The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Lamar Jackson’s Future and the Three Factors in the Raven’s Decision, Jon Anik on UFC 285, Plus an Accidental HOA Deep Dive

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

Ryen opens with Lamar Jackson’s future with the Ravens, the factors that make it complicated, and why just paying him isn’t as simple as some want to make it out to be (0:41). Next he chats with the voice of the UFC, Jon Anik, about Jon Jones getting a win in his return and the rest of UFC 285, plus story time from their younger days in Boston and his thoughts on the Celtics (12:47). Finally, the guys close it out with Life Advice, including revisiting HOA problems (50:00). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jon Anik Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast we have a discussion on lamar and the decision the baltimore ravens are facing that deadline is today so by the time you hear this the tag may be applied but which tag and what does it mean and can we allow it to permeate into our thoughts about Lamar in a bigger discussion? John Anik on John Jones' return to the ring. It was quick in the cage submission. Did we learn anything? We'll talk more about Jones and some other stuff. And I have a life advice that was sort of life advice then turned into a massive discussion about HOAs.

So I don't know who that was for. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah.

And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. The Lamar Jackson deadline is today, 3.30 Eastern for the Ravens to make a decision

on which of the two tags they want to use. Now, by the time you may hear this, that decision can be made. If you're on it early, the decision may not be made. I don't know if it's going to go right to 3.30 Eastern. I thought it was interesting that a team source said recently, he's like, you know, we've been working on this for 25 months. So, you know, we're not going to wake up on Tuesday and go, oh, wait, that's today. So let's go over the two different tags that we have and discuss Lamar and a bigger picture thing here. Because I just think this whole stuff gets really interesting. There's an exclusive tag where the Ravens just have his rights and he's 45

million for next year. Simple, right? There's the non-exclusive tag where that comes in a lot cheaper at $32.4 million, but that also means that Lamar can talk to other teams and he can sign an offer sheet. Now, he could sign the offer sheet and the Ravens could just match it and save some money, which maybe some would argue that's the way to go. I would argue that maybe you just give him the $45 million because you've gone through all this kind of stuff just to make everybody feel a little bit better about it.

But then again, just depending on how your cap space plays out, maybe that seems like it's pointless because you could have had them control and match the offer sheet and keep them at 32.4. Basically, as I'm saying this all, it's just trying to understand, okay, well, they did this because of this or they did this because of that.

Now, if he signs an offer sheet with another team and the Ravens go, you know what? I think we're good. I don't think we're even close on the guaranteed money and what you want for a long-term deal, which would be a big deal. But a lot of times it's like if you're any good as a quarterback, you just get paid more than everybody else because you're up later than the other guys. That's kind of the history of how that position has been paid. It's not always just based on who you are. always just based on who you are. And when you look at some of the other quarterbacks that have been paid, whether it's Kyler, although Russell Wilson, people can laugh at the contract now, but I think at the time you kind of understood it, even though it was done ahead of time. Some of these Daniel Jones numbers sound absurd, where I think some of those numbers you go, you know what, maybe we just don't do this. But you're always afraid of, okay, you can not do it, but then what's your backup plan? So if the Ravens were to say, hey, okay, you know what?

We're actually not going to match that offer sheet. They get two first-round picks. I think who signs them also factors in to try to figure out what those first-rounders would be. All right, so they have a bunch of different options. Ozzie Newsom said yesterday on the Bernie Kosar show, shout out to Bernie Kosar, by the way, quote, we're trying to get a deal done, and then paraphrasing here,

again, quote, if not, we'll put the franchise a deal done. And then paraphrasing here again, quote, if not, we'll put the franchise tag on. Okay. But again, it is which one. So the Lamar debate has been a big topic for him going all the way back to the draft. Bill Pullian said some shit nobody likes. Booger McFarlane admitted he was wrong about him as a quarterback. He goes and wins an MVP. And he is he is I think just outside of that top tier guys which is not a huge insult you know whenever we're talking about like all-time great basketball players you're like I have this guy's six I have this guy's seven somebody's like I can't believe that the disrespect never ends you're like you know I'm saying he's better than everyone that's ever played except for like six people so I don't think that's the most disrespectful thing you can say about somebody. And I know when Sandoz quarterback tears came out at the beginning of the year, that

gets turned into this content fucking waterworks where it's like, all right, I can't believe this guy. What, you can't believe somebody said that he's the sixth best, seventh best quarterback in the NFL? Because that's really what we're talking about. But I do think that there's the sixth best seventh best quarterback in the nfl because that's really what we're talking about but i do think that there's always the part that's fascinating is when it comes to quarterbacks in general the decisions teams make about a player they have in a building they have going through all the reps for multiple years and then them making decision to move on from that quarterback and then that makes me wonder wait does this end the debate like if a bunch of people like to quarterback a lot, or a bunch of people had him ranked here or didn't have him ranked as high, when a team and the coaching staff who's had the quarterback around for multiple

years, if they're okay moving on from that player, should that end the debate about the player? Now to repeat, once again, Lamar is better than some of these quarterbacks that I'm going to go back and look at historically. So that's not really the case. And you're always a little afraid of digging into anything that feels like you're being critical of Lamar Jackson just because of the way, I don't know, content seems to work lately. You know, it's like seeing or being one of those guys who's like, you know, the WNBA doesn't make a ton of money.

And then your friends are like, no, you're one of those guys. It's like, what guys? Like a guy that points out something yeah i wouldn't tweet that dude so yeah the lamar debate ends up becoming a bunch of different things when i'm just really interested in where his contract's going to land and what decision baltimore ends up making with him if they'd actually let him move on let's look back historically again at some of the guys that moved on like i think a lot of us look to jared goff you're like is he really that good and then you hear the stories about how m McVay was basically telling him what the

coverage is and where the throw was supposed to go before every single snap. Now they went and paid him a ton of money. And I thought the Rams were kind of weird in the way they publicly justified it. They were saying, well, you know, he really handled himself well after that loss of the Patriots. All right. Well, it's a chance they got to move on from him. They did. They won a Super Bowl. That's a win for McVay. All right. So Goff has been better now. But I think a lot of those Goff years with Los Angeles where it's like, what is how good is this guy actually going to be? And then they decided to move on from him. I think that's a very telling thing. The same thing with Jimmy Garoppolo. The record is really good. I thought he was kind of overrated in the beginning because when I'd look at him get the win as a starting quarterback and then watch how the game played out, I was like, I really don't know that I had that much to do with him.

That's a tell. I mean, how many different times did he try to move on from Garoppolo? Although I'm arguing with a buddy right now about Shanahan. He thinks he's the worst coach of all time because of the NFC title game. And I'm like, I don't know. He had a fullback warming up on the sidelines. So I'm not sure that's the best example to say that Shanahan isn't that good. But there's a lot of people out there that think Shanahan's actually like this completely fraudulent coach. I think the decision to move on from Garoppolo, we don't have the result yet like the Rams do, but I think it's really telling. I love this one because Kirk Cousins was with Washington. Jay Gruden was there. Cousins as a starter, they went 9-7, 8-7, 7-9. The first year they got rid of him, they went 7-9 again. Again, it's not always one loss

on quarterbacks, but it was very clear the front office and Gruden were like, he's all right, but we don't want to pay him this kind of money. It ended up being an absolute historic windfall for cousins. Cause he got tagged, got tagged again,

I believe, and then got all that guaranteed money from Minnesota and their cap thing was so messed up. They had to keep giving them more guaranteed money on top of everything else. But we've spent a lot of time talking about Kirk cousins. And I feel like that's part of the history and should always be part of the discussion. The team that didn't even have the option was like,

no, we just don't really want to pay you. I think it's one of the few things that Washington has done as a football team where I was like, I kind of respect that. This one always bums out Cerruti when I bring it up. It happened to Alex Smith twice. I was always kind of like a shrug to Alex Smith guy. That year they won 13 games to San Francisco. Akers kicked 52 field goals and they were in the bottom third of teams on third down conversions. There's some other conversion numbers there for Smith that are even worse. I think Jim Harbaugh in that moment was

like, I need more juice at the position. I got to figure something else out here. And he went with Kaepernick. It happened to Smith again with Andy Reid. Granted, it was for Mahomes. Smith got to play that year. He was good. He was better in that year. And they'd always put up that Monday night graphic of all the win-losses and it'd be like Brady, Manning, and then Alex Smith. But it happened to Smith twice. And I think both cases,

you understood why. There's some other ones that aren't as good. Arians moving on from Winston to Tom Brady. I think a lot of people would have done that. Ironically, when you stay on Brady and making the decision to quarterback, Belichick comes up historically as one of the worst decisions you could make because he wanted to get ahead of it and move ahead off of Brady and had no backup plan whatsoever. That's been covered. There's total flame outs that just weren't good enough, whether it's a first round bust like a Sam Darnold or Bortles who's around, looks like he's going to be okay. It doesn't work out. Baker, the same type of stuff. Lamar is much better than all of these guys. I think I've said it three times just to make sure everybody is on the same page here.

But whenever a decision has to be made about a quarterback financially, there are average to above average QBs that just get paid. They just get their money. And so there's a few things at work here. Is it the injuries and projecting how healthy he would be moving forward? And that's the hesitation with paying him, which could be the reason. And it would be a viable one. It could be the money that Lamar is like, nope, I want the Deshaun money. And the Deshaun thing is unfortunate in that somebody who was in trouble was then rewarded, but that's the way it worked.

He fell into a very, very specific slot that is almost unheard of, and certainly with the money, historically unheard of. Cleveland didn't want to lose in Atlanta. They guaranteed the whole $250 million, and that's the way it works. So unless you want to get in a lot of trouble and then become a free agent, which I don't know if that's necessarily worth it, but it was financially for Watson. The Kyler money is absurd. The guarantee's there. At least with Wilson, he had a resume.

