The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Luka’s Night and the Unsolvable Problem and Why the Nets Change Everything. Plus, Sara Walsh on a Long Season in Tampa.

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on Luka Doncic’s historic triple-double in last night’s Mavericks win over the Knicks (0:44), and the Nets’ win streak (13:38). Then Ryen is joined by NFL Network’s Sara Walsh to discuss the Buccaneers’ disappointing season while still in contention to win the NFC South, Tom Brady’s prospects for playing another NFL season, and much more (22:41). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (53:11). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Sara Walsh Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast i had a plan to talk about a bunch of different things and then luka donchic changed that plan the first ever 60 21 10 triple double overtime win for the mavs so we're going to praise luka and then of course classic me i'm going to ask what it means. And I'm going to talk about the Nets because I actually think that story may mean more that is significant to the rest of the projection of the playoffs. Sarah Walsh is going to talk about the Tampa Bay Bucs. Good friend, former neighbor.

And we'll get a little boating talk in there as well. And then some feedback stuff along with life advice. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost feedback stuff, along with life advice. shopping total yes get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol and select markets product availability may vary by region see app for details i had a few plans on how i wanted to do the podcast today and then luca ruined all of them 60 points 21 boards 10 assists and win in overtime against the knicks last night so lu, you know, I've talked about this in the past, like what

you're supposed to do with him or what you are going to try to do with him. And I've talked about body type matchups. Like the only chance you have is somebody that's bigger and quicker and probably doesn't really exist on many teams if in the league in general. And so the Knicks don't really have that guy. Their guards are smaller. If the guy's smaller't really have that guy their guards are smaller if the guy's smaller you have no chance so they tried a few different things and obviously it leads to switching and all the different isolations that the maps are going to run um they tried randall possessions hit step backs on him grimes went right at him too small if it was wood on the screen and wood was the role man mitch Mitchell's kind of caught in between and one point

he stayed hard with Wood and Luca just went right to the rim. So then you could see later on it was almost like they were telling Mitchell try to stay with Luca longer and there was another play where Grimes fought over the screen, stayed with Luca. Luca drives right.

Mitchell comes over to contest and Luca's like, whatever, I'm just going to do this underhand scoop shot off of one leg. It was stupid. And then Dallas is down three. Luka's coming down. The Knicks, the right play, foul him, hits the first free throw, missed the second one on purpose. And somehow, because all the great ones do, end up with the basketball back in their hands when it matters, ties it up. So when I watch him, as all of you have, I'm constantly left with what are you supposed to do with him defensively? He is the easiest scorer in the NBA.

It is so easy for him. And yes, there are other great scorers. But sometimes it's just the shooting prowess where you'll see Steph hit these shots. You're like, okay, this is insane. Durant, Giannis, it's power. Embiid, it's power, skill. Embiid really is this power, skill, touch combination

that we've never seen before, and we consistently have nights in this league where every night you're like, I just have never seen anything like this before. Can you imagine you imagine Jordan pool in the eighties? I'm serious with this stuff. And that's why I got so pissed over the years with the old timers who I still think they are unfairly judged because you can only be judged against the period that you're in. But the evolution of man would like, I had that joke for a while. I'd be like, NBA players are the only guys not evolving.

Everybody else is getting faster, stronger, bigger, and all these things. And guys are pushing the limits in all these different sports. But basketball, as Oscar Robertson one time came on with me, and I'm not trying to, big O, I'm not. He was like, just pick Steph up full court. Like, yeah, that's it. All these coaches are just fucking idiots. And then you have Luka, who's this big,

and if you've played basketball, understands angles and knows how to put his body into you, and then has the touch and the vision. It feels impossible. If you trap him, especially if you trap him consecutively, it's over. He's going to figure out how you're trapping. He's going to bring you to one side, then swing it back the other way, and then it's a four on three with not the greatest supporting cast

because then that becomes another loop of discussion where you think, what's the best way to do it? And I think Dallas has probably done the best thing. Well, I shouldn't say the best that they could do, but by design, it's length, guys that can test shots, guys that are switchable defensively, and can provide enough spacing for shooting. Because if you had another ball-dominant player, it wouldn't always work out, but I think that's what was really great about how Brunson fit into their offense, because Brunson could

kind of have his own possessions, and then if there was all this defensive attention to Luka, he could swing it over to Jalen Brunson. And Brunson was just really good as a small player too. Brunson is incredible at driving and finding an opening in this. If you help off the role man, he's going to lob it. If you help off the shooters, he's going to find him. Some of the Luka passes to the corners, I think can be a tad overrated on social media where it's like, how did he know that? And it's like, how did he know that?

And it's like, well, they know it because they know what their system is and everybody understands where everybody is supposed to be positioned. But that'll do something where you're like, okay, and look, I'm not trying to say that Luca doesn't make amazing passes. He does. But I think there are times where we'll see these absurd passes to corners from a lot of great players in the NBA and people will act as if like, how did he even see that? It's like, well, that's kind of how the spacing alignment is.

Just watch. Guys run to the corners to provide spacing in ways that we didn't have in basketball that we were watching when we were growing up. If you don't help off the shooters, he's going to go one-on-one, and he's too big. I mean, it's maddening to try to defend Luka and

know that in his head, he's like, okay, you're not going to double me this time. Or, okay, you're not helping off the shooters. All right. My big may not even set it. He may slip the screen or my big at times when they had Przingis or Woods playing on the perimeter, it's like, I'm going to bring their big away because they have to respect the shooting here. So it's like, what are you going to do? And then Lucas is like, all right, I guess I'm just going to kind of dribble down here. I'm going to be a foot away from the hoop.

I'm going to stop. You guys are all going to spaz out. And then I'm just going to make a shot. Sorry. I imagine it's a lot like with a quarterback, like a great quarterback. You can't say, OK, we're going to press coverage all the guys on the outside. OK, we're going to pass everybody off in a zone. All right, we're going to constantly pressure him all day long. You have to do all of those things and you have to do it at different times and hope you do it at different times enough that he's somehow

guessing. But with basketball, it's not a football play. Football play, the ball snapped and then it is what it is. Basketball, you can kind of see what it is, then you can bring it back out and kind of start all over again in the possession. So it's even harder as you're trying to mix up whatever coverages you think that you're going to design to stop this guy. I've constantly said it has to be some kind of body match because, you know, Mikkel Bridges, a great defensive player, we saw last year in the playoffs, he's just going along for the ride. He's too small for him. And everybody's too small for him. So it's not a knock on him.

And you'll be watching the Lakers game like, who's their guy? You know, it's supposed to be, but LeBron's not going to defend Luke anymore. He's just not going to do that. Pat Beverly swiping at him and trying to annoy him for two hours isn't going to work either.

So it's almost like it has to be somebody who's big enough to contest passing lanes and shots quick enough so that he can actually stay in front of him. Probably the most important thing, competitive enough to want to do it all game long. Playoffs different than a regular season game, clearly. But I feel like I'm describing Giannis, but Giannis wouldn't defend different than a regular season game, clearly. But I feel like I'm describing Giannis, but Giannis wouldn't defend him in a regular season game. Maybe December Ben Simmons, who we're going to get to here in a little bit. But he would have to be,

you would have to have the mindset. Give me prime athleticism Pat Beverly in, I don't know, Aaron Williams' body. I don't know that the guy really exists. I don't know that there's a ton of guys out there. So, you know, when I think back to what he did against Golden State,

I mean, maybe it's Draymond, but he still had 32-9-6, 42%, 34-3 in five games against the Warriors where they had no chance. Sneaky Kavon Looney actually held up really well when it looked like Dallas thought, oh, we've got this switch on the big. Okay, they switched it. I'm just going to attack him. He actually held up pretty well. I don't know that anybody else would be going,

we need Kavon Looney to stop Luka Doncic over the course of a full playoff series. Going back to the first Clippers playoff series, 31-10-9, 50-36 from the floor. Then the next year he did even better, 36-8-10, 49-41% against the Clippers in those back-to-back playoff series, 31-10-9, 50-36 from the floor. Then the next year, he did even better, 36-8-10, 49-41% against the Clippers in those back-to-back playoff series. Then he gets to a Western Conference Finals. The problem with me, and why I'm going to feel guilty right now, is that this happens, and maybe it's because of my job.

Maybe I just suck because I feel like it was different when I was younger. If somebody did this, which nobody's ever done before, by the way, you would just talk about it. You'd want to watch every highlight on SportsCenter. You'd watch SportsCenter over and over and over again. And then you would talk about it with your buddies. You would talk about it with people at work. You would just be like, this is crazy. It almost was more mythological because not everybody

had league pass like we had highlights and all that kind of stuff but like at any moment i can go okay i'm gonna check back in because this knicks mavs game is close and however my league pass rotation was going last night i was like okay i'm back on this game and then you're just sitting there laughing but i think the part that i don't like about what i do is that then i'm thinking okay how would i talk about this and what would be new and what would be interesting? Because I can't help myself. This is where I'm a dick.

