The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Five Things: NBA Edition, Plus Tom E. Curran on Tom Brady and the Pats | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

Russillo hits on five NBA topics including MVP, salary cap, and more (1:50), before talking with Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston about Tom Brady’s looming decision about where he will play in the 2020 NFL season (28:50). Finally Ryen recaps his trip to Park City, Utah (45:40). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

what's up it's ryan rossillo and today's episode of the ryan rossillo show on the ringer podcast network is brought to you by state farm just like basketball the game of life is unpredictable talk to a state farm agent and get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected like the Knicks up 20 on the Houston Rockets and holding off this Rockets comeback and winning despite Westbrook's last second attempt to tie it with a two-pointer. Oh, yeah, I didn't expect that one. But you know what? Houston was actually due for a bad game.

They've been on fire. You can hear all of our Houston commentary on the Bill Simmons podcast, the BS podcast from Sunday night. Get a teammate who can They've been on fire. You can hear all of our Houston commentary on the Bill Simmons podcast from Sunday night. Get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected. Talk to a State Farm agent today. We're going to talk to Tom Curran, NBC Sports, Pat's insider, somebody I worked with when I was in Boston.

He understands the Belichick-Brady dynamic I would say as much as anybody. He is incredibly well-sourced. I think he's probably one of the few guys that gets an audience with Belichick. I don't think Bill would say straight up, hey Tom, here's the plan. We're going to go ahead

and see if we can't do something a little backloaded. Maybe some incentives. Something like that. He has 10 throws in the air. Anyway, because I still can't make up my mind. I can't make up my mind on what I think is going to happen. And like I've said entirely throughout

this whole thing, if Brady leaves, everybody's going to go, well, of course he left. They gave him the out. He opted for the out. He negotiated that. He's sick of Belichick. He doesn't have enough weapons. He's gone. And if he stays, everybody's going to go, of course he stayed. He's 43. You think he wants to start over and do something different

after 20 years with the same franchise? And I can can't pick but what i will do um before we do that we're gonna do five things nba things five things kyle what do i'm gonna workshop some titles right now for you ready for this ready the starting five i don't like that let me try that one again the starting five wow what do you think about sounds like it's already syndicated yeah they call it mercury because it rises to the top that's uh what is that that mercury rising you don't remember that movie no sorry i love when i do these these are not planned i promise but they did a thing on the guy uh who does the voiceovers the legendary voiceover guy for all those movies and there is a movie called mercury rising that came out in 1998 that's a 19 on rotten tomatoes

bruce willis alec baldwin um'm going to go ahead and pull up this guy because I think he's dead, which is not sad. The voice guy? Yeah, some people do die. I'll never forget that one. They did an interview with this guy and he was like the guy

that did movie trailers forever. I can't believe I'm forgetting his name. And that was the Mercury Rising one. He just goes, they call it Mercury because it rises to the top. The other guy, Cutler, who does the ESPN voiceover stuff, he's like one of the nicest guys ever. And he's hysterical because he's got this unbelievable voice. These guys, I know I have a deep voice,

but like the guys that are really trained as voiceover guys, he just, when they talk, you're like, who, what is this? Like, this isn't human, but this is how this Cutler guy talks. You know, he would, he would say like, you know, all right, what do we got here? A couple of liners. All right, what do we got? We got San Antonio, couple of liners. All right. What do we got? We got San Antonio. San Antonio. Okay.

We get Steve and the Banshee. Okay. All right. That's the midday. All right. Cool. All right. Three, two, one. Check out San Antonio.

One, oh, one, five. With Steve and the Banshee. Weekdays. Noon to 3. And then he'd be like, alright, I don't like that. Oh, he'd request that. Right, right. He'd be like, hold on, hold on. I don't like that.

I've got to hit that Banshee harder. Check out San Antonio's own Steve and the Banshee. And then he would be like, but then the funniest thing is that sometimes guys I'd be in the room trying to do something in the different EShee nice and then he would be like but then the funniest thing is that sometimes guys i'd be in the room like trying to do something in the different espn studios and then he'd be i'd be like oh is that is that the voice guy he'd be like yeah and then he'd be like you're home from a walk oh fuck so whenever he swore it was seriously my favorite thing ever

it was it was just because it just sounded like the voiceover because nobody gets to hear that nobody else ever gets to hear that never polished version and he was so nice like you'd be like hey can you does he mind doing this because we did it i wrote a bunch of liners for svp and i in the beginning where i thought they were hilarious like number one in jails or um you know oh i think we actually had the the he was a colombian guy kenneth gride he still is a colombian guy actually but he uh he did a bunch of voiceovers we just we found this guy who's incredible over in deportes and i just loved him he was hilarious we started having him tell stories and he just sounded funny on the air i mean obviously because

he had a thick accent but he was he was hyster He was a funny guy. His comedic timing was perfect. So he had him doing voiceovers too. So I always thought it was hilarious when it was like number one in jails because Plaxico Burris may or may not have sent us a letter from jail saying how much he loved the show. And little Wayne got in trouble for having some sort of audio player and said he would listen to all the three talk shows on ESPN radio while he was in jail wow and so the Plaxico story I don't I don't know if he really wrote us a letter I almost feel like an agent wrote us a letter and it was this unbelievable move to get all of these talk show hosts to be like hey you know what Plaxico Burris got out of jail I'm gonna take it easy on that guy because he wrote me a letter but it was handwritten like Van Pelt goes look at this

