The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Tales From the Couch: Fourth-Quarter Marathon. Plus Tim Hasselbeck on Conference Championship Matchups and Playing for Andy Reid.

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Russillo runs through the fourth quarters of Celtics-Heat, Bulls-Pacers, Cavaliers-Knicks, Pelicans-Nuggets, Mavericks-Wizards, and Lakers-Clippers (0:28). Then Ryen is joined by ESPN's Tim Hasselbeck to discuss 49ers-Eagles, Brock Purdy's success, Jalen Hurts's impact on defenses, Chiefs-Bengals, whether Cincinnati's offensive line will hold up again, Patrick Mahomes's ankle injury, stories from when Tim was playing for Andy Reid, and more (31:27). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:06:48). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Tim Hasselbeck Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

okay we have a Tales from the Couch that is long and enjoy I hope Tim Hasselbeck some awesome stories from back in the day with Philadelphia playing for Andy Reid we'll talk about the conference championship games and life advice including including animals.

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Tales from the couch. Wednesday. This might be a rambling mess. Caught all the fourth quarters last night. That was kind of the goal. And then Clippers, Lakers got out of hand. But I have just a couple notes on both the franchises, so I'm not as in-depth on that one.

We start in Miami. Last 15 games, Boston 16th on offense, fourth on defense, Miami 23rd on offense, second on defense. No Jimmy Butler for the Celtics, no Smart, no Jalen Brown, no Brogdon. Boston 7-0 on the second night of a back-to-back. No longer because Miami gets the win.

All right. So let me get to my Miami page here. Under five minutes. Miami's on a 10-0 run. Miami's up 92-87. Miami goes zone, which definitely made it problematic for Boston. They were doing a really good job on Tatum, kind of Tatum away from the ball, face guarding him a little bit.

Nobody wants to do that stuff, but especially with no Jalen, it was just smart. Shocker the Miami Heat are doing a bunch of smart things with their team. Spoh, every night you watch, you're like, this fucking guy's awesome. All right, so heroes, two of 15. Hits a three, 15 on Miami run. And then Boston's offense during this stretch that was trying to figure out the non-tatum stuff, you had a Grant Williams runner.

No. You had a Derek White step back where he'll get deep into the paint and kind of play around with it a little bit. And it's funny because he still ends up getting a good look out of it a lot. Derek White's just a good basketball player. And then you had a Peyton Pritchard contested three. It wasn't a terrible shot, but it wasn't the easiest either. So you could just see Boston's offense kind of falling apart here. Boston was 2-16 with 10 straight misses until Tatum at 92-87 got the end one.

He'd been shut out almost the entire fourth quarter. Gets the end one. And then Tatum starts to get a little bit more aggressive. And then he's thinking, I got Rob Williams on an alley-oop block. And Bam blocks the lob in a way that you don't see a lot of NBA players do. Bam's on another level. He's been insane this year. The numbers for him, traditional stuff, 22-10 and 3.

80% from the three throw, which is even better. And then you started kind of paying attention to what Boston, or excuse me, what Miami was doing at 92-90 against Boston's defensive alignment. Now, they had Rob Williams

on BAM. And some of the stuff that they've done in the past is that they'd like to put Rob Williams on the lesser offensive threat. But Miami, with the way they're fixing this on the fly every single night, that was not what happened. So actually, Miami decided to get Rob Williams in the action defensively, which is usually the thing that you would have done in the past, but just when Boston kind of turned around and did some different stuff with Rob. So they ran, I think it was like four or five times they were running hero at Rob Williams and then kind of either figuring out off

of that. There was one play where I think they ran like three screens where it ended up Rob got stuck in the corner and it was a switch. So they did this Rob on Bam thing like four or five times. And then because you were seeing this happen in between there, Grant Williams hit a three. And by the way, the scouting report, if you're an opposing team against the Celtics at this point, Grant Williams on those threes, especially on the side, I think the up fake into the dribble, you have to stay down on him now. It's almost auto. He gives you one up fake and then kind of steps to the side and gets the three up. So he hits a big three there, so it's still a game.

But then you could see what happened was the next time down, they had Grant on Bam. So they were like, okay, we got to move this off of what's happening. And they had Rob Williams on Heisman. So Miami attacked that thing. So you're watching it going, oh, okay. All right, I see what they're doing here. And then when they changed the defensive alignment,

they ran another screen with Bam and Hero, but they kept two with Hero. And then now you have Bam at the free throw line with Pritchard coming over to help. Where Pritchard on a previous position actually hung in there and got a stop. And then Bam hits a jumper and that was kind of the game. Tatum, the hard double, very basic. But with the Boston lineup that was out there, they got Tatum really far away. They kept the double with him.

Tatum went to skip pass to Grant way over in the corner. And I think it was Hero that went ahead and stole it. By the way, Lowry not on the floor and down the stretch here. The three-point shooting's been pretty bad. He just doesn't look all that great. Some of the numbers, maybe you trick yourself into thinking there's more there than there is, but just something to pay attention to there. Just really smart, just smart stuff in Miami down the stretch. Okay, let's look at some not smart stuff from the Bulls here. Blowing a big lead, the Pacers. The Pacers are 21st and 22nd, last 15 in offensive defense.

Chicago's 14th and 4th, I think is my number there. All right, so under 5, 198. Matherin is killing it again. He's 26-7 this last night. But Halliburton, since January 11th, since he's been out, this Pacers offense is ranked 29th. So he seems important. But the Pacers get it going in this one.

There's also a weird kind of Caruso-Patrick Williams decision late in games that I've noticed a couple times. Again, I do not watch your team as much as you watch your team. But if there's certain substitution patterns, I'm like, all right. Because I'm liking Patrick Williams more and more. I don't know if the offense is ever going to progress to back up what you'd hope when you're picking somebody that high. I wouldn't rule it out.

I wouldn't say it's the greatest bet. But he is playing so hard every night, man. picking somebody that high. I wouldn't rule it out. I wouldn't say it's the greatest bet, but he is playing so hard every night, man. And he's always taking the top defensive guys playing against a lot of smaller players too. And he had to get Matherin at some point last night as well, despite some kind of cross-matching that is going to happen in the course of a game anyway. But I just like Patrick Williams,

but there's a real Donovan dilemma here where he's like, okay, am I Caruso late? Because it's still pretty good defense and I'm getting a little bit more offense or is the offense that we're worried about defending on the other team, a matchup size wise where it makes sense for Patrick Williams there.

So I need to probably go back and look at exactly how those patterns work in the closing group there, but I've noticed it in a couple of games recently. Okay. So Pacers 11, two run. Okay. This Levine stretch. Earmuffs kids, if you're a huge Zach Levine fan, this was bad.

And now that Wizards play that we saw where he went to take a two when they were down three, and I thought, did he not know the score? I think credit to Levine where he explained it and that he thought he was getting fouled and then decided he thought he was going to get the end one and they didn't call it for him. So there are moments with him, especially when he was younger. I was like, what the hell is he doing out there?

So I think that one's actually given more of a pass for this one. We're like, you can't give him a pass at any of this stuff. All right, so he's having a really hard time with TJ McConnell. Like he can't shake TJ McConnell. As I told you one time at the combine, TJ McConnell got a guy to like leave the combine. He couldn't bring the ball up against him. As I told you one time at the Combine, T.J. McConnell got a guy to leave the Combine. He couldn't bring the ball up against him. It was hysterical. And then the guy was done.

That's who T.J. is. So he strips Levine on one play. Levine has another turnover pretty quickly down there. They bring in Williams again for Io. And so Caruso is in there with them.

Caruso gets screened by Neesmith, but Neesmith falls down. It's that kind of side 21 thing where it's like a handoff. I think they may call it hammer sometimes too. I'm not 100% sure. It was a total flop. They call it fucking hate this screen stuff

where guys fall down. It's like none of these guys would ever fall down on these screens ever, but we reward it all the time. Neesmith's 0-7. He makes one of the two of the free throws, so now Pacers are up 1-0-7, 1-0-6. And then Kobe White comes in for Patrick Williams because they need a better ball

handler out there because seriously, T.J. McConnell is wrecking things. So DeRozan gets Neesmith. Great blow by. Neesmith's got some size and real athleticism to him. DeRozan just is so good at this stuff. Then you've got the Bulls up here. Matherin, who hasn't hit a three all

night, of course, hits a three because I just feel like that's kind of the way he's wired in this. He had some great drives too. They didn't all work out. Matherin is under 25% from three the last two months after shooting much higher than maybe you would have expected as a rookie looking at his Arizona stuff, even though we love the rest of it. Pacers up

two. Vooch gets a dunk, 110 apiece. Here's the one that drives me absolutely crazy. There's a McConnell baseline drive against another perimeter player, and at that point, there's not really much rim protection, but it's still McConnell driving at a guy that's bigger than him. I think it was DeRozan. Levine just inexplicably decides to help, leaving Matherin. He had ended up with Matherin in this possession. And Matherin just,

it's not even like some hard, nasty cut. He just sort of wanders towards the rim. McConnell hands it to him. And that's kind of the game. And I don't know why Levine would have just ignored the best scoring option for the Pacers to help defend at the rim when it's McConnell going to the rim, who likely is still going to have a hard time even getting that kind of shot off. And again, you can help and still pay attention to what you're doing. You can still kind of go, all right, let me shade over this way, but not turn my back completely to the number one scoring option of the Pacers. That was a huge, huge mistake for him.

