The Ryen Russillo Podcast - First-Round NFL Draft Observations and Aaron Rodgers's Future With Kevin Clark

Episode Date: April 30, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the first round of the NFL draft (1:30) and talks with Kevin Clark about the news that Aaron Rodgers does not wish to return to the Packers next season, Trey Lance to the 49ers, Mac Jones to the Patriots, Justin Fields to the Bears, good and bad draft fits, and more (14:30) before tailing off into an F1 racing segment (47:00). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:22:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Kevin Clark Producer: Kyle Crichton Producer: Steve Ceruti  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First of all, this is just a replay of the Favre saga with a different venue. Instead of the tractor, it's the Jeopardy set, all that. Ed Werder is back into it. He was way into the Favre thing. Now he's back in the Rodgers thing. And he had a really good quote from a GM last night where he said, the Packers are going to dig in their feet and make them play or be a game show host. And that's really where it's at.

That was Kevin Clark. We spent an hour with him talking not only Rodgers, but the draft and a ton of F1. We went forever on this one. I have some thoughts on the draft as well and life advice on today's Friday episode. So I go back on Twitter. Shocking, right? Not a coincidence.

Probably that little rant. That's not really even why I was doing it. Some people got it. Some people maybe didn't like it, but I don't know because I didn't see any response to it. And then boom, all of a sudden I get an email saying, hey, you had some problems with your account? Here you go. Reset it. So the first tweet I saw when I came back on was Ian Rapoport, NFL Network, who I'm

not making fun of, but I'm making fun of the tweet in that the tweet was this. So I'm back on it's the draft and I see all the Aaron Rodgers stuff. And the first one that I was like, this website, this sole website. Rabbit Board's like,

if the Rodgers-Green Bay thing doesn't work out, producers were very impressed with Rodgers as a host at Jeopardy. And essentially being like, maybe. Come on, right? I mean, look, even if you found somebody who liked you behind the scenes at jeopardy to then go ahead and be the host was rogers good enough for that and more importantly and more accurately would rogers as an nfl quarterback one of the best to ever do this job

who still apparently has a couple good years in front of him not only when we look at brady but how rogers just performed would you really think unless you hated football which none of us think rogers hates football if he hated football then he would just bounce. He'd be like, you know what? That's fine. Jeopardy is now somehow leverage against the Packers where the Packers are like, we don't want to move them, man, but he was good on Jeopardy. Did you see Rappaport's tweet? Yeah, no, that's a good point. All right. I guess we'll trade him because we know he could be the host of Jeopardy. Like this is where this stuff that happens where I go, I can't believe this is the business that I work in because that's so absurd that somebody used that to try to plan it as leverage.

And then a reporter was like, Hey, by the way, and I understand why the reporter did it. Okay. Because it plays, it plays. So I'm not even criticizing any reporting on it. It's just the thought, the thought itself. And so then it leads to all these other different things that this is more than this. It's Rogers being upset. We know this about Rodgers. Anybody that you know that knows him, although the circle is very tight, he's an intense guy that never forgives. I, as a first-round pick of grudge holders, I can understand that as well.

Those of you that don't hold any grudges, I admire you. I guess you just move on. My point is always kind of like, well, somebody messes with me, my family, my life, and my career. Like, why would I be like, hey, you know what? I forgive you, me healthier whatever all right but rogers like i think he creates versions of drama where he's actually in a pretty good football situation

on top of this and then we'll do this deal like remember when rory mcelroy started like falling off a little bit as a golfer and people were like man you know he's good he's got a girlfriend now like okay so what are all the other guys winning green jackets? Are they single? You know? Or whenever somebody starts to decline and then they'll go,

oh, you know, he's different now. He's got kids. I get it. The kids part makes your life different. Does that mean that everybody with kids stops being good at stuff? Like, that's nuts. Remember when LeBron came out to LA

and he gets hurt and that's why the Lakers were bad that season. It's like, eh, you know, it's, it's just different now at this stage of his career. He's really in LA to make movies. He's definitely in LA to make movies and create content. He's also here to win championships and that's what he's done. So when Rogers who gets engaged, it's like, you know, his wife's an actress. This is not like one of those life advice situations where we have these emails with

the guys like, all right, just graduated from Holy Cross and have a really good job in Charlotte, North Carolina. But I met this awesome girl and she's from Chicago, but I could do pharmaceutical sales in Chicago, but I can make more in Charlotte and the rent is cheaper. I can get a bigger house and I'm trying to convince her. Should I ask her what's fair and all this different stuff? And you're like, okay, fine. That happens to a lot of different people.

Reasonable questions. You'll come up with a solution, even if the solution doesn't feel like it presents itself immediately. This is not like Aaron Rodgers gets engaged to an actress and she's like, well, you knew I worked in L.A. You think I'm going to live in Green Bay? Although our wives and girlfriends underrated here because I think it's dictating one of the other quarterback moves with Russell Wilson, but that's, that's absurd. And by the way,

you don't have to live in green Bay 12 months a year. You don't have to, it's a pretty short deal. It's a really good, it's not like baseball. It's a pretty good deal to be an NFL player based on not physical injuries, but the time commitment to the actual profession. So whenever that's brought up,

it's like, okay, so what's he's going to do now? He's just going to host game shows and live with an actress in LA because this wasn't talked about ahead of time? The idea that anyone would be like, well, you said you'd retire. No, I didn't say I was going to retire. So that story off the top was weird. Speaking of off the top, the Roger Goodell dork factor is at an all-time high i don't really know uh how else to explain it or maybe i hadn't really seen him that much lately and it was just a reminder he needs better people around him better handlers it reminds me of the book losers that was

originally a different title by michael lewis it was written in the 90s about the republican primary race right dole's quest for the nomination where he went and got the nomination, got smoked by Clinton. And Michael Lewis, who I got to admit, his self-awareness in all of his books is pretty funny in that he's basically admitting

he's doing something that like a dick would do, where he's walking around the camcorder after a debate and he just walks into the headquarters of this convention center's debate area. So he'll just, he went into the Dole campaign's headquarters and started leafing through notes. And then he went into the Clinton headquarters and started actually looking through garbage and he got yelled at and then lied and said, well, I'm here to meet Stephanopoulos for

a drink. And the person like, let him go. And he's admitting all of this in the book. So it's really, really funny. But what he finds in the Dole campaign is he finds these notes where they're bullet points that were probably already written before the debate was even over, where it was Dole won, no question, soft, warm, convincing, great on details, great on economy, own Clinton on this. And Lewis is basically laughing, like this is a room full of people that are all paid to make Dole the candidate. And there's no way they were going to come up with any other solution, or I would better said conclusion, than that Dole smashed Clinton. And then he runs into one of the Dole people and he's like, if Dole lost the debate, would you even be willing to say that? And the guy was like, I guess I would, but he didn't. So it's not a point. I feel like these are the people that are now working with Goodell. They're like, you know what? Hugs are back. No masks. We stressed health the entire time. The chair, remember the basement chair? The basement chair was fun. Good old Raj down in the basement, leather chair. Let's bring the chair out. The chair could be kind of the star and everybody's hugging again and all this different stuff. And then you just realize like one of the Roger

Goodell's biggest problems is that he's just not a good public speaker. And at first, he was this chiseled-from-granite linebacker torso with these shoulders, and he's younger, and you're thinking, this is exactly like, gosh, look at him. The shield. He himself looks like a shield. I'm not even criticizing. I'm just telling you that it comes off as very crafted,

and the more crafted it becomes, the dork telling you that it comes off as very crafted. And the more crafted it becomes, the dorkier he kind of comes off. It almost feels like the guy that has an awesome beach house that all of you guys are friends with. And you just get to let him be who he is because he has this great position of power. In this case, it's your friend with the sick house. In Goodell's case, it's guy who's the commissioner of the nfl coverage alone less deaths i appreciated it i know everybody has different stories some are sad but i really felt like last year was another level we're like hey you got and you got a dog anything like hey wingo we just talked to this dead bird sixth grade lead with that there was so much death and bummer stuff

um and it sucks when that stuff happens, but when it became like every pick, it was, it was a lot and there was less of that this year. So I thought that was great. Jets fans cheering Zach Wilson. Let's face it. If the draft were immediately after the college season and this were in January, you would have booed it, but you talked yourself into it for three or four months. Cause you just kept reading all these awesome scattering reports. And then you just sort of accepted it that Wilson was going number two. So you cheered like crazy. Speaking of Zach Wilson, and this will happen to you for our younger listeners as you get older, he is the youngest looking person

I've ever seen at the draft, which means I'm getting older in that weird way that science works where if you're in a fraternity like I was and we would find the old composites from the late 70s and early 80s and we'd be like why were 40 year old dudes in college back then where's the science there or sometimes when you look at pictures from like the 19 teens and 20s and you're just like why are the faces different for whatever reason young guys were way older when they were in college in the 70s and 80s. And yet somehow now when you get older and around my age, younger guys going to draft like the Zach Wilson picture, I was like, what the hell's going on here? Why is he so young? He was that young. He's the youngest looking guy ever. And which made it even weirder is when you see the huddled group around the draft

picture, you're like, oh, is that his sister? You're like, no, that's his mom. And then you're like, all right, now stop talking out loud because this is really, really weird. The story became the Trey Lance deal, which in fact, he didn't know. He didn't know he was going number three overall. I don't know what to believe about Shanahan not knowing or ownership not knowing at all, but they did a really good job keeping this pretty close. But it wasn't out of nowhere because there were a few hints. One agent, who I'll give a lot of credit, who was like, I think it's Lance, I think it's Lance, but did not convince me of it because he wasn't convinced, which I thought was really cool, instead of just telling me like, hey, I have this nugget and this is exactly what's going to happen,

knowing that there was still a chance for it to be a mistake. Mac Jones, Tom Brady. I too think Mac Jones moves his feet really well in the pocket. And any comp beyond that doesn't make any sense except for the bad body. Tough body. I gotta tell you, I almost respect a guy who can be walking

around Alabama with guys just absolutely sculpted and go, nope, I'm gonna be bad body guy. I'm gonna be dad bod non-top prospect, national championship winner and quarterback for Alabama. That's what I'm going to do. I also think Bama, with five picks between number six and 17,

and then another pick later, Najee Harris going to the Steelers, and Saban being up there, and then complimenting Petty, the story out of Michigan, was really cool. And it was a reminder for the people that are in football that their lives are football, that football was under attack for such a long time. And by the way, is football no longer under attack? Do people just get bored with that story?

