The Ryen Russillo Podcast - CFP Reaction With Trent Dilfer. Plus: Five Things From NFL Week 17 and Stidham’s NFL Debut With Mike Giardi.

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

Russillo shares his five biggest takeaways from NFL Week 17 (0:49) before recapping the College Football Playoff semifinals (11:35). Then Ryen talks with University of Alabama at Birmingham head coach Trent Dilfer about Ohio State's hard-fought loss to Georgia, how TCU pulled off its win over Michigan, a CFB national title preview, and more (28:41). Next, Ryen is joined by NFL Network's Mike Giardi to discuss Jarrett Stidham's impressive performance in the Raiders' overtime loss to the 49ers, the Patriots keeping their season alive after beating the Dolphins, and how the Patriots will move forward next year with so many questions surrounding the offense (1:03:27). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:28:48). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Mike Giardi and Trent Dilfer Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I love today's episode. We are packed. I'm going to give you the five things from week 17 award style. We'll go back to that. Also recapping the college football playoff games that were incredible on Saturday. We're going to talk with Trent Dilfer about all the college stuff as well. I'll actually preview Georgia TCU a little in there. We've got Mike Giardi, NFL Network.

He's covered the Pats for a couple decades, but he also was around for Stidham, who I thought was fantastic in the loss against the Niners for Vegas yesterday. So a ton of football and a life advice that has to do with Dua Lipa and Kyle. Let's start our Monday off recapping week 17 in the NFL, five things. We're going to go award style here for this one. Green Bay Packers win the Austin Ani Award. They won't go away.

If you don't understand that reference, don't worry about it. He is a 29-year-old quarterback in the transfer portal, committed to TCU in 2012, but then went to the Yankees, I think for a million bucks, and played in the minors for six years. North Texas, I'm all for it. Good for you, man. Live your life. But I was just trying to make a joke about not going away. Anyway, the

Packers beat Minnesota yesterday, 41-17. It was actually 41-3. Now the Packers are 8-8. From 4-8 to 8-8, they beat Detroit at home and they are in the playoffs. Now, it's been a couple factors here. One is the defense. They haven't allowed more than 20 points, well, 20 points only once against Miami in the last month. The turnover ratio is plus 11 in the last month. It's also the schedule, stupid, which I like to remind all of us at times. They beat Chicago, the Rams, Miami with two problems,

and then Minnesota. And Minnesota, you know, technically is still a good win. We'll get to them in a second here. Justin Jefferson went off against them in the beginning of the season, nine for 184, two touchdowns, only one catch for 15 yards. There was a lot of back and forth. The Jire Alexander comments, who is a terrific corner. And this was an absolute domination.

Cousins was terrible. There was that one play on the fumble, I believe, with Cousins where the broadcast was basically pointing out like, hey, look, you've got Jefferson on Preston Smith and it's an in or out option. And Cousins didn't even see it before the snap. And that was a huge, huge play in this one. Green Bay has been able to run the football quite a bit. 175, 138, 79, 163 total rushing yards each of the last four games, averaging 139. So Green Bay wins against Detroit and they are in.

Seattle would need to beat the Rams and to have Detroit beat Green Bay for them to get that final spot in the NFC. So the Packers won't go away. I don't know how anybody's going to feel about them in the playoffs here because it is a bit. And it's kind of an easy schedule, but then you'd argue, wait a minute. Minnesota's good, though, right? And that's what brings us to number two.

The Tim Tebow Award goes to the Minnesota Vikings. Now, let's go back and look at history. In 2011, a young spry Rusillo was doing a radio show with Van Pelt. And Tebow took over the reins about a month or so in for the Denver Broncos. He went 7-4 as a start of that season.

And they kept winning all the time. It was actually 7-1 when they lost the last three games of the season. But doing that radio show during that time, doing any daily show at that time was exhausting. Because every week I'm like, he's not any good. He's not good. And then they'd win. And then you'd have to go, I still don't think he's good, but they won again. Every week we'd come in and do that Monday pre-show meeting.

And I think he probably liked them more than I did. Actually, that's definitely true. But I'm not saying that as if, hey, I was right, Scott was wrong. I think he actually hosted something in his charity, too. So that made it even more awkward. So he had a relationship with them. And then it's like, they beat Miami.

Remember that one? In that first start, he went 13 to 27, had two touchdowns. He beat Oakland. He went 10 to 21. They beat Kansas City, rushing at 55 times. He was two of eight.

Two completions on eight attempts. Win. They beat the Jets. He completed nine passes. He beat the Chargers, completing nine passes. They beat Minnesota. He went 10 of 15. Remember that Chicago 13-10 game where the Broncos won on the field goal?

And I remember watching that game going, I don't think he's any good. I don't think this is a real thing. But then they win that one. And then we started kind of going like, how do we do this? And again, we couldn't get enough Tebow at ESPN for a while. And the numbers would actually prove

that the audience wanted it. And then we all overdid it. And then it was like, hey, maybe we should stop talking about him this much, right? I mean mean it was a joke how much all of us were talking about him because i'd end every sunday going i don't think he's good and they won again i think even one point i did a segment where i was like it might be this unquantifiable vibe that tebow just brings that gets everyone to believe as if it's a bunch of 19 year olds after the promise speech right on a campus like that's not accurate I think it's smoked by the

pats you're like okay okay maybe this but then they win that that game against Pittsburgh in the playoffs I'm like I don't and then they got smoked by the pats again and then the rest is history right so ultimately it was a real struggle. It was a battle as a talk show host to try to figure out, how the fuck am I going to talk about this guy again this week? And he just won again, and I don't think he's any good.

That's the Vikings, all right? When the Vikings were down at home, 33 to nothing against the Colts, that was kind of the Tebow-Pats regular season game. You're like, okay, enough of this shit. Like, great record, but seriously. And then they come back, and it's the greatest comeback in the history of the sport. So then it's kind of like the Tebow-Steelers win.

You're like, see, I told you this guy, unquantifiable. He just brings it. You don't get it. You don't get it. You're not a football guy in their place. The Vikings now are sitting, we're 12-3 going into this loss against the Packers. There are 56 teams that were 12-3 since the 1970 merger. This Vikings team is 56 out of 56 in point differential.

And now they're 12-4. If you think they're actually good, pick them to win it. Number three, 80s for Brady. 80 for Brady? That's the title of a movie. I was shocked. I went to go see The Whale last night in the theater. Saw the trailer for 80 for Brady.

It's for women, I guess, in their 80s. It's based on a true story. They decided to go down and see Tom Brady playing the Super Bowl. I don't know what is more unbelievable, that they made this movie or that the Bucs are in the playoffs. They're down 14-10 to the Panthers at the half, a surging Panthers team. They're down 21-6,

and the defining drive of the season for both the Bucs and Brady happened at 21-16. He goes eight plays, 92 yards. The 30-yarder Mike Evans, he was awesome yesterday. Brady looked awesome. Some of the throws on that drive, I was like, oh, here we go. Now Tampa's eight and eight. Let's run through it really quickly. Eight, eight and eight teams right now in the NFL. I will rank them. Power rankings of 8-8.

Jacksonville 1, Detroit 2, Seattle 3, Green Bay 4, New England 5, Tampa 6. I'd put Miami higher, but the Tua situation puts them at 7 and number 8, Pittsburgh. Congrats on the win last night. That's pretty much all I have on that. Number 4, want to see a dead body award. Goes to the Bears with Justin Fields.

Fields is one of the most exciting players in the league. He's got 1,100 plus yards. He'd be number six right now as of today, number six in rushing for the season. We all love watching it. The clips are really cool. He was 7-21 yesterday for 75 yards. He's had only two games where he's passed over 200 plus yards.

He got crushed yesterday during that fumble where all the body, it looked like he was underneath a train. And I started just feeling for him because it feels like every week I'm watching this guy limp through games and get beat up. And I don't know how this is sustainable. You know, there's an overall number here where I know it'll happen if I'm in Chicago radio or if I'm driving around and be like, hey, look at the splits. You know, 2200 yards, 60% completion.

His best running quarterback other than Lamar, 1711 splits on touchdown, the interception. It all looks it all looks okay and something to build on, and I hope it works out, and I hope they do a better job of supporting him, both with talent around him and everything else. But I don't know how this is sustainable. And he's one of the most electrifying players in the league to watch, but he's already taken a beating this season.

Last one. I don't have an award for it. It was just one of my favorite games of the season. Probably the best game yesterday. Vegas, San Francisco, overtime. So, 49ers win. We're going to talk to Mike Giardi a little bit later, NFL Network, who was there when Stidham was in camp all those years with the Pats and not really playing

all that much. Purdy gets the win. He's the fifth rookie ever to win his first four starts. The first since Roethlisberger in 2004. And I know the Niners got the win here. I still feel like the Stidham part of this is the story. He lit up a Niners defense. You're not supposed to do this. You're not supposed to do this. So now I've gone from not being necessarily a huge Stidham fan. Shout out to Kevin Clark for

the tweet yesterday, going back to Stidham's recruiting class on the rankings boards. He was number one coming out of high school, depending on which service you were looking at here. Brandon Wimbush in there as well. Lamar Jackson, a little bit later on, but I think he was 10th. We all know that Stidham's had the profile of this really, really talented guy,

but I would have figured at some point in the past we would have given him a shot. It didn't happen. I didn't love what I saw at Auburn. I loved what I saw yesterday. Now, granted, I didn't love the pass interference on Fred Warner, the best linebacker in football, in the end zone that led to the touchdown and tied it up. But the throw, the deep shot on the right side to Devontae Adams,

it was just great. Like a young guy going, I don't give a shit. We're not any good. Like I got to prove to this league I can play. I got to prove it to my coaches and my teammates. And granted, throwing one-on-one shots at Devontae Adams, there's worse decisions you can make as a quarterback, but the fact that he actually didn't, didn't play scared,

I thought that was a really cool story. Yes, the Niners are the better football team. Everybody's scared of them in the playoffs. That's fine. We can go through that exercise as many times as you want. I'm just saying I really liked Stidham at least for a day, but we have been misled in the past by these really exciting performances from quarterbacks that are young and then everybody figures out

we never hear from them again. Alright, there you go. Let's talk some college ball. This was the greatest playoff weekend we've had in a very short amount of time. What are we talking, nine years of this? We deserve this because the semifinals have not been great historically. And that was an all-timer.

Let's start with TCU's 51-45 win against Michigan. So Michigan has the ball, fourth and goal. They run the Philly special, and it doesn't work. All right? Now, I felt there was a bit of a playing in the results and reading back some of this stuff where it's like, well, if you're Michigan, you're trying to set the tone, right? You're trying to set the tone. But then on the other side, it's like, why are you doing that when you're the favorite? That's for the underdog. Kansas State just like even though they're up 10-0 on Alabama and end up getting trucked later on they were treating it like a non-Power 5 team you know going up against the the big boys and being like we got to do everything and I don't mean that as

disrespectful to Kansas State or anything but they called a game going we got to keep converting these sports that we got to go for touchdowns granted they kick the field goal a little bit later but you get the point like they had a play where they're like we got to keep pace. Honestly, I just think Harbaugh's down there. He wanted the seven points. I don't think it's that complicated. The problem was for Michigan in their first three red zone trips, they had three total points. They got screwed on the Roman Wilson touchdown. That was a touchdown. And then they overturn it. I just don't think he had possession of the football in front of the goal line. I don't know if that would have changed much.

Going into the playoff, when you rank the quarterbacks, J.J. McCarthy was always going to be fourth out of this group. Going into the Ohio State game, that was always the concern, that you knew you were at a disadvantage when it was J.J. going up against C.J. Stroud. We'll get to Stroud's great night here in a moment here. Some of the overall numbers, I guess you could talk yourself into McCarthy being good enough. They scored 45 points, right? We had some turnovers lead to this stuff as well. It was kind of a turnover-filled game. I mean, this game was out of control there. What, in the third quarter, we're talking like there was a stretch, I think, of like seven

minutes where it was just touchdown after touchdown after touchdown. I mean, it was one of the most entertaining games that I've seen, But McCarthy was 1-9 to start the game on third down. So I would tell you what I watched and what I saw was a quarterback that I wasn't always all the way in on all season long. There were numbers that would back that up. There were games that would back it up. We were like, if this guy needs to win you a game, can it happen? And he had his all-timer against Ohio State, so credit to him.