yeah and we're like, what? Like Plaxico Burris likes the show so much that he wrote a letter. But, you know, but if it's real, shout out to Plaxico Burris. But I did one. I had one voiceover where it was like, SVP and Rosillo, put them on when you're having sex. And then we had a manager that was like, no. And I go, you know, I'm just so sick of the nose here. I go, what, what happened to radio? Well, we're, we're supposed to ask for forgiveness, you know, don't ask for permission, beg for forgiveness. They're like, we're a Disney

company. I went, you know what? I just, I think that's the wrong play. I go, that's funny. Let's do it. And the manager was like, fine, fine. I go, that's it. Right. Exactly. I go, if anybody gets mad and get mad at me about it, I'll take the blame for it. He goes, yeah, but my role is the managers that I'm supposed to not let you do this. I'm like, okay, then let's pretend it didn't happen. Let's just do it. And, you know, the worst. And the first time we did it, somebody called the bad phone and was like, what the hell was that?

What are you thinking? Right. So they pulled it. They pulled that promo. I still think it was unique. You were on the edge there. I was on the edge, but there's one show, if they did it now, everybody would applaud it and say how brilliant they were. So, you know, there was just different things going on there.

All right. So I really want to get this guy's voice because there's people listening right now that are going, you're screaming the name of the podcast. And as I was telling the story, I was supposed to look it up, but I just got really distracted. And we're back, back quickly. See how editing works?

I stopped to go ahead and research it. I can't believe I forgot Don LaFontaine's voice. Wow. That was his name, Don LaFontaine. I believe he had a rider in their limo had to pick him up to and fro to the studio. Yeah. Let me just double check that he's no longer with us. I'm not trying to be insensitive, but I thought I remember reading that.

Yeah. 12 years ago. I'm in the clear 5 000 movie trailers kyle you haven't even done one yet i haven't even done one yet that guy's 5 000 ahead of both of us incredible okay before before we get to tom curran and by the way the back half of this podcast, I don't know, I may even save it for Thursday. I spent so much time on this project last night looking at salary cap increases

and contracts for quarterbacks and NBA players and how contracts have changed in the NFL ahead of the new CBA. I have pages and pages of stuff, and I feel like all I'm going to be doing is reciting numbers. I'm on the fence about it.

Let's see how those five things go. We'll see what time we're at. I may save this for Thursday because I do have to fly to Boston tomorrow. So a last-minute East Coast trip. I wasn't expecting, but I'll be here Thursday. James Borrego, head coach of your Charlotte Hornets on Thursday. Yeah. Are you excited about that? I am. Now everybody knows that I don't have anything to do with the guests because I learned

on the podcast, just like everyone else. Yeah. Did you know who the Hornets head coach was? No, I don't want to lie to you. I didn't. Yeah, I didn't expect you to. Okay, so here we go. Adam Makoka. Who, Ryan, who? You mean a two guard for the Bulls? 6'5", 190. Here are stats. Three points a game, one board, 0.4 assists. His PER, I know a bit outdated, 8.21. But Ryan, those numbers aren't very good. He had six games without a made bucket and he took shots in them. He didn't hit a shot in his first four career games. But what Makoka is all about, the reason why this guy had MVP chance the other night because he scored 15 points in five minutes, it has nothing to do with the offense. It has everything to do with the defense.

The defense that he played on Luka Doncic last night in a win for the Bulls against the Dallas Mavericks in Chicago, no Porzingis, all that. Do yourself a favor. Find the film. Find the film, the effort from Makoka and what he did on Doncic. Doncic, 8 of 20, 1 of 8 from 3, 23, 9, and 5.

Now, the effort, especially when you're thinking, okay, the Bulls aren't good and boy, I mean, they got Carter back and Levine didn't even play last night. Denzel Valentine, 21 minutes. Sadoransky was their go-to guy. Thaddeus Young, who I think

some of you still think is going to be good one day. He led the team in minutes with 36 minutes. Yeah, Carter played 23. Shaquille was in this one for 16 minutes. Not O'Neal. That's a guy out of Tulsa, Shaquille Harrison. Archie Diacono.

Kobe White, 32 minutes. He took 20 shots in that game. And Makoka. Okay, so what he did, they extended the pressure out of Luka. Something they're trying to do a little bit more. And you'll see that against, you're going to see it in the playoffs a lot more. That's kind of why teams have the short point guard rule, where they go, you know, you send out that pressure and you bottle you up

and you're not really even running your offense to maybe 11, 10 seconds left on the shot clock. And Luka can look over the top of all those guys. It's one of the many reasons why he's so spectacular, but Makoka brought it. And then when Doncic was off the ball on a handoff or Dallas actually had some problems getting into their offense where they were running some stuff where Luka wasn't bringing the ball up because of Makoka. Makoka was face guarding him. He was staying, he was just playing the man. He wasn't even looking at the ball. He was just chasing Doncic around.

It was really, really impressive to watch. So see if you can find yourself some Makoka film. French guy, undrafted, was supposed to go in 2018 with Drew, went in the 2019 draft but didn't get drafted. Looked at his Windy City Bulls run. Shout out to the Windy City Bulls. You know, they call Chicago the Windy City, but it's because of the politics.

