The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Catching Up With Scott Van Pelt

Episode Date: June 19, 2020

Russillo shares his thoughts about the NBA playoffs format and whether he thinks "older" teams will be at a disadvantage (4:10). Next he catches up with his old friend and host of 'SportsCenter' Scott Van Pelt about continuing to produce 'SportsCenter' with almost no live sports; recognizing student athletes with Senior Night;.moving from ESPN HQ in Bristol, CT, back to Washington D.C.; the NBA "Orlando bubble"; MLB misfires; and more (10:15). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's episode of the ryan rossilla podcast on the ringer podcast network is brought to you by state farm just like sports the game of life is unpredictable talk to a state farm agent and get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected. Kyle, are you a Premier League guy? I used to produce a Premier League podcast, but no. You used to? Were you relieved of those duties, or how did that work? Yeah, I relieved myself.

I was relieved, but it was interesting. The fans are great. I like hearing the fans talk about it, but I linger on the outside. That surprises me. That is, as you could say, but I linger on the outside. That surprises me. That is, as you could say, unexpected, just like State Farm. Get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected. Talk to a State Farm agent today. I thought all young people had to be assigned a Premier League team just by law.

I like it. I do like it. I just don't watch it. I've said numerous times the amount of hours I put into watching sports that I just, I don't find myself going, Hey, in my downtime, I'm going to watch more sports because that,

uh, that's not when I have those moments, like we've had these last few months. So, uh, I do miss sports, but probably not enough to pick up a premier league team, not making fun of it.

Cause that's a, that's an interesting evolution. It used to be kind of like good content to make fun of soccer you make fun of it all the time like this is great nobody's even gonna get mad at me now if you were making fun of soccer good luck uh and i'm not for the record i am not making fun of soccer i love the ua stuff world cup is unbelievable and it took me buying in and going you know what what? Spend some time watching this stuff. And I was into it, but not to the point where I think I'm going to wake up religiously in the morning and follow my team and be emotionally invested in it. Even though I would love to go overseas to see a game. Because who wouldn't want to go see some amazing sport?

Especially now. You know what we should do is put together the top list of three bands that you want to go see once this is up and running i imagine for you kyle it's diplo dead mouse and skrillex oh dude never never geez you're right over there that was a that was a that was quite the mic drop or a desk breaking give me your three bands you would most want to see damn dude i hate this but i he's my guy and i don't know i don't even know where he stands anymore but i think he's like the greatest guitar player ever and john mayer and the john mayer trio uh love that love love that experience i saw him in new york city when i was a young man

but um that one uh acdc rocks are they still doing tours there's no way they they wouldn't i'm not you know i don't think i've gotten the recent newsletter so i don't know i'm not the guy to ask i maybe it might be going into my junk folder which wouldn't be by design yeah mistake john mayer acdc i actually wish i'd asked you your top five give me just give me your third one because this is fascinating oh shit i'm like a hip hop guy i don't really i guess i could do a band right no well you can you can say you know you know what i meant live live musical performance so it doesn't have to be a band if most def is still kicking around i'll go see him what do you mean still kicking around is he doing shows like i don't know multiple groups i mean he's got many chances to be uh

to be out and about my guess would be he's going to be doing a live performance at some some point yeah put him on number three okay very very all over the place so that's what i like about you never can be predictable i've been watching yellowstone season two in anticipation of season three and i don't know that i'd want to just start picking fights with people in dive bars in Montana, but it did make me miss, um, some of the, some of the spots over the years where you're able to just kind of drop in

and see some of these divy places. And I would not, yeah, again, I wouldn't want to start bringing ax handles in a bowl because that's, you know, you're just staring at a lawsuit right there. So,

um, yeah, yeah. Yellowstone. I'm excited for season three. That's, uh, right around the corner coming up, uh, season, Yellowstone. I'm excited for season three. That's right around the corner coming up season three. Yeah, I think that's next week.

Okay, we got Van Pelt today. Van Pelt is the guest, the big guest. I have no idea what we're going to talk about, but it usually works out. But before we do that, today's open

is looking ahead to some of the stuff that people are talking about when it comes to the NBA playoffs. Because as we know, once basketball starts up again, this eight- thing, and then the play and stuff, and then the way the playoffs work out, I've heard a lot of conversation.

I've watched people read all this stuff about what we could expect from the playoffs. I think the headline for me would be, if I were writing an essay, the first line would be, why do we think this new format is going to make good teams worse and okay teams a lot better? And I don't want to say bad teams when you're a four or five seed. So maybe the best way to say it is, why do we think the great teams are at a disadvantage and the average teams are now going to be much better? Yes, I know what you're saying. Well, hey, home court is out.

Yes, that's fine. But let's look, hey, home court is out. Yes, that's fine. But let's look at Milwaukee because I think Milwaukee is a good example here of the way the playoffs have been talked about leading up to it. And I also think because this is going to be different than anything we've ever seen before, people are searching for a different outcome. They're making it cute. I understand this. I did it. Every now and then I do a prediction where I'd go, I'm just going to do something different because I don't want to do what everybody else is doing. Some years it works like the Toronto Raptors. Other years it's a disaster because you're like, yeah, why was I thinking that the team doesn't even make the playoffs? I actually think Scott, the year the Lions went 0-16, he picked them to make the playoffs. So there you go. It happens. It happens where you get

bored maybe of picking the same teams or picking what everybody else is picking and you just want to be a little different. And I'm not saying you don't necessarily believe it but you get the point but i think that's happening a lot when i hear these pre-playoff breakdowns specific to milwaukee now as bill and i have talked about when you look at the bucks you can argue that there's some stuff about the way that you would defend them over the course of a regular season versus the playoff series that things could be changing and because they've only made it to an Eastern Conference Finals just last year after being up 2-0, do you automatically have to buy into them as this great playoff team? No, we need a little bit more.

But they were 28-3 at home. So you go, Ryan, that's wiped out. They were 25-9 on the road. The Heat were bad on the road. The Sixers were terrible on the road. So now I'm supposed to expect one of these teams that were good at home, terrible on the road, to beat a team like Milwaukee in the playoffs that was amazing at home and great on the road as well. Let's talk about age. roster versus the roster at the very beginning of the season. Most of it's all the same, but Milwaukee is basically the oldest team by average age in the entire league. Their average age is 29.4 years ago. Ryan, that's pretty old. The format's going to be a little different. I

have to like some of these younger teams. And that's led a lot of people to picking the Boston Celtics come out of the East in this new format. Why? Because the Celtics are a young team. They're the ninth youngest team. It just over 25 years of age on average. But as I like to do, I go, is that really that big of a deal? Let's look at this. Top five in minutes for the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis, their guy, is 25 years old. Chris Middleton, he may look older.