Then they have him try to inbound the basketball at the other end down two. And they had McConnell defending the baseline because I think they were worried about a lob with Vooch. And because of the Pacers' lack of size, they didn't want to put Turner on the inbound, even though I'm a staunch, staunch believer in having massive size, if you can, against the inbound. I don't understand why more teams don't do it. It seems fairly obvious.

But just think about it. It's harder to do that. But they've got McConnell against the inbound, and Levine can't get it in. And he also missed Caruso who was wide open underneath the basket. And that's not a screen grab wide open. He was there, but he was looking

at the top of the key trying to get it to the Rosen so he didn't really scan. So they call timeout. Donovan changes the inbounds where now it's going to be Caruso inbounding and then he actually just turned the basketball over. But then at the other end, the desperation three from Levine missed it. Not a

big deal. Bulls got the offensive rebound and he traveled off of that. Let's just say it this way. Pretty bad closing last few minutes for Zach Levine who I think gets a little pouty out there when there's just stretches offensively where I don't know that he's ever doing things

in the parameters of what it is. And again, I like him more than I used to. He's arguably like one of the most athletic dudes I've ever seen in my entire life play basketball. But man, what a collection of just bad, bad plays and a loss to the Pacers. Okay. Cleveland at New York. We're at 439 here. It's 98-93 New York. Last 15 games, Knicks 10th in offense, 21 the Pacers. Okay. Cleveland at New York. We're at 439 here. It's 98, 93, New York. Last 15 games, Nick's 10th in offense,

21st in defense, Cleveland 11th in offense, 15th in defense. Uh, this is fun because we kind of had everybody. I was like, wait, we got dudes everywhere.

Uh, the Randall, the Julius Randall update. Uh, he was on fire from three in this game to start. He's 18th in scoring right now in the NBA. He is 25, 11, and 4. The three-point shooting has gone from 31% to 35% this year.

We had touched on this weeks ago, but he's looking more and more like the Randall that we saw a couple years ago when it was a really nice story for him. I think the best part is that it doesn't have to be left-hand dribble drive, head down, barrel through everybody. I'm just going to do this a million times because I don't want to pass the basketball to anybody else. That's part of Brunson. The odd thing with Brunson's unbelievable season so far with the Knicks, he's been fucking awesome.

All the credit to him. But I was like, where are RJs? Because I'll watch the Knicks and I feel like, you know, the RJ part of this isn't as exciting as it was for me last year when I felt like there was a corner being turned. But yet, RJ's numbers are still kind of the same. Like, he's still at 20 a game. The usage is actually pretty much right there when it was last year.

Although, I was noticing with Thibodeau that he was subbing out RJ for quickly on some of the defensive offensive stuff that was happening. So the other thing that I think the Knicks did really well defensively is that they kept two with Mitchell and Garland off the screen really well. Like they were really good with it. You know, you can get burnt with that sometimes, especially with somebody who's as physical as Mitchell or as quick as Garland. That also speaks to the thing that if you want to watch Garland, how great he is of not screwing around.

There's so many guys who have the basketball all the time and then they get the screen and then they go, okay, now I'm going to stop and reset it. You're giving the defense a chance to reset too. When Garland is at his best and he does it all the time, it's what I love about him. I fucking love this guy. All right. Well, okay. Two with me. about him. I fucking love this guy. All right. Well, okay, two with me. I got to get the ball out quick. All right?

You guys kind of screwed up on the switch. I've got an angle. I'm going. I'm just going to the hoop. I don't know if I'm going to score at the rim, but I'm going, and I'm going to have you guys collapse. Garland is so good at being decisive, and he's so quick. As soon as you delay on him, it's a problem. But I thought the Knicks did a pretty good job containing that kind of stuff uh the next one i was getting a little

bogged down you know there's going to be just moments where it's a little bit of randall brunson two-man game kind of hand it off to each other when the shot doesn't go in i'm sure you'll complain about it maybe i will as well but when it's working you're like man what a great two-man game and then you've got rj's the third option. The funny thing about RJ is that defensively, even though he'd been subbed out for quickly at a stretch there, he had one of the biggest plays in the entire game is that Mitchell is going in transition, and RJ stripped him off of Mitchell.

He also went one-on-three on that one with Mitchell. Then Randall gets blocked. This is like this whole defensive stretch. Then Mitchell misses a layup. And then we're under a minute. It's 41 seconds left after the Mitchell missed layup. It's 103-101. And they foul Brunson on the sideline right in front of the Cavs bench.

I do not understand how this happens at the NBA level. All right? You're only down a possession. You're ahead on the shot clock. Just play it out and they foul them like it's three kids on Belmont playing Duke in the tournament. There was another block on Mitchell

where he wanted to foul against Hardenstein. Hardenstein went straight up with him. It was awesome play by him. Then Garland gets the end one. RJ barely touched him. I thought that call sucked. There was another Brunson foul call that sucked. A lot of the Brunson fouls drive me nuts. He just falls

down and they call it for him every single time. Randall gets blocked. A bunch of different stuff. By the way, Bill Kennedy goes in to review the RJ Barrett airball, which was a shot clock thing where there wasn't very much time on the shot clock, so it was an airball. They went to check to see if it was on the rim. Anybody else get the vibe that Bill Kennedy signs up

for karaoke maybe too much? Where if you were hosting karaoke that night, you'd go, hey, you're doing a great job. You're picking some bangers here, and you're good. You've got a great voice, but I think you're a little too into it, signing up a little bit too much.

Just a thought. New York also subs out Brunson here late defensively. Mitchell has one more run at it. Oh, by the way, the Hardenstein foul was or non-foul on the field. The high five, they don't want to call that foul where the hands touch each other after the release of the basketball. They say they don't want to call it. I don't know that it's always the right thing to do as a shooter.

Not me for the shooter, but a little lost here all right let's pick it back up here's here's what i wanted to bring up they get mitchell against randall in a switch randall for whatever reason goes out to like 35 feet to contest mitchell which is just stupid to do but maybe they were just all juiced up mitchell blows right past him and here's the hardenstein uh verticality play goes right through i'm just glad i'm glad that they didn't call a foul on this. I want defensive players to be able to go up straight up, meet somebody at the rim, instead of the offensive player just diving into the defensive player and initiating contact. We have to figure out, this is a bigger philosophical thing that I'm trying to work on here, we have to figure out a way to stop rewarding every offensive player for initiating every single thing and then getting the calls all the time. So, you know, look, even though I love Mitchell,

I'd like that that play exists. And I thought even if Hardenstein was maybe swaying a little bit into him, I'd like to see that be the norm. I really would, instead of the straight up stuff, which it was pretty close to being straight up. So nice win there for the Knicks. All right, Denver up 97-90 on New Orleans. Four minutes left in this one. No Michael Porter Jr., but again, Pelicans fans can say, yeah, we still don't have Zion. We still don't have Ingram. This thing's going on forever, man. And then Dyson left the game last night with an ankle injury and didn't return. So as soon as I turn it on, oh, by the way, last 15, Denver's 12-3, best record in the NBA, number two offense, number six defense,

New Orleans struggle bus here on offense, and you could see it late. 28th on offense, last 15 games, 13th on defense. Nola does go on an 8-0 run. I think when Jose Alvarado's your number one option for long stretches, and he lit it up in the second half, and that was great. I mean, he was 12 points, 6-9, getting it going there,

but it's also probably not super bankable. And he can get a little, he's a great story, but now when we start going, okay, he's going to play in the league, and it's also probably not super bankable. He can get a little... He's a great story, but now when we start going, okay, he's going to play in the league and he's going to stick around, it can be a little high usage-y for me at times. Denver has two big turnovers. I thought Billy Hernan Gomez, which is

one of my favorite nicknames in the league. I'm like, man, Billy's doing a great job. And then Larry Nance Jr., some good defensive possessions against Jokic, making him work. CJ stepped out of bounds in the pass to Billy where he got two free throws. They didn't call that. So it's a 10-0 New Orleans run here.

They're up 98-97. And then guess what? We're going to start doing some Murray-Jokic pick and rolls. So let's get to the play that mattered the most here. This will be quick. So it's Murray against J play that mattered the most here. This will be quick. So it's Murray against Jokic against Herb Jones and Nance. So Herb is obviously on Murray. So they get the switch, but Nance is kind of in a good spot. And Herb, I don't know why he did this, but he kind of left Jokic to stay with Murray and the ball.

I don't know if it was a lack of communication. You could see after the play, the two Pelicans players looked at each other going, what were you doing there? And it was still in front of Herb. So it wasn't like one of those, oh, shit, you were still here, things that can happen on a switch. So that means all of a sudden Jokic is wide open eight feet away from the basketball. And guess what? From the weak side, it's that guard. It's the same thing with that Pritchard-Bam thing that we were talking about when you have two with the

perimeter player and the big is rolling. And these are really good bigs. I actually like Dwayne Dedman, so I wasn't going to say anything. But when Bam is going up against Pritchard, or in this case Alvarado's to help to Jokic in this spot, guess what? The shot went in. And there you go.

