The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Letting Go of Watson, the Jets' Reset, and Free Agency Primer With Peter Schrager

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the 76ers' win over the Jazz and NBA fourth-quarter shooting numbers (2:15) before talking with Fox and NFL Network's Peter Schrager about the upcoming NFL draft, the Jets looking to add offensive security for whoever will be their starting QB for 2021, Russell Wilson's wishes to be traded, the Deshaun Watson trade standoff, free-agent QBs, New England's plan to remain competitive, and more (15:00). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (51:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They could effectively fine him millions and millions and millions of dollars. And everyone says, well, Watson's got the leverage. He just signed a huge extension. If they really wanted to, and I don't think they do, and I don't think I could see it happening, the Houston Texans could say, we'll find another quarterback. We'll draft someone. We'll work with McCarron. We'll sign another middle.

We'll sign Ryan Fitzpatrick and Deshaun Watson. You will sit. And if we want to do this, we can do this. We'll sign another middle. We'll sign Ryan Fitzpatrick and Deshaun Watson. You will sit. And if we want to do this, we can do this. We will find the shit out of you. We will find you every day. And you will never play football again for eight years. Because not only do we have you for five years, we could technically franchise tag you for three more years.

So the ultimate leverage might be in the players' hands about public opinion and about the status of the team. And also, but from a financial standpoint, and the fact that he physically cannot play for another football team unless they let him they do have the final final like i guess whatever you would call it the trump card at the end that they could throw down and say like no you're never playing for any other team but us great end of the week pod for you we'll uh talk with peter schrader going over all the markets for quarterbacks. I just love doing that stuff.

What's the latest on that? A big life advice. We ran through a few of them. And some NBA observations for some of the big time closers in the game. Not all of them, just some. I want to run through just some stuff. There'll be some numbers, observations of watching games this whole week because there were some great games.

I want to start with Utah and Philly. Philly's comeback win in overtime. I thought the whole time Utah was going to win that game, I felt like they were the better team. So really what I came away with was a couple observations, but just a ton of respect for Philly for pulling that one out. And look, Philly's, whatever version of these top teams are, there were some numbers with Philly that scared me a little bit that I brought up. Some of their schedule stuff, playing so many teams in the East versus playing teams in the West, where you have Utah who's played more teams against the West than almost anybody other than, I think, the Spurs. Whatever Utah's numbers are right now, they're real. They were doing something specific in this game that spoke to some of the Embiid stuff And there's all sorts of stuff that I want to do from this one. And by the way, Utah fans, I know you're going to be super pissy about this game because you think the refs cost you the game.

Tobias Harris getting going offensively, the bench minutes in the fourth quarter for Philadelphia, and Joel Embiid, all of those things also worked against you. Yes, there were a couple calls here and there, and I know that Mitchell and Gobert went nuts. I watch a lot of jazz. I'm just not a big blame the ref guy, no matter what. Although I thought it was weird that LeBron in the all-star draft,

which I'm not going to recap. I guess the jazz players for the last two picks, Mitchell and Gobert. And then LeBron was like, look, we grew up and played the video games. Nobody ever played with Stockton Malone. He's like not to disrespect them and then kind of laughs about the whole thing. So I was like, woo, here we go. All right. So people can joke about the Gobert screen assist thing,

but he's the best in the league at it. He's number one in screen assist per game. The only other guy that's even at his level this year is Sabonis, and Gobert has been the guy forever. And he'll come all the way. He'll be like three, four feet beyond the three-point line. So when then Embiid is left with a coverage decision, and everybody now references drop coverage, and that's just the guy staying back. And

a few of us on air people learn that word, and then we can't stop saying it all the time. But you get Mitchell with a head of steam, and Embiid is kind of stuck. And Mitchell has all the moves to finish. He's got the floater. He can dunk it on you. He almost got him beat and it ended up being the end one. He has enough of a shot that he can pull up if he wants to. And then the way the spacing is in the corners, the way we'll have just this dunker role, which is the guy who stays back on the baseline. It's been the adjustment that Milwaukee has done with some of their offensive stuff where it's not wide open for Giannis all the time. There's another option for Giannis that's not just a kick out. And there's all these players like Rob Williams right now with the Celtics.

I mean, he's making a living off of that. We saw it. Think Capella, Harden, high pick and roll, and then all the decisions that you had to deal with with Harden where you're like, I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should stay with you because then I get a foul. I don't know if I stay with you, then you throw over my head. I don't know if I take a jab at you defensively and then try to retreat. And it still doesn't matter because it's Capella behind me. So I don't even know if you're a GM, how you would pay that player, because it feels like now everybody can do

that and everybody's productive because those buckets are easy. Also think Dwight Howard and his resurgence, because I think part of that is happening. And it was happening with LeBron making his life easy. JaVale McGee. I mean, hell right now with Brown and the Nets, he's like six, five, and he's playing some version of center, but all of this stuff is wide open because when the Nets, even if it's not with the rant, which is scary about this Nets part is there's just all this open space all over the place. So Utah was doing a great job with this, and they were actually doing it against Embiid, who at this point I think is the first half MVP. Then the game changed when Embiid went,

I mean, he was lighting it up the whole game, and you start to go like, is Embiid better now? Well, yes. Is he better with Doc? Yes. Is it just because they're running everything through him? And that's what I want to start look at is some closing players and how they're being used. Because I know that all of us, and I don't mean this is the media part of it, but all of us

that are just basketball fans, when it doesn't work out for our team, we're more likely to say something like, how come they're not giving it to this guy? They need to give it to this guy more. And when our teams give it to the guy, right? The highest usage rate and say, give it to him every single time. And then it doesn't work. Then what do we say? We're like, ah, too much isolation. We're trying to force it all the time. And that's why the Mitchell part of that Sixers jazz game was so fascinating is that Mitchell was cooking and then they put Simmons on him on some of these switches. And I think Mitchell took it personally. And that's kind of the exercise is there's a, there's a lot of room between Russell Westbrook's approach and Jeff Green's approach. All right. You got to figure out where you are. And I think

we kind of change it as viewers and fans, and again, in the media, where we'll kind of change what we want based solely on the outcome. Because what is Embiid getting more now? He's getting more touches. His usage rate, I'm going to go over the top 10 usage rates, but I picked five specific players for this exercise. The top fourth quarter usage rates in the NBA, and usage isn't perfect, but it usually gives you a good sense of what's going on. Zach Levine's number one at almost 41%. And if you watch the Bulls games, yeah, that, that matches up. And I'm more of a Zach Levine fan now than ever before. And beat is number two. So that means in the fourth quarter and even some of the fourth quarter

stuff can be a little off depending on how good or bad the team is. But in this case, and look, all the Bulls games are close and they've blown all these games. But for Philly, who has a slightly lower point differential, this makes sense. Hey, let's get it to Embiid. Let's see what happens here. I mean, his post touches are number one in the NBA by a pretty large margin. His post points per game. He's at eight.

Vooch is second in the NBA, and he's almost three behind him. So they're getting Embiid. All of those complaints for all the years, like not enough post-touches, not enough post-touches. He still would lead the league in post-touches, Embiid, but now he's cranked it up again. But again, it's never going to be like it was even 10 years ago, as I made the point, I think, last season where Embiid was leading the league, I think, at like 10 post-touches per game. And Al Jefferson led the league at 20 post touches a game less than 10 years ago. So we understand this. The game is completely different. But Embiid is getting those touches. And right now, usage-wise, it would all make sense. So let's look at a couple other guys.

Mitchell's ninth. If I did the top 10, I'll do it this way. Levine's one, Embiid's two, If I did the top 10, I'll do it this way. Levine's one, Embiid's two, Beal's three, LeBron James is four, Damian Lillard is five, Steph Curry's six, Giannis seven, Trey Young eight, Donovan Mitchell ninth. So Mitchell's actually ninth in usage in the fourth quarter. Embiid is second. Dame and Steph, who had their little showdown the other night, where Lillard was actually terrible throughout the game except at the end, where his clutch numbers this year are nuts.

By the way, ESPN stats and info, Lillard entered Wednesday's game against the Warriors having hit 28 career game-tying, game-winning shots inside the final 20 seconds. Now he has 29. That's most in the NBA. in the NBA. His season right now, when the game's within five points, within five minutes or fewer to play, he's shooting 61% from the field, 57% from three, and he is 100% from the free throw line. He's got 92 clutch points, and he's only behind Zach Levine again because I think Zach Levine's played the entire season in clutch point situations. On the other side for Steph, he missed a three, he missed another layup, and then they had the charge. It wasn't enough for me to be on TV the next day going, you know what? I take Lillard over Steph. But Lillard, who when you watch with that jab step, because you can't contest shots anymore, you're going to end

up at the free throw line, that quick jab step, he just gets you off of him by six inches and he's up and he's good to go and that's what he did against the Warriors and that's what he's been doing against everybody but the funny thing is is Steph whose usage rate is just behind Dame's and Dame runs like the eighth most isolations in the NBA Harden's number one at like 30 percent Steph actually runs the 88th highest isolation rate. He's about 6% because Golden State is more about movement, and it's more about movement even with Steph in this current lineup

not having clay, not having all their pieces all the time. Steph is actually number one in the NBA in fourth quarter percentage of points. No one scores a higher percentage of his team's fourth quarter points than Steph Curry does, albeit with a very low overall isolation rate and a usage rate that's behind guys like Embiid, Dame. He's actually, again, just ahead of Mitchell. Some of the Mitchell fourth quarter stuff doesn't mean as much because Utah's blown

out so many teams. But there's one final player that I'm going to throw in this mix. Because as Boston has figured some stuff out, Kemba being healthy is a big part of that too. Tatum's numbers are really interesting. Because Tatum, you're like, man, does he run a lot of isolation? Yes, he does. He's at seventh highest isolation rate in the NBA right now. But yet he's 28th in fourth quarter usage.

