The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Handicapping the AFC With Domonique Foxworth. Plus: LSU-Alabama Up Close and Life Advice.

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

Russillo shares his five most important takeaways from NFL Week 9, including the Titans' battle with the Chiefs, the Jets taking down the Bills, Justin Fields, and more (0:27). Then Ryen is joined by ESPN's Domonique Foxworth to discuss the Bills loss to the Jets, Josh Allen's uncharacteristic performance, "Has Justin Fields turned a corner?", why it's so hard to feel good about the Vikings, Colts-Patriots, and more (11:03). Then Ryen talks about his experience in Baton Rouge for LSU's win over Alabama before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (48:58). 'The Domonique Foxworth Podcast' releases episodes every Tuesday and Thursday during the football season. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Domonique Foxworth Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's ryan rossillo podcast we have dominique foxworth recapping week nine i've got my five most important things including everybody's new favorite player recap a little bit of lsu's win against bama i was in tiger stadium for that that one on Saturday night and life advice with Kyle. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope,

but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now.

Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. We start our podcast. We can't say live from Baton Rouge because it's taped from Baton Rouge. And I spent a little time on LSU's big win on Saturday night against Alabama Tiger Stadium. We'll spend a couple minutes on that, but first the five things from week nine. All right, number one, I have this weird, weird thing with the Tennessee Titans. As you know, if you listened to this

podcast last season, you would hear me go, you know, this Titans team, I just don't really take them all that seriously. Part of that to me was the statistical creation that was Ryan Tannehill. Like when you looked at a two-year window of his stats, you could put it in this grouping with other quarterbacks and then you're like, well, he's not one of those guys, even though the numbers told you that. The touchdown interception ratio was incredible. There's all these numbers for Tannehill that were really, really good numbers. And they're the one seed in the AFC and I'm sitting there and I'm going, you know what? this is one of the worst one seeds that we've seen in a conference in a really long time.

They lose at home. Tannehill isn't very good. They lose to Cincinnati, whatever. I mean, you could argue the game could have gone the other way because it looked like Burrow was going to get murdered in that game just because they could not protect him. So I was dismissive of them as a one seed, and then when I was looking at some of the Baltimore and Buffalo

and Kansas City stuff, I was like, wait, Tennessee is actually the two seed right now. Do you realize this? And so going into that game, having it be a primetime game, it was, it was the other, which makes this weird is that I'm like, you know, I kind of think I like Tennessee now. And I was like, wait, why do I like them more now when there's no statistical reason to like them more this season than last season. And they're trying to do this with Malik Willis, a quarterback who, look, the go route that wasn't caught was a really nice ball when he was flushed out to his right on the first

possession of the second quarter and was getting chased and then threw it kind of like past the sticks. It was a sick throw. The back shoulder throw to the tight end that he made where it was already predetermined, but he knew exactly what he wanted and spot perfect. Really nice stuff. The Henry QB combo there

with what are we going to deal with here? Yeah, maybe I like the possibilities, but we're not there yet. And when you look at some of the stats, alright, so defensively last season, they were 6th in points per game allowed, 12th in yards. This year, they're 10th in points per game,

21st in yards. This year, they're 10th in points per game, 21st in yards. The scoring offense last season was at least middle of the pack, 25 points a game. Now they're like 18.6, which is 24th. So, the quarterback part is going to have to work itself out. I'm sitting there looking at the defensive line that we all love. We love when the Henry

stuff works. But, you know, Mahomes had the tipped interception off of Kelsey. I swear to God, I feel like Kelsey's great, Hall of Fame, the whole thing. I feel like he has one bad play that's kind of bad more often than some of the other guys that are great. Every

week would be harsh, but maybe it's because I've watched them so many times in comparison to other ones I'm being unfair to him, but I feel like he's good for one kind of screw-up every few weeks in a game. Whatever. It doesn't matter. Kansas City ends up winning this game, and I'm just sitting there going,

wait, why do you like them now? Why do you like them better now? Because they're coached better. Because of the D-line. Because I don't like Tannehill, and now they've gone to Malik. It doesn't really make any sense. Their wins aren't very good. Vegas, the Colts, Commanders, Colts, Texans.

So now they're down to a four seed. We'll see. Maybe it's their third down because it was the best third down offense against the best third down defense based on conversion ranks. I think Tennessee was something absurd, like 26% conversion against them

going into last night's game. It's a number I always really like. But it very, very simple could be that they're the four seed and not the one seed and I still hold out some kind of hope for them. All right, number two, Bill's Jets, classic NFL game, right? This is the classic NFL game

that we talk about all the time. One team comes out, they're clearly better, and then you're sitting there looking up three hours into it and you're like, wait, the Jets could win this thing? And that's exactly what this was. Allen wasn't very good. The second pick that he threw underneath was brutal. It was just, I think that's why he was so upset throughout the game.

It's just a bad pick, man, just a completely bad pick. And it's tough to watch the Jets and think they're going to be any good because Wilson gets his ass kicked all game long. He's now four touchdowns, five interceptions, but they're six and three, and then they're five seed. And I do wonder if this is their moment, their moment where they go, everything is different now after the Buffalo win

because we know that the offense is really good. They're fifth in opponents' yards per play allowed. They've been a defensive team the whole time through. Wilson went, what, like a month without throwing a touchdown? And God, I feel like he's getting crushed all the time in these games. Like, it's just a lot for a guy who looks a little slight in the old hips to be taking this kind of punishment. And next thing you know, you look up and, like,

the Jets are going to pull this thing off. And it's kind of, it leaves us here. I don't know. It's going to take a lot for any of us to be moved off of the Bills. But the similarity here is that Miami beat Buffalo in a game that didn't make any sense. It was one of the most statistical, like one of the biggest statistical anomalies in NFL history for a team to do what Buffalo did and still lose that game against a team of what Miami was doing. But you wonder, this is a huge win in

division, everybody's favorite team right now, the Buffalo Bills. Does that turn a corner? Is it some mental hurdle for Miami? Well, I don't know if it's the direct correlation, but Miami's been a really good football team so far this season on offense. Went to his play. Not missing those other two guys, right? I wonder if it can be the same thing for the Jets. Number three.

Watching Kansas City, Tennessee, after watching Tampa, LA Rams, was like throwing it onto the primetime ABC ESPN game in college football. It was as if you were screwing around, watching maybe a group of five conference go at it, and then all of a sudden it's Georgia, Alabama, or whatever, LSU, Alabama, you can say whatever you want. And the craziest thing is that that's not really true because we're talking about Tennessee's offense here,

not just Kansas City's, but we have to include Tennessee in that matchup there. I just felt like there were more players running around doing stuff on Sunday night than that slugfest between Tampa Bay and the Rams. These teams are just, every week man, we're looking at these NFC powers going is there any sign that a corner can be turned here at some point?

And here's the weird part. Tampa wins it as the Rams are up the entire time and Tampa has had like four of these games that have all felt like the same game where they can't do anything all game and then they still have some weird chance Green Bay week two the two-point conversion doesn't work they lose that one Pittsburgh week six almost the exact same thing

Baltimore week eight trying to get back into that one and then here we are again you know they have to punt it they've got the two timeouts they They get the ball back. We're like, wait, they're still going to have another chance at this thing? And they pull it off. Brady's ecstatic because I can't imagine how frustrating it is playing for both of these teams. Both old lines can't do anything. The Rams cannot run the football to save their lives. Some historically low numbers on that one.

