The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Daniel Jeremiah on Stopping the Top QBs and Philly’s QB Problem, Plus Van Lathan on Spencer Rattler and LSU

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the often-convoluted question of “Who is the best?” before coming up with an answer (0:53). Then Ryen talks with NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah about changes in the ways he evaluates college QBs, Jalen Hurts’s struggles in the Eagles-Buccaneers game, how NFL teams are preparing to stop mobile QBs, the evolution of the midseason NFL trade, and more (7:58). Next Ryen is joined by The Ringer’s Van Lathan to discuss his obsession with the Netflix show ‘QB1: Beyond the Lights,' and by proxy, Spencer Rattler. They also discuss growing up in Baton Rouge, LSU tailgates, and more (38:27). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitter Life Advice questions (1:07:34). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Van Lathan and Daniel Jeremiah Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Press Box is here to catch you up on the latest media stories. Hosted by Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker, these guys have the insight on the biggest stories you care about. Check out The Press Box on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's podcast, in the open, we'll start with a very simple question. Who's the undisputed best in sports? Because I actually think the field is wide open across a lot of sports. Daniel Jeremiah will talk a little draft. We're also going to talk about what teams are doing defensively

against the top quarterbacks in the NFL and some of the guys that are struggling. And Van Lathan hit me up. He's worried about Spencer Rattler. He considers him a child of his because he loves QB1 on Netflix so much. I know it sounded a little weird. Trust me. It works out. Van was awesome to talk to and life advice.

Enjoy. I want to start today's podcast with a very simple question and that's not was it a call third strike? By the way, Giants fans don't know what to tell you. Terrible check swing call third strike on Wilmer last night. Not saying the Giants would have won the game.

Tough way to go out. And I'm going to need umps or refs. When you make a bad call and you're not 100% sure yourself, I just want you to kind of shrug and make the call. The first base ump was like defiant. Like, yup, ring them up. Let's get out of here. So that one stings.

Love playoff baseball. Love it. The tension. But that's not what we're doing. The question for today, this is a very simple question. Who is the best in the sports that we talk about the most on this podcast? All right. We talk pro football. We talk college football. We talk NBA. And I just did a little talk in baseball. So I guess that counts. I'm not going to talk about some of the other sports I don't follow as closely because then I would embarrass myself because I'm not as dialed in. But here's the question, the premise, and it's off of the Mahomes pushback from earlier this week.

It is who's the best player or let's say team that if you brought it up in a group conversation with your buddies, there'd be the least amount of pushback. And for the longest time, I think Patrick Mahomes was sitting in that throne where if you were hanging out and you're like, hey, Pat Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL and we're going to be many people who were going to tell you that you were wrong. But apparently that's what's happening this week. I went in with Cal Hurd on his show on Fox this week, and I was like, look, I was listening to your Monday Open. I did a little bit of it. Yeah, I think Mahomes is getting a little loose with some balls here. But to start saying you'd

want other quarterbacks ahead of Mahomes for the next five years, that's where you're going to lose me. But it's actually being challenged. All right. That part is shocking. And that's why I'm even bringing this up. So let's run through some players, some of the leagues, the levels, and see if we can come up with anyone else that is the person that if you say, no, no, this is the person that is the best. This is the team that is the best that you get the least amount of pushback. Now, if you're going to be labeled the best, best NBA player in the world, best quarterback, best pitcher, best hitter, it has to be earned. This should not be influenced by what happened last night or last week. It just shouldn't.

And I think that's what's happening with Mahomes here a little bit. Now, the reason I bring this up as far as what I think defines, what I think should be the qualifications that you have to check off to even be part of these conversations, you're going to be doing it for a long enough time. It's almost with basketball. Do it for a season. Maybe you win an MVP, maybe you win an NBA finals, and you're playing at the same exact level or even beyond that for another year. And it's like, you know what? You know who's actually been the best and been the best for a little while? It's this person. Because you know who it wasn't? Ubaldo Jimenez. and been the best for a little while, it's this person. Because you know who it wasn't? Ubaldo Jimenez. Ryan, you bring up Ubaldo Jimenez a lot. Yes, I do.

Because I was working at ESPN in 2010 when Ubaldo had a sub-1 ERA the first two months of the season in 2010. Had a 6-plus ERA in July and never had an ERA under 4 once in his next eight seasons. Nice little run for Ubaldo. Tough park to pitch in there with Colorado. But I remember when he had that epic run those first two months people were saying he's the best pitcher in baseball and i go he is pitching better than anyone else in baseball but you don't get to just have that when you're out of nowhere unhittable for two months that's when we all make mistakes and that's what i think we're doing and making a mistake here with Mahomes. So

it has to be earned over a longer period of time. And in this case, a pitcher for just two months. So the other reason I think this is interesting is because we have an unprecedented open field because basketball, I'll admit, I've made the mistake. I have gone from Giannis to LeBron to Kawhi to Kawhi again, back to Giannis. And now I'm on Kevin Durant when maybe it should be Giannis for best player in the NBA. But there's a lot of good arguments. It can't be Kawhi now because he's hurt. But it felt like Kawhi when he was against the Clippers. It didn't feel like Giannis against Kevin Durant.

It felt like Durant. And then it felt like Giannis again. And yeah, I hate writing off LeBron. I don't like writing that dude off because he proves us wrong anytime we start to let some of that doubt creep in. But here's the point. It's not definitive. Yes, Giannis could win an MVP this year, and maybe that would make him, after the title, a title where, again, I can't let this get out of my head, that a title where halfway through that Nets series, you're like, what are they doing on offense? I can't believe the Bucs look this bad again.

And then they beat Phoenix in six, a miraculous comeback with that one. It's not that Giannis is a bad answer. It's just that he's one of many options at the top. NBA teams is probably six or seven teams. We don't have a Warriors again this year. It might be the Brooklyn Nets on paper if Kyrie were there, but I think you'll allow me some hesitation on saying the Nets are clearly the best team when they haven't won the title yet, even though a lot of

people are going to go ahead and pick them. We already did the NFL. We did the quarterbacks. If we did college football and it were before Bama lost at A&M, Bama would probably be the answer. Bama would be the answer if they were undefeated right now of all the sports that we talk about, again, on this podcast. What is the undisputed king in comparison to all the other teams in other leagues? It's probably Bama. But when they

lose to A&M, and I'm telling you, look bad defensively against A&M and look bad defensively against Florida in a close win against a Gators team that's okay. I don't think they're great. I have real hesitation about Bama. And again, it's not like it's the same players every single year. And it's a team that's won titles with the same people.

And there's a little bit of a regular season blip. It's new players. There's turnover there. So we could be staring at a Bama team that right now with all the expectation, only one loss. We're saying, hey, they're still going to be in the playoff. We're like, oh, wait, what happened? They ended up nine and three.

Baseball. Do you want to do a little baseball? It's probably Mike Trout, but the best player on the team this year was his teammate, Otani. Mookie Betts was considered the second best. We're not doing that. If we want to go hardcore baseball stats this season, the top guys,

Correa, Simeon, and Juan Soto, who I love, but you should get the point. If I wanted to do best pitcher in baseball, those years where it was Clayton Kershaw, despite the playoff problems, or it was a Pedro Martinez going back to the years where I loved it, he's the best pitcher I've ever seen. He didn't get any pushback.

If you said Pedro, nobody else was offering up somebody else. And if they were, they were wrong. I could name eight pitchers, but that's the point. If I can name eight, I'm not really naming any. I still feel like it's Mahomes, a quarterback, but the conversation has clearly changed. If it's not Bama, if it's not Mahomes, if it's not anyone in baseball, if there isn't one NBA player that's ahead of everybody else, if there isn't one team that feels Warriors-ish because there isn't, if there's one conclusion that I can come up with, the guy that you say, hey,

he's the best, I should probably just go to the other side of the ball in the NFL and say Aaron Donald. Because if you still say Aaron Donald's the best defensive player in the league, despite what maybe the PFF grades can be week to week, if you say, hey, he's the best, he's done it the longest, he earned the title, this isn't an overnight thing. There's not really anyone that's challenged him long enough to be considered the conversation. I think Donald's the answer if you're saying who in the major sports is the undisputed best, whether team or player,

it's probably a guy that plays defense. Great guest every time he comes on. Daniel Jeremiah, Move the Sticks podcast and Thursday Night Football with Bucky Brooks last night. The great Joy Taylor as well. And I know you've got a big cast, Chris Long, and a bunch of other names. I'm not going to be able to get to all of them. So let's start with kind of the headline thing, though, because I want to do the draft stuff first here.

I know it's early. You haven't done all your work. Where did you have Spencer Rattler in your first mock or your first grade? Yeah, so I watched him over the summer. I didn't have to do a mock, fortunately. So just when I watched him over the summer, I watched him, right? And I said, like, he's not in the same class as the other Oklahoma quarterbacks. You know, the last three guys that we've seen, and that's including Jalen. I didn't think he was in that group.

And to me, when you kind of look at upside of what he could be, I was like, okay, this guy has like a best-case scenario. This is a Jeff Garcia-type player. You know, like that's the absolute ceiling for him. So I know some, I guess, mock drafts came out and had him going as like the first overall pick, and he got a lot of buzz and a lot of hype. I feel bad for anybody that has to do the mock drafts that early,

but I didn't really see him as is that level of guy he was so raw um his it just was nothing that jumped out to me and he wasn't a special enough athlete to to be able to lean into that while you're continuing to develop all the other areas of your game okay so you didn't yeah because you're right i mean some look their websites and you know being friends with mcshay i know how much he hates doing the 22 right after the 21 draft is over. You start kind of throwing some names out there. I don't think, by the way, with his recruiting and the attention on it, him seeing himself number one in a mock versus seeing himself 31st, I still think you were getting the same kid. I know some people would disagree with that.

No, I think you were still going to get the same kid. And now he's benched. So, okay, all right. So, the rest of the class, like is this, you know, I'll use another example here. When I do the NBA draft stuff, you start talking to people too far out. Everybody tells you the draft sucks unless it's a generational draft. Like we knew this past draft was deep, but it's kind of,

and then the closer you get to it, the more people like it. We are right now in the phase of this is a really bad quarterback generational draft. We knew this past draft was deep, but it's kind of... And the closer you get to it, the more people like it. We are right now in the phase of this is a really bad quarterback class draft, correct? Yeah, that seems to be the consensus when you talk to people around the league. This is not the year. So, is there anyone that you like?

