The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Jonathan Vilma. Plus Bruce Feldman on the CFB Coaching Carousel and NFL Awards.

Episode Date: November 30, 2020

Russillo gives out his NFL awards for Week 12 (8:30) before he is joined by Super Bowl champion Jonathan Vilma to discuss the Detroit Lions parting ways with head coach Matt Patricia, the dominant Chi...efs, the Steelers, Vilma’s career with the Jets and Saints, what we’ve learned from Taysom Hill’s first two starts at QB for the Saints, and more (25:30). Then Ryen talks with Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports and The Athletic about the CFB coaching carousel (56:00) before reading some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:21:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 today's episode is awesome of the ryan risotto podcast and the ringer podcast network is brought to you by state farm shout out to state farm real quick i found the dry fit medium that you sent me and i can't wait to start wearing it more regularly for some of the breakout videos. So Kyle, we put that off the checklist. Gear solved. All right. I'm not hearing anything from Kyle right now. So now I'm worried. They didn't send me a dry fit, so I have nothing to say.
Starting point is 00:00:36 Yeah, that's why. I could sense jealousy immediately. So let's just make sure everybody knows that, as always, on the Ringer Podcast Network, the Ryan Russillo Podcast is brought to you by State Farm. Getting great car and home insurance from State Farm at a surprisingly great rate? That's like drafting a player that becomes an all-pro, the real deal.
Starting point is 00:00:52 State Farm agents provide personalized service so you can customize your insurance to fit your needs. Like a GM putting together their very own roster, you need a team that supports you, and State Farm's got a great one. In addition to agency award-winning mobile app, helps manage coverage, pay bills, file claims, and more with a great price and even greater service. State Farm goes from strength to strength. The plan for today. Jonathan Vilma, all-pro linebacker, part of the Fox broadcast team.
Starting point is 00:01:23 We're going to talk Steelers. We're going to talk Tays broadcast team. We're going to talk Steelers. We're going to talk Taysom Hill. We're going to do some chief stuff. He's going to tell us stories about playing middle linebacker or inside linebacker, depending on the alignment, and then ultimately why he decided to leave the Jets and go to the Saints. So that's going to be awesome.
Starting point is 00:01:39 And then we have Bruce Feldman. He hit me up this morning and goes, hey, I have a whole thing on all the coaching carousel stuff, specifically Tom Herman potentially being out at Texas and would Urban Meyer replace him? Or if Urban Meyer is willing to replace Tom Herman, does that mean that Tom Herman is out? So that's incredible stuff. Feldman's as locked in as anyone. I'm telling you, that's what we have him on all the time.
Starting point is 00:01:57 So let's do a little of that and a little life advice at the end as well. By the way, real quick, Did you watch Roy Jones jr. Mike Tyson? Kyle? No, I didn't. I didn't want to pay for that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:13 No, I get it. 50 bucks is my thing will be like, Hey, I'm definitely going to spend 50 bucks in a dumber way at some point, but I can always apply that. Yeah. I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to do that i don't want you
Starting point is 00:02:26 to do that with every potential purchase um i understand you know for me the 50 bucks uh it's it's not going to change the week i now i'm saying this out loud i feel like a jerk but i also think it's ridiculous for people to pretend that that's not the case sometimes like guys that are crushing it way more than me being like oh you know i just time to time to start snipping coupons again you're like what are you talking twenty dollars for socks right yeah right so i i think it's actually worse you sound more of like a jerk when you lie about your circumstances to try to seem like super humble you're like wait a minute what are you talking about like i read the trades so yes i'm not trying to come off like as a jerk. Some people are going to think that that's too late, but the
Starting point is 00:03:08 50 bucks, I'll tell you what, next time you want to order one of those, you let me know. And I'm going to Venmo you the 50, but you didn't miss a ton. All right. That's what I, that's what I thought. Yeah, you didn't, but I don't know. It's funny. If he, if one of the other guys had been knocked out in 30 seconds and people would have just been mad about it being a ripoff. And then it goes the distance and people were like, oh, that sucked. And we're like, wait, which did you want? Honestly, the Nate Robinson, Jake Paul thing was more entertaining because the lead up to the whole thing. Because here's exactly what happened. A lot of dudes, let's just say all of you, wanted Jake Paul to get knocked out.
Starting point is 00:03:42 Because you know what none of us like as adults? Young YouTube stars or TikTok influencers like none of you and I'm I'm with you by the way none of you are going I love me some multi multi-millionaire idiot in a hoodie and sweatpants that does these videos that generally suck all the time and sometimes it just pops like it just it you know whatever it it works kids seem to love the hell out of it but then jake paul decides to i guess i don't know he and his brother wrestlers would you know kyle would you know about i thought it was the other jake paul actually somebody had to fix my description for bill's podcast because i thought it was logan paul
Starting point is 00:04:17 so i don't know which one is which i i really don't i just know that let's face it if you're of a certain age north of that number, there's not a lot of you that's going, man, oh, he just dropped a new vid. That's sick. But to be totally honest, if you're willing to put the money in and train and spend all this money on trainers
Starting point is 00:04:38 and work your ass off to try to get in and then actually get into a ring and fight other guys, I have respect for you because you're actually going ahead and doing it. because nate robinson's like all right i'm ready to throw these hands on you then there was just a lot of dudes in the media i would say a lot of former athletes people that i'm friends with looking at their content leading up to that going i can't wait to see nate robinson crush this motherfucker okay that's that was the general theme of the lead up to that and then nate robinson gets
Starting point is 00:05:05 knocked all the way out and by the way they should have stopped the fight the first time it was clear nate when he kept his left hand above his head when the ref kept asking to touch gloves you're like okay something's wrong and nate didn't really look like he wanted any more of it because when you haven't been hit for real in a long time it really sucks and you're like oh that's what this feels like or if it's never happening you go whoa wait this isn't that much talk differently to people yeah right and so then nate gets absolutely dropped and then he's a meme and then i noticed the same people that couldn't wait for the youtuber to get crushed we're saying nate should have never been in there this isn't fair like wait wait wait wait wait wait wait you can't you like you can't now say this wasn't fair. He shouldn't have been
Starting point is 00:05:46 in there. Like, look, he said something to Paul and Paul was like, let's go ahead and fight. And he knocked him out. And I think anybody has to kind of respect this, but now it's turned into anybody that's remotely tough is like, all right, fight me next. And Paul's like, I don't need any of you. I'm the one that's the attraction. I don't need to fight a hockey player. I don't need to fight this guy. Like, Oh, I'm just, to fight some 300 pound lineman now from the NFL because he's mad because Nate Robinson was good at dunking and I knocked him out. So yeah, I didn't expect to start this podcast this way. I'm not declaring myself team Jake Paul, but I think you have to admit begrudgingly, if that's where you're at, that you have to kind of respect the fact that, you know, he's look the first fight.
Starting point is 00:06:27 I don't know who any of these guys are that he was going at, but that he knocked out Nate Robinson and it was pretty dominant. I mean, it was completely dominant and he backed it up. Like now we're supposed to think what of him? You're going to like him less. I think you even have to just a small sliver of you have has to say, all right, look, he got the ring. Nate talked, and he knocked him out. What was the actual height difference there? Was it at least a foot, right?
Starting point is 00:06:50 We're going to do height difference now. The reach was definitely an issue on the tail of the tape. But as far as weight, I think it was pretty close. I don't know if we need to get IT on this. Really? I don't know. Now a pro athlete who also was a terrific football player, we're going to go, oh, the poor guy.
Starting point is 00:07:09 I'm not doing that. I'm just saying it's one of those things you look at when you're looking at people that are fighting, right? It's like reach or weight. Well, no, height first. Yeah, I was going to say height because it usually has something to do with reach. That's the only reason I said.
Starting point is 00:07:22 I wasn't going to ask you for the reach because I didn't expect you to know. No, I think it was. Let's do tail tail tape here i can't believe i'm doing this i'm sorry no no no no i'm i'm mad at myself um oh yeah gee i hadn't seen any of this new stuff there's all sorts of new stuff out there now of what this has turned into um but we're just going to go ahead and now freak out about it um okay yeah i just found it paul waited at 189 and robinson went 181 so for this kind of thing uh i don't i don't think you have to be within five pounds so there you go there you go okay all. Let's start with, uh, before we get to film a Feldman and life advice, we'll start with awards. Normally I would call this award the production meeting award and I would give it to Tony Romo, but we've done the production meeting award before. That usually goes to a national crew that's on the broadcast. or a quarterback forever because they've done a million of their games.
Starting point is 00:08:26 It's happened all the time, especially Billichick and Brady and all that stuff that would happen back in the day where it's like, you know, Nance and another guy, Nance and Sims on the call. And they would be like, oh, they told us they were going to do that because the relationship is so close. And you understand, especially when it's a guy like Phil Sims, the respect that players and coaches and they all have for each other that none of us would ever have because we didn't play the game. All right.
Starting point is 00:08:42 And that makes a ton of sense. And my biggest pet peeve ever was when Peyton Manning's arm was completely shot at the end of his career in that last season when he won a Super Bowl. Yes. And there would be national broadcasters that would basically take, and I hate the word narrative. The word narrative is whenever it's used as followed by usually a terrible point being made. It's a rule. I'm telling you right now, don't use the words because every time everyone does it, it's like, hey, well, the narrative is. And we're like, no, no, you should just say, I'm about to make a really shitty point. And here we go. So everybody was on Peyton Manning's arm strength.
Starting point is 00:09:15 And then national guys, because they like the guys and they're sometimes protective of them, they would be like, oh, Peyton Manning just threw a 13-yard pass. Arm looked fine there. And it used to drive me absolutely crazy. I did a big rant on it years ago on radio, and it ended up going viral, which was sick because my life changed right after that happened. So the reason I'm not giving it to Tony Romo is I don't think he's guilty of the production meeting deal here, even though he defended Brady in three hours of game time. But let's back up, okay? Because let me be honest with you, all right?
