The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Masters Recap and Life Advice With Scott Van Pelt. Plus, Keeping an Eye on the Nuggets.

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the Denver Nuggets and where they may end up in the playoff seeding, among other NBA thoughts (2:20). Then ESPN's Scott Van Pelt joins the show to discuss Hideki Matsuyama's Masters win, the juxtaposition between the 2020 Masters in November and the 2021 Masters with the return of some patrons and the famous azaleas, and more (19:00). Finally, Scott joins Ryen in answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (45:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

look as far as the golf itself went let's be honest it wasn't thrilling because he he kind of he squeezed the life out of it and the people that were trying to chase him the big name guys couldn't do it and then this is a zalatoris guy and his first masters played great but it's just like i i have up in front of me ryan, the 19-leader board when Tiger won. So Tiger won, most incredible thing ever. But he didn't just win. Xander was second, Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Tony Finau was always there, John Rahm, Ricky Fowler, Bubba Watson, Holters in the mix, Justin Thomas,

Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth. These are all the people that were circling that Sunday. And you had people rinsing it in the water on 12 and you got Tiger and you got, there were like 75 storylines. It felt like the end of one of those Marvel movies where every superhero shows up, they were all there. And then you compare that to yesterday and it's like, okay, well, it wasn't quite the same thing. But I mean, God bless, you know, the winner, he deserved it. He earned it. And we were in Augusta. So like, it was fine.

It was good. It just wasn't what the last one in the spring was like. Great show as expected. My man Van Pelt is going to join us fresh off a trip to Augusta. We're not going to do all golf. We're going to do a bunch of other stuff and the NBA in 10 minutes or less. NBA 10 minutes or less. We can start the clock now.

The funny thing is the the the game I wanted to watch probably the most of I don't know the last few days was Philadelphia New Orleans which I'm going to touch on here a little bit but Denver Boston and I wasn't expecting to watch it from a Boston angle whatsoever I wanted to see Denver up close and I've been doing this a little bit more because let's face it the season's been a little tougher to figure out Saturday night may be the single worst night of basketball in years when you look at the results and what was going on there. But with Sunday's game

with Denver, I'm like, okay, I want to watch this team because let's do a Denver recap because this was a very heavy Denver angle going into it and still is after the fact, even though Boston won the game because I just still don't really know what to make of Boston other than it feels disappointing and it's going to continue to be disappointing. But Denver was 17-15 at one point this season still can't defend uh the Murray regression from

where he was in the playoffs was real but then he put together an incredible stretch I think I the last time I had said you know he's just not quite the same he had just started to turn it around again where he's putting together these these great stretches of games we're not just talking about a couple games month month plus. And then Joker, who arguably is MVP because of all the different pieces that have fallen down in front of him, whether it's LeBron, Harden's momentum has stalled a bit.

He could get that back and bead missing time and all that stuff. I mean, Jokic may win it by default here now because he just is the guy that's been around the entire time. And there's some statistical stuff that backs it up that's incredible. And the team had been playing so well. So think about that 17 and 15 to 34 and

18 going into the game against Boston. And they're winning throughout the entire game until a 31 to three run by Boston, where the announcers Marlo and Hastings, I like those guys, by the way, they called it quote, the worst stretch of the season. And it was like, as I was watching it, I go, what, how bad is this? And then when they said 31 to three, you go, did I actually just watch a 31 to three run by another team? Like that's nuts because Boston had kind of sucked for these long stretches. I mean, over time to beat Minnesota at home, you know, you beat the Knicks. Okay.

But that came down to the wire too. And Boston's a far more talented team, and you're still kind of in this weird spot. You're like, I'll probably lose this one too. I don't really know what Boston is other than Tatum going absolutely off and the youngest player now with 50 points for the Celtics in that T-Wolves game. Excuse me, Timberwolves.

But for the most part, it's a Tatum thing or a Jalen game. The Rob Williams improvement's been nice, but Kemba's a $35 million backup point guard right now. And unfortunately for Boston, it feels like the most expensive guy on their team for four of the last five years has been the biggest problem or somebody that just isn't playing. So back to the Denver part of it, I'm not going to freak out because they blew this game. It was just ugly. It was awful. The bench was bad for Denver. And even though some of the roster stuff was with Denver at Denver's bench,

you're like, okay, but they're fifth in scoring. They're fifth in bench scoring. There's times where I like PJ Dozier. You know, with Gordon, you move everybody back a spot. But Jamal Murray hadn't played in his fourth straight game. So I'm not even looking at Sunday's game as anything other than just, you know, just a really, really ugly Sunday afternoon where everything went bad and everything got away from him. Joker was pissed off in this one, too.

It was pretty interesting. I actually think he was trying to get thrown out and get a second technical later, and then they just benched him at the fourth minute mark because it didn't really matter anymore. The positive for him has been Michael Porter Jr., who for the last couple months, 53% from three in March, 43% from three in April. That's with a one from 12 shooting day from three. He was one for 12. He had 20 yesterday against Boston, but he's one of 12 from three. Yeah, Michael Porter, Jr., I mean, look, he can rebound. He can score. He's not going to pass. He's not going to get to the free throw line, but the shooting

numbers were off the charts, and he was terrible yesterday. Gordon, who's now played in eight games, actually has single digits in four of those eight games and he's not really rebounding. So if you looked at the stats, you go, wait, has he been a big disappointment? But I think what it is is just that you can see this version of Gordon that's happening where he doesn't dribble. He's not initiating offense. He's figuring out how to play with all these guys. And this Denver team has really put it together here in the second half.

And as I look at all these defensive stats, whether it's concerns about Brooklyn or concerns about Denver, I'm almost to the point where, as I've touched on this a few times, I may rather have you just be kind of average defensively and amazing on offense. And then we'll see. We'll see how this plays out. That could be a big mistake. I'm not married to that statement, but it just feels like this is what the game is right now. Looking at the over 500 records, meaning what is your record

against teams over 500? I'll pull this up quick. Denver is 15 and 11. Utah is 23 and 9. Phoenix is 18 and 7. The Clippers are 17 and 12. Lakers are below 500, 11-14. I don't really know what that means. I don't know what any of the Lakers stuff is going to mean here. Portland's 9-14. Dallas, 16-13. So that is not surprising to anybody that's been watching Portland this year. They play the better teams. I've always felt like the better teams can kind of get what they want

when they need to late against Portland, where Dallas actually has a pretty good record, and everybody else is below that. By the way, in the East, only two teams have a good record against teams 500 or above. Philly's 16-12. Brooklyn is 19-8. Everybody else is below 500 in the East.

I mean, God, some of these records are terrible. Okay, so back to figuring this out because now when you look at the strength of schedule and what's happening here and you're trying to figure out, okay, what does this mean? Because Denver's sitting there in the four spot, two games behind the Clippers. They could definitely get to the three. If you get out of that four or five spot, I don't know necessarily what's going to happen here with the Lakers and getting guys back because it's still going to be some time.

