The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Super Bowl Picks With Jeff Fisher and Sheil Kapadia, Plus Prop Bet Mania

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Russillo shares his thoughts on Super Bowl 57, good and bad stats on both teams, best storylines, and his Super Bowl pick (0:41). Then Ryen talks with Jeff Fisher about the matchup between the Chiefs and Eagles, parallels to Super Bowl 34 in which Fisher was head coach of the Titans, lessons the Chiefs learned from their loss to the Bucs, Fisher's Super Bowl pick and more (13:28). Then Ryen talks with The Ringer's Sheil Kapadia about the Eagles' dominant defensive front, how they can hope to contain TE Travis Kelce, the Chiefs' approach to pressuring Jalen Hurts, the Eagles' many redzone options, head coach Nick Sirianni, and Sheil's Super Bowl pick (40:37). Finally, Ryen, Ceruti, and Kyle close out their NFL picks contest (58:18) before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:00:40). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Jeff Fisher and Sheil Kapadia Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

big super bowl preview podcast we'll preview with jeff fisher we'll go down memory lane and his amazing unfortunate for him lost titans to the rams uh some of the matchup stuff we'll get his pick shilka patia we did some chief stuff early in the week. We'll finish with Philadelphia. We'll get his pick. Some of the Mahomes stuff in there. Do you blitz, hurts? Some good numbers there and the advantage that the Eagles have in the receiving game. And we're also going to do a little open on that. So I'll give

my picks. A lot of Super Bowl stuff here and some fun life advice at the end. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with 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,

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Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. We will give you our pick. I guess it's my pick for the Super Bowl here on Friday's episode. Run through it. Numbers, betting trends, storylines, and then the pick. Okay, we start with some of the numbers.

There's a million that we could sift through here. I know I've done that before with some of the other stuff. I think it's kind of simple. This is the first time both teams are 16-3, for obvious reasons, the extra game, but both 546 points. That just proves the point, which I think we already know. I don't know how often we get it this good

where it's like, yep, these are the two best teams. I know Buffalo, a little disappointing, Cincinnati right in there with it, but Philadelphia, as far as the NFC is concerned, although San Francisco had an incredible run of defense, but without the quarterback, we get it, right? The ESPN model, some of that stuff, the predicting stuff, it's all really, really close.

They have it at 52% for Kansas City, obviously 48% for Philadelphia. Mahomes in the playoffs, 70% completion rate right now, 521 yards in two games, and he's clean on the interceptions, which is something that if you were going to pick on Mahomes and go, you know, he's got a little loose. Is his carefreeness, these amazing plays,

is that getting in the way? Well, it hasn't gotten in the way so far. So, Philadelphia on the other side, we know the dominant defensive numbers. They have some points per drive stuff defensively, and you compare that to Kansas City's points per drive allowed, which I think is a pretty good metric. They're like

way ahead of Kansas City, which is not surprising. You know, Kansas city statistical profile isn't all that great on the defensive side of things. There is one thing that is bugging me a bit when I was trying to pick this game, because it is pretty close and it isn't one of those picks where I go, no, you're totally wrong.

If you pick the other team than I did, but Philadelphia has had the third easiest schedule, depending on which formula you want to look at. I've seen it fourth easiest. I've seen it 11th easiest, which I think that was a completely different model. And then when you factor in the playoff part of it, it's a Giants team where it's a really good story, but not in this tier of real Super Bowl contenders. And then you get San Francisco without a quarterback. So you probably can tell where I'm leaning here, but it just keeps leaking into the thought process of Kansas City being more tested in the better conference, more

tested against their playoff opponents, and I just kind of can't shake that despite what I've been looking at from this Eagles defense, because if you really wanted to be strict about it, this Eagles defense checks every box you could possibly

want, but if you go by average quarterback, like if you factor in all the quarterbacks that they've played this year and combine them all up, you can look at EPA, you can look at the PFF stuff, it would be on average the 24th best quarterback in the NFL. So I think this might be a bit of a wake-up call for the Eagles defense.

That's just kind of where I'm going. All right, the betting at open Kansas City, minus 2.5. It swung to Philly, minus 2.5. It settled Philly, minus 1.5. The total is 50.5. 67% of the money, the public money, is on Kansas City. Everybody's betting the over. 73% of the bets are on the over, but only 55% of the money.

So that probably tells you there's just some of the smarter people, the way they track this stuff. There's a gap there between percentage of bets and percentage of money. Not surprising more people are going to pick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Here's some stats that aren't great for the Chiefs. Six quarterbacks have led the league in passing. They're 0-6 in the Super Bowl. Mahomes is the seventh quarterback to lead the league in passing and enter the Super Bowl. Since 2000, NFL MVPs are 0-8 in the Super Bowl. Mahomes is the seventh quarterback to lead the league in passing and enter the Super Bowl. Since 2000, NFL MVPs are 0-8 in the Super Bowl. Mahomes won the MVP last night. Now, there have been, I think, 10 MVPs that have won a Super Bowl before. So does it mean anything?

Nope. They're just trends. But those are two there where you're like, wow, that's kind of weird. There's a storyline part of this. And there's a lot of different storylines, but I want to focus on a couple. There's a Mahomes one here that feels very LeBron-ish, where I know this week I said, you know, look, this is what we do. We compare people, right, to suggest we're supposed to just sit back

and watch greatness and never ask questions after the great thing happens. Well, that's kind of what we've been doing for a long time with the sports game, right? So Mahomes at 25 is now in his third Super Bowl. Two and one sounds a hell of a lot better than one and two. And if he's chasing Brady, which I don't know if anybody, like, is anybody going to be chasing Brady? That resume is impossible. It feels impossible, right? It wasn't like Montana 4-0. It's like Brady won seven of these things. So how are you going to chase that?

But I think that's unfortunately what we'll do to Mahomes throughout his entire career because there's probably an argument to be made that he's more talented than Brady is from some of the physical stuff. But maybe that doesn't speak into all the other stuff with quarterbacking that sometimes we on the outside can struggle with.

So if Mahomes is at 2-1, it feels like, okay, he's on the path to at least challenge something that, again, I don't really think can be challenged, but those will at least be the conversations where if he gets off to the 1-2 start, you're like, all right, a lot of work to do here. And that's just, I say this a lot, but those are the rules. It's why Elway's never allowed to be brought up again in the all-time quarterback conversations because the Super Bowl resume isn't good enough, which seems totally unfair because when I'm sitting around, not like it's every day, thinking about,

hey, who really was the best quarterback of all time? It seems impossible to argue against Brady the same way it is against Jordan. But there are other quarterbacks. Marino, for instance, for the guys that really played the position that you will talk to over the years, they just go, man, Marino doesn't get nearly enough credit. We all know it's for one simple reason, and that's because of the Super Bowl resume. And the same can be said of Elway, right? Eagle storylines. We're just a couple years removed from 4-11. And then prior to that, you had Peterson who won a Super Bowl,

looked like he was the guy, was going to be there forever, right? Got it. You know, played the position, but also understood coaching at a modern level. Terrific with your quarterbacks. He and Wentz paired it. Like, this is all going to work out. Then you have the, like, things went well, and then they went really bad. And then we had the Nate Sudfeld game at the end of that 4-11 season where we all know everybody tanks, but in football, we had a much harder time with it. And then it's happening on national television in front of all of us. And we're like, what's he doing?

Even though Chris Collinsworth during the broadcast had hinted at the fact that Peterson said, we're going to get a look at old Nate Sudfeld here because it felt like everybody was on the same page initiated by the front office, ownership signing off on it. That it's like, look, if we can lose this last game here and have a better chance at a draft pick, like we're okay with it all the time except i guess

when we're watching it and it's the nfl and so then people are freaking out it did feel dirty like i felt like i know what he's doing it's not really wrong this game's meaningless who really cares but i just still felt like i didn't like it because it kind of spit in the face of what this whole this whole thing is why we keep track of the outcomes. So then he gets fired. Like, wait, wasn't this all part of it? No, he gets fired. People are outraged. The Giants were outraged, felt like they cost them a spot. It's like, don't start one in seven. So Peterson's out. People wanted Howie Roseman out. Wentz is already gone. And you're like, man, this is brutal. They bring in Nick Sirianni. Everybody makes fun of him because of his intro presser. And then here we are again in the Super Bowl. It's just another lesson that in the NFL, I know some franchises would be like, that's not true. But it is true. In the NFL, it's actually not that far away if you can make the right decisions. Yes, there are a few franchises that would say,

well, you know, that doesn't really seem to work for us every 20 years. But this turnaround is great. And then the Jalen Hurts part of this. Where Hurts, you know, his story at Alabama is an incredible one. Loses the national championship on that last drive to Deshaun Watson. It was back and forth. It looked like Hurts was going to have the game-winning play for a national championship at this young age.

He gets benched in the title game against Georgia in 17, and you kind of got it because they felt like Tua was more dynamic and gave them a little bit more than Hurts did. And here's Hurts. You're like, wait, this guy's going to lose his starting gig. He comes back that next year, and I think one of the most poetic parts of the Hurts story was that when he came in for Tua,

when he got hurt in the SEC Championship game down in the fourth quarter, they were down 28-21, and then Hurts gets a chance to come back and lead that comeback, I thought that was just awesome for him because Hurts, no matter what, has handled himself as professional as probably anybody at this position. He just carries himself a certain way. And yeah, he moved on to Oklahoma and everything worked out, but you still didn't quite know what you had, except for the very worst with Hurts is you had an

all-time adult. And now he becomes somebody that I would think even the Eagles weren't quite sure about. I'm not sure Eagles fans were quite sure about. If he were to be able to pull this off, when you think about your absolute lows, not for us as non-athletes, but you get the point. As athletes, all the stuff you go through, all of it is played out in the public. And for him to get benched in the national championship game, have a taste of it, coming back that next year,

in for two, ironically, transferring out to Oklahoma, putting up huge numbers, but still not sure of him as a drafted quarterback to this, he's deserving of it. That's for sure. So it's a really tough guy to root against. One last thing on some of the storyline parts of this, because I have one other thing that is also part of my formula

of liking this Chiefs pick. There you go. Big tease there. When they got smoked by Tampa 31-9, it was pretty evident clearly with the offensive line issues that it was like, okay, this is going to be ugly.

