The Ryen Russillo Podcast - CFB Check-in and the Fair Pay to Play Act With Danny Kanell | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: October 2, 2019

Russillo reacts to the new HBO documentary ‘Diego Maradona’ (2:00) before he is joined by Danny Kanell to examine some of the top college football teams, including Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas (13:30), before discussing the recently passed California bill allowing college athletes to be paid off of their likeness (48:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

what's up we're gonna talk some college football on today's rossillo podcast with and i'm actually looking forward to it we're gonna get to all the top teams that kind of stuff but also the paying players with the new agreement that was signed in California that wouldn't even take place until the beginning of 2023, the Fair Play Act. But I think there's some really good stuff to talk about with it. And I also want to talk about the Diego Maradona documentary that I watched last night from HBO because it is outstanding and it got me thinking a lot about stars and the way we treat them and what we should or shouldn't do. And I don't know that I have any of those answers, but I do know this. The answer to a good time is Belvedere vodka,

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I am not a soccer guy by any means. I, like a lot of you out there, made fun of soccer. I played for two years, which was also basically a babysitting league when I think I was five and six and I hated it. And I hated it because my dad hated it. And, you know, being the oldest and having a very alpha father, you know, he was very, um, I was just, he was very impressionable to me. Like I wanted him to always be proud of me. Um, you know, I was talking about it with my brother the other day, we were talking about how great my father is with music and that even growing up, you know, where I'd be like, well, what about Led Zeppelin? He'd be like, Oh, the first time I saw them. And he would take me through the

whole catalog and we would listen to what we were construction. And those are some of the great memories I'll always have about my dad and that, you know, the Allman brothers and all these different things. He'd be like, okay, if you want Elizabeth Reed though, you got to listen to the Fillmore East one because that one's five times better. And you know, then if I said, Hey, you know, you know who I really like is the who? And he'd be like, eh, Daughtry's kind of a poser man. And then I'd be like, oh no, maybe I don't want to like The Who as much. Where I still really kind of liked The Who

when I was younger in this little phase, but I understand that The Who, not Led Zeppelin, you know, Jimi Hendrix is one thing, Clapton is one thing, but if you really want Clapton, you want Cream. And he would be like, yeah, you know, maybe I don't want to diss maybe your favorite band, but let's just put it this way.

When we were working construction growing up, putting brick walks down, we were listening to the almonds, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Clapton. Um, we weren't listening to Chicago. All right. And so my brother and I were talking about that the other day. And just that, and they're like, you know, who was really good on music? Dad, Dad was really good with this stuff. But he was also somebody that got me to hate soccer because he hated soccer. And he loves it now. And I don't know if I love it because I haven't decided to figure out, like, which club team is going to get me up super early. And unfortunately, because I've watched so much and I feel like I've spent a really long part of my life being incredibly imbalanced as far as what time I put into relationships and friendships and just, you know, deciding, hey, I have an afternoon off. Like, I'm just going to go somewhere where instead it's like, okay, I got to make sure I'm in front of the TV.

And I'm not asking anybody to cry for me on this because really having to watch games isn't that big of a deal. But when you watch as many as I've watched, it's really hard to decide that I'm going to also spend some other free time watching sports that I don't even have to watch because I never have to talk about them. So that's really what it comes down to. Like I love hockey, but you're probably not going to see me sitting at home watching a hockey game when I have a night where I don't have to watch any hockey or I don't have to watch any sports for that matter. So that's kind of what soccer fell into and made fun of the world cup in the nineties, you know, when I was at college and thought my other friends that grew up playing soccer that were super into it were losers or they were guys that always trying to be different or like that friend of yours that roots for other countries in the olympics besides

the united states you know i'm like what the hell what are you trying to prove and then soccer guy always got pissed at you and that was always something i'd said a long time ago is that it wasn't so much the game of soccer it was the fan of soccer who was far more fucking annoying that turned me off from the whole thing so i say all of this is a big setup and apparently to give my dad a massive shut up shout out for his musical taste but that i didn't really get the diego maradona thing like i knew the deal i knew the hand of god i knew that goal i remember being on the cover of sports illustrated when i was i don't know 11 10 years old and then carrying that through to 14 and 15. You know, for me, junior high is when I think I first started becoming kind of globally aware of some things, you know, thinking, oh, I mean, this Chernobyl thing is crazy, right? And then Ben Johnson and the Olympics, then realizing that the U.S. doping thing was just as dirty years later when you read different books.

But Maradona, the documentary, and his story is really a story about what do we want our heroes to be? So Maradona, the documentary, and his story is really a story about what do we want our heroes to be? And I have never spent much time holding my heroes to a standard that I think is unobtainable. And I have the benefit of being around more of these guys. And I've always kind of had this thought that I think a lot of times with public figures, they're almost more surprising when they are normal. But I can't imagine that Diego Maradona was ever going to be normal. I mean, here's this kid from Argentina who ends up playing club soccer, and he ends up, really, the story's about him in Naples, where you want to talk about the Miami Heat signing the big three. you want to talk about the Miami Heat signing the big three? That thing looks like a fucking car wash in high school compared to what the stadium in the city of Naples did when Maradona showed up from Barcelona. Like, that was insane. Like, this massive rush of traffic trying to get to the stadium. And the whole stadium is full just to have him go out and wave to everybody in this

massive soccer stadium. And then he's there, and he's sitting down, and he's ready to do his press conference. And so whenever I think about, this can sound incredibly biased or I don't know what it sounds like, like sometimes when I think we're nuts as Americans, there's so many times too where I'm like, wait a minute, maybe we're incredibly laid back on the global scale of things. Because when you look at some of the soccer stuff, you're like, that is level 10 crazier than anything that I think we ever do, except for maybe some college football stuff down in the South. And so here he is playing for this club team that had always sucked and they win a title. they win their their league's championship against all these other italian teams that are far more established and the fact that naples the people

of naples it was this real divisive southern italy versus the northern italians where the northern italians some of the songs they sing about the Southern Italian guys is out of control. Like, look, I went to Naples in and out and then went down to the Southern coasts. And so I'm not, you know, I'm not going to sit here and be like, well, that reminds me of my time in Southern Italy. But Naples has a rep of being a tougher city and a little on the grungier side. You can only imagine what it was like in the mid eighties and the songs from Juventus fans saying, go wash yourself. You have cholera. I mean, it was just ridiculous. And then the players are sitting there listening to these songs about them the whole time.

So there was, there was a Naples thing, this Napoli club team of having Maradona and having the success where it was this, this version of themselves that they've never even thought was possible. And so guess what? Maradona is this God. And I mean, God, okay. I don't even think it's obtainable in the United States to be what he was to those people there. I'm serious. And then he parties a ton and he gets in with really rough crowd of guys that are like real guys, not just club promoters, you know, handing you pamphlets. Um, they have them wiretapped at some point later in this other investigation where he's talking about cocaine, he's talking about prostitutes and on and on and on, but guess what? They're winning and everybody knows the deal and there's no really standard drug testing. And if there is the president even said, Hey, they probably had Maradona

borrowing somebody else's piss to pass the test. And nobody really cared, even though we all knew that this guy was out partying and he was just an animal. And yet no one care, right? Because they're winning and it's something to feel prideful about. And then he's playing for Argentina's national team in the 1990 World Cup. And in the semifinal, which is insane that this happened, where the semifinal game actually ended up being in Naples, Argentina beats the Italian team. And then it turns into he's like the most hated figure. They ran some poll in the documentary that they showed from a newspaper at the time where he was the most hated person in Italian history. Now I'd imagine that some of that wasn't actually just coming from Naples itself. It would be all these other

Italian club fan bases that hated him because of what he was able to do, but to have it now be official. Okay. We hate you. And during the World Cup final, they're booing the hell out of him. And they're not booing Argentina as much as they're booing him. And you actually, this is, I thought the best part of the documentary where you can see Maradona say, you bitches, you sons of bitches. And he's saying that during their anthem because he's getting booed like he is. And yet here I am, this guy that came to your club, won in an unprecedented fashion, murals of me all over the city, a God in your eyes.

