The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Matt Leinart’s Favorite NFL Playoff QB and Notre Dame-Ohio State Pick, Plus the SGA Show in Cavs-Thunder

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Russillo starts the show by welcoming in Matt Leinart to preview the national championship game, pick which QB he would most like to be, and debate if the era of SEC dominance is coming to an end (0:49). Then, Ryen gives out his divisional round picks (41:13) before another edition of Tales from the Couch (42:45). Finally, Ceruti and Kyle join for Life Advice with another bat update and how to handle a note found on a car (60:37). Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Matt Leinart Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, we're going to talk NFL and college football in front of the divisional round and the national championship with Matt Liner on the coverage and then some bigger picture college football stuff with him and also what he thought about some of the stuff from Caleb Williams as well. So we actually get to a lot of college football stuff with him. And also what he thought about some of the stuff from Caleb Williams as well. So we actually get to a lot of different things there with him. Little tales from the couch. We'll talk about the surging Kings, the blowout in Oklahoma city and a three from deep that I love and life advice and war gone.

The community has spoken. They seem to love this guy. People have his back. The marathon mic continues. This episode is brought to you by Amazon prime. You know, Amazon prime is not just a shipping subscription, right? Amazon prime isn't just one thing, but a collection of excellent services. Amazon prime offers a range of services, including prime video, Amazon

music, and prime Fast Free Shipping. They also have great shows, great movies. Here's my favorite Amazon Prime thing. Ready? So we do the rewatchables, right? And I always like to know who the actor is. They have this really cool thing when you watch a movie called X-Ray. You can click on it as you're watching the

movie and the cast will pop up. And you can see who all the actors are. And it sounds dumb, but when you host a movie podcast, it's like the greatest thing ever. Anytime I rent or buy a movie, I buy it on Amazon Prime. That's true, I swear. On Prime, whatever you're into, or just getting into Prime service can help you get closer to it.

Or discover something else to get into. Whatever you're into, or just getting into Prime service can help you get closer to it. Or, discover something else to get into. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.ca slash Prime to get more out of whatever you're into. Air Transat presents two friends traveling in Europe for the first time and feeling some pretty big emotions. This coffee is so good. How do they make it so rich and tasty? Those paintings we saw today weren't prints. They were the actual paintings. I have never seen tomatoes like this.

How are they so red? With flight deals starting at just $589, it's time for you to see what Europe has to offer. Don't worry, you can handle it. Visit airtransat.com for details, conditions apply. Air Transat. Travel moves us. Let's talk some college football, maybe even sprinkle a little bit of NFL role play with our good friend and

neighbor Matt liner here out in the South Bay want to remind you to check out throwbacks with Matt and Jerry Ferrara, who you can check wherever you hear podcasts. What's up dude? What's up man? How are you? How about we had? We had excuse me. We had. Shady, You can check wherever you hear podcasts. What's up, dude? What's up, man?

How about we had a we had excuse me. We had Shady McCoy on this week. And the first thing he said on the pod was he wanted to be an actor. That is his favorite show was power because Jerry played. I don't know if you watch power, but power. Jerry played Proctor, who know if you watch power but power Jerry played proctor who was a lawyer And power and it was freaking hilarious, dude And then we talked we talked a little bit about me hosting him on my recruiting trip, but that's for another day

So my kids are in the background sorry about god. Yeah, it's just my house is just a disaster. I it's a disaster Anyway, it's all right. You know? Yeah, I hosted him. You did? Isn't that crazy? I didn't know that. Yeah. So I, so, cause he's probably three years, yeah, like three or four years, four years

maybe. I think I was a senior. You know what? I was. I came back from my senior year. I hosted him in the off season. He actually told a great story. He was a big time recruit coming out of Pittsburgh

and it was like SC, it was Pitt with Wonstead ended up getting him, which is a great story. He actually got emotional talking about it just because he broke his leg his last year in high school and like he basically said said everybody pulled the offer. Everybody, I guess, including USC, which I didn't know at the time. And Dave was kind of the only one that stood by him.

But I remember him coming out. And this was back when I had borrowed a friend's Hummer. Okay, so this is, and the reason why I could do that was because I had relationship prior to a high school, you know, like that was the that was like the NCAA rule back then if you had a relationship or family or whatever. So we drove him around in a Hummer. It was me, probably Alex Holmes, who was our big recruiter, who I'm sure you might know and have heard stories. And he was telling us the story I I told him, I said, I remember being in the car with you,

but I don't remember anything that we did that weekend. And he goes, literally he goes, he goes, oh shit, man. I remember everything we did that weekend. I was like, well, I am married with kids now, dude. So let's not go there. But I guess SC pulled the offer, man. And then Dave came in and got him at Pitt. Obviously he was great at Pitt, but it was pretty, uh, it was pretty, he was one of

the few, I said this, he was one of the few that got away from Pete that I think Pete really wanted, but he had a bad injury. So. Yeah. Pete was quite the closer man. Um, and I know there's a lot of stuff that we're going to get to there, but why did it work? Like, why did it not feel phony with Pete the way it feels phony with other high energy guys?

I think that first impression thing is really easy to do and it's like, oh, yeah, we're energy and this and that. But with Pete, it just always felt genuine. It's almost like Pete's first impressions threw you off more until you realized, no, this is just the way he is the entire time and it's sincere. It is sincere. It was literally the reason why I kind of recommitted that he was Pete sold me. Like he just you're like, God, this dude's a salesman.

But you never to your point, you never really you never really felt it. I would just say this like Pete is maybe and you probably know this, like the most the biggest competitor I've ever met. We know a lot of competitors, but he just has that. So like whether his personality is the way it is, like that dude, like was the ultimate competitor and everything. And that's what he preached upon us, right? Like that was the culture he created was competition was being the best was all that. And he did it in a fun way. And I always tell everybody, like, like we had a lot of fun and he loved like, you know,

the celebrities and all that. He loved all that. But when it was time to work, we worked. If we fucked up or screwed up, there were consequences. So it wasn't some BS thing. He held us accountable. I think that's the difference sometimes when you get some of

these guys with raw personalities and energy. It's like we were tough as hell, man, and that was what he created. It worked back then. of these guys with raw personalities and energy. And it's like, we were tough as hell, man. And like that was what he created. And it worked back then. Nowadays it's just harder because of everything else that's going on. I think that kids are a lot softer these days, obviously,

and moving around and now they're getting paid and all that. Back then, like we didn't have that. So he was terrific, man. And by the way, he still has tons of energy. So it'll be interesting to see if he, I know he interviewed for the Bears. That'd be interesting to see if he,

I don't know if he does or not, but if he gets a job, you know? Well, since we're here, I was gonna ask you about it anyway. We'll get to the college part of it. What relationship do you have with Kayla Williams? We're cool. Yeah, like we developed a pretty good relationship

when he was at USC. But, you know, I didn't, I texted him a little bit this year, but I wouldn't say we're close enough where I'm going to hit him up. Say, this is who your new head coach should be. But, you know, man, these kids, like, there's such a, there's a big gap, I think, between my era and this generation of kids. You know, I think not all of them, but like, it's just different, man. Like, I even see it with Cole. I mean, you know, my oldest son, like, it's just a different generation of kind of how they go about things with the phone and social media and just like, it's funny, man. We had, we had a Kurt Warner on our pod a couple months ago and he, he actually told a great story. He was telling,

he's like these kids these days and these young quarterbacks in particular, he's reached out and Kurt's one of the best hall of famer, one of the smartest guys I've ever been around and like a guy that like, I would want Cole to be tutored by cause he's so cerebral. He's so smart in the way he sees the game. And he was like, I've ever been around and like a guy that like I would want Cole to be tutored by because he's so cerebral He's so smart in the way he sees the game and he was like I've I've texted reached out to all these young quarterbacks and like never a return phone call and like It's just it's just and that's not happening out me and Caleb are you know, we're not like that But it's just like a disconnect man. So

I'm rooting for him. I you know, I got to know him. Um, he works hard. He's a good kid. Uh, pretty tough situation I thought this year, but actually played pretty well, you know, obviously despite everything else going on. Yeah. I think that's kind of where I wanted to go with it was just considering. I think it's important to remember all this stuff.

Like when you looked at Jayden Daniel's situation and you looked at Caleb's going in, almost everybody thought Caleb was in a better situation in Chicago than Jayden was in Washington. And. Cliff Kingsbury. But yeah, maybe it should have been, but it's look, I've defended Cliff because I felt like, Hey, you brought somebody in to help develop a quarterback. It depends on what you think of Kyler at this point, but there's probably more

positive than negative on the development side of it. Arizona stunk forever. They started winning more games, but you know, he didn't run enough motion. So the NFL nerd study was the dumbest person on the sideline. And so now with the, with the Jayden part of it, like that might be it beyond the receiving core that certainly favors Chicago offensive line favors Washington, all these different things. I guess when I look at Caleb, like I liked him the most.

I am not deterred at all, but I think it was, it was a rough year, even if the stats say that it was better than the final product. How tough is that? I mean, look, we've talked to you about it, how tough that first year is. Was there anything that, we've talked to you about it, how tough that first year is. Was there anything that was alarming about it to you or is it kind of like what it probably should have been?

Yeah, look, I think there's two things and this is what we're seeing a little bit with Sam Darnold and that situation. Like as I look back and I had Caleb number one and I think most of us did, and then I'm looking back and I'm thinking, well, Jaden Daniels is, and he was, and obviously playing in the SEC, probably a more polished player than Caleb coming out.

Just the way he threw the ball, the defenses, the scheme at LSU, his ability to, it was just different. And Caleb, despite being tutored by Lincoln, who has a great track record of those guys, like it was a little bit more backyard football, right? That's what made him so special. And that necessarily wasn't his fault

because USC was, the offense line had been pretty bad those couple of years. I, gosh, I will like die on a hill when I live this. You look at the Bears situation and just the coaching and all of that. And then you look at, and like, I love Dan Quinn, man. Like I think Dan Quinn's, I was just reading an article the other day, like kind of what he did to build this locker room and all this. And like, I'm telling you, Ryan,

you know this, like it is night and day. If you have a great coaching staff and whether it's Cliff or a coordinator, quarterback coach, and just a head coach who gets it and who understands. And that was me in Houston with Kubiak. It was like a reset on my life. I was like, holy shit, this is how football should be played. Like I'm getting coached, I'm having fun, I'm loving the environment, the team's bought in. Like that wasn't, it wasn't necessarily like that

in Arizona, it was just different. And I'm not saying that's like Chicago and Washington, obviously, cause Washington hasn't been great for a while. But like when you got a staff and a coach and a system and you just understand what you have, especially that position, man, like you can look at what Jayden Daniels is doing. And Cliff is a big part of that as an OC. And I would liken it to like Sam in Minnesota.

