The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Domonique Foxworth Talks Deshaun Watson and 2000s Ravens Stories, Plus Peter Rosenberg on 'WrestleMania 38' and Kanye

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

Ryen opens with whether it’s really true that the East is better than the West in the NBA this season (0:29). Next, he chats with ESPN’s Domonique Foxworth about Will Smith vs. Chris Rock, how the Deshaun Watson situation will play out with the Browns, and stories from playing with Ray Lewis and Ed Reed (11:52). Then, Peter Rosenberg, the host of 'Cheap Heat' on the Ringer Wrestling Show feed, talks a little 'WrestleMania 38,' Ryen’s history as a wrestling fan, plus his thoughts on the Kanye documentary (51:38). Finally, he closes it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:17:08). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Domonique Foxworth and Peter Rosenberg Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast dominic foxworth on sean watson in cleveland the oscars and his own writing career talks of football with uh foxworth great football stories and peter rosenberg he's got a new podcast coming out for the ringer a little wrestling wrestling stuff, a little Kanye as well. We have an NBA Open and Life Advice. I want to talk East versus West in the NBA, kind of where we're at, where we've been, and what the general conversation's been.

Because I think if you ask this, if you're just hanging out with your buddies right now and you said, hey, you know, the East is probably better than the West, I think you get a lot of people saying, you know what? I think you're right. Now, historically, the West has been so much better than the East. I mean, it's been a joke over the years. I mean, I was going through it this morning. Seven years ago, 63% of the games were won by West in head-to-head matchup.

We've had numbers where it's in the 60s. I think the only number that I found recently where the East actually won more than 50% of the games was 2008, 2009. So this year, it felt like a pivot because the top was a little deeper. Miami and let's just say this, let's have an open mind real quick, right? If we have an open mind about all the possibilities coming out of both conferences to win an NBA championship, Miami, we'll get to them, don't worry. Philly,

Milwaukee, Boston, and then I think it's Brooklyn. So maybe it's five teams there. In the West, it's Phoenix in their own group. There's still probably doubts about Memphis because it's a teams there. In the West, it's Phoenix in their own group. There's still probably doubts about Memphis because it's a younger team and the jaw injury, could it linger potentially with him being out? They're still beating teams without jaw, by the way.

Golden State not having their guys around. It's been a mess. Draymond's been terrible since he's been back, but I still think Golden State's kind of tough to quit. The rest of that group, you'd really, really have to do some salesmanship on me there. So because the top and the East feels a little deeper, which I think we could all agree on, that the East has been presented as the better conference.

When in fact, if you just go head to head, it's almost 500 here. It's not dramatically better. I think where the East wins whatever conversation that you'd want to have here is that from five through 10, maybe, you know, Chicago, Toronto, Cleveland, Brooklyn, Charlotte, and Atlanta, the Knicks, the surging Knicks, the 11 seed, um, out of the playoffs here, likely. Um, but Atlanta 38 and 37 is your 10 seed where after seven with Minnesota, it starts getting really thin there in the West. So maybe a, a deeper, a deeper one-10-11. I guess you could even throw Washington in there if you wanted to.

Remember that great start they got off to? They're 10-500. There's just more teams in the East that were like, okay, that team's pretty good. Whereas if you go back a couple years ago, even when the Raptors were a one seed, Philly was a three seed, Boston won 55 games. Cleveland was that weird four-seed year, and they went seven games in Boston with a really young Celtics team where it felt like it was way

too early for them to be in it, but a game away from playing in the NBA title and getting smashed by the Warriors. I don't even think that group back then, four years ago, is as deep as we have right now. Now, whenever I think about talking for a living and talking about sports, as a guy who's done it now 20 years, being a little bit older, there's something that just stands out to me. Because if I listen to somebody else say definitively anything about any of these teams, where you'd say, well, maybe not any of these teams, but hey, Boston can win. Milwaukee sucks or Milwaukee's awesome. Boston sucks.

And I'd be like, all right, I don't really know how you could get there with those two teams. Because I think one of the things about being younger is that you're not, you haven't been around long enough to realize how many times you're going to be wrong. So there are times I think as I've gotten older that I'm a little bit more open-minded about different things that could potentially happen. And if we're doing that with both conferences here, I mean, how many teams would I really say could win a title out of the East? Well, I think it's Milwaukee. I think it is Boston. The Robert Williams thing is a problem because he was a big key to how they kind of fundamentally changed what they were doing on defense. I'm not going to write off Kevin Durant. I just can't. I'm just not going to, you know, I just, I think that guy's too special. After that, I have real questions about Harden in the playoffs and running your offense through a post player and tight games in the

playoffs. I think it'd get a little dicey. I think Sixers fans would admit that Embiid with the ball with a million guys running at him and him trying to navigate through all those people in the late possession isn't probably your favorite thing to watch in basketball. Then you have the Miami Heat again, as of today, sitting there at the one seed. So I could be definitive about a few more teams if I wanted to. You know, Chicago is not a good basketball team. They're not.

I know they're the five seed. They were 26-10. They're 17-22 since. And Chicago's offensive, defensive numbers in March, they're 28th in offense, they're 23rd in defense. They're 28th in offense. They're 23rd in defense. Their point differential is 28th. Teams that are tanking have a better point differential

than Chicago in the month of March. So I can be definitive about them. I can lean towards Miami saying, you know what? Their offense hasn't been great since the All-Star break. Their point differential is actually behind the Knicks, the surging Knicks. But they still shoot the hell out of the ball. They defend. There's some guys that have some toughness there. So I may not put Miami

in that group, but I couldn't be definitive about the Heat the same way that I am about the Chicago Bulls. The Raptors, nice story. Don't really see it. Probably would rather play Chicago or Cleveland than Toronto in the first round. And Cleveland, who's probably been one of the best stories in the East, remember some of those early days flirting with a top-four seed? They just, even with Jared Allen being out, it's a problem. And I just don't love that, despite Karis LeVert's dribbling prowess. He had a dribble the other night. I think it was last night, right? Yeah, last night's game against Orlando's fourth squad.

Good luck figuring out who Orlando had in the game last night. But Karis LeVert had this move where he shook one of the guys to the magic. It was sick. He missed the shot. But I've already given you my Cleveland breakdown on just having limited offensive options and tight playoff games that are a little bit scary there. So I can be definitive about some of those, but I'll hear other guys do this and be like, it's Milwaukee and it's only Milwaukee. Well, how do you close on that?

Boston, statistically, is this. And again, the Williams thing changes things a bit. I don't know how you could be definitive about just one team in that conference. Now in the West, you could do it maybe with Phoenix, but I still feel like you're running off Golden State a little bit. And it's a little disrespectful of a Memphis team that again, like I said, with job being, you know, lingering knee thing, could there be something there with them being young? I know no one likes Utah. I'm not a huge Dallas guy. I mean, the knee thing. Could there be something there with them being young? I know no one likes Utah. I'm not a huge Dallas guy.

I mean, the Dallas thing is funny because they'd be, what, a game and a half out of the first seed in the East if they were in the East right now. So that would maybe make us talk ourselves into Dallas. And by the way, they would have a better record even beyond what they have now if they were in the East because they'd be playing the East, which again, it's pretty even here.

But, you know, Dallas, they defend better. They're a little heliocentric in the offense. The Dinwiddie part of this thing has worked out. Dinwiddie's a really smart player and not just a smart guy. He's a really smart guy, so maybe he figured out and adapted to everything that he's doing and playing a little bit better with Dodgers because he's been terrific, hit some huge shots for them. But I wouldn't put Dallas down in this group.

But I guess other than, you know, I'll hear different people just say, well, it's Phoenix and then it's nobody else, which I, I'll hear different people just say, well, it's Phoenix and then it's nobody else, which I know I've probably done a little bit, but if golden state figured this out and got their guys together, which is kind of a big ass because it just feels like a real limp to the finish line. I don't know that I'd sit here and be completely shocked as I would be with say Utah or Denver. Like I'd mentioned in the beginning, being younger, when I did this job when I was younger, I was convinced I was right all the time. And then you get enough shit wrong, which is also just mandatory. Like anybody sitting here, it's almost like the gambler that tells you he never loses.

The guy that's telling you he's always right every single time about all the sports stuff, he's just lying to you, right? Or he has a horrible memory or just tries to block this stuff out. When I was younger, as you can probably guess my personality, I was pretty certain I was right all the time about all this stuff. Then you end up being wrong and you go, oh, wait, it's sports.

I mean, it's why we actually watch all this stuff. You know, back in the day, I'm probably sitting there going, back in the day, I'm probably just sitting there going, Mark Bolger, give that guy the right weapons. He's not a tier one QB.

Maybe the health thing. Why can't Eddie Curry just be another Elton Brand? 24 years old, look up the stats. Why do the French keep fucking with Lance Armstrong? That guy's a hero. You're bold when you're younger. You're certain when you're younger. And I see the same thing play out when I, I'll just

admit, when I see younger and then actually one incredibly old sports person talking about this stuff as if there's no chance they could ever possibly wrong, which I know is better for TV and it's better for the breakout videos and all that kind of stuff. And there are times where I am definitive, but when I look at the top of the NBA right now, even though I love the