The Lakers aren't going to drop all the way to eight. That's ridiculous. I've seen that brought up a few times. There's just no way. They're not going to lose six games in the standings here. But if you look at some of the strength to schedule stuff, it also helps you get a sense of is any of this misleading? So if you look at Utah, if we're going to do some strength to schedule here stuff and trying to figure out kind of where Denver can go, I'm going to get to all the strength of schedule stuff that's remaining here. Utah, to this point, has played either the hardest or fifth hardest schedule in the NBA so far. Depends on what you want to look at here. I went through a couple different versions of sorting it, but Utah has played a hard schedule.

Well, they're two and a half up on Phoenix, and you're trying to figure out, all right, do I actually like Phoenix better than Utah? They beat them twice. I'm not going to do a recency bias, but I do like the Chris Paul against the Gobert thing that I saw. At least I think that's what they're going to try to do. I trust Chris Paul right now at the end of the game as much as probably anybody in the league, certainly more than Donovan Mitchell, even though Mitchell's put up absurd numbers that we're going to get to in a little while here. But Phoenix has had the 23rd hardest schedule. So should that tell us that Utah is actually that much better than them? Again, I'm not 100% sure.

I'm just sharing this stuff with you. So the rest of the way for those seven teams in the West, Utah has the easiest schedule in the NBA remaining. 30th. All right? Because it's been front loaded. It's been hard. The rest of the way, Utah has the easiest schedule.

Does that mean they're going to be the one seed? I don't know. Denver's 17th. The Clippers is 28th. Dallas is 29th. So Dallas is the second easiest schedule the rest of the way. So now you start looking at those teams bunch up going, okay, a lot of those teams actually don't have it that bad.

But on the other side, the Lakers have the seventh toughest. Doesn't really mean anything because it's lineup related. And then they end up beating Brooklyn on Saturday. Anyway, Kyrie got tossed in that one. Phoenix has the sixth toughest. And Portland has the third toughest schedule. So we'll see if that impacts any of this, but if you're a fan of either of those teams, you like being in one group more than the other. So that takes me to all-star scoring. Post all-star scoring right now, Steph leads the league at 31 a game on 50 and 41%

shooting splits. By the way, his offensive plus minus, which again, plus minus, not the entire story, but he is so far and away the best in the NBA this season on offensive plus minus. It's a staggering number. He's at over 10. It's like 3.1 differential between him and the number two offensive plus minus player

in the league, Damian Lillard. The gap between Damian Lillard to go down three points that he's behind Steph is the difference between Dame at number two and the next player that's that gap from him is 23rd in the league. That's how far Steph is away from everybody else, at least in this metric. So we know that part of it. Donovan Mitchell is second in scoring and the shooting splits are actually really good despite the fact that he can let it fly some nights because he lets the ego get involved. He's 29 a game, 47 and 39% splits. Why am I bringing this up? Because Zion's the most fun thing to watch in the NBA right now.

His drives the hoop. I don't think this is ridiculous to say that it's kind of Kobe and Jordan-esque at this point. I'm not saying he's out of those guys. He's going to have to win games. He's going to have the very predictable turning timeline of any of our young stars where it's all roses and hugs and we love everybody and it's the best. And then you keep putting up all these numbers and your team's an eight seed and we're like, okay, does this guy suck? And it's happened to Giannis, it'll happen to Giannis again, but at least Giannis' team wins a ton of games and they're in the playoffs. So I don't know what's going to happen with Zion here, but in the meantime, in the present,

I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Ben Simmons couldn't guard Zion. Couldn't guard him. There's nothing he could do with him. I don't know if there's anything you can do with him right now. They put Dybel on him. They put Mike Scott on him. They brought Danny Green to try to pressure him three-quarter court

because Zion's bringing the ball up, initiating the offense all the time, which everybody's finally caught on and seeing this. But Ben Simmons, who I'd probably give defensive player of the year to, could not guard Zion. They had no chance. And New Orleans won that game. And it was weird because there was also something else going on in that game where Steven Adams, you were like, this is why you paid Steven Adams all this money because he was really good against Embiid Embiid coming back from that injury I don't know if you saw the early return of that knee brace it looked like a third leg um with him phrasing but he I'm not going to worry about Embiid all that much right now Philly lost that game not a big deal but the Zion part of it and that he's absolutely unstoppable is incredible

so now as I say that it's like wait a minute Rosillo then why would you have Ben Simmons your defensive player of the year over Rudy Gobert, who defensive plus minus, he's off the charts. There's also different defensive player ratings where Gobert is one and the gap is pretty significant. Simmons is one, is four on some of those. There's another plus minus where Simmons is actually way behind Gobert. It's not even close, but I guess the difference would be for me, if i'm voting for defensive player of the year do i want to vote for go bear who if you go at him at the rim it's stupid ironically boston i don't even know why i'm saying ironically anymore but boston seemed to be one of the few teams in a in a rudy matchup where i go do you are you guys not familiar with this guy

do you not have the video game you don't know this guy does? Because they were trying him at the rim, and guess what? It never worked. Where if Chris Paul or, it was kind of funny to watch Sacramento do the opposite of what other teams do do. Sacramento pissed away a lead late in a matter of minutes. Nothing like the 17-point lead that they blew in, what, two minutes when they couldn't make any free throws months ago. That was one of the ugliest games I think I've ever seen an ending to but Sacramento you know the difference between having grown-ups on the court and not having grown-ups Sacramento as much as I love their backcourt not exactly grown-ups exposing different things where Chris Paul was like hey this is exactly what we're going to do and this is how we're going to run our offense so the reason I bring all that up is that I just don't know. I don't know if I would want to vote defensive player of the year for the guy that it seems like other teams when they're trying to get a bucket later, actually scheming and setting screens to make sure they can go at the defensive player of the year and move him out.

That may seem unfair. I don't really care. Those are just my observations. But on the other side of that, Simmons, even with that defense, is that defense actually going to prop him up enough to have people vote for him all NBA? Because that would seem to be excessive because he is still just an offensive piece in Doc's system where everybody does touch the basketball. But when decisions are actually being made about offense, Ben's just not really involved in a lot of those things. But he does do some of the other

stuff that's really good. But one of the 15 best players in the league, I don't see it. But I could see the momentum with Ben Simmons defensively and the way he's talked about. I could see him getting votes for it. But if he is top 15, that would be weird. Okay, one final thought here, and that is, hey, is we're still going to talk about not liking Dwight Howard?

Yeah, I am. Because in that game against Zion, Dwight goes up and throws him a shiver, a forearm shiver to the head area as Zion is taken off from the ground. You want to be tough. You want to be an intimidator. And I want some of these things, right? I want my team to fight and I want fighters. But there's a line and Dwight's crossed it in his own frustration of the

demise of his own career. And that takes us to Pat Beverly's play against Chris Paul in the Phoenix game. Um, Beverly stuck his elbow out as Paul was bringing it up in transition. And that's when Clippers got Phoenix, um, after Phoenix had beaten Utah, nice win by the Clippers. Clippers keep putting together some of these nice wins here. They're, they're not, they're not a whole thing right now. So I actually think it's been pretty impressive that they kept this thing going and not falling apart like some of the other teams, but they still have enough pieces to feel good about it.

