The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NFL Team Tiers, Going Abroad Crossover With Kevin Clark, Plus LeBron's Worth in the Future

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on the future for LeBron James, the push to play with his sons, and if he will still have the same influence after Year 20 (0:30). Then Ryen is joined by Kevin Clark to discuss his stories on The Ringer about Joe Burrow and Matt LaFleur (14:15), before putting all 32 NFL teams in tiers related to F1 racing (you'll get it), and Going Abroad for an F1 update (30:20). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:00:48). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Kevin Clark Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NFL Tears today with Kevin Clark based on F1 Tears see if you like it or not we do have life advice we're going to do a little going abroad with Kevin as well and I'm going to just start it off with some Lakers press conference stuff and asking a bigger question about the future of LeBron and playing with the sun. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day again no but blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping total yes get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol and select markets product availability may vary by region see app for details because

we're doing so much football uh throughout the week i figured you know sprinkle in a little mba there think of it as a radio show with less segments, which better chance for segments to not suck. Because when you have 12, you're like, you know what, four or five of these, I change the channel. The Lakers announced everything again this week. We saw Pat Beverly at the introductory press conference. He's got some quotes for you, man. That guy's like, man, this is what happens when you go on first take and say crazy shit. This is awesome. And he was saying like, hey, they weren't in the playoffs last year. I was like, all right. And we're all kind of waiting on the Westbrook

thing. I don't know if there's one basketball mind that actually knows what they're looking at that thinks that Westbrook coming back is better for this team. But that's the message that the franchise is selling to us and what all the players are selling to us. And that's what they're supposed to do. So I can chuckle about the defensive prowess of Westbrook and who he could be. He could be a defensive player of the year, which I believe Palenka said during Summer League.

And yeah, I laugh and go whatever. But this is kind of what they're supposed to do. They can't tell us the truth here. So I can't give them a hard time for not doing that. Because if they were to say, we'd love to get this guy out of here, but we don't want to attach the two first. He doesn't fit in. It's really stubborn basketball. Like all the things we've already talked about a million different times.

So I'm not going to give them a hard time about not being truthful and painting the best version of this story. It reminds me a little bit. I remember when I was working and covering the Celtics and again, covering the Celtics is a loose term there because I was just doing the pre-half and post-game stuff for him for a bunch of seasons. There was a weird stretch of Tony Allen,

terrific defensive player, wasn't playing great defense and yet his rep was that he was just this awesome defensive player and later on with Memphis, he was all that. First team, all defense and that kind of stuff. But he was having a stretch there where he just, you know, it was whatever. It was a little overrated.

It was a little bit more about perception than it was about what we were seeing on the floor. And Doc Rivers was asked about his lockdown defense. And Doc was like, you know what? To be honest with you, you know, he's not exactly playing that way. And it was before the trade deadline. And then I had heard later on the story was that the front office was like, dude, if this guy's in a trade conversation, we don't need our coach advertising that he's actually a little overrated defensively right now. So that's just the way the

game is played. But the other part of this that plays off of the LeBron storyline and things we've already touched on before and the Sports Illustrated cover with his two sons, which is an incredible moment. It's the LeBron factor because I, as I've said numerous times, and I think after reading that article from Chris Ballard, which, you know, Ballard has a really good relationship moment. It's the LeBron factor because I, as I've said numerous times, and I think after reading that article from Chris Ballard, which, you know, Ballard has a really good relationship with him. I remember Ballard years ago, over 10 years ago, wrote this book. And one part of the book was he showed up to interview LeBron with a scale in his hand because he wanted to know how much he weighed. Like that's what Ballard did as a reporter. He showed up with a scale and asked LeBron to get

on it. He did not. He declined. So LeBron signs the two-year extension. The over 38 rule comes into play there. I hope he's 38 in December this year. He's going to make $45 million, $47 million, and $50.5 million in his 40-year-old season. So it makes sense that he would go ahead and do that deal that way. And I don't think he necessarily ever really wanted to leave the Lakers. But with LeBron, when he thinks it's going south and there's nothing there for him, he's's going to move on he's going to move on but I do think it's important to him or at least this point I think he likes the idea that he's different than some of his other contemporaries because he's only left a free agency and he hasn't demanded hey I want out of here although I think you know with today's league who knows this really

comes down to who Anthony Davis is going to be because if he's everything I think he can still be, then with all the complications and who knows what could happen, who knows if there's a Utah deal that could potentially go down out there. But I would warn, I'm not saying it's a certainty, but I do think it'd be interesting because Ainge is old school. Ainge is one of those guys with the Celtics background and so much of that history that if there's some version

of events where Bogdanovich could be flipped to Boston after the Gallinari injury with his ACL, I could see Ainge being like, if it's close, I'm sending him to Boston where my son is running the team with Brad Stevens instead of hooking up the Lakers as an old school Celtic. I think Magic Johnson, if he were running the Lakers and it

was a tie between Boston and another team, I think he would do the exact same thing. So a little bit of a warning there. But again, if Utah gets two unprotected first in 27 and 29 to move Conley and Bogdanovich out and then buy out Westbrook, that might be the best deal. And then that will be the tiebreaker because it's a better deal. But I do think that Celtics-Lakers history is at least something to be aware of that could come into play. So now as we look at the uncertainty of what the rest of the roster will be and who Anthony Davis will be, let's take a look at LeBron because him wanting to keep extending this out,

potentially playing with both sons, which is a whole other deal with Bryce, who's a lot younger, this has become the Brady thing. And I'll admit Tom Brady has made me change my mind about what I think is even possible because as much as I love Brady, I didn't think this would be possible. I just didn't. I mean,

45 years old, you fucking kidding me. And yet in a weird way, I wonder if LeBron's wear and tear is more damaging long-term because you still have to be so active running around a basketball court where Brady's found a way to make a dangerous game, not dangerous by not taking those kill shots and get rid of the football and just understanding his body. Maybe pliability is all that. I'm open to it. But I don't know that we've really talked about how

many games LeBron has missed the last four years. And we could say, hey, things have been weird, and that's true. But the last four seasons, he's missed 22, 15, 27, and 26 games. So the slowdowns already happened here. When I look at the raw stats, 30 a game last year, terrific. The rebounding and free throw attempts are usually one of the first things to go as you get older. The rebounding numbers are still really good. Seven to eight a game. Free throw attempts, it's been six to seven free throw attempts per game

for about 10 years. The usage is all around 31%. The defensive numbers, some of them tell you he's still pretty good. The eye test would tell you he really picks his spots and he always defends the worst player for his matchup,

which, again, is what he should be doing as he gets a little bit older. The defensive box score stuff, the plus minus, there was a bigger drop off there. Some of the overall plus minus stuff

has just generally been lower, but these teams haven't been as good as some of his prime teams earlier on. So there's a lot of stats there that you like. He's taken more threes than ever before. As you get older, you move further away. But as somebody who's going to be 38, like a lot of these numbers still kind of hold up. And I don't really care about the defensive part because I think he finds ways to coast through games and in a season and still put up absurd traditional numbers. So the other part of this is he is very calculated in what he's going to say.

And we did talk about this when he was at the All-Star game. And all of a sudden, he's just raving about Sam Presti. And you're like, okay, yeah, Sam Presti's pretty good. Like, what's going on here? And it was solely because Sam Presti and the Thunder have so many picks moving forward. And it was solely because Sam Presti and the Thunder have so many picks moving forward. He was doing that hoping that the compliment would entice Presti to be like, you know what? I'm going to take Ronnie Jr.

And then what is the goal? Because, I mean, these are things, by the way, that James confirmed again in the Sports Illustrated piece. Because he said, I'm looking at teams, you know, teams that have multiple picks down the road. So if you're another team and you're saying, all right, in 2023, we can take his kid because we might get him. I still don't know that LeBron, even after this season, would want to miss out on a chance in a ring more so than he would to have the historic feat of playing with his son, which has never happened before a father's son. We haven't had the Griffey's in basketball. never happened before a father son we haven't had the griffies in basketball um that was the strategy so there's another part where you go okay what's fair about his kids because in the past i was like i don't know if i really want to talk about whether or not his kid's going to be any good

because that's somebody's kid and that's just me being older i'm a little less hesitant to rip on or criticize kids but at the same time time, like when LeBron was 16, we talked about him as a potential NBA player. Ainge had the quote that when LeBron was 16, before his senior year of high school,

that he still would have been in the number one pick in the draft that year. And if they're both on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the plan is to play with one, perhaps both, then I do think

it becomes fair game. I haven't watched enough of the Sun to have a real sense of it. When you look at the 24-7 stuff, he was in the 30s at one point. It's anywhere from 41 to 50 in the rankings. Rivals has him 61st. So if you're in the 50s and 60s as a high school prospect, what did an NBA team really say? hey, it's worth potentially getting LeBron to go ahead and pick up his son a lot higher than we would want to? And like I said, now I think it is kind of free game. If they're going to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, then we need to really talk about them as basketball prospects.

So I present all these things to ask you something really simple. Like, what are you getting? What are you getting if you want to take on that risk? I don't think a compliment at the All-Star game or hinting at it in Sports Illustrated is enough to sway a franchise to go, let's do this, to get 40-year-old LeBron James or 41-year-old LeBron James if he plays out his contract with the Lakers. when Giannis was potentially going to leave Milwaukee, and I'd say potentially just because there was other, there were sharks circling in the water, right? Other NBA franchises. I think if there were 10 onto the Kumbo brothers, they all would have had roster spots.

