The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Jokic Workload Question and Too Many NBA 3s? NFL Trade Rumors and Lamar MVP Fatigue With Albert Breer, Plus Actor Ed Quinn.

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Russillo opens the show with another edition of ‘Tales From the Couch’ to recap Tuesday’s NBA action (0:47). Then, he’s joined by Albert Breer to discuss Anthony Richardson’s benching, share his MVP thoughts, and break down the trade deadline (15:15). Finally, actor Ed Quinn joins to share stories from his time acting and modeling (57:30) and he sticks around for a special edition of Life Advice (110:48)! Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Albert Breer and Ed Quinn Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's podcast, we're going to check in with Albert Breer on some of the quarterback headlines and trade deadline rumors and some love for two head coaches and his MVP vote. We've also got a special guest here, Ed Quinn. I've mentioned him. He's been acting for a very long time. He's my neighbor for a while. He's about as interesting as it gets. So he's just going to talk to us about what it's like to be an actor, a working actor in LA. And he's going to do some life advice on that as well. And of course we start the show Wednesdays, Tales from the Couch, running through last night's games and a few observations week one into the NBA season. do great things too. You won't win in the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research.

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Must be 21 and older and President-elect states gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. A little Wednesday edition of Tales From the Couch for you here will start with Dallas and Minnesota, a rematch of the Western Conference Finals and goes off in the first quarter for 25 points. I think Clay was the original defensive assignment. As much as I like clay on the Mavs That's a spot where you're thinking

Alright, well Derek Jones probably be a little bit better for this specific matchup But it was attacking something to look at coming into last night's game through three Davis Excuse me, Anthony Edwards had taken 70 total shots, right? 40 of those 70 shots were from three and he added 13 more attempts last night. So by game to the four games three point attempts for Ant 13 15 12 and 13. Well, he's shooting 42% on three so you can't be mad at him taking those. He's averaging 30 game.

He's top five score. But I liked at least in the first quarter where it felt like he was attacking a little bit more, but I don't know if he was attacking more because he saw Klay Thompson on him. Then we saw more some PJ Washington on him. Clay was definitely, when you're watching teams and how they're trying to set up their offense and find the weak link, Clay was that person that Minnesota was trying to find and Randall was the person that Dallas was trying to find in some of their switches. And then again, Ant did one of my things that I just will never understand. He had Clay on him late in a position and then switched into PJ Washington,

which guys just like, I know that part of it is the reward of getting people to switch and then move around defensively and all that kind of stuff. The real story of how Dallas won this, a couple of different reasons, but one is they didn't turn it over nine turnovers for them. 20 for Minnesota had massive turnover nights. That's 16 more shot attempts on the game. Minnesota missed a bunch of free throws, including Ants.

So there's a way of kind of like looking at the math here saying, okay, Minnesota could have won this game. Um, but there's a couple other things. Connelly's really struggled to start this. I mean, he's 37 years old and he's 23 and 27% from the floor right now. He's only playing 24 minutes per game. So it's worth looking at some of the defencenzo stuff. Also transition defense

continues to be an issue. I don't know if Stan Van Gundy's had two of the Minnesota games, maybe he has. He's definitely pointed it out and you do see it, although overall and points allowed because again we're so early with the number stuff a week into the NBA season that some of these numbers are just dumb or don't mean anything or aren't as telling as you'd expect them to be. They're 12th in transition points allowed. I just think there's some times where some new pieces, I mean, it's pretty simple stuff of knowing who's supposed to get back and who's not getting back, but it just looks like there's times they're getting beat in transition because they're just not as locked in as they should be.

Um, you know, Denver's, I think the worst team right now is allowing points in transition. I mean, this number's stupid. Oklahoma city is I think, the worst team right now is allowing points in transition. This number's stupid. Oklahoma City's the best in the league. They're allowing an average of 1.7 points per game through four in transition, so that's not going to hold up. Overall, defensively is the bigger story for Minnesota. 13th in defensive rating, they were number one last season.

Dallas is three and one, and Luca isn't even shooting that well at 36 and 27% splits Kyrie's been great. I love when he's at like 18 plus shot attempts per game. They like that 18 to 20 range is exactly where you'd want him. He took 23 last night, do six eight from three for 35 points. And the biggest thing with Dallas is that even with the new piece of clay in Grimes, a lot of Dinwiddie last night is that I think the rest of the pieces like really know who they are. And it's comforting. I saw two teams last night, one that was pretty sure what they were going to

be doing and Minnesota that's still kind of trying to figure that out. But it wasn't like they got smoked or anything. So there you go. Golden state was down 31 to 14 after the first quarter, no Curry last night. Some incredible lineups from Golden state and looking at the weird lineups. I'm thinking, all right, we got a Kaminga, Looney, Gary Payton, Pajemski, Buddy healed lineup. Then there was another one with Draymond Green, Waters who's been, you know, when OKC has a guy like Waters on the roster for a couple of years, it's probably worth healed lineup. Then there was another one with Draymond green waters. Who's been, you know, when okay. C has a guy like waters on the, on the roster for a couple of years, it's

probably worth just going, Hey, should we try to get them and play them a little bit more? And I think that's something golden state's been rewarded for very early on. The shooting numbers are good volumes, obviously not going to be that high, but yeah, this lineup was waters with green with trace Jackson Davis, Kyle Anderson and Kaminga who came off the bench last night, even with the curry injury. So like that lineup, I'm going,

where's the shooting gonna be here? But what last night's game was, was an example of just effort, because the intensity that the Warriors played with defensively and how after they got passing lanes, diving all over the place, like that was a coach's dream, watching that film. And I don't know that they would even want to compliment their team enough place. Like that was a coach's dream, watching that film.

And I don't know if they would even want to compliment their team enough. But if you sat and watched the film, I imagine with that warrior staff and just the sheer effort and how it turned that game last night, that's the kind of stuff. That's why coaches yell at everybody because they're like, if you just did that all the time, but it'd be impossible on the other side, like pelicans very quickly, as I go through all the teams, I try to get all 30 teams within the first week to be able to see, you know, just kind of how things look, but it obviously can change a lot game to game.

Then there becomes these, like this group of teams early on where I think, well, I don't have to make watching them a priority because I think I just know exactly what it's going to look like. Like I like watching Sacramento, but I'm pretty sure I have it down already. The Pelicans are dangerously close to that too. Uh, they've got their injuries. We know DeJante's out. Herb got hurt last night.

Trey Murphy hasn't played. They're starting Tice at center, but, uh, Yves Missy is actually getting more minutes and I think he's been really active and like, man, if he's a real big option for them with a team that has aspirations and you, and you nail that pick in the middle of the first round. Like that's, that's going to be massive. It's if that works out for them. I mean, Zion's played the three games and it looks a lot like Zion. I mean, he's still so young that sometimes I'll think like, can he still have this

burst, can he still have these moves? Well, you know, I, I'm, I point out when other people freak out that LeBron James at this age is dunking and I'm like, well, he is 6'8", so he probably should still be able to dunk. He's not 60. But then I'll have a moment with Zion where he had a baseline spin last night. I was like, well, okay, I don't know that we have to worry about this. It probably has more to do with Zion's injury history than it does his age. And then you've got Aldi KD, Brandon Ingram, who's going to get his 25 a game and certain

moments it's going to look really nice because the shot making is incredible, but I don't know that there's going to be something where the Pelicans all of a sudden have this run where I go, oh wow, I have to like pay more attention to them and take them more seriously. All right, Denver, another overtime win last night in Brooklyn. So Denver's two and two back to back nights. They win in Toronto in overtime. They went down to the last possession against the Clippers. They got smoked by okay. See, so that's four games of this stuff. And by the way, when they won in Toronto, uh, Barnes got hit in the face really hard on kind of like a free for all and a rebound.

So the Raptors even have Barnes, um, in overtime. And by the way, shout out to the Raptors like playing pretty hard, um, in some of these games. So Denver gets through these with two wins. So they're going to win. They're going to win. They're going to win. They're going to the Raptors, like playing pretty hard in some of these games. So Denver gets through these with two wins. So let's look at Jokic and his approach. So when they lost to OKC, took 13 shots. When they lost the Clippers, it was like, well, I'm not going to do that again,

if this is what I'm surrounded by. He took 26 shots against the Clippers, 12 from three, 27 shots against Toronto. Last, 12 from 3, 27 shots against Toronto. Last night he was 9 of 16 against Brooklyn, but the reason it's only 16 shot attempts is because he went to the free throw line 13 times because he was fouled constantly. The workload here for Jokic is kind of concerning. Now granted, Jokic from 30 seconds from the tip looks like he's already out of shape and then that's just the way it's going to look the entire game. If you look at his touches right now on the season, he's at 111 touches per game.

He's eight more than Trey Young, who touches the ball a lot. That's eight more than the guy who's second in that category. Last season, Jokic was 101 touches per game. Now it's 111. And even though he goes for 29, 18 and 16, and then I can say, I don't, I don't know if he can play like this though, for the 70 plus games that he would play. And it's met with, well, of course he's going to get his numbers and all that. I think we're seeing it differently.

It's like 80 pitches versus 80 pitches. There's a game where a pitcher will have 80, 85 pitches and the stress of those pitches is nothing in compared to the next time he has to throw 85 pitches. So you can't just look at 40 minutes. You can't just look at shot attempts, the rebounds and say, what's the difference here? Because what I am seeing is a workload that Jokic, it's so much. Let's run through overtime. Because this is something else I'm going to be paying attention to. Jokic touches in overtime. All right. Single coverage against Claxton foul free throws.

Single coverage. DFS ended up on him. He posts him up. Offensive rebound where he made the offensive rebound but he was posting him up in single coverage on a Michael Porter Jr cut. He missed it. Offensive rebound, Jokic scores.

All right. Single coverage again against Claxton. Michael Porter Jrr. Cut he missed it offensive rebound Jokic scores. All right single coverage again against Claxton Michael Porter jr. Cut against cam Thomas cam was a little late with it his offball defense is you know What you would expect in a high volume score, but he's just too big. He was behind the play Anyway, so I know that he's really even gonna challenge that one single coverage by Claxton off the ball He was he was fouled they were fighting over position there. So then the Nets tried to double him. They doubled him on a catch with Cam Johnson. And then the thing you cannot do is you cannot lose Aaron Gordon

on double teams of Jokic. Guess what? Gordon cuts baseline. It's just the first play you have to think about in Gordon's positioning whenever you want to send a double at Jokic. And then there was kind of like this soft double that wasn't really a double. It was in a transition scramble and Christian Brown was on the other side, hits a wide open three. But if you watch these plays, the amount of work it will take Jokic to consistently get into these

positions because he is just too big for Claxton. He's too big for the front line of the nets. So he's just working and working his position. This is like the high stress pitching from a pitcher because even with all the touches and all the shot attempts and the raw stats that Jokic had had in previous MVP seasons, there were still plays where he could catch it at the top, operate from the top of the three point line. He didn't have to run into the post and bang and bang and bang and work and work the entire possession, multiple positions in a row, because there was just more flow to this offense with more shooters in the past and whatever Jamal Murray is right now, where I think people think it's maybe worse than I do.

There were times in the Toronto game where I thought he was hurt again or something was going on, but he's never going to look like Westbrook, prime Westbrook. So it can be a little misleading when Murray doesn't look like super explosive because he's not really that guy anyway. And he also made the game tying layup against Toronto on a really nice reverse layup. So the point I am emphasizing probably a third time here is that we can talk touches, we can talk shot attempts or whatever, but the work that I saw from Jokic against Toronto and the work I saw from him against Brooklyn is a lot to ask of one guy that apparently kind of realizes like,

I guess I got to do more of this as he admitted very early on in the season and one of the post game availabilities, he was like, yeah, we don't have much shooting. It's like, okay, it's, it's hard to argue. Um, and the reason I bring up the single covers versus the double teams is I wonder, and someone will have to do with single covers versus the double teams is I wonder, and some of it will have to do with who else is out there with him is as much as you never wanted to double Yokech.

Cause you actually, I felt like paid a worse price. Like would you look at certain lineups around him where you may go, do we have to, do we have to try to show him something here a little bit? I really only saw one Nets double team from that. All right. So the game was over. Cam Thomas worth bringing up. We know he's not my favorite guy

because he was fourth in shot attempt rate in the NBA last year with Luca Brunson and Steph Curry, but he's six in scoring now. His usage has gone way up, but his efficiency has had a massive spike off the usage, which usually doesn't happen with somebody who's like this high volume of a guy. Um, he's one of 12 shooters or 12 players in the NBA right now with 20 or more

shot attempts, uh, max he's taking 28.7 shots per game, which is a large number. But cams using a size really well. Uh, the shot making is really special. He is foul hunting a bit. He hooked Aaron Gordon's off arm and, um, Aaron Gordon's going to just have PTSD from this because it happened to him just this weekend against Harden in a huge spot where Ben Taylor reviewed it after a challenge, it was very clear that Harden hooked Gordon's arm.

And for some reason, Ben Taylor was like, yeah, just not enough evidence for all this stuff. Uh, by the way, Harden has his highest usage rate since his last season in Houston. So yes, Cam, special shot maker. I just think it's a lot of shots unless you think that he actually is going to be a star in the league, which maybe some people do. The East right now as we finish up has four teams over 500, whatever, four games. Only three teams with a plus point differential. The Knicks are two and two.

They're 29th in defensive efficiency in the NBA. I can't imagine that's going to hold up with all these perimeter guys. There was some turnstile moments for Kat against Cleveland. That was an awesome win by Cleveland. They didn't even have Struce. Mobley still super connected, but there were some moments where you get past the initial defense and then you're driving a Kat. It's just, you know,

there's not gonna be a lot of resistance there. Tips goes with him with the early subs. He's still fourth in minutes on the Knicks. So, you know, long time minute management guy, Tom Thibodeau, I don't know that he's pacing him here, but he's actually still playing a lot of minutes unless you are super into the Huck Porty minutes. Although he had a dunk that was pretty nasty.

That was, it was, I'm not going to say it was overturned. It just, it didn't count. All right. Um, a couple of numbers here. The NBA has 10 teams taking 43 or more a game, 40 more threes again. Right. Last year, only two teams did 2016 Golden state. They took 31.6, three point attempts per game.

That was eight years ago. That number would put them at 24th in the NBA today. Speaking of threes, my favorite three-point attempt of the season, Wizards two nights ago, their win against Atlanta, Washington up 115-108-209 left. Scramble for the ball, ends up with Alex Saar. He takes a three with seven seconds left in the shot clock up seven wanting to run. He missed it. I do like Kula Bali though. I liked his activity and he was hunting Trey Young like he was a podcaster. What does possible sound like for your business?

