I don't actually know.

I think I'm, I think I'm more into like a director than I am like an actor. that's kind of like get my seat in theater who's who's the director then you a paul thomas anderson guy then i don't know like i'm a big like mike flanagan fan oh me too if you know him like doctor sleep yeah yeah yeah look at paunton avail house he's great love him uh midnight mass yeah yeah stuff yep so he's like a spoky guy a little spooky hmm that's a great answer from morgan i'm gonna be honest that's that's he's he's incredible I see him attached to any project. I'm like, oh, I'm going to see that.

I agree. I think it's Hardy for me. Okay. I just want to get that. Because after like, yeah, I don't know if I could put Ingallsby, like, for writer maybe right now, TV show. If Engelsby's making a show, there's no chance you're not watching that. So it's, I think that's totally fair to say it's a writer or director. It's also Rafe finds.

I don't know if you guys knew that. What? Yeah. I knew there was something weird. I looked it up again, but I guess I was just desperate for Wargown to give us a crazy answer. You know, sometimes he delivers in a way. I'm not expecting him to. It's like UPS on Sunday or something.

I wish. I'm seeing that new Austin Buller movie tomorrow. I'll report back. Yeah. That's on my list, too. Yeah, me too. Yeah, full review. Love to hear it.

Let's get to some questions. Jim etiquette. All right, no problem. Six foot 190, 50 years old, ball bench 205, squat 300. Personal record marathon 353. Wargon. That's quick. For a full, really quick.

Thank you. Yeah, a couple ultras. So this guy's not kidding around. No pickup comps. It's been decades, but for the record, I once beat Steve Nash at bump in grade eight basketball camp. He's done okay since then, so I don't feel too bad about peeking early. Oh, he lives in Victoria, BC.

out to Island Reels. And I appreciate the recent shoutouts to Western Canada. I also agree with you about Vancouver being overrated. But I only say that in hush tones around here. Otherwise, I get some elbows up treatment from the locals. Yeah, it's a beautiful city. I didn't spend a ton of time there. So I'm not saying, like, I'm a Vancouver expert.

I don't know. I think I built it up too much in my head. But I guess I just still can't get over the H.J options right next to, like, the pharmacy in a North face. It's like, wow, this is all sort of. What are the words you're saying right now? The H.J options? What are these words?

Are you not around for this? Yeah. You're just going to have to look that one simmer. Okay. Just worry about the kids. I jump. So you don't like Amsterdam? That same reason?

I was so young. I was like afraid when I was there. I was 17 and some of the guys were not afraid at all. But it was, they were not in seek of any of that. They just as much. ashes they could eat. Oh, okay. And I had like two beers and thought I was like a badass. All right. After years of running, I finally joined a gym, figuring I'll need more cardio as I head into my 50s. It's been good. I'm seeing benefits, but the gym's a small neighborhood place with

limited equipment. People are polite, but nobody talks. Everybody's in headphones scrolling between sets. Basically, it's like every other public place these days. Here's my question. What's reasonable when it comes to using multiple pieces of equipment at once? I try not to hog things, stick to one or two dumbbells, maybe a bench. But some folks seem to treat the place like their personal garage gym. I've seen people spread across six or seven pieces, rowing machine dumbbells. Six or seven? Rowing machine dumbbells, bow-subal, kettlebells, the works.

Last week, I watched someone to monopolize six pairs of kettlebells. Six. That's 12 total. My breaking point was the lone lat pull-down machine. I was bid back shoulder workout hoping to finish there, but one woman parked her big-ass Stanley Cup on the seat. then rotated between dumbbell presses, long phone breaks, occasional half-hearted lap pull-down set. I ended up doing Canadian conflict resolution, a.k.a. swallowing my frustration, saying nothing

and quietly switching to cable rows. So what's the deal? Is there an unspoken every lifter for themselves rule I've missed? Should I be calling dibs on everything I need when I walk in? Or is there actually baseline etiquette here that I'm right to expect. Appreciate your help on this one. Cheers to Kyle. Surrey Wargon. Yeah, look, that sucks. Sounds terrible. That's not normal. I mean, if you're new to the gym, I guess you could think that's a little crazy. I went Monday, Labor Day. It's the busiest day I've ever seen in my life. And it was Laura the Flies.