And staying with that NFC supposed power group, like we're all off of Green Bay at this point, man. They scored nine points in a loss to Detroit, who's allowing the most points. They're allowing 32 points per game, I think, going into that one in the NFL this season. So all those teams are brutal to watch, which is amazing that all three at the same time

are such massive disappointments. Let's stay in the NFC with everybody's new favorite player, and that's Justin Fields. Chicago's offense, you want to have your mind blown here a little bit? If you look at yards per play on offense, Chicago's 18th. They're ahead of the Chargers. They're ahead of the Pats. They're ahead of Russell Wilson. They're ahead of Tampa. They're ahead of Tennessee. They're ahead of Arizona. That's not a good sign. 29th. Come on, guys. And then the Rams, who are last in the NFL in yards per play. Fields has put together

other losses, but it's hope, right? That it looks like anything. He ran it 15 times for 178 and a touchdown on top of throwing for three touchdowns. So we're talking about 300 plus yards, four touchdowns,

a shootout with the Dolphins. That's happening now after what looked like the first four weeks of the season. I mean, the San Francisco game I thought was kind of fluky when he had the two touchdowns and that win in the rain. But then the next three weeks, he didn't do anything. I mean, the numbers are pretty bad. They still found a way to beat Houston, which isn't shocking, but he completed eight passes. Now we're starting to see a little bit more out of him. And the fact that it's so exciting because he's so physically gifted, it feels like Fields is now the new chance for hope.

Another version of a Star Wars movie, right? Justin Fields, a new chance at hope. I don't even know if that title makes any sense, but that's the point. Because I don't know that I would have heard it from anybody. But now seeing, because I think almost everybody collectively, like he has the highest sympathy ranking, maybe any quarterback in the NFL, and now seeing him break some of these plays

like he did yesterday, it's everybody's having a good time. Alright, final thing, number five. The MVP thing's going to get weird. I hope you're ready for it. We suggested that maybe Michael Parsons could be in it, but I knew deep down the whole time I'm talking about it, I'm like, you know, it's not really going to happen.

It's going to be Josh Allen. Will there be a Josh Allen, well, not push. To me, Allen is the MVP, but there's going to be a Jalen Hurts push. It's going to be significant. The stats won't be the same as we know, but there'll be like a weird resume, turning the Eagles around,

having to do, like if Allen has a few more screw up games, you know, it'll depend. We're only halfway through this. We're going to see what the entire numbers are. I'm just saying it'll be really weird because Hurts statistically

is just not going to be at where Allen is. He's just not. He's behind him now, so he'd have a lot of work to do. But would it become some kind of conversation? I started seeing some hints at it this weekend where would you look at the record and start going like Hertz is responsible for all this, which, you know, look, the Eagles are really good, but that plus minus giveaway takeaway, they're three times better than the second-best team.

They're so far ahead of everybody else. That has as much to do with their success as anything, and he's a big part of that too. But I'm just wondering if they'll be like, you know the other argument isn't as good as when they go, hey, let's not look at the statistics first. Let's talk about storyline impact first and then get to the other stuff second. I think that will start happening as we head into the second half of the season.

Week nine, almost in the books, and Dominic Foxworth joins us as we wrap this up. Good to catch up with you again, man. It's been a while. It has been a while. I always like talking to you. You think about the way that you think, which makes for an interesting conversation and an interesting lesson. So I'm excited to see where this goes.

Well, cool. Thanks for joining us. As I said in the open, and I was talking about the Jets win against Buffalo, where when you're the team that's been bad for a long time and you have these new young pieces, and there are things that we like about the team, specifically the defense, you wonder if there's a moment.

You wonder if there's a moment to be like, hey, after that Bills win, that's when things turned around. Is a real thing like have you experienced that when you have that kind of win or can you be tricked can you be completely tricked because i'm still not sure what the answer is yeah i mean i think both are true it's hard to like boil down the psyche of an entire team entire coaching staff and entire organization to like one thing. I think it's much easier to look back at it and then tell the story,

which is how we tend to do everything is we get far enough away and we're like, Hey, this was the pivotal moment where they really started to believe. But I do think there's something to be said, especially for young teams for like surprising yourself and like having a measuring stick for yourself. And there's something that like changes your perception. I'm not sure if this was that game for the jets honestly because it still all boils down to zach wilson and they seem to have kid gloves on him for much of this game

they didn't really allow him to attack the middle of the field they which i think part of the reason like part of the reason why they won was because they were trying to protect Zach, I think, if that makes any sense. So I think what the Bills do often and do well is they've constructed this team that seems entirely based on the fact that they're going to score a lot of points

and they're going to score early. So they're going to get up by a couple touchdowns and then you're going to chase. And they have pass rushers and they like to play too high and they have two great safeties when they're both healthy um in this particular game they got up two scores and in part because i felt like the jets didn't trust zach wilson to like just go out there and and light it up their game plan offensively was pretty conservative their defense settled down, and eventually

they found themselves back in the game. Yeah, because on the other side of it, I'm not looking at it like with Buffalo going, well, now I have to read. I mean, we all fall in love with them when they look at their best. It was the same thing again yesterday. I'm like, okay, here we go. Same deal. But Allen was just bad.

He was just bad, uncharacteristically bad. I always feel like there are different interceptions there are late game contested interceptions where guys increase their level of risk and I'm like whatever those to me don't really count there are times where the defensive player does something he never normally does and a really good quarterback like there used to be this throw with Brady where he would try to throw it behind the linebacker to Gronk on this like seam route and you would never expect the linebacker to stay with the route and he threw like two picks on it it was hilarious because you were like they're not even bad picks he just can't believe the guy

was there and then you have these picks where you can't believe like Fields had one to a safety in a game where I was like dude did you not even think the safety was over there? And Allen's pick where he just didn't see a guy in front of him was just uncharacteristic of the best quarterbacks. That was the kind of pick where I'm like, man, you're really – that's why I think he was so mad at himself throughout the game because he's like, who are you today, man? So that brings up two thoughts to me. One is that Rodgers pick over the middle of the field

felt like he wanted the tight end to bend it. And it's one of those where you're like, well, is it the quarterback's fault or is it someone else's fault? But he threw three picks. The one in the red zone was really horrendous. But I'm not sure who to attribute that pick over the middle of the field to the tight end, who to attribute that to because it felt like Rodgers was expecting something different. So I know exactly what you're talking about. But for Josh Allen, I don't know if you participated. Well, knowing what I know about you, you probably did not participate in the Twitter sports media beef

of the last couple of weeks, which was about interceptable passes versus actual interceptions. I don't know if you knew this was going on, but they were like, okay, good for you. Sounds awesome. Good for you. Yeah. I didn't know if you knew this was going on, but they were like, okay, good for you. Sounds awesome. Yeah. I didn't participate in it, but like some big names got into fight and the conversation was about evaluating quarterbacks and saying like, take into account the interceptable passes that they throw, not just the actual interceptions that they throw. And I think to be fair to Josh Allen is he is incredible. And we put him on this Mahomes and Allen pedestal

when he's at his best, he's that. But Josh Allen has never been someone who shied away from the interceptable pass. Like he is always kind of, not always, there are games like the Dolphins game comes to mind where we're like, yeah, they lost, but Josh Allen threw for 400 yards and he was really awesome. But when you go back and watch the game, he bounced a couple balls off a Dolphins defender's chest, and that's kind of what Josh Allen has always been. He's always been a guy that's going to put the ball in a risky situation. The difference is, early in his career,

he didn't counterbalance that with amazing plays. Now he has like five times as many amazing plays as interceptable passes. And then DBs, it's hard to catch balls. It's really hard where you're not expecting it to make interceptions, especially when Josh Allen throws a laser at your face. So over the course of a season or course of a game, most of the time it's going to balance out or not balance out. Most of the time it's going to tilt in the favor of him being a positive impact on his team but in a game like this one this week they caught the interceptable passes and he didn't make that many outstanding plays and it cost him and that's what's going to happen when uh when the luck goes against them you know i wonder on the interceptable

passes thing was to a lot higher than people would expect to a was higher on and it was like a Herbert to a debate that was going on and to a was higher on interceptable passes and Herbert was higher on interception I mean that's what anytime you use those counting stats and you know this particularly from all the basketball that you watch like counting stats are hard analytics are I mean analytics and stats are the. Analytics are, I mean, analytics and stats are the same thing, but we kind of talk about these advanced stats. Like that's probably a better word. Advanced stats are a little bit better, but there are still flaws in those advanced stats. But when you're just counting up interceptions, like it's really hard to determine

whether one player is better or worse. And that's what the debate really was boiling down to because if you're going to evaluate a quarterback's play you should dock them for as many interceptable passes as you do for interceptions because the fact that it wasn't intercepted is not because you put some special spin on it it's like because they dropped it and and you should also like take into consideration the the time of the game and the moment, all that stuff you were saying. So that's what makes like quarterback evaluation hard and boiling it down to what this what kicked off this debate was like Tua has more wins and less interceptions. He's so much better than Herbert. And then people started fighting about it.

