The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Harden Gets His Way Again, Clippers Fan Marcellus Wiley Weighs In, and Damien Woody on Some Big NFL Trades

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

The James Harden–Sixers saga resulted in him getting his way again and being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. Ryen discusses why the league should have less of what Harden just did (01:22). Clippers fan Marcellus Wiley joins Ryen to discuss the trade and how the Chargers are basically on the road every game (26:41). Damien Woody also stops by and gives some insight on the Chase Young and Montez Sweat trades and whether the Cowboys are a legitimate Super Bowl contender (44:34). Plus, Ryen, Ceruti, and Kyle give life advice to a guy who pissed his pants in front of a girl he likes (1:14:09). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Marcellus Wiley and Damien Woody Producers: Cliff Augustin, Steve Ceruti and Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's podcast uh we're going to talk about the hardened trade finally how it's kind of a win for everyone and also maybe not i want to talk about a bunch of younger guys and one substitution pattern that was very telling. We're going to have Damian Woody on football. We're going to have Marcellus Wiley on the Clippers trade. We've got life advice, one that's pretty aggressive. And I also want to remind you that coming up very shortly, Wednesday, November 15th, I'm going to be at Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club with Kyle Cerruti before

the F1 race that weekend. So I'm going to the F1 race, but we're going to do a live show. We want to do the whole thing, big F1 guys. And Kyle has a solid he's going to give you a solid six to open the show up. The doors open at 8. The show starts at 9. Head to JimmyKimmelsComedyClub.com to grab

your tickets now. Again, Wednesday, November 15th in Vegas, JimmyKimmelsComedyClub.com for grab your tickets now. Again, Wednesday, November 15th in Vegas, JimmyKimmelsComedyClub.com for tickets. If you live there or in town for the race, come on down and hang out. 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.

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You want to hear me talk about James Harden being traded after another trade request and getting his way. He's on the Clippers. He's no longer the Sixers problem. But despite what you may think, and some of you are listening because you like me and you're like, oh, we're still going to talk about Harden again. And some of you may hate me. You're like, I want to hear what that dick is going to say about Harden. I know he's fat. It wasn't the cashmere. But this is a hard topic for me because believe it or not, I get emotional about

Harden because I think we have some similarities. We both love basketball. I would say I had more of a sneaker passion when I was super bored in Connecticut. I was like, I just ordered these. My mortgage is pretty low. He likes sneakers um both not married both not afraid maybe in a

night out with the boys the rare time happens with me i think he probably goes out a little bit more than i do and somebody's like do we make one more stop do we add a destination Do we add a destination? Destination America? It's America, right? We can stop. We can stop. Make one more stop, right?

I don't have anybody to go home to to yell at me coming in late. You may forget this. This was my coach. This guy was my coach in Houston. I went to him and said, hey, I got to go back in the game. We want to talk players only. And sometimes I wonder if that's why Harden is the way he is. He was so players friendly to me, players first.

As a players coach, I went right up to him and said, I got to go back in. He didn't even say anything, so I just checked myself in. He didn't object to it. He just let me do it. I think he was looking at people in the crowd anyway. So yeah, it's hard for me. As far as what this means, there's a win here for Philadelphia because it's over.

I'm a little surprised that Daryl didn't add anything. Daryl Morey, the GM of the Sixers. Yeah, and that's another thing that we have in common. Harden and I both don't like Daryl morey so that would just add it to the list but knowing the scouting report on morey usually i think he would wait until he feels like he can't wait any longer and maybe other people in philadelphia maybe m was like, let's turn the page on this thing. Maybe it was ownership. Who knows? But they didn't add one piece that actually really helps their rotation now. Now, we can get an argument about Covington and Batum and the potential rotational players, but there wasn't anything that he actually got where you're like, ooh, that's a nice

little piece. And that's because nobody wanted Hart. There really wasn't much of a market for him. The fact that he's traded for four expiring contracts, again, I don't want to debate the plus minus forp and all the value of some of these bit pieces that the Clippers sent over as salary filler to make this deal happen, but they get the worst, Philadelphia does, of a 2026 first that's the worst of either Oklahoma City, the Clippers, or a Houston protected pick.

Oklahoma City actually got back into this deal by maybe removing a first or a potential swap, the upside of a swap later on. You could talk about the Thunder and say, well, the way they're built, they're probably not going to be getting a better swap. Who knows? A 2020 unprotected first, a second rounder in 24 that could be one of four teams, second rounder, a 29 second rounder, then a 29 first pick swap. So maybe it's one first, maybe it's two, maybe it's three, the second rounders, whatever, who knows. nothing that's in that that you go wait philadelphia in theory a title contender even though i think we'd all agree there feels like there's a significant gap between milwaukee boston and then philly maybe being in that third spot but if you're worried about imbeed and it's like okay well you moved out somebody who's a marginal all-star in Harden. And there's nothing coming back this year that feels like it's a solution to where some of those minutes and shots and playmaker are going to go,

although Maxie's been incredible. So you see kind of the initial point. But on the other side of this, I almost feel like the Clippers did him a favor because where else was Harden going? Who else was trading for Harden knowing that he didn't want to be there and that this is a dude who does not care? This is the fourth trade request of his career. The first one, totally side with Harden. Oklahoma City screwed it up. They traded him a year before they needed to. They didn't really get a lot back. They were cheap about it. They should have understood. And I know the ownership dynamic there was super complicated for a bunch of different reasons, but it's a team that should have done a better job understanding the influx of revenue with the new TV deal and realizing that another $15 million for the total contract of Harden at that time is not going to be the most

egregious thing ever. They banked on Westbrook, Durant, and Ibaka. In today's version of basketball, Ibaka would have been the guy that was out. That trade request made a ton of sense to me. The one with Houston, it was gross. It was ridiculous. The one with the Nets was even more screwed up, even if I could kind of side with Harden a little bit because he just wasn't into the whole Kyrie thing. And then the Philly one, I've allowed myself an open-minded, some path of sympathy because I still think there's some pieces that we don't really know what was understood or what was said and why he took the discount last year although he wanted credit for taking that discount where he basically at one point was like i don't think i'm getting enough credit for this discount that i'm taking

it's like okay but then you opted in when you wanted to be out of there anyway so the collective of it i have no sympathy but the individual times i'd be like okay i can kind of see what he's going with there but the thing that's always bothered me which is i think bleeds into who he is as a playoff player is that if you're okay when you're one of the best in the world at what you do but you're okay putting on that on display in a much lesser version and playing bad on purpose to get your way then i'm just never going to with you you know you're just not a foxhole guy and i wonder if that's part of the wiring for him while some of those big playoff moments you're like oh he's not into this today despite the fact that his talent allows him to have these high ceiling games that are absurd. He had two

amazing games against the Celtics. But at the start of game seven, I was like, oh, OK, he's not into this. And that's that's really scary. I'll never understand. I'd never understand. You're so good at this. You're capable of doing these things. But then you just decide that you don't want to do them. So he gets his way again. The basketball part of this. You're capable of doing these things, but then you just decide that you don't want to do them. So he gets his way again. The basketball part of this, because like I said, to grade the trade out and be like, oh, that was great. They got these picks. Well, not really, but it's also great they got these picks because I don't know where else he was going to go. The Clippers part of it, if you look at some of the Clippers stuff here from the last couple years. The Clippers offense last year was 17th in passes per game. They were 22nd in offensive movement through the NBA tracking stuff.

Kawhi is, although not reliable, still incredible with the ball in his hands. Paul George is a guy that needs the ball in his hands. When Paul George was still with the Pacers and he was being offered to basically every team that had another guy that the Pacers were trying to get back and that trade didn't happen with a bunch of the other teams because teams were like, well, look, even if this guy, even if Paul George is better than the player that the Pacers are asking for, I have to worry about the Paul George long-term part of this. There are other teams that were like, if we get Paul George, it will change who we are offensively, even if we'd agree that Paul George is better than the player that the Pacers are asking for. So now you're taking Harden,

who went to a playmaking role with Philadelphia, where apparently he didn't really like it as much as he played along. I mean, rumblings that he'd like to get back to Houston Harden. Wouldn't we all love to get back to who we were five to seven years ago? But Harden is somebody that is going

to have the ball in his hands the entire time. So now what does that mean for the Clippers when you're going to be taking the ball away from Kawhi and Paul George in bigger moments? There's also another number here that I think is important that George and Kawhi combined had the ball on 51% of the possessions in games that they played last year. If you go back to last year, Harden was number two in the NBA of actual full time of possession. The time he actually had the ball in his hands was just over eight minutes was number two behind only Luka Doncic which is his own topic so you put it all together and you're like okay so who is Harden going to be he's going to be dribbling the air out of the ball waiting until the very end to make the shot pass decision and look he's a terrific passer I've always said that about him

but there's also a gimmicky element to it where he's going to wait it out, wait out the possession, waiting for the opportunity to get that assist. So that means a lot of people are going to be watching. At least he was passing it to Embiid in Houston. It just meant you were going to watch until he decided to either drive, get the call, give the lob to Clint, say, or the step back three that he was hitting at a higher rate back then. So the basketball part of it, I don't quite understand because it's a lot of overlap. Now, here's what I do understand. This is a rule we should all remind ourselves in the NBA. Every time a deal like this is done, front offices, ownership can never help themselves from turning down a transaction that raises their baseline talent level. Whenever I first started talking to guys

about like, hey, how do you build a team? How do you do this? Going to these camps 20 years ago, just really fascinated that there was this world that exists that I didn't understand. I wanted to see what you guys saw. And the constant was, hey, it's talent. It's about talent. It's about talent. Things break down. Is this person talented enough to figure it out? This isn't new. You already understand this, but I'm just repeating it again. But I also think it's part of the reason why the Clippers go, okay, maybe it doesn't fit. We know Harden's situation, but considering Paul George and Kawhi missed so many games, maybe this helps them throughout the regular season. Maybe there's a version where, what if they're all healthy? What if they're all healthy in the playoffs? Okay, what if they are all healthy in the playoffs? What is Harden like off the ball? Because you don't want to take that mid-drive jump or pull up away from Kawhi. Is Paul George going to be stuck in the corner? And then what's it going to be like when Harden, is he going to be motivated as a free agent or is he going to be upset that his extension isn't already done? So I think that's probably what the Clippers felt like, hey, we're just better.

We're better today than we were yesterday. And that's the job, even if these guys are going to have to figure it out, because I do think they're all smart basketball players. Now, as far as the Kawhi part of it, like I still remember the two games against Phoenix. I think you probably do, too. You're like, man, does he have it again? Are the Clippers going to beat this Suns team that just got Durant? The problem is those two games, by the time next year's playoff starts, those will be the only two playoff games that Kawhi's played in in two years.

