The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Draft Day Stories: Part 2 With Jonathan Vilma, Brady Quinn, Joe Thomas, Daryl Johnston, and Rod Thorn. Plus Andy Ruiz Jr., and 76ers vs. Suns.

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the Suns' win over the 76ers, and what we learned about those two teams heading into the NBA playoffs (2:15). Then Ryen talks with former heavyweight champion boxer Andy Ruiz Jr. about his upcoming fight vs. Chris Arreola on May 1, winning the heavyweight title vs. Anthony Joshua, losing the rematch, working on construction sites in his youth, and more (17:00). Then in Part 2 of a three-part series, Ryen talks with Joe Thomas, Brady Quinn, Jonathan Vilma, Daryl Johnston, and Rod Thorn about their draft experiences (34:30). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:09:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Andy Ruiz Jr., Joe Thomas, Brady Quinn, Jonathan Vilma, Daryl Johnston, and Rod Thorn Producer: Kyle Crichton Producer: Steve Ceruti  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

like what was what were those months like to get you to that point you know what the hunger and all that was still there but i was just um you know having fun things i had opportunities that i would never thought that i would have before you know and i feel it could happen to anybody you know and once they had the fame once they had uh money and and all that um hanging out with celebrities doing this doing that it just everything went by so fast bro and you know like i said i learned from my mistakes that i've done so now i learned that we have to take it serious we can't play around in this boxing sport um you know i wish i would have took it more serious and i would have been more dedicated when i when i won sport um you know i wish i would have took it more serious and i

would have been more dedicated when i when i won the belts you know because i totally forgot that i had like a rematch clause um in six months you know six months go by so fast and um like i said it happens for a reason huge Huge show for you today. Draft Stories Part 2, loaded with NFL guys. And the Rod Thorne one, which I always kind of love because it's an old school deal. I'm going to focus in on one NBA game and life advice. I think I'm doing you guys a favor here today because I spent my entire day going, all right, Philadelphia, Phoenix, that's all I want to do.

I don't really want to watch any other games. And as I was going through the schedule, trying to figure out what else I would want to watch, I'm like, look, just keep the main TV on Philly, Phoenix. Let's learn something here. Let's come out of this with maybe some positive ideas of could either of these teams get out of their conference? Because I feel like we're just still being a little too dismissive of other teams and we have a really hard time with new success. And Phoenix and Utah are probably in that group. Philly, we know, has not done anything with this group, which is sometimes fair and also unfair. And I guess I'm just, I'm trying to figure out a way

to not pick Lakers' nets, which I'm not going to argue with anybody that that's some terrible idea because it isn't. But I guess that's just where I'm at right now. But this is a very difficult part of the season to try to figure out what's real and what isn't because the blowouts continue. I mean, the other night, no, it was Pacers last night. I go, okay, maybe do I check in on the Pacers? Then is there introing the people that are like,

Indiana's missing six of their top eight scores for this game. I'm like, all right, maybe not going to gain a ton from this. So going into it, I'm looking at Phoenix and Philadelphia as real title contenders. All right. And then I look at the schedule or I look at the lineup and I go, okay, cool. Philly doesn't have Simmons, Harris, or Seth Curry. So what the hell am I going to learn from this? So the ultimate thing here, the result, the fact that Phoenix won, good for them, but I don't think it means a ton.

So let's try to dig a little bit deeper. Coming out with that lineup, also the record for the earliest shh ever delivered in a game. It may have been 2-0 or 5-2, and Jay Crowder had a shot blocked at the top of the three-point line and then caught it off the block and heaved a desperation three to beat the shot clock, hit it, and then just turned to a crowd that's basically empty anyway a minute or two into the game to go shh. Earliest I think I've ever seen in any game.

The biggest thing here, two things defensively, Danny Green picking up Chris Paul as soon as he could. Not saying it was full court all the time, but he would pick him up beyond the half court line as much as he possibly could. It's just another part of Green that we saw against Zion when they went point Zion

when New Orleans beat Philadelphia a while ago. They had Simmons on him. They had Thibel on him, and we're going to get to Thibel's game too because that part was incredible. But Green ended up being somebody that was going to chase Zion up and try to slow down the initiating of his offense. And that's something they were doing with Chris Paul.

And it's important. And it's going to lead to a bigger point on Philadelphia at the end of this whole deal. The other thing that they were doing defensively with Embiid was Aiton was fronting him. And it's just hard it sucks to have to front a guy all the time like back in the day when when teams would front

the post more and you just don't see it because people don't run that much post but it's almost like the backup point guard like the Lindsey Hunter who would just make it hell for you to bring the ball over half court but he couldn't do it as a starting point the entire time I mean he did at times but you understand the point that I'm making here but then there'd be the backup center that would front the post the entire time because the guy that was going to play 30 something minutes didn't want to do it because it just sucks to have to do it. And it sucks to have to do it against Embiid where Aiton actually at times looks kind of small against him. And even though I think Aiton right now, if you're a Suns fan thinking long-term, what is Aiton offensively? You probably, I don't know what that ceiling is.

It's probably a little bit less than maybe you thought it was a year or so ago. But Aiton tried all night. I mean, he really did bust his ass to get good post, to get good front position. So he deserves credit for that. And then you could see Embiid and his basketball intelligence has been great all the way back to that last year. It was only a year at Kansas where you saw how well he saw the game. Well, now he's with basically a second unit group of guys,

and they didn't understand how to play off of him when he was getting fronted, because he's thinking like, look, I need one of you guys to get closer to the entry pass here. You get a pass. I back cut off the front. There's stuff we can do here, and nobody really knew what was going on.

Dibble tried at one point, and honestly, there was just a bunch of possessions where it looked like Shaq Milton would just stare at Embiid for 10 minutes trying to get an angle to an entry pass. So good stuff there, Philly, as you know, Sixers fans,

they will go a full bench unit. That's why Dwight Howard, despite looking good, and we're going to give him some credit here today on the pod. He has some bad plus minus numbers that don't make a ton of sense for how good I think he's, he's played or how well I think he's played at times. And there was a stretch in the second quarter where it was all bench, five bench guys for Phoenix and then Milton and then four bench guys,

because Milton obviously starter in this game. And, you know, even though he's, he's had a rougher stretch of it. I mean, at one point Milton was scoring 17 a game for this team. And he had a rough night. He got yanked at some point too. So that whole second quarter with all those bench guys, it wasn't great. One thing that you do notice there though, when Sharich comes in as the five for Phoenix and in certain matchups, I think all of us would agree that we like it when you watch Phoenix enough,

but against Embiid, and this isn't a knock on Dario here, but when you would watch him load up to get ready to take on Embiid physically, It looked like a guy getting ready to have like, it was almost a tackling pad would be attacking you and he would just be loading up with his arms like, all right, how am I going to deal with this? All right. So Chris Paul kind of passive in the first half. When I looked at the four or six numbers on his shooting totals for the first, I was actually surprised he had six total attempts.

Also noted here, and we'll get to it. Booker was completely invisible for a long time throughout this game, and that was because of Thibel. Second half starts, Paul comes right out, two shots first minute, three, two minutes in. Bridges also important to point out here. I think he is somebody who runs all night. He has incredible body control from his takeoff in transition. He keeps you honest with his three-point shooting. He can get 21 night. He had zero in another game this month. And he'll have some nights where it's like, ah, man, he got it going. So to describe him as an emerging star feels a little aggressive

because I think with his handle and some scoring stuff where there's still some real limitations. But for Phoenix, because Paul's just so great at all this, even at times where I maybe don't love Jay Crowder, he keeps you honest with his shooting as well as Bridges. And if you're just looking for five guys that you trust out there, you could do a lot worse than the five that Phoenix puts out on the floor when we're thinking about what they're going to be like in the playoffs. Embiid, there was also a moment here, and Embiid's connected to it all, is Jenna Schroeder, who is the official.

She's been in the league, I think, a couple years. She called a double technical on an inbounds that led to a five-second violation. So Phoenix was inbounding from the baseline. George Hill and Javon Carter were fighting for position on the inbound, and she called a double technical on him. It was one of the weirdest double techs

I think I've ever seen. And people were just like, what the hell's going on? So then people were mad at her, and then Embiid was mad he didn't get a call. So Embiid kind of was going to her and then was going at her as he was walking away. And then he got a tee from another ref who I couldn't tell if it was just because of what Embiid was saying, or if the ref was trying to help out his other ref, because she had then called a call or made a call on Danny Green on a Chris Paul foul, which is always annoying when Paul falls down and gets these calls in transition. He did get hit a little bit. There's been worse Chris Paul fouls in this moment,

but everybody was just really getting on her case in a very short amount of time. And I could imagine a lesser sports analyst going like, hey, was that because she was female? Is that what was going on there? Because they were really on her. But then I would counter that with is that because all the male officials are treated with the utmost respect throughout NBA games? So that had nothing to do with it. But the payoff was Embiid got two calls

the next time down after that tech. So that's that thing in the player's mind. It's like, you know what? I'll take a tech. I'll keep complaining every now and then because then it'll get paid off later on. And it actually worked in this case because Embiid started getting calls.