But Beverly throws an elbow into Paul. Paul knows exactly what's going on. And it's not that Beverly did it. Okay, fine. Bad foul play. It happens. It happens to a lot of guys. I respect the fact that Beverly comes from where he comes from. I respect the fact that Beverly comes from where he comes from. I remember watching him early in college and in Houston thinking, hey,

you know, one of the ones I got right, there's something here to him. It's always one of those difficult things. I remember having Draymond Green on set in person in Toronto where I said, you know, look, do you ever think some of your stuff complaining all the time, like you have to get the call, you have to have a conversation all the time. Do you think any of it can be curbed? Do you think any of it can be, you know, excessive at times? And this is considering what had happened after basically helping cost his team another NBA championship. And Draymond's like, what now? He's like 70 million bucks, man. He's like, if I'd listened to what everybody said about me and all that stuff, second round pick and can't do this, can't do that and all this stuff. He's like, i've listened to what everybody said about me and all that stuff second round pick and can't do this can't do that and all this stuff he's like i'm me because of all these things and

you know what he's right i respect it it's hard to ask the one person to give you all the other stuff you like when their entire makeup their entire dna is is wired in such a way that all the good things happen and to say just stop stop doing all the bad things. I think complaining to the refs all the time, it can be stopped. I actually think it can be. But for Beverly, who can't help himself, and it is out there and is numerous, numerous times crossed the line from intimidator, tough guy, fighter to I'm just going to be a dirty fucking player. He goes right up to Jay Crowder with his hand up to then instigate with Jay Crowder.

And Jay Crowder pushes him away. Like, what are you doing? Like, Beverly fouls him, fouls Paul, puts his hand up, and then beelines it to get in Jay Crowder's face while he's sticking one up in the air the entire time. And you're like, oh, you're just actually just trying to be super annoying right now. And Crowder pushes him off. And then Beverly looks at him like, why are you touching me? And Crowder's like, what are you doing? So I don't know if it's going to get worse

towards the end of this regular season that's trying to piece it together here and limping towards the finish. But it's just at least something worth paying attention to. Time, Kyle. 16 minutes. Yeah. I knew I was going to go a little bit longer on that one,

but Hey, you know what? It's not a guarantee and it's still free. So, so you're good to go. He's probably one of the top 20 guys on the golf coverage. I would say nationally. So we were, we were lucky to crack that top 20 scott van bell choices top 20 ish you know yeah somewhere in there just hoping to make the cut play the weekend right and i'm not even talking regional i'm talking

regional and national so that's a lot of that's a lot of guys out there. How many is this for you? 97 was the first. And I missed one or two maybe along the way. So I don't know. It's 20-something. It's a lot. I'm so effing old.

I can't even process it. You know what's funny is on the broadcast, they were like, Phil Mickelson's 29th. I was like, 29? I'm like, no way. Something's 29th. I was like, 29? I'm like, no way. Something's wrong. There's things as you get older, there's little age tricks where you'll go, there's no way that's right. And then you're like, it's right. Yep. Sure. Well, somebody pointed out last week that the Tiger Woods, you know, have you ever

in your life, the Vern Lundquist call where he chipped it up the hill and then it went back in. It was 16 years ago. You're like, if you just sit here right now and go like, if someone, if there's multiple choice and it said five years, eight years, nine years, 16 years, 16 would not be your guess, but that's what it was. So, I mean, and Augusta has that way of playing tricks on you when you've gone there, you know, as, as every year, the way I have for, for so long. So it's, it's totally messes with your head, but it's, you know, especially in year the way I have for so long. So it's totally messes with your head. But it's, you know, especially in the springtime to get back there, there's, it's all the cliches, but you've seen it in person.

You know, it's real. Like it's not hyperbole when it comes to that place. It's that good. Before we get to Augusta and everything, I do think that there needs to be some work done on the calendar because, you know, credit to the Mayans and everybody who got involved. But there needs to be a different calendar that's handed out to you past a certain age, maybe like in five-year increments. I like that.

Where they go, your calendar, like once you're over 50, it's six months is a year. But it's just wait, just wait and see. See, because your age starts with a four and you're starting to feel that thing slide. But man, you get to be my age and you start going to the hardware store for no reason and shit just gets away from you. And the next thing you know, it's like, wait, my kid's in college. What I thought, I, I thought we were going to, uh, I thought we were going to lake compounds. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like, Hey, I bought you this shirt and it's like, you know, yeah exactly exactly like hey i bought you this shirt and it's like you know it's it's a pepe the pig deal and and your kids like i have a car what are you what are you talking about i don't want

to wear this pig shirt anymore okay all right so look uh as i've said and even not as a golf guy of all the venues i've i've ever been to in sports if you're just a sports fan, Augusta is one. I'd say LSU football on a Saturday and a heavyweight fight in Vegas. If you're not interested in any of those things, try to find a way if you care about this kind of stuff to go because it's that amazing. So now that, you know, with the odd schedule of last year and patrons back on the grounds, what was it like? It felt more, it felt more like it typically does. Just even a few people, enough's an analogy to be made of like, if you go to like a popular restaurant or in our younger days, the club, and like it gets good and then it gets too good.

Then there's too many people. And then it's like, well, it's almost too crowded. We need to have a bit more space. We need to get to the next tier of VIP, right? You know what I always joke about? Well, wait, no, no. Like Jay-Z's up there in the balcony. We're down here in the middle of a mosh pit. How do we get to that second level where we've got a little more room? It felt like it's always exclusive. You always feel like you're thrilled you get to go. But then you realize when it's totally thinned out that it's, Oh, this is kind of nice to have space to be able to go to the merchandise center

for the 12th time to buy bucket hats. And it's not, you know, so many people. Um, and, and so it was, it'll be great to get back to the full on everyone's there because there's an energy they provide. You've seen it, you've experienced it. Like it's, it's hard to describe it. Um, but just having anybody there was such a, such a help from November, which was really eerie, man, walking around that place. No azaleas. It's November game day was there, you know, like it was, it was like the last thing I did in November was, was go do game day. And it's like, they're getting ready to, it's like Alabama LSU.

You can't process it. But they did their best to play it then. I'm glad they did. And now you're kind of back on this calendar. Thanks, Mayans. We're back in April. And it felt closer, closer. Okay, so Matsuyama runs away with it.

Look, I didn't know a ton about him. I'm certainly casual when it comes to golf, but I was looking through it and getting ready to talk to you. We're like, okay, well, he's had, what, four top five finishes in majors. He seems to be a guy. Go ahead. No doubt. And he's won on big boy courses.