Phoenix profile on this, I'm not going to have, I'd probably have four or five teams where at the end of it, they said, all right, they won a championship. There's probably five of like, okay, that can't be totally shocking where I think it's talked about in different years as if it were a huge shock. And I don't think it should be applied the same as this year. It also kind of reminds me of just being younger in general as a guy, you know, whether it's that big, I wouldn't really work in a corporate office, but I can imagine

there's people that are my age now listening to this when you first get started, depending on where you're at, insurance, sales, whatever, banking. And you just were so sure of your clarity. You were so convinced that you were seeing everything perfectly clear and that you'd run to somebody older and be like, hey, I have this great idea for potential business opportunity, or we should do a deal with these guys, or have we ever thought of this, or whatever. And the older guy kind of looks at you and isn't even close to matching your enthusiasm

for whatever it is you've interrupted his day with, right? Like, you already know this has happened to you, and it probably happens to you now with a younger generation. I mean, it's just going to repeat itself over and over again, which is why I always kind of relate it to sports, because I think there's some similarities. Like, I remember different stuff. I remember one time I met with somebody who was a producer who liked

what I was doing in radio in Boston. So that's 03 to 05. And I'm making 20 grand a year, 20 something grand a year. I'm barely getting by. I want to quit all the time. I'm like, this isn't really making any sense. This is pretty stupid, man. And it's going to start getting weird when you're like 30 and this is the same thing that's happening to you. And so I was desperate for anything that felt like it was good news. And there was this meeting, people love meeting. And I took this meeting and the premise was I was going to host this reality show and it was going to be on Nesson sort of or whatever. And then we all went out and we met up with other people and like, here I am thinking, wait, this is, is this my moment? Is this going to be like one of these big moments where everything changed after

this? And I could kind of tell him like, wait, this guy who's hitting this whole thing up, like he might be completely full of shit. And he ended up being totally full of shit. All we did was talk about his contacts. We never got anywhere with it. He wanted money out of the deal or whatever. But before I figured the rest of this stuff out, because I was still somewhat, you know, we're very impressionable with new opportunities and different fields that we're getting into. And I remember calling my dad. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be hosting this reality show. And then it's going to be this, and it's going to be that. It's going to be perfect. We got this contact over here. And then my father just like dead pants. He's yeah when that's when's that supposed to

start i was like well you know i didn't you don't have a start date or whatever he's like what'd you guys do i'm like we met this and then we had this other night out we he's like wait you guys went out drinking you were talking about this i was like yeah he's like okay that was it and by obviously the show never happened and he knew it and it wasn't that he wasn't supportive it was just that he was a little bit more tempered in his expectations of any kind of opportunity and the reason i bring that up is that when i see somebody be so certain that it's like this team and no one else i'm like either you haven't been around long enough or you're just trying to nail the tv segment no one else. I'm like, either you haven't been around long enough, or you're just trying to nail the TV segment.

It's been a while, and I'm glad we finally got him on. Dominic Foxworth, ESPN, and NFL Vet. There's a lot of stuff that I want to get to here. I'm trying to think the best stuff with you. Just get it out of the way. All right. Well, I'll try not to here. Um, I'm trying to think the best stuff with you. Just, just get it out of the way.

All right. Well, I'll try not to derail it. I assume you've already talked about Will Smith because that's all, that's all anybody wants to talk about is Will Smith and Chris Rock. So I will not take it in that direction. Although I admitted, I agreed to come on to the show.

Like I had time to come on, um, around the same time to happen. And I did want to know like your general reaction to this and i guess i'll listen because i'm sure you talked about at some point right no i haven't been on bill and i taped sunday night right no i heard that so i guess i thought earlier earlier in this show like you might open up with uh your will smith chris rock reaction we'll just do it then because it's tuesday thursday so i haven't really done it.

I haven't done it. I was going to start the interview by asking if you ever slapped a man, but maybe we'll do that a little bit later. All right. So here's what happened for those that don't. Like when I got done taping with Bill, I went back upstairs to watch some stuff that was going on while we were taping. And then I just saw Twitter blow up and I went, okay, well, I got to check out this a little bit.

And then I saw it and I kind of thought, all right, you kind of can't be right on any lane and at the same time, you could argue you're not wrong in a bunch of the different lanes. And I know that my first instinct is that whenever I see everybody telling me what a badass they are,

like when Marcus Spears says, I would have slapped the shit out of will smith i believe marcus yes yeah yeah when when thousands of other people are like there's no way you would have been able to do that to me i'm like i don't know if that's true because first of all if you're chris rock you can't fucking believe this just no no no it's no way because like he's walking up there i would have assumed he's an actor and he's playing out a bit chris rock had his hands by his back and he rocked him okay and then there's also that it's a fake crew because none of us none of us ever you know white dress blue dress none of us can ever ever figure this stuff out um i once I, once I I'll admit I'm cynical. I thought, okay, is this real? And then when I saw the footage that leaked in the

commercial break of Denzel and Tyler Perry going up to console him, and here's the other thing too. And maybe this is being on TV. You can see that Chris rock is flustered. He's like, what the fuck? And he even screws up his toss a little bit. Does cause he's, he's just like, I can't believe yet. He still has a job to do. So for all the, you know, I don't know, man, Chuck Norris is out there that think like this is on. It's like, well, you're still actually in front of everybody posting the Oscars.

You can't like, look, the only thing that I can ever compare it to with something that happened to me is that when I was staying in malibu with my friend carissa and she was gone and i came back and there was a stalker waiting for her outside of the house it went from i'm not sure what's going on to the story got thinner and thinner and thinner and then once it finally fell apart and then i thought okay but i wasn't remotely afraid of him not like i'm some badass but i could just tell i was like i'm not afraid of this, but I didn't know the full story, the full scope of the story. Here's a guy with somebody who I know sort of well, but not everything about her life saying he was from her town, invited a visit. He's got luggage with them.

And then his story gets worse and worse and worse. And then in the video, you can see where I kind of like straighten up a bit because I'm like, all right, this guy's totally off the reservation. It doesn't make any fucking sense. He's probably listening right now, by the way, cause he still tweets out shit about my family. But, um,

my friends were like, how did you not kick his ass? And I'm like, okay, I get what you're saying, but you don't understand in the moment when, and this is different, but it reminded me of like in the moment for everybody saying,

how come you didn't punch Will Smith back or whatever? My friends are like, how did you not beat up the stock? It's like because you don't really it's such a weird thing in the moment that you don't really process it the way everybody else. When it's like, oh, cool. Hours later, you know exactly what you would have done in an unprecedented situation. Now, I've come to this point in my life. I just turned 39 last week. I saw the old dad hat thing. I almost

voted, but I couldn't. No, you're you're invited to vote like everybody knows all black man hat. Yeah, I just not sure which type of hat I need to buy because there are only four types of all black men and the hat tells you what type he is. But anyway, I've come to this point in my life where I'm better about presenting myself honestly, you know? And like, I saw those like Ryan Clark and Marcus Spears and those guys like, I know them. Yes, they likely would have whooped this dude's ass. But I didn't jump out there and say that because I don't know that I would.

Like, I honestly don't know that I would. And that's fine with me. And the most important thing to me was like, when I woke up, cause I was asleep, I'm old man. I live on the East coast. I was asleep. I woke up and go to the bathroom. I look at my phone. I see Will Smith slaps Chris Rock. And I'm like, all right, this is ridiculous, but I'm going to click it anywhere. I'm standing over the toilet, see what happened. Then he really slapped him. And I was like, oh my gosh. And I was like a little stunned, like shocked. And if I'm young and cool, my response is laughter because that's what you do or whatever. Like, this is

awesome. But my first response is like, oh, like clutch my pearls. And then later when I finally woke up again, the next thing is that Will Smith just raised the bar for all of us. Like I need to have a conversation with my wife. So if that happens to you, like I've been out with women and been out with my wife and like she's attractive and people like hit on her or flirt or whatever and or say something inappropriate. And I thought that all I had to do was, hey, hey, hey, watch it now. Chill out. All right. Hey, hey, now we ain't going to have no problems out here, are we? I thought that was what I needed to do. And that normally clears things up right away. So I talked to my wife and I was fortunate because that was the thing that shocked me

is there was a lot of women in my life, like friends of mine and not necessarily on social media, found it chivalrous and impressive. And I was fortunate to know that my wife and I are on the same page. She don't want me getting no fight, but I will end with this. I'm not going to say that I would have punched Will Smith. And I understand how people are celebrating Chris Rock for being composed in that moment. But I'm telling you how I would want that to end. Like, I probably wouldn't have been prepared to get punched or slapped. So I probably would have got hit too.

I like to think that I have some leftover athleticism and I could have dodged that below. But I wouldn't have expected it. But I'm not saying how I would have responded. But I know that even if it destroyed my career, I do not want people to be talking about how much a professional I was the next day. I would like to form tackle Will Smith and put him in a triangle. And people, maybe they're mad at me,

but that's just like, that's not how I want this moment to be remembered. And no matter, Chris Rock's my favorite comedian of all time. No matter what, until the end of time, this is going to be something that sticks to him and that is the part of my like 25 year old brain that I can't quite get away with I can't quite get away from is that's that's that's just shameful yeah I thought he held up well against the slap there's no way he didn't I you said it really well in the beginning that's kind of what I thought it held up well against the slap. There's no way he didn't. You said it really well in the beginning. That's kind of what I thought.

It's like, oh, Will Smith's coming around. He's like, this is going to be funny. He's going to do something. And then you're like, wait, this is on? And the fact that he stayed on his feet, considering the size difference, is impressive. But if I were Chris Rock, although I don't know physically what he'd be able to do to Will Smith, I would be planning a long time for some sort of payback. There would be something.

I would wait. I would wait, and then we'd be at a party two years later, and there's no way that would be the end of the transaction. There's just no way. But in the moment, I just, I don't know, I lay out. I don't go like, oh, moment, I just, I don't know. I lay out. I don't go like, oh man, he should have done this. And then on the other side of it too, like if you play the, because I saw all the pieces on it. It's like, all right, if you're insulting a wife about a medical condition and Rock

didn't really know. And then there's some other videos going around that were like, no, this Eve was playing it long ago. He's making fun of Will Smith. But honestly, like Will Smith is when you're that famous, you're going to get made fun of too. So then it turns into like the role of comedians I was like all right I'm good and then it turns into kind of the toxic masculinity thing and I'm like yeah because I've never seen a video women hitting each other right that's never happened before so then it becomes a bunch of other things

other than what it was which is always kind of the case with those the reason I thought I was said at the beginning that you're my hero is that they brought you on first take yesterday to talk about it Molly Karam the host as she was throwing to you was like and by the way he won the Oscar for King Richard which is by the other for the people to think it's fake then he fucked over his own thing like he won an Oscar

for best male actor and yet no one will remember that and it was this massive moment that could have been different and then she had said it's a wonderful movie and why i love foxworth is you deadpan looked at her i'm at the gym i'm getting a little cardio warm-up in and the subtitles are going and the look on your face and you go the movie what'd you say it was you were like as mediocre and molly looks off screen you destroyed her entire toss to you but you had to keep it real.