And now you're turning on me this quickly because our national team just beat your national team when Italy was supposed to win the whole World Cup because they were good and they were the home team. And so guess what happens then? This investigation, he gets charged with not just possession of drugs but trafficking tax fraud stuff where he owed like 39 million which i was just reading about this morning

and apparently they said actually he wasn't found guilty of this italy just turned on this dude because of a soccer game all right and i'm like, imagine if LeBron, the first time he left Cleveland, then when he went back and then people thought he was going to leave again, got him for like wire fraud and, you know, accused him of, of, you know, all sorts of personal behavior that exposed him to be this completely different guy because Cleveland was upset. That's basically what you had here in Naples. And it just always reminds me of what do you want these guys to be? Now, I'm not telling you Maradona's some great dude because I'm not, but I felt bad for him through this. Now, he's the one that decided to live the lifestyle that he did. He's the guy that

decided to ignore an illegitimate kid for 30 years. He's the guy that's had multiple issues with drugs. And I'm not sitting here saying, hey, we all have to be sympathetic about every single person that makes bad decisions. But he was the same guy the whole time. Until basically one soccer result went against the Italian fan base, that's when they decided to treat him like an entirely different guy. And I think almost anybody would look at that and say, hey, he may have been a really fucked up guy, but the way Italy handled that is incredible. Go see the documentary. Talk some college football with Danny Cannell.

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before we could get to it. So how's everything going, man? Fantastic, man. The surprise of the season so far was getting to run into you in austin texas like getting to watch the game it was like old times we watching clemson fama national championship game and getting to watch that lsu texas game on the sideline was pretty cool but it was better than the game was getting to catch up with you man for real no i really um and i i think you know like i really was was pumped to get to hang out with you because it had been a while and it, you know, in a way it was kind of bittersweet

because it reminds you of like what we were both doing. But I don't know. I just felt like you were the happiest I'd seen in a long time. And I don't know. It was great to see. It was a really fun game. It sucked when Tom Herman's buddy was high-fiving everybody and he was mad I wouldn't high-five him after Texas would get a stop.

He obviously doesn't know your relationship that you've got going in Baton Rouge, or else he would have known better. I knew better, even though it was an SEC game. I'm sitting there rooting for Texas with my anti-SEC bias, but he clearly didn't know your connections to Baton Rouge. No, and then when when all the guys on lsu started going down i just had had it so i went over to the lsu sideline and then i just i asked somebody who was working the game i go what what's going on with these guys and he's like look he's like two guys are in the locker room one guy hasn't come back one guy's sitting over there he's like so everybody booing thinking that we're faking these injuries like

dudes are just going down right now so we'll get to kind of all of that stuff. And yeah, it was really cool to catch up. But I know I don't want to start with the paying players thing because I'm afraid it's going to derail us from everything else. But right now, and this is an amazing stat, for the first time since 1969, that we've had the top six teams that were in the preseason AP poll are still the same top six teams now through September. We can talk about it being an anomaly, and it certainly is,

but how big of a deal do you think that is right now for college football? I think it's a huge deal because I think it gives a lot of teams hope and a lot of fan bases hope, but I also think it's more than just hope. I think you're seeing a bunch of worthwhile contenders that can actually knock off Bama and Clemson. Some of that is also combined with Bama and Clemson haven't looked that great. Now, Clemson has more significant issues. Bama's defense, I still think, is going to be fine, but their offense is clicking on all cylinders. Maybe the best wide receiver in the country. But from a standpoint of

I don't love Bama-Clemson again. I get sequels. I get trilogies. I'm not into that many times seeing them. And two notes. Maybe they do face again. I wouldn't bet against it like they still probably will get there especially with Clemson's schedule but I think from

a general college football interest fan interest ratings game all of that I think it's awesome like I love it and you're seeing like teams that had flaws all of a sudden starting to figure them out. LSU is really a great example. Like they're to me, one of the best stories of the season was what they're doing offensively. And all of a sudden, like that matchup, that showdown with Bama looking that much better. Think about the question marks we had about Ohio state.

And I still have some, but Ryan day has looked more than up to the task. They haven't had a letdown game, which they had under Urban Meyer when they lost to Purdue. Justin Fields comes in, takes over, looks better than Dwayne Haskins to date. So I think all these storylines, I don't know how you felt. Last year, I felt college football was a little bit of a dud. I thought the NFL took center stage last year. I remember saying that, and I took a lot of heat from college football fans.

I think it's the complete opposite. I think college football, early on, with all the injuries we're seeing in the NFL, but the kind of excitement, how many teams are in the mix, I think it's off to a fantastic start after just a month of the season. Yeah, because with the NFL last year, I think the Mahomes thing really was like a wake-up call. You know, this is what is possible now in this league if you have a guy like this. Not to say that everyone can just sign up and get a Pat Mahomes, but I feel like what he did made you want to watch, and it certainly. I can't imagine that ever changing for me. And as much as I'll sit there and say, hey, what's wrong with Warriors versus LeBron again? But when you put it that way,

you know that 28 other fan bases in the NBA are going to say, well, I'll tell you all the problems with it because they just already know that they're eliminated from it. And then whether I look at the lack of turnover of the AP that we could be looking back a month from now being like, hey, remember we were worried about that? Now look what happened. How much certainty do you have about these teams being the only teams that can win a national championship? Because

you've always had a very open mind about this. Even if I felt like some of the times the open mindedness was just a great debate, you know, like sometimes when you've talked about some of these other teams that I feel like shouldn't have a chance at a national championship, I didn't know if you really felt those teams were up to that standard, but do you feel like it is this six-team group and then everybody else? I think absolutely it's the six-team group. I would also say if things kind of fall in place and a couple teams turn it up a notch

and actually get better through the season, which I know we think is impossible sometimes, but it actually does happen. and a couple teams turn it up a notch and actually get better through the season, which I know we think is impossible sometimes, but it actually does happen. For instance, Oregon. I thought Oregon looked really good against Auburn, but they lost. They can put together a streak and run the state. I think they've shown more than capable. They can find their way in, and they can compete with any of those six teams.

Texas. I mean, Texas is a good example. They lost, but I thought it was a pretty impressive loss. I thought they went toe-to-toe with LSU and gave a pretty good punch and had a chance late in that game. Now, they're going to have to get past Oklahoma, but they beat them last year. You know, I think we forget about that sometimes.

So I think it's even deeper than just the six. Now, would I put a meaningful amount of money on a team outside of that top six right now? Probably not. And there are some flaws, you know, even Ohio State and Oklahoma who, you know, I took a little bit of heat because, oh my goodness, I have Ohio State at three. Like the disrespect I've shown the Buckeyes for having them ranked at three in my meaningless top eight, which I do every eight. Like, the offense that I've shown them is outrageous. But, I mean, are we really sold on them as the best team in the country

with the teams they've beaten? And I get you can only do what you've done on the schedule, and they've handled teams. They've looked awesome. But the amount of overreaction because they housed Nebraska was a little bit over the top when you're considering all right we really yeah do we do we remember that Nebraska was four and eight last year like I think we totally forgot that no I mean can I just can I just jump because you're you're not like I think I sent one college

football tweet out on Saturday because a lot of times you know I go I just want to watch these games I don't want to sit here and get caught up in some of this stuff. And, you know, I'm listening and I would put Herbie and Fowler up with anybody, but then it started turning into this statement game by Ohio State. Like you couldn't say anybody else was better than him. And I'll sit here. And as I mentioned in the tweet, like I will admit, if you came on and said, I think Ohio State's the best team. I can't tell you you're wrong.