Yeah, look, I mean, I thought Tua was atrocious in that Pittsburgh game. Terrible. I thought it was was atrocious in that Pittsburgh game. Terrible. I thought it was five picks. They counted this four. I had a higher count at home. And you know what? It's been a top 10 offense. Everything, for the most part,

is working. And it looks like he's going to be a real guy. But yeah, I mean, I thought that game was bad. I'm not bringing this all up to do a Tua debate again. No.

This is kind of scary. And it's kind of fun. But it feels like everybody likes Justin Fields now. And is there some sort of like, again, real or imaginary? Is there a real corner that has been turned here for somebody who I've, I've honestly felt bad. I'd like,

I can't, it's malpractice to me that the franchise on a rookie scale contract wouldn't want to give them some better options. But now it feels like since the Patriots game and then what he did yesterday against the Dolphins, granted in the loss, like it just feels it feels a lot more fun to lose if you're a Bears fan. It does. And it feels like there's optimism in the future. And if it doesn't turn into like sustainable success, they'll turn on them again, which like we have these cycles as fans and just as people all the time, which is not fair to these. I was thinking this this weekend when I watched Taylor Heineke pull off a

ridiculous spin move just every now and then I'm like, God damn, these motherfuckers are good. You know? And then we like criticize the shit out of them. Like Taylor Heineke, you know, like he's not the guy that you expect.

It was I'll find the clip and send it to you. It's just like an absurd spin move was like, God, and he's like the worst of them. But anyway, back to the question about Phil. So I started this season with Bears fans mad at me because I essentially said what you just said. It's like he's a hell of a talent. They have not run things that are effective for him. They have not built around him. He's a hell of a talent.

They have not run things that are effective for him. They have not built around him. And they should consider making some other moves or he should force his way out because the rookie contract and all that stuff, the timing's off. And so Bears fans hated me. They won their first game and they got to dunk on me, which is really fun against the 49ers.

Yeah, that game in the rain, that game. All right, 49ers. Yeah. That game in the rain. That game. All right, go ahead. Yeah. But to your point, I think that he's playing better. They're designing plays or running plays that, that take the pressure off them.

That's like one of the things I think about when I'm evaluating quarterbacks is how can you take pressure off of them and how much pressure do they need taking taken off of them and i think that you don't think about uh design quarterback runs as taking pressure off of um justin fields but absolutely does and when you have great talent around a quarterback so like jimmy Garoppolo is a prime example. They don't ask him to do very many things that are super difficult. They take the pressure off of him. And every now and then they get in a situation where they're like, hey, Jimmy, can you bring us back from down two scores? And he can't, but that's not what he's there for. So whether Justin Fields can get to that or not, I don't know, but most quarterbacks need time.

You need to be in a good situation. And this is something that I bring up a lot is if you look around the league at the best quarterbacks in the league, all of them came into good situations. Like that's how they started. They started in situations where the pressure was not on them or not very much. And it gave them time to develop and it gave them time to turn into these great quarterbacks. If you look at them, I mean, all the way back to Brady and like Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, who's not great anymore, but was great for a stretch. All these guys, Mahomes, all these guys came in in situations where there was not a whole lot of pressure on them where other people could take it off of them. And that allowed them the time, I think, to develop because no one's drafted in the first round.

Frankly, no one's drafted if they're not really good at something and finding a way to allow them to catch up in the other ways to allow them to become the player that they can potentially become, I think, is super important. out party at the Patriots game. That's another example of one of those things where we get away from the game and we look at the raw stats. We're like, man, that was his coming out party. He was bouncing balls off a Patriots chest in that game. Also, he was fumbling balls all over the place, but they kept recovering it. They won. And then he put together a couple good games that didn't have as many bad plays in it. And we're like, oh, he's arrived. So I feel like my opinion of Justin Fields has not changed because he's doing the things that I knew he could do. It's just like the coaching staff and the front office have gotten their heads around the idea that we're going to let him run the ball a lot more. And that will allow him time to develop.

He has all the tools, you know, to become a great quarterback. we're going to let him run the ball a lot more and that will allow him time to develop he has all the tools you know to become a great quarterback is he going to have the time and the support to develop into that is the question and what we've seen these last three weeks are promising but i don't think he's over the hump by any stretch and i'd say the same thing about the jets which is where this whole conversation all started is they're good, but I don't see this win over the Bills as like some hump game that now they are formidable for the foreseeable future. I think we're always trying to figure out if somebody's coming up with new ways to slow down Kansas City. You know, I've had this weird two-year thing with the Titans team where I feel like I liked them more this year,

and there's no reason for me to like them more this year based on what they did last year. But going into last night, it felt like a classic. Like, they had a great game plan in. Vrabel, by all accounts, everybody loves playing for this guy. You like their personnel. You like their style to try to win like an old-school football game. And, again, Malik, a quarterback, super talented. There's a handful of throws that were really impressive last night.

It's a huge spot to ask a rookie quarterback to go in there on primetime Sunday night at KC and go win. But then I'm thinking like, I don't know, maybe Tennessee isn't even that good. And Kansas City still, you know, despite the numbers tell you Kansas City's offense is still rolling. But that was weird. It was a nice win, but it almost was alarming. Yeah, I think you like to say that everyone has bad games. And if you're able to win in those bad games, then we should celebrate that. And in most cases, I would. But I'm with you on the Chiefs. The problem for me with the Chiefs, what makes me concerned about the Chiefs is they keep having the same issue,

you know, like you can, and, and it doesn't seem to go away. And to me, it's that explosive element. It's Tyreek Hill. And,

uh, back when Tyreek Hill was with the chiefs, like early in his career there, like I made it clear that I think he's the best receiver in football because he has the, he's possibly the quickest guy and the fastest guy in the league at the same time, which is an impossible combination that you never have.

And you would think, all right, he both can change directions on a dime and he can accelerate to a top speed that's world-class and no time flat. That's something that you don't find. That's a combination you don't find in many people. And then on top of it, he can track the ball and go and attack it in the air and catch as well as anybody else. I think all those things make for somebody who's incredibly dangerous and that makes

everything easier. Talk about taking pressure off. He's a guy that you can throw in that big playoff game. Patrick Mahomes threw him like a six yard like option route. He went to the crib like that's that's taking pressure off him. Also, he takes pressures off by attracting the defense because he's running those deep like horizontal go routes, which they normally run. And he takes all the attention and makes like life easier for everybody else. So I think not having Tyreek Hill there is putting a lot more pressure on Patrick Mahomes than he's used to. It's going to have to be perfect for longer. And he's one of the guys that's capable of doing it. I wouldn't be shocked if they won the Super Bowl this year. But I think if Kadarius Toney doesn't turn into some version

of Tyreek Hill, they're going to have to find somebody to fill that role. Because as good as his protection is, as good as Patrick Mahomes is, that's an element. Like a true, true number one game-breaking receiver is the most important thing after a quarterback to any offense in the league right now in my view. The lead-up, right? The lead-up to a game. You guys watch film.

They tell you what to do. You start to learn certainly your own divisions tendencies but how much does that come into play the preparation of like hey maybe game and score like this guy's a little bit different or this guy might not ever throw beyond the sticks or these are these are tendencies where especially as a defensive back maybe you're you're deciding all right you know i haven't seen it yet i I may jump something here, you know, like how does that work in your preparation for a game like that? Yeah. I think it depends a lot on who the player is and where you are in your career, but the coaches give examples. Sure. I mean, I think the, the best example, when we talk about film

study, I always end up back on Ed Reed because he's was the best added that I've been around. When I play with champ, it was difficult to like, try to learn from champ because he's was the best added that I've been around. When I play with Champ, it was difficult to like try to learn from Champ because he's one of those guys who's like, he's just better than everybody else. And he would study film and he would see stuff too. But like, I can't cover four things at once. You can't. But for Ed, he's a great athlete too. But you could learn from film study. The thing that Ed taught me about film study that was really impressive to me was the first time that he watched film like a quarterback.