Because Embiid had stretches offensively where he was the only option here. He knew he was the only option. Philly shot it really well, but he was just so aggressive and terrific that there were just, it kind of gets back to my deal, like when you don't win in the playoffs and you're considered a star, in this case an MVP caliber type season from Embiid, he's been in the league now seven years. When you look at his game totals, it's pretty remarkable

how few games he's played over the seven years. But all the knocks on him and he's not in the league now seven years. When you look at his game totals, it's pretty remarkable how few games he's played over the seven years. But all the knocks on him and he's not in shape. He doesn't bring it all the time. Like I look at last night's game. That guy fought his ass off all night long. So tons of credit to him. And we'll get to how it all finished up. So enter Thibel here.

Thibel on Booker was worth watching on its own. Because Booker, who in his last seven games against Philadelphia had averaged 38 a game, wasn't really much of an option. So even though Phoenix, their roster's out there, Philly's isn't. So it's a close game and you're thinking, okay, this is great that Philly's even in this missing all their guys. But on the other side, you're going, well, Chris Paul didn't do much in the first half and Booker's non-existent here. So how are they in this game? And so it wasn't pretty, but I learned a couple of things, at least with the way Thibel would chase down Booker. He got him on a few blocks that were as impressive as any regular season blocks you're going to see.

He chased him down. If you're watching left to right, Phoenix going left to right on TV, and then the far corner, say bench corner corner on television then coming to your near corner as you're sitting at home watching it booker came baseline catch turnaround three from the corner and thibault came and chased him down the entire baseline and i didn't think booker thought anybody had a chance of even catching him and it wasn't just in contest you know a contested block where it's like i got got into this. He just, he swatted that shit and he was on him in a way that was like, you know, this is, he has shut him down here in this game. Um, Paul was terrific knowing he needed to be more aggressive and that was kind of the balance of the game. And then Embiid has a stretch where he's like, all right, I just got to go. I mean,

Embiid scored, I believe the last 14 points for Philadelphia in this game. But what it came down to is Booker enters with under four minutes to go in the fourth. The game is still close. And Booker, let me double check here. So Booker comes in. It's 105-99. Javon Carter hit a few threes, which was really important for Phoenix. But Dibble blocked Booker again. He'd made another stop on him. um, Javon Carter hit a few threes, which was really important for Phoenix, but.

Diable blocked Booker again. He'd made another stop on him. And then there was an offensive rebound where everybody was sort of scattered. So Booker hits a three where George Hill ends up matched up with him as everybody's just scrambling to try to figure out somebody to defend. So Booker gets that three makes it one 10, one on one. It was an enormous shot because then Booker got going and he scored eight,

eight points in under two minutes. And the two-point jumper that he hit to the right baseline, Theibel chased him. Booker had dribbled all over the half court and it almost was like a fighter where if a fighter can't figure out the distance where Booker had just been got a few times by Theibel, I actually think Booker being blocked by Theibel previous times that in that shot, he knew I got to get a little wider and step a little further away from Theibel before I get this shot up. And it's an incredible shot. He scores, as I said, eight points under two minutes and Embiid went for the last 14. So in the loss, impressed with Embiid's aggression the entire time,

it even looked like he was going to go down with this knee injury again. And then Dwight stepped in who, you know, look, I'll give Dwight this man. He, those high screens that we see these centers have so much trouble with even the best defensive centers, because you're just in so much territory trying to figure out what kind of decision you need to make. And Booker was trying to run some high screen stuff where they took Paul off the ball and they were going to run the offense through Booker. And even with Booker got a good angle on a screen, Dwight was there waiting for him. And it wasn't easy because Dwight's going to make you feel him. And you'll hear that term.

It's like, it's not the easiest thing to identify, but if you're just going to be there in your huge body and your footwork's still good enough to recover on drives against a perimeter player, it's just, there's a lot of teams that would love to have this version of Dwight as a backup center. So a lot of credit to him. And trust me, you know me well enough that it probably hurts me to say it because I find him incredibly annoying throughout all the games and still dirty. So the final point on this game, two things. When I look at Philadelphia and I think about them

against the Nets, when they have Simmons, Theibel, and Danny Green. That's a lot of size and a lot of versatility on defense. And maybe the only team that's built with enough perimeter guys to hang. I mean, does Milwaukee have enough with Middleton, who does fight his ass off on defense, and then Drew, who we were talking about, ironically, against Booker earlier this week. I don't want to be dismissive of them, but I really think there needs to be more appreciation for what Philadelphia has

as defensive options against what seems like an impossible team to stop offensively in Brooklyn. Phillies 2-1 against Brooklyn this year. I went through the game logs. Phillies had all three of their main three guys for these games. Brooklyn, in their two losses, excuse me, in their three games, two of them being losses, Kyrie's played one game, Harden played one, Durant's played zero. So you can't do anything with that. But it's just the idea that Philadelphia has this defensive versatility with guys that you trust who can play switching, who can play straight up, who are going to be more aggressive in all these things. And I'm not sitting here saying, hey, that's it. I'm picking Philly out of the East. I'm just going to remind myself of that as we get close to that series, if that series actually happens. On the other side for Phoenix, as I'm

sitting here, and trust me, I'm trying to figure out a way to talk myself into picking Chris Paul to make the NBA Finals, and it may happen. And it may be because there's just some other teams I don't like as much. I don't think I'm trying to be a different guy because there's no TV hits out there for me. We're like, hey, did you pick Phoenix to win the West? All right, we want you on first take in the Cs because that's kind of how the business works. I've never been that guy. But the thing that scares me a little bit about Phoenix is if they're playing a healthy Lakers front line at some point in the playoffs and Sharich is your backup five and the rookie doesn't even play, the kid out of Maryland, right now, that's a bad matchup. So I can like Phoenix against Utah.

Denver's won four in a row, but we still don't know if we should take them that seriously without Murray in the playoffs. Maybe there is enough there with Porter going off and Gordon being more of an offensive guy who's still a dependent offensive player.

But Phoenix and the size disadvantage against them with the Lakers, if the Lakers are right when they're back, it's going to be harder for me to try to trick myself into maybe talking about them coming out of the West. Been looking forward to this for a while.

He's got a big fight coming up. Former heavyweight champion, Andy Ruiz joins us on the podcast. He's going to fight May 1st with Chris Areola. Chris looks like a bad guy character in a movie. We know you and your tremendous looks, Andy. You're going to look better than all of us in 30 years.

So you sparred against Chris a long time ago. So for the people that don't know the story, tell us that story. I think he was 25, 26. You were 16. What happened? I was 16 years old. And my dad, I was at the, at the time when I was trying to qualify for the Olympics for 2008. And, um, you know, my dad took me over there to Riverside to spar with them. And, um, well, we did pretty good. You know, we sparred, I was 16 years old. He was already a contender and the heavyweight division. And, you know, I, I did my part. Everybody was surprised of how I did and they were amazed of the speed and all that.

But, um, you know, that, that's when we connect and we, we became friends. Right. But he didn't want to fight you. Like he was, he was looking at you. I mean, what i hate with every interview is is i feel like hey you know andy you look young and you're out of shape and that's what everybody says and you're probably so sick of hearing it now your entire life that i feel guilty of doing it here too but that's part of the story that's part of the story that you

were in 16 like chris is going you guys have to be kidding me and then he you tuned him up a little bit apparently and he got kind of mad yeah because well because i was young and i was like a little meatball at that time you know and he was like man why am i gonna spar this little kid and what do you know i started putting hands on them and um ever since then we just became friends where'd you get the hand speed from because that's the thing that jumps out i You know, when I didn't know about you and I saw you fight, I go, like, where is this from? Because it's incredible for a guy your size.

I don't know. I think it's God's gift, you know? God's gift. And he put me in this sport. And, you know, I think he made me make people believe that anything is possible, you know? Anything is possible. Speed, you don't, you can't is possible. You know, anything is possible.

Speed, you don't, you can't create speed. Speed comes, it's either you have it or you don't. And my dad would work on it too as well when he knew that I had the speed. We would do a lot of different combinations and this and that, but it's God's gift. Going back to what some would consider, you know, one of the great upsets in in heavyweight

history it is you take out uh joshua it's june and 19 um you beat him i mean joshua doesn't come out of the corner like he quit and i mean that kind of that kind of wrecked him for a bit because they were like wait this guy's heavyweight champ what was that moment like and you'd had a title shot before in new zealand but that moment moment, which is really historic for this division. Yep, I guess that wasn't my time to win against Joseph Parker because it wasn't of a great and exciting super fight. And when I fought Anthony Joshua, I've been waiting for 29 years, 28 years for that opportunity

and for me to become the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world. It was a big blessing. And, you know, I've been praying and hoping and telling God for me to, you know, get this opportunity. And what do you know? I ended up getting it. I took advantage of it. And I execute what we had to do on June 1st.