I think Paul George finally turned a corner with some of his playoff stuff, which was real and disappointing. In 21, with the series against Dallas, especially against Utah, with them taking out the Jazz, Phoenix series was pretty good. I know game six wasn't very good, but those are the last playoff games that Paul George played in back in 21. And then you have the Westbrook part of it, which is even sillier for getting like, wait, didn't you guys already break up and now you're back together? It's going to suck for Westbrook unless he goes all second unit. And look, he's played pretty well here. I thought the last second shot attempt thing was totally unfair against Westbrook. And that's coming from somebody like me that doesn't really like it. I know that I almost sometimes feel like I have personal resentment for how we felt about the Westbrook year of the MVP and the triple-double and the Harden numbers that were off the charts. And General Morey actually sitting down in front of people and saying out loud we've learned that a lot of those big numbers were really more misleading numbers.

You still had to be Hall of Fame talent level to even pull off what some of these players have done. And look, there's players that aren't even close to being in the Harden class that'll put up some big numbers in a season. I'm like, does that really mean anything? But in this case for Harden, it meant something because he wins an MVP. I think he was top five, like three or four other times. You felt like Houston was the only team really going for Golden State, actually taking a chance at the team that seemed impossible to beat. So I admire them and give them credit for that part of it. But I know people think that it's something else and and it's just, hey, man, it's pretty simple for me. The league should have less of this. I don't want more of this,

and I don't know how anybody could see Harden get his way a third time in a very short amount of time and be like, that's a guy I want to root for, despite our similarities. Jump into the NBA action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook right now. New customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. Plus, all customers get three months of NBA League Pass

courtesy of FanDuel when they place a $5 bet on the NBA. All right, I've got a couple $5 ones for you. I like Brooklyn plus 5.5. And look, the Denver-Minnesota one is so weird. And by the time I tape these, and then when they're released, and then when the game tips, I'm always a little nervous. Denver's only minus 2.5 at Minnesota. Minnesota is just not really playing well right now. There's some minus two and a half at Minnesota. Minnesota is just not really playing well right now. There's some teams I worry about, other teams that I don't,

but Minnesota hasn't looked great. That number is so bad, I don't even think I'm going to touch it. I can understand why you would want to, but when I saw it, I was like, I'll give that one out. I was like, I don't know. I was like, I like that um that denver's only minus two and a half at minnesota and it's not like they're coming off a back-to-back in this case either so let's go uh brooklyn plus the five and a half everybody's in pretty good shape here with the scheduled only three games last night and uh you know maybe a little taste on on um the charlotte horns plus two and a half at houston on the Charlotte Horns plus 2.5 at Houston. So that's how I'm feeling today. Okay, so those are my picks.

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NBA League Pass. Local blackout restrictions apply. I have more on the NBA, and I want to get to that. There's a couple things that I want to run through where a lot of the focus is on the young guys a little bit here. And I did watch the Spurs come back against the Suns last night, but this isn't a tales from the couch because there's only a couple games. So I want to talk about a bunch of the younger guys and one rotational thing that I've noticed here.

This cannot be the breakout video. Ring or social, do not use this as the breakout video because then it's almost like I'm aggregating myself. Great win by the Spurs against an undermanned Suns team that doesn't have Booker, doesn't have Beal still. Booker's actually hurt. Beal still hasn't played. Durant, I thought for the most part, was terrific. Then he gets stripped in the corner at the end. Kelton Johnson, bucket, first lead the Spurs had the entire game. They end up winning the thing. But everybody's kind of watching because of Wimonyama, right? It is awkward offensively. More than half of his shots, and I'm going to go back to synergy and check it every field goal attempt so far,

but they're awkward as can be. They just are. That baseline jumper that he hit earlier or at the end of last week, how he got into that and hit it, it was a big shot. I was like, whew. He was kind of bad for the first few quarters. And then the start of the fourth quarter, he was terrific. And then they gave you a number at the half. I don't have the newest one, but the defensive numbers with Wemba Nyama on the court, Spurs allowing 100 points per 100 possessions when he was off the court, 125 per 100 possessions. Eyes would back that up. You see a difference. You see guys just driving and then going, I don't want to do this. But the offensive part of this for somebody who really projected more

as a small forward is ugly. And it's not a projection. It's not me saying, oh, actually, I don't think this guy is going to be good offensively. Look, Scoot it's not a projection. It's not me saying, oh, actually, I don't think this guy is going to be good offensively. Look, Scoot Henderson has been a mess up in Portland and Paolo, who's one of my favorite players in the league already in his second year, hasn't been very good with Orlando. I'm just putting those all in a bucket of not worrying about it. I'm just telling you what I see. And when Wemba Nyama had this nice stretch in the fourth, and I think he still ended up with 18 points. But there was a moment there where the Sohan point guard thing with the Spurs, I don't think there's something I've been more supportive of that I know is not a good idea than Sohan playing

point guard for the Spurs. He's not a point guard. I love that they're trying it. I love that they're letting him shoot threes. But Pop clearly got annoyed with a shot attempt last night. He pulled up, kind of just ISO'd it, didn't get it to anybody else, and then pulled up mid-range and clanked it. And then he had another moment where he just picked up his dribble. And I think then when Minyama was like, okay, enough of this. I'm going to try to do something. And he tried to do this kind of reverse pivot spin move thing in the lane,

and then he fell down again, which he does. But if it's not a three or not an open jumper, when he's dribbling trying to get into a shot, it's very clunky and it's very awkward. And that's all it is. And it doesn't necessarily mean anything long-term. I'm just telling you, that's the way it looks. And so if somebody's never watched Wimbledon play ever, and you're like, wait, this, I could see them being like, um, you know, and again, I'm not even letting this be the breakout video. Cause then I don't want to turn it into be like, oh, you're the guy that wrote him off when he's in the all-star game in two years. All right. I'd like some of these

Spurs guys, though. I mentioned Devin Vassell in the beginning, but I wonder sometimes they're having Sohan play point guard because they're afraid Vassell won't pass to anybody else. So nice win for that team. The Chris Paul thing is over. That experiment lasted two days. He's coming off the bench now against Houston in the third game. He's coming off the bench now. Against Houston in the third game, he came back into the game with 2.07 left. They were up so big against New Orleans. Chris Paul was pulled with 7.48 left in the fourth quarter there. Steph's gone crazy in two games with 40-plus points.

His shooting splits right now for Steph, 56-47 in 92. Moses Moody looks good. He looks like he belongs. The numbers are up 10 points a game and 19 minutes per game, 41% from three, but it's beyond that. It's just that he actually looks like he's out there trying to make things happen as opposed

to just kind of running around looking like he's kind of lost. He just looks better like he belongs. Okay, the leading scorer for the Houston Rockets. Do you know who it is? Jalen Green? Nope. Fred Van Vliet? Nope.

Dylan Brooks? Nope. Alpi Sengun? And it's not Jabari either. He's going for 99 and 7 assists per game for the big dude. He's third in field goal attempts on the team. Jalen Green's still number one in that. Jalen Green is now apparently, instead of just having the ball the whole time,

figuring out if a drive is going to work or not, he just takes a little bit longer in the possession to get the ball. I'm definitely worried about Jalen Green and I'm worried about Jabari watching all this stuff because some of the Jalen Green stuff is just the same. It's just he's getting the ball later in the possession.

But Shingun, I've noticed, is, by the way, the Jalen Green assist ratio stuff, now that he's off the ball, it was 13%, 13% his first two seasons. Again, a week into the league. I'm not going to worry about a ton, but it's down to half of that, almost 7%. And that's with a 26% usage rate. But you can see that Shingun is just said at certain times. And I saw it in the second half of a game last week where maybe now wasn't the Orlando game was the opener, but he just said, screw this.

Like, I'm not kicking it back out to the guards to kind of figure out what they want to do the whole time. I'm going to try to take it on myself to do it. That's also part of the Wimbledon problem is that post play, no one cares about it anymore. It's not a priority. I don't know that you ever see guys just like entry pass. Let's go into the post. I mean,

other than Embiid and Jokic sets up in the post, but it's entirely different. It's, it's just not, I shouldn't say never, but you get the point. You're watching like very rarely are people like, okay,

let's, let's run some sort of post thing. If anything, it might be a catch at the elbow where you're running some other stuff around. Even that doesn't even happen that much. So I'm not saying Wimbledon Yama should just sit in the block and they should feed it to him all the time because I don't know that he's strong enough to hold up. But Shingun, he's decided because his ball skills are pretty good.

He's like, if I'm deep, those days of me kicking it back out to you guys to miss threes or ISO against three different dudes and hope you get a call like I'm not doing that anymore so i've enjoyed that with him uh another young guy situation where i am concerned jayden ivy detroit apparently monty williams and the staff don't like him he's coming off the bench now he's down from 30 minutes per game last year to 20 minutes per game and i've watched a lot of detroit because i love watching kade he is massive and he's going to be really really good but what they've decided here is that Ivy is not going to be, well, they haven't decided anything other than he's coming off the bench. But I look at Detroit and be like, well, you're not going to be good. So you have to figure out

if this Cade-Ivy backcourt is your backcourt of the future. So shouldn't they be playing together more? And it doesn't appear to be a priority for him at all. Ivy's seventh in minutes right now for Detroit. Killian's starting. Kill Ivy's seventh in minutes right now for Detroit. Killian's starting. Killian's playing more minutes. Killian still can't shoot. He's 27% from three for his entire career. Monte Williams had a lineup where Killian was running point. Alec Burks, who's really good, was playing with Duren,

who's unbelievable, Big Stu, and then All-Star Thompson, the rookie. And I was like, where's the spacing here for this? And then there was another moment where Cade fouled out, and instead of putting Ivy in, he put Killian back in. I think there was a game against Chicago where Ivy had an incredible drive. No, it might have been the Charlotte game. He had an incredible drive. Awesome.

Read the pick perfectly. Really nice drive. Hits the layup. And then he took him out. And then he took him out of the game. So it's pretty clear a week in that Ivy isn't Monte Williams' favorite guy. A couple more here. Evan Mobley. The stats are pretty good. He had a huge game against the Pacers that they lost, 33-14. The rebounding numbers have been really good, but he had six last night against the Knicks. Now, again, Darius Garland's been out since the opener. He played in the first games, missed the last three. They haven't had Jared Allen.

So I know people are down on the one and three Cavs here a little bit, and they get the rematch against the Knicks. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. Garland is that special of a player. Mitchell had one of those big, big nights, except they blew it to Oklahoma city where every one of their guys started hitting threes.

I think they were down one Oh three 92, like two minutes to go. And Oklahoma city came back in that one. But if you were to compare like, Hey, what's one man Yama's offensive creation going to look like? Like, I don't know, dude, it's been a week. Relax.