It's the first time I'd been around a defender that watched film like a quarterback and, or like a coordinator. So like I'm watching film where I'm watching my receiver and I'm watching the offense and I'm like, all right, well in third down, they like to do this,

this, and this, he lines up like this when he's going to do that. Um, and I'm all focused on what they're to do this, this, and this. He lines up like this when he's going to do that. And I'm all focused on what they're doing. Whereas if you see a team that and I guess what I didn't take into consideration is they're doing the same thing to us.

And so if I watch us, I should be able to narrow down what they're going to do. So I come into a game, watch three weeks worth of film on a team. When they get in third and sixth, they like to go with like a smash concept. And then we go into the game and they run like mesh or shallow crosses. And I'm like, what the fuck? They haven't run this since week one. When actuality, they are watching film. They're like on third and short you guys like to play man you guys like to blitz so this is what we're going to do and so in playing with ed one thing that i noticed is that

he's aware of our disguises and when we ruin our disguises and that's like a big a a big uh play that lots of people like to talk about it is the interception that he got off of Peyton Manning and I was covering Reggie Wayne and he got the interception that was all from film study because they did a hurry up repeat play they just caught a comeback on me to Reggie Wayne they hurried up to the line to run the play again to force us to stay in the same coverage so edit told me the week prior like yeah that's what they're going to do. When that happens, I'm going to look at you. You sit on it and steal the comeback. I'm going to show away and come back and protect you over the top. And so what he was doing was like, Peyton knows what we're in.

He's going to force us to stay in it. Since he knows he's going to force us to stay in it, you sit on the comeback. When you sit on the comeback, they convert to a go. Peyton's going to check me at the beginning of the field, me being Ed. He's going to check me at the beginning of the play. So I'm going to take two steps. I squat on the comeback and Reggie converts to a go. And he puts it up there and Ed's already over there intercepting it. It was like the most rewarding, happiest I've been at a play because it just felt so smart. We did the same thing with, it wasn't even Ed this time,

it was Haruki Nakamura was the safety in Green Bay. And Haruki got a pick because we did a similar thing. Another example of Ed doing that is we're in cover two or this was actually before I got there. It was a play that he showed me. We're in cover two in the playoffs or they're in cover two in the playoffs against the Dolphins and the Dolphins go two by two quarterback under. They like to go on. I think might have been third and short. They want to go double slant on that if you're in cover two, because double slant, the inside, the hook curl defender, it has to be inside the number two. The cornerback has to be outside the number one. So there's a big hole in there for a slant. It's the easy play against cover two. Ed's a deep half player. He sees that. He sees that the

quarterback sees that they're showing cover cover two and he comes from the deep half and steals a slant and if you're watching that you're like this guy is a mad man he just does whatever the fuck he wants and gets plays but in actuality he's like all right two by two quarterback under quick game third and short we're they want to do a couple of things oh we're in cover two what's the best way to beat cover two if you got quarterback under two by two it's slant once he saw the three step he broke on the slant and it's like i forgot where this question started but the point is i think that that's the preparation the next step of preparation is not so much is once you understand what they want to do then you understand what you're doing. And then on the field, understand what you're showing because

the quarterbacks are making decisions right there pre-snap. It's very rare that, I can't speak for all quarterbacks, but it feels like their mind is made up, especially the best quarterbacks, their mind is made up before the snap. They do hard count, they do shifts and motions to figure out what coverage you're in. And they're like, all right, probability says I'm going to end up throwing to this guy. I might look over here first, but I'm going to be, I'm going to end up throwing to this guy and attacking this concept. And if you can find a way to, to understand it from their perspective, you're in a better position to start. It's a great answer. First of all, and it's a great explanation because, you know, again, just years of doing this and sit at home, sometimes I think, hey, maybe it isn't that complicated. Maybe it's like banking. They want me to think it's super

complicated. And then there are other times where I go, yeah, this probably is a little bit more complicated because, you know, you'll look at plays and you'll think about distance and then your alignment and it's like, well, you should do something you never do. It's like, okay, yeah, sure, we'll surprise them. But now I'm doing something that there's a really good chance somebody's going to be in the wrong place. It's not something that we've shown. So yeah, we may surprise them, but we may surprise ourselves. And that's why I like certain broadcasts. I like where there'll just be little simple reminders going, hey, this is your moneymaker on third down, short red zone situation. It's probably the tight end. Okay. One-on--one on this side they're probably going to throw it up to mike evans i actually thought

the brady game yesterday despite how grueling that was to watch because it was just so frustrating and there was only one other game on to go back and forth on i'm watching it going like i like that romo is explaining that brady's making some of these throws because he doesn't really have much of a choice. The throws aren't working out, but considering what's happening with the offensive line and what Aaron Donald is doing,

this is what the game has become now. And then he started saying, okay, now he's sort of figured out some other things. And I thought, you know, this is actually teaching us a lot here. Again, not that it was, you know, brain surgery and like that,

but there are throws, like everybody's playing the same position, but it's pretty clear, like the philosophy of these guys is very different. Like everybody, there's some guys that don't even see some of this stuff. You know what I mean? Or it's like, look, you don't have,

you don't have any other chance. So you have to do this thing, you know, has very little chance because the other thing has even less chance. So you have to do this thing you know has very little chance because the other thing has even less chance. And that goes back to the point about the greatest quarterbacks in the game right now came into good situations where there was not a ton of pressure on them. Some guys don't see that second-level stuff because they haven't had the time. Like, it's a simple game, but it's complex.

And the more that you can master these complexities, you need time to master those complexities. The more time you have to get there, then you might be able to see the game like Brady. Brady's a smart person, but he's not like a super genius. He's just been around it a long time. And Peyton Manning was kind of the best when it came to the smarts of the game. And back to your point about maybe you should do the same thing. I don't know if they had more than 10 plays in their whole playbook when Peyton was in the Indy. They just had a concept to beat every concept.

And then he would no huddle us and hard count and watch enough films so that he could find this is when I was in Denver and when I was in Baltimore. And he would try to figure out what coverage we were in out of all the 11 guys on the field he knew where everybody was supposed to be and somebody would start cheating to their location and then that would give him the information he needed to get into one of his simple ass plays that would be perfect to beat this coverage and that's like he was someone who grew up with a quarterback for a dad. So I suspect that

he was a little bit more advanced by the time he got to the league than most quarterbacks were. And he's an example of a quarterback that did not come into a great situation, but had success. And that's the aberration to me. Do you like Minnesota at all?

Does anyone? Kirk Cousins makes me smile. He's fun. Yeah, I don't know. The argument for Minnesota is the NFC. It's like the NFC is not great. And maybe Jalen Hurts forgets that he's playing like an MVP at some point. Because I do think that the Vikings can beat anybody. They have two really good pass rushers,

and they have amongst the best receivers and running back in the league. And Kirk Cousins is not great in primetime, but he's a comeback kid. He's a capable quarterback. They have a good offensive line. They have the things. They have a lot of the pieces that you need to have success. They just don't impress us ever. I don't see anybody getting excited for them,

but they mess around and back their way into the first round bye if something happens to the Eagles. And next thing you know, they're in the championship game and game and anything gonna happen yeah it's pretty crazy because usually there's there's somebody that decides at this point a team is seven and one and they start going like why not cousins is so unpopular yeah uh for his play style although the chain celebrations afterwards it seems like he's buying some, like there's some equity being bought back up by him. People are kind of enjoying it.

But I mean, it's pretty rare for a team to be 7-1 and nobody seems to like them. I can't even think of anybody. There's usually somebody who may not even believe it that goes, all right, week 10, I'm picking the Vikings. Maybe it'll happen. But this is a pretty long time. Yeah, sure. There's a lane there for somebody. it that goes all right you know week 10 i'm picking the vikings maybe it'll happen but this is this is a pretty long time yeah there's a lane there for somebody it ain't gonna be me

but uh the the kurt cousins thing i think goes back to the point we were talking about a little bit earlier is like the cycle of that we go through and the way that we feel about players is like kurt cousins gone through that cycle so many times but it feels like anytime we get high on Kirk Cousins things go wrong and also when you watch the games you recognize that the things that they ask him to do

are not super difficult but then he also like I feel like he has a great record in like trailing and fourth quarters and like comebacks and all that stuff I feel like that's a stat that pops upiling and fourth quarters and comebacks and all that stuff. I feel like that's a stat that pops up every now and then. So he's a hard guy to pin down. He's certainly above average based on the fact that he keeps getting re-signed and re-upped.