He's not even close to some of these other guys. And clearly the Raptors were shorthanded last night, but if you watched that game, if you watched it, the shots that Tatum were making, it didn't matter who was defending him. They were absurd, high level, like are there 10 guys that make these kinds of shots,

types of shots from him? And for anyone, again, when it gets negative, whether it's, oh, Ainge always wants to bury a team in a deal. And you're like, right. So Ainge gets offered trades where he's like, hey, this makes us better. But will the other GM have to go to therapy for depression? No. Okay. I don't want to do the deal. When Tatum was called a Robin, you're like, that's just so stupid. Because Tatum, even with the high level of isolations, because I do think they get a little wing heavy of taking turns, his overall usage rate actually isn't that high,

even for a team that's had all of this roster influx. And yet his closing numbers are still really good. There's one other number here that I like. LeBron James has the highest usage rate in the NBA on attempts or basically possessions under four seconds left on the shot clock. So four seconds or less on the shot clock, LeBron has the highest usage rate in the NBA. You want to know why? Because throughout all these injuries, everyone just looks to him to figure it out. And scary enough, the numbers actually aren't terrible, which I couldn't believe.

So whenever we're watching some of these players like Giannis against Memphis last night, where Memphis would load up to stop him, and then Giannis is like, okay, this is what they're doing. So in this next play, I'm going to make an adjustment. He gets it out to Middleton for a really big jumper. And that's all you really want is identify what they're doing to you defensively. But I think all of us can do a much better job paying attention to how our favorite players are being used instead of constantly saying like, oh, they use this guy too much or they don't use this guy enough.

When you look at all the numbers, they all kind of bear out like, yeah, it looks like everybody's getting used about as much as they should be. And everybody's kind of producing the way you would think, except for the far extremes, the guys that don't want the ball ever. And the guys that no matter what, and even guys that don't want the ball ever, and the guys that no matter what, and even in declining skills, want the ball every single time and aren't getting the same production, but at least with this group of five. And as I look at Mitchell here, his numbers are off a little bit here, but it has to do more with not his individual numbers, the fact that

he's not asked to do as much because they've been destroying so many different teams. But that game in particular against Philly was a really good examination of Mitchell and being like, hey, look how great it can be, but look how dangerous it can be. Also deciding that I'm going to be the high usage guy. I'm going to run every single possession, especially when you have other offensive options. He's one of the hosts of Good Morning Football, also the NFL on Fox, NFL Network. It's Peter Schrager. What's up, man?

What's up, dude? Did you already film today or what? You guys done over there? Yeah, we did our show earlier this morning, but let's get after it, dude. I'm excited. Draft is here and so is free agency. I think the league is going to change significantly in the next two weeks. All right, so how bad are the cuts going to be?

Bloodbath. And I don't take any joy in saying that, but the NFL is not used to losing money, and I think a lot of these players are not ready for this. If you're noticing, you're already going to see a bunch of guys, whether it's Big Ben or Jason Kelsey or whoever, they're taking little cuts right now, and they're saying, hey, I'll restructure my contract.

I think you're going to see a lot of that from veterans saying, I'd rather be on the team than be on the street right now because that middle class of players, because the salary cap is going down, that middle class of guys, which is not your top superstar and not your guy in his rookie deal or the undrafted fridge. And the guy who makes about a $12 million receiver, a golden tape, an $8 million running back, Those guys, they're in real trouble right now because these teams are trying to figure out how to make it work. And I spoke with the GM this morning and he's like, I also don't think it's going to be

that usual deal where free agency starts on March 14th and we go. And it's the Dolphins have signed this guy. And this guy, it might be one of those deals where it's like, it's going to be a slow one where, all right, this player is on the market for two weeks why hasn't he signed a deal yet well because there's no one banging down his doors almost like baseball had the last couple off seasons yeah it sounds like baseball i do wonder though because there's so much cap space at the top i mean this this feels significant i don't know if it's unprecedented i don't i don't have i don't keep track of cap space going in every single year but you know a team will be like, oh, we have $40 million, you'll be like, yeah, there's two teams with $60 million and then Jacksonville is beyond that.

Wouldn't somebody with that much space, again, with some of the floor numbers that you have to get to, which I still don't think is ever explained well enough, don't you think somebody might just say, all right, let's go after two huge ticket items and maybe reset some of the salary structure for a couple positions? Yeah, that could happen. And I think the really most interesting team, because it's the typical guys are there. The Jaguars have money, the Jets have money, even the Colts, who are a playoff team, they've got a lot of money. The weirdest one, and the one that I'm so fascinated in, and I think you'll appreciate, the Patriots are like third. And it is not historically proven that Belichick is going to call you and whine you. To watch J.J. Watt do a press conference and be like, I had Frank Caliendo call me and I had Blake Shelton call me and Cliff is going to be great and I'm living in 65 degree weather. and call me and Cliff is going to be great and I'm living in 65 degree weather.

I think that might be more the norm now where the teams are courting the star player. The team is courting. I don't even think Belichick could sleep at night knowing he has to evolve and maybe make a phone call to like a Curtis Samuel or a pick your random free agent. He's calling Matt Milano and being like, we really need you on the Patriots. But without a quarterback and with what they're coming off of he might have to be a bit of a salesman and i think that is really interesting because the patriots have a ton of cap space but it might be a little bit of that college recruiting deal with some of those other teams that are have been historically terrible in the league okay so jets tons of cap space too so what do

you get on them they're gonna spend it they're gonna spend it um it's no secret i'm friendly with sala i i've got a relationship with joe douglas i know the owner pretty well they want to spend it they want to be players in this thing what happened the last few weeks is that the zach wilson buzz has gotten out of control and uh i think we're both friends and fans of chris' work. And I think there's some legitimacy to that, where all of a sudden, Zach Wilson, who was viewed in a much different light than Trevor Lawrence during the college football season, is being treated as if they might even be equals, if not some people like Wilson even more.

Now, whether that's true or not, it doesn't matter. The buzz is there. The hype is there, which makes that pick, the number two overall pick, all the more appealing for another team. You can make a trade for Zach Wilson and you can sell it to your audience and say, hey, we convinced ourselves that this is the future of our team. has had bad offensive line play, they really like him. And I talked to those guys and it's like, we think Sam could be really good. They honestly, as we're doing this in the first week of March, they don't know what they're doing necessarily yet, but they do want to beef up in free agency and they want to get whoever that quarterback is, whether it's Darnold or Zach Wilson, they're going to have weapons. They're going to be spending money at wide receiver. They're going to try to get some offensive linemen. They're going to get a pass rusher the jets want to be players in this thing and they don't want to

be players in a stupid way where they're overspending for players or they're doing but they feel like with what sala brings as far as a coach that players speak highly of want to play for and there's kind of like this upswing with like jets momentum right now this offseason they're going to ride that wave and maybe some players choose to play for the jets over other places where historically they just had to overpay for players just to even consider coming how much market manipulation is there with the donald stuff because it it feels like well of course the jets are gonna go yeah hey pete this guy kind of sucks like you know we don't we don't care if you're going to go in football you're like yeah they're pretty desperate to trade him i mean nobody would ever want do that. But it is interesting how many different teams you'll hear about

and be like, hey, we'd love to get our hands on him. So give me the Darnold angle of all of this because I don't know that it's a huge mistake bringing him back. I just would love to see a little bit more. If you're a younger quarterback without options, it's one thing to be Cam and it was awful to watch him without options. But for Sam, where you're like, hey, am I going to have a career here? I don't know why the Jets would want to keep doing that to him.

Yeah, it's actually interesting because of his contract. So he's going into year four and it's like, all right, so this year you still don't have to pay him. He's going to be making nominal money. He's not going to be lurking the bank this year. But then if he's good, if he's great, then you're going to pay him and you'll be glad to do it. But their issue with Darnold and I think what a lot of these teams entering the fourth year of a contract with a quarterback and you saw it with Trubisky and some others is that what if they're just good like what if

Darnold's an eight and eight quarterback or what if they're nine and seven or seven and nine is are we paying him a hundred million dollars next year So if you fall in love with Wilson, you at least get four years of him on that rookie contract, and you can make that happen. Now, other teams would look at it and say, shit, Sam Darnold, I mean, that's an upgrade from what we got. You know, you're looking at a Carolina or a Washington or even a Chicago, and you're like, all right. I mean, look, Sam Darnold, we'll deal with the contract if we want,

but let's at least ride that out for another $3 million or whatever, $8 million that he's making this year, and then we can decide whether we want to give him an extension or not. So he is a very, very valued asset for around the league because you know he could play quarterback. Coming out of college, he was the number one prospect. It was him, Baker, and Josh Young. And then the ultimate X factor is, like, has he been terribly coached?

You know, did Gase do this to him? Has he had any chance? Because there's so many stories in NFL history and you know this and Tannehill, I guess, is the latest. Like, just give me a shot. Like, put me on a team that's not the team I've been on and I'll figure it out. We'll make it work. And it goes, you know, Rich Gannon, there's millions.