You lost the rematch. You were 283 in the weigh-in. What happened in those six months? I think time flew, you know, I got lost on track. I won. I made history. I did everything that I would, that I wanted to do. And, you you know I lost focus of everything you know and and I regret that to this day bro to this day I still have something in my heart saying like like you cannot do the same mistake you cannot do the same error of what I did and um you know what and it kind of made me a better man you know it made me a better man after i lost the my titles against anthony joshua and saudi arabia and um i learned a lot who on your team wanted to blame the sombrero for the 283 weigh-in myself you know that was all myself bro because that would have been the heaviest fucking sombrero in the history of sombreros i was at 287 i was at 287 pounds

after the weigh-in i probably gained another 15 pounds so think about it i was almost at 300 pounds on the rematch yeah and you know people will always anybody that reads anything or understands anything about the fight game would be like look the hunger it's it's just different but it only been six months and so i think people always want to believe that like you were out partying or going crazy was it was it that was there anything specific in those six months was it just a lack of desire were you staying out and drinking to do like what was what were those months like to get you to that point you know what the hunger and all that was still there, but I was just,

um, you know, having fun things. I had opportunities that I would never thought that I would have before, you know, and I feel it could have happened to anybody, you know, and once they had the fame,

once they had, um, money and, and all that, um, hanging out with celebrities doing this, doing that. Everything went by so fast, bro. I had to lose for me to learn from my mistakes.

I wish I could take it all back, but I think now it's a new beginning. Now it's a new chapter. Like I said, I learned from my mistakes that I've done. So now I learned that we have to take it serious. We can't play around in this boxing sport. You know, I wish I would have took it more serious and I would have been more dedicated when I won the belts, you know, because I totally forgot that I had like a rematch clause in six months. You know, six months go by so fast and um like i said it happens for a reason i want to go back to the beginning a little bit um you know mexican american heritage

you had family members involved in boxing you were in the gym a really early time in your life but you actually went back to Mexico where you were training and a lot of your early fights are out of there. What's it like for a Mexican-American, but you're in Mexico? I think there can be assumptions made, be like, hey, we're all Mexican, but I imagine it's not quite that way. And that even if you're from California, it's different. And so it can feel like I'm not exactly in a place where I'm as welcomed or there's maybe a little bit of a disconnect there at such a young age and training with other kids that are trying to make it in fighting. Yeah, well, when we're over there in Mexico, it was amazing because everybody showed me so much love and Mexican fans, they're harsh because it takes a lot for all the Mexican people and the Mexican fans to accept you, you know. And me becoming a Mexican-American, you know, it was a blessing for them to accept me.

And, you know, this is what I do. I fight for my country and for my family and for my loved ones. And when we were over there in camp, it was pretty crazy, you know. Everywhere we would go, people would come and show love and try to take me over here, over there, meeting the president, meeting a lot of the governors out there. Everything went by so fast, and it was just crazy. It was a crazy moment.

Give me the best advice Canelo has given you, helping you through this. The main advice. And I tell in every interview that I've been doing is the discipline. I want to make sure that say, stay disciplined because that's one of the main things that he told me, stay disciplined inside of the ring, stay disciplined outside of the ring, stay disciplined on the stuff that you're focusing on.

And you know, that that's the main thing besides that you're focusing on. And, you know, that's the main thing. Besides him giving me pointers and, you know, how to throw a punch, how to move the head movement, stuff like that. I adapt to all those things quick. But the most hard that anybody could do is to stay disciplined. So that's one of the main things that he's been showing me and that I've been learning as well. I know you were construction growing up. I was lucky enough to work construction growing up as well, because I think that just, I don't care who you are. If you're forced to work

construction at a young age, you will, you will figure out a way to survive and advance through life. I believe that. I really believe that. I think it's one of the coolest things my father's done for me is because he taught me what it's like to put in a hard day's work. And it wasn't just one day, it was years. And I think that's a foundation where whatever mistakes you make, you can always get back to that. So give me your worst and maybe I'll give you mine, but give me your worst construction site story where you were like, fuck this. I need to get, I need to be a better fighter so I never have to do this shit again. So my dad, you know, my dad's a contractor and he would always have his workers. He would always build houses over there in Imperial Valley. And

over there, it's super humid. It gets to 120 something degrees, man. And there was one time I was probably like 12, 13 years old, and he would make me pick up all the trash, you know, like from the cement, from the papers, that's all around. He was making me pick up all the mess, picking up all the trash and putting it in the big, big bucket of the trash. And it's a really, really hard work, man. Really hard work. Thank God that I wasn't doing all the crazy stuff that his workers were doing. And there's times that his workers were quitting as well

because my dad was a tough guy, you know? He was a boss that would be talking crap if the workers are lacking. But like with me too, he would talk a lot of stuff and telling me to pick this pick that up and it was crazy until you know i was like you know what i need to leave i need to do something different i cannot i cannot handle this you know because it's really really hot out there and um i think i was like 14 years old and then i told him when i turned 14 years old i told him i were i turned 14 i got kicked out of high school i went to to another school and i dropped

out of that school and then i told my dad you know what dad i don't want to work with you i want to pursue my boxing career so that's when he took me to Mexico City. And that's when I was in the Mexican Olympic team. And what do you know? I started falling in love with the sport and I kept pursuing it. I kept pursuing it. We started traveling around the world. I started getting a lot of experience

fighting different fighters around the country. And what do you know? I ended up trying to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. It didn't happen, but I think God had better plans for me. And that's becoming the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world. But it was super, super hard. I can tell you're exhausted just talking about it a little bit. I used to always have to come back and do the dump runs because I wasn't really on job sites. So if I, if I were on a crew, I would frame or something.

And I did some roofing. And when I think about roofing inland LA, inland empire, I can't even fathom what that would be like with the weather out here. I mean, I was lucky that I was in new England, but you'd still get ridiculous days up on the roof and then, you know, running shingles up there and all that kind of stuff. But the one that would suck is if I came back from like school for a break and he'd be like, look, you're going to do dump runs. Cause you're not on a, you're not on a job crew, right? You're just going to do dump runs. Like they don't care that you're in college or whatever. So I would, I would get mad at all the different subs, um, because they were such slobs. You'd just be like, look, this doesn't have to be this messy. Like all of you

guys could figure out a more efficient way to do it. And my father would be like, Hey, you're lucky they're messy. Cause I can pay you, you know, 10 bucks an hour to clean up all this stuff. And it was when a guy took a fixture box and he took a shit in it and then he just threw the fixture box. Like, so it was a small plumbing fixture and he just left the box. I was like, you didn't even have the courtesy to like throw away your own feces. You just left it knowing that. So that was a moment where I wanted to tighten it up. I had a few others after that. I got to go back, though, before we finish up.

You said you got kicked out of the first high school. What happened? You know, I wasn't really focused on that. I think me and one of my teachers kind of were talking smack with each other. Kind of we're talking smack with each other. And, you know, I was in my bad days, you know, with the wrong crowd. But if I could take it all back, I wish I would have stayed in school as well and finished and got my high school diploma. So I suggest everybody that's out there, finish school, get your high school diploma and do what's best for yourself. Yeah, right. And don't, you know, if you're on a roofing crew you never know you maybe start start training all

right so this this fight's coming up may 1st i'm excited there's a history here how do you go from hey we're friends i think people outside of of fighting professionally can't understand this concept uh i'd like to think that you know it, it's just part of the job. But going from, you know, I have a relationship here. You're not going to be as mad at your opponent as maybe you would be in other scenarios. So how do you work yourself up to get to that point where you're trying to take him out? And it's also been a while for you since you fought. So I imagine you're just excited to even get back in the ring. Yeah, but, you know, I haven't really talked to Chris Arreola or nothing like that for a long time, you know.

So I don't even remember the last time I talked to him besides doing the press conference and all that. But, you know, we could be outside of the ring. We're friends. We could hug each other and all that. But inside the ring is business. That's when the light switch turns on. And, you know, it's either kill or be killed.

That's how I have it in my mind. So, you know, we have to get this victory to feed our children, to feed our loved ones. And, you know, I want to get back on top. And he's in the, how can I say, he's in front of me trying to take my spot as well you know so i gotta do the best i can i gotta do exactly what we've been doing inside of the gym and to get that victory so like i said outside of the ring we're friends but inside of the ring was business understood may 1st pay-per-view ruiz areola and uh just on the march back to try to get what was yours so thanks andy appreciate it thank you brother and you know i appreciate it

too and like i said damn the construction thing is really hard bro understood the ideas of how my dad had it. And, you know, thanks to God. Now, you know, we're working on our 26th house now, you know, and. Yeah, you're flipping houses, too, right now. I mean, that's what you invest your money in. Yep, exactly. And, you know, since my dad has all the workers and all that, we've been buying lots and land. So we build the houses from scratch and up and we sell them.

But we're on our 26th house, so I'm really thankful. It's time to get back on top. Well, look, if things don't work out for me, I'll hit you up for some dump runs, all right? Yep, I'll make sure nobody's sitting on it. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks, man. Brother, thank you i'd appreciate that thanks man brother thank you coming up part two of draft stories and we have on this one joe thomas and brady quinn rod thorn jonathan vilma and daryl moose johnson with the third pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns select left tackle Joe Thomas, Wisconsin.