He's not a quarterback that you just want to let go, considering what happened with Washington since they let him go. And the way that Minnesota's been competitive this whole time. He's a good quarterback, but that's the, that's the thing that hangs over them. And his team is not as talented as their best teams, but it would have been nice if they could have put together one of their best teams with one of those like classic Zimmer defenses this season would be,

uh, it'd be in good shape considering what's happening in green Bay and the rest of the NFC. I watched a lot of college ball over the years, as you know. And there are a lot of college quarterbacks that I feel like the NFL, because I made this point. I go, college football guy watches the NFL. NFL, like prideful NFL guy, kind of goes out of his way

to suggest that he doesn't have time for this lesser product, which I think is just a really weird dynamic of like hard-o NFL dude. Like he doesn't want any coaches to ever work out from college. They don't like Herbstreet on the calls. You know, like there's this very protective NFL thing. It's like, I don't care if you're a flamed out coordinator seven places and you get a head coaching job. You just can't possibly be from the big 12 and coach on

sundays again the recent history tells you these guys are having a real hard time with it so nfl might be right about it sorry to cut you off but you hit you struck a nerve for me nfl like tattoo on his chest guy i hate him like just like it's just weird to be, I don't know, when people go to the internet and it's like, NFL is so much better than the NBA. This is a weird thing. NFL is so much better than college football. Like, are you getting checks? It just is a weird thing that happens across sports where people like identify with the league and the sport like they own it. And it's just weird.

And they get entrenched like no i don't want college guy to succeed in my league this is the men's league it's just weird i'm sorry tangent no do not be sorry because you couldn't agree more like nfl ratings victory lap guy on twitter like i don't like exactly where is your win no one no one is telling you that people don't watch it this isn't an argument that anybody was having. Everybody's conceded before it even started. So where's the pride? Do you put the phone down and go outside and look at your back porch and exhale

and be like, fucking awesome, another awesome fucking day. Thanks a lot for the Astros to not give us a game seven on Sunday because we would have got a us a game seven on Sunday. Cause we would have got a, a world series game seven on Sunday. We would have been inundated with NFL dominates MLB world series. We're the best. Yeah. It's like, man,

see 19 of the top 20 shows on TV with the NFL last year. It'd be a good fucking week, man. Cause I'll be like, what? No no one no one told you that wasn't anyway all right all right so all right go ahead uh moving on there have been a few quarterbacks that have come through like when kellen maughan was on the vikings i'm like dude i watched this guy at a&m the whole time i would be surprised uh now there's a few others i'm not going to sit here and just dump on a million quarterbacks.

The Colts decision with Ellinger, that one surprises me. It's been out now. I don't, you know, I mean, this is our first week. The Patriots are a weird team to try to figure out.

The offense is atrocious. Defense has been pretty good, except when they played the Bears. I don't know. I mean, it's one week. It's not fair. It's not fair to do any of this with any of these guys you know a couple weeks into their career but there are just some players that i know i've watched way more of than nfl hardo guy and he'll have like more of an

open mind because he hasn't seen what i thought was somewhat of a limited quarter like a lot of the quarterbacks who i thought were limited and i'm like i'm kind of shocked this guy's even getting reps and get a chance to be a starter and i I could end up being totally wrong, but that's where I'm at right now. Yeah, I think that their coaches most of the time know this, too. And at least in the Colt situation, it's out there pretty much that this was not the coach's like choice. This was kind of pushed on them by Ursa. And I think it's like this ain't working maybe we can catch magic in a bottle i think the ellinger's athleticism uh was the thing that was enticing but i don't think anybody who knows anything about football like thought that elegant

ellinger was better maybe they thought that they could have more success with Ellinger because he adds... I mean, he's not even like a super runner, but I guess he adds some dimension that Matt Ryan doesn't have. So I don't get it either. Can I ask you a college football question? Yeah. What's the next evolution for Alabama?

I spent last night thinking about this a little bit. It's like Alabama's gone up and up and had like a slight dip. And then the evolution from my perspective was they like accepted the modernization of offense and started to like do the things that other people are having success against them doing. I don't know what they can do now to compete, particularly with Georgia, because Georgia reminds me of like the old Miami teams, because they're super deep with talent.

And they're right on top of like an oil well of great talent and no one's going to want to leave Atlanta. and no one's going to want to leave Atlanta. And it's the same way with like when Miami was at their peak, it was like if they just recruited in a 20 mile radius, if they got all the good players, they were going to dominate. It feels like the same thing in Athens is like if they can just keep people there. And then coaching attrition is an issue for Alabama and will become an issue probably for Georgia. But they pay their their assistance enough that they may not may never want to leave either.

But I don't know. I guess the question started with like what happens. accept or to start to do that can like resubmit them, resubmit them as like a dominant power because it feels like it's over. Okay. It feels like it's over. I'm glad you went there because this would be a good place to finish. I'm going to have to see a team go like six and six, five and seven before I'm even engaging in any of this stuff. Because honestly, right now, I think it's kind of bullshit. I think it's a rush to be...

I mean, look, I love my guy Cowherd. When Malzahn beat him in the Iron Bowl, I think nine years ago. I forget which one it was because Auburn got him a couple times there. He did a whole segment that was like, it over for alabama and because auburn's modern like that was the whole concept order you know auburn they're like modern they're just you know he's like and then bama is like this and it's like auburn's like this bama's like this and you were just like hey can we go like the same thing with belichick? Can we have a season that's a disaster first? So when I look at Bama, who I don't think has had three losses in a season since 2010,

there's a lot of receiver talent there. They've shown it some weeks. Other weeks they haven't. It's all young. It's not developed. They've had some O-line issues at times. The Kirby Smart deal and having it happen in georgia but i mean shit there are jameson williams um injury from probably winning it again man so that's fair

you know they lost a lot they lost a close game at tennessee in a last second kick and they lost baton rouge on a saturday night for like the first time in 12 years at that place on a two-point conversion so I I'm not telling you there isn't some other like maybe it's coming I gotta see a little bit more evidence and I feel like there's a rush to be the first guy that says the Bama run is over when to me like they're seven and two that's fair and I like to think of myself as more reasonable than like rush to judgment guy but they kind of got their asses kicked by texas too in a game that they should have lost um if it weren't for their injury but i think the reason why i'm saying this is not just because they're losing

it's because the way their games look and by it being over for them it's like what their past has been maybe over i don't think that i'm not saying they'll never win a national another national championship or they'll never be in the sec title game again but it doesn't look like they're just better than everybody else and that's like been the hallmark to me for alabama football is like they have a roster that everyone's going to go play in the nfl and then you look across at the teams that they're playing against and they're playing against even the best team they play are playing against a bunch of NFL players and a couple of guys that are going to be selling insurance. And it it doesn't look like that anymore. And that's what I'm saying.

When I watch them play and maybe it's just a one year blip, it'll all come back. But I think more than anything, it's about what's happening in Georgia and that recruiting oil well that they're on top of. And that's what I guess that's honestly, it's less of a criticism of Alabama as much as it's just like I don't see a future where Alabama is like a perennial Final Four team in part because of what's happening in Georgia. I'm not there yet. I'm just not.

I mean, if you want to start telling me the recruitings are going to drop into the late teens, which isn't going to happen in Alabama. Like Alabama, Georgia can still get good players. I mean, Auburn's still a mess. So, yeah, I'm just not there yet. Maybe. I mean, maybe somebody else is right, but I've seen this routine before.