He may have a body of an older dude. He's 28. And it's not like he's this guy that has to run up and down the court all the time. Eric Bledsoe's 30, Brooke Lopez is 32, and yes, Wesley Matthews is 33. They're the top five guys in minutes, so a couple guys over 30. But now I'm supposed to write them off because three of their top five minutes guys are 30 years or older? Okay, but Boston, Ryan, they're so young. Yes, I understand.

I just pointed that out. Tatum, Kemba, Jalen, Hayward, Marcus Smart, three young guys. That's a young team. But it's also a team you've been watching closely this year. As good as they've been, and they haven't been great, but they're good, they miss a ton of games. Tatum's missed five games. Kemba's missed 14 games. Jalen's missed 14 games. Hayward's missed 19 games. Marcus Smart has missed 11 games, and those are their top five guys. So I'm supposed to pick a Celtics team that wasn't nearly as dominant as the Bucs, and the Bucs have been dominant in the regular season, outscoring their opponents by over 11 points per game, which is historic.

I'm supposed to pick the team that's on paper four years younger than the other team that was dominant when the team that's younger has actually missed more time than the team that's older? That doesn't really make any sense. And part of the reason why you look at these average age things, you really need to focus on who's actually playing. Yes, Kyle Korver is really old. He plays like 16 minutes a game. Ersan plays like 16 minutes a game. Robin Lopez, none of these guys are playing major, major minutes. And I would imagine, even though it's a little bit more of a condensed playoff schedule, it's not like these guys are the closing group in some of these playoff games.

Let's look at that playoff schedule. I picked Philly here because Philly has two very young guys, but I think you would point out in the past that Embiid hasn't always looked like he's in the greatest shape, which is just because he's younger. Are you going to fall for this? Well, he's younger. He's going to be more conditioned for this. Well, he needs to be in better condition. Last year, Philly and Toronto in that epic series, game one between game two, one day off.

Game two to game three, two days off. Then two days off again. Then four to five, one day off. Game five to game six, one day off. And then to game seven, two days off. So that means that in the course of their series, they had three games with only one day off and three games with two days off.

The way the playoff rounds are going to work in Orlando, it's basically 14 days for each one of the rounds. So yes, no opportunity really for the two days off, but it's not like everybody was getting multiple days off before every single game in some of the playoff formats that we used to see a lot longer ago when basically basketball wanted their games on Thursdays and Sunday nights. So even though, yes, on paper, Milwaukee is old, you know, who's the second oldest team? Houston, the third oldest team, the Lakers, the fourth oldest team. That's the Clippers. And yes, there's less days off in between.

Let's not get so crazy about trying to be different that we start picking teams that just aren't as good. That may not even be that healthy, but we think because they're younger, they have a better advantage. I'm not to the point where I'm going to start picking lesser teams over the better teams just because the format is tweaked.

You know his work from the Golf Channel, Always Late with Katie Nolan, and Summer Stock Theater West Hartford Scott Van Pelt How are you?

Big swig of Diet Coke I wanted to be just like the break in our radio days I'm smashing peanut butter crackers and having a Diet Coke I want it to be just like that less food falling out of my mouth but just like it otherwise i gotta be honest with you it does remind me of the old days so um i'm sorry at least now uh yeah i mean anybody that's ever

done radio knows that it's like you never get any smarter. You go, how big of a bite can I take before I come back on the air? And then you almost die chewing. And then it's really tough because if you have to be the first guy back, you never know. It's unbelievable. It's so stupid. I would stand and just pound chicken and rice in the hallway, and it didn't matter. If I had five seconds to get another bite in, I would do it. matter if we if i had five seconds to get another bite in i would do it or we just we perused the cow buffet the food the crabs are yeah that was always a that was always one that

i remember i think i remember when you were like wait mike and mike at bagels and juice i was like well yeah they're here at like like the staff is here at 4 a.m though and you're like that's because we that's a fair point but like we we didn't get craft services we're a minute in and we're already bitching about food from about the old days i apologize to everyone i remember during game day because it was seven hours and you couldn't leave and they brought us over like the Saturday lunch spread from the calf. And I just was like, you know, and they'd always, it was just weird. It was almost like a Russell Stover's deal where it's like, you know, there's

just certain Russell Stover's you're not going to eat. And so why are you bringing over like a couple of turkey wraps, a couple of Italian subs? And then why are there six egg salad sandwiches on a roll? Like nobody wants to eat them except for Trevor. And so I sent off a fiery email where I was like, look, you guys have to do better. I was like, you know, people are working their asses off or something. And the only response I got back was do not swear in company emails. Noted. Noted. Won't do that. Wasn't like I really went crazy. I just, you know, when you're there for seven hours, you get hungry.

What's up, man? Talk to me about your stuff. What's going on? We're two months away from moving to DC, which is impossible. We've been doing a show about sports for three months with no sports. And, you know, it's anybody it's, I, I, anybody that's in the content generation business is at their wits end trying to figure out where it is. I mean, you're, you, I'm out of ways to ask Woj about the bubble. You know, I just, I don't have any, any other way to ask the question um but i mean

and i don't like this isn't like somebody send me a ribbon but i i'm proud of the fact that as a group somehow we've managed to parse something together uh you know i've said now for three months that it's like an episode of chopped and and in the basket they're just it's not even like there's a half a can of old tuna you know nothing so you're you're slapping it together like give us an appetizer well i don't know man but we're we're almost at the finish line we're gonna tap out here for july and try to box some stuff up and head down to uh dc and then, we will be supposedly up and running in time for football season, presuming there's a football season. Yeah.

I want to get to the move and everything that's going on around that. Cause this is a big deal for you. And I'm, and I'm happy for you. What are you most proud of during this time? As far as how you guys have done the show? Cause I've watched a bunch and people have noticed and you're getting a lot of praise and a lot of different corners and it's deserved but what

do you like the most as far as the guy that has to go out there every night i mean we did a thing called senior night which is kind of classic me because it's a little bit corny but it's sincere um and i can i mean i'll i'll cop to both you know levitar actually sent a nice note that he really liked it and it wasn't corny. I'm like, no, it's corny, but it really is sincere. The idea was simply for people whose seasons ended, you just to acknowledge them. And it was, I mean, it's sincerely not corny. It's a really amazing thing to find out about these people that you didn't know existed that are out there doing, you know, high schools or smaller colleges or whatever

that mean a lot to their communities and each other. And you get a chance to acknowledge them and just mentioning them on sports center made them feel like they got an attaboy. They were acknowledged. Somebody saw somebody said their name on, on a show. And that's, I mean, we've talked about this Ryan a lot. Like we don't overrate it. We know it's just, we're two guys that we've,

we've been in on other sides of it where things haven't exactly gone up, gone great. But when you do have the mic and it's on and it's on and people are listening, it's cool to think that it can matter to somebody. So being able to do that senior night bit was, was really cool. Um, the stuff around the last dance, an idiot could have done. And I proved that because I mean, all I did was follow content that everybody was riveted by. Uh,

we tried to have interesting conversation around it as best we could. But again, like I didn't, I don't know that I elevated anything. I mean, we were just on after. So I'm just somehow we've managed to figure out an hour. And I don't know, we talked about this for years about the guy out there or the girl is like, oh, I could do sports radio. You might be able to. Maybe you could do three hours on a Monday.

