The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Ravens Have the Best Win of the Season, Undefeated Cardinals, Plus Chaos in Tennessee With Jonathan Vilma

Episode Date: October 18, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the Ravens' victory over the Chargers, Chiefs-Washington, Browns-Cardinals, and more (0:40), before talking with Super Bowl champion Jonathan Vilma about what we learned from Chargers-Ravens, why the Bills still have to be considered the no. 1 team in the AFC, best skill-position groups in the NFL, Patriots-Cowboys, Panthers-Vikings, and more (8:30). Next Ryen runs through some CFB headlines, including Caleb Williams and the Oklahoma Sooners handily beating TCU, Florida-LSU, Auburn-Arkansas, Iowa-Purdue, and Tennessee's wild loss to Ole Miss (32:15). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (50:15). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jonathan Vilma Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Press Box is here to catch you up on the latest media stories. Hosted by Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker, these guys have the insight on the biggest stories you care about. Check out The Press Box on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Did the Ravens give us the single most impressive win of the NFL season? I think they did. We're going to ask Vilma that as well. Undefeated Cardinals and the Mahomes rollercoaster against Washington.

I do a massive college football breakdown. We're going to talk with Jonathan Vilma and life advice. We start with the best win this season, and that's the Baltimore Ravens stomping the Los Angeles Chargers. I think it's the best resume win of any team in the NFL this year. Others in the mix, the Rams taking care of Tampa Bay at home, Arizona beating up on the Rams. And I'm not going to, don't worry, I'm not going to just a week off of the Bills going out of their class, the AFC, with their

dominant win at Kansas City. I'm not going to say now it's the Ravens and not the Bills because I'm not doing that. But I think as far as what we saw, final score, who the Chargers are right now and who the Chiefs are right now, even at home, I think Baltimore beating the Chargers the way they did is the best single win of the season.

We knew it was a bad defensive matchup for the Chargers. They're bad against the run. Baltimore likes to run it. They gave up 230 yards in that shootout against Cleveland last week. Chargers defense is number 18 overall. Some people think they're the worst against the run. It depends on which numbers you want to look at because the Chiefs are basically, they have

to find a way into the argument of the worst defenses of any unit, of any stat that you want to look at. Here's the other sneaky part of this for baltimore is they're actually not great on defense at least they weren't until yesterday 22nd overall and 22nd against the pass in certain metrics so you're like okay well they're going to run it all over the chargers but then the charge is going to throw it all over them not the case this is the second worst game of justin roberts career the only other game that was worse was perhaps one of the single worst performances from a team in all levels of the game when they lost against the Pats last year, 45-0. That's statistically the worst game Herbert's ever

had in his career. What we saw yesterday against the Ravens is the second worst. I would remind you too, I don't think it's a crazy thing to say that that loss against New England last season is one of the worst 60 minutes an NFL team has put together for an afternoon. I don't know in how many years, but it was that bad. So as good as the Bills are, which they are, Kansas City now, and we'll get to them in a second, defensively is such a mess. And not to say that Baltimore's defense is true, but what I'm telling you is that was pure domination against a team right now that I think we all feel better about. At least we did prior to this week, the Chargers over the Chiefs. Chargers just playing better than Chiefs.

So that's why I like this win so much better. I mean, this thing was over. It felt like 10 minutes into the game. Chargers get the touchdown. They miss the extra point. They never scored again. That was it. the extra point. They never scored again. That was it. And Lamar,

even if he has one of the throws in a series, it doesn't seem like it wrecks the series the way it may have in other games. And I know the IR numbers everybody points out, like, hey, the most injured players

and all these different things. I think there's a lot of guys that were on that IR number that actually weren't a big part of what was going to happen. But it also proves this. You can lose all your running things. I think there's a lot of guys that were on that IR number that actually weren't a big part of what was going to happen. But it also proves this. You can lose all your running backs. You can find running backs, especially when your quarterback's potentially better than any single running back in the entire league.

So Lamar has been better. I don't know if Baltimore's defense is going to be better, but if Baltimore has a defense now, which again, they had it for a Sunday afternoon, then we can start talking about the class of the AFC. But I'm not saying they're the best.

I just think it's the best win so far. Speaking of Kansas City, they're 3-3. They beat Washington. They had 21 straight after being down in this. It was a weird game, but it was a weird day because Mahomes' first pick was entirely on Tyreek Hill. His second pick was atrocious. It was just dumb, which I actually think in a weird way is better.

I don't ever see Mahomes throwing picks where he's confused by the defense. So let's put that one to bed. I see either it's not his fault, Matt Damon, or I see him doing incredibly dumb things. Now, when I see other quarterbacks do dumb things from day one, I go, you know, it'd be great if you stopped doing the dumb things. But we have multiple seasons of Mahomes not doing dumb things. So I just think this is a weird phase for him, like a teenager that starts smoking cigarettes and maybe you get him to stop quickly. That's what it feels like because there are all sorts of tweets. Like we had the contract guys tweeting out

how much money Mahomes had left on his deal as if it was John Wall. You're like, wait, what? There's another guy that was pretty prominent on social media talking about the NFL, showing the pick going, has the NFL figured him out? And he wasn't being funny. He was being serious. Andrew Brand even chimed in talking about the rest of Mahomes' money. And I'm like, wait, if you guys want to do this, then give me all the Mahomes stock you can possibly share because I will buy all of it.

We know the defense is a mess. Chris Jones was out. Ward the corner was out again for this one. But the offense is still basically the best offense in the league. So they're not in that first tier in the AFC. I'm not saying that, but people got way too overboard in this Mahomes has been figured out bullshit that I'm seeing from real people, at least in the early portion of this game. Final thought, Arizona, dominant against Cleveland,

the only undefeated team in the league. They're 6-0. Kyler continues. And by the way, if you see somebody say Lamar's the MVP, no issue with it. If you see somebody say Lamar's the MVP and it's not even close, change the channel. If you see somebody say Kyler Murray's the MVP, no issue with it. If you see somebody say Kyler Murray and it's not even close, change the channel. The whole point is that it is close because both these guys are awesome to start the season. I don't know why people present their argument, make a great argument, then devalue the argument by then being so dramatic they say it's not even close. I'm telling you again, every point I've ever seen that ends with it's not even close is almost always really close. And I don't know why people

keep doing it all the time. Sometimes it isn't close, but in this case, you're going to see with the MVP stuff because it's already happened. It was Herbert a couple weeks ago, right? I don't know if we got any it's not even closest out of this. Arizona's defense has been enough for them. They didn't have any of the coaching staff. They still figured out. I mean, they're just all over Cleveland. Cleveland basically offensively only had seven points in that game because they did get the

Hail Mary at the end of the first half. Whether it's Edmonds, Rondell Moore, who's been big for them, DeAndre Hopkins, who we already know makes two catches each week, A.J. Green, a couple touchdowns yesterday, Christian Kirk's a tough matchup too, they bring in Ertz. This is a group that I know the running backs aren't headliners,

but Edmonds is averaging six yards a carry right now for this team, and they're balancing it all out. I don't know if this is the best group of skill guys, but I do think it's in the conversation, and there you go. is averaging six yards a carry right now for this team. And they're balancing it all out. I don't know if this is the best group of skill guys, but I do think it's in the conversation. And there you go. Cardinals stay undefeated. Best record in the NFL.

Two, three quick things here. Yes, I saw the Russell Wilson pregame video. I too used to pretend I was in games. I was 11. I think the last time I did that. I don't know what else to tell you guys. I've been telling you for years. He's a great quarterback.

He's a fucking weirdo. And the fake huddle and all that stuff. And there's absolutely no, there's no way Russell Wilson's doing that if it's not a Sunday night football game. If that's a one o'clock regular kickoff, no national network there, no chance he's doing that. That was weird. And I don't think anybody thought it was cool. Green Bay's five and one. That was weird, and I don't think anybody thought it was cool. Green Bay's 5-1. Call myself out here a little bit. The Rodgers offseason storyline, what's going on? Blasted by the Saints, this is what happens when you complain.