Starting point is 00:09:49 I've been watching the NFL now for over 35 years. And when I listen to Romo talk, I'm like, okay, people are getting upset. They're saying he's being protective of Brady. Again, production meeting theory in effect here. But what is Romo saying that's actually not true? Now, as I say, I've been watching the NFL over 35 years. Here's what I'm comfortable with. I know when a tackle probably isn't good, if it's the team that I watch all the time or a corner they can't cover unless they get away with
Starting point is 00:10:13 PI and then they get called for PI all the time. And you're like, all right, that's that corner. I can usually figure out over the course of a season or someone's career who I trust to make a catch and who I don't. I can notice a defensive lineman beating his man when I'm only looking for it, when I'm like, hey, make sure you lock on this defensive lineman. You do it with Aaron Donald. You do it with Khalil Mack. You know, Miles Garrett is a lot of fun to watch that way, but you really have to keep reminding yourself,
Starting point is 00:10:36 unless you're a D lineman or an O lineman, who always watch the line. But if you're generally like us, most of us that are watching, you have to look for it all the time. And even then, I can get really excited about thinking a D lineman has done something amazing when it could have just been that he wasn't accounted for and somebody screwed up blocking assignment. Okay. Now I also would say that I've watched Cam Newton every single snap this year, because I still like to watch the so I can talk to my friends and family about the pats. It's the most amazing thing that I've ever
Starting point is 00:11:01 seen to see a quarterback play a decade in this league and have no idea where pressure is coming from. So I feel comfortable on those things. But here's what I'm not comfortable with. I don't really know what the hell's going on in the back end. I don't. I don't think you do either. I could tell you the difference between a cover two and a Tampa two. I could talk about that seam route, but I don't really know. I've probably heard somebody else say it. And then I've said it a few different times. Um, offensive line. I almost never know what the hell's going on. I mean, I guess I could figure out what a running back blows, uh, blows an assignment. But a lot of times when I've thought I knew what happened, then let's just admit Jeff Schwartz is on you within two seconds telling you you're wrong. And you're like, all right, I guess I didn't know that as far as safety switching up, handing off receivers to each other, those guys all just point at somebody else when they fuck up. So I don't know who to believe out there. Quarterbacks, sometimes interceptions, I think I know.
Starting point is 00:11:53 But then there'll be other times where it's a quarterback who does a really good job instinctively of making sure that it looks like the route was wrong. And actually, Romo, ironically enough, was a master at that. But there's just a lot of football that I think a lot of us never, ever understand. We just don't. It's hard to. It's hard to know what everybody's assignments.
Starting point is 00:12:12 It's hard to know everybody's rules. It's hard to know who's got who blocking. And most of us have all been watching the sport a really long time, but I think a lot of us fall into the same category. So admitting these things and realizing that Romo was giving us a master class on offensive philosophies and then pushing back on this
Starting point is 00:12:31 as if he's just protecting Brady is denying yourself knowledge. Okay? So Romo basically is like, hey, they're just not on the same page in this offense. And he talked first about the routes being inverted
Starting point is 00:12:44 from what Brady was used to. More verticals, less underneath, where in New England they had more crossers and maybe one deep shot. The hot routes being too thin, needed them to be wider, right? Flatter. And that actually makes a little bit more sense because the throwing lane's a little bit easier when it's flat and you're making this quick decision against pressure. He brought up the too deep safety look that Brady sees more and more now and that Tampa doesn't run versus that look because the safeties aren't worried at all because they know that Tampa is taking all these deep shots. Romo also brought up the lack of pre-snap motion and how Brady,
Starting point is 00:13:15 who's good as anyone pre-snap that we've ever seen, was doing way more stuff now post-snap with Tampa's offense. And then when they actually did run a motion that was like a real motion to try to figure out what the defense was in, Romo got so excited because they're not doing this. And then he pointed out some Pat's looks where he goes, okay,
Starting point is 00:13:31 this thing they're doing now with that Gronk route and what they did off of that, that's almost them coming up with something here because Brady's trying to desperately move the football. I like this. I like that I'm seeing this. That was after a couple Gronk catches.
Starting point is 00:13:42 Then he got excited when they came out of a bunch set and goes, this is good. He goes, let's not just send everybody down the field. Let's get guys running at different angles, sideline to sideline, so that it's a little easier to defend these guys with some of these bunch combinations that they're coming out of. He was excited about the formation. Then they took a deep shot to Mike Evans after that down the right side. And Romo's like, look, the deep shots are great.
Starting point is 00:14:00 You've got one-on-one, but everything has to work for this to always work out. And I'm sitting there going, this is crazy how good this is. And yet there was all sorts of pushback, again, from athletes that have just decided that Brady isn't as good. And now look, Brady needs to be better. That stat about him missing 20 straight completions, 20 or more yards down the field is on Brady. I mean, we could talk concepts. Eventually you're going to hit some of those shots. And they finally did once they put that stat up there.
Starting point is 00:14:25 But that's bad. That's on him. But when Brady and Mike Evans are on the sideline arguing, and they weren't even arguing. It was a really civil conversation about there was another hot route that Evans was to the left side. He was kind of like left slot, but he was very close to the line of scrimmage and where he was lined up. And then it just didn't work out. And Brady flung at him. And Evans hadn't turned around.
Starting point is 00:14:44 I'll ask you this. Who do you think is right in that conversation? Brady, who has 20 years of this stuff, or Mike Evans, who was with Jameis Winston? What do you think the Jameis-Mike Evans hot route conversations were like on the sideline? So you may not like Brady, and yes, he was declining, and I'm not telling you he's the best.
Starting point is 00:15:02 And by the way, it's not the arm strength. His arm is so much stronger now than I remember in New England. And even against Carolina, where they put up a huge number for the offense and he put up all these big numbers, he was zinging it in there. Like I actually feel he's thrown it too hard a handful of times. So it's not the arm. But when Romo is sharing all of this stuff with you, and he's not saying adjustment here, scheme here, they're not on the same page. He's actually saying real examples. And this happened a million times during this game. And people were going to push back on that. And I'd ask this, when you get upset about something, do you get upset because the thing isn't true or it's because you don't want it to be true? And again, I'm not telling you that Brady's been the best quarterback in the NFL this
Starting point is 00:15:51 year. He's not. But it's a very simple thing with Tampa Bay. They have five losses. The Bears game where they had a ton of penalties, which is a primetime game. And you're like, how did they lose to the Bears? And the Bears were like the one seed in the NFC for an hour. Might have been a week.
Starting point is 00:16:04 They lost to the Saints in the rematch they had lost in week one, and it was one of the worst single games we've ever seen from any team that's supposed to be good. They lost that Rams game. They had a Giants game that was in prime time where they won by only two points, and then the Chiefs game was kind of the late Sunday marquee one, and they were down. It was going to be 24 to nothing like that if it weren't for a Shaq Barrett strip.
Starting point is 00:16:27 So Tampa is definitely guilty of the added, the weighted loss formula of the primetime games. But here's what Tampa's going to do. They're going to win at least three or four more games. They've got Minnesota, Dallas, and Atlanta twice. So that'll get them to 10, maybe 11. They're going to make the playoffs. And maybe they figure all this stuff out. But Romo wasn't protecting a guy.
Starting point is 00:16:50 Protecting a guy would have been just kind of saying stuff and not really giving us any depth. Romo gave us more depth in that broadcast than I've heard from other guys for their entire career. And that part isn't debatable. The next award is the Kendall Roy Award. I'm giving that one to Taysom Hill. Let's just put it this way.
Starting point is 00:17:08 If Kendall Roy, Logan Roy's son, Succession, if you haven't watched Succession, I don't know what you do with television in general. But it's a great show. And Kendall is Logan's son, and he sort of runs the company, but he's basically like his father just works him over
Starting point is 00:17:23 mentally. And so, yes, it's nepotism. But Taysom Hill is not nepotism. But I'm just telling you, if Kendall Roy showed up to a different company and was like, hey, I think we could restructure, I think we could streamline, perhaps expand our bandwidth. People love saying bandwidth now. I love whenever you're on a project with somebody like, I just don't have the bandwidth. And we're like, you just don't like the project. If Kendall Roy did those things, said those things, but then also was like, I do a ton of blow and maybe 50% responsible for a guy dying in a car accident. He probably wouldn't get a CEO's gig. I'm not saying Taysom Hill is all of those things, but he's just not good at being a quarterback.
Starting point is 00:18:01 I don't know. I can't believe for the life of me that Sean Payton has signed off on this, what appears to be an experiment. The last two years, those stats, they mean nothing. Seven and six attempts. The last two games do mean something. 18 to 23, 233 yards against Atlanta, the two rushing touchdowns. One of the completions looked like a fucking punt.
Starting point is 00:18:19 Sorry to be so vicious about it, but I was like, what is that throw? Yesterday, two rushing touchdowns again but he was 9 and 16 for 86 yards and a pick against the denver team again we found out had no quarterbacks like didn't have any we'll get to them in a second um peyton and it doesn't matter like you can't go to the coach on this one hey what'd you think hey our guy sucks this is a huge mistake he's not going to say that he's going to go hey considering the game plan and because they didn't have quarterbacks like we're good with this this. It's to win the game. And this is the way we want to go ahead and win it. And you're like, wait, really? You wanted your quarterback to look
Starting point is 00:18:50 like he shouldn't have the job for three hours. That's what you wanted out of this. Of course, it's not what you wanted, but what is he going to go ahead and say? But the other part that I just don't understand is that, I mean, this is somebody who got 21 million with 16 million guaranteed and he's 30. This isn't a 23 year old quarterback it's a 30 year old quarterback who's been in the league now what four years and he's the second highest paid quarterback up in the league because brissette was actually when he got his 15 million extension he was going to be the starter and then they went with philip river so brissette was going to get that money because you're like hey 15 million for a starter that's pretty good but at least brissette
Starting point is 00:19:20 has played at least brissette has has shown maybe not to be the guy. He could be a guy. Marcus Mariota is the third highest paid one. He's about $9 million a year with Las Vegas. I've never been a big Mariota guy since he's been in the pros. I probably held out a little bit of hope like a lot of people early on. Hey, they're going to do some different things. Different people that I talked to at ESPN really, really loved him.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And then eventually you're like, yeah, this guy's just not that good. He's not that good. I can't imagine he's ever going to be a long-term starter, but at least he was a starter and Taysom Hill gets all this money over, over somebody like that. I just, it makes no sense. And I, I don't know why anybody thinks like, I don't know how you defend it. I really, I don't know how you defend it. I know you defend it as a defense. You just go, all right, this guy can't throw. And now they're 2-0 with Taysom as the starter. The final award is the bad clickbait headline award
Starting point is 00:20:14 because the first time I read Denver Broncos safety Kareem Jackson, quote, NFL making example of us by not moving game, I went, oh man, and I prepared to be upset because throughout all of this, as it's challenging to everyone. And yes, sometimes we should never compare ourselves with athletes and their workplace and all that dynamic, but you knew everybody that's trying to show up to work and keep their living going, there were going to be challenges and challenges that didn't always seem fair. And the fact that the Broncos had their entire quarterback room, just not adhere to any of the policies, didn't wear masks after one positive test.
