The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Howie Long on Super Bowl LV and the '80s Raiders. Plus: NBA Teams Who Know Who They Are

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

Russillo points out some NBA teams who have a clear identity (8:00) before talking with Super Bowl champion Howie Long about the Chiefs-Buccaneers Super Bowl, his early days with the Raiders, stories from his career, winning Super Bowl XVIII, and more (22:00). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:09:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Ryan Rosillo. And this is the Ryan Rosillo podcast on Ringer and Spotify. Really excited for today's guest. The Hall of Famer Howie Long is going to join us. We're going to talk all sorts of things. Broken Arrow, Super Bowl win, Raiders, Lyle Alzado. Maybe break down the Super Bowl, even everything,

because we gear up for that next week. So that's going to be fun. We'll do a little life advice, have some NBA stuff at the top little notes there, and also a message about something that I wanted to share

that happened earlier this week. Life advice, Howie Long, and a little other thing. I know this GameStop thing is just, everybody is all over it. It's incredible.

And people have asked me to break it down. I know the very remedial parts of it. I also know what it's like to take a bath because people are at work doing stuff that you don't even know what's going on. You're like, what's going on? Because, you know, you're sitting here going, okay, this whole thing's rigged, this app,

you know, shut down the trading of GameStop and some of these other Reddit stocks that everybody was driving the price up of. And, you know, I don't even want to go too deep in it because, you know, financial Twitter is like worse than Lakers Twitter. But people are like, yeah, you got to do something on the pod about the whole thing. I'd say this is if you're on the sidelines, like wanting to get in good luck. I mean, you have to be completely emotionally desensitized to really make it as somebody who can trade and handle the swings in a normal situation. And the swings specific to GameStop are all over the place. So, um, I wish you luck. I don't know that I would ever advise it, um, because this stuff is scary. And the weird thing about like the rig not being rigged and some of the really shitty things that are happening with

this story is that I think people are learning about how investing and how messed up it can be. Like they're learning about it for the first time. So it feels new, but this isn't entirely new. I'm not saying it's the exact same things of some of the bad, bad runs that I've had because you felt like, wait, you know, I picked something, I did things the right way. I saved some money. I wanted to invest. And now this thing just sort of happens. I'll never forget like one of my all time favorite. Cause I just did it. Cause I was so mad about it. But you know, like a lot of idiots in an IPO, when you're the guy sitting there at your computer being like, Hey, that's a popular stock. I'm going to buy that IPO seems low. Like I'm going to buy it. And then it's just going to go up and I'm going to buy that IPO seems low. Like I'm going to buy it and then it's just going to go up. Then I'm going to sell it,

you know? And you're just like, all right, okay, fine. And when Facebook came out, um, you know,

it was around 40, I think a share, something like that. And I was like, that, that just seems low. It just seems low. Like everybody has it.

Like if a couple billion people have something, doesn't that mean it's going to be more popular? And because the stock itself on the launch and some of the banking stuff, it was just so toxic around it. The stock went down, I believe to on the launch and some of the banking stuff, it was just so toxic around it. The stock went down, I believe, to like the 20s. And whatever it was at the time, it wasn't going to ruin my life, but it wasn't a great feeling. And it just sucks to lose. Because I was still in that emotional phase of investing where I go, why did this happen? I'm so mad. So then you start reading more about it. I think Matt Taibbi had that piece in Rolling Stone.

And he's incredible on so many different things. And it was basically like, look, the bankers had a party and everybody else picked up the tab. And I still was like, there's no way the stock is only worth this much. And granted, since that time, Facebook has ripped. But I'll never forget at ESPN, Sheryl Sandberg, who's on the board at Facebook. And if you ever read Chaos Monkeys, it was a guy that was like in the room for this stuff. And I'd read this years after I had, you know, I lost some money on it, whatever. And I just remember like reading more about it,

just being like these people, like this sucks, this sucks. And it's always kind of funny too. It's not a direct correlation to what I do, but there's a huge element of what I do where a lot of it is full of shit. Like, did this person get this job because of everything everybody said, or is this actually really what happened? And I'm sure it happens in your workplace just as much where the closer you are to something, the more you realize that it's totally full of shit. And that's this lesson that I keep trying to teach people from time to time, not to be negative about it. Um, but you just kind of go up, you know what, like, this isn't really what I thought it would be. And yet some of these people are succeeding. And then you kind of are at this crossroads where you

go, do I just join in with everybody else? Because I think that's what a lot of financial guys are doing. Whether you're a broker, whether you're running some sort of, you know, running a bunch of funds for friends and family, you know, I always kind of make the Edwards Jones joke, but I've had a couple of friends that like had their own branches and they've done really well. And they get all that where I think they go, yeah, yeah, it's kind of a messed up world in finance, but you just sign up for it and see if you can survive. Like, okay, these are the rules. They're, they're weighted against me, but there's still a way long-term to make money investing. Obviously, if no one ever made any money investing, then none of this stuff would exist. But I remember Cheryl came by ESPN to promote a book. It was this whole deal about husbands at home and the males in the relationship

providing more support. And it was actually really great, except for the part where she was constantly badgering us about signing up for Facebook accounts. So anybody that she ran across, and I was like, are we promoting a book? you just making sure was this like a big facebook sign up push like who hasn't and she had connections with disney and the whole deal and she wouldn't let it go and i've told this story before but like the third time we're in a commercial break and she's like all right ryan you need to sign up here's my sister's card she's gonna get you said i was like look i deleted it i go it just wasn't doing anything for me you know it was kind of you know you're looking at this person It's not like she's Zuckerberg over here. So it's not like it's her baby or her invention. But I was just like, look, you know, it's not really for me. And then finally, she brought it up again. I go, yeah, you know, I got kind of hosed on that IPO. So, you know, it still stings a bit. And Van Pelt's jaw just drops, puts his head down. Like, I can't believe you said that to her. And it felt good. It felt good because it was like my moment of, I didn't really know what the rules were. I tried to get my chunk, even though I didn't really understand how screwed up some of the IPO stuff is. And that's why IPOs,

like they're on a tear again now. And you're like, so what am I supposed to do? Just buy these all up now because they go up. I mean, that seems sort of flawed. So I'd say this, um, good luck. But, uh, clearly after some of the things that are written about me this past year i'm obviously rooting for the hedge funds i mean come on um and before anybody takes that totally out of context like somebody that works i don't know i could probably name the papers i'm not rooting for the hedge funds um i i hope the little guy gets his piece but i worry about the little guy and in this sense i'm the little guy all his piece, but I worry about the little guy. And in this sense, I'm the little guy. All of us that are the outsiders are the little guys. And you do the right things. You save, you want to invest, you start putting that college fund away for the 2.5 kids.

Maybe you get a boat one day. You know what I mean? All of us that want to do it the right way. And you're like, wait, what are the rules rules and that's why i think some of the financial people amazed at the coverage of this because it's really been driven by reddit turning into social media coverage and just instant instant reaction all over the place i mean everybody is talking about this gamestop thing and the price i mean i keep checking it out the whole time and i'm like i'm not doing anything with this because i know how dumb I'm going to feel if I go up. I caught it on the bad swing. But that's why I think the people that are in it are very desensitized, much like football players that hear people talk about the game of football in a way where like, did any of you guys ever play? Do you not understand this?

They're desensitized to the criticism of their own profession. this like they're desensitized to the criticism of their own profession and this is an example of so many people that are not in it paying attention to a story like this asking good questions being super critical for all the right reasons like i'm not knocking the criticism but the inside people are like yeah you know it's pretty pretty fucked up but this is the industry i work in okay a couple nba things that i want to get to before we talk to Howie Long. Just some teams that seem to know who they are, at least right now. The first one is Philadelphia.

And it's a great win against the Lakers. You know, there have been too many nights. As much as I love the NBA, I'll have a few nights, if I'm being honest with myself, where you go, you probably could have done something else the last five or six hours. Because I think there's only been one night I haven't watched almost all of it. And again,

what are we all going to do with everything that's going on, especially if you're in LA. But there are nights where the product, you're like, wait, who's out? Who's playing? Oh, what happened? I don't know what it is. I need to look into this. We need to get IT on this. But I'd love to know the record and maybe it isn't. Maybe it's just one of those things that I've caught a few of them and I think that's happening, but whoever wins the first of the back-to-backs, it feels like they lose the second, but that number, I'm sure it's out there somewhere. I didn't look it up for the purposes of this, but Philly and LA on Wednesday felt real. It felt like, wait, a game that has stakes,

a game with two of the elite teams, it seemed like people cared. I thought Embiid was incredibly aggressive. If there's one knock on Anthony Davis that you can kind of go at him, even though it doesn't always work, trust me, because he's so good defensively. But there's an alpha thing there that I think we saw with Embiid a little bit against him that was terrific. And actually, it was great, too, because the Lakers, there's some great numbers for Gasol individually defending Embiid a little bit against him that was terrific. And actually, it was great, too, because the Lakers, there's some great, great numbers for Gasol individually defending Embiid. They'd probably go back a little too far for me. But with Gasol's size, at least, and look, I'm not giving you a finals preview here,

but it just felt good to go, wait, we got a last-second shot here with Tobias Harris. The Lakers on their end had this big comeback. They ran this play. Another thing that we'll get to with the Lakers is that closing lineup. But at least for Philadelphia, we know right now they sit at 12th offensively, 5th defensively. They're number eight in net, but they're top of the East. So I thought that win was terrific.