Nope, this is what happens when you have one of the best quarterbacks in the league. He dropped the I still own you on Chicago. If you can do it, it ain't bragging, right? Cincinnati, did you know that they were 4-2 with a loss against the Packers in overtime when everybody was missing kicks and a three-point loss against Chicago? Cincinnati's good. And they have a top-10 defense. So there's a couple teams record-wise you're like, wait, the Steelers are 3-3?

There's just a few. Cincinnati at 4-2 and a legitimate could be even better. Start paying a little more attention to Cincinnati. We got Jonathan Vilma, Fox Sports. The Ravens put it on the Chargers, Jonathan, and we knew coming in, as I mentioned at the top, it's not a great matchup for the Chargers defense, but Baltimore's defense actually has been pretty bad

statistically this year, close win, but they're dominant. So what does that say now against a Chargers team we all really liked about how you see the top of the AFC? Well, it still starts with Bills. That's by far the best team. And then you look at on any given day, is it going to be the Ravens? Is it going to be the Chargers? The way I look at it, the Ravens weren't as good as that showing.

The Chargers weren't as bad as that showing. And that always happens throughout the league where you have one of these just odd games. Like look at Green Bay versus New Orleans week one. Green Bay gets blown out and you're saying, oh, Green Bay is done. And then you look and you're like, well, they're really just not as bad as that game. It was a blip. So, you know, I think L.A. is still the Chargers are really, really good. I would still put them, if not above the Ravens, definitely tied with the Ravens.

But, I mean, Bills are by far number one best team right now in the AFC. All right. So why are the Bills so much better than the Ravens then? Well, goes goes one. You just mentioned it, the defense. More importantly, it's the turnover margin. The Bills, they play great defense. They're

top one or two in pass, top one or two in rush, top one or two in takeaways, all of that. But the most important is the turnover margin. So they're taking the ball at a feverish rate. I think they're number one with like 15 takeaways. And then you also couple that with they're protecting the football. So the biggest common factor for games of whether you're going to win

or lose is the turnover margin. And I can go back to when I won the Super Bowl and we made a great argument, or I shouldn't say an argument, great observation on our Super Bowl run in the playoffs. The only reason we won and made it all the way through was because we had the best turnover margin in the playoffs. Like, that's just what it is.

So, you know, when I look at teams, I can look at, all right, they're really good playing press men. You know, Frazier has them going their their defense is fast flying around Josh Allen obviously he's done a great job Stephon Diggs tremendous but when I look and say all right let me go under the hood what do they do with the football do they protect the football are they winning in spite of turning the football over too much or are they winning because they don't turn the football over too much?

And when you have that recipe, it leads to really, really good things. And I can see them going all the way this year. The turnover thing is always, you know, you go back statistically and you're like, it's hard to sustain. Like, it's more about luck. Do you believe that? Or do you think it's about teams? Wait, what's luck? Creating the takeaway or protecting the football? Looking at turnover numbers over the course of a season where

you could say like, okay, why did this team turn the season around? You're like, actually, they just got unlucky on fumbled recoveries and tip balls and they started giving possessions away as opposed to not giving them away in the first half. I think it's a debate. I think that it's hard to sustain, but I get the sense that you think it is about team. It is about team. I think it's a debate. I think that it's hard to sustain, but I get the sense that you think it is about team. It is about team. There are some lucky plays. If you're saying

a quarterback's throwing a football, a 6'6 defensive end gets his big paws up there, tips it, and then you get an interception, yeah, that's one great play by Deanne. It's a little luck there in that regard, but onception. Yeah, that's one, a great play by Deanne. And yeah, it's a little luck there in that regard. But on a consistent basis, that's not luck. When you are intentionally going after the football on defense

and you are intentionally putting two hands on the football as a running back or receiver anytime you're about to face contact, that tells me that you're being coached well and that coaching is now transitioning to the game and you look at one of my favorite players to watch back in the Chicago Bear heydays Peanut Tillman if you remember him and how he would sometimes not even go for the tackle he would literally just go for the football because he's like, well, it's a receiver. I don't give up an extra two or three yards if I don't get the ball out

and then wrap him up and make the tackle. But if I get this ball out, it's literally a game-changing play, right? So he would just go, and every time he would actively just, boom, try to pop it out, try to rip it out. So in that regard, it's not luck because he was coached that,

taught that, translated to the field, and I'm looking at the Bills and saying the way that they're getting their takeaways and the way they protect the football, there's a lot of emphasis on it during the week. Defensive systems then. Is there a way where you can be so turnover-focused? No coach ever comes in and says, hey, we don't want to force turnovers.

Everybody's like, hey, we want to force it. We're going to force turnovers. We're going to do all these drills. We're going to do punch drills. We're going to do all these different things. Can you actually become distracted by that and it messes up your defense? You know, you can. The short answer is yes.

You can be distracted by it and it messes up your defense if you're not fundamentally sound in what you're preaching or coaching defensively. So, you know, a great example is there's the coach that they say they want to take the ball away and they've seen the stats, they all know what the stats are, but they're so consumed by all the schemes that they have in their head that they want to teach their players. And if this motion happens here, we can go to this defense. If they motion this guy, then we can switch now to this defense. And we're going to have them every which way, every time they do a motion, a shift, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, right?

Well, you got to teach that. Then you got to install it. And then you have to take that time to make sure that not just your starters, but your backups understand it too. So while you're doing all of this about all the different schemes and how awesome it's going to be on the field and you're mentally bogging down your players, you're not taking any time

to actually practice taking the ball away or actually emphasizing taking the ball away or actually emphasizing taking the ball away. I had coaches where Greg Williams, he would make us run if on every play, someone didn't actively try and take the ball out from whether it was training camp, going against the best, or if it was just going against our scout team it was like listen this is it's not lip service we have to do this and so you have some coaches that put the emphasis knowing that the structure is good then you have others that don't because they're you know they're kind of all over the place with their scheme arizona's undefeated um i threw this out in the beginning

and i'm kind of putting you on the spot here a little bit but when you go Hopkins, Green who had another touchdown you add Ertz, Christian Kirk just a kind of a nice utility guy all over the place, he's not going to be your number one option I've always liked him, probably a little biased because I liked

him so much in college, Rondell Moore as well, Connor I really like Rondell Moore in college. I love watching that Purdue. Here's my question. Do they have the best group of skill guys right now? And also Chase Edmonds, who I mentioned at the top. The best group of skill guys.

I have to see how Ertz performs. You know, Ertz looked like, I don't want to say a shell of himself, but he didn't look like the Ertz that we remember these first few games when he was at Philly, right, for whatever reason. Maybe he's just annoyed. He wanted to get out of there. He didn't like it. He doesn't have a good relationship. I don't know.

I don't want to speculate. No, but I mean, it's not crazy to suggest in the last four years he's going in the wrong direction at 30 years old. I'm not putting him up there in that elite class of tight ends, but considering what Arizona had and adding in an Ertz. So that's what I'm saying. I don't know if it's because the offensive line was so terrible for Philly and he was kind of just dejected because he knew he wasn't going to get the ball.

You know, Wentz wasn't going to get him the ball. Hertz wasn't going to get him the ball. So I don't know. But if you're looking at a collective group, man, they're up there. I really like, and not just because I just called that game, but Thielen, Justin Jefferson,

D.D. Westbrook, they get him going. Dalvin. Dalvin Cook. That's a pretty salty group too. They've got some dudes. And Kirk Cousins is playing well. They've got some dudes. And Kirk Cousins is playing well. You look at some other groups, I'm trying to think

right now, off the top of my head, I also like if you can get the Bengals group to get rolling, I like their group as well. They have Jamar Chase, who's pretty

salty. I like Tyler Boyd. People don't really hear about him much, but he's really, really good. You know what I'm saying? Tee Higgins, Azuma, you know, Mixon's terrific. Right. The Azuma is the one that has to get going. Similar to Ertz.