So I'm not saying stuff like this couldn't happen, but Giannis was also like 25, 26, when other teams were picking them up. And look, his brother's a rotation guy with a box. It's not ridiculous when he gets minutes. The other question I'd ask is, what if LeBron's just fucking with you? What if he has zero intention whatsoever going to a terrible team at the end of his career just so his kid can get a gig that he probably wouldn't get if he wasn't his son? Because based

on the high school rankings and talking to people about it, I mean, I guess he could get a lot better, but he'd have to get a lot better to be a first round pick or at least somebody that's actually playing in a basketball game, the NBA level. What if this is the Shabazz Napier thing, but there's just bloodlines involved in this? I think there's also another part of this where you have to factor in the clutch factor. Maybe clutch is like, it's not so much about what you're getting from LeBron, it's about what you're getting from us. And if anybody takes on his son, then we're going to be a little bit more friendly to you down the road. Like a little Contavious Caldwell Pope deal. Hey, give our guy $20 million for one year and maybe LeBron will end stayed with one franchise and again no issues whatsoever from him jumping a franchise to franchise the modern version of sports is what's going to happen forever with all of our stars is going to start happening with quarterbacks more and more that have enough juice to force their way out it's just what it is right the transfer portal is what it is

college football um this is kind of what we have in the NBA. The irony, again, is that if LeBron had played with one franchise for 20 years, I'm not saying he should have, but if he had that kind of relationship with one franchise, the franchise might feel indebted to him to the point of like, let's do something here for our guy at the end so that it is about his legacy. Because maybe the play here is that it isn't so much about the total number of rings. The legacy is doing something historic and playing with Sun and something we've never ever seen before. Because I do think that that'd be part of the message.

But I'd still ask the team doing it. What are you getting on your end of the deal to essentially what it looks like now, do a Hall of Fame or a huge favor. The start of the NFL season is here, and the best place to practice your touchdown dance is on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. FanDuel is kicking off week one with a no-sweat bet for everybody. It doesn't matter if you're a new customer or if you already have an account. So that's awesome. It's not just for the new people.

You'll get free bets back. If you don't win, just log in and see for yourself. All right, Week one. What do we got? All right. Going on FanDuel. Let's do a little Thursday night. Get it started right here. Rams. Actually, dogs here. Plus two and a half. Total 52 and a half. Go with the, hey, the offense first week. Is it going to be behind? All that kind of stuff. I don't know. I feel like whatever the results are, then people just kind of say it over and over again because I've heard both sides say that it's basically the offense

or the defense is behind. I don't know. I feel like everybody kind of says defense. Anyway, I'm not going to worry with any of that stuff. The over-under on passing yards, Stafford's 270.5, Josh Allen's 274.5. Let's go Stafford under 270.5. Josh Allen's 274.5. Let's go Stafford under 270.

Let's go under 270 for your first NFL bet for the pod. New to FanDuel Sportsbook? Just sign up with the promo code. It's Ryan. It's R-Y-E-N. You probably know that. To get started, promo code Ryan. Either way, celebrate the return of football season with a no-sweat bet during week one. Make every moment more

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Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Visit fanduel.com forward slash RG. Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Virginia. 1-800-NEXT--800 next step or text next step to 53342 in arizona 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in connecticut 1-800-9 with it indiana visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP, Louisiana, 1-877-8-HOPE, New York, or text HOPE, New York, to 467-369-NEW-YORK, Tennessee Red Line, 1-800-889-9789, Tennessee, 1-800-522-4700, Wyoming, or visit 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia. 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia. Kevin Clark, ringer, superstar, arguably our most valuable guy if you think about it. He has a bunch of stuff to promote.

We'll make sure we get to all that. You went and visited with Cincinnati, talked to Joe Burrow. You went to Green Bay to figure out Matt Fleur. We're also going to do our NFL team tiers based on F1 analogies, which could be fun. I don't know. We'll see what happens. But let's start at least with Burrow. You decided to go to Cincinnati and sit with the receivers

and watch all of Burrow's deep throws. What did you learn? So I learned that every story you hear about him is true. It's really unbelievable. So the reason I even did that is because he wasn't there the day that I was there. And normally I would just get 20 minutes with Joe and write a column off of his thoughts and just kind of do that kind of what I do with my homes in Kansas city. But he had appendix surgery the day before I was there. So I didn't have an opportunity to sit with him. So I was like, all right, let's do something else. So I found T Higgins,

Jamar Chase and Tyler Boyd. And I said, let's just go through, because I love the NFL and deep passes. They went for touchdowns last year. And I said, let's just go through every one of them and just tell me what you saw. And it was unlike anything I've ever been around. The way pre-snap and post-snap he decides to do things, the called shots. It was funny because there's one story in there that I basically I retrace a touchdown against the Chiefs and he was able to call a shot because he was like Daniel Sorensen's playing way too narrow he's not going to be able to get

the width on this play and so let's just literally like make up a play but Jamar Chase was was running down the sideline on this place. It was to be a dead route. Zach Taylor called it a run for the love of the game route. And Joe was like, if I just throw it to Jamar chase on this dead route, nobody's going to get there. It's going to be a touchdown. So they did that. And when I would go around to people and be like, Hey man, tell me about the time Joe Burrow called a shot against the chiefs. They'd be like, well, which time? Like he does it all the the time. He literally says on the sideline, we're going to score a touchdown. It was a play against the Jets.

Very similar. Basically, Joe was like, just do this and we're going to score a touchdown. This defense can't stop us. A little bit Peyton Manning-ish in that regard. Brian Callahan, who's the OC in Cincinnati, said that Joe reminds him a little bit. Everybody's hesitant to drop the Peyton Manning comparison, but they, but after like 50 qualifications,

they, they go ahead and do it. Um, but Brian Callahan said that Peyton needs to say this thing called, uh, he used to have a phrase basically saying we can't, we can't let them get away with this defense. And Joe has taken that to heart and the way he's able to throw into,

to lazy double coverage, the way he's able to throw into lazy double coverage, the way he's able to understand, like there was a pass that they recreated for me where basically Joe threw in a double coverage, but the way T Higgins eyes were, Joe knew it wasn't actually double coverage. And so these receivers have to get used to Joe being able to throw into any situation. But I mean, I just just it was crazy because you'd hear these stories like Jamar Chase told me this story. I said, okay, you scored against the Vikings. It was your first touchdown. And he said,

I knew the ball was coming to me because it was our first go route called. And Joe was basically like, I just want to see if we still have it. We did this LSU all the time. Let's just fuck around and see if we can do it at the NFL level. And they did.

It was a touchdown. And it's like you hear those stories. And honestly, half of them I thought were fake. And then I go to people like, yeah, that's exactly what happened. Let me tell you what else happened. Like, I don't really I came into this with some skepticism and I was just blown away by the way he operates at the quarterback position. It's it's Peyton Manning-ish, Aaron Rodgers-ish,

whatever you want to call it. You asked the DBs to comment on any of the stuff in practice. How did that go? They declined to comment. Most of them, somebody asked me this last week, was it angry or whatever? It was more like, I'm good. Because the thing is, and just walk away,

the thing is that in those situations i've learned over the course of i don't know years doing this that you can't ambush a guy if it's a negative question right you have to explain it so i keep my tape recorder in my pocket i go up to him and say hey man here's what i'm doing recreating some of these touchdowns i just need you to be able to do it and i'll just give you one right now. Like Darnell Savage is a guy who declined to comment and he ran 20, I think it was like 23 miles per hour to get to the ball. And it was perfectly played. And it just got through his hands because Joe, first of all, a little bit of it is luck, but Joe knew what to do. And so I went up to Darnell and Green Bay,

pleasant guy, lovely guyained what I was doing. Said, would you like to indulge me a little bit and tell me what happened on this play? And he said, no, I'm good. I said, okay. All right, brother. No Darnell Savage in this story. You know, I've heard a million Burrow stories, right? And I don't know that people truly realize how different he was in the first year at LSU

and the second year. Just to recap, if you go back and look at Burrow, his junior year, 16 touchdowns, 5 picks, completes 58% of his passes. His senior season, he threw 60 touchdowns, 6 picks, completes 76%. The numbers are completely different. Joe Brady comes in, so people thought,

oh, maybe this is all it is. Then he goes number one, and you're like, all right, it looks like he's going to be pretty good. He's getting his ass kicked back there, and then they end up in the Super Bowl. So maybe this is the start of some legendary story. I'm just trying to figure out each athlete can be different. Sometimes I always think simple can be better than constantly thinking all the time, because the way you tell the story, be better than constantly thinking all the time. Because the way you tell the story, there's a real combination of he's out thinking everyone, yet at the same time, he's being incredibly simple about it, if that makes any sense.