Steve Young, whoever it is, maybe that's Sam Darnold. And teams think 23 years old? Shit. That's not such a bad option right there. So what do you think happens? Who do you think the Jets quarterback is? I still think it's Darnold. I do. I think it's Darnold. And I think that they ride this Wilson wave

really strong. And I know this is early March, and I'm telling you, I know the guys. And it rubs people the wrong way when you say that. I don't know what they're doing yet. I don't think they fully know what they're doing. I think they're going to weigh all their options and see the market and all that stuff. But I think they want to give Donald a shot with Salah and Michael Flohr. I think it's only fair to him too. They invested this time and this money into him. For him to be now leaving the team to then see him flourish somewhere else would be such a gut punch. I know Jets fans want Zach Wilson.

I know Jets fans want Deshaun Watson. I think there's enough that we've seen from Sam Darnold that he deserves another year there. And with the number two overall pick, if you want to trade that and get a bounty of picks, because there's five teams that want Zach Wilson, I don't think you can shake your fist at that either. Okay, so Russell Wilson.

I thought when he started doing any of this, it was a huge deal because for him to lean anything, anything that leans towards interesting is a shock when he answers anything. So then I knew, and I look, I'd heard some other stuff. I think, I think the wife wants to be in a market that helps her revive her career a little bit as well, which I think would be the reason you were like, why is it Vegas, Chicago, New Orleans, and the Jets? And then it was something else. I was like, the Vegas thing makes all the sense in the world because then she could host somewhere. New Orleans, when New Orleans is normal, but it was a little

different. It was a little different than just straight up, hey, all the big markets. So give me your perspective on the Russell Wilson pursuit. So I agree. I've been covering the league for a long time and met with Wilson, a nice enough guy, but certainly never someone for controversy. And his game has always been right down the middle, make everyone feel like you can relate to me and I'm a celebrity in one breath,

but I'm also the underdog, undersized quarterback in the next. And we can all look to me as someone that we can all hang out with. And then this thing comes out. And Ryan, the crazy thing is that his agent puts his name on a Schefter report, and it's like Mark Rogers says, the four markets are X, Y, Z, which for Russell Wilson, if you have any controversy publicly,

then to list the teams in the markets, that was a lot. Now, Mark Rogers, his agent, is a baseball agent. He's one of the top baseball agents. I don't think he's got any other clients. So I think they also come out this thing from a little different angle where it's like, yeah, all right, we're not in the Jimmy Sexton or Tom Condon factory where this is how it's handled and here's the playbook. There's a little bit of a wild card factor here.

And I don't know if he's thrilled being in seattle anymore and when he went on dan patrick's show a couple weeks ago i think it was during cerebral week i was like i'd love to get it was after right yeah it might have been i want to get protection from the offensive line and i'm like whoa now you're talking about you know you're like calling out your guys who are it used to be like you buy them a Rolex and now it's our offensive line isn't good enough. There's no secret. He makes a ton of money. He's one of the most valued players in the league. They love him

in Seattle. It seems like he might be unhappy. I wouldn't be shocked in today's NFL, the way it feels. I know you and Bill talk about it a lot. It almost has a little bit of NBA to it. I wouldn't be shocked if he's like, trade me. And they do because we don't want to put up with that and we'll start anew.

Anything could happen this offseason. It really could. If you think of the reasons why people would argue that, well, it'll never happen in the NFL. It's like quarterback, team, locker room, the leader of men and all this different stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, look, ultimately, if the player says,

I don't want to play and I've made all this money and you can dock me for money for a year for me to get my way. I mean, it's kind of a Le'Veon Bell thing. I mean, if you were to say 10 years ago, hey, this running back is going to do this and this is the offer he's going to turn down. And the weird thing is if you do all the Le'Veon Bell math after the fact, you're still kind of like, was that worth it actually? And, you know, look, his career is derailed. And I don't know that it's because he sat out the year, but I think we're in the beginning of stages of this because I still think Houston from a team perspective, doesn't think Deshaun won't show up to camp with his guys when it's

really time. And I mean, you tell me what, cause that's kind of what I'm hearing. And then I wonder if we're like in the early stages, we were like, remember when the teams actually tried to resist trading the guys and would see if they would sit out until they finally started to give in because i do think eventually the teams will give in yeah like so when levion did that i remember going on fox on their pregame show and being like one of the things he thinks he is he thinks he's like a pioneer and he believes that he's going to make a stand for running backs and they also want to have a running backs union that's separate from the players you know people roll their eyes all stuff it's like the running back union thing was a little much but but he also wanted to be paid as a running back and receiver because of his number so he wanted like a 22 or something like

that and then i was like let's see if people follow him and i think melvin gordon held out for a little bit and it didn't work out for him like there hasn't been no if all the running backs got together and we're like we're not playing like maybe it would have worked the quarterback position you need the quarterback yeah and you know i find it so interesting that like houston because i talk to everybody it's like houston's not picking up the phone and that's been the story and it's real it's not as fun as oh there's offers but like they have a new gm a new head coach and like they're coming in there being vulnerable and they're like we want to make this work and we will do anything to make it work because both of us left our good jobs in baltimore and new england so that we can

come and coach to sean watson not aj mccarron or some other rookie like they want to make it work but everything from watson's camp is like i'm never showing up never wearing the jersey again here's the the crazy part of it is that if rubber hits the road and they they hold strong and they're like we're gonna make it work we're gonna make it work we're not hits the road and they hold strong and they're like, we're going to make it work, we're going to make it work, we're not going to trade him, and we're not going to sign another free agent, and we're not going to draft a quarterback, they could effectively fine him they do, and I don't think I could see it happening, the Houston Texans could say, we'll find another quarterback, we'll draft someone, we'll work with McCarron, we'll sign another middle, we'll sign Ryan Fitzpatrick and Deshaun Watson. You will sit. And if we want to do this, we can do this. We will find the shit out of you. We will find you every day and you will never play football again for eight years, because not only do we have you for five years, we could technically franchise tag you for three more years. So like the ultimate leverage might be in the player's hands about public opinion and about the status

of the team. But from a financial standpoint and the fact that he physically cannot play for another football team unless they let him, they do have the final, final, like, I guess, whatever you would call it, the trump card at the end that they could throw down and say like, no, you're never playing for any other team but us. Do you know of any teams that have even made an offer? No, I don't know of teams that made an offer. I know teams that have called to start the dialogue and they've been shut down right away. Okay, what about Wilson?

What are those calls like that you know of? There's limitations on what any of us can know. Yeah, teams have called there as well. And you've heard that there's been 10 to 11 teams. I don't think they're entertaining the offers, but I think the Seahawks seem to be picking up the phone and at least engaging in conversations. Houston's almost making a show of it, telling everyone, no, absolutely not. Don't even bother calling about this. Okay, so you'd say it's a little bit more receptive but not not like i'm not trying to get you on a spot this won't be the breakout video where

schrager says yeah seattle much more willing uh i wonder would you do would you do wilson for the number one pick if you're jacksonville or if you're seattle either one i know who would say no to it is Russell Wilson's wife. She'd be like, this was not the plan. It was Jacksonville. Jacksonville was not the plan. You know the one that's interesting that was proposed to me today?

Justin Herbert for Watson straight up. Would you do that one? I would. I think that highly of Watson. I'm not anti-Herbert or anything. I like guys that I've seen do it multiple years. would i think that highly of watson and i'm not i'm not anti-herbert or anything but i just i like guys that i've seen yeah i'd like guys that i've seen do it multiple years and for me that's who watson is and yeah for anyone that goes oh well it's just because watson they had a bad year you

know i think most of the support has been on his side because i've also railed against public opinion but 99 on watson's side and i saw janet ramsey came out i was like if anyone questioning his character i'm like i honestly have not seen that from yeah what are you talking about like okay so brett barb and dick ramil like we got two guys it reminds me a lot of the lamar jackson stuff it's like okay bill polian said something he shouldn't have said he was wrong he was his evaluation i love bill he was wrong about lamar and then it's like the all stuff this comes out like not bad for running back. And you just go like, well, you know.

We're at the combine, and this is two years ago, and I get the official stuff. And teams asked Russell Wilson to work out at wide receiver. And that was, I'm sorry, Lamar Jackson to work out at wide receiver. I just reported it. And then it got taken way out of context. And it's like, you think he's a wide receiver? And I like no but like that everyone wanted that to be a storyline but you're right it was from polian it was maybe from a couple others that actually put their name said booger

was down on him as a prospect and boogers owned it boogers like hey i was wrong i got you know for all of us that have to do this and be like what do you think of every one of these guys yes no no no yes yes yes no no yet you. You need to have some diverging opinions. Yeah. And gosh, I mean, they couldn't be more wrong. But guess what? Booger and Tolian are still on TV talking about prospects. I mean, that's what it is.