There's nothing, there's no argument that I have. I'm like, no, you're out of your mind. You're out of my mind. But it's not going to be against Nebraska, who just constantly, I'm convinced they're a win away from being back in the coaches poll. And people just love ranking that freaking team. It was the only team that wasn't a bowl game that was in the preseason top 25. And it was because they had a bunch of close losses and everybody just figured Frost was going to figure this thing out even though the quarterback still can't throw.

So maybe Ohio State is better than Bama, Clemson. I'm open to that, but that became like a bad Saturday day of games, Clemson having to go to the wire with UNC and Bama giving up a few more points than we'd like. I think the same thing's happened with LSU a couple times where it's like, oh, wait a minute, what's going on with the defense now? But I don't know why it became this statement thing where maybe the biggest statement isn't just Day, it's that Shiano's not the D coordinator there anymore because there were rumblings going back that it was like, you know, this team just

isn't as locked in defensively and some of it gets back to him that really didn't have as much to do with Urban. So that to me was a very like, hey, bad bad slate this is the prime time game and because nebraska was stupidly ranked now we're supposed to really look at this win by ohio state as a statement and really the statement is is that fields is awesome and the defense looks to be incredible even if you want to knock the competition yeah and they've handled it i mean they've done it's not again like i think you are on the same page. It's not, hey, Ohio State isn't good or they're overrated. No, they're playing awesome.

But I think, like, even this weekend, I think Ohio State and Oklahoma are kind of similar, right? I mean, Oklahoma, there's a massive amount of love going toward Lincoln Riley and to Jalen Hurts, who, again, I think Ohio State and Oklahoma, I think are very, very similar this season because they've been on fire. They have dominated teams, but they haven't really been tested yet. And maybe

they pass those tests. But Ryan, for me, until they do it, I'm going to give them the credit they're due. Like I wouldn't say, hey, they're going to be a bust or they're not going to make the playoff. But I still kind of look at them and just say, all right, what is this team going to do when they're in the fourth quarter and they get knocked in the mouth or they're in the fourth quarter and they're trailing, which maybe it doesn't happen the

entire season, but it's college football. We see it happen all the time. Sooner or later, we're going to get tested. And then I'll feel much better and stronger about having an opinion about either one of those teams either way, like a really strong, emphatic, Hey, the team isn't going to win the big 10 or,

you know, Oklahoma is not going to win the big 12 or saying it's a slam dunk. They're going to, I just don't feel comfortable saying that with the lack of opportunity that they've had so far this season. And it's not their fault because their schedule has been set up that way. Yeah. I don't know what to do with Oklahoma.

I mean, Kenneth Murray, they're really good linebacker who's leading them in tackles after they shut down texas tech to 16 points is like saying this is this is oklahoma football again you go okay maybe i mean maybe but that's that's that's the hold up with them okay and we don't know what's going to happen with texas texas dealing with some injuries now. And, you know, Ellinger is the type of quarterback where maybe in today's Big 12, he's a bit of an advantage because he can slow the pace down a little and he can just wear you out.

Like when we were watching an LSU game, what happened in that game is exactly what I thought was going to happen for the most part is that he was going to keep them in it with his running. And I feel like I'm just sort of rambling. So just jump in wherever, but you know, LSU has this offense that looks unlike anything we've seen, but it's also a defense that let Texas get back to that game and gave up a bunch of points to Vandy.

But when I push back on like, Hey, I'm not ready to start worrying about LSU's defense. Like I've heard from other people. Cause I think that's just sort of what happens, right? You're an analyst. You're talking to one guy's talking up LSU.

And then you decide to jump in and go, yeah, but what's wrong with that defense? I'm going to go ahead and guess that the Tigers' defense under Aranda that's always really good is going to be pretty good again with all those NFL players, and that Vandy was an absurd game where they could have scored 100, and the defense doesn't play as tough. I think it got really hot in Texas that whole week, even though it wasn't as bad during the game, where where guys left and right were falling apart and both teams just started moving up and down the field like crazy in the fourth quarter so yeah I don't I don't know that Oklahoma's better than everybody else but I think for those teams it's simply just keeping this thing going and avoiding that Clemson loss that could have happened in North Carolina that may have eliminated them

entirely even as the defending champs because of the rest of the schedule or, um, you know, a team, a team like Ohio state avoiding like, how the hell did you lose to a six and six team? So everybody's passed their tests, but there's just not enough there to say that I know any one of those teams is better than any of the other ones. Right. And the way I've kind of been doing like a top 25, and we did this a little bit when we were on the show together with ESPN was kind of put them in tiers, right? And the one big change that I made this past weekend was I had probably four tiers in the top 25 last week, and it was Bama and Clemson were all by themselves in a top tier. And then it was the next four teams and it was Ohio state state it was oklahoma

it was georgia and it was lsu and this so the big change that i made was putting all six of those in an equal tier which i do think is pretty fair i think it's a fair assessment about all of them and like i'm not ready to drop clunson out either um just because they had a close call against the north carolina team and i know hey, they were awful last year. But, I mean, it is. And this is where I kind of agree with Dabo Sweeney. It is college football. You know, like, you do get tested sometimes.

And it was ugly. But good teams find a way to win ugly. And they did dodge a massive bullet. But they still won. And I think they'll get things figured out. They've had other – I mean, last year they almost – and I get that Trevor Lawrence got knocked out of the game, and it was his first start,

but they got taken to the wire against Syracuse at home, and yet they managed to figure it out where they pretty much dominated the rest of their schedule. So I'm not ready to throw Clemson out either, like all of these teams. And just to kind of echo off your point about defenses, I think we need to totally

reevaluate the way we look at defense and we judge what is good defense. And yes, it's been awesome. Ohio State's been shutting out teams and holding them to not a lot of points. They look great against Nebraska. But as far as LSU's concerned, or Bama's concerned, the teams they're

playing against, they have new offenses. And when it gets late in the game, a lot of starters are going to rest them. You're going to take them out. You're playing pre-vent. You're not just facing a team that's going to line up in the I formation and just, you know, kind of let the clock go down. No, they're still, they're still throwing the ball down the field. They're still testing your defense and they're just going to kind of, they're going to put up some garbage points. They might even put up points that matter, but it's a new landscape these offensive schemes are designed to neutralize the physical talent gap and so you basically have to figure out how to get two things how to get

stops and how to get turnovers you know if you can get off the field when it matters and you can get turnovers and prevent you know a bunch of big plays and you can prevent a bunch of points then you're going to be okay but we have have to start reevaluating what is great elite defense because it's just the landscape has changed too much. Yeah, some of these games where if I were a good team going up against another good team and you hold them to 28, you should feel good about that some weeks. Oh, 100%.