It was absolute chaos. I was doing like pull-ups and band work and shit because I was just like, whatever. I'm not even going to, because if anybody got a bench, then they were never, ever leaving it. So yeah, look, it's about you pivoting at 50 years old and, you know, letting people know, letting people know a little bit because somebody to jump your set mid-set. And I usually set a timer in between every single set. If somebody jumps me in something,

then I'll be like, hey, I was gone 40 seconds, you know? It's like, no, you weren't. You were gone five minutes. I've done it like once or twice. I just hold the phone and be like that right there. We're in 48, 49, 50, 51. I'm like, you know, like you just made up. Like, if you were going to make up.

It's like, yeah, right. I don't love the move. But if you're going to be bold enough to tell me I've been gone for five minutes, then I'm going to fuck with you right back. So, you know, these people, these people that do this, they have, one, no shame, and two, expect to get away with it because too many people are silent. I'm not starting to try to, you know, I don't have time to start a movement right now. But I would say the reason you're taking these Ls is because they expect you to. So you don't have to be a dick about it.

You're like, hey, I wasn't done. Stern. Efficient. No nonsense. You can even throw in a little fake smile. Hey, I wasn't done. Do you mind if I finish? You know, and then see where it goes from there.

And if the person turns into an asshole, then it's great because you're like, cool. Now I'm not even worried about you potentially making the mistake, right? Because there's always time, like, I'll freak out. I'll even look like, oh, did somebody just leave that? I might even give it a minute and look around, you know? And then if somebody's like, hey, I wasn't done. no problem because I know how it feels right back at you. But it sounds like these are not seasoned people if it's kind of a small little neighborhood place. And if somebody's taking up six

pieces of equipment, she's not going to stop until somebody says something to her. Anything else? No, you're right. I mean, I think I'm always, in these situations, I'm always like thinking about, well, just yeah, just go and sit down while as soon as, you know, if she's on her sixth circuit thing wait until she's you know moves and you know it's going to be five more machines till she's back but um i don't know if like if i'd want to like myself just like yeah well i'll just work in without asking anybody so i i i would defer to you i think uh i think i it always sounds from where i'm sitting in my office that like yeah just do it man uh but this guy's canadian so he might already be at a disadvantage and also i don't really know i don't really

know that that feeling so well anymore it's been a while since i've uh paused my golds membership so um yeah i just say i'd defer to ryan yeah younger me would have absolutely moved the stanley mug with the stanley cup that's insane just putting water bottles on top of equipment to go do something else yeah like that's that's that's cup that mug would not have been there uh this isn't an easter egg hunt you know like yeah but like older me i don't know i feel like i've become I'm less confrontational in these situations. I'm like more Canadian now. And I'm just like, ah, I don't know.

You're getting more Canadian. I had 0% Canadian me now. I'm like, I don't know. You know, I don't know. I just am I really going to, you know, my mid to late 30s, am I really going to just like start fights with people at the gym? Like, yeah. I don't know.

The only time I ever just am irrationally mad is on the road, which I don't think is unique at all. But at the gym, I don't know. I think I probably just keep it moving, try to find another machine. Yeah, you don't know. have to be a jerk you'd be really really polite and then the second they are like well i'm actually using it and you're like you're using that that be like oh you got a busy day you're hitting you're doing a full

body huh i think that's what he needs he needs a couple of one liners from you when this thing inevitably goes left so that's good the busy day so think yeah think about a couple of those because the like the tensions are high this guy's probably like he said he's canadian doesn't like this type of stuff he's probably like getting little red in the face there so if he has a couple like one-liners he can pull out of his pocket like that well busy day you got this this and that that's nice he might feel more confident about actually you know acting on this yeah you as my trainer oh geez yeah you got a lot going on you're really efficient like i'm gonna grab a pen and write down the things you're not using yeah what so i can keep track

that dude you're nailing it right now you this is real life advice okay uh urgent do i join a frat rsillo and friends i don't care if you respond to the pod or just email back i'm probably never just emailing back. I need advice. 8.10. Wait, 8 foot? No, 18. That makes more sense. 18, 5 foot 10, 155 week. Hey, dude, don't worry about it, brother. I think when I hit 170,

that was like, fucking sweet. 1-70. Look at me. Enormous. My basketball cop is Mark Titus. I love the game more than anyone, but I scored five points my senior year. That tells you anything beyond unathletic. Titus played Division I'm like me, but you get, I'm going, I know, but I just feel like that's a bit.