Well, he's just like, hey, man, Jamar Chase has run down the sideline free. Let's just create a play where he's the route on this play. That's not rocket science. And you mentioned the way I've heard it described, I think Chris Sims said this a couple weeks ago after spending time with him but it's almost like a cocky humility where he is so confident but he's so low-key about it that it's just totally like he's a great hang frankly like i've only spent a total of what 15 minutes with him in my life but like every time i'm like oh i get it i get why this guy why people would die for this guy and like you know in ed ogeron's book with br Feldman, he tells the story. There's a lot of stories about Joe Burrow. But like, there's the one story where the reason he fought Patrick Queen, Burrow, and he talks about this in the book, because Feldman kind of recreates it, is the reason he fought Patrick Queen at LSU was because there had been a fight earlier in the practice. shoot was because there had been a fight earlier in the practice and bro didn't get involved in it and he was like shit i i need to get in a fight like what the hell like i can't i can't not get in a fight my boys are getting in a fight over there and so like patrick queen started john he's

like all right this seems like a good opportunity like nobody else is wired like that at the quarterback position just such a such a different such a different guy um And I think it's just special stuff, man. I know that I actually was on Bill's pod this week, and I said that Justin Herbert has the best chance of having a Burrow-like playoff run. And I had all these kind of nerds come at me and be like, oh, what does that mean? He's going to play worse because Joe Burrow was not good in the playoffs.

And it's like, I don't, listen, Joe Burrow is not 100% of the reason that the Bengals changed their culture, but he's a huge, huge percentage of it. Now I would say that Zach Taylor let Joe Burrow change the culture and all that stuff. But I just think that there are very few people who can literally change a franchise like Joe Burrow did. And like Andrew Whitworth is on slow news day this morning. Like he was saying, it's unbelievable how much they turned around just their philosophical

leanings in Cincinnati once they got Joe Burrow. Spending money, you know, getting into a practice facility, signing free agents. Like it's just, it's absolute insanity

what Joe Burrow has done to that franchise. Yeah, just look, man. It just feels a little bit different. And I think it's okay. Because statistically, if you look at the map of what Burrow was in the playoffs. All right, let me final thing on Burrow here. Because I want to do the floor and then we'll do the tiers.

Is there any chance any of this is a bit exaggerated to play the results? Because when I'm thinking about... Now, the O-line, it can't be as bad as it was last year. They put resources into it on paper. There's can't be as bad as it was last year. They put resources into it on paper. There's no way it can be what it was last year. I thought it was really good in the piece too of just trying to tell him, hey, you know, first and 10 in the second quarter, maybe we don't need you to get killed on that play.

You know, that'd be one where you maybe protect yourself a little bit because he still hasn't figured that part of it out, which scares me a little. But to think I'm paying attention to the planted foot of the receiver against this angle of this body type of the defensive back all while i'm doing this in under three seconds trying to survive like i'm not doubting that part of it i'm just wondering if there's any any element of of playing because some of that stuff the processing of it like you're really looking at the planted foot of the receiver on the break against the body type of defensive back while you're also trying to not to get fucking killed

i get what you're saying the greats however are so granular and like i always go back to this story that tony gonzalez told me i don't know six or seven years ago about how tony uh tom brady invited him out to play catch essentially just like i need somebody to throw to in la i don't know maybe 2013 2014 something like that i think tony had just retired and they're just going and tony's running routes on air and at one point brady starts freaking out at himself and it was a perfectly thrown pass and tony goes up to brady and it's like dude have you seen the quarterbacks i played with like you're good you're good bro and br was like, I missed my target by a couple of inches. And if I had just been about, I don't remember the number three inches to the left, you would have been set up for 20 yards of yak. It's like June, there's nobody there,

but Tom Brady is thinking about the inches needed to get yak. Okay. And like, I think you end up, I think you end up in a situation where you just instinctively know what needs to be done in every single play. So yeah, I don't think that, that over the, the 600,

you know, plays or whatever it is over the course of a season that he can read the plant foot every single time. But I do think there's a difference between just us as humans processing this stuff and those guys. Like Daniel Jeremiah said at the beginning of his career, vision is Joe Burrow's superpower. And I really do think he's able to use that. That's why they want five guys out

in the route. That's why he gets hit all the time. He wants to be able to read those situations because he can. Matt LaFleur, you went to Green Bay to find out what? I wanted to find out why he went so many games I mean I just think that this is the kind of thing where I understand why people would criticize him uh for not winning in the playoffs or Aaron Rodgers not winning in playoffs I thought it was interesting Sean McVay had told him and I talked to Sean about this that basically the

playoffs are like March Madness and it's not about the best team winning. It's about the best team in a thrower window winning and kind of how to maximize that thrower window. So that to me, just the idea of a coach who comes in, wins a bunch, can't win the Super Bowl. That's fascinating to me. But I also just wanted to find out like how he coaches Aaron Rodgers. And what I found out is

I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but they're kind of just jerks to each other. Like they're just too like Matt LaFleur is fine with Aaron Rodgers taking the lead he wants everything to be player-led but they just have blunt and honest conversations in a way that I found fascinating like they just they roast each other they yell at each other it's honest direct conversations and I think that there's so many coaches dude who who come in and just like all right this is gonna be my offense here's what we're gonna do I run the Shanahan-McVay thing. And they do a lot of that, but they also run a bunch

of McCarthy stuff. And they also run a bunch of stuff Aaron Rodgers likes doing. And so the blend between the Shanahan-McVay offense and what Aaron Rodgers likes doing is why you have such a special playbook. It's why he's won more games than Don freaking Shula in his first

40 games as a coach. And I was fascinated. It's almost, when you hear the anecdotes, Ryan, it's almost NBA-ish in how he wants the team to be superstar-led. Not just Rodgers, but Jair Alexander, Kenny Clark, all those guys, when Devontae Adams was there. It's almost, he just wants to

let the locker room lead in a way that, I mean, you heard these, like, Mercedes Lewis was like, listen, dude, I've saved all my money. Like if I didn't have Matt LaFleur, I just wouldn't play. Like I just like playing for Matt LaFleur. And you hear a lot of these stories and you kind of get why he's able to win so often, at least in the regular season. That's my favorite part about the piece is that it showed that LaFleur was willing to give in in some places

you know and I love I mean it's a really really awesome piece as much as I love the Burrow piece I thought getting McDaniel getting McVeigh getting the Shanahan part of it and then understanding the background and going you know what what LaFleur has done is not normal. And we know this. You know about it. But hey, this is my playbook. You hired me. I'm this offensive guru. This is what we're doing.

This is the terminology. And this is how we're running it and all this stuff. It's like, well, actually, I have arguably the most talented guy who's ever played the position. Let's make sure he still likes to do some of the stuff that we're doing. And let me mold this all together. And then to get McDaniel, to get those other guys to go and say, like, we're watching different routes going, oh, that's actually a Rogers thing.

It's not a floor thing, but he's done it, but he's added a little motion in there. I just thought the way that message came out, it started with the question. And then beyond just having Rogers, I got my answer. So, yeah. Having Rodgers, I got my answer. So yeah, no. And also I'd say like even McDaniel talking about like audibles are not something that happens in the Shanahan McVeigh system. Doesn't happen.

And Aaron Rodgers wants to audible. So like you could come in and say, here's what we're going to do now. And Matt LaFleur was like, actually, you're pretty good at this. You go ahead. Also, Mike McDaniel saying that Matt LaFleur is the best person he's ever met was a nice touch. That's a high ranking. Do you think you're the best person anyone's ever

met uh no come on you don't think there's one person out there that would say kevin clark's the best guy i've ever met um probably not like i i drop off the grid for long periods of time um i'm like i'm a general i'm like a charitable person and like like i do think i'm like nice and give people a lot of time or whatever they need but i but a little manipulative like if the ring yeah no no no no definitely definitely uh always work in an angle no but i i don't i i don't i think it's almost like a bit Matt the Flourish. Like I know I set my expectations, they set theirs. And I just want, you know, an honest back and forth. But I'm not going to be there.

I'm not going to be there all the time for everybody. You know? That's fine. You don't have to be there forever. You just have to be there. Do you think, do you think if I called around and did a Ryan Russillo profile like I did with Matt the Flourish, that there's a guy like Mike McDaniel who would say at the end of our conversation, because the way it set it up was I, I, my last question normally to people when I'm doing a profile was like, tell me something I

haven't learned yet. Right. And normally that's like fun facts. That's how you find out he like hates the cold, even though he lives in Wisconsin, grew up in Michigan or whatever it is. And Mike McDaniel is fun fact, but Matt LeFleurur was he's the best person I've ever met. So if I'm doing that with Ryan, and I call up SVP, is he giving me like, he's the most solid dude of all time? He's going to abandon his radio show

if I need something? I just think there's other people. I know Van Pelt would be complimentary. I'd like to think there's a couple people that would say yes. But with Van Pelt in particular, there's people that are ranked higher than me. No question. Like guys that are just his old school guys, you know, 30 plus years.

So I don't think I can compete with those core guys because I came on later on the scene. I'd like to think so. And I'm sure there's a few people that would be like, no, he's not even seated. So there you go. All right. Let's get to our tiers. Now, because we both love F1, I still love F1. One of my favorite things ever in the 18, 19 months, I've been a longtime fan.