Starting point is 00:20:45 So they were in contact with somebody in Driscoll who was high risk, and they just screwed off and did it the wrong way. And look, if you don't believe me, Vic Fangio, their head coach, basically called out the entire quarterback room. So that left the Broncos without any quarterbacks. And all of a sudden we had Kendall playing quarterback, and it was brutal for more than half of those snaps. 31-13 win for the Saints and Taysom Hill, as we just pointed out. But when I read that, I went, oh,
Starting point is 00:21:10 here we go. This guy's going to complain. And it's not really what he did. Jackson made a really good point. He said, quote, I feel like maybe the game could have been moved. But at the same time, maybe the league was making an example of us as far as maybe not doing the things we needed to do in that particular room, that quarterback room. Obviously, the guys didn't follow the protocols. And for the NFL to see that, I guess they felt like they had to make an example. So at the end of the day, it is what it is. So when you read that, it was a great lesson, headline versus full context. You go, you know what?
Starting point is 00:21:34 Kareem Jack's been in the league a long time, played at Alabama. And yes, I get their frustration. I get the frustration of you being on the Broncos coming out and being like, we have no chance to win this game. Can't they move it back a day? But when the NFL investigated this, they felt like a lot of the quarterbacks weren't forthcoming and then changed their information later on. Again, their own head coach called them out. And the NFL is going to say, if we're spending all of this money for private testing and having arguably the best testing policy for any multi-city corporation in America, which is going a quote from the NFL, but it's pretty much backed up. If we're going to do all of those things and you can't take it seriously, then we're supposed to cancel a game or move it because now you don't have a quarterback?
Starting point is 00:22:12 As ridiculous as that whole thing was, you know you watched, I watched, because I wanted to see how bad it would look. And it was bad. I mean, it was even worse than maybe you would think it would have been. They completed one pass the entire game. But I don't really blame the NFL
Starting point is 00:22:25 here for going, yeah, you know what? We're trying to keep this thing moving. And if this is the kind of buy-in that we're going to get from you guys, we're not going to do you any favors. So the headline, very misleading. I was glad that wasn't what it was because it wasn't really a guy complaining. It was a guy sort of saying, hey, it would have been nice if they could have done this. But I also understand why they weren't. And that's why just the use of example was pretty misleading. And that's why just the use of example was pretty misleading. And that's why I'm just happy every now and then just click on the story. Okay.
Starting point is 00:22:50 I know a lot of you have been waiting on this, the updated Bill Belichick, Tom Brady legacy rankings. For those of you that are new here every week, we update their decades of worth of resumes and we change it week to week because that's a good idea. And I I'd like to make this complicated. I haven't always been the easiest to read on this one, but I think we got to put bill in that one spot and, um, we're gonna put Tom in the two spot and that's where I believe
Starting point is 00:23:18 they were last week after some, some weather stuff or two weeks ago. I can't keep track. It moves around quite a bit. But at this point, Bill seems like he's the guy that's responsible for Tom. He knew to not have Tom throw deep. Arians was like, no, we're going to throw deep all the time, even if that's not what you like to do. So maybe we should put Arians third in this whole thing. And the fact that Belichick's quarterback right now, if he gets to 100 yards passing, that in itself is awesome. And the fact that Belichick's quarterback right now, if he gets
Starting point is 00:23:45 to 100 yards passing, that in itself is awesome. Cam was under 100. I think he had 79 yards on that last drive. Then he got hit out of bounds. Well, he actually got hit helmet to helmet. He was inbounds by Isaiah Simmons. Penalty, game-winning field goal in the hunt. Pat's still alive. Apparently don't need Brady. So Bill is in the one spot for the legacy rankings. He was one of the best linebackers when he played. And a guy I got to know at ESPN. And he's now with Fox doing a great job. National broadcast and Sunday games is Jonathan Vilma.
Starting point is 00:24:18 What's up, man? It's great to talk with you. Man, it's good to see you. Good to hear you again, Ryan. So it was fun. We had a lot of fun back back there it was great because my my favorite thing about vilma is like once he you know you kind of reminded me myself a little in that at first you're kind of like all right
Starting point is 00:24:34 what's this guy's deal and then um you know once you kind of loosened up with me we i loved having you on the show i love doing the longer shows that we were doing together, and your storytelling was always terrific. So I'm so, so happy for you because this is a big step up doing NFL games. So as you prep for a game, and I know you had Minnesota's comeback, which was actually pretty impressive considering how bad the special teams has been for that crew the last couple weeks and costing themselves. And they almost cost themselves again, but they come back and they win that game. We know their record isn't great.
Starting point is 00:25:04 But can you see beyond record if there are examples as you prep for a game and you say hey you know what this team's actually heading in the right direction with a bad record or this team despite the record really isn't that good examples this year's were more than halfway through it where you've been able to kind of figure out some stuff and prep that stood out to you yeah the first thing i always look for is the guys running to the football. Defensively, I want to see our defensive linemen running to the football, our safeties running, linebackers running to the ball. And when I see that, that's the first sign that they're buying into the coaching.
Starting point is 00:25:36 If they're not running to the football, that tells me, you know, the plate breaks for 10 yards, 15 yards, whatever it is, and guys are loafing. The mindset is already there. The mindset of, oh, here we it is, and guys are loafing, the mindset is already there. The mindset of, oh, here we go again, or, oh, man, they don't trust what their coach is saying. So when I see that and I see guys running and trying to do the right things, that's when I know that they're in the right direction, regardless of the record.
Starting point is 00:26:00 They're trying to do what the coach is asking of them, and they believe in what the coach is asking. That, and they believe in what the coach is asking. That's the most important. When these players believe in what you're selling to them, they're buying that. So I look at that, and then offensively, I start to look first for the unforced errors, false starts, illegal shifts, delay of games, all of those things. Because that's telltale signs of, are they buying into what coach is preaching, right? And so when you have an offensive lineman just jumping off sides or, you know, missing
Starting point is 00:26:33 blocks and things like that, that tells me that it's not processing. Whatever coach is trying to tell them, it's not processing. So if I see that there are not a lot of unforced errors offensively, the players are running hard defensively, then that tells me at a minimum they believe and like what the coach is saying. And then it's a matter of really just execution, play calling, you know, drop pass here, turnover there. And, you know, that's going to happen throughout the league. And so I always look at that. And a great example is Detroit. They lost 20 to nothing against the Panthers the week before.
Starting point is 00:27:06 But the Panthers had two turnovers in the red zone, right? So, yeah, it was a good win. And all you talk about is a win. But those turnovers actually cost them this victory against the Vikings because Teddy Bridgewater turned it over again in the red zone this week. So it's a very, very fragile league. And so I look at those little things to make sure that they're at least buying into what coach is preaching. Yeah. And I don't know you had your
Starting point is 00:27:30 game. So I doubt you get to see much of that Denver debacle. But one of the things that I loved about Denver on defense was that those guys actually were still busting their ass. That was like, man, like that, that actually shows me something. Did you notice with Detroit in your prep for Carolina that they had totally checked out on Patricia? Did you notice with Detroit in your prep for Carolina that they had totally checked out on Patricia? Not all of them. Some of them checked out. But in that same vein, if one or two or three guys check out, it's just like the whole defense checking out, right? What's the difference?
Starting point is 00:28:00 And so it stinks because you do see some guys are not playing with great effort. You see other guys that are trying hard. But look, if you have a corner or safety on the left side of the field that's busting his chops, but the defensive end on the other side isn't, and the ball breaks that way, it's nothing he can do. And so, you know, it stinks to see that,
Starting point is 00:28:17 especially now as we get later into the season, teams that know they're not going to make the playoffs, coaches that know they're on the bubble, possibly getting fired. You're going to see a lot of that from the – I always call it bad football. You're going to see a lot of that down the stretch for some of these teams. Did you notice that in your – what was it, your second year with the Jets, Herms last year?
Starting point is 00:28:40 You guys went from 10-6 to 4-12. Yeah, first time I ever had experienced that. That was the craziest thing to me. How pissed off were you? Oh, man, I didn't want to talk to anybody. It was a very long, miserable season, and I had never experienced, not just players, now there's coaches too that I checked out.
Starting point is 00:29:00 I just never had been around that from high school ball to being successful at high school ball and then obviously being successful at UM. It was just guaranteed we're going to win. Or if we're not going to win, well, the other team just better be that damn good because we're going to give them 110% and they're going to have to earn it. So, you know, we started playing some of these games and I have assistant coaches that, you know, are doing just a bare minimum. You know, they don't have all the answers for me when I'm asking questions about, you know, hey, coach, what if they do this?
Starting point is 00:29:33 What if they do that? I was like, wow, I had never been around that. Never. And it was a very shocking experience. And I said I never wanted to experience that again. So give me an example of a team that you've prepped for. Maybe they were on the other side because you obviously haven't done all 32 teams.
Starting point is 00:29:48 It's just not how the schedule works. So just making sure everybody understands that. But somebody that's jumped out at you this year that you go, okay, this team is locked in. They're doing the right things. And I would put them in that first tier of teams that can win a Super Bowl. Steelers, first one.
Starting point is 00:30:01 So they're special to you? Right now, yes. They're special to me. I watched – I had the pleasure of calling two of their games this year. I watched them right before they faced Philly. And defensively, they were – man, they were good. Solid. They tackle.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Rush the passer. Doing everything you want. And then offensively, you know, they worked on the corrections for Ben Roethlisberger, right? The knock on Ben was that he would hold the ball a little too long. You see Ben actively trying to get the ball out, bam, bam, flipping it out there. And they designed the offense to make sure that he doesn't have to make too many reads and hold on to the football.
Starting point is 00:30:36 So the first part is the relationship of, okay, as a coach, how do I adjust my offense to the players? They did that with Ben Roethlisberger. Then the second part is Ben Roethlisberger buying into what coach is selling to him and then executing it offensively. And then the defense, like I said, they're running to the ball. They got athletes. They're physical.