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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Good time of the year to have Bert Barier on. I'm excited about the senior writer Sports Illustrated and part of Thursday Night Football with Amazon Prime. What's up, man? It's good to see you. Hey, what's happening, Ryan? Appreciate you having me.

So I know normally like in basketball, we probably just do 30 minutes on the trade deadline. We're not going to do that because the league is in trauma filled with rumors, perhaps, as the NBA is. So let's just start with some of the quarterback stuff. I watched the Anthony Richardson game and I've watched a lot of him this year and I talked about it on Monday that I just think of like, now that Watson isn't a starter, there's a couple other names that it's hard to find somebody that's doing it worse than him. He hasn't played a lot of games. He spent the fourth pick on him. And I had said on Monday before they'd made the Flacco decision, like, you probably have to keep

playing them just to make sure you know what you've spent this massive resource on. And instead, they just went ahead with Flacco. So where are we with the Richardson timeline of who he is? In a weird way, Ryan, it's almost similar to Trey Lance. And I'm not saying he's going to become Trey Lance. And I'm sure a lot of people would probably be like, whoa, what are you talking about when I use that name? But I think it's similar in that the position the team is in here, the position the Colts are in is similar to where the Niners were,

where you have this guy who you know what he needs is to fight. And he needs reps and you need to kind of keep riding out bumps with him and go through the ups and downs. But he's very clearly not the best option for the team, you know, written here in the now. And I think the nuance that a lot of people miss on this stuff is that your locker room does not give a crap about your three-year plan. They do not give a crap what your quarterback position is going to look like in 2026. What those guys care about is winning in the here and

the now and individually having success which ultimately will set them up to continue making money as pro athletes. And I think that's sort of the spot the Colts got to. Now everybody's gonna point to the tap out and we can talk about that for sure. This was much bigger than that. I mean it was just so clear that Joe Flacco was the best option for the Colts right now. And a Colts team that has a good amount of players who are, you know, in the prime of their careers, a team that competed to be, that competed to get into the playoffs right till the very end last year

with Gardner Minshew as their quarterback. If you're Shane Stike, and how do you sell what Anthony Richardson is doing to your locker room? You can't. And so they're in this like weird spot now where it's like, you got this young quarterback who's got all the physical ability in the world and what he really needs is to play.

But for him to play, you got to live with a level of play that you can't sell to the rest of the players in your locker room. Yeah. The tap out thing wasn't great, but I just felt like the headline of who he's been as a quarterback is still more important. I don't know. Everybody seems to like him. Um, it seems like, you know, he actually is somebody that's really impressive when you talk to him.

So if he had had a different pattern, then maybe I would dwell on that a little bit. I would tell you just in general, watching guys tap out of football games is kind of shocking to me where it's be a running back after a big run. And I know he's not like 100% on the power meter, but like, wouldn't you want to just stay in? Like there's some guys that get it down into the red zone and then they come out and I'm thinking like, you could be costing yourself a touch here for a chance or happens with receivers.

I just, it just feels like it happens a little bit more. So I think it's a, perhaps a generational thing where some, even NFL players are go, I'm it's not supposed to happen when it's your quarterback, I fully understand it, so I'm not making excuses for him. It's just that you want to worry about that. Like I want to worry about all the other stuff in the 60 snaps, you know? Well, I do think like that there's probably something there when, and when you've got athletes who, you know, like, and, and then like both me and you were

going to sell sound like old men on this, right? But it's like, you know, I think, you know, the athletes who are our age were like taught to just push through everything, you know? And now they're so in tune to everything that goes into being a pro athlete and maximizing their performance and managing their workload that this has probably become more acceptable. I also think, and that doesn't mean it's acceptable

on an NFL locker room for a quarterback to do this because, you know, I remember Tom Brady saying this, which was the only way I can prove my toughness to my teammates is through availability. I have to continue to be available to them, whether it's in game, whether it's playing through an injury, those guys are playing through so much more than I am and have such a, so much more physically on them on a down to down basis than I do that the only way that I can show how tough I am to them is by continuing to answer the bell over and over and over again so they know they can count on me. And you know when I've when I've asked Coltsfield about the circumstance over the weekend the response I've gotten is this is a really this

is just I mean he's a good kid but he's naive. And like, he didn't even understand the scope of what he was doing on Sunday. So he thought, okay, like this is a, this, like, I just fought through a 300 pounder to pick up extra yards and you know, I'm, I'm beat up and I'm tired. And so like, I need, I need a blow. Like he didn't think of it beyond, you know, so I don't think it was a toughness thing. I think the kid's tough. Now he's had injury problems and everything else, but I think it's, I think he's got toughness. I don't think anybody who's watched him play would say that he doesn't. I just think there was, he's a young guy who hasn't played a ton. And I think that the, you know, the, the,

the fact that he's got that, that naive side to him, I think kind of got him there. And, you know, I think that Cole's hope is nothing more than that, but it wasn't the reason that they wound up benching him in the end. It's just sort of this thing for everybody to latch on to in the aftermath. All right. Well, speaking of toughness, what Jay and Daniels did this past weekend with the rib injury, you could tell he wasn't 100%. They went on the Hail Mary. He had been better than Caleb through three quarters. It wasn't like they were scoring 30 points and lighting up a Bears D that's pretty good.

Caleb, I thought the positive was that on a really, really tough day where he had nothing going, a lot of pressure, found a way to respond. So I still think as brutal as that loss is for Chicago, there's still some positives there with Caleb Williams fourth quarter. But, you know, looking at what Jaden has done here and where he ranks amongst quarterbacks, you talked to Dan Quinn after that game, is the reality that this is just who he's going to be like he is just out of the gate going to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league and

it's going to be one for a long time. Yeah, and I think it's going to be one for a long time. Yeah. And I think it's like kind of like an interesting thing when you compare him to the other guys in the class, you know, because they aren't all the same because of the era we're in in college football. He has a lot of experience. You know what I mean? Now it's not NFL experience, but he started 55 games in college.

He started at two major programs and two different major conferences. I mean, simple way, put it, he's seen a lot of shit, you know, he's seen a lot more than Caleb Williams or Drake May or, you know, or, or, or JJ McCarthy did in college, but just because the volume of, of, of volume of experiences that he has, you know? So like I do think like that's a huge part of his readiness. And that's something that teams have kind of taken a closer look at based on the success of Brock Bertie a couple years ago, because he played a lot of football at Iowa State. Well, now you've got, you know, a guy like, you know, a guy like a Jaden Daniels, a Bo Nicks, a Michael Penex, like those guys have seen even more, you know, because of

the circumstances, because of COVID and the transfer portal and everything else. So that certainly helps with Jaden. Um, I think the other part that's really encouraging if you're a commander strength, cause I think the temptation might be like, okay, is he just what he is, which is really, really good right now, but maybe there's, maybe this is what he is? Which is really, really good right now, but maybe there's, maybe this is what he is. The thing that I think makes you feel good when that argument is being made against him is he does everything right.

And I, I just, you know, having talked to a bunch of different people in that building and knowing people in that building, like he just has a good sense for everything around him, understands the locker room, understands how to lead as a rookie. And you hear a little anecdotes and I know, you know, these things can get overblown sometimes, but they were, you know, they spent a week out in Arizona, you know, leading up to their, leading up to their game against the Cardinals. And, you know, Dan Quinn told me that like every

night that week, he would go down in the hotel down this hallway and they have the different conference rooms or whatever that are set up as this position group and that position group. And he said, every night I would walk by 9, 9.30 PM and the lights on in the quarterback room and Jaden's in there.

And no one's asking him to do that, but he's in there. You know, I just think that that's the thing, like, that you can really take is, like, this stuff isn't going to his head at all, you know, like that he just because of the amount of things that he's seen, because he did have to deal with failure at Arizona State and all the stuff he saw at Arizona State too. I mean, you know this stuff better than me, like what they went through as a program and what he had to go through as a leader. I mean, if he had come out of Arizona State after three years, he might've gone on a draft, you know? So like just the amount of life experience the kid has,

I think, has really set himself up to handle success at the pro level, as well as any kid would handle failure. And they're really, really happy with where he is. And there's a feeling that there's still a lot of growth there for him, even though he was really ready for the pros because of how hard he works and how it looks, at least like he's going to be one of these guys at that position. Who's just going to look for every little edge that you can get.

Just let's review a quick, cause I know you watch a lot of all on Saturday. Did you have an order, like a definitive I had like Caleb and Jadon, understood the Jadon momentum there towards the end. I know personally, I fell in love with Caleb two years ago and knowing that he was doing everything as last year on his own, where Jadon had just way better talent around him that final year. So I think I probably had penics ahead of May, but I understood the May. May is also like a two years ago guy as opposed to his last season. And then I think there's just enough draft people, even though I didn't see a lot of it from JJ, there was just too many draft people that I respect that were like, dude, if you actually really break down the tape,

and at times he was asked to do something or something there. And then I would have Nick's last. Do you remember yours? Yeah, I would say Nick's last. Did you have, do you remember yours or? Yeah, I would say it was probably the same as you, except, and again, like a lot of mine's influenced by the people I talk to, which I'm sure yours is too. But I would say- Only JJ. Only on JJ. JJ was the one where I'm like, too many guys that I like

are like really into him here. So nobody was gonna change my mind on Caleb, that's all. Yeah, I would flip Pennex and I would flip Pennex in May. Just because I had heard from enough, I try to like keep in mind what I hear before like the whole draft season ramps up. Like what I hear before say the senior bowl. And there were enough people that were still really high on Drake, even though, you know, his last year at North Carolina didn't go great. And a lot of people, you know, had pointed out how similar to Caleb, there were a lot of adverse circumstances his last year. He lost a lot around him. He lost offensive

coordinator, losing Phil Longo, I think was a big deal for him. And he had to adjust. And one of the things the Patriots really liked about him is how he threw nobody under the bus. When they sat down and met with him, and they would take him through his bad plays, he took accountability for everything. It was never like, oh yeah, well, this is a new offense, so this screwed me up, or my right tack missed a block here,

or, well, that receiver was actually supposed to run that route Like there was none of that, you know, and so I just think Drake physically Like I look at him like I don't think he's Josh Allen But I think he's sort of like I think he plays a Josh Allen type of game with Justin Herbert's skill set You know, and that's a pretty good place to be so I would say if I took the six I'd probably have them the same as you just flip the two in the middle.

All right. Speaking of quarterbacks, I like to compliment their teammates, Russell Wilson, another win with the Steelers and, uh, you had a nugget in there because. And I think anybody that's really paid attention to the Russell Wilson timeline and Mike Sando, who we've had on a lot knows this really well because he's up there and he covered the Seahawks pretty intimately. The timeline of events for Russell Wilson was that towards the end in Seattle, he felt like for him to become the full version of him in his pursuit of the unobtainable and Brady and some of these

other greats that he needed to be the priority in the offense. He needed things to change around him. in the offense, he needed things to change around him. And as he was wanting that, he actually was getting worse. So he gets his way out, he gets to Denver, wants to open it up. First year they let him do whatever he wants. The Peyton thing with him is a terrible dynamic. Just because look, Russ is tough. He could be a really annoying guy. And I think Peyton kind of went in there knowing it on top of everything else. So look, it was a little self-destructive. He got what he wanted and then it ended up being worse. Whatever I think about him and his personality, the best version of him as a quarterback is

probably one of my favorite versions of modern quarterbacks is I just felt like he was such a baller. He found a way to make plays when you needed it. And he was really accurate on the move. And yeah, there was some other stuff, but like there was, there's a part of his game that I loved. And so, you know, the first game. Couple of weeks ago gets off to an awful start. You could debate how great he was in it, but you know, look, they beat the giants.

And, and now we're here with what looks like the better option than Fields, even if I think Fields probably won over the locker room a little bit. So where do you see this thing kind of playing out here for Wilson who look, he should just look better by getting real reps after missing so much time because of this calf injury. Yeah. Well, I mean, we can start with the root of it. Like I really think in Seattle, Pete Carroll and his staff had a way that they felt like they needed to deploy him for him to have success.

And I think the other guys in the locker room has created some of the tension, like thought Pete was right to in the way that they used him and the way that they played him. And, you know, I think Russell had a wandering eye and looked around and saw Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers and they're almost like conductors of an orchestra back there. You know, like they're in the shotgun and they're, you know, they got the field spread out and they're picking defenses apart.

And, you know, I think Russ was like, I want that. And I think whoever traded for him was going to have to give it to him because of his standing in the league, because of who he is, they was going to have to give it to him because of his standing in the league, because of who he is, they were going to have to give it to him. And he was going to have to fall in his face to be convinced that no, Pete was actually right. No, Seattle was actually right all along. And one of the things just talking to Steelers people over the last couple of days that's really become apparent is like he is finally embraced and accepted like some of the things that he was doing in Seattle were correct. Moving the pocket, you know, playing the way they're using them off of play action, being

under center more, you know, and then some of the off schedule stuff, getting the ball downfield like that the Seattle coaching staff and all the different offensive coaches that cycle through there, a lot of them did have his best interest in mind and were playing him the right way. And you know, so I think that that, that dynamic definitely exists. And I think you have to give Mike Tomlin credit too. Because I just tell you, there were very few people in that building that thought Mike was doing the right thing, as far as I could tell. Players, coaches, most people thought,

we need to stick with Justin. Justin had won over the locker room, like you said. He's a stealer. Now, we can debate how good Justin is as a player, but just from a mentality standpoint, a makeup standpoint, a toughness standpoint, he is a stealer, you know? So he really fit the program.

Mike was able to kind of see the forest through the trees on this one and say, okay, I can either stick with Justin and that's probably it for Russ. And if I do that, I'm giving myself one shot at it. Or I can see if Russ can unlock something with our receivers, start to get the ball downfield more, which should help our run game

and should help us compliment a really good defense better. I take my shot at that. And if I do that and it doesn't work, I can go back to Justin anyway. So instead of giving myself one shot at it, I'm gonna give myself two shots at it. And so I think Tomlin deserves a lot of credit for going against the rising tide here. There's a reason he's lasted 18 years in Pittsburgh, a place that has real expectations.

And I think giving himself those two shots at it, now it looks like he has it right. It looks like Russell's giving them a higher level of play than Justin did. But even if that winds up being fool's gold, like if that's a flash in the pan, he can go back to Justin in three, four, five weeks if he needs to, no harm, no foul. So I think it was just a really good job by Mike Tomlin of being able to have the right feel for what his team needed and what would serve the team that he has right now, going forward. Yeah, I completely agree with you, by the way.