I guess the pandemic could have something to do with that, but it feels like now football, all right, we told everybody how terrible the sport was and people predicted the end of it and no one's ever going to play it, which are absurd predictions because you've probably never been out of your, you've everybody how terrible the sport was and people predicted the end of it and no one's ever going to play it, which are absurd predictions because you've probably never been out of your, you've never been to the South,

you've never been to Texas, maybe you've never been to the Midwest. I don't know what the deal was, but there was a lot of talk about the end of football. Now, I guess it's not over. And I think the people that do it like a Saban who've made their lives football, there was a lot of, I don't know if it's angst,

a stronger word, more accurate word, would be just pissed off that they keep reading about how terrible their sport is when actually the sport, as violent as it is, there are still amazing stories wrapped in this sport. And I think Saban was trying to remind everybody of that as well as the desk. When you have an entire game day crew out there

with Todd McShay, who you can say, well, they're biased, they've made their living off of it. Well, they've made their living off it because they also love this sport. The Najee Harris pick to the Steelers was funny because they're like, you know, it just feels right. It feels like the Steelers. Here are the Steelers rushing ranks as a team. Their identity is still this 1970s deal where they just run it down your throats. And it hasn't been the case for a decade. Rankings, rushing rankings the last 10 years. Last 29th,th 14 16 16 28 26 14 they're not a running football team and haven't been for a really long time but i like the naji harris pick and you know

what i liked about it even more because i was like man we haven't had any megan rapinoe content yet boom a couple hours in we were able to get it um but the petty story was was an incredible deal his coming over as a refugee plane in michiganty story was an incredible deal. His coming over as a refugee plane in Michigan, being in Rhode Island and coming over. The last part of this, I think that was really kind of funny, was the teammate deal. You had Lawrence and Etienne. You had Tua

and Waddle again. Obviously, Tua already in the league. Jalen Hurts now getting Devontae Smith. And then you have Burrow now with Jamar Chase. Every time a teammate is selected, now you have, oh, they were teammates. That's great. It's going to be great for him. No one ever factors in for, what if those guys hated each other? Kevin Clark

joins us. I want to start with where I started the podcast with Aaron Rodgers News. I'm going to ask you as a reporter, because I just, it was the first thing I saw once I got back on Twitter, um, Rappaport reporting that the producers at jeopardy really liked the job that Rodgers did kind of dot, dot,

dot like, you know, this Packers thing, if they don't, they don't move them. I mean, he could be, he could be a game show host.

So, you know, you know, put that one in your cap and, uh, save it for later. If an agent told you that, would could be a game show host. So, you know, put that one in your cap and save it for later. If an agent told you that, would you be like, okay, cool. Like, I get why Rappaport's doing it. It is news. It's, I guess, significant.

It's going to get a million plays on social media. How would you handle that as a reporter of the highest standards? I would make it a little more general in the sense that, okay, there were people who said that Rodgers is really good on Jeopardy, but he's not the favorite, right? But he can get a game show.

The Watt brothers hosted a game show last summer, right? They're available, Brian. You can go be a game show host if you want to. I don't know that I should be. I'm not soft enough. But yes, people can do it. Three meetings.

Go ahead. You take three meetings to get yourself a game show. I promise you. If that's the leverage play, which is that it's retirement at Hollywood, or a bunch of guys have retired to go the entertainment route over the last 50 years, I think that is a little more serious. If it's Jeopardy or Bust, a bunch of guys have retired to go the entertainment route over the last 50 years.

I think that is a little more serious. If it's Jeopardy or Bust, I think he might be setting himself up for disappointment. What happens if they make a decision on Jeopardy and that was his big leverage? I mean, it's just mind boggling. I mean, I think overarching here, it's funny because I think it's about something Woj said, actually. And I think it was to you like 18 months ago. He said the NBA business now is just waiting for the next guy to get pissed off. Right? Like, oh, Russell Westbrook's not happy. Here we go.

James Harden's not happy. Here we go. And I kind of feel like with quarterbacks, a similar thing is happening right now. Russell Wilson was really unhappy. The Seahawks dug in their heels. Aaron Rodgers has been unhappy since at least the end of the season. And now we saw a very strange, weirdly timed leak that I don't think maximized his opportunity of getting traded. It did maximize the attention towards it. I thought the most interesting thing, but besides the fact that

every single person got a leak within five minutes of the initial report was the the florio report that said so jay glazer says this goes way beyond the contract which i i understand he doesn't have any guaranteed money going forward on his deal um but he's been paid a lot in the past but we'll get to that but florio says i'm told he, doesn't like anyone in the front office for a variety of reasons. He's just got a list. He's got it in his notes app. He's just saying, well, here's why I don't like

Murphy. Here's why I don't like Goodenkunst. Here's why I don't like Russ Ball. At this point, it's just personal. You almost wonder if the reason he didn't do it was just to embarrass these dudes. Yeah, the draft part of it is absolutely part of the play. But you're right. If you want it out, then do this before free agency.

You know, if you want it out, do it before everybody's done all of their draft prep. Now, I don't know if the Packers front office found out the way we found out. I doubt it. And I think we've all known that he's kind of unhappy. I guess sometimes you're just like, is he an unhappy guy? Because when we had Dilfer on, who knows him really, really well, and I think there were years where it was fair to point out some regression. He has another incredible year. And then Dilfer goes, dude, if you knew this guy,

them taking Jordan Love just pisses him off to a level of motivating him to play kind of back to peak Rodgers. And you're like, okay. It still doesn't seem like it's worth it. I would agree with Rodgers. Like, why are you taking somebody here in the first round? It's a far more legitimate argument

than Russell Wilson's camp saying, I can't believe they went to Josh Allen's pro day, which is still like, hey, do you guys think that was going to work? I think there was like, Hey, tell him, tell,

tell, uh, tell Glazer that I can't believe they went to Josh Allen's pro day. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That's really good. Why would you go to Josh Allen's pro day?

So that one, whenever I, whenever I saw that at first, I was like, you guys, you guys got to do a better job at this because this Rogers one, I mean, imagine working somewhere and being like,

Hey, who can we leak to that? I hate who could like you know what i mean like this is they're divvying up the leaks and it's like all right chapter goes first and we got this we're gonna give glazer that it's not the contract and we're gonna give florio that I just everybody I work with I dislike. That goes to Florio. But, you know, people can laugh and I'm laughing but it's exactly what happened. It's like, let's take care of everybody. Like, hey, who do you want to give

which Jeopardy producer will back us on that he was pretty good? Cliff. Cliff liked us. The AP? Yeah, AP. Is he AP or AP2? I don't know. No one will know all right yeah cliff all right so we got that so cliff did like him he thought he was strong he's good and out of breaks he's like once double jeopardy he really warmed up um so give rap a port that one yeah give rap a port that one that we haven't confirmed that the producers you know you know you never

know which way the wind blows you know this thing goes a certain way um you know and then the other part of it too where i'll be like well is his fiancee's an actress it's like well it's not like she didn't know what he did before they got together like aaron you said you would move so uh people can make this out to be like you know with the awareness of everybody being like, if he's not happy and, and that's cool, I get that part of it. I think it's great that people are more out in the open feeling better.

And Hey, if I'm not feeling great, I know there's more people that aren't feeling great too, but, but then it gets taken to this level where you just go. So what, what if the Packers just don't want to trade him? So then what's going to happen?

Cause, cause Rogers is different in that I could see him being mad enough to not play i guess uh i just wouldn't bet and have the opportunities he has so much money uh he has interests i'm like i've done four long interviews with him over the past four years and i think three of them were about television like we would give him a ringer podcast he could be on The Ringerverse just talking about Game of Thrones, or he could do football for us, whatever. I promise. Is that confirmed?

That we would give him a Ringer podcast? You should do that. You should do that. A source at The Ringer confirms that Rodgers is definitely a go-to for some binge mode stuff. I promise you, we could get him talking Thrones. Like, he has some really good Thrones takes. You can look him up.

Yeah, but none of this replaces playing professional football on Sundays and competing and still being this awesome. So I know we're on the same page here, but the idea that he has all these other opportunities, I'm not dismissing any of that. If I'm still really good at the football part, I want to keep playing football. And you're not going to make $37 million as a game show host,

unless you get that, the Bob Barker career, which eventually, maybe you will. But, okay, so, but, you know, Ed, first of all, this is just a replay

of the Favre saga with a different venue. Instead of the tractor, it's the Jeopardy set, all that. Ed Werder is back into it. He was way into the Favre thing. Now he's back in the Rogers thing. And he had a really good

quote from a GM last night where he said, the Packers are going to dig in their feet and make them play or be a game show host. And that's really where it's at. Now, I will push back on the narrative and certainly at times Aaron Rodgers has not had the supporting cast around him that he deserved.

Certainly the coaching staff in the past was not up to par. And Aaron Rodgers was a much better quarterback than Mike McCarthy was a coach. And we saw that time and again over his career. But as of right now, he has an all-pro left tackle. He has Devonta Adams, who's one of the best receivers in football. They re-signed the running back that he wanted to come back. They hired a coach who was running the offense that he wanted to run.

I kind of feel like this place is built for him. Again, if it's personal and he doesn't like walking around the hallway, that's one thing. But if you're talking about a football situation, Green Bay is pretty good. And I understand, I saw a stat about J.L. Alexander gave up a 45 passer rating. And I think every other Packer cornerback gave up a 95 passer rating

last year and they needed to address that and they go out maybe it was a reach with Stokes but they got a cornerback if you're looking from a purely football standpoint Green Bay is pretty good man if Rogers point is I'm taking these playoff losses and

I think the average points allowed in playoff losses is some absurd number, like 35, 37 points allowed. So whenever anybody argues against Rodgers and goes, oh, look at this playoff record, I'm like, look at what the defense did. So I would side with Rodgers on that one. But to be upset, like NBA guys, well, I don't know. That's all over the place now at this point because guys can be in winning situations.