You couldn't, you couldn't help yourself. I wanted to love that movie. I, and like the story is outstanding. I watched the movie and it, I don't know. It just seemed formulaic, you know,

like, which is fine. It was an okay movie. I don't mean to say it was a bad movie, but like, I didn't think it was like Oscar worthy, but whatever. I'm,

I'm not a part of the Academy, and we all can have our opinions, but yeah. It was mediocre. There you go. Okay. All right. I am going to get back to some of the entertainment stuff here with Foxworth, which is awesome

news, and I want to share it with everybody here. Let's go to this football stuff. Deshaun gets introduced this week. Deshaun is really good at football. The contracts, as you know, as somebody involved in this stuff at the highest level, it's something you and I love talking about, CBAs

and the future of how this stuff will look. Always felt like if it were a complete free agent world, the guaranteed money would almost be dollar for dollar for some of these quarterbacks. I think it's going to start happening at some other positions here and it happens here with deshaun which kind of blew everybody out of the water but what's the best way it's what's the best way of processing all of this which we understand is still a football transaction even if people are disgusted by it yeah no i mean i don't think i am ready yet to talk about the implications like

and there's not much implications to talk about. He's a great quarterback. And anytime you add a great quarterback to your team, that's good. So there's not much there to dissect. And at some point, we'll move on. And we'll only talk about him as a football player. There's a laundry list of players who've been in horrible situations, and eventually that's what happens. And I think in particular, when a guy is contrite and admits what he's done

and works on decisions or whatever, that helps us in that process. That gives us the liberty to say nobody's perfect or whatever, even with some of the most heinous things that we've seen athletes do. Deshaun's not willing to do that because Deshaun, like these are allegations. And I am willing to accept that some of the 23 women maybe have made it up, but it's hard for me to believe that 23 women have completely made this up and it's not going to court and that's fine. And there are things like I badly want to root for Deshaun Watts. And like, I'll put my cards on the table with you as I always do. Like he's a black quarterback and we are not like post-racial in this world and not in this league. So I want him to win.

Like I want the Browns to win. I've heard great things about Stefanski as a human being in that building and the relationships he's built with people. I want them to win. But it's hard given the context of the situation. Like, we are post-MeToo. And that does change things. So, like, I brought up the fact that he's a black quarterback because, like, I get people, like, in my family, in my friend group,

and, like, obviously on social media who are like y'all weren't that hard on Ben Roethlisberger like okay well first of all I was playing then and Ben Roethlisberger was plenty hard on me on the field so I didn't have an opportunity to address that and they'll bring up Tyreek Hill they'll bring up all these other things that we weren't these incidences that we were not as hard on and for the ben rossberger stuff specifically it's a lot about race which you know me like i believe that race is involved in everything but in this particular incident that's not what i'm going to focus on and i think had ben rossberger incident or incident it feels like i'm minimizing it the rape allegations

been post me too like Like the context matters. I'm sorry. Like if you, yeah. So it matters. The fact that it is post me too, like we are more awake to these types of things than we were in the past. And it feels different,

honestly, to treat things the same as they've been treated before. So like all that in mind, I like feel like there's should be some price paid by Deshaun Watson, obviously, and some price paid by the Browns organization. But then I look up and I'm like, every other team in the league in that position would have done the same thing. So then I land on, it's about us. As much as we want to deny it, and I and i'm including myself in this we want to grandstand on social media or on tv or on podcasts and say all the right things and pretend like we care

about women and pretend like we care about justice and rights and all that stuff we want to do that and we want to present that face but we don't actually care like we don't because the sacrifice is like that i talked about this a little bit on first take is like to me at least you show what's important to you by the sacrifices you're willing to make like you can say anything but the decisions that you make and no one including myself none of us are about to make any sacrifices um of our football intake and after all, that's like,

that justifies the Browns decision. And as much as we would like them to be more like air quotes, moral or league to be more moral, like they're responding to the, to the environment, the atmosphere that they live in. And that's the atmosphere that we create and perpetuate. And like,

this applies to race, gender, sexual sexual orientation all the isms that people like me like to read and talk about like the the bottom line is people like to put up black swears on instagram whatever but the people who believe it are people that are willing to sacrifice for it. And that ain't us. Have you ever, well, I don't want to get into the situation, but like basically every team in the NFL, because it's a reflection of society, you probably get a guy that has some shit where you're like, I don't know about this guy. But the thing that I always kind of remind people of when I'm talking about this, at least privately with my friends, is be like, okay get what you would say publicly i get what i get what everybody is supposed to say i know what the rules are all right i know what it plays but i also know that if it were your friend you would handle it differently you know the people that criticize the most are usually criticizing the people they know the least and um in this case with deshaun, there are going to be teammates

that are not going to like him. There's going to be a lot of teammates that are like, hey, look, man, like you're on our team and we're good to go. And I think the public would be like, well, it'd be great if no one supported him on the team,

but that's just not realistic. It's not going to happen. What is that like in the locker room when you have a teammate that has some shit and there's different dynamics of how people are feeling about him as a teammate, as a guy guy i have no expectation of any teammate to to take some public

position against the sean watts like that's not my expectation for them um and yes i played with plenty of guys who had plenty of tough situations and bad decisions and illegal incidences. Darren Williams, my draft class, the corner guy drafted with me, got shot and killed on New Year's Eve, in part because of how some of my teammates were behaving in the club. Right, with the Broncos. Yeah, and Darren was, We got drafted, same position together. We were close. That broke my

heart. And to know that had some other people on the team done things differently, maybe things would have turned out differently like that. I felt some type of way about that. But you're right. When you have relationships with somebody, it changes how you react to them. And so I can't think of a situation that could be worse than that because it touches you as an individual.

And I got a job to do and I care about those people. And I think everybody can relate to that. Like everybody has a job. Nobody in your workplace is perfect. And you find a way to work together. You have friend groups. Amongst your friend groups, somebody done something that was terrible. You're not above it. And if you don't have a friend like that, you are that friend.

And so it's just the way that it is. It's the way that the world works. So just because you know somebody, it doesn't mean that you can't hold them accountable. You can, but that's not my expectation. I think the expectation is for, frankly, the legal system fails in this regard, but it's the reason why we have a legal

system. It's so that we don't have to be burdened with the responsibility of punishing people and fixing people and make, like, you should be able to say he paid his time. He paid his

debt and move on, but you can't. So yeah, I don't have any expectation of the people of the team to do anything, but I also am not going to begrudge anybody who like, every time they talk about it, they bring it up. I know that's going to get annoying to a lot of people, but it's not going to bother me. Like it's

the least we could do to demonstrate some support of the 23 she says on the other side of his he said on the other side of this, this is not related. It's just the football part of it is Baker Mayfield. I get it since

you've not been a huge Baker fan. I actually, surprisingly, I'm not a huge Baker fan, but I thought they should have after last season, the season before last, I thought they should have extended him because I thought they could get him for cheap.

That was a bad thought. Because I saw where it was headed. I was like, you guys are going to end up paying him. The sooner you pay him, the better off you'll be. Because he was good for one year. He was bad the year before, and we blamed it on Freddy Kitchens. He was bad last year. We blame it on his injuries.

The one year he had a good coach and a healthy body, he was decent. He was an NFL starting quarterback so i assumed that they were going to pay him given their history there and i was like man y'all better pay him earlier because like the cap's only going to go up and up people are only going to push this higher and higher pay him now before you're stuck in a situation where you're in a bidding war over baker mayfield i was wrong all right so you were wrong which is not always easy for any of us to say uh on that one and yeah i think it was hurt last year too but i think the parts of baker's personality that people were kind of worried about and you didn't really it was one of those classic things like if

he's winning it's cool look how good he is in the commercials and then you start losing it's like how come he's doing all these commercials same shit happened to rg3 like i remember that when it was like this is amazing you know this guy's the face of the franchise and everything and it's like now all of a sudden he can't slide right you're like man he's doing a lot of subway ads it's just it's fucking ridiculous how how quickly we move we move it um on how we judge you but did you have like i went through it all right so you had you had plumber towards the end of the Denver run, and then you had Cutler in his first year as a starter, right? And then you had 23 year old Matt Ryan. You had Flacco in his second season as a starter. So he's 24 and then 25. Maybe there was a younger guy on there too, but was there, was there, you're shaking your head already.

So go ahead, shake, tell me what you me what you're anticipating what the question was before I even get it. What's motivating you shaking your head? I never had that guy. I never played on a team where you felt confident no matter what. My rookie year, we went 13-3, and Jake Plummer was putting up some big numbers. Ben Roethlisberger beat us in the conference championship in large part because he was giving me the business. So I don't blame Jake Plummer for that, but I think that season was the best quarterback play. Matt Ryan was awesome as a rookie.

So I'd say that was probably the best season that I had as a quarterback play. But, and then I was gone. I got a free agent in Baltimore, Joe Flacco, who ended up having an awesome playoff run. So like I played with guys who had the potential to reach that, but I never played with like an all-time great or a top five in the league type of guy. And I imagine that feels incredible. It's what my high school teammates must have felt like when I was out there. It doesn't matter what we do. He got us.

It's not a feeling I had. I remember in locker rooms with Ray and Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs. We would practice pitching the ball in practice. If you get a turnover, you better not get tackled with it. My first interception, I sat on an out route. My first interception in Baltimore, I sat on an out route to, I think it was to Braylon Edwards. I caught it, and I'm running, trying to get down the sideline to score.

It was a bad pass, so I couldn't make it there. And someone grabs and starts yanking the ball away from me. And I'm holding it tight. And it's Ray. Give it up. Give it up. And I let it go. And that was like, because they would talk about in practice in the locker room is we're going to have to score today.

If we want to win, we're going to have to score today. And stopping them is not enough. if we want to win, we're going to have to score today. And stopping them is not enough. And so that was the situation I was always in, which is a heightened situation of pressure where I imagine if you had Peyton Manning as your quarterback, you give up six and you're like, no big deal. I played against Peyton Manning.

And when I gave up six, I'm like, no big deal. I played against Peyton Manning and when I gave up six, I'm like, we lost. We are down in the third, down in the fourth. We are not, I think we lost to them 13 to 16

when I was in Baltimore. I was not happy. I can't imagine those practices, man. Oh, they're great. I think I might have told this story on your show before that just to speak to, like Ray gets a ton of credit. He deserves it. And I mean, we talked about like off the field transgressions like Ray was was kind of the last player to have a big off the field transgression before Goodell came in with the hammer and Ray, there was no conviction. So Ray's penalty was very minor given what happened.

But anyway, people talk a lot about Ray and how competitive he is. And he is. He's crazy. He's an awesome guy to play with and a great teammate, incredibly smart. But the unique thing about him was he had this ability to take himself

to some place mentally before even the most mundane, meaningless game. And I'm a young player on that team trying to prove myself. And we're playing, I think, a night game in Cleveland. We know we're going to win. And we're in the tunnel. And I'm like, all right, let's go do this.