I think we make up too much of when the quarterback change is made, and you're like, oh, you can't do that. I felt like the Ubers, Arch Manning thing in the Texas Georgia game is another example. Granted, we're talking about different sports, but it's like, oh, you can't go back to Ubers now. Or you can, because he's going to want to just play and be pissed. And if any of these guys are competitive, it's like Justin Fields can be pissed, but it's not

like he's been a 10 year stealer, you know, inducted into the hall of fame. Like he, he wasn't the first overall pick with the Steelers and he's, he's a guy that's now had to go through his own stuff. And I'm sure when he gets another chance, he's going to be fired up for it. Because even if I didn't love him in Chicago, I didn't, I thought he had better moments with Pittsburgh. But the whole reason this team is in contention is because of that defense. And yeah, maybe the floor is raised here, especially if Russ is more willing to accept Seattle version of him than this. Yeah.

And again, like if you unlock that downfield passing game for obvious reasons, that's going to open things up in the run game. And if you've got a great run game, that's where you need to be to really maximize the defense. I think we saw that with the way Najee and Jaylen Warren ran the other night. I'm just going to ask you because I think it's exciting, but I think the answer is going to be less exciting. Some of the quarterbacks, would people make calls on Anthony Richardson? Is there a Bryce Young market?

Would someone call Pittsburgh and say, well, okay, wait a minute, if you've made a move here, and it may not even be about a 24 play, about a long-term depth play at the position, is there anything to that market? Well, Justin Fields isn't under contract for next year, so I think that would be tough. With Richardson and Bryce, here's my thing. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have.

And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. And I think that's a good thing to have. were the Panthers or the Colts in detaching from the investment they made. You look at how much the Panthers invested in Bryce Young and how much the Colts invested in going and getting Anthony Richardson.

They threw that whole year, the whole 22 season, like out to in the name of going and getting a quarterback and drafting high. And they picked him fourth overall, which was higher than most people had him. Um, you know, like if you're another team coming in, it's like, well, let's see if we can maybe get them for a four and put them in our quarterback room and develop them and see what he becomes. Is it worth it for the Colts or Panthers

to detach from their investment at this point for a fourth round pick? Probably not. And if you're another team, do you go to a three? Do you go to a two? I don't think so. You know, so I just, I don't know that the values match up there.

Like, and, you know, I, I think this is another thing where ownership gets involved too, you know, like where Jim mercy had to wait so long for them to actually invest in a quarterback. They had band-aided it for what? Like, I don't even know band-aided it as a word, but band-aided it for... Well, Wentz, Rivers, Minshew, I mean, you know, just go through it. Five years after luck, right? And then you see what the Panthers did and how hyper-focused, like David Tepper has been on getting the quarterback in there and how he had a voice in drafting Bryce Young. It just seems like it'd be too complicated for them for a deal to do

before the deadline. Now in the off season, maybe that's something different if these guys don't show progress in the meeting room, in the practice field and all that. But I think for right now, it's difficult to see that happening. All right. Well, another backup quarterback, if Malik Willis qualified, he would lead the league in passer rating and QBR. And Tomlin, it's funny because, you know, people are really weird about Tomlin.

I know in the past that maybe I didn't quite understand like the full Tomlin experience. Like, is he really this good or is he good at looking like he's just good? And it's like, well, wait a minute, think about the sport that he's in and that he's consistently been competitive. Even the years they were down at quarterback, the defense is always awesome. And then I remember like a few years ago when Antonio Brown was still around, I was like, all the bullshit that this guy has dealt with, like Tomlin so much better than I've ever. So I just don't want to debate Tomlin anymore.

I mean, I don't want to jump in on this rhyme, but like, but, but do you know what Tomlin like I always think about this with Mike, like did, did any of us like know how much of a problem Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Palma were until they left? But I feel like not many people knew. I'm with you, because I remember I was still talking about it because I was like, oh, wait a minute, how come he lost his playoff game at home or whatever? I was probably being too hard

or maybe I was asking a question that I felt like nobody else was asking. We're just accepting that Tomlin is just better than everybody else. And then I was kind of like, yeah, I think he might be because that place was a mess and I don't know that we really realized it. If you remember, if you go back and you remember the, uh, the young money receivers, right? It was Emmanuel Sanders, Mike Wallace, and Antonio Brown. Like Antonio Brown was kind

of seen as the good soldier. You know what I mean? Like, and it's true. You can go back and look it up. Like they offered Mike Wallace a contract. He said no. And they gave the contract to Antonio Brown because he was the right kind of guy. It's, but you know what that does though? Then I think there's a very real effect to Mike Talman's ability to manage the personalities.

How much wider of a net can the Steelers cast at the draft than everyone else because of that, right? Right. Yeah. Like how wide in that can you cast if you know your coach can manage personalities and guys are going to come in and fall in line? Not everybody can take the chances the Steelers can. And I think that's a powerful, powerful thing. I think Bill Cower was that for them too.

Like they've always had some like questionable characters on their team, but they've always been able to manage it because they've got like these battleship commander head coaches, you know. And I think Tomlin enables like the front office to take risks that other teams can't take because the front office knows like they've got a head coach who can manage it. So let's pivot back though to the Packers here and another love injury where it wasn't even the last play. Like he, as I pointed out on Monday, when you watch that game, you're like, this guy is hurt.

He's hurt the whole game. He's out. And like, I don't know if Malik Willis is a starting quarterback, but I love the story. I met him in the lead 11. It's hard not to immediately just love the guy. I mean, he just seems like he's, you kind of need that a little bit of quarterback. So maybe that's helping or whatever. But you know, the fact that they're pulling out some of these wins while their quarterback thing has been this disrupted, How is, how is he doing this?

So like, I, I think it's just to, to like, one of my favorite stats of the season is that I think it's 10 quarters really where, um, Malik Willis, maybe it's 11 depending, I can't remember how much he would love one out being a third quarter, I think in the pack of game, right? Something like that. I can't remember exactly when it was, but whatever the timeline is, like the two plus games that Malik Willis has been in there as the starting quarterback, the Packers have averaged over five yards a carry.

Now think about that, right? Malik Willis comes in. What's the defense going to do? They're going to put an eighth guy in the box. They're going to call run blitzes. They're going to do everything that they possibly can to force Malik Willis to drop back and throw the ball.

And yet the Packers are still able to generate over five yards of carry in the time that Willis is in there. That to me is staggering. And it's such a, like, I think Matt LaFleur is criminally underrated for what he did in managing the Aaron Rodgers thing with the front office and developing Jordan Love in the background and filling out his staff and knowing what his staff needs. They hired Jeff Hathley this year on the defensive side of the ball.

He's able to effectively play to his player strengths at all times. And so they've been able to pivot and make Malik Willis a part of the running game. And that running game is now, again, averaging over five yards of carry when Willis is in there, even though the defense has an idea, like they're not gonna throw it as much as they did when Jordan was in there.

I think it's a really, it's a tribute to, you know, what you're able to do if you have a coach who can change what he does on the fly to highlight individual players. I mean, if you're the Titans, what are you thinking right now? You know what I mean? You traded this guy away at the end of August

and you haven't gotten very good quarterback play period. I think, what is it? I think Rudolph and Levis have combined for something like 10 interceptions so far, right? Whatever that number is, and they've been really scattershot the position in general and you see Willis go and sort of revive his career here with the Packers yeah I mean like I think you know it's it's a tribute to what they've been able to build and what they've been able to do a quarterback

in particular on green bet who would your MVP be right now? Josh Allen, I think. I mean, I, I, I, I, I'm tempted to say golf, but then you look at Sunday and there was a point in Sunday's game where they had nine net passing yards and 42 points, you know what I mean? Like I was just like unbelievable. And the way that the lines can pull on every lever and when is just, I mean, Hey, you know, Jared has played unbelievable football, maybe as high, maybe, maybe as, as, as good a quarterback as anybody in the league this year,

but it's hard to divorce that what's like the situation around him. Whereas like I look at Josh Allen and I, I hope people are appreciating what they're watching. Um, I remember Jordan Palmer and I'm sure you know, Jordan, um, being out there, Ryan, like, you know, I remember Jordan Palmer, and I'm sure you know Jordan being out there, Ryan. Like, you know, I remember Jordan Palmer saying at one point, I think the line was, he's the most physically talented quarterback of all time. And I thought that was normal,

like quarterback coach hyperbole, you know? But I mean, you watch him play and you can see it. You know, everything looks so like easy for him, you know? Like, and it just, it almost looks like the division one high school player playing a normal high school league, you know, everything looks so easy for him, you know? And it just, it almost looks like the Division I high school player playing in a normal high school league, you know? Or the Division I college player,

guys going to Division I in college, playing in a normal high school league. Like he's just, like he's physically so gifted and he's learning how to harness the talents. And then you look at like the guys that they let go of this off season. Mike Ahai, Jordan Ployer, Trudevius white Mitch Morris Stefan Diggs We're not talking about guys that are like, you know, yeah, like that guy was a nice player for those are cornerstones of the rebuild

Buffalo over the last seven years and you know, I think Josh has shown like he's got the ability to lift guys up and you know, you see the development of Dalton Kincaid and Cleo Shakir and, and now Keon Coleman starting to come on for them. Um, you know, and you see this happening with all that they lost, like the leadership infrastructure that they lost, like even losing like a Matt Milano again on defense, like they did. Um, I think like if you're talking about most valuable, I feel like Josh Allen has defined it in almost every way.

Is that a little bit of Lamar fatigue? Because I still think it's Lamar. And I didn't know like in the NBA happens, it definitely happens. We're like, I was just vote for somebody else this year. And, you know, if you just started neutral, and no one has any kind of resume, like I'm not saying you're wrong about Alan, but to not and it not, I don't think you were not mentioning on, but like every week with Lamar. Lamar's there for me, definitely, yeah.

I think, I still think right now, if you had to, I think Lamar's the right vote, but. So I think, I think what you're, what I would call that the Michael Jordan rule, right? Like we're in the 90s, Michael Jordan probably could have been the MVP of the NBA every year, but Barclay got it once, Malone got it once, right? Like we're in the nineties, Michael Jordan probably could have been the MVP of the NBA every year, but Barkley got it once Malone got it once, right? Like there was that.

Well, the Barkley was right, but that's all right. No, but it's also like I talked about it when Derek Rose retired, like LeBron really should have had five in a row that year, but they, but they gave it to Derek Rose. And I think sometimes it'll happen too with NBA players depending on how like the playoff exit is because the Lamar playoff thing is a real thing. All right. But as far as like week to week in the regular season, when I'm watching them,

I'm thinking, well, is he not going, if he keeps this up, if he plays like this throughout the entire season. And I don't know if the Ravens defense is actually going to be this bad. I've talked about opposing quarterbacks who have gone up against. You didn't expect James Winston light them up. Granted, they were down a couple of corners, including Humphrey. All right. But if this defense stays bad and yet they're still, in my opinion, one of the best teams in the NFL, and then you hope that playoff page turns for Lamar.

I just, I don't know, man, I'd have a hard time voting for anybody else. Yeah, I agree that he's been really good. And you know, I talked about the moving parts on the on the on the Bills roster. I think you have to hand to Lamar for what's happened on the offensive line. Now people don't pay attention to this stuff because it's offensive line, but 60% of their offensive line from the AFC Championship game is gone. You know, so that's Morgan Moses, Kevin Zeitler, who were decade long starters in the NFL, and John Simpson, who

got a contract with the Jets. And in their places, you've got guys who are mostly inexperienced. There are four guys who filled those three spots. Macari's got experience, but Filet-Lay, and Voorhees, and Rosengarden are all young and guys who hadn't really played before. And so having to take that on, I think is huge. And I also think he deserves credit

for some of the work he did building chemistry with Ze Flowers and Isaiah, likely, in the off season. They were really excited about where they were with those two. You've seen that manifest. Now they bring in Deontay Johnson. I'm with you. Like I like Josh Allen this year, um, based on where Buffalo is and Buffalo is a game better, so that's probably influencing me.

Maybe if I saw Baltimore up there with the same record as Buffalo, I'd look at it a little differently, um, but yeah, I mean, I'd say Lamar's definitely in the MVP. Yeah. All right. We'll see how it plays out. Let's do some trade deadline stuff here. Um, it felt like once Tennessee made a couple of moves, the vultures were circling. What about that big guy with the, with the sleeves?

Like Jeffrey Simmons can't be available, right? No, I don't think so. I mean, he's just, he's too important to their, to their locker room. Now I think they're going to listen on guys. Um, you know, could a Harold Landry be available? Trey Longburke's is a potential like reclamation project, sort of similar to how Kaderius Tony was traded, uh, you know, could a hero Landry be available? Trail on Burks is a potential like reclamation projects, sort of similar to how could Darius Tony was traded, uh, you know, a couple of years ago. I hope it works out better for Burks than Tony.

My God. Yeah. I really liked Burks in college and I know when he landed that concussion, but I mean, that's not an excuse for him to not have been a better, but I just loved his playmaking at Arkansas. And he was just a beast of a guy. So I think it was a different evaluation than what Tony was, but go ahead. He's interesting.

Cause he just like, I think part of it is like his size and you know, how hard it is for him to keep weight off. Like I remember hearing a story of how he was like a, he's not a 30 visit with a team and so they take him out to dinner the night before. And the guy barely ate any, had a salad or something at his steakhouse. And the next day he comes in at like 240 and the team was like, Oh man, can this guy keep, it was like, she's like one of those little anecdotes. Or I was like, can this guy, can we keep this guy's weight down? Is there any way to do it? But he would be an interesting one. I liked him in college too.

So yeah, I mean, I think Tennessee is going to listen on everybody. But I would put Jeffrey Simmons in the Miles Garrett category, where I think you'd absolutely have to blow them away to get them to even listen, you know, and to get them to even consider. Because Simmons, not only has Simmons been important for them, you know, from, you know, a playing standpoint, one of the best defensive tackles over the last 10 years, I would say, based on the level of play he's reached, but he's an important leader for them too. Yeah. There's just names that I think like, and maybe it's just to get me to click on it

and it's worked, but, and by the way, Simmons, I mean, he's, he's actually a little younger than you would think. He's only 27. Yeah. He was young when he came in the league. Right. Right. So, you know, Max Crosby or even miles Garrett's where you can start. It's like, when, if you're lucky enough to even have one of those guys, then you just go, we're not good this year. And if you're good and we'll keep redoing your contract, we're going to take care of you. Like we're not in the business of wanting you to be somewhere else because you still may miss on half the draft picks that you get for them anyway.

So that's the other part that I think you always have to factor in. I think the Max Crosby thing becomes like, no, you spend your whole life hoping to get something like this on your roster if you're working in a front office. So it feels like there's a lot of sexy names. I had to read a Garrett Wilson rumor

shoot down article this morning. I don't know why I probably should have clicked on it. But I'm thinking like, why would Garrett Wilson be available? Like that doesn't like he's one of the few pieces they have. That's like going to survive all this, you would think. Like I'd expect him to catch a touchdown from three other quarterbacks with the Jets like he's that good. I would expect you for something.