Kyler, good luck with that contract. And so if you're Lamar, you at least have to be thinking, well, if he got that and I have an MVP and I'm just a better player, then I should be able to get $ 189 million guaranteed on this new deal so it could be the money or or could we possibly allow ourselves this and i know this will probably be shot down again if you like lamar you're never going to allow this to even creep into the debate

about him is it anything that baltimore's telling us where it's like, yeah, we really like him. We think he's really good, but we don't think he's one of those guys, and we aren't going to do business that way. We're going to find out this week. It's almost tournament time, and there's no better place to get in on the action than

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Tennessee, 1-800-522-4700. Wyoming, or visit 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia. He is the voice of the UFC. I've known him 20 years, John Anik. What's up, buddy? We are very old now, but you can't call me a voice, right? Every time I hear your voice, that's the voice. But it's great to be with you.

20 years, yes. We are like fossils now. I got like a white beard. It's been a long time, my brother. You look like you're a little thicker. I noticed that on the call. I mean, it's tough for you to look thick next to Rogan and DC, but it looks like you put seven pounds, maybe sinew.

Yeah, I mean, I you put seven pounds, maybe sinew. Yeah. I mean, I fluctuate a lot, right? Like I definitely can't button my tight suit pants. If I'm over 155 pounds, I'm probably 158 as I talked to you today, but yeah, I'm doing more strength and conditioning and less running, but my eyes are pretty swollen today. It's been a lot of international travel for the first quarter of the year. And that Friday, I got to tell you, before UFC 285 with all that movie stuff and everything else,

that was the single busiest day of my professional life. I think you're seeing that a little bit in my swollen face. It's great to be with you nonetheless, despite my aesthetic. Not as swollen as Connor's face, who we'll get to a little bit later. Wow. The joke would be, is he going for Jones?

Was he trying to move up to heavyweight? He looked thick. Anyway, let's start with Jon Jones. You were the first person ever to mention his name to me. You were like, hey, this guy is insane how good he is. And I was like, all right, whatever. We'll check it out. is and I was like all right whatever we'll check it out and here we are a decade plus later later and uh he wins the heavyweight title beats gone uh submits him very early tough night for gone kicks Jones in the nuts right off of the break and then and then is choked out so fast he doesn't even really quite realize what happened so there's a lot of different Jones stuff that I would ask about but I just want to start simply with the fight like what what did we do we learn anything from this with Jones going up to heavyweight and taking out Ghan where he didn't really have to fight a heavyweight?

Well, right, because there's a lot of Jones stuff, but on the Ghan side, like, hey, man, like, what have we been doing since the Francis Ngannou fight? It's been 14 months. So, but yes, for Jon Jones to come back this spectacularly just speaks to his brilliance, because George St-Pierre is the other guy that we hold in this high

regard. And George St. Pierre hated fight night. Jon Jones loves fight night. But you might have heard me say on the broadcast, there seemed to be a little more tension in Jon than normal. Finally, he let the smile go. But normally, Ryan, the minute he hits that tunnel, he's happy to be there. And I didn't necessarily get that vibe from him. Then they're cutting the tape off of his toes and then the groin shot seven seconds in. But to speak to his fight genius, right? He said to me on the post-fight show, that groin shot seven seconds and it didn't hurt that bad. Just didn't want that strike to go unnoticed, right? A microcosm for the entire fight genius that is Jon Jones. And say what you want

about his overall commitment to training, right? Even in this training camp, I think he probably could have been a little bit better. I think he'll be better for the Stipe Miicic training camp. But there's no denying the strategist, right? The appetite for mixed martial arts, not just greatness, but knowledge, right? And the ability to be coachable and stick to a game plan. So for all of his warts, very coachable professional athlete, especially for a guy on his level. I'm very happy for him.

I like to say to people like I was an idiot when I was 28, right? 35, a little less so. And I do think him at 35 years old, there is sort of a wisdom and a maturity there. Perhaps I'm leaning into it a little bit too much, but there are things there mentally, emotionally with him that were not there before. So I'm very happy for him. Yeah, maybe. And I think maybe that was part of it. It was an excellent point you made on the broadcast because you're watching him come out of the tunnel and normally it's like the loosest dude you've ever seen. Like, you can't wait.

Like, I can't fight people legally and I get to tonight. I just love to fight that much. And when you have that in you, it's a big advantage over most people that don't want to do that. So when he, I don't know if he was tense. I think it was great that you pointed it out. I didn't really come to any kind of

conclusion, but you were right to point out that it was a little bit different. And then when he started feeling himself a little bit better, he started dancing, he started smiling, he started buying. And I was kind of, you know, unlike Grant Williams with the second free throw the other night, I looked at his face and go, and he is giving us the picture of confidence. And inside there, there's tremendous doubt. Like that's what I saw a face that was lying to himself. And with Jones, I'm not comparing Grant Williams to John Jones, but it was, it was, wait, is he kind of talking himself into being excited or whatever? Because, you know, you've been around fighting even far more than, you know, more professionally than I could ever imagine. than I could ever imagine. But I think we both understand that there is some sort of switch that goes off when it's over for you.

And that fighter always thinks he still has more rounds in him. And we can see it before they can see it. It's one of the rare cases with athletics where it's like, no, you're actually done. You can keep an eye on yourself. He comes in and puts on all this weight. You know, his frame is not really probably built

to look great at 240 like some of the other heavyweights are. Some guys can be 250, 260 and still look amazing. And maybe we're just too in tune to looking at him at light heavyweight with so much less weight on him. But then he gets the choke and I'm like, I never want to root against him. I don't want to root against him cause I want to see him have this kind of Brady type resume. So yeah. Um, if you fight steep,

a I'm going, I don't know. I'd learned nothing. I learned nothing about the actual fight at this weight. Yeah. I didn't think he looked as fast as a light heavyweight in the short sample size we had on the feet, right? But when you're handicapping this fight, there were far more known quantities on the Cyril Ghosn fight,

right? Not just that maybe we didn't think he could wrestle or grapple, but he had competed and realized success in the weight class. And I think for Jon Jones, as great as he is, and as much confidence as he had in his preparation, he had never competed at heavyweight, right? Made his pro debut in like Boxborough, Massachusetts in like 2008 or whatever it was. He had never competed at heavyweight. Daniel Cormier had competed at heavyweight, then went to 205, then went back. So I think that might've been some of Jon Jones's trepidation. How are these elite heavyweights really going to feel? Because with respect to his training partners, you know, those are UFC castoffs. They're not elite level UFC heavyweights anymore. So I think for Jon Jones, he answered

some questions to himself to be sure, right? Didn't have a submission when dating to 2012. I mean, that's got to feel really good. But yeah, I think you're right. There are definitely unknowns. And that's why when I see Jon Jones right now at minus 325 and the comeback on Stipe Miocic at plus 270, I see value on Stipe at plus 270, even though he's 40 years of age, because I still see some unknowns when it comes to Jon Jones. But I do believe he will be leaner when we see him in July or whenever that fight comes to fruition. Yeah. The other thing I liked about Jones in the post-fight interview with Rogan was he was very revealing a couple times and you know i know

there's probably plenty of people listening it's like fuck him forever and i don't all right yeah like i get it i totally get it like the thing i said with bill on sunday was i've made a deal with myself where when it comes to fighters like i'm gonna root for the fighter that entertains me and i'm not gonna get a summer place with them you know there you go i'm not i'm not going to get a summer place with them. There you go. I'm not renting an apartment to any of these dudes. So that's the deal I make with myself. So after the fight, when he had said, there was a couple times early on my feet where I was like, whoa. And then he's like, I felt like, maybe I'm getting that backwards.

You'll know. You always remember this stuff. Where he admitted that there was something that just fell off, whether it was his hands or his feet. Was this his hands or did he say it was his feet at first? And then he wants. I think just overall, there was some sort of acknowledgement that he didn't feel optimal. I mean, hands or feet.

I don't know exactly. Right. Okay. So he said one of the two. So I apologize for not having that. I should have written that down. A lot of fighters, you know, you're so you have to exude confidence all the time you can never admit any of that kind of stuff whatever and then you know when you look at jones when he's tweeting leading

up to it it's like wow he's really confident it's like well what was he gonna do tweet i'm doubting myself and maybe this is too soon and maybe i should have taken lesser competition so whatever he chokes him out it's over it's immediate i don't know that we learned a ton but there's another element of it where there is just awe. And I know, you know, you're close with Daniel, but I think that's kind of come around after just pure hatred there

for a long time. And understandably, so on Cormier's side. But then Joe Rogan in the octagon, who I think is just so respectful of anybody that steps in there. You can just see that from him. And then you on the call

and this lead up and everything. And people talk about how Jones had actually said yes to so many things. Is it all just because of his talent? Is it because of his story or is there something that you've allowed yourselves and you guys that are in this day to day where you actually still find yourself liking him despite plenty of evidence that would tell you you wouldn't normally like a person like this? Yeah, I think there's a lot of what you said to the latter, and you can only judge someone largely, I think, and people will take issue with this. But largely, I judge people based upon the way they treat me, right? Like even Ryan Russillo, you wouldn't believe this. He can be a dick, you know? He actually really didn't like me at first necessarily, right?

But I used to get- Not at all. Criticized for defending Floyd Mayweather. And it's like, hey, man, he gives me time when there are literally 10 people listening to the Mouthpiece mouthpiece boxing show and he bought me a hat and a T-shirt. He's been gracious every step of the way. So, yes, I will go on the air and defend Floyd Mayweather. I don't think Daniel Cormier has come around. And I do think it's a very tough navigation. I guess Jones tried to write Jones, tried to come around and didn't want. You don't know however genuine that is. Right? Is Daniel just supposed to take that as supreme, you know, generosity and him being ultimately genuine? I don't know.