Starting point is 00:30:57 Everything that you want from a defense, I don't care if it's new school, old school, what you want from a defense is to be violent, physical, and take the ball away. That's what they're doing. So when I watched them the second time, it was interesting because they had played a horrible game against Dallas. Dallas really should have won the game. And I remember talking to some of the players and the coaches leading up to that game against Cincinnati. People were kind of whispering that Cincinnati may have a chance to win. And I remember specifically Mike Tomlin saying, look, this is a great faceless opponent.
Starting point is 00:31:33 All I care about is that we do our job. We stop the run like we're supposed to. We run the ball. We get after the quarterback. And I'll be damned if they didn't do exactly what he wanted them to do. And it was funny, you know, they beat up on Cincy that day, but it really didn't matter. They were just so focused on their assignment, their job. And I said, you have a team that's like that, and they buy in with some savvy veterans, and, you know, Ben Roethlisberger leading the ship.
Starting point is 00:31:58 It's good, man. They're going to be a tough out. You know, with all the different names up front, I'm reluctant because I'm afraid of getting it wrong, but I'll bring it up. Is Hayward the most important guy on that front for Pittsburgh? As far as just playing or the whole package? He doesn't get the headlines and everything,
Starting point is 00:32:19 but I feel like he dismantles things. Granted, when you're that close to the ball, we're talking about him being an interior defensive lineman, but I swear, not only just destroying the things that you're trying to do at the closest point of the ball, and it's not like mesh point or anything like that. We're both on the same page here, but that also that he can get out and chase as a defensive lineman, that his awareness on some of the other things when there's misdirection. I just feel like he makes all of these plays, and yet Watt is going to get a little bit more name recognition.
Starting point is 00:32:48 Bud Dupree has moments. Bush obviously was getting a lot of love as a younger player who was important. They've even plugged in some other pieces that I think still make plays there, but I feel like Hayward's been this constant there that isn't talked about as much as some of the other guys. Yeah, Hayward, I equate him to a tree stump. He doesn't move, man. He's right there.
Starting point is 00:33:08 He's Mr. Steady Eddie. And the reason I asked you about is he just playing or the total package is because what I like the most about Hayward is when I see him holding guys accountable, you'll see him in the middle of the game telling guys, hey, you need to do this. Or, hey, that wasn't good enough. And at the same vein, he'll celebrate and have fun with the guys. But when you see him on the sideline, how he addresses the team, when you see him when he's playing, those are the intangibles that,
Starting point is 00:33:42 yeah, you may get a couple years from now a better player, but are you going to get the same leader? Are you going to get this guy that's completely unselfish and is really holding everyone accountable? And, you know, that's what goes unnoticed a lot of times on these teams when you're like, oh, okay, you know, out with the old, in with the new. And you're like, you know, it's just not that simple. It's not that cut and dry. And so when you look at the Steelers, a lot of times they carried some veterans that, yeah, look, they're past their prime and maybe they were a year or two past when they should have been playing, but because they were so good at holding
Starting point is 00:34:16 the young guys accountable and having a standard and pride, that's why those Steelers teams were still, they're pretty good. And then now you bring these young guys along, and then now they understand what the culture is. And when you keep that culture and develop the culture, with guys like Cam Hayward, you can't put a price tag on that, man. That's your brand. The thing of the Steelers, ever since I've been watching ball, you've been watching ball, Steelers, you think of them, Patriots.
Starting point is 00:34:45 I mean, there's not too many other teams where they have literally solidified themselves with the culture and the brand for not just a decade. We're talking decades now of dominance. Let's talk Chiefs because I think every Steelers conversation immediately goes, okay, can they keep up with the Chiefs? And even when you feel like you contain the Chiefs for even a quarter, it's like, okay, but they can still put up 17 like that, which we've seen. Their first quarter against Tampa was ridiculous. I don't know if it's just because they screwed up with single coverage against Hill. That's what everybody seemed to say.
Starting point is 00:35:14 But have you noticed anything that you would, after a few years of this Mahomes thing, or maybe the Raiders games where Oakland gets one, excuse me, Vegas gets one, and then it was competitive in the, in the rematch. Have you noticed anything defense has been able to do that? Like is giving anyone a better chance of even trying to contain Mahomes at this point? I haven't seen anything.
Starting point is 00:35:36 There's an offense. Remember the greatest show on turf with the Rams and Marshall Fogg, Isaac Bruce, Kurt Warner was a quarterback and he was, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, exactly. Tor, Isaac Bruce, Kurt Warner was a quarterback. And he was, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, exactly. This was an offense where you couldn't slow them down with just scheme. And the way the Patriots slowed them down was being physical. But that physicality has been taken away from just the rules,
Starting point is 00:36:03 the changing of the rules in the NFL. So, you know, now when you're asking defenders, you know, they have these crossing routes with Tariq Hill and Travis Kelsey and all that. You can't touch it. Right. And what happened in the Super Bowl was the Patriots were able to get bodies on them and, you know, chuck them and hit them and bump them and knock them off their route. And so when you can't do that defensively, it's almost impossible when you have, you know, pro bowler tight end, pro bowler receiver, all world quarterback, offensive line is good. Oh, by the way, two pro bowlers at running back. How are you supposed to stop them if you can't be physical with them, right?
Starting point is 00:36:42 And knock off their timing. So what I see happening is you got to just have patience. And what I mean by patience is if you stay in cover two, they're going to run the ball for a lot of yards and they're still going to pass the ball. But you have to buy into, okay, at least we're going to slow the game down, keep everything in front of us. So long as we keep it in front of us and they earn it, then we have ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter and see where the chips lie at the fourth quarter.
Starting point is 00:37:13 Yeah, I mean, that's the craziest thing is that game was almost like 24-0, and then by the end of it, you're going, Tampa still has a chance here. I think that's what I noticed. This is probably a bad question to ask you, but I've had this theory about football, maybe even more so in college football. Better team comes in, goes right down the field twice, it's 14-0, and then it's hard to keep everybody as engaged the next 45 minutes of real game time. And it can be as simple as, hey, when you only have 12 possessions,
Starting point is 00:37:42 things become a lot closer. But why is it you think it's, it's so hard to maintain that? This is a hard sport. We get that. It's the easiest way to describe football, but even with that Tampa and Kansas City thing, you could probably imagine Kansas City's like, are you serious?
Starting point is 00:37:58 Like Tyree Kill has 200 plus yards in the first quarter. Like this, there's just no way. It doesn't seem like human nature allows you to stay as engaged and maybe that's why coaches just yell at you players all the time. You know, Ryan, I think it's less about the engagement and it's more about
Starting point is 00:38:15 the way the NFL has been designed and you've got to credit the owners. They've done a tremendous job of tweaking and perfecting the way that the NFL is structured. You know, and I say that because the talent level, if there's just a pool of talent level from the best team to the worst team, everyone is pretty much the same talent wise. You have some outliers, like Mahomes is an outlier.
Starting point is 00:38:40 You have an outlier in, give me Aaron Donald, right? You know, some of these guys are outliers but for the most part everyone has roughly the same amount of talent then it's just a matter of okay how hard do they play what scheme do you play what's the design of your offense defense and then the right play calling right and then all the tangibles of the players etc so when i see a score that's uh you know 14 nothing so quickly the first thing we what you just said and which we all saw was why are you playing man on target kill right stop that's just stupid right so it's not it wasn't just man it was like without safety help on a few of those right yeah just i mean hello yeah exactly so and i love bowls too that's
Starting point is 00:39:26 the other thing that kind of blew me a great d coordinator and i love his demeanor i loved him when he was at the jets i loved what he did throughout that thing being a mess and i don't like sitting at home going hey why is todd bulls like obviously he tried something maybe they thought they'd get away with holding up and you're like no Mahomes that didn't work and the best part is Mahomes is almost like are you kidding me and then makes the throw even more difficult by just screwing around and for him arm angle doesn't matter he's got every single release point down but he's almost just whipping it up there going all right whatever like you're gonna do this run this stupid defense and sure I'm gonna I'm gonna expose you But that that's the point. Right. We're not saying that, oh, the Steelers are just so much more talented than the Bucs. And then now they lost interest. What we're saying is, hey, I mean, not Steelers, Buccaneers defense, change your play calling, right? Then they change the play calling.
Starting point is 00:40:26 All of a sudden, they finally find themselves having a chance to get into the game. So, you know, that's where I look at it and say it's not necessarily that Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes are just like, oh, yeah, JV team, the Bucs are a JV team. We're just going to roll over them. And then they kind of just flop around and then they squeak out a victory. It's that the Bucs have some good talent. They just needed to change up what they were doing as far as their play call. I think it happens in college.
Starting point is 00:40:52 You're going to have to at least concede. Like in college, it definitely happens. You guys come out of the tunnel and you go, okay, this team sucks. And the next thing you know, it's 17-7. And you go, wait, what happened? Like what happened? I will concede that. And I had been a part of a couple of those games,
Starting point is 00:41:06 but we're just like, what are we doing? I'd give you that one. You're not getting off blocks. You're not chasing everything down. So, all right, that's fine. I won't bring it up for the pros again. Okay, let's talk about your Saints, because as much as the Jets, you know, they mean a lot to you.
Starting point is 00:41:20 I always feel like you're more of a Saints guy. I don't know if that's fair or not. It's just always the vibe I've gotten in talking with you like you take a little bit more pride in the saints by the way right where did i win the super bowl right exactly and what was the reason you bounced well you just went like all right we're on another 4 and 12 team like what happened when you decided to leave new york and all the different options so it it was uh you know it was very interesting at the time. I'll first start off by saying I thought I was going to be a lifer with New York.
Starting point is 00:41:50 That's what everyone says. Listen, I really thought I was going to end my career there. I enjoyed it. Loved New York. And my biggest thing being a competitor, I wanted to beat the Patriots. I really wanted to beat the Patriots like for a playoff spot and all that stuff. So, you know, Mangini comes in, and we switched to 3-4, and it was really – it wasn't so much 3-4.