And like, I don't think Sam's going to be Sam in Minnesota. And like, I don't think Sam's gonna be back in Minnesota, but like, look what he did this year with Kevin O'Connell and just like a system and a coach who knows how to coach. So I think that's the difference between Jaden and Caleb this year. And that's why we've seen Jaden flourish. And Caleb's numbers were fine. And like, he had great receivers and all that,

but like, I mean, look at the coaching, man. OC fire during the season. It's hard to win that way. And hopefully they do right by him because I think he showed enough. I think he showed enough to where you can build around him and be a playoff type team. If you could be any of the remaining quarterbacks

in the playoffs, if I'm watching basketball and I'm being honest, if I could be any of the remaining quarterbacks in the playoffs. If you could like, if I'm watching basketball and I'm being honest, be like if I could be any NBA player, if I could have his game, it'd probably be Anthony Edwards. So I could humiliate people. Right. Right. Like that's like his greatest step is in the vision of LeBron and all that stuff. It's like, give me peak ant athleticism. I still like Luca, man. Just give me the slow kind of chunky Euro. Just, ah, ah, ah, I'm going to do that. I'm doing Luca, man. Just give me the slow, kind of chunky Euro. Just, ah, ah, ah, the. I'm gonna do that.

I'm doing it to Cole. Next time I play against Cole, I'm Luca-ing him. I just have to like, you know, I can't try to get past him anymore. I'm just gonna throw him. No, I know. No, Ant is ridiculous, man. He's ridiculous. Okay, so which NFL quarterback would you,

would Matt Liner wanna be? Josh Allen. He, I mean, gosh, there's so many great ones. Like you say, Mahomes and like, I love Lamar, man. I've known Lamar for a long time. I just love the kid. He's just a great dude. Josh Allen is a monster, man.

Like he is a monster. And I don't know if you've ever stood next to him. I don't know like, if you know him at all, like he's every bit of six, five, like 250. And he's huge and he's a great dude. And like his game, I just, I love his game. I love, he's tough as nails. He runs guys over.

He is that team. Like he, James Cook's a good player, but like he makes that team. And that's kind of why I think he should be the MVP. Obviously there's a debate and Lamar has been great, but I think just Josh Allen and the way he plays, he's just a, he's a dog, you know, and in his own way. And I don't remember, maybe you think, I don't remember a guy kind of built like him, like, like Rothenberger was big, but Rothenberger didn't run, you know, like Josh Allen is,

is a big dude who can run and trucks guys and now can throw and just, I don't know. That would be me. I just, I love his game. I think he's unbelievable. All right, let's talk. Who would you be? I mean, the physical part of Josh is pretty enticing because there are times where it looks like

when he's about to go into the end zone, like defense, like again, we're talking about NFL defense. I know players linebackers stuff It's bigger than all linebackers, right? Yeah, you could see some of those guys are like I'm good Like that's gonna be the best feeling ever that when you're like, you're always worried about right Yeah, like how many hits are gonna take or I want to make sure I'm not doing this or whatever It's like they're actually like not super interested. Cause it's already a wrap anyway. He's getting in when he has, when he kind of breaks

one of those from like seven yards out, you can just see it happening in front of you. But there are times where you can watch a game and be like, that's crazy. Like normally somebody would be like, I don't even care if he's gonna get in, I'm gonna take a shot at him just to put my body on him. And then with Alan, it's like,

I don't even wanna deal with that guy. It's kinda like, I was just thinking want to deal with that guy. It's kind of like, it's kind of, I was just thinking right now, like maybe Cam Newton, right, there was just guys that were so physically imposing at that position that like- I think Cam's a level above anybody that I've ever seen by the way, so. He's ridiculous.

But like just as far as like, if you meet him in the hole as a defender, like you said, there's only maybe on one hand guys that you'd be like, I don't want to tell. Derrick Henry is that guy's running back. Obviously, you just don't want to get in front of the dude. Josh Allen is like that, which is, it's hard. You don't get that at the quarterback position. Yeah, that's a good pick. It's a good pick. I guess it'd be really funny if Mahomes is sitting there at the end of this all over again.

funny if Mahomes is sitting there at the end of this all over again. I think he's going to. No one's talking about the Chiefs. I think they're going to pound the Texans. Ben, Bills, I'm rooting for the Bills. I'm rooting for a Bills-Lyons matchup. Again, and I like the Chiefs. I love Andy Reid. I think Mahomes is the greatest superstar that you kind of like.

Kind of like a Steph. It's hard not to like him. I'm still a big Kelsey dude. I love the Chiefs and I respect what they've been able to do and no one is talking about them. It's like they went 15 and two and the number one seed in a down year apparently and you still got to go to Kansas City and beat them in an AFC championship game, which is really hard to do.

I would not be shocked if they're in it again. I just wouldn't. And- No, no, shocked would be- Yeah, I don't- I don't know. I mean, I think people want to see someone else. I would love to see Josh Allen in the Bills or even Lamar.

I think those are great teams, stars, fun to watch, good coaching, all that. And I'd love to see Detroit make it. I don't know, something tells me just Detroit, something's gonna happen again, and they're just not gonna, they're gonna trip up somehow, but I don't know. I thought it was gonna happen in that regular season finale against Minnesota, and then here we are.

Gosh, man, what a fall from grace the last two weeks for Minnesota. That was quick. It's tough to win, I'm telling you. And then, it are. Gosh, man, what a fall from grace the last two weeks for Minnesota. That was quick. It's tough to win, I'm telling you. And then, I know we'll talk, what's your take on Sam? Like I feel, I think he's gonna get paid somewhere.

I think Daniel Jones is gonna be their starter next year in Minnesota. I think him or JJ, I think they keep Daniel and they let Sam walk to go get like a know, go get like a Geno Smith type deal or Baker Mayfield type deal. I'd be worried about paying. It's kind of like, there's a lot of players on Denver that I wouldn't want to give money to

if they're not playing next to Jokic, where Sam away from O'Connell would concern me. I know. Look, if you go around it with this year's draft class and you know, the Kirk Cousins part of it, I guess it's in there too, but that's still a ton of money to eat to move off of him. I think in a trade before the second year of the

contract, but I mean, look, I think the page has already been turned to Penex. Um, that makes a lot of sense, right? I mean, so it's, it's already going to be Penex's team, so they're going to have to figure some stuff out basically like whenever you look at the six or seven teams that feel like they'll have a different quarterback at the start of week one of 2025, I don't know if there's enough available ones.

So there's probably still a Donald market me in particular, I would say is Kevin coming with him? He's not, then we're not doing this. Even if it felt like. Could he really be as bad as he was the last two weeks, just facing more pressure because that Detroit game clearly exposed him to something that Shula, the defensive coordinator for the Rams, like doesn't normally do. They decided to just dial up against him.

And I was saying this last week, but this is why I love Akeman so much on the call, because as a quarterback, you can tell how pissed he's getting at Donald for not getting rid of the football. And it actually makes the Donald experience that much worse when the guy on Monday night is like, dude, get rid of the ball. Like get rid of the ball. It was hard because I'm a big, I mean, I love Sam,

you know, I'm known him. I think he, and I hit a hell of a year and like, he deserves it. Like, and the narrative, everybody was just waiting for him. I feel like in the meat, like to kind of fall off the cliff. My God, this is the true Sam. And I was bummed for him, I feel like in the meet, like to kind of fall off the cliff. I'm like, this is, this is the true Sam. And I was bummed for him. I don't like, I do look at the playoff game and be like, and I know, I know Orlovsky's

defended him and I know Dan really well. And I, it is not all on him. Like I, again, these teams just had a great plan of how to attack that line and those protections and all that. Again, these teams just had a great plan of how to attack that line and those protections and all that. But yeah, like to hold on to the ball. And it just felt like it felt a little big, like it felt a little big at the moment. And like it's just, he couldn't handle it.

I'm still a believer that you can, I mean, system and coaching is everything. There's no doubt. So I'm with you. Like unless Kevin's with my, I understand teams are gonna be a little wary. That's why I think he's not, the market's gonna be there. I just don't think it's gonna be what, if he would have balled last couple games, it would have been fricking through the roof.

I do believe in a, like look at Bryce Young. Like I just like a Bryce Young, and I was a small sample size, but I do believe in like resets. I do believe in like kind of just like, I got my confidence back, now I know what I can do. I hope these two games don't destroy that from Sam because I do think the body of work,

I mean, 17 games, dude, and he balled, like he balled. He had a great year. And system aside, like he made a lot of plays this year and stepped up. So, and I look at Bryce Young, like Bryce Young was dead in the tracks. Kind of shitty team who was awful, sits out and comes back and like play pretty damn good, like which was crazy. I'm like in the same system. So there is something about that.

But yeah, man, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. It's going to be interesting to see. And like you said, the college, you know, the quarterback, the draft class is just thin, thin this year, like very thin. There there's only a couple of guys that I would take, you know, in the top few rounds. Is there a third quarterback for you that you feel like Jack? I like Jackson Dart. I do. I think, I think, I think cam, I don't know.

I, I think cam war is probably number one. I mean, you know, we're going to see a lot in the next three months, you know, there's going to be a lot of stuff going on. Cam ward is electric, I think. And I was, it should, we're going to see a lot in the next three months. You know, there's going to be a lot of stuff going on. Cam Ward is electric, I think. And I was at Chador is really good. We saw I saw him up close a couple of times. Really good player, like really accurate, good arm, sees the field, can make plays. Cam is just a little bit like of a like got more juice.