G League, 27 games, and this might be the lowest scoring I've ever seen from a G League player, 10 points per game, because everybody in the G League, I think, averages like 38, 39 a game. He was 10, 6, and 3, 37 from the floor, 31% from 3, but still took over 5 from 3 every single game. So he's not a shooter. He is a defender, and his name is Adam Makoka. He's French. Rockets? Yeah.

All right. So they lost to the Knicks. Didn't see, well, actually they think they were due for it. A couple of Knicks fans getting a little chirpy. That's weird. You guys know you're brutal, right? Okay. Just checking.

Now the Rockets, I did this split for Bill on Sunday, but I wanted to do it again because a couple things jumped out because I've really, despite so many of you thinking that I don't watch Houston, I did get sick of it the first couple months, but now because they're now a team I have to take more seriously, I watch them more, and for whatever reason, I ended up watching this game more than the one I taped with Miami and Houston, excuse me, Miami and Milwaukee. I can't stop thinking about the Rockets. And I need to go back and watch that one because

of what Miami did to Giannis. That was really, really impressive and a nice win for Miami team that since January 1st has been one of the worst, if not the worst statistical fourth quarter teams in the league when you start looking at who Miami has been recently. So a really nice win for them against the Bucks at home. Another bad road playoff team in Miami, much like Philly, but not as bad as Philly. Houston, overall numbers on the season. Doing it again here. Their offensive rating is second in the NBA at about 114 points per 100 possessions. Their defensive rank was 15th in the league. Their net rating was plus four and a half point, seventh best in the NBA. I looked at a rebounding rate for the year. They're 25th, 49% of the rebounds,

field goal attempts, 91 shots a game. That is seven. Number one is 91.8 shots per game. So even though there's seven, they're basically right there with all of these teams at the top. There are about 91 shot attempts per game. Now, since they went small, I'm going to use the February 1st numbers here. I'm not going to use the March number just because of the way it sorts, but still, that's one game. Offensive rating went up two points, yet there were more teams with better offensive ratings

in the month of February. Dallas, by the way, was 118 points per 100 possessions in February. That's an absurd number, what that Dallas team does on offense. Houston's defense went from 15th to 7th, shaving about a point and a half off. But their net rating is instead of four and a half points, almost eight points, fourth in February. But the rebounding rate, the shots are about the same. The free throw attempts have gone down a bit since they went

small, but the rebounding rate, as I mentioned on Sunday night, last in the NBA in February, and they were out-rebounded by 31 boards by the New York Knicks. The Knicks actually had, could we say this? The Knicks are a bad matchup for the Rockets because Mitchell Robinson, no, not really him, but Taj and Portis and Randall, they have some big guys along the front line and they rebounded like crazy. But let's face it, Houston has been on such a tear here. They're probably due for a bad game with everybody playing in it. And they still almost got back in this one, despite being down like 20 points pretty late in the third quarter. Now, the part of this that makes me go, hey, you know what's stupid? You should have figured this out. Because as everybody lost their mind about teams going small, we know the postgame is dead. We know it's been in decline

for about five years. We thought it was dead five years ago, and now it's incredible. I was going through numbers this morning. The most offensive post touches, so real post touches here, where it's not just post touch, but it's it's an attempt right like it's an actual attempt 12 and a half per game by the Sixers that's that's incredible and I found this number I thought something was wrong with it and then I went back and read a ringer piece that it's true the Brooklyn Nets are averaging less than half a post attempt per game so far in 59 games this year. That's insane. So now if you go on the defensive side,

who faces the most post touches on attempts? The Mavs at just under eight, and then Houston's right there. It's 7.6 and 7.5. So Houston is sized down, and you're going, now they may not win anything because things could change. The Harden-Westbrook problems in the playoffs in the past. You have two bad shooting nights. That's an auto two losses.

Maybe it's Jokic. Maybe, but again, it's not like Jokic is going to be doing 30 attempts from down there from the right or left block. But sizing down when in 19-20 season, you have the most post attempts against you being under 10, that's kind of where everybody should have gone. Yeah, they went smaller, but nobody actually does anything. Okay, one other one. I like Gary Trent. I like Gary Trent Jr. Every time I throw on Portland, I just sort of like him.

Is he awesome? No. Is he awesome? No. Is he going to be a max player? A couple years ago, he may have been. But I just like him. I think he's got a little edge to him. You may remember him out of Duke, second-round guy. Felt like he was off the radar a little bit.

He's picked up the scoring quite a bit lately. I looked at his defensive numbers, trying to figure that out. He's 89th and plus-minus at shooting guard. He's a minus half a point. Not all defensive plus minuses are great. LeBron's numbers are off the charts. He's right there with Chris Dunn as small forward. But as I would say, a lot of that is his assignment more so than it is him just locking people up. Although LeBron's been far more active on his closeouts and some of the rotations than I've seen in previous years. And I'm never knocking LeBron for not taking the tough guy on previous years. And I'm never knocking LeBron

for not taking the tough guy on the other assignment. I'm just telling you, start the game, watch who he's assigned to, end of the game, watch who he's assigned to, but the stats are off the charts for him. Bradley Beal, by the way, shooting guards, he's last. Out of 129 shooting guards,