Is there anyone that you feel... Again, there's a lot of work to do here, but is there somebody that you at least see this early part on where you're like, you know, this guy might be the guy that's ahead of everybody else. Yeah. Just, you know, from a couple of games that I've seen, I haven't done enough work on them, but you know, the guys that interest me, Corral interest me, I did him over the summer and I thought, okay, this guy has like, there's some Zach Wilson qualities to him. I thought he could kind of be on that Ascension, uh, with a good year. year. So that's one that I think is definitely his peak interest.

Malik Willis from Liberty's got a ton of ability. I watched him over the summer and was excited about him, but I have not seen any of his games this year. So I'm curious to see what happens there. They play Ole Miss, I think, in November. So you'll see a ridiculous amount of NFL executives that will be there for that game. And then Ritter's got some, you know, it does some good things and has some size.

I don't think anybody really at this point in time views him as a top 10 pick type guy. But those, I would say, were probably the three names. Pickett's having a good year at Pitt. He has good numbers. But I would say those first three are probably the ones that have the most attention right now. But I would say those first three are probably the ones that have the most attention right now. How has the evaluation changed for you? And not specific to even this class, but with quarterbacks, like what are you doing to change the way you evaluate these guys?

So if I go back and like self-evaluate, right. And look at some of these guys that have been great over the last few years. And you look at Mahomes, I should have had Mahomes higher. Josh Allen should have pushed him up higher. Herbert should have pushed him up higher. Like all these guys have something in common in that, okay, it wasn't a complete picture in college and they had all, you know, a variation of issues that they had that they needed to clean up. Mahomes was his feet.

Josh Allen was the accuracy, as everybody noted. Herbert played a little bit mechanical. Those were kind of the knocks on those guys coming out. But what I've learned is, okay, when you have the size, the physical ability, all of the physical skills they possess, and then you add in, okay, you find out they're great workers. You find out they're incredibly intelligent. They're going to figure it out. It might take, in Josh Allen's case, a couple of years. Herbert, I think really from the end of the season until he started his rookie year, the work he did with John Beck, I thought he cleaned up so many things and got things rolling.

Mahomes was that full year sitting and cleaned up. Andy did a great job of cleaning up his footwork stuff. So it's like, okay, just bet on those guys. That's why I went in on Trey Lance. And I think people, you'll see the detractors and the naysayers come out on Trey Lance as he plays more this year. No, he can't do this. He can't do that. Well, the guy's incredibly physically gifted. He's incredibly bright and he's a great worker so i that's what that was the lesson that i've kind of taken over the last few years just bet on those kids that they'll figure it out yeah it's because when you go through the list i'm like okay well you're just naming the guys that end up being better yeah and i watched them all in college you know and i watched

i watched alan and i wonder i go you know should i put more into the Iowa game where his numbers were terrible and he was getting his ass kicked all day? And I loved him after that game. I loved him. But again, not so much that when the draft came around, I was like, he's the guy. When you're not accurate, it scares the shit out of you. His accuracy had been bad at every level. But now if I'm playing the results of him being potentially a top five quarterback, I go, oh, that Iowa game, that's when I should have known. And it's like, okay, so now that's my rule.

I have to see you get your ass kicked by a higher level team with terrible numbers and bad accuracy for me to know that you're going to be a franchise QB. Like, I can't do that. Well, here's the difference. Here's the difference. I'll say I haven't been on the team side and been on the media side. On the media side, I can rank them where I would be comfortable taking them, right? So I can have

Josh Allen as my 12th player or, you know, 14th player. I can have Herbert as my 18th player. Like I'd be comfortable. Okay. The risk reward, like this is kind of where it slots in beautifully when in reality, when you're with a team, if you want a quarterback, you have to take them where you're not comfortable or you won't get them. So, you know, you can say, oh, it'd be great to be able to trade back and I could get him in this, this port. This probably marries up with, you know, the odds kind of matching him with this slot, but you're never going to get them. We say the same things about corners. Like we'd nitpick corners in the room and you're like, dude, if you don't move the corners up around above how you have them graded, you'll never see one because they're going to get picked

above where they're, where they should, that just the way it works or you won't see any of them so you've got to push those quarterbacks up the board cross your fingers and toes um that it all comes together yeah they lost to iowa 24 to 3 he made a throw in that game though rolling to the right in the back right corner of the end zone in that iowa game which i think was probably a 60 yard throw it was ridiculous i don't even remember if the guy caught it or if he dropped it, but there was a rollout play in that to the right side, back right corner of the end zone. Josh Allen was one of the best throws I've ever seen.

Yeah, I mean, I swear to God his dropbacks were him sprinting away from the line of scrimmage and then trying at the last minute to get the ball back to somebody because he threw it up in the air a bunch of times because they were down. I called one of his games, dude.

I was calling. It was when they had just started doing games on Facebook. So it was like stadium media and they were doing games and I was like, oh, shoot. I hadn't called games at that point in time. So I wanted some experience. Yeah, heck yeah, I'll do it.

So I had like Josh Allen versus, I want to say Texas State. And so I go out there for warm-ups. I went down there and I went and talked to him on the field before the game. And there wasn't a huge crowd there for that one. So before the game, he's at the 50. And he's got a receiver at the goal line in the left pylon and a receiver in the goal line in the right pylon.

Stationary targets. And he's just rolling out on the 50 to the right. The thing couldn't have been 10 yards off the ground, right? And it's just to the pylon on a line. Get back to the middle of the field, roll to the left on a line. I'm like, what? This is the freakiest thing that I've ever seen.

I'm up here at Wyoming for this terrible college football game and this quarterback's making throws I've never seen made before. Yeah, they put it on Texas State that season. You know, the other game that year um in case it you know ends up happening in an afc title game is it was the third game of the season they played oregon yeah and their teeth kicked in josh allen went 9 of 24 for 64 yards against justin herbert

so that how about that you know You know, it's just, it's one of those deals where even with Herbert, I hear it all the time now, like, Oh, you know, everybody got it wrong. Like I always think it'd be kind of funny if you had a talk show host that

was epically wrong about 10 quarterbacks over a decade, then he should run an NFL team. If it's only 10, if he was epically wrong about one top quarterback every year and was right about the rest of them for a decade he should be running a team so herbert it's it's funny because that became way more of a personality thing it was in and he just wasn't as good i think i think that was so i'll push back on that because I think the personality thing was a media thing that got out there and when when I talked to teams it wasn't as much that that didn't really bother them as much

you know it's all to always have been in Eugene he's never left Eugene how is he going to relate to players because everything you got from from Oregon and talking to coaches and staff up there was that this guy got along with everybody and everybody liked him and that they didn't think that was going to be a problem for me it was just um it was such a crappy offense that he was in and it was just bubble screens and it was they just beat it into him do not turn the ball over we're going to run the ball we're going to play defense and and the formula worked i mean their job was to win football games there but they did not feature him at all and it was he was just a little cautious and reserved with the way that he played and that to me uh, it was one of the things that bothered a lot, a lot of

teams. Now everybody's still, you know, you only punished him up to a point. I mean, I don't know anybody that said this guy's not a, you know, a top 20 pick. I mean, everybody had him in that range. Yeah, no, you're right. You're like, you still went top 10, man. It's not like everybody here hated you. Um, I still think some teams are a little and i always felt like too because i you know i watched them closer than some of the other teams he would be quarter by quarter like he has some quarters you go okay this guy's gonna be the number one pick and then the next quarter you go okay what what just happened here like what what is going on and it felt like you were expecting this jump in the next year and then then it

actually didn't happen so you know look whatever um you had the game last night though brady and and the eagles i actually want to talk about the hurts part of this because i think every fan base as we'd expect is very selfish and so when hurt struggles again since that week one where it looked like they did a great job tailoring the offense around them and it may just been the opponent now right yeah um i see hertz on thursday night and i see the exact same guy that lost his job at alabama where it's one read and then he runs and yet the stats are saying look how much he's running it's the offense it's sirianni it's the play calling and i'm like well then if you think this is the play calling because jalen hertz is running too long then you didn't

watch him enough in college and i think what happens is is the fan base still has hope that he could be the guy so they want to blame anyone but the quarterback in a selfish motivation of hoping that it's not the quarterback that they're going to have to replace again that's just the theory yeah and look the defense it just puts more onus on the defense to be able to play at a high level to keep games in a certain way. Because once they got into chase mode last night, they got aided by a pass interference penalty. But when they're in chase mode and everybody in the stadium knows you're going to throw, it's just going to be difficult because he's just not comfortable yet in that role. yet in that role. And we were talking about this a little bit before we started, Ryan, but he bails out of way too many clean pockets. Now, you can show the highlights, and I'm sure those will be the plays that will populate of him getting clean run-throughs

and having to roll out. But I could show you a dozen plays where he's got clean pockets and he's drifting and bailing out to the right unnecessarily. And now you've just restricted your options, man. There's only so much you can do once you do that, and you, man. There's just, there's only so much you can do once you do that. And you're kind of falling right into the defense's hands. So he just doesn't look comfortable working in the middle of the field at this point in time, everything is out in the perimeter and he doesn't look comfortable sitting and hanging in the pocket.

I would agree. I mean, he ends up, it feels like he's got one read on the sideline as he, It feels like he's got one read on the sideline. You nailed it, though. My picture, my image, my blink image of Hurts is slowly rolling out to the right, deciding, is this guy on the sideline going to get free or should I just run? And that's what the offense becomes. And then even last night, when they're down 28-14, they start to run the football. And people are like, see, now you have balance.

You're like, okay. That wasn't there. That's not what it was. Bailing out of there. You can't go on the 28-14 drive when they run it down Tampa's throats, think that that was there all night. You can't run straight at Tampa. We've already seen people try to do it. It doesn't really work. I think

they have real, real issues and then they just moved Ertz too, by the way. Yeah, he goes to Arizona. I mean, they've got a boatload of picks. They are loaded for next year. So I'll ask you this question, Ryan. If you have a chance, if you're Howie Roseman, you probably get a chance for one more quarterback. If we assume that Jalen, you know, they decide to move on from Jalen, try and get somebody.