Like, yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome. We know what he is. He's, I still would take you on us. I think Durant is making a case to be remembered as

somebody in the conversation for the best player. Because then when something like this happens, this is kind of the point. When something like this happens, then it feels like the sports media community, the basketball community specific to this, is forced. We feel like we have no choice but to make it out to

be something that it probably isn't other than one night of one of the greatest players in the league right now. Because they're a sixth seed. They were a seventh seed going into last night after the Sacramento loss. They're, what, four games out of first? It's all clogged up in the West. They're also two and a half games out of being 11th. They were 15 and 16

last week. And that's where I'll always land with this because I'll watch. I'll go, this is amazing. I have all these awesome things to say, but I can't help myself from going, okay, now what's going to happen?

And not like, oh, he's some loser. Oh, he's incapable of doing all these things you know how i feel about like the heliocentric guys in the playoffs the success uh historically the success rate is is bad and maybe that's the point maybe i'm not supposed to do any of those things after last night's because i kind of don't want to i actually feel guilty about it but i can't help myself because then when I see all the other commentary about like, man, nobody'd want to play them the playoffs. I'm like, I don't know. I'd rather play them than a healthy golden state. I'd rather play them than Phoenix, Memphis, healthy Clippers,

Denver. Yeah. Like I think all of those things are fair, but maybe now's not the time because the MVP thing started happening. And like, I't look. If Kendrick Perkins is going to say that it's Luka by a mile now, then I would push back. I would say I don't think that's accurate. I think he's insane, but the MVP race is stacked just like the tops of both conferences. So a night we've never seen before, and then an ending of this segment

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Call or go to statefarm.com today to create your State Farm Personal Price Plan. Prices vary by state. Options selected by customer, availability, and eligibility may vary. Now let's talk about a team everyone loves. The Brooklyn Nets. They're 22-12. They're three seed this morning. Two and a half games

behind Boston. Half game behind Milwaukee. They beat Cleveland on Monday, and I know it's two days removed, but I have to talk about this game and how incredibly impressed I was. Now, the Nets have been on a roll here. This is a new. They were 9-11 at one point. Now they're 21-12, so that's 13-1.

I looked at their overall numbers. They're 5th in offense, 12th in defense. But if you go from the start of this 14-game stretch, which started 11-27, I believe, the number one offense, number 10 defense, and their net rating is a monster number at plus 8.2. It's a big number.

KD's not ahead of Luka in the MVP conversation, but I think based on his play and us being so spoiled and accustomed to it, that he needs to be back in it. And I know I make fun of that, but it's true. He's on the list. He is totally in control of what is happening around him.

He doesn't lead the league in double teams, but it feels like the effort on some of these double teams where a team for an entire night will be like, this is what we're doing on every Durant catch. We are selling out against it. But now the other guys are starting to play so well, I wonder if there's going to be some kind of adjustment because right now we're looking at the best offense in the league. He dominates without having to dominate the basketball. That is the greatest thing. When he goes into the Hall

of Fame and people are talking about what his game was with Durant, it's like, you know what? There's a lot of guys that put up numbers, but I don't know that anybody has ever done it. I think Steph is obviously in this conversation as well. LeBron.

I mean, we're talking about the all-timers here, guys that are going to be finishing in their top 20. I'm not talking about LeBron specifically in this one, but Steph, KD, maybe top 15 all-time,

maybe top 12. I mean, we're talking serious, serious stuff here. But KD, maybe top 15 all time, maybe top 12. I mean, we're talking serious, serious stuff here. But KD, like nobody around him really has to sacrifice much because he just wants to go out there and ball. He's sixth

in scoring, but when you look at everybody else around him in that points per game list, he's taking less shots than the rest of those guys. I mean, it's not dramatically less, but he's still taking less shots than all those dudes. Some of the numbers from KD right now are nuts. Now, the double team number, I looked up something. I found something that was like a week or so old. Luka actually leads the league in just true double teams, almost 19 possessions per game against Luka. Durant's a little further down, but I wonder how that one that I found was calculated on the doubles. Because I've seen

Embiid show up as doubles with a lot of doubles, and then Jokic actually has less than you would think, only because people are so horrified of ever leaving other people. Because Jokic will just pass for an entire half if he feels like it. And he's like, all right, that doesn't matter. We'll just go ahead and do this. So looking at some of the Durant numbers, you could make an argument it's the best season he's had in five years. His true shooting percentage is 67%.

That would be 37th all-time for one single season. Now you're saying, well, Rosillo, 37th all-time? Come on, man. Is that that big of a deal? Why'd you write that down? Okay, but the point is that almost every guy in front of him is a big and a lot of low usage bigs. The only

perimeter players that are ahead of that number, Kyle Korver, Steph, actually Sabonis this season was really good. You could say, okay, he's not a true perimeter player, but we're talking somebody who basically lives their life offensively on the perimeter, for Durant to be doing that at 67% this year,

this is historic stuff. Let's add to this next story. Kyrie's locked in on both ends. I know that's what he's supposed to be, but when he is, it's pretty good. Four threes in less than three minutes in the second quarter against Cleveland. A little reminder of like, okay, when this guy's going this way,

and I still think we'll see if this keeps up. I think people are going to handle Durant a little bit differently because every time I watch Nets games throughout the course of this season, I'm always like, man, teams are really selling out against him. And Durant's like, whatever, that's fine.

Durant loves passing. He loves passing these dudes. I saw Kyrie showing effort around screens again. We've seen it in glimpses. I think he had a Boston season where it looked like he actually cared about screens. There is part of me, and for Kyrie, his December, he's 28, 6, and 5, 50, 40, and 90

shooting numbers. There's part of me that's like wait is he just doing this all because his contract is up which would actually believe it or not add to a new thing i would find with kairi and be like wait all of this stuff all of all of the thoughts the causes that every everything that you're fighting, it's like, yeah, I'm just going to play a lot more this year because my contract's up. Which would not make him unique, but would seem to kind of fly in the face of a pioneer of thought. And then you've got the Ben Simmons part of this.

Okay, he's still a net negative on offense if you look at some of the offensive box score stuff, but there was a possession defensively, and you're starting to see this happening now with Simmons. It's been going on for a while. What he's doing, like I get the passing and some of that kind of stuff, but there's some concerns maybe I'll get to a little bit later. But it was just him defensively on Donovan Mitchell.

They were going to be two, Cleveland was still going to be two possessions down. There might have been just about a minute, under a minute to go. And Simmons decides to just be a one-man wrecking crew on this defensive possession. Mitchell had a hard time when Simmons decided, I'm going for you. And in this spot, all Simmons wanted to do was prevent Cleveland from getting a good look. And what he did, this is one of those things that doesn't always count because someone could have made a bucket, but it was just great defense. It was intense. It was smart. It was the right time for all of it. Simmons goes right at Mitchell and Mitchell can't get into whatever it is they want to do. And then they try to run a screen.

And by the end of it, the whole thing is it's too late. And it's all because Simmons wrecked the possession. You know how like we'd see point guards get blitzed all the time. And it's like, why do you guys do that every single time? They don't do it as much as they used to do it. Because the whole point was that Jim O'Brien used to love doing that with the Celtics. He was like, you're going to do this every fucking possession. Because eventually, if your guards are good enough, you're going to figure out a way to beat you the rest of the bit. Kind of similar stuff we were talking about with Luka getting double teamed.

But they would do it so that it wasn't, it was just that you were going to get into your stuff seven to eight seconds later. Honestly, you'd have to be a pretty bad offense to have that happen to you all night long. We get the point. Mitchell couldn't get going, not because of some big trapping scheme,

it was only because Simmons was like, I got you. So, sure. Oh, by the way, I'm going to talk about Yuta. Yuta the shooter. You realize he's number one in the NBA in three-point shooting right now, 54%, which would be number one all time for a season. All time. Kyle Korver, 53%, 2009, 2010. The corner three number going into the week, because I don't have the most recent one here, was 73% on corner threes. When I first heard that number in a Nets game last week, I was like, wait, what? You're at home. Did Ian Eagle just say that he's 73% on corner threes? TJ Warren's getting it going. Sumner can create. I've always liked Claxton. They beat Cleveland without Seth Curry and without Joe Harris in that group.

It's a deep team. It's a little smaller. And yes, when it's bad, it's a little ISO heavy, but at least it's ISOs from Durant and Kyrie Irving. Sure, I am. This isn't like a great bet. The title of this podcast isn't going to be the Nets are winning the title.