Beal is, by this metric, easily the worst defensive two guard in the league. I'm not sure that I believe that he's the worst, but as I've said with these defensive numbers, as much as we can dispute them and shoot them down, usually the guys that are at the very top are probably pretty good. And the guys that are at the very bottom, you're like, oh yeah, that guy does stink on defense, doesn't he? You know, Kyrie's had years where he's been terrible. Isaiah Thomas is somebody that just everybody gets past. And then we've already talked about the Trey Young stuff. So I do think that Gary Trent's a guy that I kind of just sneaky like,

and I don't really have much more to add on that. Okay, I still have a couple more things. Five, the starting five. Five observations. I feel like all of these would work, and it's going to be more than five. The Black Tux, though. Remember those guys? The Black Tux believes every groom deserves a better experience

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That's theblacktux.com code RASILLO for 10% off your purchase. The Black Tux, formal wear for the moment. A couple more things before we get to Tom Curran on the Pats and Brady. LeBron coming out of this. The LeBron MVP thing. I sent out a tweet, and I actually wasn't being sarcastic. I don't know because I can be, but I think those of you that really are locked into the content and can tell when I'm not, like when something's terrible and then I just quote tweet, I'm like, this is great.

Oh, wait a minute. No, no. That's what I actually mean. This is good. If I just go smart, that usually means it isn't. Like when Ravel got mad at me when he took a girl's LSU video and then said he rewrote it because he had to do it for a larger audience, but then argued it didn't matter because Twitter isn't growing. And I was like, all right, dude, just pick whatever she wants. Clearly he had been, he went at me so fast and so intensely and told me

to behave that, that had, that had struck a nerve that I wasn't really expecting. And you know me, go Tigers, how to protect that LSU Baton Rouge fam. What up? So by the way, I just started a new book about a parole officer, I believe, that went to LSU and worked in New Orleans. I can't wait for this book. I'm going to go ahead and grab the title in just a minute, if you don't mind. Okay, so LeBron MVP thing. My point is this, is that Giannis start to finish. Giannis start to finish has felt like the guy in the MVP. I cannot say this enough. It always feels like it is dictated more by story than just, hey, you know what actually may be the MVP.

Now, I don't like the whole Jordan should have won every single year because of Jordan, Jordan, Jordan. Barkley won it because he had gone to Phoenix and Barkley was great. Carl Malone won it maybe because they were sick of Jordan at that point. David Robinson got one there as well. Looking back on it, that Shaq should have more, but you've got to remember that Steve Nash did kind of this Steph Curry thing where Steve Nash was the story, and then he was even better the next year, and then he got it again. And that's kind of what happened with Curry. he was even better the next year and then he got it again and that's kind of what happened with curry those of you that hate the steph curry unanimous vote thing you're the i can't even mess with you guys because you don't you don't understand it like other guys got screwed on

votes by people that had relationships with players like one or two votes the other way where we should have had unanimous mvps before so somehow steph gets crushed for that um as if it's his fault but the mvp thing there's plenty of times you can go after the fact where you go, wait a minute, was that really the right thing to do? Like Derrick Rose won it his year because it's homegrown Chicago guy revitalizing the Bulls, like the first real star now they've had post-Jordan. Like this Chicago thing's going to work out. They've got Noah, they've got Butler, they've got these other pieces.

It's a tough team, and they're going to be good. And then he got hurt all the time, but it's not fair to always just go back and look at, and this is why sometimes I think stats can be really misleading where you just go back and look at the stat line for this guy, stat line for the other guy and go, how come this guy won MVP when that other guy should have won MVP? Like, that's not always the case. Like you have to remember like in the year, maybe though, maybe as I check myself here, like what ends up being the more inaccurate way to do it in the moment, aware of all the storylines and being misled. Are you misled? Are you more accurate? And I'm like, no, no, this is how it feels right now. And like, this is the right vote. This guy in this season at it's finished up the storyline of this team in this

season. This is what's the, this is the accurate thing to do. This guy's getting my MVP vote. Does that mess you up more? Does it mess you up more when your five years are moved and you just look at two stat lines compared to each other and go, no, wait, this guy's stats are better. How come he didn't win? The Harden-Westbrook one a couple years ago where Simmons and Zach Lowe both said they want to make up t-shirts and say we're going to be on the right side of history.

I told them they were both wrong at the time. Now I'm starting to think that they are right because Westbrook won his MVP in a triple double that I think is a little watered down because of the way his sister handed out to everybody, by the way, at home and the rebound part of it. But I too was like, oh my God, this guy's getting a triple double. And it was Westbrook navigating Oklahoma City and taking their contract extension in a post KD world. Like that was a feel good part of it. Steve Nash in a post-KD world. That was a feel-good part of it.

Steve Nash was a feel-good part of it. Steph Curry was like, oh my gosh, this guy's completely changed the way people even approach the basketball. Derek Rose was a fun storyline. I thought Harden had no chance because I think sometimes you have these playoff flameouts. You are punished then further on after winning an MVP. It's like, hey, last time I voted for you in the MVP, and you didn't even look like you were in the 10 best players in the league so as it sits right now are good LeBron arguments that he's older than Giannis no not really um the worst pro LeBron argument and I don't think this is being insensitive but that he's helped the

Lakers navigate through a post Kobe death uh why why, hey, I was going to vote for Giannis, but yeah, I can't now because of everything that LeBron's had to go through. You know, like that doesn't make any sense to me. As much as I think LeBron, and this is always kind of silly too, which I get annoyed with when people are like, how come you're not talking more Kentucky football?