You have all these draft picks. This is the year you have to do it. And you could parlay, take these picks. Do you try and I guess it's a pretty obvious answer, but if you could say, okay, Rogers potentially could be available. Russell Wilson is the name that you hear out there. And then Deshaun. When you factor in age, factor in everything involved, who would you at least take the swing for if you're the Philadelphia Eagles?

Wow. You asked me a very complicated question. If Wilson is willing, because I think there's a market demand for him and his wife that's going to have to be addressed. She's going to want to be in a certain market and he's going to want to help his wife, which is not going to be in Seattle. I was joking the other day. I go, they went 12-4, and we started hearing hints about him wanting out. So what's going to happen if Seattle ends up out of the playoffs in a 500 team, and that defense is a mess? So we'll see.

I would want to go with Russell Wilson because I think whoever brings in Rodgers, you have to give them kind of the LeBron treatment. If you're bringing in Rodgers, you have to give them kind of the LeBron treatment. If you're bringing in Rodgers, you're basically saying you get to do whatever you want. We'll do whatever you want. We'll bring in a couple of your buddies and put them on the 53 man. We'll run whatever you want. And that's fine. But there's certain teams that are quarterback desperate enough with what's happened in the last few years that they're going to say to Rodgers, you can do whatever you want. The Deshaun part is the best option from a talent standpoint. But I don't know what comes with that.

Yeah, what's the reaction? Is Philadelphia, is the Vic part of his return in Philadelphia? Is that something where you can say, hey, our fan base will get over it and we'll be able to go ahead? But I still think there's so many unanswerable questions with Deshaun where, I don't know. It's fascinating because really this is their one chance to kind of cash the lottery ticket.

If they're going to go get a quarterback, they've loaded up an ammunition to do it this year. And I don't think, as we've discussed, that the draft is going to be the answer for the Philadelphia Eagles to solve their quarterback problems. My thing is when you look at kind of where their roster is right now, I think they're probably, you're looking at two years to get to a championship level.

So is Rodgers going to want to come into that situation either? So that would make that even, you know, could be a bad fit there with him. So I think I agree with you. I think Russell would be the one that would make the most sense. And, you know, from proximity with Philadelphia to New York with his wife, I mean, would that fit the bill in terms of getting her where she needs to be? Well, it wasn't named in one of the trade demands that weren't trade demands, right? Well, that just disappeared, by the way.

You would have thought that was enough. You could have fed off that story for the whole offseason. And I think the Rodgers stuff happened right after that. And then the Russell Wilson, these are the teams I'll be traded to story is gone. By the way, was Vegas and it was Chicago, right? Vegas was in there. Chicago was in there for sure. Because Vegas was, from what I'd heard,

the hope that she could get an in-house show. Was New Orleans one for some reason? Essence? I don't know. The Jets? Yeah. The festival? Hold on.

Russell Wilson trade demands. We're doing this live. Yeah. Dig it up. Pull it up, man. Okay. He would be open to being traded to the Cowboys, Raiders, Saints, or Bears. Great call on New Orleans.

Yeah. I don't know why the New Orleans one kind of was out of left field. No, I think the music scene down there. Oh, okay. Potentially. Because if you're wondering, wait, why Raiders? And you're like, no, because of the White. I'm surprised this hasn't been picked up more.

Yeah. Well, I think as you see them start to continue to pile up losses, especially with him out of the lineup, maybe this gets resurfaced courtesy of your pod. Right. If, if, if I'm just trying to think of like other places to be like,

you know, Montreal's in play and you're like, wait, like maybe, maybe this is all right. Give me something on what you're seeing now in the film prep against the mobile quarterbacks? Because one of the things I like about the fourth down stuff that we're seeing, because some of it I don't like, but it's not just all numbers driven.

We have better players now with the ball in their hands on fourth down, better athletes, the best athletes we've ever seen at the position. So what are teams doing? Yeah, it's fascinating, man. I mean, there's so much too high safety stuff that's going on to try and kind of put that umbrella on top of the, on top of the defense there. And that's kind of the first part of it. But I think like watching the chargers play the chiefs and then seeing how other teams are playing the chiefs. And then you see it, how some teams are trying to defend against Buffalo and what they're doing.

And you see a lot of the same things, which is so much attention is being focused on the back end and what coverage you're playing and where the safeties are. But to me, the fascinating thing has been the rush plan with more and more teams just saying, hey, we're going to rush four. And then it's how you rush your four. The cardinal sin when you're playing against these quarterbacks, and you talk to defensive coaches, they'll tell you this, is that you cannot get caught up the field. That is the number one thing. Do not get caught up the field. In other words, if you have gone past the depth of the quarterback, you are dead. And now when they are shoulder-squared climbing moving forward with their athleticism and the arm strength of these guys, they can access anywhere on the field. The whole field is wide open.

You cannot defend that much grass when these guys are climbing up into the pocket, shoulder-squared at the line of scrimmage. So, in other words, they're saying, okay, we're going to try and collapse in the pocket. We're going to try and crush the pocket, but we're not going to get cut off field. And in the meantime, if that means that you can escape contain, we always say, oh, you got to keep these mobile quarterbacks contained and keep them locked in the pocket. They don't really care about that as much anymore. If you have to bounce outside to the right or the left, they're happy to have you do that because now they've just eliminated 50% of the field that

they have to defend with your athleticism and your arm strength. So that to me has been different. It used to be you'd watch these games like, oh man, there he goes. He got outside contain again. And now you've got a second level defender who's kind of there waiting for him. Everybody's got linebackers that can fly. I saw that in the Charger game.

Like Denzel Perriman was a really good player. He's a good linebacker, but he's not super explosive. So there were so many third and tens where Mahomes would escape and get outside left or right, and he would just beat him to the marker. And Denzel Perriman couldn't get there. Now you've got Kaiser White as a former college safety. Drew Tranquil is a low 4'5 guy.

They were able to suck him up once he took off and tried to get outside of the perimeter. But I just thought it was, it's just been fascinating to watch, right? Because it's just, hey, if you want to bounce right or left, we don't care. We cannot let you climb up in the pocket. That's what you cannot happen. Yeah, because you're seeing with Mahomes like everything right now is Tyreek Hill,

right? Like that's real. That is, we saw it against the Bills. You mentioned there were the Chargers that there's an absolute sellout to prevent this deep ball that opens up everything else. Because I was always told the Chiefs, it was explained like their emphasis on attacking you at all three levels is like any, it's just unlike anything we've ever seen. Yeah, but when you can play with man technique underneath and you can kind of trail those guys and then you can have safeties over the top. I mean, they're begging you to run the ball.

I mean, they're just begging you to do it. And it's going to require patience and physicality. I think they actually, in my opinion, I think their offensive line is a better run-blocking offensive line than they are pass-blocking offensive line. Bring over Orlando Brown. He's a really good run-blocker. I don't think he's an elite left tackle pass protector. Joe Tooney is a good all-around player,

but he can maul people in the run game. Trey Smith is a mauler in the run game. I think he's still a little bit raw on pass protection. But with the defensive structure they're seeing on a weekly basis and the makeup of their offensive line, they should. I mean, as much as everybody says, you've got to throw it, throw it, throw it, they have to run people out of that look.

If they don't, they're going to see this each and every week. I opened the podcast up with, you know, I've, I've watched the Mahomes games. Statistically, they're actually still better stats than I think people would realize. Um, but we're not used to some of the sloppier picks with him because he could play loose, but was also still clean. And now he's loose and, and forcing a little bit. And I think it's because of the defense, but I'm just not ready to hear another quarterback that has taken over his reign. Where are you with Mahomes in comparison to the rest of the league at that position?

Well, I mean, he still has the ability to do things that other guys can't do. I mean, there's just some of the, for lack of a better word, the elastic throws that he makes that are just ridiculous. The one thing I would say, though, is that I think that with Herbert and Josh Allen, you get right there next to him in terms of being able to do those things. And because of the teams that they play on, they aren't crossing that line into the

reckless area that Mahomes can find himself in. So if we're saying in a vacuum, just watching guys this year, yeah, I think you put those guys in his class. Absolutely. But obviously you got to look at the whole body of work and what Mahomes has done and the success he's had. So I think he's still, it's still, he's a top guy. But I don't think it's, I don't think it's sacrilegious to include those other guys in the conversation. And Lamar is his own, Lamar is his own deal. I mean, nobody just plays the game like he plays the game. And he's continuing to get better as a passer.

So he's like, he doesn't even belong in the conversation. He's like his own entity. How many quarterbacks would you take if you were starting your team? Because we understand how important the position is before you take Aaron Donald. Oh, gosh.

I put you on the spot here. Yeah, no, I mean, well, I mean, we just, the guys we just mentioned, let me look, let me look at some homes. Herbert. Yeah, I would take Herbert. Alan. I would take Alan. Lamar.

I would take Lamar. I would take, I would take, I was just going to say Dak. Yeah. And then, you know, then you get into like the age stuff, like obviously Rodgers, you know. Right, right. If we were doing it for a year, not for five. Yeah, yeah, I know.

If you're doing it for a long period of time. But I mean, I would say there's no more than probably eight, maybe. Eight around that number, seven or eight. I mean, still the quarterback positional value. I would take Kyler. Yeah. Okay. What are you seeing now with Kyler and what, what that offense is doing? I think, I think the Rondell

Moore thing is big. Um, they just haven't had that role. Um, and that, that system, when you have that guy, it's just different, man. Um, I think they're, they're more physical upfront than we've seen. So that's brought some balance to them.