You just want a better winning situation. But this isn't like Carson Palmer with Cincinnati, where Rodgers is going 6-10 or 8-8 and being like, all right, time is up. I got to get out of here. But I also think something you said is really important, is that this is an organization, even if there's different names involved, but I believe there's carryover here.

And at least from a team experience, what they went through with Favre to transition into Rodgers was way more absurd than this because Favre was retiring every April-ish, four off seasons in a row, and then just thought like

that was his job back. And then Favre acted like he was done wrong when the team was like, enough of you, man. And then he was mad. And then he goes to the Jets just to get to the Vikings. And then it's like, all right, it's revenge. And it's kind of funny how all of us can do this. We can create a version of the story where we feel like we're the one that's wrong to all the time. And if you look at it from the outside, sometimes you can be the worst source. You can be the worst source on your own story.

Favre certainly was. I'm not all the way there with Rodgers, but it's not a bad football situation. So I wonder what it's about. I wonder how likely it is. And is there anything to add to this as far as other teams that feel like, hey, we actually feel like we could really make a push for him? Because everybody has a price, even if the Packers are saying they're not going to let him play football again. Okay. I do want to address the first point first, which is I talked to Brian Guttenkund last fall and we talked about this a little bit. And he talked about Ted Thompson because Ted Thompson

was the GM who made the decisions and traded far away and promoted Rodgers, drafted Rodgers, obviously. And I think Ted Thompson came up in that conversation five or six or seven times, because I think seeing that and everybody in that front office saw it and the heat Ted took and the calmness he had. I think that kind of is instructive for everything they do now is that, okay, if Ted got through that and it was 10 times more heated than this was, it was absolutely insane. If you remember it, then, it, then they can do it too. And so I don't think, just as far as handling the situation,

I just don't think that they're, I think it's kind of a strangely unflappable front office in that regard. Now, team-wise, I guess, you know, Mort said the Raiders just don't have the money for it. I understand that when you're paying Derek Carr a ton of money like that. Presumably, by the way,

the Packers offered him an extension. He said no. And so presumably there would be some guaranteed money tied up in a new contract. I don't know. I mean, we keep hearing that David Tepper in Carolina would, quote, move mountains for a franchise quarterback. Well, this is it.

It's not Sam Darnold. It's Aaron Rodgers. So maybe there's something to do there. But again, putting the public pressure on, and I know that obviously they flew out to California to meet with Rodgers and get him happy and all that stuff, but putting the public pressure on five hours for the draft, it couldn't,

couldn't say he got one call yesterday and it was brief. And they said, no, if you had done this three months ago, it's a totally different bidding process that, you know, maybe the Broncos and the Panthers top 10 picks are more available. Most of these guys have such tunnel vision that they're just getting ready for the draft last night in the war room. We had that strange Mark

Schleyer with report that said, let's say the deal was done or as close to being done as you could possibly get. I don't know about that one. Um, I just think that it's, it's still that genre of team, Carolina, Denver, um, you know, the LA teams are spoken for, but I'm sure he would like that. I don't know. The Niners would have been a great fit, but that ship has sailed. There's just not a lot of good

homes right now to be a franchise quarterback after the draft. Great point, and that's where we'll finish it because, like you said at the top, if this was about getting publicity, job well done. If this was about giving yourself the best chance to move on from a franchise then you guys time this like really poorly really poorly um so i i wonder i'd love an honest answer of what was the goal just to just to fuck with everybody for a day or to actually get out of there because if you really want to get out of there or did something change dramatically in

the last week or so that led to this point i don't know it feels pretty calculated draft day first round all the coverage everybody talking about it if you wanted to do it announce it in february agree third pick it's kind of where we knew the story was going to start here mac jones mac jones mac jones trade lance train all over the place um you know i talked to somebody that said trade didn't even know those guys straight up didn't know i don't i don't know how much truth there is to the ownership saying, hey, I want to find out what everybody else did. Jed York had a bunch of tweets about it.

So what do you think happened here and how did it come to this? And what does it mean for Garoppolo in San Francisco? Wow. So first of all, I do think Kyle Shanahan liked Matt Jones. And I do think that it became, I think smokescreen is the wrong word, but everybody in the league, and you can ask anybody about this, whether it's Daniel Jeremiah,

Adam Schefter, or myself, who was less plugged into those guys, certainly. But you can't ask me if you want to. Everyone in the league thought that Mac Jones was the pick. And I don't know what that was. I don't know if that was just everybody reading the tweets.

Then it just, the cycle just starts eating itself. I'm not sure. I mean, I'm surprised. I was getting doing some bakeries, Baker Mayfield research the other day. And I was looking at this guy, Ken Carmen in Cleveland, did a really good map of all the rumors for the first overall pick in 2018. And it was like four pages. And you just don't remember anything about it.

I don't remember. There was like a week, Ryan, where Kirk Cousins was going to sign with the Browns. And then they were going to take somebody else with the first overall pick or trade out or trade or draft Saquon. I mean, I don't remember any of the how much Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold were pegged there. I don't remember any of this stuff. I just remember the Baker part. And I kind of feel like it reminds me a little bit of like airline turbulence, right?

Where like when you're in the moment, it feels so real and vivid. And then the moment you land, you're just like, eh, whatever. It's over, right? That's what draft rumors are to me. We don't remember how chaotic almost every pick is unless it's Trevor Lawrence or Zach Wilson in this case. So this Mac Jones, Trey Lance thing, first of all,

I feel bad for Mac Jones because he didn't ask to be pegged to be the third overall pick a month out of the draft. And then all of a sudden he's sliding and the debate over him got kind of weird. And I'm sure we'll get to that. But this is the pick. Like Trey Lance was the pick. He's awesome. The stuff Kyle Shanahan was going to make this pick look good no matter what because he's a really good coach. Because the way he uses motion makes the quarterbacks look so clear

that they have a built-in advantage. The decided schematic advantage that Charlie Weiss used to talk about, that didn't really exist with Charlie Weiss. It exists with Kyle Shanahan because of the way that they use motion and all of the cool things that they do. North Dakota State is a really interesting kind of breeding ground for quarterbacks. I remember talking to Brad Childress and Andy Reid about Wentz, actually, and how many things

and it's not the same head coach, but the quarterback's coach is still on staff. A bunch of staff members are still there where they're doing kind of the exact marriage of quote unquote pro style concepts and RPO concepts that, that teams want to see. I mean, it's, it's almost like the perfect blend for an NFL eye to see that. So he's going to fit right in.

And, and what happened with the Mac Jones thing? I mean, that's, that's like a 30 for 30 at this point or ringer narrative podcast, maybe hosted by Aaron Rogers. But I just think that generally you know listen he has probably there's some question marks there he's not as accurate as

he could be uh he's doing 318 passes in his life which i think was bob mcginn had the quote from a scout that said mahomes would throw 300 passes in like a month in texas tech okay yeah eric heger uh you know had had this thing he's only had 25 ever dropbacks when he's playing from behind. Like there's just there's certain things where you just say, OK, well, we just haven't seen this. But I think the talent stands out so much that that I feel comfortable with it. I'm OK. I'm OK with it. up this morning from the quarterback's coach at North Dakota State talking about how good he is at handling shifts and motions and all of the things that Kyle Shanahan will ask him to do. So what happens to Garoppolo? He gets dealt at some point. But if I'm San Francisco, I try to roll with it going into the season and do kind of a knockoff version of the Alex Smith-Mahomes thing, although it'll probably go a little differently. Yeah, because I would rather have Alex Smith in that role than Garoppolo. I think that's correct.

We'd all agree on that. All right. So there's, there's a bunch in there. You know what I thought was interesting watching McShay's broadcast on ABC was how often they would kind of like, it's a very positive thing now, right? There's very's very very if any negativity on any of the picks uh it just doesn't really happen which maybe is what you're supposed to do kids out of college you get older and i were just talking about that before you before you log down we were talking about how it's just become like whoa look at this guy dominate minnesota okay well that's that's good he's a first round pick i would love to find a way to sprinkle in a little bit more doubt but maybe that's just not what it's going to be you know to sprinkle in a little bit more doubt but maybe

that's just not what it's going to be you know maybe it's a disney product it's abc it's espn um but i doubt nfl network i think draft twitter is like that too a little bit yeah i mean the nba one is is is the same deal too so you know it's not even about disney abc espn i think it's it's just kind of that moment. It's a celebration. Let's all be positive. I would just love from the analysts a little bit more like, hey, this is something I didn't like and it just doesn't really happen anymore. And I don't think that makes me a negative person.

I always want the full story. The Leatherwood pick to the Raiders is the only one because guys were just like, hey, amazing story. And he came back and Saban said, let's do this. And it worked out. And this kid built him into a first-rounder. McJay's like, okay. But, I mean, Daniel Jeremiah, I was like, I had him ranked 62nd.

So that was something that the guys that really dug into were like, it's a reach, it's a reach. And I think I would like a TV show that did a little bit more of that. Maybe I'm a minority on that one. But with the quarterbacks, Mac Jones was the best eyes. All right? Sees things the quickest. Trey Lance is the best at understanding all the motion and shifts better than

any of those guys. Oh, okay. Trevor's the consummate winner because he won in high school and he won a title. And, you know, I don't even knew that LSU team was a monster.

That was LSU beating Clemson more than it was Trevor Lawrence sucking in a big time game. I thought. and he won a title and you know i don't even knew that lsu team was a monster that was lsu beating clemson more than it was trevor lawrence sucking in a big time game i thought um and then zach wilson was recall guy like joe douglas sat down and no one's ever recalled like ever before so you know when it comes back around to mac because he was rumored to be three and then he's still sitting there and you just want to be like, hey, it's the draft. There's going to be a couple guys that sit there, all right? Let's not act like

it's this national tragedy. There's going to be a couple guys that call a little bit later than they're supposed to go. And to go from three to 15 is not, this is not like sitting around for a day and be like,

all right, we'll see you Friday, buddy. You know? So, I guess I don't have, I can understand being disappointed in it, but the Mac part of it going at 15 makes a hell of a lot more sense even if there were times this season like I would text McShay watching games going you know what I really like about Mac and hey this is kind of

and that was when I didn't even know if he was going to be a first rounder so part of this also makes me think of Kyle Trask finds a way to win the SEC title game we're talking about Kyle Trask is a first round fit somewhere out of Florida. And maybe Mac Jones is like, you know, it'd be a nice kind of second day guy would be Mac Jones, dude. So that's where I think the bust happened because the evaluation is just so all over the place. And then ultimately, look, he ends up with the Patriots.