Pelixy had a decent shot at the end there. I don't really understand that. Alright, let's go Washington-Dallas. This one will be quick too. There's a play in here that just speaks to how frustrating it is with Luca,

who again, who I think is the best option. If you had, if you needed a bucket, he's the guy would pick ahead at anybody else in the NBA. And that's, I think might be the greatest compliment you could have as a basketball player.

Washington decides to go really small and they have Denny obviousvia as their biggest player. All right? And it was smart. There was a Powell play where he's like, are you guys seriously doing this? I'm just going to go right to the hoop. But it was just kind of a back and forth thing.

The Beal thing is really interesting because I feel pretty strongly about my Beal takes. That if you watch the highlights, like I happened in this morning and I just had it on in the background when I was writing out some stuff, I was watching the highlights of this game and you would have thought Beal was the hero. He had the huge three. That was kind of the

game. But if you watched it to close, I don't know what he's doing. I really don't. So I'm going to go on a bit of a Beal rant here. They were switching for Luka, which is understandable.

You know how I was talking about how Garland, once he sees what's going to happen, he does something? Beal's like, okay, I got my switch, cool. Just going to fuck around here for a little bit. And look, sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn't. That hard dribble, stop,

pull up from 15 that Beal does is awesome. It's impossible to defend. He can get to the rim. But he also just kind of gets the switch and then doesn't do anything with it. And Luka, at least, I give him this, if you're hunting him, which I get, he gives you some kind of effort, which is all you can really ask of any of these guys. I think some of the off-the-ball stuff, Luca's a little less interested in because it's not as embarrassing because it doesn't get caught as much

as in isolation against the ball. But then there was a Beal possession where he got the switch and then just dicked around. And he threw, I think, the Morris late. And you're like what what are you doing uh and then beal had a pretty big turnover in this one too that didn't factor into the game whatsoever i was looking at some of the beal stuff because i think the way he gets talked about versus who he actually is are two completely different things you know i had said for years i

think the two years that we talked about it and and yeah, I'm giving myself credit for it. I was like, man, I just keep hearing he's real content with everything and that he's probably going to ride out this whole Washington thing and not demand a trade, and they want to keep him because he's talented, and that's kind of how it works, and he's still in his 20s, and he's going to try to get that huge, huge extension at some point. And that's exactly what happened. But he's still kind of named as that dude where it's like, will he decide at some point that he's going to want out? Well, let's examine it here. Because I think the fan base that would get him would be like,

oh my God, I think he's at best a three on a good team. The third option. The last four years, he's played 57, 60, 40, and 27 games. That's when he should be absolutely lighting the league up in his mid to late 20s. He's been a net negative on defense. Again, these are stats, but net negative for eight straight years. The shooting, we know, is generally there.

Last year, for whatever reason, he couldn't hit any threes. He's 37% from three for his career. He's not shooting as much this year. 16 shot attempts. He was at 23 attempts back-to-back seasons in 20 and 21. So he's down in shot attempts going all the way back to like, I don't know, six, seven years ago here.

But there's just games where I watch him where I'm like, I get how talented he is. But I don't know. It's maybe one of those weird things where you go, is it worse that he wanted to stay with the Wizards? Is this where we get mad at the guys for asking out? Do we look at him and go, why would he want to stay there that long? Does that say more about him?

Or is it what I kind of had heard the whole time, like, once you got that contract, now we'll see. But, you know, they didn't have Przingis last night. They win the game. And we know the rotation for Dallas is still banked up there a little bit. So, result-wise, it kind of felt like Miami-Boston. Nice win for Miami. Everybody's missing people. If Miami had gotten smoked, I wouldn't have cared. I wouldn't have thought anything of it. We're kind of at that stretch in the NBA, too, where you're just kind of like, and I'll make this mistake, I promise you. You're going to be like, hey, who have they

beat recently? You're going back in it, and you're like, oh, they got Memphis. You're like, oh, without Ja and Steven Adams for sacramento who was awesome in their win on monday a team that doesn't play very good defense playing awesome defense in that one light the beam but you know you can get lost a couple weeks from now when you're looking at sacramento going where are the good wins and you're going to go oh man they got memphis they got them pretty good the other night and you're going to forget who was or wasn't in the game and that's kind of what we're dealing with right now. Okay, to end this, what are we?

What, about an hour 20 of this, Kyle? Okay, Clippers-Lakers, because it was a blowout there, even though it was a late push there to kind of get it maybe to 11, we're not going to do a deep dive on this. Last 15, Clippers are fifth on offense and 26th on defense, which is kind of crazy, but I think it'll speak to kind of the Kawhi thing that we're going to get to in a second, only because the Clippers statistically,

like the Clippers won't go away, even when nobody's playing and now guys are playing. They were really good defensively statistically, and then you kept looking at the standings all the time being like, they're still hanging around. I mean, speaking of the standings now, the Clippers are your five seed, and they're only three games behind Sacramento for the number being like, they're still hanging around. I mean, speaking of the standings now, the Clippers are your five seed, and they're only three games behind Sacramento for the number

three seed, okay? The Lakers on the other side, by the way, 9-6 in their last 15th, 9th on offense, 18th on defense. So Kawhi's January numbers, buckle up kids, 27-7 and 3.6 assists per game. The shooting splits in January, 54 from the

floor, 45 from three on four attempts per game, and he's hitting 93% of his free throws. The shooting splits in January, 54 from the floor, 45 from three on four attempts per game, and he's hitting 93% of his free throws. I think Kawhi, the all-time two-way guy, is done. I think this has been going on for a long time with him defensively. I don't know if it's maintenance. I don't know if it's interest. It may at this point just be a lack of physical ability. He's probably as bad of a health bet. Maybe Anthony Davis is worse, but if you had to do all NBA first team bad health bets, Kawhi would be one of your wings. So even with this resurgence,

even with their standings, even with him looking unstoppable right now, I always thought his offensive game was going to age well because he just needs to get to a spot and pull up and that's what he's doing. And look, he just looks better too in January because I saw some games, the Charlotte game, where I think he even hit the game winner. And I was like,

all right, yeah, but I don't think he'd look good, which is fine. The same thing with Jamal Murray, who's a lot younger, less injury history. Some guys are going to come back that haven't played in a while, aren't going to look great, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything. With Kawhi, he actually looks good again with this whole deal. So it's kind of that Clippers back in the conversation, who

you would think if they wanted to move man, the Kennard contract maybe gets there. Kevin O'Connor wrote a really good thing about they need to be aggressive because they don't have any of their picks.

So you're sitting there saying, let's go all in on this year. You don't have any other options if you're the Clippers. I just don't know if Powell would be moved because they need, I mean, Powell's terrific.

Powell's a really good player for them. Alright, so on the other side, the Lakers add Rui Hachimura. There's kind of a rule I have with this. I mean, if the Wizards didn't want to pay Rui, how excited should you be as a Lakers fan? And by the way, the Wizards aren't tearing this thing down.

It feels a bit like they're trying to move some pieces around on the fly while still being competitive. And if Przingis knew this week that he could potentially decline an option over $30 million and that they would like to actually re-sign him, which, you know, Przingis has been really good for them. He has, but you know, he's just another bad

health bet if we were talking to all NBA picks for that category, which I don't think the league would actually do at any point. Rui's 45% from three this year. I know that's what Lakers fans are going to say. That's an aberration. Excuse me, that was last year he was 45% because he's been under 33% in three of the other four years of his career.

But if you're being fair about the Rui thing, he's kind of like a weirdly high usage guy. He's not super interested in passing, but he's got some size. I know the Lakers kind of feel like, hey, look what we've done with Lonnie Walker. And look what we've done with some of these other guys that flamed out elsewhere. We can do that everywhere else. The Lakers connected to Cam Reddish. Magically, he's going to be really good all of a sudden. But at the same time, if we're giving the Lakers a hard time about how bad their number

three through number nine is, then we can't. They didn't give up anything for Rui. So it totally makes sense. Totally good trade. They've got the restricted rights on him. They can figure it out a little bit later. Take a swing at it. Having slight improvement on the depth.

I don't know if he's seven, eight, probably nine on the Lakers. Maybe eight. I don't know. Because I actually really like Thomas Bryant a lot. I don't know what it is about his game. Speaking of Wizards, I've loved that guy's game for a long time.

Final number here, LeBron, since his 38th birthday, leading the league in scoring, 36 a game, 10 boards, 8 assists. It's unbelievable what this guy is doing from a production standpoint at this stage of his career. There you go. Let's see this from the couch. Tip off the new year with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

New customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. Just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app. It's safe, secure, and super easy to use. It is so easy. Every time we're on it, working on these segments and looking at it all, it can be easier to navigate.

Then you can bet on everything from the money line to points, scores to threes, drain. We're going to give you a couple totals on this one. Beware of the totals right now. I mean, how about that Milwaukee-Detroit? That thing went to 280. So I was looking through it.