We have these guys at 28. And a lot of this stat stuff that I dig through, and it's harder and harder to argue against the, yeah, you guys can move the ball over the field, but we just don't want to let you get those deep shots. But we know once you get into the red zone, like we have less of a field to cover the stuff on the outside isn't as easy to run now. So, you know, if you want to beat us with bubble screens for 20 yards from your own 30 go ahead but like you can't call that you're not gonna be able to call that because even if you have numbers like it just you know some of that stuff on the outside just doesn't work when it's that much closer and i think coordinators i think everybody's just kind of up for that now and and we have to kind of update the

way we judge this stuff by the stuff we see so by the way since we just did this whole thing of collectively saying maybe we don't know do you want to do a hypothetical with the top six because we we haven't talked about georgie yet which i think is worth bringing up because i picked him to win the whole thing and you know i was trying to do something probably different which sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't but if bamba clemson played right now neutral field who would you pick um i would i would probably lean alabama i mean they have looked so good offensively. Clemson has had their issues. I mean, I think it would be hands down.

I think it would kind of be crazy not to from what you've seen so far. The funny thing about Clemson is, you know, I take a lot of heat. I remember you kind of rolled your eyes because they do this every single week and it would be like, oh, here we go. Because remember I had Florida State number number one fama number one the ohio state like whoever the defending champion was i just have a firm belief like hey they should say they should retain that top spot even if every single player leaves right like every important player leaves yeah exactly no matter what i think yeah no matter what i just think yeah it's just

i know it's a unique philosophy and it's hey what it is what it is but here's what's kind of crazy about it is when i get pushback and everybody's like well is. But here's what's kind of crazy about it. When I get pushback and everybody's like, well, Clemson's not the same team. Look at all those defensive players that are in the NFL now. The defense hasn't been the problem. The defense has actually been pretty good. It's their offense, which does have Trevor Lawrence,

which does have Travis Etienne, which does have a slew of wide receivers, Higgins and Ross and six, four weapons on the outside. So I'm like, all right, defense is actually look better. So what does that mean? But aside from that, let's do your, let's do your thing. So I, but I would answer your question. I mean, if it was in a week, I would definitely pick Alabama the way Clemson has looked sloppy

so far. And I think they absolutely have to do some figuring out uh how to protect trevor lawrence better i mean he's got to protect himself he's out there scrambling around taking way too many hits they do have some issues but i feel like they'll figure them out by the time december rolls around then they have the luxury of playing on an acc schedule which is extremely light so they can probably take their time and it's not going to catch up to haunt them they're not going to lose yeah the hardest thing for them probably isn't the defensive turnover or the fact that you know people have a little bit more time to figure out lawrence and you know this this stuff

where he's the number one pick out of high school versus now he's throwing picks um you know it's it's not shocking i'm sure it's hard the hardest thing for that staff is going you know we're on this run where they don't think anybody even belongs on the field with them. And then we get to get these kids up and people can make it about being kids. Well, the L.A. Rams can give up 55 to the Bucs at home. Then 18 to 22 year old kids cannot take an opponent as serious as they need to. And that's always this thing every year. It's like, oh, FPI says this and oh, this team has a 78% chance to go undefeated. Like, I don't want to read any

of that shit, man. I don't want to read any of it because every year we see teams, I don't expect any team to go undefeated, even Alabama. And that's what's so impressive about this Clemson run of recent years and the Alabama run since 08, that Saban's basically like, yeah, we don't really ever, you know, the most embarrassing loss they had was in the national championship game to a stacked Clemson team, which just was a game that became ugly. So, all right. So I agree with you on Bama. Could we, real quick, Bob?

Go ahead. Can I say something real quick? Because I do think you're on to something. Like, why are we all, oh, like after, let's say Wisconsin this past weekend, they played Northwestern, they looked awful. And we're like, oh, that's the hangover game. Have we not realized there's a hangover year for all these programs? Look, 2014, it was Florida State.

2015, it was Ohio State. Bama is the one team that's been able to do it, but the times they didn't repeat, what did you hear out of them? Hey, we weren't as dialed in. You know, we had guys worried about the NFL. Clemson, to me, is really no different than what we've seen. Now, Bama turned it around once. They were able to go back-to-back.

We haven't seen anybody hardly do that in the history of college football because it is hard. You know, like, and I think we shouldn't be surprised. Ohio State, they're on a mission this year. Bama, they're on a mission. Why? Because they either got left out of the playoffs or they got beat in the final game, so they're all ticked off.

Meanwhile, Clemson last year had all these guys return. They passed on the NFL draft so they could come back and do something special. What happens? They do something special. Those guys are gone. I do wonder where the emotional heartbeat of that team comes from. Trevor Lawrence, really good kid, but he's kind of reserved. He's got all this attention, but he's out you know he's just he's not going to

be that guy I don't think and it's not a knock against him it's just you need to kind of come from a middle linebacker or somebody who's just going to light up your ass on the field and not maybe somebody develops in that team maybe it's Dabo maybe it's one of the coaches but I don't think it should be really shocking to this point that Clemson has looked lethargic and we always see this happen where you get a little bit cocky and you're like, we'll be fine. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. And so one day, it almost happened this Saturday. You're not fine and you get beat. And then it's kind of the cycle starts all over again. Okay. There's a million things in there,

but you may have sworn for the first time ever on a podcast that that's historic. Because I can. I'm you can go for it. I'm going to take advantage of it, damn it. Look at me just getting vulgar on here. No, a vulgar Danny Connell on the Ringer podcast. Now, you brought up something with Bama last year, right? Because after they lose, then what was it? Hey, we were too reliant on Tua.

We didn't have enough balance in play calling. Turnover on this coaching staff, which has actually been a positive for them for this entire time because all these coordinators want to work their ass off and prove themselves to Saban so they get another great job somewhere else. And then now all of a sudden it catches up to him. They were 14-0. They beat ranked teams 45-23, 29-zip. The Georgia game was a touchdown game, and I thought they were clearly better than Oklahoma

despite the score only being 11 points at the end of it. Then they lose to Clemson. So after a team that goes 14-0 and wins the best conference in the country again, it's like, yeah, man, we really had a lot of things we needed to clean up. So that can happen, too. And we'll hear those things from Clemson. I mean, it's the same thing with Trevor Lawrence. It sounds like he's gone from unprecedentedly calm to too relaxed.

Is this guy just too laid back of a guy? You know? And it's like, man, everybody loved it last year. Everybody loved it. Like, you can't phase this dude. And now it's like, man, you know, he just needed a little bit more alpha out of this guy. Like, you know, what's, what's going on with him. But you know, none of this is a knock against Clemson. The defensive points that you've made are perfect. And the fact that the personnel is there on offense, like I'm, maybe this is the thing after North Carolina, where they get a little bit of a test and the coaches can yell

at these guys a little bit more and say, Hey the coaches can yell at these guys a little bit more and say, hey, you guys are a two-point conversion away from maybe pissing this whole thing away. So time to wake up. And the same thing with Bama's defense. But I would still probably pick Bama based on they feel a little bit more like Bama than Clemson feels like Clemson, and that's holding Clemson to their own standard,

and that's why we agree on that one. Georgia, Ohio State then. Who would you pick? Oh, that's why we agree on that one georgia ohio state who would you pick oh that's a good one i would i would probably jeez that's a good one so i've seen more from georgia i thought their notre dame their win against notre dame i thought was more impressive than alabama or excuse me than ohio state going to lincoln i just it's a fact so what we've seen already on the field uh but we haven't seen Georgia offensively with the explosion that you've seen from Justin Fields uh in Ohio State's offense defensively Chase Young that crew I mean they're pretty special too I would probably go with Georgia because and this is what I said after Jake about Jake Fr after that Notre Dame game, and I really said it going in, but I kind of echoed it after the game, is that Jake Fromm is the most consistent, most reliable quarterback in the country. And some Georgia fans were like, oh, well, you know, he's not the best quarterback?