So Brady Quinn quenches his thirst because it may be a while for him back there in the green room now. Brady Quinn had a long night. We're going to get to his story coming up on this episode of Draft Day Stories. But Joe Thomas joins us now. So Joe, we all know the deal. You were gone fishing. People loved it because it was unique. He's not in front of a TV, but it's been talked about so

much. How sick of that story are your friends? Well, it's a little bit like the Russell Wilson conversation we had earlier. Like, you know what? It's not always great having Russell Wilson as your quarterback because he's going to run around and your guy's going to run into him and people are going to blame you for getting sacked. But in the end, it's an overall net positive. And so for me, I think about my draft mate and good friend Brady Quinn. He probably doesn't like telling his draft day story because he could have gone maybe as high as number one and he slid all the way, I think, to 22 with the Browns. So he's probably not excited about remembering that draft day story.

But for me, I got drafted third to the team that I kind of thought I was going to get drafted to. One of the teams I was hoping to get drafted to got to spend the day fishing with my dad. It was a great day. And so even though I have told that story a lot, I still remember when people ask me like, you know what, that wasn't really a good day. And you know, maybe somewhere down the line, I'll get really tired of it and be like the grumpy old guy, like, leave me alone. I don't want to talk about that anymore. But at this point, I can at least hear it one more time. All right.

So you go third. And looking ahead, again, that's the Jamarcus Russell draft. And then it's Calvin. That worked out pretty well. Give me your favorite lead up, whether it was an interview or something that you remember you haven't maybe told as much before. Because it's very clear that you kind of knew you were going to go that high and that you weren't going to go one. Because Jamarcus' thing took off there at the end and people were like, look, he's the best throw over football we've ever seen. He goes one, it doesn't work out.

Yeah, it was a crazy draft. That could be a full podcast by itself with like how bad Jamarcus was and then how many Hall of Famers were taken after him. Like Darrell Rivas, Patrick Willis, Calvin Johnson. Adrian Peterson. itself with like how bad jamarcus was and then how many hall of famers were taken after him like drell revis patrick willis uh calvin johnson adrian peterson adrian peterson um but so i knew i was either going to go to detroit at two or cleveland at three that was kind of what we thought and it was just going to depend on who was going to go number one uh so what was the other part of the question i already forgot i was getting excited about fishing. Um, the lead up interviews. Oh yeah. Interviews. Yeah. So anyway, so going into the draft, everybody's got those crazy, like combine interview stories or,

um, private visit stories where, you know, the, the coaching staff or the GM asked some crazy questions. But for me, the one that always sticks out and still ruffles my feathers this day is I know Matt Mellon's a big fan of this podcast and I'm going to call him out on this one because he still ruffles my feathers. When I think about this one, I went into the Detroit Lions and he was a GM of the Lions at the time. And he was famous for drafting like a receiver in the top five every single year. He was a GM, even though he was like supposed to be Mr. Tough guy. And that's why everyone loved him on TV. And that's why he got his job as a GM because he was supposed to be the old school linebacker grizzled tough guy. Right. So I sit down in their, uh, meeting room at the combine, which was, uh, basically like a hotel room and they have like a spotlight on you and it's the

GM and the head coach. I don't remember who the head coach was at the time, to be honest. Um, maybe I'm going to look it up for you. It might've been Rod Marinelli coach. I don't remember who the head coach was at the time, to be honest. I'm going to look it up for you now. It might have been Rod Marinelli, but I can't remember. All I remember is Matt Millen was in that room, and he sits me down. Yeah, it was Marinelli. Yeah, Millen's kind of like a fun-loving guy, so he kind of had a few laughs with his guys, and we were kind of small-talking.

They had me stand up on the board like most teams do and drop a couple plays, whatever. Did fine there. But then he sat me down and he started talking about, you know, have you ever like held a job? And I said, well, you know, I was a three sport athlete in high school, 12 varsity letters. And I played AU basketball in the summer and the winter when I wasn't playing football and other sports. And so I was pretty playing football and other sports. And so I was pretty much doing sports year round. Didn't have a whole lot of time for jobs, but, you know,

occasionally I would work for my aunt and uncle, like landscaping their house. He was building a house. So I'd help outside like landscaping and doing some drywall stuff. And so he's like, wait a minute, you never had a real job. And I'm like, well, not really. Like if you mean like where I had a W-9 or a 1099 or something like that. He's like, huh, never like a bricklayer job or anything, any tough hard-nosed job. And he was like really trying to make me feel bad that I never had a job, like I was some pussy or something like this. And so you could definitely see he was like kind of looking down his nose

at this soft offensive lineman that never worked a real hard blue-collar job in his life. So I kind of walked out of that meeting like, man, that Matt Millen guy is a real dick. He definitely is not going to draft me because I didn't have any real jobs when I was in high school. But joke was on him because I think he got fired the next year anyway. Yeah.

Look, I mean, he may, he may have whiffed on you, but at least he got Calvin for you. So, um, Hey Joe,

that was awesome. I really appreciate your time. And, uh, if I can repay the favor, you let me know. All right. Awesome.

Thanks for having me on Ryan. With the 22nd pick in the NFL, 2000 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns select Brady Quinn, quarterback, Notre Dame. So there you have it. After waiting over four hours and ten minutes in the green room, Brady Quinn is about to come out on the stage and grab the jersey of his home state team. As you hear Rich Eisen reference, we watched Brady Quinn's face for four plus hours on draft night,

and it was much worse for him than it was for us. Brady Quinn joins us now. So was there a team, Brady, that told you they were going to take you that didn't? What's your biggest memory of that night? Yeah, I mean, it really started the night before and my agent called to tell me that Phil Savage told us that if both Joe Thomas and I were there at number three, they were going to take Joe Thomas. And my agent's like, I don't know how to take this. they're going to take Joe Thomas. And my agent's like, I don't know how to take this. So, you know, the, the story ends up going like Phil knew how much I wanted to be a Brown, like how much I grew up for him. I was from Columbus, Ohio. So it made a lot of sense.

So I think he was doing it to kind of protect me, like prepare me for that moment. So I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was nine. You know, I had spent a lot of time with Cam Cameron. I'd spent, um, a good amount of time with, with their quarterback coach too, and training, preparing for the draft. And so, and they had, you know, sent a care package to Notre Dame, Charlie Weiss got it. He called me the night before. He's like, well, if you get the nine dolphins are going to take you. So I was literally in my head thinking, all right, like this is the one, this, this makes all the sense in the world with this is where I'm going. So when they passed and they took Ted Ginn, I was just like, wow, that was, it caught me off guard only because of what everyone told me beforehand. And it's like, when you go through something for the first time,

you have no idea, like you have no idea how it's going to work out. You don't know if you believe in what like John Gruden told you when he was at the Tampa Bay Bucks, they were drafting four or, you know, whatever was said to you when I went to the Washington, uh, football team back then the Redskins, um, you know, you don't know what, um, is being told to you, whether or not they're being truthful, if they're just blowing smoke or if they're just saying it, cause they don't want to tell you exactly how they feel, who knows. But, uh, that was, that was the one that really caught me off guard. So I would say the most memorable thing was at one point, I kept bumping into Roger Goodell because people forget the picks were longer back then.

It was like 10 or 15 minutes, I think, for first-rounders? 15 minutes. So I was there for an hour or whatever before, maybe longer than that. I'm like the last one in there hanging out. And it's been probably a couple hours again. So I kept running back and forth and Roger Goodell. And he's like, I'm tired of looking at you on TV. He goes, why don't you have your family come in my green room? And I, first I was like,

no, I'm good. I know what I signed up for. But then I was like, you know, my mom and dad though, didn't know like what I signed up for. Right. Like it's now bringing other people into it. And so I was like, no, I'm good. I know what I signed up for. But then I was like, my mom and dad, though, didn't know what I signed up for. It's now bringing other people into it. I was like, let me take you up on that. We'll go hang out in his green room. so I hit up my boys they go out and grab like two big stacks two big sacks of Chipotle burritos and while we're sitting back there we're just crushing a bunch of Chipotle and Madra Goodell's green room in between picks and it's I mean it doesn't smell well right like I mean it's at that point it's just it's not smelling well and finally I get a call from the Baltimore Ravens, and it sounds like they're going to take me at number 23. And so I'm talking to Ozzie Newsome.

I'm talking to Brian Billick and Rick Neuheisel. And then right as I get off the phone, I get a call from a 216 number, which is the Cleveland area code. And they call me like, hey, we're trading up. We're taking you at 22. We're drafting you right now. I was like, I almost threw up all my my support burrito everywhere which only would have added to the stench that was in that that green room uh but i literally got like pulled up out of a chair like onto the

stage and rushed out because everything happened like literally last minute someone throws a hat on your head they're like i mean it literally felt like i think in wayne's world when the whole dream weaver starts playing and like, is it Michael Myers? Is that his name? Yeah. Yeah. He's Wayne. Yeah.

He's like floating through as Wayne is floating through the room. That's how I felt. I was like floating going on stage. Like all these emotions, you know, maybe a little bit of acid reflex from all the hot sauce from the Chipotle burrito. Like all those things mixed in one. So you thought you were going to go to Baltimore thoughimore though because you're at this point all right cleveland hasn't gotten back in they've had multiple opportunities i do remember miami and cam and thinking and then when he said hey we drafted ted again we drafted the ted kin jr family and i

was like what does that mean yeah and yet ted's still in the league all right this is i don't know i think i have the answer to this but i don't want to bum anybody out here. But your girlfriend at the time, you ended up like you've since married someone else, obviously, right? Yes. Yes. Right. Does your wife hate watching the video of you sitting next to your girlfriend, your college girlfriend at the time when she's just sitting there on air the entire?