Starting point is 00:42:14 It was a style 3-4 that we were playing. And, you know, it was just like, dude, we weren't that bad of a defense under her. Our record was bad. We were 4-12, but we were still pretty salty defensively so as a coach I always felt like coaches are there to put the players in the best position possible but unfortunately it was the other way around where Mangini comes in is like I'm gonna run my defense and I'm just gonna bring players in to run what I want to run and it's like okay if you want to do that which is fine what I want to run. And it's like, okay, if you want to do that, which is fine,
Starting point is 00:42:46 then that's when I decided, well, it's best for me to then part ways, right? Because this is clearly not going to work. I'm 230 pounds soaking wet, and you have me like butting up against guards 24 times a game. So, yeah. Did you talk to Mangini about it? Did you say – Oh, if I talked yeah you know we
Starting point is 00:43:06 asked them when i say myself um at the time sean ellis dwayne robertson like there were a lot of us that are like hey coach we didn't even ask for four three we're just like can you stunt us you know like do d-line games do linebacker sons like do something to help us not just sit there and just take it. And we're like, can you just anything like, Hey, you know, I'm pretty good at running. So if you just let me run, I might be able to make a play over here. Okay. But is that, is that because of Mangini? Because when you go and play new England, if you play on the edge there, like don't
Starting point is 00:43:41 expect to get sacks because it is everything. So let's keep it in front of us, you know, hold it up, don't expect to get sacks because it is everything. So let's keep it in front of us, hold it up, make some linebackers, make some plays, but they don't want to get real creative. They're not running a ton of stunts. They are pretty straightforward. So I imagine that's what Mangini was doing because that's what Belichick was doing. That's exactly what he was doing. But also think about who did Bill Belichick have, right?
Starting point is 00:44:04 You have Richard Seymour. Right. Vince Wilford, right? Teddy Bruschi. You had these guys that were – Ty Warren was really good too, yeah. Ty Warren, yeah. Yeah, guys are built for this, right?
Starting point is 00:44:16 And so I always figured – again, this is back then I was young, but I figured, all right, if Mangini's coming in, he's going to see that, hey, we're pretty good defensively. Let's work a kind of like a hybrid scheme and figure that out and go from there. You know, great example, going back to the Steelers and Mike Tomlin. Tomlin wasn't a 3-4 guy. Tomlin was a 4-3 guy through and through. And then he comes over to the Steelers and is like they're pretty good why am I going to change this they're pretty salty right keeps the coordinator is like okay I can learn this this is this is legit and then he goes and gets guys that fit in that system
Starting point is 00:44:57 that's good coaching so when you almost left where else did you almost go oh it was it came down to Detroit and New Orleans and it was uh Rob Marinelli was the head coach at the time who I think is a tremendous defensive coordinator clearly wasn't working out as a head coach and I remember going up there and it was snowing and I was like oh no, I can't do this. I know it's cold in New York, but at least you have New York City. Right. And I'm just like, oh, you know, you know, it gives me a tour of everything. And I love what Rob was preaching, man.
Starting point is 00:45:37 Rob Marinelli, he'll get you fired up. But I was just like, I can't see myself living here. Like, this is horrible. So are you saying that to him or are you just pretending? No, of course not. Thanks for the hat. This is horrible. Are you saying that to them or are you just pretending? No, of course not. Thanks for the hat. This is awesome. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:48 And to be honest, had I gone there, I'm going to make the most of it. But I really did not want to go there. So we get on the flight. Right before I took off, I remember telling my agent, I was like, hey, just do whatever you got to do to send me over to New Orleans if you can. I don't know how this stuff works. Just whatever you got to do, send me over to New Orleans if you can I don't know how this stuff works whatever you got to do man to send me to New Orleans so I land and I remember getting a
Starting point is 00:46:12 he actually left a voicemail voice message and I was like uh oh alright here we go so I listened to the voicemail he was like call me back and call him and he's like yeah you're going to go to St. so I was like whew alright I can work with that that was good back and call him and he's like yeah you're gonna go to the saints so i was like all right uh you know i can i can work with that that was good did belichick were you the guy after jets games where
Starting point is 00:46:31 he would go up to shake your hand because that's like the big honor right when belichick goes and seeks you out so he did not seek me out it was very interesting he didn't seek me out well let me backtrack for a second he comes down to miami he works myself and dj williams out yeah and like it was like a legit workout man we went for like an hour and a half and we're going hard as hell against each other because you know you don't want to show you playing favorites or being soft on your boy or anything like that and as soon as we were done he doesn't say thank you he didn't say you know good job good work he just goes okay and I walked off so me and DJ are just like what happened right so that that was the first. And then he goes and drafts my boy, Vince Wilford. Right? So I was like, what was that all about? So never sought me out.
Starting point is 00:47:30 Patriots. Jets, Patriots, when we played. Never sought me out. And it wasn't until we played when I was with the Saints. And he comes down. It was a Monday night football game. And we took it to him. And it wasn't until that game that he comes seeks me out and
Starting point is 00:47:45 just like he doesn't say like hey good game or anything like that he just comes over takes my hand he's like i'm so glad you're out of new york i was like okay he's like no i'm serious i'm so glad you're out of new york you're a hell of a player and i'm glad you're over here with the saints i was like all right cool so i guess that was that was uh my one story with belichick seeking me out okay yeah but that's that's like another level of confirmation so tasem hill i've watched the third down plays i've watched the the zone reads i've watched when breeze comes off in the red zone and gone whatever you can't make anything out of the bit stats they had the two when Breeze comes off in the red zone and gone, whatever. You can't make anything out of the bit stats that he'd had the two previous seasons, as I mentioned at the
Starting point is 00:48:29 top. I've watched these two games, their wins. He might be borderline terrible though. I do not, I do not get this at all. I understand Jameis has turned the ball over a little bit. I don't understand the money. I don't understand the money. I don't understand the investment. I don't understand. I'm not even going to give Peyton a hard time about some of the quotes, again, as I mentioned at the top of this. But I can't believe that this is a real thing with a franchise that has been a really good franchise. I mean, this has been a standard. This has been one of those franchises that you want to be more like.
Starting point is 00:49:02 And depending on what happens with Breeze, if he's even available, I thought this team had a chance to win a Super Bowl. With Taysom, I don't care what their record or seed ends up being. I actually think it's way worse than people are talking about. So I cannot defend Taysom. I haven't watched enough film on him yet.
Starting point is 00:49:21 And I say that because how the Fox and how it gets set up I just dive in right I just dive into whatever teams I'm calling so from the little that I know and I can give you a better answer down the road but from the little that I know I view this as
Starting point is 00:49:40 okay we're trying to find out about Taysom Hill right and like you said past two years prior to that okay, we're trying to find out about Taysom Hill, right? And like you said, past two years prior to that, gimmicky stuff, maybe he comes in, throws maybe one pass, whatever. Now we really get to find out who he is, right? Just like last year, right? Everyone wanted to figure out who is Teddy Bridgewater.
Starting point is 00:49:59 Is Teddy Bridgewater just going to hand the ball off 40 times a game or can he really lead a team and lead an office to victory? And fortunately, they found out the latter, that he is a legitimate quarterback and he played well and now he's playing well for the Panthers. So the next, it's now a year later, the next player is Taysom Hill. All right, who is Taysom Hill? Is he just a gimmicky guy or can he be a legitimate quarterback in the NFL and lead an offense to victories? Right now what you're telling me is no.
Starting point is 00:50:31 It sounds like a resounding no. It's a no from me. So that's fine, right? At least now you know, right? Because now when, let's say, Drew leaves after this year. Yeah, and I don't like to be that dismissive of a guy that's only had two starts, but it really reminds me of the Tebow stuff where we're like,
Starting point is 00:50:50 hey, he won again, but no. So that's great, because when you think about it now, if Drew leaves after this year, you go into next year, and now there's no more rumblings from the fans, right? The fans,
Starting point is 00:51:06 oh, Taysom, Taysom, put him in. Taysom, he does really well, blah, blah, blah. Now if Jameis Winston stays and wins his starting job, everyone's going to be like, hmm, yeah, I can see why. You know what I mean? They're going to be like, well, if you go back to those last four games last year and from what you're telling me, Taysom stunk it up, then you're like all right there's no more of this real battle battle quarterback battle to speak of so you know I
Starting point is 00:51:30 can see Sean really wanted to have a really good assessment of who is Taysom Hill is he the future from what you're telling me it sounds like no but fortunately they're still winning games while while we're finding out that it's a no. Yeah. But the rest of the roster, excuse me, the rest of the schedule is going to have teams that have quarterbacks. They still have Jameis now. And like you said, everyone. Look, I don't love Jameis, but I'd play Jameis at this point. But, you know, Jameis. Here's the thing about Jameis.
Starting point is 00:51:59 Right. Everyone forgets. He threw for 5,000 yards. All of us remember. We just know that. We just know that there was some other stuff that was going on with the interceptions. I mean, it's not a bad backup to have. No.
Starting point is 00:52:15 I mean, look, he's the third stringer. That's a great third stringer. Like I said at the top, I'm really proud of you. And, you know, I'm going to share this. You didn't know I was going to say this, but I'm going to share this because you told us this before we started taping it is that you were a couple of minutes late only because you were already watching your broadcast from yesterday to see how you can improve. And I'm telling you as somebody who's worked with a million guys that have played, uh, Vilma is, is the opposite of so many ex athletes in this
Starting point is 00:52:43 profession where a lot of guys have done the work on the field. They show up, hey, when do I show up? When do I talk? Okay, cool, I'm out. And Vilma watches all of this film, and he's even watching film of himself now to improve on the Fox broadcast, which is exactly who you are as a guy.
Starting point is 00:53:00 And it's the least surprising, and I can't wait to see where this all goes for you, man. So thanks again. I appreciate that, Ryan. Thanks, bro. A good time of year to do this is the college football regular season is winding down and it feels somewhat uneventful. So we'll see what happens.
Starting point is 00:53:18 Bruce Feldman, one of my favorite guys to talk to, have him on all the time. The Athletic Fox Sports as well and had a piece out on The Athletic today, basically taking a look at all the names that we need to know for potential replacements as the coaching carousel will pick up here and more guys are going to lose their jobs. So we start in Texas and we start with Urban Meyer because the Tom Herman thing has not worked out. Bruce, I'll ask a follow-up about that.