But in this game, even though it's like 350 yards total there, it just didn't feel like it was something I could trust. And the third down numbers, I think, tell you that. I think the biggest story of this really was the line of scrimmage stuff. And that's why Sonny Dykes was so pissed off. Nobody's more mad than everybody after they win a game. And they're like, oh, we heard all this stuff, right? And immediately on the field, he's doing the post game and he's like, yeah, we heard the

big 10 was just going to push us around the whole time. Well, it really was the other way around. TCU had 13 tackles for loss in this one. That's crazy, right? After our Edwards busted that first big play, Michigan averaged like three and a half yards per carry. So they weren't pushing around a TCU defense that statistically was the biggest question mark probably of any of the profiles for the playoff teams. TCU, on the other hand, ran it 41 times for 260 yards. And that's after Miller was out and DiMarcato got going as well. So you're looking at some of the line of scrimmage stuff throughout that game going, man, TCU

kind of kicked their ass. They're up big. And then it looks like it's a shootout all over again i feel like the right team won in this though when you watch four hours in this game it felt like the right team won over the course of how this game ended and that part of it i don't know that you know it's really all that debatable so congrats tcu one of the most unlikely national championship participants we've ever seen. 201 odds to even get here, and they're playing for a title against Georgia. What does it mean for Michigan?

I guess when I talked to them Friday about all the pressure with them, I don't know that it was pressure that got to them. You can talk about the layoffs, and it really becomes that whole order of like, if this happens, then we go backwards and say, did it have anything to do with this?

I don't really. I just think TCU beat them, man. I think it was a crazy, wild, entertaining game, and Duggan wasn't great, but they ran it at this Michigan defense that was number five against the run, like ran it at them all day, which is probably the least expected outcome of all the different units going up against each other. I guess the other part of

it for Michigan is that at least Ohio State didn't win. So let's take a look at Georgia's 42-41 win against Ohio State. I actually think I like this game even better. And when I talked in the first game about it felt like TCU winning was the right outcome. I don't know if Georgia winning this one was the right outcome. Ohio State comes out and no one can handle Marvin Harrison Jr. And he gets knocked out on a play that was kind of weird where it was sort of targeting but not targeting. And I understand why it wasn't at the time. I also don't understand why the defensive back went to lay out Harrison Jr.

and didn't just make a play on the ball to even put himself in a situation where it would have been a massive penalty at that time. But if there was one concern about Georgia's defense that we all fall in love with and all the stat stuff, I think from a personnel standpoint, other than Ringo, you were just always a little worried about, like, do they have enough guys back there to match up? Now, you could also make the point that Georgia didn't face any quarterback wide receiver combination like Stroud and Marvin Harrison Jr.

I mean, it's just, it's filthy what this kid can do. Yes, I think Tennessee's a really good passing offense and hooker with all those different receivers. Phrasing. That's not easy. And Georgia just shut that down. Don't fall victim to looking at what the final score was against Tennessee. So it's not like Georgia hasn't faced any good passing offenses this year, but there's nothing like Stroud and Harrison Jr.

And if Harrison Jr. stays healthy, much like I've talked about the Jameson Williams injury, going back to the title game, if you look at it, you're like, man, that changed a lot for Bama. Ohio State probably doesn't the title game. If you look at it, you're like, man, that changed a lot for Bama. Ohio State probably doesn't lose this game. Now, I know they made some adjustments and Ringo was going to follow Harrison Jr., but I don't, man, that guy was putting on an absolute clinic there. So if you're a Buckeyes fan, that one stings.

You lose Stowe over the tight end. We already know you're out with Hednerson and Jigba Smith is out too. I normally don't have a ton of sympathy when Ohio State's losing skill guys because it seems like they have as many as anybody in the country but I don't have sympathy when we're talking about Big Ten regular season games because every time they line it up they're more talented than every other team the entire season

for multiple seasons in a row they're never at a talent deficit but I was a little surprised that people were so dismissive of Ohio State even with the injuries and this is where the injuries come in because now you're going up against Georgia but Ohio State's one of the four teams in college football that should never have some concern about a gap in talent and that's how this one was playing out but then Georgia to their credit which is unlike any other team this this just doesn't happen much. When George is in trouble, they go back to the run. I love McIntosh.

I think I like him even a little bit more than Edwards. But I don't know how many other programs go, all right, we're in trouble. Let's run the football. Air Force, maybe. And so as the first half is closing out, I'm going, all right, George is going to win this game. They're starting to control things here a little bit.

I think the line of scrimmage battle throughout this game was a bit up and down where Ohio State's O-line held up pretty well. At certain times, it looked like their D-line was getting blasted off the football, but certainly not as bad as LSU was in the SEC title game. So it feels like, at least based on most of our expectations, say Georgia's going to win, things are heading in that direction. And then Stroud goes to the touchdown and close out the first half.

And you're like, okay, wait a minute. We still have a ball game here. The other part of this storyline, too, is that Stetson Bennett, who has been nails for the Georgia team over these last couple years, looked rattled. It looked like his confidence was shook a a bit he made a weird second down

throw at the end of the first half and it looked like jurors are going to try to figure out they get some points quick before the half was over and then they just decided on third down forget it and then even kirby smart during his his like mid-game interview there with a sideline reporter it was like hey what was going on in that series is like well you know we're going to tell him to comedy like he was acknowledging we're going to let him calm down a little bit, and then it didn't really happen. So you're thinking, wow, this game might be on Stetson Bennett for him. A defensive player for Ohio State falls down.

Georgia's track stud catches a wide-open touchdown. Then Stetson, when he has to put together the great drive, he does it. It felt like there was a little bit too much time left. That was certainly the case. C.J. Stroud, who made plays in and out of whatever it was they were trying to do all night long, he looked terrific. He had big runs, which he doesn't normally do. I don't understand the quarterback spy stuff and what the rules should be,

but it looked like Georgia had no interest in it. And you could say, well, that wasn't on the scouting report. Well, maybe in this spot, man coverage when it's man underneath and then it's two deep safeties, basically playing prevent on that big run that got them into field goal position. You're thinking you couldn't keep one guy up there, especially when you're playing that deep in coverage. And there was really nothing underneath except for man, because there was one outlet receiver that a linebacker went out to the right and ran with. And then Stroud saw it and was like, they're going to keep doing this.

I'm going to keep running it. So you can say it wasn't on the scattering report, but through the course of the game, especially in that moment, you would have thought maybe somebody stays with Stroud just to maybe prevent him from even doing it and make them throw something a little bit deep because you're playing at that point to defend against the field goal. They line it up and it's not even close from the jump, right as the ball drops. A couple things here.

I know Washington, the big tight end, was gone too. It felt like we got a ton of Stover updates, and not much on big number zero there for Georgia. I want to talk about something that feels a little unrelated to last night's, or Saturday night's game. The Bowers play, who was really quiet throughout much of this game,

one of the toughest matchups in college football. And I don't know if it was Washington being out that kind of tilted the field towards him from their coverage, but Bowers isn't the traditional tight end at all. So great job for Ohio State. Two things. Let me do the smaller one here first. great job for Ohio State. Two things. Let me do the smaller one here first. Everyone needs to stop

when it turns into a shootout with teams that have good statistical defenses from saying, oh, I thought these teams played defense. And everybody does it all the time, and it's just a way to shit on a team that you don't like or a conference you don't like. Oh, I thought these teams played defense. This is what the game is

now, okay? there are really good defenses that get lit up like i remember joking years ago with van pelt we had the radio show and i'm like you know honestly i think for a lot of teams it's like let's keep these guys under 30 i know it sounds crazy but that's what it is so when you have these 50 point games like again bama tennessee is a classic example is that if you hated the SEC after that game, being one of the five best games of the season, it was fucking awesome to see Knoxville on fire that night. You go, oh, I thought they played deep. And yeah, I'm talking about, well, we talked about Joel Klatt,

and we're not going to do that because his friend's telling me all the time, which I actually think is hilarious, so I'm not getting mad at them. This is just what the game is. You're going to have big free for all scores. And especially with the time off, I think the defenses are even a bigger disadvantage because, you know, I think it's different for every single team who's in shape, who isn't, who takes the conditioning stuff seriously, who takes the opponent seriously. You think everybody in all of these matchups would have taken the opponent seriously. Maybe you think that that's why Michigan lost. They didn't with TCU. But it's just going to happen. It's going to happen where teams will still finish in the top 10 in a lot of defensive categories,

and there'll be a night where they get lit up. So we need to all collectively stop doing the, hey, I thought these teams played defense because this is what the sport is. It can turn into a free-for-all with any matchup. A bigger thing that all of us should notice and be ready for, every time rights fees go up, it means a lot of things, but the most significant that you should care about is the actual broadcast and how often networks have to justify the rights fees by squeezing every single millimeter out of ad space. When Bowers is out of bounds before the first down marker on fourth down, he's ruled down. It's a massive play. And yet when we saw the replay, I'm like, wait, I don't think he was

out of bounds and got the ball past the marker. So what's going on? And we go to commercial. It's not specific to ESPN. It is every single network that is doing this now. We run through six fucking commercials. I'm reading about Match.com solo on a New Year's Eve. I don't need this right now. And I need to know if Bowers is a first down because I think it was a first down. They ran six ads, came back, Fowler's mid-sentence. It's not on Fowler and Herbstreit, okay?

Mid-sentence, and it's like, oh, while you were gone, we're about to snap the football first down because of this. It's happening way too often. And the networks know they're going to just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and getting away with it. The regional sports networks for league pass, there are plays going on and they're running a two box with an ad. And if the missed free throw and then something happens, we're still in a two box. You know, Nesson was the king of this. They're Red Sox broadcast because they're trying to squeeze every fucking dollar because they have to because they're a mid-market team.

Now we realize in Boston can't pay for the best players have to hope an injured starter will sign for one year and 10 million. Have to hope an injured starter will sign for one year and $10 million. The Red Sox would have like, they'd be in the field, second and third, two outs. It could be the top of the ninth. They're at home. Somebody hits a shot into the triangle. Jackie Bradley Jr. turns around, diving catch Willie May style.

And we're hearing about fucking WB Mason before we even see a replay. So it's happening everywhere because the rights fees keep going up and the networks have like, cool, the rights fees went up again. Okay, well, I have an hour on this. I'm not going to do it today. But it's happening way too often now

in these broadcasts for every single network, regional and nationally, to go, I need to keep finding ways to shave the actual game content and have more ad content that's relevant. I don't care about the patches on the jerseys.

Keeping it local again, when we thought, they're going to put signs up on the monster. Nobody gives a shit. You don't even notice them anymore, right? But I'm noticing in a college football playoff game when it appears that Bowers has the first down, where if he doesn't, it's a turnover on downs, and I'm being told I need to find my online life partner within hours.

I have different priorities, clearly, but that was disappointing. Last point on college football. The expansionists, the people that want 12 teams, you think you won the argument this weekend. Does that mean I've won the argument every other year the playoff games have stunk? Do you know how flawed that argument is? And again, to review, much like the play-in game, I'm not anti-play-in game because I think they're going to be bad games. I'm not anti-playoff

expansion because I think they're going to be bad games. I'm not an expansionist because now we're going to have really average teams that didn't do shit all season playing for a chance for a national championship. That's wrong. The same way a play-in team in the NBA who could be the 10th seed and could have a below 500 record and in a weird year in a 7th seed could have a really good record, like like 50 wins could be way ahead of them in the actual games behind standings. And then it's like, even though it's weighted for you with the one game versus the two and the home and the road, let's just run it back and try it again. And again, we all know why we're getting this, why the tournament's going to expand, why the NFL

added an extra week and an extra playoff spot, why baseball a couple of years ago just said, added an extra week and an extra playoff spot while baseball a couple years ago just said, throw them all in the playoffs. The easiest way for these owners that should be more stewards of the game get to expand their businesses is by creating more sellable items. It's very simple.

You guys already understand all this stuff. But we're getting to a weird point here where we're going to start diluting shit and But we're getting to a weird point here where we're going to start diluting shit and then we're going to look up at a couple years going, wait, was this the best plan? It was financially. I get that. But it doesn't necessarily always mean a better product.

He is the head coach of UAB football and now still kind of hanging out with us here a little bit. It's Trent Dilfer. I shot you a text this weekend. I didn't know what to expect. You said you still want to do some stuff. So this is obviously all up to you, but we appreciate the time, man. Well, I love it. It's a favorite thing I do. Obviously, the last month has been a roller coaster ride. Haven't watched any NFL, so I told you we can't talk any NFL, but watched a ton of college football and obviously been kind of putting a facelift on this place. So I'm ready to talk some college ball.

Okay, well, the green looks good on you. We'll get to a little UAB on the back end of this. Okay, which game do you want to start with? Let's go Georgia, Ohio State. All right, that's where I wanted to start. Okay, biggest takeaway. CJ Stroud was the best player on the field um shows the importance of a quarterback i thought ohio state was completely

outmanned in a lot of areas but their ability to push the ball down the field chunk yardage plays i mean yeah they did a nice job getting some purposeful runs you know they got the ball quick at times but really everything ryan was doing was trying to set up downfield opportunities so they didn't have to go on nine, 10 play drives against the Georgia defense. They just can't do that. So they're able to create, you know, field position, different making throws with CJ's incredible ability to extend the drop, push the ball down the field, be incredibly accurate on those downfield throws, threw some guys open on those deep crossing routes that looked covered until they were completed. And then his ability to improvise and create more time and space for himself in the pocket,

I think is what everybody, that was the narrative of the pro scouts that they needed to see. And I wouldn't disagree with that. I know CJ and I know he's a better athlete than people give him credit for, but I think he needed to prove it against an NFL-type defense, and he did that. I mean, he made first-round picks miss in the pocket. He climbed in the pocket. He extended right.