I thought their two games against Boston, it was kind of horrifying that you pay this money to Tristan Thompson. Again, it's not a huge commitment, but it's still a lot of money. It's not like he's getting one or two million bucks here. They threw him a decent amount of cash. And I don't know that the Tristan part

is working out that great. And specifically to Embiid, if they were to face up against them, you know, that's a problem. But then again, on the Boston side, no Tatum for either of those games. So Tatum hadn't played

for like two weeks. And then there's always the Ben part. I was going through some of the Ben fourth quarter stuff and specific to like game situation. I was going through all of the Ben fourth quarter stuff and specific to like game situation. I was going through all sorts of numbers. He just doesn't shoot. He's not going to take any shots there.

Maybe you'll find something different if you want to sort it a different way. But when I was sorting all the different ways you could look at him taking shots in big moments, it's like less than a shot per game in all of those moments. Maybe it's still too early,

but it's kind of what I see. My eyes tell me, you know, he's part of the offense, but he sort of isn't, but it hasn't mattered because if they're winning games and that's really what it comes down to. So as much as we all want to see them play together in a way that's never going to happen, and we've been on this for years, the Philly part of this is, well, does it matter if it works if they're actually winning games? And that's kind of the argument ender. Whatever we wanted it to be, again, isn't going to happen. But if they were to be the one seed

and actually have a deep playoff run, does that mean it's working even if it's not working the way we want it to work? Because that's probably just a dumb thing to keep waiting for. It reminds me a little bit of the Nets thing where I've talked about how bad

their defense looks, even with Harden, because it does. But they're so incredible in the fourth quarter with that 134 per 100 possession ranking since Harden has come over. I don't know if that dipped a bit from Wednesday's game. But I'll look at the Nets again. I think they need a Matt Barnes. I think they need maybe one crazy guy. Or Draymond, because Klay's reserved.

Steph is reserved. Durant is reserved. They need one in-your-face guy on that roster. I really believe in that. I think everybody needs it. It's not impossible to win without it, but I do like to have that kind of guy. I think the Nets kind of need one of those guys,

but then I'll go, all right, does it mean they can't come out of the East? No, not what I'm saying. I just would like that kind of person on the Nets roster. The same way I'd like some of the Ben stuff to look better offensively, but if this is the way they're going to start playing throughout the rest of the season, then we have something special here. But that's the other challenge with this entire season is you'll start to get to know a team or you think you get to know a team and you can't. I really like Boston at points this year, but I don't know what to do with them I mean they they had stretches all year last year where I go I'm

just I wasn't as high on them as I needed to be you know that team still almost came out of the east and we're going to beat the Lakers in the finals not with that front line but yet when you're never collectively together where it's Kemba missing games Tatum missing games Marcus Smart thinking that he's Chris Paul you know Jalen Brown has taken it to an even further level, which I was surprised the level that he was below this. Now we're on a completely different level with him getting 27 a game. So the Celtics, when everybody's there, are going to be really, really good. But I don't know if anybody necessarily is totally separated in there. I just kind of like what I've seen from Philly. I like that win. I just like that win a lot because it

felt like a real basketball game this season. Speaking of LA, and I'll make this a little shorter, seventh offensively, far and away number one on defense. I know they look just flat against Detroit in the loss on Thursday night. Number one in net going into that game, but the

small unit they used to close as much as Anthony Davies. Every time I'm watching the Lakers, there's a few things here with the Lakers that I really love. One is I think they know exactly who they are, even though they're new pieces. And this gives them a massive advantage over everybody else trying to figure this stuff out. All right. I mean, even with the losses this week, not a big deal. I just, I like who they are and there could be an even worse stretch in the regular season. And it's, it's probably just not going to throw me off of them. The other part of this is the small unit they used to close,

where it's Davis LeBron, Dennis Schroeder, and then KCP and Alex Caruso. Caruso's in there defensively, and fortunately for them on the Harris call, they got him in the switch. Harris got enough size to shoot over the top of him. So whatever. Not the end of the world there. But that's always the thing that we wanted, and we saw more in the playoffs, where Davis just doesn't want to play the five. And they've done these big lines,

because Saul's been more involved than I thought he would be. Montrez has had his moments, and they've definitely tried to get him involved in the offense a little bit more, all while LeBron is doing all this stuff and just hitting a million shots. I mean, his three-point shooting this year from LeBron is just so stupid. I mean, he's hitting unbelievable shots every night. That game against Cleveland where he goes for 40, I'm like, who is this guy? So I like that this small unit that also has Caruso and Pope as their best three-point shooters that are out there. And then in a very limited sample here in 19 minutes from

some, I was reading their 51 net rating in those 19 minutes. So not a ton, but you're seeing it a little bit more now on the last stretch of games that they've had. And finally, where are my jazz fans at? You're like, how about us, dude? Yep. 14 and four best record in the NBA. I think a full game now better than the Lakers. They were four and four. They've won 10 in a row. I was listening to the Woj pod. He had Mike Conley on. I suggest you listen to it because Conley was so great in the confidence that he'd had in himself off of last year's bad season because Conley's numbers, if you go by certain metrics, the worst season he had had in about 10 years. Now, some of the raw numbers don't look that much better. He's shooting it better. He's passing it better. And he just looks like

a different guy who his personality is such. And Conley is, you know, he's one of the few guys I've got to meet a couple times. He's so likable. He's so nice that this is just a theory. I almost feel like him being new with Mitchell and Gobert already in place and a jazz team that's been pretty good, that he was a little too deferential in his first year with him. And then he misses time with the injury. And then he comes back against the jazz.

You're like, oh, wait, like this is the guy. Like I never really felt like we got the version of him in the first run through before the injury that I expected him to be in Utah because I've always felt like he can play in a bunch of different ways. He can play on, he can play off the ball. You can use him as a spot shooter.

But it felt like he wasn't playing the game mentally aggressive enough last season. That has been different this year. And then you get the rest of this stuff. They're No. 5 in offense. They're No. 3 in defense. No. 3 in net rating overall. No. 1 in net rating since they put together this run.

They're the best rebounding team in the NBA. And if you look at the advanced stuff, here's who's up from last year. So where are they from last year to this year? Conley is up. Gobert is up. Royce O'Neal's even up. Ingles is way up. Clarkson is way up.

Favors is up marginally. Donovan Mitchell's the same, but ever since Shaq said, hey, you're not Jordan, basically, and I know that I'm being a little dramatic with that, but I think that turned into like, okay, Shaq was just saying, I don't think you're in that top, top tier, and it's kind of weird to say to a dude, but I'd rather that than a college basketball show where it's a bunch of former college basketball coaches defending every single college basketball coach because they're all waiting to get a job again or they don't want to make anybody upset at all their banquets. So when I look at the Mitchell stuff, like he's been the same. The only guy that's really down is Bogdanovich. OK, so there you go.

Everybody is better except for one guy. Bogdanovich has been shooting worse this year. Another has gone through like another bad stretch after looking like he was going to fix it a bit earlier this month. But that's who you have with the Jazz. I mean, there's just a lot of stuff there that makes them complete, and they do have more options. And Gobert, the blocking and the rebounding is way up, which means he's more engaged, which means the defense is more engaged. And it's all without really taking any more shots. He's about the same shots as he was last year. And Bogdanovich can't continue to play this poorly. You know, they're going to have

some dips here a little bit. But we're talking about seven of the eight guys in the rotation that are basically outperforming who they were last year. Oh, one last final kind of NBA observation note here. Hey, I know it sucks for Bradley Beal,

but at the end of the Houston game, I'm starting to think it's a little bit too much. And I like Beal. There's no, you're not going to hear any anti-Beal. The only time I've ever been down on Beal is probably because I loved him so much out of Florida. Seriously, that's how much I loved him that I felt like he was almost a little underwhelming

based on my own personal expectations for him. And so now he's been that guy. And I know that it's not a fun time to get out there and have the worst record in the NBA. By the way, they have the worst record in the NBA, and they're only two and a half games out of the eighth seed in the East. So, Wiz fans, don't give up. I couldn't believe that when I saw it. Worst record in the league, two and a half out.