Like, that is, you know, how good he had to be. I scored more than five points a senior year at high school in Indiana, dude. Yeah. I'm a freshman at Clemson and cannot decide if I should join a fraternity. I decided to rush last minute, fell behind the eight ball, not making the connections to join some of my top options originally. It's also hard because I know nobody, because I'm from outside of Chicago area. I signed up for five, heard back from two I knew the least about and had the least interest

in. After learning more about them on, however, I started a. like guys. I still don't feel 100% that's spot for me. I feel confident I'll get a bid, but I don't know if I should take it. I could always wait until the spring and rush then with a better understanding we wanted to join now so I can meet people sooner. And worry, I'll feel left out and bored for a semester. I like some of the kids planning to pledge the house, but I'm worried to say yes is all I know. And there could be better, hoping you could help because I remember saying you joined a fraternity, love the pod, hoping for an answer. Oh, this was

this was five days ago. So this kid may have joined the I thought he was going to be like, should I join a fraternity? It sounds like that's the only thing he cares about is joining it. I was going to say, like, what are the, you know, what would be the objections or pros, cons to actually doing that? It sounds like he can't think about doing anything else. He just wants to join the best one. So I guess I wasn't a part of it, so I'll lay out. Is there like a transfer portal for fraternities too?

Like, if you join one, like, do you get to, are you, do you ever get to move? Like, if you don't like it, how does that? I don't know. because I grew up and I went to school and there's just like a transfer fee. There's just like a transfer fee you just yeah like could he go to this? Can he join one now and then all of a sudden his stock goes up and it's great and all these other frats are like kind of interested in him I don't know but I don't know

if that's like taboo it works like at all dude I really don't think so it's like I'm sure it's happening like jumped out it feels almost unheard of like will there be someone I mean you know how cool you would have to be to be for everyone to be like a lesser fraternity for the coolest one to go, we don't care that you went to Eastern Connecticut, you know? No, I don't know why I said Eastern Connecticut is just, you know, the Connecticut roots. It's really serious. Yeah, Willimantic. What's up?

Anybody that's gone there. Yeah, Willemannics. Has it overtaken Hartford? Is New England's Rising Star? I don't know. It leads the state in some things. I'll just leave it at that. All right.

Well, you know, better than being average, right? So, okay, this kid may have already joined. And so this email, we could have changed this kid's life with an earlier answer. And now I almost feel guilty about the whole thing. The spring thing, I don't know if that matters anymore, but I remember going in thinking I would join in the spring. I was like, let me get my bearings, get everything right. My father was like, you're absolutely not doing this.

It was one of the first times ever. I was like, well, I'm not listening. And then when I talk to like the older guys, they're like, you're going to be a spring loser. I mean, that's all I had to hear. I was like, all right. yeah there's guys your own age who did this fucking four months ago who like yeah you're basically a dirt to that right no no well let me ask you this though because i i don't know anything though so yeah you like get to school as a freshman and then you like immediately start figuring out

what frat you're gonna go in syllabus week then rush week i think that's how i feel like you don't know anything yet you know when you want the lay of the land it's probably yeah but sometimes sometimes you'll know you'll know like i knew exactly where i wanted to be before i was was even there. Like I knew during the summer because I knew like this is the one that's considered the best one. How did you know? Was this like research? Did you talk to people? Yeah, we didn't have Google. I was Lexis Nexus, just the local library rankings. No, there was older guys. I mean, it was, you know, I went to high school in Massachusetts. It was UVM. It wasn't like I was going to foreign countries. So there was older guys that were around and they were like, this one sucks. This one is

this. This one is this. Whatever. And then, you know, so like the one I wanted was the only one I wanted. And if I didn't get into that one, I wasn't going to do anything else. And within two weeks, I was a pledge. I mean, it's fucking stupid. I just turned 18. I've got like 20. I mean, the whole concept now that I'm older, it's like, you have a 20 year old telling me what to do. And I'm out of the house for the first time ever in like two weeks.