Starting point is 00:53:40 But first, as you understand it today, and as we all know, it's somebody you work with at Urban. And when you said like, hey, he's 56 years old in your piece, I was like, man, that's another good reminder that despite the health thing, we're not talking about an older coach here. What's the best way to describe him potentially being interested or Texas wanting to go in that direction and move on from Herman? Well, I definitely think that Texas has gotten to the point from my understanding, the UT brass is prepared to move on from Tom Herman. Uh, and I know we can talk about that in a minute more, but it just, it's just not working out. I mean, the recruiting is, is backsliding. It's just been
Starting point is 00:54:17 a lot of disappointment. Right. And so from the urban Meyer piece of this, it's interesting. Now, obviously full disclosure, I work with him on the big noon kickoff show at Fox. And look, the health concerns that he had when he stepped away from Ohio State, those are real. It's not like those go away. And so I think that is definitely something that will still factor into his decision. But on one hand, I think, look, Urban sees Fox has the Big 12. He'd be blind and not think,
Starting point is 00:54:51 wow, the Big 12 is there for the taking right now. I mean, it's not a great league. Yes, Oklahoma has Lincoln Riley, but they've struggled this year and it's not like they're competing at the Alabama level. And I think if you're Urban Meyer, you look at that and go, the guy who worked under me couldn't get it done, but I probably could. Not like they're competing at the Alabama level. And I think if you're Urban Meyer, you look at that and go,
Starting point is 00:55:09 the guy who worked under me couldn't get it done, but I probably could. I'm sure I could. That kind of thing. And I think those coaches, and you know this, Ryan, it's like those guys, especially the ones who are the ultimate competitors and just manic about it, where they live it. Basically, every moment of the week for them is fourth and inches. That's urban Meyer. Those guys, it's hard for them to shut that off. You know, it just kind of comes back. Now, having said all that,
Starting point is 00:55:34 like urban is really, really into doing the TV show. Like he is more engaged in our big noon show than any analyst I've ever worked with on any other show doing TV. Um, like he really cares about his segment. He cares about the show. He's invested in it. And I think on that part, I think he very much is into it. And I think he appreciates it. Hey, I have a, he sees the reaction that people watch him and they, they see his perspective and he has a big voice now on that. And so, you know, on one hand, I think there's probably time during the week where he sits back and looks and goes, yeah, there's not that many great jobs, but that could be a great job. And, you know, I'm a coach at heart. And then there's, I'm sure there's other days of the week where he's like, this TV situation is not bad and I'm into it. And I know I'm good at it. And I know that we're building something here. And, you know, I, I think all that stuff, I think makes it complicated. Right. I mean,
Starting point is 00:56:40 I don't think this is just Texas can throw a ton of money at, at urban Meyer. So that's going to tempt him. I just think it's the chance to go, hey, I've already won three national titles. I've won two in two different conferences. I truly believe I could keep winning. But at the same time, he did walk away from a really good job because of health reasons, and those health reasons are still there. reasons and those health reasons are still there. Yeah. This is pretty common though, when the health issues are more pronounced during the activities that make them more pronounced, meaning the stress of being a coach, it's really easy to go, oh, hey, I actually feel better now. It's like, well, okay, is it because you're better or is it because you're just not coaching? And so that's the hard part. None of us can speak for Urban on that one. But, you know, it's also the boosters aren't going to care. If he wants to coach, it's Urban Meyer. I'm not to say that they're insensitive, but I'm basically saying that's how people work. They're just going to go if Urban wants his job.
Starting point is 00:57:36 So you believe Herman is out then. What's going on there? How did this happen? Because the one thing about Herman, it's not like Herman was the hot coordinator. How did this happen? Because the one thing about her, it's not like Herman was the hot coordinator. He went to Houston, did it in the state and showed, OK, now he can do it as a head coach. I'm I'm really surprised that the Herman thing has not worked out.
Starting point is 00:57:58 Well, yeah, I'm I'm surprised that it is it is really fizzled as well. Now, here's how I would frame it is the people who are the decision makers there are prepared to move on. is the people who are the decision makers there are prepared to move on. Now, the question is, if they know they can get Urban Meyer, I think it's a no-brainer for them. If they can't get Urban Meyer, I know that people have talked to me, Chris Del Conte, the AD, really likes James Franklin. Is that a move they make? you start getting i think this is this is a little bit like where usc was it's also a little bit like where michigan is if you do not have the slam dunk hire guy then you know do you make the change if there's not somebody you're 100 on can come in there and you think really elevate the program. Now with Herman, a year ago, my crew at mid-season did a game. They were about to play TCU and they had already been struggling a little bit and they were really bad on defense and offense was carrying them.
Starting point is 00:58:55 And I remember talking to people around the program and the vibe I got was that, you know, in layman's terms, it was like, they're over him. It was almost like Tom's message had fallen kind of on deaf ears. I think there was a lot of people there who just felt like, all right, I don't know really what the identity here is. And they were struggling with that. And usually when you hear that, it's hard to get it back. Well, they ended up losing that game. And really, it was a bad game for Sam Ellinger. It was his first bad game of the year. He gets picked off four times at TCU.
Starting point is 00:59:30 And it just was kind of a dud a year. And Herman ends up firing almost the whole staff, including a bunch of those guys who helped them at Houston, who he brought with him from Houston. And look, it's not to say that the guys he hired in place of the ones he fired are, are, aren't good coaches. But you know, I think right now, I think people look at it and go, there's been a lot of games that they've won that have been toss up games. There's also been like the game that they lost Friday against Iowa state. It's a good team. Matt Campbell's a great coach and they lost that game.
Starting point is 01:00:04 You know, they've just been in so many 50-50 games where you're like, you're Texas, you're the team with all these four and five star guys. You should be better than this right now. It's year four. And by the way, don't think that Jimbo Fisher, what's going on at College Station, where he's now got that program trending upward and they're recruiting really well, that only makes it harder on Tom Herman. So I think it's just a case where if you're Texas, I think it's hard to get into, well, if we keep him for a year or five, even though year four, it's in a pandemic and we'd have to pay him just Tom, the piece of it of Tom Herman is 15 plus million dollars. I don't think Texas still knows if we still have him as the head coach in 2021, it's not going to make it any easier to recruit. And you don't have Sam Ellinger
Starting point is 01:00:53 there who has been really the one stabilizing force for this program. No, he's not. No, Sam Ellinger isn't Trevor Lawrence, but he's a very good college quarterback and he's a really good leader. And without him, I think things would be even worse. Well, if he didn't have Ellinger, I can't even fathom what that team would be like, because I mean, he's tough. He balls out. I'm not even saying like he has some bad games from a passing standpoint and then he finds a way to like, even keep him keep him in the game. By the way, real quick on this before we jump to a couple other guys, is it safe to assume that the Urban-Tom Herman relationship is such that Urban doesn't care if he's not to the point where he would say, well, if it were somebody else, I'd make sure Texas
Starting point is 01:01:37 knew I was available, but since it's Tom, I don't want him to lose my job. I don't think the relationship is a good relationship. Let's categorize it that. Now, Tom Herman's defensive coordinator is Chris Ash, who was Urban's defensive coordinator. Urban really respects Chris Ash a lot as a coach and as a person. So I don't think Urban's way is to jump in and just completely go out there and do that. But he was not going to potentially say, hey, I can't do that because of my guy Tom, is what we're signing off on. Yeah, this is not Lincoln Riley going, I'm not taking the East Carolina job because I love Ruffin McNeil situation.
Starting point is 01:02:13 Okay. All right. Good analogy. And shout out to ECU. All right. The Franklin part of this, as you write in your piece, the most ridiculous thing you could do is to be dismissive of Franklin because of the season they're having this year. It hasn't impacted the desire, I think, for whether, I mean, USC could win the Pac-12 and people are going to want Clay Hilton out of LA, which I've learned here firsthand.
Starting point is 01:02:40 You mentioned Texas and the interest there. What about Franklin's interest in leaving Penn State? Does he feel like, you know what, maybe I should get out of here after this kind of season? How do you sense his decision-making process with what could be available? Yeah, I don't think there's a big rush for him to bolt from Penn State. I mean, he's recruited there well, and I think he has for everything. I've heard he's got a good relationship with the leadership there and he's
Starting point is 01:03:05 from Pennsylvania. So I don't know if he, how tempted he would be if, if Chris Del Conte and Texas came after him very hard. I mean, it's Texas. It is a really big job. The thing that you always wonder about,
Starting point is 01:03:21 especially for a coach who's been there for a while. And now James Franklin's been at Penn state for a while is the, do people start to get stale? Um, and would that be a situation that would, would be intriguing to him? I mean, it's very,
Starting point is 01:03:38 you just don't see a lot of guys like Brian Kelly to me is, is an exception right now where he's somebody who has yet to win a national title. He's at a really high profile school and he's getting better while he's there because he had a really bad year. I think it was three or four years ago. He changed a bunch of stuff and they're a legit playoff team. And it doesn't seem like the fan base feels worse about him now than they did five years ago. I think they get it. I think they know it's not the easiest job and he is doing well there. But I think for the most part, you see it, whether it's like Mark Rick, the Georgia, I mean, it just happens where almost every time a guy is at a high-profile school and they've had success early,
Starting point is 01:04:26 but then it almost feels like it plateaus or maybe takes a step back, people are like, yeah, it's just like they almost get a little tired of it. I'm not saying James Franklin feels that way, and I'm not for sure saying the Penn State fan base feels that way, but I think if Texas comes after him, I think he would be probably foolish not to at least listen.
Starting point is 01:04:48 What about Hugh Freeze? Because that's the hire where I guess if you're Tennessee or if you're South Carolina, you just go. And even the Tennessee thing still feels, I don't know, you can plug in some of the holes there. I mean, Tennessee felt like a month ago, maybe six weeks ago is a better way to frame it. You're like, hey, this is heading in the right direction. So to move off of Pruitt this fast still feels fast, but you never know in the SEC. Auburn, you know, the Iron Bowl to me was not surprising whatsoever
Starting point is 01:05:16 other than Gus usually finds a way at home. And that one was obviously in Tuscaloosa. So I'm rambling a bit here. But my point is, like, somebody's going to hire Hugh again. And Hugh, I would have a harder time hiring than some of the other guys that have run astray. I would say, uh, you know, with him, he, he wins games. He's a really good offensive coach. He's a terrific play caller. Um, he is, he's all of those things. He's all of those things. And if you're in the sec and the most important thing is to win games because you are committed to playing football at the highest level if you told me who freeze was going to be the head coach of tennessee next
Starting point is 01:05:54 year i would say at the latest by 2022 tennessee is a top 15 team like who freeze is going to go you freeze beat nick saban back-to-. Nobody does that, especially at a place like Ole Miss, which is like, you know, has one of the worst stadiums in the escort service scandal. But he ended up losing probably a $20 million deal in the process. So I don't think this is a case where it's like, you know, a decision maker is going to go, okay, this is not going to come with the Art Riles level of baggage of what happened at Baylor. You're talking about something different. But having said that, Tennessee, it's year three under Jeremy Pruitt.