I'm like, hey, you've had a nice start to the season. You know, you're seven and one. Let's see what happens. But I did feel like it's been Giannis. The Harden numbers are so incredible, but now Westbrook is going to split the vote almost like the Heisman vote. Not that Westbrook's going to get MVP votes. I wouldn't think so. I still feel like your entire year is your resume, but LeBron at least needs to be mentioned more, even though I would say when you look at Giannis' defensive assignments and the way he consistently plays defensively the entire time,

and you could argue that it's per 36, per 40 stuff, which I don't always love, but it does really come in. I don't want to say it's an important part of the Giannis part of it because he's playing like 30, 31 minutes a game. I would still probably vote for Giannis, but I just felt like LeBron needs to be a closer number two than he has been to this point of the season. Two final things. You may have heard that the cap went up in the NBA. And the reason I know that, not only do I work in sports, but every time anyone was signed it was a lot of media members.

Like, oh no, the cap went up, dude. That became a long-running joke on the radio show. And I just want to remind everybody that Alan Crabb in 2016, who signed for, and there were people arguing for the right. They wanted the right to pay Alan Crabb $75 million over five years. Evan Turner, who in 2016 signed a four-year $70 million team and has only been on multiple teams since that contract crab, who's been all over the place, Reggie Jackson, who was a buyout, who made, I think 80, uh, he ended up doing a five-year $80 million contract extension and

Bismack Biambo who signed a four-year $72 million deal because he played undersized opponents and grabbed a few rebounds in about a series and a half. I think one was against, was it Orlando? I forget what it was. Cause Orlando is the one that gave him $72 million, $68 million guaranteed. So $4 million may not have counted against the cap. Those are terrible contracts then. And considering what's happened to all four of those players, Reggie actually had a contributor's role to Detroit. And yeah, there's going to be some of you that are looking at some of those numbers and try to tell me he's better than he was.

But Crabb all over the place, Turner, trade filler, Jackson buyout, Biambo, now with the Hornets. So just because the cap went up doesn't mean that those deals weren't terrible at the time because they were.

Let's talk some football. Okay, we'll get Curran's prediction here, what's going to happen with Brady and Belichick. But today's podcast is sponsored by ADT Commercial for Business. ADT Commercial serves businesses ranging from midsize organizations to large-scale enterprises. Think of them as a special team who has one focus, your business security. They provide a comprehensive line of security, fire, life safety, and risk management solutions, professional-grade systems for commercial-grade businesses with ADT Commercial. Every day is game day.

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dependable and painless schedule and no obligation security review with ADT commercial for business. No pain that's good in sports and good in business security. Visit ADT.com forward slash game day to learn more. That's ADT.com forward slash game day to learn more. That's ADT.com forward slash game day. I think he's probably the best source when it comes to trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the New England Patriots with Brady and Belichick. It is Tom E. Curran, Pat's insider, NBC Sports Boston,

and he joins us now for a little bit. Okay, so I have a bunch of questions, but let me just give you the floor in the beginning. What is actually going on between both sides here? Right now, it's a circling process, I think, Ryan, more than anything else. You know, with the Patriots, I've been told that they will not be, quote, super vigilant, end quote, about tampering because it behooves them to have Brady armed with some information before he reaches the table as to what's out there. They don't want him to get to the table at some point and say, you know what, we got to go out and find out. We don't even know. So while we've seen people

wondering whether or not talking to Mike Brable on FaceTime would irritate the Patriots, and I might be pushing it, the Patriots don't mind if he collects info. As for whether or not it's early or late for a meeting, I think it's right on time. I think the Patriots feel the same way. They don't mind if other teams talk to Brady because their competition is not financial. It's about a situation. What can they provide to Brady in 2020 that looks different from 2019 and 2018.

And that, to me, is the biggest selling point for Brady. Why did he ask in August, before it looked like asked, to have the ability to not be franchised and choose to go someplace else? Because he felt as if he had been taken advantage of for a while now, and he was tired of it. Then when it looked bad as well, that further prompted him to say, you know what, do I want to run this back again or not? So that's where we are right now. The Patriots will come armed

with the attempt to try and convince Brady that this is the best place for you. Going someplace else is a mistake. And Brady will come armed with, look, I don't know if I can trust it to look better than it has the last two years. So that's where it stands right now.

Okay. So if the Patriots do want him back and, you know, there's a number, but they don't want to break the bank, they're not doing a very good job of this. And, you know, I read your piece and I thought one of the things that was, and there's, look, this wasn't your opinion. It was a bunch of source material on Brady's side and the team side. And like, I'm telling anybody listening to this, Tom is the guy you should trust more than anybody on this, but for somebody on the team side or bill side to say, you know, Brady, there's not really going to be as much competition out there

for him as he may think, even if that's true, don't say it. And two, I think they were completely, that source was completely underestimating the impact of, for a team that has been stagnant, had nothing exciting about it, saying, who cares? The cap's at $200 million. Let's throw Brady a few extra money. Throw him an extra year than we normally would that would make sense. And we can introduce Tom Brady with our jersey on at a press conference. And our franchise has been dead for five years.

I think that's a complete miss by that source to assume that there's going to be no interest in Brady out as a free agent. I can't say that you're wrong at all. I mean, it's a source's opinion. It may be the team as a whole's opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't. But it only takes one or two teams. But I do agree with you that they are circumspect about whether or not a team is going to want to sign up for a 43, 44-year-old quarterback at this juncture, which, again, take the next logical step from that.

