The Ryen Russillo Podcast - New CFP Rankings. What’s Still in Play? Rockets and T-Wolves Deep Dives. Plus, Matt Barkley Shares College and NFL Stories.

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

Russillo starts the show with his thoughts on the most recent College Football Playoff rankings and breaks down Rockets-Timberwolves (0:39). Then, he’s joined by Matt Barkley to learn about a young Josh Allen, his favorite QB rooms throughout his career, and why he thinks some teams struggle to build contenders (17:58). Finally, the Alliance tries to win big (45:18), and Kyle and Ceruti join for Life Advice (47:36). How do I get my friend to stop tickling me? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, 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 Barkley Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of the podcast, the College Football Committee has released their rankings. We'll get into some of the hypotheticals, even though we're not supposed to. Also, my favorite game of the NBA season so far, Houston's overtime win in Minnesota, deep dive on both of those teams. We've got Matt Barkley talking about his time as a quarterback, what he would do differently and being projected to be a top 10 pick to end up going in the fourth round. But it was good. It wasn't sad. And we've got life advice and the Alliance. With Uber Reserve, you can book your Uber ride in advance. 90 days in advance. Perfect for all you forward thinkers and planning gurus.

Reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. Uber Reserve. See Uber app for details. Holiday shopping is never easy. An ugly holiday sweater. How did you know? Should have been a holiday scratch and win. Yes.

Holiday scratch and win tickets. Available in stores now. Must be 19 plus to play. Holiday scratch and win tickets available in stores now. Must be 19 plus to play. Scratch and win tickets are not for kids. I want to get to a couple things here. Houston and Minnesota, awesome NBA game. Maybe my favorite of the regular season. We'll get to that in a few minutes,

but we're going to start with the college football committee rankings. Here they are in order. Remember this is a little different because it's not the bracket, but it's Oregon one, Ohio State two, Texas three, Penn State four, Notre Dame five, Miami six, Georgia seven, Tennessee at eight,

SMU at nine, Indiana at number 10, Boise State, Mountain West team at 11, Clemson at 12. Remember Arizona State is the highest ranked big 12 team at 16 and in front of them they've got South Carolina Ole Miss and Bama so Bama is actually 13 at this point. Okay so prior to the Ohio State game for the Hoosiers I was like look Indiana is 11-1 I can't do it but I also as I try to remind everybody every single year it's like sometimes we'll be like well last year the committee did this and then two

years ago the committee did this it's like okay well that may be the profile of the team but you also have to include what you're comparing that team to. And I didn't think that all of those SEC teams would lose on Saturday night. They did, we know it was a terrible night for the conference to get that extra team in and now Indiana looks like they're going to be in the playoff and they're a 30 point favorite against Purdue, who's probably the worst power for program in college football right now. So I don't know, even though I try to remind all

of us, like be ready for some of these surprises and stakes get raised, weird stuff happens. Maybe we already saw that all on Saturday night. I don't think Purdue beating Indiana is on the menu. You also could start talking about South Carolina against Clemson if you wanted to, but I think the point, maybe this will surprise some of you.

If I just step back from what happened on Saturday and the total picture of where we're at with some of these last teams, I think a lot of you think I would argue Alabama back in, not going to happen. I mean, it's just, I mean, unless everybody just lost around them. Um, so I don't know if having them at 13, maybe it's the Georgia win, but collectively their loss against Oklahoma was the worst one of what happened on Saturday, Auburn's the worst opponent to lose to, but at least it was a multiple overtime game where Bama just, again, that's the worst offensive game they've

had in like 20 years. So the collective of it, I'd have a harder time arguing them than even. A and M Ole Miss, certainly South Carolina. I mean, Ole Miss losing to Florida. People may not want to hear it, but when Florida goes over time with Tennessee competitive against Georgia beats Ole Miss beats LSU over the course of six weeks, like I just think Florida's a decent football team now right now, but um, there's just not going to be a Bama argument for me. I don't know what's going to happen with Clems now, right now. But there's just not gonna be a Bama argument for me.

I don't know what's gonna happen with Clemson, South Carolina, the winner of that, starts to get a little chesty, but you still have to just factor in the automatic bids that are gonna happen here, and the seeding thing and the way it plays out with the actual brackets. I think once we see the visual of it in the final piece,

like there's a version of this, you're gonna go, what, wait, this is what it's gonna look like, and this team has an easier path despite having this kind of thing. So I think the overall lesson, at least for this year is the committee likes the big 10. I think they liked the standings part of it. And there was an interesting answer from the committee chair, Ward Manuel, who's the AD at Michigan. And he was asked about hypotheticals and his answer was really good.

He's like, we don't do that. We shut it down as soon as it happens in the room. I think his point was over the last few weeks, he'd had 14 of the top 25 teams lose. So you don't know and you can't do hypotheticals. I think it's the perfect answer for somebody tasked with something like this that's just impossible and opens itself up to criticism from every single angle. There's no system where we'd be like, hey, this is the system. This works great. This is the first thing we do as soon as you see the system, we're like, all right, let's tear this apart. And I've been doing this one before the system

even was in place. So, you know, I'm guilty of it too, but the non hypothetical thing, like I said, is a great answer. It's the right answer. It's the answer they have to give us the same way when we had asked committee chairs in the past. Do you rank the conferences? Do you prioritize one conference over the other?

And they were like, well, no. Well, the reason they said no is that they said yes, then we would ask them, well, how did you rank the conferences? And then they can't tell us. So they can't tell us any hypotheticals. I just don't know how you would do this. I don't know how you would ever look at sports and not do hypotheticals. Whether it's me doing this professionally for over 20 years and be like, I wonder if this would

happen. Or think about how you talk about sports with your friends. I think this team would be that team. Pretty simple concept. We'd be doing it a long time. I think it's fairly normal. I don't, like think about basketball. It's like, well, if this guy had played with this guy or this guy had been on this team or this heck, I had more help or that guy didn't have as much help. It's literally all we do. When I talk about assumptions going into the start of a season with college football, because of the sports we really care about, it's the one we know the least about because of the turnover, the ages and everything else that's happening.

But like Texas bringing back 15 starters from a playoff team with their NFL quarterback and the coaching staff intact. There's a good chance I'm going to think that team will be good the next year, as opposed to Washington who loses everybody has one returning starter in their quarterbacks on the Atlanta Falcons. I don't think that's a difficult thing to figure out. It's the same way with the Bills and Niners. I thought the Bills and Niners would both be good this summer. I might be wrong about the Niners. I'm going to be right about the Bills and Niners. I thought the Bills and Niners would both be good this summer. I might be wrong about the Niners. I'm gonna be right about the Bills.

So if you've figured out a way to talk about sports without including any hypotheticals, then congrats, because you are much better at doing this than I am. Not hypothetical, the Houston Rockets are one of my favorite basketball teams in the NBA. They went at Minnesota last night, won 17, won 11 in overtime. Again, I think it's the best game in the NBA. They went at Minnesota last night, won 17, won 11 and overtime.