Right? This is what we're talking about here. Durant could get hurt again. Wouldn't shock you. I don't think Kyrie's fun December here. Let's see how this story goes. We still have a lot of games left. But Simmons being engaged,

all right, we're starting to see it. We're seeing it here consecutive weeks because when he first came back, it was bad. The most important number right now is seven. Seven games missed in December for KD, Kyrie, and Simmons. That actually feels like a lot out of the 33, right? Teams played 11 games, 33 total. They've missed seven of them.

That's fucking great for this group, okay? That's awesome news. That's fucking great for this group. Okay? That's awesome news. And it's amazing what happens when all your really good, supposedly really good, players play.

Start winning some games. Starts with Durant, but that Cleveland win was very impressive against a good Cleveland team. A team that I think is going to be a challenge in the playoffs. if it gets a good Cleveland team. The team that I think is going to be a challenge in the playoffs.

Let's talk some football. Sarah Walsh, NFL Network. This has been a fun season, huh? For who? Depends on for who. It's been an interesting season down here in Tampa. I think it's been an unexpected season

down here in Tampa. And then I think been an unexpected season down here in Tampa. And then I think most shockingly is the fact that this team could still be in the playoffs is insane. Really. Considering it just feels like it's been week after week after week, you're talking about a loss and it's like, Nope, still in first.

Nope. So probably going to the playoffs. Although I mean, that could, that could be in jeopardy after this weekend. Wait, can I just wait, can we just back this up for one second?

I have a, I have a beef with you. First of all, I'm on this podcast. You don't even reach out to me personally. This goes through Allison, who's doing your book. Ryan Rosillo would like to have you. I know you're a big deal.

Like, I get that you're a big deal, but you don't even personally reach out to one of your best friends to be like, hey, can you come on? Like, that's how we're operating now because we're that big of a deal. It's not because I'm that big of a deal. So you're a difficult booking.

So you thought if you went through like professional channels, it'd be easier to get me on. Yeah. Cause it's easy to say, it's easy to just to say no to me. But then once we get staff involved, I feel like, you know,

no, I was actually, I was so annoyed by this, but I'm like, I'm going to, I'm not even going to text him. Allison setting this whole thing up yesterday. I'll send you a zoom link. Brian has this availability, but I'm like, I'm not even going to text him. Allison is setting this whole thing up yesterday. I'll send you a Zoom link. Brian has this

availability. I'm like, I'm not even going to take this, Tim. I'm not even going to respond to this. I'm going to wait until we get on the podcast and give you grief about it because I'm just like, this is how we're rolling now. Girl power. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you.

I thought you had a better chance yeah well we're here now and it's just it's just not the same between us Ryan you know back in the day you just knock on the door leave me a Lulu present at my front step and now it's like talk to my assistant's assistant

and see if you can come along okay proceed let's go back to football yeah we're going to have to address that Lulu thing And now it's like, talk to my assistant's assistant and see if you can come along. Okay, proceed. Let's go back to football. Yeah, we're going to have to address that Lulu thing a little bit later because that's going to sound weird to everybody. But that's all right. That's awesome.

That sounds awesome. Yeah, yeah. People don't understand. Yeah, it was a great, great deal for Sarah. Okay. We've talked all season about this team. And you're like, okay okay beginning of the year like you expect that they're probably going to be pretty good we knew the o-line was going to be a bit of

a question mark the secondary you know has been tough to keep everybody together and now it turns into brady's going to throw it like 50 times a week which is the opposite of what the plan would be for a 45 year old quarterback i'd argue despite how bad it's looked at times, you can still do way worse than him. And all of these games, it feels like recently, they end with, wait, they're in this? They have a chance to win this one? The Saints game? And so you're right.

Every game, every week, I joked the other day, that Arizona game was terrible. And then I'm like, maybe he should just play the fourth quarter. So how has this happened? Sort of how you laid out. So here's the thing. Week one, they went to Dallas. I mean, this feels like seven years ago now. And it was like a dominant win in Dallas. And I remember being like, oh my God, this team might run back to the Super Bowl. They were that good. And the

formula in that game was that he didn't throw it a million times they had this run game that nobody foresaw that the fact that that thing's dropped off the face of the planet i mean it certain points it's been like historically bad they're last in the league running the football they know it and it's been sort of this broken wreck i mean that's the best way i can describe this season it's been sort of a broken record uh we gotta get the run game going got to get the run game going. We've got to get the run game going. And I think at this point, they're just like, yeah, that's probably not going to get going. So here's what we do.

They'll tell you, we don't want Tom Brady at 45 to be slinging it 50 times a game. What's he doing? Slinging it 50 times a game. I mean, a lot of these are like these tiny little check down passes to Leonard Fournette and sort of these like catch and run things. But it's all come apart.

I don't think you mentioned the offensive line being a question mark. It wasn't as big of a question mark as when the season started. I mean, they lost two guys, but then it went. And when I say two guys, they lost Alex Kappa who went to the Bengals. They lost Ali Marpet. It was surprise retirement because he's really good. He's a pro bowler. That was a surprise. They didn't see that coming, but the second Tom resigned, they resigned their pro bowl center. They lose him the second day of training camp, which now he's been designated to return.

And there's a potential that we could see him back out on the field here. I don't know how soon, maybe even this week, but it really collapsed on the offensive line. So Tom's just throwing it away as fast as he can. He's not getting sacked want to look at sacking oh he's not getting sacked well he gets rid of it in in less than two seconds so like nobody can sack him um and when i say injuries the offensive line i'm talking injuries to the guys that are injured that are replacing the guys that were already injured i mean um last week in arizona josh wells who's a guy that's like filling in he goes out he's done for the season and i'm literally like i don't know who's up next. Like, I don't know where, I don't even know

the names of some of these people that they're having to pull. Like it's, um, so that that's obviously a problem, but I think overall, and this isn't like a great, like, Hey, this is so smart. And I never thought of this answer. It's just been out of sync, take out week one. And then week two, they went in new Orleans and they had like kind of this gutsy win um but they've never been in sync something has been off um it just has not clicked the way it clicked those other two years now is that because of the offensive line is that because i mean just things are not clicking the way they did before they don't get breaks that fall their way if anything everything kind of goes against them And like some of that is like lock and things, you know, this momentum rolling your way.

But it's just been like a really off-kiltered offense. And I don't see this late in the season. I don't stand there anymore and be like, maybe this will be the week they get it together. Like, I think it's not going to get together, but can they do enough and get these ugly wins? I mean, here's what's crazy. They should have,

you're watching the Arizona game and you're like, this is terrible. Like they shouldn't win this game. I can say that about like five other games. And when there's two minutes left, like, do you want Tom Brady to not look great three quarters, but when you,

the game at the end, like, I mean, what matters most? And that, that's sort of like the way they've done it. Um, look terrible for three quarters,

probably half of the fourth quarter. And then it's like the last couple minutes of the game and this team always is still in it. They're just never, ever out. And so maybe that's the thing they hang their hats on. But it's ugly. It's ugly and there's just no way around that. Okay.

The Tom storyline has been a long one here just for the season alone. So do you think everything was fine coming back? Granted, he's dealing with all this personal stuff, which I don't know if we'll get to or not because I'm not super interested in it. But him retiring and then deciding he's going to come back and then taking time before the season started.

I just wonder because we love to play the results, but if he had been in camp day one and everything's great in his personal life, is this team really that much better? Because I don't know. I don't think that's true. And I think that's what's going to happen. This is going to end up ending however it ends. And then it'll be like, well, it was messed up from the jump. And although

that's true, I don't know that the quarterback who's been around this long but has already been with this team with this offensive line situation and all the other problems they've had like i don't know that this is some 10 and 7 team or 11 and 6 team and everybody'd feel better about it late in december no i would agree with that like so here's the thing you knew when he took those days off um it's obviously everyone's going to monday morning quarterback the situation of like,

if they come out and they're lighting it up, they're going to go, who cares? He didn't need those 11 days. He didn't need, he didn't need to be there. He's Tom Brady. He doesn't need the reps,

but it's so funny. But then when, um, on the flip side, when things aren't going well, or even when you ask the coaches, like what's going on and we asked Byron left, which their offensive coordinator,

what's going on. And he'll be like, you know, these guys haven't had a lot of reps together. And it's like, okay, well then you're saying that they need reps, but that, you know, there were certain times you didn't get reps. So it's kind of like playing it both ways and they'll play it both ways. But here's the thing. I agree with you. Like something is just not great. Is their defense good enough? Is Tom Brady and the mentality that he has in the last

like couple minutes of games good enough to get them so no one's gonna say though like when you get in the playoffs like no one's gonna be like no one cares what you do right you just have to get in and they know that at this point like they know that and they've known it for weeks months now like you just got to get in um and then we've seen people go on weird tears when they get in i don't think this team this team's not built like that because here's here's the problem that is is looming they've done it against the saints they did it against the cardinals they've done it against the rams like i'm not naming teams that are juggernauts right like the chiefs come down here they get up big they're not allowing the bucks back into that game so when

you get into the playoffs and you've got these teams that are really good, these teams are not going to allow them to get back into things. And that is what has sustained them and allowed them to pull off these wins at the last second because you don't totally put them away and then Tom's capable of looking like Tom Brady in the last two minutes of the game,

better than anybody else has ever done that. But I just don't see a scenario in the playoffs when teams are really good and you're playing the best of the best that you're going to let a team like that hang around and you're going to get in such a hole. You can't, you can't operate from the fact that like, Oh, we always feel like we're going to dig ourselves out of the hole. Uh, and they're able to do it sometimes, but I don't think you're going to be able to do it against the teams when it matters the most in the postseason. And I think the Bucs know that, and I think Todd Bowles knows that.