And Ray has tears in his eyes. And I'm like, all right, let's go do this. And Ray has tears in his eyes. And I like, who the hell am I? Ray's already won a Super Bowl at this point. He's already, they already started carving his bust a Hall of Fame. He is in the conversation for best defensive player of all time, not just best linebacker all time. He's already all of that. He's at the tail end of his career at this point.

And he's like in tears in the tunnel. And eventually, I work up whatever to... And he's getting intense, ready to play. And he mentioned to me how the crime stats in Baltimore are impacted by whether we win or lose. And that's some Michael Jordan type stuff. You know, Michael Jordan find a grudge and makeup stories. Like we all remember that from, from growing up and from the last dance, but Ray like sincerely believed and maybe it was true,

but it wasn't going to make me play harder, but it, for him, it was special. And then the, the edge story that I like to tell is he was always looking for an angle to get better or an angle to get an advantage. And I remember when I first got there, my first game wasn't good. Second game, a little bit better.

But I was playing scared because I'd been watching Ed play. And I was like, I don't know where the hell he's going to be. And it's like, I don't want to give up a touchdown. So I'm going to play off. And so then I started hosting everybody at my house, all the DBs at my house for film study. And Ed would talk through what he was seeing and thinking. And it's just genius.

Like him and Ray both were like real, you don't get this set about defensive players this much, but they're just like really, they were quarterbacks mentally. And so a interception that Ed got in that, in the Colts game that I was talking about earlier. So we had studied film and saw that they like to repeat plays. They have a successful big play.

They're going to run to the line, hurry up, repeat the play and either you stop it and we noticed like, alright, other teams noticed this. So they ran a comeback on me and I was like, and they ran to the line, they said whatever code word they were using to repeat the play. And I looked back at Ed, which meant they're repeating a play.

I'm sitting on this. Ed and I already knew that if I sit on it, they convert and he runs past to run a go. So snaps the ball. They run the comeback again. I sit on it. Reggie Wayne puts his hands up and runs past me. The snap of the ball, Ed takes two steps to the left and then just turns and hauls ass to the right and gets over and intercepts the ball.

Like once I was able to understand what level he was playing on, like I could see the same things that he was seeing, which allowed me, I was like, all right, I know. I think it was a playoff game that I watched with him the year before where he was in cover two and they ran double slants. The Dolphins ran double slants. I think it was a year before.

He's a deep half safety. You're not supposed to pick off a slant. He intercepted it because he knew QB under I think it was a second or third and short. QB under, third and short, two by two. They love double slant right here, especially with the flopped

alignment from the outside receiver on the slot side. He did all that. He jumps it. It's an interception for them. But you have to be at a savant level to be able to see and process all that. And also, you have to have the pelts on the wall to be able to do that because anybody else doing that, it's a problem. Yeah, back to the Ray part, though. I do remember the crime thing

because then he actually shared it with us it was there was a thing where he his quote was like this thing called crime and we were like what and so now that actually makes more sense because now we understand what the hell he was talking about but when i was talking about the you know having a teammate going to the off the field stuff the reason i'm not going to bring up Ray is because at that stage, I already know what the answer is. It wasn't like anybody at that stage, by the time you were in Baltimore, Ray Lewis in the locker room, where he brought up a point that somebody was going to say,

well, Ray, I think you should sit this one out. Nobody's going to say that to him. Right. But I mean, so our locker room was a different place. That Baltimore culture is a special one. Never been around anything like that. I could give you some more stories about how great that place was from a cultural standpoint. And to the point of Ray, all the stuff that the outside world would make fun

of Ray about, we would in the locker room too. It was a weird situation where how you might receive the crime thing as like as like dramatic and and wild like though it worked for ray it didn't work for everybody on the team and like even guys who weren't like starters it's a crazy culture like backup guys were like comfortable making fun of ray it was was a very egalitarian-type culture. And I think it's part of the reason why they've been so successful for so long.

But I did want to tell this Edge story, and I didn't think I was going to come on here and just be a Raven storyteller, but it gives you a little insight into the way Edge's mind works. We do two-minute draw at the end of practice every day, and it's ones against ones, offense against defense. And Joe Flacco gets under center after completing a ball

and wants to spike the ball to stop the clock. Ed times up the snap and dives in practice under the center's legs to try to catch the spike, to intercept the spike. He does not succeed, but that gives you insight into how this, when I say the man's looking for every little edge and there's nothing that crosses his mind or there's nothing that he has not considered, it's like this man was, was practicing stealing a spike so that at some point in the game, he was going to steal a spike.

That's incredible. One last thing that I want to get to here. How much have you shared about the writing stuff with, with other platforms? I haven't talked about it at all. All right. So is it fair for me just to – hey, you're writing, you're working, you're working in drama, screenwriting.

You and I have talked about this now for a little while. We shared our passion for it. And you ended up getting hooked up with the guys in the Aaron Hernandez TV show. So you're in the writer's room still right now, right? We're going through this process. Yep. Started in October. It's about five hours a day via zoom and then a couple hours,

extra hours to write a script and actually went out to LA for a week to like be live in, in, in the room when we, when we did it. But yeah, it's been an incredible process so it's like the the american crime story series like the oj and versace like all the the brian murphy products they are i'm spinning off to a american sports story the first one they're gonna do is um aaron hernandez so i'm in the writer's room and I actually got a script. I'm not just in there as a football consultant, which is what they tried to do to me at first. They're like, you'll just be the football consultant.

So then I went in there and I'm a competitor. So I showed my ass and then they promoted me to a full staff writer and I got a script and everything. It's hard as hell, but I still love it, man. All right. So what's it like first time? It's outstanding. So it's a lot of conversations. It's a lot of debate. It's a lot of opinions. It's incredibly creatively fulfilling and challenging. And I think that's part of what I like about it is it's an opportunity to communicate to people in a way like the sports aside, like I could care less about the sports of the story. I think it's the bigger picture stuff that really interests me when I read when I watch something. me when I read when I watch something. I think I'm all often looking for what they're trying to say. And I think that's what excites me about being a part of this process as well. I'm going

to get the credit for writing one of the scripts. It was so much more input in my script by everyone else. And there's so much of me in the rest of the scripts. It just feels like a really cool, collaborative, like a really cool collaborative, like a team aspect thing. And I think maybe if I'm looking for some parallels in my life, like it's the first time that I've felt similar to what you feel in the locker room. And I don't miss playing, but I miss parts of playing. And the part I miss most is like a small group of guys where it's us and everybody outside the room is them.

And while we aren't like competing in games or whatever, we're not competing against someone per se. Like even when we we do an outline or we do a script and we send it to the the executives to take a look at, they're them. And and we are like fiercely defensive of the things that we've done like we take the input that's given to us but like that's to me is one of the most exciting parts and when it finally comes out like we're the writers so we don't get not director we're not the actors so it's gonna be it's gonna get someone else's creative influence on top of it. But that is going to feel like game day and this whole process. Even the times when I'm up to...

There was one week where I'm doing two jobs. So I'm up till four o'clock in the morning every night for one week to get the script done. And I'm sure everyone can relate to this. In the process of doing something like that, it sucks, but it's also that feeling where like it sucks so good. I don't know if anyone else, I'm sure you can relate to that, where like you're grinding

and you feel good about it in a way. And like, it's hard to find something that you care enough about to put that effort in, but I have in this and I love it. There's another part of the story too that I'm going to share because i just think it's funny between you and i i interviewed for it and foxworth got it and you thought i was

going to be mad at you i did why i was so pumped for you i seriously was pumped for you i there was not one because first of all you know how much i like you yeah and you know i know we're not like boys boys checking in all the time but when i said hey i heard i think you've got it and i'm not getting it and you like we haven't really talked that much since maybe you thought i was bullshitting you because there's nothing better than our business people telling everybody how happy they are for a mother motherfucking behind their back i i was straight up happy for you because i think it's an awesome experience and i know how bad you wanted it because we've talked about it now for a while. So I was I was cool with it.

Yeah. I mean, you and I are different places in this process. You are working on your own stuff, you know. And so I think had we been at the same position, like I really wanted it. Like I need that credibility. So like if you were also like needing that credibility, like because before that, no one thought of me as someone who was capable of being a screenwriter. Now I could walk in a room and say I'm a screenwriter. I wrote a fucking script. It's real.

Yeah. Right. Big time drama. Like I did it. So I think if you were in that same spot you would have been mad or you've been like not mad but like competitive it's natural to be competitive like but i think because i'm a step behind you in this process it's kind of like little bro like yeah good for you it's a different see now see maybe i made a mistake like maybe i would sound like i was trying to give myself

credit for being cool about it but i i maybe i should have just kept it in simplest form and that i was just happy for you and by the way i don't know i don't know we could be talking about how much more established i am in this but it is it's kind of what i have been talking about though the chasing part of it of like i want something that challenged me so hard that when it does pay off i'm like this was worth it because those moments in front of the laptop by yourself when it's going wrong they're the fucking worst and it's just you you know it's it's and then sometimes you're like am i ever gonna fix this am i ever gonna get out of this is anybody gonna like any of this stuff does it make any kind of sense whatsoever so uh i i hate to get philosophical and and weird or whatever but i do think that

people say like money doesn't make you happy and like it feels like bs or whatever but like different people different things speak to different people and i think you and i are similar and that like the challenge of it is um like really engaging and enriching and to be able to find another mountain to try to climb, whether you get to the peak of it or not, like waking up in the morning, tired as hell, getting the kids off to school, doing what I got to do around the house, doing my ESPN stuff stuff and then like being really excited to do more work. I love it, man. I love it. All right. Well, you come on then. When's it when's it debuting, by the way? We got a ways. Yeah, we got a ways to go. Yeah. The room opened in October. It's

supposed to close in a couple of weeks. So we haven't even started casting and all that stuff. I'm not sure if I'm going to be, how much of the process I'm going to be a part of going forward. I'm hoping I've shown myself well, well enough that I can be involved in some of the process going forward, but we'll see. And like, yeah,

the showrunner, a guy named Stu Zickerman is outstanding, incredible. Like he's the one who gave me the opportunity and, and then also trusted me enough to give me more responsibility after I showed I was capable of it.