Again, I think it's the best game of the season. Just the effort level and the chaos, and it wasn't like it was the most beautifully played, but it just felt like it was so important. It really felt like a playoff game, and it was just intense from start to finish. Do you know that the Houston Rockets are the three seed today? You probably did know that.

Did you know that Memphis was the fourth? I bet you that would surprise you. Uh, Minnesota's lost three straight. Over time, Houston really fell apart offensively towards the stretch of regulation and then not much to show there in overtime down to the final position against Boston. The Toronto loss though, was the one where you're like, how did that happen? They had three days off before that.

Did they have off too much time? Who knows? Whatever. Let's do a little audit with them because the Timberwolves are now your 11th seed in the West, that team does not get in eight and nine on the season. Not what you'd expect from a team that was growing in the right direction with their playoff run last year. So if we look at the profile of some of the things here, because they had some offensive numbers that were concerning their late offensive stuff. So let's look at that overall. some of the things here, because they had some offensive numbers that were concerning their late offensive stuff. So let's look at that overall offensively.

They were 17th in the league last year. The winning numbers, they were the best defense by like two points per 100 possessions, just a dominant defense in today's NBA. They were eighth in shooting. They were eighth in rebounding rate. They had some fourth quarter clutch stuff that I didn't love. Fourth quarter offense 16th, clutch offense 22nd.

Their net clutch rating was 27th on the season. So you're like, how? Like I'm supposed to take this team? Yeah, they were just that good defensively. And I think the ant stuff is superhuman powers with enough to like in some close games, despite the number profile being like, that's alarming, um, still something to go to. So if you look at them this year, they're actually better on offense 17th to 12th.

The problem is defensively. They're a mess. They're 12th compared to where they were last year. Um, same shooting numbers, rebounding. They've gone from eight to 18th fourth quarter Fourth quarter offense has actually improved a little bit. Clutch offense has gone the other way. They're 26th in clutch offense, but a better overall net rating. Again, this early in the season, some of the clutch stuff can be a little misleading.

It's super misleading. Well, I don't know if super misleading. I just don't know that we have enough numbers. If you go like clutch player numbers, there's like, I looked through it with the ant. There's nothing that's like really alarming. He's actually, you know, there's, there's not going to the free throw line a ton because he's taken so many threes. So it's still about the defense.

Them being eight and nine is still about their defense. Even if last night's an example of the nights I don't like their offense. The Randall drives where he's just driving. I'm just going to drive to the hoop. Although the good thing for Timberwolves fans is the year used to just a big guy going like, I'm just going to drive through everybody with Kat. So you've replaced that with Randall. Although Randall's had much better moments from, you know, a couple of the

early, early things that I saw from him, uh, a lot of like ant bail us out stuff. He's taken 21 shots a game. It was just under 20 last year, so that's about the same, but he's taking way more off from him a lot of like ant bail us out stuff. He's taken 21 shots a game. It was just under 20 last year. So that's about the same, but he's taking way more three, seven last year, 11 this year, but he's hitting 43%. So yeah, let's free throws. Cause he's taking more threes, but when he's hitting it at that kind of number,

it just feels like late in games a little bit. It's just him. Sometimes it works because he's that good, but he's just tasked with. Let me see if I can get free because everybody's loading up on him defensively. Um, yeah. So the clutch stuff is a little weird. I think the one thing that I've noticed here is that. DeVincenzo non-factor last night, couldn't make a shot.

Jayden couldn't make a shot for him, but overall the corner three numbers from DeVincenzo and McDaniels are just bad so far. Devin Genzo was like 40% from threes, low thirties overall. He's 26% on the corner threes. Jayden's 30% of the corner three. So that shot's going to be there on drives from Ant. And look, Devin Genzo is not going to shoot that bad of a number I wouldn't expect,

but that's kind of clogging him up a little bit. I mean, as much as I've talked Rudy too much of where I'm at, because there may be no more pointless notification in society than Rudy waving his hand up in the air on a cut saying, I'm open. Cool. Enjoy being open. This round thing, you're not getting it, but he played so hard last night. Like sometimes I see him going after loose balls at that size and I'm like worried. They might not get up from it, but yeah, you know, the offense just kind of fell apart on them. And there's some shooting stuff from guys that probably should shoot better numbers

from the corners. Certainly DeVincenzo that you'd expect to be better. I know Conley's been out, but I don't really know much Conley has left in the tank. Certainly DeVincenzo that you'd expect to be better. I know Conley's been out, but I don't really know much Conley has left in tank. Maybe Conley would help unlock some of their problems by setting something up as opposed to just ant fix it for us. Uh, all right.

Well, what about Houston? Cause they want, I've got you. Don't worry about it. Rotation, right? Let's take a look. So Houston closed with Shungun who was terrific triple double for him and also was smart in the way he was attacking Rudy because Rudy was in foul trouble.

They were late. They also had Jabari, Dylan Brooks, Fred Van Vliet and Amund Thompson. All right. So no Jaylen Green. He played 23 minutes, but once green was subbed out, that was it. Fourth quarter overtime. We did not see him again. Thompson no Jaylen Green. He played 23 minutes, but once Green was subbed out, that was it.

Fourth quarter overtime, we did not see him again. Thompson played 38 minutes. Tari Easton actually left the game here too. So the Tari Easton-Jabari conversation that I'll continue to monitor here, that left him, like they didn't have to make a decision because Tari had left the game. So Jabari is imposing this one out. So yeah, we mentioned the Jaylen Green part. I loved watching Houston play Thompson had a strip on one of the guys from Timberwolves, just a huge, huge defensive position, just overwhelming the ball handler with his length, size, athleticism, and then finds a way

like through traffic, a contested layup, like it was just a huge moment. And everybody was like, Oh, I'm going to go finds a way through traffic, a contested layup. It was just a huge moment and everybody goes nuts. As far as his shooting, he had a corner three, he had that huge play that I just talked about. He's at 32% now on threes. I know it's not great, but he looked like last year at 14%. Because as much as you may love his athleticism

and those little moments with him as a basketball player, we're like, wow, that looks a little different. You're like, is he actually gonna be able to do that? at 14% because much as you may love his athleticism and those little moments with him as a basketball player, we're like, wow, that looks a little different. You're like, is he actually gonna be so bad of a shooter though it's just hard to find a way to close with him on the floor. Well, I'm not telling you 32% is enough to get him into the Hall of Fame, but the fact that it's an improvement

and that corner three that he took last night, I just thought, okay, we continue to build with this guy here a little bit. Um, the Houston annoying talking point is just going to keep happening because of the depth and all the young guys and them kind of figuring it out and the Jaylen Green momentum going the wrong way. The Jabari stuff probably not improving enough. And that the hope would be that it could be a Shingoon, Jabari, Tari Easton, Thompson, Jalen Green closing five because when they paid Dylan Brooks and Fred Van Vliet

all that money, the hope was probably, again, there's still even a couple other guys at Whitmore and Reid we're not even talking about here yet. We are thinking the perfect scenario is you hit it with all your draft picks, which is totally unrealistic. There's going to be a couple that are disappointing, even picking that high, but the hope would be that would be what the five would be and then kind of see how the rest of the assets play out around it because they have some financial decisions to make. Now Brooks still has 21 and $20 million left, but Van Vliet, who has a team option for 45 million, but is clearly really important to what they do and the trust that Yudoka has in him.