You know, and candidly, my relationship with D.C. is probably far more complicated, right, than Jon Jones's because of how much time we spend together, you know. But yes, it is in awe of the greatness. And, you know, certain professional athletes walk into the room like I'm not starstruck around Jon Jones per se, but I'm starstruck around Jon Jones. And it's the total package. Like, have you heard him talk right when he starts to literally undress? voice. There's just something undeniably special about this guy. I put him on a pedestal, certainly athletically. The fact that he's basically beaten the greatest strength of schedule in UFC history without anything resembling an optimum training camp, partying and doing everything else is just insane. Kenny Florian on our podcast this week called him a fight genius. I think it's appropriate. I might push back on the floyd mayweather thing

because he bought your hat just there's a lot of guy right and again i do sometimes like i sound ignorant right like i i had to promote greg hardy i'm a promoter i'm not a journalist i had to promote greg hardy okay you know i'm not gonna run out his legal situation every time he walks to the octagon you know yeah you're right you're right okay uh speaking of from the promotion side was there a conscious effort to never mention in ghana no i think i must have i certainly mentioned francis on the post show did i not mention him at all on broadcast no that was not i don't know i don't know if you did but it wasn't like that might have been the spot where rogan could have brought it up but that wasn't going to happen there so there have been the spot where Rogan could have brought it up, but that wasn't going to happen there.

So there have been times where I would get a message from UFC like, hey, don't mention this like energy drink because Monster's a sponsor. Right. But I have never been told anything like that to not mention a name. Michael Chandler fights. I call him a former three time Bellator champion. And people are like, oh, my God, Anik said Bellatorator it's like danis never told me to not say bellator not one time isn't it funny how much people think that we're told like it's the same thing at espn like oh they probably tell you to do this you're like no i remember one of the biggest fights we ever had at espn is that somebody on the tv side made every radio show have one of these bass fishing guys on because they were promoting something and every producer and every host was like, what the fuck? Yeah.

It's annoying. It was like seven minutes on the phone. Like it ruined our lives. None of us wanted to do it at the time, but it just doesn't really happen in, uh, in your world. And again,

we're both at ESPN. We can speak to that as well. Okay. So the steep a part, I thought that was really interesting. Cause it just is what level of badass you have to be to be steep a Mijic to have John Jones calling you out and saying, Hey, you guys want to see me beat up Stipe?

And you're Stipe and you just fucking shrug. It's like, whatever. It is. So what happens here? What's the plan? Date, time, build up, thoughts. Give me the early anecdote on this. So Stipe is not going to control the calendar.

Jon Jones is probably going to control the calendar. International Fight Week needs a main event, and this is the biggest fight that we can put on. So my cautious optimism would tell you that you need to make plans to be in Las Vegas for that July 8th weekend, because I do think that this is going to be the fight that headlines International Fight Week. But I do think it's a little bit ambitious for John Jones to think that he's been away for three years and now you're going to see him twice inside of four months. So I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that it's September or even December. But the hope, the expectation right now is, yes, it would be a few months. And Stipe has been building towards this. And real quick, Stipe fought Daniel Cormier in a

leaner way. Stipe has acknowledged to being 253 pounds right now. I think you will see a bigger Stipe against Jon Jones. And as I said, whatever the number on the scale is, I don't know, but I think you will see a leaner, meaner Jon Jones. So a lot of interesting storylines already. And we might not have that much time to promote that fight, which is pretty interesting. Is Jones a bigger draw than Conor?

No. Not even close, right? No. I don't know what the pay-per-view number was this past weekend i'd imagine it will be very strong i can't ever remember jones resonating in vegas like that before it's never happened before like that but no uh there's conor mcgregor and there's everybody else speaking of um he was there with gyllenhaal. What was that all about? What was going on there? Gyllenhaal was filming a scene

and then everybody saw the videos pop out, but they had to film it with a real... Is that what was going on? They did it earlier for the live audience to have that backdrop, kind of like basketball movies, like the Sandler basketball movie. Clearly, they had him walk out

during a real Sixers game and got the footage and then moved on and then they played the game. I think the upside is that over 100 million people have already ingested that weigh-in clip, right, of Jake Gyllenhaal slapping Jay Haran on stage, right? The downside is that there are spoilers now that have been repurposed to the world. I was put in a situation, candidly, where I was to react to a foul by Jake Gyllenhaal after a win that literally not only would have kicked Jake Gyllenhaal out of the UFC, but it probably would have given him a lifetime

ban in mixed martial arts. So, you know, part of the issue with Warrior, as great a movie as that was back in the day, was that it sensationalized the mixed martial arts violence. So I'll have to admit to having a little bit of worry to sort of see that all play out in front of me. And I'm sort of trying to act and be as theatrical as possible but it's not about me it's about Roadhouse and I just wasn't cut out for Hollywood Ryan so are you going to be in so this is this is a Roadhouse remake

yeah where Gyllenhaal he's a UFC fighter and he gets kicked out of the UFC well no I don't know that he gets kicked out of the UFC right see I'm ingesting this all in real time right I'm watching this expecting all in real time, right? I'm watching this, expecting Gyllenhaal to maybe rest the title away, but then the ref rips him off and he goes back in for more.

So when I'm being coached beforehand, I don't know what's going to happen. And they're saying to me, would you stand up? I said, I'll do whatever you want me to do. He's like, no, would you stand up? So it depends what happens. Yes, if there was a potentially career-ending foul, of course, I

would stand up, as would almost everybody else in the arena. But yeah, it was sort of an interesting dynamic for, I think, a lot of people to deal with, especially on a live fight night. We're filming stuff literally in the middle of a 14-fight card, so don't need to do that again, but I'll go watch the movie. Okay. All right. That's what I was getting to. So it was in the middle of a 14 fight card. So don't need to do that again, but I'll go watch the movie.

Okay. All right. That's what I was getting to. So it was in the middle of the card because they needed the audience. And then Gyllenhaal goes out there and he looked good. I give Dana White credit for making the joke about what you saw to not getting involved.

Maybe it was one of those men's health clips where it's like learn how jake gyllenhaal turned into bane overnight yeah yeah some quinoa and some almonds be like all the nice guy though who gyllenhaal what a nice guy yeah couldn't be nicer i i would put him as a one seed of hollywood it isn't it great i, I've talked about this before, but when you meet one of these absolute A-list dudes, they are so good at being famous. They are so

good at being A-listers. And then finding some way to make you feel like you had some sort of real connection when they're not going to remember you in 30 seconds. It is a superpower. And the first time I think I ever really, like when Will Ferrell came in studio,

it was pretty cool, but he was just so normal that it was like a little different than John Hader was there sort of fucking up the vibe the whole time. And then I'll never forget, Freddie Coleman just barged in. So like as soon as the commercial break starts up, you feel like you're going to get

those two or three minutes to yourself. And I was too new in the game and Freddie Coleman's like, I'm just going to alpha dog this and barge right in and talk these guys up. And then the picture, I was like, can I get a picture? And then I was like, oh, all right, we're doing it this way. So respect to the goat, though. Respect to the goat. I'm just saying that was one of those early moments. You're like, okay, when we had Hugh Jackman come by with Van Pelt and I, you would have thought the three of us would still be on a text chain 15 minutes or 15 years later, in 15 minutes for another 15 years. And I think

Gyllenhaal has that in him. I think he has it in him. How much time did you spend with him? Three minutes, but just sort of talking about the sequence when I would ask him a question on the stage, right? Because sometimes I felt like I was getting mixed messages, right? In one breath, I'm being told to be theatrical and controversial. And in another breath, I'm trying to make this as real as possible. And you know, it would just be like, hey, man, any final thoughts on the eve of the biggest fight of your life? It would not be me leaning into, wow, slap heard round the world. Did you plan to strike it? So it was a little bit of a

pivot from the norm but he was very sweet about it and uh yeah so you think the directing you think the directing on this film may be a little marginal well i just i i don't know what exactly i hope i executed their vision is that politically correct i hope i executed their fucking vision i love how much i can tell that you were annoyed. I love figuring this part of it out. Rogan said no. Rogan just said, I'm not doing this. Yeah, correct. Who did they use?

Did they use the tap out guys in Warrior? I believe they were in it. It's a long time ago, but I believe they were in it, yeah. Yeah. I love Warrior. I love that movie if i were younger i would have tried to be just like him i mean maybe not the bad parts at the beginning but i would have been like i want to be just like tom hardy i would have wrote that in my junior high yearbook i thought

it was a great movie my presence in it notwithstanding nick nolte won an oscar there was a sequel i believe that was written but it didn't necessarily resonate resonate back then the way they thought it would oh that's right you're in it a ton that's back when you're doing sports center stuff but you were the mma guy at espn so they used you and you were on a sports center desk talking about this mysterious video of tom hardy who shows up and beats up the other guy right exactly right you were kind of the fucking main you were the main beam in a log cabin holding that whole thing together. It's interesting. Yeah, I was the connective tissue, right?

Five or six times during the movie. I've been very lucky. If you had Hollywood aspirations, then you would say I am fortunate to have had those two opportunities. Are those the only two you've been in? I think so. Yeah. I had to do the whole SAG thing this time around. You know,

it's just, you know, you know, man, like perhaps I take my job too seriously, but the Friday nights, the Fridays, the night before a pay-per-view, those are the 12 hardest, biggest days of my year. So to have a movie injected into all of that, uh, just heightened my anxiety because for me as a broadcaster, all my anxiety is in the preparation. It's not in the performance. It's in all of this, man, if you're watching, right? It's in all of this. And every week, despite all of the other distractions, I have 28 or 30 fighters that need my attention. Even for a fight night on ESPN+. You know what I mean?

So there's no time for like dinners on Friday night, you know? No time. Have you ever gone out on a Friday before a call? Yes. Hard. Oh, I probably had the best show of my life because I was actually loose enough to have two or three drinks the night before.

So yes, I would say a handful of times and they were probably my best shows, less tight. When you're doing the open, when you're welcoming in the pay-per-view audience uh that's memorized correct no prompter yeah but like i screwed it up this weekend i don't have a teleprompter so if i had a prompter then it would be perfect and i try to get the copy to be perfect but this weekend i didn't nail it per se but good. My twin brother always lets me know when I... Jason let you know that it was a B+.