As you know, that's super rare and unlikely, and he's been patient and flexible with me throughout this whole process. And ESPN let me do it, which is cool. The rules seem to be changing more and more with the industry. If I had said to ESPN, well, granted, having a radio which is cool. Yeah. It's the rules seem to be changing more and more with the industry where

like, if I had said that ESPN, well granted having a radio show five days a week, it was just not, I don't think it's realistic to be able to done both, but it is kind of funny how the business in general is allowing kind of more stuff. And it,

I think it's because they, that, that back then they value valued you and talent like talent differently than they do now. And I think part of that is like, all right, well, we got a couple guys that we're going to pay with money. The rest of them we're going to pay with money and privileges. Yes, maybe that's it. Maybe that's it.

But yeah, Stu's a really great guy, so I'm glad that's working out. All right, well, come on again and talk about this further on because I could do just 30, 40 minutes on that in the room and your experience as a first-time guy. But I wanted to share that with everybody because they're pumped for you. All right? Thanks a lot, bro.

Talk to you soon. He's one of the most talented guys I've ever worked with. Peter Rosenberg joins us. What are we up to on the job count? Four now? Yeah, I'd like to be working. I'm,

I'm planning one day to work the other direction. I really, I swear to you, I, I, I really am, but I, I have the two radio shows still in New York,

a hot 97 in the morning, ESPN in the afternoon. And then I do a wrestling podcast and the, the WWE moonlighting. And, and then I do a hip podcast and the WWE moonlighting and then I do a hip hop podcast just for fun basically every week to sit and talk with my friends so I do plenty I do plenty it's a big part of our wrestling

content here at the ringer Cheap Heat is out and I know you got a couple other things coming on too and you guys are all going to Wrestlemania 38 as well with live pods green room the whole deal oh yeah so alright let me let me ask you this how many wrestling storylines are left you what do you mean like ever to tell for the future or like yeah like where are we in the process of of that well well that's so like this is what a surveyor

saying well the the ultimate storyline this is what you're asking about. I know how to get to what you'd be interested in. The ultimate storyline that has not played out yet would be the Vince McMahon succession storyline. Like that would be the thing that's still out there where you have Vince McMahon, his son Shane, his daughter Stephanie, his son-in-law Triple H, who just announced that he's never wrestling again, but he's still one of the great minds in the wrestling business. You also have Nick Khan, who has become a major player behind the scenes in WWE, which I'm sure they could bring to the storyline as well. To me, that's the craziest, sexiest storyline that's sitting out there. All right. So what I mean, it's not like they're going to give this thing away. I mean, it's a family business.

And it always felt like, you know, again, I don't pay a ton of attention to it, but I'm not a guy that knocks it. Like if people are into it, you know, be into it. You know what I mean? Like, who am I to say, have less fun, enjoy something you enjoy less. Like, I'm certainly i don't have time for some stuff i even enjoy now but why would why would the mcbans have been doing this this long like what is potentially in play that plays well as a storyline but also plays well as a business idea well i i guess i guess there's a few things i mean listen i'm i'm totally speaking out of

school this is just me as a fan yeah but you work for him too right so yes so like i i work there you know but like i'm a i'm a contractor you know i do i do pay-per-view events i'm going to be hosting a show uh this year like i i do things here and there but like it's not my full-time employment i have a a really great situation there but i don't speak on any knowledge like i do not have conversations with the mcmahons i don't know i speculate and this is sort of one of the funny things about doing cheap heat for the ringer is like I still just sort of speak on it as an outsider even though they let me come in once a month and work as an insider um but essentially my guess would be you know there's a world in which there's always been rumors they would sell. Maybe they'd sell to Disney.

Maybe at this point they'd sell to one of the massive streamers, something like that, that they could make a ton of money and sort of everyone moves on. And some huge streamer continues the legacy and the brand continues, but they move on. I am with you. I don't see that part happening. The brand continues, but they move on. I am with you. I don't see that part happening. However, there's another interesting play about just simply, you know, Vince McMahon wants to work until he's like 105 years old. And by all accounts, he's not human.

And that is possible. But assuming one day he's not able to work full time, who runs day to day operations? That is an interesting thought because he is still incredibly hands-on. Yeah, right. I think, and again, I don't want to put you in a spot here where I'm like,

oh, what are they going to do? What are they going to do? When, does Nikon rep you now though? No. Because that's like, he doesn't rep, but he's, you know, I know it's... He's not an,

Nikon, so for people who don't know, Nikon was a huge sports talent agent. By the way, I would just add to this. He was easily the most powerful guy that represented people at ESPN for a long stretch there. Like when you had Nick Khan, you just knew it was always going to work out. So there you go. Did you ever have Nick Khan? I did have him for a little while.

And so that's exactly right, though. Major power player, got people. I might be the one. I might be the one where it was like it didn't work go ahead gotta say if you were to go talk to like you know beetle kellerman all the big deals you heard about like a lot of those were were nick get up and then staffing the reason it exists i think i i don't know i mean there are rumors that nick khan one day was like hey do you want to give three of my clients a huge platform in the morning? Like done. Yeah.

You know, he was the man. He was the man. And a couple of years ago, he left CAA, which was a huge surprise and just went to WWE. And since then, he's become a really important, you know, front facing person for the company. Not front facing on television, but front facing brand wise behind the scenes. So there's that part that's interesting because he's now had a role that has emerged. And Stephanie, of course, has always been involved and still is from like a sort of another front facing global ambassador sort of thing and lots of other things, women's initiatives, so many different things they do. women's initiatives, so many different things they do. And then you have Triple H who created NXT and did all these cool things sort of behind the scenes culturally at WWE. Shane McMahon, who had left and then came back.

Like, so there's just I can't help but think like our writers not watching Succession. Like, aren't they thinking like, hey, we kind of have Succession is one of the most popular things on TV. We have the real deal right here. Yeah, I ran into Stephanie when she was at espn when she was doing part of the car wash thing and it'd been a long-standing thing because you know where i went to school in vermont we had a bunch of greenwich folks there and one of the girls that was from greenwich um stephanie mcmahon came to visit and she was in our dorm room and they were telling us to put on the far side. And it had been this little story that they were like, Oh, I remember when Stephanie

McMahon came to visit, you know, I'm not going to say the other girl's name. And so it had been, I don't know, 20 plus years. And so I ran into her, I was getting ready and mic'd up to go on a talk and be at sports center. She was coming off and I was like, Hey, you know, my name is Ryan or solo. Like we actually met years ago. You came up to visit UVM with, you know, and I mentioned the girl that she was friends with. She's like, yeah, that wasn't me. It's like, wait, what? She's like, yeah, that's she's like, I always love hearing about these stories about me.

That was like, well, this isn't even a bad story. I was like, I just, it was, you know, the early nineties and what she's like, yeah, that wasn't me. I've never been there. I don't know who that person is. And I was like, this isn't even a bad story i was like i just it was you know the early 90s and what she's like yeah that wasn't me i've never been there i don't know who that person is and i was like all right yeah good time it's great it's great saying hi to you and so then guys started recircling around like we need to get in touch like wait a minute what was somebody in was this story totally made up like what the hell wait no i was there it was it was in it was in our dorm room we were just geeky freshmen fired up and where did the far side fit in someone just wanted to listen to the far side i heard yeah that was that was what we always remembered it was like hey put on pass me by again so we were like no problem like we can't believe she's in our room and then

so now we're like did we have an imposter or is it just a weirder story where she was like you can get the fuck away from me by the way totally fair that would be totally in bounds also i mean yeah it wasn't it was seriously i think i was going out there to be like probably another mj lebron debate and be like hey we're still getting the c's mj lebron how much meat left on that bone i'll be like i got you i'll be by at 9 40 and i was like oh hey stephanie mcbann it was good to see you again i remember you know she was just like 9 40 and i was like oh hey stephanie mcbann it was good to see you again i remember you know she was just like deadpan looked at me she's like yeah that wasn't

me i've never been there i was like all right good times good times all right so here's here's what i think is always interesting to anybody even the storylines themselves like i have a friend who was in college uh with us and i think still deep down has this seed that has not been watered of loving the idea of working in the writer's room and coming up with the storylines. Like you said, you're, you're not in it. You're kind of a contractor comes by and does this, but can you give us any insight into that part of this world? I'll, I'll say this. It's, you know, it's certainly different now than it was 20 years ago. It is, you know, there are a lot of writers.

There are a lot of people there at any given time. I've never been in a writer's meeting, but they really do have these meetings where writers are pitching ideas to Vince McMahon and everyone's sort of sitting around. And if you come up with a good idea, you get your props and it's like, oh my God, I had a moment. This is fantastic. Like all of those things sort of do exist. Right. But I have no idea what it's like. I know it's

super intense. You know, it's like any sort of writing thing. I'm sure it's akin to SNL. Like you have your ideas. You want to get your storylines done and you really want to get your things through. And I think it's challenging. And then, you know, relationships build. There's some people who say, I work really well with X, X and X. So a lot of that person's stories will all be written by one person. Someone else's stories will be written by someone else. And then, of course, there's like a lot of collaboration.

But like, I don't know. I know everyone always fantasizes about like what they could do yeah being that close to it to me it's like i could just see myself being like you know what just give me the lines uh let me just do the job this this feels like a lot to navigate the the love for the the guys that come back from it you know it's it's unique in that a lot of, when they're done with a place at work to like, I never want to be involved with this again. You know, we, we can tend to, even if we have a great situation and for this case of wrestlers, the fame, the money, obviously there's a physical toll. Um, that part of the history isn't great, but everyone seems to come back for a storyline cycle. I think that's pretty rare for anything

in entertainment. Yeah, that's, well, that's the thing that's, that's what makes it so cycle. I think that's pretty rare for anything in entertainment. Yeah, well, that's the thing. That's what makes it so great. I mean, honestly, like, the reason I would tell anyone who's a lapsed wrestling fan, you know, who's like, I watched WrestleMania 20 years ago, but, like, I'm not watching it this weekend. Like, it's the Final Four. The one thing I would say this, like,

there's a solid chance that at least one of the final four games will disappoint right like that's just sort of the the nature of the beast stone cold steve austin is coming back on saturday night at wrestlemania and it's going to be awesome 1000 guaranteed you will be as happy as you could possibly be, even though we know that on some level, what he's going to do is come back, glass breaks, music hits, Austin runs in, gives someone a stunner, drinks beer, gives the finger, pours the beer, right? That is going to happen and be awesome. And I think because of that, you have people who will always be wanting to get that again. Like, that's why The Rock is not done. The Rock is going to have a formal send-off at some point.