He extended left. He made those NFL extension plays that I think everybody's looking for their quarterback to be able to make. Okay, let's talk about day in this game plan. Now, I would argue that i don't know there's a program that has a bigger talent advantage every single week over the last however many years in college football than ohio state uh maybe boise with peterson when they were rolling and you're just like hey like awesome record but i mean half the conference can't even hang with you

and i don't i don't mean that to knock it it, but I think it's obviously a great fallback. Like, hey, every game we play in, we're probably going to be more talented than everybody. And I would say that's not necessarily always the case for Alabama, even though some people would say it's the same thing as Alabama. I don't think it's the same gap every single week.

I totally agree with you. I just lived it in high school, so I know exactly what you're talking about. We were so much better than everybody we played. There were times you could just get lazy and right hey our guys are better and your guys who can win the game so i totally know where you're coming from and that's how it is the ohio state in the big 10 on most weeks i do not think that was true in this game i mean they didn't have their best no yeah yeah no no no and that's like

i think the weird thing that was a little dismissive of it i was like wait whatever you think of ohio state from a talent standpoint because then it became in that second half of michigan is like hey maybe these guys aren't tough maybe it is a culture thing maybe you know and i don't know man i thought it was three busted weird ass plays to be honest with you and um you know credit to michigan for for showing up defensively in that second half but i i've had times i've had a hard time sometimes with the Ohio State quarterbacks because I'll be like, you know, that post route that I see all the time.

I bring this up all the time. I'm like, that's an easy throw in that system because they're going to figure out a way to get their guy who's like their third receiver who'd be the one everywhere else. And that's not a hard throw because you're throwing it completely to an open side of the field

and your receiver is going to run underneath it. And it feels like I just constantly see that over all the games at Ohio State being like, okay, big numbers and this is awesome, but what does it mean? I thought Day was awesome in this game. I loved his attitude. I loved his kind of like, hey, we're going to prove it. Really, it felt like they lost the national championship on that missed field goal. I mean, that's unfortunate not to be disrespectful to TCU, but that's a bit how it felt. What did you see?

You mentioned it before, bigger plays, not going to go 9 or 10. What is it about what they designed there with Stroud to try to take advantage for maybe the weakest part of the Georgia defense is the back end? So I agree with you. That was Ryan Day's finest moment as a coach, both as a play caller, and he's a great coach. It's not that he needed more fine moments but i think

watching his temperament from the from the pre-game conversations through the game he honored what he talked about he left it all out there his his energy his passion his enthusiasm his ability to do the roller coaster of the game. Like he never flinched. He stayed true to what he said he needed to do for them to be in this game and have a chance to win it. I thought he even handed, he showed grace with a really tough way of losing a game like that. I thought it was Ryan day's finest moment on already a very,

very prestigious coaching career. What I really loved from an XO standpoint was the multiple protections to be able to run the same downfield concepts. You have to window dress those concepts a lot of different ways so the defense doesn't know they're coming. So you saw, let's call, again, I'm not in their playbook, but off my eye, let's say five major concepts, downfield passing concepts they used in that game. The deep over the spear concept was probably the biggest one they used.

But you can't just line up in the same formation of the same protection to run it. They did it off multiple protections, multiple actions, drop back shifts, motions, personnel groupings when they had personnel grouping flexibility. Now they lose the tight end. They lose Harrison. Like you lose two of your best players. They had to play with a fullback playing tight end and a six-year walk-on running back hybrid playing wide receiver.

Yet they were still able to be creative with kind of putting some scotch tape on their formation packages, movements to get those guys open. That's so much harder said than done, or so much harder to do than to say. Anybody says, oh, you just draw them up in the dirt. No, you don't. That guy may have never gotten a rep at the deep over the entire preparation for the bowl game

because he's watching somebody else do it, and now he's put in the position as the two-receiver to do it. Maybe the three-receiver had to move the two-rece do it. Maybe the three receiver had to move the two receiver spot. Maybe the one receiver had to come inside. And he didn't do that in the week of practice. So it showed their preparation as well. Like that whole year, the cumulative effect of their training, of their preparation to be able to put these different people in positions they probably haven't repped a lot. I was really impressed with that. I thought he wasn't overly aggressive. I think sometimes you can get into those games and be like,

oh, we're not going to be able to run the ball. We're just going to throw it over the yard. It's going to be 55 passes, and maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. I thought he still had some very purposeful runs. They had a good screen game. They did some other stuff to keep Georgia out of what they wanted to do best, and I thought they had a really, really well thought out plan for the interior rush. Yes, they got beat a few times, but you can see the guard centers very attentive

to the inside two players of Georgia on the defensive line and making sure they're handling the games, the backer inserts, making sure that CJ didn't have a lot of pressure in the middle. Now he did a couple of times. He was able to make a miss, but they weren't able to ruin the game. I think Kirby's plan in this game was to ruin the game with interior rush, and he wasn't able to do it. It did feel series to series. There'd be sometimes you felt like Georgia was starting to eat a little bit more

and maybe a little bit later in the game, which is kind of counter to what you see so many times in really talented defensive lines if you don't have depth. Granted, they do. But you're just like, these guys are spent. I made the point in my open segment. I don't want to hear about these defenses that have great stats and then people shit on them when they give up these big scores.

I'm like, this is just what the game is, man. Some of these games just get out of hand, and they still have really good statistics. Somebody still has to be a top 10 defense. There still has to be 10 teams. And then people want to beat up on a Michigan for everything to happen. I've already spent probably too much time

on the losing side of this with Ohio State, so before we go back to Stroud to kind of close it, I was worried about Stetson for a good 30 minutes in the middle of this game. I thought his confidence was shook a little bit. Kirby even kind of acknowledged it as he was going back into the tunnel at halftime, and then when you needed him most,

he turned back into the Stetson Bennett, who's defied all odds, is an inspiration for any sized human being out there. What did you make of his game really put together? The first play was a busted one to the track kid, but then the touchdown, the go-ahead touchdown drive was just, okay, here we are, we're back. Yeah. I really like Stetson Bennett, so so there's not gonna be any criticism here

it's just challenges right when you're that size when you don't have natural massive horsepower and you're facing you kind of get pushed back a little bit meaning like it got away from them early and you're kind of playing catch up i think you can try to do too much uh when you don't have that physical confidence and just, hey, I can play the game the way I was taught to play it because I'm a bigger, better dude than everybody else out here. You try to do too much. And I thought Stetson

tried to do too much early. He played outside the system, and that's what Kirby alluded to in the conversation at halftime. I thought once he settled down and he just trusted his process, he trusted the preparation, just trusted his process, he trusted the preparation, he trusted his eyes, he trusted the play calls, he settled down and became the Cessna Bennett we all love, which is he's an absolute surgeon at times. He can dissect you when he plays within

the system. And I think that's what Kirby was trying to say. It kind of sounded like he was throwing him under the bus. But I think what he's really trying to say is, listen, we're used to this kid just literally being a surgeon back there. And all of a sudden he's become a butcher and we're not designed for him to be a butcher. We need him to actually do it exactly the way we've taught it because that's what we're anticipating because that's what he's done for his career. And I think once he settled back in there, you saw the entire offense start to have more rhythm. And I'll go to Todd Munkin, the play caller. Todd Munkin started calling, I thought, better plays

when he trusted the quarterback just to do his job. They poured some gasoline on the run game. They were able to do some misdirection stuff. They were able to get the tight ends a little more involved. He actually started running the offense that Todd Munkin has him designed to run. And I think that's why they had so much more involved. Like he actually started running the offense that Todd Munkin has him designed to run. And I think that's why they had so much more success. And I do think there's that just grittiness over my dead body. Are we going to lose? This is life or death to us because that's the way we practice every day. And that's, we wake up in the morning, go to bed at night at Georgia,

understanding that this is life or death and that nothing will stop us from losing. I think that kind of intangible quality came out in their football team, especially in the fourth quarter. Okay, let's go to the other game. Why do you think it played out for a TCU win? Well, I think a couple things. Big picture. I think TCU's offense, although it looks simple, has a lot of answers

for stuff. I think Max's ability to run, read, and the people, I don't know, I think we've talked about this earlier in the year. Everybody says, oh, that's a zone read, or that's a read option, or that's a power read. Everybody knows what you're reading. That's not true. That's a gift. Like that's a craft of learning body nuance and body tilt and having your eyes in the right place and the timing of the mesh. And like, yeah, any high school quarterback can say we're running Zola Reed. I'm reading the C gap defender. I get that. Right. But to actually read them right consistently and to take that last little drop step as you're in the mesh to kind of poke that end and make him think you're carrying it, but you're still giving it. Um, some of the things you do on the second level reads

that max can handle. I think that is their secret sauce is their read game is run and operated by a master at reading it. He's not just a guy reading it. He's a master reading it. Uh, so Riley can do a lot of stuff with him as it comes to the creative read run game. It only looks like two or three runs, but in reality, it's probably six to eight different runs they're running based on who they're reading, what fronts are getting, what secondary profiles are getting. So I think it starts there. They have great team speed. I don't think Michigan had any idea of the team speed they were getting to face. I liked what came out on Twitter this week about how TCU trains uniquely during the week. They train speed three times a week, which I don't think anybody in college football does.

Typically, you train speed maybe once in season a week. They're training speed three times a week in season. That becomes carryover speed into the games. I thought their team speed was superior to Michigan's. You add that with Max's ability to read the run game, and now you have these great opportunities in the run game to control the game with the runner and with the quarterback. Now you add his ability to move left, move right,

and throw the ball in the pocket. It's really hard for a defense. You can see Michigan struggling there. What do we play? Because when we play a run profile defense, we're getting these chunk throws against us. When we pressure his ability to extend the play by space and time and still be accurate to their blitz beaters,

created big plays. Okay, we're going to stop and play zone. Oh, Max can actually read defenses and deliver the intermediate game and move the chains that way. They had an answer to everything that Michigan threw at them. And finding an answer maker quarterback in today's football is more important than finding a playmaker.

Because what schemes become in defense, because the rules are so tilted towards offense, is we have to call, as a defensive staff, you have to call the game against what the offense is showing you. So you're, I don't want to say guessing. The good ones don't guess. They're making educated decisions on what defense to call in anticipation of what the offense is going to do. Well, if that's the case, well, then the chess battle then becomes the quarterback because the play's been called.

Does the quarterback then have an answer to your answer to your anticipatory defense that you're calling? Does the quarterback have an answer? And I think Max, as much as Caleb Williams, who's playing right now on TV, Bryce at Alabama, there's a handful of guys that have the ultimate answer. And I believe Max Duggan has become the ultimate answer guy. Yeah, I think he's a baller. I think Michigan got a little excited about some rewards on pressure, and then they didn't get out of it. Like Max figured it out, and it felt like Michigan was like,

well, let's just pressure him again, you know? And I don't know. I mean, I would have to like really go back and look at like how many times they're sitting, but watching it in the moment, I'm like, I think he's actually adjusted to this guys and the Michigan kind of stayed the same. And again, the game was kind of a free for all. All right. So Georgia TCU.

I mean, on paper, it's not even a matchup, right? I mean, on paper, you're looking at seeing if Georgia's bigger, they're stronger, they're as fast. You know, that's the one thing that Georgia can match that Michigan couldn't. TCU is that team's speed. They're seasoned. They're hungry.

I think somehow Kirby's got this team to play with a massive chip on their shoulder. I mean, I thought Kirby's postgame was very revelatory to me on what his message has been since they won the natty last year it's basically he's created this mantra that the world hates you everybody says you suck nobody's giving you any respect everybody nobody thinks you can do this let's go prove them all wrong like that bunker mentality it's almost like the number one team the entire year is playing as if they're the underdog um so they have that going for them um on paper it just seems like it shouldn't be a game i think tcu is going to have to throw the ball down the field like ohio state did uh

those mid-range to chunk throws right let's call them chunk throws not the run after catch stuff so please all you data dorks that are going, oh, they just average X amount per yards per attempt. No, a lot of that was run after catch. The ball is going to have to be in the air for 15 to 25 yards, seven to 12 times in the game. And those need to be effective completions because you're not going to march the ball on Georgia consistently. I don't think anybody in the country thinks that they can just go and go on these 8-12 play drives and be, quote-unquote, efficient. You're going to have to steal yardage in the passing game. I think that's one thing TCU has to do.

The other thing they have to do is be really creative with their misdirection game. The one thing you notice about Georgia on defense is they will take the cheese. You start moving the ball on them. You start having success with one thing. They're going to trigger. They're going to trigger super fast and take the cheese.

You better have a really sound misdirection game plan in, whether those are reverses, misdirection runs, fake screens one way, throwing a screen the other way. There's a lot of things you can do. Bash plays, which are showing run one way, throwing a screen the other way. There's a lot of things you can do. Bash plays, which are showing run one way, but running another run the other way to get the defensive line and linebackers to trigger one direction.