I was going last 15 games, looking at bad defenses, trying to find some sort of over there. And the Spurs are the worst defensive team in the NBA the last couple of weeks. And then they're at the Lakers, who are in a back-to-back where, I don't know, it wasn't like a full-blown, hardcore 38-minute super-intense back-to-back. So you wonder how that plays into this. And beware, obviously, everybody paying attention to kind of how the roster stuff works out or the advantage you would have

of seeing a number that maybe doesn't look right because you think somebody's not going to play and you're all over your local team and super locked in. So a lot of variables here, but the totals right now are insane. that spurs lakers game is at 243 and a half so let's go under that even though i was going into this going let me pick bad defenses and take overs so i'm kind of doing the opposite i wanted there so i'll give you a second game as well so spurs lakers 243 and a half right now we're're under that one. Man, so many of these totals

are 230 and above. A couple 240s along the way. Memphis Golden State's 245. Denver Milwaukee's 231. I don't, you know, what do you do with that Milwaukee Detroit results the other night where you go?

I mean, a lot of 80 point halves. Starting to see those happen a lot more. But as you can see, if you're looking at the market for tonight, it's not like Vegas isn't already figuring this stuff out. All right, let's go Timberwolves Pelicans. That's a 229.

Let's go over on that. So we get over Minnesota-New Orleans 229 under Spurs-Lakers. So two chances to win on that one. Plus, FanDuel even lets you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with the same game parlay, so don't miss out. Place your first $5 bet to get $150 in bonus bets. Win or lose with the promo code Ryan, R-Y-E-N.

Make every moment more with FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Must be 21 and older in select states. First online real money wager. Only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire 14 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. We got Tim Hasselbeck, ESPN.

Good to catch up with our guy. All right. I want to start with the quarterback stuff, okay? Because of Brock Purdy in this story. And I'll kind of preface it this way. When Trevor Lawrence comes out, based on all the college football I watch, I'm like, all right, he's going to be good.

I was surprised he was so bad. He was a rookie, whatever. It looks like he's going to be a good quarterback. Luck, to me, was a lock. Then on the other end, I'm like, this Tebow thing I don't get. Sam Ellinger, who I've watched a bunch of Texas, loved him as a college quarterback.

I'm like, you guys really think he's going to be a long-term starter in the NFL? That would have surprised me. I think Zimmer got annoyed with Cousins and then started messing with him, giving Kellen Mond reps with the ones. So there's certain quarterbacks where I go, no way. There's others that I think will work out. And then there's this massive group that I have no idea, and that's what history tells us about drafting the position.

Purdy goes so late in the draft, and now we're wondering not only can he come out of the NFC, but can he be the long-term guy for the Niners franchise? What do you see with Brock Purdy? Yeah, I think what I see, and I had an Iowa State-Notre Dame bowl game at one point, so I actually seen him in college, so even before the draft prep, just had seen him as a player,

and my impression of him Ryan was like hey this guy like he knows how to play the quarterback position like he seemed to me like he was a kid that you know as a pop Warner player like he was the quarterback and got a bunch of reps doing that and then in high school played a lot and then fortunately for him in college, he played a lot as well. And so I think what I saw was a guy that had experience playing the position. Right. So had, you know, would do some of the things and had some of the tricks of playing the playing the position, not a football player playing quarterback. He was a quarterback. And then I think the other thing that, you know, probably jumps out at you is like you look at a guy who's you know playing you know big time college football and you know what his future looks like beyond that you go hey like what does he look like physically and you know look for me

I you know like I'm not the biggest guy right so? So I think I measured at 6'2", but I played at like 210 pounds, 215 pounds. Like I was a smaller quarterback. So like I always would look at guys like that and be like, oh, I think I know what your physical limitations are because like I lived the physical limitations. Like I had to play through that. So like what I see is like all of that stuff I had to play through that. What I see is all of that stuff, I feel like is still true. I feel like a guy who I'm like, yeah, I think there's physical limitations. He doesn't have Justin Herbert's ability. I also think, yeah, he knows how to play the position. He sees it. he gets it but i think the thing

that has been the most eye-opening to me ryan is that you know i think at first there's this narrative of like oh he's got all these amazing players around him you know mcafree debo kittle and he's just like kyle's dialing up perfect plays at the perfect time. And he's just the point guard distributing it to these talented guys. And like, that's why this is working. I actually don't see it that way. I see a guy that's like creating offense and making plays when things aren't perfect. And that to me has been the biggest surprise. And like, look no further than this last week, the throw to Kittle that I thought was the biggest play of the game, he's kind of juggling it.

That's going outside the design of the offense. That's creating offense. And most guys with his physical tools aren't able to do that against that caliber of athlete that you face in the NFL. able to do that against like that caliber of athlete that you face in the NFL. I think what I've appreciated a lot about some of the coaching stuff that we've seen, and I touched on it on the wildcard weekend, is that Miami goes into Buffalo and you don't feel like they have much of a shot, even though it was like an oddly competitive game. And Mike McDaniel's like, we're going gonna let Skyler Thompson take some shots here and with

Purdy when I go back to that Vegas game like they needed him you know a Niners defense that's off the charts just had a Sunday where they weren't getting any stops against Stidham and I don't know if it was not being prepared for him or whatever but it was just you know look it happens to the best of the teams and they needed Purdy to kind of take some shots. And when I see with Shanahan, who, you know, I'm in love with when you really figure out what he's doing, you just go, I like that. I feel like your era, if you weren't one of those physically gifted guys, they already put the handcuffs on you. Like you went out with your team, you took, you know, it was your possession and it was

like, all right, here are the 70 things we're not going to let you do and i feel like purdy's an example and maybe it's shanahan and there are other examples that i brought up where you know the lesser banked quarterback is given more options because it's like you know we're already beating ourselves we're not going to let you do some of this stuff i think there are certain coaches that do that. I would ask you this question. Going into last weekend, this is before the report came out about Brock Purdy. He's going to be the guy going forward in 2023. If you would have asked me prior to this last weekend in Schefter's report,

what does Brock Purdy have to do to be the presumed starter going into the season next year? I would have said, I think he probably needs to win a Super Bowl. And even if they win it, is he 100% the guy for next season? Would you have agreed with that kind of feeling, that sentiment? Well, I think there's a lot of variables on that. First of all, let's start with the media part of this, okay? Like, I know how it works. What other fucking news would Schefter have about Purdy leading up to an NFC Championship game?

You know, team sources tell me he's not the guy. That's not going to happen. Nobody's going to do that because they're not going to mess with him a week before the biggest game of his career. So for you to say he'd have to win a Super Bowl to be without question like the unchallenged one at the position, that makes sense. Some could argue all he has to do is get there. Then I could say, well, he's already done enough. But the other variable, I think, where you're going to agree,

because I agree with you, would be, well, we don't know what's going to happen. What if somebody's available and goes, you know what? I want to play for Shanahan. Look at what this guy does with these mid-to-late-round quarterbacks. I mean, I know Garoppolo is a second-rounder, but look what he's done with all of these QBs. I want to go there. And then if that player is young enough or accomplished

enough or maybe not even young enough then the thing right that's that story would change real quick so that's my full answer to that yeah and and look and so to your point about like i think sometimes guys are almost already defeated beforehand. Like I think like macro level, as well as like the individual game, like you're 100% correct on it. I think there's such an element sometimes where like how you came into the league, like overcoming the perception of that in terms of all of it,

like how much you can trust a guy in some of these moments, like is so hard to change that narrative, that feeling on it. And so, yeah, I think there I think that, yes, that can be the case. And I would agree with you in that. And Kyle, as much as probably anybody. and Kyle, as much as probably anybody, has done an incredible job of, and the other guy I would say is Andy Reid, and I think I've said this to you before, Andy Reid, to me, is the best, because look at all the different quarterbacks and different styles of quarterbacks and different abilities of quarterbacks that he has had success with. That to me is why Andy's been the best.

And I think one of the things you can say about Kyle is like, Kyle's starting to do that also. I mean, he is doing it with Brock Purdy. And that to me is really good coaching is because you are saying like, yeah, I have a system. You have a way of doing things but the personality of the quarterback i'm going to allow that to be part of this as well and and we're going to have success with that and so i think kyle has done an amazing job of that and i think andy did a great job of it last week with that drive where chad haney came in football game okay you had andy Andy Reid in Philly in oh two, right? Okay.

Give me, put us in the room. What is it like with Andy Reid in the lead up, you know, the relationship? Like, I think a lot of us kind of guess, like,

do you have meetings all the time? Like, man, he's so good in meetings or it's so good in film or all these different things. Now, I mean, obviously you weren't the starter was McNabb,

but what is that? Like, where you're calling matt going holy shit like this is a completely different level which he would have already understood because he had him in green bay here's what i'd say about andy that i think i appreciated especially as i went other places if any andy had a team meeting or any type of meeting, he would not say a single word more than he needed to say. Like there are some times he'd be like, all right, this is the schedule. And I break up, go to your meetings. Like some guys, when they're in charge, they just can't help themselves. They'll talk the talk.