They got to get him going more. But you have Joe Mixon, who's like fourth in the league in rushing, right? So there's some pretty good groups out there. I don't know if I'd put them tops, like, you know, hands down, but they definitely have a formidable group. I think I'm just so biased about Hopkins, and I've always loved A.J. Green all the way back to college. I realize he slowed down.

I love watching Hopkins. I love watching Hopkins. I love watching him. He's so athletic. High points as well. Man, he's awesome to watch. And he's like a competitor, right? He's no prima donna stuff. He likes to get after.

Yeah, Jefferson, Thielen, and Dalvin is pretty tough to beat. I don't know. This is just off the top of our heads here because Jamar has been fantastic for them. They've got three big receivers. Mason's probably a top five guy. You know what? Now that I'm thinking this out,

between CeeDee Lamb and Zeke and Cooper. Oh, we didn't even – how did we forget that? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. They got Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, they got Zeke. They've got some dudes. And Dak is playing awesome. So, yeah, I think what's fair to say,

if you want to have a chance at being one of the great teams this season and, you know, getting deep into the playoffs, you need a nice three-man group there. Yeah, I'd say at least a three-man group, whether it's two receivers and a running back three receivers two receivers and a tight end you need some combination yeah Dalton Schultz too a tight end's got a couple touchdowns for him as well uh hey have you seen enough from Zeke to feel like he's gonna be prime Ezekiel Elliott again here at some point? You know what's funny is when I saw one of the last preseason games,

and I remember they were talking about Zeke. He obviously wasn't playing. And the first thing I noticed was I hadn't seen him throughout the start of training camp or anything. I just saw him the first time at this last preseason game that they had. And the first thing I said was, man, he looks trim. Like, he looks fit. And sure enough, the commentators are saying, yeah, he's dropped, you know,

like 15 pounds. He's back to his Ohio State playing weight. Says he feels good. He feels explosive. He felt he really needed to get back to that level. He says he feels good. He feels explosive. He felt he really needed to get back to that level. And as soon as I heard that, I said, he's going to be really good this year. And the reason why is when you can finally take a hard look at yourself like Zeke did and look at the film and say,

hmm, you know what? It's not just my O-line wasn't blocking for me or it wasn't that I didn't have a quarterback because Dak was hurt. It's really me. It's me. I need to. I'm not explosive. I'm not hitting the hole like I should, and I'm a little pudgy. And so let me go and work on myself in the offseason, come back ready to go, and then worry about all the other stuff,

O-line, Dak, all this stuff, right? So it's amazing how he loses weight. He's running well. Dak obviously is back and playing at a high level. And no one's talking about the O-line, right? Now the O-line is just really, really awesome. And they're back to form and all this stuff. And I'm like, it's Zeke, man. He took a look at himself.

He did what he needed to do. I respect that because that's my long-winded answer to your question of saying, yes, we're going to see old Zeke because it's going to really come in later on in the season when he's got that energy, he's ready to go, he's not feeling

bogged down, and they're going to need him, especially in the playoffs. Yeah, and by the way, Dal, let's put up 567 yards of offense in that overtime win against New England, which is a really weird game that was even in overtime to begin with.

I think that's the most Belichick's ever given up in a game. It may have been with the Patriots. I don't know if there's another game, especially with offenses now, but I think it's the worst game

that he's ever had against him, even though New England's sitting here at 2-4 and you're going, could you imagine if they don't fumble against the Dolphins, make a field goal against the Bucs, don't throw a pick six against the Cowboys? I mean, it's – and I don't even think they're that good, by the way.

So I don't know how much of New England you've gotten to see, but do you have a take on the Pats? You know, it's – what you just said just reminds me – I can name three more NFL teams where you can say the same thing. I used to take the stance of, they're okay, they're just a play or two away from being four

and two or whatever it is. As I continued on, I'm like, you know what? You are what your record is. That old saying, you are what your record is. They're two and four for a reason And that's it. That's what they are, right? Because the Bengals could be saying that. How many missed field goals do they have against the Packers? You have the Vikings that could be saying that. Remember, the Vikings missed a field goal, lost by one to the Cardinals,

undefeated Cardinals, missed a field goal to win the game, right? So, you know, every team has that player, too. Look at the Giants. They literally were offsides for one of them. They won the game. They were offsides. Dropping interception next week versus Falcons. Like, all this stuff for all these teams.

And it's like, you know, I don't buy into that. I don't buy into that anymore. You either get it done, you execute. No one told him to throw a pick six. It is what it is. And so your record is what you are. You brought up the offsides. That was against Washington, where once we saw the replay too,

D-lineman, a guy like you, middle linebacker, you don't get enough credit for learning the snap over the course of a game. It's actually a hard thing to disguise from you guys. And once you kind of get it down and then it can look like offsides and I don't know what's going on. Everybody's calling it offsides now.

And that was, you know, this is weeks ago that that game, but then you see the replay and you're like, no, he's just that keyed in on the movement. And that's something defensively where I'd love to see that fixed or at least guys be more cognizant of it, just realizing, hey, no, no, these guys are reading them. They have it down now.

And even though it looks like he's getting an early jump, it's just him getting the right jump. Yeah, for the referees, unfortunately, in their eyes, if it doesn't look natural, then they assume it's offside. if it doesn't look natural, then they assume it's off sides. Yeah. Right?

And it's going to take a year, an off season of them actually studying it more because their eyes, you know, for referees, especially the vets, for them, their eyes are kind of telling them what's a penalty, what's not,

because they're just so experienced. So this is something they have to adjust to in real time. They haven't done it yet. And it's going to take an off season them what's a penalty what's not because they're just so experienced so this is something that we're just doing real time they haven't done it yet and it's going to take an off season for them to do so i want to jump back to your carolina minnesota game you had the call on fox with uh kenny albert sarah walsh on that one with you as well yeah uh darnell we knew that the Carolina schedule was easy, so the defensive numbers were totally misleading.

They started playing real teams. It's like, okay. But I don't know what's like. Darnold, at one point, you're like, oh, man, their contract situation with Darnold will be interesting. Then it's like, oh, good thing they don't have to worry about him. No, no, look, they came back. Give me your Darnold kind of lead up, the prep, what you saw.

Do they have a quarterback in Carolina? So I'll go with what I saw lead up and prep. I watched the Dallas game. I watched the Eagles game. And then I went back, watched New Orleans game. and then I went back, watched New Orleans game. And the biggest difference was the time Darnold had to throw the football. When he had time to throw the football, he was good.

Made the right reads. All good, no worries. When he didn't have time, he would rush it even if he had time. So he gets hit early in Dallas game he gets hit early in uh dallas game gets it early in the eagles game now when he actually has time to sit in the pocket he's his mental clock is already you know pushed right pushed up it's going it's going faster than what it should be and so he's throwing the ball anticipating that he's going to get hit or rushed or pressured. And he was rushing his throws, not letting the routes develop. So, you know, that's what I saw leading up to it. And then the exact same thing happened in the game where the Vikings defensive line,

they were just having their way with the offensive line of the Panthers. And, you know, he was getting a lot of pressure. Now, in this game in particular, his receivers didn't help him out. They had a bunch of drops. To answer your question on, is he the quarterback? Well, it depends what you're looking for. If you go back to the Carolina Panthers, just the history under Ron Rivera, when they had some really good teams, they went to the playoffs, they never had this awesome quarterback. And then you'll say, well, what about Cam Newton?

Well, Cam Newton, on his best year, is when they went to the Super Bowl. Right? And all his other years were good years. I wouldn't say great years. You'd put him probably top 10 of quarterbacks during those years. And he had one really fantastic year. Outside of that, they made the playoffs and they relied on good defense.