Bama has a bad... And look, is it that bad of a loss? Clearly, LSU has figured some things out. Okay? The Tennessee loss is disappointing, but that game was over within five minutes because they fucked up everything. To me, losing to LSU at their place on a Saturday night,

granted, being there, seeing it firsthand, you want to tell me that's an easy place to get a W against a talented team? It just isn't. So I would have to see a tight one with Vandy after a 7-5 season and fourth in the division before I'm going to entertain even having these conversations. But I think it's the game that we're all in

where it's like, it'd be a lot cooler if I said it before everybody else did. That's just what's going to happen. Well, you just entertained it. You said you're not going to, and we just spent a few minutes entertaining it. So yeah, I can do it with you. I like doing it with you.

But thanks, my man. We'll talk to you soon. All right, brother. You want details? Fine. All right, brother. I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Life advice is rr at gmail dot com. We have a quick follow-up, Kyle. Down at Baton Rouge, getting on a plane very shortly. By the time this comes out,

I'll be almost home. I'm looking forward to it. It was awesome, though. I've been coming to this game every year since 08. I missed one because of a Hartford flight situation, and then obviously COVID jammed me up too. The streak will not continue. I always

try to explain Louisiana this way. The people here are different in the best way possible. They just are. They want you to have the best time you can imagine. Everything is about you feeling like you're having the best time. And I brought two of my college roommates. I brought another buddy who's younger than me,

so I was not a roommate with him at any point. For two of them, it was their first ever college football game. And to be standing there on the sideline and, you know, LSU goes for two against Bama and pulls it off. And now it's, you know, we'll spend a lot of time. I'll do some college football stuff on Wednesday. I'm probably going to do the top 12 after the committee does there. So then I can compare what I'm doing and talk about some of the committee stuff. So it's not two separate segments. So instead of having that be Monday, I'm going to do that on Tuesday or on Wednesday's pod. And cause the committee rankings, what come out tonight or tomorrow, I forget. So anyway, yeah, I mean, it's, it's one of my favorite places ever and it's it never gets

old and uh they finally won this time because i've had plenty of fun times here and they still had lost and last night felt a little different so it's probably one of my you know the national championship is different and all this different stuff and you can give me shit and be like you need to fucking go there i'm like yeah okay cool i got it but i've been coming here for like 15 years and i have a lot of friends here that are all alums and involved in the program and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, whatever. I don't have a football team at my college.

I should be allowed to do this. Were you down there, like, down there on the field, like, in years previous when this whole two-point thing went down? Or were you at a safe? Because I would kind of wonder, you know. I was on the field. You were worried. Were you were you worried was like you saw the stand starting to migrate like oh it's weird no it's a weird feeling i hope this works out you just have like a last little prayer and just hope everything works out oh no doubt yeah no it gets a little weird man um because we were

like you saw people milling around to run onto the field because, you know, they lined up to go for two, and then there was a timeout. Yeah, because it's like, oh, we can know this right now. Right, like, this might be over. And, of course, like, when they went up the first time, and then Bryce Young went right down the field, and it looked like, you know, it looked like lsu had him and the whole time

i'm like whatever bryce is gonna like do something else here that's magical he's just so special he's just so good he's so good at it's staying cool he's so good at in the pocket like again i'm watching from the field so i'm curious what it all looks like on tv but i think perkins had him perkins is number 40 that freshman who they got from Texas. He's unbelievable. I cannot believe this kid, man. I mean, he's just out there beasting people, and he's beasting people that are bigger than him. They tried to set the edge on him with the huge left tackle, and they couldn't get him.

They couldn't shut down the edge, and Gibbs had to run it inside. They made the tackle on the inside. All the shit that he does, it doesn't even lead to stats. Perkins, man, the number 40 is something else. I can't believe he's a freshman. So anyway, the point is, is that Bryce Young having some miraculous play and it all working out towards the end. I was like, okay, well, this isn't shocking.

But then you go to overtime, they get in, and then LSU comes out for two. So everybody was lining up in the alleyways, the tunnels, you know, the four tunnels of a stadium like this. To just shoot out. To just shoot out. Right. But the cops were, like, sitting there going, no, it's not happening.

I mean, people were kind of like, yeah, it probably is happening. So I don't know which. And so we were so close to it that they get the two, they win the game. And, you know, again, I feel a little bit like a loser being older and going like, Oh, like, yeah, they did it. Yay. You know, um, but I was pumped.

You're in it. You're caught up in it. You've been standing there for three and a half hours. You're just been high-fiving your buddies. And, you know, I was in another section of the stadium at one point with, with a bunch of, you know, lifelong fans and all that kind of stuff. And so you, it's fun to kind of be a part of it. You know, I feel like you're jumping into this community.

Hell, I, you know, in a weird way, I feel like I owe them hell of a lot more than, uh, you know, I, I owe them a lot more than they owe me. That's for sure. Uh, for letting me, you know, kind of hop long and bandwagon it up now for, I don't know, 10 plus years. But the point is, uh as we turn i was like well let's get a picture you know the four of us we take a picture of ourselves and as that's happening it's just a sea of thousands of people streaming straight at you crazy and because you're the only ones that aren't running into the center yeah you're like what was it like i i jumped up and high-fived my buddy but like i

wasn't gonna like run to the eye of the tiger and like do the do the russell wilson jesus spin you know arms out guys love that arms out thing right now big big on that one having a moment yeah it is having a moment titus and tate from my days doing that where we're always like you know what i hate i hate when you know because i guess there was some sort of storming the court is bad for the game and people get hurt and it's dangerous and they were like dude storming the court man don't be a weirdo i would i would consider storming the field probably a scarier thing to be a part of that's all well here's what sucks though here's It sucks for the opposing players. It is dangerous. There's an area where they were trying to rope the coaches off from Bama,

and then these LSU guys are giving them shit. Same way it would have been reversed the other way around. So nobody's better than anybody else. Nobody's worse. It's just the reality of guys drinking and saying fuck you to an Alabama coach and an Alabama coach who, by the the way the one guy that we saw the video of because one of my friends ended up being in the TikTok of it after the fact this Bama coach was enormous he was just he was one of those big guys you're just like I don't think we're giving

him enough credit for not realizing like how absurdly big this guy's frame is that his shoulders start above everybody's head right and of course he didn't want to take any shit from anybody and so he just told the guy off and then the guy was come on come on the cops just like what are you doing what are you doing like you won the game be happy but again i mean you know this the the mystery is solved once anybody starts being like well how much do you drink so uh it's it's kind of dangerous and then we were trying to get out of there like we wanted to get out of there and then trying to cut through like around the sides. It's just not happening. It was tough.

And then we couldn't get out of the tunnel because the tunnel was just a, a sea, like trying to swim upstream. It wasn't going to happen. So we jumped over the fence and then walked up a couple of rows and then went out through like one of the concourse areas that way and then back down. Um, but it's like people are falling down and stuff i mean it's it's a bit of a free for all but at the same time too like you're gonna say hey you can't do this anymore and by the way the storming the field storming the court like you just have to be completely desensitized to it now kids just want to have a good time yeah they just want to be a part of something and that's

what's happening not like this is the first generation of young people that wanted to have a good time yeah they just want to be a part of something and that's what's happening not like this is the first generation of young people that wanted to have a good time but i don't i'm not going to be judgmental about it ever you know clemson storming it against q's like they got all sorts of shit but i think they do it after every win so like yeah you can make fun of them for that and there's plenty of ones are like what are you like it's supposed to be this sacred thing it's not sacred anymore right yeah just you get over it you know what I mean like it's not that big of a deal even though they were basically

two to two touchdown dogs to Bama which you know a lot of us thought was a huge number so I think the greatest thing is I mean you're besides just being being in shape and get basketball and you're ready to jump a fence whenever you need to. So I think that's just another reason for everybody to just stay in shape because you never know when you need to jump a fence

to just make your life a whole lot easier. So I think that's great. You guys all did it? Did anybody have trouble jumping the fence? Or was everyone pretty? Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call this Bo Jackson-level athleticism. And honestly, like like there's certain things now where i'm like i'm about to rip my groin apart here when i do it this way or what's going on well

it would just suck if there was one guy who was stuck on the other side of the fence and it's like damn wish you wish you did more pull-ups because now we're all on the other side of this fence and you just can't get it together so i'm glad i'm glad everyone in the group made it that's good that's good news there you go yeah yeah no it wasn't it wasn't like really really uh like cool you know what i mean it wasn't it wasn't something like man look how athletic that guy is that guy's great but there were people falling down all over the place so i was i was like all right at least I'm not in that group. Okay, let's get to some life advice.