Like he won at Firestone in Akron, which hosted World Golf Championship events. It's a big boy course that, you know, tigers won there a ton. He's won a Memorial, uh, Jack's tournament, another big boy, Augusta inspired golf course, another place tigers won a bunch. So like he's got wins. He was the low amateur a decade ago. He was a guy that everyone thought, sure, he could do this, but you said, you don't know a lot about him i mean i cover golf i i thought about this last night of a major champion who's been as good as he's been for as long as he's been i know

less about him than any player i can ever think of and it's because you know with the language thing i think he's like like each year he understands the language if you ask him a question but he's more comfortable speaking in japanese which i i understand that um but because he's very close to the vest, like when you saw him kind of pumping his fist at the end, I'm like, good, I'm glad that it hit him. You know, like, I'm glad that there's emotion there because he never showed you any, but like, just in terms of his profile, he was 25th in the world. So this is okay. This is what you're supposed to do if you're that. And this feels a little bit overdue in a sense, because people kept waiting for him to break through. But what's wild is like over the course of me covering golf, I was going back. There was a guy named Shingo Maruyama,

who is this really energetic kind of had a huge personality. He got to top 20 in the world. There was another guy named Shingo Katayama, the cat in the hat. He wore that cowboy hat. That was kind of his thing. He had some style and some flair. He got to top 30 in the world. Then there was another guy named Ryo Ishikawa, who was young, teenager, like super into fashion, spiky hair, kind of rock star. Yeah, I remember that guy. No one rooted for him.

Well, in Japan, he was going to be it. Didn't happen. And Hideki's the guy that was always the one. This was going to happen at some point. And now that it has, it's like, my guy Andy North's like, it's going to be worth a billion dollars. Now, Andy gets a little bit excited from time to time. What does that mean? You got to rein him in. Andy, come on back to reality and the shore over here. But I asked David Duvall, he's like, no, he could be nine figures a year. And here's what that means. In Japan, it's almost impossible to wrap your head around how big a deal a player like Hideki is and how the craze of golf, like in the non-COVID times, he's got like an

entourage of 20 some odd media people that follow him every day. Just him. Like the rest of like Tiger, we don't give a shit about Tiger. What's what's, what's our guy doing? And that's a lot of pressure. And so Andy was saying, man, like, I can't imagine how much, how much pressure is on his shoulders, knowing what this would mean. No male Japanese player had ever won a major. And so that first swing on, on the, on the first hole, like he, like he barely hit it on the club face. Like it's like sideways, right. And we're like, Oh God, here we go. And then he, you know, he barely hit it on the club face. It's sideways right. And we're like, oh God, here we go. And then he gathers himself and he wins. But off the course, endorsements, I can't even fathom how many different ways there would be to market him. He might come out at

Kiowa for the PGA looking like Ricky Bobby with just like Wonder Bread logos on every inch of his body. And if he does, good for him. But look, as far as the golf itself went, let's be honest, it wasn't thrilling because he kind of squeezed the life out of it. And the people that were trying to chase him, the big name guys couldn't do it.

And then this Zalatoris guy and his first Masters played great. But it's just like I have up in front of me, Ryan, the 19-leader board when Tiger won. So Tiger won, most incredible thing ever. But he didn't just win. Xander was second, Kepka, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Tony Finau, who's always there, John Rahm, Ricky Fowler, Bubba Watson,

Holters in the mix, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth. These are all the people that were circling that Sunday. And you had people rinsing it in the water on 12, and you got Tiger, and you got, there were like 75 storylines. It felt like the end of one of those Marvel movies where every superhero shows up. They were all there. And then you compare that to yesterday and it's like, okay, well, it wasn't quite the same thing. Um, but I mean, God bless, you know, the winner, he, he deserved it. He earned it. And we were in Augusta. So like, it was fine. It was good. It just wasn't what the last one in the spring was like. It feels like you can't ever do a segment without asking about tiger and knowing, you know, the accident, not that far from my house up here and everything was going on and you know it appears to just be a

completely unfortunate deal where maybe it's going a little too fast a lot too fast yeah it could have been way worse um but considering that's part of the topic like i remember when i was there and he wasn't playing people were talking about him the entire time so what was that like it's so it's the same bit you know like there's There's majors with him and there's majors without him. And majors without him feel like majors without him. And the circumstances that surrounded this one made it feel different because you start thinking, well, I mean, none of us know what exactly the extent of his injuries are. And Tiger's not the kind of guy who's going to tweet out, yeah, my foot's all jacked up, man. I don't know. I don't know if it's ever going to work out. Like you're just never going to hear it.

It's just one day, who knows? I mean, a year from now, six months, a week, I don't know. If he can do it, maybe he'll turn up and you'd be like, oh, there he is. And he won't show up if he's not ready. But I don't think we're ever going to know until he tells us like, okay, I can do it. Or as it turns out now, what happened to my leg means I kind of can't like, there's so much mystery that he's, he's shrouded in, but like, he's always going to be a topic, you know, like Justin Thomas was a pre-tournament favorite. Rory's a pre-tournament favorite. They live in his neighborhood and they both mentioned last week that they'd been going over to his house just to kind of hang out, which I take as a good sign.

I mean, like he's able to kind of, I guess, get around where he lives to some degree. I don't know if it's Walker or what. Again, I don't know. But just the fact that people, he's not like, stay away, stay away. It seems optimistic, but I'm just totally guessing here about that. But he's always going to be a topic until he says, I'm done or I can't. You're always going to wonder like, hey he says i'm done or i can't you're always going to wonder like hey can he come back and do it and at some point man he's going to be as old as jack

when jack won his last one which was 46 and that's another thing where you messes with your mind like how could he be that old but he will be um yeah because when i was a kid it was like he was 100 you're like wait he's he's i'm i'm the same age as him now? Part of Adam, right? This isn't the best transition. And I do like to do these topics with somebody like you that understands it so much better. So maybe people that aren't as locked in. But you're watching Phil, and he missed the putt where he could have gone to a red number, and he's pissed. And you're like, okay, you get it.

And yet, these guys are still the best. We can understand it. And the team sports are always locked in and we're like, okay, that guy's slipping a little bit. He's getting older. I mean, other than LeBron and hockey players, it feels like age. And I guess I'd have to throw Brady in that group now too. So we're seeing people extend the timeline longer than we ever could have imagined growing up watching team sports. But when a golfer ages, especially with the technology that, you know, people were laughing like par fives don't really exist anymore. You know, like it doesn't, if you look at scoring averages on par fives, it's like it says par five, but it's not really a par five anymore.

And that's where guys make their money. But what happens to an older golfer? You know, you've been around it for so long. When guys start to go like, this is when you know. I can understand the game. I can hope that I can keep pace, but I just can't score four straight days because of age. That's the key right there. You said it, four straight days.

And if you look, Fred Couples had a string there after he turned 50. It was nuts, Ryan. He had a string of five straight years where he didn't just like, oh, hey, that's cool. Fred made some birdies. No, he was in the last group. It's Saturday, and Fred Couples is in the last group or the second to the last group. Then the issue is four days. That's a long way to go. Even for younger guys, look at Justin Rose. He's only 40, but he had that great first day. Couldn't ever put another really good round together.