It's like, do you bring him back? Now you have to eventually like, you hope you're in a position where you have to pay a bunch of the young guys. I think they were brilliant with the Jaylen Green extension. Like we're going to pay you, but we don't know that you're that guy yet. And if you are, then you'll be able to figure out a way to get out of the deal and get all the money that you thought you were going to get this time around.

I think other teams would have just given in and been like, wow, Jaylen Green's just sort of our guy. And maybe other teams wouldn't have this much depth, this much youth. And other teams would have been like, hi, whatever, we don't love doing it, but we'll give you the four year max rookie extension, because I guess that's just what we're supposed to do.

So I'm actually, I don't know if proud is the right way to describe how I feel about the Rockets decision and the way they handled that, but I'm just, yeah, like good for them. So the only concerning thing like long-term, cause I think some of the stuff will happen with Houston and OKC, these two young teams, like which roster would you actually rather have? Well, I'm not even talking about the drafts assets here. You take Oklahoma City's roster because they have a guy who is a top five

player in the NBA and Gilder's Alexander. I don't think really any smart people would even debate that kind of thing. Because right now the way it projects, even as much as I love the Rockets, you're like who, who is on that team? Like how high, how highly ranked is the number one option or whoever ends up being the number one guy out of this group for the Houston Rockets, how high can that player be as an overall player in the NBA and as much as I love them. Right now saying anybody who's potentially projected to be a top five would be a

massive, massive reach. And that's where I wonder if Houston just goes, let us play this out this year, guys, let us see how we're doing and then we'll make a decision this summer. It's not that big of a deal, but the longer you drag out some of your younger players who maybe aren't developing enough or don't even have the minutes to prove their value. Like I just wonder like, what's the trade value for Kaminga right now? Sure.

Some teams still kind of like them, but would it be enough now to get you really excited where the unknown can actually still get you more excited than the known? And that's kind of how I look at that Rockets roster. And I promise I'll try not to do that, but Bill and I will probably trade half the team every Sunday for about three months once we start up in February. Sometimes in basketball, 30 points can be worth more than 30 points.

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like any game to have both teams score 30 plus points in the first quarter. Thought this would be a lot of fun. Bill reached out to FanDuel and hooked this all up for us. So you are welcome. Gonna pack slate tonight, no games Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving. But 9 a.m. on the East Coast, noon Eastern,

New York at Charlotte. The pick here, I haven't picked LaMelo yet. And here is why, because if you look at the month of November, he has scored 31, 36, 33, 38, 35, 31, 35, 50, and 44 in games nine times. Nine times, LaMelo has gone over 30 points. So whether you want to take a ride with my pick or make your own, just look for 30 on 30 in the Fandl Sportsbook app or head to Fandl.com slash Ryan RYE in for your chance to score a bigger payout this Friday. Don't miss your chance to

find out how much 30 can be worth with Fandul's 30 on 30. Must be 21 and older in President-Select states or 18 plus in President DC. Opt-in required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable. Profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fandle.com. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. With Uber Reserve, good things come to those who plan ahead. Family vacay? Reserve your ride as soon as you book your flights. To all the planners, now you can reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. See Uber app for details. Joining us now on the podcast is somebody that I really enjoyed watching at college. I saw him live and the best in the world. And I'm excited to be here with Matt Barkley. He's a great guy. He's a great guy.

He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy.

He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy.

He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. Yeah, man. I know you're down in the OC. So yeah, I was, I was making the rounds and some guys that have worked with you

and training and a bunch of different things have all, have all talked about you and I know some of your USC family up here as well. So speaking of USC, I remember the first time I saw you play live. I went up to Otzen back when I was still working at ESPN. So flew the Connecticut deal, which is usually hard for the salt lake to like Portland and the state of New York. The first time I saw you play live, I went up to Otzen back when I was still working at ESPN. So flew the Connecticut deal, which is usually Hartford to Salt Lake to like Portland. And then you drive to Eugene or you can do the

third leg and fly to Eugene. And we were, Stanford, Steve and I were on SC sidelines, so your sideline at the start of that game. Okay. And I think I remember you saying something, you correct me here, but you had said something like,

I don't care about the noise, like I like it loud. It was so loud on that first drive that I remember talking to Steve going like, I wonder if he likes it right now. And then I know it was a tough Saturday for you, but I'm sure you probably remember the silent count pretty early with that game. I do, and that came up a few times that year

because we started the year off with a bang playing in the horseshoe against Ohio State. I was there for that one too. And that was still, Autzen was loud, but that game was one of the loudest environments I've ever been in. Like even a concert where you're a front row and the speaker's right here, that game in the horseshoe was another level. And so from that point on, I remember we played up at Cal and they said the same thing. Of course, whatever beat writer was asking, is it going to be loud? Are you going to care about the noise? I'm like, no, we've dealt with the noise, we can handle it. And they actually printed out little like pamphlets and put them on every single seat

to make sure that the crowd was loud. That wasn't loud. But when we got to Otzen, they just brought a different level of, especially with that overhang, if you've ever been up there or even seen it on TV, that stadium was, was rocking.

Yeah. The overhang on the visitor side just cycles of noise back down on top of you. And the sideline for the visiting side at Otzen is so small, like they could touch you if you were to walk behind the bench. Like if you're grabbing a water or whatever, there's, there's no room and it's, it's so on top of you. And then I just remember you guys going down the field or at least trying to. And it was like, this is, this is a lot. And look, Oregon was rolling at that point.

Um, but it was, it was kind of a fun start to like, how, how is this, how is this going to be handled? And look, it was a big day for the big day for the ducks. Um, look, man, you've been out of it now. This is your first time. What is this like? What is this like not being connected to a team in the NFL? Yeah, 11 years in the league, first year without football for me since 2000. Since I started playing in middle school. And so

it's been a little bit of an adjustment, a little life change. A lot of time at home earlier this year doing carpool twice a day, taking the kids to sports and kind of soaking up though family time that I kind of missed out on, especially this time in the fall because it's such a duality of seasons literally and figuratively. But you know we're all in in the fall, because it's such a duality of seasons, literally and figuratively, but we're all in in the fall, and then I have all this time normally in the off season,

but I'm still training and doing my routine. But this year, I saw the writing on the wall and thought there was a small chance I could be playing. Actually got a few calls during pre-season, but just kind of felt in my heart like it was done. My kids are nine, eight, and almost five, and the thought of being away from them for four months was not too appealing.

And so I just knew it was time, and I've already got plugged in with a new job in my next career, next chapter of life. And so I felt like the transition has been pretty seamless. I miss ball, I miss the boys, I miss the locker room, just stuff that's hard to replicate outside of football. But getting hit on Sundays and the travel and.

You know, living all over the place, uh, just living in one house year round. Like that in itself is, is a blessing. So, uh, it's been, it's been a great year. Were you paying attention to preseason though? Going like, well, if this guy isn't there and this system or whatever, and it may be checking the waiver wire every day. Were you still doing that even though mentally you thought this might be it for you? There were a few spots.