And this is a bit like my Spurs love of the early Duncan years where I think I just was like, I'm picking the Spurs again this year, whatever. Some years it's going to work out, sometimes it's not. And that's how I feel like I'm going with Mahomes where I'm just going to pick them in all the Super Bowls. Not real

scientific, not a lot of depth to it, can read a lot of stuff, probably irrelevant in the overall decision. But in that game against Tampa, what frustrated me was, okay, you've got these three backup O-linemen in there who none of them are even on the roster anymore. How could you have not figured out at some point, like, we don't have time to throw. We need to do something different. If there's a chance today, or excuse me, on Sunday, where against this 10-man defensive line rotation, and that's what the Eagles are throwing at you, which feels like an SEC team that's killed it recruiting for five straight years. It doesn't really happen a lot in the NFL. Maybe I'm reaching, maybe it's not even a factor at all, that is there any part maybe I'm reaching maybe it's not even a factor at all but is there any part of it's like hey if things start going south on our protection you know let's not

just punt on the idea for three hours that we can't do something a little bit different and I do think the Kansas City without Ty Tyree Kill has been forced to try to find something in the middle against um against teams and maybe specifically in this matchup against the Eagles linebackers and how they would figure that out with personnel, how they might change up some of those things. That Tampa game was such a punt. Like immediately, you're like, all right, this isn't going to work out.

And he's dropping back a million times running for his life. So if pressure is an issue, I'd have to think that that game is at least part of the game planning, making sure we can't let that happen again but also the talent in the offensive line is so much better now than it was then

okay so that's the pick it's Kansas City get the point and a half it's all about Mahomes for me the advantage there I'm scared to death about the Kansas City defense

but I did feel like against Cincinnati when they really had to show up for me, the advantage there. I'm scared to death about the Kansas City defense, but I did feel like against Cincinnati when they really had to show up, something I've been mentioning here, that was huge because it really felt like when Burrow converted that third and 16, I don't know how you felt when you were watching the game, and I'm watching it, I'm like, they're going to figure this out.

They're going to move the ball on these guys. They got them to punt twice late. So can they do enough of that? Can Mahomes figure out what Philly's trying to do defensively? And if it does go south, can they make an adjustment out of it quicker than they did two years ago? Where really, I don't know what much of the adjustment was when they had the lack of personnel, which has been much improved. So Kansas City plus the one and a half. This year, the only app you need at your Super Bowl party is FanDuel.

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Only $10 deposit required. Refund issued with a downward drawable. Bonus bets expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Good way to start the podcast today. We've got Jeff Fisher, over two decades as a head coach in the NFL. Man, I was running through it.

You got an early start, huh? What's it like to be that young in charge of an NFL team? Well, you know, I did back when it's interesting. I had a, what it amounted to was about a two and a half week interview with Floyd Reese. So I'd finished this interim head coach. I came in there as a defensive coordinator and, you know, we just kind of talked for weeks and then things got, things worked out. But, you know, I was young. You know, I there's a lot that I didn't know, a lot that I had to learn on the run. And then, of course, we jumped right into it, drafted a quarterback number one. And then, you know, immediately after that season, you know, they're starting to rumor the move to potentially to Nashville.

So a lot of distractions along the way. But we got things put together pretty quickly. It had a lot of good people around. You know, when you're building around somebody like McNair, who, you know, there's obviously still a resistance, you know, dual threat was like a dirty word back then for quarterbacks. You know, when you were talking with Floyd about like,

okay, this guy's incredibly talented, like an all-time resume from obviously a smaller school. But when you're trying to figure out how how the franchise can build around somebody like that, what are those early conversations like? Well, it was about getting the right people around him. Fortunately for us, we had a good group on the offensive line. We had a star left tackle, Brad Hopkins. Of course, a guy that went to the Hall of Fame,

played every position on the offensive line, and Bruce Matthews. So we were able to start there and work out. And then, of course, it took us about a year to get Eddie in there, and so we drafted Eddie the next year, understanding that the key to a young quarterback's success is going to be your ability to run the football. And then also, with that being said, be able to take time. And so we were not in a rush.

And I do want to point out that even though Steve was the dual threat back then, his junior year he played in a West Coast offense. And so he was familiar. He understood football concepts and things like that. And, you know, I mean, he was asked one time or a hundred times, when are you going to be ready and his response was well when the coaches say i'm ready and so we got him ample experience his first year his rookie year second year here and there and then of course you know um he took the bull by the horns and took off running with it. So, but the big thing for us back then, and I think it's got to be the case nowadays as well,

is to be patient with the young quarterback and give them ample time. So you'd say almost like, because we talk about the failure rate constantly, you know, with even the top guys and how hard it is. You know, I've kind of gone back and forth on it where I've thought, well, you know, if you're ever going to figure out how to play the position, like you got to get out there. But there seems to be this undefinable like number of weeks of waiting it out where maybe we need to pivot back to that. Like I'm open to anything now.

Yeah, well, the reason you say it's undefinable, it's that points directly to the fact that everybody's different. that points directly to the fact that everybody's different. You know, they come from different, from different offensive systems, you know, different coaches along the way. And so, you know, you, you should have done your research. You do diligence and have a sense. It's like, for example, when we drafted Jared number one overall, you know, in LA, Jared really hadn't called a play in the huddle the play came from the sideline and jared didn't have to identify a middle linebacker have anything anything to do with

any kind of protection calls so you know they look over the seat look over the sideline everybody else whether you get the play and they'd run it so you know that takes time and so we were um very specific you know my last my only year there with jared with respect to okay how do we develop him uh as early as the you know the rookie mini camps and then the in the oj as you move through that off season the season you want him to progress you don't want your defensive coordinator to just throw things at him, you know, that's going to set him back. I mean, there's a progression that's really important. So I thought, you know, we handled that well.

And you look around the league and you've got some quarterbacks over the years, at least I've noticed that, you know, that could be a contributing factor to the slow start is the progression and what happens on the other side of the ball, namely the defense and the type of looks he's getting as you're developing him. So you go back to that year, and it's going through it again this morning, and it's like, man, the point differential, like you were in these battles in the playoffs.

And I think also we think about those Titans teams with all the defensive people, but at least for that year, it wasn't like it was this off-the-chart statistical defense. And now you're going up against the number one scoring offense in the Rams. We know that resume of that team and what they were able to put together. So you're, you're heading into the Superbowl. What are those conversations like those meetings, that game prep of like, okay, how are we going to figure out like, what's, what are the things we need to do here to give ourselves a chance?

Fortunately for us, we had played the Rams during the regular season and won here in Nashville. The thing that's interesting is this was the... I'll remind you, can you imagine? We just had a week. We didn't have two weeks. So we the championship game and late and on sunday afternoon in jacksonville came back and then had a meeting after 11 p.m at the facility and told the guys what time the bus was leaving in the morning and and address everything you possibly can now we had advanced early on you know the week before but you know i you know my memory serves me correct, I think it was the last time there was just a year between the championship game and the Super Bowl with the exception of 9-11. And so every year since then, there's two weeks, you got

plenty of time. And that's kind of where we could segue into what I think is going to happen, you know, this weekend. But that's a, I mean, you, fortunately for us, we had played him before. And so we had a good feel. And then, of course, you know, we find out, you know, after the game that we've lost our starting free safety, and then we lost another safety in the game. And so, you know, it was just your ability to adjust throughout the week. So game plan wise, I mean, I remember I actually flew with the team on Monday

to a frozen Atlanta and I left a staff behind here in Nashville to game plan. They came down privately Tuesday night late. We had a staff meeting and we installed Wednesday. So it was a blur. And obviously over time you know the week tend to slow down for me a little bit as you put the pieces together but as far as game planning the best thing we had going was do what we've done best what got us here that was the adjustment we made at halftime falling down falling behind and we got back to running the football and we made a good game of it. Yeah, you did. I mean, the second half obviously turned things around

after just not being able to score. But I think when you look at it, you held them to 29 yards rushing. You know, Kurt threw for a ton of yards. Was there a disagreement philosophically? Was there agreement on that first meeting on Tuesday night where you're going, okay, guys, you know, all the whiteboard ideas,

all the different things that we might want to throw out here, what is the fundamental thing that we think we need to do or the one thing we think we can actually attack with the Rams? Well, it's all about what you do best. And if you detour from that or you try to change game plans dramatically, you're going to generally fail. So you've got to keep fail. So you got to keep doing, you know, what got you there. And, you know, with it seemed like that halftime was, you know,

two and a half hours long. We did have, we circled the staff together. Namely, I got the offensive guys together and we just, I just said, hey, we got to get back to what we did. We've thrown it way too many times the first half. We got to keep the ball, you know, we got to keep their defense on the field. And we did. We've thrown it way too many times the first half. We got to keep the ball, you know, we got to keep their defense on the field. And we did. I mean, that's what we did is we made the turnaround. Now, you know, defensively, with the loss of the players, I think we were down to our

third safety at that point in the game. We lost Blaine Bishop in the game as well. And so those kind of, you know, position deficiencies are hard to overcome, especially in the biggest game of your life. Are you watching it as the plays are being called? Because you didn't score in the first half. Are you saying it to yourself? Are you saying it to the headset? You're like, man, we're throwing the football a lot.

What are we doing? What's that like where you're in control, but you're also kind of not in control play to play well i mean yeah i mean you have i mean you have obviously a communication line with your coordinators and and you know i did so and you know we you know we had a plan i mean we knew we're gonna have to score points because we were deficient you know from a personnel standpoint on defense but um you, it wasn't working the way we thought. So, you know, in midstream, I just decided, hey, we've got to get back to this. And, you know, we'll find a way to make some plays, get the ball back,

and, you know, do the right things. But, yeah, you're constantly – I mean, I have different opinions, I think. I feel that the head coach should be responsible for game managing and game planning during the week and preparing everybody to play. I think you're asking way too much of a head coach to call an offense or call a defense and manage the game, you know, inside the two minutes of the first half and then five minutes of the game. I mean, that's been proven over and over and over with young coaches

that just have had difficulty doing that. Brian Dable is a great example of what happens when you turn to play calling duties over to your coordinators. You take on the overall leadership role, the team role. And, you know, he was my early vote for not that my vote was cast anywhere, but he was my early pick for coach of the year. And I was really excited that, you know, he was able to receive that award. Yeah, the underdog way it's played back 20 plus years in history. It's like, you know, they actually slow down this powerful Rams offense. You're like, yeah, but it's almost like those Golden State teams where people forget that they were actually one of the best defenses in the NBA throughout that entire stretch.

And that was probably the case of the Rams a couple of years. You know, you're absolutely right. Dick and those guys did a great job putting that team together. And defensively, I mean, you just keep thinking about, boy, what a game wrecker Kevin Carter is. And especially if they ever decide to move him around a little bit. And then, you know, fortunately for us, that game kind of started to unfold at the end of that last drive. Kevin was so tired he was out of the game.