You're going to have to get Georgia out of position by them trying to see something before it happens. So I'd say that's a challenge offensively for TCU. Defensively, I would not, if I was TCU, and again, I'm not, but I don't think you can be overly aggressive against him. I don't think this is not, I think Todd Munkin wants you to be overly aggressive. I think he wants you to load the box. He wants you to wholesale sell out to stop the run game, the tight end getting the ball

so that he can create splash play opportunities. I think this is one you're very patient. You, you make them run the ball 35 to 40 times to beat you. You do not allow them the explosive plays. You know, you heard the narrative, right? Ohio State going into the game, all we heard from the announcers was, oh, the big point of emphasis was limit to explosive plays, eliminate explosive plays, yet they're playing man. They're playing zero. They're playing defenses that actually you have explosive opportunities against. I think TCU has to line up in that 3-3-5 or whatever they call it, soft shell defense. They got to get off blocks, hold the yards per attempt to like the 4-ish to 4-8 area, but make Todd Munkin call 40 runs in this game. cheese and coming up and loading the box and playing these aggressive secondary profiles because I think that's what they're waiting for you to do then their misdirection game and their

chunk throw game comes to life you know there's a couple things from a personnel standpoint like they could get lost in all this uh because now without Darnell Washington you know I think that probably changed the Bauer storyline for that game because Bauer usually wrecks you. Bauer's usually good for two, three plays where you're like, damn it. And Ohio State did a good job containing that. But Adani Mitchell coming back

and Arian Smith, who hadn't had a ton of catches, I'm watching Georgia going, some of it was the outside skill guys because I still like Mac. I love Macintosh and Edwards. Kind of an underrated combo when you think historically at that position for George, because normally it'd be like, Hey, first round or third round, or those are those two guys. I don't know. I don't think those guys are necessarily that profile,

but it just felt like, wait, there's a little reminder of some of the dudes these guys have had in track clothes that, that if you're just a casual, like even somebody that's really locked into it, you know, you're like, oh, that's that guy. Oh, that's okay. And it's like, you didn't hear about him for a good chunk of the regular season. And now they're going to be back playing in a title game. And that doesn't represent what Washington is. I mean, Eric Gilbert entered the transfer portal, which I don't even know why he transferred there in first place, going behind all those other dudes. If that guy could ever figure it out, he's a first-round pick, a tight end.

But now, you know, he's not available for any of this stuff. But it just feels like some of the outside receiver depth that was a question for them, especially with McConkie and the injury. And he was battling it all Saturday as well. Like, that's just an added element to this national title game where you feel like you just traded for guys at the trade deadline. I agree with that. I'll give just the fan a feel for that. Some people you just mentioned people listening, don't even know who they are,

right? Cause they have a mix here. I'll give you a visual. If you just, if, if Ryan Rosillo gave you a field pass for the natty and you're going to go hang out with him on the field fan, here's what you would see when you watch George's warm warm-ups you'd go why isn't that guy but what

number is that oh that's that guy that just played last week okay why isn't he in the nfl why isn't that guy in the nfl why isn't that guy they have five dudes at the skill position guys that if you go to pre-game warm-ups you're like why isn't that guy playing on sundays well he's a sophomore he's a junior he's been hurt all year. They got dudes. They have as many dudes at the skill position, positions than anybody in football. They just haven't all been together, right? They haven't all worked together.

And frankly, they fell in love with that 12 personnel so much. There's only room for two receivers. And by the way, it's not always 12. A lot of times it's 21. A lot of times there's still two receivers. A lot of times it's 13, which is three tight ends and one wide receiver. A lot of times it's 22, two backs, two tight ends, one wide receiver. So they're running a system that all this receiver depth doesn't get put on the field all the time. So you as the common fan don't know who they are,

but if they're outside my indoor plan, seven on seven, you'd think it's an NFL seven on seven. Like they flat out have dudes. And that's why I say they can match TCU's athleticism. Michigan doesn't have that quality of skill position guy yet. Georgia has that. And that's, I think why what you're, don't think the washington thing hurts him that much it really does it just makes munkin do more 20 pictures 11 pictures 10 pictures what i mean by that is more receivers less tight ends you know you still use the backs like it's just shocking to see bowers have a night where he's not a fact i mean he will be right it's just arguably you know he made the biggest play by being smart enough. I mean, that kid getting the ball past the first down marker on fourth down

because they don't get that one. We're probably talking about a different matchup, but just anybody that's watched him, they line them up all over the place. That kind of speaks to your personnel lineups because it's like, yeah, technically we're in 12, but, you know, he's different. He's completely different. So I think we're saying the same thing.

I think the one thing you're going to see is a 20 picture with Bowers is the inside slot player. I think that's something the 3-3-5 really struggles with. So just being a football guy, like you face this defense and you get him in a 20 picture,

that's two backs, three wide receivers, but Bowers being one of those receivers and now he can motion inside and give you a 21 picture with a full back and then you can run power runs you can displace him outside one of the receivers now get a mismatch because you have a receiver on a linebacker and bowers on a corner like you can do a lot in a 20 picture against this defense it's had a lot of success and it's funny like if you just go back and look at what gets this defense, that 20

picture, like if I'm game planning and my offensive staff's in this office, like where are we starting playing TCU? I'm saying, give me all the 20 plays we can run. Give me all the 20 pictures. Cause I know the history of this defense. It struggles. It makes this defense. It allows you to read their mail. I stole this from Romero Cornell before you give me credit for this analogy it's a good one great defenses want to keep the envelope sealed right they don't want you to open up the envelope

and see what they're doing there are things you can do offensively where you get like some steam and you get that envelope to open up you can pull out the letter and be like okay oh this is a love letter here's what it says okay I don't want them to know that I read the love letter. So I'm going to put it back in the envelope and I'm going to seal it again. And defense, you don't know that I read your mail. Well, 20 allows you to read this defense's mail and they don't know you've

even read it. So I, and Todd Munkin is one of the great offensive minds in all football i gotta believe he knows that and i gotta believe he's salivating on these 20 pictures he can build into and his backs are versatile enough to give an 11 picture out of it too which is a one back two by two a one back three by one like he's got a lot of personnel formation flexibility in this game with really good players doing it. Okay, let's finish up here. I've got a couple things, so it's not going to be quick or anything.

I have struggled with the Bryce Young debate, not because I don't think he's amazing, because he's amazing. He's everything I want. But I've repeated this too many times. I probably have to put it on the do not repeat list. I think that we've lowered the floor to what we think is an acceptable size quarterback in the NFL. And we're starting to see.

I don't know how Justin Fields is going to survive trying to do what he's doing. But that's number one. Kyler is hurt all the time. And it happened again. Russ is thick. We've been over it. Breeze is an anomaly. So then it becomes okay now with Bryce Young.

Mayfield got hurt. Mayfield. Mayfield, for whatever you think of him, the guy looked like a zombie at the end of the Cleveland. been over it breezes an anomaly so then it becomes okay now mayfield got hurt and we mayfield mayfield for whatever you think of him the guy looked like a zombie at the end of the cleveland run i mean the guy was so hurt uh i'm not telling you hey go sign the guy because he's actually secretly awesome but the small we have we agree because we've already talked about this on and off the air that oh because some small guys worked out and everybody just wants small guys and bryce is small he's thin he's thin hip he's thin that's all but if you if i'm running a team and we screw it up when the guys are physically gifted and you're telling me i need a quarterback and then you're

talking about this this will levis profile i'll be like there's no conversation i'll take bryce young and if i get it wrong i get it wrong but i'm not going to get it wrong by taking levis over young and that's my conclusion on that so if he he goes one, I'm all for it, but I am deeply concerned. And I think the NFL has accepted a level of physicality that I still think long-term isn't right for the position. So I got to be a little more careful in these conversations now that I sit in the seat. I'm going to be honest with you because I think a lot of people appreciate my bluntness on these. I'm going to, I'll still be honest. Okay.

So I will never, as long as I come to the show, not be honest, but I may not say entirely how I feel. Um, Bryce young is a unicorn. He really, he's been a unicorn since he was like 13 years old. Uh, when he was a little tiny kid before he went through puberty, he still was flipping awesome. And you're like, oh my gosh, he's going to be incredible. And he's going to beat the odds.

When his hand wasn't big enough to throw a real football, he was still awesome. So he's going to be awesome at the next level. Now I would draft him. I would make sure my offensive staff, if I'm the GM, I'm meeting with my offensive staff saying, listen, this is exactly what you better do with this kid. You better protect his ass.

Like, I'm going to go get a bunch of people to protect him, but he is not going to take extra hits. Now, Bryce is also very intuitive. He never really gets hit hard. Like, Tua, unfortunately, my favorite guy, but he's always found a way to get get hit hard take hard falls like be in these these contact situations we didn't have to be Bryce is the opposite you're right like Lamar doesn't he doesn't take clean shots like my all-time favorite guy ever is DeAnthony Thomas

at Oregon never I didn't see I didn't see a clean hit on that fucking guy his whole career. And yet Fields is a little bit more rugged and feels like, okay. And you're like, man, dude, I don't know how, like Lamar, I'm not worried about, I know he's hurt right now, but I'm actually not that worried about it. And so go ahead. I interrupted, but I'm a hundred percent with you. I wish we would argue more often, but we're on the same page here. Uh, Bryce is unicorn. And I think you dropped him as unicorn

and he's going to go to seven eight pro bowls he's going to be a drew breeze um kyler murray aaron rogers hybrid you know and those guys that came off the top of my head like his skill set that's a you know like the the ridiculously the ridiculously quick, efficient, um, release of Aaron Rogers, um, the twitchiness of Kyler Murray, the intuitive vision feel of a Drew Brees, like Drew Brees by the end, when he had zero athletic ability left was still making people mess in the pocket somehow. I don't know how, but he was 82 years old and could throw it 50 yards and somehow still made kind of a three technique miss and throw a 35 yard over route, you're like, I don't know. He probably couldn't do that in shorts, but he could do it on Sundays. So he's going to have

that mixture of qualities. Here's the Levis problem. Levis has done nothing from a playing standpoint, the way he's played the game that makes you think he's going to be a successful pro. But either to Josh Allen. And that's what all these guys are betting on. They're all betting on Josh Allen. So when you see Will Levis show up as one of these top picks, it's all these guys that were probably wrong on Josh Allen or were right on him.

And the other guys in the building said, no, we're not going to take that chance. Because the raw horsepower, the engine that is within that body, the stature is elite. That is unquestionably elite. He's an elite athlete, has elite horsepower, has elite stature, a la Josh Allen. Josh, I would argue, showed more fluidity in his game. And those of us that were Josh Allen believers, and I didn't become a believer until I went down and did a soul and science thing with John Brankus

and was with Jordan Palmer with him for about three days. And Jordan was able to show me that, yeah, there's some limitations right now as a thrower, but watch the athlete and watch the presence and watch his fluidity within his movements, as well as being a muscle car, right? Like he's a muscle car that had Ferrari twitch to him. I don't know if Will Levis has that piece to it. He hasn't shown me that piece. He also hasn't shown me that Josh Allen's one of the greatest dudes in the NFL. He's got DQs out the yin-yang. He walks into a room and everybody in that room goes, wow, that's Josh Allen. This room just got better. I don't know if Will Levis has that.

He better prove that over this stint, this pre-draft process. Otherwise, I think there's red flags on his lack of fluidity and his lack of DQs. Now, I hope he proves me wrong. You know me, I root for all of them. But I think there's more red flags to Will Levis than there was Josh Allen. But I'm telling you, that's what the NFL people are saying. What are we, a couple weeks on the job?

What's it feel like? I'll say this. There's nothing that's happened that I haven't been prepared for. I think my football life has prepared me for whatever comes up. It does feel like you're drinking by a fire hose because there's so many important things

that you have to get done so you can win games next year. But there's also these urgent things just to get to the next day, right? As you're rebuilding the building, you're rebuilding a staff, you're rebuilding how you're recruiting philosophy, your player development philosophy, your academic policies, your off the field policies. Like there's a lot to this job,

which everybody knows that. Yeah. Your bat, the battle for a month has been everything's important. What's urgent. And I think I've leaned on honestly, being an old fart and raising kids and doing other things in life, like owning businesses and being an investor and working at ESPN and starting the Elite 11 and all these different things, like the CEO type things, the CEO type background has really helped me decipher between important and urgent. We'll get to all the important stuff, but there's some things that are urgent right now so we can go from good to great that we've had to focus on.