So I think, I think Phil's interesting in that. And I, I may have mentioned this yesterday with, um, my guy McQuaid, who, you know,

who's sort of my, like my, I don't even know what you call him. He's my, my, uh, console Yeri. Uh,

it looks at, he's, uh, he's like, if fitting is, is herb streets guy, McQuaid is your fitting. He's my, there you go. Uh, it looks at, he's, uh, he's like, if fitting is, is herb streets guy, McQuaid is your fitting. He's my,

there you go. He's my guy. And he's been my guy forever. We were just sitting in his office watching. I'm like, you know what? Give credit to Phil. Like he,

and he'd made fun of himself. Like there's, he sent out a picture from wing foot from like, Oh six. When he was like, you know, kind of a big squishy. And now he's on,

you know, he's other, other side of 50. And he's like, give me the Jay Linderberg lean fits. Give me the body armor. He looks really good and he's got massive

swing speed, which gives you a chance to have the length to compete. He finished even. He had a putt on 18 to finish 100. He'll be able to compete, particularly at Augusta for years. Is he really going to compete, particularly at Augusta for years. But can he, like, is he really going to be better

than Jon Rahm for four days? Jon Rahm's in his 20s. Like, what are the odds? Really, they're stacked against you. So in his mind, he doesn't think that because you got to be competitively arrogant. And he is. But like the odds,

like it's just 72 holes, a long way to go when you're competing with a bunch of 20-sums. Is there any truth to the rumor that Freddie Couples thought he was actually 38 when he was 50? I think Fred is. It's not a rumor. I believe it's true.

What was better than getting a text and a break from Couples? It was just like when we were doing radio. He was just out there bored out of his skull. He'd fire in regularly. Freddie wanted to, hey, ask Grisello. Because he loves sports more than anybody. He remains undefeated, that guy, he is his life undefeated. It was an unbelievable feeling because it was, it was constant. And it was always kind of funny with you because you would get texts from,

you know, some big names from your life in it. And like, I remember, I don't know who the golfer was who didn't like me or something. So I was was on fire about something and and i think it wasn't stewart sink but it was somebody else i think it was curtis strange it was like what the fuck's wrong yeah like what the fuck's wrong with rossillo today and you're like well you know don't worry about it but then freddie would go ask rossillo he thinks the wizards can get a top four seed this year and i would just think it was it was the funniest thing ever. What are they going to do with Blatch? And they get an asset for Blatch?

What do we think? He's great, though. And he's in front. Like, the thing about winning here, and I mean, if you're not a golf person, I get it. And if you haven't been there, I get it. You kind of roll your eyes. But, you know, the idea that for the rest of your life,

you get to turn up in the spring, go to that dinner on a Tuesday night, BS with the fellas, and play that place. turn up in the spring, go to that dinner on a Tuesday night, BS with the fellas and, um, and play that place. I mean, that's something you earn along with the jacket and the dough and all the rest. So I think, you know, there's a lot of things that make that place, um, pretty special to a lot of people. That's, that's, if you're a player, that's the number one thing. I do love whenever you bring up any fashion, um, shout jay lindenberg and their their styles but when we would do the show and go over the dress shirts that you would buy like there was a timeline of dress shirts that you would buy when you couldn't afford anything and then you thought

you could afford stuff and then you'd be like no wait a minute now i'm buying these kinds of dress shirts and then you're buying up all these dress shirts and for you it actually made sense and then i was still dressing up the first few years of the show and then towards the end of it they were lucky to get me in anything other than sweatpants and a t-shirt right um because things had just loosened up a bit and i was like yeah you know this is kind of where i'm at now just gonna go with the roan stretchies and we're all set when you when you broke down when you worked your way up to ike bahar dress shirts and then post ike bahar what the next step is that is still one of

the funniest fucking things we've ever done and i know no one else will care but you had it mapped out they're like and this is when you start to get the ike bah Bahars. Maybe you can get the Joseph Aboods. Some nice earth tone Aboods. Get you that first olive Joseph Abood. Throw a nice Ike Bahar in there with a little stripe, some Robert Talbot neckwear. Robert Talbot. Now we're talking.

Now we're talking. And then, then, you know, maybe you get to that. And of course at ESPN, it's maybe not the next contract, but the one after the next contract. That's when you finally feel like, okay,, maybe you get to that. And, of course, at ESPN, it's maybe not the next contract, but the one after the next contract. That's when you finally feel like, okay, now maybe we can go for some of the,

maybe we can get a little custom Zegna. Maybe we can go into that, step into that Brioni neck space. And now I've gotten into, I've stepped into some other stuff. Where are you now? I've stayed there. I've stayed there. Brioni? Yeah.

Brioni's about, you know, that neck, their neck, the tie knot you can make with a Brioni is, is maybe undefeated, but I'm pretty, I'm pretty Zenya loyal.

Um, I don't, I don't need to go fancier than that. Uh, it's quite nice. I love it. Has a nice hand. That's,

that's some, that's some term that it like a Taylor used with me. And I'm like, Oh yeah, I don't know what the fuck a hand meetings. I think it means's nice fabric i don't know i just go yeah it's a really really good hand no i remember early on in the process maybe before even you and i like having a couple ike bahars in my hands at marshalls and going going you know what i can't i can't justify this no i can't it like $73 or something.

Yeah, Marshalls. It might have been $42, and I was like, you know what, Rye? Maybe one day I'll get there. Okay, how are you hitting them? Are you hitting them long and straight? This is always my favorite part of the interview whenever we'd ask the guest about their golf game, which is something that... No idea.

When's the last time you played, seriously? Played actual golf? I haven't. I was down in Florida with the fam and went out with the middle guy, Sam. He loves to hit them. Played a couple holes with him. But I don't remember the last time I showed up

and either got in a cart or started walking on the first tee to the 18th green. It was last year sometime, but I don't remember when. I'm going to fix that, though. Because people will always ask me about your golf game. Just lie. Tell them I'm good. But see, that's the thing that I think...

Do you think golf or pickup basketball... What do more people think they're better at that they're not at than those two things? Skiing. Skiing? Skiing's probably a good one, but I don't know. No, that's easier to lie about.

You just, oh yeah, I was up on the moguls, back bowls at Bale. I know you weren't, but I have no way I've ever, I'll never find out if that's true or not. That's the easiest one to lie about. Whereas pickup hoops, like you might find yourself in a game. And then if you're, you know, Philip Seymour Hoffman making it rain off the top of the backboard, it's like, Jesus Christ, man,

you've been lying to me my whole life. I think, and it golf's the other one too, that it probably, if you know somebody socially and you live in the same place, like you and I, even we even got out there at Womp. Got out there a few times.

A couple of times at it, but like it's, it's a sport where if you don't play it a lot, you're just not going to be good at it. You're not. It's too hard to do well. I don't want to do too much on our golf outings in Connecticut, but I will

never forget there was a guy who was just sort of in the mix. He was in the mix, and he would come over 12 Coors Lights in, Kodiak was just sort of in the mix he's in the mix and he would come over 12 cores lights in kodiak all over his face upper deck on the right the guy can't figure out if he's dipping in the

top or the bottom deck like you just basically he's eating chew yeah right he's he's spitting into the cores light but he's like oh wait wait. And then he played a couple holes with us. And then every now and then I'd see him out and about. And then it was funny because I ran into him when everything was between the lines. He's like, what are you doing with your money? I was like, well. Just so we can speak frankly with one another. My first impression of you is you just kind of wandered into our group, 12 Coors Heavies into your day eating chew.