So like if Andy didn't have something important to say to the team or the group or a player, like he wouldn't just like, just ramble on about something. He wouldn't say it. And so, so when he does say something or he does pull you aside, or he does try to make a point of emphasis, there's such value to it. Like it really is important. And then beyond that. And I, and I think in terms of um like you mentioned like mcnab was a starter listen mcnab was a starter and he was one of those guys who physically like he was better than everybody else in the room physically like guys that were in the room

would be like cory dentmer aj feely myself like guys like that and so you know with with donovan like donovan would do things it was crazy so much so that the rest of us like we would talk and we'd be like you know mcnam ran around for 15 seconds before he threw the football like none of us could do that like what would this offense look like if any of us were playing right well donovan breaks his ankle and at the time there were rumors that troy acheman was going to come out of the booth and come play for the eagles and andy one of the best things andy did was andy called coy now listen i mentioned size before coy is smaller than me. You know, Coy's like six foot, like 185 pounds. He calls Coy into his office and he's like, hey, don't listen to any of this stuff about Troy Aikman. You're here for a reason.

You're here because you can play. You're here because we can win with you. Like, don't try to beat Donovan. Like, this team loves you. Like, you go out and beat Donovan. Like this team loves you. Like you go out and do the things you've been coached to do. Relate to the players the way you know how to relate to the players and we're going to be fine. And it was like, like Corey kind of like let us know that, that Andy had said that stuff to him. It was kind of like, oh my gosh, well, then we go play San Francisco and Coy plays amazing. And it was like, you know what? And then he had a similar

conversation with AJ when AJ ended up playing. And guess what? AJ went and played amazing. And so, you know, it was kind of one of these things. It was like, look, if you're here, it's because I chose you to be here. And you're not here just to be Donovan's backup. Like, you're here because you have value to this football team. And when you get your chance, I expect you to play well. And you're going to play well. I can't tell you what that did for not only the guys that ended up playing, but everyone else that played with them. listen chad henney look man we just saw

evidence of it first play he's backed up in his own zone he's in shotgun they throw the football like it's not just lip service like andy's like nope i believe it it's it's a great lesson in there too, because I think it applies to a lot of things. I'm not trying to get deeper on this whole thing, but you talked about your entrance in a league, sports, your entry point is everything, but it's the same thing in business.

It's the same thing in the job that we do now. If you come in and there's no fanfare and they're like, is this person any good? Then it's going to be held against you forever. And for a quarterback, it doesn't happen until you start putting all this stuff together. And then on top of that, that's why I used to always love the D'Antoni son so much, not only because it was so much fun to watch,

but he wanted guys shooting more. He's like, if you're open, shoot it, as opposed to telling your players, don't shoot it. We don't like when you shoot. And I think human nature plays into that. Sometimes the coaching and it can be too positive and you're like, all right, this is kind of turning into bullshit. But I think there's a real value in believing in people that you work with, especially at that position where for a lot of

guys, it's like, this isn't fun. Even the guys that get to play. I mean, you don't even get to play that much. And for the guys that play all the time, and you're with a coach who hates your guts. And I do think that's a generational thing, and it's a big improvement. And look, it's the passing. It's the rule changes. It's the advanced offenses.

It's all these things. But I feel like all the years, I think we're about the same age, it was almost some badge of honor when the head coach in the 80s and 90s told his quarterback he fucking sucked on the sideline for three hours hey like there's an element of like hey we're gonna you're gonna have so much fear of making a mistake because you're gonna get benched or in trouble or anything something like that and like look some people coach that way i definitely played for guys that coached that way.

Like, Andy doesn't coach that way. I never played for Kyle. It doesn't feel like he coaches that way. Zach Taylor, it doesn't seem like he coaches that way. And, you know, look, I think that's great. Now, look, you still need, like need player responsibility and maturity to handle all that. Because like you're saying, you can't always be like, hey, Ryan, I get it. You're 0 for 9 from behind the arc, but keep letting them fly, buddy.

Like, no. That's not what we're saying. But there is an element of like, look, you do what you're supposed to do. I want you to believe that, like, listen, you don't have to do it like that guy. I think the biggest thing for me is there's an offense, right? It's West Coast offense, whatever you want to call it. And so there's that. That's the scheme.

But the guy that's the quarterback is the most important part of that. He's allowed to put his own personality on that offense and i think we've seen that from some of these coaches okay on the other side with the eagles because i'm going to try to get your lean on this one i feel like i want to pick san francisco it's kind of this momentum thing and then i'm like you're really going to pick purdy at philadelphia against hertz like that doesn't make a ton of sense and what i really loved about that eagles game against the giants was when it was two things it kind of proved the vikings thing was was fool's gold with the giants which i think a lot of us kind of thought uh and then it was also a great

reminder of how talented philadelphia is in the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. There might be more dynamic, like look, Bosa to me is more dynamic than anybody on the Eagles D line, but the Eagles O line is better than San Francisco's, despite maybe having the single more dynamic player in Trent. But I just liked it. It was a bit of a reminder because it felt like people were sort of, not saying the like aren't good or were forgetting about him it was just a really it was an important game to be like oh man when they're rolling like that's a scary team especially at home yeah i agree with that and so i kind of to that point like they're really good up front and i feel like so much of that conversation was like all right like are you running jalen hurts because like jalen hurts

and this is not a it's certainly not a knock on anything that he does as a passer or anything like that but his threat and ability as a runner changes everything look at them all season long when he's been playing critical situations like gotta have you know anything that's like a gotta have third and one fourth and one third and two red zone goal line you name it they always are have the option to get to him as a runner right and because of that the defense you now have to account for him like some teams have a quarterback that can run but like they don't always get to it and got to have it situations. And so like, you don't always have to account for them, but they, they do. And so because of that, it kind of dictates what the defense does. And so two things happen is one, you then have a hat for hat, like a person for a person in the run game. And so if

you can get good angles, now you have this super talented offensive line with good angles and equal numbers. So your normal run game is good. Then you have the quarterback run game, which is really good. And then when you are accounting for the quarterback, you have to play man coverage. And when you have to play man coverage, now Devontae Smith and A.J. Brown, they now get man coverage. So like that dictates everything. So when he is a threat as a runner, like I don't like, the Niners aren't going to be able to play

like just a massive amount of zone. They have to account for him as a runner. And so because of that, you know, now you get one-on-ones without like it making it hard to read. And so that to me, I think is the key in this football game. Like I think Philadelphia is going to win it at home. I think they're going to get enough one-on-one matchups to those receivers. And then to your point, I think the speed of the Philadelphia defense to put pressure on the quarterback, I think is significant.

So I think it's going to be close, but that's how I feel about it. Yeah. I also wonder, do they have enough at corner to hang with both AJ and Devontae? Look, and how's the game get officiated? That's one thing I would say to you is like, and I hate saying that,

but like how the game gets officiated, if they're allowed to, you know, grab and pull and it's not going to be called closely, which I did not think the games were this past weekend. It seems like we get into the playoffs and there's a lot more contact from corners on receivers that are not called like if they allow that that helps the 49ers okay give me a story from you know the playoff appearances that your teams were in you know because we don't want to we don't want to we don't want you being some minor league baseball player on his Instagram bio saying former professional pitcher. You don't want to talk Berlin Thunder postseason, right?

We're doing that this summer, so we'll make sure we get our booking out to you when we run that series. So since we're talking philadelphia i this is this would be one that maybe sting a little bit for for eagles fans so you know really was just on the roster mcnabb had come back at that point they had signed me because he'd gotten hurt um so i'm on the roster but not dressing for games and we get so the last game in the vet nfc championship game in the vet against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who like that was their defense.

It was Tampa 2, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Offense was not great, but they were holding everyone to essentially no points. In Philadelphia, like I wasn't there, but in previous years, they had lost in the NFC championship game, like in St. Louis. And so like the really like almost like you knew in training camp, I think Andy maybe even said it in training camp, you know, at Lehigh, like we're going to get the NFC championship game at home and we're going to Superbowl. And so long and short of it, we get're hosting it in philadelphia i mean the vet last

game of the vet because the links open in the next year like that place was crazy it was freezing cold and we're playing the buccaneers i want to say like we run a kickoff back to like the opposite 20 i think deuce mccallister or Deuce Staley scores like on like an early play, like one of the first couple of plays of the game. Well, then we get into like drive two and Monty Kiffin's the defensive coordinator. And people don't like to say this, but like, cause of Spygate and all that stuff. But not everyone. A lot of people were stealing signals back then, okay? So we had the signals. So the play literally would come in,

because A.J. Feely played for a stretch. And sometimes the play would come in and be like, hey, solo right, pass 67 solid, double post. Ah, hey, you're getting too deep. Go ahead and check it down to the back. Like the play in the quarterback's headset sometimes would come in that way. Well, we had Tampa's signals. And next thing you know, we get into the game.

Monty Kiffin must have figured it out that we had their signals. And so they changed them. And so then all of a sudden it was like, we didn't know. We ran the opening kickoff back to the 20. We were like 7-0. We're like, we're going to roll in this game. And then we get into drive two, and it was like, huh? We don't have their signals anymore?