They've got a nice little one-two punch with their run game. It's taken that offense to a new place. And I always thought, look, Kyler last year was playing great, man. His body wore down as the year went along. So I don't think it's this drastic jump from what we saw from last year. I think it's a drastic jump from when he wasn't healthy at the end of the year. That's my only reservation about this team. And when you look at him, I mean, it's a, it's a complete team, but Kyler, you know, Kyler is a 60% Kyler who's, you know, kind of broken down, then they're going to have

problems. But if they can preserve him throughout the season and he, and he's fresh and healthy, like he looks right now, they're going to be a nightmare. Okay. Another thing that I wanted to get to, as we mentioned, Ertz going to Arizona now. I always felt like the trade deadline, which is now later, November 2nd for the NFL, there was a lot of outdated thoughts on it. And you worked in front office for years but it was just we would always hear from the outside again these are our outside things like oh you can't bring a guy in you can't run the routes or you don't know what our defensive scheme is and on

and on and on and i think a lot of us just accepted it and now we just see that actually you know it's not the most impossible thing to be in another room midway through the season and people are more open to trades and that's why we saw the deadline push back how has that part evolved the front office approach to trades being a real acquisition tool during the season yeah i think the really the money thing is the only is the sticking point you know some of these teams are kind of nestled up against the cap they got to do some maneuvering to be able to work it out to get guys in um but i think that

you know you see a little bit younger generation of general managers are more open to it i think it is i i think there's tremendous opportunity that's out there like if i was if i was a gm i'd be calling jacksonville every day um because i'd be playing off the fact that new regimes come in and lose their their natural uh like self-preservation technique is I have no players. These guys all stink. Let me get some draft picks and then I'll miraculously make it all better. Um, so you can get discounts and value. Um, so I'd be calling, I'd be calling like Josh Allen at Jacksonville, whoever else you could try and pry out of there. Um, but I'd be looking at teams that are struggling with new, new coaches. And I would see if you can get some bargains. I think

you can. And then just kind of looking at freeing up some of these struggling teams. Look at where they need to free up play time. So in other words, go back to Jacksonville. Walker Little, I don't think he's starting. It's a second round pick. So Jawan Taylor, why not? Make the phone call.

He can come in, play right tackle, play guard. And then that frees up Walker Little to get on the field. So I think there's ways you can kind of study these rosters and these in and play right tackle, play guard. And then that frees up Walker a little to get on the field. So I think there's ways you can kind of study these rosters and these teams and where they are and you can find some value. Would, I always like your, your front office stories, but is, was there that much action years ago? Like the NBA, everybody just calls each other all the time,

trying to figure out like what the pricing, what the public pricing would be on some of the players. Do you guys even bother with that back then i don't it wasn't like that back then it was it was rare um to see a trade of any significance uh take place which is kind of crazy but it just that was the old line of thinking that just this wasn't anything there was nothing there wow okay i have a final thought here um going off of the the front office experience when you see the john gruden story play out the way it does there is a reaction and i don't know if it's accurate inaccurate i would hope it's not accurate but it's that oh

this is the way the nfl is this is the old guard this is how so many of these men that are in charge of franchises think um and this is just a window into what the whole business model is, and business model is not the right term, but you understand the point, that Gruden's way of thinking is certainly not isolated to Gruden. Your thoughts on that as somebody who worked in it? I would say it was very rare. I mean, some of the words that were mentioned in those, I've never heard in the NFL, never.

Never around the teams that I was around, not from coaches, not meetings, not on the field at practice, like never, ever heard those words ever. Um, so that was, I would, I can say with confidence, it's not something that, that permeates every, every building and every organization. Um, now I've heard some, you know, there's some, some crass language, but not to those, to To me, the whole thing is sad from this standpoint. I get what happened and I get the punishment and that was the right thing that Raiders did. I want to make sure I'm clear on that. But I look at it, this situation from the standpoint of all the other families that are affected by this. As somebody who was on the scouting side, we always would say, man, we put our lives in the hands of others. There's nothing you can do. You

have no control. And that's going to determine whether or not you keep your job or not based off something that happens inside the building. But you take jobs, for those that don't know, when off-seasons come and you have different openings coming up, and a lot of coaches, personnel guys, they have options. It's not just, okay, man, I need a job. This guy gave me a job. It's okay. You get together with your family. I've got an opportunity to go coach in Minnesota, Tampa and Vegas for whatever reason. And you kind of look at it and say,

okay, well, we're taking the kids out of school. So we want to find the most secure thing. So our daughter's entering ninth grade. We want to see if we can get her through high school. And you look at these situations and you'd be like, okay, well, John Gruden's got a 10-year contract. He's got the most job security of any coach in the NFL. He's not going anywhere. So you take that job. And this is like 40, 50 families that that's going to impact because of the actions that he took. impact because of the actions that he took.

I mean, it's just, he just was, you know, he let a lot of people down and he cost a lot of people. I just can't even begin to tell you how much strife that's going to cause. Stan, Gene, or Maya, at Move the Sticks, if you want to follow him on Twitter and Move the Sticks podcast with Bucky Brooks, man. Thanks for checking in. We'll do it again. Appreciate you, man. I got a text, a DM

the other day. It said, hey, I want to come on podcast. And it was from Van Lathan who joins us now. Make sure you check out his podcast, Higher Learning with Rachel Lindsey. And all right, Van, what did you need to get off your chest? Because you were fired up the other day. Really? Well, thank you, Ryan.

Really, it's been a wacky and wild college football season, number one for me as an LSU fan. It's been very interesting. But also, I'm obsessed with Spencer Radler's career. Okay. All right. Give me the origin of this obsession. The best football show on television is the origin of this obsession. QB1, Beyond the Lights.

All right. I've followed the QB1, Beyond the Lights kids like they're my own kids. All right. I follow them and I keep up with them. I check in with them to make sure that they're doing okay. And I think Spencer Rattler is the most unique of the QB1 kids to date. Okay, so you've had a lot of success stories from it. You've had Fromm come from the show. Fields come from the show. You've had some big time flame outs. Tate Martell came from the show.

You had some other guys that just kind of went away. Bowers, and now you have Hartman, who's at way four, is playing really, really well, right? Like, under sort of discussed QB1 talent. But Rattler is the most interesting because he was the closest to Tate Martell to me when he was in high school. Like a legit talented dick.

We all knew these guys in high school, right? We all knew these guys in football practice. You're like doing extra reps and trying to get to where you are. And then some dude walks over and goes, I haven't ran in six days. Watch how easy this is. That was Spencer Rattler. But you thought, is that swag goingencer rattler but you thought is that swag gonna take him to heisman levels is he gonna be johnny manziel in college or is he going to be tate martell

and he's sort of now been at this part been i don't know he's's been like Johnny Martell or Tate Manziel. It's interesting because he played his fucking ass off last year, right? Played his ass off, and now he's at the crossroads of what many would consider to be one of the most embattled careers in all of college football. And I don't know how to feel about Spencer Rattler. I just wanted to know, are all my QB1 people, are all my college football maniacs

like me feeling as conflicted for this guy's career as I am? He's a child of the show, so I want him to do well. But also, isn't Spencer Rattler a dickhead? Isn't he? Yes,

he is. This is what you were slowly all slowly looting i can't knowing you i think you know well enough to know that i would think you would hate rattler after watching him on that show because he was an asshole on the show now as i get older and this is one of the early van pelt things i learned like Like when I, when I first started with him, I was 33, 34 or something. And so I was still in that mode where if a college kid screwed up, I'd be like, oh, this guy sucks or whatever, whatever. And then I would notice he was always nicer about it. And I'd be like, is it because you're nice?

And he just said, look, I have a hard time beating up on college kids. You can do it your way. I'll do it my way. And Van Pelt's like, I don't know, seven, eight years older than me. As I've gotten older, now I kind of get it. I wouldn't do a podcast at my age now the way I would have done it in my early 30s. I would have been like, Rattler's a dick, and I'm glad he sucks, and I'm glad he got benched. I'm just never going to feel that way about a college kid anymore because I get older. But if you watch that episode or the season of QB1 with him in it, I'd have to imagine the number of people that watched that show, that saw him get benched this past weekend,

that that number of people that were happy that it happened is a much larger number than the group that feels bad for him. Yeah, probably right. Now, there's another sort of ingredient into that as well. Growing up in Baton Rouge where I did, you kind of saw what it was like to be a big time college football player. Like we'd be in Fred's partying, you know what I mean? Reggie's Fred, shout out to Tiger Land, we're doing our thing. And all of a sudden- Game day sticks. and all of a sudden game day sticks like like rohan davey would walk in there and it would be like jesus christ was inside of the place oh rohan oh how you doing josh reed oh my god that's josh reed that's josh reed and girls are going crazy like he's fucking michael jackson or something

like that and that's just a lot to be that big of a fish in that small of a town. And it's even worse in a lot of high school places. Right. So I understand that. I think the thing about Rattler's personality that that gives me is not so much whether or not I want to bang out on him. He is a kid, but it's more so whether or not he's going to be able to overcome his personality to become the quarterback that he is obviously talented enough to be. A lot of people picked out things from last week, and Lincoln Riley hasn't really said what definitively he's going to do with that situation in Oklahoma just yet. But a lot of people picked out things last week about Spencer Rattler that didn't have

anything to do with what he actually did on the football field. Obviously, he had a slow start to the game. The backup came in and relieved him. It was fantastic. They won one of the most entertaining games I've ever seen. But some of the things they were pointing out about Spencer were personality things. They weren't football things.

They were the fact that he didn't celebrate with his teammates, that he looked sullen and aloof on the sideline. And those are things that speak to even more of the celebrity, not so much of the celebrity of who Spencer Radley is, but more of his DNA as a competitor. And you start to wonder, as it happens with all of these guys, once they get to the highest levels of performance, whether or not those things are actually going to affect him on the football field and whether or not they can be coached out of him. Because Lincoln Riley doesn't want to lose him.

If you lose him, you are so thin at quarterback that one injury then would completely derail your season. He needs him to stay engaged. So it's an interesting situation. But it all goes back to this kid who got kicked off of the show and out of high school and we never knew why i became like fucking james bond or goddamn sherlock holmes trying to figure out what happened using all the tmz tricks of the trade i'm getting sources on this like trying to figure out what happened to him in high school and And I could never find out definitively what it was.