But they did. They had a really good group of defensive players. And, of course, who knows what would have happened had Mike Jones not been in there on that last play. Do you think about that tackle a lot? I think about the route a little bit more. I mean, Eddie was wide open on the swing to, you know, to Steve's left and, you know, had, had Kevin, Kevin got a little anxious and, and, you know, he'll say behind the scenes, but he,

he bit the route off a little short and he pushed up a little deeper. I think Mike's hips would have flipped upfield and we'd have come underneath him. And we'd be having a different conversation right now. But, yeah, I think about it. But no game ever comes down to the last play. Every coach at any level will tell you that. And, you know, it was a great experience. You know, we just it was a it was a great experience. I mean, you know, imagine a team moving, relocating and moving into a new city and and playing the first year, you know, two and a. Along with the fact that the Music City Miracle against Buffalo and then our win up at Indianapolis and to go down to Jacksonville

after providing them with their only two losses of the year, no one thought that we were ever going to come back and win the third time. That was a magical season for us. We set the bar high from that point on. we're ever going to come back and win the third time. And so that was a magical season for us, but, and we set the bar high from that point on. Yeah. Cause I think, you know, I remember like anybody, you know, is listening to this and watching it and you're like, Oh, is he in? And then I think sometimes those of us that are not, you know, we're not doing it every week. We're not doing it.

Our professional lives are not the outcomes of these games that you're probably a little bit more numb to it than maybe we would be. Cause we'd be like, Oh, this is this haunting feeling, but just the unknown. And I know this isn't some consolation prize of it, but the ending of that game was so dramatic. Everybody remembers it. You know, nobody wants to be like, hey, we had the best loss in Super Bowl history. That's not what I'm asking you here. But I was there a part in your stomach when you're like, please be in? Do you have the angle or did you know right away i'm just trying to think of like your memories of that specific down of of like what

happened well yeah i mean i we we liked the play call um we thought you know at that time you know um we were all confident in the play call we're were confident that, you know, Steve had got us to that point. We just need one more play. But my memory specifically when it was over and I kind of looked around, it was, well, that's it. And then I went to go by Steve. And, you know, I had to spend my time with my quarterback. And at that time, little did I know, he would become one of my best friends.

And, of course, little did I know I'd lose him later in life. But that was where my thoughts went to was, number one, go find Steve. Number two, see if I could find Dick, Coach Vermeule, congratulate him. I didn't get a chance to talk to Dick until about 45 minutes after. I never found him out there. But, yeah, there was a lot of memories, a lot of great memories. I have no regrets whatsoever just because, you know, that was a start. You know, we relocated.

We played in four different home venues in four years, and we got there. And then, you know, I was reminded there was a 30-for-30 special on the Ravens, and I was asked to comment a little bit. I didn't see it, but I was reminded through that special that the Ravens handed us our first loss in the stadium. When they did so the next year, they actually handed us our first two losses. But the best team I think we had was the 2000 team the year after but you know we we were 13 and 3 had home field throughout and you know we had you know we blocked two punts in the playoff game and you know dofer i don't think

he got a had a first down the second half and they beat us and they went on to beat the giants of the super bowl but um we bounced back you know was the thing. That's where Floyd and I, we were unified on one thing, and that was, how do we sustain this? And it wasn't just a flash in the pan. It wasn't just a one-time thing. We didn't go out and spend all kinds of money and buy our team. We built our team. And we did have an off year in 01, but 2002, we were back. 2003, we were back and we kept returning. And as we changed personnel, you know, we had a really good run. So, you know, we set the bar high, as I said, in the 99 season here in Nashville.

And, you know, it was just, it was, I don't know the words to describe it. And I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to go back and reflect because despite the fact it was only one week, these memories last you a lifetime. And to be able to share them at times with different people is pretty special for me. Well, I appreciate you appreciating it. Because sometimes you go down memory lane and it's like, Hey, man, let's move on. I'm over this.

Yeah, people do. I mean, the Music City Miracle, for example, there were 62, let's move on. I'm over this. Yeah, I mean, people do. I mean, the Music City Miracle, for example, I mean, there were 62,000 people in the stands, but I probably heard from 150,000 people and say that they were there. And so all those stories with respect to that play and what would have happened had we not practiced that play once training camp was over.

We had our roster, we worked on it every Saturday, everybody knew what we were going to do. You know, it didn't end up exactly the way we thought because of the kick. But, you know, we were prepared for, you know, every scenario, every situation. And that was kind of, that was kind of the, I mean, the foundation of the players that we had, you know, from Steve to Eddie to Frank to the guys on defense and Blaine and the rest of the guys. I mean, we had rookies, too. I mean, Javon Kirk, go figure, sets a rookie sack record that year. And, you know, we're probably not in that first game against Buffalo unless he's, you know, just wreaking havoc in their backfield the whole game.

So, you know, we had a lot of good things going on. And but our guys were prepared. They were prepared for every given situation. I mean, anything I could ever I could dream up, we found a way to practice it on the practice field. So let's pivot to that game because I do think there's some parallels because, you know, you have this incredible defense. You have the talent. You have the stats. You have that D-line rotation that is just unlike anything we really see in the NFL all that often

going up against Mahomes who they've been, I think, proactive changing their approach on offense. When you think about if you're game planning for Philadelphia against what you've seen from Kansas City, what are the main things you start with? Well, I really, Kansas City obviously knows the strengths of the Eagle defense. And that defense, there was no defense better this year, in my opinion, when they had a lead. I mean, it is hard on opposing offenses.

When they get up, when Philly gets up, it's hard because, you know, it's a one-dimensional game. Now they're throwing it. And they're reacting to the run game. So, you know, one would say, okay, well, we've got to run the ball for the Chiefs. Well, you know, they run the ball, and they run the ball effectively. But, you know, Mahomes is the one that's driving that offense

with that group of skilled players. And so I would expect to see at least early on, you know, some short, some movement stuff to show what – I mean, Patrick's going to be fine. I mean, we all presume, but some movement stuff, but getting rid of the ball and spreading around. The thing that's interesting about Andy and I know him well is that when he has some extra time, he comes up with some pretty good stuff and, and his guys buy into it.

And so there's going to be some wrinkles. And there's going to be an adjustment level that's going to be required on behalf of Philly's defense. But if for some reason Philly's able to light it up and get up and now it's throw the ball over the yard to catch up or stay in this game, that can become problematic for Kansas City. But I'd expect to see some wrinkles. Andy's going to attack any defense.

They're prepared to attack whatever. And then, of course, once the play extends, Patrick can do whatever. I think that I don't mean to jump around, but an interesting storyline, which everybody's been great about, is the Kelsey brothers. Jason Kelsey has an opportunity to be the most talked about offensive lineman in the history of any NFL and get more coverage because of the Kelsey brothers. Because Travis is going to make a lot of plays, as you would expect. And so there's a lot of great storylines there. You know, when I think back to the Tampa loss, which I touched on, and, you know, it's Mahomes.

So it's not like, oh, he learned his lesson in that one. I mean, the funny thing about that loss a couple years ago is I almost came away from that game more impressed with Mahomes, even having a chance, because the tackles, the O-line had backups, and, you know, that game was just kind of over. But I feel like if there's a pressure issue, they're more equipped now because of the way they've kind of changed the depth on their offense, where you felt like you always had to take shots with Tyreek,

and it also worked a lot. Then it felt like the league was trying to take that away. Maybe he was resisting it, but maybe they're more designed to deal with it you know like to defeat pressures like okay well we're just gonna get rid of the ball a little bit quicker and i'm not sure that they were built to do that the way they are now well i mean i think sometimes when you lose you know tremendous players like they have uh what you speak of you you are forced to adjust a little bit and you are forced to, you know, get back in the offense and spread people out and go through progressions and things like that.

And Patrick is, you know, even though he's young in his career, he's one of the tops at knowing where to go with the football and on time. And then if it's not there, then, I mean, when he starts extending, that's when you get into problems. And so I would expect an A game out of him this time around. I think that they were a very, very focused team. There were no distractions whatsoever down the stretch. You know, they took one game at a time. And, yeah, they had a couple three-point wins and a seven-point win down the stretch. But they did enough. You know, they were, in my estimation, they were very composed. They knew what they were going to get to.

They knew they had a couple, you know, a couple challenges to get back to this game. But this is why they went to training camp. This is why they worked the whole year. I mean, you can say that about everybody, but they're on a mission. And, you know, it's really hard for me to pull against Andy because we're friends and against the Chiefs.

I've become a huge Chiefs fan just because of Andy and what he's done and his staff and everything. Um, I think Philly, I think Philly is a very, very well coached team. Um, you know,

I'd love to go just have 10 minutes in that locker room, um, during the week. Cause you can imagine it's a really freaking cool place because of the job that he's done. You can just tell organizationally that they're tight. So clearly the two best teams are there right now. And the clock's ticking, man.

We're just a couple of days away. Yeah, I'll get your pick here. But the last thing I think matchup-wise I'll ask you is that, you know, I was impressed with, you know, statistically when we looked at the last four teams that were left, I mean, clearly, defensively, Kansas City wasn't even close to the other ones, right? I think there's something to be said about getting off the field against Cincinnati in those last two drives. You thought like, oh, Burrow's going to figure this out, like they're going to move the football. And when you look at the receiver talent for Cincinnati, you feel like that's a big advantage. The talent between AJ andJ. and Devontae against this Kansas City defensive backfield, how much of an advantage do you think that is for Philadelphia? Well, it's a clear advantage. Just ask the Titans.

I mean, it's going to be an advantage. I mean, if you can create the matchup, create the one-on-one, however you do it, they're by and large going to come down with a football and make big plays uh not necessarily off schedule but on time and you know jaylen uh i think jaylen is is really i think he surprised everybody uh even himself for that matter just with his. He's such an accurate passer. Now, he'll have some moments.

He'll miss some big plays. But, I mean, generally speaking, he's putting the ball where it needs to be put. The subtle things. I mean, the subtle things that Troy Aikman and things, they would talk about and point out. You see the delicate throws and the aggressive throws and the combination of both. So, you know, getting back to the receivers,

it's going to, I mean, that's why they're there. I mean, you got, you have a group of receivers and a quarterback that's playing with accuracy and intelligence at this level. You got to spend your time on that. And if you're going to die a slow death meaning you're going to invite them to run the football i mean that's your only chance i mean you're going to you have to play the run stop the run and seven man front six man whatever you know it is with your guys up front and um that's going to be a challenge for kansas city no doubt but the

individual matchups uh i mean they mean, they're going to, those are created, uh, against any team in league with the talent level that they have at the wide receiver position. So can we get your pick? Sounds like it's a little Andy Reed influenced here, but you know,

you're a professional. You know what? I, um, I got my coaching start in Philadelphia with buddy Ryan. I love Philadelphia. I, I've forever been

indebted to that organization now it's it's changed and you know i was really excited with what they did with nick you know years ago and chris long having being part of that team but um you know i'm i'm not really i'm not one of those guys that that makes huge predictions or huge picks and things like that but in this case personally it's hard for me uh not to stand up behind andy reed and um you know hope that he gets another one and there's i mean the personal reasons aside you know andy's done such a great job with that football team right now. And again, I'd be happy to see anybody. We all just want a close game that comes right down to the end. But I'm going to have to, since you're pinning me down here, Ryan,

I'm going to go with the Chiefs. You really coerced on us there. That build-up, the Philly thing, and then you switched it on us. Yeah, I got to do that. Yeah, I got to do that. I like that. Our memories, you know, we had our first two kids were born outside of Philadelphia. You know, those

memories back then. I mean, the defense. I mean, we haven't talked about that, but that was a defense that I got to work with in Philadelphia now. And that's probably the reason we're talking right now because anybody not giving me the opportunity there,

who knows what would have happened. So, you know, careers in the NFL take all kinds of different paths and go different directions. And, you know, it's hard to pinpoint exactly, you know, what would have happened had something earlier not happened. But I got my start in Philly.