Starting point is 01:06:49 And it's year three in a pandemic, which to me is like, I don't know. That seems like too soon to pull the plug. I mean, if you're Phil Fulmer. It seems way too soon. Yeah, you're the guy. This is the guy you went to the mat for. It's only year three. Look, if you ask me who do I think is a much better coach
Starting point is 01:07:08 who has a better chance of winning, Hugh Freeze or Jeremy Pruitt, I'm 100% confident it's Hugh Freeze. But you already jumped down this road with Jeremy Pruitt. You've got to give him more time. Now, with Auburn, it feels like every other year, Gus is on the hot seat. It's going to cost a fortune. Because he is, right.
Starting point is 01:07:29 Yeah. Then they pay him. And a little like we spoke about before, where it's the guy who's been there a while and they are just over it. Whereas, you know, he had them on the brink of a national title like two years in, they lost to Florida State and Jameis at the end of the game. And otherwise there's been some really good moments and there's been some
Starting point is 01:07:48 not so great moments. If I'm Auburn, I'm looking at, okay, I'm not worried about Vandy hiring anybody. I'm looking at South Carolina. I know Freeze. I know Sark. I know Billy Napier. Guys they like. Who of that pool do I like? I don't see Sark ever going to Auburn. I think if he's going to coach anywhere in the state of Alabama, he's going to ride it out and see if he can be the next guy for Saban. But if I look at Freeze, who's a definite SEC guy, and I look at Billy Napier, who turned down some decent SEC job opportunities, I can see Billy Napier going,
Starting point is 01:08:25 I have a better chance of winning at Auburn than I would at South Carolina. And the question is, do the leadership and it's, it's out at Auburn. It's, it's messy because it's not just like an ADS decision. There's a lot of money people involve. It's like,
Starting point is 01:08:39 you know, does Auburn look and go, well, Tennessee may make a move to get Hugh free. So maybe we need to hustle or Billy, you know, it's just a lot of weird little inner interconnected politics in those jobs. If you ask me, I think Tennessee probably holds for another year just because they realize it's probably the wrong thing to pull the plug so soon, but it's the sec. I mean, we just saw South Carolina basically eat up $15 million to part ways in a pandemic with Will Muschamp.
Starting point is 01:09:05 So all bets are off. I want to do two more names here. By the way, though, real quick, though, did you just hint at maybe Sark would just ride it out as the OC until Saban eventually wants to retire? It wouldn't shock me. I mean, there's people there who really respect Sark. He's done a really good job as a play caller. Sark's a good coach.
Starting point is 01:09:24 I mean, look, everything that happened at USC sucks. It was a lot of personal stuff. I think by all accounts, everyone that's talked to him, I'm a huge Sark fan, so I'll just say that. I like Sark. I think he's a great coach. And as long as all the other stuff is good to go, I can't imagine he's not going to have other opportunities.
Starting point is 01:09:41 And he has had, like, he turned down a chance to get in it for Mississippi State. He probably could have been the Colorado head coach last year, turned down both. I think South Carolina is really interested. You know, keep in mind, Ryan Day, elevated from Ohio State, has done really well. Lincoln Riley, elevated under Bob Stoops, has done really well. Sometimes if you have a guy, and it's different with him is that, that Sark, now Sark did have different issues, but Sark also has head coaching experience, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. If he said, you know what, I'm good here.
Starting point is 01:10:15 Maybe it'll be three years, who knows? Um, but I, I want to see where this goes. Cause it's not like he's compensated. Well, he's learning Nick Saban, and he could end up with a huge job in the process. Okay, Luke Fickle, will he turn down the Michigan job if he's offered because of his Ohio State ties? Yeah, from what I've heard, I think he would. I think he is so Buckeye through and through that he just couldn't do it. So what does that mean for Harbaugh? through and through that he just couldn't do it. So what does that mean for Harbaugh?
Starting point is 01:10:48 I think it, again, I think with Harbaugh, it's hard to know who do they hire, who they think is a sure thing that makes them confident that he can get it done. And, you know, does Matt Campbell want that job? Matt Campbell makes a lot of sense. I just don't know if he wants to be the Michigan head coach. I mean, and then I had this in the column this morning, like Jeff Halfley's done a really good job at BC. He did a great job. People love that guy, by the way. Yeah. I hear people
Starting point is 01:11:14 complimenting him all the time, like just behind the scenes and stuff. He did a great job as Ohio State's defensive coordinator last year. He fixed a lot of stuff. And before that, he was known as a great recruiter. I mean, he's got big ties in the Northeast. I mean, he's done a really good job. I mean, they had Clemson, you know, giving Clemson all they could handle before Notre Dame beat them. And so the question is, you only got one year of sample size with Jeff Halfley as a head coach.
Starting point is 01:11:42 That's a big leap. But if I'm Michigan and I'm having to make a list, I would definitely look at Jeff Halfley long before I would look at, say, P.J. Fleck or somebody whose name is out there more. Well, you don't have to ask for my vote on that one. No, I know. I mean, it's like asking Stanford Steve about certain coaches. Yeah, but at least Steve can, you know, his big thing, getting to know Steve over the years,
Starting point is 01:12:10 I'd be like, why do you hate them so much? And then he would tell a recruiting story. Like he, to this day, hates Penn State because the way they recruited him. And I don't really blame him because he was like a high school kid at the time. I'm like, yeah, but none of those people are there anymore. He's like, yeah, whatever. Um, yeah, my Fleck didn't certainly didn't recruit me. I deserve to be recruited for nothing. Uh, I feel like there's one other, you know, whenever the Venables thing comes up, I really do feel like he's so different and it makes sense. Hey, maybe the best defensive coordinator we've seen in one place in a decade. Uh'd be hard to argue against that. He's that good. He's also paid that well. His sons are on the team. And normally that profile, once the sons move on and all that kind of stuff, you would expect that he would just want to be a head coach at some point. All of these guys want to run their own programs at some point. And yet, whenever I ask about him, people are like, yeah, he's just a little different.
Starting point is 01:13:07 He's just a little different this way. As long as Clemson keeps paying him, he might be happy to just stay in the same role. Is that fair or do you get the sense that he's actually going to want to try to run his own place? I think that's fair. I mean, he's had decent power five job opportunities that he has declined and where he's known the people involved and they're not bad jobs. But as you said, you know, both his sons are there,
Starting point is 01:13:33 you know, he's well-respected, he's obviously well-paid. Uh, having said all that, he coached at Oklahoma, he played at K state, youate. Again, if I'm Chris Del Conte, he would be the one assistant coach who I would really think a lot about because he has a reputation as being a really good recruiter. just causes problems because he does a lot of really manipulative stuff for the quarterback to deal with. And he's aggressive. And, you know, like even talking to Dave Aranda during the year about like, you know, Brent Venables plays off having a really good offense because he can be really aggressive.
Starting point is 01:14:20 You know, now it's one, you're not hiring him though to be the defensive coordinator. And, you know, Gary Patterson's his own defensive coordinator. It's worked really well. But for the most part, most guys aren't that way, right? They're, they delegate it. So I think there's the challenge.
Starting point is 01:14:35 I mean, I also think if you're Venables, he's still very vibrant. I don't want to say, you know, he's not young, like 35 young, but he's still, nobody thinks, oh, is that guy 59 or whatever, you know? No, I mean, he's actually insane on the side. Yeah, he's super high energy. He's never going to be an issue. Yeah, but it's like at one point you start, the perception starts to become your Bud Foster, which is no disrespect, but after a while it's like, wait, does that guy even want to be a head coach because he's so good at what he does?
Starting point is 01:15:04 And usually people think the next step up is to be a head coach. I don't think Venables is at that point, persona or perception-wise, especially with his kids there. But again, it definitely wouldn't hurt to ask because I think he is really that good. And I think he's more than just like, there's some guys who are just scheme guys. I mean, he's a really good recruiter. I think he's really well respected by people on the program. If he really wants to be a head coach, there's nothing that should be stopping him. That's Bruce Feldman.
Starting point is 01:15:34 You can read all of his work at The Athletic and check him out on Fox Sports as well. Thanks, man. Always a pleasure, Ryan. Thank you. We will get to life advice, but first we'll get to Miller Lite advice. Get it? 2020 is the year of cancellations. And as the holidays arrive,
Starting point is 01:15:50 we'll be saying farewell to one more tradition, work holiday parties. But as it turns out, most of us never really liked those parties anyway. And with work parties canceled, we could get something we actually want for the holidays, more time with our real friends, or as we call it, Miller time.
Starting point is 01:16:05 Work holiday parties are great when you're younger because you're stupid and you don't care. And then you get a little bit older and then you're probably horrified by your younger self. I never had the corporate thing enough where ESPN had canceled the Christmas, the legendary Christmas party by the time I got there. And when I was younger, bartending holiday parties, no one cares because it's just you're all bartenders anyway, so the rules don't really apply. And trust me, the Miller Lights did flow. Take away the forced fun of work holiday parties,
Starting point is 01:16:37 and what you have left is Miller time with the people who you actually want to have a beer with. To give work holiday parties a proper send-off, Miller Light is teaming up with visual artist Alex Prager who you actually want to have a beer with. To give work holiday parties a proper send-off, Miller Lite is teaming up with visual artist Alex Prager for a full exhibit called Farewell Work Holiday Parties. Why? Nothing says farewell to an old tradition like seeing it in a museum. To celebrate all that extra Miller time with your real friends this season,
Starting point is 01:17:00 this is actually really funny, whether it's virtual or not, get great tasting, less filling Miller Lite delivered by going to MillerLite.com and find the delivery options near you. Tis Miller time. And if you're in LA, check out Farewell Work Holiday Parties, the exhibit at the LACMA. That's the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this season, November 21st, January 7th. Well, it looks like I have a plan this Friday. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.
Starting point is 01:17:31 You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids,
Starting point is 01:17:46 I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. The first life advice, again, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. The first one, our man checking in here, long time, love the show.