I'm like, no. And then, of course, I had Clemson or Ohio State fans saying, oh, he's not the best quarterback. No, I didn't say that. He's the most consistent, most reliable quarterback in the country, meaning I know exactly what I'm going to get out of Jake Fromm. I am going to get accurate passing. He's not going to make a bad mistake. He's going to put your offense in good situations,

meaning checks at the line of scrimmage. You know, if he has to change out of a play, he's going to put you into better play. I mean, he really is. And with justin field i know he's been electric i know he's been good so far but i don't know what he's going to do against caliber defense like georgia so i would probably lean georgia in that situation um because of the experience factor at quarterback but i think it would be a heck of a game like i I would love to watch that one unfold. You know, what was nice about that whole thing on that? You know what?

I, there's nothing you said where I went and I disagree with, except I would just pick Ohio state. It's just a gut feeling, even though the Notre Dame win is more impressive than anything Ohio state does. And that can't be debated unless, you know, Ohio state, excuse me. Well, Ohio state, when they when they look at what's happening to Notre Dame nationally the last few years, they're like, hey, this is fun, isn't it? When you make it really far,

but everybody dumps on you because you don't win. So I had this theory going back to when Ohio State lost back-to-back national championships against Florida, which was just an ugly game. And then Trestle was like, we thought we were in that game, and then they returned the kick,

and it just turned into a disaster. And then Trestle was like, we thought we were in that game. And then they returned the kick and it just got, it turned into a disaster. And then Trestle always said about the LSU one, he goes, that was one where immediately we knew we had no chance. So he actually says the LSU one was like more revealing that like, we're not going to do anything with these guys, even though the Florida one felt uglier. But the point that I'm making is that here you are, Ohio State, you're winning the Big Ten, you're getting into the national championship game, remember, which which is just those two teams and because you're making farther than everybody else then you become a national punch line as if your team sucks because you lose in the game that

everybody's watching and that's happening to Notre Dame a little bit with the playoff last year and the national championship game against Bama now seven years ago where Notre Dame it never feels like anybody respects either the talent level or what their record is considering their schedule is better than some of these other teams that are power five teams. So I've, I've heard some people say like, ah, the Georgia win against Notre Dame, like, eh, whatever. Like Notre Dame was, you know, look, they had a short field in one of the touchdowns to get the ball back with a chance. So we can frame it however we want, but you can't act as if that's beating, I don't want to pick a non-group of five here.

You just can't act like it's some walkover win that's a bad non-conference matchup because it just isn't. Notre Dame's going to be more up for that than Athens, than other programs are. I think Notre Dame is still in a position where they could now, they obviously need some help.

What else? But they have through the next, they can just get through the next four games, which sounds like, Hey, if they can just do that, but they got past a massive test of Virginia. Like I think Virginia is a good team and they handled them in the second half.

They really took over that game. They've got USC and I think Michigan, I think those, I think those are the kind of the two games and there's one other opponent in there. I don't have a schedule in front of me, but if they get back through that stretch, their last four games of the season are really pretty.

They should be like two touchdown favorites, where that could be a really interesting dynamic. If they're a one-loss independent who doesn't have a conference championship game, and I really think that Georgia, I don't think Georgia gets through their regular season undefeated. That's kind of a weird thing. I think Ohio State does, but I don't think Georgia gets through their regular season undefeated. That's kind of a weird thing.

I think Ohio State does, but I don't think Georgia does. I mean, I think, who knows what's going to happen in Florida this weekend against Auburn, but I think Florida could pick off Georgia. I think Auburn could pick off Georgia, where I think you could see Notre Dame get into the playoff while Georgia's sitting at home because they could have two losses at the end of the year. And that'll be just another fascinating discussion for the whole playoff debate of hey who's in who's not what's deserving but I could see that scenario unfolding where you know Georgia beats Notre Dame at home and yet Notre Dame finds their way in the playoff somehow yeah because it'll still count

depending on what happens here with Georgia and that's the thing I don't always love about this because I do think seasons change within the seasons and we want to act like you know it's something i've constantly banged the drum on and i still don't feel like enough people listen to me on it but like a team may be entirely different week two than week 12 so if auburn now hits a really tough stretch of their schedule and i'm glad you brought up oregon because once oregon had lost it felt like cal became the pac-12's only hope, and then it was Washington State, and now the top of the Pac-12 is deep. If you watch those teams, they're all pretty equal, man. Arizona State pulls off some wins, and then Colorado's got –

so there's all these teams doing some things, and then Utah shuts down Washington State in a way that I didn't think anybody thought Washington State could be shut down. But it was all very dismissive of Oregon. But it's going to be really frustrating for me if Oregon gets through the rest of this Pac-12 schedule, which I think they're capable of doing, because I left that Auburn game going, you know what, I think they're better than Auburn was tonight, and I think they should have won this game.

But if Auburn ends up losing to LSU and Bama, then all of a sudden people are going to be like, eh, Oregon, that loss looks a lot worse now. And you just go, what the hell did it look like that night? Like, did it look like they lost to this awful Auburn team? Because they didn't. And so that dismissive nature of what Notre Dame, what that win meant in Athens two weeks ago, depending on how the rest of their stuff goes. Like I just, I don't think the week to week as, as connected as people want to make it out to be, but I also understand just kind of the math. And one of the reasons why I hated the BCS and how they never

seem to reward anybody for a good road loss based on the formula. And you know, I don't think people do either. I think people still have a really hard time keeping teams with a good loss ahead of undefeated teams that are from power five, especially the traditional conferences or excuse me, the traditional teams that have always been at the top of their conferences. Right. And that's why I brought up the three teams really that have losses that I still think are in the mix.

Cause I want to give them credit. Like I want to reward, uh, especially Notre Dame and Texas, for scheduling home and home. These are awesome. How great was the scene in Athens? I want to encourage schools to do that.

And yet, if Notre Dame is a one-loss team and they're knocked out and they're left out of the playoff for whatever reason at the end of the season, if you're Notre Dame and you're looking at schedules, why wouldn't you try to make the easiest cakewalk schedule you can get there so you can go undefeated and then get a spot in the playoffs? Like, that's what it's supposed to be all about. And if you're, let's say you're Texas and you, you know, and I know it was at home for them,

but they're still going next year to Baton Rouge to play. They scheduled the big boys from the SEC and they went there. But what if Texas finds themselves on the outside looking in because, you know, maybe there's a two-loss situation. Or they're a one-loss champion, you know, you've got multiple undefeateds and they're left out, and they would have been thinking, hey, if we didn't schedule LSU and would have had some directional school,

we wouldn't be in this position. So I'm with you. I want to give those schools credit for scheduling, and it should matter. Like, that's one of the – that's just another flaw in the system is that we try to, you know, Bill Hancock's going to say, our mission is to find the four best teams,

and yet it's just the definition of the four best teams is so convoluted because there's different criteria, and every person in that room can use something different. They say they want to reward strength of schedule, but have they yet? Have they really rewarded a team for a good loss yet? No, they've kind of rewarded the teams that have looked the best at the end of the season and have gone in winning. You know, like that's kind of what they've done,

aside from a couple years with Bama when they got in. But, you know, Bama was pretty special, and they showed that they were capable by winning the national championship. So it's just one of the kind of the flaws in the system where I think we really need to get everybody on the same page that everybody is playing the same conference schedule, your eight or nine games, your pick, the same amount of power five non-conference games and the same amount of group of five or FCF, whatever it is. Let's just get on the same page so we can evaluate teams correctly.