And I kind of sit here and go, there's some things I really like about him. There's some things I don't necessarily like about him. I have no idea if he's going to be a starting quarterback long term in the NFL. Yeah, it's interesting. We had so many different reports, you know, the Albert Breer report that both Jalen Waddell or first of all, DeLonta Smith thought that he would rather have Mack than Tua. And then Jalen Waddell kind of confirms that on the NFL Network. I believe that he'd rather have Mack than Tua. And then Jalen Waddell kind of confirms that on the NFL network. I believe that he'd rather have his,

his most recent quarterback. It's a really interesting thing. And I think the one thing that's going to be a problem for him, and I don't think this is a hot take is that I really do believe that the receivers that Mack Jones threw to an Alabama could get separation a hell of a lot better at the NFL level than what the Patriots have right now. And I don't think, you know, if you just look at Jalen, it's not a hot take. It's not a hot take. Devonta Smith and Jalen Waddle are better receivers, would be a better

receiving core than what the Patriots have. I actually listened not to bring up Charlie Weiss twice in this conversation. Did you expect to Charlie Weiss references today? No, but you were done. Okay. So, so he did an interview a couple of weeks ago. And when I was doing my research last night after the pick and, and he, he talked about the fit in, in Belichick's offense. I thought it was interesting because obviously he understands Belichick's offense really well. And one, a couple of things he said stood out. Number one, the point Weiss was making was that burrow didn't get dinged for having an incredible supporting cast and using vision as a superpower and all that stuff but

but mac jones does and i go back by the way bob mcginn had this as well and the quote it just needs to be put on a billboard somewhere quote if you throw away the way he looks and he looks like shit he's a really good player that's the book book on Mac Jones with an anonymous scout. That's real. When I think about what Weiss said here, he said, and listen, this is a cliche, but there's a reason it's a cliche. What Weiss said was the Belichick is going to take what

you can do and do a whole lot of that. And so Mac can hit receivers. He's super accurate. I think he set records for accuracy. They're going to be able to build a play's super accurate. I think he set records for accuracy. They're going to be able to build a playbook around that. I think Mac Jones not being asked to do too much, plus a really good defense. I think the Patriots finished seventh in defense last year. They're going to get some of their guys back.

They had six opt-outs last year. I think that can be a decent team. I don't think that they're going to challenge from the division or anything. But I think if Mac Jones wins a starting job and he's okay and he doesn't make mistakes and they kind of play Belichick ball, I'm okay with this. I just don't like how much the NFL drafts on need. It scares me a little bit. And I never thought I'd be like, why do they put together these need lists? And when I first started working at ESPN and we would talk to draft guys, whether it was Kuyper and I had known Todd before I was even there.

And we, I, I actually hosted the first final draft podcast. I was the first host of that with those two guys. So I would, I was big into it. Um, and I'd be like, why do you guys put together these need charts? And I'm like, yeah, more than half the team just go like, all right, we're thin a corner. Who's there. And I'm thinking like that. No wonder you make so many mistakes.

Like, how could you not figure out like, Hey, this linebacker grades out way better. And we're thin a corner who's there and i'm thinking like that no wonder you make so many mistakes like how could you not figure out like hey this linebacker grades out way better and we're thin a corner yeah whatever let's just take the linebacker you know like i love what washington did because they threw another guy in their front seven out of kentucky who looks like a freak and i'm like they just probably evaluated him really highly maybe had him 10th overall on their board and like let's go ahead and grab him. So I was like, you know, I really like that pick from Washington. But for there to be this benefit of the doubt, I'm not saying this is happening necessarily around the country and the coverage of it, but some benefit of the doubt,

Belichick, who's been pretty terrible in the drafts now for a long time, and they desperately needed a quarterback. It's great they didn't have to move assets to grab a guy that's a question mark. But, oh, well, Bill got him, so now they're smarter than everybody else. I don't know. I mean, are you paying attention?

Because it's also totally based on need more than anything else. And he hasn't actually, and by the way, he hasn't actually drafted quarterbacks all that well either. Well, you know what? Maybe that's unfair.

Well, Garoppolo, I think, is completely overrated. Brissette, you know what? Briss's unfair. Well, Garoppolo, I think, is completely overrated. Brissette, you know what? Brissette's a win because you drafted somebody later that ends up being a starter somewhere, even if he lost his job to Phillip Rivers, so that's not fair. But the Ryan Mallets, the, what was it,

Kevin O'Connell, who they took really high and never played. So maybe I shouldn't say, that's the wrong way to phrase it. Basically, if somebody's saying, hey, if Bill drafted a QB, it's probably going to work out, that would be an overstatement.

But what I just said is an overstatement too, so I should be more fair about it. I think Mac Jones at 15 is the epitome of fine. I think if you'd invested a total of three first-round picks and taken Mac Jones at number three,

that's where it gets a little bit ridiculous. I think this is fine. And I think that there's a, there's, there's a reality to drafting for need when it's a quarterback. Um, you know, sometimes, listen, everybody says they want best player available. And then like, you know, the Packers said Jordan love is the best player available. And they took it and everybody was like, Oh wait, not like that. No, not, not, not best player available like that. So I think that there's,

with Belichick in particular, it's funny because everybody's saying, well, he's so close to Nick Saban, and you know Nick gave him a good referral. Belichick's actually gotten in a little bit of trouble with that, whether that's Greg Sciano at Rutgers. Urban.

Urban, yeah. And I kind of think, and this is where, if you kind of read the tea leaves on this stuff some of the scouts have told me and others you know sometimes belichick just doesn't listen to them and a lot of that is because they think he's just calling up a handful of college coaches and saying what's going on um and so i'm not saying that mac jones is going to be bad quarterback i'm certainly not as i said he's going to be fine um but I'm not saying that Mac Jones is going to be a bad quarterback. I'm certainly not. As I said, he's going to be fine. But I'm just saying that the

Nick Saban-Bill Belichick connection to me doesn't move me all that much. Not at all. Not at all. I think there's a lot of people that believe that. That he's got his handful of trusted guys and it's like okay, but you should be talking to more people. And if you look at some of the

Urban stuff that had happened there for a while, you're like is he just taking florida guys that urban says is good like what's going on here um and i'm not even bringing up the aaron hernandez part of it because you know actually hernandez was good when he played um what else what else what's the other big thing that you're gonna look at and be like all right... Actually, this is a terrible question, but leave this in as punishment. Just give me kind of like the fit that you're looking for to seeing how it plays out, at least from the first round. Okay, so there's a couple here. I love, as a prospect, J.C. Horn.

I don't love him in Carolina. I think that there's... I think they played the least amount of man to man in the NFL last year. And now you're just getting a guy made. I don't know how those those talents go there. I'm trying, you know, Patrick Sertan, I think, is really, really good. We had Mike Tannebaum on the pot a couple weeks ago, and I asked him, you know, when one through three go as quarterbacks

typically there's just a guy who falls to the bottom of the top 10 in 1999 that was champ bailey who I think was at eight I said who's that guy this year and he said he said patrick shatan uh the second I and I I tend to agree with that I think it's a good fit um there in in denver and so I'm I'm really kind of looking forward to that. I'm intrigued to see, and I know that we've gotten so far on the running back conversation, and I'm with the analytics guys on the running back stuff. I'm intrigued to see if either

of those guys help their team dramatically in year one, because I think it's possible. I'm like, Travis Etienne is awesome. He's awesome. Awesome. And like I watched him really closely during the ACC season this year, because I thought watched him really closely, um, during the ACC season this year, because I thought briefly Miami had a chance to, to be in the mix there. Um, so I watched, watched a lot of Clemson this year and Travis Etienne was awesome. And like, I, I, would

you invest that much for him? Maybe if you're urban Meyer and you think that's urban Meyer comes out and says he's the third, he's the third down back and, and they're going to have Robinson and hide as, as the first and second down back. I don't know how that offense is going to work, but I really do think Urban Meyer is going to understand how to build an NFL team. I really do think he's going to be marginally successful, maybe better than people think. And so I think Etienne in Jacksonville is pretty intriguing to me. Um, and so I, I think Etienne in, in Jacksonville is, is pretty intriguing to me. Yeah.

I feel the same way about nausea too, is that I feel like early on, I was pretty early on the, why are you taking these running backs? But then it turns into, okay, well, wait a minute. I'm getting you second half of the first round. Like they're, I mean, it's not completely dismissive. I still would be inclined to want to take more depth in the secondary, you know combination of edge guys even if it was a luxury and i could rotate in some guys because you know different teams have different snap count priorities yeah um which i think is you know kind of a thing that a lot of us can kind of miss on all right give me um the fields thing feels a little bit like mac jones except I'd probably rather bet on Fields.

Give me your take on that because the Douglas pick with Zach Wilson, even though it's earlier, this pick for Pace is going to be basically the career definer for him running the Bears. If this doesn't work out, not only will he be out, this will be the end of his obituary as the Bears executive.

It's going to define him. He's one of these guys who almost just seems pre-fired, right? It just seems like he's fired already. It just seems like this was an

bonus for him, a bonus draft for him, and he shouldn't have his job right now. And the fact that he does, and Dick gets a quarterback, and he gets an extra couple years for it. I think it's really interesting. Fields runs a 4-4. He throws a good deep ball. Matt Nagy, for all the heat he's gotten as a pretty bad CEO type, he can still run an offense.