I'm so glad that I went with Red Bull. Yeah. I am. I am. We're just winners. We know how to win we're wired right I hate to be a fan of Ferrari selfish drivers no plan no strategy or bad strategies bad strategy they got a strategy they got a strategy when they said hey plan g that other race was that spa they're like all right we're on to plan g even brundle was giving him shit it was like yeah is that even real or that you guys kidding so this is the this is what we're gonna do we're doing nfl tears people love tears people doing a long

time back in the day van pelt and i did tears where wilco was the best team because if you really like wilco you really like them best ever you don't get it if you don't like them matt damon was tier two second best group of teams because it was like i will see every matt damon movie i love matt damon not dicaprio then ham sandwich was the third tier and then i think uh we we had poop town as the fourth tier i didn't love that but uh garay our spanish radio guy we said it and did all the voiceovers. So it just was funny to hear him say it. Van Pelt loved hitting that button as much as anything. So we're now doing F1 NFL tier.

So the first tier is Christian Horner. All the confidence in the world. Married to a Spice Girl. You've got the machine. You've got the drivers. You've got the team. Everything is aligned. Those are the real Super Bowl contenders.

Ferraris, a lot of things I like. I love the look of the car. I love their principles, accent. I love the talent of Leclerc and Sainz. I just, there's something problematic about it. Then there's Alpine, who's actually fourth in the Constructor Series champion, which I don't know a lot of people understand. Every week, you're like, man, you know who who's knows well, doing well around the track. Good pace Alpine. Um, then there's a tier called

the Danny Rick tier. That's about why do we talk about these teams as much as we do? Uh, he's 13th in standings, losing his seat with McLaren. You can give us a little bit more insight there. Then there's a George Russell tier, which is kind of like you are doing whatever you want to do, and no one can quite figure it out and then you've got the roman groschon tier because he crashed while warming up his tires during a safety car and i think yes to be fair to roman we know that like he was on fire there at the end of one of the netflix series and retired after that but i think there's enough time removed we can because when you watch the netflix series with groschon you would just go

i can't believe this guy's an f1 driver but yeah keeps like his car didn't start once so i think enough time has passed that we're allowed to do are you okay and do you understand the tears i i do i do i i think the listener does too i hope they'll get it they'll get it once once we see that once they see the teams. Yeah, right. If they're not totally up on Alpine season, they're still going to get it. Because every time I'm watching, I'm like, hey, you know who's in the mix again?

They're not going to win. They're not going to podium. Fourth and points. Fourth and points. I don't think a lot of people would know that today. Maybe nobody. Maybe I should have come up with different tiers but we're too we're too into this all right here we go horner the horner tier i got the bills tampa bay the rams green bay and i'm telling you i'm putting kansas city there just because of my

homes yeah okay i have packers bills rams chiefs bangles i don't have the bucks in my christian horner tier why no no Bucs? Well, their quarterback disappeared for two weeks in the preseason, which I think is a big deal. The offensive line injuries, and I think when I was on my camp tour, I was just BSing with people, and it's like, if he sees the injuries, and he sees what's going

on, does Tom Brady even come back? They lose Ali Marpet. I know that they were able to shore it up a little bit, but you just start to look around and you see more questions than you do with the teams that I have in the Christian Horner bracket. So I'm putting

them in the Ferrari just because there are some big outstanding questions about injuries and about their quarterback. Okay. The O-line, no doubt. I'm not worried about the Brady about their quarterback. Okay. The O-line, no doubt. I'm not worried about the Brady part of it as far as his commitment to it. Just because it's two weeks away.

I know all the rumors. I mean, nobody seems in the sports world to be touching the idea that stuff's going on at home. I think Brady's the kind of guy that's like, I can't wait to go play football. I agree, but, you know, on the other hand, like,

I was listening to a couple people talk about this over the past couple weeks, but it's like, this is a guy who, I just mentioned it, you know, this is a guy who works in June as hard as he does in August, and he's maybe the hardest worker in the history of the quarterback position if you believe all of the stories. And he's a guy that wants in the history of the quarterback position, if you believe all of the stories.

And he's a guy that wants to be with his receivers as much as possible. And I don't think you can say, unless he's 45 years old, he knows what to do. But I don't think you can say Tom Brady is great because he puts all the work in. Oh, also, he left training camp and everything is going to be a well-oiled machine after that. I do think he's still going to be really,

really, really good. But this is a guy who is obsessed with putting in the work think he's still going to be really, really, really good, but this is a guy who is obsessed with putting in the work, and he wasn't able to do that as much as he normally does this training camp. That's why I'm putting him in the Ferrari tier. I would not be surprised that they have a high ceiling if they are as good as the Horner teams.

I'm just saying if we're doing the tiers, I have bigger questions. Fair. Kansas City, though, defensively, is starting to do some Stafford stuff to Mahomes, and they're getting away with it way more than Detroit ever got away with it, and Sandoz has been on this,

but when you start looking at defensive special teams, combination ranks for Mahomes these last four years, it's getting uglier and uglier, and why so many people seem to be off of them. All right, the Ferrari tier. There's a lot that we like. There just seems to be some issues. Chargers, San Francisco.

I put Cincy there. I know the old line on paper. We've already discussed it. I just want to see it. And I also would like to see Burrow get killed a little bit less. And then Baltimore injury-wise, I just don't know that you can look at Baltimore last year and feel like that's a great representation to carry over into this year.

Like, I'm giving them the injury benefit of the doubt, but their injury stretch last year was a disaster. And they're just, look, it's just a good organization. It's a well-coached team, and we know Lamar's going to put up some numbers. So I put Baltimore in this group almost more complimentary than keeping them out of the middle of the pack. I have a similar list. Bucks, or I have the Bucks,

which I already mentioned. Chargers, Ravens, Niners, Eagles. Only because I think that they have a great roster and the quarterback is the question. I know that I wanted to put them in the Alpine tier. I just think they're going to be good enough to eke out a bunch

of wins, even if Jalen Hurts is just fine. I want to argue about the Bengals' offensive line. I understand why you're on a wait-and-see approach, but I really do think that the fact that they were able to upgrade so quickly is really important. And, you know, they're always going to have five guys under

routes. I talked to Brian Callahan about this, and basically the ability, they're not going to change their protection schemes. And so if they get even a little better on the O-line, they're going to have a supercharged offense. I think they did. Like, that was the whole question. Is Mike Brown going to spend enough to keep up with the AFC

arms race? And he kind of did, dude. Yeah. I get it. I know that you were there. I will defer to you, but as much as we spent 10 minutes just worshiping Burrow, he has to know to calculate risk for his own body because he gets his ass kicked out there.

Too tough for his own good. Truly too tough for his own good. Right. The fact that he made it through that Tennessee game is one of the most impressive feats of any player last year. Alright. Or at least in the playoffs. Philly is an interesting one. They have the ninth

best odds on FanDuel for Super Bowl, which kind of surprised me a little bit. But then again, when you look at the odds and kind of how it's bunched together, there's going to be a couple things that jump out at you. But you're right. When you look at the NFC East, it's the easiest schedule based on projections. Washington has the easiest. Philly's got the third easiest. Doesn't mean it's necessarily always going to play out that way, but I feel like that's a team. For me to put them in that second tier, and I don't have them. I have them in the Alpine tier. I need a better 2021 than

beating all the bad teams and not beating anyone good. It's also to have Philly ninth, still not knowing what Hertz is going to be. That's why I have him in Alpine. With Denver, Arizona, Tennessee, Minnesota, New England, New Orleans, the Colts, and Vegas.

All right. My Alpine tier is Titans, colts cardinals vegas denver did you want to new orleans is my next year the danny rick tier uh-oh um new coach jamis winston not totally sold uh just a couple more questions than i would like did you think, I thought about putting the Broncos in the Danny Rick tier. They were very borderline for me. But I'm putting them in the Alpine tier.

I just, I think we overrated that roster at the time of the Russell Wilson trade and I think we tried to create a contender where there wasn't one. League average on the Lions I would say. No real disastrous holes, but I just... Russell Wilson

is not good enough to take that roster and make them a nailed-on contender year one, but I think Alpine's probably fine for them. Alright. I love their skill, guys. And I'm a

Russell Wilson fan. I have an alpine but you know the danny rick tier the this is kind of goes back to something i pushed back on and i was wrong about it was like is danny ricardo dwight howard and i think i was more protective of ricardo and now i feel like i should be more protective of howard like don't know what Ricardo's next move is here. I don't know. Every week, you're like, what is going on, man? Why is Norris always kind of in that mix of that second group of cars? And then you're like, oh, he's 13th again.

Oh, he hasn't pitted yet. Cool. Here we go. I think he's 13th overall in points. And then people could say, well, after Netflix, he's turning this huge star. Well, how long can you be hot and on the cover of a magazine and do podcast hits? And then sure, there'll be some development deal and maybe like a reality show gets sold or whatever. But a lot of athletes that go, I don't need this.

And I'm just going to do this thing as an entertainer and everything. Like a lot of times that doesn't necessarily work out. I'm not against anybody trying to shoot. But does he not want to race cars anymore like what's going on with him um he mismanaged his career in the last couple of years i think leaving red bull was was obviously a retrospective mistake uh i don't think i there's some there's some debate about whether or not the new cars suit him i mean you saw this with sebastian as well well just like the way that the cornering like the way that the the the steering works and all that stuff is just little subtle differences and you're seeing guys like danny

rick and sebastian bettel not adjust i mean it's a little bit like an older quarterback who doesn't adjust to new rules of football right where it's like oh yeah the dbs can't do this or they can't do this whatever like vettel and ricardo seem to in the last couple of years, not be that interested in adapting to modern Formula One. They got the league has become the formula has become so young where if you don't have it by 2021, you're not on the right track. And these older guys just didn't didn't ever get with the program. I think so. Danny Rick came out at a press conference a couple weeks ago and said only wants to race in Formula One. Not interested in IndyCar, NASCAR, whatever. First of all, there's a massive financial gap in that. IndyCar, you're not going to make them.