And then it's Tuesday, right? And then it's Wednesday and it's the old joke. And, but it's not a joke. It's true. And so somehow we come in and it's like, all right, well, we've, we've got the NFL draft and we built to that. And then that was over and you're like, well, now what do we have? And then, well, we got the last dance and then that was over. Now what do we have? And you just, And then that was over. Now what do we have? And you just, we ran out of anything left. And yet we've still managed to do ours on a nightly basis. And look, I'm not trying to act like it's been groundbreaking, but it's, we've, we came on, we did a proper show and, and then we went home. And for a long time, this has been stealing. You just sit here and watch games and you come on afterwards and you show what happened. We we've worked at it these last few months. Cause you've

had to, you've had to make magic tricks every single night. Yeah. The senior night stuff is, is you. And I mean that as a compliment, it isn't, I mean, yeah, sure. You can say it's corny, but like you looked at a moment where all of these kids all over the country are going to miss out on something like, look, I didn't have kids. And when I drive around different neighborhoods and I see these graduation things that certain houses will do, or you'll see videos of people being like, let's have some fake ceremony where you walk up the sidewalk into the house and everything. And you're like, you know, that's a big deal. I mean, it's a big deal to walk as you, as you further on, because I think there's closure and there's these moments you know

like actually i never even walked in college because at that point i was like what's the point like this is supposed to be yeah you know and sometimes i wonder like had i walked would would have there been more closure but at that point i was embarrassed to even show up i was like look i'll just see just here's the address mail it and that kid like 30 isn't that kid like 30 so but when you were doing the senior night stuff i go this is this is so van pelt and then of course like i was looking at some of the reactions and i go this is why like sometimes i hesitate with it because i'll go are you guys seriously doing what about junior night you know like what about our team like we we we lost the semi-finals and said you're like guys like can you allow the

seniors to have their moment without worrying about semifinals and said you're like guys like can you allow the seniors to have their moment without worrying about like everybody else and just you know how it works but you can never acknowledge every like the guy or the athlete that set that signs for for everybody that's there and then there's five people like you didn't sign for me so you suck well i'm sorry i we we did is we took like a week off in May. And I think that was when we stopped. But it was, you know, again, it never would have happened if this didn't happen. And so out of something really shitty, it was nice to have a sincerely cool moment that was memorable, you know, for these teams and getting notes from these coaches and reading like local papers.

Like, imagine that you're some kid in a small town in Indiana. And it's like, whoa, we don't, we made it on that show. And I'm not saying our show is a big deal, but you know, it's ESPN. And they said our name and we were on TV. Like when you're a 17 year old kid, that's a big deal. So that was, that was, that was a, I was gratified. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's one of those things. Like I would, some of the retired LA Kings were trying to get me to get that video to

the sports center of us throwing footballs in a garbage can because they have this annual fundraiser. And I was like, look, I'll take a video and I'll get it on best thing I saw. And it was not the best thing you guys saw because it didn't make the clearance. And I think there was like a bad, it was, however it was timed out, it was like, you know what? A bunch of LA Kings with their shirts off, throwing a football in a trash can, like that's not going to play tonight. So I was like, oh, all right. right and then i started thinking like it'd be unbelievable to be a senior in high school and see yourself on the scott van pelt sports center so um you guys deserve credit you deserve credit throughout a lot of the more serious stuff too where i think you you know you and i both are talkers we're not great listeners and i know

one of my mistakes has been just talking but that's what i get paid to do and i think your forum your platform however you want to frame it, where you've had so many different guys come on and just talk and you've listened also shows that, you know, I really think you're at another level as a host when you can just listen and still put out great content. Well, that's kind and I appreciate it. And you're right. It isn't my strength.

Um, and God, I'm still so bad at goodbyes it'll i'll never be i'll never be any good i can't just um i no matter how good i get at everything else i'll still be the worst at goodbyes i'm not because you mean it though but you mean it so i can't even yeah right right, who cares? No one cares. Right, radio. Thank you, good luck, and God bless. That might be it. Thank you, good luck, God bless. I might try that tonight. Why don't you just try, like, I don't know.

It'd be amazing if at this stage you just come up with a new catchphrase. That's why I just always like the Tonys, the Kornheiser, where he just goes, thank you, Charles. It's genius. Yeah. It's genius yeah it's it's genius that's because that's it it's over it's over let it be over stop saying words okay let's talk about um let's talk about your house because I have some West Hartford questions for you at the close here oh great is there anything that we can do on this podcast to maybe have this become a historical monument, maybe get that price back up? Because I know the market where you're just shaking your head at me right now. I'm wondering if there's any kind of Van Pelt bump where a potential buyer looks at your house he goes, this is where Scott Van Pelt raised his brood. I don't think so. We live in a town where the higher end market has a very limited pool of

buyers. And it's a supply demand scenario. And I believe the supply exceeds the demand by a considerable amount. And so we're going to get clocked on the transaction. But thankfully, it's not going to be the end of us. And I mean, we a lot of people have come through. We're just waiting. Just takes only just takes one, as they always say. We're like like the guy in the draft, you know, that leaves early. There's no shot.

We just just takes one. Just need somebody to take a flyer on someone. Someone who believes in us in the sixth round. Yeah. And you know, look, there's never been a realtor ever. That's ever said, Hey, should I list this now? And you go, the realtor says, you know, no, don't, don't list it. But the bigger news is you're going home. You're going home.

And very few of us ever get to go home that way. And the sacrifice is, you know, most people it's like, look, this is where the job is. And then you make a new home. And I don't think I ever really realized like so many of my friends that would move home and I'd be like, why do you want to move home home? And you go, well, I'm raising a family and there's nothing like having family to help out. And then I realized like, Hey, wait, a lot of my friends that are happier have family nearby because they're always around to pitch in. But the job dictates, let me pick that up there. Three, two, one. The job dictates, especially for people to do what we do,

kind of where you're going to end up living. And so to be in what? West Hartford Hartford for 20 years and go back to DC and it's real and it's right around the corner. What's that like? You more than any other would really get it because we shared so much on our show of just and i forget i'm allowed to cuss right yeah yeah right on we were fuck-ups and so because we were the idea when i left i I left D.C. in like 94, and it was not under the best of circumstances. Your man was not thriving in any area of life.