He understands how, if I'm not mistaken, aside from Brett Veach Matt Nagy was the first person maybe the first person to find Patrick Mahomes on television I think if I remember correctly Eric the enemy told me that they were in the office on a Saturday and Matt Nagy was like look at this Mahomes guy

so I think this was his pick and you saw some of the analysts say this afterwards I think Louis Riddick said it as well this is more Nagy pick than a Ryan Pace pick I think this was his pick, and you saw some of the analysts say this afterwards, and I think Louis Riddick said it as well. This is more a Nagy pick than a Ryan Pace pick. Danny Kelly was on our draft pod last night, and he was just saying, it bears such a bad track record and bad vibes and all that stuff. I'm willing to give this a chance.

I think that Nagy can turn this around and he can develop them. I think Justin Fields can be a good quarterback in the right system. I am I'm I'm feeling OK about this. Are the real reason we want to have you on. I know the audience knows this, but both you and I are huge F1 guys. And you've been you've been an F1 guy probably longer than I have. You've written about it. I called you immediately to be like,

I've been watching a Netflix show too. I can't wait. I've watched, how many races have we had? Three? We've had two. Two.

We have three this weekend. We're in Portugal. Portugal this weekend. All right. Let's talk about this sport that I, the joke is i actually don't know really much about it other than watching the netflix show and now i'm playing the video game

a little bit too monaco's tough man whether in light real life it might be tough on the video game it's impossible it is impossible track in real life and in the video game in the video game monza or spa and just do mindless laps around it It's wide open. You're going to feel great. I was frustrated because, you know, Monaco is Monaco. I mean, everybody knows that in F1. It's just a different level. That's where the guys live. Some of those younger guys, as soon as they become real drivers,

they go, well, now I'm going to live in Monaco. Do you know why? I have a few ideas why, yeah. It involves, it's for taxes. Oh! They don't pay taxes there well it's not like some they don't pay taxes there i'm sure everybody must be really mean to each other then um it's it's it's uh it's an interesting setup there as i'll say yeah well all those guys that's i see i didn't know that part of it maybe i need that i need i need an f1 twitter guy that can remind me every time somebody could go to the orlando magic really

well you know there's no state taxes down in florida every time we talk to the agency as soon as they make as soon as they get their first driver contract they go straight to the tax haven well you know look those guys know how to steer the ship but yeah in the video game for monaco when it came up on this season for me i i had gotten a couple penalties on ordering some new components and i was like all right fine and then it was a downpour so it was monaco and i was at p11 and i couldn't see i mean i couldn't see kevin i'm not saying like i sort of couldn't see. I mean, I couldn't see, Kevin. I'm not saying I sort of couldn't see. You sent me a photo. Yeah, a video of it. I'm like, this is a fun game. And so it was the most

anxiety I think I've ever had. Anyway, so now I feel like a loser. Let's get back to the real stuff. Who's your guy? Who's your team? Who's your guy? I want to just ask you a million questions about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, as I discussed in the piece I wrote a couple weeks ago, I got really into this. So I got, my wife and I got hit by a car questions about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I, as, as I discussed in the piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I got really into this. So I got my wife and I got hit by a car in 2017

and we had nothing to do for like three months. Like we were injured. We were, we're not seriously injured, but I, I'd hurt my arm. My wife had hurt her legs. And so we're just kind of bopping around the house for a while. Keeping weird hours. I don't know if you've ever been hit by a car on the side of, uh, sunset Boulevard and been thrown up in the air, but, uh, it's not, you know, things get weird for a little bit. So I'm up at like five in the morning all the time. I just start throwing on F1 weekends. I'm just starting to look at it. And so I, I, I get really, really into it. Um, again, nothing else to do, but then I just really started to appreciate the sport and I really appreciated the competitive nature of it.

You know, Ross Braun, who was one of the best team principals of all time, had a quote in his book where he says, there are some years where the team that would finish first in week one would finish last at the end of the season because of how much development goes on during the season. I think about that a lot with football, right? Like how good would the best team in week one be if they just didn't make any adjustments by week 17. Right. And so there's just a lot there and it's just pure competition. And I love it. Who's my guy. Um, I would say it's Mercedes cause I just love the dominance and I love, I, you know, I, I know that people tend to equate college football and everything. We saw a lot of it with the super league stuff. Um, but it really is kindate college football to everything. We saw a lot of it with the Super League stuff. But it really is kind of college football-y in the sense that there's just guys who just go about their business and just crush.

And then there's teams like Ferrari, who are just... It's just pure Texas, right? Where it's just a huge fan base, constantly trying to figure out why it's not working, doesn't play by the rules. constantly trying to figure out why it's not working, doesn't play by the rules. Every time they finish second in a race, it's Ferrari's back, and then 500,000 people show up at the next race to wave the Ferrari flags.

But I know this is a bad terminology because I'm about to say I like them a lot, but Mercedes, Toto Wolff is Nick Saban, a more aspirational Nick Saban, like a cooler Nick Saban. If Nick Saban were a GQ model with like a nice, like wooden boat type of thing,

it would be Total Wolf. Yeah, so Total Wolf, for those that don't understand, when you said the principal, team principal, that's essentially like a combination of a coach GM, right? Yeah.

I mean, it's both, but Mercedes is on this run, which is an awful choice for you to say on a podcast. Like, I couldn't look at Mercedes. I'm sorry. I thought so much. They're the best driver.

Lewis Hamilton is by far the most normal person in the sport. He's great. He's awesome, not only in interviews, but I mean, on the track, his resume speaks for itself,

but he's really likable, and it feels pretty genuine, too, with him. So you're a Ricardo. I'm a Daniel Ricardo guy. Well, I respect the hell out of Verstappen. I don't know that you could hang out with Verstappen. Verstappen's a fucking robot who drives Red Bull. And you can see that Netflix series does an amazing job.

I'm sure there's parts of it for real hardcore F1 people And you can see that Netflix series does an amazing job of... I'm sure there's parts of it for real hardcore F1 people who either are in it or have been watching it for years prior to that. They don't like some of the narrative and the spinning to tell a story. So that's something that's funny about TV shows is if it were about the NBA, I would go, Oh, well, this is wrong and this is wrong and all these different things. I don't know enough about it to point out any of those things. However, when you watch a guy like Verstappen, who's so young and just his mindset the way he talks the way he races and you put him against uh roman groschon who was with team haas who's no longer there now

and he had this horrible accident where he's in a car that was burning so he's not ready but when you watched him while he was racing during the three seasons you're like i can't believe these are the two guys in the same profession because groschon like forget to put it in gear and pit he was crashing i mean they edit it in a part where you're like where's your head like where's your head right now as a racer verstappen's just like get the fuck out of my way i'm an f1 driver so i respect the hell out of who verstappen is although i'd say ricardo personality wise is the guy that you would want to hang out with because he's australian and 100 times out of 100 yeah absolutely um big hoops guy he's a big hoops guy big hoops guy he's not any good though because i finally

get to that episode where he and his fitness guy were shooting around and you're like you guys are terrible so um i think he i think he's out in la now he is out in la yeah i wouldn't expect him as an f1 driver to be a good basketball player though. Those things don't match up. Yeah, I think it depends on whether or not you played when you were really young. Right, and these guys are racing at a really young age. Alright, so explain how weird the dynamic is that it's

10 teams and 20 drivers, so it's two drivers for each team, and when you're kind of on a team, but even like Sebastian Vettel when he's with Team Ferrari, and I think Leclerc is supposed to be able to pass him. And they're sitting there. Well, there's a million different pronunciations on Charles' name. Charles' name.

Charles Leclerc. Charles Leclerc, Leclerc. They say it a million different ways. So for those listening to this and going, what the hell are you guys talking about? There's a moment where the, the Ferrari team principal, um,

who looks like a character out of like Barton Fink or something is, is saying to Vettel, who's a four time world champ, you know, has won before. And he's kind of bouncing around trying to find himself again. And they're like, all right,

let Charles pass, let him pass, let him pass, let him pass. Let him pass. Let him pass. And Vettel's like, yeah, okay, no problem. No problem. No problem. And he doesn't let him fucking pass.

And then the media guy is like, they'll tell you that most great racers have a little bastard in them. And Vettel's being told that, hey, you have to let this guy pass. And he's just saying as if, yeah, no problem. No problem. And he's not letting his teammate pass him, which would have been better for the standings and all this stuff. You understand this better than I did.

How weird is that dynamic? So the dynamic is that you're obviously supposed to be competing with other teams, but only one person has your exact car. Only one person has the resources. So if you're George Russell at Williams, you can look at Lewis Hamilton and say, okay, well, he actually did do a drive in Mercedes last year.

But you could say, if I was in Mercedes, I would win the championship, right? Like everybody can say that. Every guy who's racing thinks that if he had Lewis Hamilton's car, he would be winning. Including Ricardo Sedic. So if you have Botas and

Hamilton are the two Mercedes drivers. And on most weeks, Hamilton beats the brakes off of Botas. And that is really bad because just for the psyche, because there's only two guys who have the same exact circumstances. And so

that ends up being your primary competition. And the way guys are judged is how often did you beat your teammate? Um, how often, you know, if you're in Red Bull right now, it's Sergio Perez versus Max Verstappen. And we're going to get a really good read on how closely or not close those

guys are, um, based on an entire season of them running generally the same car. Now there are changes and sometimes, especially on test laps and stuff, sometimes they switch cars just to see what it looks like. But it's the only, it's basically as if you gave, you know, two, two quarterbacks, the exact same offense and the exact same plays and ran it with the exact same variables and all that stuff. And you got to see who was better.

If we were able to put Mack Jones and Trey Lance in Kyle Shanahan's offense for an entire year, we would get a much better sample size on who was better. That doesn't happen in football. It does happen in F1. And when it's a team like Ferrari, which was failing to begin with, that's when it gets even more heightened.

There's only 20 seats here, and there's a lot of guys who could do this. And a lot of the reason, it is not a meritocracy. A lot of these guys are there because they're rich. A lot of these guys are there because they were able to buy in at some point, have a good car. In some cases, their dad owns the team. I'm looking in one specific direction. Are we talking about drivers right now? Are we talking about team ownership? I'm talking about the drivers. Because the driver part, if American fans understood how fucked up, like you think our stuff is fucked up,

this is so fucked up. And as you just said, I mean, Lance Stroll is driving an F1 car. He's driving Formula 1 because his dad owns the team. That's like, imagine if Jerry Jones could have Stephen play fullback.