But, like, working on a set for Dwayne Johnson for 18 months is not the same satisfaction of when you hear, if you smell and everyone jumps up, it's just not even the same thing. So because of that, youras your austins your rocks will always come back again and even people who have you know fallouts with the company where you think oh there's no chance they're ever coming back they always come back they always come back yeah wouldn't lesnar be in that category yeah lesnar has left multiple times. You know, he said two years ago when he left, he thought he was done. And then they offered the bag and he came back again.

And now, funny enough, Lesnar is having the best run of his career. I mean, he is the most entertaining he's ever been right now at over 40 years old. And that's another awesome part, too. Like, you know, these are these athletic, competitive dudes that if they were in a competitive sport, unless you're Tom Brady or LeBron, there's just no way to do it anymore. Whereas if you stay in good shape, I don't see why Brock and Randy Orton can't do this till they're 50 years old, 53 years old. Like, it's not competitive sport sport that's the beauty of it it's funny what people don't like about it like the reason i find sports fans get annoyed with it like the sanctity of competition is the only thing that matters in entertainment to me it's the lack

of competition the fact that it's storytelling is what makes it awesome because i get to keep having these guys who i root for and girls for years and years and years. Yeah, like I said, I mean, I don't have time for it, but I loved it as a kid. Well, listen, someone has to watch Utah Sacramento. Right. How are you going to know where the help is coming from? I remember

I went to the Hartford Civic Center when I was in sixth grade to go see Junkyard Dog. I think it was Big John Studd against Hogan. I forget. That sounds right. The missing link made an appearance, which was incredible. But we had second row. So, you know, it was the Whalers arena.

So we're the front rows against the boards and then it's folding chairs on the floor. So we're second front rows against the boards and then it's folding chairs on the floor. So we're second row behind the boards. And it was a group in front of us, two boys, a mom and a dad and the older boy and the dad never sat down the whole time. And I was there with my mom and then her friend and then her son. So it kind of sucked. Like we couldn't see a ton. and so finally somebody said something and the teenage boy turned around and told my mom he was gonna fucking beat her up or something so it was my mom that was the last time she wasn't super into it after that well i think it's improved i think it's improved it oh let me say this this is important that is such a quintessential like 80 you know early it is i'm not saying right it has it has become like it was so cool a month ago they played they were at the garden and i took a bunch of people including my co-host on hot 97 ebro who brought his daughter for the first time she's seven right and laura styles my other co-host, came and my girlfriend came.

We all we all went to the show. And one of the things that's amazing about a WWE live show is there is zero tension audience wise. Like it's such a difference from like I go to MMA, I go to boxing. I'm a fan of all sort of, quote unquote, combat sports. sort of quote unquote combat sports. And yeah, the WWE crowd is such a fun family ish crowd that is just for me, like in my old age, it's like it's stress free. Like two years ago, I went to the UFC. Do you remember the MSG show that Trump showed up to in like towards the end, like twenty eighteen, twenty seventeen? There was a UFC show and everyone's like oh Trump's coming because you know Colby Covington's fighting or whoever it was and I cannot tell you Ryan

how stressed out I was that night I was like I don't even want to be here like there's so many mixes of people who hate each other everyone's wearing affliction shirts something could happen at any moment they still have the affliction shirts going oh yeah come on I mean affliction doesn't die They still have the Affliction shirts going? Oh, yeah. I mean, Affliction doesn't die.

No. Now they're vintage Affliction. But yeah, no, WWE, you will not get cursed out anymore at a WWE show. I wouldn't think. I'm trying to find Hogan's game log here, just because I don't want to give out any misinformation about that. Wait, you're trying to find the actual show that it could have been? I'm trying to.

Because I remember, like, Giancarlo Dog used to let all the kids come up into the ring. You didn't get to go, did you? So I got real close, and then they were like, they cut it off. They were like, no, you're good. You're good. So then Junkyard Dog walked by, and I patted him on the back. And to this day, it's the, I don't want to use this word, but I have to.

It's the moistest a human's body has ever been. I just, I was like, what is that? Like, I was so thrown off. Your hand just slipped on the mix of baby oil, sweat. Yo, a Petroni Kiara dog is so interesting, too. Because, like, and this is one of the things that WWE has that's amazing. And they're bringing back these A&E biographies. There's going to be a whole bunch more coming the next year.

They have so many people who like are outside of that top tier of like crossover names who are so recognizable to our generation. Like Junkyard Dog isn't like who you'd think of as like a huge star. But when you think back to your childhood, you didn't know one kid who didn't know who Junkyard Dog was. Like he was the man. And he never even won a title in WWE. I mean, he'd won titles before that and been a big deal in other parts of the country.

But in WWE, he just sort of like, you know, had a feud with Harley Race about who would be the king of wrestling. And that was it. And he was so popular and has such an interesting story. There are random old pictures you see of JYD in like the late 70s, early 80s. And you just

see him and how he's dressed. And you're just like, this is a man whose story needs to be told i i agree i guess i think it might have been 1984 so i might be right on that one so i was nine all right so i want to ask you about this though because you do hot 97 morning show how long you been doing this now with ebro um i've well i've been there right i know that it's a little different yeah so i've been there since 07 so I've been there for 15 years now. I'm officially that dude who like Ryan, I meet people who say who are adults, like they're grown adults, like an attractive woman will be like, I listened to you when I was a kid. And I'm like, I do the math. And I'm like, well, how old are you? And they're like, I'm 15. I'm like, well, I mean, I'm 25. math and I'm like, well, how old are you? And they're like, I'm 15. I'm like, well, I mean, I'm 25. Yeah. Wait, what? Sorry. Hold on. What? They're like, I'm 25. And I go, oh, well, 15 years

ago. Yeah. You were 10 years old. So yeah, I've been doing that one for 15. And I guess with Ebro, he's been in the mix for like seven of those seven or eight. How did you guys handle Kanye after watching the Kanye doc? Cause I know you guys have talked about Kanye nonstop. Oh my God. Um, we, we've, we've spent a ton of time on him. Like it's, it's, I loved the doc. So, so I went from just been crushing him. Like just, there's nothing that he does that doesn't annoy me to I'm watching the documentary and I'm just like, please feed me more. Put it in my veins. Like I need to see this dude who was so fascinating. And you're reminded of not that he was like a better person back then, because you can see that he was kind of always this person. But it's just a reminder of how insane the talent and the drive is.

And so we spent a lot of time on it. You know, we all have different relationships with Kanye. Ebro has, you know, has been very close to them at times, but very critical. Me and Kanye have never gotten on. Like, he's one of those people that there are only a few people that I've ever dealt with in the industry who like it just feels like oil and water when we talk it just like does not connect the way I think it will and he's always it's always been that way with him but I gotta tell you I'm still obsessed with his music like I he drives me nuts and I absolutely love his catalog yeah I get the chills watching the first part of the documentary because watching him walk walk around rockefella and he's

he's rhyming these songs that are becoming massive hits i know and they're just looking at him being like can you fucking get out of here and i think anybody that's ever creative and had dreams about what they've wanted to accomplish to see that like it's inspiring and that's why i've always really liked him i knew about that story i knew about the one kid from capitol that was like no he's a singer he's a rapper he's good i mean i've seen that stuff for years anybody that knows the story knows all that part of it but considering all the things that he's done in the last few years whatever this this this however the wikipedia headline would say from years there to years wherever right um he's done a lot of shit that pisses everybody off and I wouldn't defend him on it. But I felt like after seeing this, and even though you kind of knew something was off the way this closes, where he's having basically episodes that are being filmed.

Yeah. of this because you know just because something's going on doesn't mean you always get to be right but i feel like some of the criticism towards him it's a it feels different now because now at least you understand it better even if you kind of knew already i agree i think that's a really fair point and a good way of looking at it and you know what like uh i got a couple messages from people being like oh your voice is in the documentary. And my thought was, oh, and this speaks to what you were just saying about commenting on things. I, I like kind of cringed. I'm like, oh God, what did they use me saying? It's the worst feeling because we comment on him so much. Like literally I've probably done, you know, I don't even know, 50 hours all time on Kanye, 75. Like we've spent days and days and days. So I'm like, oh, God, what did they include?

As it turned out, it was fine. Like it was critical, but not unkind. And it was whatever. But yeah, it's hard. How do you analyze someone who's constantly making noise, constantly doing things that are hard to defend? who's constantly making noise, constantly doing things that are hard to defend. But there's a part of you. And I think also seeing his mother was so endearing and reminded you just of his humanity.

Like he's a kid with a mom who loved him so much, you know, so much that she actually made him believe he could do anything. And he did. He did. He did everything. So like there, I do think the, the,

the genius doc restored. And also not only did it restore a certain sense of humanity, but I just, you know, Ryan, you're someone who has like dreams and you you're open about the things you want to do. And as time goes on,

you want to do things. And I'm similar. How do you not Marvel at what Cootie and Chique, the directors did just to hold onto that and get it done? Like it, to me, that's just incredible. The Hey Mama scene where he's rapping to her and singing to her in the

kitchen and she's, she's going along with him. Like to have that kind of relationship with your mother. I know, I know. I was like, I love my mom and we're close. I can't relate to my mom,

like rapping along my songs with me. I was like I love my mom and we're close I can't relate to my mom like rapping along my songs with me I was like she was a different she was a different kind of mom yeah no and then she was special and now I'm sitting here having to pick size between him and Pete Davidson so now I don't know what to do no I don't I know I'm supposed to take Pete Davidson's side so no you have you're supposed to pick pete davidson listen well pete davidson so kanye and i have never gotten along pete davidson and i were very close and he arbitrarily just stopped talking to me permanently so when he blew up a little bit no he was already blown up it was like this is actually an entertaining story great i

love this he was he was my dude like pete was my dude had done i'd known him for a few years and then he did came and did my show a couple times and like ebro left town and i'd be like yo pete do you want to come sit in like we'll just do the morning show he came in two mornings in a row like we'll we'll we'll do mornings awesome time goes on we get tighter this is maybe 2018 now a few years ago i had my little complex show i was doing my like little late night kind of show and pete just hits me out of the blue and is like dude want to do your show and i'm like dude all i'm doing right now is trying to beg celebrity friends to do my show. And you're volunteering. You're the fucking man. Okay. You can absolutely do the show. Thank you.