It was like, oh, shoot. And then it was a struggle like the rest of the game and you know we were kind of one of these teams like we're like super relaxed and everyone's like having you know there was just good personalities on that football team and um i'll never forget it was almost like watching a movie in slow motion where you weren't there. McNabb, we're in like a hurry up situation and McNabb throws an interception to Rondé Barber and he runs it back for a score. And I'm going to tell you, Ryan, like, I think our whole team had already,

like, we believe, like we thought, like we were going to the Super Bowl. And like it was that that whole play was almost like in slow motion. And I'm going to tell you, it was almost like we were I was like in the vet. And it was like almost like I could hear like it was silent. And I'm watching Rondé run this thing back for a score. And the Tampa sideline is bouncing around. And I'm like, this isn't happening. Just like, and then in the locker room after the game, I'd never seen this in pro football, the amount of tears.

I mean this like guys that like, I couldn't believe it. Like grown men crying, like in disbelief that we weren't going to super bowl and i'm talking star players on that team on both sides of the ball being like i haven't seen guys cry like that since like you know somebody's last game of high school football and and for me like that was probably as a team and i know i was a obviously a very small part of that, to see that in pro football was almost shocking to me of guys crying like that in disappointment after a game.

Are you allowed to cry when you knew you were never going to play? No, I was not crying. I, at that point, was so... Do you feel bad? Are you like, should I cry, but I don't want to? No. I mean, I'll just tell you how selfish I was at that point. I, at that point, was kind of like, hey, where can I get another hot chocolate?

Because I'm freezing. And then I was already thinking of how much money I was going to make off selling my Super Bowl tickets that I was going to get. Okay. I have two follow-ups because the barber pick at that point, the game was over. You scored that touchdown and then you didn't score a touchdown the rest of the game. You had a field goal and you didn't even score in the second half. But can you take me through, again, explain it to me like I'm five on the stealing of the signal and then relaying that so is it is it looking at film where you know guys would have like you've seen the stuff that's out

there so like so so a spy gate goes right like how's it was filming people signal right whereas other people were stealing signals but they were doing it in a way that was legal which is you know you had a scout you had somebody look over at somebody write it down and then match it up with the tape right so like so so you would have the signals and then somebody during the game would be like all right you, you know, rubs his belly, grabs his ear, you know, does that. Yeah, the milk the cow thing. Right. And so back then, the coach to quarterback communication, which was like the signal in like the radioing in to the quarterback's helmet was just on the offensive side of the ball.

Defense still had to signal. The only person that had the headset back then were the the speakers in his helmet was just the quarterback there was not a defensive player that had the communication so defenses were still signaling but offenses had the benefit of a coach talking in the quarterback's helmet because he had speakers so that was what was going like on back then it obviously since it's been changed and in terms of people's thing like like i should everyone was not stealing signals a lot of people were look i have a brother that was playing in the league at the time i know what they were doing i know what the teams that i played on were doing. Obviously, what New England was doing was brought to light.

And so teams were taking other people's signals. How they were obtaining that information was different in New England versus other places. I mean, that's really the point of that. But to your point, and I wasn't remembering the struggles offensively, but when you have somebody's signals, sometimes you would get the signal before you called the play. So you could call a good play against that coverage, that blitz, whatever. Or if you didn't know them, listen, now you're just hoping you'd time a good play. Right. Because the way the New England thing was always explained to me was that, look,

they were just doing business the way business has always been done. And they may have skipped a step, which makes it sound worse and became public. But it was kind of one of those examples of like, if you're in the business, you're far less offended because you understand how the business works. It's almost like banking. You're like, wait, what do those guys do? And you're like, yeah, it's kind of the way it works and people hear about it. But specific to that, that's also why there's a college coach, I'm not going to name him, that I'd heard was legendary at getting signals, legendary. And then somebody kind of took me through it and explained it. And then it was like, now watch what will happen. And the other person

that was way smarter about football than I was nailed it. And I was like, now watch what will happen. And the other person that was way smarter about football than I was, like nailed it. And I was like, that's crazy. And then for this part of the relaying it in to go, okay, we figured it out. We mapped them out because we saw them before. We matched them with the film of the game tape. And so now going in, we're going to have all these things. But it's also on Monty to understand it that quickly.

You know what I mean? I don't know how many D coordinators would have gone that quickly. Yeah, and they probably knew beforehand. And so they changed it because they knew we knew them. But like, so really, I mean, like if I'm being really like, the best way I can describe it is like, by filming somebody signaling, all you were doing was making the job of stealing them easier. You know what I mean?

Like, it just was like, i think people that were like looking at them writing it down then matching it up afterwards they were like yo that's a massive amount of work man like that's hard like you know how much easier it would have been to you know like it's a little bit like hey you know like uh i i get these out of where i but like it's my my college call sheet like somebody has got a template for it and he just like plugs it in each and every week there are other people like do it by hand it's kind of like guess what like copy and paste makes things go way faster yeah but on the play sheet for if you're calling a game like i would write it out because it actually took me through.

To me, it was a mechanism to learn everything. When you're doing play-by-play for football and it's not your team, you're sitting there just saying 88 to 64 all the time. All right, that's a good pivot because let's finish up with this. The AFC Championship game, the Mahomes part of this is a major factor. I don't know how it's going to look with it all. And I guess kind of give me your first thought. As soon as the schedule was set on that,

the first thing you thought about Cincinnati, Kansas City? I think Mahomes' inability to move around. And look, he's good enough to play from the pocket and all of that stuff. But Cincinnati can pressure the quarterback. They've got good pass rushers. They've got a creative blitz game that confuses the quarterback once or twice a game. And I think that means something. Because I think they'll get to him.

His inability to run and escape is really good. And I think that's a challenge. So I think that's a huge key. And I would just say this, the job that they did with that offensive line, getting good numbers in the run game, Cincinnati that is, was really impressive last week. And I guess it gave me confidence that they can try to do something like that again.

I can't believe, look, I'm not, Monday I came in, I go, I'm not surprised Cincinnati beats Buffalo because we know how good they are. I can't believe that the offensive line, all of a sudden, that didn't look great against Baltimore, held up, but that might have spoken more to what the Bills have become

on the defensive line post Vaughn Miller, which is another stat that all of us have been tossing around here. The Chiefs D-line is interesting. Chris Jones probably is disruptive. Has anyone not named Aaron Donald? And yet, you look at the stats for him, there's nothing special about it. I like a lot of the personnel on Kansas City.

A lot of them can rush. They've like a lot of the personnel on Kansas city. They got edge, good edge rushers. You're right. But I guess when I say Cincinnati, I'm more, I think the thing for me was like, it was like,

hold up a second. They ran it up. So like, that's the other thing for me. Like I was how they ran the football. So I just, That's the other thing for me. It was how they ran the football. I think that's a big thing too. The balance of how Cincinnati ran the ball. Yeah, they ran it really well. I think their secondary too is probably one of the most overlooked units in the NFL.

Hilton, man, that guy's on the screen all game long. I think the secondary is always a little tough for us because we don't really get to see him all that much. If you have a bunch of picks, then we all think you're good, like Diggs at Dallas. We're like, man, this guy's awesome. And then there's dudes that get picks that actually aren't great over the course of three hours. So I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the Cincinnati part of it that we were speaking to a little bit earlier,

but they were all over the place on Buffalo. It didn't feel like Allen had anything down the field at all. I think it tells you what people think about. It's weird because Stephon Diggs is really good and Gabe Davis has had. It's not like they don't have talent. I feel like people feared Buffalo's receivers. I just don't think that people had it.

I mean, look at how Miami defended them. Miami was like, look, we're going to challenge them. We're going to play cover zero, and we're going to man up. I'm not saying that it worked, but I just don't feel like there's the same type of fear for that passing game. Okay, knowing Andy like you do and seeing what you saw with Mahomes, the ankle thing,

which, you know, again, I don't know if he's going to be more limited. You know, sometimes the adrenaline, the way that kind of works. What do you think Andy will do by design if he feels like he has to protect Mahomes if this is even a possibility for 70, 80 plays? Yeah, my guess would be,

you know, there's going to be more like get out of your hand quick right away stuff right so that kind of like slows down the desire to like super like like really rush the quarterback come after him um so that you know maybe you can't sneak in a couple opportunities where the rush is getting ready to like retrace and go chase some type of perimeter screen or something like that i mean that's what i would guess um and i think that look you know you don't have to have a quarterback that is escaping and running around to win a football game look like tom brady wasn't escaping and running around like he's had a pretty good career like you can win from playing in the pocket mahomes is good enough to do that i just think like He's had a pretty good career. You can win from playing in the pocket, and Mahomes is good enough to do that.

I just think it's taking a really special element away from him. And then I just would say this. Cincinnati's ability to rush the quarterback, again, as actual pass rushers and then bringing pressure is good. And that's what you need to be able to do, especially if you know where the quarterback is going to be. Like he's going to be behind the center, you know, seven and a half yards deep.

Hey, enjoy the games this weekend, man. I really appreciate it. Uh, what do you want next? We can promote it for you. I'll be, I'll be, uh, on with Scott Sunday night afterwards. Oh, perfect. All right. So you'll see me there with him. I'm fun. All right. Say you. I'll be, I'll be on with Scott Sunday night afterwards. Oh, perfect. All right. So you'll see me there with him.