I think those guys make 10, 20 million bucks. The buyout, by the way, from McLaren for next year is going to be enough to float him for a long time. He's going to make bank on whatever media he wants to do. I've floated in the past something I heard just from somebody else who was speculating. Just like ESPN gives him a godfather offer to make him not only the face of Formula One coverage there, but also just have him on game day. Who cares? Just have Daniel Rick on staff whooping up the crowd at these things. Game day, that's a good fit.

He has star potential. And so I just think that it's literally hundreds of factors have led to this. But if I was Danny Rick, I understand the impulse to keep trying to be an F1 driver. But if I'm F1, I don't know why I'd want Danny Rick to be an F1 driver. So that leads us to this tier. I guess it is teams we talk a lot about. It doesn't mean they're necessarily good or bad, although

it probably doesn't feel like a compliment. I have Cleveland in here. I have Carolina in here because the Baker part. I have Pittsburgh in here because it's like, you know, I don't care that Trubisky's named the starter. I don't care that Pickett was named third string behind Mason Rudolph.

This one specifically reminds me of the Bradford, Chase Daniel, Carson Wentz depth chart that came out because Wentz was third because it was almost a Daniel like, hey, no problem. And then they trade Bradford. And then it's like, actually, Daniel, you were never the backup. Wentz is now the starter. So it could be one of those like, let's just tell Mason he's the backup and then whatever, and I don't know what's going to happen with reps.

Trubisky at some point will probably lose that job. I don't want to hear about his fantasy stats. I don't want to hear about any of that. Trubisky's not a very good quarterback. And, you know, I think it plays out that way. You know, Dallas. Dallas, we talk about any of that. Trubisky's not a very good quarterback. And I think it plays out that way. And you know, Dallas. Dallas, we talk about. That goes without saying. We talk about Dallas way too much. Although I would say

based on the roster, although the O-line is starting to scare me, and I think some people probably forgot Ezekiel Ellis even on the football team. Probably not, though, because we talk about him so much. I think Dallas is a good Danny Rick combo here. I completely agree. They're number one on good Danny Rick combo here. I completely agree. They're number one on my Danny Rick tier list.

The Dolphins are number two. Saints, Vikings, Browns. I have the Panthers lower because I just don't care about the Panthers. I just don't think they're going to be very good. I don't even think they're going to be that talked about, frankly, unless Matt Rule gets fired early. Bill made a very compelling case

that they're going to be a sleeper team this year. I'll just wait and see. But this doesn't... I think with the exception of the Cowboys, who I'm quite low on just because of the way they built the roster, plus the Tyrant Smith injury. Three of these teams, the Dolphins, Saints, and Vikings, I wouldn't

be surprised if they snuck in and got a wild card. The ingredients are there. I actually picked the Dolphins to get the seventh wild card. The last wild card spot, the seventh playoff spot. I think the ingredients are there. I actually picked the Dolphins to get the seventh wildcard, the last wildcard spot, the seventh playoff spot. I think there's something there. The roster is good. I think Mike McDaniel will at least have some competence in a run game.

I went on a podcast with Solak a couple weeks ago, and I picked... He picked the Jaguars as a sleeper, so I had to pick a different team, and I picked the Dolphins. And I said, Mike McDaniel will help Tua by minimizing what he can't do. And the entire podcast was about how the Dolphins are going to be better than people think. And Dolphins fans just got mad at me for not giving sufficient praise to Tua.

And so I don't even know where the conversation is with them. It's the strangest conversation in the NFL right now is the 201 because I'm just tired of talking about it. The reason they're going to make the playoffs is they have a good roster and a coach who can... I mean, he was the OC of the team that led the NFL in yards per play last year

with Jimmy Garoppolo starting. There's going to be competence there. I like that front four. I like the Dolphins. Yeah, it was a top 10 defense last year. If you go DVOA, they were top 10 against the pass, which is more important against the run. We look at the teams that were good against the pass. You're like, hey, it's all the good football teams.

This isn't even a diss, really. I just feel like we talk about him so much in the two a part of it, and I don't want to do any two arguments. I'm rooting for him. I hope it works out. It's a little up and down. Usually kind of the lights already gone off at this point, but they've invested in a ton of weapons for him, so maybe it works out. and honestly every miami argument about him is always like i just like hey do you is your analysis based on what you think will happen or what you really

want to happen to make things feel better on the inside and so uh miami may be awesome because the defense was good and two it takes the next step and all these different things happen maybe but i just think in the ratio of teams that we talk about, the Danny Rick tier is this. It doesn't mean you suck. It means you could actually be good. It's just that you've gotten a lot of attention. All right, the George Russell tier,

this is based on his most recent race where he just decided he wanted to win, didn't care about team strategy, pitted for softer tires uh which didn't make any sense screwed up hamilton then almost crashed into hamilton costing him uh team points and then he's actually fourth and point so this is so funny because russell is the anti-valtteri botas he he's doing whatever he wants hamilton on the other hand is like what the fuck is this all about like my teammates just supposed to get out of the way and help me the entire time russell so i think this tier is about wow this guy is on his own program is there a team for that

uh i think there's only one and it's it's new england patriots who have a quarterback in their second year who showed flashes. I don't think he's as good as maybe we thought in September and October, but they decided to change the entire blocking scheme, erasing a 25-year track record. They're going to have some combination of Matt Patricia,

who is crucially not an offensive coach, Joe Judge, and Bill Belichick call offensive plays. Um, I think this is, I've always said in the past that I felt sometimes like the, the taste and health thing was a symptom of this. The guys like Sean Payton and Bill Belichick were a little bored by the dominance. They had a quarterback and there's such, you know, Bill Belichick used to spend all this time talking about the single wing and stuff and and and you know even like chip kelly said this at uh at ucla that i think he said that like if he could he would run the triple option like he just you know it's like that when you're a football brain you sit around and you think different things

and i kind of think that with belichick with mac it's weirdness for the sake of being weird like hire hire an OC, man. Like, I don't know what to tell you. I can't even fathom if another team was doing this. And based on the draft history, which is abysmal. But Belichick has so many times when you were like, you're wrong. And then it was like, nope, Belichick ended up being right about it. But we'll see.

I agree with you on Mac a little bit. I feel like his star was a little brighter, I think, based on the perception. Because I think towards the end, it was pretty clear. Like, I don't know that they really trusted him a ton. I need to see that. I need to see in the play calling that they trust Mack to win them some games. And when they put together that winning streak, it's a little bit like the Miami resume. It's a little bit like the Philly resume. New England, when they put together the winning streak, I a little bit like the Miami resume it's a little bit like the Philly resume New England when they put together the winning streak I think maybe

there's a Titans win in there but for the most part it's like oh okay so you beat a bunch of the bad teams because you're just better prepared and you had a good defense and they uh they spent money all right last one Roman Groshan what the hell are you doing Houston Atlanta Seattle the Jets Jacksonville Detroit the Giants I don't know what to do with Washington. I actually don't. I have a line after the Giants with them at Washington there. Yeah, I'm putting them in the Grosjean tier until further notice. By the way, I like Sam Howell. I had a scout tell me they thought they... I was going to the Commanders game a couple weeks ago and I was on the phone with the scout and he said that he thought Sam Howell was good. I laughed at him

and then Sam Howell was throwing dimes in the preseason game. I think that there's a path there for him to be a plucky back of the season starter. So something to watch there. Commanders, Jets, Giants, Texans, Panthers, Falcons, Bears, Seahawks, Jags, Lions. lines. Go Lasso! Go Lasso! Go Lasso! Continued economic responsibility demands restraint in government expenditure. And last year, we achieved the largest ever recorded reduction in the budget deficit, 1.5 million. All right, so this actually is the real F1, which you have a podcast for.

Can you promote all your stuff, by the way? Because I know you have your own feed now. So just let us know everything. Slow News Day is now a video podcast. It's also every Wednesday going to be a normally released Slow News Day. It's going to be on Twitter, YouTube, all that stuff. But three times a week, we're going to have it on Spotify and Apple, wherever you get your podcasts.

Monday is going to be NFL recap and then look ahead. Friday is going to be just wild cards. It's going to be a lot of college football talk, frankly. But also, so like this Friday, we're going to do Seth Galina and Stephen Ruiz are going to be on with me to do how many teams win the Super Bowl. Then we're going to have Andy Staples on to talk about college. And then Wednesday is normal stuff. So three days a week, slow news day. Subscribe to it.

And then the Ring of Raph 1 show, which at this point is just going every sunday um because it just races every sunday but we also have midweek stuff too so subscribe to that that's about it and i and i wrote a college football piece today about how to have the perfect college football playoff how many teams do you want the playoff so i i am resigned to 12 i'd actually like so first of all the number one thing they have to do is put as many games as possible on campus. I am completely sure that it would be a national phenomenon if you put every game but the final on campus.