Yeah. B-, but we got through. But yeah, that's the only thing, and then I do a few stand-ups that I have to memorize, but it's really like a radio gig in a lot of respects. They've gotten away from the announcer cam a little bit, which is kind of nice, because you think I look heavy now. I mean, I just

look fat as hell on that fucking camera. But so basically i it's a radio gig man tell me about it bro utah you seen that footage go ahead it's a radio gig though in a lot of respects right yeah like you use your notes you're not on camera and i i kind of enjoy that because that's my roots is connor gonna fight again He said he was. Yeah. And this sounds a little trite when I trotted out there about John Jones and Conor McGregor, but the type of competitive itch that they are perpetually trying to scratch in their mind, they can't scratch it anywhere else,

right? They try other things, you know, shooting guns or shooting movies, whatever it may be. But ultimately the winning is everything mentality that exists in their head can may be. But ultimately, the winning-is-everything mentality that exists in their head can only be quenched by the octagon. So yes, if you said over-under two and a half more fights

for Conor McGregor, I think so much is going to depend on this Michael Chandler result in September or October. But I would say over. I think you're getting three more Conor McGregor fights. So he's already on, so I didn't even look ahead. I mean, this is where the casual eye is on it. Well, is where he's not on the schedule. This is just totally informed speculation, but they've built a season of the ultimate fighter around Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler. And that show is linear, right? It's on linear television because of Conor McGregor's presence on it. So Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor are going to fight, I would say fourth

quarter. And, uh, we don't even know what weight class, so you're not behind the eight ball. Okay. Talk to me about your boy, Gaethje. He's a pretty big underdog this weekend or next weekend, March 18th, fighting in the co-main event against Rafael Fazeev, who

is an outstanding lightweight and striker. With respect to Justin Gaethje, I do believe Rafael Fazeev in current form deserves the distinction as the favorite. Gaethje's been in so many big fights and experience in MMA is as important as anything. But, you know, sometimes there can come a time in a man's career where you get that young guy who is in his fighting prime and matchup wise, maybe it's the perfect fight. And as such, Gaethje is the dog. But I wouldn't put it past

Justin Gaethje to win. But make no mistake about it. Rafael Fazeev is absolutely on the rise. He kicks like a mule. I mean, it's a bulletproof fight. It's a bulletproof fight. And, you know, oftentimes our pay-per-views have

championship doubleheaders. This one doesn't because that co-main event might as well be a goddamn title fight. Can't let this go. I have two other things I want to talk about. The last UFC thing. Alexa Gross' win against Shevchenko,

especially if you looked at the odds, again, that was one of those deals where when she got the choke where half of Shevchenko's face was white because of the pressure that was applied to it once the arm came off. Because I wasn't sure she was under the chin, but then it was like,

sometimes if you just have it that hard for that long, you're still pushing the face back and collapsing that windpipe. And then for her to talk specifically about countering that kick and knowing that that kick was coming at some point and the speed with what she got into that submission, you know, for somebody who was a big underdog. And I know on that side of it, and I'm not as locked into the women's side. I'm not locked into every single weight class, but that was, that was a historic upset. Well, and if you want to talk about a fighter who put in all the work and all the right work after major wrestling and grappling challenges earlier in her career against Tatiana Suarez in 2018 and Carla Esparza in 2019, this is thought she got it, maybe one fight too early, you're ready. Cause you put in the time, you know,

and there've been a lot of bullets being thrown in the direction of Seattle gone this week. And maybe I'm doing that a little bit here. Right. But I guess I was just disappointed in his lack of effort juxtaposed against all of the willingness and desire to improve that part of the game for Alexa Grasso, who was really just a boxer when she,

she debuted in the UFC. I'm, I'm so happy for her uncle Francisco, for all of her jujitsu coaches, Alessandro Costa. It's a beautiful thing, man, when strategy and repetition can produce a world title. And I've said repeatedly, for me and my job, the greatest thing is seeing somebody break through and become a UFC champion for the first time and to do it as a plus 600 underdog and take out a long reigning champion. One of the biggest single wins in UFC history. Maybe I don't put it on the level upset wise of Julianna Pena over Amanda Nunes because I did consider Alexa Grasso to be a live underdog, but I'm just really happy for her. She wasn't

necessarily winning the fight, but man, she won it and it's going to get us to Mexico City, I think probably fourth quarter. Okay, there you go. I'll give you some tips. I'll give you some tips. I stayed there for F1 last fall. Do not go to the Day of the Dead parade and walk back to your hotel

on the wrong side of the parade route. That's tip number one. Okay, give me an annex Celtics. The Celtics are your number one, right? Celtics number one above everything else. Yeah, more right now. I mean, obviously that has changed. I mean, in 1997, it was Nomar and everybody else.

I'm stunned I don't have a Nomar Garcia Parra tattoo, but yes, it's about the Celtics right now. Do you regret that, though? You don't regret that, do you? Well, I can't say I won't get a Nomar tattoo before it's all said and done, you know? No kidding. Really, he's a neighbor.

I mean, I'm not going to get like his... Is he really? Don't see him ever. Hung hung out zero times i expect that number to be unchanged i'm not gonna get like his face on my neck necessarily but man i mean he's immortalized i mean i have his picture around here something i have a black and white photo of him right here off to my left did you after the 04 title argue they still would have won it with Nomar and not remember when we had the guy call in and call him Doug Mankiewicz I'd probably argue that I lost 98% of arguments against

you on sports radio yeah but there was one and for those that are new to this in our dynamic is that Pep who was the third member of the radio show he wanted to get you on this Friday night I was supposed to tell you that it was Pep and I radio show. He wanted to get you on this Friday night. I was supposed to tell you that. It was

Pep and I, and it was bad. It wasn't a very good show. And then I just walked in one day and Anik was sitting in the third seat and he was just on the show. No one ever asked me. So it wasn't like I was anti-Anik. I was anti that I was not consulted, that somebody was just a new co-host one day. And it actually worked. It was an impossible spot for Anik. We were all super broke. So that led to a lot of anxiety for me. Although you might have been making more than me as an intern than I was as a host. No, I wasn't. I was making $24,000 as the business manager was my title. But I have to say, I was perceptive enough back then. Humbly, I knew how good you were very early on. Right. I saw you work. I heard your voice. No, I'm serious, man.

I knew. Right. And my twin brother knew. Right. I have a human being and it's the greatest blessing of my life that we have the same DNA. And we knew very early on how good you were. And, you know, I've been reaping the benefits ever since of rubbing shoulders with you. Seriously. But the thing that's great is I was making 25. Ha! Well, I knew not to piss you off. Like, I knew you were the guy I had to get on my side.

And I felt like it happened fairly quickly. It happened really quickly. Because then I was like, you know what? And it was also my... I think we've done this before so I don't you know maybe we should stop doing it but um you know just seeing my dad recently and then knowing that he called me very early was like hey that guy's good that guy's good like don't be I know you're miserable I know you're broke I know things aren't working out

in every other aspect of your life but like that that guy's good and and stick around with him and uh so all right so we've i think we've already covered this too many times so i think it's just as the audience grows you're like reminding people or maybe we just like reminiscing because it's been such a long time but you one of the things first things i remember about you at that time is you were like yeah i have celtic season tickets i was like how the fuck's this guy have season tickets to the i'm i get my car repoed at work once while i was on the air so i was like wait this doesn't i'm like how does this fucking guy have season tickets

and um i asked you i was like what do you do and you're like dude i buy i buy a 10 pack and i'm like wait what do you do and you go i buy the 10 pack of the 10 dollars and i'm like this guy's a fucking fan man he he spends a hundred dollars he technically does have season tickets granted he's not going to 41 of these right sitting in that absolute the worst spot you can sit in because those ten dollars the celtics or excuse me i believe every nba arena still does it is there has to be a ten dollar ticket that gets you through the door like every arena has to have a $10 ticket. It doesn't mean the entire 300s are $10, of course. It just means there's a section there,

and it's the worst spot. I mean, that's the whole point. And it could be out there just fucking grinding. He'd be at the forest talking to somebody going, yeah, I'm on the air, but I'm also the business manager. What's going on? And I have season tickets to the Celtics.

What's up? And then he would go. And I remember just being so impressed because I was like, he really to the Celtics. What's up? And then he would go. And I remember just being so impressed because I was like, he really likes the Celtics. Like, I like basketball, but I wouldn't do that. And that was, you know, I just was like, this guy's a real guy. He's a real Boston guy. And so where are you right now with this team?

After an amazing start, the confidence feels like it's waning. I listened to local talk radio for about 10 minutes the other day. I don't know how anybody, I can't believe I did that job or aspired to have it long-term when I listened to what it is. No offense, but it was sort of offensive. So I'll, I'll take whatever you want on that one. But where, where are you? So I'm obviously coming off the busiest week that I can think of of my professional life. So I haven't ingested a lot of them other than the box scores over the last several weeks, but it hasn't been great to say the least. You know, it's interesting when you sit here in early March and the Bruins and Celtics, and perhaps this has changed over the last 48 hours, but the Bruins and

Celtics are both favored to win the title. And for Bostonians and New Englanders, that is not at all where you want to be in March, the favorites to win the title. But I have to tell you right now, to save a hamster's life, I still do believe when all is said and done that they are the best team. I'm sitting on a big ticket on the Milwaukee Bucks to win the Eastern Conference, trying to take them down that I placed

I think back in September. So we'll see what happens. What's the payout on that? Or did you just give me the odds? Yeah, I didn't get a great number. Well, it's better than when I think I got plus 450, right? But it's better. It's obviously better than what you're getting now.

So, you know, but I think you get plus 250 now. But no, I still do believe. I still, you know, obviously a lot of people are coming at the coach right now, but I still do believe in the team. I still do believe in the defense 36 and everybody do believe in the defense, 36, and everybody else. I don't know. I can see you being a big Joe. I think you and Joe Mazzullo would be buddies. Give me the Rhode Island kid,

just the scrappy Rhode Islander every day of the week. I did go from the 0-1-0-2 season. We had the 10-10 games, and we went up to 20 games for the Oh two Oh three season. But yeah, man, I mean, it was interesting then covering the team.