I have to be close with Andy. So this one's a toss-up. But you pin me down, I'm going with Andy. Enjoy the game, Coach. Appreciate it, man. Okay. Thanks so much. Appreciate you having me. Did a little Kansas City earlier this week with Mitchell Schwartz. Let's do the Philly perspective and talk a little Super Bowl.

Shil Kapadia, also part of the Philly special podcast, which we've been previewing this game. Okay, Shil, when you're thinking about how you want to pick this game, we'll get your pick as well. What's the one thing that you keep going back to? It's like, you know, out of all the variables, this is what I think is the most important to try to figure out the outcome of the game. I think it's the

Eagles pass rush against my homes. I mean, the numbers are just silly with the Eagles pass rush. I think they sacked opposing quarterbacks at a higher rate than any team in like in 20 years. I mean, it was far and away the best pass rush in the NFL. And then you have this guy who like, it doesn't matter if you, you know, you hear coaches all the time say, get the quarterback off his spot, make him feel uncomfortable.

Like to me, that doesn't matter with Mahomes because like, he's never uncomfortable. He gets off his spot. He holds the ball for four seconds and he makes a big play. So it's all about finishing. Like they can't just get there and he leaves the pocket and makes a play. How many negative plays can they produce? Because with Mahomes, we all know you're not going to shut

him down. It's like, can you produce enough negative plays to allow your offense to win the game? So that's what I keep coming back to, specifically those Eagles edge rushers, Josh Sweat, Hassan Reddick against those Chiefs tackles. I think if they can win that matchup, then they've got a real shot to win the game. If they don't, then I think it's going to be the Chiefs. It's kind of lost in this because there's so many names, but I feel like the Hasan Reddick part of this,

I'm not sure nationally he's getting... We don't talk enough about, it's one of my least favorite tee-ups, which is exactly what I'm doing, but Reddick is a game wrecker, and he's not mentioned like the other game wreckers. Yeah, no doubt. I think 19 and a half sacks in 19 games. He's really good at forcing fumbles, not just getting the sack, but hitting the quarterback's arm. I think he's got five forced fumbles. So it's going to be him against Andrew Wiley,

that right tackle. And Redick has given most tackles. He's faced all kinds of problems. And so I think coming into this year, he was viewed as the kind of guy like, all right, you got to have the right scheme. You got to figure out ways to free him up. But there's rep after rep this year of him just going up against a tackle, killing him, destroying the quarterback. So yeah, he's been huge for them. There's nothing fluky about his sack numbers.

I know we all like the talent for the O-line for Kansas City. It's part of the calculation of how quickly they've overhauled this, going from awesome tackles to nothing to then fixing it a bit of a flaw, maybe on Wiley's side specifically. Did you notice anything when you've gone through whether the number was misleading or some of the film on like, yeah, we like the talent and there's the numbers that tell you collectively hold up really well. Maybe the interiors is the part that's saving it a bit, but there's some tackle numbers there that I felt like I was like, man, I was kind of surprised some of those were as low as they were. Yeah. I think the past block win rate stuff is still tricking me. I think there's probably some noise there. I think if you look at it, definitely that's the weakness of the Chiefs

offensive line. Those tackles in pass protection, Andrew Wiley and Orlando Brown. We know their interior is one of the best in the NFL, but I think at tackle, there are some weaknesses. They even saw it, just anyone who watched the Bengals game, Joseph Asai was giving Orlando Brown all kinds of issues throughout the game until he had that penalty at the end. So a player like Josh Sweat for the Eagles, he generally lines up on that side against Orlando Brown. And he's like a freak athlete. Like he's the kind of guy who you would say, all right, that could give Orlando Brown some issues. So I look at that and then I keep coming back to that Super Bowl two years ago where the scenario we're talking about now, that's how the Chiefs lost that game to the Bucs, right? It was just, all right, they can't protect Patrick Mahomes. And then after that,

everything they've done has been to ensure that that game never happens again. I mean, you mentioned it, they rehauled their entire offensive line. So I feel like Andy Reid, when he first sat down for this game and said, what are we going to do offensively? Like a top bullet point was like, we're not going to let their pass rush wreck this game. So that's going to be interesting to me in the first quarter. I feel like irrationally confident that a screen is coming on the first possession for the Chiefs where they're just like, whoa, slow down. You can't just pin your ears back against Mahomes because we've got some counters, maybe a jet sweep to get them moving horizontally. You can't just get upfield against these guys. Maybe giving those tackles a little bit of help, some quick game with Mahomes. All those elements you see coaches use to slow down an opposing pass rush, I think you're going to see those early and often from the Chiefs in this game until they figure out, hey, can we block these guys? Then we can take some shots downfield. What's the best way to attack? Well, I shouldn't say attack, but try to just keep, contain Kelsey here because it would feel like personnel-wise that might be something. I mean, not just because of Kelsey's talent and

the track record here, but maybe some of that underneath stuff to counter the pass rush, getting the ball out quickly, and having Kelsey win that route early. Yeah, you're right. If they're doing quick game and if the Eagles are playing zone coverage, he's going to have a lot of opportunities, specifically on early downs. If the Chiefs are throwing the ball on early downs, which they do at a very high rate, I think Kelsey will have opportunities. I think the key will be third downs, red zone, high leverage situations. What do the Eagles do to change it up? I think you could see some doubles on Kelsey. You hit him within five yards of the line of scrimmage, try to disrupt the timing.

And I think Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, the safety could be kind of like a key player in here. You haven't really seen him specifically used like that all season where he's a quote-unquote tight end stopper or anything like that, but I think he could get some reps and man coverage against Kelsey or they could double Kelsey in those situations. All right, let's look at the other side of the football here. Maybe the biggest advantage disadvantage feels like, and again, maybe you'll correct me on this, but it feels like AJ and Devontae are such complimentary receivers.

You know, I don't, I think Philly fans understand like Devontae, it's not just winning routes. It's not his athleticism. Like he was open all the time in Alabama. I've never seen a guy be like, I know there's bigger names and bigger recruits, but you'd watch him and just go,

there he is. He's wide open again. Oh, and by the way, we're not going to be throwing it to him. He's going to block, and he's going to get the right block in every single time. He's one of the smartest, most well-rounded receivers ever, which I think is a nice balance to A.J. probably being the more physically gifted of the two.

Yeah, no doubt. I think Devontae Smith is probably like the player who just his connection with the fans this year has really escalated. For what you said, I mean, he is so fun to watch the body control near the sideline, the instincts, the route running. He can win in so many ways.

He plays so hard. So yeah, that's going to be huge for the Eagles. I mean, if you look at the matchups and if you just pick the 22 starters from both teams put together, you know, like an all-star team or something, I think the Eagles probably have 13 or 14 of the guys and certainly both outside wide receivers you would choose for the Eagles. So they're going to get those one-on-one opportunities.

I mean, the Eagles run game is complex. Their past game is not complex. It's like you get one-on-ones on the outside, throw those go routes to AJ Brown, those comeback routes to AJ Brown and Devante Smith. And so it's hard to employ a game plan where you take one of those guys away because they still have the other guy. They still have Dallas Goddard. So yeah, I think both those guys are going to get opportunities when the Chiefs choose to be aggressive. Maybe when they choose to play some single high coverages, they'll get opportunities on the outside to make plays. Hertz is really good at that. You know,

I think that's like a quarterback trait. We don't talk enough about like Joe Burt. Now I'm doing the, we don't talk enough about say you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you Hurts, they give guys, and there's other quarterbacks, but to give receivers opportunities when it's not necessarily, hey, they're wide open. They've created three yards of separation. It's just like, you know what? I think my guy's probably better than their guy. I'm going to put the ball in a place where only my guy can catch it, and maybe they'll make a play. That has pretty much been the Eagles' passing offense in terms of producing explosive plays for much of this season. I was surprised in some big pressure

moments where Spagnuolo, we know, you know, his default is just send more guys, right? Just send more guys. And, you know, Chris Jones in the Cincinnati game maybe was the reason they didn't have to because he had like one of the all-time, if you could name a defensive player MVP at one of these games, and granted, you know, it's always going to go to the quarterback, but Jones had that kind of impact on that game. And so there was a couple downs late where I was like, okay, we know what Spagnuolo normally always does. And then it didn't feel like he wanted to, which surprised me. I don't know what the overall blitz rates, but they had to be lower than what you're

used to in some spots. I don't know if that overall blitz rates, but they had to be lower than what you're used to in some spots. I don't know if that was a Chris Jones thing. I don't know if it was a fear of Burrow that after a couple hours, I don't know that I want to send all this pressure and open up some of these lanes for Burrow because he's just smart. He's going to figure this kind of stuff out. I don't know if we'll see something different against Hurts. I imagine he's going to try it at some point. He's not just going to hang back the entire time.

But that was surprising and maybe means nothing, but it was definitely apparent there against Cincinnati in certain downs where I was like, oh, I didn't really bring anybody extra, which is not usually his ML. Yeah. He's kind of trended in that direction this year. You're right. You look at past years and that's what we think like Spagnuolo is a in your face, aggressive blitz man coverage. And they've kind of had this defensive evolution this year where they're playing more zone coverage. They're playing more split safety coverages and they're blitzing. I think, I think they'll at the lowest rate since he's become their defensive coordinator. And you're right. I mean, defensive coordinators, even the ones who love to blitz, except maybe

Wink Martindale, like when they don't have to, they're like, all right, yeah, that's cool. I can commit some more guys to coverage if we're getting home with four. So what they do really well, and I think what's key in this game is like creating those one-on-ones for Chris Jones, where they'll just walk up a linebacker and have him basically stand over the center, be like, all right, you got to account for me in the protection. And then that center is a little bit slow. And all of a sudden Chris Jones is one-on-one against the guard and he wins like, you know, in the snap of your fingers. So I think you'll see that a lot, those kinds of simulated pressures where the linebacker walks up, but then he drops back into coverage once the ball is snapped. But I think on third down, I think in obvious passing situations, Spagnuolo is going to send pressure because if you look at

Jalen Hurts' splits, it's pretty significant. He's been like a top five passer when opponents rush four or fewer. And a lot of that is just the Eagles offensive line is really good. You rush four, you're probably not going to get there. But when you blitz him, now he gets a little below average. I think he's in the 20s just in terms of some of the advanced stats.