I'm going to pass on putting any mutual fund cash in your possession. I remember that. He was pitching me on this mortgage fund. I was like, I don't know. You might know. Look, I went to school with you. I know you. I know exactly what we're talking

about but there's just certain moments where it's got to be tightened up a little but then he gets a hot booze breath it's like no dude libor oh my god that's what it was that's the libor yeah yeah and i was just like you're gonna have to explain it to me another day like that like later never uh what else is going on with you how's how's the move it's interesting i mean we're it's uh i think summer will be good because you know our families had a place here bethany beach uh delaware shout out to the delaware shore shout out to the starboard my guy monty up in dewey uh and my is, is that that'll be helpful for the fam, like the realization that you could go a couple hours East and be at the beach for however long. Cause I mean, you, you, you get that chunk of time off in the summer.

And my hope is that that'll kind of make the idea of what this place is seem different. You know what I mean? Um, and we're really, we're great. I'm grateful that we have like that option and where we live and because their family's at a place there or whatever. And because it's just been weird. Like it's, I know it's still kind of what June's your finish line.

The governor's like, everybody can go out and do what you want in the middle of June or something, if I read that right. Yeah, probably July post-re-agency.

So. Understood. But I mean, it's, things are okay here, but there's places. We were in Florida, and it's like, you kind of do what you want. And there's pockets of the country here close to D.C. I mean, it's still kind of slow to really feel wide open.

But it's been a challenging year. Kids move schools. You're trying to figure people out. You can't go to a Caps game. You couldn't go to Maryland games. Just stuff I thought we'd do that would be part of the collateral of our lives hasn't happened yet. But we're getting there. Mostly, it's good.

I think I'm making it sound worse than it is. It's been good. I just think it'll be a home run when everything's kind of normal, whenever that is. We're going to do some life advices with you before you have to run. I miss that and mailbags. Let me just say real quickly, the genius of Priscilla was never more on display than mailbags. Never.

When you named your sporting goods store Sweats and Balls. Yeah, people wanted it on that. Yeah, and they would dump. But I mean, that was, we strung them along on dump. That never happened. But sweats and balls. I was early on the sweat stuff because I started,

I wore that one pair of fancy sweatpants. I go, something's going on here. And now it's just accepted. You wear that stuff to a nice dinner. Really? We should have opened sweats and balls and then dumped out the back. We could have been probably on a beach somewhere.

All right, what do you got for me 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 can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am liquid, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Okay, alright, here we go. We try to sift through these. I got a fake one in here that was so funny I still almost read it, but I knew it was fake. Okay, lifeadvicerr

at gmail.com. Alright, morning, guys. Big fan. 6'4", 34 years old, cut like De Niro in Cape Fear. Shout out to you. Remember when he was drowning? He's yelling at him. That's De Niro drowning in Cape Fear.

Thank you. Sorry. That was unbelievable. Okay, need your advice. This is a good one. You're going to like this one. Story starts 15 years ago back in college, Halloween 06. We had a solid eight-person crew back then.

Four guys, four girls, all platonic, which seems impossible. I don't know that I believe that. No chance. We were all dressed up, headed to a house party. On the walk over, one of my female friends mentioned she's invited her study partner from her class to join us at the party. We all get there. The party's raging. Everybody's already drunk.

Just usual Halloween shit. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot this slutty Betty Boop. Now, you're probably thinking, slutty Betty Boop? Trust me, it was nice. All right, first of all, we don't call... We don't use that term on this podcast. Aggressive. Liberated.

Very liberated in terms of how she felt. Betty Boop was ahead of her time. Okay, so anyway, Betty starts walking over us. As it turns out, she's my friend's study partner. Out of nowhere, my buddy, let's call him Dave, leans in and whispers dibs into my ear.

Now, dibs is not cool either, guys. Is that how it works? 06. Right, right. Okay. I've always thought dibs was stupid and disrespectful. Alright, our emailer's on the side. But I honored it for about 15 minutes. Dave completely strikes out and Betty was clearly feeling me.

Long story short, Betty and I went home together, dated for the next two years. Okay. My buddy Dave never got over it. He was pissed for a few days, which I expected, but even months and years together, this guy would always mention it with a sour tone. It clearly bugged him and impacted our friendship. From my standpoint, I thought it was childish and demeaning to my then girlfriend, which yeah, we, I think we're both on your side.

I don't want to speak for you, Van Pelt, on this one, but you know, you got to get over it. All right. Life moves on. She and I break up junior year. Things started to get back to normal with Dave. Still, even after all these years later, he brings it up almost every time I see him, even though I've been happily married to my wife now for 10 years. Here's where I need your advice. Dave recently announced to our friend group via Zoom that he's engaged. We've heard him talk about his fiance in passing and know that she was a couple years behind us in school, but we had never met her before. During the Zoom, she pops on camera to say hello, and I felt this horrible sinking stomach feeling in my stomach. I had a one-night stand with her back senior year. I could tell she also remembered based on her reaction to seeing me on camera.

I shouldn't tell him, right? It would possibly or absolutely devastate him, giving our history and ruin our friendship. Water under the bridge at the same time. I worry I'll regret not telling him before the wedding. I assume she hasn't told him either. I'm just not sure what should I do. That's a complicated situation here. I think that the Betty Boop story was shared to explain Dave's level of discomfort with what happened.

And given Dave's level of discomfort over Betty Boop, with whom you had nothing, the idea of spending your forever with someone that your buddy spent some time with. I don't know. I don't know how he's this Dave guy is like a real good friend. Yeah. It sounds like it, but look, I think we go back to the beginning where Dave kind of sucked. Yeah. Dave sucks. Like if Dave is going, I'm mad at you. If a girl doesn't like you, a girl doesn't like you. And you have to accept that maybe you're, this girl is going to like your friend more than you. And it, you know, no one wants to feel like I, someone else, you chose him over me, but dude, you had 15 minutes at a Halloween party. It sounds like De Niro here is probably better looking than Dave. So she went with him. Probably does that wheel

ab work where you do the wheel, right? Those are hard. It just feels like a peck tear waiting to happen as you get older. So, so the fact that the backstory is established and it sounds like Dave isn't real rational about a lot of stuff. Now I would, I would like to know, like if I were engaged in Van Pelt had dated the woman I'm about to marry, that'd be information I'd like to know. Dated? I would like, didn't sound like it was a date. It sounds different than dating. Um, I don't know how you tell them. i don't think you tell them no right i think you got to eat this one and just you know i don't know this is a this

is heavy i wasn't i i thought it was something i thought we were gonna have some like dogs i thought it could be like white belt and shoes kind of like how can i wear a white belt like so i thought we were gonna get maybe into some of that. This is really... Oh, it's heavy. It is heavy because... It gets heavy sometimes. And that's okay, but I think Dave would really struggle with this news. But it sounds like her reaction,