Is that an uncomfortable watch? You got I imagine you haven't had many moments. You're like, hey, let's let's pop. Yeah. I mean, honestly, she hates football just because of how much I have to watch. And then just, she's not into it. Right.

Like her parents, when we first met, I had to like, tell her, you know, the whole, who I was thing. Um,

it wasn't even like something that she was like, her parents didn't know who you were. No, her parents did. She didn't like, I introduced myself and all that, but she had no clue. So,

um, her parents were like, Oh yeah. Like they were big into football, big, but she had no clue. So, um, her parents were like, Oh yeah. Like they were big into football, big Patriots fans and all that. So, um, they actually were more like, yeah, this is who he is. This is where he went to school and all this stuff. Um, like this is after we had first met at a charity event through a mutual friend and kind of kept in touch long distance for six months. And then we started dating after that. But, uh, I remember I must have made a good impression,

even though I was, I felt like I was pretty hammered at the charity event. I think I bought like a John Mayer signed guitar for my brother-in-law because it was like his birthday coming up. I don't even know if AJ still has that, but like just made a lot of, a lot of, you know, probably ridiculous auction item buys. But I did end up, you know, introducing myself. And there's a whole backstory to it, but I won't get into all that. It was so much fun to watch you at ND, and it's been a lot of fun to watch you as well.

Thanks so much for your time, man. All right, brother. Thank you. With the 12th pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, the New York Jets select Jonathan Vilma, linebacker, University of Miami. So many hurricanes going too early. So many hurricanes in this draft. So I can't miss clear. those miami rosters early 2000 absolutely ridiculous the amount of talent jonathan vilma was lucky enough to play linebacker for that group ends up in the draft vilma joins us now so what's the best story from that process for you i got two for you ryan uh the first is i knew

the jets were going to draft me and everyone always asked me, well, how'd you know? And I tell them I was light. I was a light linebacker, right? The knock on me was that I was, you know, 225 pounds soaking wet with my senior year playing ball. So I actually got to 228. But I remember that every team I visited or every coach I spoke to at the combine, they would always ask me like, hey, what's your weight? And at the time, I tried to beef up to about, you know, like 232, somewhere around there. So they would be like, OK, what'd you play at? I tell them, you know, I played at 228 to 27. They're like, how much you weighing now?

And I'd always say, you know, 233. And, you know, I feel good and I can still run, etc., etc. And, you know, all the coaches would be like, huh, okay. So you were lying by what? Like 5, 8 pounds? Did I what? You were lying by like 5 to 8 pounds? No, no, no. I seriously

had beefed up. To 233? Yeah. Okay. Because during the season, my senior year, I played at like 227. But then pro day and all that, I actually beefed up to like 233. So I legitimately weighed in. I think it was 232, 233 at the combine pro day. okay, you know, they keep asking me questions. So I go up to visit the Jets. It's Herm Edwards up there. And, you know, we're talking, we're talking,

and, you know, the question comes up. How much you weigh? I was like, about 232, 233. Coach, he was like, well, what'd you play at? I was like, well, I played at, you know, like 227, 228. And then I'm about to go into my whole spiel. I can hold this 233, blah, blah. He's like, what did you play at?

I said, 227, 228. He said, okay, go back down, go back down, go back down. I was like, huh? He was like, I want you just how I saw you on the film. I don't want anything else. So go back down, go back down. I want you, you said 228. All right, 228, go back down.

227, go back down. And he's like, whatever I saw on film, however much you weighed then that's what I want. And I was like, okay, all right. I can, I can definitely do that. That's a lot easier than trying to keep this weight on. He's like, all right. So I'm telling you draft day, I'm going to draft you. And when I call you, you better be back down to 227. Okay. We got it. You good. You good? All right. Because we're good. So you good? We're good. And I was like, all right, I'm good. So, you know, I, you know, I'm going to the airport, get on a flight. My agents asked me how to go. I was like, I think the Jets are going to draft me. He's like, you sure? I didn't tell him the whole story of what happened, but he's like, you sure?

I said, I just got a feeling. I think the Jets are going to draft me so you know that was that's how I knew that the Jets are going to draft me and then my second story is draft day you know it's their 12th pick and I go to Dave and Buster's I'm with my family I have some friends as well and you know we're getting ready and you know you're seeing all the hype and then you're i'm watching like philip rivers and eli manning that whole debacle and stuff so i'll never forget you know my well as we're watching my family's like hey aren't the jets the ones that always boo the guys that get drafted and i'm just like oh shit yeah i'm like oh man i don't want to get booed so i'm like oh man you know in my head i'm like yeah i'm i'm 90 sure herman's gonna get me

then i'm thinking uh-oh because i'm not there i'm i'm down in miami and i'm like it's on this big you know uh uh movie screen and it's like oh man this on this big, you know, movie screen. And I'm just like, oh, man, this is going to be bad. They're all just going to boo me, and I'm going to get drafted. I'm just like, this is kind of just like raining on my parade. So now we're at pick 11. Ben Roethlisberger gets picked. So I'm just like, oh, man, don't boo me, don't boo me, don't boo me. Right?

So I get the call. Oh, her words. Hey, I told you we were coming to get you. How much you in? I'm 227, coach. I got you. He's like, all right, good. Get ready because you're going to play a lot, and we're coming for you, and we'd love to get you how much you in like I'm 227 coach I got you he's like all right good get ready because you're gonna play a lot and we're coming for you and we love

to have you blah blah so I hang up and everyone sees a smile on my face but in my head I'm just like oh don't get booed don't get booed don't get booed don't boo me don't boo me so telling everyone I'm getting drafted so I'm looking there I'm just like uh-oh here we go here we go and so it was Paul Tagliabue at the time. He goes, says my name, and then I see the Jets fans like, yeah! So I'm like, yeah! I go crazy because they didn't boo me. I didn't get booed.

Everyone's excited. I'm like, oh, yes. All right, perfect. Now they done. I was more worried about being booed than actually being drafted at that time because of the Jets and the Jets fans. So it ended up working out. It was awesome.

How do you go from being a young kid to, like, it happens? You're there with your friends and family. Do you just go back to playing video games and eating chicken? Like, what happens? You're at Dave & Buster's and you go, all right. Well, I waited. I watched for all my boys, all my friends to get drafted. Because we all knew.

I shouldn't say we knew because everyone always says we knew. But we all had a good feeling we'd be first-rounders. So, Sean had gone first. Oh, so Taylor was there? Oh, no, no. Not at Dave & Buster's. I'm just saying they went in draft. Yeah, yeah.

No, I mean, I'll run it for you. I mean, just for people to remind you. I know you know it. Yeah. But Taylor goes fifth. Winslow goes sixth. You go 12th. DJ goes 17th.

Vernon Carey went 19th. Will Fork that year, how he dropped to 21, he would have been like a top five pick the year before. Yeah. Makes no sense. And then you had a couple. That's the weird thing is you had this monster class of first rounders. And then you had like a couple of seventh rounders there late. Yeah. It was definitely like, uh, there was that, that was it. There was no second, third, fourth or fifth or sixth. There was, then there was just a couple of seventh rounders. Vernon, Vince get drafted.

And then, yeah, I mean, I just hung out. It's like, what now, right? I did all the working out. I played ball. You know, you don't get a playbook immediately or anything like that because back then the draft was in April. So it's like, all right, this is cool. I'm a first-rounder. I feel good now, you know.

Let's just hang out and then get ready to ball later on. And that's exactly what happened thanks a lot man i really appreciate it thanks right he's a three-time super bowl champ in emmett smith's hall of fame speech he said without this guy his career would not have been possible but before all that he was a fullback coming out of Syracuse that the Cowboys took in the second round, 39th overall in the 1989 draft. You see him on Fox coverage, but it is now the great Daryl Johnson. What do you remember the most about the night you were drafted? It was bizarre because I had Don Shula come out and say, you know,

we're going to take the fullback from Syracuse in the second round. So I was just, I was waiting for Miami's pick. You know, my whole day was kind of mapped out for me. You know, there wasn't going to be any stress. And then, you know, Miami in the first round takes Sammy Smith, I think number six. Then Louis Oliver, the safety from Florida, starts dropping, which was surprising to me because Louis Oliver was a hell of a football player. The Dolphins traded their second and third round picks away to get back into the first round

to take Louis Oliver, I think at 25. So now everybody looks at me and says, well, what's next? I said, ah, you know, I had a, I had a good visit and a good workout with Washington. Um, you know, I probably put them next as, as maybe an opportunity. And then shortly after that, they traded their second and third round picks to Atlanta for Gerald Riggs. So the two places I thought I could go had just traded away their second and third round picks was where I was slotted to go. So at that point, I had no idea. I mean, I had absolutely no idea. And, you know, Tony Wise and Dave Campa would come into Syracuse to run the pro day for the Dallas Cowboys because they both had coached there during our tenure. So it wasn't a workout that was 45 minutes long. They'd seen you at the combine. They knew you from their time on campus. So it was really more of a just kind of checking some final

boxes and really kind of seeing who you are as a person after the time away. So that really never came on the radar for me, though. I didn't really do that until after I had been chosen by the Cowboys. And I think a lot of people will forget that, too. The Cowboys had their pick early in the second round, I think the second pick of the second round, and traded that to the Raiders. And they took Steve Wisniewski from Penn State with that

pick and they kicked their pick at 39 back to Dallas. So, you know, not only was their movement in the first two teams I thought it was going to go to, but then even my route to Dallas, you know, they felt, you know, top of the second round was a little bit high for me. And Jimmy was really, really good at accumulating draft capital. So, you know, to be able to swap out with the Raiders and get more picks as he slid down where he had me targeted, you know, mid to late second round, you know, just, you know, worked out, worked out well for him and being able to build that team, you know, over the next couple of years. So, uh, one of the greatest things though, for that whole thing is, is getting a phone call from Gil Brandt and having the opportunity to talk to Gil Brandt, you know, on the phone and, Hey, we're getting ready to take you with our, with our next pick. And, you know, all of a sudden everybody in the room starts cheering. So they, they knew before I did, you know, you know, that the, the pick had actually come through.