And part of that's getting the right people in the building, right? It's all about who you hire. I remember I was on TV all those years. I've done a couple interviews here locally and they're like, you know, you're pretty critical of coaches when you're on TV. And I said, no, I was actually very complimentary of the ones that hired good people. I was very critical of the ones that thought they were the reason. And I think the biggest thing I learned in my football life is that the head coach might

be the most overrated person in the building outside of one thing. And that's who he hires. That's my number one job is making sure that I, this is a talent acquisition business. It's not just players, it's people. And you're a dietician, you're an academic services person, you're a human development person, you're a character development person, you're an offensive coordinator, you're a strength and conditioning coach. You're a director of recruiting, you're a director of recruiting strategy, you're an operations person, like all 40 hires you're

going to make. And you got to make sure you hire the right people because at the end of the day, they're the ones that are going to determine wins or losses. My greatest responsibility is making sure it's the right kind of people with the right type of pedigree, with the right type of figured outness that are coming in the building so that our kids, these 120 plus student athletes get the fullness of us, get the very best. That's really what people ask me has been fun. No, it hasn't been fun, but it's been energizing because there's that challenge every morning when I wake up on that couch, because that's where I sleep. When I wake up on that couch and I at 530 or six and I'm tingly

because I know the challenge ahead of us is great, but it's really a great challenge for me to make sure I get the right people in the building. I can't wait, man. Like I said, you look good in green and slimming.

As long as I keep the darker stuff on, it kind of has the black effect kind of slims me a little bit. I figured you just weren't eating and you're not you're not you're not able to go drink and golf anymore. So just there you go. Like, hey, man, you look terrific. What are you doing? Not eating.

You know me too well. I'm about to get on the Peloton today. I'm going to start the new year. Right. All right. Sounds good. Thanks, Trent. Appreciate you, buddy.

Let's talk some NFL. It's someone I've known a really long time. Mike Girardi from the NFL Network. Go way back. He was really, honestly, Mike, you were one of the first guys that was a Rosillo believer, so I'll always appreciate it, man. So good to see you. Brian, I go back to those days.

I used to say to you even then, I'm like, nobody works harder. So the thing that you've established your platform as, the guy that is constantly grinding tape and watching games, that was who you were 20-something years ago. Well, no, I appreciate that, man. I missed the old necking $75 check because that was a big deal.

That was like, they were like, can you stick around and do it? I'd be like, yes, yes. Every Saturday night. That was a Saturday night shift for years as I would go in there and do a little cable news with Mike. God, I can't believe I said yes to that many Saturdays, but that's, that's where I was at.

You were, you were, you know, there was at one point you're like, can I be a Sunday guy now? I'm like, yeah, yeah. I think you've earned the Sunday role. Let's, let's get you in on Sundays. Okay. The reason I wanted to have you on, there's a bunch of different things that I want to talk about.

Um, you're a terrific football guy, football mind you've always been that and it was funny because you know we'll catch up every now and then and stidham who has this incredible game for vegas and you know i don't even care that they lost because now if i'm a raiders fan i'm like wait do we actually have something and we've seen plenty of young quarterbacks and i still remember sam darnold beginning with the jets you're like okay they've got their guy and then then you know you look at everything that's happened. But you were not only doing the national thing, but you're still located in Mass.

You're very connected to the Patriots. And Stidham's drafted in 19. That's Brady's last year there. And then coming into 2020, we don't really know what the plan is. It feels like he'll be the guy, but then Cam comes in. What was it like as the team broke camp? Take us through that timeline of kind of who Stidham was and ultimately losing the job and never really playing

that much significant football in New England. So I remember, you know, as soon as Tom left for Tampa, you know, and then talking to people within the organization and being told, look, Jared does everything right. You know, he practices well, he studies well, he's a smart kid. But they said, look, we haven't really seen him in a game. So we don't know what it's going to look like when, you know, he practices well, he studies well, he's a smart kid. But they said, look, we haven't really seen them in a game. So we don't know what it's going to look like when, you know, things get tense and you've got to drive your team 75 yards with no timeouts in under two minutes. Like, we don't know what that's going to look like. And so then you have the COVID,

right? So you have this entire offseason is completely disrupted. And I'll be real, I don't think the Patriots were one of the teams that handled it very well. So I think that set back not only their operation that year, they were sub 500 team, but I think it hurt a young quarterback with an opportunity to sort of take that mantle. And, you know, Cam comes in because again, I think they felt like he just, Jarrett wasn't exerting enough control over the offense. They got Cam at a ridiculously low price. And it was pretty clear the moment Cam walked in, he's not here to be the backup. But Stidham got an opportunity early in the year against Kansas City.

Again, a COVID-wracked game where Cam gets COVID, the game gets moved. There's a whole, I think they played on a Tuesday night in Kansas City. Just an absolute debacle. Brian Hoyer melts down at the end of the first half. Stidham comes in. He does throw a touchdown pass, but he looked really shaky in that game. And to me, that was it. It was over.

You know, we would keep talking to Belichick during the course of the year about Cam. Why is Cam still the starter? And he just, he wasn't bending. He wasn't giving Stidham an opportunity. And that's the thing you heard in the aftermath is like, look, he got into a game and he just, he made mistakes and he can't be that guy. And to me, it was a little short sighted because, A, you're not going anywhere and B, he can spin it. And you saw that in the game the other night with the Raiders and 49ers.

And I would have given him another chance because I didn't think you were going anywhere with Cam. But they had they had moved on. But Josh, Ryan hadn't moved on. And I remember talking to Josh after the season and Josh said to me, look, it was just an odd year and it was a really tough year for younger players. And he's like, he just didn't have enough experience coming in. And then based on how things had to be run during the spring and summer, it wasn't enough for him to gain a foothold and the confidence of Belichick going into the season. Now, I remember, you know, because the Cam thing, you're right. You don't bring Cam in to be the backup. And maybe we'll explore more of this as we talk a little New England. But

for whatever Bill's motivations were to move on from Brady, okay, fine. And I want to get to this a little bit later, but what's the backup plan? what's your plan and and you make this move to move on from brady and then you're like okay you got stidham who's been sitting around for a year fine but then you bring in cam wasn't stidham actually better in camp and that you know like you understood the cam decision but that that stidham was the better quarterback for much of that practice time correct well what the bad part was was that Brian Hoyer was better than both of them. But we all know what Brian Hoyer was. And again, it's the Hoyer with deep institutional knowledge of that offense.

There wasn't really anything you could show him that he didn't understand. Now, whether he could make the throws or process it and not melt down when there was pressure, I mean, I think we've seen that with Brian when things happen like that in that Kansas City game that I referenced in the COVID year, just completely brain farts and sack when they don't have any timeouts and costs and points, things like that. But yeah, I mean, I guess the scary part of that was cam couldn't throw them in camp and that still, they decided that this is the direction we're going to go. And, you know, you had that one cam game.

It was the second week of the season against Seattle, which I think at the time, Seattle for the first, whatever, eight, 10 weeks of the season had historically horrific past defense, but he lit them up. And then that people even talking about, you got to give cam an extension, which mercifully they didn't do. Yeah, that was, that was a weird time there. So do you, I guess I, I wanted the part of having you on. It was like, having you on, I feel like when I watch him at Auburn, it's never been about talent as far as physical stuff.

The Baylor stuff, I always feel like it's a little hard to sort through for all the quarterbacks because you know every one of them are just going to put up monstrous numbers, especially with the kind of stuff they were doing back then. Then when he was at Auburn, he sits out the year for the transfer, and I felt like, man, when this guy's seeing just like 15 defenders, like as soon as there was pressure,

it felt like it was kind of a mess. And I was like, okay, so now he's going to come into the NFL and settle down. But it sounds like McDaniels had told you that he'd always liked him. He ends up with him. I think as we learn more about the Carr contract, like even though I don't love the decision, I think Carr is somebody

who's just not gotten much support. I'm not telling you I love him, but it seemed unfair. But then you consider the financials and you're like, alright, I kind of see it. But you're basically telling me you think that McDaniels this is just something that he's thrilled about. Because, I mean, again,

he was awesome yesterday against the Niners against the Niners defense that a quarterback getting that kind of shot is not supposed to light up yeah Ryan I think that if you give Josh the truth serum I think he would have made the move five or six weeks ago and I think because of who Derek has been for that organization because of you know last year soldiering through all the things that he had to soldier through and still getting them into the postseason. I think he felt like the guy he sort of earned the right to continue to play, even though I'm not happy with the way he's playing. But to me, looking from the outside in, it was like, Derek was never comfortable in this offense. And you say what you want about Jared, but Jared knows the offense. He's been in it now

for his entire career. And I thought to myself, like, he probably gives them a better chance to win, even though he doesn't have nearly the experience that Derek had. So I think you saw some of that. But I think one of the most impressive things about it to me was, and again, we haven't really seen him have extended game action, was to your point, like the pressure thing. He made a couple throws with dudes in his face or getting absolutely buried. The touchdown pass to Devontae Adams,

the second one, I think, where he got absolutely destroyed, but he stood in there for that second longer, that split second, and he took the hit to make the throw. So is that part of his maturation, you know, sort of becoming more and more comfortable with who he is as a quarterback

and obviously, again, knowing the system and then knowing, hey, I got playmakers. I got Waller. You know, I got Adams. I got Renfro. Like, these are guys that can make plays even when the situation's where they're covered. So, yeah, I think there is a scenario now where you look at, like, one more game. How does he finish this year?

But I don't know now that Josh automatically goes out there and says, we have to get, you know, this high level quarterback. He may think he has the guy already. Again, we'll see how it plays out, but I think it's an interesting thing to think about. Yeah. I just get so frustrated, you know, to see the guy that goes 15 for 21, doesn't want to throw third down. He's hoping everybody makes a play after the catch in front of the sticks.

And that was not what Stidham did yesterday. It was the opposite. And I'm like, okay, like this is, there's just so many young people they get to win and then the whole week the local radio is talking about their guy wondering when deep down you know like in your gut you're like this guy didn't really do that much and here i am after a loss like walking away going like just like you said like is does the Raiders checklist include quarterback now? Which, again, would feel like a bit of an overstatement considering it's just one game here. But it was fun.

It was a lot of fun. It was one of my favorite games of the season. Okay, let's pivot it back to New England. They win yesterday. Bridgewater gets knocked out of the game. I thought the pick, like people were talking about his hand, and the hand injury, it was still a bad decision to try to throw it into that spot.

And then Skyler Thompson comes in. Talk about a third down throw short of the hand. It was still a bad decision to try to throw it into that spot. And then Skyler Thompson comes in. Talk about a third down throw short of the sticks. I think he had one on third and long to the left where he threw it, and there were three defenders waiting for the player. And then he's over there with Mike McDaniel, and they're all just kind of talking it over. So the Pats get a win. They still have a chance to get into the playoffs. You've watched

them all season. You've covered them. Who are they? They're a middling football team, particularly offensively. I think they're a middling football team you know um particularly offensively i mean i think they're a below average football team offensively you look at i think going into the game yesterday they're averaging 21 points per game but then that was with seven defensive scores and a special team score they added another one yesterday they now have eight so that knocks the number down even more. They've never had any kind of flow. They don't have any kind of identity. And when you talk to people around the league, the design is very simple. And that was their point. They wanted to, because of the Brady offense, right? They kept extending the Brady

offense. Long plays got longer because Thomas said, let's tack this onto it. So you have this play call that takes 15 seconds to read, right? And the receivers have six and seven options. And the point of stepping back when Josh left was, all right, we're going to simplify this. We're going to make it easier. We're going to give our receivers less options. Well, in doing that, they took away one of their quarterback's best traits, and that's his intelligence.

He doesn't need it simplified. Maybe the other guys did, but he didn't. So I think right away, you're taking his brain a little bit out of the equation. And let's face it, he's not Justin Fields. He's not even Trevor as an athlete. He's certainly not Trey Lance, who we haven't seen a bunch of. But these elite athletes, he's a pocket passer. He's better mobility than people think, but he's not a runner. He's a pocket passer.

And they took that part away from him. And, I mean, he hasn't liked it. Ownership doesn't like it. What's happened here? The players, I mean, the thing that stands out to me, Ryan, is like, so I watched it in the spring and in the summer, and I'm like, eh, I mean, you saw the tweets.

We're all like, this is terrible. Every day, the offense is not getting better. Every day, the defense looks like they're 1,000 miles ahead saw the tweets. We're all like, this is terrible. Every day, the offense is not getting better. Every day, the defense looks like they're a thousand miles ahead of the offense. Mack looks more uncomfortable than he ever did even during his rookie year. But to me, the big telling point was visiting other training camps. And then even when the season started and going to other teams and having expatriate players tell me, I'm still getting calls and texts from those guys.

And they don't know what the hell they're doing. They don't understand why they're doing it. They don't understand the direction, the plan, et cetera. And to me, that's pretty telling that even once the season started, guys are still getting on their phones telling their old teammates or old college teammates like, bro, we took something that was pretty good last year, 10 and 7, decent offense, right? And we have taken it and stripped it way back. And it's clear they're, they're not, I mean, they're an impotent offense by and large. Just so I'm clear here, you're telling me current players are

texting former teammates that are all part of the new England family going, I don't know what we're doing. Exactly. Exactly. Which I thought was really stark. So to me i i kept saying to people like because of course and you know how the boston media in particular works with sports radio the pile on effect like matt patricia's this that the other thing calling them all kinds of names joe judge is this that the other thing calling them other names and i would just say look i can only judge them on what they're doing here and i want to see it when it happens but you know as you move through the summer you're like this doesn't doesn't look right. This doesn't feel right. I'm getting vibes from players.