I mean, he's like, you just, they can't be, they just have not been consistent this entire year for like any length of a game, let alone four quarters. Okay, because the standard has been pretty high now for Tampa for a couple of years, I can't help it. Every time I see like you do a hit that throws to something,

it feels extra miserable. Me? I feel like me or the hit that I'm. No, like whatever. And you know, here's the thing, Sarah,

if, if they were two and 11, then it's like, Hey, we suck. And it's over. And I think because the division is so bad and I know it's not what you're saying here.

And it's one of the things that kind of drives me. It's like, oh, well, you never know. No, we know. Like, if they get in, they're going to have to play a pretty good team, and they're going to lose, okay? So, like, I don't want to hear it. It's one of the weird things

with the way the playoff thing works, because they want the importance to still be their significance of winning the division. That's fine. I get it. But I just think you should be disqualified if you're not 500. Just give it to somebody else. I don't disagree with you, division that's fine i get it but i just think you should be disqualified if you're not 500 just give it to somebody else and i don't know i don't disagree with you and that's the whole division i mean it's literally the whole division and so the weirdest

part of like what my job has been this year is it's hard so i'll be on on mondays and like you can't just like crap on a team that want you know what i mean like like the problem is is like it's felt weird to be like, Hey, they swept the saints this year. That's like hard for them. They perennially had problems with the saints before Tom, even during Tom's tenure, they were promised saints the way they,

they were terrible. The whole game, the saints should have won that game. The last game they played here in Tampa, the bucks pull off an incredible comeback at the very end. And, and then like, it's this weird vibe of like,

you don't want to go on TV and be like, oh, this is bad. This is bad. Oh, by the way, it was a win. Cause how many teams who like what team wants to be like, man, we look so great. It was a loss. You know what I mean? Like you're always going to take like, look bad and take a win, but it has been like really weird this season to literally all year be covering the division leader, a team that up until this week, maybe had complete control of this division. And, and like,

it felt like every time you go on, it's like, what's wrong with the box. I mean, that would be like the tee ups are like, what's wrong with the box. And it's like, well,

they won, but you know what? And, but I will even say in the locker room after games, there has been so few times that it felt like a win, even after wins. Like I'll give you another example. They played the Falcons,

had I think pretty significant lead on them, let them completely back into the game. There was a call, no call on Grady Jarrett that kind of hosed the Falcons. And you go in the locker room, Bucs win it. And it just feels like defeating. And it feels like you're in a losing locker room, even when they win.

So it's just been like a really, really weird vibe. And I'll tell you what else is setting up. Interesting though, when you were like, this isn't going to, you know, don't sell me this.

This isn't going to happen in the playoffs. If they get the Cowboys, if they get in the playoffs and, and I don't know, the Panthers are coming here with all the momentum, honestly. And I feel like less pressure on them to come into Tampa and win. But let's just say the Bucks get in and let's just say it's the Cowboys

first round and it would be here. Like, I don't know. Like I, they have had the Cowboys number. So you would think that the Cowboys would like finally get to them, but who's the pressure on at that point? I mean,

there's a lot of pressure and that almost sets up almost sets up, I think, well for them. And I could see them pulling that off, but then, you know, not much farther than that, but only because they've sort of been that thorn to Dallas that the Saints have been to them. But yeah, it's been a real weird deal. And I honestly feel like a broken record. I mean, cause it's sort of the same storylines every week.

They can't run the ball. Tom's thrown it 50 times. They're not connecting it's sort of the same storylines every week. They can't run the ball. Tom's thrown it 50 times. They're not connecting. Um, it's literally the same thing every week. And it's just kind of the same story and it just isn't getting corrected. One of the first times I realized how much I like Todd Bowles was when the jets thing was going bad and it wasn't a very good team.

He'd had a nice record in there and it's going South and he just was on it. Like he just was, I was like, man, I'm kind of impressed with him. What's that been like through a trying season, seeing Bowles handle this week to week? I mean, I feel bad for him because he was handed basically a team that's

packaged to win a Super Bowl in that sense. Again, this whole thing has been weird, right? And you even kind of mentioned it. Let's go back to, let's go back to this offseason. They're following up their Super Bowl season with a really decent season.

They lost to the Rams who win the Super Bowl at the very last minute, part of like, which would have been another incredible Brady comeback. So a heartbreaking loss at home. That could have been them.

Like, good season. Great season. Didn't end with the Super Bowl, but good season. And then it's Tom Brady's retiring. Tom Brady's unretiring. Bruce Arians is leaving. I mean,

just a lot of like, nothing has been smooth. When you go back to these Brady storylines, it just, for a guy that has been very controlled and very, the narrative is kind of all been perfect, right? Like the storybook narrative,

it's been not smooth. Um, especially the retirement thing. It's been a, like awkward maybe is like the only way I can describe it. Just, just odd. Um, there's all the rumors about the Todd and the Bruce thing and how that went down. So Todd takes over, but think about all the coaches when there's coaching changes, it's because the team was struggling, right? Like their coaches get replaced. Cause it seems like, I mean, look at who's taking over in Denver right right now who's taking you know like um and so todd gets handed a job that isn't like the norm you're you're basically handed this team you just got your super bowl winning

quarterback back now he's recruiting all his uh his guys to resign here and so like the pressure's on you feel like everything's intact um and then things go sideways, like, pretty fast after those first two games. And I don't know, I feel like I want to say, yeah, Todd's been awesome. But I feel like again, it's just sort of been this broken record thing. And like, I don't know if he knows what to say, right? Like he says the obvious, like, we got to be better. Like, I have seen the frustration clearly with him. And he's made some comments like guys are living on their, like what they did in the super bowl. That's a problem. And, you know, he says little things. Todd's very like low key, um, in front of the microphone

and, um, and you don't see him get riled up. You never see him get riled up on the sidelines either. Uh, he's very, very like low key in that way. But he says these things every once in a while. And this, I feel like, tells you how frustrated he is. When he said something recently, he's like, guys got to decide if they want to be here or not. And he says stuff like that. And you're like, whoa. I mean, those are some daggers. And there were times we had to go in the locker room and ask them about stuff Todd said. And they would be like... I mean, that's some heavy shots. Todd said and they would be like I mean that's it's like some kind of like heavy shots um so I don't know I've seen Todd I think just be frustrated like a lot of people are with this team and I think some of it too is like so much is on the offense and Todd's like a defensive guy so then

like he was asked this week already like do you talk to Byron during the game and he's like I'm not interrupting the play caller while he's in the middle of calling the game like he's not going over and being like you know what would work well like he's like he's like no I'm not interrupting the play caller while he's in the middle of calling the gate like he's not going over and being like you know what would work well like he's like he's like no I'm not doing that like if there's stuff he's like we talk all week but like I'm not like there's just been like this this like weirdness and and clearly like frustration on

on Todd's side of things because it's not going the way it should go and this is a team that comes with a different set of expectations than most I think okay the big question on all of this is do a team that comes with a different set of expectations than most, I think. Okay. The big question on all of this is, do you think Brady comes back for another year of this?

I do. I do. But I was in the minority last year when I said he was coming back. Like the day after their season ended, I remember being on NFL network and I'm like, he's coming back. And my only reason for thinking this at the time was I watched him in that game ended. And I felt like if you're calling it a career after as long as he's played two decades and football means to him what we know it means to him, I felt like there

would be some like look around moment. Like I've just felt like it wouldn't have been this business like run off the field. And I know he lost, but I just felt like he would have felt something. So I'm on TV the next day and I'm like, yeah, I don't think he's retiring. And something comes out like a couple of days later, like he's retiring. And I'm like, oh, really, really nailed that one. And then he comes back and was like, yeah, I got it. It's kind of like the field goal went in. No, it didn't.