Like how crazy would that be? Like, I mean, and yet it makes so much sense, and yet we can't get it done. Yeah, what I don't like about the nine conference games is it's motivated clearly by the money that they're able to generate with an extra conference game through television. And, you know, I've mentioned this numerous times before, but, like, Big Ten fans acting like they're the ones

that are doing this while the Pac-12 was doing it forever, which was stupid when the Pac-12 was doing it because it was just going to start adding losses to teams' resume. And the Pac-12, especially back then, when it's like, look, there's a borderline bowl selection between a Pac-12 fan base and a Midwest fan base. Like the Pac-12 team is always going to lose out on that bowl line. It's, you know, I forget the term that we used to use back then, but it just was their, their bowl slots were awful compared to other teams. So I'd rather everybody played eight or not. I look, I'd rather you're I'm teams. So I'd rather everybody played eight or not.

Look, I'm with you. I'd rather the Power Five all play the same number of conference schedule games. But if it's nine, I think you're less likely to see these really great non-conference things that I felt like everybody thought was going to be a huge bonus. And you're right. The evidence tells us it's still not really worth it. So one last one on this, because there's a couple other things I need to get in here. LSU, Oklahoma. I kind of set this

up to see if you'd pick three non-SEC teams, but you picked Bama. You picked Georgia. Are you going to go three for three on SEC teams in this exercise? You're trying to set me up. I should have known there was an ulterior motive here. LSU, Oklahoma, neutral field. From what we see now, I mean, again, like at this point, you have to give the edge to LSU. So I would go three for three. I have to be clean sweep because of what they did. You set me up with this question, too.

Thank goodness we won't see these matchups. But I would have to lean LSU in this spot. I mean, what they did to Texas. And, again, we'll know more in a couple weeks. LSU, our Texas plays Oklahoma. It'll be a great common opponent, right? We'll see what the results are. But I would have to lean LSU because I do agree with you that LSU's defense,

they still have all the dudes, right? I mean, they still got the personnel on that side of the ball. They'll figure things out. And what they did against Texas was figure out how to get stops when they mattered. You know, when they needed to get stops. There were a couple times Texas was knocking on the door. We were standing there watching one of them when they had a goal line stand. They found out how to make the stops when they had to.

So you would have to assume that that similar thing would take place, which has been the Big 12's biggest nemesis has They've figured out how to score points against the SEC defenses. They have yet to figure out how to stop them from scoring 40 or 50, which is the next step for the Big 12 to get over that reputation of not playing any defense. But what I don't want to have happen with that LSU-Texas game is have it wipe out what Texas did to Georgia. And there is a very SEC thing to do,

and I'm not saying it only happens in that conference, but it seems to happen a little extra in that one where when their big team or whatever, a top team like a Georgia, loses in the bowl game, then it's like, wow, they didn't really want to be there anyway. But I wouldn't argue against the human nature part of it, but you can't always use that as you're out every single freaking time, especially when you see a texas like bum rush a really good georgia team so i i look at the lsu win is is it is a good win that is as good maybe as any single thing that we have to go on and uh i still think texas has shown me that they're they're going to be a good like when if oklahoma beats them then maybe we're going to look at oklahoma a little bit differently

here i want to uh before i do anything on, I want to ask you about the Fair Play Act because I've spent so much time with you and I've seen some of the stuff on Twitter and I'm going to throw a theory at you and then I want you to tell me whether or not you like that theory and then we'll discuss it and that'll be kind of the last thing we want to do here because I want to spend some time on it with you, okay? So the Fair Play Act would take place starting january 2023 it would basically allow the state and california is going to do this and now they're even talking about ohio because this is going to be very predictable if california decides to do this then other big time programs are going to go

ahead and say to their state hey we want to do this too because we don't want to start losing out on players and this stuff can become very very predictable in the way it plays out. But basically, players would be able to make money off their likeness, something that was always in debate. I'm like, who is it really hurt? Now, I would say you are as far to one side as anybody except for maybe Gottlieb when it comes to the arguments of why there shouldn't be any further player compensation, that this is not a bad deal? I am more than willing to accept anything that gets players to be compensated a little bit more because whenever the organizations, whether it's the NCAA or the schools that argue or the conference commissioners saying,

hey, there's just not enough money, it's going to ruin all these other things. I think they're completely full of shit because now they're finding ways to spend all of this extra money as fast as they possibly can because they don't want to set the precedent of giving the money to the players when I think there's some realistic kind of cool things that schools could do this with. But now this isn't even on the schools.

This is just on the player finding a way to make some money on the side off of his name and his likeness. Now, my guess with you is that you're opposed to this, not so much because you think this is going to set some awful precedent. Maybe you do. Maybe I haven't read through every single one of your tweets. But I think you have become conditioned, as I am, on certain arguments

where it does feel like it becomes political. Now, you are more right than I am. I'm right on a lot of financial stuff, some economic stuff. I'm a little more left on some of the social stuff, but I think people would be surprised kind of how all over the map, but we've had some long talks about how we feel about things politically during commercial breaks where I think, cause you were so much more right than I was that people thought I was like another crazy liberal from ESPN, which definitely is not the case if you know me at all. But I think your argument, you become more stubborn about it, Danny, because you know that there's a certain people that are arguing for basically the death of the NCAA, and it's almost like you don't want to give an inch. Is that fair to assume in some of your arguments

about where we're headed with athletes being compensated in college? Yes, so I think that's fair, but I think you might be surprised at how even since we haven't been together as much over the last couple of years. How liberal you are now? Yes, I am just a raging liberal now.

I would say I've evolved. Like in my thought process, very similar I have. But I think it's also similar to like transfers. If you would ask me 10 to 12 years ago what I thought about transferring, I would have been like, ah, those are losers. You know, you can't be a teammate and transfer. And I've totally come around like, hey, these are all unique circumstances. There are some guys who maybe they lose out a job and they just want to play and they want to go somewhere else.

So I've totally evolved on that point of view. And I think I've come, I don't know if I'm going to be as full go as Jay Billis or some other people that are, or Jay Williams who are out there really making the case to try to destroy the NCAA. But I also think that I'm a believer in compromise, right? destroy the NCAA. But I also think that I'm a believer in compromise, right? And I still would say I don't want the players to be paid, which is kind of dumb when you have politicians that are out there saying, quote, tweeting Gavin Newsom's thing and saying, pay the players when this isn't what that is. This is actually a way around the problem that the NCAA is, right? Because the NCAA, that's why I'm kind of confused.

Their issue with this, it's not going to affect their bottom line at all. So it's kind of a solution for them that's been offered to them that they can say, hey, this is going to appease everybody and it doesn't take any money out of our pocket. Why would this be a good thing? Where I've evolved, and by the way, I think this is very bipartisan, actually. I've seen a lot of, you know, Gavin Newsom obviously is liberal, but I've also seen, you know, I talked to a

congressman from North Carolina the other day, went on my show with McElroy. He's a Republican. He's proposing the bill in North Carolina. A guy that went to Florida State that I actually know pretty well in Florida is proposing a similar bill in the state of Florida. He's a Republican. Florida is proposing a similar bill in the state of Florida. He's a Republican. I think he's getting a lot of, no, not him, but it is a lot of bipartisan support. And where I kind of come around, I'm definitely concerned about some of the unknowns, like, right, like, what does this mean for the underbelly of recruiting? But on the flip side, smart enough to say, you know what, maybe this actually levels the playing field. We've already had these powerhouses who have been funneling money to recruits with bag men and giving cash into the table. Maybe other schools who never thought this was possible, they have a booster

or somebody that wants to come out and buy a program. Let's say, hey, let's make, I don't know, SMU, who's having a pretty nice year, by the way, let's bring them back to where they were in the 80s. They got a lot of feet pockets. I know they don't play in the Power 5, but they could start buying recruits. Why not? Hey, that could be a good thing. Like maybe all of a sudden, instead of having the same 10 teams every year, we see a new player or two that just kind of gets a window

and they want to buy some recruits. Babe, I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. But what has been really dumb, and it's what really bothered me, is when you see guys getting suspended for, you know, you had 13 players at North Carolina suspended for selling shoes on eBay. You had Ohio State players' legacies, you know, destroyed because they got free tattoos. That's stupid.