You know, I mean, you've watched him play. He's got more juice. He's experienced like he's played a lot of football. He's not like an Anthony Richardson where you're like, oh, he's let's go based on the talent, the ceiling. Like he he's played a lot of ball. Um, I like, and I like Jackson Dart. I think Jackson Dart is, is interesting. He played for Kiff that goes a long way.

He threw for a boatload of yards and won a lot of games in the sec. He's tough. He can run. He's built well. You know, he's a long way. He threw for a boatload of yards and won a lot of games in the SEC. He's tough, he can run. He's built well, you know, he's a thick kid. He's like 6'2", 6'3", can sling it. And he's got a lot of moxie to him. He's got a lot of moxie to him. So I think he's one that will kinda, you know, climb up the draft boards and maybe sneak into the end

of a first round, maybe an early second round. I think those are the three three probably by far and away. I know you were just declared. I was a little shocked by that. I thought he should come back to school for another year, but, um, yeah, those are the three, I think that will kind of stand out. Okay. All right.

Well, let's get into it. Uh, we went in reverse order here, but that's all right. Uh, who are you picking for the national championship game? Oh, the Buckeyes man. I I've, I've sat here. I've been to every, I've been to two of the three Notre Dame playoff games. I mean, my God, dude. And I, I'll say this.

I hate Notre Dame for obvious reasons. I respect Notre Dame for obvious reasons. I really like Marcus Freeman. Um, but I just, you know, like I love Brady Quinn and we just talk so much shit and I just, I just can't stand Notre Dame. And I went to the Notre Dame, Indiana game and I went to the Orange Bowl. It was, we got in, coach and I got into the hall of fame, which was pretty cool. So it was Notre Dame, Penn State, which was a fun week. And so I was with Brady in the box when they want to kick the field goal. And I'm just like, my gosh, like we got to see Notre Dame again. But, um, look in Indiana fought back in that game too. Yeah.

All that being the side, like Notre Dame's are in there. Oh, no, he's a really good team, man. Like they're really good. I don't, I think Ohio state just runs away with it. I think it'll be similar to what we saw with Texas a little bit. Just a slow burn because Notre Dame's defense will keep them in and then they're just the second. The difference between Texas and Notre Dame is Texas has more firepower, I think, offensively

than Notre Dame. Notre Dame has a great run game. That's about it. They don't throw the football consistently enough. As much as I do like Riley Leonard, I think he's a great kid. He's tough. He's done a great run game, that's about it. They don't throw the football consistently enough. As much as I do like Riley Leonard, I think he's a great kid, he's tough. He's done a great job. Like they just, they can't get in the track meet

and that's what this game is gonna be. Ohio State is playing at a different level in the playoff than any team. And, you know, on big noon all year, we said it. And we were at the Michigan game. It was just like, we were like, what just happened? Like it was so shocking to be there. If they ever were to put it together,

there's not a team in the country that will beat them. And that's how they're playing. And I just don't see Notre Dame doesn't have enough in my opinion, um, to win that game. Is there anything from the Texas matchup? Is there anything there that you can build on if you were, if you're Notre Dame? Well, the big thing was they took Jeremiah Smith out of the game. To me, when people say that, which I totally get, you can watch a film and you can try to game plan, but like Ohio State's going to coach up too.

Chip Kelly's going to coach, they're going to scheme as well. They're going to change some things up. They're going to move Jeremiah Smith around. But that's the point of last game. Jeremiah Smith, who's a freak, was a non-factor, and they still, you know, they had the big screen to Trevion. But I still think they dominated that game, for the most part, and Jeremiah Smith didn't do anything.

So to go in and think that Notre Dame is just gonna completely shut him out, and like, hey, let's hope Abouka and Tate and all these other guys beat them, it's just, that's what makes them so difficult. They had too many guys. Like you can't, you can't, you just can't slow them. The key is Will Howard and Will Howard has been awesome in the

playoff, but Will Howard all season. We would talk about it's like, he will just give you a one or two a game, like that he will give you one or two game. And that's what he did against Michigan. And they ended up losing. He hasn't done that in the playoffs. So that's and Brady and I've talked about that. It's like if he gives them a pick, you know, or kind of like drew out, right? Like you just give them something, give them a touchdown. And all of a sudden Notre Dame can kind of, Notre Dame has got a great defense, but it

is a copycat kind of like league, just like the NFL. But I think it's just hard, man. Like Ohio's Chip Kelly is a really good coach. Ohio and the difference is Ohio State's defense is elite, too. That's the difference. It's not just offense. It's both sides of the ball. So I think it's going to be I like Ohio. I think what's the spread like eight and a half or not or something like that? I think Ohio State's going to cover.

I think they're going to win big. And I think the fourth quarter, though, really kind of the role. Yeah, it's still it's still eight and a half. Did you go, have you gone to any playoff games? I haven't, no. I'm assuming you watched all of them, right? I did watch all of them, yeah. Are you a believer in the 12, do you like the setup?

I loved it, I thought it was great, but. Well, the audience already knows this. I just had a hard time with the concept when it was first announced of, you're gonna start arguing for teams that I feel like shouldn't have a chance to win a national championship. Yeah, of course.

I'm kind of stubborn about this. I just think you should have to do something once in your 12 games to win a national championship, for uh, to win a national championship for the, to the chance to win a national championship, even though you're going to go through the Scotland. And then when she realized, okay, that's how they're doing the seating, but you understand the only reason they have to do the seating this way is they had to get everybody to agree. So it was going to be like a very egalitarian approach to this whole thing. But then once it plays out in Boise and the seating of it all, and

you're just like, well, this is, this is kind of stupid. I think a re, I think a re-seating will come probably as early as next year. I will try. I, I, if Ohio State wins this thing, by the way, like their path to just stop Tennessee, 30 or nothing against Oregon, take out a Texas team that, you know, could never figure out the Georgia part of this as opposed to the other side of the bracket, like this is going to be on top of everything else that they had to

do and granted they had the second loss to Michigan. So, you know, Hey, greatest team of all time. All that nonsense has already happened this time of year. Uh, this is, this is an all time test. And I think the biggest thing to take from that Texas game is that after the touchdown drive, the next four series for Ohio State, they had like second and 20 or third and 27. They got so far behind the sticks,

four straight possessions because of penalties. That probably had as much to do with them not scoring again until the Henderson screen, as much as anything Texas did there. So I'm like anybody else who's watched all of these games, the level to do that to Oregon, man. To do that to them. Cause I still think Oregon, I said all year,

I thought it was, cause this year was, I thought this year was great because that CC wasn't dominant how they had been. And what? I'm just saying this year was great. Cause the parody was, was like Georgia. I said it all year. I'm like, Georgia's good. George is good. Like they're not, they're not great. Alabama show their true colors. I love lane Kiffin. I've talked to land and said, lane, shut up, dude. Like you get like go in the last game, go win a team. You're favored by 17 points and you're in the playoff.

Like stop bullshit. You know, like. Yeah. But Florida is good now. Florida is good now. Yeah, they're good. They're good. Now.

Look, like is lane kind of like that coworker that we have, and I'm not even naming on one in particular, but when you're just at home and you go, this fucking guy can't help himself. Like he's just going to keep tweeting. He's just going to keep going. Is he going like, does Lane, is he excited about it? Because, you know, then Beeloma got involved and I wanted to be like, Hey, Illinois, sorry, but then they beat my team at South Carolina.

The team that I thought a committee could figure out a way. Like, let's, let's really look at what their season was. Let's look at how hoes they got against LSU, all that kind of stuff. Like I know Lane, like the beginning of it, like I always think about coaches and this stuff and winning the luncheon and winning the booster stuff and he's sitting there, he's like, we're gonna be singing Rocky Top.

He's almost like hyperventilating because he's so excited to win the luncheon and it's worked and clearly the guy, there's so many of you dudes that have played on that side of the ball that were like he's. Un believable, OK, so there's just I never will have a doubt about the football acumen, but I guess I think is a competitive person

like all these guys are at some point. You would just be like, do I really want to just sit here and tweet for the next two weeks about how I should have been in the playoffs? He's. He just can't help himself. I'm telling you, I don't, I talked to Lane, I feel like I talked to Lane once a week about just anything. Right. I know you guys are boys. Our kids are close friends. Like I know, obviously I've known Lane forever. It's like, he just,

I know him, like when he was tweeting all that stuff out and I literally texted him, I was like, you really don't believe you should be in the playoff, right? Like, come on, dude, like give it up. And he just, he's a pot stirrer. He's always kind of been like that. That's always been his personality. I love the dude, man.

Like I love him because he is who he is. He's not a frog. That's why I love him. He's like the little brother sometimes that you just want to like, dude, shut up, man. Go to your room. Go to your room and be quiet until we tell you to come out. But he loves that role. And it's kind of him, man. He doesn't... He's learned a lot. I think he's grown a lot, obviously, but he of him, man. Like he doesn't, he's learned a lot. I think he's grown a lot obviously, but he's, tell you what dude, he's a hell of a coach. Like he's a hell of a coach and players love him.

Like, cause he treats him, he treats him well. But I love, I think I love the playoff. I think the reseeding, like you said, Oregon got hosed. That top half of the bracket was ridiculous. But Ohio State, they've earned their way. Like they've earned their way. Notre Dame, Notre Dame too. They've earned their way too. I mean, Penn State's a good team, Georgia, like they've earned their way to get there. And I think, I think it'll be good. That'd be exciting, but we'll see.

Uh, yeah. Cause I'm, I'm still impressed with Notre Dame against Penn State in that game. Um, because I thought Penn State was a tough out with that one. Georgia. Um, I know you could sit here and say, sec champ or whatever, but when you're on the backup, even if I didn't really like Beck and the way that game played out, uh, I thought he would, I thought he would play a lot better, uh, cause he, he had the flash in the game and Beck went out and I was like, Oh, maybe he's got, he can run right there. Maybe he's got a little more to him.