It's part of the job. Yeah. Okay. But I think this is interesting, though, on the Watson thing. Because, look, you're so in it is that we had a couple people. And Favre was a total hypocrite, by the way. Andule's just I mean he's not even old school he's like a different version yeah of old school yeah um we're talking about somebody that was what coaching in the early 80s and when I think of of the Deshaun support it's it's all the way out there but I guess the only part of the some of the criticism because it's look's a lot of us talking, so you're always going to find something that's like,

okay, well, who does he think he is if they had this one bad season? Isn't he partly to blame for that? And you're like, actually, if you dig into it, no, he isn't. And this isn't just about Easter Bee. It's not just about having the enemy. It's not just about him not being involved in the coaching decisions. It's that he was told that he would have input. And then they didn't even listen. They didn't ask him like the Texans screwed this up so badly. And it's like, you have, I've said this before. You have the three options. You can tell all your players. We don't give a shit. We don't want to hear from you. You can tell your players, Hey, we're going to listen. And then if you do listen to you do something opposite, then you're kind of screwed, but you can do what Houston did, which nobody does.

Hey, we're going to listen, but now we're not even going to ask you. So then Deshaun's like, look, I didn't get along with O'Brien. You got rid of Hopkins on and on and on. This is not just a one season off season deal with him. And that's why I think if anybody really knows what's going on, that's where they go, Hey, I don't have a problem with him saying I'm ready to turn the page on this. I just think the Texans feel like he's going to show up to camp at some point. You're spot on. And I don't think anyone with any actual knowledge of the situation, I'm not disregarding Dick Vermeule or Favre, thinks he's being a petulant, me first player. That's not it. This guy is not that player. And anyone who's played with him or for him or with him or has coached him will tell you that

he's the ultimate selfless leader. And he's a servant, really. That's what he is. He's great leadership qualities. The rub on it is that whatever happened in the past with Cal McNair or Easterbee or whoever, they hired new people. So you've got a new GM and you've got a new coach. Now, David Culley, who's the wide receivers coach, is a 65-year-old first-time NFL head coach, first-time anywhere head coach, who is beloved around the league as a former wide receivers coach, but also Andy Reid's assistant head coach and Harbaugh's assistant head coach. Everything they say is, this guy is a people person and is a lover. He almost has those Vermeer qualities that people love Vermeer about, full of heart, full of grace, full of class.

And I think the hope is that Watson can talk to this guy and there's a connection. If there isn't, and Watson's still sour over whatever happened before those guys were hired, there has to be a rubber hits the road moment where you either say, okay, well, then we're going to grant you that. We're going to trade you. We're going to do what's best for everyone in this situation. Or they can play that terrible card, which I mentioned. And it's just like, sorry, you're going to never play football again because we control your rights, which we have not seen in any professional sport. No one actually pulled that move.

And I don't think they have that in them either. I don't think they want to be vilified around the league. Okay. What have I left out then on the free agency primer here? Or should I just ask you more draft stuff? No. I mean, the primer in it all is you've got all these different quarterback these vacancies and these teams and there's still some

great unknowns like what is new england doing any read on that kyle kyle was worried about that he wanted chonman the the thing i heard from somebody who's not there was like, you know, Belichick's not getting any younger. They've got an old roster. They're not going to be riding with Stidham and a rookie. They are going to make a play for someone. Now, whether that means it's a big trade for, what's even someone, Matt Ryan? Matt Ryan. Or it's a big trade and you get, you know, Sam Darnold.

I don't think the Jets would ever trade with the Patriots, but you know what I mean. Is it that or is it like we're trading our entire draft and we're getting, in the entire future, we're getting Zach Wilson. I just don't know if Belichick wants to start over with a rookie quarterback at this point in his career. What are they doing is the greatest mystery. And because they have so much cap space, every team is like texting,

guys that I know are texting me, so what's new in Ghana? I don't know. I don't know. New GA, Dave Ziegler's the guy running point on a lot of this stuff. It's his first time doing it. Belichick, first time in 20 years

that he's not the king sitting on top of the league looking down at everyone and being like, I can pay a veteran 60 cents on the dollar and he's still going to want to come because he wants to win a ring. It doesn't exist anymore. It's a great point, man. It's a great point.

But I can't fathom them going in with an unknown at quarterback again after what they just went through. I can't either. And even a draft. Go ahead. What do you think? I mean, I've listened to you enough,

but can they roll out Cam again? Is that enough for the Patriots fan base? Or are they thinking about the loss to the Rams on Thursday night where we can't throw the ball more than eight yards? I can't believe they would bring Cam back again. It was that bad, but he didn't have any help. They can talk about opt-outs. Yeah. Okay. You know, you can say he got COVID. So then he wasn't the same. When I saw that, I really felt like if you were tweeting out, he hasn't been the same since he had COVID. I was like, I think you're a big time cam supporter so that you just like,

again, I, you know, I don't understand it. I can read an article that convinces me that our longterm effects that none of us understand. I could also read another article that says that, you know,

it's for certain people of a certain age that are pretty healthy guys. You don't expect. So, you know, I'm not assuming anything on either of that. I just think it's pretty obvious. If you're a huge cam fan, you're making every excuse for it.

And if you're somebody like me, it was like, I think 15 was sort of a fluky year with him. And then I see this season, I'm like, I just can't imagine that they would do that. And even if they were going to take somebody in the first round and where their pick is, there could be a run. Mac Jones could be gone by then. So if you're telling me it's a pick, we all know this.

Even New England. I mean, and their draft record hasn't been great for a long time here. Why would they try with somebody as a rookie that's a 50? I can't believe that they wouldn't. Like, why would they get cute now at the position after they just tried to do it

and it was a disaster? I'll give you one. Would you be interested in Tua if you're the Patriots? Yeah, I would. I'm not giving up on Tua, but it felt like Miami's play calling had given up on him during the season. That was weird. I always love looking at play calling with

quarterbacks because it tells us what the staff thinks of their guy. Chan Gailey's no longer there. That could be part of the reason. Well, clearly Chan didn't trust him. I mean, some of the goal line stuff that used to do with him, you're like, what happened to the guy that I saw at Alabama? You can trust on all these throws. So I would personally, because I watched all the Bama stuff, I would be in the Tua market right now. But I think the fact that Chan isn't there tells you that they're not ready. I mean, that would seem a little quick, don't you think? It was.

And I think the Dolphins are interesting with Tua. Third overall pick because of the Texans. So you could technically take another quarterback if you want to do the Josh Rosen deal and just say, you know what, Kyler's better than Rosen. Sorry. That's what it is. They could do it and trade off Tua. I got to think they're going to bring him back. But when you hear the Watson stories, and then you hear New England and the connection with Saban, obviously everyone goes to Mac Jones immediately, but I don't know, Flores and Belichick, it'd be very incestual and a very

odd deal, but anything's possible. Tua is an interesting one. Donald's an interesting one. Matt Ryan's an interesting one. Someone said Alex Smith. I don't see them going that route either. I think they want... Let's play the game though, okay? Because guys that played for Flores love them, alright?

And again, the same things happen in Miami. And the fact that they were competing the way they've been competing the last two years, too, and they still are sort of a team that I think roster-wise, we go, they're not where they think they'll be, even if it's not, you know, hey, we finally have a roster now. Let's see what happens. And Flores gets those guys to show up every Sunday, which is what I loved about him. And what I always kind of loved about Todd Bowles, too, when he was with the Jets,

I was like, that team's not that good. And look at this dude. And why a whole peak gets it's a job again, um, on the next, next cycle. But would Flores tell Bill the truth about Tua? Like,

Oh, what if, what if Brian's there? And he goes, you know what? He's just not the same guy. NFL players all over the place on Saturday, Alabama O-line,

even though Mac Jones O-line was better than Tua's. And he says, yeah, I'm going toline was better than Tua's. And he says, yeah, I'm going to sell fucking bill on Tua. And then, and then, and then, and then a year in Belichick is like,

our relationship is forever done. I hate you. I don't know how I did. Yeah, no, look, there's actual friendships here and there's actually mentorship. Like,

but it's also, it's survival, game of survival. And if Belichick grades out to, and it's like, I saw something that you guys didn't get the most out of. I don't know. Again, a game of survival. And if Belichick grades out to it and is like, I saw something that you guys didn't get the most out of, again, it's very hypothetical.

It's not going to happen. No, it isn't. But I love the role playing of it. I mean, yeah. So many people down in Miami worked for Belichick or were with Belichick that those two teams, those franchises are very, very similar. It's kind of like when Bill sent Bledsoe to the Bills. That's all you needed to know.

He's like, yeah, okay, you guys got him. Thank you. You know, I remember Andy Reid trading McNabb to the Redskins in the division on Easter Sunday, and it's like, he can't be good anymore. He's not going to trade him to the arch rival team after all the years they are, but you do see

these trades sometimes within the division so washington moves on from alex smith and i i feel guilty almost of being like he just wasn't that good this year um which was overshadowed by his incredible comebacks you're not allowed to say that i know i know you're not allowed to say it but uh and i'm not you know whatever but they have they have question marks all over the place where it felt like they at least had options two years ago. They're already out of options, and that was quick. Yeah. They re-signed this Heineke for two years.

I thought he played pretty well. He's going to have a shot. Cam Newton played with Ron Rivera for years. They're still very, very friendly, and I know that there's a lot of love there. I don't know if that makes the most sense for him. Or if you're Washington, do you look at the draft? I believe their pick is number 20, I think.

It's not like it's the ideal pick where they can be, but they could also get a rookie quarterback and go from there. There's no pressure on Ron Rivera right now. He is set there in Washington. They finally have that franchise back on track. They have this great young defense and this Chase Young. There's a lot of goodwill around the Washington football team for the first time in maybe 25 years right now. that franchise back on track. They have this great young defense and this Chase Young. There's a lot of goodwill around the Washington football team

for the first time in maybe 25 years right now. I don't think they feel like this win-now pressure where they've got to make some huge, huge play or a huge, huge swing to win a headline.