Right. And interviewing doc rivers at practice a few years after you're sitting in the bleeds, you know, not as cool as Israel out of Sonia from the nosebleeds to win in a world title, but you know, almost as cool because we know,

as you said, studying and preparation, world titles, and also world class broadcasts there you go so we'll close on that and by the way we do a bad job with this I do a bad job I'm putting in for the July 8th floor seats now

okay because that means I know I'll be around it'll still be NBA free agency there'll be perfect getaway may even bring somebody so that's that's my plan we constantly talk about i want to go to dubai with you i just want to go on the ufc plane i want to make it we'll make it a podcast like just me peering into that world we'll make it a long form thing we'll release it when i'm overseas

uh this is a pitch this is a pitch get dana involved so i'll just i'll be like a roadie with the crew and i'll make it my travel pod. And I just want to see what this Dubai thing is about. I have a watch that I think will fit in there. So I'm excited about that watch. Um, car wise. Yeah. All right. So we're just, you know, workshop and some ideas, but we need to make it happen. So flight Island ceases to exist the way you are fantasizing it, right? Because COVID-19 is no longer, but Yaz Island is still there. The W Hotel, Yaz Island Abu Dhabi is the most intoxicating hotel in the world. I can't even describe the feeling being in one of those suites. It is crazy what it does to your

body. Like you tell me what it does to your body. I don't even know, bro. You know, I don't even know. It's certainly, you know, I don't want to get, it I don't even know it's certainly you know I don't want to get it just makes you feel like you're Superman I mean it you know they say they pump things into the casinos in Las Vegas whatever they pump into that W Hotel Yaz Island just give me just inject it into my banks you know I mean what you're saying is you don't roll

right you don't want to talk about erections on this podcast and I'm telling you I appreciate it yeah right I think that's exactly I don't want to talk about that, probably going to be back there in October. So, uh, hopefully you're a man of your word. So you like the floor seats, right? Like Evan Longoria, God love him. He don't want floor seats, right? He wants to buy his own tickets so he can have the exact aisle seat on the exact site line that he wants, right? Right on the octagon. Some people don't like the floor seats, but you do, and I

get it. You know what? Maybe I changed my mind, though. Maybe I changed my mind, because that actually is true. Because when I went to Jones, Gustafson, the second one, and my date hit Roy Jones Jr., not John Jones, hit Roy

Jones Jr. in the head with her handbag. And I was like, oh, this is going to... It was bad. She fucking clocked him right in the head. You come to Abu Dhabi? You come to Abu Dhabi or what? Don't tease me that you're going to build all this content around a trip to Fight

Island and then not come. I mean, I guess it's in the middle of football season. Not ideal. Yeah, when you said October, the first thing I thought about was college football. So, but you know what? Maybe it'll be one of those bad slates. Maybe it'll be Clemson-Boston College is the 8 o'clock ABC game. And I go, I can go to Abu Dhabi

this week. I can do it. And I know you got to go, but have you covered the fact that Luke Rockhold, your friend, former UFC middleweight champion, is going to be making his bare knuckle boxing debut? Have you seen the videos of him punching his sauna? I have seen the videos. I'm excited to get on a new, new Luke Rockhold train. I wouldn't call us great friends. Well, I would say we've talked a couple times and that, that would say that was the extent of it. I don't think he would, if he has to say,

if you have to say my name twice to Luke Rockhold, I don't think he would. If he has to say if you have to say my name twice to Luke Rockhold, I don't think that means we can be great friends. Well, who knows you better, Hugh Jackman or Luke Rockhold? I've never been to Hugh Jackman's house.

There you go. See? So that's the tiebreaker. Yeah. Hugh Jackman's never thrown a scissor kick at me and then I blocked it. Oh, man. What are you guys doing? What are you guys doing? Chill out.

That last part may be fantasy. All right. That is John Anik. Promote the pod so everybody can listen to it. I listened to it all fight week. I was excited. Well, thank you, buddy. Anik and Florian podcast doing two episodes a week. And yeah,

this UFC stuff really taking off. We always appreciate the support from guys like you. And I know you were in a lot of respects ahead of the game. You've had an appetite for this stuff for a long time. So I appreciate you more than you know, as usual. And I'm not going on Friday night. Okay. I said you were, I confirmed

for you because I can't make it. 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, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible possible let me tell you what's required

I know at the open we did the football some people were wondering if I was going to do a Grant Williams 10 minutes but uh I don't have a hard 10 the weird thing now that we Bill and I do those Sundays that go an hour and a half two hours like by Tuesday you know that pod comes out basically Sunday midnight, East Coast, actually later than that. And then it's just like I don't know if there's enough NBA stuff that's happened where I'll have a full blown. Some Tuesdays I'll have it and some I won't. And that's why I did the Lamar thing because I think it's really important.

But the Grant Williams, if you missed it, because he did, end of the Cleveland game. I can't believe the Donovan Mitchell foul call at the end. It was actually on Grant. They reviewed it and kept the foul up and then on the back end

I was like, I wonder if this is like a bit of a makeup call although I thought there was still more contact. Grant Williams at the free throw line. A chance to make one

to win the game for the Celtics who don't have Robert Williams, who don't have Horford, who don't have Tatum after playing a double overtime grinder of a game against the Kn for the Celtics who don't have Robert Williams, who don't have Horford, who don't have Tatum after playing a double overtime grinder of a game against the Knicks the night before.

And Donovan Mitchell was talking to Grant because Grant talks to fucking everybody. And he was basically telling him, you're going to miss or trying to get into his head a little bit. And Grant Williams said three times that I saw on camera, I'll make both of them. I'll make both of them. No, excuse me.

I'll make them both. I'll make them both. I'll make them both. He missed the first one. Cleveland did a terrific job of shuffling things around where I think it was 40 seconds in between the first attempt and the second attempt. And then he missed the second one. And then there was a moment later on where Grant was getting into what was somebody else and was upset. And then Missoula, you could see him saying, it's not about you. It's not about you. It's not about you and uh now this is a national podcast so i don't think we were going to do guy off the bench who recently got a dmp to open the show for 10 minutes because that would just be

that's not the target demo kyle knows that kyle no but i said i was excited to talk i was excited to talk to you about grant williams this morning when we were on the call. Oh, you were? Yeah, I just, because listen, you know, I'm happy for him. He's kind of made a pretty awesome career out of, you know, what was he, a mid-first round pick, right? Out of Tennessee. Yeah, he's a good player at Tennessee. I don't want to like put down guys like that, but man, he talks a lot. And I think even on the broadcast, Scal was like, oh yeah, he'll make the first one. Oops, I guess he did.

I don't know. It was funny to see. Like, you don't want to see guys like fail miserably like that but i don't know i think it was funny because it was grant he talks so much shit it was like hey dude maybe maybe chill out every once in a while yeah i just think he's i think he's kind of a tough guy like when you watch him over the course of a game you're like man you fucking bug some people uh All right, let's do life advice. Kyle, how are you feeling? A big tired guy over here. Went to the mismatch show yesterday.

Bunch of good guests. Drank a little bit afterwards, and now it's 7 o'clock, and here we go. How late did you guys go? We actually didn't go too late it just um actually we may have i don't know i don't think it was like it was like 11 it wasn't bad at all but i usually i'm like a day i'm like a day afternoon drinker guy so whenever yeah i'm out late i feel it especially when i work the next day which is kind of funny to say it's like i had drinks yesterday

i was out to like 11 super late but it's just because uh of the juxtaposition of where i usually am doing my drink your window your window is early you're a one o'clock kickoff guy you're not the sunday night game yeah it's like a west coast team coming east wait who went out last night with koc was he out um he disappeared i think i think koc was there with maybe his mom or somebody from his family um but it was just vero who lost all of his affects in an Uber. And he still took the walk with us to a bar. And then as soon as we got out there, he was like, ah, I lost everything. I forgot.

And they just didn't let him in. He's just got that young face. So it's just me and Jim Cunningham, just as always, just being generous. Wait, so Verno couldn't get in because he didn't have ID? Yeah, I think he lost more than his id but yeah i think he lost his like hotel room key as well like he just the guy lost everything um so uh but he he was still like yeah let's go you guys go to a bar let's go let's see um

and then it was just like he is yeah he is the epitome of 4014 for his face yeah that's the way he dresses i was trying to pull up his Instagram and the bouncer outside was like, I can't. He was like, no, man, there's no way. I was like, look, he's a guy. Listen to his voice. I was going to say,

you couldn't just go back to the home base? You know what? I really don't like it. Jim suggested that and I was like, you know, I don't think we should go there tonight. I just had a bad feeling. I was like, you know what? It's always at night. I come in the next day and the next day and like oh you hear that guy got stabbed last

night or something and it's like ah i just try to stay out of frolic room at night it's just a different sort of vibe different crowd so i didn't want to i didn't want to do that to anybody i usually go at night that's why we don't run into each other yeah just to keep that's it yeah to keep verno's name in the clear here this is just a simple lost the wallet situation it was not a right it wasn't debit cards open at four different places and you know i gotta go back and get them all the next day or cancel them or whatever all right okay all right just want to clear his name here a little bit uh okay all right here we go pyramid scheme hi guys would. Hi, guys. Would you like to get rich? Would you like to be an independent business operator?