Like, that doesn't make any sense. So if this rule allows them to do that and they can still play, like what's the harm in it? Um, if there is, if there are kids who are able to make the money, the thing is there's so much misinformation on that. That's probably the thing that's more frustrating than anything is the amount of misinformation that you hear from people on either side, both sides. Like it would be disingenuous for me to tell you, Ryan, oh, this is going to destroy the

NCAA. This is going to destroy college athletics. It would be the same way. It's disingenuous for people to compare being a student athlete to slavery. You know, like it's just like you hear those things and they're just simply not true. So that's probably the thing that's been most frustrating to me. And probably the most rational thing I can do with this, say, you know what, this is still four years away. There's going to be a lot of little tweaks.

There's going to be a lot of little adjustments and everybody's going to survive and it's going to be okay. You know, no one noticed that Kyler Murray was making $5 million a year from the Oakland athletics and it didn't destroy that locker room. They still wouldn't be able to make a playoff. They still had a pretty successful season. So there's kind of like, I've just, I guess that's long way of blabbering to say you know what i've kind of evolved where you know i think i'm willing to take that next step and we'll see we'll

see how it works out but i don't think it's going to be as bad as people make it out to be and i also think it's going to be this destroyer of the ncaa i think we'll kind of figure it out on the way as we go yeah a lot of good points in there and the first one that's the most important one which is still kind of screwed up is that the ncaa should be rooting for this to happen so that it's like all right wait a minute are we going to get like sort of a pass here then we still have to give up any of this tv money we can keep paying coaches more and more money instead of slides and barbecue shops on you know what i mean like that's the thing that i always just think is funny even though i love all these programs and it's a real experience and i do think that a lot of people overstate each athlete's value to the program um you know sometimes you read about value of the

athlete and what he's doing and what the revenue is you just read it like all right who wrote this like this is terrible like you're not you're not living in reality but for those that are like oh there's the locker room we divided i mean shit these guys probably get mad when like hey how come he got the new vapor maxes like you were supposed to get me those and then you don't and then the guy will be like pissed off at the equipment guys so you know maybe the people that should want this to happen more than anybody of the equipment guys because equipment guys deal with all sorts of stuff because like some guys want more stuff they want gear for friends girlfriends relatives and all this stuff and it's like man when you're 18 you just want this now the thing i always thought was really stupid is some of the booster stuff yeah the assumption that this isn't already

happening and that now some school out of nowhere is going to have boosters that wouldn't have cheated but are so prideful in their school now they're going to do it where they're going to give some kid a half a million dollars to endorse a car dealership. Maybe there's a blip of this that happens in that first year where it feels a little out of control, and then some of the boosters are like, you know what's a massive waste of money is giving an offensive lineman 200 grand on the side, and we went 6-6 again. So maybe I'm not going to do this.

I just don't think it'll be out of control and i think we as a society really the tweet that i use is like people going you can't have patches on nba jerseys it's just so it's just such a i'll never watch it and it's like could you name a patch on an nba jersey can you right now i can just because i whatever but i couldn't that doesn't resonate with me. I absolutely couldn't. It's not a big deal. I would love to meet the guy.

I would love to meet the guy that's like, I love the NBA up until like two years ago. I'm like, why? Right. Well, now the whole patch is. Okay. I stopped watching. Yeah, that's a little bit, that GE thing on that Celtics.

I just felt, I can't see John Havlicek having a GE jersey. So that's kind of where I'm at, but wow, it sounds like you really. So are you impressed with my evolution? Are you impressed? I think I'm more disappointed. You want me to come on here and yell and pound the table. I really like, so here's the other thing, and I think you hit on it. And this is where, again, there's misinformation. So here's the other thing, and I think you hit on it, and this is where, again, there's misinformation.

Like, you see LeBron out there and, you know, Draymond calling a density a dictatorship. You can call it a lot of things. You can call it even corrupt. I think it's probably a wrong word, but if you want to accuse them of being that, that's fine. But a dictatorship, it's just simply not that. Like, it's just dumb. Like, there's so much misinformation that's out there. But ultimately, like, there there's this celebration like, Hey, these guys are going to be getting paid. Like, yeah, look at those money flowing to the athletes.

It's not going to be that much money, you know, which, which that's great. And Hey, some people, a couple hundred bucks. I mean, well, I know even for me, and I came from a, a nice, my dad was a doctor. Like I had pretty good means. I bought it. Yeah. I got a couple hundred dollar handshakes. That money was awesome. Like, are you kidding me? I go out and get whatever I wanted, go buy dinner and do whatever. That was great. If that's what it means, if it's a few hundred bucks, a few thousand bucks, that's great. I'm sure there will be a few guys who make $100,000, a Trevor Lawrence, a Tua Tonga Valoa. They're going to be millionaires anyway. Loa, they're going to be millionaires anyway. So what's the difference if they get it a little bit earlier and they start getting a head start? Because again, there's probably some agent floating them alone if they needed that money

anyway before they turn pro. So it's just, for me, I'm like, it's not really worth the fight. I would fight if it was pay the players, because then I do think it disrupts the landscape of scholarships. Where does the funding go? Is it going to, would you have to shut down baseball programs, which I played, you know, women's sports. I do think that opens up the Pandora's box, but this one seems like a pretty good compromise,

which I'm all for at this point. What was your first hundred dollar handshake like in Florida state? Ah, yeah, I think we're going to follow that one up. I was a car dealer, uh, at Florida state. And I remember my roommate had gotten a couple and I was kind of pissed. I'm like, what the heck, man? Where the heck is mine? And it was one guy. And he was just like an old timer, like long. He actually played basketball at Florida State. And it wasn't multiple hundreds. It wasn't like a stack of papers. It was literally just a hundred dollar

bill the first time I got it. And I was like, oh, this is cool. And it was like subtle. And it felt like you were doing something so shady. I mean, it really wasn't that big a deal, but it was awesome. Like it was just one of those things. Like I watched, what was it? Johnny be good. The movie with, um, what's his name? The football movie where the kid got recruited. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, it felt like that. I was like, Oh, this is the big time now, big time college football, $100 handshake. But. I was like, oh, this is the big time. Now a big time college football. I'm getting $100 handshake. But at least looking back, if I would have been suspended over that, that would have been so dumb.

I remember going to the Silver Slipper, which was the best steakhouse in Tallahassee. And see, the Silver Slipper was smart. You know why? Because I'd take my offensive line there, go take care of them, get them a big steak dinner. And you know what happened when I got the bill? It would be for $1. And the owner would kind of come over and wink at me.

And he's like, make sure you pay your bill. So we're all in the up and up. And I'm like, really? Like, this is what we're doing. But I did pay my bill, gave him a nice tip. It was probably $20 on a 200. Like I probably, those waiters must have hated us because we didn't tip anything.