And now it seems like he's sort of playing himself out of the role at Oklahoma. And a lot of people are saying he's not mature enough to handle that type of big time college football. Were you researching it not to report it, but for your own benefit to get the full scope of the story? Yes, Ryan. I was actually telling people I still worked at TMZ. I was like, yo, man, I like them TMZ here. Tell me the best story of you posing as still a TMZ employee, trying to find out what happened to Spencer Rattler in high school.

I know a lot of the pandemic was tough on a lot of people, but this is an amazing, amazing hobby. So I called a high school. Okay. And well, sometimes like a lot of times they weren't there, but then they were, they were like people there are like, you know, we can't talk about that. You know, first of all, it was had been a while ago by the time I had watched the show,

like we can't talk about that. Like that's something between you and his parents. I was like, okay, well, do you have a contact on his parents? Like, do you have a contact on his mother and father? Like, this is something that we, you know, people are going to be parents? Do you have a contact on his mother and father? This is something that people are going to be interested in. By the way, and this is the trick of the trade. This is the trick of the trade when you're trying to get a story

for anybody who wants to know. Tell people you already have the story. See, that's how it works. Call somebody up. Hey, hey, what's up? Listen, we heard about that thing that happened. We want to make sure that we just do the most accurate reporting on it. So if there's anything that you have to say or anything that you want to get us to put on the site, we'll do that.

Just let us know. Then they go, oh, shit, they know. Okay, I'll tell you what happened. Fucking like in Arizona, fucking lips were sealed. I call up. I'm like, hey, we heard that Rattler was having sex in the bathroom and he got kicked out of school. We're going to run with that. Is there anything that you guys want to say about that?

That's not what happened. Okay. Do you know what happened maybe so we can combat some of the lies that are going to come out? No, we can't really talk about Spencer's family business, blah, blah, blah. I tried for two weeks.

My girlfriend thought I was crazy. I tried for two weeks and couldn't do it. Tried to get, that's crazy. You know that, right? Well, what was I supposed to do,

Ryan? Like I couldn't go to the movies. Like what, like what do you want me to do, bro? I couldn't go to the movies, bro. Like,

no, I couldn't, I couldn't go, I couldn't go play basketball. You know what I mean want me to do, bro? I couldn't go to the movies, bro. Like, no, I couldn't go play basketball. You know what I mean? Like I joined a Madden league with 32 NBA players where we played a real 16-game season. Like this is the stuff that I was doing. You know what I mean? And I couldn't crack it.

Couldn't crack it. And now I'm obsessed with Rattler's career. So what do you think happens? Do you think he transfers? Because they need him to stay. You're right. You said that earlier. They lost two other guys to transfer.

I know that from what I had heard is that they kind of gave him a day. The schedule's easy enough up until Oklahoma State, but they could probably still play both guys. And then with last year not counting, Rattler actually has a ton of eligibility left and can also go to the draft. I'd have to think that people are going to be off of him as a prospect, both from the tape this year and from some of the personality stuff,

which, again, maybe he grows out of. Maybe he'll handle this great. Maybe this will be the public kick in the ass that he needs to turn things around. But I can't imagine that this guy's going to stick around after this year. The real question is, does he leave this year? If you talk to football people, everybody's loosened up on the transfer stuff. I don't think people care about it that much anymore. The old guard isn't arguing against it. The transferring in season is the one where people get pissed. Yeah, he'll stay this season.

is the one where people get pissed. Yeah, he'll stay this season. He's definitely gone long-term. To your point, I went back and watched a lot of his old games just to watch him. I'm still in that. I'm to the point to where I'm watching all 22 breakdowns of different college quarterbacks and going on there and watching film breakdowns and all of that.

To your point, mostly about LSU, but sometimes about other players, he just hasn't put anything on tape this year that would make me believe that even his people are confident that he should give it a shot in the draft, no matter how much work he does between now and next spring. So I don't think that's going to happen. I think he pops up at another pretty major program next year.

I think he sticks it out this year. Maybe he plays his way back into his job. Who knows? It's not out of the question. But if he doesn't, he definitely will transfer. And there are a lot of teams out there that make a lot of sense for Spencer Elliott to kick the tires on him or for them to kick the

tires on him. Kentucky's going to need a QB next year. He goes there. That team's trending upward. Kicked our fucking asses. We lost two. We got blown out by Kentucky. Think about that, LSU fans. I know. We went up to Kentucky

and got fucking railroaded. Just let it sit by Kentucky. The basketball school. Alright? The basketball school. They might as well fucking put Ron Mercer and pads and like, give them,

let them run through a hole. We got destroyed by Kentucky. 42, 21. I love the Ron Mercer recall. That was, that was, that was good.

Walter McCarty at tight end. Yeah. Give me which high school did you go to in Baton rouge i went to mckinley what is it like going i'm afraid like we thought we had a good time in college in vermont and then i brought a bunch of college buddies down to baton rouge for a game and they were just like we're so embarrassed that anyone gives us any credit for being a fun school after walking around this like we just looked at each other go how do you go to go, how do you go to school here? How do you go to school here?

The question I have for you, how do you go to high school in that town? What the hell is that experience like? Well, it's interesting for me because McKinley is literally right around the corner from LSU. McKinley's right there. You can see the legs from our baseball field. And then the school is essentially in South Baton Rouge. So, I mean, you come out, you hit Highland, you go right up there, you're at LSU. Going culture is unique in a completely different way like it's the biggest small town in america uh everybody knows everyone at least one or two people removed and that means you're just a step away from being a pariah or a legend and that's a fine line to walk as a 17 year old right like when you hit your high school

you hear rumors about guys who go there oh my god there's wiley kirby mark young used to go here like there's all kinds of infighting for athletes like in south baton rouge a guy like darius guys so i know we're not supposed to talk about but the fucking guy was good at football. Darius Geist was in the neighborhood of the bottom where my mom and my grandmama and them from, but then he goes to Catholic High. That's something that always is a big talking point. There's always a tribe that you have in Baton Rouge, and there's always somebody that's trying to take what it is that you have. It's a very competitive place to grow up. It's a very competitive town. And right there, you see dreams come true. You see guys that you know from the neighborhood or guys that you know that places like Faraday and West Monroe and

Leesville, you see them star, you see them on the news, you see them on ESPN. It's just different. It's a place that you know that you're far away from whatever glitz and glamour that LA or New York might have, but you see guys who went to your high school and then all of a sudden they're playing for Tampa Bay, like Michael Clayton, or guys who are right there with you, then all of a sudden they're a star for the Dallas Cowboys, like Marcus Spears. So people in Baton Rouge have big dreams. They have big dreams, even though it's not a place where there's one specific industry that exists that would make you really want to move there. So in high school,

when you were in Baton Rouge, and there's kind of a renaissance of personalities around there now, you have guys like myself, you have Boosie, you have Marcus Spears doing well, you have guys like you know myself you have blue sea you have marcus spears doing well you have ryan clark who's not from baton rouge but is a big part of the the community there uh kevin gates up from all over different walks of life you see people doing things it's a place where people have gigantic dreams and in high school like you're being told like yo you're competing with the guys that go to lsu and southern like next year you're gonna have to be good enough to take their spots and that's gonna be your way out of this town so i love it there i was just back there uh this summer not under the best circumstances but still um i still love my hometown i still love my hometown i take my

hometown over any city in the fucking world. There's also an element to it, though. Towns evolve how they evolve with transitional and population and industry and all these different things. But this, after Katrina, it's basically become a city that is forever changed by migration. And yet, when you're there, and I've spent time on non-game days there where you're like, this town is almost overwhelmed and this is just what it is now. Is that like the infrastructure? When you go from one side of town to the other side of town, you're like before the population bump, this town was still kind of stressed. And now this is kind

of the everyday deal with Baton Rouge. And that, that, that's kind of one of the, one of the identifying things about it, that it's this town that it's never been kind of able to handle everything that's happened since people have moved. Is that fair? Yeah. Well, what I'd say about Baton Rouge is it's what's happening there right now is a reflection of what's happening in really cities all over America, which is there seems to be, it's a tweener, right? There seems to be, you're trying to find the identity of what the place is going to be for long lasting success, economic growth, and social harmony, right? And to your point, there's always been that. There's always been, on the south side of Baton Rouge, tremendous wealth. You drive down Highland Road and you see maybe where the Penningtons live or you see all the homes there and you go, wow, this is beautiful.

What an amazing. And then you go to northern Baton Rouge. You just keep on the interstate going up there. And, you know, there are parts, Dixon, places like that, where you can see how stressed the community is to your point. Now, with what happened after Katrina, because every time you go back, there are pockets of places that are developed that you didn't even know people were thinking about developing them. I remember literally we used to drive down Blue Bonnet and there was nothing but trees for as long as the as far as the eye could see and when we I would drive down the road and there were cows in the road and stuff and we really were like a big country town that just happened to be the state capital but now it's

being developed now they're building everywhere now the the actual I guess I'd say, schism in Baton Rouge is how are the people that have made the community there what it is, in a place that's 55% Black, going to finally start to see some of the economic growth as a whole that the rest of the place is experiencing. And there's a culture war there. There's a financial war there. There's all kinds of things that are happening. But whatever happens, they'll handle it like gentlemen and gentlewomen because they always do. And with people that have made it and left or people that are doing big things, we'll come together and we'll figure it out. But I think my city's getting better.

I think that Katrina definitely stressed the city at first because there's even like a Baton Rouge guys and New Orleans guys, like there's a different mindset there. So when they were all- What is that? Can you explain that to those of us who don't know, obviously?

Well, they really, they're like, I mean, we have, our mentality is a little different. It's a little homier. They're, for lack of a we have, our mentality is a little different. It's a little homier. They're, for lack of a better word, they're city kids. Like, there's a lot of, I mean, don't get me wrong, the culture of Louisiana is still thick in New Orleans, of course. I mean, a lot of people would say the origin of the culture of Louisiana emanates from that south in New Orleans specifically.

But they're city kids. They're a little bit, you know, they're, they're more, a little bit more urban, a little bit more in the middle of our grannies is still from the country. My father was from Maryland, Louisiana, 2000 people. That's right outside of our city. Like you still go there and it's super country and it's super this. So when they came up there, the hustle was a little bit different. What you had to do maybe was a little bit different. And who you are maybe is a little bit different. It's just like visiting your cousins from another place. They are you, but it rains a little bit more where they're from.