Low 600 credit score. It was low, really low. What's the worst you can have? I think you can get in the fives. I think you can get in the fives, but at that point, like they ask for cash up front when you go to get breakfast. So I don't, I'll never, I went, I went by just, I don't remember why I did it, but I went by and I, I'll never forget this. I test drove a Mazda 626 and this, and this salesman was like, bro, we can get you in

here. I'm like, you have no chance to get me in. And he's like, let me just take a look at that credit. I'm like, you don't want to waste your time. He's like, no, we can get you in here. I'm like, you have no chance to get me in. And he's like, let me just take a look at that credit. I'm like, you don't want to waste your time. He's like, no, we'll just run it. And he came back and he's like, hey, man, you said maybe your grandpa could co-sign, right? And then he wrote, I'll never forget this. It's a true story.

And he wrote like on the app, if you get your grandpa, you can be a, and he wrote player on the app. He wrote it on the app. Player. Did you tell your grandpa that you were this close to being a player? No, he wasn't going to co-sign for, I didn't have a job. I just, I don't know why, I still don't know why I wasted that dude's time in test drove, but like he ran the credit and came back

and it was not even like a, well, maybe if. He just was like, we need to get your grandpa in here. So with that as the background, the idea that I could come home all these years later, I mean, as a married guy with kids, that would have been a long shot just because God knows mentally, I didn't know that I thought anyone would ever be agreeing to that. But under these circumstances where, you know, we've had this show and it's worked out and I was able to go to Jimmy Pataro, who runs this place and just tell him, I mean, I want to, I'd love to go home. Is that doable? And I mean, I'll give, I mean,

Jimmy's a really good dude and he gets the whole family bit of it. And that's what I was asking for. My mom's going to be 80 this summer. And her sister, my aunt, they're really, really close. They're right there. My friends are there. It's home. Like, you know how much that place, that area means to me. And the idea that you can go back to family and friends

and an area that's always going to feel like home and do it like this. I just never imagined it could happen. So it's, it's truly an incredible thing. And, and saying it right now, like it still feels completely like make-believe because my house is still just sitting there. Like all the, you know, nothing's in boxes. It's, but you know, in a couple of months, like we're going to be driving it now 95. Um, no, we're kidding i'm gonna have someone ship the cars and fly private um i'm probably i'm probably gonna drive um

we'll be driving on 95 which will be one way one way you know like when i when i packed up my place in connecticut i booked a one-way ticket i was like wait whoa like when you land this is where you live now um and the family thing has always been real with you too you know whether it was going down to Florida and being around your mom and everything so it's it's cool and it's it look it's really cool that Pataro did that for you I have like a friend a mutual friend and when when Jimmy was named to basically run this whole thing, I had a friend reach out and be like, Hey, I've worked with him going back. And he, you know, he is a guy that you can talk to. And I know that sounds funny. Like people listening to me outside

going like, wait a minute, what do you mean? Yo, you want credit? Cause the guy can be talked to, but yeah, you know, it's like, look, man, there's just a lot of people that you're going to end up working for. And it doesn't mean they're bad people. It's just that there's a big difference between somebody that's in charge of you, who you're afraid to be able to be straight with versus somebody that's in charge of the whole thing that you feel like, Hey, can I have an honest conversation with you? And is it okay when I close the door behind me that you're not going to think of me as a completely different person. And it's a, it's rare. It is. That's really well put because it's, it's, it's not that you like, what do you want? You want credit? Well,

kind of just because the conversations can be, they can be so odd, right? I mean, look, I work for him, like make no mistake. And I'm going there asking to do something that they really don't do. But I explained, I said, look, whatever, however many chips I've earned here, I don't know what the stack is, but I'm just pushing them in the middle. Cause I want to go home and it's because of family and this and that. And he, we had a conversation as a group. And then he and I had a private conversation where, I mean, he basically just said from, as a, from a family perspective that he truly got that. And, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm indebted to him cause I signed a contract, which means I got, you know, I'm indebted to him. Um, cause I signed a contract, which means I got,

you know, I'm indebted to go out and do the work, but I'm indebted to him because he went out of his way, um, to, to, to green light this. And, you know, now we're, now we're going to go home. And I mean, what'll be interesting is like, how does it manifest itself in terms of like, what's different about the show? Like, I have no clue. I doubt it's going to be that different. I don't think, I mean, I really i really i don't you know people are going to notice you know like it'll be a big thing it'll be an announcement but i mean it's still going to be a studio it's going to be you being on tv doing the exact same show so i don't really think but but you you would know this because you like look where you're at like just how did you what's

your headspace like you look out and you see the ocean you know what i mean like it's a it's a little different than you look out and you see the strip mall in west hartford i have to think i like the mall in west hartford i had no problem i would i was at a point where i was just going to check it out i wasn't even buying anything i'd just be like yeah no i'm good i don't need it i'm just sort of i'm just sort of here for the general ambience yeah like is my skin dry it might be but like i'm just not i'm not gonna get i'm strange just not putting moisturizer all over my face at a kiosk i'm just you know i'm just rolling through a look at some sneakers some touch some stuff and you know maybe this ain't no middle of the mall watch

shout out high roller uh yeah living out here is you know i don't want to be too too repetitive on any of it because i never connecticut never bothered me the way it bothered other people that go to espn i'm a new england guy i was good with it but I always knew that I wanted to just try something different and there was a really good chance when I came out here like looking at how it's all going to work out it's like hey you may have to like go back in a year so this might be this like year respite and then you're back and you know we both know the the writing stuff which I I don't know if it's interesting for people to listen to me talk about it which sucks is i guess it's kind of cool that some of the stuff that i'm doing now i can't really talk about which i'm not trying to be cool or make it sound cool because

look when i first landed i had done that fall river pilot and then we were partnering up with affleck and my buddies are like jude you were already with fucking affleck what kind of dental do you have and you're like no no not the insurance company ben and it was his production company for fall river and then you know the thing luckily because i'd gone through so many different things in the sports world that if i had gotten out of here at 30 and supposedly had some production deal with a guy who was attached to something i'd already be i'd still be paying off the credit card bill for the celebration that would have gone on forever. And the part that's like the entry level to, oh, no, this is real and it's being made,

that's such a massive gap that I'm actually happy that I'm out here after all of the sports experience and older and less naive about everything where it's like okay well this is a good start let's see what happens so i never really let myself get too excited even though there have been some incremental things that i feel good about in trying to transition career wise or do two things at the same time but it's it's different not just based on location it's different because of being older and going i I wouldn't be able to handle or process this stuff. I'd be so disappointed left and right, where now disappointment is kind of like, all right, yeah, this is a really tough business and I'll just keep grinding along.

I think probably the overwhelming majority of the audience listening can relate to the idea, particularly if they're older, that if a lot of stuff happened to you when you were younger, you'd have been so poorly positioned to, to even play the ground ball. It would eat you up. You know what I mean? Like you, I mean, and this is, I don't know if there's some sort of, you know, existential question about things happening when they're supposed to. Cause I mean, God knows that a lot of this stuff felt like it was overdue and whatever. But the fact that it happened for you and the fact that it's happening for me, I think you can just allow yourself to be grateful in a way that you really, you got to frame a reference for the other.