Yes, it did. Okay, cool. And so I say all that to say I could be completely wrong here, but he said something already this week on his podcast, like it'd be really hard for him to walk away. And you just sort of hear like the rumblings and like all the rumblings I hear are like this guy's coming

back he's not going out this way which means by the way which means I could be totally totally wrong but everyone's like he's not going out this way I don't think he you look at these games and he's frustrated in a way that we've never seen Brady frustrated because we've never seen Brady lose this many games. But I also don't think mentally this looks like a guy.

It looks like a guy that's having a really frustrating season. But there's things about him that to me, I'm like, he's not going to walk away now. Like he, like his family, like he's now, you know, like the whole Giselle thing, which was made a big deal about like like she wants him to quit football. Well, now they're not together. So now why are you going to quit, right? Like, I don't know that you're playing till you're 50, but like, what do I know?

I think he still feels like he can play. And I feel like he's still involved where he wants to like make decisions and get certain things in place and write this and fix it. That's just like my gut feeling from observations, but no like concrete, like Tom randomly said this. So yeah, I do. I think he comes back. I don't know if it's in Tampa. I think the sexy storyline is to say he's going somewhere

else and then we get in the Tom Brady sweepstakes. But when you really sort of like vet out all those things that seem cool and like this could happen, I think it's really hard to like pick up. And I mean, he did it and he won a Superbowl, right? So he's got that in his back pocket of like, well, I can go do that and win a Superbowl somewhere else. Um, I just think it's easier said than done. Like what's the right like location that you could plug him in that he feels like he can win immediately. Um, And like, they got to fix stuff here, obviously, if that,

if that happens and he stays, but like they'll fix it for him. I mean, they'll do anything he wants them to do, obviously. Okay. Last one here. Do you enjoy hosting good morning football more than we host sports

nation together? Ooh, good question. Good question. I love hosting good morning football i'm on this week um on friday it's like a fun it's fun to like jump to new york and do that for a second uh i love that group as you know um i think you like that group you like that group more than you like rosillo sports nation we didn't really even like each other we didn't know each other that's the

problem we didn't know each other can you imagine if we were on sports nation now um but i know i liked you and i'm not going to say what you said but there were a couple comments that were made that they would be like no stop we got to stop the show and they would like stop the show because they're like can't say that like and uh and we would have to like retake and you're like why would i say like they would be like hey man we're just trying to make sure you don't get fired, so we're going to redo that segment. Don't say that. And I didn't know you, but I liked you. When that was going on, I was like, I like him.

It's weird. We didn't know each other. I had the picture of us hosting Sports Nation popped up on my phone the other day. And I know you've seen it before, because I think I've sent it to your postage. You have hair, full hair Rosillo. That's who I hosted Sports Nation with. Different guy. I don't know. Were you as. That's who I hosted Sports Nation with. Different guy.

I don't know. Were you as jacked then? I was on the path. You were on the path. I was laying the foundation. Yeah. That's a great question, but I would love to host it with you now because it would be so much more fun. You didn't talk to me then. You were very standoffish back then.

I don't know that I'm less standoffish now. I guess, you know. No, I just like it. Yeah, I think I just kind of, I don't know. I guess I'm not super friendly right away. And I don't mean to do it to be. I don't strive to be unfriendly. I just take a little time.

That would be a great way to describe you. I'm not super friendly right away. If you could change your Insta bio to that or your Twitter bio to that, it would be really... I'm not super friendly right away. I mean, it's honestly, people that know you, that's an excellent description of you, I would say. I just can't imagine people... But funny right away. Right.

But people who don't know each other being like, oh my God, I'm so interested. No, you're not. You don't know each other being like oh my god i'm so interested no you're not you don't know yet uh no you're but but you're a little difficult in that way like i would say people would say you're probably like tough to read in that sense um not now not now uh you explain the lulu thing before you said you're gonna get you're not getting in trouble for that no i think everybody knows give me a lot of lulu gear yeah uh because he would well he didn't have a lot to do none of us did and go to the local mall there's not a lot to see there and and more times than not if he was talking to someone at lulu um be it the staff that worked there he would somehow i would end up getting like a present and it was right for me i got so much gear i think the weird

one was like i think i bought you a tennis skirt once and then it was like okay where's this going and then i think there was even one like i think there was a move where like i i guess i should not describe as a move there was this patagonia like white zip-up fleece i was like oh that's pretty cute i was like i should get it i was like oh you're not dating her anymore i was like, I should get it. I was like, oh, you're not dating her anymore. I was like, oh, I'll get it for Sarah. And then Sarah realized this is a great deal because he's not dating anybody and he's a gift giver and we're neighbors

and we don't have a lot going on. So like out of nowhere. So then somebody actually at one point was like, why do you get her stuff? And I was like, I don't know. She's next door. It's next door. But, you know, but if you knew us, like, it's not like weird.

I had a husband and I'd be like, Ryan, give me the sick jacket today. And he would be like, dude, why is he buying? He was like, awesome. That seems like Ryan. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I think it was as simple as you didn't have a girlfriend for much of the duration that I've known you. And you're just a generous, nice person. Sometimes, and I hope I'm not selling you out, you would be like talking. I remember having a conversation where you were like, cute girls would work at Lulu and you'd be like, I was talking to this girl. And I'm like, yeah, but dude, I'm like, you're buying like presents for me to like keep this conversation going. And I'm like, and the girl for sure is going to be like, he's totally buying this for a girlfriend. And you'd be like, no, it's just for my next door neighbor. And the girl that you were probably trying to talk to is like, yeah, it's not for your next.

And it really was like, there's really nothing not innocent about it. You just are really generous. And if you saw something that was nice that you thought I would like you also, I don't know if you remember this, bought me an ice cream cake one time and put it on my doorstep and had it inscribed with just like friendship. Do you remember that? Yeah. I think you had them write friendship on the cake. And I was so psyched because I was like, oh my God, ice cream cake. Amazing.

And it said friendship with a rainbow. Great neighbor. Great friend. Great neighbor. Not easy. What's the line? Not easy to get to know right away. Not nice right away. What's our description line?

I think we said I'm not I don't strive to be friendly immediately. Right away. Yeah, right away. Something right away. Yeah. I think we covered it. I do miss you guys. Sorry. I talked over you. What were you saying? No, no, no. We miss

you. I'm going to be in LA soon. I want to go out on the boat. I'm inviting myself out on the boat. Sounds great. Bilge alarm went off the other day, so we're working on that. Just get it fixed by the end of the month. No problem. I'm on it. I'm taking it out. I want to know what's wrong. I want to learn these things.

But yeah, it still did fine under eight knots. I don to know what's wrong. I want to learn these things. But yeah, it still did fine under eight knots. But I don't know. I don't know. And then the docking control disengaged mid-docking the other day. I hate when that happens. Yeah. I was super proud of myself.

I mean, the feeling you have inside of yourself when you're trying to dock a boat and all of a sudden the controls disengage you're like well that doesn't feel awesome and then there's this just absolute moment of sheer terror for five seconds as your boat's floating around in the slips and you're like all right all i need to crash it i mean i had it lined up pretty good, luckily, once it disengaged, but I knew... I just can't explain what that feeling is to anybody that doesn't know what that feeling is. You could say it's like your car brakes just not working all of a sudden, you're going down a hill, but it'd be like, imagine if the hill was made of foam and there were obstacles and you just it's like a plinko chip like you just don't you're not quite sure what's going to happen except the plinko board is rotating while so i again i'm being a little too descriptive with all of it i luckily was on it immediately to go okay deep breath you need to do this boom boom and then you know we got back to work and very very stress-free once that happened but yeah the other day the other day was a tad challenging so it's all right i'm sure a lot of i'm sure like a lot the majority of your listeners

can like relate to what it's like to have to park their big boat in a boat slip it's hot i mean just like everyday problems, you know, maybe somebody is not going to be invited. Uh, no, no, no, I'm going, I'm going,

even if the boat's not leaving the dock, I'll just hang out there. I will say I've never, I've been around a ton of boats cause we live in Florida and, I've never seen someone with the remote control. The first time I was on Ryan's boat, which is the last time I was on Ryan's boat. Uh,

he, he drives us with a little remote control thing and I've never seen it before in my life. And it does make me nervous. No one's driving the boat behind the wheel. That makes me nervous. Okay, but just for the hardcore boat captains, because we do have a lot actually that listen to this podcast to understand. I only did that because I had a captain at the wheel while I pulled out with the remote to show you what it was capable of. Were you not even driving it? You were just showing off and the captain was really driving it?