I feel like they're not going to do anything too crazy. Okay, last thought here. The Good Morning Football crew. Okay. Kyle Brandt, it's his social media. I want to do NFL comps here for your co-hosts and players. Kyle Brandt, social media, more like J.J. Watt

than maybe people would admit. Yeah, so there was a very, very curious post, and it was him with his shirt off. Oh, I saw it. With the ropes. And there's a level of self-awareness. And part of me cringes as this cynical new yorker that i am and just who just hates on everyone and then part of

me is like all right we've been through a pandemic it's aspirational like maybe he's motivating someone to make a change in his life and then burleson posted posted. And I was like, wait a second. What is going on here? Nate's posting Kyle's thing. And then I'm like, am I now? Do I have to post it? Can I not be cynical? Can I not be a hater to Kyle knowing he knows that I'm rolling my eyes at it?

Truth of the matter is he looks good. He wants you to know he looks good. He looks great. He doesn't look good. He looks great. And you know what? Shit. If I lost 40 pounds and had a six pack, I probably would want to post it too. Especially if I can't see people in person anymore and I'm sitting there and I'm at home. So I'm not going to say it's JJ Watt and that it's in your face too much. But that one post

really put me through the emotional gamut because Kyle's probably one of my best friends right now in my life. We talk to each other every day. We work together every day. And I just can't imagine one of my best friends from life ever posting a photo of themselves with their six pack reveal holding ropes and me not shitting all over it. So it was a real, what would you make of it? Well, the funny thing is a lot of guys were coming after me being like, where's yours? If you're the workout guy, now that he's doing stuff with spotify and i'm getting too much credit as being the workout guy you are the guy i don't think that's entirely fair uh and i was like look man i you know that's that's incredible but i also was like you know 185 is a little easier to get a six-pack okay here we go

now we're talking i'm in a little higher weight class as well. I work hard. I don't even think I could take's k like oh it's the same person so that's a whole different prep that goes into that that i think is actually should be you know appreciated oh yeah and brady's stuff is a lot of it is like all right it's it's clever it's witty and and we're gonna that's k's like it's she's putting it out there but there's there's also a little bit of a hint of i'm in in on the joke. I'm here. I got it. Like, this is my comment on this. And that's how it feels. Like she's, Kyle's very self-aware as well. Kay is self-aware as well, but you're right. Very different social media branding. And there's Burleson, which is just an onslaught of, you know, I'm promoting this bottled water company from Cleveland that, you know, is paying me 30 cents for the Instagram

ad. I don't give a crap. Let's go. Nate is all in on everything. So that's, that's the one where it's just, you got to have a filter of some sort. I can't get through it. 30 cents seems low for a post for Nate. I'm going to, I'm going to guess he's, he's doing a little better than that. I think he's doing pretty well. He was promoting, um, and there was like a brand recently and I was like, gosh, and I wasn't hating on it, but it was like Pizza Hut. Yeah, but it sounds like, right, it sounds like we're hating on it and then we're not. I mean,

look, I think you have to, I think being older and being more comfortable with yourself is not being threatened by anything, even though everybody's What do you make of Cameo? Are you on it? No, they actually... Okay, let's get through it. I don't want to say this because then I know what's going to happen.

But let's just say I've taken anyone that's reached out, that's found a way to reach out. I've done birthday videos and whatever. I just do it for free. I'm not going to charge anybody for that. Because the fascination with Cameo is that I love looking at pricing. It's the ego of one guy to be like, well, what's right. Well, if Emmett Smith is at one 99, a cameo, can I be at a hundred? And then there was another dude that was at like 500 and I'm going, you're, you're getting 500.

Or do you want people to think you're getting 500? And then on the lower end, I saw a couple of people yourself, or do they tell you? I think there's probably some hybrid deal. So now they've been after me for a while and now he just bugs me. So I just say, no, like it's not happening. So now I'm like being stern about it, but then I'll see people at the lower end and then I go, does it hurt your own personal brand if you're nine bucks a cameo? And then I'll think, well, maybe that person is just really a great person and their heart's in the right place and they want to be able to do as many videos as they can for anyone that's

interested in their their deal but the problem is if you're on page 12 of scrolling through it's sort of a bad look and then i don't even know if you're going to get any kind of fitness deal like how do you get a fitness deal if your videos are less than a guy that's a reliever for the mariners absolutely uh you, so Burleson, to his credit, as much as I'm busting his balls, he will do the same. He'll literally sit at the table and do 40 videos for, you know, Joe's Bart Mitzvah out in Cleveland. He'll do it for free. Like he's not on Cameo. And I'm like, that's exhausting. Like he's always doing it. I'm not even on Instagram. So I don't even like wade into those waters but I'm in a fantasy football league with my friends

and we show up to the draft and there were some some actors from our youth run um that were announcing picks and they were you know they were doing a little roasting of our fantasy league and I there was a there was a hint of haha this is funny and there was a lot of hint of I want no part of this I don't want to ever, I'm never going to be the parody of the joke that, oh my God, this actor is calling out a, you know, whatever the hot shots part do fantasy pick. Um, I'm not a part of that. So I'm going to stay away just because I don't want to be a parody at any point in my life because I need $17 to post something. So I don't know. I don't know who else was first because when, it first came out and chris long

started up his website deal the first thing he did he's the first person that i saw do it he was having ex-teammates make fake ones that he was sending to me that i don't know if he ever ended up releasing him because i think by the time he got them all organized, other people had figured it out. Nobody else had done it yet. He has LeGarrette Blount saying like, happy 50th birthday to somebody's iguana. And LeGarrette's totally serious. He's like, what up?

And he's totally serious. And then Chris sent me the video and it was the funniest damn thing I've ever seen because he's like, all right, I got gotta bang out these videos i got two happy birthdays oh man an iguana turned 50 all right okay let me let me make sure i do let me sure i got the iguana one i got two birthdays i got a graduation and long was having it because you can't tell if you go through the back doors of the email he had all of his

teammates doing the most absurd videos, and it was hilarious. And then I think he was supposed to release it, and then he probably just got bored with it. I don't know. That's it. That is Peter Schrager. Good morning, football. NFL on Fox as well. Great reporting and great talking with you, man. Talk again soon. That was awesome. Thanks, man. 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. Let me tell you what's required. We've had great life advice submissions here, So we'll see how many we get to. And by the way, I really want to thank so many of you that reached out to Whitney Reed,

who was our fitness guy we had on. And he's just a really normal guy. It's a tough world to kind of be normal. And it's so competitive. You constantly kind of have to talk about yourself the whole time. I think he's far enough along in his career where, you know, he's not worried about a million followers, but I think he told me by last count, he had a thousand people sign up for his thing. And he's been DMing guys left and right, giving them help. And he's fired up about just helping people. So, you know, I don't know if there's a big bait and switch later on. We're here at a seminar at a holiday in Tallahassee and, you know, I'm just kidding, but, uh, that that's really cool of the audience. And I know that people that do what I do for a living can get a little

bitchy about things and focus on the negative stuff. But then there's always these reminders, how great people really are, how most of us are always trying to do the right thing and, and treating people the right way. So that was, that was really, you know,

look, there's a minor version of what we're talking about, bigger picture here, but the fact so many people were so cool about it and reaching out to him and he spent that time with us. So we're going to do stuff like that again in the future. It's just, I don't know when it is, so I'm not going to promise anything. We did have mortgage guys reach out though, after our young top 125 radio host talked about buying a house. And I'm always a little worried. I've had a few realtor friends go, Hey, will you lighten

up? This isn't easy. I go, no, I'm not trashing the entire industry. I think there are times realtors, when you know the house sort of sucks. Look, I'll never get over the guy that was showing me a place here in Manhattan Beach that had no living room. It was a bedroom, a walk up to the kitchen, and then island area. And I was like, hey, I'm not the brightest guy all the time, but I got to tell you, floor plans, I've looked at some blueprints. Where's the living room?

And he was like, you know, Manhattan Beach, you can be outside a lot. And I was like, you know, in my head, I'm like, I was like, yeah, but sometimes I'm inside, dude. I was like, I got to watch games. He goes, oh, you know, bedroom, set up I'm like, I was like, yeah, but sometimes I'm inside, dude. I was like, where I got to watch games. He goes, Oh, you know, bedroom set up a big TV kind of lounge. I was like, yeah. Or fall asleep all the time. Cause I'm in bed. I'm like, what, what am I Charlie and his family from the Wonka movie? Okay. So, um, mortgage, some mortgage people reached out after the fact and they were like, hey, here's just

an example. Because I was like, here we go. Mortgage guys are going to be upset about what I said being like, look, it doesn't really make a ton of sense. And he goes, I'm a mortgage guy and your advice was spot on. I'm a mortgage advisor. I would do everything I could to talk that guy out of a mortgage if he called me. Also, the rates part was spot on because it does not matter.

It looks like the market is dropping. It's better to buy now because the answer is nope, unless you can commit to a minimum of five years. So basically, he's just saying, look, unless you're in it for the long haul, which you are not by design with the profession that you chose, that's why I said it literally doesn't make any sense for you to be doing that. And it's going to be really frustrating because sometimes people, both men and women, they're just, they want the thing. They don't really think

about the rest of it. It's like, oh, I just want the thing. You know, I did a two car deal at once. You know, Kyle, I'll admit it. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to get a second car. I remember Van Pelt when I rolled into work.