This one came in right off the top. I'm going to address it. Hey, guys, just emailing to let you know, Ryan being a stand-up-on-the-plane-lands guy is utterly shocking. My friends and I discussed this at length. Still in disbelief, that is all. I was a little shocked, too. So you stay when the plane lands at no point, you stay in the seat

until it's your time to go. I stay in the seat until about it's time to go. And yeah, yeah, I do. I'll. I just, I was, it's sort of an exercise in discipline. And I'd like to say, you know, if that's one of the things I can actually do, I'll just, I'll sit until it's about time

and then I'll get up. And if somebody is like trying to inch forward I can actually do, I'll just, I'll sit until it's about time and then I'll get up. Um, and if somebody is like trying to inch forward when they're there, I'm just like, actually, this is where I'm going to stand when I stand up. So you, you stay right there. You'll tell the person don't inch forward. Basically with, you know, with motions or eyes or, you know, whatever. My legs usually hurt after like three or four hours. So of course they do. I want to get up and stretch my legs so I can sit three or four hours so of course they do i want to get up and

stretch my legs so i can sit in pain man yeah right like do you prefer me be in pain to live by your made-up fucking rules emailer and your buddies is that what you want from your guy that was that's what you really want maybe you should start talking about what you guys prioritize all right i feel like it's a step above clapping that's all you think it's a step above clapping yeah like it's not it's not even close it's not as bad as clapping it's what i mean to say it's definitely not as bad as it's not even the same category hey hey i don't want to argue with you man you just had a great weekend i I'm just saying how I approach flights. I try to be like, I'm not going to stand up like everybody else. I'm going to be different.

I'm going to go my own way. It's all right. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. All right. Okay. Sorry. No, it's all right. I just think to say it's not as bad as clapping. It's like, wait, what? Like you think this is, you know, Hey, I'll stand on it. I don't know. To me, that's like how, you know, how, how should I handle the one penny,

take a penny, leave a penny thing versus I steal money from my roommates. All right. Well, I think that's probably a wider gap than what we're talking about here, but I don't, I think it's great. I think the gap is so wide between wanting to stretch your legs versus clapping when the fucking plane lands. Like, you know, you've got your Cedar Rapids hat on. You're like, this is fun. there's a specific reference there don't take offense cedar rapids all right here we go hey ryan kyle and saruti congrats to the kids saruti and silence to you ryan okay let's start at the top i work as an overnight stalker at a very well-known grocery store. I've worked here for about a year now, worked with my now roommates. About in April, me and these roommates, let's call them George and Jamal, started renting out a three-bedroom house. We pay about $1,500 a month for this small frat house, as we call it. Yeah, cool. getting the house lost their jobs here due to not showing up.

This, of course, ticked me off, but I kept steering the course. They eventually found a new job together for a few months. The summer was all going well again until they were fired due to not showing up in September. You live with two guys, you just... Ever since

then, there's been no job in sight for both guys. Jamal, since losing his previous job, has started working as a door dasher every weekend to keep gaining cash for George. All it seems he wants to do is yell at 2K and talk about how he won 200 on a sports bet that one time. It's been me paying the majority of the rent in these bills the past two months, and I'm just tired of it. Every time we sit around and discuss the job hunt, they always have the same excuse that nothing is good enough or nothing is hiring. Where my response every time is, well, you don't show up, good jobs don't want to take a chance with you. Well, when you don't show up, good jobs don't want to take a chance with you. Okay, that's a fair point, but there's zero chance that any of the new places

these guys are applying would know these guys stop showing up unless they're dumb enough to leave them as possible recommendations, references. I remember one time, one of the bars I worked, we were just sitting around doing inventory during the day and some kid who had graduated school left the bar as a reference

and the owner answered the phone. They were like, hi, is this, you know, whatever, this is Fidelity, let's say. I'm calling on behalf of checking a reference. He's like, yeah, you used to steal from us and we fired him worst kid we ever had i was like man you uh you did not want that kid to get that job and he was like i hated that kid i hate it i was like all right yeah no i mean that's fair he's dumb enough to fucking put it

down i was like so he actually got fired for stealing and put you down on his resume. He's like, yep. Okay. All right. Good stuff. Smart. Okay. So back to this. Every time we talk this out, it always ends in a huge blow up.

And this latest time, about a week ago, I applied to a sandwich place down the street just to prove a point. I actually got an interview the same day. This is a good email. Enough rambling now. but my question is how the fuck do i get them to get a job we're scrapping or scraping by these past two months to make up cash for these bills and rent universal appliances have been sold just to make it on time damn uh i'm talking nice living room tv and a coffee machine jesus christ the coffee machine yeah no fuck pawn shop's gonna take you guys a bunch of junkies like hey man what can i get for this toaster like why like

need to keep the water on oh all right that's cool as long as you're being safe you say so this isn't gonna have a good ending i don't have a way to fix it i can't tell you anything other than i've been through this i've done it and when there's the guys that know that the other guys are gonna pay guess what the other guys do? They don't do shit until they have that option no longer. So get rid of him, get rid of him as a roommate, move on, do something else. Because even though you could say, well, it sucks. I don't want to have to get any roommates or I get along with these guys or whatever. Uh, it sounds like this guy in particular, the one guy is going to continue to take advantage of you. And like,

he thinks these things, he's too good for these things where at a lot of stages and almost for all of us i would say you know this is almost as universal as it gets but early on there's actually a lot of places that are not beneath us right we have in our head that it's beneath us and you want a cooler job you don't want to stock groceries overnight or you don't want to do any of these things but like you know it actually kind of blows my mind like why would you even bother applying to some of these places in the first place if you thought 30 days 60 days in you're like all right i'm just gonna not show up and then get fired and be okay with it so you're to keep covering for these guys for as long as you put up with it. And we had one roommate, I remember one time years and years ago, it was the last time I've ever had roommates. So it's like, I don't know, 19, 20 years ago. And, you know, I was piecing it together with some construction stuff, but it wasn't really helping. And then there was one guy that was bartending that was kind of covering for everybody else. There was another guy who was doing construction and then he got fired. And there's another guy that had like money saved that he wasn't really doing

anything. So it was a real, this was not, uh, you know, this was not the most talented group of individuals you're ever going to run across. All right.

And then there was another guy that was kind of like float around, but guys were like broke. Guys are getting like really broke, like going up to McDonald's drive-thru and like doing it like without a car. You know what I mean? Why? Because it was open late. That's why it wasn't open earlier. And it was always a little weird too.

And so one guy got so mad at the other guy. He was like, you're this week. He's like, you have to like go apply to five places and you have to tell me how it went. And that's weird. Like your roommates, it's not your dad, right? So you don't want to be a dad to these fucking guys. They're not going to listen to you and they're going to get mad at you. They're not going to ever at any point go, you know what? This guy, meaning the emailer is making, is making some really great points. He's making some real, I need to lower my standards. I need to get out there.

I need to start... So you spending your time blocking down the sandwich place interview to prove a point, you're right. It didn't prove shit to those guys because they don't want to do any of this stuff.

They're not going to do any of it. They're just not going to. So the quicker you accept that and get out of there and stop covering these guys, the better off you'll be because you're just going to lose money and get more aggravated. There's no fix for guys that don't give a shit

yeah i think i think you're kevin durant and i think this is ben simmons and kairi and if your credit score is a finals i think this is probably just not going to work out i just think it's going to be really hard with the team you've built to get anything you want. So yeah, I don't know if you're month to month. I don't, maybe you said what kind of lease you have, but if you're in the beginning of a 12 months lease, I think this is not even close to all the shit that's going to come up. That's going to bother you. It's just, you could just tell from the beginning how this is going to go. And when I was kicked out of school and I had my year off, I moved into an apartment with my friend. And it was just, I just picked the wrong guy and it was painfully obvious.