So this is like the Carolina Panthers 2.0, where they were relying on their good defense. They have a quarterback that would manage the game and then their offense in the running game would kind of, you know, do just enough to win. So if that's what you're looking for in Darnold, then yes, you got your quarterback. what you're looking for in Darnold, then yes, you got your quarterback. If you're looking for Aaron Rodgers

or you're looking for even Kirk Cousins, to be quite honest, he's not there yet. It's just a fact. He's not there yet. And it's going to take some time because he's learning this new offense. He does like this new offense and he does look good in this new offense when he does like this new offense and he does look good

in this new offense when he has time. But all the great quarterbacks, they find a way to get it done with or without their offensive line being healthy, with or without having the all-pro offensive tackle on their blind side. Look at Aaron Rodgers. How many offensive lines has he played with? And he's still producing. He just gets the ball out quicker. It's like, look, I got to figure it out. I'm a great quarterback. I got to make it work. Right.

Tom Brady. Same thing. Like all the great quarterbacks, they don't absolutely need an offensive line to give them three, four seconds to make their reads. They find a way to get it done. So, you know, if he can evolve to that, then yeah, they'll have a really great quarterback because his arm is awesome and he's accurate. But until then,

you got to manage him. It's a great answer. By the way, the Cousins to Thielen throw at the front pylon to the right. That's one of the best throwing catches, honestly, I think all season. Considering, you know, what was at stake and the window and all that and, you know the what was at stake and the

window and all that and you know everybody who listens to this pod knows i'm a you know long time not the biggest cousins fan it's not that i don't think he's capable of having some great moments because he's he's had some games this year too where it's been really good but that throw is it would never be the highlight throw but what that throw was was and you lost it on the broadcast and i was at home watching it with you doing it and i'm going your film is right because this throw is insane the window we're talking about here i i would bet that he if if someone told me perkins could make that type of throw i would have bet a million dollars that he couldn't like that throw yeah it was as good as it gets. And I was like, whoa. I did not know he had it in him to make that throw. All right.

Final one. You mentioned Elliott coming back, being a little chubby. Did you ever come back a little chubby? Okay. So, no, I never came back chubby. No way, you. No way. Hold on.

I'll give you – I got a great story. I never came back – I always came back. No way, you. No way. I'll give you, I got a great story. I never came back. I always came back in shape. I never came back chubby. But, but there was this one time where I got traded from the New York Jets, the New Orleans Saints. And the New Orleans Saints, I go down there and and they were literally rolling out the red carpet for me. I just got traded, and they're showing me around town. I'm in a hotel, and I'm looking for a place to stay and all this stuff.

And so everyone's like, oh, man, you got to try this place. Oh, you got to try this place to eat. Oh, you got to go over here for breakfast and, hey, try our beignets and all this stuff. And I'm like yeah this is this is great oh yeah yeah oh i love it oh this food is just awesome oh gumbo oh yeah seconds sure i'll have seconds of the gumbo so because of that i literally gained 10 pounds in a week my first week in new orleans no joke no joke i gained 10 pounds i was like whoa i stepped on

the scale and they were they were like huh you know they just said huh yeah my my strength coach he's like he looks he's like huh and i obviously i'm not gonna say i just stuffed my face with beignets and gumbo and and rice and beans all week long. So I'm like, don't worry, I'm gonna get it down. And I just got out. That was the only time that I was overweight. And from that moment on, I was like, all right, New Orleans, I love your food. Absolutely love it but i gotta really you know calm this down and portion the times i go out and eat and

all that because the food is so good it's so rich and not that one i i can honestly say i was shocked myself i because i don't usually gain that much weight and i was like whoa and my coach was like i was like don't worry. I'll get it down. Hey, thanks, man. We'll talk to you in a couple weeks. All right, Ryan.

Take a look at some of the college football headlines here. And it's not always going to start with Utah. I can promise you that. But I just enjoyed watching them play.

They beat number 18 Arizona State Saturday night. That was one of the last games, 35-21. Cameron Rising's at a quarterback now for them after they had the Baylor transfer. And he looks, I think he would be the quarterback most likely to be an extra in days of confused. I don't know what it is about him.

Little more athletic than you would think, aka white guy. I would love for one announcer once to have a guy that looks really athletic and you're like you know he's kind of slow like he's not as quick as you would expect and then they've got that that receiver who's 24 i think he's 25 soon number 18 covey who's actually tough as hell and good and you get a stupid taunting penalty which was really his fault but um i'm just telling you if you start watching any of the Pac-12 games and trying to figure out who everybody is,

I mean, Oregon beats Cal by seven on Friday night. Oregon, and we'll get to this with the Ohio State and some of the ranking stuff that comes out. I just think there's a lot of good, not great Pac-12 teams out there, and it's just hard to figure any of them staying at one loss or the rest of the way. But Utah's 4-2, 3-0 in the conference, and they may be on the south side in the championship game. Okay, Heisman moment.

This was the earliest Heisman moment maybe for anybody that hasn't played that much, and that's Caleb Williams for Oklahoma. Now, he was fantastic again, but what was crazy was in the pregame, I think it was on game day. I'm not 100% sure, so shout out to the Legend of Bear because I know he listens to the podcast. I don't know if he was the first that mentioned it, but it was brought up on social media a little bit,

is that could Caleb Williams end up winning the Heisman replacing Spencer Rattler, which again is ironic considering that Rattler was the Heisman favorite before the season started and now is benched. They put it on TCU. He is incredible. He's also Williams. His ability to kind of run through college players,

like it looks like he was down a level. And we're talking about a freshman here who I believe is the first true freshman to start for Oklahoma in decades. And I think the guy Gundy on the staff was the last quarterback to do it. So I was looking up some of that stuff. But you know how like when you watch somebody, actually another guy that looks like he's just playing in a level that's too low for him is Bijan Robinson, the Texas running back, and their lost Oklahoma State. But when I watched the TCU game, and granted Oklahoma's defense,

which I thought would be a little better, but we just realized that too. There's going to be games with teams that are actually good on defense that are just going to give up 35, 40 points because the game's going to get out of hand and everybody's exhausted, and then it doesn't really matter anymore.

So I don't even know what to do with some of the scoring numbers that we have in these games, where at the end of the year, if you do look at some of the defensive totals, the games that look like, oh, that team sucks on defense, they'll finish the season with 12 games going, oh, you know what? They actually did all right on opponents' yards per play.

But anyway, back to Caleb Williams. He ran through TCU on one touchdown where it just looked like, yeah, this is really easy. I'm not even worried about getting tackled. That's how confident I am right now. And a big, big arm. And Oklahoma is better with him. Better with him, I am right now. And a big, big arm. And Oklahoma is better with him. Better with him, I would think, as the focal point of the offense than even Rattler,

who I still think is talented. But they were talking about him potentially winning the Heisman before the TCU game happened, which is perhaps the earliest we've ever had with somebody. And I'm not even saying it's impossible. But man, I'd like to see just a few more games before we start saying somebody's the favorite that replaced somebody in the Texas game. Right? You realize it. He didn't even start the Texas game, was terrific, led to the comeback, and then it was like, could this guy potentially win the Heisman?

That's quick for me. That's a little early. All right, let's get to the worst take. It's a guy who visits this podcast frequently, my former co-host Danny Connell. He comes out with his top eight. He does it strictly to fuck with everybody, apparently. Georgia, one. Oklahoma, two.