Oh, but let's add play-in games, too, just in case. All right. So, the Beal pouting deal, I personally am – I get it, but I'm also over it. And according to some, they'd say he wanted Westbrook there. Honestly, if I were a Wizards fan, I'd want Wall back. Like, can we have him back? Because, you know, Westbrook now, he's hurt. That's the excuse.

Maybe he's dinged up. Maybe he's never going to be the same guy, but he's still going to be like, all right, fine, he's hurt. So what does that mean? I'm still going to get 20 shots up again. And you know, we can talk about, you know, you're, you're in the wrong by not speaking out. You're in the wrong. If you're a professional NBA broadcaster and you look at Westbrook and go, yeah, you still get a triple double. You're a part of the problem. I would say in this instance, not speaking out about Westbrook's triple-double because he's right there again. He's like a.3, I think, rebound away from averaging a triple-double. Anybody that's going, well, you know, in defense of Westbrook,

just out, out. He'll be out for the rest of the year on any of that kind of talk. Coming up next, Howie Long. The great Howie Long joins us, Hall of Famer, long career with the Raiders, and it's good to catch up, man. How are you doing? I'm doing good. Folks out there who are alarmed by your minimalist background should realize that that's just an extra bedroom. That's actually not your room.

That's just an extra bedroom. It's not, that's actually not your room. And, you know, people are probably thinking about finding you and getting you help. And I appreciate it. All right. He's yeah. That's the golf club room. That's where he puts his golf clubs. It's been kind of fun to see some of the reaction.

Like somebody, somebody, it was somebody else in the media, I think, doesn't like me. And they tweeted out, like, this is what happens when you leave ESPN. And it was just like a screenshot of me in this room. And for me, I can kind of laugh about it because it's right. It is a spare bedroom, but it does look bad. And I just, you know, when you're by yourself, you're like, okay, I'm going to get shades. You're like, how much is it? You're like, God, they're so expensive.

And then you go, you know what? I don't need the downstairs. They are expensive, but I'll give you a, I'll give you a real great tip. Home Depot does, you measure your windows and you do the interior measurement and they cut it up for you right there. And they're actually pretty nice. See, there we go. And they're actually pretty nice. See? There we go. That's not even an ad.

They're Montana. We put some of those in in Montana. And I put some in our office building here in Virginia. And you know what? I like ESPN a lot. I mean, obviously, I think it you know, it's almost kind of like Johnny Carson, where, you know, as a kid, I grew up and Johnny Carson was on at 11 o'clock in our house every night.

My grandmother was watching Johnny Carson. It's just, you know, you instinctually at 11 o'clock put on SportsCenter. And that's great, but it's a cast of literally it's like Spartacus. It's a cast of literally, it's like Spartacus. It's a cast of thousands. So you leaving there, you know, finding your own way is probably a good thing. Yeah, right. And Spartacus, you lost track of people. So that's a good analogy.

He did. You just can't see that kind of movie anymore. You really can't. This is crazy. I started watching it the other night. There was a bunch of them on sale. Ben Hur was there in The Great Escape. Oh, it's great.

The robe, you know, I watched them all. There's not enough overtures anymore. I forgot. I turn on Ben Hur and I go, how long is this? And it's six and a half minutes. Well, there's a pause with some beautiful artwork and music. Yeah. I don't know whether that's just the Christian thing

to do so you go to the bathroom. Charlton Heston, I met him a while back, thankfully before he passed. That was a treat. I never met Kirk Douglas. What was the Charlton Heston meetup like? How did that go? Was that like an acting class

you were taking? No, he came to the charles heston meet up like how did that go was that like an acting class you were taking no he came to um he came to the the movie premiere that i did for for firestorm yeah uh and was it was really nice he was just a nice guy i've got a nice picture of him here in the office nice guy and you know he was kind enough to say, really good film. Have you, you know, I don't know because sometimes I'm, have you ever started to think that you're starting to look like him a little bit

which is a huge compliment? I don't know. He did okay, I guess, for a long time. You know, listen, Chris was explaining to me last night as he was putting Uh, you know, listen, Chris was, Chris was explaining to me last night as he was putting on, you know, uh, uh, face lotion or whatever, you know, just some kind of, you know, hydrate hydration, skin hydration product. I said, yeah, I use those all the time.

That's why he's always glowing. That's, that's a good one i i don't know if chris had shared with you because i saw broken arrow was on the other day and it was kind of on it's on every every day on one of the 500 channels on satellite tv it's on all the time i get i get a residual check for you know maybe four or five bucks every once in a while. It's like, it's, I used to call it sneaker money, but that's obviously no longer sneaker money. No, because you've got Skechers just hooking you up left and right. So you don't need to use that money. I am. I said, have I ever made it? I would have a full refrigerator and I'd have all the sneakers I could possibly want. And I'm, I'm golden. So you're good. You're good. They've really stepped it up. So I've got some great stuff.

Yeah. They're all over the place here in Manhattan beach. You could, you could, if they change the name of this town to Skechers beach, I don't know that I'd be shocked. The, the, the, the owner, the founder, he was really sharp and early in, I think in the seventies and the eighties bought a lot of property there. Yeah. He's got a ton. Yeah. And,

and their, their campus, their main campus on Sepulveda is, which I called for the first year in LA Sepulveda. And yeah, if you wanted to remove any doubt that I was from Boston, I called it Sepulveda. And,

you know, I called Rodeo, Rodeo. You know, I don't blame you on the Rodeo one. Before I get to start in the career and everything, did Chris tell you though, after the last time I watched Broken Arrow, how much I felt like Travolta just was a scene stealer when you're in the Jeep together? Like, I just feel like he wouldn't let you breathe at all. And, you know, sometimes in basketball, you got to let the other guy shoot. And he was just not giving you the rock at all. And you just had to sit there smiling and gazing at him.

And I regret it on your behalf. Well, it was what? No, I appreciate that. But it's a John Travolta, you know, driven movie. And I was only supposed to be actually I was only supposed to be there for two three weeks and I was supposed to die early on and John cut a big hole in the water when he walked on the set and

huge star particularly at that point you know I watched that Bee Gees you ever watch a Bee Gees documentary recently? I've caught some of it I need to watch the whole thing because I know it's great it's really good. You don't realize how big they were.

And, you know, you're younger than me. And that was when I was in college. That whole disco thing hit. And John Travolta was the biggest star in the world. And it was fun to drive around in the Humvee and have a good time. And John would stop periodically in the middle of the desert and say how's your energy i said you know it's good i'm good and he'd say i think we need some cookies and you know they'd stop and they'd send a helicopter and

they'd go get some cookies we're in the middle of no we're in the dead center of the state of montana and shooting some of that stuff. It was great. John couldn't have been any nicer. No kidding. That's funny. He was great. Unless you had to run for cookies. What was harder for you, going from Charlestown to Milford or going from the East Coast out to become a Raider after leaving Villanova?

Charlestown to Milford was a challenge. You know you know i mean there were just a lot of challenges i was very fortunate you know i had an aunt and uncle who you know had four kids two two were adopted and they you know my uncle worked in the projects at D Street Projects and was, you know, driving at 530 in the morning into Boston every day and driving home in a Maverick with a hole on the floor the size of a basketball. So it was a challenge, I think, for them more so than me, you know, particularly the older I get, the more I realize how significant it was that, you know, they took me in. And I had never played organized sports and went up there to Milford and really didn't kind of fit in. One, it was really quiet. I didn't sleep the first three months

because when you're used to that L train, you know, going by every 10 minutes in Charlestown, L train, you know, going by every 10 minutes in Charlestown, right down there off of Main Street. You know, that's a quiet, quiet place. And, you know, it was a, if I hadn't hit that fork in the road and went to Milford, you know, I wouldn't be where I am for obvious reasons. And, you know, Dick Corbin, my high school coach, and, you know, two or three guys that were kind of instrumental in my development there as a player. And I wasn't really a good player when I left there. But when I left my uncle and aunts, I was 6'5", 220. And, you know, we were kind of working on a budget there you know macaroni and cheese and that kind of thing and went down to Villanova got a meal card and you know lifted

for the first time and I was 265 when camp opened and started as a freshman at 17 years old. What was that first year like for you then because I'm wondering like are you doubting yourself you've got a bunch of crazy older guys on that team. It's a great organization. You've got Al Davis. What was that like? There was a lot to it. When you go from Villanova where there's a priest on every floor in the dorm,

it's that kind of environment. To the Oakland Raider locker room, guys are smoking Salem Lights, playing cards. It's a different environment. guys are smoking Salem lights, playing cards and, you know, it's a different environment. And, you know, you look around and it's Gene Upshaw, Art Schell, you know, Cliff Branch, Ted Hendricks, that whole group was there. Reggie Kinlaw, Matt Millen. It was a great group, but, you know, it was an eye opener for me. And certainly from a physical standpoint, you know, first was an eye-opener for me, and certainly from a physical standpoint.