You're hearing things that you don't like, but I'm saying, okay, well, let's wait till the season. Give me some evidence. Show me four or five games of what it looks like. And they did. And guess what? It looked the same as it did in the summer.

And even to some of the stuff that they were trying to do, Ryan, like adopting some of the McVay-Shanahan stuff with the zone running, they don't have the personnel for that. So I don't know why you would say to yourself, hey, let's do something that we haven't really done much of. Let's do a lot of it. They've devoted a ton of time to it during the offseason. And then, oh, by the way, once they got to the season, they were like, yeah, this doesn't work. And they threw it out out i feel like i have a rant in me here um but i've already talked about it like i'll never understand moving on from brady and having no plan

and they had no plan you want to move on from them fine you want to tell me 2019 he was regressing the numbers would back it up the eye tests back it up they didn't do him any fucking favors though as they always took advantage of the situation where it's like yeah we'll just kind of do this and then you think about the draft record which is inexcusable and when he was questioning on it i don't know a couple years ago it really bothered him where his answer was like well you know got some pretty good ones here too and And you could tell it was like, oh, he actually even addressed it. So he was pissed. He was almost like it was insulting

for anyone to suggest he's been bad at drafting. And then I think like, where's the talent on offense? I go, well, you know, they don't like to spend. And then I looked up the cap numbers and the combined cap hits

for tight end wide receivers, I believe is number one in the NFL. Yeah. So not only are they not drafting it right, they're spending the money, more money than anybody in these positions, and they're not really getting difference makers. Now, I guess I'll just, no one else would survive it, but he deserves to survive because of what he's done. And I know how the city's turning on him and now it has become, oh, it's only because of

Brady. Look at his one loss with all the other stuff i refuse to believe that okay i've i've talked to too many people that have played for that guy over the years that tell me belichick is is that guy he really is that great of a coach uh you want to start getting more difficult about it and say well he's not number one overall this proves okay fine i'll hear the argument but what i won't hear is that he deserves to be fired and that he's terrible and it was all a mirage for 20 years. That doesn't happen. The other thing I think is unfair is about his kid. Now, granted, with nepotism, you open yourself up for a different level of criticism just because people can put a label on it. I've talked to people that have

worked and played for Steve, and they love the kid. They're like, look, he's good. He's good at this. And by the way, it's arguably in that five to top ten defensive range. So that's not the issue. That's another layer of piling on Bill to go what I think are with the justified criticisms of him. The Patricia Judge thing doesn't make any sense. But Mike Sandu, who I love, and you guys hear me reference him all the time on the podcast, he had a really good anecdote from another, I think it was a front officer,

another coach. It was an active front officer coach who was like, look, coaching, one of the hardest parts about coaching is coaching your coaches. And at this stage for Bill, to then bring in somebody new and this person that doesn't understand what this has been about the last 20 years and to coach them up while you're trying to do all this other stuff, that's why Bill will kind of default to people that he's worked with before. And that feels like, look, I think the receiver issue is one thing. Maybe they have something toward the drafting is clearly an issue. But from a coaching standpoint, that might be the undoing of this

and that he's staying comfortable when a lot of people, whether it's business leaders or different, every now and then you have to challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, and that might be the biggest issue to less. I would say more so this year because you're right. Last year, I didn't love him. I thought it was a little fluky, but it felt like maybe they had something with Mac,

and now with Mac in this offense, I don't know. They might be adding to the position again here because this can't continue. No, it most definitely can't continue. I, for one, you know, because it's been a big push now. Like, Mac's not the guy. Mac's not the guy. And I don't really know how you judge Mac. I don't know.

Because of all the stuff that we've just talked about. Because of the simplicity of the offense. And they're really smart people, you know, across the board, Dan Orlovsky, like whatever, whoever you want to point to who look at this tape and go, what, what are they doing? What are they, what are they, where are the answers for the quarterback? Where's the easy button that they press the quarterback when they need

something on third and five, you know, we saw a few weeks ago, they ran something like 17 screens in a game. Like, I mean, what, what is that? Like, what, I mean, what is that? Like, I mean, that's like as simplistic as you can get. How many times can you run the fake screen one way and throw it the other screen to the other side? Like, that's been their answers for everything this year. And obviously they haven't been good enough.

So to me, I think whether you believe in Mac or not, I think Mac deserves a chance with a real offensive coordinator next year to say, I'm more like the guy you saw in year one where you thought maybe you had a quarterback who could be your guy for the next eight to ten years versus what this is, which is, you know, like, get me anybody at this point, because what this is has been largely dysfunctional. And look, you've seen him. He's had emotional issues on the field where, like, I don't mind him yelling at the coaches sometimes and the plays coming in late and stuff, but like then the meltdown against Cincinnati gets fined twice for a low block. And then for doing whatever he did to BJ Hill, like there's just some stuff that you say, you got to have more maturity. You're the general, you're the quarterback,

you're the CEO, or we're looking for you to, for answers. And sometimes you're so far out of control that you can't reel yourself back in to be what we need you to be for answers. And sometimes you're so far out of control that you can't reel yourself back in to be what we need you to be the level-headed guy quarterback. Again, the guy that we saw last year. So yeah, there's, there's all kinds of issues. And I look, ownership is dissatisfied with the offense and ownership wants that to change. My question is how far are they willing to go? Because Bill's in charge of all that stuff does bill want to say you know what matt sorry you're not the guy and you're out not only are they have they been coaches together forever they're really good friends i just you know i

wonder i wonder how that's all going to play in the offseason i just don't understand how any football team has the rookie contract quarterback and doesn't do everything like that's that's a free quarterback for four years basically and i look at it and go well they need to spend a receiver but they did and it made it even worse even even the bears traded for claypool but then the last time the pats tried to trade like you traded a second rounder for sanu and cut him yeah and it uh it is that was a while ago ago. I mean, no, but there's personnel issues to your point that the spending. So because of the bad drafts from like 16 to 19, they have to go into free agency and spend $250 million, which is unheard of after, by the way,

for 20 years telling us never to do that. Right. Arrog us like that's what the bad teams do the bad teams win in march we win in january and february right but then they had to do it because they didn't have enough players because they had bombed out on so many drafts and so many selections that it was like well we need two edge guys well we need a defensive tackle well we need a linebacker we need a corner like they just had to throw all this money at it. And then when you look at the return on investment, Nelson Aguilar, they haven't gotten any. Even the trade for Parker, he's made a couple of plays for you. He's been hurt. I think he's only got like 20 catches. He didn't get any value for it. Johnnie Smith, you're paying him top dollar at tight end. Two years in now, doesn't do anything for you. It doesn't move the needle one way or

another. And if they could walk away from him, I think they would accept his contract. Money got pushed into next year. So I think he's around for another year. It's just, they didn't get nearly the bang for their buck with all that money they spent. So they did it and they kind of ended up like a lot of other teams, middling football team with some bloated contracts and still in need of a lot of help. Okay. As we finish here, and the reason I normally wouldn't spend this much time on the Patriots because I don't think any of us think they're any real threat, but I think it has a chance to be the most interesting offseason for any team.

Do you think Brady would come back? I don't because I think, just having talked to some people that know him, the idea is like, oh, it would be great to come back and have your swan song here, but it's never going to be what it was. It's not the same thing. And obviously if Tom's coming back here, then Matt Patricia is not your offensive coordinator

and Joe Judge isn't your quarterback's coach. Like there's a lot of things that would have to move to bring him back. And then from an ego standpoint, does Bill want him back? Like, oh, well, well you know we screwed up now i'm going to bring you back yeah it doesn't i don't see it from i don't see it from either side quite frankly where do you think the relationship is between ownership and belichick

well i think like it always is it's always been a little bit abrasive right because he doesn't treat them like they are the owners of the football team. I mean, you know, he'll say some nice things about them, but when you've seen the video, that's the common interactions. He doesn't, they used to have to go to Nick Casario to get information on the football team when Nick was the de facto GM, because Bill wouldn't really tell him anything. And then there were times where Nick didn't even know because Bill was the one doing it. Like Bill wasn't counseling anybody, you know, he was just, okay, yeah, we're going to trade for this guy. Make the call. Oh, really?

We're doing that? Yeah. Yeah, we're doing that because he has full control. So, you know, they've tried to get to a little bit more of a collaborative process. But at the end of the day, it's still Bill who's saying yes, no, maybe, whatever. He's calling all the shots. Okay. Last thing.

Yes, no, maybe, whatever. He's calling all the shots. Okay, last thing. Do you have a heavy feel on the AFC going, all right, because it feels like with the Bills, we're holding them to the standard because, again, I, like everybody else, beginning of the year, I'm like, oh, my God, this team's my favorite.

They're awesome. They don't have that many weaknesses, and then it's like, they don't light people up. Although I'd argue their losses, every one of them, you go, what the hell happened there? Where Kansas City has some games where I'm like, what? So you're just going to suck this week? And they had a bunch of mistakes against the Denver team that finally moved the football a little bit. I think the Kansas City defensive statistics a little bit all over. I like the personnel better, but I don't know that it's a defense you're necessarily afraid of. Do you have a good feel for how the AFC plays out in the playoffs? And obviously, we'll wait to see how this

Buffalo-Cincinnati game goes. Yeah, the team I like the most right now is Cincinnati. I saw them in that first half against the Patriots two weeks ago just do whatever they wanted. And then I know what the final score said. I know that Ramondre Stevenson fumbled the ball inside the 10 with two minutes to go. But if you watch that game, I mean, there was no comparison since he took their foot off the gas. And then when they had tried to find it again, they couldn't find it, which you can get away with against bad teams. Buffalo's thing is interesting to me because I think they have the most talent,

but I think the offensive line has struggled for them this year. And I think you've seen, if you look at deeper, some of the numbers, especially on third down, when teams bring pressure, Josh becomes almost an average quarterback.

And I think it's because he doesn't trust what's in front of him and instead of standing in there for that split second longer he's like same old thing I got to get out of here and I got to be super Josh and they just haven't been consistent enough up front you know if Morris is healthy that's important because he's I think he's the linchpin to that old group but right tackle has beenty. Both guards have been spotty at times, especially left guard Saffold. Doesn't look like he has much football left in him. So that worries me.

If they can't protect them, that's when he tries to do crazy things. And look, he pulls it off a fair amount of times, but sometimes he just, he makes mistakes that at this point he shouldn't be making. But I think it's because of the pressure he feels from what's happening up front. 22 to nothing in Cincinnati

last week against New England. I felt like that was the most accurate score I had seen in a game. I was like, yep, that's exactly what I thought of both teams. This is the right score.

And then in classic NFL fashion, at the end, you're like, are you serious? This is actually, this is happening. This could happen. So I can't wait for tonight's game. NFL Network, Mike Girardi, thank you so much, man. It is happening. This could happen. So I can't wait for tonight's game. NFL Network.

Mike Girardi. Thank you so much, man. It's always great to catch up. Always a pleasure, Ryan. It was nice to talk to Kyle for the first time ever, even though I don't get to see his face on the Zoom. I feel like I know him from from life advice. We definitely don't want to distract our guests. So that's why.

Because Kyle, he's a lot to look at. Love you, Kyle. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine.

And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice in 2023. We're getting off to a good start here. Excited about some of the emails, but we've got to do a little check-in. By the way, the email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com.

And to wives and girlfriends, welcome into the podcast. We did an hour or so in the beginning. We talked a bunch of football. No basketball today. We'll get back to that on Wednesday. But yes, the first hour or so is a lot of football on Mondays. And then we do this part that you listen to. How was your New Year's, Kyle? It was so touch and go. We ended up just staying in. Went to Ralph's, got some champagne and some wine and some food and stuff. It was really, we didn't get as, um, a clear thing on where this teenager was going to be spending new years.

Uh, there was sort of a, one of those things where, uh, the mom was like, oh, well, you know, I got to see, cause I'm not so sure how they would get there. And I'm like, oh, wait a second. So this is, this is like a pickup situation. I don't know. So, um, we were kind of just waiting it out, hoping that it would all fall through. And it did fall through.