He's like, wait, did you go? Are you on a two car move right now? I was like, yeah. I was like, I just did. What was the second one? I got one of those like sporty Lexusxus deals not the small entry level one folks but uh nice it was it was just one of these deals i'd never had a sedan ever so i was like let me just try it and then it was great for a little while and then for a while you're like all right i'm paying insurance

on two cars you know you bundle you save? You do bundle and you do save. So, you know, make sure his state farm, like a good neighbor, even if you have two cars. So, yeah, I think there are people that are just like, yeah, hey, everything you said makes sense. And I know this is the wrong decision. I want a house. Okay, let's get to them.

Life advice, rr at gmail.com. This one's terrific. First time, long time. I was going to hit you with my stats. I guess people want the stats. 36, 5'7", 175 pounds. He throws in some bench and deadlift numbers there. Great. Three years ago, my wife and I moved to the suburbs after having our first kid. Being in our young 30s, this was a somewhat difficult transition, missing out on solid friendships I'd made with guys that, even to this day, get after it as if we were one of the first couples to have kids. Okay, I would argue my wife is more than generous and understanding about letting me join up with my guys. However, making friends in our new neighborhood took longer than expected.

We live in a young family neighborhood with people our age hosting parties and whatnot for their kids pre-COVID. We ended up getting to know, by the way, the pre-COVID qualifiers for so much, I know a ton of you guys are lying about this, but I think it's great that you care enough that you're like, yeah, well, you know, this is what we used to do pre-COVID.

And you're like, no, you're probably still getting together in a garage in the backyard with kids. And you know what? I'm not judging, all right? We ended up getting to know a group of five, eight families that would hang out

quite a bit on the weekends, birthday parties, holidays, playground dates, et cetera. Again, after a solid group of friends that I've connected with at this new stage in life. So here we go. It was clear these guys

had been hanging out for a while and I was the new addition to the group, but I was invited to join regularly so much that we started a monthly poker game, which rotated people's between people's houses. A group of the wives joined us to play poker one night,

and I ended up winning, yet one of the wives didn't put it into the pot. It's 20 bucks we were talking about here, so no biggie, and nothing was made of it or mentioned to the wife. Fast forward to the conundrum. One of the neighbors hosts a New Year's Eve party every year. After an afternoon night of boozing heavily, an impromptu poker game was suggested

once the kiddos were put to sleep. We all straggled over and played through the night, but it should be noted I kept bringing up to our group how I wasn't worried about losing any money tonight because whoever won would have to get my buy-in from the wife who didn't put in during the last game. Uh-oh. And you're the new guy

of the group. Yes, there was some truth to the statement, but ultimately it was lighthearted jabbing, mentioned with sarcasm, smiles, laugh smiles laugh every time okay the problem is you you say every time um and that i kept bringing up to a group so i'd love to see the minutes from that meeting yeah yeah right you you keep bringing it up dude all right so and obviously within recent history to bring it up so he's giving us qualifiers and all I'm seeing is a guy that day drank and kept bringing up to a core group as he's the non-core group guy in this mix that somebody's wife didn't kick in the buy-in and you're shit-faced and you keep bringing it up. So red flags all over the place. Towards the end of the night, one of the dads got

fed up with my comments. Again, this is comments, plural, and told me that if I can't afford to play then not to come back next month. So now he's digging at me financially. Truth be told, I'm in the lower tier financially than all these guys in our neighborhood. Good on them for putting themselves in stronger financial positions. However, after hanging out for a year or so, it's somewhat clear this is how they identify their status. Even so, this comment obviously struck a chord with me as I told the dad making the comment to quote, fuck off.

And that quote, I would embarrass his ass in his own home if he comes at me like that again. Okay. The next day, the said dad and I squashed the beef at the mailbox. Okay, so wait. The next day the dad said, or the dad who we're talking about here,

and I squashed the beef at the mailboxes as one does in the burbs. COVID hit two months later. Since this time, I feel as though I'm being shunned from this group. I know of hangouts that they've had I was not invited to. Text threads have gone extinct. And interactions with the neighborhood, i.e. playground and walking the dogs, are just

plum awkward now. I've reached out via text individually and on group text to initiate conversation to see if these guys wanted to meet up for garage beers or something of that nature but nothing is reciprocated am I the asshole for losing my cool while drunk during a poker game am I overthinking this

situation is COVID to blame for the non-reciprocation are these dads being too sensitive about how that poker game played out and shunning me from the group in the end I feel as though this has brought me even closer to my city guy group knowing that these things happen people pop off every once in a while, and we come back together closer for it. It makes for solid stories and for people to grow from this. I do feel bad for losing my cool as I'm not that guy. I've never been a fighter. I'm usually the peacemaker trying to break things up.

7175, you said you were going to embarrass this guy at his own house. I hope there's some sort of Brazilian jiu-jitsu savant, something going on somewhere in there. You said you've never been a fighter, usually the peacemaker. I'd be lying if I said this situation hasn't bothered me over the past year, but I need to know if

this is repairable. If so, how? If I need to cut bait and seek out new friendship in our hood. Okay, first thing, this isn't COVID, okay? This is not COVID related. So I think you already know that. If other guys, if you're getting blown off here for a year straight, it's all because of this incident. I mean, you did tell another guy in his house

you would embarrass his ass in his own home and you're the new guy. See, that's the thing that you reference here as your core friends. Because the great thing about all of our core friends is that our tolerance for each other is much higher than anyone new because we've been through all this shit. And that's why I think there's such a constant theme in these emails. And even at times when I've adjusted and look, I just care about work more than anything. So, and again, I'm not bragging about that.

I'll look back on it and go, you know, maybe I shouldn't have cared about work as much, but my point is, is like you and so many of the guys chimed in here and like, you know, I have this group and then I move and then we're not in touch as much anymore and it's harder to make new. Yeah, it's all hard for everybody. You know, when I have a couple of friends that are like really good at moving to a new town and they have all these guys that are in the mix, I'm like, how did you do this? It's like, man, I tried.

I worked it. I joined a country club. You know, I say hi to people at the gym. I really care about meeting new people and networking and all that stuff. And I'm like, God, that must be exhausting. I'm like, I would just get hit up for tickets and shit that I can't even do. So I'm such a non-asking-a-favor guy because I don't want people to ask me for favors that I don't ask anybody for fair abuse either. So back to kind of the original point of that core thing is that everybody's kind of in search of that core group that matches your initial core group again. But that's the whole reason why the core group exists in the first place, because there's really no way to ever replicate that.

So, you know, when you start to go, oh, you know, I'm in this new town or I'd like this. oh, you know, I'm in this new town or I'd like this. If you had done this with your group, chances are when you were younger, somebody in your core group has already done something to you that was messed up. You guys have all, you just desensitize yourself to all of this. Whereas a story you would tell the guys from high school, your hometown or college or those years in a big city, maybe you're all chasing the same dream and you're living in apartments because somebody knew somebody from St. Lawrence and then he knew a guy from wherever.

All of these things combine to where when you're younger, you have these moments where you've shared them. So as you get older, you're kind of cool with it. Whereas I remember the first time removed from my Vermont bubble and I was like, wait, this isn't going to like, I need to change the way I act. I need to, I need to not tell stories because I don't know any of these people really. And, and you're, you're hoping this new group is going to be like the old group and it's just not possible. So now the bigger problem here too, is if this group is all hung out for a while prior to you showing up on the scene. And I don't know how long you've been hanging out with them prior to this, but yeah, you screwed up and it seems like you're paying a significant price. I don't know if there's a side door here. I don't know if there's one of the other guys from this group that you could go to and just

be heartfelt about it and go, look, I'm so sorry. I screwed up. It's not like any of these guys probably haven't gotten drunk and done something stupid too, but you brought up somebody's wife, you told somebody to fuck off, and then you said you'd embarrass him in his own home and you're the new guy. So all that math, none of it works in your favor. So I don't even know if it's repairable on this. It's clearly bothered you. And it would probably bother me too if I did something like this. And then all of a sudden I'm walking around in my neighborhood going, nobody likes me. Nobody returns my texts. I know these guys are having parties without me. So I don't know that you can fix this. I mean, you could try, I would go with the guy that maybe is the most forgiving. There's always one person in the group that kind of gets over things ever, but this guy who you told to fuck off in his own house and that you would fight

him. I don't know that he's ever going to get over that. You can say you squashed in the mailboxes. Nah, probably not. I mean, I don't know that he's ever going to look at you any differently than this. Then like, no offense, but like if he's a bigger guy than you too, he may be like that dude stepped to me like this. So I know it sucks, but sometimes, you know, there's times where it's just unavoidable. Like there are going to be times where you do something where people, I mean, unless you never do anything wrong, but I think that's rare. So I would try to find like the one person in the group, unless you never do anything wrong, but I think that's rare.