I know college officials are short-sighted and will try to placate the Bulls or whatever, but that's the number one thing for me. The teams, I would have done less. I would have done maybe 10 and figure out the buys. I would also, by the way, put the top two teams automatically in the semis. Like make the regular season matter to me.

Like have more chaos in the early rounds. So read it. But I just, I don't, there's, I feel like there's a defeatism on the college football internet that the expanded playoff is just going to be a total dud. I think we just need to frankly just bully these guys into creating a good playoff. I would do eight teams, but

give the first four teams buys. Yeah. Sure. Does that mathematically work? No. My whole point. I think 12 is so stupid, but everybody that listens to me already understands

that and i know if you say like well it's revenue to give it all right you want 32 why not 32 there's more revenue there you have 32 teams you're gonna fucking iowa state seven and five but a good strength of schedule slide them in 30 second slot i have you noticed that there's a there's this brand of guy on the internet where anytime you propose anything that could be fun about sports, he's immediately in your mention saying, well, it's all about money. Yeah, bro, I got it. I got that one. I got that. No, I can't believe people hit send on that.

Because if somebody who's been working in this industry for as many years as most of us talking about it, like, yeah, it's all about the money, man. Like, yeah, you know, that was already understood by most of us talking about it like yeah it's all about the money man like yeah you know that was already understood by most of us was already understood by most of us and now we're going to talk about the next part we're going to be we're going to we all know that twitter should be renamed not every thought possible just this one okay uh f1 f1 ferrari no left tire dutch grand prix they had a signs pit recently where he's like why are we pitting monaco they try to want to double stack it there. There's a couple other ones there. I can't believe a team this great, this one so ready to take that next step this year.

And that's how it felt. And granted, they've had mechanical stuff. Red Bull had some mechanical stuff at the beginning of the year with Max. But they're just in this awful rut of strategy and mistakes. And it's getting embarrassing. So Nico Rosberg, former Mercedes driver, now a pundit,

said something after the race on Sunday, which I thought was interesting. He basically said that F2 and F3, those teams are better at strategy and pitting and all of that stuff than Ferrari is. And I kind of feel like if this were any other sport, everybody would have already been fired, everybody would have already been fired. Everybody would have already been fired. It's Scott Frost level stuff going on here at

Ferrari. Okay. And I think in order to be that bad, when you have that much money, it's a culture problem and be just a willingness to not improve. They don't want to do it. And, and, you know, I've talked about this in the F1 show, but like, there's so many stories you've heard going back decades. Um, there was a guy who built one of the best cars in history at McLaren, who went over to Ferrari to build his car, to build the new Ferrari. And he'd go over there and he'd say like, uh, all right, here's how we're going to build the car. And then the car would go out in the track and he'd go to the Ferrari engineers and be like, Hey man, didn't do what we were supposed to do. What happened? And the Ferrari engineer would be like, well, I decided

to do this instead and put this, you know, put this diffuser here. And he'd be like, you did what? And he's like, yeah, I just thought that would be better. And it's like, no, no, no, that's not, that's not how we do things, bro. But it's just the kind of thing where I, there's no one's ever on the same page there. I don't understand it. And, and, and I don't, I don't know how you fix it other than just get new management. Who's the GOAT? Serena or Max Verstappen? Serena. Okay.

Let's double check. Let's make it sure. Do we need to... Have you read... No, you read more extensively than I do on F1. How's Hamilton feel about this this deal with russell because i know we touched on it in the football tiers but this is going to be by the way i just want to explain to you because i think it was alonzo was it at spa or was it two races

prior to that where again there's that long break in there which is awesome i wish every sport we covered was like hey we're taking a month off nothing very european when you wrote the f1 piece that like was one of the first things that i had read where it was like, hey, we're just taking a month off. Very European. When you wrote the F1 piece that was one of the first things that I had read where it was like, everybody's good looking. The places are the most beautiful places of all time. There's money, money, money. All of this different shit. By the way, when you said don't go to Monaco, it's boring.

I went. It is boring. But I'm glad I went. I'm glad I went for the afternoon. I can imagine going with girlfriend, wife, something serious, staying at one of the nice hotels. But for the most part, it's not that great of a hang. It's against the law to walk around the town with your shirt off,

which is another thing altogether. But to see the hairpin turn, to see how tight that track actually is, if you didn't know anything about F1 and you said, yeah, there's a Formula One race that goes through this town, down the street and over there, you'd be like, there's no way there's a race here. So again, back to it, I thought, I think it's Alonso. Hamilton hit him and then Hamilton admitted that it was his fault. And then I think the guy was on the radio saying he only knows how to run from the front. He doesn't know how to race now that he's behind everybody else which seems a little unfair

when you consider what hamilton has been legacy wise so i guess i'm just asking like have you picked up on anything talk to anyone about how just different the vibe is for somebody that's not used to being in this role um i think that there was there was already the narrative in the first two months that russell was was better better in the new Mercedes because he was used to grinding results out of lesser cars. And he understood how to deal with the porpoising. And Lewis has always had the smooth ride. I think there was more randomness than we gave it credit for in the beginning of the year, especially when there's new regulations and they're trying to figure that out. when there's new regulations and they're trying to figure that out.

I don't think that necessarily, I don't think you could really draw any conclusions about how either of those guys are doing with the car in the first, the first two months of the season. Having said that, I just don't know. Like we got a bunch of listener questions after on Sunday, but whether or not a, this is going to be a new Rosberg Hamilton situation where they,

they start to hate each other. Or if there's a scenario in which they start prioritizing Russell just because he's really good and young and Lewis Hamilton is older and is not in the title fight right now. I don't think, I've been talked down by a lot of people with sort of pie in the sky, not pie in the sky, but just kind of projecting out what this could look like. Mercedes is all in on Lewis Hamilton. They're all in. They want him to win the eighth title. So I don't think there's going to be a lot of creeping

insecurity from Lewis Hamilton because he understands the team. I mean, you saw that after the race when Lewis was really mad on the radio on Sunday and Toto was basically like, hey, man, I know that was tough. He got on the radio immediately and was like, hey, man, I know that was tough. Let's just talk about this in my office. You know, like there's a

to draw a line with football. There's a coach quarterback relationship there that I think is really strong and it's not going to be broken up by George Russell doing anything. And I think that they, I think everybody understands that including George Russell. I do think weird things happen out there on the track, but this is Hamilton's

team and I think he, Hamilton himself feels totally confident with that. are so lucky that f1 lets us listen in on the radio when it's important and then you can hear the drivers at the end and hamilton's losing his shit and i kind of got his point because he's like wait what are we doing here and they got screwed too with the safety car you know sonota of all people going out with a tire that's not working they bring it back in you think okay they're in the clear, and then it happens again, which screwed up the one-stop, two-stop strategy. The Mercedes, you know, much of that race, you're like,

oh, Mercedes has a chance here. By the way, just to close it here and say goodbye to you, I love the sport now. You know, I love it more than I did before. I think I figured some stuff out, and it's not a fluke. It's not a fluke, man. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here.

Check out Kevin's F1 show, his new Slow News Day feed, and we always appreciate it. It's time. Enjoy the kickoff on Thursday night. Appreciate you as always, brother. 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 is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com just a heads up for friday we're doing kyle advice it's still the same email lifeadvicerr at gmail.com but we want Kyle specific advice questions. Kyle will lead us on Friday. So just put Kyle in

the title of the email subject line. If that's cool. So you could just do Kyle I want to learn how to garden. I don't know if that's it. Well actually Kyle's really good in the outdoor stuff. I also want to make kind of a show statement. I feel like both my guys have been getting the shit kicked out of them a little bit lately.

And, you know, the thousand soft jabs that I do with Kyle, I feel like I said something this week that I just want to apologize for. And then that's off the big cat thing, which I didn't love and didn't know he was going to do either. So, yeah, you know what? I'm going to take Kyle's side. And next time I see big cat in person, we're going to have a little huddle what i'm going to take kyle's side and next time i see big cat in person we're gonna we're gonna have a little huddle in the hallway just just one-on-one so content is content for big cat you know yeah i mean he didn't tell me he was doing that so i'm kind of just looking at some of the emails and then also some of the responses

but srudi he's not getting a thousand slow jabs here he's getting just fucking eddard stark Rudy, he's not getting a thousand slow jabs here. He's getting just fucking Eddard Stark decapitation. Just guys are so mad that you don't look the way you looked. And as we explained with the analogy of reading a book, when you don't see somebody that you listen to for years, there's no way the version of your head is ever going to match. So to act freaked out, I don't know. How often have you listened to somebody and never seen them for a year

and then been right about the way they looked? Yeah, I'm not wearing a hat today. Not a coincidence. But no, I mean, again, I get it. The hat trend is like a laziness thing. Again, I explained this last time around, but I do want to shout out. There are a lot of people that have my back to and like, hey, dude, you're not a douchebag. I don't think you is like a laziness thing. Again, I explained this last time around, but I do want to shout out, there are a lot of people that have my back to and like, hey, dude, you're not a douchebag. I don't think you look like a douchebag. You know, they're all

the usual people that are like, yeah, I think you suck. You know, you look like a tool. It's fine. Think about this. If you know me well enough, you've been listening to me for, you know, I'm probably going to count the Boston years. Some people chime in. 15 to 20 years you've been listening to me. Do you think if Cerruti were this raging

millennial dickhead that he'd be... I talk to Cerruti now more than anybody. He's my muse. That is true. You would not want anything to do with me if people thought that I was the way that they thought I sounded like. They were to

create this person. That person wouldn't be friends with Priscilla. That person wouldn't... you wouldn't want to be uh you know chopping it up with that dude and i don't blame you so i listen i'm not i'm not offended by it i'm not mad i think it's kind of funny the tweet that i sent out about i appreciate that guy being honest like he did come full circle was like i don't think you're a douche so thank you i appreciate that i don't think i'm a douche so i don't know i think it's kind of funny i don't take it too personally but uh you know it is what it is. All right. Less hats.