And honestly, I was dead wrong. I was like, I thought he would play. I thought, I didn't think Notre, I thought Notre Dame could win that game. I just thought they could do some more with, with stock then. Cause bet, but then I was thinking, no shit, this he's just not ready. He's too high. That's just a Notre Dame's defenses elite. So, uh, I, I felt like because Georgia won with him in relief of Beck, because again, Beck just

was really disappointing this entire scene. There's too many games. There's too many games from him where you're like, smart, smart to come back. I'm telling you smart to come back and get paid a hell of a lot of money. He's moving on. Okay. So let me ask you a bigger picture part of this, even though there are times I think Fox is more pro big 10 than ESPN ever

was pro SEC, which I know you'll probably vomit in your mouth at that theory that I have. Are we going to talk about big noon games or what? I mean, what do you want to talk about? No, I have a theory that there's people at Fox that think the SEC ESPN thing is so nefarious that they are like, well, now I'm just going to do it on the other side. And by the way, momentum is on the big 10 side or at least, uh, SEC decline momentum, whatever it may be.

We're looking at back to back title games without an SEC team for the first time in 20 years, going back to when you guys played Texas. Uh, so what do you think is, you know, I just like talking to you guys played Texas. So what do you think? Cause you know, I just like talking to you guys that have the national perspective, but also you're part of it where your son's going through it right now. People could, you know, Portal, NIL,

all these different things. I have said just to share with you, the audience, or you know, is this, I need more data. I need like a five year runway to be like, there is this actual like real shift where it's going to be more challenging for the SEC moving forward. I'm not there yet despite evidence, at least for the last couple of years on the national championship part of it.

Certainly this year with the lack of quarterbacks in that conference that, hey, maybe the thing that's supposed to happen in sports, the shifts, the cycles, these things are supposed to happen all the time. Like maybe the run will be over, but I'm not there yet. Your thoughts? I mean, to say the run is over, I wouldn't agree with that, but I think the shift has happened and it's already happening currently. I hate the portal. I hate parts of the portal. I'm sure you do too, but NIL and the portal has completely leveled the playing portal. I'm sure you do too. But NIL and the portal has completely leveled the playing field. And I've heard a million stories from coaches

and these players and you see it, you just read it. But the days of, and I was a part of this at USC, the days of like stacking teams and recruits going because, oh, I'm next in line at Alabama, Saban was there and the five stars like getting, I'm next in line at Alabama, Saban was there, and the five stars, I'm getting recruited as a backup, and this and that. Those days are done, they're gone. And that's what we saw this year for the first real time, especially with the expanded playoff, is other teams' ability to build teams

and create more parity. I just don't, the SEC was operating at a level that no other conference could over the years. Were they paying players? Hell yeah, they were playing players. Paying players, that's been going around for a long time. That's okay, like everybody knew that, right? And the SEC has been doing that for a long time.

And I'm sure the big 10 is, everybody's done that. But to the level that SEC was doing it and those teams, it just, no one could compete. Now you can't, it's just, it's a simple fact. Now you can't. And a team like Ohio State, when you have a payroll, a team like Texas, and then like, even like Cole's committed to SMU,

like SMU's got a shit ton of money to pay players. So you're gonna start seeing kids that are like, man, I can go play at SMU and ball and get 80 catches or throw for 4,000 yards. Now all of a sudden these coaches are getting really good football players that just are over trying to like, you just don't have to go to those schools anymore to advance yourself or to get paid. And that's, it's just that simple. And that's what we saw this year. And that's why the shift has already happened. And the 12th team, I think, creates more of that, more opportunity.

And look, I don't think the SEC is dead by any means. I don't think like it's, this isn't a big 10 now and all this. I don't think the ACC had a, ACC was kind of shit this year. And Clemson ended up being a pretty good team. SMU is going to get better. I think, you know, like it's just think it does go in waves as you know, but that's why I love where we're at.

Then eventually with the ref share and the cap of these teams and all that, you're just not going to see the dominance of one conference anymore. I don't believe that. I think SC is going to be back at some point. I don't know when. I think SC will be back. Yeah. Okay. But there is something that you said in there that I think you even kind of corrected yourself in mid answers that all right, the SEC was was taking care of players. There's no way these other top schools like you don't believe that right like that guys in Austin before Texas went to the SEC. What are they doing over there? Of course, no, I believe every,

I believe to an extent everybody was taking care of players. But my point is, is when Bama's rolling or Georgia's rolling and that's where every, and again, it was always like, there's two things when you go to a top school, you go for, to advance yourself to the NFL, what's the best place that can get me to the NFL? And then coaching, just those types of things.

It was like, where can I go to develop and get to the league? Those were kind of the places. There's only a handful. That was Pete Carroll at USC. Where can we go? We're going to come out to USC because that's where we can go and advance because that's what Pete's sending kids to the league. And then on top of that, SEC,

like there's just a lot of money there and that's been happening for a long time. And so yeah, I think it's happened all over the place but to the extent of it happening there, I don't know. And on the fact that they're just dominating and winning and that's even more enticing for players to go. And that's why you just saw the SEC dominate for so long and really good coaches like Saban, Kirby Smart's a great coach.

But here's my thing. And then I got to go to my kids' assembly. Here's my thing. I don't I just I think what the SEC. My thing I hate about this the most is and Lane says this, it's like, well, top to bottom, it's this and this. And I'm just like, that's just it's just BS because it's not top to bottom like when was the last time like Tennessee like Tennessee is a good team Tennessee hasn't been I don't even know the last time since they've

been great like Peyton Manning maybe like I like T-Martin it'd be 25 years ago Florida really hasn't really been good since urban maybe I mean I'm sure there's years in there, Vanderbilt. Like South Carolina. Must be a better, at a New Year's six, but you're right. I just, I hate the argument that, well, they're the best team, the deepest team, every week is tough, this and that.

Urban stands by that a little bit. He's coaching it, I have it. But I'm just like, Illinois, South Carolina is kind of a great example of a bowl game. Again, it's a bowl game, but it's just like, I just, that's the part I don't buy with the SEC. It's like the middle of the pack. Well, they would win this game. They would like, that's just be it. I hate that part. Georgia and Bama over the years, LSU 2019. Like, of course I get it. Maybe the top two, three are better than the big 10s top because then it drops off.

But you just can't sit here and tell me that, well, the middle of the SEC would dominate the middle of the big 10. I just don't, I don't believe that. I just don't. And because I've seen enough evidence in bowl games, I've seen enough evidence in common opponents. And that's, I think that's what frustrates someone like me or someone like, obviously we do cover the big 10. I wish we had some SEC. I think it's a great conference, but I think that's just a narrative that's always pushed. That's what was pushed for the playoffs. It was pushed by South Carolina.

It was pushed by Ole Miss. It was pushed by A&M. Obviously A&M had to win. That's the part that bothers me. Enjoy your son's assembly. I don't want you to be late. Appreciate you brother. The Ryan Russo podcast is brought to you by FanDuel

and there's nothing like the NFL playoffs. It's one big game after another. And you know what? Big games deserve bigger payouts. That's why FanDuel is giving all customers a same game parlay profit boost every game day during the NFL playoffs. It doesn't matter if you're new to Fandual

or already have an account, you'll score a bigger payout if your same game parlay hits. Okay, we're gonna try to do something here that I think. All right, so say you're looking at, we'll get to the other stuff a little bit later on, but as far as fading the public with this one, the Rams are the biggest public play so far in percentage of bets and percentage of money, but it's not overwhelming.

It's as of this morning, 64% of the bets, 67% of the money. So normally when you're fading the public, the number sways a little bit more, but there's just a lot of Ram stuff here. It opened at plus six, it's plus six and a half, minus six and a half on FanDuel right now. So let's say you're fading that a little bit. You're going Eagles at home. You're thinking Hertz, settled in, gets a game under his belt with all of that time off.

And if you like the Eagles minus six and a half, instead of it essentially being even money and betting the money line, why not boost that up by saying if it's the Eagles, what about Jaylen Hurts as a first touchdown score? Little dangerous, don't always love those. If it's any time, we're still kind of even. So you could do this, you go Eagles minus six and a half, Jaylen Hurts any time touchdown score, that payout is plus 200.

You're feeling real brave. Eagles minus six and a half. Jalen hurts first touchdown score that was paying out at plus 762, so a couple different options for you there. So don't just watch on the sidelines. Visit fandual.com slash Ryan Rye and to get in on the action that's

fandal.com slash Ryan Rye and to get a same game parlay profit boost every game day during the NFL playoffs. Make every moment more with Vanduul, an official Sportsbook partner of the NFL. Must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 plus in present DC. Opt-in required minimum three leg parlay required bonus issued as non-retirable profit boost tokens restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms

at sportsbook.fandl.com gambling problem called 1-800-GAMBLER, visit rg-help.com. A little couch money research for you here, playoff style. All right, as we talked about during our FanDuel read, we've got fading the public is the Eagles minus six, minus six and a half, depending on where you get it. Again, it's FanDuel this morning is minus six and a half, so we're going Eagles minus six and a half, depending on where you get it. Again, it's FanDuel this morning is minus six and a half. So we're going Eagles minus six and a half.

The research play for this one is, you know, we have less to pick from here. So there's a lot of research on Philly as well, which is probably also beating the public there a little bit. Apparently a bigger split on Baltimore Buffalo. So maybe I'll leave that one for me. So let's go with a lean on Kansas City minus the 8.5. So right now we're looking at two favorites. Don't want to do that all the time.

That number for Washington and Detroit is massive. It opened at 10. It's still at 9.5 now. I'm going to pick the bills plus one, opened at minus. It's still at nine and a half now. I'm going to pick the Bills plus one. Opened at minus one and a half. So I'll go Bills and Bills outright. I think the Eagles went at home. Chiefs went at home.

I'm going to go with the Lions here. So I think I'm picking all the home teams, which doesn't make me feel great either. But the Bills Ravens thing, there's a lot of stuff leading up, especially when we had 10 win on and I'm like, it's this matchup feels very Raven's heavy against that bills front, but maybe you turn over here, turn over there. Maybe it's the Lamar stuff continues. So we'll go bills at home is the only one really worth talking about. And we'll break it all down on Monday.