You know, we're good. I'm all set for that. So, you know, I don't know if this is, I don't know if I deserve any of it, but I'm grateful it's happened. Well, look, you've been successful at everything you've done at ESPN, but you're right. I mean, it's the same thing too. Like I went to try to get my first nice car which was a used tahoe and that was like insanely nice at the time for me and the guy's

like what is up with this we're in the low sixes on some of these and then i go well what he goes we'll figure it out don't worry about it don't worry about it we got it you know because everybody's got a plan and they ran my thing with 11 different banks and so i got the car and then later on i was i was like just just above the equator of like allowed to be having a checking account and i'm like what did you guys do i go i got whacked they go well we ran 11 inquiries to get you the loan we got you the car though i'm like well you you had to run 11 inquiries right but now now i'm like, well, you had to run 11 inquiries. Right, but now I'm like a no-fly. I'm like on a no-travel list with the government. Yeah, I know, exactly.

All right, enough of that. We've got more with Van Pelt here, but let's first check in on Dan Patrick. This episode of the Ryan Rusillo Podcast is brought to you by Full Sail University's Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting. Legendary sportscaster Dan Patrick, you know him from The Dan Patrick Show,

Sunday Night Football, the Olympics, and SportsCenter, has teamed up with Full Sail University to offer an accelerated bachelor's degree in sportscasting. Full Sail University combines hands-on learning, immersive projects, and faculty with real-world experience to prepare students for life in the media industry. And for the Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting, they brought in some of the sports media's best to be a part of this program. Longtime ESPN producer and multi-time Emmy winner, Gus Ramsey has headed up the program

in sportscasting pros such as Sage Steele, Jay Harris, Kevin Agande, and many more are involved. I recently, during this time, spoke to students via Zoom. Had a great time. It was fun. I had a blast doing it i do like talking about the career path because i know when i was trying to get in navigating through it's just hard to get any information from anybody because you know whenever you're asking somebody else for help

about the broadcast industry like look i feel bad because i think sometimes people connect with me and they'll think oh well now i have this contact like i'm pretty much year to year you know with my whole thing so you know sometimes people hey, can you give me a job? I'm like, I don't know where I'm signing next year. So this at least allows you access to guys, I think, in ways that you just wouldn't have access before. So I had a good time with that. In this program, students will learn sportscasting inside and out,

on camera, behind the camera, podcasting, radio, interviewing, and everything in between. At Full Sail University's Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting, you can earn a bachelor's degree in about half behind the camera, podcasting, radio, interviewing, and everything in between. At Full Sail University's Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting, you can earn a bachelor's degree in about half of the time, as short as 20 months, and you can choose to earn your degree online or on Full Sail's campus in Orlando, Florida. To learn more about Full Sail University's Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting, go to fullsail.edu forward slash Russillo.

That's fullsail.edu forward slash R-. That's fullsail.edu forward slash R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O That is of course two S's and two L's. Okay, let's do this. I don't know if this is going to piss people

off now though. Who would you trade your sports career for in sports? athlete or what no no broadcaster um joe buck i don't call games i've never i you've never called a game never i mean i've done golf anyone can do golf let's go to 16 give me give me the 16th right now all right bryson dechambeau he's enormous he's eating seven protein shakes a day just hit a drive 380 looks like he's got a wedge this is where your producers and you're saying lay out because he's talking it was catty so i'm not talking clubsattle. That's nice.

Let's make it harder. Give me he and his caddy are in a disagreement about which club. How far out is it? Looks like DeChambeau. It looks like they're 160. That's probably like a wedge for DeChambeau now who's enormous. Looks like his

caddy wants him to use the nine. Ooh, oh, he's got a knife. Holy shit. Is that a knife? No, I mean, look, I'm not kidding. Most of what they tell you is with golf, first of all, it takes a long time. It's happening very slowly.

And the less you say, the more the people in the truck like it. So just say very little. If something funny pops up, say that. But mostly just don't get the score right. Doing golf is easy. I've never called a game, and I've never really wanted to just because I would think it would be hard as hell. Like the Buck pushback, I never get that.

I think Buck's funny. I think he's great at calling games. I think he elevates the games. He makes them feel big. You think he hates your team. Grow up. He doesn't hate your team. He doesn't give a shit about your team. He's trying to get the call right. But would I trade

Mike? No, I wouldn't trade. I don't know who I'd trade it with okay all right i gotta i gotta do a better job i gotta do a better job on this list okay i still have other options but yeah the buck the buck thing i think has gone from overwhelming like everybody did the you hate buck topic for so long that now i think it's it's just pivoted the other way where everybody like was like this guy got beat on by the public forever and now it's like wait a minute he's actually really good at this why is everybody so it was almost that zag where but everybody zagged instead of one columnist where everybody

decided yeah wait actually he's really good so let's just stop ripping him all the time so i think it's actually look i'm sure he deals with it individually but i feel like the momentum is shifted nationally for people realizing, Hey, I think I like, but, um, let's,

let's do this. I met him park city, not a film festival. I met him at park city, Jim Nance. Again, he's calling games, but I mean,

like what do you get golf though? Final four masters. I mean, the week he has every year calling the title game on monday and then tuesday he shows up at augustin national i mean that's preposterous you're calling like like college basketball i love it as much as anything and then augustin national is my favorite place to go on golf so i mean he's got an incredible gig. But again, like, I don't know. I mean, I guess with Romo, you could just kind of tee him up and get out of the way.

But again, I don't call games. So it's just... Did anyone ever ask you to call games early ESPN days? Because they actually asked me at one point. Can you believe that? Really? Yeah. Wait, am I supposed to be pissed now because they didn't ask me?

No, no, you shouldn't. Because it was one of those deals where whatever it was, one of the contracts, there was some weird language of like, you get this if you do this on TV. And it was basically like one of those clauses where, you know, if you're, it's like giving a left guard, you get a million dollar bonus if you're the Super Bowl MVP. And you're like, okay, cool.

So there was some weird, right. There was some weird language in one of my deals where it was like, if you do this kind of TV, we'll pay you for this. And I was like, oh, that's amazing, but that's not going to happen. And so I didn't even know I was in there, but, but no, I got asked because somebody went and looked at my deal and they go, oh, it looks like you can be a per day rate for this. We'd love to get you down, like calling some A10 games. And this is after you and I had been together for years. And I'm thinking like, what? Because I had done play by play, minor league baseball. I sucked at it. I'm sure I would have gotten better if I kept doing it. I didn't have the reps. It wasn't a great situation.