I kind of narrowed it down in my head to where I would only take a couple calls. It had to be a good situation, either something on the West Coast, a system I'd been in, like you mentioned. I didn't want to start from scratch all over again and go through that whole deal again. But if I can plug and play, which I've done over the last couple of years, it's been one of my strengths of why teams would sign me because I can pick up an offense real quick and be a cheerleader, be a coach in the room, essentially. Uh, so that list was kind of small of, of who I would say yes to. Uh, but at the same time, it was nice watching preseason stress free and, and

not, not worried about anything or, or cuts or what would happen. Okay. So I got to know liner a little bit up here, being in Manhattan beach and we've had them on. We've talked about it. I've talked to him about it off the air where he's like, look, I come in, I'm not in anything even close to a system that matches the things that I'm good at.

And then it took me kind of bouncing around a little bit. He's like, by the time I think I really was comfortable and figured it out at that point, it was just too late. Did you ever have the moment where you's like, by the time I think I really was comfortable and figured it out at that point, it was just too late. Did you ever have the moment where you felt like, okay, now I actually know what I'm supposed to be doing, what I'm being asked to do. But since I've never really been the starter in the mid-round pick, like I'm

just not going to get the same opportunity that maybe I would have when I was first coming into the league. Obviously, if I know what I knew now as a rookie, yeah, things would be different. But I think timing and being in the right situation at the right time is such an oversight that so many people just forget about. And I think we're seeing it more like with some of the quarterbacks in the league, like fellow Trojan Sam Darnold. I've always known he's talented.

He was just in a bad situation for most of his early career, and finally gets a chance to break out with a good team, a good coaching staff who believes in him, and then look at him now. He's having an unbelievable year. So not to say that I would have been like a Hall of Famer if I was in the perfect situation, but yeah, I mean, I got drafted by Chip Kelly, who

I love playing for, but running Oregon's offense wasn't necessarily like my forte, right? And had an unbelievable time with, got to be behind Michael Vick and Nick Foles and soak up all the the Philly had to offer. But even that in itself was like that wasn't the best start that I could have had for my career. At the same time I learned a lot through that process of what it meant to one, be a backup, to learn from watching rather than being under center. And that was a whole new process in itself of how do I

get better? How do I still compete when it's just either scout team or offseason OTA type stuff? And so I think that in itself helped set me up for a 10 plus year career, primarily as a backup of being able to help a team, not just on the field, but in the QB room, in the locker room, doing community service stuff and just kind of being a voice for the team in a sense. But yeah, I mean, a lot of that, there's so many factors that go into a successful career. And I don't think I learned it too late per se, but kind of hit my stride probably a little later than, than I anticipated.

What was the best QB room you were ever in? Well, that that Eagles room was legendary. Um, that was probably, that was probably number three. I think after that, after that I got traded to Arizona and I was with Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton, Blaine Gabbard was there for a little bit. I grew up watching Carson at USC and so being in the same room with him, I think he was 10 years older than me or something like that, kind of towards the tail end of his career. But that was almost a dream come true just because I learned so much from him, how he prepared, how he studied, took care of

his body, was a leader, all that stuff. That was probably my second favorite room and then being in Buffalo for four or five years with Josh, there were a few different guys over that term when I was there as a third quarterback. But I think the year that Kyle Allen was there was a fun year just because we were all buddies. We've all known each other for a while. And it was just, it was a good vibe. We were all in it for each other, helping Josh the best we could. That was probably top tier. So what was Josh like when it was early versus what we're seeing now? Because I mean, I know what I saw

and it was like, I don't know. And it's really funny too, because I remember watching that Patriots game where he had the turnovers and then he did an interview with Chris Long this summer where he specifically pointed to that game of being like, well, some of the stuff that I do, like I just can't, I can't do it anymore.

Now he's turned into maybe the second best quarterback in the NFL. So I didn't know in the beginning, even though we all loved his physical talent, you were there firsthand. What was that transformation like? Because you obviously had a second step with the Bills. Yeah, he's really turned it around.

And I think what people liked about him coming out of college was just he was a gunslinger. And that strong arm could throw it wherever he want, but it wasn't always accurate. And I remember, I think I played him in pre-season in 2018. I was with Cincinnati and we went up to Buffalo and he was throwing it so hard, but like sailing it over guys or throwing a slant 110 miles an hour. And I think from, I mean,

it's been six years, seven years or whatever it's been. He's grown in so many ways of... One, his mechanics have gotten so much cleaner, so much more efficient. He's comfortable with his motion. And I feel like he's just comfortable in the system to trust taking those underneath routes, taking shorter routes, trusting his guys to catch and run. And he's making great decisions with the ball. When he's running it, he's protecting the ball and himself more, which was kind of an issue early on with the turnovers. But he's the hardest critic of

himself. And so he's really taken it personal to get better in those areas and it's showing up. I mean, he's having a hell of a year. I think he's got a good chance to be even MVP if not take the Bills very far in the playoffs. So you mentioned Darnold. Between Darnold, Baker, Goff, even Gino, where I think like last year was the popular, for him it took even kind of longer for some of these stops. I think Donald probably in that same work off immediately was a starter. Baker's been a starter pretty much other than that Rams stint, which we knew he

was going to be a starter there, but of the reclamation storylines, like which one is there one that surprises you the most, or is there one that you're like, that's the one I'm most proud of. I mean, I think you might pick Sam because the SC tie is there, but anywhere you want to go with that because we're seeing something that doesn't necessarily always happen historically in the league. Yeah, I probably most proud of Sam. Yeah, just from knowing him for so long and I was with him in Carolina when he was at the tail end when he was trying to figure out he was on IR, not happy with the situation. And you can just tell he's a competitor and wanted to play, wanted to be great. And again,

now that he finally has that situation, super, super pumped for him. I think Jared... I always saw Jared as a competent, great quarterback. And I think even in, in LA, or with the Rams, I think he did a great job. And again, now he's surrounded by even a better cast and, uh, he's, he's rolling. So that's not really a surprising move. Um, Baker, I think has, has done the most like rising from the ashes in the sense, just from his overall tenure in the league and the ups and downs. And I think his maturity and leadership have really, really popped and,

and you could see it from almost the stigma he had as like, he's not a winner, he's not he had as like he's not a winner, he's not a team player, he's not a leader. He's defied all that and again playing at a really high level. Baker went through Carolina, Sam went through Carolina. I know it's not apples to apples as far as staffing, but why was it so bad? Because now people are asking the same stuff with a different coaching staff with Bryce Young. What makes it a bad situation?