You know, first day, you're doing pit drills one-on-one in the box. I'm looking at the backup tackle, and Earl Leggett, my defensive line coach, had worked it out with Art that he was going to slide me in in place of Dave Browning, I think it was, to go one-on-one with Art. And Art just about broke my ribs and cracked my cheekbone. And I was like, wow, we're not playing Delaware anymore. So it was a transition. I lived with a guy named Cedric Hardman, who was Joe Green's roommate at North Texas State. Cedric was a great pass rusher for the 49ers. They called him the Gold Rush.

Cedric was a great pass rusher for the 49ers. They called him the gold rush. At that time, him and Cleveland Elam and Jimmy Page, they were a great, great defensive front. He passed this year, and Joe and I spoke at his service, and that kind of brought that whole kind of year back. And Cedric had a red Eldorado convertible and I had a Coupe de Ville and we were living in Oakland and playing in Oakland. I was making 38 grand.

My check was $1,007 a week. You moved to LA the second year. I actually kind of want to date. We stayed in, we moved in LA as a team, but we stayed in Oakland, practiced in Oakland and every game was a road game. So none of you guys moved to LA because you had to be in Oakland?

No, I lived in a hotel room at the Oakland Airport Hilton with Lyle Alzado in a single room with two queen bets for an entire season. What was that like? Oh boy. Lyle was, uh, Lyle was the best. Uh, you know, he was, it was a rainbow of emotions with him, you know, great player, uh, had a big impact on me as a young player. But Marcus Allen and one of our linebackers lived across the hall. And Lyle, at 9 o'clock, he'd get a piece of chocolate cake and a glass of milk. And right after that, he'd shut the TV and the lights off and didn't even ask if I was, you know, done watching TV. So I would get a, periodically I'd get a roll away and go over to Marcus's room and, uh, and sleep over there, watch TV and, you know, hang out. But, uh, La was just like Cedric, Cedric

Hardman, who I lived with my first year, uh, kind of pulled me aside and said, you know, hey, you're going to live with me. So we split the room. And I remember the first trip we made down to L.A., Lyle and I took a cab to every game, you know, right after pregame. Everybody else waited an hour. And, you know, we'd like to get there early. And we didn't know anything about L.A LA and the cab took us to Dodger Stadium. Could you imagine Lyle when that happened?

Were you ever, was Lyle so on edge? Cause I know you've, you've talked about it and, you know, plenty of times. I mean, this has, this has been covered, but that he was always in a bad mood and he wasn't, Lyle wasn't always in a bad mood. You just had to kind of gauge your gauge, how you, how you approach the day with the good morning or the first hello.

You could kind of tell, um, listen, you know, if, if you want to go to the extreme, he was a madman and, and, and that's not accurate. I mean, he was, he was a sweetheart of a guy. He was a philanthropic. He was kind. He was also, you know, extremely angry at times. Uh, so I don't know where all that fits but you know that's who he was yeah no i'm glad you kind of changed it because i didn't i guess the sense i've gotten read about it is that like you knew when he was in a bad mood like you could tell from the instant that he woke up right and

then game day game day he was it sounds like he was just walk in he would get dressed everything but his shoulder pads get taped up put his cleats on, his pants on, you know, the gray T-shirt and shorts and put his game pants on, lay down on the floor and go to sleep. He would literally just sleep in the locker room. And then, you know, we'd wake him up and or he kind of had his own kind of alarm clock in his head and he woke up and put the rest of his stuff on when i'm playing and he definitely played angry you win a super bowl just a few years in you were um that's the 83 team you were 10 and a half point underdogs to theismann and washington and it like, like I've talked to so many guys over the years where, you know,

if the underdog wins or like, Hey, we never had a doubt. We never had a doubt. And there's plenty of people that don't do that interview where they're saying, Hey, we never had a doubt.

We still got smoked anyway. But the mindset of that group of guys, you know, that, that go down in NFL history is this tough, like there's tough in the NFL, but your group is always one of those outliers of another level of tough. What was that lead-up like to that game and just the confidence that you had against a team that everybody was picking because of who Washington had been and that offensive line?

Well, it's multifaceted. It was a unique team. We had lost to Seattle twice during the year, and it was just one of those deals where you just, it was a funny team. It was a team that when they, when we showed up and we were mentally right and focused and locked in, we could beat anybody. And then there were the two weeks versus Seattle. And there were the two weeks versus Seattle. And then we dominate Seattle in the AFC championship game at the Coliseum with 102,000 people in the stadium. And it's great.

Earlier in the year, we had lost to Washington. Marcus was out. Cliff Branch pulled a hamstring early in the game. And oddly enough, we were beaten late in the game on a Joe Washington screen pass, backed up second and long. Now fast forward to the Super Bowl. Second and long, we pull Matt Mellon. Jack Squirek goes in the game. He's spying Joe Washington.

And sure enough, we were on a jet-rep blue slash. I remember like it was yesterday. I slant inside. Ted Hendricks comes inside. We bring the safety off the corner. Joe was backed up and kind of pressured and floated the ball to Joe Washington. And ideally, if we don't have a spy on with Jack Skwirek, it's kind of the perfect play versus the blitz. And Jack, in stride, catches it, runs it in for a touchdown, and the rest is history. But we knew we were, you know, I never really focused on point spreads, but that was such an extreme point spread.

And they were very confident, justifiably so. extreme point spread. And they were very confident, justifiably so. You've got to remember that offense had set a scoring record that lasted until the Randy Moss, Chris Carter Vikings. So put that in perspective. And when you look at them on film, they were dominating people. I mean, it was counter 66, counter 67, play action pass, wide receivers were great. They were very physical. And really it was like styles make fights and styles make games. We matched up well against them physically. We were, we ran a straight three, four, and it wasn't one of those bells and whistles three four where everyone's slanting every play we just lined up and and the thought process was

look we've got mike canes we've got lester hayes um we're going to be in one you know more often than not and we're going to line up and we're just going to be vanilla and we're going to line up, and we're just going to be vanilla, and we're going to beat you up physically. And that's what happened. Yeah, because statistically, it actually surprised me in kind of looking up some of the stuff. You guys weren't actually this incredible statistical defense, but then once the playoffs started, you dominate the Steelers. You dominate the Seahawks, as you mentioned.

And then, I mean, it's 38-9 against the Heisman in that offensive line. And what was, you know, an incredible, incredible watch. They went 14-2 that year and you smashed them. They were a great team. And, you know, interestingly enough, and I didn't realize this, and I came to know this when I spoke at Joe Gibbs' charity banquet a few years back and came to realize before they almost made a couple of trades with us. One was we traded for, we traded Lachey, our tackle, for Jay Schrader.

Okay. Yeah. And, you know, you just, the background of the impact that that had on our team and their team, et cetera. And they had every reason to be confident. I mean, as I said, when I look at them on film and I watched a lot of film, uh, they were dominant and you're like, Oh my gosh, how do we stop this? And it's like, how do you eat an elephant? How do you climb a mountain? It's, you know, it's one, it's one punch, one step at a time, and that's

what you got to do. And that team, when it was locked in and focused, could beat anybody. As it pertains to this kind of matchup with Tampa and Kansas City, Howie, I mean, the spread certainly isn't something like that. I look at Kansas City, how he, you know, I don't, I mean, the spread certainly isn't something like that. Um, I look at Kansas City and it almost doesn't matter what their defense is. I feel like they're one of these high powered NBA teams where you go, you know, fine, we don't really stop anybody, but are you ever going to stop us? How does someone like Mahomes change what you do at the edge? And I don't even know if there's a Mahomes necessarily that you compare it to in your era, but just, he changes, he changes everything. It's like John Elway. John Elway would probably be the closest thing to that.