If there is a feeling in Foxborough that that's out there elsewhere, isn't that feeling present with the Patriots themselves? I mean, they're not going to speak of other people having these kinds of feelings and projecting them on them if the Patriots don't themselves feel that there's an enormous risk to marrying up with a 43, 44-year-old quarterback. Yeah, that's definitely a really good follow-up to the whole thing because I think it kind of gets back to the original thing. There's a bunch of stuff I want to follow up on that you've already said. I'm going to try not to lose track of that.

It's almost like they're all little subway franchises in the league and everybody thinks that they have the secret sauce in their place and this is the way we run it

and this is why our franchise is better than that one. And they can say, you know what, they just have the best sub maker and I don't care how old that guy is. I'm bringing him to my place because I want that guy.

Even if it's for a minute. They're like, this guy is a shoemaker. He's been here for years. What's he do great? I was expecting just because of the regional stuff that maybe we're getting a D'Angelo's reference out of you. You went Subway and at first

I was like, huh? And then I go, okay. And I did have a buddy from... Yeah, I had a buddy from Boston that thought it was called D'Angelo's for years. And then he got to UVM and he was like, you guys don't have a Dangalos up here? And we're like, we don't even know what those are. Okay, so if the Pats want him back, they've done a bad job letting him know. And even if it's Belichick and every transaction is the same thing,

and it's hard to argue with Belichick when you step back and look at the biggest picture of it, you go, you know, even when he did things that felt like were too excessive or too cheap or all these things, like how do you really argue with the long-term approach? But if there's one guy and even with him turning 43 in August, um, they let him negotiate the ability to be a free agent. You mentioned him feeling like he'd been taken advantage of. I do want to follow up on that, but first, like, why would the Pats do this? Yeah, go ahead. Like Find out what's out there. Apparently, they haven't really talked, maybe a few texts here and there. So why would the Patriots go cold approach, even when you said it's not a cold war, with somebody like Brady,

if they actually do, in fact, want him back? And when I say cold war, I'm more saying that there is not unsheathed animosity going both ways. I think there's a better understanding. They're not pissed at each other. I think it'll be amicable. But I think they are resigned to, this is where we feel on things, and this is how you feel on things. See what's out there. Why would they do that? Because they feel as if, honestly, Ryan, when you think about it, and I've written this relative to the negotiations and where they are, the Patriots feel in some ways that they've already extended themselves. In 2013, Robert Kraft, after putting together a deal for Brady, said that we wanted to

do something elegant with this six-year deal. We wanted to do something that would ensure that Tom Brady retired here. Make no mistake about it. He is a guy that I treat it like a fan in this negotiation, as opposed to a normal player, because we wanted to ensure that he'd be here. They feel as if they've already done everything they could to extend themselves in a way that they never would for another player. That's the crux of it. We want to get out a year early rather than a year late. They kind of feel that, and Brady is the credit for this, they've already gone further than they would have for anybody else.

Man, I just disagree with them so much on this then. I know. I got you. I got you. Right. So would Brady. So the best quarterback of his generation, arguably of all time, who took pay cut after pay cut after pay cut. It's not like he was broke.

And I'm so sick of hearing that his wife makes a lot of money because she's a model that somehow Brady is supposed to make $20 a month. He's been below the Peyton Manning number all those years. I was looking at it again. He was behind a ton of guys last year. It's always the team-friendly deal, and they feel like the Patriots – you can argue what they think his value will be in his 43-year-old season, but to act like they've gone above and beyond for him,

they should stop saying that out loud too. What about Brady feeling like – is there anything more specific than Brady, as you said, has felt taken advantage of other than some of the contract stuff that I just mentioned? I think it really starts with the contract and the desire to make sure that he could play until he was 43 with this team. 45 with this team.

44, all that right there. I think 43 has been the more realistic goal. He told me back in 2012, I'm definitely playing until I'm 43. I think 45 has been out there as a round number. But the Patriots had an opportunity last year to sign him to what he would have accepted, which was a two-year, $50 million deal with the Mirren Dupreezes. And they didn't do it. He believed they were going to do it. His camp believed that they were going to do it. The Patriots did not do it.

And that's when he said, all right, you know what? How about this? I don't want to be franchised next year. You don't want to give me the extra year. You don't want to give me a raise when I ask for it after Jimmy leaves. And instead give me five incentives to hit that I have no shot of doing because I'm throwing to Chris Hogan and Philip Dorsett and Cordero Patterson. You know what?

How about this? I'm such a burden to you, and I'm such a pain in the ass asking for this extra money and this commitment all the time. Let's make it simple, and you can untether me. You can be rid of me if that's what we're looking for. That's really what it is. I mean, there's little things along the way, you know,

with animosities and tensions, but really those have been smoothed over. The ones that existed after the Super Bowl that were very evident in 2017 into 2018, those are smoothed over. But I still think that there's

more of a resignation to it there's not active fighting going on in the marriage there's more separate rooms that's usually a bad sign you usually don't go back to the same room um you know after

17 you know I'm friends with a lot of the national guys at ESPN they were writing about that stuff I would talk to them about their. I would talk to them off the air about stuff that they couldn't share. And, you know, Pat's fans lose their minds about this stuff as if it's just all made up and you go, no, I, you know, what, what people don't seem to realize that is that even through successful runs, there can be animosity that builds up. What do you think the, what was the worst that you can share with us? What do you think the worst example is or best example of,

of the relationship being strained? Then? Yeah. Back then? Yeah. All right. Honestly, I think it's,

it's a very visible one that, that occurred, um, early in 2018 when Gronkowski came out to that motocross press conference with a friggin helmet on and the Patriots then turned around said uh you know what we're gonna trade him to Detroit and he said I'm not gonna go and Brady said you know what this is behind the scenes you trade him but right but that's that's that's where it really i think that's where the oil needed to be plants where the pimple popped or whatever you

want to say after that they straightened it out i think grunk got probably pulled aside by Brady and Belichick. First, Brady said, you can't be that overt with this stuff. You can't be standing there on a Saturday during OTAs in the media room promoting a motocross event in the stadium when guys are lifting weights 15 feet down the hall, and when they ask you whether or not you're going to be involved in that, you say, nope. I mean, that was kind of an affront.