So that's been evident on film all year with the Eagles. They haven't had great answers against the blitz. A lot of times it's either, throw a quick screen to the outside and maybe pick up a few yards there. Sometimes it hurts just being a great athlete and evading the pressure and making a play. But in terms of that stuff that you can do over and over again throughout the course of the game, that's given them some problems.

I think Spagnuolo in this game, like you said with Burrow, maybe he was a little afraid. I think in this game, he'll probably Blitz more than he did in that game and really than he has for most of the season. I love the Eagles' red zone option so much because it's kind of like four things in one, but it's really quick. And I don't know if pressure, heating Hurts up in that decision blows it up. Because it is pretty precise where you have this Hurts combo, you could hand it off, you have Devontae kind of sit down, you have this hurts combo you could hand it off you have davante kind of sit down you

have something trailing behind it's like a multiple level thing in a very short amount of time in a very small amount of space and you're like okay we'll just go and wreck it you know just just just overload that's a wreck it to that decision side because it usually is pretty clear you can kind of tell like which side they're going to run it to, depending on where Devontae's lined up. Again, just sort of memory of watching the games and how much I kind of love that combination of all the different threats that you had to defend. But you also

could get burned on it too. But I'd be surprised to not see Spagnuolo say at some point when it's short goal line situation, like, all right, let's just rush him into something here and maybe force him into some kind of mistake. Because despite what hurts his band, an incredible story, looking like he's the guy playing in the Super Bowl and being a younger dude.

Although this guy's played in so many big games. It hurts. It's almost like unlike any other young quarterback. He might be totally comfortable in the Super Bowl too. Who knows? I mean, that's just the amount of games that he's played in. But just from a chess move kind of deal, I don't think

he's just going to sit back and let the Eagles dictate all that stuff. But he could get burnt on it, too. So who knows? Yeah, it was funny. The Eagles, the first month of the season, each team would kind of try something different. Like week one, they played the Lions, and they were like aggressive blitz, man coverage. And then I think they

played the Vikings, and they were like, you know what, let's just sit back and zone and see if Hurts can beat us. And he did that. And then when it got to like November teams were doing what you're saying, they're just like, no, we're not, we're not just sitting back against this team. Let's force something to happen. And I think he ended up being like one of the most blitz quarterbacks in the NFL. So I agree with you. That's just in Spagnuolo's DNA. I know Andy Reed from his, you know, going back to his time in Philly with the defensive coordinator, Jim Johnson, like that, that's in his DNA too, as an offensive coach thinking about defensive football. So yeah,

I would be shocked if this was like, Hey, you know, we'll sit back and let them move the ball methodically down the field. Cause the Eagles, whether they're running the ball or the quick passing game, they're able to do that. So I think the Chiefs will come out and be aggressive. What has Sirianni been able to do to get this where, you know, part of it's personnel, but every time you hear stories about him, you're like, no, no, no, these guys love him. I think he's done something in a very short amount of time.

Maybe there were some relationships too from him being on other staffs. But I just want to share this with the audience. I don't know that I hear about an approval rating for a coach. Maybe he hasn't been around long enough to eventually feel like people will move on from him, be pissed at some point, be mad, play calling, all that kind of stuff. But for a guy that doesn't have this massive resume, there seems to be absolute buy-in from that locker room in a way that I

think is pretty rare. Yeah. I think he is just sort of a affable guy, honestly. Like if you watch his press conferences during the Superbowl, he'll get at, you know how some coaches, I always like to,

when they get asked the same question twice, some of them will be complete like jerks about it and call the person out and others will kind of play it off and answer like those little things that you see, or he's getting asked up that he was asked, you know, a hundred times during the season. And he's just kind of smiling, uh, and answering it nicely. And that's that, you know, not just to reporters, but you know, like Jason Kelsey this week just said, like, Nick is an easy guy to love. Like when they got to a slow start last year, you know, it can go either way. And I was trying to find out what was happening that made everyone have confidence in him. And that was, he's just like a likable guy. And it sounds so

stupid to say, but that does matter for your boss or your coach or whatever. Do you like the person or do you not like the person? Do you think he's a jerk or do you think he's a nice guy? All right, you're going to go one way or the other. So I think that worked in his favor. I think there's a I say humility and I know, you know, the gifts and the memes from the playoff games. I'm not talking about that, but he gave up play calling duties in the middle of last year, eight weeks into the season. And, you know, talking to offensive coaches, like they would rather like give up a child than give up play calling duty. Sometimes it's just like the most important thing to them.

And so I thought that showed a humility that, Hey, let me manage the game really well. Let me make sure my relationships with players are good. And I'll hand this off to an offensive coordinator. I don't need to be doing that. That's really worked for him. I mean, if you look at this game, I've been saying, I'll take Andy Reid for the two weeks leading up to the game. But if you're looking for those three and a half hours, I think I take Sirianni because his game management, you know, fourth down aggressiveness, timeout usage, challenging plays, all that stuff has been like outstanding all season long. And we know Fandy Reid has a weakness. That's going to be his weakness during that game. So I think all the, all those things, like you said, add up to Sirianni and he's gotten a pretty high approval rating, both from the players. And obviously when you're in the Super Bowl in your second season,

the fans are going to be on board. All right. Who are you picking? I've been wavering all week. I think it's a coin flip game. I think it's going to be tight. My favorite stat is Mahomes has started 93 games and his team has either had a lead or been within one score in the fourth quarter in 90 of them. You don't put Mahomes away. It's not going to be a blowout. I think honestly, it's going to come down to who has the ball last because I think both these offenses are going to be pretty good. I ended up saying Eagles get the ball with around four minutes left and put together one of those drives where they're just running it and running it and running it and chewing clock. And the game management I just talked about, they kick the game-winning field

goal as time expires and Mahomes is kind of on the sideline, helpless. But man, I wouldn't be surprised. It never feels good to go against Mahomes. It doesn't feel good to go against Mahomes as an underdog, but I've got Eagles 27, Chiefs 25. Okay, so you guys doing post after immediately on Philly Special or something else with the ringer, just so everybody knows? Yeah, I'll have a column up on theringer.com, win or lose, and then we're going to do a philly special podcast win or lose on that feed so that'll all be up uh late sunday night we'll be at the game covering the game all right i know deep down what this one means to you man thank you for being so professional throughout this entire episode all right man take care all right thanks you

okay my pick's pretty straightforward i already said in the open give me kansas city plus the Take care. All right. Thanks, Gio. Okay, my pick's pretty straightforward. I already said it in the open. Give me Kansas City plus the one and a half. Okay. I got some. This is a Hail Mary for me. This is the end of the football picks.

You're at 41%. I'm at 39%. Steve's at a sort of not so realistic 57%. So I'm just going to throw him out there. I'm going to throw him out there. I got eight. So I got Mahomes to score the first pass touchdown. I got the A.J. Brown anytime touchdown. I got a Pacheco anytime touchdown. I got a

Hertz anytime touchdown. Coin tosses tails, orange Gatorade, under 50 and a half. And I don't know if it's Mahomes. I don't know if it's the conference I want to stick with. I was super proud to be AFC this year. It's probably that I, you know,

I can't believe Tom Brady threw for 500 yards and lost the Eagles last time. So it's going to be chiefs one and a half. And those are my picks. Wow. Okay. I have to remind that. Kyle hit me up this morning was like,

do you want to just do 15 picks? And that way you're even with the rest of us, because I think he's like a little upset. He doesn't like that. I could be that I could end the season 500 only picking six games or it's a wash. Yeah, or it's a wash and we don't count. I also think I had a five and one weekend and you made it three and one, but I

have to go back and listen to the tape. Oh no. Okay. Oh man. All right. Either way, I've got 15 picks. I'm gonna run through them quick. First off. Oh my God. This is amazing. them quick. First off. Oh, my God. This is amazing. All right.

First off, coin toss. Tails never fails. It's even money. There you go. I'm going to take the Chiefs money line. Anytime you get plus money on Patrick Pons, I'm going to take it. Chiefs team total over 24 and a half. Highest scoring half.

Second half. Points to be scored in the first six minutes of the game. What else? Both teams have scored 20 points. Chiefs most first downs. Pacheco over 16 and a half receiving yards. Pache? Both teams have scored 20 points. Chiefs, most first downs. Pacheco, over 16 and a half receiving yards. Pacheco, over one and a half catches.

Over one and a half interceptions in the game. Mahomes, under 10 and a half for the longest rush. Travis Kelsey, anytime touchdown. Devontae Smith, over receiving yards. Dallas Goddard, over four and a half catches. And Rihanna's first song to be

We Found Love. Whoa! Sound like a fando for some props. Yeah, what's the payout on that Rihanna prop? song to be We Found Love. Whoa! Tell the FanDuel for some props. Yeah, what's the payout on that Rihanna prop? Plus $350, I believe. I feel like that, which is the third best, I believe. I think Diamonds is the favorite. I just can feel We Found Love.

I just hear that beat going on. That's the open. It just makes sense to me. So We Found Love plus $350 seems good. I'm hoping for Pounder replay, but, you know, guy can dream. That's some good value right there Okay, there are your picks, you can check out all the latest stuff The parlays, all the props on FanDuel Sportsbook

You want details? Bye I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork I have every toy you can possibly imagine And best of all, kids I am liquid

So, now you know what's possible Let me tell you what's required 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. Before we get to life advice, hello to Steve, hello to Kyle. Life advice, the email, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. In Arizona, I'm not going to the game. I'm going home tonight. But I was able to go over to Jeremy Scott Fitness,

who we had on at Life Advice, talking about fitness. He's here in Scottsdale. Yeah, it was sweet. I mean, I found his workout videos years ago. What I liked about him was like, hey, this guy doesn't seem like a raging dick. While he's also a fitness guru, he seems like he's actually normal. He's cool. And so since he's come on, a credit to the listeners here, a bunch of you actually reached out and I think used his app.