No problem with that. He's got the Bearcats, three. Michigan State's four. Oklahoma State's five. And that was a really nice win by Oklahoma State, because I'm looking at the schedule at the beginning of the year going, okay, are they really this much better defensively? Texas gets some early scores. Granted, they lost Casey Thompson to Hudson Card for a stretch there,

but that wasn't really the story. I mean, Oklahoma State was just better than Texas, and the defense did hold, and they're linebackers a beast too. Cannell's got Michigan sixth. All right, he doesn't want to put Bama in there, but he puts Ohio State in there despite they lost at home. I guess he's arguing that Oregon is better, although again, I'm not 100% sure if Oregon is that much better than everybody else, even though I think there's still a lot of talent there.

The reason I skipped number seven is he has Wake Forest seventh. For anybody that's wondering what's going on with Wake, they're 6-0, but they're 16th. They beat Old Dominion. I think this is Norfolk. Yep, the they're 16th. They beat Old Dominion. I think this is Norfolk. Yep, the state Spartans there. They got them in week two. Florida State. They beat Virginia.

They beat Louisville by a field goal. And Louisville's 3-3 on the season. They beat Syracuse by a field goal. Syracuse is 3-4. Syracuse has this freshman receiver, by the way, Alford, from Montreal, who's an absolute beast. But Syracuse is 3-4. Syracuse has this freshman receiver, by the way, Alford, from Montreal, who's an absolute beast. But Syracuse's quarterback, just

not that much. So again, to review, Wake is 6-0. Congrats. Old Dominion, Norfolk, Florida State, Virginia, Louisville, and Syracuse. And by the way, the rest of the way, they've got Army, Duke, UNC, NC State, they'll lose to, and then at Clemson,

who I think they would still lose to them. So I don't know that we have to worry about Wake Forest playoff content. The point is this. They're not the seventh team in the country. And when you put them in and Bama out, that's one of the worst takes from the entire college football weekend.

All right, shout out LSU. Get one at home against Florida again in a year where it looked like all the NFL guys didn't want to play. Depending on what you're looking at, five or six starters for LSU didn't play in this game. Both are all American corners out. Stingley and Ricks and Allie Gay and

Edge Guy, a couple different guys, but they beat Florida again after last year looked like they had no chance at the Swamp. But I think we learned something, is that Anthony Richardson, the quarterback for Florida, will be the guy the rest of the way. Emery Jones, if you're a Florida fan, you already know what I'm going to say here.

There's some nice moments. His Saturday afternoon against Alabama, running all over the place, was nice. But there's a real limitation there. And when Richardson gets in, that limitation is gone. He is a monster of a quarterback. And that one went back and forth. And despite the win, LSU and Coach O

announced that they are agreeing to part ways. I'm sure Coach O didn't want to part ways, but Woodward, the AD, everybody's been saying this now for a while. He's a guy that didn't hire O, and despite having perhaps one of the greatest single seasons in college football history when they won a national title, he's

out, and about $17-18 million is going to go to Coach O. I am kind of bummed because I do like the guy, and I like that he represented Louisiana, and that season is one of the all-timers, like you said. But I don't know. It was just a weird vibe around the program. I need to know more about everything that was going on there. And it is a really good job.

Think about this. The last three coaches that have coached there all won national titles. Saban, Les, and Coach O. I'd argue in a weird way, I don't know what Bama is compared to LSU without Saban. I don't. Bama's weird because you have Auburn there. Louisiana doesn't have a

Louisiana Auburn. Georgia has Georgia Tech, but Louisiana doesn't have anyone else that's at their level that you would think you'd be competing with. Now, Auburn, even in the worst years, Auburn, when you watch an Auburn game every now and then, you're like, wait a minute, who the hell's that guy? There'll always be guys at Auburn, and there's always going to be guys that Bama will lose to Auburn, although it hasn't necessarily hurt them that much over the last decade. But I do think when you look at Ohio State,

which is clearly better than any job in the Midwest, Clemson's had their run here, but LSU really is a top-five job. So we'll see if they end up with a headline hire or a guy they think can become a headline after a bunch of years. Speaking of Auburn, real quick correction from your guy here. When I was going through the early parts of the season, especially when you were looking at Auburn almost losing to Georgia State,

Auburn now is 19th in the country. They're 5-2. The Georgia State game was weird as hell. They had to score 15 in the fourth quarter, come back and beat them. Georgia State, by the way, if you wanted Panthers talk, we're your home for it. They're 2-4

in the Sun Belt. So I just watched Auburn with Bo Nix going, alright, this isn't going to happen. And they've put together some nice games. Forget the Georgia thing, because Georgia's defense is destroying everybody. They're tight in Bowers. That kid is lighting everybody up. They lit up Kentucky this week, and they're doing it without their number one receiver.

And they're doing it with probably less depth of the running back position that they've had at least talented depth in the past and then also Stetson Bennett instead of JT Daniels a quarterback and it hasn't mattered and luckily for Georgia fans Stetson got some starts so it's not it's not a crazy situation for him but Auburn after losing at Penn State the Georgia loss is in there but they beat up you know look I don't think they I'm surprised they won that game at LSU, but they did. And then they put 38 up on Arkansas. And Bo Nix is actually starting to play a little bit better, which took long enough

and why I'm always hesitant on them. But when I bring up Auburn in the beginning of the year, I was like, okay, congrats Penn State, but I'm not quite sure what Auburn is. Maybe they're the sixth best team in the SEC, the seventh best team. I don't really know what to do with a lot of the teams after Georgia and Bama to begin with because I think it's a group of seven or eight teams that are all pretty good. I think if A&M is right and Calzada is okay,

they're actually probably as talented as everybody else besides those top two teams. So Auburn, better than I thought, so correction there. Speaking of Ohio State, get ready to get mad because Purdue beats Iowa, and it wasn't close. They just beat them. Bell, that receiver going against them, lit them up. I know that one of the top corners for Iowa was out for this one, but

Iowa, when you watched them all year offensively, you're like, hey, nice story. You know I love the people of Iowa. Best people on Earth come from Iowa, but even the strongest Hawkeye fan has to admit, are we still going to be able to live on turnovers and not really have anything dynamic going with our offense? Are we really going to be able to win the line of scrimmage enough without any offensive threats where we

feel like we're going to go clean in the Big Ten? I don't think so. Purdue, yes, it's a little surprising, although Purdue's not bad. But I do wonder how many Ohio State fans will argue that Purdue loss wasn't that bad for Iowa and will argue for Iowa to be still in contention for a college football playoff. Let's stay with the Big Ten because the cannibalism is about to happen. So a bunch of the teams had the week off. We'll update the rankings once again on the Big Ten side of things.

Ohio State's crept back up to five. They're ahead of Oregon. I know's crept back up to five. They're ahead of Oregon. I know people like to keep the team that beat the team ahead of the other team, but we just don't do it after a while. And it's already, like the AP is one thing. We'll see what the committee says with their rankings. But if Ohio State, we'll see how this goes through over the next couple weeks because Ohio State's going to have tougher opponents,

so that'll bump them up too. But it's just going to happen. People are going to look at Ohio State. They're going to watch Oregon and say, hey, I know Oregon beat them in the beginning of the season, but I think Ohio State's a better football team. I still think it's assuming a little bit too much with Ohio State's defense,

but I guess I just keep watching Oregon going, I want to see more, and I don't see it. So I don't have a problem with the AP. I don't have a problem with the coaches poll having them five spots ahead of a team that they already beat where it looks like they were trying to, I've seen some places try to keep Iowa ahead of Penn State, but that's what always sucks with the head to head because it's kind of like, well, wait, our loss is better because we lost to you and you're good,

but your loss is bad because you lost to a terrible team that wasn't us. I know that doesn't make a ton of sense, but that's the kind of way that it always seems to work out. So if we look at the Big Ten, Ohio State's five, Michigan six, Penn State seven, Michigan State's nine, they're all going to start playing each other. Ohio State's got Penn State at home, Michigan State at home at number eight, Michigan. Michigan has to go to Michigan State at Penn State home against Ohio State. Penn State's at Ohio State coming up here soon, Michigan, and then at Michigan State. Think about Penn State-Wisconsin.