And that's the message. I'm just, I'm like doing it a third time here to make sure this doesn't end up somewhere. The Evan Mobley stuff is not necessarily any better. It just isn't. And whatever ceiling, there needs to be a ceiling adjustment for Evan Mobley. Every team should want Evan Mobley. All right. Every team in the league should want him because his

floor is still really, really good. Defensive guy runs like crazy, really good passing, really good instincts. He actually doesn't make a ton of mistakes. But we're year three of this, and you're kind of like, and I've said this in the past, where I was like, it just doesn't look fluid. It doesn't, you know, when he knows exactly what he's doing and he's finishing and he's beating up on people or whatever, like, that's great. But this comparison of him to some of the other greats,

the position, it just, there's not, there's not like the one thing that I go, oh, that's his thing that's really nasty and really hard to defend it's basically is he deep and is he around the hoop um and he's not taking threes as much this year either and he was 23 for his career uh coming in to the season anyway all right let's talk in hoops. Well, the Clippers landed hard as we've talked about at the top. And so we figured we'd bring in the biggest Clippers fan that I know, a good dude and somebody that I've got to know over the years. It's Marcellus Wiley, also hosting Never Shut Up on YouTube, Brinks TV, and his project Transition that we'll get a little shout out there to as well. All right, my man.

Good to see you. What's up? Oh, man. Love, man. It's been a second, but great seeing you. And you said I'm the biggest Clipper fan. You still talking size or are you talking about my fandom, bro? What are we doing here?

Your fandom is intense because I know that you're messing with a lot of people, but you're in a Lakers world. You don't quite understand the Clippers-Lakers dynamic until you're living out here. It's like, man, people aren't even mad at Clippers fans. They just feel bad for them because of Lakers arrogance. I know what you're doing. You're fighting the good fight out there, so I respect it. I feel like a panhandler,

like a March of Dimes kid or something. Everywhere I go, there's just sympathy for me. I'm like, dude, what do you mean? Like, we're JV for real walking on campus. And it's just an underdog story for me. Frankly, people don't know that my dad planted these seeds. He's from Tyler, Texas, moves to San Diego, San Diego Clippers. So while it's showtime in L.A. in the 80s, my dad's sitting there watching

the old school and Benoit Benjamins and Michael Cages in the 90s. I went to the sports arena, never went to the forum. So it was planted in me early. And then when I had a chance to make my own decision, when I retired from football, I chose those Clippers. Underdog story. Okay. So what do you think of the Harden trade? ball i chose those clippers underdog story okay so what do you think of the hardened trade ah now or then when they were talking about because now he's here uh i don't want to say forced on me but at the same time i didn't want this trade uh at the time look we're a team that all we need is to stay healthy when it matters most and and we got our best shot. Then you added Westbrook last year, who's the homie. And Westbrook brought the energy, brought a level of respect that you wanted

from a guy who's out there. Now, he didn't fit perfectly, but we respected him enough where he fit in. And then all of a sudden, think about this dynamic. You're going to bring in James Harden in theory. And I'm like, the way his style of play, I don't want that, the whole 22-second throw a grenade to somebody else, even though it will be a lead-lead assist. It's still not our style of play.

Then I was like, he's getting older. But then I had to remind myself, every time Joel Embiid was sidelined, injury, or just wasn't really feeling it that day hard could take over in the drop of a dime so i was like there's still a lot of toothpaste left in that tube but in theory i didn't want it but now that it's here i gotta deal with it and our defense has been amazing this year so far i hope that he uh picks that side of the ball up as well as him still dropping dimes and scoring at will.

It's going to be weird, though. Look, I don't disagree with anything that you said. I've spent plenty of time already talking about this topic, and now that the fit is real, how it'll work. And I think there'll be moments where it's really good because when all those guys are cooking and they're all talented enough, it'll look good. I just think there's a lot of overlap in there, too. talented enough. It'll look good. I just think there's a lot of overlap in there too, but it's got to be so frustrating because I understand what Oklahoma City and the trade, like, hey, you can get Paul George. We could have all these pieces or we can just have Paul George.

And it means if we get Paul George, it means we're also going to get Kawhi. And 30 out of 30 teams presented with those scenarios would go, that's what we have to do to trade all these picks down the road. Maybe we get burned, maybe we don't. But we can add two of these guys that are, in theory, top 10 players in the NBA. Every team would go ahead and do it. And the only sniff of it that you've gotten is a Western Conference Finals appearance where one of the guys wasn't even available in it. So it's the biggest tease probably in the NBA. it's the biggest tease probably in the NBA.

Just in reality, like, look, to me, it's that. It's really like you're praying for something that you shouldn't even have to pray for because it should just happen regardless. Like, sometimes you save up your prayers. You're like, oh, man, I really need this to happen. But these guys should just stay healthy one year to see how this plays out. But, I mean, I'm going back to Lob City in the terms of this team never having all of this ammunition fully loaded,

ready to aim when it matters most. And now you bring in James Harden, who already has that as a reputation, adding to the reputation that we have built in the last decade of guys being injured or not performing as well when we needed them. So I just don't see how all of a sudden this works out. So it just does feel like a prayer in terms of all of these pieces that have the same issue finally hitting 7-7-7 when we need them in the playoffs i just

don't see how that happens who was your favorite clipper it was blake griffin tell you truth and i based it on how much energy i would exude when i watched him because chris paul's the best basketball player of them but my favorite was blake just because he used to just jump above the rim. And I liked his style. It was kind of like, it was that dry, humorous style. Kind of how you get down sometimes. And he kind of played with that. You know, like, he's telling jokes by clowning cats.

But he ain't saying nothing. He's just dunking on you. And I used to love that. Like, that dude is dismissive. Like, you just can't get to him. So I loved him then. Other than that, it's just been funny to watch this team on paper look amazing and then somehow, someway find itself a little short every single year. For whether it's Doc Rivers and some decisions, whether it's we're up 3-1

and then all of a sudden we relax or it's an injury here it's just like crazy you pick we found a way to make that our reason we don't advance so it sounds like you're just you're like all right we have them and i'm gonna i'm gonna roll with it but you're doing it based on your history with the team more so than your excitement about the transaction. Hell yeah, you're reading it right. I'm a blind loyalist, so I'm going to be faithful. But boy, I ain't happy to go home. You know what I mean?

All right, baby, I ain't going to cheat on you. But damn it, it's going to be a slow drive and there's no traffic. It's just slow drive. And it's so crazy because this is the first year I actually got season tickets and I got it before the trade. How crazy is this? They've been selling this forever. They had Kawhi and Paul George the previous seasons, and this was the one after they've been hurt. They were like, OK, I'm in like they need me. This is the one I'm doing. They need me to tip the scales. Yeah, I need to bring the energy to get it all balanced up.

They need me to tip the scales. Yeah, I need to bring the energy to get it all balanced up. You know, at first it was just like, look, I was not going to bank on going to 20 to 40 basketball games. It turns into another business. It turns into another job when you're like, I got this many games I got to attend or give away the tickets, et cetera. etc but with my foundation i was like okay that's part of the experiences to allow kids to go out there and sit there watch the game and get to see what a real seven footer looks like it's not like on tv right so it's great for that reason but also i was just like this team it can do something but it's gonna be exciting to watch what happens and i like the fact we kept terrence man that's my guy love his game hopefully he takes it to the next level. But this is all before James Harden.

And then when they got James Harden, I won't lie, I got more pumped for the theater that will exist. As you said, it's going to be another star on the court. It's going to work more than not, but will it get us over the hump? It's going to be fun to be on that journey. Yeah. Look, I'm not so against it that I don't think there's going to be nights where it doesn't look really good. I mean, it's kind of like the way we talk about quarterbacks. There may be a handful of guys I don't really like. It doesn't mean I think they're going to go 12 for 30 with three picks every week.

Right. Like, oh, hey, the guy had 330 yards. Awesome. Yeah. That's congrats. And there are going to be some of those nights. And I think the biggest part for Philly, too, like. Whatever all their scenarios were and all their options were giving Harden 200 million

at 34 years old was probably the best one to avoid as much as this is a mess, as much as they don't get an impact player right away, you know, and who knows what the draft picks it would have been nice if they'd been able to get somebody but like look i remember somebody talking to me about it and i was like i wouldn't give you norman powell straight up for hard i definitely wouldn't give you terrence man and yeah you know it was funny because then daryl clearly leaked that they had asked you know they were like oh you know why don't you give me paul george if you're asking for our best players or whatever and it's like that's what these guys do to each other the whole time. So even if I don't love the entire, it's a weird transaction for me

because I wish Philly had gotten something for them that helps a little bit more immediately than just rotational guys. But they got the picks and they avoided the situation. They didn't pay hard. And so I get all that. And then on the Clippers side, it's like, man, they didn't really have to give up anything. But then I'm like, did they even have to give up the firsts?

Who else were you bidding? In a weird way, I almost feel like the Clippers did the Sixers a bit of a solid by even including what could be a couple firsts here, depending on how the things break out. So it's a very rare transaction for me where I'm not into any of it, but I kind of understand it all. Yeah, yeah. And that's the thing. That's the same way I feel about it. So it's almost a wait and see to just see who's going to win this overall. And it's going to take his time to answer that question because immediately you can see pros and cons going both ways. I see a lot of people saying, excellent trade for the Clippers. Yeah, because you have a superstar in terms of the shell of him. Will you still fill that in with superstar production is the conversation.

Will he fit with this team as expected? That's the conversation. The problem with James Harden is simple. Everybody knows that he can play basketball, but does he want to fully focus and play just basketball? Or does he want to bring some smoke? Does he want to come into the locker room with some other issues? Does he want to be distracted? I mean, anytime a professional athlete wears their frustration through their body, which is the only way you're going to get paid in the first place. That looks like a guy who will go to the lengths of self-sabotage and a guy who will sabotage the team.

And that's not how you're going to win the championship. So my biggest issue with James Harden is like when he's not feeling it, he makes sure others feel his issue and frustration as well. That's the last thing you need when a team is built as fragile as this fragile team we got. And then now you add this guy, it just seems like it made tips and scales in a bad way. Yeah, it's a great point. I don't know the answer. I would think he'd be so annoyed about him passing on previous extensions for big money, thinking it was all going to work out that his main priority will be how do I get do i get that four-year extension you know how do i figure out that four-year extension and considering all the decisions the clippers are going to have to make

even with balmer's deep pockets i don't know that that's some automatic so you think you're getting the best version of him at 34 that you get as opposed to somebody that's going to mail it in on them too but other teams have thought that in the past as well. Before we let you go more disappointed in unfulfilled promise with the Clippers or your chargers. I went, I finally went to a chargers game. I did a couple minutes. I can't believe they have to play in that situation.