So, but that was, that's still one of my, one of my favorite moments of my professional career was, was being on the phone with Gil Brandt during that whole process. Yeah. Gil's a legend. I was lucky enough early on to get him to come on the local shows I was doing. He would come on ESPN and I mean, he's one of the great architects in NFL history. How about, how much of a wake up call was it for you once you got to Dallas? Dallas? Well, I, I, I definitely had an exhale. Um, you know, you kind of thought all the hard work was done and you'd arrived. Um, you weren't even close. I mean, all the hard work was just starting. So I, I had a, I had a little bit of struggle, uh, you know, my first year and a half, two years, uh, I was trying to find my fit in the offense. Um, and it was, it was, it was, it was challenging. It was challenging. Um, you know, I was on the field, but I wasn't playing at the level I wanted to play.

I didn't really have, you know, especially in 89, you know, we didn't really have anybody. So I was playing a little bit of single back, which is not who I was. So, you know, and then in 90, obviously, we draft Emmitt Smith. You know, I'm sharing some snaps with Tommy Agee and stuff, trying to figure all that out. And then once when Norv got there, when Norv arrived and we're going through the film and I'm seeing what he's asking the fullback position to do, for me, it was like, oh my gosh, that's exactly, those are the things that I feel I can do really, really well. You know, I, you know, I'm not going to be asked to run the ball a ton. You know, I can, I can do it effectively when I need to, you know, especially

inside. But they're going to ask me to block and they're going to ask me to catch the football. And those are the two things that I think are the strongest parts of my game at the fullback position. So it's just a perfect fit in what Norv was asking the fullback position to do. And then he allowed me a little bit of freedom, too. You know, there was one time in a meeting, you know, you'd sit there and go through the meetings and, you know, we're going into the, you know, different personnel groups. And, you know, the F position was one that moved around. It could be, you know, a wide receiver. It could be a number of different guys, depending on what personnel group you wanted. We were at practice one day and he's like, I need an F. You know, one of the wide receivers had something go wrong with

his equipment. So I went and jumped in and he's like, nah, not you at F. I said, why not? He goes, well, do you know what to do? I'm like, yeah, nor, you know, trust me. I mean, your meetings are very exciting and very entertaining, but you know, sometimes you get a little bit bored and I got to listen to stuff, you know, just to know what's going on with the whole offense. And so for me, I was able to get in there and, and, and do some things in the traditional third wide receiver F as opposed to the traditional, you know, fullback F and, you know,

Norv just liked the fact that that would keep regular personnel on the field. They wouldn't go to a nickel. And then we could do some different things by dictating personnel to them because I was familiar with what I, what I was asked to do outside of the traditional F and H position. So, you know, that's when it got to be a lot of fun. And, you know, I had one season with 50 catches and a lot of those catches came from out of the slot and things like that, where Norm was comfortable giving me the opportunity to show that I understood that part of the game on

the outside. So just for the record, then, there was no resentment when Emmett came in and took your carries away. Yeah, right. I mean, I probably am responsible for Emmett becoming a Cowboy because I showed them that I was obviously not the solution in 1989 if we were going to be a running football team. There might be a 12-yard run in there somewhere, but there was not going to be a 60-yard run in there anywhere. So, yeah, I was probably very instrumental in getting Emmett to the Dallas Cowboys. He has a Hall of Fame basketball career spanning over 50 years from player to executive. But before that, he was the number two overall pick in the 1963 NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets. Rod Thorne is with us. Okay, Rod, what were you doing?

What happened the night you were drafted? You know what? That's a very good question. I don't know anybody that I've ever been asked that. But this is the difference in the NBA in 1963 and the NBA today. I was at my house in Princeton, West Virginia, shooting baskets in the backyard. And my mother calls out the window, you have a phone call. It's about three o'clock in the afternoon. So I go in, and there was a guy named Paul Hoffman, who was the GM of the Baltimore Bullets.

And he said, we drafted you. And I said, thank you. I appreciate it. thank you. I appreciate it. Uh, I had no, I didn't know what, I knew the draft was going on that day. I'm not going to say I didn't know that, but it was like nothing. It was like, uh, okay. Uh, he said, we'll be in touch. And about a week later they called called and said, you know, we'd like for you to come to Chicago to do a contract. I said, okay. I mean, it was like nothing. That's what I remember about it. like nothing. That's what I remember about it. Did I think I would be drafted? I thought I would probably be drafted in the top three or four. Do you remember who went ahead of you? Yeah, Art Heyman was taken by the Knicks. He know, he was a New York guy, All-American at Duke, Player of the Year.

And they took him. And then the Bullets took me. And San Francisco, that had Wilt Chamberlain, took the best player in that draft, Nate Thurman. And Baltimore didn't take Thurman because they had a Walt Bellamy. They had a center. But San Francisco had one of the great centers ever in Chamberlain, and they still took Thurman. And he turned out to be an all-time great player.

Yeah, I'm looking through it. It was 15 rounds, and they basically just kept letting you draft until you didn't want to draft anymore. Until you didn't want to draft anymore. And then the Knicks. Ryan, of course, there weren't as many teams. Sure. So, you know, we drafted a Hall of Famer in the second round,

Gus Johnson, who played with Nate Thurman in high school. uh you know we we drafted a hall of famer in the second round gus johnson um who played with nate thurman in high school wow that was a pretty good team i think it was in akron akron ohio that those guys played together and you know that was the same time jerry lucas who was also a great, great player. But it just was no big deal because the NBA was no big deal. You know, my first year, we stayed in motels by and large. You travel coach. You know, and the bigger guys got to sit on the aisle rather than the middle or the window.

And, you know, it was like, it was almost like a mom and pop league. And to think that the NBA would be where the NBA is today was, you didn't even think in those terms you know you were you know this is it was it just wasn't a big deal what happened then they traded you after a year were the Bullets expecting you to be Jerry West or something that they got rid of you after one year and you actually scored 14 you know something Ryan they ended up making a heck of a trade in that they ended up getting –

they traded Terry Dissinger, myself, Don Kojic. I went from – you know, Dissinger had been rookie of the year the year before I got there and was, you know, high score, 20-point-a-game score. But they got Bailey Howell, who was an all-star type player, Don Old, who was a very good player, and Wally Jones, who turned out to be a terrific player with Philadelphia. So they ended up, you know,

they ended up making a pretty daggone good trade at that time. They ended up making a pretty daggone good trade at that time. I think I averaged close to 15 a game my rookie year. I had a pretty good rookie year, but our team was very young. I think we won 30 games that year. But Johnson was a terrific player. And we had, of course, we had Bellamy that they ended up trading to New York. And then on to Detroit later for Dave DeBuscher. for Dave DeBuscher.

But it was, we had a real young team. Kevin Lockery and I were starting backcourt most of the time. And we were both real young. And both of us liked to shoot. So we were getting them up. Rod, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time and telling these stories can't wait to run into you again alright man okay Rod appreciate it 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.

Life advice, rr at gmail.com. All right, we'll get a couple in. Our man's checking in 510-170. Lean. Hope all as well. Although 5'10", 170. Sruti, what do you weigh? I'm 5'10", just a shade under 160.

So a little slimmer than this guy. Live. You have that soccer endurance body. You know, a lot of like Peloton workouts that aren't really for bulking, you know, mostly just stretching out the muscles, trying to look lean. Yeah, no, that's all.

You've never been about bulking. You've been always pretty straightforward about that. I got to ask, are you one of those soccer guys who thinks like Westbrook wouldn't be good because he's too tall? No, no. Okay.

I mean, there is value in having a low center of grab, like one of the messy five, seven and like part of that. He wouldn't be messy if he was six foot, you know? Yeah. No, I'm not going to dispute that

because I don't know what I'm talking about. But I think there's some science in there where it makes sense. Yeah, but I mean, Cristiano Ronaldo is 6'2". So it's like, this is the best of both. You could have either way. Right. Like LeBron at 6'8"?