So you can look all that stuff up again. But I hit him up kind of last minute was like, is there any way I can come to your gym and use it work out so it's like no problem so took a car over there did a you know nice little workout and then i was looking at all these leaderboards and it's all these different things like thousand meter row five thousand meter row the 10 cal the 20 cal like a lot of stuff i'm just i think you guys know me at this point i'm not the most locked in cardio guy and so i'm looking at it there must have been 20 leaderboards up there and jeremy scott was the leader on like 18 of the 20 and i don't think he's gonna mind me sharing this because it was so revealing. And I thought it was fucking awesome.

You know, the guy's ripped. He's jacked. He's strong as shit. Cool. Real cool guy, man. And so, I sound like such a loser right now. It's hot. Yeah, it's fucking hot too, Kyle.

Great call. So, yeah, actually, may edit this out. Beads this out yeah yeah he'd be like did you do a friday episode no dude we didn't no i got kind of weird so i decided to delete it i don't know who makes his joggers but dude uh all right gonna stop now it's getting fucking lame kidding so i was like wait you have the record in like every one of these he's like well there's a couple guys that have me in this one like he knew immediately i was like all right okay and i was like wait you have the record in like every one of these he's like well there's a couple guys that have me in this one like he knew immediately i was like all right okay and i was like what's is that he goes yeah the 5 000 meter row he's like that's just pain he's like something's wrong with you if you're doing some of these numbers and he wasn't doing it even remotely

to like compliment himself he was doing it a way that was like yeah if you're getting some of these numbers and he was pointing to some other guys he's like oh there's this other guy who does this and whatever. He's like to row. I don't know how many people have tried to do like the row sprint. Like I've tried to do a couple of those just to see how it would go. And it sucks. It's so bad. It's so painful. And you're immediately like, especially when you don't do it, you're like, this is going to be the worst. So he was like, do you want to do the 10 Cal? So what you do is you get on the assault bike and you pedal and pull the levers. You go as hard as you can until you burn 10 calories to see how long it takes. He goes, yeah, you're going to do the 10 cal.

We'll see how it goes. And I was like, I don't know. I was like, I don't really do any of this stuff. He's like, no, you just have to go crazy until you burn 10 calories. He's like, it doesn't, you know, I was like, what's the record? He's like, I have the record i was like what's the record he's like i have the record it's eight seconds damn anyway uh i did it my back has hurt for two days uh 11 seconds is not that great i did make the leaderboard it's not i think i don't i don't think it is uh he he put me up on the leaderboard i

appreciate it now it sounds like i'm telling the story because i ended up on leaderboard i'm just telling you i don't think i know that's it that you keep me on the leaderboard. I appreciate it. Now it sounds like I'm telling the story because I ended up on the leaderboard. I'm just telling you I don't think. I know. That's it. You keep me on the straight and narrow here, Kyle. I'm telling you because some people have actually followed up. I can't believe they did. But I want to tell you about the experience.

I don't think 11 seconds is all that great. So there you go. What do you think Kyle and I would do? How do you think we would do in the 10K? I don't think you'd do seconds would i crack 20 if you're in worse shape do you do you burn calories faster that's what i thought it was there's something to being being heavier you have an advantage on some of these calorie burn things again this is all new to me it was being explained to me this week but uh now i want to see if i can like break 10 now i'm going to try to start like okay this is

but it's you just go bat shit thank you and there's no you know whatever it is it's it's it's go as hard as you possibly can wait so explain the the contraption you're biking and rowing though i don't get it no no it's, it's a, it's a bike, but the pedal or excuse me, but the arms sort of, so it's like an elliptical bike thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I feel like we're not doing the best,

uh, best job ever describing this, but yeah, it's just, there's the bikes, you know how, like there's the bikes that also have the handles that, that move in,

you know, they're not free. Okay. They're fixed. I'm looking at it right now. They move. Right. All right. So there you go. I'm interested in the story for you. move in yeah you know they're not free okay they're fixed i'm looking at right now they move right all right so there you go i'm interested in the story for you congrats on 11 dude that sounds great yes were you last what else is on like was there were there people below you

uh i was pretty close close to last so i don't know maybe you weren't like maybe no i wasn't but i was sounds like a win to. I really didn't want to tell this story to make it sound like I was proud of the 11 seconds. I just was telling the story. And so now we'll move on. But we'll break 10 here soon. All right, moving on. All right, Jim. We got a Jim Life advice.

Perfect segue. 25 years old. This is good. This is a good choice, Kyle. 25, 6'4", 190. Got some length. Not huge. Which plays into this. That's why we're pointing this out. I think 6'4", 190

is great. You're doing great, man. It's a bit long, but I feel like the details are important. Always been very scrawny, but in the past 12-ish months have gotten back into the gym, which has shockingly helped quite a bit. Some sarcasm there. All right. Yeah. 6'4", 190 is great. My dilemma relates to the gym experience. Since moving to New City, I've gone to a very cheap gym right down the street. It's owned by a couple of former bodybuilders and many of the clientele of the gym seem like they're also guys that compete. While I usually stand out a bit for being pretty skinny at this gym, I've never had any issues in

the past and almost always found people at this gym to be quite friendly and helpful. The issue arose a few weeks ago while I was on the chest press machine. I was in the middle of my first set when I noticed a guy across me seemingly pointing his phone up at me. I figured it was a weird angle and just continued my set. But in the middle of my second set, I noticed his phone go up again. He was seated right in front of a mirror and I saw in the mirror that he was clearly taking a Snapchat video of me. Maybe it was making fun of my form. Not sure how I could have fucked it up on a machine though and i played college sports so i'm pretty confident my form but it seemed like in the video he was zooming into my legs that's not cool while i normally uh i'm very reserved especially in the

gym this obviously pissed me off and i loudly yelled quote hey buddy are you getting a good shot in of me he bumbled through some words saying he wasn't taking a video, then went to a different bench. The interaction was clearly awkward and tense, and a lot of people heard it. This included the owner of the gym, who apparently witnessed the entire interaction and kicked the guy out of the gym for breaking a rule about filming others. Oh, wow, this got tense. While I didn't ask for them to be kicked out, I obviously wasn't upset by it. The owner apologized to me a few minutes later. I told him I him I appreciated but it wasn't the end of the world and continued with my lift pivot to conflict here's where the problem comes in turns out this dude has a whole

group of friends in the gym all of them are giant dudes which compete all of his friends have now been coming up to me and fucking with me during my workouts and have even dropped some threats, some of which included invitations to come out back after the workout, probably not just to hang out, telling me I shouldn't come there when it's dark outside, and even a note dropped in my bag

saying to find a new gym or I'll get what's coming to me. Dude, this is like, that's an episode, right? I've never asked for any of this by yelling at the guy. And I clearly wish I could have taken back that interaction. But what's done is done. I've tried to change my workout times, but seemingly every time I'm there, one of the buddies is there too.

Here are my questions. First, was I in the wrong in the interaction? I'm going to say no. Let's just answer that one. No. I mean, he was legitimately, another dude was swimming another dude. Like, okay, maybe your legs aren't enormous. This whole, hey, skip

leg day shit's out of control. I think that's fucking lame. Look, I think it's so lame. I've had people video me in the gym and you're just like, what are you fucking doing? It's like, oh, I really like the NBA today. I've been hanging with you since S.P.P. and Rosillo. I'm like, all right, well, that's

not working in your favor right now. The in Brazil. I'm like, all right, well, that's not working in your favor right now. The guy says, I'm certainly not a yeller, but when I saw I was being filmed, I got hotheaded and lost my bearings for a second. Secondly, what's my move here? Be stubborn and stay in this gym? I've paid to the end of July already, or do I eat the cost and go to a more expensive gym down the road for me? It would probably be an extra $60 a month. On top of that, I would lose what I would lose from wasting the membership through July. All right, so 60 more bucks a month and eating a membership for another four plus months.

I don't think talking to the gym owner is an option as that would certainly end in me getting my ass beat. What do you guys think? All right, so we covered the filming part. You're not wrong. I mean, I guess you could have handled a little bit better, but usually when you're like, wait, are you really doing this to me? There's not like a real reserved, let me sit back and

handle this, whatever. Okay? Yeah, what other way are you going to do that? There is no other way. Pull the guy aside afterwards and be like, can I check your phone? No. I like your shorts, but I saw you videotaping me uh you're kind of fucked all right so let's just start there um you're on the right but you're kind of fucked the owner you said you can't talk to the owner if this is a cost thing just go up to him big hey

look i don't want to be a bitch about this but it's this isn't going to work he's their friend um i'm not going to get into everything here because again, I don't want to feel like I'm snitching, but how about you just pay me back the next four months and then I go somewhere else. So if it's a cost thing, maybe that's part of the solution. I mean, we could sit here and pretend like the best move ever would be for you to confront like a couple of the guys at the same time and be like, hey, look, I get it. You guys are big, front like a couple of the guys at the same time and be like hey look i get it you guys are big badass dudes and your friend who should have been filming me which all of you guys understand nobody none of you would actually some of those dudes might like being filmed but you get the

point like it's an invasion of privacy it's fucking uncool we all know that it's uncool it's not something you're supposed to do at a gym um and he was wrong i didn't want him to get thrown out i didn't think that's cool, but we all get it. Like, all right, you guys could all kick my ass. Like, I don't want to not come here anymore. There's a chance that they would maybe respect that and just be like, fine, but they're still all going to not like you.

So it's not going to be the greatest time you've ever had in the workout. I also define that as a slim chance because I think these dudes, knowing kind of how they operate and in bulk not a pun that they're just gonna be like fuck you you know like our friend got kicked out this is our gym now we can't come here like we don't care that you're right we don't care that you were man enough to address us about it we don't care about any of those things there's like six of us and you're a fucking clown and those are the rules so i don't know i

would i would go to the owner if it's a cost thing i just think you're gonna have a miserable time like the gym shouldn't be something where well plenty of people have anxiety going to it but like you know think about the things you're trying to get better at whether you're like oh you know it's like almost a golf thing we're like oh i want to get better at, whether you're like, oh, you know, it's like almost a golf thing where like, oh, I want to get better at golfing. And it's like, man, I suck. Like, well, are you like that first tee shot? How do you feel? You're like, I hate it because it doesn't work all the time.

And then it's like, okay, well, you're not even, you're having a worse time doing this than not doing it. And that's what I fear here for you is that every time you go to this gym, you're going to be walking with a bag. You're going to be scanning the place. I wonder who's here. Oh, shit. That guy's here.