Yeah, fine. The other thing that's strange is like, I don't listen to anybody without, for like an extended period of time without looking like, I have audio books. I'll Google what the fuck the guy who's reading the audio book looks like. I can't imagine somebody

who's been listening to Cerruti for three years and is like, just found out somehow on like a YouTube clip or something. I'm just, are you not curious? You let yourself go four years i like enough to where you're shocked and maybe a little angry i don't know that's strange to me educate yourself i feel like somebody with kids somebody with kids wouldn't google what somebody looks like i just feel like i get i'm picking up snacks

toys everywhere well soon we'll have some insight on that i guess but uh that seems like a pretty broad statement. Okay. Well, look, I just want to stick up for my guys. Thanks, man. Yeah. Yeah, but it's sincere. And I don't know that it feels sincere right now. So, all right, here we go.

So, in love with my two cousins' roommate. Okay. You guys see threesome? Sounds messy. In the 90s? That was a big deal. It came out. I have not, no.

Just missed that one. This is crazy. He put his hand on the other guy's leg. This movie's pushing all the boundaries. All right. 20 years old, 6'2", 200 pounds. Used to gym heaps. Starting to get back into it.

Oh, he's from New Zealand. All right. So the phrasing's always a little different every now and then. So let's keep riding here. I love to know if people used to Jim Heaps. But he's trying to get back in. So this is one I have no

idea who to ask. For context, I've only had one serious relationship with you over a year ago. I'm very average looking. Work on that confidence a little bit. With the girls that I'm into not reciprocating but the girls that are into me i don't like hey man tough spot kind of the way it works and and women say the exact same thing by the way but it sounds like this guy feels like with

his average looks you know that's that's another realization you come to a little bit later and you're like this is probably the best i'm kind of in this lane, so maybe I should stop, like, hey, does anyone ever show interest in you that you show interest in, that's a no, all right, maybe we adjust, we adjust the old settings, all right, so here we go, I'm very close with my cousins, oh, yes, okay, so here we go, no threesomes, just two cousins. Very close to my cousins that live eight hours away. They room together with a girl my age. She's pretty and had a boyfriend that was my cousin's best friend until six months ago when he cheated on her and they broke up.

I've been up there three times since then for work and leisure. And according to mates, this girl, let's call her Kate, is into me. Both times we've gone out as a group, I've gotten totally wasted. And to be honest, can't remember much. People say Kate is giving me signs. It is obvious we like each other. Apparently, you did not see those. I went up there again last week and we talked a bit.

And again, I fell into her. Or, oh, I feel, no, no, I feel into her. Oh, man. I her oh man i was like that's what her boyfriend said yeah third time i broke my arm falling on her dancing didn't remember now i'm just kidding all right so he feels into her the third time we didn't go out because she had work drinks instead however on saturday night she messaged me to come out but i fell asleep dude it's an awkward situation for many reasons one is that she lives with not one but two of my cousins and they don't uh know we have a thing i guess although didn't you say earlier that according to your mates she said she's into me so i guess that's just other

mates non-cousins yeah all right uh my cousin's best friend used to go out with her and trying to get back together with her, but she isn't keen. I hate when people aren't keen on something I'm keen on. We've DM'd each other on Instagram the last few days, and I'm wondering if I should just add her on Snapchat. How old are we? Or ask her for it. It's 20. Okay.

I don't want to be the weirdo flame out cousin. Oh, wait. God, I'm having a hard time with the words here. I don't want to be the weirdo flatmate cousin that is messaging her slightly different i'm killing this guy by not getting the terminology um that is messaging her but also feel like there's something there between us all right he sent a picture of her she is very cute and the guy sent us a picture of himself all right yeah that's the most important part i think this guy's a good looking guy i actually think this guy's gonna get better looking as he ages 62200 great frame too this guy's fucking awesome by the way he's got a bandaid

on a smashed thumb he's got an incredible untucked polo button down that's wrinkled as shit which is exactly how mine would have looked in my 20s And I would have been fucking pumped about this white button down with a little polo guy in my twenties. He's got a soul beer going in his hand. This guy's fucking awesome. He looks, looks a little rugged too. All right. He's got a great, great haircut. All right. So here's, here's the deal, man. Very simple fuck in lock in all right you know how like and again different people have different you know how when you go to a wedding and like you can't get wicked fucked up at it approach the next encounter with her that way that is the most important part all right i mean unless she just starts just rifling fireball left and right, then just

go along for the ride. Lock it up. Lock in. Focus. Exactly. Again, I'll use a different example. It's not drinking. Swearing versus non-swearing. If you swear a lot,

unfortunately I do, when I meet somebody's grandparents, I don't start swearing all the time. I just figure out whatever that lever is that you have to do. So you need to figure out, clearly the girl is more important than just another drunken night out

because you're going to have plenty of opportunity to do those in the future at only 20 years old. But if you really like this girl, which it seems that you do, you're emailing us, you need to make that the priority the next time around.

And the best part about this is you'll actually know instead of wondering all these different times. You can't be falling asleep, man. Right? You can't be like, hey, inviting me out. You're 0 for 3 on this one right now.

You're lucky. And again, she's cute. It's amazing she's still into you. Yeah. She's still reaching out. By the way, since you're all 22 and a cousin's buddy dated her, if she's actually into you, sorry to the cousin's buddy. Right.

All right? This is life, man. Everybody's doing this to each other. All right? This isn't your cousin's buddy. Right. All right. This is life, man. Everybody's doing this to each other. All right. This isn't your cousin's girlfriend. She lives there. And the best part, too, is like whenever anybody talks about like trying to meet girl, if you can find allies and trying to meet girls, like when somebody's at work and they're going, I can't, you know, I don't want to date anybody for work or whatever. Find the females and be the best friend of them ever

so that they're talking you up to their friends. And when you can get past that gate, it's like season one of Game of Thrones when they're trying to... Throne game. They're talking to the frays, and they're like, can we please use the bridge? Female friends that will talk you up to their friends are the phrase of life.

So being in the trust circle. Yeah. So if your cousins are talking you up a little bit, and I wouldn't even listen to the cousins. Yes, I would follow her on Snapchat. Yes, I would reciprocate on DMs. And he would say, hey, I want to, next time I'm up there, spend some time. Let's go for it. And guess what happens

if she says actually I don't want to do any of those things then you can move on emotionally. You can move on mentally from the whole thing. But clearly you need to the next time

you encounter her it should be about having the best time with her and not fucking it up. Because guess what girls usually don't love is when dudes are wasted

all the time i can tell you that but the efficiency of kyle today you said the thing that i was gonna say which was we can't be falling asleep but the one thing i will say if you do seal the deal down the road i'd love to hear the follow-up but the like i'm gonna try to tell the story quickly without laughing and without saying any names because I'm pretty sure we know some people involved. But it's like there's a friend whose girlfriend was part of the crew

and then her roommate was around. So they all went out this one night and they end up like, my friend ends up going back to my other friend's girlfriend's house or whatever. And now they wake up in the morning like, what's going on? They see his like dirty shoes in the, in the living room. They're like, Oh my God. Okay. And then, then they like go out for breakfast. They come back. He's like watching TV lounging on the couch. He's like, Hey, what's up guys? It's like,

you don't want to be like that. Like, Oh, is this how it's going to be? I know it's, she's eight hours away. So if it does work, like you just have to find like a respectable way to not be like all up in there because it's just like that. Then that's the one time. But then when it happens, like again, like it's like, Oh, we're going to have like, you're going to be like, you know, setting up shop here for a little bit now, uh, when you come see our friend, which is her, right. Because she's your, she's the roommate. I'm just saying like, if you do seal the deal, just try to do it respectfully and, and not make it weird for everyone else because I just,

when hearing the story, like I try to keep it vague on purpose, but hearing the story, it's actually really funny. The awkward position the other people were put in when it's like, oh, this guy just was in there

messing around and now he's just kind of lounging. Maybe he'll leave at some point today or maybe he'll just kick it again. So I just say, if you do seal the deal, just think about a way to not alienate anybody.

I just feel like this guy's all on his own head though, right? Because it's one, stop getting super banged up every time you see her. We've covered that. But two, the cousin thing, there is the thing, you don't want to be like the creepy friend or creepy cousin or, you know,

I have a sister who's like 18 months younger than me you know like it's just like you didn't want to be like the guy who was like hitting on your sister's friends i totally understand like that vibe you don't want to be that but she's into you like by multiple accounts she is into you and take it from someone who like i married one of my cousin's friends whoa it's not it's not weird if if she's into you you know like it's it she's the one that's apparently trying to court you in a way. So like,

you should just follow the vibes. Like, I feel like this is a, this is a free pass for you. And I don't know if your cousins are weird about it. Like that's on them. I, that's,

I think that'd be such a lame move for them to be like, Oh, this is, I don't, I don't want you like dating my flatmate. I don't understand why that would be a problem if they like you and you guys get along fine. Especially if you're not the one, like if you're going up there every other weekend,

you're chasing her around constantly trying to woo her and she's just not into you, all right, yeah, back off. But by all accounts, you are doing nothing wrong here. You're in the complete driver's seat here. So I think you got to get out of your own head and stop getting banged up and just maybe take her out on a date. Ask her out on a date.