And, you know, we love the teenager and we'd love to have him around at another time that wasn't New Year's Eve. But it was all for naught because it was downpouring. And I don't know, just sort of had one of those feels like, yeah, let's just watch the East Coast New Year's on TV. And I don't know, maybe watch Curb or something. So that's. So that's what we make it to midnight though. Yeah. I fell asleep at 11 and then, and then I woke up, you know, kind of just by my own body clock at like

1140. And she was, she was like, well, glad you did that. Glad you woke up. Cause I thought I was going to have to do it. So all in all, it was a good night. It was fine. So wait, you get out of bed and party again. It wasn't really a party it was just sort of like uh i was nursing a terrible terrible hangover uh that day anyway so it was just kind of a slow moving day and um i don't know i think it worked out as well my group went out that night and it turns out one of my good friends got puked on um like directly so i mean who knows that could have been me if i was out there so direct shot yeah and then the guy said you don't have to yell at me so that's sort of our joke now is he was like he said you know what you say when you get puked on he said what the

fuck and the guy was like you don't have to yell at me man so that's our sort of running joke now so every time the guy talks to us we say you don't have to yell at me man but so friday was your night friday night yeah yes yeah all right you know that's kind of the vet move i like that i like that the real vet move the old service industry move, is to go out the night after. That's, you know, there's a bartender you like. You just go, hey, I'm going to go out the night after. There's also people who'd be like, seriously, dude,

you're going out again tonight. I think I'll never forget one time with Burlington. I was bartending at Rasputin's at that point. And there was these two dudes who had just turned 21. And I think they went out like 40 nights in a row, 40 nights in a row. And the owner was my buddy. Just didn't even know him that well. But we were just dying laughing at the streak that these guys were on.

And to be honest with you, to credit them, they weren't like losing their shit every single night. They were just in the mix because it was legal and they were fired up and they just want to be in the mix every time i had the id ready yeah ready my buddy was like dude you guys have to stay in one night like you have there has to be one night you can't go out like it's not that this isn't that great and it's exciting i remember i was flipping my id out like it was a fucking pack of cools like i was like i was ready i was like look at this man come on please take my id it's a it's a tough time to get a handle on i still have trouble with it let's go to the emails here okay this one is very personal kyle and you are to blame okay thank you for not you know you could have just deleted it and not sent it to me

but this is how accountable this is how accountable you are girlfriend who listens to the pod just went through my phone so I hope she's listening right now 511 165 chicken legs but I don't skip

leg day sometimes biology just wins I'll keep at it. He's 34. Yes. I don't know if those legs are going to fill out. Started dating a wonderful 27-year-old. He goes to type out female and then crosses it out and says women.

Woman. Singular, not plural. Big fan since the SVP days. Thanks. Love the pod. Introducing my girlfriend to Life Advice has been a huge win. She adores Kyle. Gets bummed out when you go down to two episodes a week.

And it has generally been a great source of entertainment and connection for us. She's been listening for two years now. Listening intentionally in quotation marks, as you'll soon find out. I've always gotten the sense that she's checking in and out of the stories, but all good. So she's not super locked in. She should be for this one because it's about her. Our minds get busy, especially driving around getting errands done. No problem.

Flash forward to tonight. New Year's Eve party at her family's house. We've got aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, around 30 people. I'm more of an introvert, even as a distance runner. Oh. Now the distance runner. The rare... Although, I guess you could, you know, know hey what's that guy do he just runs and doesn't talk to anybody i'm surprised i don't run uh but he's chopping it up with everyone and

i get along great with the family holding babies playing games doing shots with her mom whoa whoa it's a good sign yeah it's a good sign that you're in if you're doing shots with mom sounds like her mom's awesome all around fun night i even kept my cool as the brother-in-law chimed in with painfully wrong takes during ohio state georgia good for you man so i have a beautiful girlfriend we treat each other well reaching a point in relationship where we felt closer than ever and yet here i am at 5 a.m new year's now new year's day wondering what the fuck just happened. Oh, no. Well, as you can imagine,

a night like tonight, the drinks are flowing. We're staying at the family house and I end up in bed before her and fall asleep. When she eventually joins me, I wake up and make a harmless joke to test the waters

on if anything more than a New Year's kiss was in the cards. Whoa, dude. At the family's house? At mom's house? That's tough. A little more than loving? Bold strategy, Kyle.

She responds with quote why don't you ask to a lippa okay the fuck is she hammered that sounds like something i would hear from a hammered person no no this is he reaches over in the morning dudes know that move although i think that's a tad aggressive at the parents house but what are you gonna do some people just you know and she says why don't you ask to a lippa initially very confused i then remembered i drunked i drunk dm'd miss lio wishing her a happy new year. Oh my God. Stupid.

I know, but whatever. She was on my Discover page and I had been wishing everyone a happy new year in person and on IG for the past six hours. In my slightly drunk and sleepy stupor i connected the dots and asked my girlfriend wait did you go through my phone so to back up so the discover page is like what like who you follow and then it just sort of like the feed and then you're just not who you follow i think the discover page is like or no maybe that's the explore page maybe he's saying that i think they're the same thing that he's talking about here i think it it's just stuff that like you don't follow, but the algorithm thinks you like. Okay.

So, yeah. All right. Right. Okay. So, just, hey, here's a bunch of stuff and whatever. So, he was hammered and started wishing everyone Happy New Year's in person for hours. That's tough. I got about five minutes of that in me.

Then I got missed texts six hours dude come on six hours she should be more mad at you not being i don't know all right so then he asked wait did you go through my phone then i get hit not only with the confirmation that she's listening to the pod but one of the most frustrating misunderstandings i've ever been a part of she says quote kyle said go to the phone once a year no no i did not say that this is a classic people aren't listening to me and i you know i i realize this is a big responsibility and i would i would take that one back if i knew this would happen to even one person but what did you say the one year mark for this particular woman who's been cheated on like serially i said for you specifically how are you supposed to move on in a relationship i'm saying maybe you have to check secretly at the one year mark and then do with that information

what you will not fucking say ask dualua Lipa because I drunkenly went through your phone on New Year's whatever I'm just saying what I said was not that and I don't like that I was thrown under the bus however I wish I didn't say anything if this was going to happen even one guy what you were offering up was tailored life advice not off the rack correct correct how do you feel that this 27 year, after she just went through her boyfriend's phone, who's close enough in the relationship that he's at the family's house, they're waking up. The way this guy's new year starts is his girlfriend saying,

Kyle said to go through the phone once a year. Well, he's right because she's not actually fully listening. This is watching Game of Thrones while you're scrolling and then asking who's that actually fully listening yeah this is this is watching game of thrones while you're uh scrolling and then asking who's that that's what this is that's what this is okay uh i never thought i'd be this annoyed this is this is her i don't know are you annoyed right now kyle are you upset i'm annoyed because i i'm annoyed that she's annoyed yeah i mean unless what did he say unless he said like i'll leave my girlfriend for you i don't really know what he could have said other than like, happy new year's beautiful. And it's like, ah, all right. She's a celebrity, I guess. I don't know. It's kind of gray, murky waters

when there's zero chance. Is it really anything? I don't know. All right. So he says he continues here in the email. I never thought I'd be this annoyed or frustrated with someone over something so seemingly harmless. I'm an open person and don't have things to hide. Aside from DMing celebrities I know won't respond, I guess. I want to give my girlfriend every reason to trust me, but damn, that invasion sucks. Yeah, sorry. It just feels like all the work we've done

to build up trust and confidence with each other was actually a house of cards, and she has these doubts or insecurities all along. I'm sure we'll be fine in the long run, but please provide us with any life advice to get through this shitty phase of building that back up. Guys and women out there, going through phones isn't cool and you're almost guaranteed

to find something that bothers you, even if it's innocent. Kyle only suggested it for the poor girl who had been cheated on twice and didn't know how to move forward. Even in that scenario, it was kind of suspect. Can Kyle please get an emphatic, don't go through phone speech? Are my girlfriend and I going to be okay

um is sir rudy's hot cousin the answer for me now thanks for the help so rudy does not like the hot cousin jokes i he's got a nervous smile on no you don't get from him often i think the problem was that she was very well she is i don't know and she's attractive and i think she worked at espn so i'm sure plenty of guys were like hey what's going on with your cousin i think that was the problem so like whenever whenever we'd mentioned that he has a really attractive cousin he's he's over it before the sentence is over so it's probably like hey could you tell your uncle this for me it was like yeah great thanks i'll get right on that it's like in that like he probably got that just as often like hey man

you should tell your uncle this like all right cool yeah so i don't you think people would go through the uncle on that one i'm a little confused right no i'm saying it's similar like he was probably as fed up with the what's up with your cousin as i was with hey you should tell your uncle this for me all right well let's let's not bring her up anymore um he's not even here to swap this down he's not even here to talk about it never mind her so we'll get back to the email here kyle do you want the floor here i mean he said exactly it like i said it for this like going through phones is for damaged goods right if you are if you're cool labeling yourself as damaged goods that's fine that girl uh woman

and that sent in that life advice was clearly damaged goods. I mean, she would see what she knows. She's like, what the hell am I supposed to do? She is damaged goods. And because she's got a terrible, terrible story. The fact that, I mean, I haven't heard a lot of it. You're talking about last week, not this one. Yes, not this one.

Damaged goods is a little harsh for her offering up how hurt she's been in the past. So I don't know. But isn't that what damaged goods is? It's like her offering up how hurt she's been in the past so i don't know but isn't that what damaged goods is it's like i am so fucked up here i don't know what's supposed to do about this how am i ever gonna trust anyone aren't that honest and be like hey i'm super damaged goods what's going on yeah you wouldn't want to be so honest about going through the phone either that's why i said do it secretly and don't be like hey i just went through your phone unless you actually found like what this girl found woman found god damn it about the you know flying to meet each other after business conferences like you know your phone unless you actually found like what this girl found woman found god damn it about the you know flying to meet each other after business conferences like you know

an email or dming a celebrity who's never going to read that and who's got like probably an intern that's reading through uh her dms is like that's not even that's not even what we're looking for here when you're when you're doing that what i suggested don't go through phones people who are damaged goods go through phones and i'm saying if you are damaged goods maybe you should be going through a phone once in a while but that's on you and then you have to live with that so uh don't do this if you're paying attention look out from your phone listen to me don't go through the phone i'm sorry i said it i'm sorry i confused anyone she went through it it sucks then you're always going to think about it it's like the person you know i remember getting back together with

somebody and then they kept turning the phone over when we'd go out right and I'm like okay and I still wouldn't go through the phone but do you think that might be just a polite thing to where like I don't want to even that's not what it was that's not what it was sure sometimes it could

be that that's not what this was I knew immediately didn't work out not a big deal so that part of the invasion part is so fucking annoying that. That's not what this was. I knew him either. Didn't work out. Not a big deal. So that part of the invasion part is so fucking annoying. Because it's like, look, if I were in a serious, serious relationship where somebody, you know, planning the future

out, stuff we've talked about in the past, and I'm giving off some sketchy vibes and there's a couple things that aren't adding up or whatever, and she decides to proactively go through my phone and find something that is significant, then that's my fucking fault for doing this to somebody else, even if I don't like the just very...

I think there's levels to like, okay, that was an acceptable go-through-the-phone thing, even if I don't like it. I'd argue every time it's happened to me, it's been completely fucked up. Being like, you're not the person that's justified to do this. And so cool.

Now you saw shit you don't like. Now what? Yeah. All right. Yeah, I agree. Cool. I could go through your phone, but I wouldn't do it

because you don't owe that to me. If you're talking to other guys, we have not made this exclusive, whatever. That's not the case here. Okay. wouldn't do it because i i don't you don't owe that to me if you're talking to other guys i we have not made this exclusive whatever that's not the case here okay this is a very serious relationship and she has done this and based on the email despite zero indication that she should have done this i mean unless this guy's leaving something out so let's just go with what we have the information here i think the way to close this is that it's fucking hilarious that when you get drunk, you DM celebrities.

Happy New Year. That's it. As you pointed out, are never going to fucking text you back. They're never going to say anything to you. Okay. There you get so many DMs that it just cycles through all the time. All right. It's somebody's job to read those.

Like, it's not there. I did it once. I did it once. I did it once. Guess who your boy didn't hear from the person. Okay. And I remember like when blue checks, when people were like, Oh my God,

I'd be like, that must be awesome. Like, right. As if anyone who's famous is like, Oh, Hey, this guy,

I don't know, has a blue check, like 70,000. What's he talking about? Seems to post about fucking basketball. What does he just take jumpers and have a timer? Which fuck, this guy I don't know has a blue check, like $70,000. What's he talking about? Seems to post about fucking basketball. What does he just take jumpers and have a timer? Which fuck is this guy loser? I don't even get to that point of it.

Okay. It's just they don't even see it. So this is hilarious. This is actually funny that this was your move. If the rest of the story all here adds up. So I do think you can get through it. But her not thinking it's funny at some point and that point better be real fucking quick yeah you know not six months talking like a couple days

yeah right now she's an unreasonable person right that's what you are right now this this should be considered really funny fairly soon and if it isn't then then I don't know. You're going to have some problems. I think we got it. Okay. I think we got it. All right. We'll do one New Year's Eve deal here.

Bar incident. All right. Ruling. I think it's Judge Kyle. Do you think we should do... I don't want to sacrifice life advice because it's actually held up a lot longer than I thought it would.