No, I was driving it. I was driving it from the remote, but the captain was there and all he has to do is hit one button and then he has control of the shipping. The savior. I would not do that without that setup. Although I did do it once. The first solo time I went out, I came out of the slip that way, and I was like, you know what? I'm not doing it this way anymore

because it's actually not that great. And another dude who was a liveaboard who's in the same arena, I think it was hammered. It was at his stern. and he just looks at me he's like that's the most dangerous fucking thing i've ever seen and i was like you know i don't really need this right now it's my first time ever out solo solo on a boat this size and you know i'm already kind of at a high level of intensity with this and i just looked at him was like are you talking

shit to me right now? And he was like, oh, you know. And the thing is, like, hey, you know where my I'm going to have to park. I'm going to see you again. Like, what the fuck are you doing? But in fairness to him, looking back on that disembarkment that

day, just stay behind the wheel if you're by yourself. But I was just trying to learn the boat. I'm just trying trying to learn all the different parts of it what you learn about boating is that you don't know anything about it like you can take the test and get your license a lot of work it's a lot of work you've been working on this for a long time uh and then i know you get excited and you can call matt and last time you were talking about some boat thing you're talking about night vision and then i just i leave the room obviously yeah to the night night session with the radar into this yeah yeah and you talk about the like the equipment and gear and matt loves that stuff and i could care less um i'm disappointed i don't get

asked on the podcast often um through your assistance but uh i'm disappointed like that you don't have me on to do like the advice stuff with you or with the advice things that you do on there. Because I'm like, why don't I get asked? Yeah, we'll do this then. I didn't even thought of that. That's great. We'll do that. Done.

What? Next time or now? No, I didn't. That wasn't in fact. Do you think I'm that much of a dick that I was like, oh, yeah, terrible idea. No, no. Next time we want to have like kind of a relationship one, we'll have you on. How about that? Yeah, I want to be on because I feel like

I've been with you, well, I don't say through a lot of relationships, but I don't know what qualifies for that. But I feel like I've given you a lot of advice over the years. And so I feel like, why am I not invited on the advice at sessions? That's all.

Yeah, and your advice has always been really good. Thanks. I'm looking forward to that boat trip. Sarah Walsh, NFL Network. Playoff bound, tip of a box. Maybe. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari.

355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, life advice, email lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. All right, Kyle. How are we doing? Mid-Christmas week, post-Christmas. Doing well. Just working through the holidays. Yeah.

Seems like it's a shot at Bill and I, but... Yeah, who's to say? What do you got going on for New Year's? Working. It'll be Sunday. Oh, my God. New Year's Eve is Sunday night. Oh, my God.

I didn't even think about that i guess that's what i'll be i'll be working uh doing sunday night pod you're gonna be like meredith st patrick stanley office oh no it's a saturday hold on my calendar's off it's a saturday what if you're getting crazy i don't know yeah that's okay all right look out yeah all right that's a good love surprising myself sometimes you set the bar low and you're like, Oh wow. Look at, we got over it. You know what that was?

That was the calendar version of waking up, forgetting that you set the clocks back an hour. Yes, exactly what that was. Yeah. Like, Oh, I got another hour.

Lucky me. Okay. We have a couple of followups here that I thought were sort of interesting. So I wanted to do them. Okay. This was a really good email. So thanks for picking it out, Kyle.

50 years old, 6'2", 215, poor man's Greg Kite. Already was on board with that. Ryan, fans of the Zone days, I listened to your interview with Anik recently. You know nothing about MMA, but just because it was you two guys, it's good to hear again. Okay, that's cool. Middle

school principal, but I've always continued to teach and coach, especially. Apologies for the follow-up. This is a good follow-up, so credit to you. This is a follow-up for anybody, our guy that on Monday was thinking about coaching or he was going to coach this middle school girls team, and this guy's 50 and has done it.

All right? But as a guy who kicked over a full ball rack at halftime when I was coaching middle school hoops at age 23, I was compelled to respond. Your primary goal is for all the kids to play again next year, period. Middle school is brutal. Kids might be going through puberty or not. They long for independence. They don't like their parents. They're awkward and may have acne, et cetera. Make basketball an enjoyable part of their day. If they like the team and if you go to a varsity game in a few years and they're still playing,

that's the greatest reward you can get. Beats winning games. Get to know the players and say hi to their parents after the games. Compliment their goals for whatever it is they're doing well. Playing hard, showing up all the time, being a good teammate, or being a good kid on the bus rides.

Every parent wants their kid to be known. Man, this is great stuff. The bar for coaching youth sports is low. You can exceed it. As for the actual games, most shots in girls' middle school basketball don't go in. Work on rebounding and layups.

If you have a couple girls who can clean up in the paint, you'll be in good shape. Don't know what the scene is in the Midwest, but where I live, most teams have one or two girls that have played AAU or club and can hoop. Go box in one with one of your best athletes on their best kid

and dare the rest of them to beat you. They probably won't. Put it in a zone with your best athletes long and fast in the back. Every team will struggle with it. Totally agree with that one. Got a big kid back there. Baseline position, 1-3-1. Clean it up.

20 boards. That's it. It's not that hard. The girls have a fun season. They'll always remember it fondly. How about that one? Kyle, you probably want to start coaching after reading that one. That was, I mean, that sort of was my

advice was like, hey man, make it fun. I had fun in middle school and I remember it to this day. You know, I give that stupid quote that my coach said. It was just like, just want to feel, you want to feel safe and good and like you belong there and that you can get better if you want to. That's what's nice about it. All right.

Part of my take, best of 2022, which is kind of like when a sitcom, it's just the writers don't have an episode. So they're doing it. They came out and I made it, but an email alerted that I was not on the cover

and wants to know if I think Big Cat did that on purpose. Best of what 2022? Like best just anything of the year? Best of the podcast. Oh, okay. Got it, got it, got it. So it's all right. I'll be better in 2023.

I haven't made Spotify's top 20 sports episodes in three years. I didn't know that. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I made 2022. They do 20 different sports episodes for the course of an entire year. I'm I'm every day I'm checking it. Well, that's all algorithm based, right? I mean, come on. We know, we know where the, where the rankings are every week, right? How can we, how can we be flirt with the top of the rankings? But no, this is a subjective. It was just like, this was the

best sports episode in sports podcasting. Number one, all through 20. And I just haven't been good enough. So. Yeah, I can't. Yeah. I mean, I'm checking it every morning. I want to see if I could if I've improved.

But if I don't, just means I got to be even better. Okay. That's about it on the follow up stuff, right? Okay. New City. Big fan. Leave out the specifics. Well, I don't know.

5'9", 137. That's specific. That's pretty specific. He's a distance runner. All right. Makes sense. 27. Recently moved from a small market to a mid-market. All right.

So I guess he doesn't want me to include the city that he's in, but the city that he's moving to is important because it's so unique and it's so different. So let's read the rest of it. Maybe I'll kind of slide it in there. All right. For more context, I currently don't know anyone in the city. And last weekend, I went out by myself to watch football games on Saturday.

As I was calling it a night, I ran into my ex-girlfriend's best friend from college who i've met and spent time with before we ended up hanging out with her and her friend for the night and had a good time seemed completely normal like old friends catching up i'm 100 aware that she is 100 off limits heard this we heard this old i don't know if she is, man. Chestnut. But do I waste my time trying to hang out with her another time to meet people, meet more people in the area? All right. Well, he's not going after the friend. Doesn't sound like the ex and I are on good terms. And she is dating, quote, the guy she told me not to worry about. Remember those memes?

Yeah, those are great. I'm going to tell my grandkids this is the guy she told me you to worry about. All right, so she can't really get mad at me for much. Yeah, I think you're in the clear on that one. And it sounds like you don't have designs on the friend in the new town. I'm really looking to meet people, and this may be a good way to meet some people. I know women.

I guess girls and females off limits. He listens. Good listener. I can sometimes be weird about this type of thing. By the way, that is not a gender-specific thing. Lots of people can be weird about lots of shit. And I would say this one is gender neutral.

Alright. I'm thinking of just being honest with my ex and telling her and respecting whatever her opinion is. Curious your thoughts or should I not even bother and just go forward without talking to her? Here's what I know about runners. Especially distance runners. You like meeting people, man.

You like meeting people. You're in a new town. You're by yourself. The ex, if you're telling us, you're giving us the straight dope here. Sounds like she's the one that did something worse before and you're telling us

you're not even going after the friend, but you're somewhat guilty about hanging out with her friend with designs on meeting new people. Like it's not even about the friend. It's just new guy, new town. Runners love meeting people. Yeah, you're totally in the clear here.