Yeah, that's good, actually. That's perfect. So what you end up doing is, as a defensive end, particularly in a 3-4, you're almost head up and you're in a two-gap stance. And you're not really rushing the quarterback on first or second down. You're hoping to get the third down and kick inside over the guard into a three technique and cut it loose. And even then, with John, particularly in the red zone, everything transformed into kind of a press-the-pocket approach. You couldn't come underneath, particularly on his ball hand

side. If you come underneath on his ball hand side, he's bootlegging out and now coverage is extended from 2.5, three seconds to five or six seconds. And John could throw the ball, you know, the ball, you know, 65 yards on a dime back across the field and eat you up that way. So John would be a great comparison. This guy's off platform throws. And it's almost like when, when the first, you saw it last week where he got immediate pressure and And it's like a crossover step, duck, pivot, come back, throw sidearm. You're almost better off not getting there quickly because he can avoid that first rusher extremely well. I think the people that have had success against them or, you know, the model for success certainly would be controlling the football, trying to steal two, three, four possessions, win the time of possession, play coverage,

force them to be patient. There's such an, it's like asking a Ferrari to go 55. And you're constantly trying to kind of press their patience level and forcing them to do something they wouldn't necessarily do, force a throw into coverage. But that defense, Spagnola's defense, particularly at the end of the year, last year was a big key. And I got to tell you, the coverage that they put on last week was really amazing. To hold coverage, to plaster a receiver for that long, even when Allen would break the know, break the pocket down, extend a play, coverage gets extended by two, three seconds. For them to cover that long,

there was no place for him to go. They played man. They were physical on receivers at the line. Now, that being said, this Tampa Bay offense, which has been kind of a work in progress for 17 weeks plus postseason, and really kind of, I think, hit their stride over the last six, seven weeks. Some say, you know, maybe after the bye or, you know, whatever. But I think they needed to figure out a way to find a happy medium between Bruce's offense and what Tom's accustomed to. For example, Tom is perfectly comfortable with a 10, 12, 13-play drive, playing mistake-free football, and methodically just going down the field and scoring.

Once again, it's kind of like Kansas City. Bruce is explosive. Bruce wants to take the ball over the top. Bruce wants to attack. And finding a middle ground for them, and if you notice, the protection suddenly got better over the last six, seven weeks when they started running the football, running play-action pass, and 6-7 in protection.

A lot of times, Gronk left in an in-line protection, and maybe Gronk versus Washington, he was blocking the defensive end one-on-one in pass protection. But when you have 6'7 in protection initially and like a late leaker, you know, out of the backfield, he's more comfortable. It allows the routes. You get more free runners because teams start to adjust

to Fournette and Jones pounding. I mean, Fournette really, really, and he, it has, it's, look, it's been a year of kind of, you know, it's been this kind of year for Fournette too. Fournette came over there and one game he was an actor. He was a healthy scratch. You're not a healthy scratch. This is a different guy.

This is a different guy right now. Unless there's a problem. Right. And, and the impact that he's had on Jones. And Jones, unless you're on the West Coast and you saw him in college, my gosh, is he powerful, dynamic. And his health is a big key. And certainly the two weeks is huge for that part of the equation, also for A.B.

But they're loaded at receiver. for that part of the equation, also for AB, but they're loaded at receiver. Evans is big, physical, competitive, tough, great in the red zone. Tom seems to have kind of developed a rapport with him. Braid has become, you know, what Gronk was in New England. He's been that guy, and Gronk's been, you know, kind of limited to in-line blocking and occasional. And he had the one big catch last week, which was big,

which was close to, you know, towards the end of the game, sealing the game. But, you know, I think when you look at them, Godwin is Antonio Brown, healthy Tom, you know, to say been there, done that is, is an understatement. And the confidence that he gives is kind of the, I'll give you an old movie reference, Charlton Heston, El Cid. Here we go. It's the El Cid factor. When he walks in the huddle, everyone suddenly believes. And it's true. I think he has that kind of an impact on that football team. And I said this last week on our show, everyone does the prerequisite amount of preparation, practice, meeting, all that. Then Tom walks

in the building and you, you, you blow all that up and you realize that that was, that was less than what's required to be great individually and collectively. And I, and I think he's raised the level of understanding of preparation and toughness and winning championships and what it takes to win championships. And they look to him. There's no question. There's a lot of names. You go Devin White here. You could go some of the edge guys.

Is he the best defensive player in this game, or is it Chris Jones? Chris Jones is such a great player. I love him. And people from the East Coast might not necessarily know that because it's AFC West, and you're not watching those games a lot. But Chris Jones is a great player. This kid is a 245-pound heat-seeking missile. He was a great player in college.

He kind of figured some things out last year as a rookie and has really become the physical leader of that football team. But JPP has been great down there. That's, that's another one. And, you know, their other guy had two sacks last week.

They, and, and look, you look at Kansas city, where's the weakness right now? It's injury to the offensive line. Yeah, and it's still, I mean, not having Schwartz, and people sort of forget that this is a guy that graded out as one of the best offensive linemen ever. Well, and their left tackle went down last week, too.

Yeah, Fisher, right. Yeah, so that's a problem. down last week yeah fisher right yeah so that's a problem um and todd bowles has a way of dialing things up and jpp presents and his his size and length you forget how good jpp was and is uh you know and he had the unfortunate you know accident, accident that, uh, derailed him for a couple of years, but, uh, he looks great down there and they get Vita Vea back and he's got one move and it's kind of, you know, I'm three 50 and I'm coming right through your inside shoulder with a rip move and stop me. Uh, I, I like them.

I really do. And they're, they're secondaries is very young. That's going to be a challenge. They're aggressive. They play a lot of man. That will be a challenge. It'll be interesting to see how Todd Bowles kind of plays this game. And Todd Bowles, that's another example of why we need to, the league needs to kind of push the interview process back beyond the playoffs beyond the Super Bowl a guy like Todd Bowles who I think

was you know just unfairly treated in New York I'd agree with that big Todd Bowles fan okay I have a few questions research related here yeah did you when you were with the Raiders, hand your son Chris to a fan to get into a fight with someone?

Yeah, it was a bad day. What happened? I was in the parking lot at the Coliseum, and you're young. Chris went to very few games as a kid because I was afraid of the crowd, and I didn't want to worry about that because I wanted to focus on what I was doing and I didn't want to worry about him. And he came to this one game and I was injured. I had torsion ligaments in my ankle and I was close to coming back, but I wasn quite there and I was there was some fan a couple

of drunk fans in the stands who were yelling at me the whole game and uh and then I was going into the the player parking lot was you know at the Coliseum was wasn't security you know, at the Coliseum was, wasn't security, you know, kind of carted off and it was just a regular parking lot and anybody could walk in there. And I see these guys coming down the Coliseum, but by where the buses go in, you know, at the Coliseum, right across the street, that's where the parking lot was. And now I'm thinking, you know, okay, the switch is on. I'm going to, you know, I've got a problem here and I'm going to, I'm going to take care of it right now. And, you know, I was signing something for this guy and he was really nice, him and his wife. wife and i said would you mind taking my son in your car for a second and you know and now these guys come and they want to make friends of course

you know which was awkward to say the least but you know and i took chris and we we got out of there fortunately there was no arrests and no assault or anything. What was it like? Cause I don't know if any of us true. Cause you know, you just mentioned the Lyle Zato thing. It's you and a motel and a couple of Queens. And I'm thinking,

okay, how could, how could you have not been, what was it like going out? Cause I know you're, I know you're not as rowdy as people may think you are because you're a big Howie Long Raiders. You're a pretty buttoned up guy, but other guys weren't.

So how did you fit in? Yeah, I've never really been a go-out guy. And Lyle wasn't a go-out guy. So, you know, it worked out well. I mean, you know, there really wasn't a lot to do. I mean, you know, you're up there in a hotel room with a 34 year old guy 33 year old guy uh who shuts the light off at nine o'clock so you know what is there to do that's still so great that he wouldn't even ask you

you'd be in the middle of a show and just go well i guess the show was over at nine and someone just asked me that question said did you what did you ever just kind of say to him you know hey i don't think this is working out he said okay how do i start that conversation you know it's kind of like big brother little brother i'm you know i'm i'm a young guy i'm 22 years old and lyle has been through everything and he's you know it's like you go to gold's gym and he's benching 570 and he's like hey you got to spot me on this i'm like whoa wait a second if you drop that on you i i i can't promise you i'm getting that off you just spot me dead lifting 570 off another guy's chest no i'm saying you would be spotting him dead lifting it off of him no just i don't know what that would be that would be like a bent over

row yeah it'd be even worse way even worse i mean there's i got no shit he's dead i've got no shot the bar when you put 570 on it for those of you who haven't put 570 on the bar it bends a little bit so try to imagine that you know uh yeah no we had some great times i mean he lived in manhattan beach in the tree section and uh we would go there a lot after games and him and cindy his wife at that point um you, you know, she was great. And Justin, their son who, you know, uh, who was just a toddler at that time. So it was great. It was a great time. Okay. Last one. What happened when Al Davis, as you, I, were you about to be inducted into the hall of fame? Was it a year out? He wanted you to come out of retirement four years later and play still.