That's 17 road games. It's a joke. It wasn't just because of Dallas. I feel bad for them. Despite the fact that every week I'm like, wait, he's on the team? Like I love Everett and Palmer on top of Allen and Williams. And I'm like, they're loaded. We talked about it nonstop about how loaded they are.

Give me a Chargers thought as an alum. Oh, man, it's crazy. All right. So I'm a season ticket holder. I go to all the games. Look at you. Things are going well. Hey, man, it's crazy. All right, so I'm a season ticket holder. I go to all the games. Look at you. Things are going well. Hey, man.

You know what? I'm just trying to pay it forward for my son and, you know, trying to heal the pain that I had. I went to one Raider game growing up in my entire life, no other football game, and then never went to a Laker game, just a couple of Clipper games. So I'm looking at my son now. I'm like, all right, daddy doesn't need New Jordans.

I need you to go to a damn game, man, to see how this world is. But the Chargers are interesting because, one, let's just dispel this myth, this rumor that you just already fueled up. We don't have 17 road games. just already fueled up we don't have 17 road games we have a so far stadium in los angeles that every single fan base when they get that schedule in april was like yep yep going to that damn game you know how it goes it happens to vegas it happens to dallas it happens to all those cities where better weather great city and i'm I'm going to get out of Buffalo. So, you know what I mean? It's not that.

But our team, look, I'm talking to Coach right now. I'm talking to Coach Staley because I'm like, I loved him day one with the gambling. I loved him day one with playing analytics the way he did. And now I'm wondering, has he lost the feel of this team because it's too inconsistent? We already have the talent, so it's not a talent conversation. Justin Herbert is the top five talent at quarterback. What we need is the constant motivation or reminder of how we are playing for a Super Bowl, a contending team, not just a good team with

talent, not just a team that's going to try and make it, but a team that should be a contender. Now, we know what happened in the playoffs last year and the Jacksonville stuff, blah, blah, blah. But I don't think this team fully realizes how great it is because I watch them all the time. I'm like, why aren't we always playing at a certain level? But it's a wild, wild west NFL this year. No team, including Philly, including San Fran, especially of late, has been consistent. Buffalo, you name them. So just waiting for us to get over that hump, be a little more consistent.

I've gotten to do some work through your foundation with a group that I help with the podcast stuff. And we started it up years ago. So I'm always thankful because when I was thinking about trying to do something, I was like, who can I talk to? Who can I have it be with who, you know, who's local, who knows it'll be going to the people that need it. Um, but I know that's a big part of your life. So tell us the latest venture for you. Yeah. Appreciate you, man. And your partnership with Limitless Incubator, where we help those kids develop their skills in the podcast world and the new media. And then with

Project Transition, we help those kids globally, but our footprint is right here in LA. Today, I have to go to a Linwood school where we help those kids discover and develop their inner power and then amplify for the world to see. If I had to say it in short, Ryan, it's basically be greater than your greatest excuse. So I challenge all those kids to really think about their life, think about the adversity they face. A lot of them underserved, a lot of them underprivileged. No matter what deck of cards you were dealt, now it's time to go out there and make sure you make your dreams a reality. So we help them through mentorship, resources, and scholarship. And more importantly, we reinforce our message by checking in with them,

incentivizing them, letting them go to Clipper Games, letting them go to Charger Games, really leaving their locale so they can understand there's a bigger world out there. Because a lot of times growing up in those circumstances, as I did, you don't get to see much. So you don't think much of what you're going through and what you're going to become. But I want these kids to be attentive and intent on what they want to be. So we're out there on a mission to enforce that message and make sure these kids become their own dreams and make that real. Yeah. What you've done and the people that you work with and getting to know some of the people that are on your side of things and them

helping me with the thing that we've worked on with a bunch of different sessions has been awesome. And it's crazy because you wonder like, how is this going to work? How's it going to go? And my thing is far less time consuming than the stuff that you're doing. But whenever they hit me up to be like, hey, can you help with this? Are you ready to do this? Can you do these? And I'm like, you are never bothering me because what I feel after I spend an hour with these groups, especially when it's the younger kids and we have these kids taping episodes of

podcasts and then I'm editing them and letting them know, okay, here's your rough cut. especially when it's the younger kids and you know we have these kids taping episodes of podcasts and then i'm editing them and and letting them know okay like here's your rough cut try this do this and then how quickly they respond and it's also funny too because even though i'm older i'll be like look i know none of you want to do outlines i thought it was the biggest waste of time ever but when you have a thought and you want to tell us something that takes seven to 10 minutes, have an outline. And then all the mentors and teachers in the room are going like, see, we told you guys that outlines are important. It's just a little reminder of kind of where you're at and where you've been depending on your age and you allowing me to be a part of that, a sliver of the stuff that you're doing. I've always been very thankful for. So thanks, man.

Always respect, man. I know your journey. I know where you are, where you've been, man. And tremendous salute to you. You keep going, brother. I love it. All right. Thanks, Rossellus. All right, Celo. Take care, brother. Damian Woody, back in the mix this season. And to see you man how are you I'm good brother how you doing I'm good let's talk a couple trades let's talk to Raiders news and all that so when I saw the sweat deal to the Bears for a second rounder considering where the Bears are record wise I kept trying to figure out like how do i not understand this because it seems bad

you're a team that's losing games likely going to continue to lose games we know about the quarterback decisions for this draft uh sweats good player but he's also a free agent at the end of the year you'd have the cap space i don't is this is like miss granted he's a good player getting good players is a smart thing, but long-term strategy for how the season plays out and then ultimately the cap decision they're going to have to make with him. I don't understand this for the Bears.

It seems like they're trying to do two things at once. Yeah, Ryan, I actually tweeted out, why would you give up an asset when you could go out there and literally sign the guy in free agency? That asset is going to be basically almost like a low first-round pick, and you're giving that up, and you've got to pay the guy. Now Montez Sweat has a tremendous amount of leverage over you

because you haven't signed him to a deal, so you're not going to just waste a high second round pick and not sign the guy. So from the Bears perspective, he's a good player. There's no question about that. But it makes no sense as far as team building is concerned, in my opinion. Yeah, that one, it just doesn't make a ton of sense. And I kept trying to figure out, what am I not understanding? What am I not getting about this?

Because, you know, the Bajan stories fun and all, but the Raiders are a mess and he gets that win. It's a lot of just easy throws. And then I get, that's part of the production of a Sunday night football. You know,

it's a primetime game. Let's tell the Bajan story. Let's tell the vision. He was terrible in that game, which again, he just started playing. The guy was a D2. So, you know, who knows? It just felt like, hey, you actually in the season where you thought Fields was going to turn the corner and then that's still kind of an unknown. You're going to have all these decisions. Like, why would you actually at this point? I mean, I don't know. Sometimes I feel guilty being like, hey, they wanted to be better. Why do you have a problem with it? But then you go asset, you go contract situation, leverage, and all these different things. So I think we've touched on everything. Chase Young gets traded to

the Niners. And when people saw that for a third rounder, they're like, wait a minute. Chase Young's rep, I think Sweat's the better player. Chase has been really good this year. So maybe it's unfair where I've looked at Chase Young, watching him in college, thinking, hey, he's going to be another one of these nasty edge dudes that we talk about like Garrett and Watt and Micah and Nick Bosa and all that kind of stuff. He's just not those guys. He also hasn't been healthy, but he's been really good this year.

So how did you see that traded then ultimately for the Niners? Now, see, on the flip side, I love this trade. I love this trade, and here's why. Just from the football on the flip side, I love this trade. I love this trade, and here's why. Just from the football on the field perspective, the 49ers, that front hasn't been generating the pressure that they've been accustomed to over the past few years. So they needed another guy on that D-line to really help amp up the pressure because, listen,

anyone who's watched the 49ers over the past few weeks, that defense has kind of been getting torched. And so they're not generating the pressure. They don't have a great secondary to begin with. Everything is predicated on their front four, you know, getting pressure. So I like it from that standpoint. But I think here's where I like the deal even better. It's the fact that they're using a third-round compensatory

pick to get him. They got actually two of them. They got from McGlinchey leaving the free agency and signing with Denver and then Rand Carthon became the general manager with Tennessee. So they have two third-round

compensatory picks. They're literally just giving one away for a rental. And guess what? You don't have to sign the guy. You don't have to sign Chase Young after the season. You can just say, he's a rental. We're going for it this year. We go out and win a Super Bowl.

That's a win-win. And we just don't have to sign the player because they have a lot invested in the D-line. So from the 49ers' perspective, I love it because it wasn't one of their original picks. It was a throw-in compensatory pick. They traded for a player. And this is a team that loves to add defensive linemen. And they're going for it. So I love it from that perspective.

Yeah, when I looked at some of the stuff, I think whenever I've watched Bosa, I just expect, okay, this guy, even when somebody's not getting sacks, I just like seeing disruption. You're like, hey, man, this guy is finding a way to kind of change the way an offense is set up. And I think that's who he's been for most of his career. And with some of the contract stuff that's being brought up, but now when I'm watching him, I don't know if it's double team. I don't know if it's, you know, they brought in Hargrave to kind of balance it.

I love kind of the way John Lynch does it. It's like, hey, a position of strength, let's keep adding to it. But clearly something wasn't working. What have you seen from a front that we know on paper is supposed to be really good, just not seeming like they're getting it done to the level we'd obviously expect? Yeah, listen, Nick Bosa is actually getting pressure. Like he's actually, you know, what I call living up to the contract is actually the rest of the guys on the D-line is not getting nowhere near the pressure

that I think the organization or most of us who really watch the tape thought they would be getting. And so now you go out here and you're the 49ers. And that's why I love, you know, the, you know, organizations like the 49ers, they keep adding to a position of strength and say, you know what? Games are won in the trenches. Yes, you need a quarterback, but games are won in the trenches. And so they go out here, they add a Chase Young, who's having a pretty doggone good year on the defensive line. And so now

it just creates situations where it's like, okay, you can't double everybody. You know, you're going to go ahead and try to take Nick Bolts out of the game? Well, guess what? We got Chase Young. And we got Hargrave in the middle. got eric armstead so i love the 49ers just adding to a position of strength which is something that you need in this league the raiders cleaning house mcdaniels is out the gm is out i i'll just you go in any direction you want.