Calling all sellers. Salesforce is hiring account executives to join us on the cutting edge of technology. Here, innovation isn't a buzzword. It's a way of life. You'll be solving customer challenges faster with agents, winning with purpose and showing the world what AI was meant to be. Let's create the agent first future together. Head to salesforce.com slash careers to learn more. A Friday edition of NBA Tales from the Couch. Normally we do these Wednesdays as we get out of the football part of it, but whatever.

I feel like I haven't done very much NBA open stuff. So let's get to a few things that I think are important. We have the rematch this time in Oklahoma City between the Cavaliers and the Thunder. We know that the Cavs want a close one at home. Just a week ago, this one was not close. Thunder up 40 to 14, one minute into the second quarter. Not a lot of suspense here.

Not a lot of rotations. I don't have a ton to give you here and like, and then this guy subbed in. Right. The Cleveland turnover situation, I think tells the biggest story of this one. 13 turnovers in the first half for the Cavs that led to 22 points for OKC. Oklahoma city actually leads the NBA in points off of turnovers with 23 points per game, so that means, okay. See, he was basically at that number in the first half.

I was a little surprised. The Cavs were not more ready for what the Thunder do with this defense and their help and all these different things, because you just can't go slow against OKC. And whether it's Mobley in a post-catch and Dorr comes over and helps immediately turnover, there was a Laverte thing he was trying to do on the sideline where that just got wrecked on this handoff. Allen was stripped at the top. Garland drives on the right side. Wiggins causes the turnover. Laverte even fell down at one point.

Like Laverte is just, I love Garland, Mitchell, Alan, Mobley collectively, individually, all this different stuff. If there was five oars on one side of a boat, Laverte would be rolling it the opposite way. Um, so you just can't dick around with the basketball against this team. And you would have thought that they would have already known that, but it just didn't

happen to have it. Look, Allen had another catch at the top of the key where he just waited and then Kenridge stripped him. So there was even a jump ball. This wasn't even a turnover. There was a jump ball. Mitchell ends up with it and he's in this Caruso,

Dort double team hell where Mitchell's like on the baseline, throwing the basketball over the backboard from behind and falling down flailing. So this was a rough, rough first half. SGA did whatever he wanted to do, whether it was hunting for Garland or the actual Dean Wade assignment, where Dean Wade was his assigned defender. Dean has the third best defensive rating of any of

the regulars on the Cavs. There's always these weird defensive rating numbers that sometimes like, what does that one really mean? I remember for years they would have it listed individually on NBA.com and like Rudy Gay would just be off the charts better than anybody else, but like, I don't think Rudy Gay is the best defensive player in the NBA. A lot of size there, a lot of size for Dean Wade as well. It didn't matter. SGA did whatever he wanted. It wasn't because of free throws, only five free throw attempts last night.

He was actually one of five on threes, but he was 17 to 26. That's just how easy it was for him. So he gets his 40. His 40 now makes him the leading scorer in the NBA. But I think more importantly, especially if we're looking at some of the MVP stuff right now, SGA's total points, he's at 1,264, he's basically 200 points ahead of Brunson who's number two in total points. He's technically 199 points ahead of him. Granted, he's not worried about Brunson in the MVP race.

He's worried about Jokic. And if you're doing Jokic total points, you got to do Jokic total other stuff as well. But right now, again, it's not worried about Brunson in the MVP race. He's worried about Jokic and if you're doing Jokic total points, you got to do Jokic total other stuff as well. But right now, again, SGA just reminder, basically 200 points total ahead of the number two overall score for total points in the league. So look, if you didn't watch this game also, didn't include this part, we know Chet's not there, 18 mile. Ardenstein also not playing in this game. So that means of course, Brandon Carlson,

undrafted rookie, 25 years old from Utah, comes in and hits two threes immediately. I mean, it's just the number of things that are just working out for the Thunder here. Insane alright, a late one. That was a lot of fun. Sacramento. Has won eight of nine.

They went again last night at home against Houston 8 and two with Doug Christie as head coach Sacramento schedule, right? Sometimes I'll go hey, this team is playing really good. Everybody's talking about him and you're like, it's the schedule. Stupid. Um, this is not really a schedule thing.

Let's look at Sacramento schedule. You could say, all right, well, Dallas, both guys were out Philadelphia, no Embiid, although Embiid playing, I don't think necessarily helps them. And I got to tell you too, like some of this Paul George stuff that I was watching the other night, you know, they were down big in New York. They come back, ends up being a close game, but he's gonna do more. He has to do more.

That guy, he's like expensive to buy his Harris, man. I'm telling you, he needs to be doing more for the Sixers team with Embiid out. All right, so I'm gonna probably go on a few side tangents here. Some plan, not planned. They beat Memphis with no job. We're talking about Sacramento again here,

but they beat the Warriors with Stefan Drehm on there. They killed Boston in Boston by 17. By the way, the Celtics are seven and seven in their last 14, but their net rating in their last 15 is the third best in the NBA. They're not shooting the ball very well. I think there's some effort stuff you could point to as well. But Sacramento beat Boston for, uh, that was without Fox too.

And they've had three wins in the stretch without the Iron Fox. They had him back last night. So if we look at the last 10 for this Doug Christie stretch, Sacramento's number five in offense, number 14 in defense, they were 16th in defense. The date that Mike Brown was fired late December, a lot of zone last night against Houston. I don't really even know that it worked necessarily. It was probably a way to try to keep Sabonis out of foul trouble.

He ended up fouling out. So bonus is one of the more, maybe it's not confusing. Maybe it's very simple, but sub bonus is somebody statistically where the efficiency and everything is so off the charts. You start looking at like all NBA teams, you start looking at all star voting and all that kind of stuff. And yet I know that even with his incredible skill

is passing and what he's able to, the rebounding numbers are ridiculous. I just kind of go, yeah, but shouldn't Houston just be able to get to the rim whenever they want to against him without ever any fear whatsoever. Um, same thing with Shingoon. Like they would get him on a couple of posts last night and he would just go right to work on some bonus.

I wonder where Alpie Shingoon would rank post play right now in the NBA. I'm not talking points per post possession, just straight up old school foot in the ground, pivot foot, maybe another pivot foot, armpit hair right in the defender's forehead. Where is Shingun right now? Then you've got the Eamonn Thompson part of it where he looks like he's, is he going to be a point guard man? Right? Like that's exciting.

Then you had kind of the Houston turnover part of it where it's the Jaylen Green great play, bad play stuff. That was happening all night. Uh, but I thought, I think. A man Thompson is who I pronounce his name incorrectly sometimes, whether it's him or. A SAR that is why teams will draft just special athletes. It's why Perry or is going to go and drafts.

Shout out to Taipei. It's why Danny Ainge talked about drafting Jaylen Brown out of Cal. Because if you watched, it wasn't really great, but it was just physically at the wing position. If this guy ever does figure it out, we seem to have a really hard time with getting better. Like, Hey, what happened there? Why did people get that wrong? He got better. Why did that not work out?

He didn't get better. The stuff that we're seeing with the men Thompson is so incredibly impactful where it's not just a made a three or gun had a sick dunk. He's just, you can just feel his approach to the game. Kind of like dictating stuff that's going to happen with it. Now the other side of the Sacramento made a ton of threes. Um, you had Keegan Murray with a really nice bounce back stretch here after shooting it so poorly the first couple of months of the season, the

Margarosa was too much. No cam Whitmore is out there with minutes. I don't know if you can actually technically have a negative assist ratio number. His assist percentage jumped from 6.0 to 6.4 this year. So massive improvement there when it's in the single digits, that's pretty bad. I just wonder with his predictability on offense, he's probably a better second unit guy. Could those numbers or those minutes be going to Reid Shepherd with no van Vliet last night? Or does Reid get destroyed on the perimeter against the Keegan monk Fox, and then certainly DeRozan with how good he was at closing

this game out last night when he get crushed there. So, uh, I think there's, there's some really good stuff with Keegan here lately. The rest of the guys, you just kind of know what they're getting the DeRozan addition is just, would you rather have 35 minutes with Damar DeRozan or with Harrison Barnes? And even though Harrison Barnes was awesome in the post against the Lakers a couple of nights ago, putting in work against Finney Smith, Reeves, and Christie, you'd rather have DeRozan. And I don't think anybody would ever debate you on that one.

Jalen Green's had a really nice stretch here, but God, I don't know if I can Pacino this guy again. I just don't know if I can continue. I can't imagine being a Rockets fan. Well, I kind of am a little bit, right? Can't imagine being a Rockets fan and being like, what? Is he awesome again now? Because I kind of thought maybe he wasn't

after all this stuff. As an aside, we got mic'd up Doug Christie. If you're a certain age, there's probably a lot of you that there's some Doug Christie content out there. Like 20 years ago, we were like, what's this guy's deal? And look, he's a Sacramento King lifer. There's something to be said of that. Carries himself a certain way. But when he was mic'd up, he was a Sacramento King lifer. There's something to be said of that. Carries himself a certain way.

But when he was miked up, he was talking to like Keon Ellis about like, let's not talk to the officials and let's be above this and all this. And all I could think about like, if I was an NBA player, my coach was miked up and he was telling me what I should or shouldn't say to an NBA ref. I'll be like, you can, you can fuck off with that. However, that's not the way Doug Christie is going to be. And even the official was like, he's fuck off with that. However, that's not the way Doug Christie is going to be. And even the official was like, he's not getting on me. So unique mic'd up opportunity.

On the other side with the mic, I'm sensing a difference when Eme Udoka is interviewed by Jared Greenberg versus when he is interviewed by Taylor Rooks. I will continue to monitor the vibes. Last couple of notes here. I love Jaron Jackson Jr. There's nothing on the counting stats to be like, now you like him, right? Because it's kind of mirroring where he was at

when he made the All-Star team a couple of years ago, which was his fifth season, so now we're talking about his seventh season. I started looking into the metrics. I was like, should I find, I don't want to find anything. I don't want to look at anything. I don't want to convince you that because this winshare 48 numbers better than this one,

and the VORP is heading in the right direction, that the box score plus minus. But if you look at the rotation, I don't have anything for you other than I fucking love this guy right now in a way that I've never loved Jaron Jackson before. All right. When did it happen? Right?