If your answer is yes, please contact my brother-in-law. He has an incredible opportunity to share with you. My wife's brother, I don't know if he uses the right, I imagine he changed the name here. So it's a pretty straightforward name. My wife's brother, George, is great. Always down, enthusiastic, makes great money selling roofs and solar. Good dad to his kids and good uncle to ours. Hot tub in the backyard, squat rack in his garage. You know this guy. Living the American dream of consumerism, paycheck to paycheck while making $250,000. But he's a little

too influenceable. He's never seen an anti-vax Instagram video he didn't find convincing. He bought tactical pants because all his boys at work did. He preaches on the importance of ph balanced water should i just picture him buying he buys those like glasses that the marines oh yeah like you know for driving at night yeah two payments in 1999 oh my god i'll live without them call now yeah going free it's an hd though it's an hd you don't i love when they put those down when you when you see the ad like as if the rest of us are walking around this earth blind it's like you can see other like colors that don't exist other normal people

right i never felt my eyes were an sd i just never i never felt that way. Would I know? Would I know any better? You know? Okay. So he said now after the pH balance line, he's now selling Amway. Last month, George's mentor picked him up in the parking lot of his local fries, food stores. And now George is recruiting people to library at his church. And yes, in the grocery store parking lot,

the mentor comes over once a week to crunch family budget numbers for an hour. They talk about shitting inspirational business, self-help books. Like you'd see 15 years of LaGuardia, store parking lot. The mentor comes over once a week to crunch family budget numbers for an hour. They talk about shitty inspirational business self-help books like you'd see 15 years of LaGuardia, like who moved my cheese? This is a really, really well-written email. I hope that's not his real name. George and his wife now get a babysitter once a week to attend seminars at like a Scottsdale Marriott suite. All right, so yes, my guess is that this is all made up because Scottsdale Marriott suites is where I believe this kind of business is done or Chili's.

All dole up in a suit and nice dress for what seems like a prom for idiots to cheer for some high energy speaker with crest white strips teeth telling them how to achieve $100,000 of passive income. I just need to ask the room here. Whenever I see one of these videos about somebody doing the side hustle,

I first of all, never believe it. Like I saw a guy the other day being like, yeah, I'm on this yacht. And the guy was like interviewing him. And he goes, how much money do you make a year? It's like 450,000. He's like, let's run through your expenses. As a boat owner,

he missed out on a bunch of the expenses that come with the boat. He made it sound so cut and dry. And he was like, oh, it's just this, it's this for the slip. And this is my payment a month. And I'm clearing, you know, I'm clearing 50, 60K a month on this alone. And I was like, no, you're not, you're not. So I was like, if this video is a lie, if this video is a lie, could it be that everybody else is telling me to sell the latest craze on TikTok? Let's say the bodysuit that everybody's wearing. If I sign up as an Amazon seller, can I just have all this passive income by doing nothing? The goal of it seems to be that you can find something popular and then just reroute it by one click on Amazon. And then

all of a sudden everybody's making money. It can't possibly be this easy. Also, why are you sharing it? Wouldn't you want to just hoard that to yourself? Why are you telling other people how to make free, easy money? Because you got to sign people up, right? I mean, that's what it is. It's literally a pyramid scheme. Right. I don't even know if that would... Granted, I believe almost nothing anymore. But when I saw the guy doing his yacht breakdown of expenses versus revenue it was so fucking funny because i'm like yeah that's not true but there are corners of like tiktok and instagram the worst i think is like the grind bro one where it's like if you haven't made 10k worked out four times had chicken and rice by 5 a.m then you're a fuck up and like you need to

figure this shit out and you're like man i saw this one the other day that this guy this guy was like that was so good i was like i it's no this guy he's you know of course they're like no no offense ryan but they're just they're usually like pretty jacked like they're kind of that's fine no i know exactly what you're saying and i agree with you you know they probably got some tattoos and he's like i i split my day i have three days in one day so he's like i split my day. I have three days in one day. So he's like, I split my day. It's like the first six hours of my day is one day. The next six hours is my... So he's like, well, you're working seven days a week. I'm working 21 days a week. And you're like, dude, you didn't reinvent time. Okay. The worst section I feel like of social media is the grind bros section.

Yeah. Because then there's other ones that I think are the less jacked version of that where they're like well what i think you need to be doing is thinking about solar slash into this passive whatever and then i don't even know if they're selling anything but it's always the same dude who isn't the same dude saying the same shit and they're talking a little above our heads with some of these economic terms so they seem more impressive there's like a filter there's some metal music in the background usually yeah it's like some podcast studio it's always a fucking guy i've never ever seen before and i'm like yeah i don't i don't know if this but you don't want to be dismissive of everything right no like some of these guys are out here doing it but like you know there's this other jacked guy who's very convincing in all of his videos and you know by halfway through the video

every time when he's running and all these numbers are popping up in a graphic he's lost me i'm like i don't i don't know if all of this checks out i just don't know i don't know that it does all right moving back on to what we were doing here. It was kind of like the Chipotle hack where if you go to Chipotle and you order two tortillas, but then you actually do that. And you're just like, yeah, I don't think that's going to get you a boat, man. That might save you on a burrito. But I don't think 10Xing this Chipotle order is the solution to your retirement fund. All right. Back to the email. My wife and I gave him some soft advice. I don't know, George. It seems like a pyramid scheme. His reply, quote, it might be, but somebody's making money. Might as well be me. George is always making moves. Do I intervene more

man to man? He listens to me, respects me. Maybe if it was a side casual thing, I'd say whatever. But he dove in like Greg Laganis off a three meter springboard. Terrific writer. Last night might have pushed me over the edge. I found out he's selling to his parents, who are my wife's parents as well. Of course, they basically live on Social Security. Last year, my wife's mom could only afford a hearing aid she needed because my wife contributed $1,000, which she was

glad she could do, and I fully supported. Although that'd be a weird conversation. Does your mom really need to hear? So congrats for being supportive. My mother-in-law does not need a monthly subscription for crappy hand lotions and nonsense supplements. Does he really want to be the guy who milks his easy-believing older mother? Apparently he does. Maybe he doesn't care.

I don't want him to be that guy. Let me say this clearly. George is a great guy, all caps. He's a good brother to my wife. He's always been welcome to me. And I know as the in-law, I got to tread carefully to be that guy. Let me say this clearly. George is a great guy, all caps. He's a good brother to my wife. He's always been welcome to me. And I know as the in-law, I got to tread carefully and pick my spots. But this is troubling. I think he's got a bomb on his own with this one.

And history tells us he's just going to figure out the next thing that he thinks is the fix here. I don't want to sound cold here. the fix here. I don't want to sound cold here, but if his parents who are your in-laws are going to buy too much hand lotion they don't need, that's kind of their transaction. And it would have to be a very rare level of comfort for you as the in-law to be able to tell them how this should should be done now he's gonna pitch you right so what you could do is when he pitches you is you could give him a speech that's not really about you you're gonna say hey george this is a heart this is the hardest fucking no ever the hardest no ever i have a story uh i will share um a may or may not have got caught up in a cult years ago, and he started reaching out to Dan.

This is a guy that we loved hanging out with. This is a guy that was one of the – for a stretch there, he kind of was a core guy. He wasn't a UVM buddy, so it was like a different – of my many Venn diagrams of friendship, which there are a lot of weird ones in there. He was a guy I really liked. And, you know, whatever.

You grow apart, you don't check in. No one works in the relationship. Not that big of a deal. And then you get an update from somebody else and you're like, hey, did you hear about so-and-so? And I was like, no, what's up? And they're like, kind of in a cult. I was like, wow, that's interesting. And I was like, how did you know? It was like, well, we had heard and we kind of knew. And then my friend who told me this

was like, he came over to recruit me. Okay. Now the friend that he went over to recruit is the last fucking guy you would go to recruit. All i might be second to last pick this guy's the last pick goes to his house hadn't talked to him in a while sits down starts getting the spiel and my buddy goes all right get up and get the fuck out of here get up get out of here get out right out of the house i'm not even gonna be nice about it and the guy's like no man he's like you're you're reading this wrong you don't understand he goes you don't even know the names of any of my fucking kids man i got a bunch of them you don't know one of their fucking names and now you think i'm gonna give you money or like do something with you like get out of here and it was a very quick conversation and it was right to the point i love that kind of stuff i'm

not gonna be nice i'm not gonna worry about you because you don't care about my fucking feelings so what you could do it's not exactly the same thing you don not going to be nice. I'm not going to worry about you because you don't care about my fucking feelings. So what you could do, it's not exactly the same thing. You don't have to be that harsh because it's not a cult. It's some lotion. I would. All the things you wish you could say to him that you know you kind of can't with your designation in the family tree, when he pitches you, you could be so nasty about it that you'd hope some of that would leak into his thoughts about the other people that he's trying to influence in the family where you'd be like look i know what this deal is and maybe you are going to make some money off this thing and that's fine i'm a no i will always be a no so in your little book of context write down all caps huge with an exclamation

no in a 1.7 millimeter ballpoint. All right. Not the thin one. I want bold. I don't really, those pens don't really work for me. But anyway, and you, you could perhaps get through them a little bit, but I just don't understand how, if the, if their wife who is the sister, isn't going to intervene, it's likely not your role. Yeah. I think if, unless she's got the problem with the, you know, the parents spending their

money and that's almost something she could talk to them about and be like, guys, what are you doing here? But that's probably not your role. I can see how it bothers you. Backdoor it. Yeah. I like that cop. Yeah. I don't, unless, unless she's that banged up about it, I don't think you should do anything about it. And anyone that I've ever known who's done this thing, it's always just been a phase. It's always, I mean, even back in high school when it was like cut code, you want to buy some knives and sell them for a profit? The answer was no. I mean, most people I think could just see, didn't you sell them? No, no, no. I was, I was approached. I was, I, there was no way I was going to be door to door, uh, fucking cutlery salesman. That just sounded crazy at 17. There was no way.

Um, but I mean, everybody that I've ever done that I've ever known that's done this, it's been a phase. It wasn't like this is what they found their calling and it's door to door, family web of friends pushing fucking products. It's always been a phase. So it will be a phase for him. It sounds like he's not ruining anything other than just being annoying. you know, it sounds like he's not ruining anything other than just being annoying. So, you know, I don't, I don't think it's the end of the world. I can see why you're bent out of shape about your in-laws, you know, spending money on some, on some dumb shit. But this is, this is just going to be a phase unless, unless he's a serial pyramid scheme guy, it'll just be a lesson that maybe he'll learn. Well, I don't know. It sounds, I don't know. It sounds like the only thing that he's been in that, that does that that's this, like he's, he's definitely on like fads or trends for sure. Like with the, with the tactical pants and the other shit.