I don't, I don't know that I have something that's really specific except for maybe a followup. Yeah, man. It's, um, you know, it's crazy. And you know, I was, uh, you know, I was watching, I was watching get up this morning and, and, uh, I think Mike Greenberg brought it up. Probably a really good point. People don't understand like the Raiders are one of those legacy franchises that was, like, good, like one of the elite teams. You know, probably, like, you know, especially back in the 70s

and stuff like that, they were one of the elite franchises. But, man, like, recently, ever since, you know, Art Davis died, man, they've had eight head coaches in 12 years. Eight head coaches in 12 years. You can't win that way when you have constant change like the Las Vegas Raiders have right now. And now this is going to be another big reset for the Raiders. And the first thing I look at is, okay, Devontae Adams. I would assume Devontae Adams is not going to be around for any type of rebuild.

So what's his future? Is he going to demand a trade after the season? I would assume you try to trade him to try to collect assets and rebuild this thing. So that's where my mind immediately went when Mark Davis cleaned houses. Where is Devontae Adams going to end up? It's incredible. I mean, we're on two decades of this now. Since they lost in the Super Bowl in 2002,

they've had two wild card games that they've lost. Those are the only two times they've even been in the playoffs. So they're in a massive franchise rut. They've tried a bunch of different things. They've moved. There's this excitement. I guess I'm always kind of curious about the McDaniels thing because his timeline is interesting. All the guys under Belichick are getting hired everywhere.

He was the young offensive coordinator. He was like the version of the McVay Shanahan tree going back to getting the Denver gig. I brought this up before, but they got off to that good start. Everybody was like, man, this guy gets it. He's young. He relates to players. And then they fall off a cliff and it's, man, he's too young and all these different things. He goes back to New England. It felt like the community respects the hell out of him. He had that Colts thing that was supposed to happen. Then people were like, man, if you bail on a franchise like that last minute, what does that mean? Is he coaching waiting for Belichick? Is he actually going to get another shot after doing that to an owner? He gets the other shot. He gets this Raiders gig.

He changes out the quarterback to his liking, and it's a disaster. And I can't imagine he's ever getting a head coaching job again. Yeah, I think you can kiss that goodbye. I mean, to get two bites of the apple as far as being a head coach in this league and being dismissed. I think he got dismissed before he finished two seasons at both spots, if I'm correct in that. Twelve games the second year with them.

Yeah, man. I think it's a wrap as far as that is concerned. Listen, I think Josh is a bright offensive mind. It just hasn't worked out, man, for whatever reason, whether it's personal decisions or lack of relating to players. I don't know what the case is as far as him being a head coach, but he's a really good offensive coordinator. And you know what?

Some guys are just made to be position coaches or coordinators. They're not cut out to be head coaches. What is that like? What's the difference when you know it's a coordinator that should only be a coordinator? You know, I say the biggest thing, man, is just like some guys just have this leadership ability that you just connect with as a player. Like I could be, you know, I could be an offensive guy, but I've come across defensive coaches that are like, man, I really connect with that guy.

That guy will be a head coach. That guy is a head coach. And I think the biggest thing is you got, first and foremost, you got to lead. You got to have guys buy into what you're selling. You got to be a leader of men. And you don't necessarily have to be, you know, a coordinator to do that to be honest with

you you got to be a coach that knows how to connect with your players and so i think that's where that's job number one to me being able to connect with your players and getting players to buy into what you're selling and some guys have and some guys don't in the nba it's gotten to the point where you almost can't challenge anybody. Like you just have to fall on the sword all the time. Uh, as a head coach, um, I don't know that you can, it's not about getting in the face of another guy. You know, we think about like that old football mentality, but you know, did you, did you ever have problems? I'm sure, I'm sure you did. Cause I mean, you do it long enough long enough you're gonna have issues with different coaches but like how would you handle being coached tough because

when it's going bad and a coach is still getting on you i mean that's when it's just human nature the locker room starts talking to each other like man this guy sucks he's never even done anything what is that like for you personally that experience of like being did you like being challenged did you not did you respond better to it did it make you more pissed, like, did you like being challenged? Did you not, did you respond better to it? Did it make you more pissed off? Like, how did you handle it? Yeah, no, it made me a better player. I'll give you a prime example.

When I was in Detroit, you know, we had, you know, we had, I had Rod Marinelli and I had Mike Martz as the offensive coordinator. And I got benched. I got benched. And it was to my doing because I wasn't playing great. I was a big signing, you know, as far as a free agent, you know, coming to Detroit.

I was a couple years into it. And I got benched. Mike Martz, you know, benched me. And so they were coaching me hard, man. And they put me on the scout team going up against the, you know, the first team, you know, first team defense. And so I remember Rob Marinelli

calling me in the office. He's like, hey, man, listen, you know, you're a powerful guy. You're a guy that's won two Super Bowls and to be in this situation. And he was like, but the special players that I've come across is how they respond to these situations.

And he just left it at that. And I just took it as a moment of, you know, let me reflect on my play, what I need to do, what I need to do better, how can I become a better player. And, man, I just went out there in the scout team and just started kicking those guys' butts. Like every day in practice every day was just one by one just kicking their kicking their butts in practice

to the point where you know one of our guys on line on our line wasn't playing well and they said hey we're gonna throw you a right tackle position i'd never played before in the national football league and i went out there and i played remarkable for the next, I think it was the next six games. I played fantastic football so much so that when I became a free agent after the season, the Jets signed me to a massive deal to play right tackle. So it all was like a full circle moment where I got benched. I was being coached hard. I was being told the truth.

But I didn't pout. I didn't whine. I didn't cry about it. I just decided to do something about it. And it all worked itself out in the end. So I've always been a big believer in being coached hard because the game of football is hard. Why do you think you needed to be demoted to respond um well because you know for me man it was i wasn't putting

the i wasn't putting the effort in into it that i really should have to be quite honest with you. I wasn't, you know, the details and all the things that actually made me the player that was so desirable to Detroit in the first place. And so when that ran its course and I got benched, it was just like an opportunity. First of all, it was just a wake-up call, number one. And it was an opportunity for me kind of refocus reset you know the you know my priorities as far as you know on the field and stuff like that and it made me into a much better player and I finished my career on such a high note so you know for me man like I

every time I talk to Rod Marinelli I I always thank him and Mike Martz. I always thank them because that really jump-started my career in the moment that I really needed it the most. Let's talk contenders here. I have the Chiefs in its own tier where, look, man, I'm not going to worry about it. I know they turned it over five times. I know they lost to Denver for the first time. I would have to see months of that before I would

go. Man, I'm actually worried about them. Look, every one of these teams has their flaws. Miami could be a matchup thing, could be a schedule thing. I guess when I'm running through some of these contenders, Philly at seven and one, but yet it hasn't been to the standard of what we saw from Philadelphia last year, so the record's one thing. But I think anybody that's watched them knows, wait, are they as good as they were last year? And it still may not even matter with the rest of the NFC. Is there a team in the top five, the perception of these top five teams in the NFL

that you were actually worried about today? That I'm worried about? Is it San Francisco? Is it Dallas? Is it Buffalo? I mean, I worry about Buffalo. I worry about Buffalo because I think the injuries that they've had on the defensive side of the football,

I don't know if they can overcome that. Like, you know, losing Tredavis White, and even more so losing losing matt milano i don't know if people around the league know how good matt milano is he is one of the i would say he's a top two top three linebacker that in the national football league he is really really good both in the run and the pass and when he went down that was a devastating injury to Buffalo's defense. So I don't know if Buffalo will be able to overcome the injuries on the defensive side of the football.

So that's the one team. San Francisco is very interesting too because they've kind of lost their way. They've had some injuries. Obviously, Debo Samuel, Trent Williams, I think they're going to get those guys back. But it'll be interesting to see how San Francisco reemerges and see if they can get back on track anytime soon. Detroit, do you look at them? Everybody was falling in love with them at ESPN.

I saw the power rankings. I saw you guys releasing the get-up stuff. Yeah. They bounced back against the Raiders, but that Baltimore game, I mean, it feels a little unfair because we're talking about a 6-2 team and it's Detroit, so it's not like they're Buffalo or they're San Francisco, the standard of a team that we expect to be one of the last four teams standing when it comes to the playoffs.

But give me your Detroit assessment. I like Detroit. I like their makeup. They're built well. They're built well on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Jerry Goff is playing pretty good football. I know he had to pick six the other night against the Raiders. But overall, if you look at Jerry Goff over the past year plus,

he's been one of the best quarterbacks that we have in the National Football League. I think they got some things to sort out as far as the wide receiver position. I love Amon Rod St. Brown. I wish they were a little bit more explosive at wide receiver. Jameson Williams is still kind of finding his way. So, you know, I like Detroit. I like Detroit. Detroit is going to be right in the end.

Do I put them with Philly? I don't know if I put them with Philadelphia yet, but they're going to make some noise. Watch out for Seattle, by the way. Seattle is another team that's going to be making a lot of noise. But I think Detroit is going to be right there in the end with the other teams. Yeah, Seattle's actually the three seed in the NFC as of today. So, look, would you rather be Detroit or San Francisco?

I would rather be Detroit because I'd rather be playing at home. Right now, San Francisco is on the road. Seattle is leading that division. True. I mean, yeah. No doubt. I mean, listen. If I'm picking a team, I would probably pick San Francisco. I would pick San Francisco because I think when it's all said and done,

you know, listen, they've had injuries with key people. I think when they get those guys back and then add Chase Young to that defensive line, they're going to be, I think they're going to be, they're going to be in the NFC Championship game, in my opinion. So you're okay with Purdy? You think it's a Debo thing, maybe a Trent thing, maybe a slight correction, but you're still okay long-term with Purdy,

at least for this year? I'm okay with Purdy because I've never viewed – Purdy is – they got the pieces to help him, to elevate him. I've never viewed Purdy as a guy that can just put a team on his back. They got enough weapons. When they get Deebo Samuel back to go with IU and obviously Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams, getting him back on the offensive line is going to be big.

I think Purdy is enough to contend in the NFC. I was going to say something nice about the Colts this week because I felt like, man, have you guys looked at their record? The Browns game was all over the place. They were in it with the Saints until the offense for New Orleans finally, finally woke up here. But looking at the teams that are kind of on the outside of this whole thing,

like this is just, I always like doing the playoff standings, just looking and reminding you of like what's going on. But Cleveland's still a seven seed. The defense hasn't been the same after a historic start with this thing. I guess in that group that's outside, I mean, the obvious answer is Cincinnati

after the Niners win. But of the group that's outside, I mean, the obvious answer is Cincinnati after the Niners win. But of the group that's outside, would you expect that Pittsburgh and Cleveland are going to be replaced by Cincinnati and say the Chargers or Tennessee or maybe even a Colts team that's been a little bit better than people thought? Well, let me say this about... Let's eliminate the Colts from this. We'll eliminate the Colts. I will say this. If I'm buying stock into any team in the AFC, it's Cincinnati. I think Cincinnati is going to be right there in the AFC Championship again.