I'll tell you, um, look, it could be the game December 7th against Boston, where he set down the entire toolbox, took out the hammer, the screwdriver, the level, the all hand planer, nail set, just The stuff he did against Boston in that game to close it out was just he had everything you would want. And he gave it to you. He gave it all to you. It's all on sale. 38 and 12 against Phoenix, but most importantly, the ones that I went against San Antonio. Well, he was only 19, six and two and he shot at what was he nine or 24? Yep.

Fine. But that's the hardest I've ever seen anyone go at one, but Yama since he's been in the NBA, he went right at that dude. Like I don't give a shit. And he made him, when we feel them, there was a couple of times where he slammed in when Benyama finished against him and when it was like backing up kind of under the basket and get ready to run back down on offense where he's like, that wasn't very much fun.

I haven't seen anybody ever attack him like Jaren Jackson did. So I don't care about the shooting numbers. And you could even argue like, oh, I don't want to talk efficiency. Can we take a break from it for one fucking second? I love Jaren Jackson Jr. Although I did fall for it with Scoot going at Wembe in international play, but Scoot, arrow up. Last thing, hey Ryan, did Alex Starr

take a ridiculous three pointer last night? Yes he did. The number two picks had a nice stretch. Really good December was Rookie of the Month in the East. Yves Misi, Rookie of the Year in the West. Love his game. Great job by that Pelicans front office that we'd like to give shout outs here because I just think they're really good at this. Also recognition of Trey Murphy's altered ceiling. But real ones know that he could put it on the deck and get to the hoop. If you watched him at Virginia, DeJante Murray was filthy closing out against Dallas the other night.

But dare I say, was it so good that it was not involving Trey enough? Who knows? I mean, DeJante was just, I think it was like 10 to 12 points to close that one out. So the Pelicans are on fire right now, three or four, almost beat Boston, by the way, so it could have been four straight with this one. Yeah, I thought this was about Alex Sarr and a three-pointer. Don't worry, we'll get there. So I watched last night as Phoenix was able to close out the Wizards

barely in Washington. Phoenix, I just don't like right now. It's an easy stretch of the schedule. They've won, I think five of seven. So you're like, what don't you like? I don't like the way it's looked winning five of these seven. Um, and last night's a perfect example of it. They're up 117, 100. That's 17 points with five 18 to go. And four minutes later, it's 120 to 117.

Durant came in with like 318. He didn't even take a shot. You know, the Wizards young players don't know any better so they're gonna play pretty hard. Whether it's Bubb or George or Kulabali, even Sar like got out and transition after a turnover, like Phoenix had some real turnover problems. Like I'm just telling you between Minnesota being healthy, which maybe is

more concerning where Phoenix's start, I'm like, okay, this makes sense. Like if Phoenix is healthy and they have these guys, like their start should be. That should be a good season because they've done a good job with all the role players and all the stuff in the off season. And yet I don't know, man. I watched the Atlanta game. I watched both Charlotte games and like, what, what is up with this team? And Beal didn't even play last night.

He turned the ankle in the Atlanta game, which was really just bad for Phoenix. And he did come back and play in that game. So, um, ended up not playing here. So Booker was having a tough run of it because he's in there for basically the entire fourth quarter and Durant was out. They were up big enough. So you didn't even know if they're going to bring Durant back again, there's no field. So like if you look at Booker's efficiency stuff on this season,

you're going to go, well, you know, this is actually kind of a down year for him. I think that's really missing the point of like when he was playing when the other guys weren't there how ugly it was getting Because it was just him asked to save them the entire time and at this point I think Booker is a better player the Duran is I think he's better for Phoenix than than Duran is And Booker ended up hitting the three that kind of like closed the game anyway So back to Sarr because I know you've been waiting desperate when is is this going to get back to Alex SAR, man? I'm waiting. It is 1.23, 1.17, and there's 44 seconds left on the game clock.

You've got a full shot clock on the inbounds on the wizard side. They throw it into SAR, and SAR dribbles in a hurry to get behind the three-point line to then turn and take a three. I'm serious. There was 22 seconds left on the shot clock. So yeah, I know you got to go quick. Yeah. You're maybe looking for a three.

You would have thought there was point zero, like an eighth of a second left and they were down three or four. SAR was like, nope, need to get this one up. And I know he shot it really well from three after a disastrous start on this. So that's a shot that they're gonna wanna take. No one in the history of basketball has ever wanted anyone to take that shot the way he took it.

Let's take a quick look at the West right now. Do you know where your veteran teams are in the standings? Cause I do. Oklahoma city's glass of themselves. I think the Houston Memphis, Denver thing and a healthy Dallas are probably ones that make the most sense. Then it's this Clippers story that just won't go away. They won three in a row. Um, and they've just been better than I thought they would be Minnesota alarming

because the health and the fact they're not better Sacramento surging. This is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, row, um, and they've just been better than I thought they would be. Minnesota alarming because the health and the fact they're not better. Sacramento surging, the 10 seed is Phoenix. Same record as Golden State, who's now out of the plan 20 and 20 now on the season. Although their win against Minnesota was really impressive the other night. That means they've gone eight and 17 since the 12 and three star and then San Antonio just below 500 with the loss to Memphis. So that's, that's a crazy group right there. And look, scooting the trailblazers only seven games out from the 10 seat.

Toronto. There's another great city that starts with a T. Tampa, Florida. Fly to Tampa on Porter Airlines to see why it's so tea-riffic. On your way there, relax with free beer, wine and snacks, free fast streaming Wi-Fi and no middle seats. You've never flown to Florida like this before, so you'll land in Tampa ready to explore. Visit FlyPorter.com and actually enjoy economy.

With TD Direct Investing, new and existing clients could get 1% cash back. Great! That's 1% closer to being part of the 1%. Maybe, but definitely 100% closer to getting 1% cash back with TD Direct Investing. Conditions apply. Offer ends January 31, 2025. Visit td.com slash DI Offer to learn more. 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 can 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, rr at gmail.com. St. John's, Kyle. Got one thing left. I got one thing left this year. It's them, so. I love it.

I love that you love the Johnnys. So Rudy, I believe the floor is yours. Yeah, I got a bad update. A lot of people have been asking. A lot of people have been concerned for my health. Did go ahead and get the rabies shot, the rabies vaccine thought it was one shot. It is not. It's like 12 shots.

So your boy is, your boy's on a regimen. I got two shots in the thigh the other day, one in the arm, same day. No big deal. Don't call me a hero. Um, and I go back tomorrow, the week after it's intense. So the schedule we are, we are, we're just being precautionary, but I didn't realize it was 12 shots. Yeah. I always thought the baddest MF

was the tetanus shot. I didn't realize there was multiple parts to rabies. Tetanus was like, you know, two years, I got to get to, I think it was like, what, what is it every 10 years? So like around like 11, I was like, oh man, my time's coming. I'm going to be done. Because everyone's like, oh, you get sore. I didn't realize there was like multiple parts, like a trilogy of shots.

Seven. That's crazy. How long is this going to go? You have to get it on day zero, day three, day seven, and then day 14. And originally it was four shots at the first. We had to go to the ER, which is lovely. Uh, very nice people. Did she have, did she have to get the shot? Does your daughter have to go to the ER, which was lovely. Very nice people there. Shots out to them.

Did she have to get the shot? Does your daughter have to get the shot? Door was closed, so the daughter does not, because the bat wasn't in her vicinity, but we do. And everyone there was basically like, there's basically like zero chance you need these, but I can't actually tell you you're fine. Interesting sitting in the, you know, the ER waiting room when there's probably like real shit for people

really struggling. It was a calm day. I was expecting it to be like carnage, but it was actually kind of calm. It was a smaller little hospital too, so that worked out well. And then so I was prepared to just go like left arm, right arm. She's like, now you're going to want to get him in the thighs. And I was like, really? So pants down, just shot, like left arm, right arm. She's like, no, you're going to want to get him in the thighs. And I was like, really? So pants down, just shot, shot, shot, left arm.

And I feel good, you know, but we'll find out tomorrow when I've got to do it again. Glad you did the right thing. I had no idea. The tetanus one's fine. No, when you're a kid, it sounds like the worst thing you're going to have to do. Cause like even adults are like, yeah, man, I was sore afterwards. Like sore. What are you talking about? He used to step on nails all the time, yeah, man, I was sore afterwards. Like sore. What are you talking about? He used to step on nails all the time.

Uh, my wife's a trooper. She stepped on a nail the last time she was pregnant, had to get the tetanus shot while pregnant and that was fun. I had no idea. No wonder. I mean, this, this rabies fatality number that we got this week. Now it's all starting to make sense, but I wonder if you can go out. They'll get you staying in.

No way. I'm on top of the world. Hang out with the bush. Four shots in, three to go, no problem. All right, we also had a Disney employee reaching out to Wargon. I will forge you the details, Wargon, but it appears the people of Disney

appreciate your support. I don't know if it's the Lion King Inc. Or the fact that you got on a flight with a stomach flu and then still ran a half marathon in the rain as your wife lapped you. But if you want to pull up your audio and video here real quickly, I want to let you know the people down in Orlando are on your side.

Nice, good to hear. They are. I don't know if I got lapped. I don't know if I got lapped. She made me go like 20 minutes. No, okay, sorry. Sorry, I thought you said she just flew right past you. Oh, okay. Sorry. Sorry. I thought you said she just flew right past you.

He did actually say that. He did say that. It wasn't a lapping. I don't even know what the course was. So that's on me. That's on me not doing the research of what that would be. So I will forward you those details. We talked about passes?

Nice, dude. Yeah. Yeah, possibly. Hell yeah. Fast pass. Let's go. Still the ESPN Cor Nice dude. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Hell yeah. Fast pass. Let's go. Still the ESPN core female. Yeah, exactly. All right. Sounds, sounds good. Uh, all right.

So I sent out a video of, um, the halftime entertainment at the nuggets gamegets game from last week. I think I forget which Nuggets game it was. They all kind of watched a lot of Nuggets. So I have the feeds up like a lot of you do if you have League Pass. You don't get commercials during halftime. You just get the feed. It's awesome. And actually, yeah, right. That's part of the League Pass. Although my father after a couple of weeks with me once, was like, I almost missed commercials because he was so annoyed at the in-game entertainment hosts.