maybe she's going to have to tell him too. This is one where you've got to figure out a way to circle around the back of Dave and just say, listen, it was no big deal. It was a long time ago. You got a life. I got a life. We're all happy. I'm thrilled for you. Let's just, let's just keep on keeping on. You got to try to sort that out. Don't you? True. But if I were to try to understand Dave's position here, um, I would not love it. If like a guy in my wedding party party is, is up there, you you know hands in front of the hips oh we're standing there if you're standing with him then you then you got to have a sit down you're just sitting in the back

you could just sweat a lot and be like this is kind of messed up but so wait you think you tell him if you're in the wedding i don't know if he's in the wedding party or not but i had i had a moment in my life where there was something i was thinking about. And then I was like, I don't know. And then I go, Hey, there's a good chance. Like one of the guys in your wedding party is your wife is being walked down

the aisle. It's going to be like, I slept with your solo's wife. And I'd rather not have had that. Like, I don't, I'm not super complicated. Some things I am,

some things I'm, I'm not, that'd be something I just would prefer to avoid as a potential issue at some point now you personalize this and now and now we're saying like okay now this is you and you're saying okay now one of your boys are standing there and like that yeah that would be that'd be tricky that'd be a tricky one now the other calculation on this could be hey if this guy dave's really happy um he's he's found his one got mad about betty boop and she didn't even like him she didn't like him she didn't know him she didn't know him he got 15 minutes with betty boop but she was like uh no after he said dibs like she was the front seat

in a car that's not how that works yeah dibs, the dibs call was terrible. How old is the person that wrote this letter? Uh, they graduated in 26. So they're probably, uh, 2006. So they're probably what?

35, 36. Cause I mean, you get mature guys mature much later in life. Case in point, if at all. Yeah. Case in point.

It took me a long time to get there. So I think i'm viewing this through the mature lens of a happily married middle-aged man and thinking wow i don't i don't really like this situation for anybody because dave sounds like he's going to be really bummed if he knows but as you just personalize it that'd be really a tough one to find out about after the fact you stood there and didn't say anything to me and we just got it you know right yeah because then the other thing too is like what if what if she's gonna say something but then it's like okay so maybe i should is that the emailer goes to the the fiancee and be like hey should we talk about this and come up with a plan that's what i'm saying the whole time but if

it ever happens it's like dave goes wait so my boy who slept with my wife then got together with my wife and they came up with a plan to not tell me. So then I would start going like... No, Dave, we talked. This was something that happened a long time ago, and we were younger, and we didn't even know. You didn't even know him, and this is something, and it's not a thing. Some guy's going to have a hard time with it.

Yeah, I understand that. All right. Let's do a cooking one. This one's easier. Let's do something about butter substitute. I got no fix for Dave. Wow.

6'5", 190, 6'9", wingspan. Here we go. How's your lateral foot speed? Where are we going with this? This is Talon Horton Tucker chiming in. You know his wingspan's like seven one right do you know that i'd read it and then i saw him play some and he was going to the hall of fame for like a couple games yeah great around the room all right my life is sweet my girlfriend

and i've been living together for two plus years we're both big foodies and we were once uh each very good cook since moving in together i've taken over 90 of the home cooking this primarily because she works longer hours uh used to travel for work pre-pandemic but also i love cooking more than she does i really love it and i've become very good i brag about everything i do besides cooking because the cooking needs no bragging well i guess this guy's not writing in how do i improve my confidence no um she tells me to pursue it as a career this reminds me of the English office where where the guy's sitting there with the IT guy and he's like you ever been to motorcats he's like went once he's like

are you a professional I said no I'm not he said well you should be all I can hear in my head as soon as you said the British office office is sergio giorgini sergio giorgini i just sergio giorgini he's so proud of his base in that show he's unbelievable and i think the funny part is that there's there's something on the dvd which i used to own where they they help the english audience understand there's there's something on the dvd which i used to own where they they help the english audience understand there's there's probably five cultural references a show that none of us would ever understand like when he's making a joke about who his inspirations are it's some character from over there that i don't even know what the hell he's talking about and it's even funny like it's the

kind of stuff that he's doing that you know i don't i don't necessarily regret not growing up in london but i do maybe for not getting the full scope of those jokes west end no i don't i don't know what's going on i just know he's his ability to make you uncomfortable as a viewer is unparalleled you just are like oh my god please whatever that just change the scene change the scene so wait so what happened with the cooker the professional okay all right here we go so he's he's decided at 35 to not pursue it okay cool um but he's a good cook they're both in sales all right so the problem is is 10 of the time that she does the cooking she cannot as in a complete uh as in is in completely incapable no matter what scenario or how early she starts um having food ready before 10 30 she can't have

food ready before 10 30 so he basically is saying no matter what the dinner will start that late i focus on getting decent amounts of sleep. That is not important to her. She stays up working past 3 a.m. It's not uncommon for her to work through the night. She's a sales vampire. I also work out regularly. Shout out.

She does not. I would like to eat before 1030 so that I'm not immediately going to sleep after dinner. We know that. Breaking down the protein, some of the stuff. It's tough. All right. Yeah, we understand the science there. Because she cooks so rarely,

she assumes each time she does it, it's a special occasion and each meal seems to be 250% of what two people would ever make. Alright, so our portions are off too. This adds to the time needed. When these meals get more and more delayed, I've been told by her I have a tendency to get hangry. Tendency? It sounds like you definitely are.

Each time this happens, I tell myself to tell her 10 PM is my at home dinner cutoff time moving forward, but I don't know how to do this without seeming like I'm insulting or starting a fight. There's no way you can tell your girlfriend in the house, Hey, dinner cutoff time is 10 PM without she, no one's ever going to be cool with hearing that. Um, I volunteer to help however possible, but she turns that down and tells me to just relax and enjoy the night off from the kitchen. She knows I want to eat earlier, but like I said, she cannot achieve that no matter when she tries. I don't know how to say thank you, but this 11 p.m. and later dinners are ridiculous without her going on strike from cooking for

months and also protesting my 8 p.m. dinners out of anger. She's great with everything, but she's come so self-conscious with cooking lately that only adds the delay and seems to add to my problem of how to address this. Does this guy live in Barcelona or should I say Barthelona? Because if he does, if you don't be okay with it, then exactly. Cause if you don't, then I'm on his side that meals beginning at 1030. What are we, what are we talking about? Who eats at 1030? Like I get like, there's like New York city crowds that go out later, not LA. Well, West coast is a much earlier kind of a deal. It shuts down early here. Like Miami, you go out in South beach for dinner. I get a late dinner in Miami. Um, that there's a, it's a late starting kind of a deal down there. There's places regionally

where I'm familiar with this. I don't know where this guy lives, but I don't care. Because again, this is the old guy viewing this through a lens of 1030 at night, a meal beginning then. And I was starting to think about maybe you get yourself a plate of olives, get a couple, have a nibble on an olive, right? That's nice. Something sort of little tang in the mouth, a little spicy, something to nibble on. But like, how many olives can you eat till 1030? I just a little cracker for something. I think 10, I don't think this is an unreasonable request. Like you don't have to get hostile, but you just say, look, you stay up till three. I don't. Can we eat like before, before the local news comes on? That's not, that's not unreasonable. I'm on this guy's side here,