I think you're finally seeing Joe Burrow, Joe Swagger, as I like to call him. He's finally looking healthy, getting everything back on track. But, Ryan, here's the thing I think that's even more important. I think Cincinnati defense is finally starting to play like they played last year. They're young on the back end of their defense, and I think

it's taking Lou Anarumo, the defensive coordinator, kind of time to get those guys playing right, playing together, and those guys are starting to figure it out, and they're starting to play right. If there's one team I'm buying stock on, it's the

Bengals. I think the Bengals are the team to watch in the AFC. Yeah, I think that felt, you know, it just felt like Cincinnati again in that game against San Francisco and for Burrow to get the deep ball going and chasing the whole deal. I don't know if the teams have figured

something out defensively with Purdy on that one as well, which is something we touched on on Monday's game. Dallas, 5-2. The Niners' loss is tough to get past. I was at the Chargers game, and the Chargers continue to be one of the most disappointing franchises in the NFL with all that talent. They put it on the Rams, who in the beginning of the year,

I was like, you know, they're a little bit better than I thought. Stafford was healthy. He gets hurt with a thumb injury, but that game was over quick. I mean, C.D. Lamb went crazy on those guys. When you think about Dallas, do you allow yourself to think that that's a Super Bowl winning team? They have parts. They have Super Bowl winning parts. Here's my problem with Dallas. When things are going right, they are right. They are beautiful. They're a beautiful team when things are going right.

Remember in that Rams game, I mean, they got like, they had everything going for them. Defensive score. Everything. CeeDee Lamb going off. I always say like with Dallas, they're a front-running team. They're a team, when things get going early, it's like a runaway, you know,

Mack truck. It's just hard to stop it. But when they get into a tussle or when they get into a team that's evenly matched, what happens? You know, that San Francisco game is not going to leave my mind, you know, because they go out there and they just got their teeth kicked in by the San Francisco 49ers. And so what I would like to see from Dallas is I would like to see them in a situation where they're going toe to toe, blow for blow, and that team pull out a victory. That, to me, will make me feel a lot better about the Dallas Cowboys. Do you think they beat Philly at Philly this week?

I don't think so. I don't think so. I think Philly is very strong in the trenches. And A.J. Brown is just going nuclear right now. Like as much as we talk about Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown has just been going nuclear on the NFL. I don't know if anyone can stop that dude. He's not the fastest guy, but that dude is like Deebo out there on the NFL. I don't know if anyone can stop that dude. He's not the fastest guy, but that dude is like Debo out there on the football field.

Like he is Debo and everybody out there on the football field. And we didn't even talk about like Devontae Smith. Like we only like, he's good, but all the attention is on A.J. Brown because he's been playing at that type of level. That catch that he made against Washington, where it was, I'm not even talking about, I don't think the one-handed catch was, there was another one against double coverage where it would honestly be a bad throw.

You'd be like, why would you even throw it over there? And it was to the pylon. I mean, he went off, so I'm trying to remember if it's two different throws because he had the one-handed catch, but I think there was another one where I couldn't believe Hurts even threw him the ball and he beat both guys for it. I mean, he's just...

Yeah, I think both of them were by the pylon. Both of them were by the pylon. Both of them were. The two-handed one was even more impressive to me. There were two guys right there for Washington.

That's it. And he's just like, it doesn't even matter y'all here. I just gonna catch this ball and you guys not okay final thing did you were you contacted by the jets to play a line this week you know it might you know the answer is, because I wouldn't go out there and embarrass myself. But I mean, with all those injuries, I thought, man, I might make my way on down to MetLife right quick, because they could use my services for about 10 plays, at least. So I don't know how they're taping this thing together. And that's another team, man. Like, they are finding a way to win games. And this whole Aaron Rodgers thing is just, it's bananas. It's bananas. Which part?

I've had an Achilles tear. Well, like, here's my thing. I've had the Achilles injury. Now, granted, it was a decade ago. And, like, I didn't even feel myself until well past 12 months, but something tells me, like, I didn't even feel myself until well past 12 months. But something tells me, like, if the Jets are right there around Christmas, this dude is going to play.

This dude is going to find himself on the field, which is crazy. I know. Well, maybe. I don't know. I mean, the Achilles is it's so crazy and it's like it's the killer's a brutal injury but i'm like i like this dude might mess around and go out there and play i know that that's what's what it's going to be i i knew as soon as he heard himself and then it was like even days later i mean hours later it was like you know he's going to be. I knew as soon as he heard himself, then it was like even days later, I mean, hours later, it was like, you know, he's going to find a way and he's using this guy and they did this different procedure and all these things. And it's like, man, he's standing up and he was he put the card away and he threw a couple of passes. And you're like, OK, like, I still think you could probably do that post Achilles injury surgery, just throw an actual pass. But playing in a game, playing in a playoff game,

and look, they're the first team out. They're the ace seed behind what would be the final spot for Cleveland. But I can't, even though I'm kind of eye-rolling it from the very beginning, I guess it's not necessarily because of him. I just, I don't know. I guess I have to keep myself, I have to have an open mind about the possibility of the whole thing, which would change who they are. But with that old line, I mean, granted, they'd expect to be getting guys back with the injuries

that they're dealing with right now. I just love that you love the Jets more than anything. Like you care about the Jets results more than the Pats and Lions, correct? I guess because, I guess I love a beautiful disaster. It's like I look forward to a train wreck every week, and then I go into a therapy session with Jet fans and stuff like that. But I just want them to be successful at some point. When was the Jets like?

The Jets haven't been successful since I was there. That's a long ass time. I'm just like, can you guys please be good at some point? We'll see. We'll see, man. I can't wait. More Rodgers content

for everybody. Thanks, Wood. Appreciate it. Yeah, no problem, man. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am

liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life Advice is brought to you by Modelo, the mark of a fighter. Modelo is a crisp golden lager brewed for football fans who treat supporting their team as a way of life, who support with unshakable passion even when the odds are against them. And there's nothing that screams Life advice. What's up, Kyle?

What's up, Steve? Okay, we've got a couple hot ones. Out to jump. Let's do it. Going on's up, Steve? Okay, we've got a couple hot ones. Out the jump. Let's do it. Going on a date after she saw me piss my pants. 26, 6'3", 290, mostly fat, down 35 pounds. Hey. Yeah.

Big dude. A lot of size. Kellen Martin, NBA comp. yeah when the big dude a lot of size uh kellen martin nba comp okay i went out on halloween weekend with the boys one of my good friends brought his girlfriend so naturally she showed me she brought some friends along we've all hung out before a handful of times over the last eight nine months but it's usually rather low key. The drinks start flowing. I start flirting with one of the women. Let's call her Mariah. Like anybody, the confidence is up a few notches with some beer pitchers under my belt. The night goes well until we hit the second bar where Mariah tells me to drink her tequila soda. She ordered a double, but she's a regular at this bar. So the bartender put

a sliver of club soda in the drink. I down the drink quickly and everybody orders their Ubers to head to their separate ways for the night. This is when all hell breaks loose. Only the two of us remain as we wait for our ride shares. As they pull up, I say, I'm not doing well. And I ask her to stay with me until I feel better. A 40 minute disaster ensues where I'm vomiting, sweating, and ultimately end up pissing my pants. Things got so bad, I incoherently called my sister and pulled my single-use sibling bailout card as I'm puking on my crawl to my sister's vehicle. Mariah was right by my side making sure I was able to get in the car, so I guess the sister came to pick the dude up. Shout out to that sister. Shout out to Mariah and my sister, or I definitely would have been arrested. Okay, there we go. Double shout out. I follow her on instagram a couple days later she sends me her number and

quickly asks me to drinks and or dinner i figured i'd say yes as i'd be more comfortable to say no than to say yes since i will be seeing her again my dilemma i don't i don't see one yet um i'm not looking to jump into a relationship as i'm six months removed from a five-year relationship i was planning on slow playing it for the next 36 months and feel things out especially after what happened god damn dude my man's got a plan let's get a fucking verizon plan over there the next five years thanks digna um something i am also concerned about is messing with the current friend group dynamic she's a really cool woman all nice job by you right yeah uh and is rather attractive however after this weekend's events i can't decide if it's the biggest red flag or green light to pursue her. Is she simply understanding and kind?

Should I be concerned that she's too accepting of a total dickheadness and depravity? Thanks for reading the novel. Actually, that was fine. And happy belated to Marlo. Thanks, man. All right. So just to recap here, you're a big dude. The tequila got to you.

Look, stuff gets to dudes. It happens, you know, but you're still big dude, the tequila got to you. Look, stuff gets to dudes. It happens, you know? But you're still only 26, so usually the hard booze messes with the older guy's, you know, influx ratios, all that stuff. And she's hot, and she was like, yeah, let's get together after you pissed your pants in front of her.

And the problem is i don't right right like i think it's amazing that people can be this cool to each other i remember a first date long long time ago in boston just a simple pub food couple drinks uh the girl was like can you drive and i was like yeah we've only had like a couple drinks like no problem um drive back to my house and she's like i didn't plan on coming in but i something's wrong with me and i was like no problem and she threw up all over the front stoop of my apartment building and got out of the car though big one yeah but didn't get out of the car it was a school night too so she went to the bedroom the apartment sucked i played madden and i think called my buddy who lived in la and was like yeah i just went on this this first date he was like what the hell's going on i was like she just threw up he's like is she a mess i was like

no she's like actually really has her shit together. And so then she was so embarrassed, tons of apologies. And I was just like, I don't, you know, whatever. But it did get a little weird though. She's like, do you think something happened? Do you think, she's like, you didn't put anything in my drink, did you? I was like, what? You fucking like. Oh God.

You know, but I kind of was just like. Stomach drops. Yeah, right. Like I wasn't going to be. Do I need a lawyer? Because I helped you. Yeah, right. Fuck.

Right. I wasn't going gonna be offended and she ended up she was she's a great person so anyway the point the point is is like i get why some i think most people would be like fuck that guy i'm never talking to him again and the fact that you're i i don't know i i guess i just you wanted to spend time with her. You also have this plan of slow playing it. Um, she's giving you a pass on what most guys would never get a pass on. I think you should feel great as far as the red flag, green light part of it. The fact that she's a regular at the second bar that you went to and the bartenders knew her. And

you know, the, the cool thing about the bartenders knowing you is that it's can help it also, they feel like they're doing you some huge favor by pouring you the stiffest drinks ever. And you're like, I actually don't need this. Um, in this case, maybe because she, I don't know if she ever bartended or she, you know, because she, she hangs out there a lot. Maybe her threshold for depravity is a little bit higher yep than the average person i would say right so look and i look i would just rather i would rather have somebody be now granted if you're doing this all the time she's going to tell you to bounce as anyone should be told to bounce but the fact that you've met somebody that you're attracted to that's cool with this is a win i i i think i don't

i don't see it being a huge problem i don't think you should overthink this one i i'd ask is she's so cool that she's cooler than you that if you did get in you know you guys did get along would they totally take her in the divorce this friend group that you're a little worried about because we just kind of had one of these deals is she so cool that it's going to be a no-brainer that you're out once once this thing uh inevitably you know or maybe doesn't but would maybe fall apart is that is that the big hesitation for him because he's like oh you know she's a big part of the friend group you know most dudes could could take a really unbiased look and be like no no like it's gonna be if it's her me it's definitely gonna be me but i don't know it sounds like she's pretty cool.