I wouldn't even tell the ex. Why would you tell her? I wouldn't tell her. Or unless you want to just completely cover all your bases and just say hey i'm telling you this straight up i have no interest we ran into each other i'd love to meet some more people and you know i'm sitting by i'm rossillo in it every weekend here watching games at a bar it's fucking blows i would say and i think i am going to include this because it's very important to the email and i left out the other part of it.

He's moving to Scottsdale or he's lives in Scottsdale, which if there's one town that I would rank number one over every other fucking town where it'd be like, Hey, we're so low rank this town, which town would I have the best chance as a dude sitting at a bar by myself and having women talk to me, Scottsdale would be ranked number one i don't even know who i'd put it number two okay scottsdale would so far and away be fucking number

one that you already have a massive advantage okay you are if there was a football field that was uphill, you'd be running your plays downhill. So I'm just telling you, I think you're going to be good here and clearly not doing anything wrong. I don't know why you'd want to tell her. It sounds like you're such a moral person. This isn't even more to not tell her. You just want to make sure there's any chances

she found out later. Honestly, dude, I'd be more inclined to not tell her, let her find out about it, and then have her, because she fucked me over earlier, have that what if moment in her head and then find a new way to get jealous because I actually am in a friendship mode engaging with a friend in my new town. I'd probably do that. Sounds like you would, but I'm not a distance runner. I think there's nothing wrong with like a springboard to friends. That's fine. I've done that before. It's a, she's just a springboard to friends. And if you want to still hang out with her, that's great. And I don't know why you would be worried about her being your ex's friend, unless you have this master plan. That's like laid out years in advance, unless the master plan is to get back with this woman after,

after she's done with the dude that you shouldn't worry about and you just want to make sure that you know there's nothing that you could have done in that time that would get her upset which i really hope is not the case man um i wouldn't i wouldn't have given a thought about it to the ex um so i think that's totally fine um be be like your normal self when she brings you around and just see if there's anybody that you know maybe would want to watch a game with you tomorrow on Sunday or whatever. If you're going out on a Saturday, I don't know. But yeah, just take a look around it. Just like, yeah, just hanging out is totally normal. That's fine. You might even have to be prepared if you've

decided not to lay eyes on her in that sort of way. And you've decided not to acknowledge her in like a romance-y sort of playful, flirty way. She might even get on you. So you might just have to deal with that because that's sometimes what happens when you, uh, don't show any sort of interest that way. Sometimes it might just manifest if you guys are out drinking or something. So I'd say there's always that thing you, you might have to worry about, but there's totally nothing wrong with hanging out with this person that you sort of know, uh, to, to try to find new friends. I would just say, don't come on too strong and be like, all right, what are we doing Thursday night drinks?

And then it's like, oh, so Saturday, like what about Saturday? Like don't come on too strong where she feels like, God, this guy's like trying to book me three days this week. So I would say don't do that because boys or girls, I mean, men or women, I think is what I'm saying here. They can get weird if you come on too strong in a friendship sort of way anyway. They're just like, hey man, once a week is good

or twice a week, whatever. So I would say just kind of find the right amount of yourself to allow her to be around. Well, what's our number one role with this? The guy's constantly trying to figure out how to meet women, right? What do they do? We're like, become friends with the women.

Become friends. Find a way to get into the group. You ever seen body of lies dicaprio recruit the assets but this isn't fighting terrorism you're just trying to go on some dates but you know work at it say hey that one i know has no interest in me this girl over here um you know we're totally friend zone and go into it not with maybe she'll change her mind or maybe I'll change her mind or all that kind of stuff. You feel like, all right, look,

it's off the table. You know how nice that is when there's no pressure. Like, I'm not closing this. This isn't happening. So, fuck it. Now I could just, and who knows,

you might be yourself in such a way that later on down the road, like every great rom-com, Sweet Home Alabama, different plot line, but you get the point. And so, yes, you're doing exactly

what you should be doing, but I'm telling you, some of those solo nights are probably going to end up with, you know, this might be a touch more weathered and a few moral fashions in them, but Scottsdale's the best city

to be by yourself, if you're a guy. And he might, and she might be some dude friends too which is also probably what he's got his eye out for here right he says he's new I just want somebody to hang out with yeah that's right even be dude friends too like you could be men tonic and yeah excuse me men oh right so it's so hard these days that's what she said okay yeah thanks next one new year new year's Eve plans ruining friend group.

How old are these people? They've got to be young. 25. 6'2", 210. Body type like Jason Segel. Not Steven Suggall. Jason Segel. How would you describe that?

That's kind of dad bod, right? Freaks and geese Segel or like forgetting Sarah Marshall Segel. Sarah Marshall. We get to see him pretty nude all the time. That guy didn't have a hard time meeting women. No. I always had a hard time meeting women no I always had a hard time with that plot line that little part of it I've discussed

this before dream girl dump shit whatever it's like oh you're just gonna bring home nines every single night for like a month yeah okay poor guy oh but now you're eating cereal and you're bummed out cool alright I know yeah okay poor guy oh but now you're eating cereal and you're bummed out got it cool all right um i know you've been asking that people include ages to add context yes we did all right i that's

my fault reading order my friend group has been very close since kindergarten wow good for you he gets from it's as far back as there is. Yeah. We're in a small village just north. No. You got the cubbies next to each other and you never look back. Good for you. Are you familiar with Cuddyhawk? Okay.

So, most of us went to the same college, not working, living in our hometown, a second-tier Midwest city. Examples such as St. Louis, Minneapolis, Indianapolis. Indianapolis is a second- midwest star interesting uh i don't want to hear from the indie people on this one i would have thought that would be first here sorry yeah okay i guess first tier would be what chicago milwaukee that's it wait is chicago the only first tier if chicago is the only first tier then i would say

okay fine no problem chicago is the only first tier, then I would say, okay, fine. No problem. Chicago is the homes. And then everybody else, the second tier. Yeah. St. Louis is going, what the fuck are you talking about?

St. Louis is saying we're first tier, multiple sports franchises, Chicago, San Nelly, Jason Tatum. Come on, David freeze.

Okay. In short, we have seven of us who are all trying to put together you know what this is going to start it's going to be like the Dorchester Boston thing all over again we are both saying we don't know this is what the emailers said save it

in short we have seven guys all trying to get together for New Year's Eve and it's turned into a bit of a shit show no kidding I provided my best effort at summarizing the events without including too many unnecessary details a few weeks ago we were trying to figure out what our plans are going to be for new year's eve and we'd all decided that we were leaning towards something low-key went out to a club last year and it was a mess then one friend who was engaged and recently built a house with

his fiancee loosely invited the core group over to their new house in the suburbs saying people would be welcome to crash into their place that night big plus everyone essentially said that sounds like a good plan those quotes sound good well written email and we carried on our usual conversations herbert or burrow have you guys seen white lois why doesn't ryan hang out with kyle fast forward a couple weeks and that's when the issues began to arise half the friend group is in serious relationships the other half is single dude if you're 25 and single you do not want to go to this just telling you right now i would be if i got stuck although 25 years he party had a girlfriend slept on a pull-out sofa dude passed out underneath the pullout sofa where me and my girlfriend were

sleeping he crawled in to the sofa during the daylight hours and i was like get the fuck out of the bed dude what are you doing and he then proceeded to leave the house and go for a walk for two hours in the snow and come back. Crazy night. That guy wasn't just drinking course. Granted, I loved the guy, but I was like, you got to get out of the bed with me. Too close. Too close.

Got to get out of the bed. I probably would have said the same thing about sleeping in the bed by myself. Okay. But sexy went on that walk. But that's what I'm thinking here. I'm going, okay, if I were single and it's like burbs and it's like, all right, cool. And then I'd be going

to like a couple other side guys that go core guys that in this point have side plans. Like we need to find some other thing to go to though later when it's weird. Right, Kyle? Right?

Sure. Yeah, I think it's hard to know what to do on New Year's Eve. I think it's hard to know what to do. I've been to all sorts of stuff and I don't know what, what's, I know the club is the worst thing. I've been to a bar where it's like, you got to buy a ticket to get in. And it's like, you know, that comes with a shot and a stupid hat and like a beer or something, but like, no, it's senior week for adults. Right. It's the senior week people. They're like, wait, you went to school here and then you see them senior week and they're buying tickets all this kind of stuff so most people tell you new year's eve is the worst night ever to go out and all that kind of stuff but like when you're that

young guess what you do you go out yeah i agree you still go out you know it's going to be weird it's all these different things you're just kind of trying to figure it all out um i've done them all too obviously very spoiled in the bartending years because we could just kind of go like, what do we want to do? And then we could just do it. And then we didn't have to worry about it. All right. Are we ever going to read this guy's email? He probably turned 26 since we started it. Okay. Here we go. Original invite was the core group plus the wags if everyone went it would be seven dudes three girlfriends not the best ratio but we did all agree we wanted something low-key a group of the girls and single guys hang out with decent amount reach out to them about the new year's

eve plans there are four girls but two of them have boyfriends one boyfriend none of us know and the other one is a non-core friend of ours. All right. So if they came along, it'd be adding two single girls and two more couples and thus turning the close-knit gathering of longtime friends into a larger, weirder mix of people.