Exactly. So who who is, let's do this. Who is actually available? Okay. So, I teams are going to call Carolina. Yeah. I think they listen on feeling, even though they just traded Deontay Johnson. So they want to make it tougher for when Bryce Young comes back.

Sorry, Bryce. We got rid of all of our receivers again. I, Genevieve and Clowney is an interesting name for them. He's obviously been on a bunch of different teams, Sorry, Bryce. We got rid of all of our receivers again. Genevieve and Clowney is an interesting name for them. He's obviously been on a bunch of different teams, but there are a number of teams that are out there looking for pass rush help. The Ravens would be one. The Lions would be another, obviously with Aiden Hutchinson's injury.

Can I just ask quickly, is Clowney still an impact guy or is it a name everyone is familiar with? Because it feels a bit like the Chase Young thing, where Chase Young hasn't been healthy, but the team will bring in Chase, he's like, man, we got the member of this guy, and it's like, yeah, I don't know. He's more of it, I would think Clowney is more of a name,

but I still think he can give you a good level of play. You have to pay some sum at this age. But I mean, he played well for the Rays last year, you know, like down the stretch and in important games. So he'd be one. You know, the Browns are going to get phone calls now. Do they wait until after the charger game on Sunday to sort of see where they're at? That's possible. But they have gotten calls on Miles Garrett, like they have, I would take the moon and the stars for, for, for anything that ever happened there.

And I don't think they have any intention of moving them. Denzel Ward, the concussion thing, obviously is a question with him. I think the more realistic names, the Browns would be like Zedarius Smith. It's been a really good pass rusher in the league has bounced around. So Greg Newsome is available at corner. So he'd be an interesting name. You know, New England's gotten calls on their corners and their receivers. Um, I think at that point you'd be talking about like a KJ Osborne, um,

you know, somebody like that. Uh, who am I missing? Who am I missing? Who am I missing? Well, the Rams were mentioned in the Cooper cup and then McVeigh kind of. The Rams and so the Rams thing is. Yeah. The Rams thing is interesting because they took

calls on Cooper Cup and what they told teams is it would cost more than Devontae Adams cost the Jets to get them. So Devontae Adams was a three that could become a two. So you're extensively talking about a second round pick for Cooper Cup, at least. And I understand the Rams point of view on that. And I think things change for them now because they could actually win the division and they played well on Thursday night against the Vikings. But it's like one of those things where he's a franchise icon.

He got the game winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. He was part of Sean McVay's first draft class. They're not getting rid of that guy for like a three or a four, you know? And then for another team, it's like, you look at his age, his mileage, could you value him about that? Probably not. So I don't know the value ever matched up there. And I think how they played on Thursday night definitely makes them less likely to move

him. You know, I think the trade deadline sort of is what it's always been here. You know, Mike Williams, the Jets could move him. You're talking about names like that. Can be pieces for you if you're a contender, but aren't exactly game changers. The calls will be made on the Max Crosby's, on the miles Garrett's

Those those those those calls are going to happen The same way they happen with Brian Burns a couple of years ago whether you know it turns into something I'd say it's pretty likely that those calls probably won't turn to much of anything. I can't wait You think Penn States, yeah, just like the NBA and baseball trade deadlines, right? And we, we talk ourselves into the potential of thing and look, the NBA players have a ton of power and you never know somebody gets really mad. A couple of weeks before the deadline. And then you have, no, the NBA trading on tip trade deadlines.

Great. I mean, it wasn't following the basketball line because I don't have to, I don't have to, I don't have to pick up my phone for it. So it's great. I mean, it wasn't following the basketball line because I don't have to, I don't have to, I don't have to pick up my phone for it. So it's great. It's great to watch it. Watch everybody else have to deal with it. You know? Okay. I was going to ask you this. So I, I got caught off there. Um, and getting the question out, Penn State, Ohio state, how do you feel? Uh, not great. Um, the offensive line issue, like that's what I'm worried about is like they've got Abdul

Carter and a bunch of guys who can get after the passer up front. That Josh Simmons injury, I, it's hard for me to believe a team so talented was held together by a single tackle. But that's what worries me is, are we going to be able to run the ball? Are they going to be able to protect Will Howard? I think the defense looked better against Nebraska. I also think you have to give Matt Ruhl a lot of credit for the way Nebraska bounced back.

I don't know. I just have like the, I always feel like with them, it's like, this is the year they're going to get us. You know what I mean? Cause I think it's seven in a row now. And I mean, whatever, like 10 of 11 something like that Like I always have that in the back of my head But this is the year they're gonna get us

But I mean if you could see like my text strings with my college buddies You'd understand why I'm as fatalistic as I am like I mean there I mean, I'm telling you like in the second quarter of games there like people are getting fired bench scholarships are getting taken away So I have it I tend to be pessimistic about these things. What are you saying? I feel like Penn State tricks me into believing in him, like in four year cycles, like presidential cycles almost where I'll, I'll think, okay, this could be the end, like last year was the year I started thinking.

Storyline of like Aller and the big games, like it was a real problem. And you're just like, what do they have here? And I felt so much better about him. But then you get the injury after the Wisconsin game. I feel like Penn State's like tricking me in to believing in them and then picking them. And the reality is that Ohio State's going to get up for this game in a way they haven't got up for a game all season long. And very And it very easily could have gone their way in Eugene as well. And we're talking about the number one team in the country. Now, whether or not you think Oregon is number one, they're probably

no worse than third in the opinion of everybody that watches here. So I think it's- Oregon was better than I thought they'd be. And I'm not just talking about them winning the game. Just watching them, like that Evan Stewart 15 what's his name that the other receivers? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like like what he can do You know the I mean Jordan James running back with tail Mateo, Yunglele like he's really good and they did it without Yeah, like I were linebackers are nasty. I love Dan Lanning. Like I think Dan, I guy just, there's something about the guy.

Like he just feels like he has it. You know what I mean? Like he's just, like, I don't know, I don't know what it is, but it feels like whatever a coat, like he, whatever Kirby Smart has, like Dan Lanning has that same thing. I feel like. All right, that sounds- Is that what it's saying?

Yeah, no, that's just, but I'm just trying to get the full Albert Brewer picture here in the Buckeyes. Those text threads taken away. It sounds like Ryan Day's approval rating, despite winning all of these games. I mean, it's just, you guys are tough. You're tough. You're a tough crew.

Yeah, I mean, the new one that was introduced into the text threads this week was asking for NIL refunds. That's new this year so we're evolving with the times. That's good to know let me know if there's any forms you can fill out. You can read them on SI.com and we'll happily have him back as much as we'll come back during the season Albert Brewer. Thanks man. All right thanks Ryan.

Long time coming, neighbor, I guess I can say friend. Yeah, absolutely. Ed Quinn joins the podcast. Just so people understand the resume that we're talking about, I counted up this morning, 57, 56 TVs and film, TV shows and film that have been produced. So maybe that number's higher. It's so funny because it is actually so much higher.

The other day, I remembered a pilot that I did and I thought I'd worked with this one kind of famous actor. It's not even on, it's not even on, because it used to, pilots used to not count. Now they call them TV movies. So the last, I don't know, four or five I've done that didn't go are still on there is a TV movie. But I shot a whole series that didn't come out.

I've worked, there's so much stuff on my, one, you've never seen it. Two, like you kind of like, man, did I work with that director before? Didn't he direct me in that? And you go on IMDb, it's not even on there, so. All right, so I figured when I saw that, but it was just fascinating for me to run through it.

And for those that don't know our, our brief backstory, I met Ed through Max Bretos, who originally was the most interesting man in the world. And then when I met Ed, I was like, I think we're moving Max down a slot. Oh, but clip that. I need that. That's exactly, that's going to be my ringtone. I hate doing that to Max, but then I remember,

and just so you can understand, anyone that's listening to me, and it's kind of fun to share this with you, is like, I certainly never feel like a beta, but I met Ed on the beach for some beach party thing, and I was like, holy shit. I was like, what is this guy's deal? He's six foot four, I can't believe your age,

we're not gonna share that. He started off as a rocker, surfer, model, and now has been a working actor for like 25 years. And then he briefly became my neighbor, which was awesome. It was so fun. Him and the family and everything. And so it's just, now that I know you, and it was funny like going back watching

some of these interviews that you've done in preparation for this super intense interview. Huge prep, yeah. Yeah, you just, you have a massive presence and I think you're doing exactly what you should have always. I couldn't imagine you just being like a normal guy. It wouldn't have made any sense.

Well, it's so funny because I'm really connecting with all of my Cal friends now, and you know, and they've done so well. Like they basically, I graduated from Cal and I was the dummy who decided to go to Hollywood and do this nonsense when they all went to Silicon Valley and created all these companies or banking. Things like hedge fund, private equity, venture capital.

I mean, I didn't even know what those were. I didn't know what any of that stuff was when I was in college. I mean, the Michael Scott thing where it's like, tell her you're in banking and he's like, hey, I'm a bank teller. Like when people at school were telling me I wanna get into banking, I was like, that seems boring.

My roommate, he graduated and he got a job. I thought he was working at Marine World because he was working for Oracle. And the next thing you know, he bought a building in New York and then he started a company and had 400 employees and then sold it and now built a private golf course in Napa Valley area. That's a good friend to have.

Great friend to have, Eric Barage, I love you. I need to come back to Brambles. But I mean, yeah, it was, I'm- Did you okay? So let's- Do you want to do your origin story? We can, yeah. But the whole point being is like, I'll be with them

kind of going like, man, I never should have done this. I should have followed you guys. I should have gone to work for you. I was going to go into commercial real estate. I was a week away from starting at Coldwell Banker and I had guys, literally one guy from my house, one of my mentors at Caligula named Stuart Schiff. I think he was the top commercial real estate guy in Silicon Valley for like all of the 90s. Like, I mean, think about that. And so, and they look at me and they go, Quinn, you would not have lasted 10 seconds.

There's absolutely no way. I guess you've forgotten who you were. You, no, you did exactly what you should have done. Don't worry about it. And I'm like, all right. Yeah, see, I've had those though. I've like a couple of friends that have killed it in VC stuff and I was like, well, I could have done that.

And they're like, nah, I don't know, dude. And then they look at me and they're like, do you, you are having a bad time? Like you wish you did something else? And then nobody ever wants to hear how hard it is because it's like, well, it's not. And I can't even suggest that what I do is as hard as what you do with the ups and downs of it.

But let's go back to the Cal guy who's like, you played sports, you, and then you somehow end up being an actor. So I grew up in Berkeley. My father was a professor at Cal. Like I'm fourth generation San Francisco. I can see San Francisco. And went to St. Mary's high school in Berkeley.

And I was a two sport athlete getting recruited in both, but I had a dislocated shoulder my junior year. I missed my junior year in football. And the surgeon from the 49ers actually put it back together. So I came in my senior year, no one knew who I was sort of. And then all, it was the Catholic Athletic League back in the day. And so our rivals were like De La Salle and Moreau and Bishbo Dowd and they all had big D1 recruits.

I mean, and I mean big, God, what was his name? It just jumped out of my head. Moreau High, Braxton Banks. So he ended up going to Notre Dame, somehow left Notre Dame after two years was and played for the Denver Broncos when they lost the Super Bowl. So the stands were just, I mean, it was like Lou Holtz and Cal and Stanford. And I mean, it was big. And then they're like, who's this six foot four guy

running around crushing people? And so late recruit to football, but also played soccer my whole life. And so I kind of had this chance to play one or two sports. And when Joe cap came and said, look, he will, he can recruit me kind of as I think they call it now preferred walk-on because they were still like, we have no tape on this guy, this guy comes out of nowhere and he's big, like he can play. But I was playing out of position. I was playing offensive line. I should have been playing tight end.

And, um, when he found out I'd already gotten into Cal academically, they were like, oh, okay, no. All right, this is it, dude. We'll give you, we'll get you housing. We'll do this and the whole thing. And the bummer was, is I just, I got there, I got there and I got hurt again, broken ankle. And then kind of got lost when he, you know,

he was there one year and then Bruce Schneider came in. And like one of those, one of the regrets I do have, you know, one, not going to Silicon Valley and making real money. Um, the other one was if I just understood, it was so easy to get lost as an athlete back then. And I've talked to other athletes who are like that, who are like, I could have played two sports at any university in the nation and I ended up playing none. And you're, and it's. One day it's just over. And like, nobody's like calling you going,

oh, we gotta get you back or we got a transfer portal or whatever. None of that existed. And so it was just like, oh, I'm 19. I've only been an athlete my whole life and it's over. And it was really, it was a weird thing. So that was something I found myself at Cal trying to figure out what I was gonna do.

I was gonna go to law school, and then I decided to go into real estate. And it's, but I was surfing a lot. I grew up surfing Stinson Beach. I'm at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, because that's the big, anybody who surfs knows Ocean Beach is one of the scariest, gnarliest beach breaks in the world.

And by the time I was in high school, I was surfing it, now in college, I was kind of starting to really be out there on a lot of big days. I'm changing out of my wetsuit and a scene right out of like the beginning of a Dateline episode, where I'm like in my little skimpy towel and some guy comes up to me and goes,

hey man, you got a nice body. You wanna go take some pictures in my studio. Which, you know, then I disappear and they're trying to find my body and my organs have been sold on the black market. But all these guys came up to Cal. Jimmy Miller was from here in Manhattan Beach. Art Chepi from Newport Beach.

They had these modeling books. Every dude that grew up in high school here would have these modeling books. Every dude that grown up in high school here would have these modeling books and these guys had pagers. I was like, hang on, a bunch of drug dealers. Their pager would go off, they'd go, oh, they'd have agents in the San Francisco, and they would run off and make

$150 an hour to wear underwear for Merv know, slacks at JCPenney. I'm working as a ballet at Casa Orinda, a very famous cool restaurant. I'm making five, I think the minimum wage was like five, 15 an hour, taxed and tips. And I was like, so I'm sitting there going like, all right, I've got this obvious predator trying to lure me to the Tenderloin to take photos in his creepy studio.