So I would try to find like the one person in the group, if you really cared about fixing this, where you go, Hey, it's bothered me this whole time. You know, you get one shot at it. You can be really sincere. It's bothered me the whole time. I'm sorry. But if you ever do it again, no one's ever going to talk to you. And here's the deal. 20 bucks in a poker game. you. And here's the deal, 20 bucks in a poker game, I can see you making the joke and whatever, but it makes you look like you're cheap, even though you probably aren't. It was like a line that'd be fighting with your main guys. But since these aren't your main guys, they're just going to judge you differently. And that's the whole problem. Back to the original point, you're always trying to find a way to replace those dudes that get all that stuff and everybody gets along to that same level. But I just don't know that that happens later in the life, the way

it happens earlier in life, because at that point you're just kind of stuck with each other and you've been through it all together. So you just understand each other. And when you meet new people, you can pretend that's going to happen, but it rarely does. Kyle, anything to add to that? You ever said that you would? Right on the, right on the nail on the head. That's pretty much all I was going to say. Have you ever said that you would? Right on the nail on the head. That's pretty much all I was going to say. Have you ever told anybody you would embarrass them in their own house or apartment maybe? No, definitely not. Definitely not.

I'll tell you what, though. People that cheat at poker. We had a group, my core guys from Vermont. There was a poker game, and everybody was pretty banged up. I was not there for this, but it was a legendary story where apparently somebody else's wife was stealing from the pot. Oh my God. And when it cashed out, the pot was like a hundred and something bucks, but nobody knew what happened other than the guy that won was like, wait a minute, let's go around buying, buying, buying. All right. I remember getting money from everyone here.

What happened? And then they knew this wife was like really i don't know how this she's not in the mix anymore but one of our you see no but i'm just saying like one of the guys went completely off the reservation i don't know we were like what happened there and then people were warning us about her too like she was she, she was a little on edge. And then she just basically had stole like 120 bucks in the pot. And then like started crying and was like, fine, fine. She's like, I didn't mean to steal it. And they were like, what? Like you stole, you did though.

You did. She was like sitting, she was sitting on top of like $20 bills. And, and guys are just like, it doesn't make any sense. Like we're all close friends. Like, did somebody actually steal 120 bucks from us? then everybody's like who's new like oh gross you always yeah they're like we kind of his wife kind of sucks anyway could she have done it yep and then she started like totally freaking out crying like i can't believe you guys accused me of this and somebody's like because you did it you actually the money. Like, how could you be mad at us?

All right. Our guy's checking in. 22. Balding at 22. My man. I live in Utah. A senior studying biology. I'm 5'7".

All right. Back to back 5'7 emails. So here's the issue. I'm 22, starting to bald. There's some angles that look fine and others that look quite bad. The experience has ruined taking photos for me. I'm currently in the dating game and I'm always a little worried I'll be a huge turnoff, especially because I'm so young. I'm at least of average attractiveness, maybe a bit better than that. Our man sent some

big time pictures. These are real. He sent the, you know how, when you can send a photo on an email and it gives you like the five size options, this guy supersized it. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I actually got like motion sickness because of how close up these were, but you know what, for, for getting all the facts out there, it, it, it blew me away a little bit. Honestly, this guy kind of looks like a little bit of an emo me.

He's got kind of a princess bride facial hair thing going on, which you may want to still keep investing in. But dude, first of all, the pictures aren't that bad. They're just huge. Okay, so I think he's a decent looking guy. So shout out to you, average attractiveness.

I would bump yourself up a half point there. You know? Anyway, what makes it worse is none of my friends or peers are having the same issue. Yeah, dude, most people at 22 aren't going bald. So I know that sucks. He goes, I want nothing more than to rock the main with my silver hoop earring. And for those wondering, yes, there is a big silver hoop earring, which I say, again, this guy must love the princess bride. Should I start shaving my head? At least then I won't have to worry about the angle of the picture and appearance all the time i've been told i have a good head shape for being bald but what else are people going to tell you yeah you know what people just going to be lying to you the people that care about you are going to be lying to you and then

the people that pretend they care about her like secretly like rooting against you i don't know if there's a business that can kind of project lumpy bald head versus symmetric bald head. That'd be a great side business if somebody wants to start. I'm sure you can probably just do that. Run you through some sort of scan and be like, hey, this is your projected bald look. What do you think? That's actually a great idea. Bald advisors.

So as you're losing your hair, you can be like, this is what you can look forward to. Here's some, I guess the hair replacement things. If you're that worried about it, those are probably a better business. Okay. Another one of my worries is once I'm bald, I'll have to choose a category of short, bald, white guy that I want to be. Ripped, short, bald guy seems like he's compensating way too much. Overweight, short, bald guy seems like an even worse option. You want to know why? Because it is. So fuck anybody that gives you a hard time for saying you're overcompensated by being ripped. Um, here's, uh, you know, this really sucks. It really, really sucks. And people that don't go through it, don't understand how much it sucks. I mean, I was, I was devastated there for a while for, for a little

bit and you're hoping girls aren't going to notice. And they definitely notice. Um, luckily I was tall enough that it wasn't a huge issue. And you know, uh, you know, I don't know. Like there's, there's really two ways to go here. I was not ready to shave my head when it first started happening. I just wasn't ready. And for anybody that says, Oh, shave your head, shave your head, shave your head, fuck off. Like if you have a full head of hair and you're telling me what to do, that's like me telling parents the best way to get their kids on track in elementary school. All right? It isn't.

I mean, I can have some thoughts, but ultimately I should shut up, even though I host a podcast. Sometimes I do have to do that. I wasn't ready. I just wasn't mentally ready to do it. I was hanging on for a little bit. I didn't think it looked bad all the time. The celebrity game was pretty tough to hear John Barry and those guys make fun of me the entire second half. My buddies are like, dude, are you going to kill those guys? I was like, well, I'm not going to go back and

watch it all because I played like shit too. So the whole experience, I got some shoes out of it and met Kevin Hart. So that was fun. But I think the bigger thing with this is, you know, I could say, hey, maybe you'll have a decent sized dome and maybe you'll lift a little bit and all that. But yeah, I would make sure, you know, I don't think balding and having a shaved head at 25 and then also being overweight because you don't want to seem that you're compensating is the worst option of all these things. You look like you're in shape now. So I can tell you not to worry about it, but you're going to worry about it all the time. You're worried about it enough that you're sending pictures to a stranger asking how your head looks. So the one thing you could do is you could just get it over with now so that now from, from till whenever in your dating scene, you're already bald guy. And by the way, you have enough

hair now where you can shave it up and it just looks like it's cropped really, really short. And then you can just make a joke that I make all the time. Like, I'm not going bald. I just shave my head. So you could get it over with. You could do maybe a summer where you do it and then go back to it. But I'm just telling you, don't feel bad about feeling bad because it does suck. And nobody, there's very few people that are like, I hope I lose my hair at a really young age. I mean, for me to try to be on TV, I was like, oh, this sucks. You're going to be kidding me. But everyone else telling me what I should or shouldn't do, it's really up to you. And some of us were ready. And some of us, I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready until I did it. And then when I did

it, I was like, shit, I wish I had done that five years ago. I think it's a lot like kids for people that are losing their hair. You know, a lot of people say, oh, I wish I had done that five years ago. I think it's a lot like kids for people that are losing their hair. You know, a lot of people say, oh, I wish I had done this when I was younger. And yeah, I kind of wish I did, but I wasn't ready. So I didn't. And who cares? Now I never care about. And by the way, there are women that actually really like it. I don't know why either, but it's true. What about all those commercials like hymns and keeps and like does that stuff work you think or is it like big dick pills well um anything you want to tell us about either of those products i have no i have nothing to say about either one except for um just like i mean you actually do see commercials for um uh like hair stuff where it's like you know you see the before and after and it's like pills and shampoos and stuff like that and i don't know it's it sounds it sounds like a little bit far-fetched

but like i don't know it's 2021. yeah i don't understand why why there's like still a stigma if a dude gets his hair fixed when every woman can have an enhancement that we all seem to be huge fans of so um it's it's kind of. Like if you're getting your teeth and your breasts and everything else fixed and dudes are getting their teeth, you know, capped up left and right. Why can't you get your hair fixed? But the problem is,

is like I would look at like when Erlacher did it, it looked like straight shag carpet, you know? Wait, did he plug that? Like what did he do? I don't know what he did. I think it was.

I think it was. I mean, LeBron definitely tried it because you can see the tracks out of the back of his head where he went to try to do some re-sodding, and it didn't take. So when I saw stuff like that, now again, LeBron's younger than me, so that's not the example, but I would see guys at the gym

with the old school reseeding where, and I'm not talking about reseeding hairline, I'm talking about Scott's turf, you know, where you could see this almost perfectly scientific level line of bangs that they'd always comb back. And I'd be like, I don't know if I want that look. Um, and I, you know, look, I looked at it, I looked at the videos and I have a couple of friends that did it. And I'm like, holy shit, that looks great. And they did it in a way they got it early enough that nobody really caught on to what was going on.

I mean, Brady clearly did something. Yeah. Brady's Brady's hair now is way better than it was, but I'm sure Brady's going like, you know, whatever the German platelet thing is, the hair version of that is, you know, I mean, does Brady even, does Brady even win Superbowl six or seven if he's bald? That's a great question. Out there. Like why Tittle? The team definitely wouldn't feel the same about it.