That was a bad idea. And I think really that led to a branch being extended. And my understanding is that Belichick finally said, okay, you know what? What are we doing here? And he was the one. And that's why 2018, the season, and 2019, as much as pissed off as Brady was about personnel and what had happened with his contract, it did remain less dysfunctional than it got after the 2017 season, during the 2017 season. Okay, I have two more things for you. You mentioned personnel.

I had heard as far back as six years ago, like the first time. And it was, you know, a trusted guy to Brady. And I don't have any real, like Brady and his, his camp is limited as is. They do a great job of not like, there's a lot of guys in the big transactions. You're like, Oh, I'm hearing this. I'm hearing this yet. You don't hear a lot with brady but one thing i have heard and i don't know if he says this to bill is that he states the obvious to some of those guys being like are you serious i've been taking these pay cuts and this is the best you can do for weapons

how much has that grinded on him especially this past year quite a bit quite a bit you know and I think too you know there's a perception that he's been here for 20 years he's seen Logan Mankins

he's seen Ty Law he's seen Adam Vinatieri he's seen you name it Seymour yeah

there's literally 18 guys that I listed that are were very very good players left under duress. I think Brady has felt as if, in the same way Gronk began to get a little marginalized, I think Brady has felt the same way with this situation.

Put off, put off, put off. He doesn't have as big a role or a say, and his desires are not as much met. And he started to feel and sense the writing on the wall. That's what a lot of this is about. He wants to jump before he gets pushed. So, you know, the question as to whether or not they provided him with the artillery around him, yeah, it's bothered him. I think it's bothered a lot of the folks on the offensive side of the ball. And I don't think the

Patriots really have a strong leg to stand on in terms of what they have done. They will say, look, we just drafted Nikhil Harry, Isaiah Wynn, and Sonny Michelle. Show me the tight end you drafted when you knew Rob Gronkowski was going to be retiring at some point. Where are you going to trade

that over the last five years? Because 50 have come into the league and the Patriots have drafted just one Ryan Izzo so of course it's an agitation yeah what they did at the receiver position be like hey we'll take a guy that never stays clean we'll take another guy that's an absolute I don't even know what to say about Antonio Brown and then it's like after and that's too right and that's after the season starts when you're like oh well looks like we messed this up Let's go get this guy at a cut rate who really can't be relied on, but maybe it'll look awesome. but you basically gave us two absolute question marks that it'd be impossible for them to make it through 16 games based on the way they've carried themselves.

And we screwed up the number one position that Belichick always puts a premium on in tight end with what they did with those. Okay, so final thought, because it constantly, the two things that ram into each other here are Brady actually wanted to be in a new system and having to do that at 43 years old, which I can't imagine he'd want anything to do with.

And then the fact that the Pats let him negotiate that thing to get out so they couldn't franchise him and having to do that at 43 years old, which I can't imagine he'd want anything to do with, and then the fact that the Pats let him negotiate that thing to get out so they couldn't franchise him, and him asking for it, knowing what has happened around him. Those two things face off, and I can't pick one. What do you think happens? What I think happens? I've seen the Patriot Stockholm Syndrome enact itself too often for me to believe

it's not going to be a factor this time whether it's with Josh McDaniels or Nick Casario or Jamie Collins or Dion Branch or you name it there's a lot of guys who have come back and almost all of them

eventually Belichick can be persuasive. Richard Seymour, Randy Moss, Logan Mankins, all guys who left under agitated circumstances still have an affinity for Belichick. So will that inject itself here? It has to because on paper I don't think the Patriots are a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl team right now. I think there's other teams that are. Are the Patriots going to be able to convince him that they are championship level right now and in 2020?

And are they going to be able to convince him that it's going to feel, look, and it's going to be a different feel this year? Those are the two things that have to happen. But where's he going to be? I don't know. I really think it's a coin split. I agree. Thanks, Tom. All right, Ryan.

Thank you, babe. Have a good week. Okay, you can check out Tom Curran at Tom E. Curran. Not Tommy Boy. Nope. Not Tommy Lee. Drummer or the legend from Chicago. That's T-O-M-E-C-U-R-R-A-N.

Even if you hate the Pats and you just want to know where Brady's going, he'll probably know. I don't know. I'm not going to sit there because then somebody else gets it before Tom does. Be like, oh, sweet guest. Loser. Okay. You know what I'm not going to do?

Because I have four pages. Maybe I should put a poll up. Kyle, it's four pages. It's just numbers. Halfway through it, I was like, I think this segment's going to suck. Be honest with yourself. Look in the mirror. The segment might suck, dude.