Or it's a little colder where they're from. They talk a little bit different, but they're you. So it took, and to be honest with you, more than anything, it took the New Orleans people that came a little while to get used to what's going on in Baton Rouge. Because at a certain time of night, we packing it in, baby. It's time to go to sleep. And they're like, oh, man, it's just getting started. Hell no.

No. Uh-uh. All of that shit. There's nothing on this. There's nothing on this. We're going to sleep unless you play in the morning. We're tailgating at 6 a.m. 6 a.m. 7 o'clock. We're going to be on campus. Fuck that.

So, but it's all love and now I'd say that what you've gotten is a stronger Baton Rouge, a more vibrant Baton Rouge, and really a more happening place and a place, to be honest with you, that I hope to one day return to. That's what I was going to ask you. You want to move back there full time one day? You said, no, not full time.

I don't know if you know, but it never rains here. You know, I was back home for two weeks. It rained 11 days. So a nice place, a nice place to get to that level. Yeah, it rained 11 days. I'm like, God damn. You spend your whole life damp. I'm like, how did I spend just 26 years damp?

I'm always damp. I'm damp from the rain or I'm damp from the humidity. Just damp. A whole life of damp. And I got back to LA where I'm never damp. I'm pretty dry. And that's like dope. So, but what I do want to do is for myriad reasons,

I definitely want to be a part of the expansion of McKinley High School and the revitalization of South Baton Rouge and Gardera Lane and neighborhoods where I come from. Definitely want to be a part of that. But more so, any children, any progeny that I have, I want them to experience a culture where people have tremendous differences, but they live together anyway. To where people aren't as separated by freeways. They aren't as separated by districts. They aren't as separate.

Don't get me wrong. They're separated. And there's deep, deep, deep animus that comes from some of the history down there, but they find a way to still be polite to one another. They find a way to still live in the same circles. They worship the same God. They worship the same God. They eat the same food. And maybe on a Saturday when LSU is playing, they might even root for the same team. And they're not going to root for Southern. But I love Southern football. We're not going to get

too many of them to come down and root for them. But still, I think growing up in the South, you know, as as much as a as a bad rap as the South gets, there are lessons to take away from a place that's been through so much. And I will want people who know me and love me and who who who fuck with me to know that like part of that comes from where I come from. Yeah, I can always I can always tell. And I'll tell you, I do love the, and I certainly don't know it as well as somebody that's lived there full time. But I do. It just feels different. It's hard to explain sometimes. And my friends always are like, why do you go there all the time? And I'm like, I just, I don't know.

There's just a feel. When you're there, you know you're somewhere different, and you know that they want you to be there, which is kind of the way I try to explain it. Just real quick, somebody you're tailgating. Just if you ever make it to an LSU tailgate, just do, do me a favor. Do one thing. Try not to eat, try and watch how many people beg to feed you. Yeah. Like, like that, what is, that is the most human thing that exists. Human beings,

cooperative animals, animals that had to learn how to build societies together in order for everyone to thrive. The most, the best thing that you can do for a person really is to feed them. Hey, take this. I want you to live. Walk through an LSU tailgate. Hey, you want to try the best jambalaya you ever had in your life? Come over here. They're going to try to get you to eat weird things too. They're going to try to saute some alligator for you or give you some deer meat. All of those

things that you don't eat whatever city place you're from. It's just, it's the best place in the world. It's like a little piece of Nirvana whenever you go there. I love it. I'm going to end on this note. If O's gone, who do you want to be the coach? Ooh.

A couple of people. There are a couple of people that I think obviously everyone's going to try to get Luke Fickle. You got to wonder whether or not Luke Fickle is going to want to come

to the SEC. The USC job might be open. A couple of players. James Franklin is a great name. Obviously, what he's been able to do at Penn State. Bill O'Brien is a good name. This is going to shock some people because I've been very hard on this guy. I've been very hard on this guy throughout his career.

I feel like he's failed upward a lot of times. But I would be intrigued with the prospect of Lane Kiffin being the coach of LSU um I'd be intrigued by a guy who could develop offensive talent at that at that level with the talent that we're gonna have in state the offense would be fine the offense would be fun we'd be a place to work that could recruit nationally and in our state. As long as we had a sound defensive coordinator,

I think it gives Lane the opportunity to finally do what he wants to do, which is actually take college football by storm. I don't think Tennessee was really ready to do that. I think he obviously fumbled things at SC. He maybe wasn't ready for that. But being that he's been this close to Nick Saban, or he was that close to Nick Saban

for the time that he was, I think Lane understands what it means to perform at that level of college football. And I think that's a chance, to be honest with you, and this is not to diss the Ole Miss people, but fuck them, a chance that he's probably not going to get, a chance that he's probably not going to get

at Ole Miss, but it will be right there for him at LSU. So I, more than Fickle, more than Bill O'Brien, more than any of those other guys, I'd be intrigued by kicking the tires on Lane Kiffin. Yeah, and the pro argument for Kiffin is at SC, because I was reading about it the other day, is the sanctions. Their argument is, look what we did with the sanctions.

We know the end of it in preseason number one, and then we lose a bunch of games the second half of the year. But look what we did with the sanctions staying competitive. Yeah, I don't know. The Lane one. Lane one. I get what he is. The offensive mind.

If I were the shareholders of a company, we had to name a new CEO, Lane Kiffin wouldn't be my first choice. I know he can dial them up. Who would be your choice to bring in Art Browse, maybe kick the tires on him, see what he's up to? No, I don't know if Mel Tucker would leave Michigan State after a year. I loved him when he was at Colorado. Whenever I would hear him speak, I'd be like, holy shit.

And then I had a couple guys when I tweeted something about him, even when he was at Colorado, who played for him. We're like, you're not wrong about Mel. But Michigan State is a really – look, there's five jobs. LSU is one of the five. Michigan State's a great job. It's not LSU. I don't want to get into Michigan State fans.

I don't think he would leave after just one year. But these guys are all mercenaries anyway. So that would be one of the five. Michigan State's a great job. It's not LSU. I don't want to get any Michigan State fans. I don't think he would leave after just one year, but these guys are all mercenaries anyway, so that would be one of the names. I'm cool with the Bill O'Brien thing because I actually think what he did at Penn State is incredible. It couldn't be a higher grade for me for him at Penn State considering what he was inheriting and what was going on with that program.

What he did is almost as impressive as winning the Big Ten. I think Bill Orien became like the village idiot on twitter forever and it was like people were treating him like they were going 2 and 14 but there also came a point where like when when hopkins didn't like him and i'd heard deshaun didn't like him that it's like okay so what's up with your personality when two of the best players of their positions can't fucking stand you like what's what's going on there even though i think he's still more successful than people want to seem to admit because every night bill

o'brien got a call wrong on thursday night football there's a hundred people saying he's the worst guy that's ever been on the sideline and i think that's a little unfair yeah well once again never hurts to have a pro coach man but uh look look let's see maybe maybe hey bro nine and three let's fucking go maybe you know like let's go you me capital one bull yeah yeah nine and three let's fucking go man who knows bro it's gonna start this week this week is the turnaround this week week. Get it, Tiger fans. Woo! Thanks, man.

You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you 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. Okay, let's do some life advice to get you ready for the weekend. Life advice, email is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Kyle, we had a lot of reaction to the guy who emailed in about his wife not wanting to have sex with him anymore. And I would say most of the reaction was really good. And there's a couple follow-ups. I don't know that I want to spend, you know, the next month or so updating everything that's going on.

He even emailed in and said he really appreciated it. And he was adamant about, like, look, I know what everybody's thinking. Because we had a lot of people being like, it's somebody it's somebody else he's like it's just not what it is this is the current situation and um you know feel like it sucks that sucks for you man all right so um we did have somebody who didn't love our advice and normally i wouldn't do this but um we had some other people like offering up advice too which was almost exactly what we'd already said but there's always going to be a massive disconnect. There will be problem that the people will have a fundamental problem with me talking about marriages or talking about parenting, which I totally understand. All right. I totally understand. But it's not like I don't, you know, it's not like I don't have a million friends that have been married or a bunch that have been divorced. I mean, this is what the podcast is. This isn't like I'm telling you the best way to travel to space. So I get some of the hesitation and some of the pushback from it.

But we had somebody chime in and said, Hey, listener of all things ringer, like the show, always like the advice segment. But there was a moment on the previous podcast, maybe pause a bit while covering the listeners email about marriage problems, I thought most of the advice was insightful and empathetic, but when the advice was given on the prospect of divorce, I felt like a line may have been crossed. I totally get that, but if I came off as sounding like, hey, definitely get divorced, or if somebody would listen to this podcast on Thursday, they feel a certain way, and then after listening to me, they're like, yep, we're so-so, you get divorced, we're doing it. I don't think that's really what we're doing here.

I think to not cover all the bases and all the different angles would be ignoring elements of the email or the question or the problem, whatever it is we are discussing. So I get that that hesitation is always going to be there. The point that i'm making is i'm not going to not do anything on any of the marriage stuff all right so and honestly if i were married i'd probably be less likely to do it because i'd be like well you know i got a huge fight my wife and she was wrong and here are all these different reasons and then she could listen to the podcast and be like you're the worst so you know what i'm telling you is get it while it's hot here, because if I ever settle down,

I'm probably not going to do this stuff in carbon and start causing my own problems. Well, you know, it's not a final ruling either. It's like, isn't it advanced analytics say that getting a divorce is basically a coin flip? So not that it's for every, not for every argument, but what, you know, in the long run, possibly. So if like, that's all.

It's like we're saying you have to do it. It's just like if this is something you're not telling to all your friends, like, hey, I'm having real problems here. I can't imagine that's on the first five things you bring up. Maybe you just needed somebody to be like, yeah, man, you're not crazy. If this isn't working, maybe you should get a divorce. That's all.