I think for a lot of teams in the league, it starts at the top, the very top. And for whatever reason, some teams just have the wrong priorities or don't provide the right resources or are too quick to either move on. Or they've just made bad decisions in hiring, whether that's coaches, front office or players. And it was a unique situation. I mean, my situation in Carolina was unique because I signed there thinking when Sammy got hurt, thinking I would be there to back him up,

help PJ Walker. The next day after I signed is when they brought Cam Newton back. So that just threw everything for a loop and everything was turned on his head. I was like, what is happening right now? And I love Cam. I love spending time with him, but he was not 2015 Cam. And I think it was, it really was a move to sell tickets and to get the hype back. Like there were more Cam Newton fans for that first home game he came back than there were Carolina Panthers fans. And it was just an interesting observation, looking from the outside in as to the decision-making

process of that. But I mean, coaching turnovers, player turnover, getting rid of guys, GM turnovers. There's been a lot of high turnover rate in that building as a whole. And that's hard to be consistent and win when there's that many changes here in Europe. I forgot that it was like to the day, the timeline with cam. Um, did he ever have fun with you? I feel like, did you think you were actually going to start for like two days? Yeah. I mean, well, we had some great QB meetings and, and that, so that week that was with Joe Brady was the OC actually, uh, who's in Buffalo now.

And he's like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I mean we had some great QB meetings and and that so that week that was with Joe Brady was the OC actually who's in Buffalo now and love that guy and I spent all waking hours of that week learning the offense learning the system pretty much memorizing the whole game plan as the backup making sure I was going and can came in and he had like a couple of third down plays and like five red zone plays got in and scored two touchdowns on the goal line plays that he had, you know, on those QB sweeps or whatever, just running it in. And I was just laughing just at like the prep that I put in to be ready and to

know everything and he gets in and, and scores and does his thing. And he felt on top of the world. Everyone was fired up. And he was in and scores and does his thing. And he felt on top of the world. Everyone was fired up. Yeah. We beat Arizona and it was just kind of a, what is happening moment. And then the rest of the year, once we started getting any things and was it going to be PJ starting, was it going to be cam starting. It was, there wasn't this.

Like there, no one was really in sync as to what was going on. And we were trying to figure it out. And when you had to figure it out mid season, not in OTAs or in training camp is it's never really the best situation. Okay. What does Shanahan do, uh do that you can talk about with other quarterbacks that like those of us watching on TV don't understand? Kyle is a he's a master game planner and I think you know there's a lot of really bright

coordinators and coaches in the league. He does an unbelievable job of one focusing on the run game. I think so many coaches are quick to pass and find the answers through the air. He is mastered running the ball first and utilizing different schemes, motions, personnel's and I mean, utilizing juice check. If you have a base personnel, but you can spread them out and empty stuff like that really helps. And so he really just kind of sees all levels, uh, from top to bottom of how he can either expose the defense or utilize what he has, uh, to make a good play. And, uh, I'm pumped for him.

You know, when I was there with him, he was trying to figure out who the quarterback was going to be. Uh, Hoyer was brought in there. He drafted two quarterbacks in that first year. So we had four quarterbacks on roster and he still kind of wanted, I think he wanted the Kirk Cousins, the Jimmy Garabolo at the time. Couldn't really get anyone. Finally got Brock and has been rolling with him. So he has his guy who can understand and comprehend everything and run that offense efficiently. And again, he's just fantastic at run first, emphasizing blocking on the edges. All those

receivers do a great job blocking and scheming up with different personnel and different you know, putting Debo in the backfield, in the slot, outside. And, you know, now that Christian's healthy too, he's got weapons. So when I hear, you know, they're opening up the playbook for him, what does, and I'm not even talking about specifically to Purdy, but can you see that if you know a system,

because you were with a bunch of teams, can you watch a Sunday and go, all right, they're now like in the middle of the playbook or they're the back pages of the playbook. Can you see those things because you know some of these systems, even probably even the play calls. Yeah. Yeah. Whether it's like gadget plays or just different concepts. Cause a lot of coaches can kind of get stuck running their system and forcing players to fit that mold right and and they don't really branch

out whether it's a comfortability or just an ignorance to not wanting to expand or or do something different like Brian Dable he's one of the greatest play callers I've been around to, especially in Buffalo when he had Josh, of of sitting that mold. And I think his time in college helped reinforce that, where, you know, we have our base offense, but we're going to put some things in that fit you best, not just slap a playbook on you and like make it work. There's a lot of coaches around the league that do that. And it's pretty obvious as to why it doesn't work. But Shanahan did a great job.

Dave's, a bunch of other coaches do a really good job of really forming an offense around a player to their strengths. That makes sense. Yeah, no, it does. It does make sense. But if you're like, say you were, you became a coach in the NFL. All right. And they're drafting.

I mean, it's different if we're talking about like a top 10 because that guy's supposed to turn your franchise around. If you were drafted on high, it means you weren't that good as opposed to, you know, the mid-round pick guy, like the Purdy's, maybe there's already some things in place, like if they were saying, all right, Matt, like you've been through this, like what's the best way to do this? What's the best system? Like who's the guy you think is the best at, like structuring everything around that rookie quarterback for him to have the best chance? What would your plan be? Well, I thought I mentioned Dable. I thought he took a unique approach from when he came from Alabama.

He saw the trend of college offenses being very simple, right? And both in terminology and the plays they were running, whether it was the zone read type stuff or the quick throws and the concepts that they were using. But he noticed how these college players were learning a playbook. And it was the one word we called it NASCAR. When you want to go in the ball, no huddle, just call one word play and go. We installed offense with one word plays first and then

unpacked it after they had like a an overall view of what was going on and as opposed to dumping every formation every motion every shift every possible run combination every concept past concept it was kind of the reverse of that where it was here here's what we're gonna be running most. And it paints you an overall picture of what's going on so they can understand like the concept and both sides of the ball or not offense defense, but left side, right side. So they see the concept coming together. And then it was, you just dive deeper into unpacking that. And I like that approach.

I think it helped those guys transition from college into learning. It was a real pro-style system. There are a lot of checks, there are a lot of audibles. It wasn't the simple old school Baylor where it was half the side, doesn't even run a route. And they just are resting up for the next play where they can take off deep. It was it was complicated, but he simplified it to make it easy for those guys to to learn. When I watch Mahomes like everybody else, you just like, you know, do you sometimes go like, I can't believe we technically play the same position? Yeah, he's made some mind blowing plays, whether it's throws, either, you know what, one of

the number one golden rules of playing quarterback is don't throw it across your body, right? If you're running to the right, don't throw it back across the field, over the middle to your left. And his vision down the field, both inside and outside the pocket is incredible. To where you're like, no, no, the ball's in the air. And you're just like, no, no, no. What are you doing? And then whether it was Tyree Kill back in the day or Travis Kelsey, just all those guys are moving together. And I think it's the way they practice just having, I've never been with him, but hearing Andy re talk and, uh, and you know, what they do, whether it's those laterals they do in practice, you know,

just for fun that show up in a game or the scramble drills they do, uh, to where everyone's kind of flowing with Pat, knowing that there's going to be a play made and you want to be a part of that. Uh, it shows up on Sundays and, uh, so it's not out of the blue, like all those crazy plays, but some of them are, are definitely like, how did, how did that just happen? Yeah. Well, hey man, I am, um, it's this career and this is where I want to finish.