I'm fun. All right. Say hi. I know. All right. See you, man. You want details?

Bye. I drive a Ferrari three 55 cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible.

Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Okay. I had some financial planners check in. I didn't... You know, there's a guy was watching. Cause I've always been interested in, in, in watches, right? Like when I had my first contract with ESPN, when I was 30,

it wasn't much of a contract and I bought a very modest tag held up well. And I gave it to my brother, don't know 15 years later and uh you know I was really proud of it you know I wouldn't buy myself one until so then I was watching these videos I promise I'll make this quick because I've already lost interest but uh I was like what what's going on today um you know how when you see those videos of the guys doing like the diamond stuff and the diamond exchange in New York City i hate almost every one of them immediately like i just know it's not a guy i want to hang out with i wouldn't want to spend any time and now i don't know maybe it's watching the videos have i have i pivoted to find him fascinating finding him interesting

those guys are kind of your speed now yeah i don't know't know. I'm not those guys. I think the world of that whole like, what's this worth? And I'm going to offer you this and I'm going to do that. And again, I almost don't believe anything when I see it on videos, but I don't understand the motivation of pretending the prices are different or whatever. There's one that I think I like, and I went into it being like, I hate this guy. And then I watched it more and more. And I was like, I actually think I kind of like him. So I was thinking about doing a life advice on that for buying stuff.

You know, guys trying to get engaged. That kind of deal. The boiler room intro is so perfect. Yeah, I don't mean it strictly. Yeah. But I always want to try to do different stuff on the pod i'm always thinking about like what can we do that's a little bit different this would be different and again like

the people that be like that's bougie and you guys are like all right you know okay that was 20 minutes of a segment you didn't like ruined your fucking life so i am curious about doing it because you do have a lot of people that kind of reach out about coming on for it but if i don't know the person or i don't know anything they do, and it feels a little self-promotional at times, like sometimes I'm just kind of reluctant to even go down that road. And some of the pitches that we get are like so self-promotional, you're just like, all right, fuck off. But I don't know. I'm thinking this out. So I was sharing it with the audience and talking about it out loud. Your initial thought,

sharing it with the audience and talking about it out loud. Your initial thought, blink, Kyle, this idea go. I don't even kind of get what you mean. So I haven't really thought about making a big purchase in a long time ever, really. I mean, my big purchase would be maybe the Movado that's like above $1,000. So I'm not really sure. And I don't even, I think I would probably regret that even though I do love a Movado. But I really don't. No one, by the way, no one regrets a Movado. Yeah. I mean, I got one. I got one that my grandfather got at a Rest in Peace, got at a garage sale.

And it turns out to be a real one. And people are offering me like 300 bucks on the spot when I'm at places. And I'm like, wow, that feels good. Maybe I want like a newer, nicer one. See how much I can get on the street for that. Well, look, I haven't sold it, by the way. Okay.

Well, there you go. It sounds like somebody on this show has a nice vintage Movado available. Garage sale Movado. You know, Van Pelt told a story on the air. He had no money. He was sleeping on the couch and there was a guy at like, I don't think was jc penny i think it was a level above that but there was some kind of like you know store in the mall and the guy was like yeah i can get you

approved for a movado and he was like no he was like yep when he filled out the credit application bought himself a movado that he couldn't even pay for. He couldn't pay for the payments. But again, you get to walk out. Well, you don't have any, you know, it's a nice little feeling there when you're like, I can just buy this and I worry about it later. Like, yeah, when you worry about it later,

though, it's going to suck, but you're not processing the decision that way at that time. So then he went back, I think, to the place he was sleeping on the couch. And the guy's like, what's up with that watch? He's like, oh, I got myself a tasty little Movado today. He's like, get out of here.

Yeah. They were like. That's crazy. God, I love that. I love when Van Pelt shares his loser phase stories. They're great. Okay. All right.

Life advice. Life advice. RR at gmail.com. 22 years old. 6'3", 180. Haven't worked out consistently before COVID but could dunk a volleyball in high school well it sounds like if you worked out a little bit

more you'd be dunking is volleyball less impressive than basketball right? because it's smaller yeah smaller, got it a little easier used to just murder tennis balls at the rim Kyle, no idea I graduated in college the past year, I've been living at home

for the last few months while looking for a job. My girlfriend and I met in college. We've been dating for a few years, about to move in together at the beginning of February in a new city that neither of us have ever lived in before. Over the last few months, my best friends from home and my roommates from college have all become friends. Wow, that's a weird dynamic. Wow. This has got to

be Midwest. Everybody's this nice. Yeah, my guys are a little standoffish. Yeah. My buddies from Jeff city have really enjoyed everyone I met at Mizzou. Okay. Um, so we have our first weekend with the new conglomerate altogether in person plan for Superbowl weekend, where the six of us will be in my hometown for a few days to hang out, watch the Superbowl. Here's the problem. I got my girlfriend into football over the course of our relationship, and both of our hometown teams are still in the playoffs. Did I guess Missouri right?

Could play each other in the Super Bowl. Yeah, this camp, there's no way it's Philadelphia, right? I'm just trying to guess. Maybe it's Cincy. Maybe it's Kansas City. She's insisting that if our teams both

make it, we have to watch the Super Bowl together, but that would mean she has to crash the guys weekend. When I was originally hesitant at the idea of her coming with me, she got very offended and threw a fit. So I floated it past the guys and they all seemed fine with it. One of them even assumed she was already coming. I don't want her to come. I want to hang out with my friends

for a weekend and not have to worry about if the dumb shit we like to do for fun is going to bore my girlfriend or anything like that. I also plan on gambling like a degenerate, but responsibly. Well played, sir. During the Super Bowl, and I know my girlfriend judges me for betting on sports regularly. Okay.

You're going to move in with her next month, buddy? I love my girlfriend I truly intend to marry her one day but I don't want her to come on this trip however if I'm the bad guy however I'm the bad guy if I say she can't what should I do I really want to set this boundary that I need to be able to take trips

to my friends that don't involve her on occasion but on the other hand to be fair to her we will have been in a new city for less than two full weeks and we will only have a few acquaintances from college in the area, so she won't really have a great alternative options for the game, too. All right. Well, you got to bring her. I'll finish this, but this isn't. I know where I started mentally on this, and I know where I'm going to finish.

Real roller coaster of an email here. All right. Again, read that again. real roller coaster of an email here all right again read that again she won't really have a great alternative or alternative options for the game if both of our teams make the super bowl it'd be cool to watch together do i try to have her come separately just for sunday do i just eat the l and hope my friends really don't mind her coming for the weekend or i put my foot down and hope it doesn't create a lingering resentment or tension around future events thanks guys love the pod.

You can do it, Kyle. Can't wait for Cerruti to come back, Ms. Belt. Okay, let me just go back to something here. Altogether in person plan for Super Bowl weekend. I guess when he said the adult guy weekend here, I was a little confused as to like, are you just hanging out together in the town and then going to one of the apartments or whatever to watch the game and she's in the town? Or is this a full-blown guy's weekend? Right? Are you with me, Kyle?

It doesn't sound like they're renting a cabin on the outskirts of town. I don't think. I think they're just all going to be in the hometown. But then it sounds like they are kind of doing this full-blown weekend thing. So here's my question. If she's in the city, did you just plan on going like a bender with your buddies? Whatever. Fine.

Nobody's judging here. But you got to let her come to the game. If you are moving in with this girl and you want to marry her, and I know the boundary thing and like, hey, I want to make sure the precedents are going the right way here. And if she threw a total fit and was an asshole about it, then it's like a kid sometimes. You don't want to reward that. And by the way, male, female. Men, women, sorry.

There you go. If she... Think about what you're going to have to deal with if she's sitting at home stewing, watching her team play the Super Bowl by herself. And then she loses. Right. And you're going to come home to that. No, you don't want to do that.