So, yeah, but the spring thing, I don't know if the spring fall thing is even a thing. It's probably more of a school thing, a little deal. But yeah, I don't, I don't think it's necessary. Maybe it's more necessary in the Southern schools. I think you could have gone through a Northeast school and it wouldn't have mattered. And by the time you're a sophomore, you're all going to have the same friends. We had a lot of friends that weren't even in it. It didn't really matter.

It just sped up the process. It sped up the process a little bit on the social part of it. And yeah, like, to be honestly, thinking back, it's pretty stupid that all of a sudden you could join someplace and girls would be interested in you. Like, girls like that guy. I mean, like, yep. like people do this typical SEC couple picture thing now it's so funny though yeah but like sometimes it's like guys it's a yeah you think he's a disaster i mean he's just rocking whatever

20 year old yeah exactly thing in haircut and polo shirt and like that's the look i mean our look with the patagonia vests and the hip packs and the pull down game hats like we're all fucking clones of each other it's like man that guy's so cool he looks exactly like 60 other dudes that house is the best you know i mean it's whatever we're young i mean you could you could say it'd be embarrassing but it would be pretty dismissive just the way things work and how everybody kind of ends up wanting to look like each other instead of standing out for uh fear of ridicule but i would again it might be too late but i wouldn't just join something because it's the only one that's interested in you um and i don't know what you have to i think in the south you have to

like really put in the time and show up to the rush events maybe know somebody put in the And it sounds like because you're not from there. You didn't do any of that kind of stuff. So maybe you're going to meet a ton of great guys. But I don't know. I mean, again, this sounds stupid, but like, I don't know how cool you are. Damn, we are 50 active chapters of fraternities and sororities at Clemson. That's a lot.

There was probably like eight at Pottsdam boys and girls. Is the Latino one you were in recognized? Let me check. Let me check. I know they're not recognized a Potts tab anymore. Underground. I think there was two frats at Quinnipiac. Cultural Greek Council?

I don't think that's what it is. This is like getting harder to read with all the non-English words. I don't know what to do. It might be too late. Well, I figured Ryan's answer would be don't join because you don't want to pick the wrong one.

We don't want to commit to the wrong thing. That is my advice. Yeah. That is my advice. You're right. Which I think is the right answer. Like, why would you join this thing just because you feel pressure?

like would you rather have no friends or a few friends or friends that you don't really like or you don't like think are cool like that's i feel like i'd rather have no friends i think honestly when i was like getting like corded i pulled that out for like three semesters where i just kept like backing out i'd get to go to the parties that like a lot of people could but then like i'd back out and be like dude my grades are just not here and um some of those guys i met that were closer to my age they were just like in like quieter moments they're like i fucking hate like 80% of these guys and i was just like really you're locked in huh wow yeah that's the other misnomer's like you just like everybody it's like nope no dude

that's not true at all but i remember when i first got to school guys were kind of like what are you going to do what do you think you're going to do when you know and then and i remember like one kid being like well this one place i know like anybody can do a bit there if it's that important to you was like well that's it's the automatic like disqualifier why the fuck what i want to do that like what's they're pledging. It's like they do this three-day retreat and then you're in. So, like, so you bring a sleeping bag Friday and then Sunday night, you're good to go. Like, that's not I'd want the Marines to be trained. So, my, my fraternity guys aren't in Clemson. They have no representation in Clemson to see. You just go down there and fake handshake it. It's like the same

handshake for like 20 of the same fraternities or 20 different fraternies. All right. So yeah, good luck. Keep us posted. That'll do it for life advice. today. That'll do do it for the show. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Jonathan Frius. Thanks to Rudy. Thanks to Kyle. I'm going to do this just because I want to. Loss a friend

this weekend and I want to just dedicate the pod to Yuck. Ryan Rissillo Podcast, Ringer's Spotify. Must be 21 and older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG dash help.com. Call 188-789-777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gambling help. dot org in Maryland. Hope is there. Visit gambling help line, ma.org, or call 800 32750-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-8778 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.