He's like, all right. Uh, how about we'll do this week. I'll come in tomorrow. And I was like, done. Clear the schedule. Pete Davidson's our guest tomorrow. Done. Pete comes in. He does the show. He's great. He does what he does. Talks a lot of crazy shit. Insults Joe Budden. Insults this person. You know, gives you all the hits. Talk shit about people. Talk about how he loves Kid Cudi. Tell SNL Donald Trump stories. Like, funny and awesome and great. Interview ends. I talk to our team about removing certain things from the interview. I'm like, let's take this out,

take this out. Like he's my boy. I do not want this in the interview. He's good. He gave us enough, like take that shit out, protecting him a little bit, just protecting him.

Right. Just protect. And this is, I know. I mean, I don't want to add to the narrative of the evil media, but yes, there are times when we will be like,

if it's someone you like, you go, Hey, let's, let's just be mindful of their brand here. They're doing us a solid. So we clean it up. Now, keep in mind, Pete has a major, at this exact moment, he's getting into a relationship with Ariana Grande. Okay. I know about this. And Pete is such a sort of sweet, organically effusive guy that like he's telling me play by play of what's happening.

Right. I don't bring it up on the show. I know we're not doing anything with that. Like, it's cool, dude. I don't need any of that shit. Show comes out. They run promo for the show. The promo they run is, I don't know, something sort of nondescript. It wasn't anything like salacious.

And they put up a couple of them and he hits me up kind of annoyed. Like, dude, how much promo are they trying to get out of my interview? And I'm like, I don't know, as much as humanly possible. Like, you're a big star. I don't really know. I was like, but is there anything really problematic with what they said? I already cleaned up everything for you. And then he's like, oh,

you're right. You're right. My bad. I, let me, let me chill. Let me chill. Two days later, they put out like one more clip. So now the show has been out and they did like a post promotion. So three days later, the, you know, the team at complex releases another clip and he just hits me up and is like, dude, I fucking did this favor for you. And now blah, blah, blah. Fuck that. And literally never heard from him again. I was like, I over complex promoing. And then, and then keep in mind, three days later, he's on the front page of TMZ every single day. Like, like you were worried about being overexposed. You you're now publicly with Ariana Grande. What the fuck? Um um but he is a wonderful dude he's just a fucking he's an emotional guy you can see that i feel like that story is very

true to what you would kind of guess about his personality no yeah and look if i run into him out here i'll try to clean that up for you all right you can you ryan can you just like just say bit listen listen just like your conversation with stephanie i'm sure it'll go great peter rosenberg he is uh everywhere but make sure you check out his gp podcast to bring her wrestlemania 38 this weekend dallas green room live shows the whole deal uh let's catch up longer this time all right man i would like that and we don't have to talk about wrestling the whole time i don't know you did all right with it i know i appreciate that though thank you bud thank you

you want details bye You're doing such a good with it. I know. I appreciate that, though. Thank you, bud. Thank you. 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, life advice is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. All right, let's check out a dating one here. How are you guys doing? I'm good. US, looking like they're going to be in the World Cup.

So things are on the up. Yeah, we need to do a going abroad with you. And then maybe we'll have Kevin on to promote the F1 pod because we probably would have had him on at this point, but he's got his own F1 pod going. So I'm fired up for them. All right, here we go. Dating girl. Not sure where it's going. 510-175-30.

Could hoop a little in high school. Great. So a few years back, I was set up on a blind... Oh, wait, a few weeks back, I was set up on a blind date by a family friend. Got the girl's number from the friend, texted her, got to know her a little. As much as you can, a stranger over text.

And set up a date a few days later. First date went well, better than I expected. Spent a few hours together, had some chemistry. Immediately set up another date for a few days later, which is where the first issue comes about. She lives well over an hour away from me. Don't have to mention this on air. Okay. So yeah. All right. He's telling me where they live. Got it. Uh, it seemed a little far bordering on long distance, but the first date went so well, I figured it was worth exploring. That was less than 48 hours between the dates. so we didn't text much before the second date. I drove her to place the second date,

which took almost two hours for this drive. Right, if they hit that drive at the wrong time, it's not LA, but it would be bad. It went well because I did that drive once. Not as good as the first, but I still liked her and liked where it was going. The obvious choice for the third date was for her to come to where I live,

but we had some scheduling issues, so we said we could circle back on a time and place. I texted her the next day for some ideas for times and then proceeded to not hear from her for almost two days. I assumed as anyone would that I'd just been ghosted. Not a big deal. It happens. But then she finally responded and we set up a third day. I tried to get some conversation going, but again, radio silence for her until we actually had the third day. We had the third day and it went well again. This is great. It's like rollercoaster of emotions here. We seem to get along and she seems like a very dateable girl, et cetera. I'm just starting to find it hard to get excited about setting

things up with her. We literally do not talk unless we were on a date or setting up a date. Again, I feel like we get along well, but she lives at least an hour and a half away and it feels like someone I'm dating and it feels less like someone I'm dating and just someone I see once in a while. My friends think I'm being too harsh and too picky that she's just not a big texter, but it's gotten to a point where the girl basically disappears between times we hang out. I would think she's just not interested, but she keeps saying yes and seems excited when I do hear from her. I don't think this would be a big issue if she lived close by, but the distance thing kind of worsens it.

We can't just pop in to see each other or grab happy hour, et cetera. I just want to know, am I wrong to think something is a little off? You think it will get better the more we get to know each other and should I just keep at it? Any advice would be great.

Well, my first question is, if it doesn't work out. She sounds perfect, man. Are you kidding? This is amazing. she doesn't text you all the time she doesn't want to hang out constantly it's my first time yeah you get an hour and a half buffer two on a on a friday no that's that's cool like later on now at the early onset part like you want to be excited like you want her to like you know reciprocate the excitement like when you're if you're dating for two years

and she lets you play Xbox and play FIFA for three hours a night, then that's great. But early on, that's a red flag to me. Ryan, is this dating in the early 90s? Unless you're talking on a landline, what are you going to do? Isn't that sort of just like it? You see her when you see her and we set stuff up.

You're not like, so what are you doing? How's lunch? I love it. We talk about the important shit yeah well you probably would if you cared about the person you you'd go get the long cord you'd go to another room really put your feet on the wall talk yeah you just talk for like an hour and a half like i don't know we just talk man we just talk the whole time uh when I was dating in the 90s, though, I was in college for a good chunk of it. And then I was still sort of in college. So, you know, college dating is not a great line.

Is it swingers where he's like, how did you meet her? And he's like, we were in college. You're just drunk all the time. Fair. Yeah. So and then people did get cordless phones. So I don't want to I don't want to date myself too much here all right well look um the first thing i would do was not call her out on the texting thing i would just sort of ride this one you seem to like her you seem to get along

um she just might not be a big texter and i could tell you there was one time in my life where i called somebody i feel like an absolute loser. And she was just going to laugh and be like, wait, you asked somebody else about not texting you back. But there was one girl who I was like, what the fuck? I'm like, she never. And she was younger than me. And I told my friends, I was like, she doesn't text back. She doesn't text back.

She would go days and not text. And they were like, wait, how old is she? And she doesn't, they were like, oh, does she live with a boyfriend or something? I was like, nope, that's not the case. I'm like, we get along really well. We haven't seen each other. This was an incredibly, incredibly short window, by the way. And I said something, I was like, hey, am I like, do you just not like texting? Just let me know. And then I'll, I, I got it. And then it kind of, it led to something else that ended up being another conversation where I had heard through a third party that I was called clingy, which may be the worst possible scouring report ever imaginable

on your boy that anybody would ever think that I'd be clingy, but I was so thrown off this one time. I could tell you, I could recite day to day, like, wait, what the fuck is going on here? So I would caution anyone that's going through this to bring it up to the other person. Cause nobody like whoever doesn't like texting is also not going to love being told like, Hey, you don't really text me back. All right. Because I've also heard that plenty of times on the other side. So since you like her and I think she's kind of telling you what her expectations are of this, I would just lower your own expectations. Now, if the drive and the no texting thing bothers you, move on. If this were Los Angeles, seriously, no one here will date anyone else like three towns or more away

like it's you you die their date in hollywood date in the south bay you date santa monica like it doesn't people i look i'm not saying no one does it but it's it was very clear early on where people like yeah you either meet somebody in your little thing or everybody just breaks up because you're like i'm not fucking driving all the way there. Like, wait, Calabasas? Like, I don't care who you are. That's not happening. Fucking car dealership. So I think what you've been told here is despite liking this person

to adjust your own expectations to it, I wouldn't. And then if it just wears on you, then you can call it off. But don't turn it into something that it isn't. Like, there's also, I think for guys too, there can be a real like wake up call to the ego a little bit where, you know, the guy can, I always kind of like whoever has the upper hand, I don't know. I don't know what the ratio breaks down to male, female here, upper hand, but every relationship is different. But I remember there was another time too, where I was talking to somebody and then she was like, well, I'm a serial dater. And I was like, but she was telling me basically like, if I'm out

of pocket every now and then, like if I don't return it, it's probably because I'm out on a date. Cause I just love going out on dates all the time. I just date, date, date and dinners and meet guys. I'm like, you can just go to a dinner with somebody you don't even know. And you'll go to another one. She's like, oh, I just love going going on dates and meeting people and networking or whatever i'm like well that's not really networking that's no and it's like well does he know he's does he know it's networking so i was kind of like this is fucking crazy using his company card on this when he picks up the check what the hell's going on here is he right yeah right yeah met her on linkedin it's like crazy that they're single my goodness expensive so unless she's dating all the time or whatever

maybe you don't like her having the upper hand clearly she does i would just again the lesson of this would be to adjust your expectations of what the relationship is without expressing any of these things to her ride it out for a little bit see where it goes um and you're probably going to ask yourself some real honest questions to try to be honest with yourself like does it feel like this is somebody that's a little above your pay grade? Because it probably is if you're driving an hour and a half, two hours every single time. And by the way, if a friend set you up, can't you ask the friend,

do a little recon here? What's the deal? Because there's also the other part of it. Could she be seeing somebody else? And that's why texting and that's why the long distance so now that i've totally fucked with you look what we've done here great job enjoy great job with that i think i think this is great i think your advice is great but i also think this is a great life advice it's like it's the stakes are low it can you know most some people can tell

you're overreacting but you're right it feels weird i get it so this is a perfect down the middle life advice question and nobody's going to get hurt from anything we say, but I think absolutely lower your expectations. And you might even be surprised when you lower your expectations. Maybe you'll just be crazy and just call her one time. What if you just called her? I don't know. Once you lower your face timer, once you're in the morning, I wouldn't, I wouldn't face. I don't think I would face timer. I think the, uh, especially, I think definitely girls sometimes, the impromptu FaceTime it's like, ah, no, never. Maybe she's not a texter. Maybe she's a

caller. I'm actually a caller. Like, I'd rather be called than be in a battle that goes back and forth over text about something that maybe is totally nothing. It's like, we'll get it all out now. We'll get it all out now. You're a small talk guy. I can't see you being a small talk guy.