That's what they do in F1. And then on top of that, he would be good. He would be good. Obviously, Stroll like to give him a little bit like he did come up through racing. It wasn't like, hey, buddy, you

want to you want to race cars? Yeah, he was. It was. It's not like he's embarrassing. I think Mays Penn is a little bit of the embarrassing type who is basically bought into Haas at this point. He's a rookie. Right, right.

So you have that part of it, and then you have the sponsorship part where Albon, who couldn't get in and gone through a bunch of stuff, Alex Albon, and then he was with Red Bull, and then they even mentioned in the documentary, they're like, you know, he's, he's from Taiwan, but he's also English. Right. I believe that was his work. Thailand. Thailand. Sorry. My apologies. Um, so they were like, Hey, that's actually going to be amazing with sponsors. So let's go with him. And then

that's the other part of it too, is I think you actually have to be good looking. I think you have to be relatively good looking. And then the fact that so many guys are so young. So I don't know if that's just a deal where it's like they figured out that past 27, your reflexes are shot. They don't even want you in one of these cars. So the roster itself is way more complicated and shady, I think, than anything we do in professional sports in the States. I would say that the reason there's a lot of young guys is because I think teams realize unless you have a super duper star, in which case they get snatched up pretty quickly by one of the top teams, one of the top teams being Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull. If you're if you're not a top top driver, you get cycled out and then they just try someone new.

You only have two people. You can, you know, if NBA teams only had two people, most of the guys would be young because they were trying to see if they would develop into something, right? So like you have guys like Nico Hulkenberg, who I don't think ever made a podium,

but he's, Nico Hulkenberg, probably if it was a meritocracy, would probably be one of the top 20 drivers. The problem is he just- That's the guy without a drivers the problem is he that's the guy without a podium ever right that's the guy without never he's never been on the podium which is if i'm not mistaken nico holkenberg is he's 33 years old um so he's around my age and in formula one okay you had your chance you didn't pop fine you know it's like the music industry right like we gave you a couple albums didn't really connect with the audience we'll see you later like have a have a great time running 24-hour races um some of these guys go over to indycar whatever uh there it's rare that

older guys you know kind of the old f scott fitzgerald line like it's very rare for these older guys to ever have second acts in in formula one unless you're fernando alonso in which case you know you were such a dominant force people give you chances okay help me understand then how the contracts work because the drivers have agents and the teams just what have the rights for however long they do the contract so i always thought the ricardo thing was weird and i'm learning all this years later but he's with red bull which looks like a great team um christian horner who's married to a spice girl uh i guess you're never a former spice girl girl that i think i think i think jerry howell left the group oh well she's still performing all the time i gotta tell you horner who's the team principal

for red bull he doesn't hate himself um he does and no and so then he kind of rips ricardo because ricardo goes reno um which is weird because they don't seem like like everybody's mad at them because their engines aren't as good but they have this amazing history and then ricardo's at mclaren like immediately so how did all this stuff happen i do want to clarify so jerry howell left spice girls first 1998 but now she's back. Yeah, because I had a hard time believing she was helicoptering all over the place solo. Victoria Beckham appears to be a former Spice Girl. She's not performed with the group since 2012. I'll say it again.

I don't think there's any such thing as a former Spice Girl. Okay. So how do the contracts work? They typically are shorter-term deals. Okay, so how do the contracts work? They typically are shorter-term deals. So Ricardo obviously had the Renault deal and left as soon as he could. I just think he abandoned the project.

Him leaving Red Bull was a surprise in the first place. And Horner said it, but this was, I think, the mainstream thought at the time that he was running from a fight because Max Verstappen was looking really good. And I think a guy like Ricardo, who prioritizes having a great time, he's in no danger of losing his seat. He'll push for a race. And listen, he won Monaco in 2018 with basically a broken car. It was amazing. He's a really good driver. I just don't think he's ever going to be the best driver in the world. I think he understands that. And so, uh, he's, he's maximizing a profits and, and B, um, just, I think he's just trying some stuff

out with it, which I think if, you know, if you wanted to, to finish the best you could possibly finish, I think you would have stayed with Red Bull. Um, but I think that sometimes because of the competition angle of it, I think you end up doing some weird stuff. So these guys change every few years. I mean, you see it a lot of times when a guy realizes his seat might not be all that secure. You think about a guy like Sergio Perez, who in the talkie series this year,

you saw him sucking up to Gunther Steiner, who's the Haas principal. Yeah, he's funny, but he's also, he can wear on you after a while. I'd be like, oh man, like the not funny jokes all the time. And you're just like, all right, dude,

like I get it. You know what it's like? So immediate overachieving and then coming back down to earth and the jokes that kind of grate on people. I think he's Jim Harbaugh. Yeah, but Harbaugh has done it at more stops than i think gunther has although i don't know gunther's entire life story so that's not fair yeah no it's um so but zero for reno is more annoying than than gunther is his team when it

comes down to gone all right well there you go yeah i called it um but no i i think that with uh with these these guys again because there's only 20 spots a guy like sergio perez there was a chance that he didn't end up with a seat this year even though even though he has a huge backing in mexico he's funded by a mexican billionaire um and even though he's obviously shown to be well deserving of a seat, now he has a seat with one of the best teams. It's a game of musical chairs. And I think a lot of the times, these contracts are in part because people just want a seat. You don't want to end up like Nico Hulkenberg at 33 saying, Oh, wait, I'm never going to race again. And so it depends. As you said, it depends a lot on money, your connections,

what your nationality is. I mean, I've seen a couple of stories. I think CNBC said it recently. We're like, okay, Formula One is big in America now. They need an American driver. And I'm not saying that they're going to promote some random American. It's not going to be like a King Ralph situation.

But I do think if an American gets close, you might see an overdraft i guess you could say you might see a raider situation where a guy who's maybe not in the top 20 on the board becomes a a formula one driver because of the marketing potential so are they just looking for somebody like how hard is the process well you'd have to go to just let people know this person on craigslist um you know there are others so there's formula e which is the electric cars um there's you know f2 and all that stuff and so i think you would you would have to start in those levels and have pretty good results

and then you could you could go from there. They're not going to take anybody straight from IndyCar. There's a famous story about Jeff Gordon trying it out in his prime. And he was just blown away by the braking system. He was just like, what? You brake when? And I think that for a lot of guys, it's not going to be a NASCAR to F1 deal. It's probably not going to be, as I said, an IndyCar to F1 deal. it's not going to be a NASCAR to F1 deal. It's probably not going to be, as I said, an IndyCar to F1 deal. It's probably going to be a young guy who works his way up the ranks, who has probably a little money, a little marketing potential. And that's how another American gets in. There's been Americans in F1. They just haven't been in this era where people

are just binging it on Netflix. I think I'm going to be a Ricardo McLaren guy. I'm not going to take Mercedes. I would be inclined to go Verstappen just because I think he's, like I said, just single-minded, absolute badass. He'll be a legendary driver. But I don't think I want to root for Christian Horner. So I'm going to go McLaren. I'm going to go Ricardo. And I don't know. want to root for Christian Horner. So I'm going to go McLaren. I'm going to go Ricardo.

And I don't know, but what do I do? Am I, am I fan of the team or am I fan of the driver? It sounds like people are fans of the team before they are driver more than anything else. Like everybody in Italy is a Ferrari fan. Um,

Scootie era Ferrari. You mean? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, let me ask you a question about McLaren. This is important. Do you know anyone who drives a McLaren mean? Yeah. Let me ask you a question about McLaren. This is important. Do you know anyone who drives a McLaren car?

No. Okay. What is your impression of people who drive McLaren cars? I actually did a little bit of a rant on this the other day. It's like the ultimate tech. I've made it a car when it's probably leased against the company. And you're not paying for it. You have founder in your bio on Twitter somewhere. I've made it the car when it's probably leased like against the company and you're not paying for it.

And you're just, you have founder in your bio on Twitter somewhere. And the thing is, I'll take one tomorrow, you know, fuck it. You would take one tomorrow. Okay.

I don't care. Like some McLaren owners and come away with it thinking, I don't know if I should be involved with this F1 team. Because I like you. I love both personalities. There's an Amazon series. I like their principal, too. I don't know.

Am I wrong on Zach Brown? I just felt like he was certainly confident, but I felt like he was a little bit more self-aware than some of the... I mean, look, Toto Wolf, you're right, is a stud. Even when he talks, you're just like, all right, I mean, maybe we're suckers for the accent right, is a stud. Even when he talks, you're just like, all right, I mean, maybe we're suckers

for the accent and the whole deal, but he's a good-looking guy and he's just, there's like zero, it's constant calm. It's that German thing that's just like,

you don't know what it is until you're around it and you're just saying something about it. I think he's Austrian. Oh, all right. Well, nailed it. So, I think that,

I'm with you. I like the McLaren guys. I just i just you know it is what it is zach brown was at first of all there's a mclaren amazon series from four years ago that predates the netflix thing that was actually i think informed a lot of this because honda gave mclaren their engine and it absolutely sucked sucked and so and so the entire series is just everybody being like wow this sucks and like it actually it actually like broke some walls as far as honesty goes like i wasn't that surprised by the netflix series because i'd watched this mclaren thing where zach brown just looking straight in the camera like jim halpert from the office just being like

yeah we have a really bad engine we're not going to do anything this year. This sucks. Zach Brown was sitting next to me at a table. We had concurrent business meetings at the Super Bowl two years ago in Atlanta. And I didn't know if I could say something to him because I felt like at that time, it was a little too dorky for me to say something. We were on the escalator near each other. I thought about being like, hey, Zach. What do you say to an F1 team principal at the breakthrough? I thought about saying, hey, Zach, big F1 fan. Have a good one.

And I didn't do it. Yeah, but you work. And we're going to finish up here. But your whole deal is like the sidle up to these guys in power that make these decisions. And because you're such an F1 fan and you don't cover it, you couldn't come up with anything better than that?