Because then we started critiquing and be like, oh, this guy thinks he's fucking really cool. He thinks he's three years away from starting on his, he thinks he's going to have a Netflix show. Where it's like, this person I think understands kind of where they're at a little bit more. And be like, who hired this dude? And what's her deal? So So you just start going through all of them. I could probably do a podcast I don't know. Maybe when I take some time off like ranking all the in

Arena entertainment hosts. I might be your guy. I might be your guy for it But anyway, they have a lot of kids that play from local schools local communities. You get to go play in an NBA court It's an awesome thing to do. I get to do it for a men's league thing. So that was cool. But yet there's kids just running around all over the place. And what happens is all the kids want to take NBA threes. And sometimes the age range is like, maybe. Usually the age range is like, absolutely not. This is a disaster. The other night for a Nuggets game, the kids took 13 NBA threes. They went 0 for 13. Uh, Oh, there were eight air balls. Yeah. I tracked it.

I went back because I, the problem is, is when I have multiple TVs on and then the kids start playing, I watched the kids more than the adults because I'm fascinated by their approach to it. And then one kid started waving his arms, pointing like Babe Ruth to where he was going to pull up from. Logo three. I can't even remember the name of the game. And then one kid started waving his arms, pointing like Babe Ruth to where he was going to pull up from. Logo three. I can't believe it hit the rim.

This kid pulled up from 30 plus feet. And I don't think these guys were like above the fourth, fifth grade thing. So it wasn't dumping on kids. It was just an observation about the evolution of where the game is going. And then I tweeted like, hey, is Steph to blame? Even though I love Steph, probably as much as any current. I don't think that, I don't, I think Steph will be the last athlete I like this much,

by the way, for the record. Don't know what that means, but there you go. Anyway, went to the Rossello Denver live show and the Simmons live show, Oh, back to back. Saw your tweet about the kids going over 13 at the nuggets game, halftime show as a friend of the coach, I just wanted to write in to give you the behind the scenes, the coach was hanging out with the kids in the hallway that Yokech always runs down and he hyped them up to make an NBA three pointer.

Not a good look for the state of the game and the youth or at the youth level, but the coach probably has to split the blame with Curry. Um, while I'm here, can you help settle some nuggets group chat drama? Uh, Murray is 12th on the NBA player salary list in 26, 27. Is there a tougher contract to build around with sides appeal for what you're getting? Uh, yeah, there's worse contracts.

Simmons is captain of the Murray ship right now. And I do not want to buy a ticket because I think Murray eventually, because he's had those high playoff moments. We're not talking about somebody who's a stiff. So I don't think that the Murray contract is like this absolute albatross because I don't think he's going to be this bad.

Anyway, all right, well, glad to know that that was part of it there, but look, it isn't just about these Denver kids. Do you guys want to do life advice emails instead of these? I wouldn't mind. Yeah. Kyle's already checked out. Yeah.

I'm looking at Kyle just going, all right, let's, let's go back. Let just going, all right. Let's, um, let's go back. Let's just, all right, let's go for just a heavy hitter then. Male 44, third string university goalie in Canada. Never had to dress for games. So I know the closest bars to every rink we played on at the road. Basketball comp. Cedric Hunter matches my practice to game time ratio. Anyway, I run my own construction company. Skilled labor is in demand, hard to attract.

I keep raising my wages, but it's still hard to retain or attract workers. Recently, I had one of my best employees find this note on his vehicle, phone numbers covered as he posts the note at a legendary dive bar, have been busy raising a family. So this reminded me of the hijinks of university life. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. find this note on his vehicle, phone number is covered as he posts the note at a legendary dive bar,

have been busy raising a family, so this reminded me of the hijinks of university in Montreal anyway. Oh, on top of this is everything else, maybe the guy went to McGill. While drinking at this bar with friends, we got into an argument. Did a man or woman write this?

Is it connected to you driving a Subaru as a construction worker? Is this solicitation or entrapment? Also, he found this a day after his honeymoon. Should I post this as a benefit that my company offers? Will this lead to dissection on the job site if others get the same note? And if you ever visit the Yukon, we can show you where to park your rental car. All right. So here's the note. I see you park here regularly.

Earmuffs kids, earmuffs. I see you park here regularly and I'm thinking you are part of the construction crew working at the country inn. I live close by. Would you be into getting discreet? Let's use the term steam occasionally, maybe on your lunch break or after work. That was cleaning it up. So that's the note, Kyle.

Is this a perk? This unit, this isn't this guy's friends just seeing if he takes the bait. You don't think that's friends just seeing if he takes the bait. You don't think that's what this is? That's got to be what it is. Or like just like a group of the regular guys in the bar like, let's see if Tommy bites on this one. Because if he does, they'll have whatever the fuck he's texting or whatever he's called.

I can't see this being real. Listen, I'm not versed in Canada. Maybe there's forward women just dotted, just dotted all around that, that great Northern, uh, area up there. But it just, for me, alarm bells are ringing. This is somebody just don't, don't step in this, man. They're begging the trap is set as far as I'm concerned, but I don't know. Maybe the guy's an absolute knockout and it's just like, this is what happens when he goes out in the world could be, but.

I had dinner with a pretty good looking guy the other night. A lot of people coming up to him. World is different, man. Dude, totally. World is different for those guys. Pretty privileged. Yeah. Some guys are just like absolute knockouts.

Right. Some dudes are hot. Yes. There's some hot dudes out there, folks. Just want to be friends with one of them. Anyway, back to the note. Yes, there's some hot dudes out there, folks. Just wanna be friends with one of them. Yeah. Anyway, back to the note. The handwriting is sort of gender neutral,

like a lot of the bathrooms in LA. So I don't know if the old detective lens is helping me here. I'm looking at the font. I'm looking at the, you know, it's, it's obviously nobody writes in cursive anymore. I don't know if this is a Canadian man's handwriting though. You know, I'm sort of thinking construction.

I'm thinking the Yukon shout out, although the hockey part of it, McGill feels a little South for where I've assumed that maybe this construction site is, but if we allow ourselves to move up the lines of the longitude lines here, I think. Are we talking bubble letters? Like, does it look like? No, no. Trust me, we're on the same page Kyle. Like I think I could figure it out and this one feels, I think I could figure it out. And this one feels, it's neat. So maybe it is female, but I think Steve's right.

I think you're just setting yourself up here to be humiliated. Like one of my roommates did this to me and left it on the monster truck. It was like, hey, I love this truck. It's so cool that whatever. Then it was just like, and they part to see, yeah, right. There was like, uh, a heart like dotted something, but they did it.

And I don't know what the hell they were doing that day other than nothing, but they did it in a way that they knew I would be coming out to my truck, like within a couple hours and they just waited to see how I would react. Like that was our phone number. Yeah, there was a phone number and that was their whole payoff to see. Like if I was going to kind of smile and read it and like be really feeling myself being like, see, I am right. This truck is fucking awesome.

Yeah. They just like Mike Jones phone number there. Although that would still would have been before Mike Jones. So that number would have worked. Anyway, I knew immediately it was one of the guys. So I luckily didn't do an ego boost like face in the parking lot. I'm like, man, I am hot.

Awesome. And my truck is big ass. Construction workers in a bar, anything within a certain radius. So what would you do, Kyle? What would you do? I think I'm leaving it. Even if I'm curious, I'm like,

I can't give these guys a win. I cannot give these guys a win. And I might forego something great. And maybe that's something I got to work on. But I come from a friend group that does hijinks and likes to make guys feel bad about themselves and short spurts, and then it's all love after that. But I would just, I don't know.

I think it's just, I got too much of that ingrained in me that I wouldn't even sniff this out What's the upside to like? What's the percent chance that she's normal hot chick? Yeah, I got it. Yeah normals the the word here, right? It's a party how'd you guys meet? Well, I've got pretty good handwriting Well, I've got pretty good handwriting. All right. Another shout out to Oregon. I just wanted to give Oregon his proper flowers for running the Disney Marathon.

Under the circumstances he described, I happen to be in Disney World with some friends Tuesday, Friday. The friends organized the trip because they were signed up to run the 5K Thursday morning after one full day in Magic Kingdom on Wednesday. They both bailed on the 5K. We all spent all day in Magic Kingdom on Wednesday. They both failed on the 5K. We all spent all day Thursday on roller coasters and get drinks and Epcot. Great job sticking with it. Oregon. Thanks. Thanks gang.

No, I echo that guy's sentiments. And I said this on the pod, like you had multiple reasons to bail. I would have bailed at the first reason and, uh, and you did it. So, uh, I So I'm aligned with that guy. Oregon, what would you have done with that? No, nothing. My friend said that to me when I was in like high school, just like rode on my car. Like, you know, like the car rank that you're right with. Yes. And it was like, you cheated on me. Like you stole my girl, stuff like that. What I just like cleaned off the windshield, like drove it home. Next morning, my dad was like,

nice, you stole someone's girl, good job. He's like, dad, what the fuck? That doesn't feel like the same thing, but I think it works. It's kind of similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just your friend trying to fuck with you. All right, one more for the kid.

62180 player comp, Jokic. I trained for a marathon in 2016 for six months, followed a precise training regimen, devoted my life to proper hydration and nutrition and preparation for the race. One week before the race, I came down with an RSV, a respiratory illness that can cause a lot of cough and wheezing and trouble breathing. I threw everything I could at the illness the week before the race. And I got steroids, breathing treatments to try to run the race, race day chem, and I knew on mile three that I didn't feel right, much like Morgan. I showed up and finished, but it was 40 minutes off my goal training time. It left a very sour taste in my mouth.

All of that training down the drain. I stood with that for eight years. Eight years, dude. There wasn't another race. I was like, you had one dude. There wasn't another race. I was saying you had one shot. Was it a full marathon? You know, you could just run this on your own too.

Right. Like is it, yeah. Uh, yeah, I don't think, I don't think that's going to be cool for the runners out there and they're not going to like that suggestion because I don't think it's the same thing I stood with that for eight years until finally in 2024, I got up to courage to train for another marathon. This time I got COVID halfway through the training, but there was enough time to recover and have to say I was able to run in November and meet my goal. I had set eight years ago.