Tenderloin. I was like, it was Hunter's point. It was even worse than the Tenderloin. But I went and I took some photos and now I'm sitting here with Ryan Rizzello. You want to know why they call it the Tenderloin? Why? Because every major city, probably going back to like the late 1800s or whatever,

I think the first time I saw it because I was scouting a location for something so I was in San Francisco and I was walking through the Tenderloin area to like try to be inspired for something and that script and work out but I was at the museum and it had said that depending on like how big of the city you had in different pockets there was always a tenderloin section so there was a tenderloin section of New York, of Chicago, I think even New Orleans or whatever. And the saying went that the cops in those areas were always on the take that they'd

be eating tenderloin. Oh, that's really interesting. I never heard that. Yeah. So there you go. That was all I had to offer. So you start modeling, but then I'm surprised was the modeling thing just you had to be in LA or you wanted to get into music or? No, no, the modeling thing was, at first was just, I wanna make $150 an hour for wearing underpants. That was it.

And so my last semester at Cal, I'm bouncing back and forth to the city and I ended up coming to LA and I got an agent in LA. And you take all these photos and stuff and I was working with photographers that didn't work in the Tenderloin and other places where bodies disappear. Out of nowhere, and I'm like literally in another one of those moments in life where I'm in my apartment at Berkeley,

another guy is about to move in when semester starts to my room, like I'm done. I've got this internship at Coldwell Banker. I'm about to start and the phone rings and it's my agent from San Francisco. He freaks out and he goes, you're booked into the shows in Milan. I'm like, what? Milan, Italy? He goes, yes. Hold on a second. Just stay there. I got to call you back.

I hang up the phone rings again. I pick it up and I'm like, Brad? He goes, no, hold on a second, just stay there. I gotta call you back. I hang up the phone rings again. I pick it up and I'm like, Brad? And he goes, no, it's Bill from down here. And he's like, Ed, you're booked into the shows in Paris and Barcelona. And I'm like, wait, what's happening? He goes, we sent your stuff to Europe. And then he hangs up.

And so I'm just sitting there by my phone now. I remember sitting, the guy who had moved out and taken the couch, I'm sitting in this empty living room in Berkeley, kind of going, waiting for the phone to ring. And yeah, I'd been booked into the shows. I out had taken the couch. I'm sitting like in this empty living room in Berkeley, kind of going like, waiting for the phone to ring. And yeah, I'd been booked into the shows. I just had to get there. And so I called my dad who was a professor at Cal

and had just done this lecture series. And- Not on modeling, I assume. Yeah, no, it wasn't. Oh my God, this was, it was hard for him. I mean, he was, you know, he was, you know, Cambridge, chairman of the rhetoric department, you know, he was, you know, Cambridge, chairman of the road department, you know, got his PhD at Princeton in philosophy. And now his son is this like meathead that shows

up. He opens the paper and there I am, and I'm standing in my tighty-whities. But the, he, I said, Hey, I've got this thing. I think they wanted to send me to Europe. And now I'd always wanted to study abroad and we couldn't afford it. I have three brothers and sisters and I got into this one program in San Sebastian, Spain. And my dad just said, look, I will hand those off. I know it well.

Just spent a couple of weeks there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I ended up going on this trip because he said, well, look, I got all these miles on the old TWA airlines. I'll give you the miles ticket and we'll see how long it lasts. And I'm like, cause how long are you gonna be gone for?

I'm like, I have no idea. And I went, I did the Paris shows, Milan shows and the Barcelona shows. And then it was like, now what? And the agency in Barcelona was like, stay, stay here. But you know what? And I'm, so I'm just staying. I'm living in Barcelona, living in this little beach town

called Seaches and I started working., I'm living in Barcelona, living in this little beach town called Sièches, and I started working. And I quickly realized. I've been there too. I pronounced it Sièches originally. Yeah, because if you look at the spelling, it's. It's S-I-T-G-E-S, Sièches. Great town.

Great town. I love that town, yeah. I lived there for two years. No kidding. That was my base, yeah. I kept the apartment there and then I would go to Paris or Milan or Hamburg for months. But I was a crap model.

I was like this, I was this frat fat meathead. Like I didn't, there were all these beautiful young dudes and then all these men who had like, they look like us now. Like, I mean, they're like 30. Just like us. Just like, no, no, no, no, but I mean like beards with like some gray in it.

Were you that hot? Like, this is, this is, so how did you book all of this stuff? Cause you're big and that's usually not- Cause I was big, I was good enough. I was a B minus model, sort of, cause I also, the clothes didn't fit. There's here's a whole bunch of things. Cause the runway shows I would do,

but the, you know, and I got some campaigns, Gianfranco Ferre did a nice campaign with me and a few others, but like I'd be up for like the Armani campaign, but the suits would all be for next year. So they would all be sample sizes. They only have one and it would be a 50 or here would be a 40.

And I was a 42 long if I didn't do a lot of bench press, otherwise I was a 44 long. It was didn't do a lot of bench press, I thought I was a 44 long. I was like, oh fuck, you can't be, you know, you're just not gonna work. You know, the shoes fit, but I started doing commercials. And I mean, I started doing commercials, like I think I shot 66 commercials in two and a half years in Europe.

It was nonstop. And my friends who were supermodels, they would get the Armani campaign or the big catalog. And I would go off and do San Miguel beer or Fiat car or a lot of cigarette campaigns. So a lot of cigarette campaigns. And that's where, and yeah, I'm just being clinical about it.

I take a photo. Yeah, the dude I'm on screen, you know, you take a hundred dudes and like you take photos of them all and there's like a couple of dudes who are like, they just pop off the screen. And you, on camera though, that's where it was like, oh, I'm pretty good at that. Like that looks, I don't mean like I'm,

and especially, you know what I mean. It's just like, oh, he looks like he belongs on TV. And that was the, and that's where it started. And then I started going back and forth to Europe, from Europe, and I would come to LA, and I had agents in LA, and that was the transition. Every model wanted to act. So everyone would like, yeah, bro, I'm gonna get my book together, I'm gonna go to Hollywood, and I'm gonna be, every model wanted to act. So everyone would like, yeah, bro,

I'm gonna get my book together, I'm gonna go to Hollywood, and I'm gonna be, you start acting. And I'm like, yeah, me too. Well, then you get into acting class and you realize who's smart, who's not, who can remember dialogue, who can't, who can sit in a four hour acting class and retain all this information and then apply it to an audition.

So what was the first job like? The first show you were like, I actually got this part and I'm going to be in a TV show. What's that story? VIP with Pamela Anderson. It was my first, I mean like the whole screen actors deal and all that came from commercials. So I had been on sets a lot in that sense.

But the first, because okay, so what happened was, first audition in LA, this has been going back and forth to Europe since like 92. I get the Ford Probe commercial and then I was home in San Francisco. My dad, the professor is sitting there in his chair with all his books and stuff. And he has a talk with me.

He's like, hey dude, you gotta get your shit together. Cause you're like, this is a couple of years now. Every time I gotta get you off the, I can't pay for the U on our family insurance anymore. You gotta get a car. You gotta get out. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah dad. And I pissed off to San Francisco for a couple of days.

I went and surfed and came back and he's sitting in the study with all this paperwork and he goes, get in here. Do you know you're in a union? I'm like, what? He goes, you're in the screen actors guild. I'm like, oh yeah, I got this stupid commercial, like industrial commercial in San Francisco and because I did that Ford probe,

they charged me $1,200. It cost me money. I'm like, you know, completely offended. And he's just looking at me going like, oh my God, I can't believe you're my son. He goes, no, you have health insurance. It's better than the one the university gives the family. The best moment was he goes,

if this, took a moment, took a deep breath. If this works out, you have a pension. I was like, hey. So he was basically like, now I'm into it because of the stability of- Almost, well, cause he wanted me- Cause he'd be too smart to assume that it's a stable career. I got my teaching credential.

Because he's like, yo, this is, you know, this is horse ass. You gotta do, you have a backup plan. Sure. And so I did, and I remember taking the final at UCLA and got to do, you have a backup plan. Sure. And so I did. And I remember taking the final at UCLA and just being like, oh my God, I can't, I can't. I wasn't meant for classroom, you know, getting through Cal was the hardest thing

I ever did in my life. And so I just, I was like, he was like, yeah. And I'm like, oh, let me tell you something. Fast forward to today, my wife is a CFP. And she every once in a while looks at me and goes, and I've been working, because you saw so many jobs. And the one thing about having so many jobs, that means that I didn't, I wasn't on friends.

I didn't have a 10 year run. So I'm always having to get new jobs, which is, I can be proud of that. And also, man, it's really exhausting. But she's just like, I mean, this pension, do you understand what this pension is worth in today's day and age? And I'm like, I don't know. My dad told me it was a good idea. He's a long time ago. So yeah. And then

Ryan, I get that we're sitting here surrounded by all your beautiful guitars. Growing up in Berkeley, we were all musicians and everybody, you know, you, we had our bikes and our skateboards and we were a bunch of Berkeley hillbillies but you had to be able to play music and it was the age of heavy metal and a lot of bassists a lot of great drummers but a lot of guitarists and great guitarists and our guitar teacher was Joe Satriani right there at then it was Rosen Grove now it's Martin Luther King and Rose. There's a little guitar store called Second Hand Guitars. And this guy who played in this kind of

goofy band called The Squares, it wasn't goofy, but it just like, you know, didn't look like it was going anywhere, was our guitar teacher. And I remember walking out once and looking at my friends going, hey man, you know, he's sitting there having to teach us like Randy Rose licks and Eddie Van Halen licks. I'm like, I think our guitar teacher is better than all our heroes. They look at me and go, shut up dude, nobody's better than Van Halen, you idiot. I'm like, I don't know man, Joe's really good.

So I studied with him forever, played guitar my whole life. Like I said, every model meathead came back from Europe to LA, and they all buy a guitar, and they're like, God, bro, I love music, I feel it in my soul. There was some house in Venice with a whole bunch of model dudes living there,

and their whole living room was just drums and amps and guitars. Everybody would have these jam sessions, and they were just insufferable. One day I was there and I picked up a guitar and all of a sudden I was like, oh, hello, excuse me. And three of my buddies, two of my best friends. And I just- Because you had already played when you were young,

when you were a kid. My whole since I was 10. I was playing shows at the school of the Madeline. I was playing deaf leopards wasted at St. Mary Magdalene in Berkeley in the fourth grade. I'm sure the nuns, like they all went to their grave going like, you know, I had to suffer through some of the worst music ever.

Us up on stage playing Judas Priest covers. So when I first got here to LA, I was studying acting and then this band takes off. So, you know, we're headlining all over the sun, all over here in the South Bay was our home. We had the best time. Then we're headlining all over the Sun all over here in the South Bay was our home. We had the best time. Um, and we're headlining all over the sunset strip and we're real close to record deals. And then we almost had one and the band imploded and then I saved it. Well, I took over vocals and that deal got a deal and then that imploded.

So I went back to my backup career acting. So this is like, this is like now 1999, 2000? Yeah, so there's this commercial modeling, then music gap. And then you and I have talked about, like you're here in the South Bay, which was a completely different scene 25 years ago. Unbelievable. And you're playing, you're surfing.

I mean, there'd be houses like before, like all these gorgeous houses, there'd be these houses with these rooftops and there was, we would play these shows. And I mean, the cops couldn't get within a mile of it. It was just kids everywhere. And we are just cranking full metal jacket and they can't, it's just like, you know, it's third of July, whatever, let it go. And it was, it was so fun.

All the little places, even this, Sharkey's used to be a place called Harry O's and they had a pretty decent stage. There was a couple of places, H2O and a couple of places down here. But we wanted to be like, we weren't a cover band. We wanted to be a band band. They used to have a party in Playa del Rey. I swear to God, they just set up a stage on the beach

and our studio was in Playa del Rey. I swear to God, they just set up a stage on the beach. And we, our studio was in Playa del Rey. And we came out and we looked out and there was 3000 people on the beach. No pyramids, no nothing. Everybody's just in the sand, just sort of raging. I mean, the whole South, it was just all different back then. So anyway, that took a big chunk.

And then I, so all of a sudden I come sort of like tiptoeing back going like, think I'm ready to start acting now. And everybody's like, dude, you're like, you're almost 30, passed you by. But actually, that's not true. What they did say was like, perfect timing. Cause you're finally about the right age

where you might start working. And they're right. So you weren't getting any jobs. So what, give me your best, maybe it's not VIP Pamela Anderson, but give me the first. Jesse, it's not VIP Pamela Anderson, but give me the first, Jesse, it's different though for you though, because like other people who like that first job,

that first moment, like I remember the first time I was actually on the area at ESPN. I can remember the two hours, I can remember every segment I had. I remember, do you have that first like real moment? Yes. Okay. That first real moment was, I got the little VIP job

and that was nothing. And I needed to kind of almost divorce myself from the music scene and from the South Bay. Because I joke about it, but I mean it was actually a really scary moment. We were like, dude the band didn't work out. I'm almost 30. I have a modeling book. You must have had guys in your crew being like, Oh, Ed's still sort of chasing it. You know, because I just remember like a 26, 27, and I was like, maybe I could host a TV show or whatever. And like there'd be a few cores lights in us and guys are just like, Oh, Rosilla has given us fucking life speech again.

And I, there wasn't one buyer at the table. You know what I mean? So I imagine there was some similar, especially being surrounded by everybody thinking they're going gonna do all those things when you live out here. Yeah, well, I'm not forcing it. Or you find yourself in these whole support groups of a whole bunch of people and you're like,

oh my God, we're all losers. Like, we're gonna get it, bro. I feel it, man. They're trying to pump each other. Dude, when you're acting, man, you disappear from the character and you're listening to these two meatheads say this to each other, or the girls. Those, or the girls, those are the ones, you know, like got here at 17, 18,

they were like the flavor of the month for a second. And now they're 25 and they might as well be 85. And you're just like, it's ghost to Christmas future. You just start going, Oh my God, what have I done with my life? I'm about to call my fraternity brothers. Hey man, you said you would give me a job. You said don't quit this thing. You got it going on, Quinn. I literally met a girl who was a publicist and I moved to Hollywood. I go, I got to get up there, which is even more terrifying because I hated it up there so much.

But it was the one time I lived in Venice in the South Bay my entire life, except for this little chunk of time, but it worked out. She was a huge publicist. I started meeting her, you know, people she worked with, like massive agents. We went to a dinner, like they were supposed to have a dinner and the agent didn't want to go come to my house. I go over to this agent's house, um, named Leanne Cornell and she's an endeavor and endeavors just, that, and endeavor is just,

that's when it just was blowing up. And she just, the whole dinner, she just kept looking at me like, this guy's funny, kind of smart. I thought, you know, it was just some like pretty dude that this girl was dating. There's a lot of compliments in there. What's that?

Well, no, no, no, because we had a lot of self-comments. No, I get so, but here, yeah, a lot of self-polagiation. No, the- I had to, it was too easy. Well, because I could see it. It was like, they walk in, it's like I'm a dumb dog. Oh, hi, oh my God, you're so, you're good.