Oh, he called me. Um, I was in Hawaii at the pro bowl. And at that time, you know, and, and I didn't know, I, I didn't understand. I didn't know that he understood, he knew this, but I mean, he had kind of eyes and tentacles everywhere. I was still playing basketball at UVA. I'd go over there and play pickup basketball when I retired. First five years. So I'm going in the Hall of Fame.

I'm just about to turn 40. And I get a call from Fudgie who's the assistant in the office and she said Mr. Davis would like to talk to you this this evening you know at such and such time are you available I said sure and we had talked a lot because I retired in what was in his mind prematurely. And he, we get on the phone and he said, you know, Howard called me Howard, you know, always called me Howard. My grandmother and Al Davis always called me Howard. And he said, you know, congratulations.

You were one of the dominant disruptive players in the game, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, thanks a bunch. And, you know, and he said, you know, no Hall of Famer has ever come back. And I said, okay, where's this going? And he said, I'd like to offer you, you know, I think it was a two or three year guaranteed deal to come back and come in on third down. And for a split second, you know, it's funny how many things can go through your mind in like a split second. And then I just said, you're out of your freaking mind.

And we left it at that. But yeah, he offered me a contract to come back when I was 39. And he said, I know you're in shape. I know what you're doing back there in Virginia. And I was like, how do you know that? Were you crushing these pickup hoops games or something? What was going on? What's that?

Were you that good at pickup hoops that he was like, all right, he's still got it? You know what? I think he just knew that I could still run. If you can run, you can play. But little did I know, right on deck was neck surgery and back surgery. And fortunately, I didn't bite at that. you know, little did I know right on deck war was neck surgery and back surgery. And, you know, uh, and fortunately I didn't, I didn't bite at that. Uh, and you know, Chris had to make that

decision too. And, you know, Kyle had neck fusion. Uh, I was there when he had his shoulder and his elbow done simultaneously as ankle reconstructed. Um, you know, it's just, uh, it's a tough business, tough business, you know, particularly when you're looking at it from the vantage point of a 60 year old, you know, versus a 29 year old, 30 year old, 31, 32 year old, you're trying to relate to them, you know, what this is going to be like down the road. Um, I get it now and I played hurt and got shot up and did all those things. And, you know, uh, and you, you've been behind the curtain and you understand what's behind the curtain and

you try to relay that as best you can to your sons. And we were fortunate enough to have two sons that played and had, we had a lot of thrills. Boy, oh boy, you know, just, I remember getting stuck in traffic at the NFC championship game in Philadelphia. And it was, it was, when I tell you it was chaos, it was like, uh, what's the movie, the election movie, The Purge. Yeah. It looked like The Purge. Downtown Philadelphia looked like The Purge. And we couldn't, they had the streets were blocked off getting to our hotel. We stayed at the Ritz down there in Philly. And the cops told us, well, you can't get down there.

Best thing you can do is park right here and walk seven blocks through the crowd. And fortunately, Chris Long's our son and they've just won an NFC championship and they're going to the Superbowl. And little did we know they're going to the Superbowl and they're going to beat the New England Patriots. God, those moments were amazing. Yeah, I can't imagine. I remember sending you a text. So much better than any moments that I had as a player. Your kids are, it's such a thrill.

You know, and Chris, who, you know, God bless bless st louis but he was playing in a dimly lit mall for you know eight years and had 42 or 43 sacks in four years and nobody knew um you know and that's you know he's he someone, as you know, is a deep thinker and thinks about that kind of stuff a lot. Yeah, we've had some good conversations over the years, and I'm really lucky to be able to have some good conversations with him. I get I get the dark ones on Sunday nights. Yeah, no, I'm there. He's there. He's there for me. And it's kind of a weird thing that this late in life become such good friends with somebody like Chris. But I he's one of a kind.'m really happy um that you know it like i always joke with my buddies i'm like we never make new friends and for me you know i don't know

i've known chris for a while to become as close as we have and then to have you invite me out me get to stay with you and the family and getting to know kyle and montana's a special place yeah it's been uh it's been a cool it's a cool deal to be able to tell my my father my buddy is i was like yeah i'm sitting with howie last night watching law and order telling telling charlestown stories so down there in that bad neighborhood where your folks are yeah out in martha's vineyard trying to stay safe martha's vineyard i told you this i think might as well have been brazil for me Charlestown. I knew it existed. It was on the

map, but getting there would be like, you know, the Nina, the Pinton, the Santa Maria. It was, you know, no. No. Yeah, I can't imagine there was... When I retired, Diane and I went and looked, because I had this

kind of fantasy about, you know, we could pick anywhere in the country. We're going to retire. I want to get out of L.A. I want to raise the three boys somewhere, you know, that I think will give them a shot at normalcy. And we looked everywhere. And we had no preconceived idea. And one of the destinations we looked at was Cape Cod and I went down there and I wanted to see every place at its worst so I went there in the dead of winter

and you know what it's like in the dead of winter you know oh yeah as lively and as vibrant as it is in the summertime it comes to a screeching halt in the wintertime and there's nothing there. So I passed on that, uh, that little romantic idea went right out the window. No, a lot of those places are real, real cool in a setting, but at least they got a bridge, man. You know, when it, when it was hungry, when I was in high school, when you were hungry and not anybody's going hungry, but like seven o'clock. And if you hadn't bought groceries, you know, not to anybody who's going hungry, but like seven o'clock. And if you hadn't bought groceries, you know, you, there's, that's it. I couldn't imagine. That was it. There was no, there was no options.

I remember a couple of college buddies came down to visit and we were goofing off and like the, some beach thing, we were going to get together and get beers and go down on the beach. And they were like, you know, do you have any beers here? And I was like, well, you know, I think I saw that in a shark movie. I think it was Jaws, right? Jaws was Jaws. Yeah. Amityville is Eggertown, but they, uh, we used to have beach parties. And the funny thing is the cops would bust us in high school and, you know, they just knew

everybody. So you had to really screw up to have anybody get on your case too much. And then like, I think one of the cops was a hockey coach. So he'd be like, all right, hockey idiots, you guys stand over here. All right, you guys over here. And then there'd always be like a construction guy to be like, and then the funny thing that started happening, although it's not funny for the people that had the houses is there was this crew of guys that were older because people don't understand this. Like everybody thinks, you know, silver spoon and all that stuff at the vineyard. But there was a lot of high school kids that were blue collar kids. That's families found a way to still live out there and make a living. Or bought the house in the fifties when it was $20,000.

Exactly. So there's a lot of like old, you know, there's, there's a collection of last names of historic families that have been on the vineyard for centuries. So there'd be the guys that would graduate college or excuse me, graduate high school. And then there was no college that was it. And so once high school was over and then they were kind of like, Hey, where's the high school party? It's like, Hey, where's the high school party? It's like, hey, you're 20. Like, what are you doing? And, you know, they beat some of us up.

And then because they were so frustrated that, hey, this was going to be there. They were just going to be there the rest of their lives. And then this crew started finding different summer houses in different beach villages. And they'd throw these huge parties. And people would be like, this house is amazing. Like, whose house is this? It'd be like, oh, it's so-and-so's uncle or it's a this guy or it's that guy and then the cops would raid them and then you find out it was just some summer guy's house and they were breaking into them and just sort of

doing the rounds and separating them all over the place and we were younger so we weren't part we didn't know other than hey we heard there's a party in katama there's a party in right fork oh there's a party at kwan su there's a party you know because you're just trying to find anything and there was this this group of guys that had been out of high school that just said, screw it. And they were throwing this array of parties at all these different summer houses that were breaking into a house and they throw a party all the time. And then it's, then it became, it got really weird because a lot of the Cape Cod laborer types were cheaper than some of the vineyard guys.

And so then we were hearing stories about how they were squatting different summer houses. And it got so blatant, they would just park there, live there for a couple months, do a job somewhere else, and then move out. And then somebody would be coming down from Newton or the North Shore or wherever, and they'd get to their summer house with the kids Memorial Day weekend. And it's been like a halfway house for two months for a bunch of sheet rockers from the Cape. So that was a bit of a wake up call. Yeah. That's, that's, that's, there you go. You lucked out. You didn't, you didn't live there. Yeah. Yeah. I, I had no idea. Was that rough on the Cape? The look in Howie's eyes right now, zero respect whatsoever and i'm not asking for any so don't worry no no that hey listen listen everyone's got a everyone has a tale of how

rough it is in their neighborhood you know all right point taken uh that is the great howie long hall of famer fox sports and uh say hi to everybody in the family for me. I really can't tell you. This was a lot of fun, man. Okay, partner. Anytime. 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. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Okay, we got a couple here. Hey, Ryan, background, 29-year-old dude living in New York, decent shape for an asthmatic with fragile wrists. That's some specific detail there. I don't make much, but I love the work I do. None of this is relevant,

but just trying to paint a picture. Okay, my family immigrated here from South Asia before I was born. My dad is real old school and hard to connect with if we aren't discussing concrete life topics. Like, what am I going to do

with my career? When am I going to get married? He straight up doesn't like to talk. Old school, baby. Old school. That does sound like it. I realize that I barely know anything about his life

before me and my siblings. Well, you weren't around. No does sound like it. I realized that I barely know anything about his life before me and my siblings. Well, you weren't around. No, I'm kidding. He also barely knows anything about who I am as a person other than the concrete life stuff mentioned above. That's not to say he doesn't love me, of course. It's just a style. I think he thinks the father-son relationship is more like dictator than friend. As I get older, though, I want to get a little more buddy-buddy with him and change the vibe.