Well, anybody that thought a woman in a relationship wasn't bringing a dude with them to this. It's stupid. That wasn't going to happen. Right. If you're in a relationship on New Year's Eve,

I think half the reason people are even dating is because of New Year's Eve. And then it's like, all right, we can break up maybe after a Valentine gift or something like that. Now, the primary dilemma is the host couple doesn't really know this group of girls and the vibes kind of clash. The couple's pretty mature, subdued.

That's right. They have a house in the suburbs. That's also why they are selfishly inviting you to the suburbs because this way... So they don't have to go anywhere. Yeah, they don't have to go anywhere. Well played, Kyle. That might be a given considering they're engaged homeowners at 25 while the group of girls are a little

bit more party, take selfies, etc. They're all hot. The single guys have dropped hints trying to get the host couple to extend an invite to this group but have received radio silence do i need to read the dynamic again i think i get it if everyone went at seven dudes three girlfriends so that would have been four single guys going to this a group of the girls that the single girls hang out with a decent amount reached out to them about New Year's Eve plans.

There are four girls, but two of them. So it's the three girls that are asking about four other girls. Two of them are single. Yeah, right. Whatever. It's his email. All right.

So I just want to make sure the audience and everybody's playing along here. So the core group of the girls has four other girls but two of them have boyfriends so that's hey we're bringing these four girls along and they're bringing these two boyfriends where again one guy nobody knows the other one is a friend but outside of the core group but the rest of the dudes on the seven three original ratio want these two extra just a wild card yeah i just want to make sure everybody's understand so radio silence we're at crossroads now where the single guys can't invite the girls

over the host couple's house without getting the green light yeah you can't can't it's their house so the core groups just split up and the ones with the um the wags go over the host couples while the single dudes meet up with the girls is that a bad look since everyone already loosely committed to the host couple's house should the host couple suck it up and invite more people and since everyone was pushing a low-key night are they in the right to stick to the original plan yeah you guys got a disaster on your hands because what happened was these two wild card girls are fucking up everybody's motivations now, right? They, the adults here, which are all, I know you're all the same age,

but the adults, the homeowners, the engaged 25 year old couple, as you pointed out, they want this party to be low key. Everybody said they want it to be low key, but not everybody wants it to be low key. If I'm single, I actually don't want it to be low. I like, I already knew this was going to happen, right? Guys can be looking up Uber prices and going far. It's going to throw the whole vibe off.

Yeah. If we could make it back to the lodge, he's not in Chicago. Anyway, maybe the Ubers won't be as bad. Getting to the point where the people are living very different lives right now. Married in the suburbs or single in the city. The guys

in serious relationships really want to venture out, meet new people. But New Year's Eve is a prime time for single guys to make some moves. Is this just a sign we need to start dividing the group into single versus married when it comes to event planning? Or is there an obvious solution I'm missing? Apologize for the dramatic subject line. Just want this to be read. Would appreciate it. Wait, how dramatic was it?

Ruining friend group? Ruining New Year's Eve. Yeah, this is a lot here. Honestly, I spent way too long on this whole thing. I'll tell you what will fuck up the friend group is if you guys invite people that aren't supposed to be there. That's one. Okay. I remember I was 23, was on the vineyard for that small window trying to figure out my life.

And all my buddies were going to nantucket for this new year's eve thing the problem is the guy that owned the new york uh owned the house i didn't know how much he hated me and then i realized later on he really hated me and i called him it was like hey look i'm on the vineyard i have nothing going on can i just shoot over and he was like no like wait it's all it's like all of us it's all of the dudes it was like no you can't come i was like fucking sweet and i did nothing it was awful so oh man that's uh so you can't invite people that the other people aren't going to want to be there but the the real problem is is for the guys that knew deep down this is not what they wanted to do for saying yes to doing it.

And if you cancel at 25, you know how we're reading emails about how like, you know, I didn't get invited to a wedding or I didn't do this or whatever. This is going to piss them off most likely. It'd be great if it didn't. It'd be great if a lot of stuff didn't piss off most of us. But this is the kind of stuff, especially if you're dealing with a much more mature couple, that'll piss them off a little bit. So if decide like hey i know we said low-key original plans but now these two other people they're just sort of dating these two single girls they're going for it because guess what if we're talking tapas and fucking wine and going to bed at 2 30 for me at 25 versus hey have you seen this girl at grand we had profiles back then

like do you know about so and so yeah she's single she's out and she's in this group and it's going to be the four of us there's no fucking debate on what i'm doing zero there's no like oh i'll go do that little j jt late at night and i'm not talking timberlake i'm talking taylor right so So just be careful. Just be careful is all I'm saying. Hopefully the guy, the husband gets it because it's even worse if he doesn't get it. Hopefully he gets it. You've known each other since kindergarten.

It's probably not irreparable. But if you torpedo their party for an outside chance of a New year's eve hookup that bill can come do a lot later and then you kind of become the guy that like only cares about getting laid and you know guess what happens domesticated wives aren't super into having that guy around all the time uh i think that the the part that's uh the monkey wrench in this whole thing if you will is that you're all 25 which is why the husband should get this uh i think i think any whether you're married with a house or not you should know that 25 year old dudes sometimes fuck up the plans they don't show up they say they're gonna whatever i'm wondering is this a dinner party or is this a

party like is everyone having a place setting at this table like i just feels like i feel like i feel like you the guy who's the emailer who, I don't know if you're single or not, I forget what's going on here, but I feel like you should be able to listen. I'm just reading the tea leaves here. The group chat is a little bit strange as far as who's not answering and who's asking things. Um, just calling you and not, not giving you a chance to like, not text me back. Uh, is there a chance that these, that some of these dudes, either me included or not, could invite a couple of people if you vet them? Because people are really confused. There's some dudes that are really nervous they're not going to have a chance at a New Year's Eve kiss.

So I'm just wondering what's going on. You should be able to call this guy and get him alone in a room that's maybe not with his wife and just see what he even thinks about this before even the word gets out. You should be able to do that. And then the other thing is you are 25. I think you just have to know some dudes will say they're coming to a thing for a full year and then they just won't do it. And they'll have some sort of excuse about why it didn't happen. It's happened to me with a couple of people. It is what it is. You got to just remember like, oh, we're shitheads, right? Well, at least some of us are. We're in the shithead threshold of time. So I think maybe if you get the answer back that,

no, it's not happening, it's going to be very good. We've got napkin rings at the table and it's all very nice and it's going to be the way I want it. I think maybe some of those guys either show up and leave early or show up late, which probably wouldn't happen. The only move would be for them to show up and leave early if they still feel like they need to make this commitment. But I think these dudes, if they don't have a chance at a new year's eve kiss they're gonna find a way to get somewhere where they where they are so i just think it would be good to like get a guy on the phone maybe you since you're the emailer one who's put the most thought into it maybe you have to make the call just ask the host uh your buddy

uh what he thinks about this if they've known each other since they were five there should be some well you already know first of all okay but here's what you can't do don't do a yeah well maybe we'll probably stop by or whatever right do one of those don't do one of those tell them now tell them today right we're doing this other thing sorry we'll make it up to you actually have a plan on how you're going to make it up you're not you're 25 you're not going to plan it you will say you're going to do something you're never going to do it but um i know these are still at this age these nights are still a really really big deal it's just you have completely different visions and they're already going to be a little annoyed that you pulled out to do this other thing they

shouldn't be totally blown away like you said hopefully the husband gets it in this case um but sometimes again if the husband is less understanding that can be like even worse you know i don't know uh i just can't imagine too much time on it it was well it was well written and it started moving in a couple different pieces spent so much time on this everybody knows what's going to happen on this one everybody already knows like it's already it's don't look back man can't do what you're gonna do don't look it, man. Can't do anything. Do what you're going to do. Don't look back. It's already happened, and we're not even to the weekend yet. Right. Okay.

All right. Thanks to Kyle and Allison for her amazing work booking the show and getting us Sarah Walsh. Incredible. Incredible get. That'll do it.

We'll talk to you on Friday at the Ryan Rosillo Podcast from your spot. Thank you.