I was just like some arm candy or something. But then I started telling jokes or being funny. And they're like, and she literally goes, yeah, you're an actor, right? I go, yeah, I was a musician, but now I'm trying to. She goes, there's a role on this one show. I think you might be good for it.

Go in on this on Monday. I have agent, I have people. I'm like, the huge endeavor agent. And I go in and it's for Chuck Lorre's show, Dharma and Greg. And I'm playing this big dumb waiter named Stavros. And I go into this room and it was over a fox. And it was a huge room,

all the back of the day when it was like, you know, tough. And I hid a joke and the room dies with laughter. And I went, oh my God, I think I could do this. I mean, it was kind of, you know, it's a smaller role. So it was kind of, I did a lot of funny commercials and stuff, but, and I get the call. And it was, it was one of these calls, which was like both amazing and a gut punch.

Cause it was like, hey, guess who's working on Dharma and Greg next week. I'm like, no way. Yeah. So, uh, fire your agent. I'm going to hip pocket you for, um, pilot season. And I go, but it shoots next week. The other thing I, what was keeping me alive was, was, oh my God, what's the name of the,

oh I just forgot the name, it's a huge catalog company out of Seattle. They used to do, what was the, they did a, Eddie Bauer. Oh, okay. Eddie Bauer was keeping me alive. Eddie Bauer was literally, and I just, I was doing a 10 day shoot in Laredo, Mexico. I had to get a work permit, the whole thing. It was the next week. So I was gonna burn my only agent. I was gonna burn my modeling agent.

I was gonna burn the client that had probably kept me alive for the last three months. You know, they would, they're gonna book me for days here, you know, 1500 bucks there, here, there, you're just a poor actor. I mean, that pays a lot of bills. I had to like, literally was stepping into the abyss. I'm like, well, here we go. Um, I'm done.

I'm cooking every, I'm my Molly. And she was like, dude, this is the biggest job of the so much. It was a lot of money, way more money than I made on Tom and Greg. But I had to say, uh, yeah, no, this is what I'm going to do. And so I went and did it and went great. Did the pilot season, tested three times. Didn't get it, got yelled at because I didn't get them. And then walked into one more room. One of the ones I didn't get circled back

and it was Young Americans and it went to series. So if you look at your entire catalog, right? Two Broke Girls and the funniest thing ever is when you Google Ed Quinn, first thing shirts off and then next thing shirts off, Two Broke Girls, shirts off. A 50 year old dude, can I stop? Can I just teach you?

I'm tired of that. I Google my family. I don't know man. I think you keep riding it out. I was like this is great. I think I'm gonna be 70 like old tan and weird shriveled like a prune. I can't wait to be tan and weird at the gym at 70.

So. Short as makes where dolphin shorts. True blood, right? Yeah. Like a big deal. I don't know. You know what I'm gonna ask and I'm trying to ask it in the way that it makes the most sense.

But it's so much work. There are so many shows. You're on The Oval now, right? You're doing something that is like renewed. It's Tyler Perry. You're in, right? Do you ever think that you're like, I would have loved though to have had like

my goodwill hunting or I would have loved to have had the starring role. I mean, I'm sure you aspire to or you wanted that or still hope to have it at some point. Like, do you have to kind of get over, hey, I'm a working actor and this is what I do and maybe that moment, I mean, I don't even like saying this to your face, but like that moment isn't for me. Oh, it's, I, mentioning the oval fills my heart because it was almost a last chopper out of Saigon kind of thing. Because the way the business had changed and because of all of the

things. Look, I'll never, when you're an actor in my category, you're up for. What's your category? Leading man. Okay. So leading man. All those years I spent going to college, mistake. Going to Europe, huge mistake. Playing music, what are you doing? I'm so far behind. I mean, I come in, I'm starting to work at 30 and where does the script start? Brad Pitt, Leo, Clooney. Oh, seriously. I mean, that's, that's like my category. I'm like, holy, I mean, it's, I've set myself so far back just from a, there's a business and it's, it doesn't, it's not like.

Cause no one knows who you are. No one knows who I am, but also even if you're good, if you and I are investing money in a movie and it's like, we can get Brad Pitt, uh, Johnny Depp or Quinn. It's like, yeah, no, we're not, I'm not investing. He gazed great, amazing actor, perfect. So it takes a long time to build the momentum and going up. You are, and when I say you go in, you do a great audition, but it doesn't go your way. It's like, that's every day, all time. That's, you know, that's, that's nothing. I'm talking about I'm first choice. I'm first choice for a year. I'm first choice.

The director is an Oscar winner or the show runner is an Emmy winner. And when I don't get it, they call me to commiserate. Not like, hey, we want a different way. Love you, love you work. But like, I can't believe, I mean, I tested for, I think eight pilots one year at ABC and didn't get them because the president of ABC

at that point had gotten in a fight over it. All this I didn't know with like an Emmy winning director about I was the guy. No, he's not the guy. And it became this pissing contest. So the kind of creative, the guy was like, I have the guy. No, he's not the guy. And it became this pissing contest. So the kind of creative, the guy was like, I have Emmys, I do this for a living. You're a suit.

You're an idiot. I guess it got really ugly. And now I'm gonna wear that. And every other person who would bring me, Bill Lawrence called me at home to tell me he had a job. He goes, dude, in a fair fight, this was yours the whole way. I am so sorry.

You have a huge problem at ABC. And I'm like, I mean, it is this business. And you had been on Desperate Housewives, right? I've been on everything. I've been up for everything. No, seriously. I mean, you mentioned- I don't even know that I fully understand it. Like, look, we've known each other a few years. You've helped me so much in talking about the industry and red shit that I've written. And, and I had to kind of figure out the first couple of years how to navigate this.

Cause I've also, when I moved here, I didn't go up there. I didn't hire a publicist. Do you know what I mean? I knew people ahead of time. So I thought like, all right, I'm just gonna work and the work will show itself. And so it's not even the close to being the same, but like the amount of times that you've probably

throughout your life professionally going ah, like this again. We could watch the sunrise and set, but I just want, just that moment, and I think this is why you wanted me to sit here, you know my enthusiasm for work. You know how much I love when you send me a script and what the kind of things that I see.

Sure. And that's, you've got to kind of be able to compartmentalize this business and always be looking at the good stuff. Always be, you know, like I didn't know you were, you were, I loved SVP and Rossella. I was a fan when I met you on the beach that day. And then all of a sudden you got these scripts and I'm like, oh, how many bad scripts have

I read in my lifetime? How many bros have written the script? How many, like it is, I have a, I have been given so many damn bad scripts that I have a process of how to do it like I find the two things that I'm like dude I love this thing and that and I mean there's some real potential here and I mean I just best of luck to you buddy and so you are an incredible writer and and I and I don't mean that in a sense like I'm trying to butter you up. I think you know I'm not buttering you up because what I see in your scripts, it's not like, love the story, this is a four quadrant or this is a bit.

I'm always like, what this character, that, this moment in the script, this arc and this scene, I see all that, I see the work in it and I love it. But it's hard. Is there a reason that most actors are insane? Because they're so damaged and because the industry is so subjective and cruel. It's not a meritocracy. Some of the best actors I've ever seen work in class

don't have careers, never will. Some of the best writers I've ever read, never get anything made. It is just, it's a savage business. And so I've worn it, but I will say I might be the heavyweight champion of how I've lost jobs. Like I will do any-

Give me three that are like, that still hurt. Massive, massive, massive trilogy. Like, I see, what I don't like to do is be like, ah dude, got it. No, it's okay. Yeah, I know, I get it. And it's also part of the business that you can't be sitting here,

like this guy sucks and all that. Right. Let's grab a glass of water, and then, grab me a glass of water, and I'll tell you what it is. I'll go like this, so you know what I'm talking about and then we can go back. All right. Do you actually want me to get you water? I would love a glass of water. Okay.

All right. Bad host, terrible host. All right. So one of the biggest- That one's tough. Yeah. One of the biggest trilogies you could possibly imagine. Right.

I get a call that I did a screen test here. I'm like, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm like, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm like, I'm going to one of the biggest. That one's tough. One of the biggest trilogies you could possibly imagine. Right. I get a call that I did a screen test here and I'm the last actor standing in Los Angeles. And then I don't hear about it for a year. I think it's gone. And I get this crazy call from my whole team. They're like, you are flying director,

Academy Award winner. He wants you to play this role, like life-changing role, like in another series where he won the Academy Award, he wants me to play that role in this. And he meant, he said that, so he flies me all the way to where they're shooting. I spend a week on set going, this is, I mean catering and like the costumers,

I'm like, I've got this, right? This is happening. And he looks at me at one point and he goes, I've been trying to make this happen for a year. The issue was tax and they did the whole name game. Every actor we talked about that I normally use, it's you, you're the guy. This is my moment.

It was taxes. I triggered, because it was shooting somewhere foreign, I triggered a tax penalty. I cost nothing. I cost 2% of the other actors are looking at, but I'm gonna cost maybe an extra bit of money, a penalty for the whole production because they can't have more than two Americans.

And I don't get it. I don't get it cause of taxes. There was another one is if I've been in, I have been literally at a party and heard a massive, huge agent tell the story and then have to like raise my hand called, that was me. I was up for one of the biggest. They didn't know they were telling the story about the view

behind them at the party. No, they're telling it. They're telling it to a whole group of people. And I'm standing there listening to them tell the story about me. I got a call on a Friday. You got it. It's going to be what we're going down as one of the biggest TV shows in history. All we need to do, I'm going to be careful about how I say this, I don't wanna like start. You're gonna get the offer on Monday. All we need is the president of the network to sign off.

It's done. I mean, I had this whole weekend of like, wow, wow. Cause it's actually, it's a spin-off of a show and the first show is the biggest show in the world. So this is gonna be, and this next show went on to be just as big. We don't get the call on Monday. Something's going wrong.

And everybody's gone into a big meeting with the president, and they're about to say, like, this is the guy, and he's gonna say yes. And right when they go, so this, the role on this. And the president goes, yeah, I was trying to think of it. You know, on the way back, he was on vacation in Virgin Gorda and I'm flying back and they play this movie on the, you know,

back when they would just play one movie. And he goes, how about that guy from that? How's that? And everybody like looked at each other. Like, we should, we should say we have that. And everybody was, he was a really scary guy. And everyone was scared and nobody said anything. Cause he saw the other guy. No, not the other guy, just a guy, just this random movie played. And he didn't know that

they'd done all this work and had done all the testing already. And that I was the guy and everybody froze in the thing. It's like that movie, the TV set, everybody's froze, nobody said anything and one jerk off was like, that sounds like a great idea and everybody looked, shut up, what are you doing? No. That was it. I lost it. Gone. And I'm like, I'm like, it was such an outer body experience hearing the, the, um, the show happen. Like, like this story happened. That was me. I've got five more of those that I've heard before. I'm, I'm that guy. I'm an antidote. I'm like, I'm like, like people, I'm folklore of the ways I've lost. That's a huge movie because my eyelashes were too long. But they look great now. They look fantastic. I stopped using all that mascara. What I can tell that people will know,

you mentioned it, is True Blood. True Blood is actually one of my biggest heartbreak disappointments. I go in, okay, so a show back then, it was like nobody knew if a show was gonna be hit and you have to air the first season. A lot of shows we could cancel first season. That show exploded and Anna won the you know the Golden Globe and it was the zeit... I mean it was not just the biggest show in the world. It was a huge deal. It's bigger than anything that anybody's ever seen in the

last 10, 20 years if you're a younger kid. It was massive. And I'm coming into season two. Season two is when the throttle is open and the press is, I'm still friends with Stephen Moore and like it is, this show was nuclear. I mean, it was just as big as television show gets. And the biggest role for the season two was one of the biggest characters from the book, Stan.

I did this whole process. And I remember the last, I remember that we used to talk about those moments. My screen test for Stan when I finished, there was an energy in the room. Like it was a haze. And I just looked over and I was like, I got it.

I know I just got this thing and I did. And I was on page of the freaking trades back then when there was actually a paper. It was massive. So they were building the sets and there were still like some, you know, it was going to be some time till we had to shoot. And so kind of waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. And then all of a sudden you can just sort of feel like, uh-oh, there's something going on.

And what it was, was they were doing 12 episode seasons and they were going to do three episodes in Banton, six episodes in Texas, three back in Banton. That was going to be the whole, the way they shot the season. And my character was going to be, I was gonna lead this vampire versus human war that was gonna end in the most epic battle with me and Eric, just like crazy, crazy stuff.

All of a sudden, okay, you're not doing four episodes, you're doing three, and I'm like, three? And it started getting, they, for some reason decided, the writers room, they're there, they're trying to figure out the season, and they decided to only do four episodes in Texas, and a storyline had to go. And that was the introduction of Godric.

And they had to kill one and they killed mine and so it was how many times were you Stan in season two oh I was like three or four I mean it's there people I know people like the show it's like great but it was 10% of what I was supposed to be I mean it was the it was just and I mean you don't understand it was like it was morning like every person you know including I mean the creator everybody't understand. It was like, it was morning. Like every person, you know, including, I mean, the creator, everybody just came up to me and go, we are so sorry, we are so sorry. I remember being, the next show I booked,

I was on like a show in New York, the show, one of the shows that never came out called The Beautiful Life with Ashton Kutcher and Demi were the executive producers. And I'm there and the guy, one of the director producers of the show was just like, hey man, don't you remember me, I'm so and so from True Blood. I was on one of the producers, I'm like, oh yeah, hey,

man, do you have any idea how big your role was? And I'm like, yeah, dude, yeah, I do. And I remember, oh, ironically, later that year, I was doing a movie in Puerto Rico with Stephen Moyer, and I was back like Yahoo News, you know, this is early, early internet days. And I'm looking at Yahoo News, and my buddy, Joe Manganiello,

gets, he gets, I go, I'll seed or something. And I was like, ah, good for Joe, because I've known Joe, Joe, Joe, the first, we were talking about my first agent. Joe and I, Joe was the other guy. I talking about my first agent, Joe and I was, Joe was the other guy. I was trying to get Joe to come down cause I saw him at the tool show.