But that was like such a stupid, I probably still could have been suspended for that, but that's the type of stuff that goes on where you're like, really? Like, what are we doing? Let's just let this out in the open where you can do it. As opposed to some guys, there's an eligibility because they make a few hundred bucks getting a free meal or signing a few autographs. It's really just, that's the thing that's just kind of dumb.

So what are we doing? Let's move forward with this one and see where it goes. I promise I don't already let you go, but I want you to get out all the stuff you're doing. Cause I actually can't keep up with it. How many different jobs you have now and just, you know, throw onto that. It was, uh, it was tough going through what you had to go through. Um, and I don't want to make this sad, but that's why I was just so pumped to run into you in Austin. Cause you seemed the happiest you'd been in a long time and just kind of where you're at with it all now man yeah it's fun i mean it was tough i i still believe it was harder for me than getting cut

in the nfl or getting cut in any sport because at least when i was in the nfl like i saw it coming and you know the conversations we had when now that was going down i was the one that was gone for six weeks right right and i was bummed for you and we're trying to figure out i'm talking i'm like no i think i'm good but hey man i'm here for you like you know like that's the way i approached it and then i was shopping for houses the whole time so i was handling it well i thought but right so that was the first thing is the blind side of me like when I got cut from the Giants I was like yeah I knew it was coming when I got cut from the Broncos I knew it was coming I just kind of knew what was going on the blind side aspects really hurt and the other thing which I

didn't have to deal with when I was a professional athlete was family you know what my family meant you know the like the sacrifices my wife made for moving to Connecticut we all lived there we had a really nice setup you were were over at our house. Kids, my girls were young and they were in school. That was just hard, you know, but,

and it took some time, but no, it all happens for a reason. And we're able to move back to Florida where I'm from or closer to my parents. My girls are thriving in schools. Like it all worked out, you know, and I knew it would,

but it just sucks. You know, I had a ton of fun working with you. Like I thought we had had a blast like it was a great show and the amount of support that we both got and you continue to get like it's awesome like people liked what we did and they appreciated that so it was like something good came out of it in the end but it was a great time and i really enjoyed the experience i had not only with just with you in the year and a half we did our show but the five years i was in frisco like, yeah, ESPN has problems, but like the people that you go to work with every day, like they're awesome. Like it's a fun place to work and it's really

cool. And it was a great experience and I wouldn't regret, I wouldn't change anything. You know, it was awesome. Do you, do you think you would change the SEC network programming tweet to the rainbow bars? If you could do it over again? SEC network programming tweet to the rainbow bars if you could do it over again? You know, my wife is convinced that that's what got me fired. And it probably did not help when the discussions were being had over who was on the chopping block. And I have a hunch it might have come into play at some point. Definitely didn't help the conversation, that's for sure. Probably would have taken that one back. Although it might have been one of my most retweeted

tweets out there so i i don't know sacrifice my career or get the retweet the things i'll do for a twitter retweet are pretty amazing i've heard legend has it that that tweet came up when you were being discussed. It wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me. That or our political talk, talking about Donald Trump and the debate in the first round of 16 when he was up there. And we got the company-wide email that said, hey, let's stop talking politics just because we said it was entertaining television, which was kind of funny. That was a pretty amazing.

I think it was pure liberal drop. That was what got me in trouble. Blimf branding me as a conservative killed me. Yeah, that didn't help because the Trump thing is actually fascinating if you go back in time and think about it. Because here we are all reading about Trump. And I do think that the topic should be studied in colleges and how wrong the media can be because everyone was too close to it. And then we're all reading the same tweets. I follow some political people and it's like, okay, he's done now this week. And okay, this was funny. And he was mean in this debate. Now this

is over. And it just never, like they were wrong. I don't know that anyone's ever been as collectively wrong about the same story that many times in such a short amount of time. And when you and I played a couple sound bites from it, I would say some people at ESPN that were decision makers that leaned left thought that it was like two conservatives doing this thing where we were supporting them. And it was the furthest thing from it. We were simply going, Hey, everyone's talking about this. There was no mandate at that point. And then it was, you know, this is, this is crazy. Like, listen to to this guy what a jerky sounds like basically like that was the whole bit it had nothing to do it was the furthest thing from being supportive of him

and somehow it turned into that and then i'd heard you know weeks afterwards they're like man you really you two guys man started some shit here with that trump segment and i was like did anyone listen to it and then you know and then of course you wonder and then and then it was kind of funny because after the fact, it didn't seem like anybody going to memo for anything for years that they said politically. And then it turned into just, you know, all, all sorts of stuff. I mean, I have probably an hour segment solo in me about the politics and the movement and the motivations behind different things where, you know, I don't even think it's, it's anti any company. It's just, I've always felt that sometimes people thought politically, if they stood out and they'd get a bunch of retweets, like it was great for their career. And it wasn't for us to even

just play Trump sound when we were basically kind of laughing at the guy, but we were, it was a train wreck. I mean, that's what, that's what we were. And it was entertaining. I don't care what side of the aisle you're on when Donald Trump was this TV star, I know he's a billionaire, but for him to come in there and just wreck dudes and call out Jeb Bush and call out all these guys, like the nickname, like that was such a phenomenon. And for us, we enjoy talking about sports, but we also wanted to be relevant, talk about what everybody's talking about. That's what we were doing.

Like that's all we did. And you're right. It became somehow, Oh my gosh, we're giving Trump airtime. It's an endorsement, which it couldn't have been anything further from the truth. So, yeah, that's, that's really what I thought it became. Yeah. You know what, in the future, if we're ever back at ESPN, we won't do a Trump segment. So, um, good call. I don't think we have to worry about it right now, but, uh, we're, we're, can everyone hear you? because i know the podcast and the radio

show with with tori and everything so just uh run through the whole rundown of it because i don't want to get in yeah so i do a radio show on sirius on espnu radio on sirius every morning through college football season with greg mcaroy that's seven to ten rajah bell and i have a podcast it's's pretty fun. You can find it anywhere podcasts are at, Kennell and Bell. And then the show is Story. And that's on Mad Dog, every day is 1 to 3. So I'm working all these jobs just to make what I made with one job at ESPN. I'm still able to put food on the table. That's the good news. That's good. Well, I know what you made at ESPN,

so that means you're still doing well. You're prospering, but you're just working a hell of a lot more. Exactly. I'm doing all right. I'm not so that means you're still doing well. You're prospering, but you're just working a hell of a lot more. I'm doing all right. I'm not rolling in the Rolex Sky-Dweller like some of us, but I'm doing all right. The only reason I can afford a Rolex is because I don't have three kids asking me for sneakers every six months. That is true. Every year I go without a kid, I buy myself another watch. And you should.

You should. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I shouldn't, but whatever. Great talking to you, man. Let's do it again before the season runs out, all right? Absolutely. We'll do it, man. Good catching up, Ryan.

Okay, so this is back-to-back co-host weeks because we have Van Pelt coming up early on Friday. So hopefully that'll be released a little afternoon Pacific time. So just in time for your commute home back on the East Coast. I do think people are a little confused about how the podcasts are gonna be coming out um and i appreciate your anxiousness about them but with studios and me taping on the west coast for the east coast crowd like they're just not going to be up at 9 a.m on the east coast because we're not no one's around to tape these things at 6 a.m and i don't want to tape them at 6 a.m. either. So that's just kind of the way it

goes. So if it's like one or two and one hasn't come out yet, it's probably because we taped it and it's coming out soon. So check it out, Van Pelt. Make sure you subscribe a lot to the Resilo podcast here on The Ringer and we'll talk to you Friday. Outro Music