And then I did a couple NBA games where I'm sure i was even worse but um all of a sudden i'm like wait well like i'm so far ahead in the radio thing like i don't know that now i want to go like get done with you on a friday and be driving to philly on friday night to like prep for a game on the league that it wasn't at that point i wasn't even watching it anymore because it just you know it was lost in all the nba shuffle so well you know this because we were working together at the time that i was doing all the different things where radio was, was kind of an accident that I fell into. And then I got lucky because it was you and me, I was still doing sports center. And then the game day people were cool enough to let me do some pieces, but I was doing sports

center doing one to four radio. And then I do that, do SportsCenter, get on a plane at like six in the morning, let the smiles fly back that night and do radio the next day. It was insanity. But I wanted to do all of those little things. And so what I've been lucky about here is that I got a chance to do a little bit of all the things that I kind of wanted to do. So games was just never anything that interested me. So, I mean, strictly in terms of stuff that interests me, that I would want to do, like being the show that gets to follow the games,

people are always like, well, doesn't this stop working late at night? Or they always dismiss the comment that you'll get on, you know, somebody that wants to bust your balls. So there's a reason you're on late. Horrible insult. The reason my show's on late at night is because I suck. That's what it is. Got it.

You won. The fact that you follow games, which I still care about, is the perfect, like it's all I'd want to do. The only other thing I'd ever want to do is if Tony and Mike didn't do PTI, you and me do PTI, because we could be done early, do a show for half an hour, and I think we'd be great at it. That's the only other thing I want to do. So I trade places with Wilbon or Kornheiser, if you could trade places with Wilbon and Kornheiser, and then we'll just do half an hour a day, call it a day.

I'm biased, but I think we'd be great at it. But I don't, you know, that's... Never say never, right? Yeah, no, no. And it's not like any animosity or anything like that. I just, you know, it'd be such a weird thing if, you know, let's face it, like a place that wasn't all that into me all of a sudden was like,

hey, co-host the biggest show at our company. I don't know. They're saying it even loud. I can just picture like different faces doing an eye roll going, come on, like, give me a break. You might be doing it because you're going to be there. You're going to be in that studio. But yeah, look, never say never. But, you know, you never know. All right, let's do some sports. Let's talk sports ball. I have this thing. I did it in the open where it feels like, at least with the NBA, because we don't know what football is going to look like.

Baseball is still going to be the same sport, just shorter. But basketball, because it's going to be in this bubble, I don't know if I'm going to go or not. And I'm not saying it's up to me because it isn't up to me, but I feel like, and I don't know if you feel this way, there's this, this quest to pick different outcomes where essentially my rebuttal to that is why, why would teams that weren't that great, you know, four and five seeds, why are they going to be at some massive advantage in the teams that were great going to be at some disadvantage? I mean, we can't just go home in a way because some of these teams that are four and five seeds, their away records were bad.

So why are they going to be better? So I think what people are going to do is they're going to trick themselves into different outcomes where I don't think it's some massive analysis for me, but I'm not going to start writing off the better teams because the situation is different. for me, but I'm not going to start writing off the better teams because the situation is different. Which is entirely reasonable, but I don't know how you know anything. But what's reasonable to think about a situation that we have zero understanding of even now, right't i don't even know if we truly grasp well first of all like do you have any do you have any reservations that maybe maybe like somehow this doesn't work yes i am um i don't think having an open mind about a second wave specific to florida and if numbers got really weird between now and the proposed start of the NBA,

like I haven't ruled out the idea in my head. And I'm like, imagine if this gets so bad that the NBA is like, look, we actually can't do this right now. So even having an open mind about that, I don't feel like is political. I think it's just being educated on what the different things are, even though in the beginning, I just wasn't sure myself, or I've had moments where I thought maybe everything was an overreaction. And then I think about the businesses and people going out of business and restaurants that are never going to open up again. So it's always been complicated. It's always been, I think, near impossible to predict, but to write off anything feels irresponsible too. And so I'm not going to say, ah, now it'll be fine. They're just going to get this thing going. I think they're going to try their hardest. But we all know how bad this could go.

I mean, it could, right? Well, and I'm just talking about like about three or four weeks ago, I feel like when I was talking to Woj, I was like, what players are going to want to do this, man? Go there in July? Like, hey, man, the Grand Floridian is cool. And if you get the floor that's got the unlimited gummy bears and the cookie treats, I mean, like that's a, that's a win, but I mean, are you kidding me? Like three months you're

there, your family can't come. I mean, who's doing that? And, and this is what it is. And so I'm going to roundabout get to your point about like, I'm trying to think about just human beings in a, in a completely like unprecedented situation. And I'm trying to figure out like, how does that work its way into what happens on the floor? Like just how messed up it is. Cause it's like summer league, except summer leagues in Vegas. And you get to go out to the clubs and go nuts. And this isn't like, Oh, cool. We have DJs and we can go to animal kingdom. Great. But I mean, I've been here for three months, man. I just can't, I'm trying to picture what it looks like and like, what's the product. And I can't have,

I can't wrap my head around any of it, um, at all. So I sure, I think of course the good teams are still going to be good, but here's the thing. I mean, what happens when, I mean, LeBron and Anthony Davis are in quarantine because they got it somehow. I mean, like, right. And I'm not, and I'm not predicting the thing you can't predict, but I'm saying you can't know who's going to get hit by this. And the thought that it wouldn't happen, like, it just seems impossible for it not to set to impact it one way or another. So, um, I don't know, man. I'm sure I'm probably like you. I've had days where I'm like, oh, no, it'll be cool. And then there's other days where I'm like, man, I don't know if it's because there's more testing. But I see states with lines straight up. And there's other people yelling that they're not going to wear masks.

I'm like, I don't know anymore, man. Like, everyone got fatigued. I get it. This has sucked. No one's staying. It's been fun. But I mean, if a wave comes and crashes this thing down and it doesn't happen like i don't know i i that gets really really really spooky man

yeah totally and i don't think it's i don't think it's being pessimistic to at least talk about it but i also give silver a lot of credit i think he's handled this perfectly with his wording of it and you know people that go like oh well you know this is too much to risk like did you sit and read the 140 page document did you go through it because it looks to me like these guys put a lot of time into trying to appease all scenarios when we both know right now there's scenarios that are gonna pop up that nobody's even thinking about but i love the i love the idea of different entertainment stuff that they were trying to do.

And then, of course, they do it. Everybody makes fun of it. And it's like, well, who's the DJ? It's going to be like one of those things at summer camp where you go, you guys are actually going to go to that cupcake thing. That's for losers. So I wonder if like Korver and Ilyasova,

they go to Middleton and be like, do you guys want to go to that DJ thing with cake? And Middleton's like, no, we're not going to that. That's for losers. Have you spent any time down at Disney World? I've taken my daughter twice. We took our middle son, Sam, this year. We were there a day before it closed and i was are you

serious i didn't even know and mark we were there in march and i said and i asked my wife i'm like are we nuts and she's like no this is back when everyone was like ah it's just a you know it's just old people and it's the flu or whatever and then literally, literally we came home and two days later, Gobert tested positive, everything shut down. And I'm looking at my wife, like, so we, it happened two days after we got back, everything was done. Um, so I was there then, but I mean, look, I work there so people can say whatever. I mean like the whole magic kingdom, if you have little kids, you have to take them because it truly is, it's an insane thing to see your kid taken to this, just mentally transported.