Fuck you for saying that we have to have a PhD in marriage. That's all. Fuck you for saying that we have to have a PhD in marriage. That's all I'm saying. Whoa. That was spicier. And again, divorce stats, as I've been shown numerous times, whenever I brought up divorce stats, I think years ago on the podcast, much like any advanced analytics, somebody was like,

no, no, no, it's actually this. And then somebody else was like, no, no, it's this. And I think you can find whatever numbers that you want for your argument um divorce sucks man divorce is not always you know it's a weird solution because it's a solution where it still can impact all these different people in different ways so you know look um i'm rather familiar with it myself without actually being divorced, if that makes any sense. So, um, let's see. All right, let's just keep it moving. Cause we did have, we did have a lot of, but you know what? We'll read one here. Um, because I thought this was important. Uh,

female listener chiming in, she goes, I never emailed these things, but the life advice on Wednesday pod really hit close to home. Female listener, three exclamation points. Thank you for, uh, for helping our numbers on that side of things. I'm, three exclamation points. Thank you for helping our numbers on that side of things. I'm married with two younger children. I went through a very similar situation with my husband where I just had no interest in sex. I didn't go as far as telling him I never wanted to have sex again, but it definitely was impacting our marriage. Now, this is why I want to read this email because I thought it was terrific and maybe our listener can pick up some insight from this because this is the part that I have no experience with

as a mother of two. What struck me is how he described his wife's social life because this is slash was me perfectly. I'm still working on this. He said she works from home, doesn't hang out with her friends except for once a year, only really leaves the house with her daughter. All caps.

You cannot feel sexy when this is your life. His wife needs to start doing things for herself. Find a workout class she loves. Have standing girls nights, date nights. Find somewhere to volunteer that she's passionate about. I'm not sure the best way to approach it. That's your job. Meaning the husband, not us. But for them,

I think it's worth exploring why she doesn't want to have sex. If you never take time for yourself, step out of the mother-wife work role. That loving, sexy part of your relationship is going to crumble. Incredible email. Great email and the perspective that we can handle. All right, let's get to stuff that we're better at. Dating and guys

fighting Conor McGregor. Okay, our guy checking in here. 5'9", 150, no deadlift. Ran a 4'12 mile, though, in his prime. Can still run a 430. How about that? That's wild.

That's wild. That's fat. 412 is smoking fast. All right, 28. He is a climbing ranger. I'm going to leave out some of the details. He's been dating a girl for seven years. Been working in this field for about six.

So most of the year I work in the mountains, maybe two, four months, I go back home and do some ski guide work. So it's kind of this career where eight to 10 months a year, he's a climbing ranger and then he does some ski stuff. We were long distance most of the year and have been most of the relationship. I was coming back home seasonally for her while she was still in accounting school. She has since graduated and now has a cool job where she can work remotely. She can work anywhere. I'm tired of living in two places. So I'd hoped once she'd finished school and got this job, she'd be willing to move with me to a town close to where I work. I was wrong. She wants to stay close to families,

unwilling to move even to a three to five hour drive away. So he was hoping that for his job, they could move three to five hours away from where her family's from. When we first moved in together, she cried for the first month and moved back in with her parents for about a week because she missed home so much. We live 20 minutes away. That's not a great sign. So the first month they lived together, she cried the entire month and then moved back. Um, and they live 20 minutes away. I just want to repeat that. I've made the decision that I'm going to move closer to my full-time job. I won't make the move till spring. However, I'm doing it. My girlfriend doesn't understand why I love doing

what I do. She feels that I'm being selfish, choosing work over her. I don't feel like that's what I'm doing. She can work anywhere in the world. I can't. I'll get to the point. Am I a jerk? Maybe I'm being a little selfish, choosing to work in a field that makes me, that takes me away. But if she would just move with me, then I wouldn't be working or living away from home. I love my girlfriend. I really do. But I really enjoy my job and career path. If I make the move, it's probably a certainty that she either won't move or she will be miserable away from home and it won't work out. I'm not trying to break up with my girlfriend, but I'm choosing to do something for me that is more than likely going to have that effect. Any advice from you guys would be greatly appreciated. Okay. He said it was, sorry, that was long. Not at all. That's fine. I'm probably say perfect size email. I don't know, man. I, I,

I'm, I don't know if I'm the best person or the worst person to ask when it talks about relationships over career. All right. Cause there was never, ever going to be a relationship that I felt like was going to get in the way of my career. And boy, have I done a good job with that. That's just the way that I was. It doesn't mean that I'm right. It's just what was right for me. There's something that jumps out here. Like clearly you are wondering if you're to blame.

You ask if I'm the jerk. She's saying that you're being selfish moving away from her. How is she not being selfish though? Like I'm not trying to say it's all on her and zero of it's on you, but what if we just go through this exercise? How is it that you're selfish by pursuing a career that you've been in now for six years? that you've been in now for six years, it's selfish for you to want to move somewhere for your career, but it's not selfish for her to want to live so close to home. So that to me, if that's how this plays out,

and it doesn't email, I'm sure there's maybe a little bit more depth to it. Like I have a real problem with that. Like what you're doing is wrong, but what I'm doing is right that seems to be what this is about I mean clearly she if she lived 20 minutes away and cried for a month straight

she's probably never going to move and if she did move you're right she's going to be miserable but you know a lot of relationships don't work out because the two people just aren't compatible. They get to know each other even more. And they're like, man, you know what? I don't. The more I get to know you, the less I like you.

But there's a lot of relationships that don't work out because of whatever's going on in each person's individual life. Like I know, you know, firsthand, I would say on a couple of the more serious ones, you know, the first one, when I was really young and I thought I was at least remotely smart enough to be doing better than I was doing, I knew I was a hard worker and I was surrounded by a bunch of guys that were doing really well. And I was miserable because I was miserable, which meant then I was miserable in what was probably the first serious relationship I was in. So it didn't even matter what the girl did or how caring she was or all that stuff. It didn't matter because all the other stuff

outside of the relationship was a mess. So one of you in this compromise, because it doesn't seem like there's a middle compromise, is probably going to be really upset with the situation. I know other people are going to disagree, but I feel like there are more options for companionship than there are for careers that make you feel great. You know, a career isn't a job. A career is something that you're building.

And, you know, with what you do specifically to being in the outdoors and all this different kind of stuff, I imagine like you love your job, you love it. And, you know, you may have found somebody that you're, they're really compatible with except for the most important things. And that's, that's what the rest of your life is going to be like especially if she could work from anywhere which you're telling us that she can so i think it's cool that you're not like totally against her here but i also think you need to look at this a little bit more where you're not blaming yourself because it sounds like she's been blaming you the whole time. And my biggest point is why is it selfish for you to want to keep going and pursuing your

career, but it's not selfish for her to want to stay close to home. They're different things, but they're the same things. And somehow you're the one that's wrong and she isn't. So yeah, I have a problem with that. So I don't know if there's really much of a solution other than the inevitable here. Unless you could find something that's close to comparable to what you're doing now around where her family lives. But I don't know. I don't know if that leads to resentment later on and all these different things. And I would think is, you know, this isn't what you want to hear right now, but I would

be telling myself, okay, this sucks. This is who I want to spend time with, but I'm probably going to find somebody else at some point. And I always believe that. I just do. You don't have kids together. I remember once with serious breakup and I talked to, I always thought it was funny because the mom called me once to be like, my daughter loves you, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. And then when it went the other way, I called the mom and she's like, you need to back off. And I was like, yeah, I don't know i don't know i'm not sure i'm not sure then when it went the other way i called the mom and she's like you need to back off i was like yeah i don't know different tone i'm sensing a different tone now and she was like just be thankful you didn't have kids and this is a total mess i was like all right feel way better now thank you

not mother-in-law so um kyle yeah dude the breakup podcast two pods in a row break it off break it off um yeah i think he knew what he was doing when he asked ryan rossillo if i should choose my career over my girlfriend if he's listened to you for even more than six months i think he probably got the vibe that you'd have been like no dude like figure out what you're gonna what your meaning in life is gonna be rather than like who you want to sit next to. So yeah, I think that's right. Like, it sounds like you may or may not have had the straight up like, this is what I like. I'm going here. Do you think we can test this out for a month? Like you want to just take a quote vacation and work from home for a month and see what it's like? Like, has she given the town like a tester trip yet where you're proposing to move? It doesn't don't know i mean again i can't get over the pet

the fact that she cried for a month straight living 20 minutes yeah it sounds like you're with somebody who's not prepared for life like it sounds like you're with somebody who's not prepared to take on life in all of its facets and i don't know if anybody ever is but that's just sort of a glaring thing where it's like wait are you really crying so i know i was expecting like the next sentence to be we made sandwiches and i left the crust on um you're right i mean what you just said there like i'm not even saying i'm right because some would say hey that's bullshit find the person find your person and then experience the journey together no and then the rest will work itself out but what we don't really want to admit in those cases the rest of it works out means that somebody's probably doing something they don't want to do. And I always, you know,

look, my approach could be completely wrong. There's plenty of evidence that I am wrong, but I always felt like, let me get this shit out of the way first. Let me be a little turnkey here, you know, move in ready. And unfortunately there was never any vacancy but you get the point like i i think if you figure out the you stuff then you're more prepared for the relationship that's going to be far more serious others would argue and say that i'm wrong and i'm not even saying that i'm right i'm just simply giving you my perspective on it where try the ultimatum and like and not a way where is it ultimatum just be like listen this is happening like i have to i have to continue this like do you think maybe you don't have to say that but just like see if you can get her to do the tester trip for like two weeks to

your town and if it doesn't work you're already in the town she can go back to wherever she's from and love it forever you can continue climbing mountains a tester tester well like he said that he's been doing like long distance, right? Which means that he said eight months a year. He's like living on this. I understand what you're saying. I mean, like the term. Trial run?

Trial run, I guess. Sounds like you're pushing dope. Yeah, yeah. The trial run. There we go. Okay. I just had a laugh at tester. Okay.