But you know, this is the, it's like, it's not like he's been, uh, it's like he's moving from different pyramid scheme to pyramid scheme. I think he's going to end up being like, oh shit, I've got all this stuff and, and I can't, you know, I don't think I want to go back to the back to the Costco parking lot again today. It's just that it's not working out. I think it won't be long before he's like done with this. I think what I think what you said, Ryan, is right. Like, you know, you probably have to just like almost scare him by your by your reaction into how he should treat, you know, the people in your close circle. I mean, the only thing is like, you know, can you try to convince your wife that,

hey, listen, like we paid for these glasses. We paid your parents aren't, you know, rolling in cash or hearing aids. Sorry. I don't know if they can see. They don't see. Don't hear. Who knows? It's just definitely at night.

They can. Can you be like, hey, listen, if they if they're doing this thing with your brother, like we're going to be this is going to come out of our pocket. So this isn't we're not just like innocent bystanders here. We're going to probably have to front the bill for something down the brother, this is going to come out of our pocket. We're not just innocent bystanders here. We're going to probably have to front the bill for something down the line when this inevitably doesn't work out. And maybe you can change your mind.

And if you can't, then you're probably shit out of luck. And I'm with you guys. I don't think you could just... It's not your place as the in-law, as the son-in-law to try to tell them what to do. But man, I don't know. It's a tough situation

because those kind of people... It would be so much easier if he wasn't a nice guy too. It just sucks that he's a nice guy. If he was an asshole or if he was just an idiot, it'd probably be easier to just tell him off. But I think you kind of got to sit this one out and hopefully it doesn't knock you and impact you down the line.

Hopefully he does pitch you. Just say, hey, you really want to be this guy, man? You want to really be doing this? You want to be doing it to your friends? You want to be doing it to your family? So it's not specific to the transaction with the mom, your mother-in-law. It can maybe plant that seed. But I think Cerruti's right here. It's just going to be the next thing.

Maybe the next thing isn't so annoying and in your face. Maybe it's just knives. It sounds like he's... It might just be something that he likes and not something he's got to push on you. The consumerism friend, I've got a couple friends

who just have to buy the newest thing. If something comes out, they got to buy it in every color. They're constantly talking about upgrading this, upgrading that. It's just a shitty life. I just don't care about stuff like that. It's just a shitty life.

It's like to keep it up with the Joneses thing. It's just annoying. some point, like what are you even doing? You're spending money that is meaningless to you. But I don't know. It sounds like this guy. It sounds like there's probably more problems in the future with him and stuff like this, especially if it's successful. Like these if this actually works, he starts making some money. I don't know. Like I feel like this is a this is like a gateway drug. a this is like a gateway drug i could tell you as somebody who really likes something was like i'm gonna get a couple more of these in a different color that's always the worst call ever it always is the worst call because then you're like wait i'm gonna wear the same thing but just a different color back-to-back days now granted i just like an asshole now because i don't really leave the house i don't really do a ton um and at espn you know you're on tv five days a week like you had to add to the wardrobe you had to have some etons you had on TV five days a week. Like you had to add to the wardrobe. You had to have some Etans. You had to have some Robert Talbots. You had to have, you know,

there was a nice little Versace vintage thing that I found that was a little tight, not going to lie, but I loved it when I'd roll up the sleeves. It felt great. Just a great material. And whenever I would go like, oh, I really like this shirt or this slack,

you know, although there were some John Elliott shorts where I was like, I think I'll get a few of these in multiple colors. But then you kind of just go back to the color you like the most. And those other two buddies are just hanging out going, you never pick us. You never pick us. So just a little financial advice on top of everything else. Don't be the multi same thing in a bunch of different colors because you're going to end up just wearing the one that you like the most all the time. All right. Let's do two

just because the way the pod broke down today. This one's a pretty straightforward HOA deal. So, you know, we feel about HOAs. But I just think this guy

needs a little guidance here. All right. 30, just bought a condo in Ryan's old stomping grounds in the Hartford area. Nice. Hartford has it. Hartford has it. New England's rising little star. Okay. With owning a condo, I'm dealing with HOA and management companies for the first time. It's going to suck. That's my advice. Long story short, I bought

this condo in August. I noticed that improvements were handled by the associate management company on the exterior of the condos that were not completed at my condo, but were all caps completed almost every other condo in my section. I'm talking about sanding and painting of the basement bulkhead, new front doors, new front step and backstep rails. So that's a lot of stuff. I reached out to the head of management company and the guy on the board of directors for my community. I got the runaround responses and that they will get to it in the spring once the weather improves. They also raised the HOA fee another $50 this year. How do I handle this in terms of not being

a dick, but getting the same improvements done in the new condo that the other condos in the community already have? Or do I spike them and do this shit myself? All right. Well, look, there's a couple of reasons why the stuff may not be upgraded on your place. One could just be that's the order of the way it was done and they didn't get to yours. It also could have been that because yours was listed, they knew they could get away with not doing that one immediately because they were like, all right, well, if they're selling it, was it empty at any point? And even if it was being sold, the person that was in there was not going to be as much of a priority because they knew that person was leaving. So it may not be anything personal whatsoever. As far as the $50 fee, welcome to fees.

They're going to raise them. They're going to raise them. But again, you're not going to hear this a lot from me. To be fair to the HOA raising their fees, everybody else is raising their fee. No, but everybody's raising their fees on other things. If you have stuff where it's like, hey, the lawn guy costs this and now it's this. There was also a stretch where people were kind of afraid to for a long time. And I think you're actually starting to see that. I'm just noticing it on some day-to-day stuff where I'm like, wait, why is this more expensive now? It's like, well, we haven't really raised-

Air cuts. Air cuts, I love them, 10 bucks. We haven't raised the price in three years, and now it was time that we had to do it. So that $50 bump, I don't think it's going to an HOA private party. I think it's likely to offset the cost that they're feeling because everybody's been raising. I just feel,

again, this is observational. I haven't read a study on it. There's not a paper from Yale. It just feels like in my day-to-day, I was like, oh, wait, this seems to be more expensive. I'm not just talking straight eggs and poultry prices, which is a different category altogether. If you want it done, being the new guy and being a dick about it immediately is probably not going to put you at the top of their list. I know it's your first house. I believe it'll probably if you're 30 and it's a condo, it's probably your first house. When you get your first house, you do a lot of stuff. Like I bought a restoration hardware fire pit. It was unbelievable. The one

time I used it and then it just sat out back and it was so fucking heavy. And you know, when I sold it, they were like, are you taking that with you? I was like, no, it's, you know, it's part of the, it's just, you know, it's part of it. It's like, no, it looks awesome in the restoration hardware catalog at the house in Malibu. It doesn't look as nice with a shared center backyard in West Hartford. It doesn't look as nice. I tried. So I was buying like, oh, I'm going to get an all-purpose couch. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do, you're going to want to do all these little things that are all a waste of money, which is another piece of advice altogether, because it's just the way it is. And I get it. But for you, you moved into this place. You see everybody else with their nice front doors, bulkhead, don't worry about it right now.

I get your concern with it. But going in there, guns blazing, when everybody yells at these people all the time already, it's going to get done. It likely has to get done. You're going to get the runaround because it's a bunch of people in office who actually don't know the schedule, who don't check with each other. So I would soft pedal this one a little bit. I just would because being a dick first day, new guy, because that's what I did. I was a dick immediately at the HOA that I dealt with. And I was in the crosshairs the rest of the time that I was there. I mean, they had a couple fucking guys that had never helped paintbrushes before come to do my pillars. And not only did

they do a shitty job and get paint all over the place, didn't even put a tarp down. They like, I don't know what they did. damaged they somehow damaged the wood it was like somebody took the end of a spoon and just stuck it into the wood finishing on these pillars at the front and again pillars it was a four hundred thousand dollar condo so it's not exactly like it was fucking some alabama fraternity house um they like trashed it and i just went nuts and guess guess who never got his way me that's why I also never listened to him all the time. Sarah Walsh, my neighbor at the same place. The HOHR had come after her.

She put in a brick patio because she actually had like a nice corner unit. She wanted to be outside and have like people over and do social things, which was weird to me. But that's what she did. The HOH tried to fine her for damaging the grass. And she somehow, I don't know how she knew how to do this. What an adult. She took pictures of all of the work being done. Because it might have been that she was sending it to her husband who was away playing baseball.

That might have been it. So it was like, hey, the bobcat pulled away the topsoil. Okay, now they're laying the brick. Okay, now here's this. And now it's all this stuff. They said that she went over the property line, that she damaged the and they tried to fine her like fifteen hundred dollars and then she sent him the pictures like actually wrong wrong and then wrong again and then guess who just dropped it that's how fucked up our place was they just they like tried to shake her down for fifteen

hundred bucks she had the pictures that would prove it in court and they just the complaint went away so you're not there yet buddy i just telling you, going in guns blazing isn't going to get your front door fixed or exchanged anytime sooner. And I know the $50 fee pisses you off. You're budgeting for all this and you see it. Welcome to HOAs. Yeah, I've got less of advice and more questions. The only other time I've learned about HOAs was like a while ago when we first brought it up. I thought you were usually fighting the HOA and like you said, people are always screaming at them all the time. I guess that's just depending on the kind of person who's living within one of these HOA communities. But I thought it was always like. Yeah, they're not great though.

I mean, like there's a lot of stuff, like the first thing they try to do to me, I was like, what are you, what do you actually think you're doing here? Like, this doesn't make any sense. And I'd already had, you know, stuff that had happened. There was again, you know actually think you're doing here? This doesn't make any sense. And I'd already had stuff that had happened. There was, again, when you're broke, you have these issues more often. I wasn't broke in the West Hartford one, but the Boston condo where they approved fucking everybody back then, they didn't factor in some payment. And I didn't even realize I wasn't making this payment. And then I get a letter to be sued. realize I wasn't making this payment. And then I get a letter to be sued. And the person that was in charge of collecting the payment never sent me anything and then waited until like the day it

became eligible for me to be sued, which I actually never was sued, but it was like a warning. And it was her boyfriend that was the lawyer that was filing the thing and then billing the hours. So I was like, this is so fucked. All right. Like you guys waited, they waited 366 days to get me to that window. And they were like, oh, by the way, this has never been paid. I'm like, well, I never, what do you mean that's never been paid? I thought it was part of the overall payment. Again, it was my first time doing it. I didn't do a great job looking through all of the lines. You know, again, that part's totally on me, but then I was like, so wait, you waited three or you waited until a year and a day to get me into this window where then it was like you had all the arguments on your side and the person that's getting the billable hours is your boyfriend? That's evil.