I imagine like now that it's over and we talked about in the beginning of like those moments of like, if I had known this, but like you're a story that I bring up a lot before the draft, because we know that if you come out the year before you're looking like a top 10 pick, and then you have the shoulder injury and you go in the fourth round. Um, how difficult was that for you to think about the different starting

points that you would have had if you had just left, by the way, a place that you clearly love because, you know, SC was, I think your relationship with SC was a lot stronger than a lot of the guys that had to make that kind of decision or whatnot, they wanted to leave school. So when you look back on that, how difficult was that time for you? I think looking back financially, yeah, would have probably been the smart decision to leave early. But there were so many more factors that led me to stay.

The sanctions and finally being able to play in a bowl game. We finished that season. We had that win up in Ahtzen in 2011. So we beat Oregon. We beat UCLA 50-0, which was like we felt on top of the world. We felt like we should have won the Rose Bowl that year, if not done something better. And so the fact that we could finally come back in 2012 for my senior year playing the bowl game, when we had all this momentum, all these guys were staying,

we had high hopes. And yeah, it didn't work out the way that we envisioned it or that we wanted it to. But again, I think the lessons I learned from that season, both on and off the field, just in leadership and gaining more knowledge from football and being with Lane for another year, they helped set me up for the league, whether that was the first round or the fourth. And so could it have turned out differently? Probably, yeah. But I'm not the type of guy to either regret or kind of wish for something different. And my story is my story turned out the way it did. And very grateful for, yeah, 11 years in the NFL.

And who knows what would have happened. I could have been one of those guys that played too early and you have a two, three year career or whatever that was. And so again, yeah, I don't look back and wish something would have been different. Although yeah, bank account might have been a little different. Yeah, maybe yeah, bank account might've been a little different. Yeah, maybe earlier on, but it sounds like, uh, you're on your way to, to make it up for that.

So look, man, I really appreciate it. We have some mutual friends. They think the world of you and enjoy a more relaxing fall. All right. Awesome. Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate it, man. The Alliance. Here we go. Uh, we're going to really, really go for it here. No juice, no special help, no training wheels.

Uh, we were trying to get breaks. Plus at that. Yeah. No breaks on this one. Um, there's a lot more fun, but it's still wouldn't help me. Shit. Uh, let's see. Uh, we're gone. The T is yours. Um, it was a lot more fun, but I still wouldn't help me shit.

Uh, let's see, uh, war gone. The T is yours. Yeah. I'm this threw me for a loop. So it really came on this morning. It was like, Hey, no juice. So I'm going to do Texas minus five and a half versus A and M. I don't know. I wanted a big game.

Yeah. Well, no breakdown. Yeah. Hey man. They call him big game. Yeah. No breakdown, yeah. Amen. They call him big game Mike around the office. It's true. Guys, changing it. Shit, lines are moving just off of that call.

All right, I'll go Notre Dame minus seven and a half at SC. You know what, are you good? Let's see. I like it. Yeah. Tons of passion off of that announcement. What do we got? Service Academy Kyle. We're going. What do you think I should do? No, I'm just kidding. I'm going to take a before like parlay. Whatever he says. That's what I'll do. I'll take army minus six and a half. I mean, does Russia even have a football team? I don't think so. So we're rocking with the Patriots this weekend minus six and a half at home It's army book it. Hell. Yeah, brother

I'm gonna go with the over fifty and a half in the Oregon Washington game rivalry game Not the season Washington wanted but I think they could put up some points in this game And you know, I think Oregon, you know still Robert game They're gonna it they could get out of hand with them alone. So over 15 a half and they In the pack Northwest robbery game. Okay And that gets us to almost plus I think it's like plus 1200 just under plus 1200. So We're throwing a hello Mary for the boys. We've earned it. We've earned it So we're throwing a hello Mary for the boys. We've earned it.

We've earned it. So three, three favorites in an over. Hell, yeah. Well, new guy. Ler. Yeah. All right. That's what we got.

So you could check out all the lines and stay up to date with the Alliance on sportsbook. That's vandal.com. 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. Live advice, email address, live advice, rr at gmail.com. We've got Steve, as always, Let me tell you what's required life advice email address life advice our edge email comm That Steve as always and let's get to a few of these. All right The tickle monster strikes again 29

622 55 405 squat 275 bench NBA comp Lance Stevenson with Greg Odin's knees I've got a real issue in my hands one One of my best friends, let's call him Alex 31, has a peculiar joke he won't let go. He refers to this bit as the tickle monster. It started harmlessly. I even found it funny the first time it happened. It always follows the same pattern.

It usually occurs after a couple beers at our favorite brewery. You'll be sitting at the bar top. They'll look over at you saying, do you mind if my friend stops by? If you make the mistake of saying you don't top, they'll look over at you and say, do you mind if my friend stops by? If you make the mistake of saying you don't mind,

your response is immediately met with aggressive jabbing, tickling on both sides of your torso, resulting in a full body reaction, disturbing you and anyone unfortunate enough to be sitting on the bar stool next to you. Unfortunately, this bit has continued to occur, has become one of the most annoying things

I've ever experienced. I made the mistake of stating how much I hate it, which has only led to an increase in frequency and complexity of the bit. The delivery has gotten more intricate. Taking on a, I think you should leave style. This is right in your cue zone. Let me think about it for a minute. He stretched the joke out with longer, more tactful leads, eventually luring you into the inevitable question, do you mind if my buddy stops by? The tickling action will take place

and he will then proceed to act like he can't believe what his buddy just did. Think of that episode when Tim Robinson crashes the hot dog shaped car into the building then acts like he can't believe what happened while being dressed in a hot dog suit. I've tried several ways to remedy this issue, ignoring it, doing it back, threatening violence, actual violence.

Nothing works. Violence simply leads to him dropping into a wrestling stance, forcing me to defend a takedown. Alex was a collegiate wrestler and firmly believes in the mantra, big trees fall hard. What do I do here, fellas? Alex is one of my best friends and he will be in my wedding. However, this behavior has got to stop. If his buddy makes an appearance at my wedding, it will be hands on site.

He's showing up. The tickle monster is showing up. The photographer is going to catch it too. Sincerely concerned friend and a tickle monster victim. Disclaimer, I recognize this email may sound fake, but I assure you it is not. It's a real issue and I'm at a total loss on how to remedy it. I mean, look, obviously the violence thing was the first thing I thought of

as we were going through it. I had a guy at university who was a little bit older. We had connections through, I don't know, it was a family thing or a local thing or whatever. So there was some deferential stuff from your boy, again, skinny dude walking around campus, but respectful of the elder statesman. And whenever I'd see him, I'd kind of see him from across the quad and

there'd be a wry smile and he would kind of, his eyes would glint and I would kind of see, and then all of a sudden just right into Titty Twister, singles, doubles, just vicious, nasty Titty Twisters. He would get them inside of my, my block. And I, I hated it. I hated it so much and titty twisters suck. Not a McNabb does them. Um, I hated it.

Yeah. Instead of, it's got me a couple of times. And so I was like, I hate this so much. And then I saw him towards the end of the year and he was coming over and I told my buddy that I was walking with, I was like he grabs my nipples I'm just I was just so you know like I'm gonna fucking go nuts all right so I'm just telling you be ready because I'm gonna assault him he's like seriously I was like you don't understand the backstory I was like this guy's't understand the backstory. I was like, this guy's going to come over. He's going to twist the hell out of my nipples.