But I'm not going to do it now. I don't need it now. I may do it from, so I'm just going to be in a hotel room in Boston. So maybe I'll do it then. Some of you guys will like it, but I won't lead with it. How about that? I know, Kyle, you don't care one way or the other. You assume it'll work, and I appreciate your support.

Yeah, I got full confidence. Yeah. Okay, so back from Park City. Great little town. Really enjoyed it. Highly recommend if you can pull it off. Stayed right on Main Street. I love those little old mining towns.

I just do. It's a ski town. I love the ski towns. We all know that, but I don't ski. I was going to ski. I actually was going to ski this time, but it was really, really busy. It was also, I think, an overlap Pride Week. I think that's maybe the third time a Rosillo solo trip has lined up with Pride Week. to ski this time but it was really really busy it was also uh i think on overlap pride week i think that's maybe the third time a rossillo solo trip has uh lined up with pride week

not you know not not criticizing do your thing but just you know just something to think about might want to check those calendars there's community calendars but it wasn't an issue at all uh went to oh shucks's Bar and Grill one night. And I want to thank Dave, who I guess is, let's just say they're dorm, they're Mater D. I think he runs the entire joint. Was very friendly, said hello, watched some Clippers Nuggets together. And then he was able to get me over. I was at No Name one of the nights. And then another night I ran into Tuscaloosa legend dj purdy i don't know if you guys know his

deal but he's uh just an absolute fireball and randomly i've known him from the lsu bama games for over a decade and he was waiting in line to get into a place and um a guy was walking me into no name's a real good spot for you kyle you would like it there's a little upstairs to be good for you downstairs maybe the annex maybe the rooftop oh that's right you were there for sunday yeah oh shucks is your spot oh yeah great smoking area right out front yeah it's great it's i don't know they may have shirts that say if you like smoking cigarettes check it out here uh yeah so that was that was good ate a couple different places did go over to the saint regis the last night i was there to just hear what the whole deal was about but i went at night but it's all deer valley and it's only a couple miles away so you know 15 lift that way

right back into town and then the best is you wake up you pack up and you go i'm gonna be at the airport in less than 40 minutes i'm on a a plane, less than an hour and a half, landing back in LA. And I went from that crisp mountain air to the beaches of Manhattan Beach in not even five hours. So that's what we got going on there. Didn't see any live. They had the Delphonics in town. I know I'm older. That's a bit old for me. It's a little got going on there. Didn't see any live. They had the Delphonics in town. I know I'm older. That's a bit old for me.

It's a little out of my range. So I didn't check them out. It looks like there's going to be this great mandolin guy coming to town, but I figured Sam something. And then there was another place where if you wanted to get a CL, you had to get charged for a 50 cent pickle because they didn't have like the full bar non-restaurant license. And another guy was telling me that 20 years ago, or maybe even 10 years ago, because of one of the Utah laws, you had to be a member at any place that

served alcohol. So like every place was technically a social club, but if any of you were out of town, served alcohol so like every place was technically a social club but if any of you were out of town you would just sort of be sponsored by somebody who would then buy you a drink and then you were just good to go to pay for the rest i don't i don't know i learned when i was there you can't be standing at a bar and drinking you have to be seated they'll get you what if you feel like what if your hips are displaced and you need to stand put the drink down really that's what you have to do you have to stare at it you can't hold on to it you got to be seated is what i mean that's just what the locals told me they're like hey man you better sit down it's like okay all right i don't want to make anybody upset yeah i really liked it i liked it

because of the ease like i've been out to aspen and it's a nice drive and aspen is great and i was there to write so i know this is going to shock you, but if you, if you're going to go out a bunch and then you also have to get some writing done, they don't really add up. So I, um, it was a very tame trip, kind of like the Cabo trip this summer. But I, uh, when I went out in Aspen, I was like, all right, I'm going to go out a little bit later here. And they're like, no, no, no, it's over. Like Aspen, I guess, just goes really, really hard early. And then people shut it down so they get some sleep and go ski, which actually makes a lot of sense.

Well, I think it's normal. And there's apparently like a couple of clubs. I didn't do any of that stuff. I just I wanted to go to bed at a reasonable time. That's when that women's hockey game was going on. The U.S. women's hockey. That was like one of the best sporting events I've ever sat and watched that was incredible oh i'm serious i don't forget i forget who they beat but it was was it canada that they beat can we double check that

check two years ago u.s women's hockey 2018 2018 yeah yeah it was the olympics right yeah googling googling uh shoot it was our shootout at the end shootout usb canada yeah it was canada yeah so the usb canada all right yeah that was uh that was awesome so a good aspen story there tell us about the time you watched olympic hockey uh so i don't really have much more to add other than two big old thumbs up for park city i didn't i didn't expect that it was going to suck i had heard nothing but great things and a big thing to uh thanks to the utah jazz as well for get me in the building watching that celtics game because that is an awesome awesome setup i love the way that arena layout is uh going there but it's just not going to jazz way lately although they did get a win against the calves which you would kind of expect to happen in

the NBA. Okay. So Thursday, James Borrego, head coach of the Charlotte Hornets, that could always get screwed up because of an NBA coach's schedule, but it's booked as of now. And then I will do that long number list of a bunch of different cap things because I love that stuff. But I'm going to put it, we may even have an intermission before we even play that one. So thank you, as always,

for listening, subscribing. Great review. Ryan Russillo Podcast, part of the Ringer Network. Thank you.