Well, I don't need... If I saw John Schneider on the escalator, I'd go up to him and remind him who I was. And then just, hey, Kevin Carpenter, remember we met?

And then I would have like a 30-second conversation with him about football because that's my job. And so I feel I have that blanket. Right? And first of all, these GMs,

all they want to talk about is where you went to high school and then they'll just tell some scouting story from 20 years ago. Right? That's how they get you out of those conversations.

But then beyond that, with Zach Brown, I don't have any professional reason to talk to him. So at that point, I'm just with Zach Brown, I don't have any professional reason to talk to him. So at that point, I'm just a weirdo. I don't have the blanket of I'm doing this because I get paid to extract information from you. I bet an F1 team principal recognized in the States

would be happy to be recognized in the States. Because the way Zach looks, not that any of the team principals, actually, we just described him. But again, some of the team principals are out of central casting. I mean, Toto looks like he should be running Mercedes. The Ferrari guy in his own way does too. The Ferrari guy, you think he's going to sell you a leather vest or something in Florence.

And then you're like, wait, okay. It's always small. Size up if you shop in Florence, And then you're like, wait, okay. It's always small size up. If you shop in Florence boys, that's what I can tell you. The thing, my first interaction with, uh, F1 was I was in Italy when I was in high school and just, just on a trip and they would sell fake soccer jerseys on every corner. Like every corner in Rome was just like really bad fake soccer jerseys. And then there would always be one fake Michael Schumacher like jacket too. That was the one thing. Because everybody was so into Ferrari.

It would be like Juventus, Roma, Napoli jersey, and then fake Michael Schumacher jacket. That's sick. I wish you'd gotten that. I might Google. I might look into it. And now his son is going to see. Yeah, Mick Schumacher. And it was the same deal. They were kind of like, eh, we could be getting something here, but just how young. And I think you have to be good looking ahead of time because they're thinking about all the marketing parts of all of it as well. So it's, uh, it's really enjoyable. Check out the Netflix doc. And then if you're super into it, it helped me. And this is what I think every single league should be trying to figure out a way to do. And when you're starting at almost like 1% interest, then you can really greatly improve upon that. And the major sports are far beyond 1% interest. But the reason

I would care about any outcome is now I have an intimate relationship with the subjects. And that's what every sport should always be trying to do all the time is how can we make, and look, they've done it with hard knocks. Baseball tried this thing with minor league stuff that I thought was really good. They had a life in the D-League before it was the G-League, a life in the D-League show on ESPN that was presented by Sprite, because I'll

never forget it. And it was like a D-League guy got a longer deal and he was able to go to the dentist. And then I would always kind of keep track of those players. So every league should be trying to figure out how can I get people to know the stories here so that then they'll actually watch the real product. And I've watched, I thought I missed a race because there's kind of like a weird, sometimes it's back-to-back weekends and then it'll skip. One came off the schedule, the Chinese Grand Prix came off the schedule. That's what it was.

Chinese Grand Prix. I forgot. The point is, then I was kind of like I would have never ever watched any of this but now I kind of understand it a little bit more and to watch the first race with Hamilton trying to fight off or stop and at the end and you and I are watching it and texting about it and

it actually meant something to me because I had been invested because we got introduced to these guys. That's Kevin Clark. He is terrific. Check out the rest of his draft coverage on the ringer. What's the podcast schedule for you guys on the draft stuff? Okay.

So Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and I have one up today. Nora Prince, CID, Kalen Jones, Roger Sherman are up on Saturday. And then Nora and I are back on Monday.

We have a slow news day out this week with Baker Mayfield, and then we have one more with another player next week. Oh, sounds good. Tell Baker I said hello. I appreciated having dinner with him. You should ask him just straight up on slow news day. Be like, when Rosillo came over to sit with you at that dinner at the Wheels Up thing in

Miami, did you try to hope he didn't sit with you and say that at the wheels up thing in miami did you try to like hope he didn't sit with you and say that the seats were taken even though they were assigned i've already recorded with them but do you think you'd hop back on for that for that particular question yeah follow oh it ended up being great but it was just sort of a funny moment he's like oh man these seats are taken bro i was like i quite i quite actually they're not i think yeah he's like oh man these seats are taken bro i was like i quite i quite actually they're not i think yeah he's very likable he's we had a great time so you never heard this story no all right so van pell is like mr wheels up i've got to know those guys a little bit i did one

thing with him i'm not on any sort of program so don't even bother thinking that that's uh a possibility for me but they they do it up, man. The Wheels Up parties at the Masters, they're incredible. All right. Those guys do an unbelievable job. So they did a pop-up Italian restaurant, Rao's, which is incredible. It's really hard to get into. There's one in Vegas, actually, you can get into.

That's really every restaurant in Vegas. It's crazy. Restaurants you can never get into in New York, they've got like 600 tables at Palazzo. Exactly. So we roll in and it's assigned seating, like a wedding, basically. And I don't know, maybe there's over 100, less than 150. And it's heavy seating like a wedding basically yeah and i don't know maybe there's

over 100 less than 150 and it's it's heavy hitters in there like they don't screw around and so i roll in you know have a drink with somebody chat it up a little bit and then scott's gonna kind of present so scott was like all right you're at table nine whatever and i was like oh okay he's like and this is your seat assignment he goes i'll be over in a second and you'll be good to go I was like alright no problem so I just was like alright looking around table nine and I'm with Stanford Steve actually too and

we go to like pull up and it's Baker his wife his brother his brother's girlfriend and then a manager and so those are the five and there's three empty seats because it's gonna be me Scott Stanford Steve and I go to grab the chair and baker's like oh bro yeah these are all like these are all reserved because he just kind of like saw me walking over the table he's like yeah yeah sit with this guy and i don't even know if he recognized me i don't know that he would or not

and was like oh talk show host or he's just like i don't know who this person is let's just we want to i want to hang out and not have weirdos and strangers around us i could totally see where he's coming from the problem was there was no process of any of these being for anyone else other than who they were assigned to i was like actually they're assigned and uh i'm sitting here he's like yeah dude cool let's do a fire it up let's get some drinks so he immediately like once he knew like yeah i'm kind of busted on that they were saved and Van Pelt was actually going to come over and sit with us too. It was funny. It was funny

and we had a really good time. So I'm not, I'm not dogging another guy at all. I'm sad I didn't get to bring this up. It would have been funny to bring it up because he probably didn't even remember it. You know, he'll probably just be like, what? Oh, did we? I don't know. You know, not a big deal, But he was great.

He was great during the dinner. Really good along. He was funny. His brother was cool. Manager was cool. So this is not me criticizing or having a bad word saying anything about him. It was just a funny deal

when you're kind of like, actually, you're making that up. They're not reserved. Are the wheels up parties the most stressful if you're just like on edge about being near heavy hitters? No, they're just awesome parties because the wheels up people have a blast.

Like there's they they just have a whatever they do when they do it. They're like, we want this to be a party. We don't want it to be a huge corporate deal where the headline sounds cool and there's a million people in here. We want everyone to actually enjoy themselves and have a party. And, you know, a couple couple people get up and talk, but they're usually your friends. Everyone I've ever been to, whoever's talking, is somebody I've been pretty friendly with.

The Augusta one was an all-timer. That one in Miami was great. I would say Wheels Up has the best parties of any of the sports events that I've been to in the last 15 years of doing this. This is unbelievable. I didn't know that. I don't get it.

Because back in the day, the Super Bowl deal would be like, oh, do you want to go to the Playboy party? Can you get in? And then you get in and you're like, oh, wait, it's a ton of... It's women in another place that don't want to talk to us. You know? Well, the thing with Super Bowl week that drives me nuts is it

always be like, hey, man, you want to go see the Foo Fighters nuts is it always be like hey man you're gonna go see the foo fighters and i'll be like sure man i'll go see the foo fighters and then you go and it's like the bud light tent and there's like 20 000 people there and you're just standing there and it's just like well this isn't really i thought we were like going to an actual foo fighters concert so we have five songs and i'm in the budweiser tent like this isn't yeah there's definitely a lot of that goods, there's definitely a lot of that. There's definitely a lot of that. But then I've had other moments like we went,

I think it was the final four. We ended up getting to see Sting in Atlanta, like out of nowhere. And I'm like, this is incredible. And it wasn't big at all. It was small. And then I saw. Are you Sting guy?

I love the police. And I'm not afraid of some solo Sting. Soul Cages? Are you fucking Sting guy? I love the police And I'm not afraid of some solo Sting Soul Cages? Are you fucking kidding me? When I was Living in New York Sting's play which was flopping Was right below us

Like we lived above the play Okay And for a weekend he was trying to like get Viral buzz And so Sting himself would just be like A street musician and just play outside And for a weekend, he was trying to get viral buzz. And so Sting himself would just be like a street musician and just play outside the theater and sing every little thing she does as magic just to get viral buzz.

And so my wife and I, it's like 2014, we would just open up the window and watch Sting play as a street musician just on the street. The play still flopped, by the way. Just total flop. Nobody had any interest in this. So had you had 30 seconds,

you would have walked by and be like, hey, huge, huge synchronicity fan. No, I didn't say that. I know Russillo. He saw you at the Super Bowl.

He's a big police guy is what I would say. All right. We'll do a full Super Bowl recap party do and don't a little bit later. Thank you, Kevin. Please try.