He's like, all right. And the guy goes to reach in and I went, I mean, Jeff Schwartz would have been so proud, I got both my hands inside technique and just shoved him as far as I possibly could. And even though he was bigger and I wasn't that big then I was so ready and amped and the adrenaline was already going and anticipation of this transaction that I just destroyed him because he didn't think I was going to do anything. And I was like, stop fucking doing that. Fucking had it with that. And it stopped. I also never talked to him again.

How was his placement? Did he find the nipples or was he just grabbing like skin and he'd had weird bruises around? And he just did it. He came, we'd like go over the top and then go over the awesome technique. If you try to carry it, you know, like the first few times you're like, what the hell? And then you would be like, okay, try to carry this out or whatever. But then again, if you're Perry, if you show it too early, then the guy comes around with a hook and he just, he had this thing and I hate it.

I just, it hurts, it sucks, it's not fun. And honestly, we don't really talk about anything. There wasn't much else to the relationship except this exchange. That was the structure of the relationship. Right. That's the most stupid thing ever. The support game was the-

There's Roussela, let's twist his nipples off. You know, and there would be bad ones too, like three days later, they're just like, what is going on with your chest? Like, oh, it's coming out, what's going on? It's this older guy that, my dad did some work on his house or something. So yeah, that was it.

We never talked again. So maybe I overreacted, but it doesn't even sound like that's gonna happen because this guy likes physical contact. He doesn't care about violence. You are a huge guy. This guy's what? 6'2", 255, clearly pretty strong. And I could say slap the shit out of him. I think the only

move you can come up with here is the next time you're out, you just, you sit four stools away from him to prove a point. Like, hey, good seeing you, man, but I'm not sitting near you. You could train yourself to not be ticklish. I think, I think there's a way to do that. I think so too. Because the only person, the only time my Tiggle Monster comes out is with my wife, right?

That's the only time. And I got to say, a very, no, but I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to God damn it. Just trying to stick with the theme of the email here. The only time my friend stops by, stops by is when my wife's there. And I gotta say, one of the lower points in my life is when the tickle doesn't work and she just looks at me and I'm like inadequate, I'm like impotent,

now I don't know what. This is the advice, this is it right now. You're gonna have have to pass, ask different people in your life, strangers to tickle you constantly, to build up your tolerance. Yes. You need tolerance in that midsection region, like the princess bride, but the guy with the poison is just at the gym being asking random guys. I know it's just kind of weird. I'm trying to build my tolerance up.

Blade, here's my new workout thing. It's not so much my back or my steps. Can you tickle me 10 minutes a day every other day? Don't let me know when it's coming either. You can't let me know. You gotta, it's like when Bobby Bacalhau is gonna shoot that guy, he's like, I don't wanna know when it's coming. Fleshy part of the fight.

Yeah, that's, I feel like sick to my stomach when I do something like that. She just looks at me. I mean, especially this guy's gonna be in like a bar in public. I think it's really gonna fuck him up. So I think that's really, I think that's what you should try to do.

I think that's the right call. I have nothing to add to that. I will say, is this like a wrestler thing? Like the dudes that touch other dudes and you know, like how it's, there's like, there's the, yeah, the nipple twister. They do touch guys a lot in wrestling. So yeah.

I feel like it's a wrestler. I didn't have any wrestling friends and I didn't have any friends who were like inappropriate touchers in that way. So I don't feel like it's a wrestler. I didn't have any wrestling friends and I didn't have any friends who are like inappropriate touchers in that way. So I don't really have much like real-life experience on this. But like I just like who is that guy? Because like the Wet Willie guy or you know the Indian Burn guy. There's probably a different term for that these days who knows. But you know like I don't those are just like who does that? I don't

dudes do it dudes do it. Dudes do it. I mean, look, there was another guy, there was another guy, one of my freshman roommates, who I don't know if it was a prep school thing or what, but you know, the first couple of weeks we're living together, again, you're just, you're like being born all over again when you're 18 and you show up to college. You're like, you're out of the womb

in an entirely different way. You're delusional though, also. So you have this odd independence arrogance where you're just like, now it's real. It's like, dude, you're like seven years from even being real and then probably like another 15 from you even having any fucking clue.

But he would post shower, like if you were sitting down on the futon playing Sega, or like sometimes I would be like, I don't know, hunched over a chair, it's fucking probably not studying, but you get the point. However you be situated in dorm room and he would purposely drop his towel and spread himself and scream staring at you. And you would just be like, and I know Yeah. And I know dudes do like, just,

this isn't breaking news to dudes that have been dudes for a long time, but it was, I was like, where, where does one pick this habit up? You know, and then the other roommate, like was like, we gotta tell him to stop doing this. And luckily he was a pleaser. So he was, we were like, dude, can you never do that again?

And it was done because he was like, he went the opposite. The problem is that this guy's a wrestler and he just knows he can screw with you the whole time. So the violence thing doesn't work. It probably doesn't even hurt him. He's probably tickling really hard too. We're probably talking about like forceful, two fingers stiff jabs in the rib cartilage.

So you can try to like, go, I'm just going to stare you down and not laugh. Probably is pretty aggressive. Yeah, you're right. What if you wear body armor? That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Like those pigeon things people put on a boat. Um, or like an electric somehow, like, you know, like a taser situation on the side where he just touches it and gets zapped. Just smear yourself in horse dung.

You might have big props. Hey man, let me pull up a chair. Uh, yeah. I think like maybe a army Navy store, like you just sort of old school. Covert, covert body warfare situation. Yeah. Flack jacket, just throw it on under a hoodie chain. Man, he just gets in there, snaps a digit.

I'd probably put an end to it. Yeah, I guess I didn't in my whole thing. He's definitely tickling that guy way harder than I'm taking my wife. But I guess I didn't, I didn thing. He's definitely tickling that guy way harder than I'm taking my wife. But I guess I didn't I didn't it's probably you're right. It's probably like real strong might even be like a three finger, you know, real jab. It might not be as easy to train yourself for that. Like that's like, you know, that's more than a sport. You can't think about it down the prank route. You get like

those like fake blood pouches put it on your side He dabs you and all of a sudden I mean obviously wear a shirt and outfit You don't really care about but you just start bleeding out and he starts freaking out. You're like, oh my god Like what did I have? Oh, it's like is it a razor blade? What's going on? You just he just like you kind of scare him into never doing it again Who knows they could have arrested development and that's why you don't tickle Don't tickle. Yeah. Yeah.

What was his name? I forget that guy's name. Was it Gene Parmesan? No, that was a different guy. That was the spook guy, but not the one-armed guy. Forget that guy's name. What a great name, Gene Parmesan. Gene Parmesan, yeah, it's incredible.

That's the kind of stuff with writers, right? What was the moment where you guys are throwing around what his name could be and who came up with Gene Parmesan and what was the reaction like in the room? I don't know. All right, asking someone to take a photo on the plane. All right, 5'11", 170, no gym stats,

lift four times a week, listening to the pod for five years, player comp, Walmart, Eric Bledsoe. I don't like that. Bledsoe could go there for a little while. I don't know, what would the Walmart version of him be? Slower, probably not as good as the pick and roll, turning the corner on it, but get some shots up.