Well, it sounds like she's going to be around because his buddy's dating her friend, right? Is that what you said? Yeah. So so I wouldn't I don't know. I don't think your buddy's going to be like, hey, dude, like you're you're all right. So you start hanging out with this other girl. I don't know. I think you're fine there. I actually I don't think this is this is this again.

I know we've been we talked about this with the with the going to the football the football game with the dad and his friend thing this sounds kind of midwesty to me i just feel like this is like a she seems like a wholesome girl who like is a nice person and i feel like it'd be way more of a red flag if she just bailed on you and you were struggling that night that it is that she wanted to help you out and like maybe wants to hang out with you again so i kind of think you're in your head too much here she totally yeah like our you know we all do embarrassing things i mean i guess you know you're 26 so like you know i my friends me certainly have done our fair share of embarrassing things in front of girls that we've been dated or hung out with you know when you're kind of reaching that like young adulthood

it is a little bit more sketchy but you're still pretty young where i don't know i remember like the early days at espn when you know i was working overnights or whatever maybe when i initially started working on on your show ryan with scott like I was still an idiot in downtown West Hartford. I did dumb stuff around a lot of girls that I still talk to and are nice and have friends and families and everything. It just it just kind of is part of life. So I think I think you're just I think you're kind of too young to have this be like a red. If you were in your 30s and you were doing this, maybe it's a big deal, but you're 26. I don't know. If you were in your 30s and you were doing this, maybe it's a big deal, but you're 26. I don't know.

Yeah, you've either found an empath or a fucking mess, a huge mess. And if she's not a huge mess, she's probably an empath. So I think that's good. That's good for you. And then you should see where that goes and maybe speed up the 36-month plan. But don't worry about this. That's more of a red flag. I think they got a 36-month plan. I don't know.

Like, you can't deviate from that plan at all. What if she's awesome? What if you want to date her? I just, I don't, I think, I don't like that idea. I wonder if the plan was like, he figured he was just going to hang out, hook up for a bit or whatever. But now that he screwed up and then she was like, let's get dinner. But that's too formal.

And that's messing up his charts. Or drinks, right? That's what she said. Dinner or drinks. She gave him an out. She did say, well, drinks, right? That's what she said, dinner or drinks. She gave them an F. She did say, well, yeah, apparently she was like, you can drink again around me. Like, I don't, I would say, I'd also add this.

I don't know, I love that you're 6'3", 290. I think that eliminates you from some of the pool with other women. Really going to be like, this guy's enormous. Okay? And I'm not saying you're sloppy or anything like that, but that's a big dude. That's a lot of size.

And, you know, we got people emailing in here. It can't meet anybody. And you're like, yeah, this attractive person likes me after I blacked out and pissed on myself. So,

you know, who's the winner here? Perspective. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Think of it that way. And as far as this whole like friend group dynamic, like guess what happens?

People start to hook up and then guess what happens? They stop and life moves on. So, you know, unless you're just fucking Batman and you're out there just soloing it, meeting people on your own. Be happy you have a friend group where there's other dynamics that even lead to a potential opportunity. You know, like don't take that for granted. I get not wanting to throw the whole thing off, but like, what do you think you're going

to do? You're going to be one of these guys you hear about on a Reddit thread in the grocery store. You know, we try to help out the Nashville guy. I actually started looking up some stuff and I was like, dude, I i'm even reading some of these things it's like oh a bookstore is a good place to meet somebody is it you've been to a bookstore go pumpkin yeah that's like that's like 30 seconds of conversation then like move along pal i think like the bookstorestores I don't agree Oh fiction okay all right we have another friend group dynamic one here that's a little different no one urinated on themselves let's see here how to help me not break my friend's heart again.

Six foot, one, 185, CrossFit hobbyist, 275, cleaning jerk, 545 mile, 30 years old, haven't seriously dated someone in seven years due to several factors that are unimportant to this email. However, I've been dating somebody for the past two months and it's going really well. We have similar hobbies, worldviews, sense of humor, lifestyles, et cetera. We haven't had the exclusive relationship talk, but we both share that this feels different. We can see something really developing here. She lives in a nearby city about 90 minutes away, which sucks, but we're both down to give it a shot based on the connection we've had so far. All right, great start. Problem lies in how I introduced this girl to one specific female friend of mine. Let's call her Jen. I'm fortunate to have a really close group of friends in my city, a core group of six that hangs out all the time, and an outer circle of 12 to 14 where everyone

gets along really well. Everyone's in their 30s. Everyone is married except for Jen and I, and it's been like this for years. We're in the Southeast, so everyone got married young. Because of this dynamic, Jen and I have been in dozens and dozens of situations over the years where it looks like we're dating because everyone is paired off. Dinners, weddings, parties, out at bars, events, etc. To be honest, sometimes it even looks like we're dating because everyone is paired off dinners weddings parties out at bars events etc to be honest sometimes it even feels like we are dating whenever we're at a dinner with friends the waiter assumes we're together and hands me the bill with jen and i's tabs we live less than a mile from each other so we often ride share places together for casual dinner at a friend's house or if there's an event we're both going to jen is a

cute girl same age as me has a great job we like the same college football team we have the same hobby she's an overall incredible person this guy's just rolling in it um we get along great Going to. Jen is a cute girl. Same age as me. Has a great job. We like the same college football team. We have the same hobby. She's an overall incredible person. This guy's just rolling in it. We get along great. We have a really awesome friendship. And as you can imagine, people have been asking us for years why we don't date each other. The truth is I'm just not attracted to her.

I could have guessed that. I've tried to get there, but I just can't. She's not unattractive at all. I'm just not attracted to her. Unfortunately, Jen has liked me for years. I know this because one, her girlfriends have dropped this hint many times. Two, two years ago, Jen and I, or excuse, Jen asked to hang out one-on-one and she told me she has feelings and has had feelings for a long time and wants to try dating. It was a really shitty conversation where I very kindly told her I didn't see her in that way. She didn't take it very well. I asked how we could move forward in

the best way for her. Do we need to not be be friends anymore does she just need time away from me the last thing i want to do is lose my friendship with her she basically told me she needed a little bit of space and then she asked me to pretend like this never happened i agreed however i did not ask her if i could share with popular podcasts please ask listeners to keep all of this between us okay since then things have carried on as normal. We're great friends. It still looks like we're dating whenever we're out with friends. People ask why we don't. I've tried to keep my distance by limiting one-on-one car rides, hangouts, but I can tell she still likes me. We never really talk about our dating lives, but this new girl is going to be coming

around a lot. What's the best way for Jen to find out? Probably not an email to a podcast. Should I have a one-on-one chat with her beforehand? Text, phone call do i need to get one of her friends to tell her should i just text the group that i'm bringing a new girl i've been dating out with us i'd like to avoid the friend group becoming awkward and uncomfortable i'll hang up and listen they sent a picture yeah what did you say kyle yes to all of it yeah put it it's like you know public space sort of deal you know it's like uh witnesses all that stuff just it's like i'm telling, public space sort of deal. You know, it's like witnesses, all that stuff. Just it's like I'm telling everyone I'm not telling you. I'm not making it.

I'm not thinking that you're going to think it's weird. So maybe I can fucking Jedi mind trick you into not thinking it's weird. So it's just I'll tell everyone you're on the same page as everyone else. And if you have a problem with it, then everyone else is going to see that you have a problem with it. So don't clam up and we'll just we'll we'll pretend we'll keep shoving it down and bottling it up. That's what we're going to do. Yeah. I feel like you,

no, I feel like you, I understand why you feel weird about this. Cause you, you know, you want to be the good guy here. You don't want to be the asshole, especially to your,

I don't know what your other friends, the friends in the group think about this, but I imagine that you're not the bad guy for trying to date somebody. Who's not this girl, Jan, who you're, who you've been very honest with about not being attracted to. So I don't think you owe her anything. That might be a little bit harsh, but she's living her own life. You're living your own life. You're allowed to enjoy and date people and bring her around to a friend group. She's probably not going to like it, but I mean, that's life, man. I don't know. And as long as... I don't think it's a terrible idea to give your friends a heads up yeah i'm bringing this girl through and maybe they could like soft you know launch it to jen and

see what you know just kind of talk her off of whatever cliff she's on um but you gotta live your life like you you can't you can't just like live your life in fear of what this girl of of being afraid of what this girl jen is gonna feel like with every move you make yeah and the title of this is like how do i not break my friend's heart or something right you're not doing that so like just think like read redo your definition of the situation you're not breaking anybody's heart this is somebody who's like not listening they're just not listening to you it's such a shitty situation too like the the man the friend i had this growing up in high school like there was this one girl who like a lot of dudes were attracted to and she just wasn't into anyone in our friend group and it

was just kind of a thing and it just lingered through high school and college and it's just a it's just kind of awkward it's kind of awkward for everybody in the group to be honest with you um so I I do feel and if you're the guy who's like turning everyone down then it's probably the most awkward for you but uh yeah man I don't i don't i just don't think you owe her anything i really don't what happened to that girl saruti uh she married a super rich guy and he's and he's awesome so i thought he was gonna be like well except for i was the one guy that really got along well with her and damn it i really wanted that for you i really know i wasn't one of the guys that was interested she's a she's good looking girl weren't even interested wow well i was i dated somebody else i dated her friend in in high school and into college and you know she's just she was

kind of out of everyone's league to be honest with you and wait so dudes dudes liked her in high school had no chance and guys still liked her while they were away at college oh yeah oh yeah oh thanksgiving's coming up you know it was kind of a funny thing it'd be like oh he's gonna make him he's gonna take another chance here like let's see how this one blows up in his face and she was always really cool about it um but it just was never gonna happen look i mean the title of the email but this is this is a constant theme that we'll have with a lot of this stuff is that you can end up thinking you're so special and clearly this other person really likes you right they've liked this sort of fake dating dynamic without anything really being on the table, maybe hoping to play the long game. You know, maybe he'll see

me right in front of him and then everything will change and it'll all happen, but that's not happening. And she already knows. And you told her and she didn't like it. Nobody likes to be told that they don't, you know, Hey, I like everything about you except for the serious stuff. Um, so the way you present the title of the email, and i'm not like ripping on the emailer here a little bit but it can be a little egotistical to suggest like you're making all these moves and everything's working out but in the back of your head you're worried about this person and like how the rest of their life is going to go and i know i'm being a little dramatic but it's not exactly what you're saying here i see what you mean um but you know you have reason you have history to be concerned and it's cool that you're being concerned, but you can't act like this is like the worst thing that's ever going to happen to her.