And he was like, had a job. He actually got me the job. Then he just kind of stopped caring about it. He would like, he would not go. He'd lie about, he'd lie to me and told me he had a job at Home Depot. And like, he just brought home like one of those aprons that they give you at Home Depot. And I believed him for like two months that he was also working at Home Depot, but he wasn't going to the regular job. He wasn't going to his fake job.

And it was just, thank God that we, we had like two separate leases for the same apartment, which, you know, not always the case. So, and it was so bad that the landlord begs me, I think we moved in, in, uh, September. And I think the landlord by May was like, do you want me to let you out of this lease? I was like, yeah. So he, like, he was just so happy that we weren't even, we didn't have to be on the books any longer.

So, which, you know, you never get let out of a lease. So I really hope that you're not going to be on the hook. This isn't going to work. I can promise you it's not going to work. And I hope that you can get out. I hope you didn't sign a long-term lease. That's all I mean. Yeah, well, I don't know. It doesn't sound like these guys are super buttoned up

on any of that stuff. So anyway. If this is early on, I just mean, I think there's going to be way more problems. And I hope this, I hope you didn't sign a 12 month lease, which I may feel like everybody does. So good luck, man. That's all. Well, there you go.

Yeah. Not much more to add on that one. Well said Kyle. The Kyrie Durant thing was good. Very good. Okay. Try an international one. 183 centimeters, 70 kilos. Live in Seoul. I own my own business. slow. I think I will be able to retire in three and a half years at 48 years old. The problem is I don't like my job. The thought of doing this another three and a half years is soul crushing.

Pun. What would you do? Suck it up for the next three and a half years or quit now and move in another direction which would remove any chance of early retirement? Three and a half years is not a long time. You seriously going to be retired at 48? How did you do it this long? Like, what did you do?

How did you, like, I need more information. Not that we need to, you know, become buddies and keep in contact here. It's rather vague. It's limited on details, but being provided what I'm being provided here on just simple math alone i mean how many years have you probably what put in 20 something years of this already or something or you know i don't know unless did you just start the business and it did so well

that you can retire based on this in three and a half years do you know that it's going to be three and a half years i mean what if there's an economic downturn? Is your sector immune from it? Whatever. It sounds like you didn't get crushed during the pandemic, as you mentioned. 14-hour days is brutal. 14-hour days, brutal. March to November. He's saying in the winter, he has more free time. He's got an American name, too. He's living over there. So I don't know if that factors into it at all. That one's really tough, but I would be able to, I personally would just say, hey, I'm making sure that I'm going to be able to retire at 48 and you're never going to have to worry about this shit again. If I'm led to believe everything that you've written in the email. Kyle? Yeah, I think I would, I'm with you. I'd say grind for three years. And then, I mean, it's hard to retire.

If you're telling me that you can nail this at 48, I mean, you're like one of the few, the proud. I would totally, I would totally do that. And also, you know, once you, I think, fixate on something, doesn't have to be this exact thing. Sometimes the time in between just seems impossible. You know, like once you decide that you like want to make a change in your life and this would be retiring, right?

And doing something else, like it seems like, well, fucking three years seems impossible now, even though you've, you know, you've been doing this for however many years already. So I think it's just a matter of perspective. Just try to change your perspective because in the, in the grand scheme of things, I think this is the right move that we're telling you, but I could see how it seems like for sometimes a month could seem like forever, you know, shout out to sober October, but it's just like, sometimes, sometimes it's actually not like if you zoom out, it's not as bad as it actually seems, especially if you can retire. Cause there's people out there that are, you know, 65 and they're like, fuck, I guess maybe now I can retire hopefully. And if you're like,

if I just stick with this another three years i'll probably be okay you know yeah i mean look you're only like anything you're seeing it through your perspective but if you i mean are you supposed to suck it up and have no life could you do damage to your psyche you know by sucking this up for another three and a half years and that even though you retire you're kind of fucking weird after the fact, because you just feel like you've not been happy for that much longer. And that's kind of a dangerous game to just allow yourself to be bummed out for that much longer.

So that's something to think about there. But every single person listening to this would probably go, I will switch. I'll do that. Like, let me, maybe not every single person, you know what I mean?

But a majority, a majority of people would be like, I'll, I'll gladly do that. I would do that and be retired at 48 only if, but we don't know what he's doing like we don't know like what's up with these 14 hour days because it's got to be some computer-based thing i'd imagine right no well actually that doesn't make any sense because if he's saying the winners are slower then then i don't know what it is. Is he a lifeguard? Probably not.

Right. You didn't know that? International lifeguard. You can retire by 50 if you're a lifeguard in Seoul. Does well. Does really well. Yeah. Yeah.

I would have liked a little bit more info. Just at least maybe the industry that he's in. Right. I shouldn't say sector. I remember. Okay. I shouldn't, I shouldn't say sector. Uh, I, uh, I, I remember, okay. I also remember this, like, I remember

there was a guy that was older than me and he was graduating and, you know, there'd be some guys like the older guys liked me for whatever reason. And I was picking all of their brains. Like I was trying to figure out, like, I always knew what I didn't want to do. I had very little idea what I wanted to do. I mean, I had some ideas had some ideas like hey that would be cool or maybe i'll do this or whatever i think at one point i actually wanted to work at a horse farm like where they breed or bred horses that's gonna become like a horse guy and bring my yeah then i bring my buddies down because i just thought like horse racing and gambling was cool. And I'd be like, I'd like to,

I'd like to just be in that world, even though I have zero connection to it whatsoever. And like just move to Kentucky. And then I think maybe the thing I really wanted to do was fly my buddies down to a race. And be like, yeah, oh yeah, we're still as a horse guy now. Yeah, that's cool.

Honestly, that makes no sense at all. Saying it out loud, I almost am going to ask Kyle to edit it, but we're going gonna leave it in there as a punishment because it doesn't make any fucking sense zero none no farm life experience nothing like you just i don't know i guess you just see people like the breeders cup and jackets and be like yeah i could do that would you yeah what skill would you bring you'd show up to the farm the first day you'd be like hey like all right cool i'd be like yeah i'm gonna be a horse guy I'm scooping shit now for a couple of years, but we'll get there. Okay. So bad story, bad plan on top of it all. One guy in particular was taking over a

family business. And I remember him saying like, yeah, moving here. And I was like, Oh my God. And then he's like, we're going to, I'm going to do this. And he goes, and I'm going to retire by 50. And I'm'm like this guy already has like the next 28 years mapped out 28 29 years mapped out like he's just going to work this family business as hard as he possibly can put enough money aside and then keep the business going to a level that's sustainable that he can sell it and that'll be his retirement like that'll be it and i remember like being bummed out for him i'm like three decades like this is it that's all you're gonna do anything that's good right you're not

gonna like deviate from this plan at all you're not gonna maybe try to franchise it out you're not gonna you know and it was like no i'm going to take this thing over, I'm going to grind, and then I'm going to be retired by 50. Done and done. I have no idea if he retired or not, but it seemed pretty lofty at 22 to be saying that kind of stuff. That sounds like something a 22-year-old would say too. Yeah, right, right. Like, hey, man, that guy's got a real good plan. Yeah, 50 is going to be great, man. And I think he did do it for a long time too, but again, he would be over 50 now. So maybe I should check in and say, hey, did you end up retiring? I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't. you're sacrificing for what the reward would be by 48 years old to truly have no commitment to having to work, having enough money to go ahead and like actually be safe and know you're cool.

Like that's, I don't care who you are. We're all, we all still kind of worry about it deep down. Like, have I put enough aside or my investment sound? Um, you know, am I going to actually be able to live in a nice place? Like if I live in you know, am I going to actually be able to live in a nice place? Like if I live in a nice place now, we'll actually be able to afford to live in this when I'm older. If you're telling me like, you're not gonna have to worry about any of that shit, man, that's a pretty awesome thing. And maybe three and a half years isn't the ultimate price. Okay. That'll do it for us. Thanks to Kyle. Uh, and again, big thanks to everyone down about for another legendary weekend.

Can't thank you guys enough. You know who you are. So, thanks to everybody. So, we'll be doing it in Tuscaloosa again next year. That's Ryan Russo of the podcast. We're on your Spotify. Talk to you Wednesday. Outro Music you