Maybe stocky. Well, 5'11", 170 though, Eric Bledsoe? Eric Snow, maybe? Flew this weekend from Boston in Naples, Florida, and I took the aisle seat as everyone knows the best seat. Is that confirmed? I'll see the best seat. You flipped me back to window.

I was aisle guy forever. I know. And now I'm window. That's what I needed. Honestly, I feel like they, if you're like trying to get the extra leg room and like have your knee out, I feel like there's a non-zero percentage of flight attendants

who are actually looking forward to smashing you with that bar card because they go down once and they're like, all right, guys were coming through, elbows in or whatever, but I don't hear it. I've been, I think maybe purposely smashed with that rolling bar card. Is this guy seriously going to be in the aisle after we said? So- Remember my flight to New Zealand aisle, they hit me so hard, so hard and almost like people were coming over to me. I was like, I do not want an apology from anyone. I do not want this. Not an issue. We're good.

My leg doesn't work, but we are fine. Cause I don't want people videotaping me. Yeah. Cause I was, she smashed me so hard. She's like, I told you to move. I was like, well, we are on a 12 hour flight in the middle of the night and probably a few people are sleeping. Exactly.

To guess. hard. She's like, I told you to move. I was like, well, we are on a 12 hour flight in the middle of the night and probably a few people are sleeping. Exactly. Just a guess. You know, get some limbs here, move around. Yes, I flew coach. Um, reconnect with the people. And also it's nice to be able to

shift your weight completely to one side. But the other night he's like, you don't always fly private. I'm like, first of all, that's not even obtainable. Obtainable is not the right word. That's not even desired. How about that? And yeah, I'll fly coach all the time. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Well, I don't know. Sometimes you look at the price and you go, I'm not paying that much more for this. You know how many hoodies that could be? High-end hoodies? All right, so we are all in agreement that Windows is actually the best now. Now I know some people are gonna say like,

well, aisle, you're in control and people don't have to get up for you. I think every flight you should be allowed one absolute, like everybody in the aisle gets it. Hey, I gotta get up. I gotta get up once. If you're taking beers and you're one of those airplane drinkers in your window, you're an asshole.

Because then you're just gonna be getting up all the time. But I think there's a weird- I'm like a fucking camel on those flights. I don't need to get up at all, most times. Yeah, it'd have to be a legit emergency. You're like Scott Hanson of the airs. Yeah, unless, otherwise I'll be like, listen, I'm gonna blow my nose like four times

and that'll be it. Like if it's one of those, you can't be, I was just listening to a press box. tough to be a sniffler on a plane. So you gotta really take care of that. Especially the last few years. Although it's probably gotten better from peak. Did you just make a noise? 2020, 2021. Yeah. Okay. All right. So we're all, we're all on the same page with the window being the best. There's going to be a lot of people saying we're totally wrong about this, but I would ask, are you so scared of disruption

that you like the aisle because you don't have to ask anyone to get up? Like I like to, I don't know. I don't wanna be the guy who's constantly like, hey, you gotta get up, you gotta get up. Shit's plugged in, tablets, guys work, or whatever. But you gotta stand up for yourself every once in a while. Exactly. At some point, you need to probably get up and get it get up. Shit's plugged in tablets guys work or whatever. You got to set up for yourself every once in a while. Exactly.

At some point you need to probably get up and no one's in charge. No one put aisle in charge of window. Right. I don't read that on my ticket. Same price. Yeah. Okay. That feedback alone is just going to be, can't believe you guys.

Who likes middle? Michael Scott. remember that? The tickler probably likes middle. It's true, yeah. It's more access. Way more access. That was such a great deal on, I think it was one of the writers in the office,

like post after it was done, he's like, I can't stop thinking of Michael Scott ideas. It was like, he flies Southwest. He flies Southwest and he sits in the middle first. Right. He just wants to meet more people. Yeah. What's this guy's question by the way?

Yeah, cause we got like a couple minutes here. All right. So anyway, we're flying into Naples. Great view out the window. Was thinking about asking the window person to use my phone to take a photo of the beautiful ocean. I ended up not doing it as it could have been weird. Just wanted to hear your guys' thoughts on this. Thank you. Love the pod. I love it. It's just a very simple question that I don't know we have a simple answer for. Thoughts?

So Rudy's face said it all. That I hate it. Yeah. Yeah, I hate it. That was predictable. I wouldn't do it. I also don't understand like, like you really need a picture out of a plane window of the ocean. Yeah, I think there's some fireworks on Friday You could take photos. There's just so many pictures exactly. There's just you know, I'm not great I'm not a picture guy in general I just think like you can Google most images and find stuff like I don't need it on my phone People only want to do this to post in their stories to act like they're cool because they've been somewhere I People only want to do this to post in their stories to act like they're cool because they've been somewhere I I I am very anti this it's probably not a big deal. I'm admittedly saying that but I would definitely do this Yeah, unless you're like flying over the fucking Lord of the Rings mountains in New Zealand and you're like, wow, that's that's so for sound

Yeah, I've done it. Thanks. I knew it. I knew I knew you would remember No, this is if your picture guy, you know, plan for it, but don't bring your weird, and now I'm judging you and I'm like, is this really important? Whatever, like I think- What if it was awesome? What if this guy's super, I love coastlines.

I love topography. It's a passion. It's a mild passion. I've haven't really gotten in and studied it. But yeah, no, I really like it. Okay. Listen, if that's so important to you that you want the window seat, because you're like, you know, this is going to be a great chance, you know, about four

hours in, we're going to be passing over one of my favorite seas, you know what I mean? Fine. But I think if you're like shoving your shit across my life, I, it's just, I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't have to like it. And I don't have to, I don't have to say yes or no, but it's just, I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't have to like it. And I don't have to say yes or no,

but it's just, especially if there's still more hours left in the flight. You're like, what else is gonna happen? What else is on the table for this route? Sounds like they were coming in, man. If you're headed into Naples, I think you really want to peek out. Now I can understand somebody in your aisle being like,

all right, country mouse, head of the big city. Hey, Bo Cephas, nice to meet you. I don't think it makes you an asshole, but it's just unpleasant. It doesn't make you an asshole. You're gonna get judged though. You're gonna get judged. It's one thing to be like, hey, could you open the window?

I wanna see out the window on the flight down, on the way down, a picture. Even then, I don't think I can do that. Oh, see, I think that's totally reasonable. I think Isle is incomplete. What if it's the Grand Canyon? Window is complete control of their window. Grand Canyon, that's the thing though.

That's the thing that matters. It's not just like- I'm sorry, in- Not for the whole flight though, Kyle. I'm just saying for a specific part on the way down, cool view, that to me is totally fine. Not the whole, not really. Could you open the window

and I'll crane my neck right in front of you. So, I don't know. I like it, ask. Ask. Just see what happens and you'll have a story. That'll do it for Life Advice. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Kyle.

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