I want to tell him more about my day-to-day life life and I want to ask him more about his thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I don't know if this question is too real, but you seem like you have a decent relationship with your dad. We do. We have a great one. I thought I might ask, how do I start shifting the father-son dynamic now that I'm an adult so my dad and I are more like peers and also be bros? I mean, honestly, it doesn't sound like he's interested in that at all. I think it's great that you want that connection. That's really cool. A lot of people can get to an age, maybe whether it's your teens or 20s, I, this guy's going to blame me for all of his issues in like 20 years. So, you know, some of it is unavoidable as the parent. Um, but I think we've, we've kind of hit this stretch now with some of this stuff where it's like, okay, I don't think it's, I don't think it's fair to

constantly go, Hey, this is their fault. Right. At some point you have to, um, accept your own decisions. So that's not really what you're asking here. So let's get back to it. I don't know if it's a cultural thing that I wouldn't understand in South Asia. I could assume a bunch. I'm not going to do that because I don't want to make any mistakes about what your family history is like if this is normal, if this is normal for, for you and

your friends, uh, from, you know, South Asia. So, uh, if he doesn't want to do this, like, it sounds like, I mean, it doesn't even sound like you've tried, or maybe you have, and he's just blown you off. So, you know, this is not the greatest advice, but it actually could. I remember for Christmas, I wrote, uh, my dad a letter that was his present and it was heavy and it was, uh, it changed our relationship for the better. And it wasn't like it was bad before that, but whatever issues there were, they were gone when he got done reading that letter. And it brought us together in a really close way. because it also surprised him that I did it. And I didn't get the idea from anybody or anything like that.

I was like, I just want to figure out something really cool to do. And I just thought I pointed out some things that he probably would have forgotten. You think about those moments in your life growing up where you go, oh, he probably doesn't even remember that, but that was an impactful thing he said or did that changed the way I saw certain things. Or, you know, I felt this way as a younger person and he told me this, gave me this example. So you might want to try something like that because it sounds like it would totally throw him off. And it might be, you know, not, hey, here are my complaints because you don't even sound negative about it, which I think is cool.

You could just say, hey, you know, I want, you know, don't even sound negative about it, which I think is cool. You could just say, hey, don't do it out of some movie thing, but like, hello, my name is so-and-so, I'm your son. It's a little weird, a little Hallmark cardish. Just go straight up like, hey, as I get older and become more aligned, I want to know more about my dad. I want to know more about my dad before you had me. What was your life like without me and all that kind of stuff because of the written part of it, because so few people do it. And I know I've mentioned writing letters in different versions of this, but that wouldn't be that hard. And the thoughts and the feelings would probably just pour right out where you probably have too much stuff. So don't overdo it with it. Keep it to a page and not end it with, I want to be your friend. Because if anybody did that to me now, I'd be like, I definitely don't want to be friends with this guy. But he's stuck with you because the father's something. But it may break, just the mechanism of it alone may break through in a way that, you know, gets a reaction from him that he doesn't realize. Now, you know, who knows, then might be totally fucked. And next thing you know, he's bringing out family tree charts and you're sitting there with a pencil taking notes and you're like actually this sucks i like the better

way to talk um i'm kidding but i do think something like that is i don't know i mean you can't just sit down and ask your dad like or you could do the totally casual way where um i don't know if anybody drinks here uh okay let's let's have a couple on the back porch and then you throw him a question and see if he loosens up. If that's not the case, you know, I mean, does he shooting you down every time you're like,

Hey, what was, uh, you know, so-and-so like, what was the town? Like, how did you meet mom?

All that stuff. People really are really interested in that stuff. Um, as far as I can tell, I personally am not, but, uh, I,

I, I don't know. You're going to try some of that stuff. But I think the letter thing, if the other stuff hasn't worked or it just doesn't open up to you whatsoever. And then if he doesn't do that, then guess what? You know what? He's just going to be your dad and you're not going to be buddies. That was good life advice.

That was like two actionable things. Okay. Our man checking in here. Semi short notice. One of my best friends asked me to go on a ski trip with him and his longtime girlfriend he asked our whole group of friends but the majority of them told him no because it was an expensive trip and again kind of springing on us out of nowhere i was on the verge of just telling him no too then he told me he would be proposing to his girlfriend but he had not told any of our friends not even our closest ones he added i couldn't tell her

either uh he said that he really wanted this to be a complete surprise i get where he's coming from but upon getting this news, I felt there was no way I could say no to him. Plus, I definitely wanted to be there because, again, this is one of my best guy friends. We went on the trip, and it was just them two, one other couple, and another guy. All right, so wait a minute.

So wait, I'm trying to think. Is our guy going solo, and then another couple? Yeah, it sounds like... So is our guy going solo and then another couple? And yeah, it sounds like, so this guy invited another couple and then two dudes. So that's three extra dudes and a girl with he and the girl who's going to propose to maybe that's an unbelievable group of friends. I'm not even criticizing. I'm just saying,

Oh, two third wheels is strange. Yeah. Hey, you know, I'm in love. She said, yes said yes all right there's a bunch of dudes here too what's up what's up now um the trip was even more expensive than i thought because we were a high-end spot with some amazing views i loved it we had a great time ate really good food she said yes everything was great when we got home i went to ask what i owed him for the spot we rented and he he told me, don't worry about it.

I'm just really glad you came. I'm pretty sure all the other guys settled up with him and paid their part. And he just covered me. This is huge to me because I'm clearly the least well off of the group. Let's just say I'm young and in the journalism field, if that tells you anything about my income and the rest of the guys are doing pretty well. However, I feel like I ought to pay him back. It's not like it would bankrupt me.

It would just put me back into eating canned tuna, canned chicken and ramen for a little. Do I go ahead and insist to pay him back. It's not like it would bankrupt me. It would just put me back into eating canned tuna, canned chicken and ramen for a little. Do I go ahead and insist I pay him back? Would hate it if eight years later, he holds it over me like a stained carpet guy. Stained carpet guy had a major, major dilemma. Some of the follow-ups to stained carpet guy were just terrible.

We're not going to read any of them, but we appreciate your interest over here at the pod. He wanted you to be there. He wanted you to be there. All right. He wanted you to be there at this moment, which I still think is a, I just can't imagine. There's too many of my friends to be like,

Hey, I'm proposing. Are you guys in, but whatever this group of friends are and that he wanted everybody there and that the future fiance and have current fiance was excited about this arrangement. I actually think that's great. I think that's great,

man. That's like right out of a movie kind of friendship. That stuff doesn't even exist. It's just on paper and you guys have it. So cool. I would believe him here and I would not feel guilty about this. I mean, do you feel guilty about a lot of things? Because my guess would be you sound like, well, I don't know if you're a good guy or not. I mean, it's only four sentences here, but from this, you sound like a good guy. And I wonder though, do you, do you carry around guilt about some shit that you just shouldn't? Cause this is not something you feel guilty about. You're not freeloading. You said you would go. You didn't know it was

going to be free. He has this great weekend. You asked him to settle up. He didn't ask you, right? You asked him, he said, nah, don't worry about it. I'm glad you were there. If this is going to be one of your lifelong friends, then make sure you know that you need to make it up to him at some point. And you're not ready to do that. I mean, if you're serious, if you were seriously going to be eating canned tuna because you pay for the ski trip and that's going to go on for a few months and he's already covered you here, like don't feel guilty because the other guys didn't cover it. Like there's, there's always these mechanisms, man. I remember, look, I was doing the worst for the longest post-school out of anyone in the group. Okay. Not comparable. No one was doing worse than me. I was, you want to talk about