Obviously this isn't what they're going there for, but the properties are massive. The infrastructure is there to host them. And I mean, of course it becomes funny, like who gets what resort? That's all, that's instant content for guys like you and me to compare who's staying where. But when we've gone both times, we stayed in the Grand Floridian. So we weren't in the championship-level hotel.

We were just in the, okay, you're not in the back of the bus tour. And you guys got divorced after that argument, right? After which part? And you guys got divorced after that argument, right? After which part? Talk about like, I would be afraid as a husband to even give my wife the stare down. Like, oh, right. Yeah.

Disney's cool. Like everything's good to go. Good call. Yeah. They just shut down sports. It was a Christmas gift. We were optimistic. We went. It is nuts, though, after the fact to think about like

how the world truly stopped and we're like because little kids like they're they're like their hands are on every railing like you know what i mean yeah yeah he might grow they grow an arm down there oh god they're gonna just they'll like lick stuff that they just shouldn't like for christ's sake just don't put that what what is that don't eat it um but here we are we made it we survived but we were in disney two days before the shutdown i did love looking at the different hotel allotments and then it's like if you're seated higher you get this one and then you just know guys don't know i mean think about how many nba guys especially younger guys have never stayed there and they're going to be like i've stayed at a couple different spots but i got put up at the yacht club once and it may have been i don't know if it's been

remodeled since then but it was probably at the stage of maybe needing a bit of a touch up and i was there hosting something with joeath, which was weird that I even had gotten picked. Greeny had to have canceled 400 times for me to get the call. Um, and I flew down and I, I remember, I think it was like playoff baseball was on. So I'm in the hotel room and I got the princess tower, which is, it was a suite. So I had like three or four different bedrooms to myself because they were trying to take care of me you know espn guy whatever and then they're like oh he's by himself again like yeah and so i'm in the princess tower and i have like a big gazebo with like a big tower pointed out and looking at the yacht club thing and i'm in bed super early because you know i'm

i have this day i'm gonna prep i'm gonna do this thing with nameth but doing anything with nameth is super easy just shut up and let him go and he's awesome and i'm like all right i get it like you have to be a grown-up and it's tuesday but why don't you just walk around the boardwalk and just peruse what the nightlife is here like just get a little little taste of what this is and so there's there's jelly roll which is like the dueling pianos and i think it was like a 20 cover and i'm like i'm good because i just seriously i was like i think i'm gonna get a like like a cl and then i'll just kind of like i'll have to have taken the experience and i'm out of here and i'll go back to bed and so i popped into like the espn zone and i think there might have been like a

a gary miller like montage and i was like okay this probably could be updated and then shout out to gary miller but then i made it over like to the one club and i do that kind of air quotes thing there was a club and i roll in and it was like adults because I was still younger then. It was adults making out wearing Sea-Doo polos to Sean Paul, just chilling on a Tuesday, raging. And what I never realized is that there's these companies where their Disney retreat is like the thing and it was going off in the weirdest way possible. So I walked in, checked it out, laughed a little bit, and then, uh, went home was responsible that one. So I, I hope, I hope maybe the seat, I don't know. I have to check the dates again,

but that see-do convention could be lining up perfectly with some of the NBA guys being there. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. You never know you never know could be although I don't even know what the story is with the park being open again and again like the most recent things I saw is I don't know July right mid-July wasn't it yeah no no yeah but I mean for Disney and now you got to wear masks and or I don't know I forget who has to do what the changes daily as do the recommendations from whatever the World Health and the CDC. I told Stanford, Steve, I'm not reading anymore because it's just no one knows. No one knows.

Yeah, that's actually probably smarter because eventually, if it's that big of a deal, you'll probably find out about it some way. Somebody will let me know. I know you have to work tonight, so let's do a little rapid fire here at the end, and I'm going to let you go. Was there any other topic that we left out here here i have a i wanted to ask you a question oh okay about about and i'm sincere here about about baseball um like as we talk there's you know baseball sent a proposal back to the union sent it back to the league and they won 70 or whatever. Like if, if baseball didn't happen, right. And this isn't the, this isn't the millennials and it's too slow. And this isn't that conversation. My conversation is this, my question rather, Ryan, is this, how many people do you know

who make time in their life for baseball, who plan around baseball, who, you know what I'm saying? Like, oh, wait, wait, wait, it's 7.30. We got to get, you know, the Yankees are playing or the Dodgers are playing or whomever it is. Or they're thinking, oh, wait, I can't do that thing next week

because we're big series. We're going to go to a cup. Like I just, and I grew up with baseball like you did. So this isn't, I'm not trying to, you know, dump on baseball. I'm just asking if you know people for whom baseball is that thing that they plan around. Well, it is for my father. It was for me for decades. And I'm telling you, like when the Red Sox were on, that was it.

That's all I did. And I still have these moments where like when April starts up, I probably watch every game for April. And then when the playoffs start up for the NBA, you know, if it's on the second or third TV, it still makes an appearance. And then I kind of pick it up a little bit later because the way our schedules have always worked, especially when you're doing the daily thing is you kind of get that after NBA free agency, before college football starts, you get about those six weeks. And that became the time where I could actually mentally shut down. So I wasn't then going to make sure

I spent everything watching baseball. Boston, there's still guys, friends of mine that are making an appointment. Same for New York, same for St. Louis, so many of the other Chicago on and on and on.

I'm not trying to leave out other big time baseball cities, but we're going to hear, like people are going to do some really smart obituaries on this. Everybody, every major opinion person is going to do their takedown of baseball and the death of it. The reality is, is that it's, it's slowly been dying already. And in the consciousness of us, at least nationally, it has been for years, how different our shows were even from year one to

year six. And then after that, you know, I remember getting to a point where I was like, Hey, we can't really, we can't just do a baseball guest randomly every Tuesday in April and May. Cause you can see the numbers. It's just, people are tuning it out and it, it actually feels like it happened overnight. So I would imagine,

I don't know that there's anything you could do to kill baseball in the cities where it still matters, but I'm afraid that all of these sports are trying to grow. That's why we still have these games in London at 9 a.m. for the NFL. That's why basketball is what it is because it always was trying to figure out a way to grow globally. And it did that. It did in a very short amount of time. So it's not like in 2021, no one's going to go to games anymore, but I think it would be another part of their slow demise where it's not just, it's not just, Hey, you know, what are our

numbers? It's the fact that you guys have set yourselves up to not grow for a really long amount of time. And there's no business that ever says, Hey, let's just not grow for a decade. Like that's just not how these people operate. So that's a longer answer, but that's kind of where I'm at with it. Yeah, I just was curious if you had people. Because I asked my friends. You don't have anybody that's still a part of baseball? Well, I do, and that was the interesting thing. Because the Nationals just won the World Series.