It's not that hard. Just do it. And then deal with it. If the cousins don't want to be happy about that, then that's their problem stay awake stay awake man stay awake nothing worse nothing worse than the missed call dm from the person you're actually like interested in and then you're like oh i wish had shirts. That would be a good shirt. Stay awake. Stay awake. I remember after a breakup, I don't know why,

but I think because I lost my in-home charger, so I had to leave my sick O2 Nokia in the old Durango to charge. The navy blue, like brick one? Yeah, the brick one. With snake on it? Yep. And I had to leave it in the car to charge. And then I just went home and went to bed.

And it was the one time I got a 3 a.m. call. And I called back being like, hey. And I could just tell she was so hungover. She's like, hey, sorry. I didn't mean to do that. She was like, my friend said I can't do that anymore. So I won't ever do it again. And I was just like, that was it.

You sure? One more time? Nope, that was it. You sure? One more time? Nope. That was it. It was the only time. I know I bring that up every now and then. I use it for context. It's okay, folks.

I know it's been 20 years. I'm okay with it now. I just think they're good stories layered in there. Okay. Intervention time. Uh-oh. 5'9", 175, big fan of the pod. A group of my friends and I are worried about one of our core members.

Almost a year ago, he moved from Vermont to to mississippi boy that's not a large group how many do you think it's over 10 people that moved from vermont to mississippi in the last calendar i think there's a bunch of people who already know who this guy is just by just by what you've said yeah i know seriously this guy couldn't be easier. He'd probably Google this and find out who it is in like seven minutes. Moved to Mississippi with his on-again, off-again girlfriend and her kids. I honestly never thought I would know anyone who moved to Mississippi by choice.

That's not going to go over well. Take it easy on Mississippi right now, man. Especially without a job in place. Since he moved to Mississippi, the primary way we interact with him is through our fantasy leagues. Prior to moving, he was consistently competitive in our league and even won a couple championships.

Right. Since moving, he managed to gift a championship to one of our newer owners by trading away Jimmy Butler and Kyrie for Ben Simmons and some scraps. Wow. In football,

we're going to our second year of our dynasty league where he's already completely destroyed his team although Ben Simmons did release some videos I could see him falling for it you guys see those again this week just hitting jumpers left to right new guy more opportunity unbelievable I feel if I were Ben Simmons

I'd be like hey let's stop posting videos I agree no videos until I play I'd feel if I were been like hey let's stop posting videos you know I agree no videos until I play nope alright so let's get to this guy's football resume this email better pick up we're going

into our second year of a dynasty league where he's already completely destroyed his team his team is so bad that he's projected for 40 points less in week one than the next worst team. He doesn't have his own first round pick again until 2025. God, you guys take this shit seriously. You're trading future firsts. I hope there's an actual problem in this.

Not just his fantasy team. His highest scoring players are projected to be Justin Fields, Curtis Samuel, Amir Abdullah, Tyler Conklin. All right. In November, a group of our friends are going to New Orleans for a week and plan on spending time with our friend in Mississippi. Our friend says he's doing

fine, but his actions indicate otherwise. Should we plan on having an intervention? If so, how should we approach it? Maybe you should chill out. You know, if this guy moved to Mississippi, doesn't have a gig,

and is in love with this girlfriend who also has kids, maybe he just doesn't want to be in the league. Maybe everything else is actually more important to him. I get it. These are not great moves. That's a pretty bad roster. Clearly, this is some dynasty stuff we're talking about here, so you'd like to think, although dynasty leagues can be even worse, like if you just have a bad stretch of it then your roster can look this bad um but clearly

you're taking his roster more seriously than he is there are better things to spend energy on i agree i've been i've been seething with hate for a guy in a league that where i went right now and uh i actually invited cerruti to it because we thought it was going to die. It's been, there's been like, and I just, this morning, I think it was this morning, I made a pact with myself. I was like, buddy, just chill out. It's fine. Maybe, I don't even know if I actually hate this guy anymore.

I don't know if it's just everything I've been working on. So I've taken the step back to be like, you know what? We can let it crumble. I don't give a fuck. It feels great. I think you guys should all try to maybe backpedal on this too because I'm like,

do I really hate this guy? Like, what's gonna, am I gonna see this guy at like someplace down the road and like actually still hate him or should I just relax? So as of now, I still hate you, but I'm relaxing, pal.

I mean, it was funny because Kyle did throw me on this text chain of like hostility with people who didn't understand the rules of a, of a fantasy draft. That was, that was, I was one of them. Apparently there's, there's an offensive player rule that,

that like half the league didn't get. I don't know. Neither here nor there. I was in a similar situation actually with one of my buddies. It wasn't with fantasy football, but it was with like video games. Cause that's kind of how I keep in touch with my friends like we get on xbox we play call of duty we chat like that's our weekly hangout kind of thing weekly monthly whatever it is

and um i think my buddy listened to this pod he's probably fine with me saying this i won't say his name or anything but like you know he would he would date a girl and whether or not that girl was into video games or not would be basically whether he played video games or not and he dated this one girl who was very much just thought they were stupid, you know, didn't really, you know, just thought they were a waste of time and didn't understand like the friendship, like the fellowship

aspect of why we actually played video games. Like, yeah, we hate playing FIFA. The game sucks now. Call of Duty's got all sorts of bugs. The game's not fun, but it's just us hanging out and talking. That's the point of the thing. So maybe these guys are, you know, maybe there's like a deeper line thing here that we're not understanding that, you know, hey, like this guy was always active. Like he seemed like a fun dude. And now he's just like throwing away the fantasy league, the thing that he actually loved.

Like, I understand why that would be a red flag for you. But you're right. Maybe he just has grown up. The kids is dealing a lot of shit right now. And it's just not on his top of his priority list. Maybe it's a temporary thing. Maybe it's not. But I think, you know, from my perspective,

we didn't intervene with our buddy. We just kind of let it happen because we knew, you know, maybe it would just kind of work itself out and eventually did.

And now he dates a girl who loves video games. So he plays with her all the time. So it's kind of like a full circle thing. I don't know if this guy's ever going to get super back into your fantasy league,

but I think you just have to let him live his life. I don't think you could really, I don't know what you're supposed to do in this situation. You know what? I think the rule should be

don't expect everyone to care about to do in this situation. You know what I think the rule should be? Don't expect everyone to care about fantasy as much as you do. Yeah, it's like the fantasy bachelor party guy that was mad that the guy didn't travel across the country. It's the same thing. Some people have different priorities than you do. Yeah, you said he's an on and off again girlfriend. He could be fighting all the time. This guy might not even have enough energy to brush his teeth.

Like he might not be thinking about setting lineups until after until after the season so i'm just saying like this guy just might be real tired and he might not have time for any of your shit i would like to know how many guys in the core group are on your side of the intervention thing when a bunch of you go visit him again the other thing too is like are you going to new orleans and driving over to mississippi very doable by the way to then go man, there's like seven buddies. And instead of drinking or pills, you're like, yeah, you sit down a little bit. Your dad's here. Like, what's up with this lineup, dude? And then there's just a neutral guy there. It's like, look, no one is accusing you of anything.

It's just that none of us are leaving here until you go with your friends on that van and set a better lineup and pick up some free agents. I don't know. I mean, again, do you share this with the core friends? Do they have the same level of concern? Or do they go, dude, who cares? It sucks when a longstandingstanding tradition phases out though you know and he's the first guy we've been over this before welcome to life yeah it sucks look it's it's all it is i am i am in a

constant fight of like oh yeah no one cares about this yeah like whenever i think of like oh let me hit up this person whenever i'm like oh yeah nobody cares or like there's something that's coming up this fall and now there's a bit of an argument of like because our friend group hasn't done anything collectively together now in years and it's not because of covid it's because it just things stop and there's a big group that's like let's do this and then there's another pocket that's like i don't want to leave where i live we're like all right well we don't want to visit you there and then there's another pocket that's like well well, there's really one guy and he's listening all the time. He won't

go somewhere unless there's direct flights. Won't go there. Won't go. That's a quirk. Direct flight guy. Direct flight. Won't go if there's a connection. I don't know what his history is with connections. Maybe he's never gone through Minneapolis. That's what he needs to do. Although Minneapolis,

man, is so big. I love the food options, but I gotta tell you. Although Minneapolis, man, it's so big. I love, I love the food options, but I got to tell you, all right, that'll do it for today's podcast. Again, Kyle advice on Friday,

put Kyle in the subject line. Thanks to Sir Rudy. Thanks to Kyle, Ryan Russo podcast, ringer Spotify. And next week, we'll tease. We're going to start teasing these episodes out.

Top seven defensive ends that are under the most pressure to win a Super Bowl. Thank you.