Okay. Well, maybe I'll change it by routine because he's over there today. Like, is it really worth the 60 bucks a month? It wouldn't be, I think, to a lot of people, but there may be a way to recoup some of the money if you went to the owner and just said, look, I'm not going to work out here anymore. It's pretty clear. some of the money if you went to the owner and just said, look, I just, I'm not going to work out here anymore. It's pretty clear. Yeah. I think guys in groups will do some, do some rotten shit, you know, when there's, when there's guys in groups, like sometimes they just, you know, bad ideas become good to them and stuff like that. And they're like, you know,

they don't care that they're 40 and, you know, acting like they're in high school. It's, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. It doesn't mean that they're, you know, so that like, that's probably not going to be, it may, it might fade away. I mean, in this situation, I would say maybe you could just, maybe you could just ride this out till June. And I'm sure the, I'm sure this happened recently. So I think the sooner, like the further you get away, the less it'll matter to these guys. I'm not sure. But yeah, I think if you know the financial option, if, you know, I'm not sure how many gyms are super keen on giving people's money back.

I think that's one of their favorite things to not do is give money back. This is a bit specific. It is specific. It is specific. And I don't think you're going to be able to go up to these guys and be like, hey, man, all I did was yell at the guy. I didn't go to somebody and tattle. It just kind of happened. They're not going to be like, well, it's a good point, bro.

I don't think they're going to do that. Yeah. No, I was trying to play it out in my head being like, could you just go up to a couple and be like, hey, look, I get it. I guess nobody's explained this to you. Let me give you my side. Right. You know what, dude? Let me put down this. I'll stop leaving

notes in your bag. There's no amount of reasoning that's going to work. Yeah. They're actually pumped to be angry. You know, like they're, it's like Kyle said, like, it's like a kick to be pissed off for their buddy. Like, this is probably a good thing for them because they all can kind of rally around it. And if there's a camaraderie there,

it doesn't matter if they're right or wrong. It's just like a group thing kind of thing. So there's really, when you brought up the thing about going to the owner, Ryan, I thought maybe you could take it a step further and we could work out like a three team trade here where maybe like you get out of the money. You talk to the owner and the guys and go,

listen, this guy gets reinstated. I leave. So the owner's not losing any money. He got put in jail for a couple months. He learned his lesson. He's now back at the gym with his buddies. And those guys pay for your new gym membership for a couple months as well.

Is there some way you could work that out between the three of them? I love it. Oklahoma City ends up with two second rounders. Five second rounders. Yeah. Throwing five water bottles, some extra protein that they don't want.

The only other thing I was thinking of is, is there a leader? Because Kyle's absolutely right. It was kind of the point that I was hitting on here is that there may be one dude individually who would be like, we're actually being the dicks, and our friend filmed him, and he like he's right but once you start multiplying this species out by a few the hey he's right like nobody wants to actually say yeah that other guy is right and we're wrong

like it just doesn't happen very often i think this group it's even more unlikely but if there were a leader if there were a leader because sometimes the leader and the biggest guy is like sneaky, the nicest guy. But again, gyms that are like real competition bodybuilders, I've never worked out at one of those. But then every now and then you'll have like the regular gym where there's the one guy that's enormous. I talked about my dude back in the day, Steroid Rick, where he was way bigger than all of us. He was way stronger than all of us. He could have kicked all of our asses and he was the nicest fucking guy in the gym. Everybody loved him. I still love him. I mean, I don't talk to him anymore, but I love the guy. He was the fucking best. And he'd look at you and be like, man, you fucking looking huge today,

you know, or he'd go up to somebody else and be like, you know, and he just was on it. You know, it's just a life in the gym. But he was our big guy. But in this dynamic, I don't think, like, I think that guy's always psyched because he knows he's just bigger and stronger than everybody else. Like, the normal gyms always seem to have one steroid, Rick, and he's usually always the happiest guy there because he's the most dominant dude. In this case, I feel like this gym doesn't really fly. Yeah, they're just going to talk shit.

They're going to talk shit about you all the time. They're all the swimmer body guys here again. I kind of like your idea. I mean, in college, just one of my buddies. Yeah, the leader idea because my buddy in college, we were coming back one night, and he gets in a fight in an college, this one, one of my buddies. Yeah. My, the leader idea. Cause my buddy in college, we were coming back one night and he gets in a fight in an elevator with this one kid and just really brutally, I mean, really, really kicked his ass.

And I think my buddy kind of started it. Yeah. It was scary as shit. Um, and so then, so then, so apparently it gets, turns out this guy knows everybody. The guy who gets his ass kicked knows everybody. He's like really tight with one of these frats and, like now like the police are kind of involved not really there's descriptions of him and me even though i didn't find anybody it's all over campus he laid low for like a month he laid low you were caught up in it i was caught up in it my description was on the library like all this i mean it was

like six two brown hair brown eyes stuff like that but you know it's like a scary time for a freshman it's like oh my god what the fuck i was just walking you home. Man. Chew hangs out with doc. So I, so I go, um, to one of the dudes, he's really tight with this frat. I go to one of the dudes high up that I kind of know. And I was like, Hey man, we really got to work this out. My buddy's in hiding. He hasn't gone to class for a month. Like, you know, he's, he's really afraid of what, what's going to happen. And this guy brokered a thing where the, the dude that got his ass kicked was like, hey, man, you know, I really don't want the police involved and stuff like that. Like, I just, you know, I'll tell the school I want to drop the shit.

I just want the dude to apologize to me. But that wouldn't happen unless I went to, like, you know, kind of this dude that was kind of high up in the frat. And it was an uncomfortable month because the dudes in the frat were like, where's your fucking buddy, bro? Where's your buddy at, buddy? And he was, you know, he was really like, you know, sleeping on some girl's couch, like, you know, not showing his face. You know, I saw him frat were like, where's your fucking buddy, bro? Where's your buddy at, buddy? And he was really like sleeping on some girl's couch, not showing his face.

I saw him and he was in the hole for a month. But my point was going to this guy who kind of brokered a little thing and it turned out it all ended up okay. It didn't have to be a shitty rest of the year. He was just like, hey, this guy really just wants an apology. Can we get these guys in a room together? And it worked.

So I agree with the finding the leader thing could could could make things better but even if you went to the owner and said look this is what i want to do we got to fix this and then the owner was like all right we'll get the leader in here and we'll work it all out they're still gonna motherfuck you all the time yeah totally like there's there's no version of this where it's it's you have to lean, Leon. Yeah, I don't... Yeah. But I like when you brought up... You brought up the fraternity numbers thing, because that was another thing. Like, looking back retroactively,

like, you just thought you were tougher in these numbers, and then you were sort of, like, making sure you looked tougher in comparison to the other guys. And, you know, you're just like, you're from the fucking vineyard, and you went to choke. Like, just because there's six of you.

Like, nobody's afraid. Like, cool. Where'd he go? No, I'm just talking about myself i'm making fun of let's bring it back a show joke from months ago yeah oh well done kyle thanks forget about that one okay we'll get to the next one does college kind of suck uh this one's a little heavy but i think it's uh an important one so six two one eighty five i mean look it's not bad. You're not going to be depressed. We're not going to do that to you on a Friday. Goes to a small school. I'm not going to name it. I like college. Excuse me.

I feel like college. So that would be weird. Does college suck? And then the first line is, I like college. He says this to correct that. I feel like college might be passing me by. I'm a junior, small private school.

I don't fit in super well to any of my friends' groups, but can talk and have a casual friendship with almost anyone and do that with a lot of people. I have a lot of other passions, but I probably love sports the most, but just don't click with most of the guys. I've found that I feel like share that interest. The ones I am friends with follow them much more casually to the point where I limit what I say a lot when I do watch games with them. Therefore, I live in a house where I'm the only one who really cares. They're good guys, but I can't help but feel like I'm the weird one in my own home

for watching games all the time, putting down a few bets when I'm free. And although it sounds stupid now, I don't really have an outlet for something that kind of was what I cared about through most of my life back home. So you're more into the games. You're sitting around with your roommates. You're more into it than the rest of them. All right. The other thing about me is I'm never free. I

double major in biology and Spanish, two intensive programs, but more than that, I'm just way over extended right now. Anybody that I knew had any biology courses. I think there was one guy that we knew that was trying to be like a PT guy. We didn't see him for like a year. So that's not rare. I have a girlfriend. All right. Well, you should be happy about that. Two on-campus jobs. I'm in the thick of summer applications. Once that is over, we'll have to start studying for medical school entrance exams. I constantly feel imposter syndrome despite holding down all of these things well on the surface, racking up executive positions in honor societies, having extremely good GPA, 3.97, and probably on my way to do whatever it is that i

really want to do while i can't seem to actually find a social life here that makes me happy except my girlfriend she's awesome we've been together for about four years now so here's the dilemma i'm wondering how much i'm in my own head about this deep down some of my friends are failing in school but seem so much happier than me and some seem way more depressed than i am however i seem to be the only one who succeeds in almost anything I try academically that just isn't happy socially. Although I know I am most likely set up for a better future, I can't get out of my head the idea that it's right now or a pattern that this is set to continue.

I try my hardest to get out there and say yes to things, but almost always default to work in the work-life balance. Additionally, I just got picked last in our fraternity's basketball league draft of over 50 people, which, you know, didn't feel awesome. You were the 50th pick out of 50 guys. Yeah, that's not going to, nobody's going to be like,

hey, remember that? That was fun. All right, so he's got questions. What have you found to be a successful balance socially given your common anecdotes about prioritizing work over life? I know it clearly doesn't go up from here in terms of guys making friends with another uh i find it weird the one thing that's supposed to be easy to connect on sports is what's making

me feel isolated right now two is it worth being is it all worth being this busy i think so uh and then three maybe i'm just the guy that sucks at watching sports really deep down to not think that's the case but just a little bit thing where everything around you seems like an asshole. Are you the asshole? All right. So a lot to do here. I don't have a successful balance. So any of you guys want to take that one?

I don't know if I have a successful balance either. Maybe Steve does. I don't think I think mine's kind of the other way. So I don't know. I always say whatever works for you. I always say this to my wife. My wife has dozens of friends, just way too many friends. I know personally that I only need four or five.

I keep it real tight. I don't have much more bandwidth than that. So I'm not going to be a super great friend beyond four or five people. But those four or five are pretty core dudes. And most of the stuff that we talk about is betting and sports. And it's that's about it. So I don't know the email or it's a little bit weird to me because like it does feel like the first thing that you do at college is like, all right, what team do you like for the most? But no matter what college you go to, sports is the kind of the first thing that dudes bond on, not even just school, but in life.