All right. That this makes a little bit more sense. Cause it's the leap year marathon. Right. Oregon, I know exactly how you feel. So my advice to Oregon is to just stew on this for a while, maybe not eight years and do it again when you were mentally ready. You know Oregon is to just stew on this for a while, maybe not eight years and do it again when you were mentally ready.

You know, you can just finish the training, make some small tweaks during the next training session and things you've learned this time, you might consider running a race in April, May, early June when it's not too hot yet. And at that time of year, when viral illnesses are not circulating as bad, you obviously could not plan for a stomach flu two days before the timing sucks. Get back out there. And when you finish the next time at the pace you train for, you will be really circulating is bad. You obviously could not plan for a stomach flu two days before. The timing sucks. Get back out there and when you finish the next time at the pace you trained for,

you will be really glad you did. Good luck, Oregon. Appreciate the wonderful content and strong work from the entire crew. He wrote War-Gone, but we're gonna stay with the Oregon team today. All right. Reversed light advice.

Interesting. All right, last thing here. Kyle, how are you on time? I'm okay. Are you sure? I'm sure. Okay. All right.

I was a bully in high school. We just got this one fresh off the presses. Long time, first time, male 36, married two young kids, thick street, 200 pounds, NBA comp, Blake Griffin without the vertical. I'll try to make it quick. I went to school in a small Midwest town, 50 people in my graduating class. In high school, I was a bully.

To make matters worse, it was to one specific girl in my class. Let's call her April. I cannot remember a lot of specifics, but I know the way I treated April was a hundred percent wrong and certainly classified as bullying to this day. I'm sure she remembers and despises me, which is more, she definitely remembers. Uh, at our 10 year high school reunion, we locked eyes at the bar for a moment. She gave me a look I will never forget.

It was a look of disgust. She couldn't walk away quick enough. At that moment, I felt about two feet tall, not having, now having two young children of my own and reflecting years after the fact, I could see how shitty that behavior was. If I had a pinpoint, I'm sure it stemmed from my own disparities at the time and being a shithead adolescent.

April now appears to live a happily married life with a husband and two kids from what Facebook tells me. We're not Facebook friends. If it matters, her husband would destroy me in a fight. He looks to be about 6'4, 250 of solid muscle and has an affinity for rugby of all things. Uh oh. My question is 20-ish years after the fact, should I reach out and apologize? I'm not sure how it will come across, but I'm sincerely

sorry for the way I treated her. Do I reach out or continue living the life like this? Uh, past transgression never happened. Thanks, love the pot. That sucks. Cause you're a bully and you've got some size on you. And she apparently reformed bully. Yeah.

Met up with Dolph Lundgren. So, um, I think the fact that you care is not like a bully, you know, in the bully DNA, granted, like sometimes you're just younger and you're just a shithead. Um, it's just what happens. I think there's part of it where like, I remember there was a guy that I really hated and I think I gave it probably a little too long. It was outside of the window and we were at a party years later. And he was like, Hey brother, what's going on?

I was like, you can go fuck yourself with that. And he was like, what? And I was like, do you, you don't remember? He's like, dude, we were in high school. We were like sophomores. And I was like, I don't care. I was like, that was fucking terrible what you did. And he's like, dude, it's like 2002. I was like,

Yep. And the thing is, is he's not wrong. Like, that's what I needed to do at that time. That was how I was going to handle it. I was kind of looking forward to it, to be honest with you. And that's how I felt I needed to get not past it, because it wasn't like this haunting thing, but I was looking forward to that day to telling that guy to go fuck himself. He, I don't think was wrong necessarily in being like, are you serious? We're almost 30 now. Like you're going to be that mad about something that happened. We were like 15 and 16 years old. And it's like, yeah, I am. But I didn't think looking back from where his perspective

was if he was kind of like, all right, dude, like I got it. I don't necessarily think he was wrong either. At the time I didn't care, but now thinking about it, it's like, you know, he might've been right. Like, hey, there's gotta be some, some like understanding as people become adults that a lot of this stuff isn't really cool. It seems like April's not getting over any of them.

And you know she isn't, and she remembers all of these things. Sure, you could reach out. It might make you feel a little bit better, maybe closure on that. Maybe there's some closure for her. But in all likelihood, she probably just never, ever wants anything to do with you.

And the fact that if you do apologize and she wants nothing to do with you, it sounds like this freak rugby guy is more than you can handle on top of everything else. Yeah, I think the time to do it was at the reunion or a week or two after, and you're like, hey, I saw you. If this has been months away,

I don't think you're gonna get a good reception from it. And I could be wrong, it just seems like the in-person thing would have been the best case scenario if you wanted to get this off your chest a week or two after being like, hey, seeing you really made me think, if this has been like six months ago or longer, I would just kind of let sleeping dogs lie. I think you learned a valuable lesson already. I think you got that part.

You feel gross. You have kids. You're like, I definitely don't want my kids to be bullies, and I definitely don't want them to be bullied. So I think you kind of got all the learning stuff you wanted to get out of this. And I just, I don't think if more than a certain amount of time has passed, I just don't think you're gonna get any sort of closure from this unless you're just like,

I just need it to be said. If you want her to feel better about it, like knowing that you feel bad, I don't know if this is gonna happen, if this was a year or so ago. And it's just like, it was already, it would have been random at the 10 year reunion or whatever it is if it's 10, if it's 12 years later, just for no reason.

I don't know. I just kind of let it lie. You think it sounds like you learned your lesson. I have a lot of thoughts on this. It's you're doing this for yourself, not her. So that's true. Right. And if you don't think she's going to receive it well, it's probably not worth doing

because it's a selfish act, right? You're really only doing this because you feel bad about how much of an asshole you were when you were younger. But then I also sort of subscribe to like, it's never too late to do the right thing, right? Like, oh yeah, okay. You could have been a terrible person for so long. Conflicting Instagram.

Just never. Yeah. Look, I just started firing off, uh, you know, insightful quotes here, but like you, you should, if you did something wrong, like apologizing is it's all just, that's, that's a big step. So I'm kind of stuck between the two things. Like I, I would apply. I think I would, if it was really eating at you, like what is she going to get? It's you get more mad Is she gonna like dislike you more because you own up and talk about how much you were an asshole and apologize her like? Probably not so even though it is the selfish act. I do think it is a worthwhile thing to do

I wouldn't really worry about the husband like beating the crap. What is he like? Oh cool. You apologize showing out I found outside the house like he's got to run you off. I don't know Yeah, so, you know, by the way, if the husband's normal, he'll probably always enormous, but Like I don't know how I would feel if my wife was like I hate that guy and then I'd be like, okay What's the deal? Why do you hate him? It's like he was mean to me in high school I just was like, all right, well, that sucks. I don't like him also, but. I'm on your side, but yeah, exactly.

It was 30 years ago. Do you want me to go to a parking lot right now with a baseball bat? Like, I don't wanna do that. I mean, could you actually just DM the person on Facebook and say, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, hey. Like, just a quick hey. Get it out immediately.

I was a dick to you in high school. I saw you at the reunion, gave me the look. You made me feel terrible by myself. Don't even say that. Don't say that. No, no, no, no. I actually, this is what I mean though, by giving her the win, by being like in that moment, you made me realize like not you made me realize.

Cause I already knew it ahead of time. So I'm not trying to like write your entire thing, but like, if you give her a bit of a win in that and that your look made me feel this way, and I deserve to feel that way because of the way I treated you and I wanted to let you know. And I will forever be sorry, whatever quick, efficient out there, but a little bit of that, like sharing the moment with her when she looked at you so that it's all acknowledged that she'll, she's not like, did he see me? Did I not see all that different stuff? Yeah, you saw me.

I saw you and it just reminded me of how terrible I was and I felt terrible about it. And I know you'll never want to talk to me or whatever. And I definitely don't want to stop by because your husband's a monster, but who knows? Yeah. Small town. Divorce rate, you know, seven years from now. Guess who's, guess who's bringing whose kids to soccer practice. Yeah. Yeah.

How'd you guys meet? He bullied me and then he sent me the super nice DM. I was going through some issues cause he's from Australia anyway. So culturally we weren't super aligned, even though it was so odd. I don't think it's that weird by the way, to hold to harbor feelings about things that happen in high school. I don't let it like, I don't think it's that weird, by the way, to hold, to harbor feelings about things that happen in high school. Like, don't let it, like, don't think about it daily, but like, there's still guys in high school

that are like, that guy's a fucking loser, and I don't like you. Yeah, for dudes who have so little going on. I don't think about it all the time, but it's like, if that was to come up, I'd be like, cool, that guy sucks. Like, I don't, you know, it doesn't affect my life on a day-to-day basis,

but I think it's fine to harbor those feelings still. Yeah, for people who had like nothing going on, like stuff like that was huge back then, right? So it was like, I took up a lot of your brain space. So I get it. I hadn't even thought about mine forever. And then I just saw him randomly. And I was like,

just came for the back, huh? Yeah, I let him have it too. Yeah. And I didn't feel bad. I'll tell you that I didn't I was such a loser at the time Was like this is nice a win. What's this like? As I was telling that story sure he's looked at he was just shaking his head and disbelief being no I'm just thinking about the people like that guy. Yeah No, there was a guy in high school who tried to steal my girlfriend multiple times and the war gun wasn't war gone.

Sounds like dad approves. And, you know, I'll get a little chuckle every time I hear a story about something dumb that happened in his life. And I don't think about them all the time, but like, I do sort of enjoy the, like, Oh, fuck that guy. You know, we're not going to be cool. Yeah. I think sometimes it's okay to have that in your life.

You're like, hey, you need to move past that. Maybe I don't. I think about it once every two years, I'm fine. We've got plenty other days to think about all the other stuff. But if I hear something about somebody that I don't like that I think I'm deserving of, not necessarily rooting for their downfall,

but not liking positive updates. Fuck it. All right. Take that with you into the weekend. Thank you to Wargon. Thank you to Kyle. Thank you to Sir Rudy. Ryan Roussela podcast. Check out our YouTube page

and also subscribe on Reader's Code 5. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 Support Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.