That actually looked like a game. We were still holding out hope that maybe Wisconsin was going to be okay if Mertz could figure some things out. That didn't happen. But physically and defensively, that was the first time you saw Penn State. You're like, man, there's something here. And I still think they should have won the Iowa game. But they're all not going to stay clean throughout that entire thing. So the Big Ten getting two teams in, not impossible, but now with Iowa with the loss to Purdue,

you could have had a situation where maybe Iowa beat or Ohio State beat Iowa, and they're both one-loss teams and everybody else is lost around them. But there's still so much work to do there in the Big Ten that I'm not sure any of us can start predicting that stuff. All right, final thing. The what-the-f fuck moment of the night is Ole Miss at Tennessee. We knew Neyland was going to be hot. It's an awesome stadium. I've been

there. 100,000 plus. Ole Miss in the building. Lane Kiffin's back. They're going to be mad. Two people don't forget. Women and SEC fans. And Ole Miss is the better team in the entire game. I don't know that anybody could debate that. And this game went on forever. Ole Miss is going to win. And then all of a sudden you're like, wait, Tennessee's got the ball back now

with a few minutes here, four minutes to go down 31-26. Like how the hell did this happen? There's a fourth and 24 to Tennessee 36. Jacob Warren, the tight end for Tennessee, I thought he had a first down. I don't even really think it's all that debatable. The line judge marks him shy of the first down marker and he was about 20 something yards behind him by the way.

And he's sprinting up, spots it where he spots it. I mean it was an awful spot and it was also ridiculous how far away the guy was from it. They review it and they say he's shy. So we're at 54 seconds left in the game.

They start raining down bottles all over the place. All right. Lane Kiffin, there's a golf ball thrown at him. He kept holding up the golf ball the entire time. We heard about the mustard bottle that got thrown out there. They were talking about other things with brown water in them being thrown out. I don't know if it was bourbon or if it was dip spit. water in them being thrown out. I don't know if it was bourbon or if it was dip spit. And if anybody's from prep school in the 90s or colleges, that last inch of that raspberry

Snapple that's not raspberry Snapple, that's a horrible thing to throw at anybody. So the place gets shut down for like 20 minutes and I'll just throw this in there. No one likes it. Okay. No one's like, hey, this is a good look. But then to turn it into a bigger thing about the society and our dilemma and all this stuff, a bunch of guys who've been drinking all day start throwing shit down, and I'm not excusing it, but you knew they were pissed off because Lane Kiffin was back

and their team was going to lose. I am not absolving any of it. I'm not condoning any of it. But my point is, I, there's this journalistic thing where, cause on social media, it's just this, this scolding of it as if any of that is interesting. Like what I always want to do is if I have something to say, I'd like to figure out a way to be like, okay, let me go beyond the obvious and say something that's interesting about this. And if I don't have anything, I'll probably just lay out, not to say that everything i say is always the most interesting thing ever

but you get the point to just then be like oh terrible look what does this mean the sec i'm seeing articles today the sec has gone too far and all this stuff this shit happens and it's going to happen again and to clutch the pearls on this i don't i don't really get it i don't get maybe it's because reporters have to report everything and they're still kind of in that mode. And some of these people are my friends, by the way, right? Like, yes, no one's saying it's cool. No one's saying it's making Tennessee look good. What I'm saying is that it happens and it sucks.

And somebody could have been hurt. Absolutely. But it is what it is. It's a shitty situation that you wouldn't want to have happen. And beyond that, I don't know that any of the scolding is all that interesting because everybody's basically saying the exact same thing, almost as if there's some duty to be like, well, let me make sure everybody knows that this isn't cool.

Let me make sure I get this thought out there. And that's exactly what happened. And what was even dumber, now, maybe not dumber, but Ole Miss gave Tennessee the ball back after all of this. And you're thinking, wait, Tennessee still has another chance

with how much time do they get the ball back? Ole Miss punts. Tennessee gets the ball back with 27 seconds. Hennon Hooker gets blasted after running for a first down. Joe Milton comes in. All right. Now, I'm going to share something else with you, too. When Joe Milton threw a couple nice balls in week one for Tennessee against,

was that Bowling Green? Yeah, it was Bowling Green. Milton played the majority of the game for Hooker. There was a media member that's a former player who's clearly anti-Harbaugh that saw Milton hit somebody because Milton actually has a pretty big arm. It's just all over the place.

And the guy tweeted... No, no, he was on TV. That's right. He was on TV and he said, he's like, oh, look at that. He's like, but Harbaugh couldn't get this guy to get people open. It was like a dig

because look how good Milton is and Harbaugh couldn't work with him. It was an anti-Harbaugh thing week one against Bowling Green. I remember being on the couch being like, whoa. That's just about Harbaugh. He has nothing to do with Milton. They're playing Bowling Green for Christ's sakes. Milton comes in

and just so we understand, it's the last series. The clock is almost at zero. It's third and ten at the Ole Miss 21. Three seconds left. You got one shot at the last series. The clock is almost at zero. It's third and 10 at the Ole Miss 21. Three seconds left. You got one shot at the end zone. He had two. You got one shot left at the end zone.

And Joe Milton ran it for 13 yards in a first down game over. It was one of the more inexplicable plays. You're like, wait, you ran it for the first down and got out of bounds. And now the game is over. So there's your Saturday night. Talking college football. 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. A couple things before we get to life advice.

I do want to do a succession deal here. We know the first episode of Season 3 came out last night. But I think we might wait until midweek so everybody can get caught up. Kyle, did you came out last night but i think we might wait till midweek so everybody can get caught up kyle did you watch it last night no and that's nice of you because bill has screeners and he talks with sal about it on the pod so i like got a weird i mean luckily his his first episode overview wasn't like super in depth but i like know kind of what's going on but i didn't have time to watch it okay so and considering sir rudy we don't know if he's still in tulum or not um getting his tulum on i don't know who he went with i hope he packed clothes but we'll uh we'll do it later in the week

and i think for the listeners too um it'll just be cooler than doing monday because you know if you don't have a chance to watch it i don't want you not being able to enjoy the pod or whatever happened to go back to it. And then we also heard word about Conor McGregor potentially beating up an Italian DJ. Did you hear about this? Yeah, somebody tagged me on something. Okay. Well, guys are using it as evidence as why the guy who emailed in that he and his two buddies all went in at 175, why they couldn't.

I don't know him beating up an italian dj is what the what i needed i don't think that was like i wasn't on the fence where i go oh wait now those three guys definitely couldn't take conor mcgregor because he beat up an italian dj um it does seem like he assaults a civilian once every couple months though doesn't that yeah he's not afraid to just punch guys um which a lot of fighters won't do because they're always afraid of being sued. Or if you've ever hung out with guys that are professional fighters, a lot of times they're actually the most calm guy. They're scary because they're calm.

They're just over it. They're not trying to prove anything because they could wipe out the entire room for the most part. McGregor, though, I don't know. I don't know enough about DJ Francesco Facinetti. You know anything about him?

No. I think I saw a picture of his face. Maybe he was asking for it. You know what I wouldn't do, though? This is why I need more details before I decide whose side I'm on, but if McGregor punches you for no reason, then I get it. And then you're going to post a picture of it.

And he did post a picture of his lip a little gashed up. I mean, it didn't look like it was that big of a deal. And if he just did it for no reason and hit this guy, then this guy gets it out there, gets public on his side, whatever. He's looking for the settlement check or whatever. But I don't know. McGregor was just a party in Rome and punched the DJ. He's taken that, that song way too seriously.

Um, I, yeah, I do. I just, I feel like I've seen a bunch of headlines where it's like regular guy in bar gets, gets his ass kicked by McGregor.

Like, I mean, didn't he like throw his water at some random guy at the, uh, well, I guess he wasn't a random guy. I think he was a celebrity. She can go and kill it.