It was interesting how all my friends, like we grew up with the Orioles because the nationals, we were too old to, to, I mean, it's too young for the senators, too old for the nationals, at least when I was there. But now that they've got kids or whatever, they're way closer to the nationals and the nationals are good. The Orioles haven't been. So, so many of our nationals fans. So they were, everybody was into that. Of course they were, they won the world series. It was all, it was incredible the way they did it but i just said to them the other day like i just in a text chain i'm like how many of you guys like are going to be bummed out if there's no baseball people like man we got the caps like i feel like the fact that that you're going to have the nba and the nhl

in that same space baseball used to have to itself if and baseball will come back because they can't they can't screw it up but if it didn't happen i just don't know that there are people that would be just how many people i should say that are just devastated in the way they'll be if somehow you know the virus prevents us from having football it's just it's just a totally different uh place in people's lives and even you i mean you said i was i mean you said it was the red sox were, you know, that's a past tense thing. No, it's true. I mean, I'm, I'm different.

I also know, as I've pointed out, like selfishly with the amount of time I put into it, I need to find those, those moments where I was like, Hey, you're not going to watch 162 Red Sox games anymore. You're just not going to, you know what I mean? Like you just, and it's not everything I do now is kind of well how is this time being spent to to better the show and where growing up sunday night baseball i didn't care who was playing i watched sunday night baseball i mean i'd watched it probably up until i was like 30 and then it was like you know what i can probably get away with coming in monday and not watching sunday night baseball and freeing up

a little bit of time so it's that's a good answer. It's a good answer in that it's, it's not, it's never about the P ones, right? Hockey has probably the most obsessive, most loyal, like hardcore tier one fan base of any of the sports. No doubt. But what are your tier two, tier three people doing? And baseball is going to lose a lot of those. If they don't, I still think they come back, but, uh, they, and I do think to be totally fair to baseball, as I pointed out, like they're trying to figure out a new CBA on the fly where basketball and hockey, we're just trying to figure it out. And football doesn't even really have to make any of these tough decisions

yet. They just don't. I mean, they can give announcements, they can give you a timeline, but none of it really, really matters until we know what the end of August looks like. So, all right, rapid fire. Are you ready as we finish up? Yeah. All right, 20 years in Hartford, West Hartford. The best place for a virgin daiquiri in West Hartford.

I don't know. The elbow room. Okay. Best place for a spike daiquiri in West Hartford? Avert. Okay. I don't get out a lot. What's the population of West Hartford?

I don't know. Like 50,000. God, you almost said it. 63,000. That was closer than I thought. Wait a minute. When's the last time you went out in West Hartford? Well, it's been closed for months. We probably went out to dinner in March.

Although they're doing this thing where everybody's like the streets are closed down and they're putting tables outside so like um whatever the whatever the name of that road is that all the restaurants are on all the all this and by the way when you're asking me questions farmington that road no there's the one off of it lasalle or something like oh yeah lasalle the post office shout out there you go look at you to this day my like stanford steve will just throw out of town and ask me like how to get there and i don't know like i've lived you don't know how to go anywhere i don't i really don't i didn't either i'm gonna tell you i don't know a ton of towns i can get down a lime and orchard with a pick pick apples and get some donuts. That's downstate.

But other than that, man, I'm pretty much useless up here. I've slowed down Rapid Fire. Sorry. No, that's okay. Rapid Fire can take a detour, unlike your work commute. Because I, like you, when I was there 10 years, somebody would be like, oh, do you know Overby? And I'm like, nope, don't. Nope, I sure don't.

I knew how to get to glastonbury because i'd lived there and they have the best mexican restaurant in the country and then um like honestly if somebody put a blank picture of connecticut on the wall and it was like pin the tail on the donkey and for like a million dollars you had to put like grot could you do it i would have i'm like minus 500 against you because I was born in Hartford. So I, that's why I just, it's not fair. Even though you were there 20 years

and I was only there 10 on my second tour, I actually had some time there. And, you know, my parents are even, excuse me, my parents, my grandparents are buried in Glastonbury. So there's family ties, even though the family's from Providence. But my point is, it's a small place. And I've been here long enough where I should know more than I do know.

You are not a real involved member of the community, I think is a fair thing to say. Yeah. I've enjoyed it. They're lovely people. I work, and then I sleep, and then I play with the kids. And've enjoyed it. They're lovely people. I just, I work and then I sleep and then I play with the kids and that's it. Maybe I can interest you in a three-bedroom townhouse. I'm all set.

I'm all set. Okay, final one. Most famous ghost in the history of West Hartford. Mark Twain. If it were Family Feud, that wouldn't be an X, but it's Noah Web's noah webster noah do you know what he's famous for yeah dictionary merriam-webster dictionary very good you know he was uh he was tight with hamilton who they've done a lot about in recent years i

didn't know that yeah there's a big play so but you you've got to see it. It's amazing. I took some film classes, not theater classes. Film, not theater. Different. It's a different discipline. I can't believe it. As you write, you'll learn.

You'll learn this as you're writing about third arc and all that stuff. Character development. Everybody, third arc, man. stuff. Character development. Everybody. Third arc, man. That's the one. That's the moneymaker. The third arc.

No, I'm just I'm making fun of the years of buying Sid Field books and never reading them and just having been stacked off to the corner. I was like, one day I'm going to be a screenwriter. But can I tell you, can I can I tell you one last thing on the way out? This will make you happy. Yeah. We got this this like little tablet on the set on the set where i can just hit it and it makes you know different sound bites and whatever

else yeah um we found garai saying poop town and so i poop towns back on the board no way that's great news poop towns back um we the other day we showed the raiders they that was this is what we're reduced to we showed the raiders They flushed all the toilets in the stadium. So I just kept hitting Berman saying, and then I'd hit Garay saying poop down. Because it was like a poop joke. Because that's what we're doing. But poop down's back.

Good use of content on that one. Yep. You can watch them most nights. They're going to be a little summer sabbatical, but then picking it back up in the fall. SVP, SportsCenter,

Midnight Eastern, and one of my close friends. Thanks, man. Always a pleasure. Be good, brother. Cool. An hour or so there with Van Pelt,

and not much more to add to that. So I hope you enjoyed that one, and we will be back. Bill and I are doing another Redraftables, and... All right. Thanks, as always are doing another redraftables and all right thanks as always for subscribing rating and reviewing and we'll talk to you next week Thank you.