This guy had a job interview at ESPN 14 years ago and it didn't work out. He needs closure. So this one's very rare and specific. We'll give it a shot. Uh, late thirties. Um, because I was,

I was at ESPN back in the summer of oh seven doing undergrad. I worked in the SID office of a small D3 college before going on to a paid internship at a mid-major D1 school for a year where I was able to pick up some freelance work with ESPN when they came to town for some midweek matching. After graduating my master's the following summer, I made it through several rounds of phone interviews

with ESPN before being invited to come to the campus for in-person interviews. I believe I was up for three different jobs. I don't remember the exact departments all these years later, but it was basically dealing with research and data, updating scores on the website during games, etc. The interviews went well other than the NASCAR portion. This was during the big NASCAR push.

Yes, it was. 07 was a big NASCAR push, and I clearly didn't do enough research. was a big NASCAR push and I clearly didn't do enough research. I've heard about these interviews at ESPN for some of the entry-level jobs of working on shows where they would ask you what your favorite sport is and then when you told them baseball, they would ask you all hockey questions. You know, hey, what's the Padres rotation and that kind of stuff. The big, the big like reveal is that 99% of people walking around there couldn't name the Padres number two starter. So I don't know if they still do this, but I'd always

heard about it. I'd heard about it years before when I wanted to work there, you know, and I wasn't even thinking about being on the air. Um, but I'm just, I'd always heard they do these sit downs with you and then they ask you a million sports questions. And I would tell you that it's, it's part of the weeding out thing. Like there's also times where they'll be like, Hey, what's your favorite sport? Okay. I like this. All right. Now you're on college softball for six months. And I think a lot of it is to put you through the grind and weed you out a little bit. I don't know if it's different now. Again, I haven't been on the campus now in a couple years, but I hear

what you're saying because I used to always hear about these interviews. I'd be like, man, you have to know every single rotation to even get to the third interview. They'd be like, yep. Then you'd walk around and be like, okay, nobody knows the answers to any of this stuff. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway. I was driven to the airport to fly back.

Upon arriving, I found out that my early afternoon flight. So we did the interviews in person. Then they flew him, but they drove him from Bristol to Windsor locks, Bradley international shout out direct to Dublin. Upon arriving, I found out that my early afternoon flight had been canceled and the next one available wasn't until the next morning. I was pretty naive at the time. And the only other time I'd flown was on a charter with the aforementioned Mack schools football team, not knowing what to do. I remember the guy who'd sent

my itinerary and interviewed me for two of the jobs. I think his name will leave names out here because I don't know who this is. I'm telling me to call him if I had any issues. So I got out of the piece of paper and called his number. I clearly remember explaining the situation and him incredulously asking if I wanted ESPN to pay for a hotel room being broke recent college grad. I stuttered back a yes to him. He called the travel department. Next thing I know, I had a hotel room at a hotel by the Hartford airport. When I arrived home the next day, I immediately had a standard form email rejection waiting for me from the guy that he called for the hotel room. Later that afternoon, I got a call from the other guy I interviewed with

within the research department. He also rejected me with a trusty lack of experience line, but gave me what I thought was helpful advice about ways I could gain more experience in certain areas. He was the kind grandfatherly type as opposed to the other guy who was more cold and corporate. That brings me to this question. In your opinion, did I get rejected because I bombed the NASCAR portion of my interview and lacked experience, or was it actually because I boldly asked ESPN to pay for my hotel room after my flight was canceled? I'm doing well in a completely different career path, but this question's always bothered me.

Okay. Very specific. You're not the first guy to ever show up to ESPN and have the travel stuff not work out. All right? He offered you the hotel room. Now, yes, I get what you're saying. There's part of me that's thinking I'm at this entry level interview. And if I asked them to pay for the hotel room, does that hurt my chances and the timing that you were rejected both the next day? Maybe you sucked in all the interviews. There could also be that. That's a quick rejection.

But again, I don't understand how the rejection process on that thing works. My first, again, it's completely different, but my first tryout show was a two-hour solo show. And they were like, hey, we'll call you Monday, let you know how you're doing. And that was Saturday. I didn't hear for three weeks. Three weeks, I didn't hear from anybody until it was like, hey, we have another opening. So it wasn't like great job, bad job. It was just honestly, if I had known how bad the scheduling was at ESPN Radio, I would put a 10 up in the parking lot like five years prior

to that and I would have got shifts because they were constantly screwing up the schedule. Don't do that now. I don't think the NASCAR thing was the reason why. I think I'd ask you this. Did you ever follow up a year later? Did you ever a year later say, hey, so-and-so, I interviewed with you last year or whatever.

I'd like to follow up. I'd like to get another shot at it. You got to remember too, these guys are dealing maybe not hundreds, but thousands of people applying for these jobs, thousands. So let me just get to the answer. I'm not 100% on it, but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't just the hotel room, man. I'm pretty sure it wasn't. And I don't know if you, maybe you were great in the interviews, but it's a really competitive thing. And if you also don't know anyone, if you had no connection, if there wasn't somebody else telling someone at ESPN, like, hey, will you give my guy's resume like a good once over? Will you make sure you bring him in? I mean, you made it long enough to even get into the building. So that tells me that I'd wonder, did you have any moment where

a year later you were like, let me go ahead and follow up again? Or maybe you're just like, whatever, it's fine. It doesn't matter. I can't imagine how stacked the numbers were so stacked against anybody getting those gigs now back then that I wouldn't worry about it too much. I don't really think it's the hotel. Again, you never know. And if you didn't have money for a hotel, what are you supposed to do? Sleep outside because you missed your flight for an ESPN interview? So don't have this linger another 14 years because I don't think it's the hotel.

Unless you were abrasive and nasty, but you just said in the email that you stuttered back after he was incredulously offering this hotel room. Yeah. The chances are he really wanted to give you the hotel room and you just said, yes. So don't worry about it. I don't think that's what it was. It's a really, really hard deal to get. The numbers are, it's less than 1% anybody getting those gigs so hopefully that helps kyle anything surprisingly no i just interviews are hard i just i don't know my big thing was just like being trying to be a waiter or bartender it was just like it seemed like it was never going to happen i was like i guess i'm just doomed for manual labor and models type retail even even stuck it out as a dishwasher, made it to a line cook,

just could never break into the tip industry as far as a waiter or bartender. They didn't want you front of house is what you're saying? I guess. I actually hosted one time. I was a dishwasher and I hosted, or I guess, no, I busboyed on Valentine's Day. I was working at the melting pot

and the dish pit was going to be nuts on the Valentine's Day special because it working at the Melting Pot, and the dish pit was going to be nuts on the Valentine's Day special because it's like, all in all, it's like 70 pieces with the ramekins and everything, and it was just going to be nuts. So I finagled my way to be a busboy. I guess that's technically front of house for that. Don't say it's not. Just let me have that.

I like that you confused hosting with busing. Well, they both get tips. For me, I was in the dish pit looking up. You know what I mean? Everything out there looked like it was golden. Did you go back there for cigarette breaks and look at the dishwashers and be like, you guys have no idea? I would just be like, hey, I'm going to place this neatly right here because I get it. You know, I was where you were yesterday.

But made it to line cook in that job. You did? Yeah. They never, I only made it as, my place is a little fancier, I'm guessing. But for whatever reason. In the melting pot, dude? I don't know. No, I worked at the black dog. I, I washed dishes and

then I, I made my way to prep cook and then I couldn't get on the line. Yeah. But you heard me say the melting pot, right? Like that's an establishment. Yeah. I don't know. You're clearly not aware of the place I just referenced though, either. It sounds like you've never heard of the melting pot is what I'm saying to you. No, I know what it is. NCAP, the mall, dude. Like, at the end of the mall. Not in the mall. At the end of the mall.

Stays open after the mall closes. You know what I mean? Yeah. All right, just wanted to make sure we're on the same page. 97 locations. Yeah. How many black dogs are running around out there?

One restaurant. Yeah, I was afraid of that. Just one. They've got a couple... Yeah. How many black dogs are running around out there? One restaurant. Yeah. I was afraid of that. Just one. They've got, they've got a couple, uh, I don't know.

Maybe they do have, I don't think they do. They've got like other side stuff or whatever. Um, taught me how to cook pasta. I learned this really good apple horseradish sauce for fish. Still know the recipe for that one. You know, the nice part about the melting pot is the guest cooks the food.

Did you get discounts? Could you go there with friends? Oh, yeah. I went there with girls and they were like, they'd be like, oh, Mr. Crichton. We're underage. They're bringing me like bottles of wine. Yeah. I don't think that's what the melting pot wants is well they fired me so fuck them what'd you get fired for i got fired for like

pretending that i threw up at modell's at my other job and calling my guy like hey i threw up can't make it in my buddy from college was visiting me on the train and he said it was okay to call out and then he threw me under the bus somehow and and I got fired the next day I came into work, even though they said it was all good. I was basically working Models, and then I would catch the bus across Route 9 and go to the Melty Pot to close, and I was just, I called him,

like, three hours into my Models shift, like, dude, I'm gonna go home from work, I'm sick, I'm not gonna make it in. And he was like, it's all right, like, call your buddy and see if he can make it in. I called him, the guy didn't answer, I told him, he said it was. And he was like, it's all right. Call your buddy and see if he can make it in. I called him. The guy didn't answer. I told him.

He said it was okay. And then the next day, somebody, I guess, snitched on me that I wasn't actually sick. I don't know. It was weird. Who snitched on you? To this day, I do not know. Probably one of those envious dishwashers once you started busting tables. Yeah, I think I was heavy making the salads on the

line at that point so i never looked back they were like he thinks he's better than us he's still at modell's part-time full-time oh part manager come on how many uh how many things from modell's did you end up with holy shit dude so much the nike shirts just the the nike shirts with the stitched on logo on the chest holy shit luckily they didn't get any good shoes so i didn't ever spend any shoe money there oh okay spend that's good that's good you're not going to get me to admit what you're trying to get me to admit i'll'll just, I'll never do it. Good. That's fine. I don't want you to, I just wanted you to answer however you felt comfortable answering it. And I think we still sort of got, we still got our answer.

Lots. That's kind of what I figured. All right. That's life advice. We'll talk to you on Monday. Got some great stuff coming up next week too. Hagler Hearns. I don't know if we're going to release that one, but we're taping it.

So man, what a tease that is. All right. Have a great weekend. Thanks to Kyle. Please subscribe. Ryan Russell podcast. Ring your spot. Outro Music