He was a great hang. Yeah, no, he is a great guy. I honestly, we, we were, this is going back 25 years. We were the same agent. We, we were the same acting school class. We, we were both in an episode of one day at a time. He's good friends with Gloria Calderon Collette as well. I did the series that I was on. I did like three seasons

of that. He did like this one big episode at one point, last time I saw him. But I see he gets that and I'm like, oh, good for him. Awesome. And that role just goes, I mean, rocket ship to the moon. And it was literally everything that Stan was supposed to be. So it's even sometimes you see the winds. Like some people think Eureka, like they love, Eureka's kind of had this big resurgence and it's like, oh, you're gonna love that show. And that show is my biggest heartbreak

because after season one, I was supposed to spin off into my own show. And it was all, it was, and it was what everybody did. It's like, you know, like my buddy David Boreanus got, you know, three episodes of Buffy, spun off onto Angel, and that guy's done a thousand episodes of network TV since. And I was the character and they were like,

had it all set up to spin me off after season one. It was gonna be, I was gonna do season two and then spin off on my own show. And the network hijacked the show, fired the creator, fired all the writers, took it over and that whole, and then I ended up leaving the show in season three. So this will be the last thing I ask

and then we'll do some of the life advice emails here. It's gotta be hard and I'm sure you have because you have to have like this combination of self-awareness but like combination of like confidence that maybe borders on delusional, you know, that kind of stuff. Do you look at this and go, is it me? I'm gonna say yeah. I'm gonna say yeah.

I'm gonna say yeah in a way, and I don't mean to sound like trying to play a victim. I'm gonna say that it was my fault because what you just said, you are on, huh, how am I gonna put this? There are people who come to this town and this business who will do absolutely anything to succeed. They would have never moved back down to Manhattan Beach.

There's a whole lot of people that come here for with, not, you don't wanna say bad intentions, they would have never moved back down to Manhattan Beach. There's a whole lot of people that come here with not, you don't want to say bad intentions, but with so much focus and motivation to succeed that they will do absolutely anything. That those people are incredibly serious rivals. Like you just have to understand People are incredibly serious rivals. Like you just have to understand that if there is someone who doesn't care about anything, any friend, any relation,

any family, any moral, there's nothing they won't do to succeed and they don't have a hobby. Like they don't care about anything else. Now I would never wanna live, you know me, you live next to me. Like every time you saw me, what do I have? I had a surfboard under my hand. Or your kid or a kid.

Oh yeah, my kids, my family, which I, you know, another reason why the oval is such an amazing job. I get to, I'm on a network TV show that people love that is really successful. And I get to spend a hell of a lot of time with my children. And, or, you know, I'm coming over going, hey man, I just got back from my three day fishing trip. Like there, my hobbies also are so important.

Music, we were just sitting here playing your gorgeous guitars. I've got a recording session later, musically. I have a whole lot of other stuff that I do. I love the industry. I love acting. I love writing and scripts. I love acting. I love writing and scripts. I love it all.

But I didn't have a, I'm going to make it no matter what. I had to. So maybe if I had, maybe if I had gone to, you know, my publicist, they called it the Ed Quinn. I remember, I think it was one day at a time. No, maybe it was Eureka. It might have been early. It might have been on young Americans. I would go to events in Hollywood.

I'd be the first one there. I would do the red carpet and then they would call me and they'd go, hey, where are you? Okay, we can't find you at the party. I'm home. They'd be like, what? I would go right hey, where are you? Okay, we can't find you at the party. I'm home. They're like, what? I would go right down the red carpet, do it all. Get the clothes, set the stylist, be there,

look amazing, get the photos, shake all the hands. And my car's in the loading zone, right out the back door of the Beverly Hilton or whatever. And go on, because I just, I don't know, it doesn't really. I can relate to that. Yes, you, because I just, I don't know, it doesn't really understand. I can relate to that. Yes, you can. I can totally understand.

You're like, okay. But that's a dummy. It's so dumb. Yeah, you shouldn't be here. You should still be in Connecticut. You should still be up in Hollywood. You should, like, in this industry, people don't understand this,

but you really, if you want to make it, you should never take the foot off the gas. No, everyone told me that's in the writing side of things. They're like, so you're just gonna move down there? And I was like, yeah. And they went, okay. Well, part of it is like, but yeah, cause I wanna write, I wanna look out at the ocean.

And they're like, no, but who are you gonna go coffee with? Right, he's not gonna mean much. Who are you gonna go to drinks with? Right. No one's gonna see what the champ do. I think I went two years not going north of LAX. Two years. And when I first, first moved here, I was saying yes to everything.

I would go to every party. I would go to every dinner. I would go, hey, you wanna meet here? It was fun in the beginning because I'd look at traffic and then at night on a Saturday, I'd be watching games and I'd make it a text to somebody. And I'd go, I don't even know if I wanna go to this, but it's only 35 minutes away right now.

That's unheard of. And I'm just going to go. And then I felt like I was taking every single meeting possible and I was just realizing it was tougher for me. And again, I think I got here, I would have really preferred just come out here in the beginning of the 2000s, cause I want to move here in 0102,

but I didn't have the money. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have any talent. And I really regret not getting here soon. I don't wanna act like 15 years of ESPN got in the way of the stuff that I really wanna do, but it's a hard thing to walk away from until I finally was like, I do need to walk away from it.

But I would say, it's not the same thing, man. You've been working in this thing for two plus decades, so I'm not even trying to compare us, but I know that. Three and a half. Oh, well, I was like, yeah, you know, well the modeling guy, yeah, you're right, you're right. I should join the Screen Actors Guild in 93. That says it on my little card.

That's right, yeah, nevermind. So yeah, we're 30, we're 30 years for you. Yeah, I just don't, I don't wanna even make this sound like anybody listening that I'm trying to compare the two things other than that. No, no, but it's very. But I know that realistically, like I probably should have lived up there. I just wasn't gonna live up there.

So there you go. I can't fathom living in this town and not living near the water. And when I did, I was the exact same. When I would tell people I lived in Manhattan Beach in the 90s, it was like I said I lived in Tijuana. Dude. I'm not squirming out there like, what?

And it's funny, it's even worse back then too. Oh no, it's insanity. When I first, first wanted to move here, it was still on the, and they were just like, what are you gonna do? Like play volleyball and stuff, and like it was just getting made fun of by other people. No, you're a joke.

There was a girl that I was seeing, and she wanted to come see one of our big Fourth of July shows, and she blew it off. And I was like, wow, that was gnarly. And she goes, no, I didn't, I got lost. I thought you said you lived in Manhattan beach. I go, yeah. She goes, yeah. And I went and I know where Newport beaches. So I went to Newport and was trying to find Manhattan beach and I couldn't find it. I'm like, that's like orange County.

Like people, no idea what, what, where we live, but you know, I will say that I wouldn't trade any of it. I wouldn't, yes, did I get to be Batman? No, I did not. Do I want to trade my life for any of those other lives? Not even a little bit. I have no like, God, I wish I had. And there were so many, you know, I also got to see the business. It's exactly like my sporting career. If my shoulder stayed in my socket, I might've been the tight end for the 49ers. You see I'm six foot five.

I was fast as could be. I was just, I was an incredible athlete. I was aggressive. I loved the game. I just got injured and there's, I mean, what is it probably like 999 out of a thousand elite athletes don't make it to college because of injuries. Like, you know what?

The greatest ability is availability. And that's what you are as an actor. Yeah, I am. It's true. But it's also like- Was that not a problem? No, no, I was trying to like, I was trying to extrapolate on it

because I think, yeah, I didn't win an Oscar yet. I like that you said it that way. We'll do that positive thinking thing. Didn't win an Oscar yet, but I would like to see, you just said I had 57 credits. Some of the guys that I know, like good friends of mine, who Chris Hemsworth, amazing guy, was there when he got Thor.

How many credits does he have? But she's not 57. I bet it's not 27. It might be 17. Like it's, and every one of those jobs represents a hundred auditions. I had to work real hard for my career. I'm really proud of that.

I think it's made me a great actor because all that grinding built all this muscle memory. I've had incredible experiences, worked all over the world. It's awesome. So I don't worry about what I didn't get or didn't. And if anything, I learned from all of the hardship to be resilient and to be really, everyone's like, I'm so appreciative, I appreciate everything. Nobody appreciates, I would say nobody appreciates their career more than I do,

because I know how fricking hard it was to get here. That was awesome, it's what I expected. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid.

So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Let's get to a couple emails because we had some Ed Quinn specific. Don't come to LA, don't get into acting, don't get into broadcasting. Go into AI, go into tech, and go into private equity. All right, so good one to start with. Hey boys, 5'10", 180, couldn't shoot a basketball to save my life. He's a Chad Wesley Smith stand, so shout out to Cal.

Nice. 240 kilogram squat, 280 kilogram deadlift, He's a Chad Wesley Smith stan, so shout out to Cal. 240 kilogram squat, 280 kilogram deadlift bench. When people ask questions, they've got to do all their stats. Yeah, it sort of took off. We didn't ask for it. That's hilarious. By the way, thanks for listening. I love that.

I'm 40 years old. I have two kids, a very supportive wife and a great life. I'm the breadwinner in my house and we're comfortable long-term and short-term are well sorted financially. My wife is 38 years old and wants to give up her job to do a two-year acting degree. I'm very supportive of her doing so

and it won't hurt us financially or lifestyle wise. I'm all for it if she's happy. My question is, will it be worth it? I don't wanna be overly optimistic in my support for her, only for it to end in nothing and her end up devastated and she's not going to be a professional actor. I don't really care if it's nothing but a hobby, but I can't deal with picking her up if and when

she ends up thinking it's a huge waste of time and money. Wow. You don't seem like you think this is a good idea. Just reading you a bit here. Here's the thing. If that was my, if that was a family member, I would give them a real come to Jesus.

Like, yo, like you gotta understand what you're getting yourself into. So we won't do that though. We'll go positive. Where were they from? He didn't say, but I'll say they're from Europe. Okay. All right. So here's Besk's today, 2024. That's the other thing too, is you got to look at the business as what it is. I think it's an incredible thing to do. I think taking, especially if it's the kind of acting classes,

especially if you're studying the classics. If she's studying theater, because she'll learn so much about literature and about writing and about She's studying theater. If she is, because she'll learn so much about literature and about writing and about character, and you'll be able to watch movies differently. I think it'll give her also a lot of confidence for the rest of her life.

Something she can pass down to her kids. I am hoping she's in a small market because what would be great is, and this is what used to happen is no one took you seriously unless you booked a job. Used to be New York and LA, but it was really LA. Canadians, there were so many Canadian actors. Everybody's like, why there's so many Canadian actors?

Well, Canada forever had this incredible tax break. So productions would go up there. Canadians would get the opportunity as local hires to work. You'll see some actor, you're like, how's this guy been on like, why is this number one credit Superman? Superman? He was the guy in the restaurant or came in, thug number two or whatever, but got to work and got this

taste of it. And then if Canadians want to be actors, they would come to LA and they would book. And like Eureka, perfect example, Colin Ferguson, incredible actor, Canadian from Montreal. He had to come here and he's to book shows here. So now we're back up in Vancouver and he's a Canadian, but he's being paid and he's being respected. Like he's the Canadian actors would always say, it sucks when you're a local hire because they treat you like crap and they don't pay you and all this kind of stuff.

Now all those Canadians are back in their hometowns because production isn't here. There's no reason to be here. And the studios are not wanting to pay to fly you anywhere. Atlanta has become this huge hub, and there's a lot of actors, and there's a great industry for young actors there because they can get those guest stars.

If the show's shooting here, some guy who maybe started late is gonna go up against me, and a hundred of me, to get three episodes on some network TV show. Because if I'm here and I'm not working, I'm like, hell yeah, I'll do the show. But if they're not flying me to Canada,

then you're in like a small pond, but there's all this production. Yeah, so what you're saying is, fine, catch up with the industry, find where these pockets are and be available there, instead of just getting off the plane at LAX. Yes, like that's not gonna happen. Like unless you're moving the whole family to LA,

which I would say don't do. It sounds like local theater. That would be nice. That would be amazing. Local theater written all over this one. That would be great, yes. Or if you're like, you know, you're in San Francisco or you're in, you know, Albuquerque or, you know, Detroit

or something that has a TV show and a couple of game shows and a movie or two comes through every year. And then maybe you got a role here and there and it's a ton of fun and you get to be a part of it. But I think she'll be fine. Hopefully she's a character actress and that'll be good. All right, we got a guy here.

This was something we heard a lot from working actors that listen to the show. 5'8", 175, no gym stats. Big glue guy. I can't get rid of it. I'm still searching for what they call in the biz my first co-star or guest star appearance on a real TV show or an appearance in a real film.

I've been at it professionally acting seven, eight years. I have an LA agent but live outside of LA. I'll let you choose whether to read this. Oh, he's, I kept reading it. I'm not gonna say where he lives because I just try to keep it as vague as possible. But he can get here is what I'm saying. Is there anything you think I should be doing

or that maybe I haven't even thought of, something to try, the right type of people to reach out to, or even anything obvious I may have missed. He sent in a picture of himself, he's a good looking guy. Yeah. So that would have been, let's eliminate that. So he was nice enough to provide us with a headshot. I think that's a pretty general, and we get a lot of that.

We got, it wasn't so much of like, what do I do at the start? Cause I think everybody's start is kind of different but what's your in it in that next level hasn't happened. I the number one thing is you've got to stay what I'm seeing right now is a lot of people are considering themselves professional actors but they're not in class they're not in groundlings they're not in a theater troupe they're not working all the time and I'm seeing it on set I'm seeing actors who are not acting all,

it would be like showing up for an NFL season, but you didn't work out like the whole off season. It's like, yeah, you might know the playbook, but you're, you know, the first time you run it out, you're gonna blow a hamstring. Like you're not gonna be, you're just not gonna have the fast twitch to catch that ball.

It's like, you have to be acting. People don't understand it's a muscle. And so many actors are thinking, are deciding they're actors and they're not doing the daily work. If he's outside of town, I know you can do like, you can do like acting classes on Zoom. I get it. You can do like acting classes on Zoom. I get it. But you need to be acting every week. You need to be around, it's better to be around other actors and or working actors just so you're kind of in touch with the business

is what's going on. If he's outside of LA, but it's, I mean, it'd be better to be closer to LA or farther enough away, like in a small market, like a San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, you know, where small stuff come through. Um, I will say these two actors are thinking that they are acting when they make self-tapes, auditions. If he's out of town, that's probably, he's like, oh, I'm just self taping.

Self tapes are fool's gold. Self tapes, I think are heard. And I know this because I'm in scenes with actors who made a great self tape and are probably good actors. But all of a sudden, now they're on set. Now there's a hundred people in the room. Now it gets real quiet and action. I start talking to them and I can see in

their eyes that they can't hear a word coming out of my voice because their heartbeat is too loud. It's pulsing in their ears. A lot of actors will say, the best thing you can do is get to that point where you're dead inside. Because it is, the scene starts because what is acting?

It's listening. And you need to be around people. Here's the real key. It's like having the shittiest house in the best neighborhood. You wanna be surrounded by people who are a whole hell of a lot better than you. When I joined Leslie Khan, I walked in, I'm like,

oh, I'm never going to be an actor. I, you know, there's some actors that I absolutely love and I'll name drop them in case you don't know. But Sally Pressman and Jolie Jenkins are two that come to my mind where I would sit there in class and I would watch them and they're so good, every word out of their mouth. And I'm just like, oh my God, I'm never gonna be that good.