shorting a stock. I wasn't even offered as a price. Okay. And if they had offered a price on me, everybody would have shorted immediately. All right. So, um, you know, there were moments where I would go up to the ATM, bunch of guys would be in town, you know, six deep, can't wait the gang back together. We have a really good, deep group of college friends where they're all interchangeable and it all sort of works and everybody kind of brings their own dynamic. And my dynamic was that I'm probably going to need to borrow a hundred bucks tonight. All right. And it sucked. It sucked. I hated it. The anxiety of going up to an ATM and not knowing if it's going to work. And then your buddies in line behind you. And sometimes I would go last strategically

because I'd worry. And I had one buddy, um, let's call him Darren. And he was always the guy that knew I didn't have any money and he would go, you don't have any money to do. And he kind of liked saying it because he was, he's actually the nicest person ever, but he would just be like, what's going on? You don't have any money. And I'd be like, no, dude, I don't like, uh, you know, I thought I had a few hundred bucks in there. I don't. And then he would like hand me a hundred bucks and it was just understood, just understood. He was, he was doing fine. He could carry me for that night until we saw each other again in six months. And you know, if I could pay him back, I'd pay him back. But I

also think, you know, I don't know. I've done a ton of great stuff for him. I've done some pretty good stuff for other friends. I'm pretty generous that way now. But that's the point is, hey, this guy did you a real solid. It's incredible. Don't spend time now worrying about something that you don't need to feel guilty about when he was just psyched you were there. Believe him. He's your close friend. He invited you to an engagement. He wanted you to be there. Believe what he had to say. Don't feel guilty.

But know when things turn around for you down the road, that you're going to make it up to him somehow. You know what I mean? And you can even, it can be a special moment. Be like, hey, that meant a lot to me. And he'd be like, all right, cool. I really don't think he's going to sit here based on what you told us here in the timeline. I mean, unless, you know, the vibe of it was different

where he's like, don't worry, dude, I got it. You know, I mean, unless he's being sarcastic yeah right i roll yeah whatever loser yeah glad you were there weren't actually even but that'd be great there's another version guy was like hey i was at that ski thing and he wasn't even invited and he sucks and he told us he was gonna you know put in so uh i again i i wouldn't or you could do broke guy move you know get get the fiance a gift card i don't know what are women like how sephora i'm kidding free okay check out the check out the perv pushing the ones and twos over i'll clean your garage right a coupon book like the you know what what are women like they like they like those uh those hair barrettes from uh

from the kiosk at the mall right just get her six of those i'm just kidding um is it i can't remember what the hell it's called i actually used to have to put on my sister's hair barrettes right yeah those are the clips the little wing clips right you're not talking about the curl stuff right no those are scrunchies dude no no no i'm talking about college like actual curls scrunchies everywhere you know what i'm saying so um i would uh i would do something really nice for the fiance that doesn't cost you too much money if you're really that worried about it you could do it sooner or get a kick-ass wedding present you have time to plan yeah yeah i'm always late on the wedding present thing so then i would make it up to the wives years later and i'd get him something because i was like look the longer you wait the present will

be better for me and everybody got whatever and then i would i came through in a big way and then one of the wives was like i cannot believe how great you are you're the best friend out of the whole group i'm like actually i'm arguably the worst like you got married seven years ago and i just lined up really well sent you yeah just worked out we had a good we had a good quarter is it frowned upon to get something outside of the registry my first wedding got covid postponed and I'm like I want to get my buddy something cool is one of my best buds but like I feel like the wet the registry is going to be kind of lame should you just not ever go off of that like don't deviate from the plan? A fantastic question.

I cannot tell you how amazing this is because I was like you. No, no, no. Crate and barrel. I'm going to serving spoon. I'm going to get you something cool. And guess what? I just forget. There's still like two or three people.

I think I still owe Anik a gift. Unless I get his wife a hoodie. I think I may have Anik a gift. Unless I get his wife a hoodie. I think I may have. I'm not sure. I don't know, man. There's like a couple weddings from so long ago that I know there's a couple wives that probably were like, oh, yeah, Rosillo, who didn't get us anything. Because I would look at the registry and be like, no, I'm not a registry guy. I'm like, you know, something from the heart.

Here's what I would say to you. Just get it over with and buy the fucking serving spoon on the registry and get it done. Now look, if this is your best, best guy, bud, the whole deal, top three, top three. All right. Okay. Do get creative artsy guy, you know, sentimental watercolors, whatever you think you can pull off, but know yourself. And in my twenties, the idea I was going to find that special gift in my spare time that was going to vibe with the couple and not just my buddy was not going to happen. I mean, right. I totally would have not done that and got something, got him like a found wood table for his man cave and she'd be like, what the fuck am I supposed to do with this? That's a good point. I didn't even think about

that. If I had a back of a baseball card and one of the stat columns were things he mailed it'd be 10 years of zeros okay so i've not uh i just you know look know yourself all right know your own scattering report you know yourself deep down better than anybody else does. You'd write the most honest scattering report. The problem is none of us want to write it all down. Let's stick to the list. Thank you.

I know, but I get what you're saying. If it's your best bud. But I only know what he would like. You know what I mean? It could be something that he would like, and his wife is going to be like, that doesn't belong in our living room, let alone our house. What the fuck? So it's a good point.

Yeah. Yeah, I want to say something. It's a little sad, but then five games with Montreal in 1984. He's a minor league manager. He was also part of the Red Sox coaching staff. And he passed away earlier this week from COVID complications at 64 years old. And so, Ron, his son was actually Chris Johnson. If you remember Chris, who played

with the Braves, played for the Strohs for a bit too, and then finished his career in 2016. The reason why it was definitely something that hit a little closer to home was that my first year doing anything in this business was 2002. I've talked about it before. I was with the Trent Thunder and I was the second announcer for home games. And, you know, I've been over that story a million times, but Ron was the manager and Ron was one of the best people I've ever met. Not hyperbole. He meant so much to me early on in that year, because so much was going wrong for me, his energy, uh, the way he walked around the clubhouse. And you got to understand, like, Ron was a big guy. 6'3", 6'4", maybe, maybe 250, maybe more than 250. I don't know.

He was a big dude. He had these big, big, like, dad arms. And he used to walk around in wrestling T-shirts with the sleeves cut off. And one of them was the Rock Says. So it was the Rock's face doing the people's eyebrow or whatever. And the sleeves are cut off. And one of them was the rock says, so it was the rock's face doing the people's eyebrow or whatever. And the sleeves are cut off and Ron would come barreling through from the tunnel of the clubhouse into the front office area and be like, what's going on? And he had all this energy and he really was one of those guys that, you know, people try to pull this off. Hey, make the

people around you feel better about themselves and make them feel special. Make when you ask them a question, make them feel like you actually want to know the answer. And that's Ron, Ron was that. And when I was there, you don't know, at least for me, I'm like, I don't know if I'd actually know what I'm doing. And I would just do a ton of work and extra prep and get ready for the games. And then, you know, I've told that story about how I was printing out all these different stats. I would just print out everything I possibly could and just pour over it. And he comes in, he's like eating a sandwich in one hand. I think he may even drove truck, uh, in the off season. Okay.

This is how like much of a man's man Ron was. And he, uh, he was like, what are you doing? And I was telling him what I did. And he's like, all right, make four of them, you know, meaning these, these stat packet things. And he'd be like, come on. And he used to let me sit in some of the, not decisions for the lineup or the rotation, four of them you know meaning these these stat packet things and he'd be like come on and he used to let me sit in some of the not decisions for the lineup or the rotation but he would go

over stuff like with me and it was incredible i learned more about sports i learned more about what it's like to be even a pro athlete granted it's minors but it taught me the mentality and the day in and day out grind it just without that experience or without him taking the time over those months that i was there it would have never i don't know i i think it helped me understand these guys that i have to talk about now or get to talk about i should say not have to talk about get to talk about for the last 20 years because it just he's like well that doesn't mean anything you know i remember one time there was a guy that was at like 400 right and he's like all right he goes what do you want to talk about and i was like all right i want to talk about the lineup a little bit he's like laughing because the pitching coach and the hitting coach are in there too he's like what do you want to know i go well

how come you hit this guy eighth he's sitting like four whatever on base he goes ah you don't hit for shit i was like what i was like he's hitting 400 he's like yeah because i had him a couple years he he's like whatever he's like he's in 400 now he goes he can't hit for shit and he was right the guy retired he was at like 200 from i mean he went down to like 200 on the season and the guy didn't even make it the full season he quit retired from baseball and that was just one of those things i was like oh what and i don't know man it's just sad a lot of us have uh i'm not going to pretend i was you know in touch with him all the time or anything like that because that would not be the case. But he was a guy very early on for me that was super, made a big, big impression.

And he's a good guy, man. And it's sad. So thoughts with his family. And I'm just glad I got to know him. Enjoy the weekend, everybody. Talk to you on Monday. Thank you.