Like when you go to a job, it's like, hey, I'm an Eagles fan. All right. Yeah, I'm a Cowboys fan. There you go. So I wonder if you're just like, are you a little bit too intense as a sports fan like are you i don't know like that's the third thing though so really i want to i want to clear that up and i'll give it back to you here in a sec but when he says like you know am i just the guy who sucks at watching sports i really deep down do not think this is the case but it's a little bit of the thing where if everyone around you seems like the asshole are you the asshole like yeah that i'm asking you to really like does it sound like he's admitting he sucks to watch sports with because

he's maybe way too into it like are you calling out like hey that's the wrong switch and guys are just like hey man i'm just trying to like have a good time and watch the game casually like are you are you just too intensive because there are definitely people who i don't like watching games with and maybe you're one of those people because you talk too much or you like you seem like a smart guy. So maybe you're just like over talking, trying to sound smart and talking about these games. And people are just like, I'm not really interested in getting the lesson on like, you know, how to run the two three zone. I don't know. That's that's kind of my first vibe there.

Or you guys or he's resenting dudes for saying things that he thinks is wrong. So maybe he's not even talking and he's just like, this guy doesn't even fucking, that's not his own coverage. What the fuck, dude? Why would you even say it? Like, maybe he's just in his head like, I can't even enjoy it because that guy, you know, people say shit. And it's like, you know, if that guy thinks it's wrong,

maybe that's what it is. Maybe he's not tough to watch games with, but it's tough for him to watch games with people. That shouldn't be that big of a problem, man. Like, maybe it is you on that one, but let's back up to the whole thing. All right. Clearly, you're very smart, all right? To be pulling almost a 4.0 in biology and it's a double major in Spanish, you're probably pretty intense about your work. So maybe that carries over to how much you put into sports, which you say you

care about a lot, which I'm not denying that. I believe. But if you're intense enough to have all these other accomplishments, maybe you're intense in that kind of stuff too. I don't know what that has to do with you getting picked last in basketball. You just didn't dribble enough when you were younger. There you go. Now you're in college, you have to develop some of those skills and probably can't shoot either if you went 50th, not the end of the world. The weird thing about this is you're upset about, you have to develop some of those skills and probably can't shoot either if you went 50th. Not the end of the world. I mean, the weird thing about this is you're upset about the social part of it. You've got a girlfriend.

There's a ton of lonely dudes out there that would kill to switch with this stuff. You actually do live with dudes. And maybe you are a prick to listen to during the games. I don't know. I don't know. But what you're presenting is like a pretty honest dilemma. I would tell you first to just fucking chill out and not be in your own head about this as much as you are, which is really simple for me to do because it's not me, but you've admitted that you're already in your own head. All right. What you're doing is you have a very specific goal, right? That's why you're taking these

courses. That's why this is the double major. Okay. And that's why you're getting these grades. You are laying a foundation that is far better than probably like 90% of your peers, maybe even higher than that. All right. So that's your sacrifice. That's what you decided. So even though you want a little bit more of the other thing, most of us don't get all of the things like we don't like, there's a lot of stuff that I've wanted to accomplish. And I know that I've kind of defaulted to the thing that ultimately I thought was the most important thing for me to accomplish, right? Like if you want to work at having more friends and being more social, then you've got to fucking work at it. You know, if you're not dating anybody and nobody's dated you, then you've got to figure it out,

kind of understand what your limitations are as a partner for somebody else, but put some fucking work into it, you know? And I'll tell myself like, oh, I'm going to start doing this. I'll do this. And then like two months go by, I'm like, yeah, you think you do want to do that, but deep down, you don't want to do it enough. You don't care about it enough. You're not putting any extra resources or any effort into it. And you're defaulting back to the stuff that you normally do. Because deep down, the stuff that you normally do is either what you're more comfortable with or what you still think is more important. So you made a decision at a very young age, which I think is commendable, that you knew what was important for you to have the life that

you're going to have the rest of the way. But now you're kind of facing it going, wait, I should be screwing around and fucking up and getting into trouble. Like, again, I'm not saying like doing bad things, but doing the shit college guys do knowing that that's opportunity is not going to be there. And I'm telling you, that's why whenever anybody's like 29 or so going, I'm living with my buddies, but I'm not sure. And I'm like, just fucking milk it, milk it until you hate it, because there's going to be a time where it's never an option. So you're starting to get into your own head at way too young of an age of wondering like oh will i regret this in my 30s or i regret it my 40s you might but are you going to regret it from your fucking beach house you know like that's yeah or boat right so i don't i you know there's there's

no perfect formula for all this stuff like if you want to be good time, have a ton of friends, guys, do you want your grades to be worse? Do you want to take easier courses? Do you not want to have a girlfriend? It sounds like you need the two jobs. So how nice is it going to be when you kick ass in school and have your choice of options afterwards and you're actually getting like real money earlier than other people might? So, you know, the job part of it is a necessity right now.

The girlfriend part of it is a necessity. I just don't think you have it that bad. And I think you're probably so accomplished in all these other things that you're holding yourself to this really high standard in that you're holding yourself to probably too high of a standard in some of the social stuff. And you need to, you know, I'll tell you, whether it's meeting a girl or just becoming buddies with other guys, it doesn't happen when you're not relaxing about it. Right? It it's like you know what i should do get my own head be super intense and fucking weird and then i'm gonna start meeting people and everybody's gonna like me that doesn't happen all right it's usually like all right maybe i can

fucking find can you can you find a way with your very limited free time can you find a way to do something again you're in a fraternity. I guess, you know, I imagine you have some. Maybe it's an academic fraternity. I don't know. Well, yeah. That's what I'm trying to figure out. Like, how many friends do you have in it? Like, can you do something that doesn't seem a bit like dad showing up in the basement

to his high school kids? Like, hey, what are you guys doing down here? But can you find a way to push yourself? Do you even have the time to push yourself to be like, I need to work on building some of these relationships, but let it happen. Let it happen without some predetermined thing because a lot of the stuff that you've done is very predetermined. You probably have a plan for fucking everything. And all this is executed really well. Friendships, relationships, that stuff happens way more organically despite you having to find a way to put time into it that

seems, like I said, organic or natural. i think i think the simply put for our guys like you're not a coaster you're like a planner you're a worker like you're you're not a like i was a coaster and i think you know the guys who have fun at my school who had the most fun the happiest guys were liberal arts dudes you know uh who you know took 12 credits a year or you know if they did 15 credits they were like whoa you know this is tough a year would be low i know, if they did 15 credits, they were like, whoa, you know, this is tough. A year would be low. I mean, yeah, sorry. A semester. Yeah. A semester. And it's like, you know, maybe they're doing another semester, the next one. And it's like, you know, they're kind of happy about it. They say they're bummed outwardly, but, you know, they're coming back for their, you know, they're, they're doing a half of a fifth year and they're

kind of bummed about it, but those guys were the happiest. And then I had a dude that changed, like he was going to be a philosophy major. And that was like, wow, you're having a good time. And then he was like, actually, I think I got to do computer science. And like, he was just, he just, he had to do it. He had to, he had to stop all the shit that was fun. So, uh, you know, I, in high school, I didn't try hard enough. And I, and I looked back and I was like, fuck, I really should have tried hard enough. And I didn't, you know, I wouldn't have to be stuck in Potsdam and Potsdam, you know, by, by junior year, I was like, fuck, I really should have tried hard enough. And I didn't, you know, I wouldn't have to be stuck in Potsdam. And Potsdam, you know, by junior year, I was like, man, I wish I didn't have to spend so much time in the library to have a three, two, you know, average.

Like, I wish it was just easier because I tried the whole time. So it's just, it's a fundamentally different approach to college. There's a lot of dudes that are just coasting through. And you know what? I think a lot of them end up having to, you know, sell insurance or, you know, do stuff, you know, do stuff that they weren't really planning on when they get out and they'll figure it out maybe, but like not right away. A lot of those guys are like, yeah, you know, I'm working, I don't know, I got out of college and I'm working in a restaurant at a museum or something and I'm just figuring it out, you know, I'm putting lines out there,

but that's like kind of what the guys who really put a lot more time into partying and, and having the social life, not to say that there aren't dudes that you know that put an emphasis on both i'm just saying from like what i've seen from my small school uh the guys who really and gals who really you know put their you know nose to the grindstone it really made that important you know they they kind of got what they wanted when they wanted it and it wasn't like it wasn't this big like i don't know we'll figure it out though so you know you are a junior and so i think you you know maybe senior year if you get the heart you know some of the hardest classes out of the way maybe you can find a way to try to relax but i don't think there's anything wrong with what you're doing and yeah maybe you'll you know regret but i regret

like not doing shit better i regret not doing some shit you're yeah so there's no like there's no that's the lesson go Go ahead, Suri. No, it sucks because like you don't want to look back in, you know, when you're an adult and be like, man, I really didn't do all the things that I want to do in college.

Because as you said, Ryan, like you're never going to be able to probably do that stuff again. So you might as well do it till you're absolutely sick of it. But it doesn't, I don't know. It just doesn't, it doesn't sound like that's your priority.

Like obviously your priority is, you know, your girlfriend and your career and doing all these different activities you have and like the sports stuff and betting is kind of just something you do on the side and if you're one of those guys in the core group that is and here's the other thing too is so he said he was dating his girlfriend for four years and he's a junior in college so i assume she maybe doesn't go to the same school so maybe he's traveling to another school to go see his girl if you're not around these guys all the time you become like a peripheral friend and it's not that they don't like you it's just like you're just not a core guy right and i we had plenty

of people like that we had plenty of people like that my first two years i think of college i spent partial time traveling to a different college and it sucked because you're just like cool i'm missing out on stuff and you know if it works out it's great obviously if you love your girlfriend do your thing i'm not saying you like break up or anything but that's your priority right now so you're just you're just not like all those guys are hanging out probably 24-7. They just know each other better and you've got other shit going on in your life. Multiple other things going on in your life that's kind of hindering you from being like a 100% all-in dude. I think this guy likes exactly the path he's on, but wants it all.

And we all want it all. So there's nothing wrong with that. But you decided that you wanted to go to med school. You are going to leave college with a plan. A lot of us didn't leave with a plan and it works out for some of us and it doesn't work out for others okay and then there's other people that had a plan that it did work out for you know what i mean like none of that there's no perfect formula to all of this so i think what's settled break up with your girlfriend be less of a dick watching games you'll turn college into sleepaway camp yeah you'll meet someone at med school. Switch to a comms major.

You know, just do something a little bit easier for a year. Yeah, man. You'll have some more downtime. Take a year off. Yeah. But on campus. But on campus.

One job, not two. You're doing great, man. Seriously, you're doing great. So I don't know if this helps. All right. Thanks, Kyle. Thanks, Steve. Enjoy the Super Bowl.

We'll be back. Wrap it up on Monday. Then we're Thanks, Kyle. Thanks, Steve. Enjoy the Super Bowl. We'll be back. Wrap it up on Monday. Then we're headed to Utah. So we got a lot of good things coming up here on the podcast. Ryan Russell, the podcast for your spot. Outro Music