Okay. And it also, as you, you're 30, you know, you're getting into your thirties, the male female platonic thing becomes pretty rare. You know, like I have some really close friends that are females. I also realize that once they're dating somebody like i'm totally out of the picture uh like i won't even hear from them and then if they break up you know it's like hey you still got this is you and it's happening to you. But Jen already knew. Jen already knew that you weren't going to be the option.

And the finality of her seeing you with somebody else is probably going to be doing her a much bigger favor. That could be the best thing, even though it's going to feel bad and you're going to feel a little guilty you have nothing to feel guilty about um and maybe she needs this a little bit as far as launching it to the group don't send these two pictures to the group because he sent a picture of the girl he's dating and the one he's not interested in and it's like i don't know if it's the first picture of the one he's dating a little fitness deal here i know i'm leaving everybody out but obviously we don't know if it's the first picture of the one he's dating, a little fitness deal here. I know I'm leaving everybody out, but obviously we don't share these pictures. I see where your head is at, man.

Okay? I understand your decision, and we'll leave it at that. But, you know, if this is somebody that actually cares about you and cares about the friendship, like whatever emotional stuff that she's going to be feeling and not going to like it, there could be some bumpy waters here for a little while, but these are all going to be good things because it ends you as an option for her. Because the biggest thing you can be doing is wasting people's time when all of this stuff starts to happen.

And in your case, you seem far more like morally adjusted in this deal where I think there's a lot of other people be like, Hey, Jen's the layup. You know, we hooked up a few times or I, you know, I probably shouldn't have or whatever. Or I let her on a little bit here or there. It just happens to be that you're always together in these social situations. You haven't wanted to date her. She has to accept that. And, you know, I would, uh, she's not going to love seeing this new girl. I can tell you that that's not going to be her favorite night out, but it's probably as far as like the tactic of it all, maybe you have the friend, you know, maybe you have the friend say to her like hey i have started dating somebody it is kind of serious i want to bring them around and you know jen may not even

want to go out that night now she does want to go out and see who it is and that kind of stuff prepare yourself for a potential awkward night and then the new girl is going to be like oh you definitely slept with her and you're going to be like, I definitely didn't. And then she's not going to believe you. And then she's going to dump you and you start all over again. So I'm kidding at the end. But like, it just sucks sometimes for the other person when it's like, why is that person acting so weird? And you're like, well, here's the backstory. And then they're going to be like, no way. You guys definitely slept with each other. And you're going to say no. And, you know, if the new girl is really cool, she'll understand she'll understand she'll believe you if she's not cool she's never going to believe you which is his own topic in itself do you guys want to do another one yeah so a quick one all right a quick one

okay i love this one Okay, I love this one. I got punked by some Gen Z kids at pickup hoops. 34 years old, 5'10", 175, thick through the chest, but a runner at heart. Pickup game is a stockier, less athletic, less skilled Leon Poe. Love that one. Do you realize how skilled Leon Poe, how good Leon Poe was to go through what he went through with his knees and still be a really nice role player for a little while. Love Leon Paul. All right. I went

down to my local gym to get a few shots up on a rainy day. This is your typical gym gym with full core basketball court. So I go to the court. There's some high school age kids playing twos or threes on one end. So I pop in my AirPods, go to the other end. After I get up maybe four shots, one of the kids comes down to meet me and says, Sir, do you mind stepping off to the side? They want to race. I look down at the other end and there are four kids lined up in the baseline ready to sprint. Not wanting to get in the way of the race.

I say, sure, and step out on the sideline. Key point, I am out of bounds on the sideline. I am standing next to water bottles and cell phones. on the sideline. I am standing next to water bottles and cell phones. They start the race and one kid makes a direct 45 degree angle from under the hoop directly toward me. I stay put, not knowing exactly what this kid is doing. He runs directly into my shoulder and says, what's up, pussy boy? Whoa. I controlled my rage. They had seven seven i asked if they wanted to play fours they did i pointed at my assailant and said i've got him first play down i parked in the low post called for the ball clean shoulder into his chest lay up stared at him and said one i did this for about five points

calling them out each time before stepping out to hit a two. The thing is, I don't feel like I won, even though my team did, and I worked a scrawny 17-year-old who wanted to start shit. I kind of just feel like a loser. But what could I do in that situation? I debated calling him a virgin, but went out. One additional detail this morning, I took my medical licensing boards, the very last step to becoming a fully autonomous practicing medical doctor and three hours later i'm getting called a pussy boy by a child that's a big day that's a big day uh i love what you did i don't have an issue with anything um he's 17 it's 14 feel a little bit different but if you're telling me he's legitimately 17 and we know that he's 17 17 is enough i can't believe he did that to you i can't believe you controlled your rage

like i know you can't go around beating up 17 year olds but if that actually happened if that's what the guy did ran into you knowing he was doing it on purpose telling his buddies hey look let's let's see what happens and then you worked him mckale style i hope you were sweaty i hope your pits are dense i'll be stuck yeah right yeah just everything i hope you were sweaty i hope your pits are dense i'm talking right yeah just everything i hope you bodied him up just pivot pivot pivot just shangooned him to death uh i i want to meet you i don't think you did anything wrong i want to shake your hand yeah yeah they got this person uh straddled the line of child and man right i think depends on the crime you could be charged as a man you could be charged as a child but i think i think it's still on that

line where you're like is this is this the pivot point i want my day slash month slash year to take is is really showing this guy a lesson um you know street fight style and where were you at gym or something so it's like it is one of those things where you know we talk about like you're playing replaying events in the shower and you're like god i wish i said this or i wish i did that or whatever like it could have been so much worse and you were correct especially for a guy who's got like a bright future and gotta start paying off those debts right so i think like i think you did the right thing when you like you you got shit of course you did the right thing the guys that have no one's i'm not i'm not saying and nobody nobody um whatever like what am i you know you fucked me up i had a whole thing and now it's gone um but i'm not no i nobody's saying

that like did should you have fought him or something i'm just saying it should make you feel better when you're when you actually play out how things could have gone when you're just like yeah you know what i actually did i actually did get something you didn't just walk away you know muttering and clenching your fists like you did you left it on the court which is nice yeah i think i think in a different situation like you could have been leaving a grocery store then what would you have done you know not these heads of recourse if you just like clock this kid i don't think that would make you feel better i don't know i think i'd make you feel no one's saying that no one is saying that right so that's what i'm saying like i think i i my point is that i think what you did was like

you made you kind of got a message you made the most of it the only thing is like the because i think because he's sending this email i wonder if the kid even cared that you beat him in hoops and it was kind of he probably didn't care. Like, you know, he got you in the initial thing. So like, that's probably still lingering for you. And that's a tough pill to swallow,

but yeah, you can't just like punch the kid. Cause I, I can admit, I, I just pictured like, you know, the Gen Z kid haircut with like,

you know, the short on the side, the poofy, stupid thing in the front. And like that kid's got a punchable face likely. So honestly, like shouts to you for not overreacting. Like I said,

you're going to be a doctor. Good for you. You know, he doesn't have to know that your life is awesome and his life might suck and he maybe he's not going anywhere this is the coolest thing you had is punking some older dude so uh i think you played it the right way even though you probably didn't get much satisfaction out of it yeah look i mean think about think about all the interactions where you have where you're like oh i wish i had done this i wish i had done that and you can't do anything when the kids you know i mean even if he's 25 like you don't want to have in the middle of the day you don't want to be getting in this fights okay

the guy's like wait a second at a certain point it's just unacceptable at a certain point it's unacceptable this this aggression will not stand man like at a certain point i just can't understand the motivation like clearly you're trying to figure it out and like the kids are like hey let's just mess with that guy. Were you doing anything? Was there anything that you were doing? How were you dressed? To have the balls to do that to another man who's a stranger, just to prank you or whatever so that all of your buddies could then laugh.

And then I'd like to know more of the timeline of what happened after he said that to you and ran into you and called you pussy boy. Did you immediately say, hey, let's play fours and then they were like yeah cool this is going to be awesome or they're waiting to see what you were going to do like i feel like there's part of the script is missing a little bit but the fact that you yeah nobody's nobody's telling you you're awesome because you posted up a 17 year old and worked him we are we're saying if that's what you're saying this this kid messed with you and at some point when he tucked himself in that night he had to know there's a gap there's a gap in my skill there's a gap in what i can do and you know i don't want my friends maybe had my back maybe i'm the cool guy out of the group.

Nobody wanted to give me a hard time. But there's just a little sliver of self-doubt that crept into that kid's head that I think you should feel good about. Yeah, the other thing is sometimes like those kids are looking for a reaction. That person's looking for a reaction and you didn't really give it to him.

So you didn't give him the satisfaction. Maybe he wanted you to start a fight with him, you know, and that was like his end goal. And you didn't really give it to him. So you didn't give him the satisfaction. Maybe he wanted you to start a fight with him. And that was his end goal. And you didn't do that. So I think you may have weirdly won that in a way. Because this kid is probably looking to do something more than just mess with you in that one instance. Maybe he was looking at, I don't know, is this guy going to do something? You didn't do anything.

Yeah, I did see a video of a Gen Z guy talking that insufferable slang, beating up like a 35-year-old guy. That was hard to watch. Usually it doesn't happen that way, but maybe that was one of those times. So maybe you dodged a bullet there too. Yeah, who knows? You could have gotten your ass kicked like the guy in the video.

I didn't see that video though. I hate those videos. Okay, that'll do it. Life advice has been brought to you by Modelo. This season, you deserve the mark of a fighter. The fighting spirit is something you can taste in every refreshing sip of a Modelo. Rewarding the passionate and the dedicated with a rich

authentic lager that celebrates perseverance. Modelo, official beer sponsor of the college football playoff. Shop delivery or pickup options near you at ordermodelo.com. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports Chicago, Illinois. That's life advice. Thanks to Kyle Cerruti.

Cliff on the pod today. Back on Friday, we have Cannell, as we mentioned, on Friday. So we'll spend probably a little bit more time on the college football playoff rankings. Please subscribe. Ryan Rosillo Podcast. Ringer Spotify. must be 21 and older in present select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

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