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 could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Okay, this is kind of funny because I marked this one from Kyle. And then I kind of referenced something vaguely about long-distance relationships. When you have different jobs. Okay, college senior, getting ready to graduate in May. Moved from Indiana to North Carolina to work as a project manager. My girlfriend, who I've been dating for three years, semester behind me in school, but won't graduate until December. So that means she's going to graduate at the end of this year. So I'll have to do long distance until she graduates. To make matters worse, she just got a job that would offer, that the offer would

keep her in Indiana for at least an extra six months. So I guess that's putting us out from just over a year from now. She's always said she'd be willing to move with me, but I'm worried that she'd get too comfortable working closer to home. Her family's from the area. I know it sounds stupid because I'm only 22, but I really feel like this is more than just a college relationship, not to mention she's way out of my league. I've always thought long-distance relationships are stupid and we're bound to fail, but I really like this girl and I don't feel I can give up on her. I'm already leaving all my buddies who are staying in the Midwest. If I lose her, I'll essentially be alone. My first question, what experience do you have with long-distance? And do you think it's worth trying? I would not model anything after anything

that I've done. All right. So I could give you advice on that, but it doesn't really make any sense. My second question, is it wrong of me to ask her to not take the job she was offered so we can shorten our possible time apart? After all, I'll be making more money than her and could easily support us both while she looks for a job near me. Let's not act like I'm breaking the bank though. Working in the industry, you get the point. All right. All right. You're, you're freaking out here a little bit. I can kind of tell already, right? When you say stuff like, well, all my buddies are gone. And then if I don't have her, I'm totally going to be alone. And I get this kind of, you know, we can say like a bunch of different chapters in our lives or our weird stages, you know, the, the,

the year after like the first cool years of the honeymoon phase of being married when it's now, okay, now it's real and this is what I'm doing for the rest of my life. That's a weird phase. The kid part where you're not just babysitting an animal. They're actually a functioning person and talking to you and you have to start planning for them. There's different stuff. But this post-college deal where you have someone that you're very attached to and you want to figure it out and she wants to stay with you, I don't think you should be dismissive of it and say, oh, I think Longus' relationships are really stupid. I mean, they're complicated. Whenever anybody goes to college out of high school and they're

thinking they're going to stay with their high school girlfriend while they're in college, I would just say that's a horrible idea. It never works out. And it's an awful experience. You're actually kind of denying yourself the full college experience by going out and doing something like that. But that's not really what the email is about at all. So I wouldn't, I mean, I,

you know, like anything, you could bring it up and say, Hey, is there any chance you'd want to work closer to me when you graduated at the end of this year? And if she says no, because she likes this offer,

then you're going to have to deal with that. I mean, the best way to answer this is really this. Like, and I, and I hate to sound kind of cheesy on it, but if she's as into it as you're into it, then it's going to probably work out. But yeah, as you mentioned, like she's completely out of my league. So she's really that attractive. And then you're not around. It sounds like kind of, that's where the fear is coming in here that even if two people can really care about each other, um,

you know, you're only as faithful as your options. And if all of a sudden she starts having these amazing options, like her being in school for the rest of the year would be a little concerning, but it's not too crazy because she's older and, and you guys have been through it and she has to stay a little bit longer, as you said.

So maybe she's just mature enough that the college experience isn't about the college part of it and meeting guys and all that kind of thing. As you're slowly weeping, listen to me answer this email. But it sounds like you guys are kind of on the same page there. I just have a hard time with any guy. Well, you're asking her, but we've had other emails where you'll say like, you know, should I tell her she should do this or she should do that? Like financially, sure.

Maybe it makes more sense and you can be with her and then there's no temptation for the relationship to break off. But I just know that I wouldn't like to be told what to do career wise. And I don't think any of us should ever, you know, say that to anyone that we're involved with romantically. So if she's totally opposed to the idea post-December and she likes this opportunity, you're just going to have to support her, man. You're going to have to be supportive, but what you can't be is annoying about it because then you're going to sign your own certificate on this one. Because if you are needy, annoyed, these little jabs that people do to each other, these little verbal jabs where it's like oh

i'm over this but then you know a couple weeks go by and then you'll get this like little jab you're like yeah you're not over it are you you're not and you keep bringing it up it's really fucking annoying so i would you know you're just gonna have to find a way to not always share every concern you have with her if she says that she wants to stay at home and work at this place. And maybe she ends up staying and maybe it doesn't work out in North Carolina, you know, and maybe it doesn't, but I've never made another person a priority over the stuff that I want to do. I'm not saying that's how everybody should do it. That's just the way that I see the world. And maybe that's a mistake too, But at least I've

never had to sit there and go, oh, well, I can't believe this person's living here or they're working here. This could screw up our future and all these different things. I mean, I know this sounds kind of fucked up, but if it doesn't work out, you're probably just going to meet somebody else. So I know you don't want to hear any of those things, but what I can tell you is the best way to lose her and have her never want to move with you is to be really, really annoying about it throughout the entire time that you're away. You got to be supportive. You can get to December and then it's going to be another six months and you're just going to be supportive. Now, granted, she pulls a madman on you and reenlists in Vietnam voluntarily after you just had a kid together. You know, that's a problem.

Yeah. I think girlfriend or no girlfriend, the most important thing is like, check out your new town and like make new friends at least like that way. The stakes are low. If she, if she, if she breaks up or this doesn't work out, you still at least spent the time looking for new friends and like a new bar when you can go out to bars again.

Um, look, it just, I know, I know what, I know what it's like to care about somebody that you're not living, you know, in the same area as,

but I also know that you can drive yourself absolutely crazy if you start thinking about like all the bad things that can happen to you. So I would say, you know, like I said, I don't need to repeat it all because I get too repetitive on these things. So let's just keep it moving. Okay.

Um, here we go. 40, six, four, two Oh five, six, eight wingspan. Good stuff. Moved to Denver from New York about 18 months moving. Okay, here we go. 40-64205. 6A Wingspan.

Good stuff. Moved to Denver from New York about 18 months ago. Oh, that was you? Just kidding. That's Denver right now. It's New York West. 18 months ago to work at a friend's firm. We previously worked together at a top five agency for our line of work.

He brought me in partially as a favor since I wanted some new scenery because I can help build this firm by bringing in larger clients. All right, win-win. The issue is the majority of staff is young and experienced, in my opinion, not as motivated to work hard. I have trouble putting together a reliable team to pursue projects. In fact, the most reliable person is my friend's son. Most of the office thinks he's only here due to nepotism. Probably true, but he works hard and is able to take criticism without having a meltdown. My friend won't take control of the room to get the office productive. Should I abandon this venture and return to the soulless grind of mega-corporate work or find a way to stick it out here?

Yeah, I mean, you know, look, you identified something to you 18 months ago that was really important. You wanted to change the scenery. And apparently, it sounds like this job is good enough that you could make a living out of it and stay in what I think is an amazing place in Denver. And I'll point out all the time that it can get really stale, older people just telling younger people how much they suck all the time. I don't think that's entirely fair. It's incredibly predictable and cyclical. younger people how much they suck all the time. I don't think that's entirely fair. It's incredibly predictable and cyclical. That book that I mentioned at the top, that loser's book by

Michael Lewis, I was reading some of the notes of the 1996 presidential debate and here were a couple of themes. We've never been more divided. Morals are declining. Social morals are in decline. And that Clinton was not a worthy leader because, you know, he had his, he had his own deals outside of the office, which are like far worse ever, but doesn't mean he can't be a good president. Right. Um, it depends on what you prioritize, but it was just funny to read this stuff and you're like, yeah, 25 years, like the same was, it was the same stuff, like more jobs, stronger economy. Um, Oh, the border was, the border was huge in 1996. There's a stretch California and Mexico was called the Pat Buchanan wall. And so they go down, they check out this

wall. And then there's just, and then everybody was like, we're against illegal immigrants. And they were like, all right, but it was that part of the conversation was handled differently. So the point, the reason I bring up all this stuff is that you being 40 and in your industry and probably pretty good at it and in it for a long time, you're incredibly unimpressed with everyone younger that's under you. And that's why people could say, you know, good, good help is hard to find. So I don't know what your long-term goal with this place is. And I guess part of it is concerned for your friend's office where you're like, you need to do a better job of getting these people in line. But I don't, I think you've admitted like, yeah, it can't be you because he did you a favor. He brought you in

and you're frustrated with people under you. But is it your place if he did you this favor to give you this job? I don't know. I don't know who's like more indebted to who on this transaction or are you the man because you can bring in these larger clients and get everything going. So I think the best thing with anyone that's younger is changing routine to keep people kind of not guessing, but motivated. Because if it's the same routine all the time, I'm going to give you a really weird example of this. Where I went to high school in Martha's Vineyard, when we played sports, we had to leave during the day so that we could catch the last boat back. had to leave during the day so that we could catch the last boat back. So if you played our varsity basketball team in high school, the JV game would be at two o'clock right after classes and the varsity game would be at like 2.30. All right. And so hopefully it'd be done by four so that from wherever we were on the Cape, we can make it back to the last boat. And because a lot of us

that played sports were constantly gone, we'd be missing classes. So it was awesome to play sports at my high school because you got out of class all the time. And instead of constantly missing the same classes over and over again, where the order of the classes were the same, you know, one through seven, however many classes you take a day in high school course, they would have a rotating schedule that would go on.

So we'd have like A, B, and C, D, I think. And then every four weeks or every two weeks, I forget what it was a long time ago, you would be in a different cycle so that your courses would actually change order every two to four weeks. And so you'd be like, what are we on A? And be like, no, we're on B.

Be like, oh, okay. And they did it so that we wouldn't miss the same classes all the time when we left for sports. And what it did do was it actually was an amazing, it was an amazing thing because it just changed your routine. And it helped me tremendously as a student. I don't know how many other people it helped, but it was just great because it just wasn't, oh, right, you know, I'm going to be in the same order every hour for the next year. And by doing that, I thought it was brilliant and it kept me more motivated. And I think more people should do that kind of stuff. Now, I don't know what your industry is. I don't know what the business is. I'm not a corporate guy. Even when I was in a corporate setting, I wasn't a great fit for it. But I've always thought that changing routines for younger people is one of the best ways to get more productivity out of them instead of having it be the monotonous same thing over and over again.

And by the way, older people that were doing the monotonous same deal every single, you know, driving in and out park, same spot. And then 25 years later, you're done. You know, I think those people might have been wrong about the way they were doing it. So just try to change routine a little bit on some of these projects and change the, you know, change the teams around and all that kind of different stuff. And just by keeping it new and different, you'll probably get a little bit more out of them instead of them feeling like, ugh, same thing every single day.

Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Huge thanks. Without their support, Kyle and Sir Rudy, this podcast wouldn't be possible. We'd probably just find fill-ins, but they're definitely the backbone to what we're doing here.

So, thank you.