I didn't have a problem. I guess maybe that was, I didn't, of course you don't. And I didn't either a problem with that. I guess maybe that was... Of course you don't. And I didn't either. I guess it's just mostly... It's like you said. Boxers' hands are registered weapons usually, so it's usually the safest place to be is around a boxer because they have more restraint.

It just seems like you're definitely at risk of getting punched if you're next to Conor McGregor. I'd try. Not that i can hang i i would um i i wouldn't worry about getting punched by him i think there's probably i don't know i don't know my guess would be there's probably a few instances where the person annoyed the shit out of him and then he was like all right now i'm hitting you like there was some old guy that he did it to a pub in in ireland but again yeah that, I don't even know what was going on there.

So I don't know. I have no idea. I just, I don't know enough about this Italian DJ. I've got some holes in my game when it comes to that topic. Okay, so to the life advice, ESPN interview follow-up.

I thought this was really important for a guy that's wondering 14 years later if he didn't get a job with ESPN because he asked for a hotel room when he missed his flight or when the flight was canceled. So it wasn't even really his fault. He goes, I want to follow up. I had a part-time job while in college in the same stats and info department at ESPN that our guy was interviewing for. Shout out to anyone listening

from the old 383 warehouse building. 12 bucks an hour to do real-time scores and stats of the bottom line score panels and website. Pretty cool gig because I could go to class during the day and then drive up to Bristol and make a few bucks at night on weekends while watching sports. The reason I am writing in is because I remember our department being very good about getting people hotel rooms in the event of midwinter snowstorm. We would usually

work until at least midnight, sometimes 2 a.m., so all the West Coast games when they were finished. If there was a weather event happening while on shift, the department would generally get us hotel rooms across the street, so none of the workers had to make the drive home in bad weather. While I was never a full-time employee like yourself, I guess he's talking to me, I'm sure you experienced some of this too during your tenure there. Unfortunately for your listener, we could pretty much rule out the hotel room as being the reason he didn't get the job.

I got to tell you the second time reading this, um, maybe, but when you're already an employee and there were the snowstorms and ESPN was always great about that, getting people rooms. I think that's different than a non snowstorm guy who went, went to come get an interview. Like it may be a good reason to be like, Hey, they were offering up hotel rooms all the time. They have a corporate deal. Don't worry about it. Not a big deal. That's why you didn't get the job. I still don't think it's because of that, but I don't think this is... I think these are two different things. So now that I read it

a second time, it probably didn't help anyone and maybe added more doubt to your life, and I apologize for that. I don't think there's anything to add to that, Kyle. No, no. You'd sewed that one up. Kyle also sent this in, and

the guy that Kyle said told said fuck you when he offered him the he's emailed a bunch of times we got it man don't worry about it um not a big deal you didn't really say anything all that bad it's a podcast we're just having some fun um so i felt like that guy needed to hear something because k Kyle forwarded me all the emails they keep sending. That was off the asexual wife. That guy, the guy who sent in a follow-up, Kyle, you saw that. He was great after the fact. Yeah, it was a real normal, nice guy. Right.

Totally. Totally. Actually, shockingly, most people are. We also had the park guy chime in and goes, I think you guys confirmed everything I was already thinking. They're probably going to break up soon. We'll keep the listeners updated on that one. Trying to help one way, one day at a time over here. Okay. All right. This one's just another classic money thing. We all see money differently. there's nothing we can do about it. All right, long time ESPN, 6'2", 45. He could run a sub 4'5", 40 in his prime.

Maybe. I'm not sure anybody lies about anything more than 40 times, but it sounds like you were fast, even if the 4'5 thing. We'll defer to you on this one. But people have thrown that around. I think I said I ran a four or five once at a bar and I'd said it in front of the BC strength coach. And he's like, no,

you can't. And I was like, yeah, probably not. All right. I wanted your opinion on a situation involving a good friend of mine. My wife and I got a message from a friend stating that she's having a surprise party for his wife.

The plan is to rent a bus and go wine tasting in Oregon where we all live. The text included the total cost of the event and the cost per person to be paid by X date if we wanted to go. Keep in mind that this is not the first time this friend has taken this approach when throwing a birthday party. My wife and I discussed it and it's not an activity we're into. But we feel obligated to go since

it's a close friend. Our approach to throwing parties is very different than this. When we have parties, we do not expect people to pitch in for whatever we were doing. I have a few questions for you guys involving this do you think this approach to doing things is okay if not is there a way to bring this up to my friend do you feel like we should feel obligated to go generally i just like when people do things that i feel are showy and generally do not feel it is appropriate to ask people for money so you can throw a surprise party for each significant other alternatively am i in the wrong here is my thinking about the situation incorrect yeah honestly

leaning towards incorrect you know if this is the wife who wants to do something really cool for her significant other and I think throwing a party at a house you wouldn't be charging a cover but if you're

renting buses and stopping at all these different wineries, her covering the cost for all of that is a much bigger cost than just making sure there's booze and some food at your house. So I personally, I don't think I've ever been in a situation where anybody's doing anything special for me. If you're not in relationships and you're by yourself on birthdays and holidays and that kind of stuff, guess what? Nobody's going, hey, let's throw this extravagant party for Rosillo and make sure we do something special where there's a cover charge for the whole thing. It just doesn't happen. But the idea that it could happen keeps me getting out of bed every day. No, it's that. why not let the friends here, why not let the wife do something special for her husband?

Now, if it's an issue of money and you are not in a place financially to be able to do this, then you can bail on it. But being friends and being friends with people you really care about is sometimes compromising to whatever their wishes are when they're in charge of the whole thing. How many of you have been on guys' weekends, girls' weekends, or some sort of bachelorette thing where everybody involved is not involved in decision making because you wouldn't get anything done despite our love of committees in this country? You need a couple people at the front going, hey, this is what we're doing. This is when we're going to go, and this is how it's going to happen. And whenever you're doing that and planning for multiple people,

there's always going to be somebody, and I'm not saying this is you, to the emailer, but there's always going to be somebody who's like, well, why didn't we do this? Or we could have done this. That's just how we are, and it's really fucking annoying, right?

No matter what decision is made publicly, at work, in politics, anything, it's always like, well well why did you do that when we could have done this i don't know what it is about the way we're wired but we kind of do this stuff now again i'm not saying that you're doing this but you clearly aren't into the wine tasting thing and it sounds like more than that you're not into the money part of it now if the money isn't an issue like if this is not going to change your food supplies for this month if these are friends that you care about and you expect to

hang with in the future, sometimes you got to do some stuff here because what you don't want to do if you care about these people, if you don't care about these people, do whatever you want. But if you care about them, you expect to hang out with them socially years from now, you're buying up some equity here and that you're joining in on something because you're supposed to be there for the person. This wine thing isn't for you and your wife okay it's not for you guys this might be their deal this might be something that's sentimental to them the guy may love wine tasting maybe she loves wine tasting whatever issues you have with it i'm not saying that you're wrong about any of it but this isn't this isn't some block party or some late night here

although you know whatever i don't know how many people in their 40s are having late nights anymore this isn't some block party or some late night here, although, you know, whatever. I don't know how many people in their 40s are having late nights anymore. But I would just step up and pay for this because she's trying to do something special for the person that she's married to and have all of you be a part of it. She's not thinking about whether or not

you and your wife like the winery. And I think because it's actually an activity where there's some cost beyond a normal party that you shouldn't have a problem kicking in here. I would not tell her, hey, we're out or we're out because we don't want to pay. That would be weird and it's going to strain it a little bit, but I don't know how close you are. So let me read that again. friend of mine all right that was the second sentence my wife finally got a message from the friend stating she's having a surprise party for this wife oh sorry i read that back so anyway just reverse it um now it makes more sense yeah that the wife likes the winery yeah it almost seemed like she really like loved wine tasting and she thought the

husband loves it. It's like, yeah, maybe he just loves you and that's why he goes on wine tastings with you. But yeah, that's right. It seems like a classic case of nuance. It's just the difference.