There was a guy named Peter Crouch who played for England who was like 6'7". And he was just tall and lanky. He used to head a bunch of balls in. That's how he scored his goals. But there aren't too many of those guys out there. Most of those guys are goalkeepers. Ibrahimovic, how tall is he? Probably like 6'4. He's tall.

Big dude. Pretty cocky. I watched him play. It wasn't that exciting. Really? What? For the Galaxy? Yeah. He had like a karate chop goal. It was one of the coolest goals I've ever seen. I don't even like the guy. Oh, you don't?

No, I think he's too cocky for me, man. He just I don't know. A little too much for you. That's too much. He disrespected MLS coming in thinking he was bigger and better and better than everybody else. I don't know. I don't like that. That's kind of his deal.

I mean, you know the story about how LeBron sent him a LeBron jersey when he got to the Galaxy, and he signed the LeBron jersey and mailed it back to him. I mean, actually, that's pretty awesome. I hadn't heard that. That's the story. I mean, he talks about himself in the third person. Like, it's a bit, but it's, I don't know. If he's on your team, you probably love him. He hasn't been on any of my teams. I think what I didn't...

Your man Kevin was at the game, and I was like, oh man, I should get a picture of him with Cerruti, but I'm not big on... I've kind of had rules. I've gotten older. I'm not a big hey, get a picture with you guy. I don't know that I've ever been, but I'm like, if this guy does not care

about our encounter, then I'm not going to start the encounter. This guy's going to be like encounter, then I'm not going to, I'm not going to start the encounter because this guy's going to be like, Hey, I don't care. Cool. So do you think DeBrunya was going to be like, it's great meeting you?

Um, so I, I didn't, but yeah, I think with, uh, Ibrahimovic, I'm going to, I'm going to dare to do this,

but it felt like he controlled the center of the field and it was really impressive how like he would, he would kind of get you into transition and get you set up and all these things he was doing. But if you didn't really know what you were looking at, it could look like he was just sort of dangling in the middle of the field the entire time. And I don't know. Was that a fair assessment or am I totally off on that? I think a fair assessment of his time in MLS would be he didn't really care that much. And that's how good he is. Okay.

There you go. That's maybe what I saw. I was trying to be a little... So I think you're on to something. All right. All right. Enough soccer. We didn't mean to do that much soccer.

We apologize. Wait, Super League? We don't want to hit on the Super League? No, I'm just kidding. I wish I was watching it because I actually do love that stuff. But I just... I don't have the time.

I'm a writer. Okay, here we go. 570, we got that part. Hope all is well. In the process of planning my bachelor party in Nashville, good choice. The only issues that my best man, most of my bachelor party, and also myself have never attended a bachelor party before. Any advice from your experiences regarding what to do, what not to do? Also want Kyle to chime in. All right. Look, you've hung out before and drank in another town, right? I mean, that's pretty much what you're going to do. Don't schedule super early golf. It's stupid. Half

the guys don't want to do it unless you're super golf guys and you're going to go to bed a little bit earlier because you care about the golf the next day. And if you do, great, good for you guys. But my experience has been always more than half the group would rather stay out late. And then when you have to get up that early for tea time, because you're like, oh, it's the only available tea time, then don't do it. Who would ever go somewhere with their buddies to have a ton of fun? And then it's like, okay, but by the way, after the first night, we all have to be out of the hotel at 7 a.m. because of tea time. And then guys start drinking early and then you've ruined that next night because it's just, you know, people, most people don't have that kind of pace or don't aspire to ever have that

kind of pace. So that's part of it. And then we've been over this a little bit before, but I know everybody always wants to kind of do the right thing. And sometimes it does work, but the math on number of times it was a successful bachelor party where you invited a guy that nobody else knew because it's your wife's brother or one of those deals or hey this guy's in the wedding parties this cousin or there's this older guy that wants to hang out sometimes the older guy can be great but a lot of times that older guy is so fired up to hang out with like young irresponsible guys that he's like off the rails way too early and then you know he doesn't even he gets like an early flight nobody knows where he is because he's got the weird so hard because the science on his

body post 27 is just different. So he's like, feels weird about himself and he may have not even done anything that bad, but just, you know, that's the science of it all. So I would keep it to the core group if you can. I'm not saying it's impossible to have a non-core guy, but we've been over this. You're not setting yourself up for success by doing that. And you can say, hey, let's plan. It's nice if you have one guy in the group that's a bit of a planner, but don't let somebody be an over planner where you feel

like it's this itinerary and you're doing wine country and every day, you got to make sure you're out of a certain place by an hour. I don't know if paintball works. Some people like it. Some people don't. I think one activity, not too early, and then one dinner lounge thing. I don't know what the regulations are in Nashville. I imagine some of the Southern states, they've given up on this whole deal. So you probably get away with a little bit more there. And also make sure everybody's staying in the same hotel. When guys start going like, oh no, there's a hot wire. I got a two for one and an extra night. Then that guy, it sucks. Cause then you're not in the hotel with everybody else. And that's kind of where the late weird fun stuff happens where, you know, maybe do that,

have one guy out of the group. It should be you, or maybe you don't want it because you want to get away from everybody else, but it's always great if one guy from the group and maybe everybody kicks in for it, gets a bigger hotel suite type room. So you kind of have a home base as you recover during the day, pregame, or then come back late at night and have an option. So that's actually probably the best advice that I can give you is when you're doing some sort of bachelor party, we usually would have one friend that was rich enough, and it was never me, trust me, that would splurge for like a two-bed bedroom suite, balcony, whole deal, whatever town that we went to. So there was always kind of a home base. So I always think that's important. Kyle, feel free to add. Uh, I've never been to a wedding. Well, I've been to one when I was 11.

Uh, I was going to have my first bachelor party back when I was asking you about, uh, should I deviate from the registry list? Um, were like no no don't do that um so i haven't been to a bachelor party so i don't really have much to say other than when i do go to this bachelor party i'm like one of his best buds and uh classic um moved moved away when he was like in like sixth grade and we stayed in touch but like you know his friends are not the kind of people i would hang out with and i'm gonna be the only guy like myself that's going to be at that bachelor party. So it could get weird. I think I would be considered a non-core guy for the rest of his like redneck buddies.

Probably. I'd probably be the guy that you don't want to see. No, I think you're pretty. I think you're a chameleon socially. I think you can adapt to a lot of things. Like what I bring you to the Met Gala? No. Sure.

Fair. I think below that level. level look i don't think i would i don't know that i would be a great fit there um you know i'd be leaving being like hey i'm probably gonna uber out of here hit up a couple guys but uh these every time i would go hang out with him and go like take the trip up to see him like he's like all right we're gonna go out we're gonna go to my buddy's house we're like pre-gaming in some guy's fucking garage and it just smells like motor oil and it's like oh my god everybody's got boots on and their pants have paint on them or whatever and it's like yeah and then we're just gonna go out to the bar it's like you guys just live different so yeah but you know what i think i think you should appreciate that yeah yeah i mean every time i have a hell time. King of the hill approach. Yeah.

You know what we could do is ask Saruti, the one guy who's married here and has had a bachelor party. So, Saruti? Yeah, I kept it core. It was, what, seven? Did I invite you? I don't even remember. I don't think I invited you or not.

No. You know, trust me, I don't. I think the dudes were wondering, hey, is Russillo going to come? I was like, first off, he'd be miserable the entire time. We went up like middle of nowhere, Millinocket, Maine,

just rented a huge house on a lake and just got after it for a weekend and it was awesome. Yeah, you don't want me at that. But it was core. You probably would have skipped the whitewater rafting trip. That's the one thing we did

that was dope. I like whitewater rafting. I've done it. I wouldn't have gone outside that like if it was more than what i had there and we started getting to like some second tier friends it wouldn't have been as fun so i i'm 100 with with you guys my thing is kyle you've been to one wedding i was 11 i think i was 11 it's like the first time i ever got a little tip wait how old are you wait you got drunk at 11 no it was like i didn't get drunk but it was the

first it was like um champagne like the pre pre-fixed tables, sort of. Like everybody's got a glass of champagne, and people just kind of move tables. It was like me and like three other kids, and there was like seven glasses of champagne. It was pretty sparkling cidery. But yeah, that's the only wedding I've ever been to. There's a picture of my aunt like hiking her dress up on the floor

to get me off the floor because I was dancing crazy. But that was the only wedding I've ever been to. I was really excited for this one and it got pushed because of COVID. Okay. That's insane. I mean, Kyle just amazes every week. Every week, I don't think it can get better. You know, single parents, you know, you end up getting away from them.

You know, there's... I got to tell you, Kyle, this actually surprised me a bit. How old are you? 27. 27? I just have friends that, like, don't get married. I've got plenty of people who I'm like an uncle to their kids, but I've just... they've never gotten married.