but I disagree. I disagree. I think, I think i think look i think it has surfaced yes it'd be nice if dinner a little bit earlier but his tone in that email tells me why this conversation is so complicated maybe he's he's strict he sounds like he might be a little bit more like deniro than just the rip part of this wait this is the same guy the deniro guy was a 34 year old guy oh no no no no i'm yeah no that's right i confused the two it doesn't matter but this guy works out he made that clear but let's just imagine that she's making up she's whipping up like a cachoy pepe it's at 11 and you're sitting in your gut like a cannonball you gotta lay down come on what are we doing like that's too late

to eat but i just did the math it says he said she does 10 of the cooking like we're talking about maybe two days a month that you're dealing with this like it's not that big a deal make it a saturday that's kind of where i go back to is that if she wants to do this for you and she's a good cook so like look first of all if you're a good cook then you are kind of a control freak all right and i know I know that when I would cook, cause I look, I, I actually cooked in a restaurant for a little while. I never made it to the line. Scott's seen the salt, throw it down there. Salt. Who's that guy? A little reduction, a little balsamic. So the thing is, is that I didn't want anyone to help me. So when I was dating somebody seriously

and she'd be like, Hey, what can I do? And I'd be like, you can sit down with a glass of salve and watch a TV show and just let me go. But what I didn't realize, cause I was younger is that she wanted to be part of it. All right. So you're going to figure out like,

Hey, okay, you can cut up the peppers and then don't be like, Hey, you're cutting them wrong. You know, it's you're fucking cooking at home. All right.

We don't, we don't, we don't need, you do that. Perfect. Will you do that? Will you hold it? The the pepper in one finger go and do it like super fast yeah i could do that but i don't you know i can tell right away with your finger placement right now i can tell you right when i cut a pepper it looks like a horse shooting it's a catastrophe it's just we're just willy-nilly pepper things everywhere and i don't know if i'm supposed to cut out that inside part of it.

But wait, if we do it on a weekend, okay. But look, man, just, I don't know. You could go to 7-Eleven and grab a hot dog at like 6.30. And then your stomach's going to be a little out of order anyway. And then by 10, you're probably like, oh, I'll have a few bites of this and we'll be good. I don't know. Here's what I think you should do.

This is what you should do. He should appreciate that she wants to do this and she's trying good. I don't know. Here's what I think he should do. He should appreciate that she wants to do this and she's trying to make it a special night. I don't think you should be such a control freak about this and lose your mind. But I had somebody once cook me meatballs and she didn't season the meat. No pepper,

no salt, and she cooked a hundred of them. A hundred of them. And there was a tub, an army, a WWII issued tub of meatballs in my in my fridge for a month because i felt bad just chuck them when she left right well she was around enough that she was going to notice that all of a sudden 40 meatballs weren't gone the next day and she'd be like well this would be great you can make them subs or whatever and i just went hey we gotta talk i go do you put any salt or pepper in the meat?

Did she put raisin? Did she put raisins in these meatballs, this woman? And so I go, you know, I go, there were wars over one of these ingredients, okay? Because it's that important to the meat part of the process, all right? So like salt's a big, big fucking deal historically. It is really big. And you need to understand that there is a reason people were so pissed about it because it just made stuff better and if you're going to cook anything with meat you just got to throw a little salt on it you have to not a ton i have

to be honest with the listener here i i'm familiar with this story i know who we're talking about here i'm just it's just the whole thing's a little it's a lot it's a lot for me she was a sweetheart about it she was an absolute sweetheart about it but i was like and she was so excited that she made all these meatballs and she's like you know you can have subs and i was like nope yeah well and then i you know i'm eating i'm like this is good and you're just like it's just a ball of meat and it didn't taste it didn't taste like anything there's no egg there's no breadcrumb there's no garlic there was no seasoning there's no salt there's no pepper it was just hamburger meat in a ball and cooked and uh and some red sauce out of a can yeah but she was she was doing her best there you go all

right here's what i think our guy should do our guy should decide because of portions and because of time let me be your prep cook. That's my solution to this. He says to her, the nights you cook, I will be a prep cook. I will prep all the portions out. I will make sure everything so that everything is ready to go. You're basically her own version of blue apron. You're blue aproning her.

Hey, what do you want to cook? You tell me what you want to cook. You can go buy if you want to or I'll buy, but I will prep everything and everything needs to be prepped and ready to go at seven o'clock so our cook time 8 8 30 couple glasses of wine and hey it's it's a cuddle fest and we're watching netflix by 10 o'clock love it we'll pound the veal get a little panko going some seasonings huh there you go i like it but don't panko too early no you gotta wait otherwise it's the whole thing falls apart i don't even know. I totally winged that. I didn't know what that meant.

I felt like I had one other thing to ask you because you've got to run, right? I've got to go pick up my guy, but I can – whatever. Where is he going to go? He's three. No, let me let you go because I don't want you to be – Is it one of these? Because these get involved. We've really got to work through these.

No, I don't – you know what? This is just a life advice to the parents out there. My sister and I were talking about how our parents were always the last parents to pick us up all the time, no matter what, everything. I don't want, I don't want your boy to start with that. So it's, it's traumatic. But let me, but let me, all right. But I just so you know, like when I get them, what we do is we get, there's a gas station right next to it. And we stopped there and we get an ice cream treat every day. And mom says, maybe we don't get ice cream every day just for going to school. And I'm like, no, you're right.

We won't. And then when we stop, I'm like, this is just a dad and son thing. And we run in the house. And the first thing, daddy bought me ice cream. I'm like, Jesus Christ, man. You got to work. So wait. So you're being told.

Do you think as an older dad, you're just like, I'm already, I don't care. I just, we're getting ice cream every day. 100%. 100%. I just, I just do. I just, I just want him to like me a lot. So I'm just kind of like bribery through treats. Plus I just, I've been away.

Plus I was just away. I just got back. Like I might get him two today. I mean, he might be double fisting like a rocket, like a bomb pop and a strawberry eclair. Come in here, doesn't want to eat lunch at all. It's just big ice cream hangover. That could happen. Well, go get your kid and get some ice cream.

You're the best. I'm hugging you from afar, bro. That takes me back to the headspace of the old days and the mailbags and all the rest. I love it. I miss it. Yeah, me too. Every day. All right. Talk to you it. Yeah, me too. Every day.

All right. Talk to you soon. Appreciate you, man. Be good. See you. You can check out Scott on SportsCenter. It's on ESPN. It's one of the important sports centers.

So check it out late at night. I think 11 Eastern. Depends on kind of when. And by the way, I don't want anybody to feel like if you're on SportsCenter on a different ship that it's not important

because you're important, man. Whoever you are, you're important. That'll do it for us Wednesday and Friday this week. Get your life advice questions in and please subscribe, spread the word to the podcast. And as always, appreciate you listening and we'll check you out later this week. Thank you. you