Like you said, it's the difference between throwing a party and like, if you went to a, like if everybody gathered at a bar, you wouldn't expect the lady to pick up the tab for, you know, 30 people's bar tabs. It's just like,

it's a nuance thing. Sometimes it sucks. And sometimes it doesn't. Yeah. The money thing's never going to be, you know, you're right though. The money thing will never be solved because people like,

there's just people that are, I'm not saying spending money is cooler than not spending money, but I've been in a couple of situations where I remember we had, we had a new Year's Eve house back when I used to still do stuff with my friends all the time. But we rented out a huge house in Breckenridge and we were trying to line up a New Year's Eve table, you know, and it's a small little town. So we were like, let's make sure we get something. So we're not standing outside freezing our asses off, which is still what sort of happened anyway after. But it was kind of like a, you know, let's make sure everybody's chipping in here. And there's always going to be a couple people that feel like they're going to be able to buck the system by not chipping in.

Like, oh, you know, you're good. And it's like, what do you mean? Are you good? You're going to go and sit in the same place and drink from the same stuff that we're all like. So what makes you think that you're supposed to get away with this? But there's just some people that think like, oh, and this isn't about the email, okay? But this is about the money part in life where there's going to be a couple guys in that group that are so excited deep down because they didn't have to kick in one or 200 bucks.

And it wasn't like all the guys that make the most money are always paying for everything all the time. It's just a matter of your, and it's just, where are your heads at? Like, hey, yeah, all right, cool. This is what we're doing. This thing's going to cost a thousand bucks. All right, and make sure we get a hundred, 150 bucks from everybody that's involved here. Make sure it's taken care of. Now, the men literally always pay.

Always. I don't know. Especially back then. I don't ever remember it being any different than that when the guys are involved but i just wouldn't you know i understand go ahead right i was gonna say but then some guys have to be extra cool about it because other guys are like going down to the sense like we had a couple guys that would go down to the sense So then a couple other guys would be overly cool and just try to pay a little bit more than like, maybe like if you went and

broke it down in your phone calculator, be like, all right, this comes to $75 each, but they just throw 120 down because they have, you know, six twenties in their, in their wallet. So it's because they know that our buddy Eli over there, who's going to be like making sure that he gets every single dollar. And, you know, so sometimes people just end up being overcompensating, being cool about it because some guys in the group aren't. So that's how some guys fall through the cracks and end up paying nothing, I think. because of the math and it just sort of happens and everybody hangs it like they're gonna be times you're up you're gonna be down you know there's gonna be times you get there's gonna be maybe some of your group that covers more than he should but there's also gonna be guys in the group that like kind of feel like hey this is awesome I didn't have to pay that much it's like if you're that guy every fucking time you're lucky your friends hang out with you and again this

is not about the email because the emailer I don't sense is this isn't what this is about. If this is somebody that is your good friend and the husband is doing this for the wife, which again, I don't think it even matters. I think the principles are still the same here from what we said before. I would be more inclined to be like, hey, if I want to be friends with these people

for a long time, I'm not going to bail because I don't want to pay for a winery bus. Who knows? Maybe you'll actually have a good time. Email says, my girlfriend is messy as fuck. Stronger than I look. That's what he said. My girlfriend is an A-plus human being. One of the most kind

and beautiful people I've ever met. For what it's worth, the sex is out of this world. Whoa! Kyle, did you hear that? Got it. Good for you, man. Congrats. Sweet. Sweet, dude. However, she is messy. Not like it. Good for you, man. Congrats. Sweet. Sweet, dude. However, she is messy.

Not like, oh, there's clutter sometimes when she's busy. She's messy, but actually messy. I hesitate to call her a slob because right now this is my person, but I'm close with her. She's a slob. I'm not necessarily a clean freak myself, but would probably put myself in the 95th percentile of clean human beings who don't have severe OCD. You just said I'm not necessarily a clean freak, and then you threw that number out there. Her place makes me anxious, and I hate being there

now. Laundries everywhere, dishes always sitting out. Many times when I get in bed, there's sand. Sand in the sheets. That must mess up the epic lovemaking. We live in Seattle. It's not like this is happening after a day at the beach. All that being said, sinks and toilets are generally clean. I've never been worried about germs at her place, which is nice. I've tried to bring this up to her on more than one occasion. I've done the classic, when you messy, it makes me feel like X, Y, Z framing, but to no avail. Last time I called her out on having dishes and eggshells in the sink long after she made dinner, she freaked out. She started furiously cleaning things and crying, telling me how hard she tries to keep the place clean.

I don't know about this. That's actually a good line. She was yelling and slamming things and making a big show of it. I wanted to leave thinking this is how children argue, but heard her out and defuse the situation because we were going to a show later that night. Is this relationship doomed? Am I fighting a losing battle? Can anything be done? Any help would be appreciated.

Oh, and she snores every night and I hate it. Kyle, you ever date a snorer? No, I've been the snorer and I sleep like a log. So I just, that's what they tell me.

Yeah. I have no idea. Right. It's not an issue if it's you. I would hate it. I would hate it. I think it i think what do you i actually hate that about myself so that's all right you'll get better what uh what do you make of this though because this girl he said she's not a slob because it's this woman and very clearly

he's just she's a total slob i think he's a bit more of a neat freak than he's letting on when he started i think it's both yeah so go ahead break it down because i i think you're probably it's both and i've been in that situation and i just stopped going over there to be honest with you i just stopped going over there and we started hanging out in my house um and i'm not even like i'm like i would describe myself like him like i'm not a clean freak but i'm definitely not you could probably even guess that i'm not but, I didn't get, I didn't think you were. Thank you for here. But I will notice if somebody's like overboard, I will notice if like, I won't go to sleep with like a pot of pasta still on the fucking stove. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I get it. I get it. Like there's like, that's, that's excessive. Like when it's food from two days and it's like, oh, I won't go like two, three days without like wiping around the stove when there's like food and stuff there.

So like there's there's certain things that are outside of the realm of like, yeah, you know, I went to the bathroom and got in the shower and then I left my shorts on the ground before I got in the shower. Like that's that'll stay there for a day or two. ground before I got in the shower. Like that's, that'll stay there for a day or two. But I like, there's times when it's just excessive and it sucks because you're not, you're not like the picture of health when it comes to clean, being clean anyway. So it's hard for you to say something. So it's really not good to say something because then what will happen is she'll just be pointing out all the things that you do that's wrong. And I don't want that. So I would just, I just would stop going over to her house. And then if she ever brought it up,

be like, well, you know, you're a slob. I don't know. That's probably not good advice, but like if it's really making you anxious, just be like, let's go to my house.

Yeah. It's never going to make, you're never going to get to a point where the messiness makes you feel better. Like you're never going to get over that. I don't think so. Yeah. There's some real issues here.

I would trash your place. that's what i would do i would invite her over for a nice dinner and ahead of time i would just trash it let it build up for a couple days and then have her walk in and you just be like what she's like your place like what what's wrong with it? So where I live, I'm trying Jennifer, you know, and then cry. That definitely cry. Yeah. And then ball your eyes out when she mentioned something about garbage bags

around the trash can that hadn't been taken out to start crying like crazy and then go, what? I don't, what's the big deal? Just stop judging me. And then maybe that'll be like kind of a, you know,

real shock to the system when they used to hook up people in the 50s and 60s to electrodes there you go problem solved that's life advice lifeadvicerr at gmail.com we'll be back we have a couple huge things planned I don't know when

we're going to release them but very excited about two of the things that we have planned so we got some stuff coming talk to you Wednesday I don't know when we're going to release them, but very excited about two of the things that we have planned. So we've got some stuff coming. We'll talk to you Wednesday. you