So that's for sure. Yeah. Although they treated him like a bald guy at the end. So looking back, I probably could have, you know, cause my thing was like a big divot on the top of my head and i was i was like you know you didn't always catch it then somebody was asking me about it last night um because i'll never forget how pissed off i was they they had a

jib operator which is that that camera that swings around it's on a big crane and yeah we were i've told this story before we were talking about it on the show espn2 back when van pell and i were on espn2 for an hour every day um and then they just canceled it didn't tell me and told scott like a day before they were announcing it um which i think the reason they canceled it is because it was me so many times solo just an enormous room by myself for three hours hosting a radio show. And so it looked so bad. One time, Chris Carter was like, what are you doing? He came in at a commercial break. I go, I'm hosting the show. He's like, you by yourself? Just sitting here? Like, yeah. He goes, that's hard. I was like, yeah, it is. Especially when you do it once a month. And then he's like, I'm going to hang out with you for a bit i was like are you sympathy guest hosting with me right now what's going on so yeah they they ran uh they ran the jib the operator the

director was like hey get a get an overhead and van pelt was like horrified he's like up he's like so he's not gonna love this and i was like hey i'm sitting there with this smile just raging being like are we really doing this to me right now and then i remember another time they had like a third cam set up in the new studio that was smaller and the director came up to me and he goes hey because we're gonna get rid of that third cam because it's a really bad look jesus and i was like okay and then another time we did it like we did the pictures and they used like the worst picture to make sure it showed and i was i was convinced for a while there i was like espn i feel like this is long-term contract negotiating where every picture they

release to me and again i'm not the hottest guy and i'm also like the least photogenic dude ever so that's actually great if somebody meets me and they're like god you look horrible in pictures so your average attractiveness yeah right wow you know or like when people think i'm five seven because van pelt's 6'8". I'm like, oh, wait. All right, I'm repeating myself. I guess what I would say to this guy is just, could you try one of the low-stakes options

while you're trying to hang on and figure out your next move? Could you just try the shampoo-pill combo and not necessarily go the plugs route, but try one of the lower-stake options? Maybe he has already, but he didn't mention it. Try a subscription box while you figure it out. I don't know. My guess

is if that stuff really worked, more people would know about it. But I think it does work. I think the science on it is that it works enough that people can say, hey, it works for some. I tried the foam stuff forever. It didn't do shit. That's what I thought.

I was buying that stuff left and right, and it was expensive. Then I thought I was doing it to keep what I had. I was like, this isn't working. Whatever. I remember I told you that story too, right?

You can figure out the brand, but the company stopped by the tour to ESPN Radio. And I mean, I couldn't believe it. And the guy from the company that produces the foam was like, oh, these are, hey, Ryan, you're going to meet so from foam. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. How's it going? And the guy's like, looks like you could use a little. Oh, fucker. Yeah. I was like, yeah yeah, yeah. How's it going? And the guy's like, look like you, it looks like you could use a little. Oh fucker. Yeah.

I was like, yeah, I've been using it for years and then shit. All right. One more life advice. I like this one cause it's a little heavy here, but not in a depressing way. I'm fried.

I wouldn't do that to you. I just think that this is, this is, it's really simple and it's very cool. All right. I love your show, the segment. Um, I think it would be helpful for me to give you a quick timeline of how my adult life has gone so far. 18 graduated salutatorian and voted most likely to succeed. So I guess the valedictorian was, there were questions about him. So that's pretty good. Inherit $150,000 from my grandmother. Serious money where I'm from.

Look, that's serious money. Married my college girlfriend. So this is 18 graduates, salutatorian, 19, 150K. That money's gone. 22, married college girlfriend. 29, son was born. Age 30, tip the scales at 225. I'm 5'11", had gained 45 pounds

since college and decided to start running. Lost 60 pounds at age 31 and then cheated on my wife. Whoa. So our guy got back down to 165 here. Is that what we're talking about? Okay. So he's 5'11". So 225, 5'11". I'm sure the, I don't know. Why am I spending so much time on this? Anyway. So he loses 60 pounds at 31, cheats on his wife. Age 32, gets a divorce. All right. By this time, all my inheritance has long gone since spent. Yep. I discovered that my ex-wife had racked up about 20 grand of credit card debt without my knowledge. Awesome. I also discovered that she was seeing a woman while we were together. She's engaged with a woman now.

At this point, I was completely broken and stopped talking with my family due to the fallout from my cheating and subsequent divorce. Age 35, married the woman I cheated with. All right. Okay. Committed. I mean, you cheated on your wife. You lost some weight.

There's probably a lot of stuff going on there that you didn't share with us. Don't need to. You can kind of figure it out from the timeline. I love the time. I love the efficiency of this timeline. Um, and if she was going to end up with another woman, probably not a ton you could do about that. So hopefully you don't beat yourself up too much over that one. All right. And 20, 20 grand of credit card debt is better than a hundred. So there you go. I'm age 37. I live in a 1000 square foot house with my beautiful wife and wonderful son, and I make under 50 grand a year.

I've embraced a minimal lifestyle and I've adopted a philosophy of not wanting what I don't have. My home and lifestyle have been criticized and joked about by friends and acquaintances with surprising regularity. All of my friends make more money than me and live in nicer neighborhoods while I live in a house worth $60,000 and work for a nonprofit. I tell myself that they don't understand that I want different things and I'm happy without having more. My question is, am I full of shit? Wow. I honestly don't know. At one point after my divorce, I never dreamed I would even have this much again. And I wonder

if it just set my sights too low as a defense mechanism. I love my family and I don't want to lose it all again. I also don't want to lose it all again. I also don't want to wake up in 20 years and wish I had done more to ensure greater financial success. Should I just be happy with what I have or push myself to strive for more financially while I'm young enough for that to be a realistic goal? I'd appreciate your thoughts. This one was a great pick, Kyle, because when he goes, am I full of shit? i honestly don't know that is some really difficult self-evaluation that most of us avoid like a poem yeah it's it's pretty good because i don't know i mean i don't know you but it's a pretty aware deal here to go maybe i live in a house that's worth 60 grand and work for a nonprofit and don't care

and keep telling myself I don't care about any of these things because that way it helps me accept what I am right now. Now, see, that sounds shitty as I say it, but I'm looking at it this way. You said you're happy, but are you lying to yourself about being happy? Again, I don't know. I'm looking at it this way. You said you're happy,

but are you lying to yourself about being happy? Again, I don't know. You said you never thought what you'd have now after everything went sideways there, and you have it right now. But I do know that there are people I know that, you know, as now I'm in my 40s, you can tell when it's like, do you really believe that? Or is that you kind of justifying every decision that you've made and you're telling me you're really happy at your certain position, but you know that you're not,

but you've just decided to justify it every step of the way. I'm not even saying that's what you're doing here right now. But I think the fact that you're even asking that question is pretty crazy. Because look, if I had ended up in Burlington, I probably wasn't going to bartend my entire life. But had I, maybe I would start saying stuff like, hey, look, my kids are healthy. I didn't want all that. Who would want the stress of that? I'm still in New England.

LA's a mess, traffic, property taxes. It's a sense of community. It's where I went to school. It's home. It feels like home. Really, I'd be saying, dude, you never tried. You never tried. That's not even what you're doing.

The fact that you're working for a nonprofit and you have a family, you're doing far more than whatever I was doing back then. You're 37, by the way, too, and you're still really young. You may not feel that way, but you are. So I would not listen to me because I don't know you, but is there anyone that you trust that you can ask these questions to? And you might not want to even ask your wife, you know, is there a close friend? Is there a family member? Is there a parent? Is there a sibling? Where that you're asking yourself this question

now i don't know if there's some weird light at the end of the tunnel moment where you go holy wow i'm asking am i full of shit and i i don't know and now i've learned that i'm not and i'm truly happy and now i'm never going to look back and question myself again i think we question ourselves all the time throughout life i mean it's that's kind of part of the deal. Like if you talk to a guy and he's 25 and 26, and if you could convince him of anything, it's that, you know, you just get older and say, you're my age. You just go, yeah, this is kind of the deal. This is kind of what it is. Like there's probably never really this moment of euphoria. You're like, hey, I've accomplished all my goals and now I have a family and everything's awesome. And I never second guess myself. And I never myself. No, you do that stuff. It doesn't really ever go away.

The difference is how much do you let it consume you? You can have it pop up and I think that's normal. I think it's healthy. But if it is every day, are you waking up every day thinking about this? Then it becomes more of a problem And it probably starts distracting you from whatever it is that you're pursuing. So I don't know what your goals are. If you have different goals, the fact you're working for a nonprofit and you want different things and you don't care about materialistic shit and you've come out of this on the other side, which I imagine a much better family situation, that'd be enough for a lot of people. It really would be.

And we all compare ourselves to too many other people all the time. You can want to be the annoying neighbor that's keeping up with everybody, but all of us have a little of that in it. When I hear about somebody else in the industry, for the most part, I'm pretty happy for everybody. I want everybody to get paid. But every now and then, there'll be that one where I'll be like, what? What happened with that guy? What are they doing now? I'm like, oh.

And I shouldn't, but I do. And as long as I'm not doing it every single day, then it's not that big of a deal. So there's a deeper conversation for you to have with somebody that you're a lot closer to than a guy that you're listening to with the podcast. But I like to ask the question, and it's a pretty heavy question for all of us to ask ourselves. Like, wait, is this actually what I wanted? Is this really what I wanted to do? Am I happy? Do I keep, do I just keep telling people I'm happy or do I pretend that I'm happy when I'm really not happy? I mean, that's, that's some heavy stuff and I'm certainly not qualified for any of that. So enjoy your weekend, everybody. And do this. Don't ask yourself any of those questions in 48 hours and then we'll tackle them on Monday Thank you.