Or we just do feedback so it's once a month. We just have a separate feed for feedback emails. I think that's going to drive everyone nuts on the actual... Because we can't make a new Gmail for that, right? We'd still have to use...

Why not? Oh, if you think we could, then we definitely could. Yeah, because we can't make a new Gmail for that, right? We'd still have to use. Why not? Oh, if you think we could, then we definitely could. Yeah, I just don't, the Gmail is already so, I mean, you'd be surprised how many, just telling the listeners, how many emails there are.

And I think to add another, whenever we add another purpose in there. Maybe I can go through them. When I say something about plumbing or something, and I'm like, you know, I think actually I would be interested to know what somebody says. The way that you're like, no, it's because there are so many people because you guys are great and you're very active. Yeah, but I'm not.

Maybe it's just a traditional mailbag, which is an original. So it's not feedback to life advice. I wouldn't want to do that. Because like every now and then, like when we had the guy who talked about coaching, I thought it was just such a great email that I was so glad you sent that one because I'm like this is great like I was actually thinking about that coach the middle school coach when he was saying that I thought that was just such a I don't know I just love that email

maybe I'm talking a little bit too much for him to say the bar is low you can exceed it it's cool like no but every parent only cares about their kid which is the whole point right so tell every parent no matter if the kid stinks or not like hey he's great on the bus she's home something always first to practice and she's she's a joy to be around all these different things like i thought about that a little bit more it actually popped in my head

as i was driving around the other day and i went that was really fucking good stuff so you know if we can save one kid that stinks basketball and makes his parents happy then the podcast has done its job i meant like more of a just uh maybe a mailbag or something like that do it kind of once a month making its own thing i wouldn't want to do just feedback to the life advice stuff great because then that would open up a dam of content that i got time for a mailbag i do i got time yeah that's perfect maybe a dam of content. I got time for a mailbag. I do. I got time for that. That's perfect. Maybe a mailbag.

Okay, this one's going to be Judge Kyle, which could be its own thing. Who knows? We might not even be talking football in two years. Six foot 175, 25 years old. Pretty active, but don't really keep track of my numbers. That's cool, man.

I'm a grad student living in San Francisco. Last night, I went out with some friends for New Year's Eve. All of the popular bars were packed in the specific district with $30 covers and lines that would take at least 25 minutes. That sounds awful. I don't know. In San Francisco, it doesn't even sound that bad. Just wherever you are, it sounds like an awful thing to do. Best thing you could do is just grab. Well, look, how do you say 25?

Yeah. The best thing ever, get a a big group together a place where nobody would go that's what i would have done but um yeah anyway after hanging out at a random bar for a while we went to bite the bullet and wait in line pay for one of the better bars i just think if you have a massive issue with cover charges on new year's eve like that's i don't say i'm not saying this guy necessarily does but it's just like yeah man that's kind of what it is like it's a nature of the free for have a house party otherwise i don't know find a find a cool house party otherwise right all right um so it gets in line around 11 get in at 11 30 seriously dude like getting in 30

minutes later right before midnight uh knowing that getting a drink would take a while, I would want one in my hand at midnight. I go straight to the bar as my group kind of scatters. As I'm working my way to the bar, I see a space, some space, enough for two people to stand. Towards the bar, two people could stand there. Next to this guy about my size, what did we say?

6'175"? I try to nudge my way closer to the bar. As I'm in prime position to snag the open spot, this dude taking up the two spots. So basically the email is arguing another six foot 175 guy was standing enough that he was taking up two spots at the bar. Yeah. Elbows out man spreading the opposite of man spreading.

We don't want over here trying to get a couple of slow chin fizzes. So he tries to nudge in the old nudge. By the way, if you're out at a crowded bar and you can't handle a little nudge, don't go out. Yeah. Right? So as I'm in prime position to snag the open spot, this dude taking up two spots

tells me he's been waiting for 30 minutes and I have to wait my turn. Seeing as there's enough space for both of us to stand, I give him a nudge because he appears to be taking up the two standing spots and unwilling to let me stand beside him at the bar at no point do i even raise my voice or put my hands on the guy i only use my feet and shoulders to maneuver he does not take too kindly to this and raises his voice basically telling me that's not how it works i was drunk so i forgot exactly what happened at this point well so then you were hammered all right well maybe he's not hammered he just doesn't remember the intricacies of this interaction i'll give him i'll give him a little slack until i hear the rest of this

right but forgetting somebody's name but then getting to this all right so let's see where the rest of this goes but there i found myself standing at the bar ready to order my drink at around 11 40 before i could order I turned around to see two security guards and the guy standing right behind me. Oh, my God. They tell me I'm done and begin to escort me out. As I'm getting escorted out, I try to get a word in and explain what happened or simply get an explanation

of what they think I did. They refused to answer anything. So at this point, it's about 1150. I waited in line for 30 minutes, paid 30 bucks, was kicked out within 15 minutes of getting in. Not ideal. I'm not sure if I didn't nudge him, this whole situation could have been avoided. So again, I'm sure if I didn't nudge him, this whole situation could have been avoided.

But I think the dude was being a dick and mad that I was going to get a drink so quickly. Should I have waited my turn and respected the fact that he'd been waiting much longer than me? Or am I in the right to grab a spot if it appears to be available and bypass the people who've been waiting longer if he's mad I feel like he should be mad at the bartenders for not serving him I'm not saying it's a bartender's job to serve based

on who may have been there the longest also is is it pointless to try and reason with security at that point kicking someone out at 10 minutes before midnight because some dude said they shoved him seems unnecessary any Any advice, insight on these types of situations would be appreciated. Love the podcast. P.S. If I ever met

you in person and called you Ryan with an R, would that get a laugh? I don't think so. It sounds like none of you go out regularly. All right. So let's go through a bunch of different... I mean, it sounds like you do a little bit,

whatever the other guy sounds like a fucking tool for going and telling on you and getting security guards. Okay. But there's a million moving parts here. So let's go through them. First of all, the security guards, they're working New Year's Eve.

It's fucking miserable. Okay. They're definitely not going to talk to you about not big talkers. I do. Right. Yeah. They're not big talkers usually ever. And they kind of don't give a fuck.

All right. Now I think this guy's a loser for going to tell on you. So ever, and they kind of don't give a fuck. Now, I think this guy's a loser for going to tell on you. So wait, he gave up his spot to order a drink to go tell on you so that you got removed. My guess is you probably were a little more physical than he wanted to. A lot of people don't like post play anymore. We don't see a ton of it in the NBA. So

you were trying to angle. You thought you saw your spot, and you thought you were going to cut a lot of people. Now, I don't really blame you. It's a free-for-all. You're trying to drink in there and it is up to bartender, good bartenders to kind of keep track of who's been waiting and how long they've been waiting. Right. There's nothing worse than when the bartender, when you're standing there and you've got a good spot and then the bartender decides to kind of like start picking other people around you and you're like, what the fuck? They're like, what the fuck? That's a shitty bartender. It's just a free-for-all. Like, hey, whoever puts their hand up. Girls do it all the time.

They cut everybody and they give a shit. And they're rewarded for it all the time. So if this guy were there for 30 minutes, then he's already mad. But just because you're trying to get a better angle, maybe. You get that money out. Have your order ready to go, especially 30 minutes before the ball is dropping. I can kind of see like his he's frustrated the bartenders are slammed um you probably thought you would hack you know life hack this when you know there'll be times again if somebody's next to me they've been waiting longer than me

the bartender comes up to me first i'll be like hey he was there for that's only probably because i bartended right and i do it I never bartended. Tried though. Well, there you go. All right. Well, good for you, Kyle. Good for you too. I remember one night when you talked about security and their lack of understanding. I remember one night I was in a bar in Boston and it wasn't even that big of a deal.

Huge fight breaks out. It's on Lansdowne. And for whatever reason, I didn't even do anything. There was a fight. I wasn't in it at all. I didn't know the people. I had nothing to do with outskirts of the circle. I started positioning myself away around this male tornado.

Men tornado, I meant. I think manly tornado. I'm not sure what their some jacked up fucking loser from somerville decided to just hurl me outside and i was like what the fuck and he's like i've had it for me and i was like dude i what and then you know it's not easy to go oh actually my bad yeah right It's like a ref making a bad call. They're stuck with it at this point. Yeah. Oh, wait.

You weren't involved in that? I regret my interaction with you. Come on in. Pick up the flag. Yeah, it doesn't work that way. So the security thing, you're there for a loss. You probably get a little physical on the angle end, but I don't think the guy should have gone and told on you

unless I'm not understanding that and that he waved over the security guards because I don't think anybody would ever give up their position to get a drink unless he then got his drinks and then got you kicked out later on. And it also depends on how well you can keep it together when you're hammered. Like you said, you were drunk. You forget a little bit of part of this. Look, if this were in front of the court of law, Kyle, you know, I don't think Judge Kyle would give him the benefit of the doubt here, even if I understand, like, if the other guy hasn't been out a lot and he's like, why is this guy nudging into me or whatever? Like, you know, you're everyone that decides to go out to a packed place on New Year's Eve that thinks all of a sudden they have this female lacrosse

bubble around them the entire night. It's a fucking idiot. All right. It doesn't exist. You're all going to slam into each other. You're all going to be moving around. Everybody wants what they want. They don't care about anything else. It's a bunch of people that never go out that are going out. So they don't understand some of the common courtesy rules and all this. So I think you're all guilty, but at the same time, who gives a shit? All right. You're out 30 bucks. I think the biggest question of all is how hammered was this guy? If you're, if you're like really stumbly and you know,

I don't know, you got that fucking crazy whiskey coming off. If you give them sweat and vodka or like, and that's like, if there's one like little stumble, one little, one little Lamar Jackson juke. Yeah. The security guys.

Yeah. And so maybe that's, so that's the thing. It's not even really the security guys at this point. I wonder how you were towards this guy who's already got his spot. And you know, this, I used to do this at dark room all the time, but I put in the time at dark room. I mean, I'm six. I, we just found out I'm six, three. I've been clocking myself at six, two for all these years. We measured myself at frolic the other day. I am six, three. Yeah. Well, you know, I just think I was being modest. I didn't want to say 6'3", and 6'2.5 didn't sound

right. So I just said 6'2". My license says 6'2", but we brought the measuring tape out and I'm 6'3", man. So I just think, you know, that face popping over things, you know, if that's a face that you know, that, you know, the bartenders know, that's sort of where I would benefit from that. So I know it's a sort of different situation with this hot bar on new year's Eve that you probably, you know, probably don't have a lot of face value at. So, and there's two different things. There's the, there's the, you know, the, what would you call this when you're straight up on the bar and then you get skinny when you need to kind of just have your arm there and your credit card and just being like waiting, you know? So I wonder, did you, did this one guy see you get skinny or did you like, Oh, both of us could

fit here if I'm getting, you know, in the normal way. So I think there's a bunch of things. This is, it's a normal interaction. Um, and I've, I I've thrown my weight, you know, into somebody too. Just been like, listen, there's a space here. I know that you don't really think there is, but I promise you there is just watch. And I've done it in a way where I think I wouldn't be, um, you know, assaulting somebody, but definitely just showing here, look, I'm going to be right here. So I think, yeah, I think the best thing you go ahead. I just think it all comes down to how drunk you were, because I mean, you know, the security guards are always like scanning the room to sniff that out

before you do something like, you know, extra aggressive. So if you were that drunk and maybe that's why the guy was like, get this fucking guy out of here. But I would say this is why I don't fucking go to new bars if I can help it. Because if that exact same situation happened at my bar at dark room, let's say in the day, and that guy went and told a bouncer, they'd be like, Kyle, what the hell happened here? I'd be like, buddy, I was just trying to get

in the bar and look. It's fine. So that's why I like to go to bars that I like. So I guess I understand that New Year's Eve is a different kind of animal, but this is exactly why I don to go to bars that I like. So I guess I understand that New Year's Eve is a, is a different kind of animal, but this is exactly why I don't fuck around. Well, um, I think you said a couple of really good things there.

Get skinny and you need to make a play. Get skinny. You know, a lot of that traffic line of scrimmage, just try to not get caught up in the wash. Uh, and the other, the other thing too,

cause I know there's going to be all part of me was like, wait, did he know the security guys? But if he did, he wouldn't be. If he knew people that worked at the bar, this guy would have just set it off with you. Yeah. Well, he wouldn't. He also wouldn't be waiting 30 minutes for a drink.

So it's not like he worked there. It's not like he was friends with bartender. Could he been friends with one security guy or whatever? He can't help him get a drink. All right. We don't need to cover every fucking angle. This is a paragraph on something that happens all the time. Not the end of the world guy you're gonna be okay probably avoided that uber surge though

so there's always always trying to find that win somewhere there's no way your friends left with you after they all paid 30 bucks to get in there no chance you left out all the good questions then what happened because they didn't leave and at 25 those are the rules yeah sorry man okay that'll do it for life advice today thanks to kyle and our guests and we'll be back on wednesday ryan russell podcast we're here spot on That's where your spot. you