It's impossible. This is, oh, I'm trying to do this for a living. And there are people like that walking around. And so that was the kind of thing. And then you get on sets and then you just start meeting murderers, kids who've been doing this since they were like five years old.

And it's like, oh, oh, you always gotta get, there's a, do we swear on this? Yeah. Yeah. They're encouraged. My foot, my, my, my senior year in high school, a football coach, and I've, you know, you use this forever. Um, they moved me to left tackle and I, you know, half-assed some play. He walked up to me and he goes, the defensive tackle at Berkeley High is 6'6, 280 pounds.

He's gonna knock your dick in the dirt. Brogan quit and he's broke a clipboard over my head. I ended up breaking the guy's arm, but sorry. We won the game. The coach's arm or the defensive tackle? Like when we went into it. Yeah, yeah, I was, when I went to the game, but that's one of the reasons I got recruited

because I was a lunatic on the football field. But it was, it was that you, I, you got to get your dick knocked in the dirt as an actor. All this kumbaya, oh my God, that was great. And your little self tape that you made with your, you know, your boyfriend or your girlfriend in your apartment or, you know, he did a hundred takes and you edit it all together.

That's not acting. Acting's a job. Acting is a job. Acting is a game. Acting showbiz. I loved, like you mentioned, Two Broke Girls and One Day At Time, live, doing it live in front of a studio audience. And that's the tough one where they grind you

for the audition because like when it's, when there's a thousand people watching and you gotta do comedy, it separates the wheat from the chaff as they say. And so I would just say, make sure if you're not booking, work harder and figure out how to work harder. I don't mean, I'm not saying he's lazy. I'm not saying I don't know anything about him. But if he's outside of LA, but could get to LA,

I mean, you better be going to LA once a week in an acting class that then you are rehearsing with other actors and working every week. Because if you're not, it's, you see me out here, what did I tell you about surfing out here? I surf out here all the time and 99 percent of the time it's dog crap. I am not surfing out here to get good waves. I'm here training. So when it's good and I travel a lot to surf all over the world,

just got back from Africa. Is it there? Yeah, I got to tell you, like I suck at surfing and this place is a real wake up call. That was going to be a lot better. It's terrible. And it got super bad because we lost all our sand in the super storm, but I'm always out there and I'm totally fine with it. Cause I know why I'm out there.

I'm out there to stretch, paddle, catch a few waves. I was like, well, it's gonna be decent, a little peak here and there, but this is, I'm here for when I travel internationally. The South Africa pictures, when I saw that, I was like, maybe I start waxing the boards up and get that out there. I saw that, I saw your picture

when you're in this barrel and I went, are you really never gonna be able to do this? And you know, it was- But the point being though, is that acting is the exact same thing. You cannot start phoning it in. You can't decide, you know, declare yourself a professional actor.

And we used to get through a pilot season and not get one and be right back in class. We would be in class during pilot season running our auditions. And I was just talking to Matt Zucre, as a dear, dear friend of mine, we were on the plane together on our first show, Young Americans.

And we were laughing about how we didn't have, Matty had a car that didn't go uphill. He had this old Saturn that was so old and so terrible. It was right before he got Gilmore Girls. It couldn't, he had to navigate LA, but if there was any kind of like steep incline, he had to figure out a way around the incline because his car wouldn't go uphill,

but he was still in acting class. We were never not in class. And it was like, people have stopped doing that and they've stopped surrounding themselves with actors who are better than them because they don't wanna feel intimidated and they've stopped surrounding themselves with actors who are better than them because they don't want to feel intimidated and they want to live their truth. It's like, your truth is you're not very good.

I sparred with a Mexican boxer yesterday right on Bruce's beach and he made me quit. I've never quit. I was like, it wasn't because it hurt. I couldn't, he punched me for two straight minutes. He was like, I'm just going to try to get you to quit. And I was like about to throw up. And I was pretty upset about it yesterday afternoon. But I woke up today and was like, I'm just gonna try to get you to quit. And I was like about to throw up. And I was pretty upset about it yesterday afternoon.

But I woke up today and was like, hey. I saw your headgear sort of thrown off to the side. The mouthpiece. There's a mouthpiece on the ground. I walked in the door and I went, well, that wasn't very good. And I was just like, but it's to your point. Like that was actually, I hated yesterday, but it'll end up being a great day for me.

Last one here. All right, I like this one. How to not be cringe in Hollywood. Six-four, 170, mid-30s, Goggins, Cam Haines style, high reps, punishing runs because Tommy Boy was right, the camera does add 10 pounds. Basketball comp, discount Casey Jacobson, Cal Guy's not gonna like that.

We love Casey Jacobson on this podcast. After training in New York and spending years acting on Broadway and off Broadway, which while artistically gratifying, barely left me with two pennies to rub together, I'm having to report in the last three years I've worked nonstop in the TV and film world, i.e. meeting, meaty, this email came out weird,

so I apologize. Meaty, recurring roles, numerous limited series. He gave us, for Ed and I, a redacted list of shows that he's been in, I'm giving you the thumbs up. My question is how to best avoid being cringe in Hollywood. I'm currently a series regular on one of the biggest TV shows. Very big show.

And navigating acting opposite a bunch of big shots who average about 40 million followers on Instagram. Self scouting, we like to self scout on the show. I treat stars like hot girls, ignore them, and let them either come to you or not. This has served me well, allowing for working relationships to be earned and not presenting as insecure. My biggest fear is being seen as an operator

or fitting the needy actor cliche, and that leads me to my specific question. I spent four years getting the rights of a play from a legendary playwright and adapting it into a very sharp screenplay. specific question. I spent four years getting the rights of a play from a legendary playwright and adapting it into a very sharp screenplay. I'd like to get it to one of the stars on the TV show I'm acting with now, but don't know how most elegantly

to approach them about the project and the specter of reading the script. I guess you'll just have to trust me, it's a killer script and the role is a real opportunity. And this guy would be amazing. He's a gritty actor who I think would see its merit. Ed, who knows, maybe we'll connect with this guy. Should I invite the actor out for a meal or broach it then

or go to their assistant with her or wait until after we've wrapped shooting the season? How would you go about this? I've stacked good normal interactions with this actor dude in the past year, i.e. the vibes are right. There's a mutual respect, but it's not like we're boys who hang out outside of the set. Again, dude is big time. Any advice, the most effective approach engaging this actor

about the role in Project would be appreciated if someone who probably has people asking him for things all the time. So anyway. It's a tough one. A great question and a really, like a universal story. Like, you know, I've written several scripts and sold them and played the name game

and how to chase big actors because at the end of the day, it is a business. That is the one thing that is really, you know, this is art meeting commerce and the interest, you can have a great relationship with an actor and then you approach them with a project and You are it's you're right the demographics the relationship suddenly changes and It sucks when you don't have a network or studio or money already set up

It sounds like you're trying to attach the actor first What's always great, and this can always be smoke and mirrors too. If you can get someone at Netflix suddenly interested in the project, and then when you talk, because when you're talking to a star, you come to like, hey man, I got this script.

All right, what is that? What's he saying? I need you to make my movie, which is like, one, it's not that easy. Every actor will tell you. It's like people will send me stuff, like they'll send me their cousin's demo and some girl's music. And I, what do you think?

And I'll be like, yeah, sounds great. And they'll be like, oh man, I was hoping for more of that. You get us some, we think I'm gonna get her a record deal? I don't have a record deal right now. Yeah, that's a huge, like of any of this stuff. Like if somebody asked me about sports, it's like, well, my contract expires like here in eight months, so like, I don't, what am I supposed to do?

Like I can give you advice, but like, if you think, and I know when I was younger, you would think you would make that connection that everything was going to change. And then there would be like this massive resetting. And it seemed funny. Like when I moved out to LA, there's a few actors I know, and somebody had asked me, are you friends with that guy? And I was like, yeah, I am like friendly enough.

Like, what are you asking? And they were like, can you ask if they had this script thing? that guy? And I was like, yeah, I am friendly enough. What are you asking? And they were like, can you ask if they had this script thing? So I just thought I was being friendly, and the actor let me have it a little bit. Was like, oh, you moved to town, and now you're gonna be coordinating scripts for producers or script, and I was like, whoa, dude.

I was like, I thought I was just being nice. I didn't give your cell phone number to him or something. And I also would like to think that, again, what I do is the least cool version of being famous, but I'm like, I sorta also get it too. So I wasn't, and it was just this wake up call of being in LA where I was like, I'll never fucking do that again unless I know.

So it's scary, I understand the email. I understand exactly what he's doing. And look, I created some stuff with big show runners and wrote the script and had them, you know, attached. And I'm thinking, we're gonna walk into these rooms and it was gonna be like, we love it and we, and then you walk into the room and you realize, oh, here's six people at the network

who have six figure jobs that they don't wanna lose. So they're like, yeah, so. Once it's explained to you and like what people say yes to and the investment of what a yes means, you know, and then you realize like all these people that are super established that have all this stuff that already have a million nos in their back pocket too. Millions.

And it's also, it's not that sort of, like you'll hear these like, you know, like the antidote it's like, yeah, and I brought, you know, Brad the script and Brad loved it. And we just, we just, we were starting filming that weekend, you know, and it's just like, okay, one, I don't believe it. And two, you know, it's, it's bringing an actor something, unless they have a deal.

Cause what's the actor going to do? Look, I have a bunch of scripts. My team wants me. I mean, I'm on TV shows. I mean, I'm on a big TV show right now. And I'm bringing in a lot of money. Look, here's the motivation. I'm bringing, through COVID, through the strike,

I'm bringing a lot of money into my agents and managers. I'm one of those guys that, hey, dude, we got to make some stuff happen for Quinn. It's that hard where when they want to not like, do me a favor or I'm really good, but dude this guy's paying some bills, let's get him something. It's so hard to get anything made.

And this is almost becomes like, don't, you know, believe in your scripts, don't give up. You've got this connection, but you never know. I mean, the best thing to be able to do, I mean, if your reps can do it, if you can get, cause once they hear, like once one of these actors here is like, oh, I've got this thing kind of moving at a studio, that would be the best thing.

Yeah, go have them for dinner, have them for lunch, but try and have something set up. You know, if it's bullshit, you kind of go, yeah, you know, like what's been going on, dude, how are things going to the show? It's like, man, I had this, I bought, I got this play and I got this great script and dude, it's got some heat to it. What? You serious? I go, yeah, man.

I mean, like, you know, so-and-so was talking about, talking to so-and-so about directing it. I had a meeting at Netflix. You know, I haven't said anything really. You know, I had a big meeting at my agent and like, you know, they want to take it over to range media and like, you know, attach so-and-so or something. Like-

So are you saying lie? I'm saying lie. Remember the, what was it, Quentin Tarantino made a fake review reel of George Clooney's performance in Dusk After Dark to get him Batman. It wasn't true. The movie hadn't come out. None of the reviews were real. They made a whole thing about it and because he was up for Batman and they wanted to get a Batman and they got a Batman with a bunch of fake reviews. I'll never forget a pitch that I wasn't involved with other than I was in the room. So I was sort of involved, but not but this is like, I'd like to call this like BC for me. So it's like BLA before LA when I actually moved here. We were we in a pitch, dying, just getting murdered.

And there was a couple different reasons and it was just so funny. One of the agents turned and was like, well, Patty Jenkins is attached. And I was like, she is? And the agent just lied so hard and was trying to appease our audience of executives and by offering up a female name,

because there was a dynamic in the story that they didn't like about the pitch. And then it was like, you're a dick, you're wrong for this, we hate this part of the story. And I'm like, we're just getting yelled at here for like 30 straight minutes. And then the agent just went agent on us. And he just was like, well, Patty Jenkins is attached.

And I like had never been through that. And I turned to our guy on our own team. I'm like, she is? Yeah, but no, you have to be a path. I mean, this town is full of path. Like yeah, watch Entourage. You'll probably, you'll pick up some things. Ari will.

No, but I think the real advice was try to have something a little bit more solid that you can bring him to. But then there was also like anything, there's a soft launch of this, where the next time there's a setting, maybe you're advanced scouting enough to be like, where can I get him in this setting where it's just, hey, what's new?

Okay, well, this is new. And then you see how he reacts. The problem is, is you would know is that a lot of guys are already gonna be like precondition to sense the, the does not desperation, but you know, they may just shut it down a little. I get, but I get sent scripts all the time. They go, hey, they want to offer this to you.

And I'm like, great. As it set up and they're like, well, they're thinking maybe, and I'm like, oh boy, here we go. You know, it's just, it's just the reality of the business. So don't in a sense take it personally if it's a little difficult. It sounds like you've got good awareness of not being a sycophant, but also, you know.

You gotta try, that's the thing, like I think the other thing is that you actually still have to shoot your shot. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But try and make it, lure them in with the possibility of there being a pot of gold somewhere. And understand too, you have a massive advantage in the guy that's like the next guy

that's gonna hit this person up for something. Yeah. This was so much fun, man. I can't believe it took us like two years to do this. We should have done it when we were living next door to each other. And I don't know, I think one time we were gonna like two years to do this. We should have done it when we were living next door to each other. And I know, I think one time we were gonna have you on to promote the album.

So why don't we just tell people where they can find your music on top of obviously all the TV. Yeah, it's Ed Quinn everywhere you stream everything. Ed Quinn at the Swamp Metal All Stars. There's three music videos on YouTube. One was done really well up at San Jose State with their film school, Big Four Days Shoot, and the other two were just small ones I did here in town. About 10 or 11 songs on everywhere you stream music.

Going to go today and start trying to put stuff together to start playing live. But it's fun because that's the cool thing about today is, your music industry, by the way, I was in the music industry. I went from the fashion industry, which then just evaporated, music industry, which kind of evaporated. Now I'm in the film industry as we sit here in this very weird time.

But what's great about the music industry now is that you can make all your own music. You can, like I built a studio, over here across town and got some guys and can all the music that I wrote that never got released because my record deal fell apart. I can make it now and so it's a ton of fun. I'm having a ton of fun doing it and it's getting put on

soundtracks and extreme sport edits and stuff. And that's the reason I do it too. People are always coming to me like, how much would this cost? I'm like, nothing, take it. And they're like, what? I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Dude, I just wanna put it out there.

There's stories that mean a lot to me and yeah, I just really enjoy it. Well, I enjoyed this, man. I did too. This was awesome. And I would check out his Instagram page for those that want further entertainment from Ed. Thanks, Stu.

Thank you, buddy. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.