Starting point is 01:17:59 Okay, got it. I'm a 32-year-old CPA living in the South, accountant. I've been in public accounting for about 10 years and have recently become a partner at my firm. Well, shout out to you the South, accountant. I've been in public accounting for about 10 years and have recently become a partner at my firm. Well, shout out to you at 32, partner. I am proud of my accomplishments at my age, but certainly have more goals in mind. Okay. You know, I'm the prize. My question relates to dealing with people who are completely wrong about a topic or feel as though they know all aspects of a complex issue. There are a few topics that are less fun to riff
Starting point is 01:18:22 about during a cocktail party or tailgate than the U.S. tax code, but inevitably acquaintances constantly want to discuss it with me and, of course, pick my brain. I consider myself a very normal dude, 32, married with a child, on the way, on my home, big time sports fan, love golf, etc. There are plenty of topics I can make small talk over, but constantly the topic slowly drifts over to taxes. Constantly, the topic slowly drifts over to taxes. The worst part is biting my tongue when someone is completely convinced they've found the cheat code and want to tell me about it. This is the equivalent of the cap always goes up guy for you. All right. In my mid-20s, I felt like I handled this kind of buffoonery better. I'm catching myself sounding like a bit of a know-it-all or even an ass in my responses. It is getting harder and harder for me to not correct people as they spread totally
Starting point is 01:19:02 false information. As I look back now, I've grown my professional network. A ton of them have come from these casual conversations over the years, and I believe being a normal dude in a pretty nerdy field has been incredibly beneficial. I would agree. That's a good acknowledgement there. There's a very effective way to build a business in the South, but being the asshole at the tailgate who told Joe Spitcup creating an LLC to buy a boat for a tax write-off is a ridiculous idea, and it's probably not the way to accomplish that. How do you handle people with horrible ideas or perspectives on topics you know a lot about? Can you really just bite your tongue if someone came up to you to party and
Starting point is 01:19:32 brag about their favorite NBA team and just gain this super valuable trade exception? How would you respond? Thanks. Love the show. Okay. This is really good because it speaks to definitely part of my profession that isn't always the best, but you don't want to come off like a jerk and say, hey, I shouldn't have to talk with anybody about sports because I'm such a sports genius. I agree. And if there's like a decent number of you that still think I don't have a fucking clue about anything that I'm talking about, um, despite all the work that you put into it and you just kind of tell, it's kind of like watching somebody dribble a basketball within two seconds, you go, okay, this guy played or can't play. And for me, I can usually tell within a few seconds what the depth of knowledge will be for this person and whatever sports topic they're asking me about.
Starting point is 01:20:12 And I'm sure the exact same thing happens to you. And honestly, there's a bunch of you now listening, whether you're in insurance or education, whatever it is, people want to connect. This isn't even just about these subjects. It's the desire to connect. Because you know what no one does in a conversation? Oh, hey, what do you do? Well, I'm in real estate. Oh, I don't know anything about real estate, so I'm just going to sit this one out.
Starting point is 01:20:39 That doesn't happen. Whether it's a person who wants to buy a home or has bought a home, that doesn't make you a real estate expert. I'm not a chef because I pick out stuff. I'm actually a decent cook, but you know what I'm saying? You can like food, but it doesn't make you a chef. And you can like sports, but it doesn't mean you actually know what you're talking about all the time. So when you're about to enter a tax conversation with an actual accountant, although let's be careful and not talk about taxes because that's not cool, You're rarely ever going to meet anyone that can ever be on your level. And not only is it the human desire to connect on these topics, because that's just what people do. I think it's actually kind of a nicer thing, even though it's annoying and it's driving you crazy. And all of
Starting point is 01:21:23 you right now that are in your field, when somebody's at a cocktail party talking about your field and you're just like this guy sounds like an asshole it's probably better than someone saying i'm not interested in this at all like it's just small talk and that's what people like to do we like to gossip we'd like to spread the word on something um you know this is this is like very this goes back to to that sapient stuff where gossiping became the main reason we're this upright, I don't know, 8 billion people now. So you're going to have to do, I would say just do this. You're just going to have a bite the tongue for the rest of your life because it's never going to stop happening. So you can drive yourself fucking crazy by correcting everyone all of the time, or you're just going to have to learn how to adapt to it because you still are representing yourself. You're representing a business and you don't want to be like a jerk about it. Like I had a thing, I forget it was,
Starting point is 01:22:18 was it like a Christmas ago or something? I was out with some friends and this guy was just on, he was going to hound me. He was going to hound me the whole time. I could just tell. And it was on and on and on. And it was the million basketball questions. And I was trying to be nice because he was a friend of a friend and I could see that he was excited to meet me. And it took the picture and he did the whole thing and it went on and on. And dude, we're talking like over 20 minutes and he was following me around at like different spots that we were hanging out in. And finally, I was like, hey, look, look, man, you're actually not remotely interested
Starting point is 01:22:52 in any of my answers. You only want to tell me all the things that you think about sports. And you're hoping that I agree with you. So somehow that's validation of you. And then a couple of things broke a different way than maybe you'd have my career. Like I've seen this a million times. I already know what you're doing. I can see it.
Starting point is 01:23:04 And like, you got to understand, I'm here with my friends and this isn't quiz night. You wouldn't like, this isn't you quiz me all night. And I think that I gave him 20 minutes is probably a long amount of time, but I can't do that. 30 seconds in with people for the rest of my life. Cause it drives myself crazy. So why do you have to correct everyone? All right. So the simplest part of this is I know it's annoying. And because you're somebody that works in money and they're going to always think that you have some tip and just saving them money. And that's, that's the way that it works. But just because you're a partner 32, doesn't mean that you're not still making first impressions in a small town, a town I know pretty well.
Starting point is 01:23:41 I would, I would say you're just going to have to learn to move on because here's what's more, it's going to be way more annoying for you to try to correct everyone all the time because that's the other thing is people don't want to be corrected. Even when they know they have no depth on the topic whatsoever. I'll run into somebody that'll say like, I can't believe, I don't know, I'm trying to use a good example that everybody would understand here. Like, oh, hey, I can't believe Anthony Bennett wasn't better. Actually, that's, that's too in depth, but I'm just using that as an example. And somebody was like, Oh, I can't believe Anthony Bennett wasn't better. Like, well, you know what? He was actually kind
Starting point is 01:24:14 of hurt and he wasn't in great shape. And honestly, it was kind of a weird draft and the team, the front office liked him. They liked that Canadian thing. And I don't know. And then the guy would say, well, you know, I don't know. And I'll be like, dude, I just gave you five answers. I just gave you five answers for why it didn't work. And I'm telling you, and I'm like, I know what happened. And I know you don't have access to this information, but you're still going to argue with me about it. So if you want to keep correcting all these people, you're just going to drive yourself fucking crazy. So don't do that. And just kind of nod and say, yeah, yeah, I never thought of it that way. And trust me, you'll save yourself a lot of stress. I think that cow herd commercial
Starting point is 01:24:49 made it hard for you and everybody else like you, when he's arguing with the dry cleaner about sports, that just everybody, all of you just will do that forever. So I think it, I think it brought a lot more conversations your way. Do you know the commercial i'm talking about no commercial that commercial was great um they ran they actually used to run espn radio ads on tv and then tv was like all right why are we doing this why are we giving ad space to radio promotion um and i don't know i don't know how any of that comes off because i don't this is not a complaint i have a great life this is an this is an awesome thing but i i guess I just, I hope there's a lot of you nodding in whatever industry you're in, is that the instinct of the person that's uninformed
Starting point is 01:25:33 is to try to make some sort of connection with you, even if they, like, I don't know, people have a hard time with admitting they're wrong, admitting they have no idea what they're talking about, changing their mind. And all of these things I believe are connected to how people interact with somebody that's an expert on somebody. And especially this guy emailing us, like you can probably tell this person how to better save their money.
Starting point is 01:25:58 It's a big one. Yeah, what better motivation to go ahead and pick the brain of a guy like that? It's going to happen to you the rest of your life. And so you can stress out about it or just figure out a way to just go, hey, what baseline of this can I accept? Just keep changing the subject on them. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 01:26:19 One more quick one here. This one's brutal. Hey, my name's – we're not not gonna he's from nebraska we'll just say that because i've got a dilemma um i'm 30 i've never been called ugly in my life my dad bought it started to creep up pickup ball legend around here shout out uh anyway my problem is i have an awesome woman honestly perfect in almost every way and i'm 30 so it's about time i leave the game and settle down if i want kids she seems like the perfect person to start a life with just one problem while going through her phone i know invasion of privacy to send her fantasy lineup
Starting point is 01:26:52 so you went through her phone to set her fantasy lineup um but then okay he admits he's like i just went to her videos in her phone and saw sex tape with an X. Ew. For some reason, I clicked on it. Well, because you're already in her phone, so you were going to click on it anyway. I clicked on it, watched some of it. Now I can't get it out of my brain. It's throwing me off in almost every way. She doesn't know I've seen it yet.
Starting point is 01:27:17 I know everyone has a past, and I've been finding out more and more things. It suggests she might have a little history before we met. Any suggestions on how to get over this, or should I just cut bait and find someone else? Appreciate it. Look, you look through her phone. So honestly, I have a way bigger issue with you going through her phone than her having something going on with her ex.
Starting point is 01:27:42 But yeah, you're not going to unsee that. So you're probably just going to have to break up sorry but think about this you'll be single and you'll be motivated to get back in shape and get rid of that dad bod life advice rr at gmail.com okay a great show thank you very much uh just because we were fired up to get Vilma. I'm just such a huge fan of his. And so please subscribe, rate, and review the pod. We'll be back. We have an awesome book.
Starting point is 01:28:12 We might call them our house Wednesdays instead of weird Wednesdays now. Oh, wow. Because we've got Cole Hauser. And we have this book that I read recently that I think a LifeAdvice email somehow ended up in my, uh, my inbox that was suggesting a book and it had nothing to do with life advice. And so I read the book and it was incredible. And I'm, I'm hoping this interview with the author is going to be terrific. I think we're doing that. So maybe we'll start calling our house Wednesdays, but that's when I start to forget basketball starts in three weeks, which I'm like, Oh, that's, that's right. We have
Starting point is 01:28:41 basketball again. So we'll, uh So we'll figure it all out. Please have a great week. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and got to see as much of their family as they could. And as always, I appreciate the support of the Pox. Thanks. Thank you.

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