That seems evil. Nobody else thinks this is a bit sketchy. And then, of course, their argument is you didn't pay the bill. And it's kind of tough to counter that. It's like, all right, I didn't. But I also didn't willfully go, hey, I'm just not paying you guys for a year. I'm like, all right, I didn't, but I also, I didn't willfully go, hey, I'm just not paying you guys for a year. I'm like, this is the first I'm hearing of it. I'm like, you wouldn't have thought, hey, this person moved into this new place and he's been

there three months and hasn't paid. Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe we can be nice and give him a heads up. And they did the opposite because they knew what they were doing. So anyway, I didn't want to give you a full HOA history. The last line that I just read again that I think is really important. He said, quote, do I, or do I spite them and do this shit myself? If you do it yourself, they're probably going to fine you. Alright? You said it right.

It's going to get done. They're not just going to leave your door and all your stuff because it's going to look shitty. It's going to get done. You just got to be patient. I know that sucks for now. You can kill them with kindness. You can show up on site and be like, hey, it's my first time homeowner.

Bring a fucking bag of cookies. You know, can I help out? What can I, you know, you need any help? Yeah. You don't want to, I don't know if you want to start joining meetings, but.

No, because I had said at one point, I was like, I'll paint the outside when I was in West Hartford. I was like, you have hacks. These guys don't know how to paint. And of course, at that point, you know, it was just war.

And they're like, oh, you know how to paint? I was like, yeah, actually I do. I was like like i can tell if you can paint or not within two seconds the way you hold the brush it's like dribbling fucking basketball they're like well actually we own the outside so you can't paint it i was like well how about i give you an estimate and then you can just pay me to do the work that somebody else isn't capable of doing and then they're like we don't you don't think that makes a lot of sense or whatever i was like i'm not trying to screw you i'll give you a decent hourly, 35 bucks an hour. Let's go.

So is, is it like a fucking club? Is it like a club? Like, I know it's not, I'm just, I don't know. It sounds like the mafia. I'm just like,

is it like, is it a few people that work there? Is it like fucking 20 people that work? It's a management company. Is it just a fucking building on, on the site somewhere there? It's just like, there's a,

there's a department manager in there and they hire out shit? Do the people and the community members, is it like fucking Elks Club on once a month? No. I've got a problem with this. Is it like a town meeting? Do you want more examples or an answer? Sorry. I get this once every year and a half.

I get my questions about an HOA and I'm just fascinated. It's just a management company. It's just a management company. It's just a management company who then manages the property. And when there's a million tenants or a hundred or whatever for that building, that's managed by this company. And then they assess how much it costs to keep the building running, all the common areas and all that kind of stuff. And then there's also reserves, which is his own fascinating fucking thing. When I was buying the first place,

they were like, oh, and the reserves are amazing. And then as soon as I moved in, they redid the roof and they were like, we don't want to tap into the reserves. So this is, we're going to do it this way where all of you owe us more money. And I was like, I just, the whole reason the real estate agent was telling me this was such a good buy is that they had such a high reserve, all this extra cash for any major product or project. And then as soon as I moved in, they were like, yeah, we don't want to use those. I was like, fucking Christ. So, um, that's really all it is.

It's not some group of people that just decide to be in charge. It's, it's essentially a property management company that sets all of these prices. They figure out what operating costs are. It's going to charge more. It's not going to be dollar for dollar because they want to make sure there's something a little bit left over. But this relationship can never be good. It can never be good. It's the CBA with players and owners. It's high school kids and a principal. It's impossible because everyone who has the building feels like I actually own the building. You just manage the properties and you're a constant pain in my ass and things don't go my way. And again, if you work on the HOA side,

it's like, cool, we got 20 complaints today. What's wrong with these people? So that's it. It'll never be fixed okay i think what threw me off was the association it sounds like a more important thing and it's just a fucking it's just like a landlord management company not landlord but yeah yeah it's not a landlord i mean they don't own it which is probably i think another reason why the owners of the homes hate the management people, you know? So whatever, whatever. Maybe somebody has a good one out there. That actually would be fascinating.

Hey, I'm from Chicago. Our HOA is great. Love hanging out. But again, when I say it that way, I get why Kyle's confused. Like it wouldn't, it's not some social club. No. So that, but to, to to to that point though so my wife's parents they're in like a neighborhood a residential neighborhood so they're just like

houses like single-family houses and they are it's part of an hoa so they don't get their roads plowed they have to do all the stuff themselves and it's like a committee like the people that live in this are part of the committee and they like vote on shit they vote on like whether or not they need to cut trees down without the repave the road which is long by the way and they're all like ridiculously expensive projects and every time something happens it sounds like an absolutely miserable experience but i don't think it's like some outside group that's sort of right you know over on each other so there are different ones that's like a neighborhood authority or something it sounds yeah it sounds awful no sure that's actually a very good point um because the way i'm describing it i'm talking about the management

side of it a little bit and what you would say to the true definition of it is the homeowners association where it's like, well, no, the people that are owning the homes are part of the homeowners association. I'm being a little too liberal in moving on from the people that actually manage it because you're right, to that example, they don't have an outside group,

but then they have to get together and meet with somebody. I'm technically in a two-unit building now where we had to have some sort of chartered, recognized HOA or whatever. It's me and one other person. And once a year, when we get along great, and it's like, do you want to hang out? We don't even do that. We don't. We just text and we ask an insurance question. And then I'm like, whatever. I don't care. Whatever works We don't. We just text and we ask an insurance question. And then I'm like, whatever.

I don't care. Whatever works for you guys. I'm fine. The previous place in Manhattan Beach, there was five of us. And the one guy got so excited to have these meetings that I stopped going to him. Because I was like, these are going. It was like two and a half hours. Gary's got too many ideas.

You guys want to get together? Yeah. It was like a big thing. And then as soon as they stopped showing up, because I was renting out that unit, they passed a bill, a motion, where nothing could be rented for less than a year.

So I was like, so you guys, basically, I didn't show up. Maybe there's a lesson in why you should show up. You passed a thing that directly hurts me. And they were like yeah pretty much i was like all right well if any of you guys ever have an issue where you have to rent your place out for less than a year because something changes with a family dynamic and you don't want to miss out on rent for you know you're gonna be gone for six months or whatever like

okay cool great job you thought about one person and didn't think about any of the other long-term possibilities of like having a little more flexibility with it and by the way you're just going to go ahead and rent it out anyway you only did it because i'm the first person in this new unit to have renters god i can't imagine anyone is fucking listening to this anymore so i'm sorry this is my fault no it's actually actually it's my fault because I was not casting a wide enough net on what all the possibilities are of an HOA. Other than I would tell you, most people, I think, listening to this understand that, yeah, when you're in an apartment building, but you own the condo. Like, it's an apartment building, but people own them and live there. It's a little different.

Any condo type thing where it's like you feel like it's sort of a real house but it's because it's not an apartment but it's not a detached unit or whatever and then yeah i mean i've actually now i think about it i've never owned anything that's just a single family yeah that's true i've never owned a standalone single family so as someone who does sometimes there are a lot of times where i think like would it just be easier to have an hoa pay like the 304 and whatever bucks a month have my my lawn mowed, have my stuff painted so I don't have to do any of this shit myself. Because it is pretty fucking annoying, all the stuff that happens around the house that you don't think about, that you have to do as a homeowner who doesn't have anybody, like a contractor helping you. My dad is basically like Mr. Fix-It.

Ryan, you know, obviously him. Yeah, he fixes a couple things in my place. So that's super helpful. HOA didn't. It's not the best when it's like, i gotta do this thing again you know i gotta i gotta trim the hedges again like i don't even have any trimmers plus you're ducking your ordinary neighbor out there too you gotta find the right that's also true yeah i usually do it like in the evening when he's like yeah who knows i gotta make sure the driveway yeah

you should just get like a mega t- joke i do that i literally just like is this car in the driveway all right i can go outside now no but i think the next time you're doing a yard work you just put on something like anthrax t-shirt cut the sleeves off put on a wig and just fucking crank it not even earbuds just loud dwight howard outdoor bluetooth music and you know give him he'd find a way to call the cops on me so oh he would call the cops i thought he just sucked now he called the cops on us once because uh our dogs are barking inside when we weren't home um so you got cops knocking on your door nobody's home literally yeah and then of course like the cops are knocking and like they're knocking on a door of course my

dogs are gonna fucking bark there's like random stranger outside knocking on the door but yeah call the cop throughout the dinner i was actually out to dinner with Smallman. Got a call from the Boston-Berry Police Department, and they're like, hey, I got a complaint about dogs barking. Are you home? And I'm like, nope, not home. Went home. Everything was fine. What do you get, like a warning? It's like, we get two more of these calls, we're going to have to

do something? I don't think so. I think technically the police have to do something, but I don't think there's anything that you could actually do to me, like a noise complaint. I don't know. Where does that go? There's a lesson in here is that almost it's a lot a lot of like a lot of things in life no matter what system you're part of you're going to find problems with it correct but at least when they're your problems as a single family homeowner you're like ultimately this is all on me. It's all on me. Granted, your neighbor sucks, okay? But the reason so many of us hate HOAs is that it's like, well, wait, I get to blame

somebody else for something else that's not going on. And that's kind of what we do here. If somebody's going to look at this pod and go, wait, they went 41 minutes on life advice. I can't wait. This is going to be awesome. They must have done like three. They must have done 20. advice. I can't wait. This is going to be awesome. They must have done like three. They must have done 20. Nope. 25 minutes. I almost feel bad about this episode now.

But you know what? They all can't be zingers. Primus. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve. Ryan Rosillo Podcast. Bring your Spotify. podcast. you