You know what I mean? Oh, okay. All right. All right. Cause I think knowing you well enough, I would think you're the guy that your friends would want to invite to the wedding. Cause I do think there's some, some weird stuff. I remember there was a girl that I hung out with very briefly and she, you know, was over 30 and she'd said she'd never been invited to a wedding. And then I found out later on the person was a psychopath. And so I was like, oh, this all adds up. No one likes you. Like nobody likes you. And if you're of a certain age and yes, there can be different dynamics specific to Kyle and you're still young enough. But I mean, if you've been invited to no weddings and you're over 30 and you think you have a lot of friends, you actually probably don't have a

lot of friends, um, or a lot of people like you. So this is, this, this life advice has gone on maybe a really depressing, there's probably a person listening to this right now going, Oh my God. Like I, everybody was like, Oh yeah, we're keeping it small. I had a buddy. I told you guys about the guy, uh, one of my friends from Colorado who had a roommate, which I know is not rare. There's two guys living together. And the other guy that I'm not as close with got invited to a wedding. And it was, you know, plus one, like most weddings are. And I remember being dumb enough in some of the earlier weddings where I was like, oh, I'm not bringing anybody. So I may just bring a date. And the guy was like, no, it's my wedding. It's small. If you're serious about somebody, bring them. Are you serious about this person? I was like, well, I haven't even really decided who I was going to ask. He's like, yeah. So that's a no, like, don't do that. And I was like, oh, okay. And I just was stupid. I didn't, I didn't know any better. So this is even dumber is that the one guy gets an invite and then

says to my buddy who's his roommate he's like hey do you want to go to ted's wedding today he's like yeah done love ted throws on a blazer and a tie the guy's coming down the aisle you know and he's getting gets up standing up waiting for his wife to be walked down by the dad and my buddy gives him like a like a thumbs up like yeah dude and the guy looks at him like what like looks at him double takes and now my friend's like super self-conscious going why did the guy just give me that kind of look like what is going on and then he realized he came up to him after the vows and said hey dude you're not invited like i invited your buddy your roommate

but he never RSVP. So he was just, we've thought like, there's not gonna be any food for you. Like there will not be a plate. And he was basically kind of also being pissed, being like, I'm not even that close with you.

And you just showed up to my wedding because my friend, your idiot roommate was like, Hey, you just want to stop by Ted's Ted's wedding for a bit this afternoon, open bar. And, um, you know,

that's what, that's what a lot of us, even with the decent education, younger socially, just do dumb stuff, you know, do dumb stuff like that. Plus one is a murky situation.

I'll admit. What's that? Plus one is just a murky situation. It's hard to understand what that means when nobody actually explains it to you. It's actually not. I will admit I didn't understand it but it it isn't that murky it's all right you can bring somebody you know this isn't look some people just straight up bring dates and some people are okay with it i would tell you if it's a smaller kind of

nicer wedding the there's going to be somebody that's getting married either the bride or the groom is going to be like we don't to just bring in somebody by that you met at Buffalo Wild Wings. But again, you never know. You find love in a lot of places. I think you have to read the vibe of the wedding, who the people are, and how many people you think

are going to go. Because if it's a massive wedding, chances are that person just wants a ton of people at their wedding. But if it's smaller, and they don't even care who the person is. I've had plenty of buddies who just brought another buddy or bought some random person. No kidding. They got a plus one and probably shouldn't even got a plus one in the first place. These people just want to have a huge wedding. But then there are other people who want to keep it tight, want to keep it small.

So if you get a plus one, that person, you know, there are sometimes rules where it's like if you haven't been dating for six months to a year, then you don't even get a plus one. So you got to read the room. There's way more of that in my group over the years. And again, all of these guys have all been married now for a long time, but it was, if I were single, it was understood. They were like, you're not bringing anybody. And I'm like, no, I get it. I get it. And then, I mean, I went to one that was like a real, like a social gathering. Like it was

in the, it was written up and it was it was a black tie it was a big deal but i was i was seeing somebody so it wasn't it wasn't an issue but i would i was going to be told like you're not bringing somebody to this um if you're not serious about it i'm like what is how serious define serious so that's just like an event you're just talking about an event i i'm sorry i know you're trying to get off of this you're talking about a regular event you weren't that wasn't it was a wedding oh that was it was a wedding i was gonna say i'm talking it was a wedding but it was also like built up it was it was something that was on the radar of like the city that hosted it it was it was a big deal all right i rest my case murky okay maybe we didn't come up with anything but i do like the idea of

every bachelor party having one main room that's a little bit bigger for everybody to kind of just home base it okay 21 years old 6-1 d3 tennis player decent serve effective at the net ground stroke game that leaves a lot to be desired all right noted recently got an enjoyable weekly men's pickup league guys are a bit older than me but still a young athletic group that puts together solid runs every sund night. Only 15 guys are allowed in the gym every week, so you have to reserve a spot with the coordinator. He then predetermines three teams of five so we can get there and start playing. It's quite nice

and efficient. Sounds like it. Problem is he keeps putting me on a team with one guy I can't stand. Let's call him Russ. Russ is the most talented player there, but is an absolute brutal guy to play with. Shoots a ton. Is this Russell Westbrook? Who are we talking? Did you guys see Russell Westbrook the other night? Apparently he has the best clutch stats in the NBA right now. That doesn't make any sense.

It was funny too to see him be like, yeah, whatever. Like I knew that. I know how good I am. I'm like, does that include defensive gambles that fuck up the team all the time? I don't think it does. So I don't think this is Westbrook.

Anyway, he shoots a ton. It's basically cardio for everybody else that's on his team for two and a half hours. If you're lucky enough to get the ball but unfortunately make a miss, Russ will let you know about it under his breath. Russ is constantly screaming about picking up defense and being smart with the ball. Last week, I got caught in the air with the ball

along the baseline and turned it over, which costs the game. Russ yelled at me like we had dedicated our entire life to this pickup game, and I just cost us a trip to the Western Conference Finals. He proceeded to kick a door, just an incredibly unreal scene for Russ. Feels a lot like Westbrook. At first, these annex didn't bother me, but now when I'm on his team, I have no desire to show up for that week. I can't confront him because I'm the new guy four inches shorter and wear glasses to play should i ask the coordinator to not put me on his team is this too much i'm sure other guys do not love playing with him but do not say anything so maybe i should just uh stick it out for a few hours every week and get over it maybe i should just start talking a ton of shit next week and draw a punch for him so he's

kicked out of the league seriously what can i do I really like this league and it's a consistent source of fun basketball so I don't want to lose it. Alright, a lot of problems here. I think you got to say something. Clearly it's not in your demeanor to say something to him. If you said you're 6'1 and he's that much bigger than you, then he's clearly a pretty big guy. You said he's the best

player. No one says anything to him? I don't know. I mean, look, you're right. Other guys probably can't stand playing with him either. I remember, look, I've been in a bunch of different leagues, leagues that weren't really leagues, that kind of thing, and I remember one group, it wasn't my group.

They were older guys. It was a terrific run. Some of these guys are still really good players despite the age deal. And you're always going to get into it at some point, guys would be competitive testosterone and all that stuff. Some guys are getting injected with testosterone that are older dudes. And I didn't pay cause I didn't really go there that much. I didn't have the time to, but I still love to be able to go to this place and get a run. And I knew the athletic director. So he was like, yeah, whenever you want to show up, don't feel bad. And honestly, it wasn't like some super fancy place you had to pay a ton of money

to. And I started barking with the other guy a little bit. I mean, he was like, he was 60 and he was a dentist and he's an asshole of a guy. It still bothers me even thinking about the question where he actually used in the argument over a call. He's like, whatever. He's like, you don't even pay. You don't even pay to be here. And so I just was like, where do you think this is going to go? Where do you think this is going to go? And a lot of guys took his side because they'd all been playing together for years. And I'm this young brute showing up, probably taking a little too seriously at times. But I was always good to play with. I wasn't like a guy that would just take a million shots. Gottlieb's one of the single most usage guys. I mean, Gottlieb's a terrific, terrific basketball player, but there would be

certain pickup games with him. You were like, okay, well, no one else is going to shoot right now. And it's not always fun, but because you're the new guy, I get why you're going through that as the new guy. But what I would do, and we're not liable if you get your ass kicked, I would just say something to him next time. Because if you don't say anything to a bully, they're just going to keep doing it over and over again. I mean, chances are you're not going to end up getting a fight with this guy, but you could just say something the next time he yells at you, which is definitely going to happen again. You could say, hey, good. Hey, man, I get it. This is your game. You're a terrific player, but you can save that shit fucking yelling at me, giving me a hard time because I made a fucking mistake

in a pickup game. All right? That's it. It's over. You're not saying that shit to me anymore. Now, if you get your ass kicked, I'm sorry. Then you're never going to want to show up again because you're going to be embarrassed. And there you go. Problem solved as well because now you don't have to play with them anymore. I don't know if you want to go to the guy

organizing it as the new guy this soon and say, hey, I mean, there's another reason why you're probably on the team with him is because a bunch of other guys can't stand it and you're the new guy. Low on the totem pole, he gets to play with Russ. So there you go. Okay. Big pod today. Very big. Got three

coming next week. Carson Palmer, another draft story, a couple other things planned. I want to thank Steve Cerruti and of course, Kyle Crichton, my longtime guy here for helping get the podcast out

every, I don't know, three days a week. So please subscribe, spread the word. Thanks for listening. you