I would say tell her you're coming over for the game. Love to have you. Sorry about before, you know, but it's a bunch of the dudes and I didn't want to bum out. I needed to check with the dudes and everything didn't want to bum out be like i needed to check with the dudes everything and i made the wrong call whatever i did that once i was like oh i don't want anybody to think i was whipped and i actually just didn't want to hang out with the person but i said that i got away with what you know whatever i did and um i think that's the play here because i think i think the downside to you putting your foot down now

with these other circumstances that she doesn't have anyone to watch it with, that it could be both of their teams, that her team could likely be in the Super Bowl, that everybody gets along, that the friend said, I thought she was already coming. I'm a little unclear on what the full weekend scope of this whole thing is. The gambling thing, you're going to have to, you guys will figure that one out when you figure it out, right? When you're roommates or life partners, right? Sounds like probably, you know, whatever. But what I'm telling you, the most important thing of all these dynamics swirling here is you cannot have her sitting at home watching the Super Bowl by herself after you just had fun with your buddies on day two,

and you come home to that and think anything's going to be cool for a while. Because that bill is going to be far worse than the Bovado bill. Yeah, totally. I think, especially if you're on the track of, yeah, I'm going to marry her and fully intend on doing all that stuff. You don't want to have to keep her at this arm's length, especially if you guys have a tendency to get together all the time. You don't want to be like, well, I have to keep her at this, you know, arm's length, especially if you guys have like, you know, a tendency to get together all the time. You don't want to be like, well, I have to keep them separate because, you know, maybe she's not as cool or maybe our time won't be as good. Like you definitely do want to be, you definitely want to have like, people have like memories and know each other and feel like comfortable about being around each other. And yeah, so what? There's

times when I think the dynamic between me and my friends, I mean, 100% of the time is going to be better if my fiance is not there. Sorry, just is. That's why we're friends. But it's important to be able to mix it up because some other guys are going to have girls there too. And it sounds like you have the right type of group because one of the guys was like, dude, I thought it was coming. It's a Super Bowl party. In a way, it's sort of like New Year's Eve, but there's like, you know, shit that people actually care about going on. But like, it's like one of those things where it's just, you know, it's kind of accepted. Like sometimes there's even like, you know, kids running around at these things that aren't even watching the game. They're just kind of, you know, being annoying. Maybe they're running

around making noise. And, you know, it's just one of those things. It's sort of a Super Bowl party. I understand you wanted to make it sort of this like special weekend. And it sounds like maybe you could still have the weekend. And I think Ryan's advice was just like, tap your chest a little bit. Be like, hey, this is one of my flaws. I wasn't really sure what to do. My bad. But yeah, I would love to do the game and excited that we can watch football together and stuff like that. Unless she's going to be a wet blanket and you're positive that she's going to embarrass you. I don't think that's going to happen. I think you're just like selfishly, which listen, I've been there, you know, I've done things where, you know, I've been like, you know, I don't think you'd really want to go like, this is what's going on here. And,

you know, I think, you know, I'll only be like four hours. So like, you know, you want to stay here, maybe read and do a little whatever. And I'll come back. Like I've done that where I've convinced my, my girlfriend, now fiance, like she'd be happier off at home you know but like unless your girl unless your girlfriend's gonna embarrass you like you should totally you should totally bring her to this super bowl party because it's like super bowl party is one of those things like you know the gates are kind of open for most people that want to come yeah i went back and read it again and again you know i don't need to do because the listeners probably listened better than i was reading it but it's just that they're all getting together in the town so she's

going to be there in the town now she's demanding hey from minute one until the last minute i have to be there the whole time that's a massive red flag if she truly threw a fit again like 22 is like fake adult age it just is i'm sorry if you're 22 actually revel nobody's really judging you they're just like oh that guy's stupid he's so young you know it's just like you think like think about it you're you're six years removed from being like 16. that's crazy you know if you really think about it that way um and some of you are are terrific adults you figured out pretty early but if she's throwing like a full-blown bit and wants to be with you every single minute,

I would put that argument on layaway, get through the playoffs. Especially if your team's in it, you get a chance to win a Super Bowl. But there's a lot of factors here. I just think the most important thing is you cannot have her sitting in a room watching that game by herself while you're partying with your buddies.

Agreed. Okay, this one's a little little different actually. It is a relationship based one here. Maybe Kyle can help me with this one. Ryan, Kyle, I need your help on a situation. 26, 6'3", 195, no crazy gym stats, but I have a good mix of running and lifting throughout the week. Played D1 golf in college, so I very

much appreciated your life advice with Max Homa and would love that again. I don't think we covered it on that one, but we'll have Max on again once he starts putting some age on his back pocket. I've come to the conclusion that one of the biggest, if not the biggest hangout, oh hang up, excuse me, hang up about making things serious with this girl is her fucking dog. Don't get me wrong. I love dogs. I love the dogs and I've always had dogs in the house growing up, all however the way this girl worships her dog is very much a turnoff her dog is cute

and generally well behaved but it's still a dog and i swear the girl treats the dog like it's her own flesh and blood she comes over to watch a movie her dog comes too she spends the night the dog sleeps in my bed we go out to eat you fucking guessed it the dog is coming too this past weekend we went hiking and the entire drive to the trail music in the car was drowned out by her giving the dog loud kisses i almost barfed importantly she has a roommate who is more than capable of watching the dog occasionally and i definitely go to her apartment more often than she comes to mind am i crazy or an asshole for hating the way she coddles and worships her dog? Is it putting

the cart before the horse to be worried about the possibility of a dog I didn't choose eventually becoming my shared responsibility? Why is it that the only people my age who have dogs are girls? Please advise. Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. I never really thought about the male female thing on the dogs thing. I thought about it on boats.

I see a lot of I see a lot of guys behind the wheel i rarely see a female boat captain with like 10 dudes drinking white claws on the bow let's see that a lot i would love that would be a great instagram page of just dudes that get invited onto women's boats and they're just at the front like newport beach just be like never looking back take me back or it's an old photo of him on somebody's boat take me back these three guys it's never a bore with these three just you don't see a lot of dude content in that direction um and i don't know what it is.

You know, the boat payments, you look at it and you're like, fuck, why would I do this again? So maybe, you know, we're all the idiots. But yeah, I don't know about the dog thing on that. I mean, this is I got sick to my stomach reading the email. So I'm I would be out of there fucking yesterday. That's annoying, man. That's right. I mean, like your dog.

But it's my guess is that you like hooking up with her and she's really attractive and that's the reason you're even still in this and then you're asking us um you could say it's a red flag except you already know like it is it has already happened it will only be worse and if it bothers you now i don't know i kind of admire people that can go hey this thing this thing that I really hate, I don't care about it as much because there's all these other good parts and I'm going to be fine. And maybe that's where you're at. Maybe you are more mature than me. Maybe you are more accepting. But as a guy that doesn't have any pets and doesn't plan on having any, that's such a bad time.

I hated that email. And I would say, be done with it. But that seems a little harsh. Yeah. I mean, at first I thought I knew that I had some similar stuff going on here. I mean, my fiancee is not insane. She definitely likes animals more than she likes people. But there's a lot of people that would say that. I think not as many as people that wouldn't say that, but, uh, yeah, I'm more in the camp of, yeah, that's a dog and I'm a person.

So, you know, what about what I think about it? Um, but I'm like, I'm in that new, new t-shirt alert. That's a dog. I'm a person. So, uh, now what? what um but i think that this isn't gonna last i don't think because this stuff is actually like you're cringing wherever you are with her you're out in a restaurant i mean i don't know if this and i don't even know what kind of dog it is it's probably you know if it's a service dog too it's like it'll be on every plane if any i don't think it's a service dog i don't think so but a lot of people make them service dogs because that's the type of people. Oh, wait, you know what?

She has paperwork for this dog. This dog is. Totally. Yeah. Provides no service. And it's, you know, it's on the lap next to a stranger on the plane. That's what it is. So I think this is going to end for you.

And I think the silver lining is when you're done, just hit her with that dog or me ultimatum. You know, she's going to choose the dog and you are out of there. Uh, and it's fine. Unless you guys know all the same people. And she's like, you know, he told me to get rid of the dog or, or, or he's leaving. So as long as like, you guys don't have a bunch of same like family, friends and stuff like that, when you're ready to go, this is going to be so easy for you. You can just be like, listen, it's the dog or me. And we already know she's going to choose the dog. So I don't know, put up with it for as long as you can um i'd say try to keep your uh trips to a minimum and um yeah just be done when you're done with this this isn't going to work out it's not going to change it's who she is yeah right no she needs somebody that really digs dogs and sounds like likes her way more than you do to put

it up to put up with this yeah the fact that you're even kind of like still open-ended about this tells me there's a lot that you really like about her um nice apartment maybe i don't know yeah yeah he says he goes there a lot yeah a lot more um yeah i don't i don't really like the topic anymore i mean i've definitely hung out with people that like their dogs quite a bit and i i'm surprised anybody would hang with me that long knowing that I'm just, and I'm not anti-dog, just indifferent to the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I got that too. Like, we've got, you know, we've got the rabbit story. I'm not going over it again, but she'll be like, oh my God, look at the rabbit. And I'm like, I won't even look. I'll just be like, yeah, wow. Oh yeah. No, that sucks. I'll just be like, wow.

Okay. But it's not like she's like, all right all right we're gonna bring him to the grocery store or whatever it's just like it's but it's the same sort of thing where it's like she gets she gets this thing and i don't get it she doesn't get that i don't care you know i'm a person that's a rabbit i don't you know again happy to feed him you know change the water when you're away um happy to do it but uh i'm not really wondering what he's thinking so that's that's all i mean like uh you guys have a rabbit right uh we've got multiples and we'll just leave it there because i'm so tired of talking about this shit so you give us a number yeah it's five we had one that was pregnant and um she just

really love her man you got five rabbits over there oh yeah she just really love her, man. You got five rabbits over there. Oh, yeah. Hoping for a bad patch of lettuce one day. I don't know. I think we'll end the pod on that. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Kyle. Five rabbit

Kyle. Why do you think I'm at Frolic Room all the time? Oh, man. All right. Please subscribe to the Friday Russell podcast. Ringer and Spotify. We'll talk to you on Friday. Outro Music