No, it's not small talk, but it's like, what the hell's going on? Like, how are you? Like, I'd rather call my friends and text my friends. I think they are probably all in the other camp, and I've been bothering them for years about it, but I'm still going to call you. What can you do? But maybe she's just not a texter.

And like you said, there's probably not a good way to find that out. You can be like, hey, are you just like not a texter or something? Because then, my God, shots through the heart. Some people are just not texters. Even though this guy's saying, hey, do you want to go somewhere? And he's throwing out options and plans. And to not have any answer for that two days is annoying. But that tells you she's just not

a texter if she keeps wanting to see you or you're just her side piece. Right. Exactly. That's why I think only good things can come from lowering your expectations i think you're right we should all be doing it we should all be doing it yeah so rudy you seem to have a little bit more on there no i just i just don't i'm annoyed for him because in the early stages of this kind of thing even if you're a bad texter i feel like bad

texters still text because they're interested in the person they just want to seem cool and they want to chat and they want to be flirtatious or whatever so the fact that they're he's getting none of that like i understand his frustration and to me i don't do you joke with her and be like hey what's the deal here am i actually the guy on the side like maybe you mess around with that way and like no i don't think no no make it make sure it's 100 of joke because then i don't know like what's she gonna maybe i don't maybe you are maybe you find out or maybe she's just like yeah sorry i've been dropping the bar i've been really busy at work maybe there as is actually an excuse for it but i don't like the way it started you know and is it going to get any better because you're the one that's driving an hour two hours to wherever

the hell this place is i i just don't know what enjoyment you're getting out of this um because it's more than just meeting up with her once you know a week and driving two hours i love that we've sort of untapped this part of Cerruti that's just romantic in the beginning. And you're like, this is before we start fighting and find annoying things. Yeah, he's just like, what's your deal anyway, man? Just

believe in love, dude. Hey, we're just... There you go. We don't need to say anything else. That'd be another new t-shirt for the line. I just believe in love dude okay we're gonna try one that's a little bit more uh there's gonna be a little bit more emotional i don't know don't worry about that the headline is tough i'll send it along but i think we'll i've read it we'll get through it'll be fine adopt a dog or let him die okay uh big fan of the show

59170 change names here some the dog my sister adopted is freaking adorable. He's great when he wants to play, actually wants to be petted and touched. He can be a really sweet dog and will play fetch with his toys. However, the issue is he can have moments of madness and grumpiness where he bites you if he doesn't want to be touched. This usually occurs at night when he's tired and wants to sleep. However, he can growl and show teeth at other times if he's napping midday, for example. He hasn't bitten any strangers or friends. As my family, he's good about warning others who want to pet him around the nighttime or the dog's nattimes.

He's bit my mom, dad, sister, and cousin. However, that was primarily when my sister had just adopted him and the dog was still getting to know us. I haven't been bitten yet because my parents told me, and whenever I visit my parents' place and the dog is around, I generally avoid petting him at all. If the dog is close to getting ready to bite you, he can show his teeth at you and start to growl. From background, the dog was abused by the previous owners and had his voice box removed, so he can't even bark.

When he barks, it's just a whimper. The dog has had a really tough life. Okay. My sister has a tendency to dump the dog over at my parents' when she travels most weekend. So she's gone most weekends. Cool. And she adopted a fucking dog. This is what I can't stand about some dog people. I can't fucking stand it when you do this. When people say like, hey, you buy yourself, you get a dog. I'm like, actually, I'm selfless. I won't do that to the dog because I'm not going to be around a ton. Like you people that think you're just going to like, oh, I'm bummed out. Let me fucking get a dog. And then I'm never going to be around to take care of the thing. It's so shitty. But I guess then you would argue,

hey, if the dog was going to be put down, it's better than that by not being around. So I don't want to get into that huge debate because it's not a debate whatsoever. All right, so keep it moving here. During the most recent weekend getaway, my cousin was asked by my sister to take care of him who hadn't taken care of him before.

Lo and behold, cousin was bitten when trying to take him for a nighttime pee. Fast forward to now, and my sister is pretty dead set on putting him down because of his numerous biting episodes and the fear it could be a stranger who would sue her for being bitten at some point. I had warned her before adopting she shouldn't adopt a dog if she likes to travel and could barely take care of herself, let alone a new adopted dog. adopting she shouldn't adopt a dog if she likes to travel and can barely take care of herself let alone a new adopted dog i tried arguing with her to find a muzzle not ideal uh that would protect others in certain scenarios like at night the dog is grumpy and does not like to be touched my sister claims that she can't find any muzzles that will fit him as if he's a smaller right because he's a smaller dog we already know what this is about right my main dilemma is should i try and ask my parents

to adopt him so the dog isn't put down or should I just man him up and prepare to be bit a few more times and adopt him myself? My condo where I live

would charge $200 extra per month and it isn't the best for me. My sister tried looking into giving the dog up for adoption but she claims she can't legally as apparently the dog

has had too many butting incidents which are severe. Puncture holes, draws blood. My sister can't give him back to the adoption center of the dog because he's had too many of these problems. which are severe. Puncture holes, draws blood. My sister can't give him back to the adoption center or the dog because he's had too many of these problems.

I hate the idea of putting down an innocent animal because of my sister's negligence and unwillingness to care for him, but also don't want the burden back on my parents who've been empty nesters for a number of years now. My parents love to travel, leave the city, country as much as they can. Taking care of the dog isn't fair on their schedule.

What should I do? Are there any suggestions that I'm missing or is it pretty much down to my parents or me to adopt the dog? They attach the photo. If you think I'm going to tell you to put a dog down on this show, then do you like it?

Got another thing coming, pal. Right. If you're just like, I don't know, easy solution. Yeah. She sounds like she sucks, first and foremost. Yeah, but if you talk about that's my only takeaway i don't know what to do i mean it i lived with somebody who had two dogs and as soon as i

would turn around they'd bite me it was just no like i wasn't in the mix enough and they're just gonna bite me that's not so you'd have to like backpedal facing them um but there is time if you are around them more and more no matter the dog but you like you said you know i don't know man i do you think i'm going to tell anybody to put a dog down on the fucking show i'm not doing that so what about like a dog sanctuary dog sanctuary like a farm i don't know i don't know who runs a farm just so dogs could have the best time what is that like i think they're when the when the dad takes the the pet and family pet for a drive doesn't come back i don't know i don't know we had a dog stoner and uh he was like biting wait what my what? My mom's dog name. Sorry.

My mom had a dog named Stoner. And apparently he was awesome. But he would like bite people and crash into things. And like, I don't know. He was crazy. And I guess that's why they call him Stoner. He was a rescue. And I was told he went to live with whatever.

Somebody who's got like a lot of land on a farm. I don't know. There's like no people to be involved with really it was just like a farm that that might be code for like we flush your goldfish down the toilet but i don't think so who knows wait so you're still not sure at your age now whether or not your family dog was just donated to the farm quote farm oh god now now that we're live out his, now that we're in live out his days. Now that we're talking about, it doesn't sound as good as it was in my head about five minutes ago. And for the last 20 years,

but I guess whatever, man, life advice, RR, gmail.com. Shit. Wow. I don't mean to be laughing.

We just, did Kyle just discover a memory on lie jesus christ all right i don't think we have much else to offer hold on don't you think there are dog sanctuaries sometimes you see like and maybe that's just for instagram assholes and they're like look at what i live with 20 dogs like but i don't know isn't it isn't it possible it's like somebody who's got got the land maybe it's family plot i don't know but like isn't know. Isn't it, isn't it possible? It's like somebody who's got, got the land. Maybe it's family plot. I don't know. But like,

isn't there a sanctuary? There's like rabbit sanctuaries around there. Trust me. I've looked them up. So like, I know that there are sanctuaries for all sorts of things. I don't think you're wrong. I don't know what the likelihood of finding one is that would work in this

situation. I also think that this seems like it's just an excuse for her who she didn't have the capacity to take care of this dog. And even the excuses about like not returning to a shelter because it had too many biting incidents. Are there like formal complaints? What did your family?

Because I think the dog only bit her family, right? So did they write formal complaints that that would be on this dog's permanent record? I think that's total bullshit. To me, she just doesn't want the dog and she's trying to make up excuses

for you guys to adopt this dog. And I not going to tell you too if you don't have the means to do so but i at the end of the day like she just i don't know this is a bummer situation she just seems like she sucks yeah i don't understand i don't know anything about this like dogs have records criminal records just go to one that doesn't have the record say you don't say you found the dog judy says two two two record two two two on-record incidents and you're done. Yeah. Usually it's two bites and the state puts you down. I have a small dog.

We have two dogs. One of them is a dachshund. The dachshund is a little more snippy. He came from Arkansas. He's a rescue. We have no idea what his background is. He had to get some teeth removed because he has some dental issues. He has a weird throat thing.

We don't really know his background. He's a little bit snippy. Sounds like a blast. He's protective. But he's some dental issues. He has like a weird throat thing. We don't really know his background. And he's a little bit snippy. He'll, you know. Sounds like a blast. He's protective. But he's actually pretty great. If you just throw him under a blanket. Actually, here's the,

throw the dog under a blanket. Just take away his senses. He's fine. Yeah, it's like blinders for like one of those birds of prey. That's what you got to do when people come over. And honestly, that actually does help.

I'm not even joking. So I'm not saying it's like a sure all for everything if you want to adopt this dog and you're worried about it, but that is something you could do. Bob's here. Get the blanket. We have to put our dog in a cloth satchel. Yeah. You should come over and check him out.

Feel the presence. Don't actually see anything. There you go. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com. We'll talk to you Thursday. Thank you. you