The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The SEC Gap Is Widening, Eric Dickerson on the Rushing Record and Recruiting Stories, and the QB Stock Game Finale

Episode Date: January 12, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on the SEC's dominance of college football (0:31) before talking to Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson about his book, 'Watch My Smoke: The Eric Dickerson Story,' what it's like to be fast, quitting football in high school and returning to win a state championship, committing to Texas A&M before ending up at SMU, his first five NFL seasons in Los Angeles, contract disputes, his NFL rushing record, and more (9:57). Then, with the end of the NFL regular season in the books, Ryen, Ceruti, and Kyle close out Q4 of the QB Stock Game and announce the winner (44:48) before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (49:06). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Eric Dickerson Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast the hall of famer eric dickerson on his career and those recruiting days where he committed to oklahoma and texas a&m ended up at smu and whether or not he wanted adrian peterson to break his record we'll do a little on the sec's dominance some final numbers for him we promise we won't bring it up again until September. QB stock game. Were you dying to know who won? I know I was.

And life advice. I could spend the next 90 minutes talking maybe just about John Moran, but we did do that a little bit last week. The block, by the way, if the backboard isn't there, I don't know if he's back down on the ground yet. That was in the Lakers game,

and then they beat Golden State last night. Really tough team. Man. Memphis is playing some great basketball, and they're super intense. It was playoff-level defense, I thought, from them last night. Yes, I know Draymond wasn't there, and Clay has just gone back, but whatever. When Johnny did the takeover, he took over that game.

They are now creeping into what maybe we should start looking at as a real contender coming out of the West, which still feels a little premature despite the 10 straight wins. All right, let's talk about another group that wins, and that's the SEC. National title game, we're on a Wednesday, not on Tuesday after the fact. I picked Georgia. I felt like an idiot for picking Georgia,

so I'm not going to do any kind of victory lap because I just know how tenuous all this stuff can be. And honestly, if Jameson Williams doesn't get hurt, I think that game could have gone Bama's way on top of everything else, too. So I don't feel like, hey, I nailed it. I felt dumb when I took the pick. I just felt like picking against Bama in this one. I felt like doing something a little bit different.

And I did it. And there you go. Whatever. OK, so now we have let's go through some facts here. Oh, is Ursula going to do an SEC segment? Yep. Three different SEC schools have won titles in three straight years. LSU, Bama, and now Georgia.

That's 12 titles in 16 years from five different teams. So you're saying, all right, here we go. You guys are going to do the timeline where you go back 16 years to make the argument? The argument that I'm trying to make is very simple. It's that when somebody is telling you that this conference isn't the best, they're lying to you. I did it before on the radio, and we're going to go over a bunch of different stuff. Let's start with draft picks. The SEC has had the most draft picks going into the NFL for 15 straight years.

Over the last 10 years, the SEC has had 557 draft picks. The second place conference over those same 10 years has had 428. So on average, over the last 10 years, the SEC has put in 13 more draft picks per year than the second place conference. Shout out to the Big Ten and ACC who make up those conferences. Yes, I understand the SEC has 14 teams. So does the Big 10 and so does the ACC. It's not a very good argument, even though the Big 12 in 2017, the Big 12 as a conference with 10 teams had 14 players going. 14 players. So now if you're saying, all right, well, you're going over 10 years there. You're doing 15 years with the draft, 16 years with the conference.

It's actually getting worse. It's getting worse when you compare it. If you go the last three years, the SEC has 20 more picks per year than the number two conference. Let's look at recruiting rankings. We know they have the talent coming

out. We also know they have it coming in. I use 24-7. You use whatever you want to use. Last five years, number of SEC teams with a recruiting class that ranks in the top 10. This past year, four, six, five. 2018, a little down. Only two classes

in the top 10. In 2017, back to four classes in the top 10. If you look at where their 10th team, I just landed on 10 and I compared it to the Big 10 because I think the Big 10 is the only conference that has a chance to end this supremacy and to be able to position themselves as the best conference.

There have been a couple of years we're going into it. I go, this might be the year. It might be the year. And I do believe that despite this dominance, that it is cyclical in sports. Think about the Eastern and Western Conference and the NBA and all the changes that we wanted to make. And yeah, it went on for a really long time

where the West was far superior to the East. But now look at it. You ride it out for a bit. It feels like it's finally caught up, even though it feels like it took forever. And it may seem impossible to think that another conference is going to catch up to the SEC. But I think the Big Ten, it's a possibility. All right. So if you look at where the 10th placed class ranked in the SEC and where you compare that

to where they rank nationally, let's go this way. The 10th placed team in 2021 for the SEC recruiting-wise was 26th and 28th, 23rd, 32nd, 27th. If you go over the same period of time and look at the Big Ten's 10th ranked team, because we're also talking about depth and not just the top, the Big Ten is ranked 46th, 44th, 45th, 50th, and 46th.

Shout-out to Michigan State, Minnesota, and Illinois. And also a little side shout-out for Maryland. You won't believe this, but if you go back, unless you're a real locked-in terp, Maryland has some pretty high recruiting rankings for football classes. I was kind of surprised when I looked back at that. All right, but what about the Bulls, Rosillo? You're right. Sometimes the SEC doesn't do well in the Bulls. What does that. All right, but what about the Bulls, Rosillo? You're right. Sometimes the SEC doesn't do well in the Bulls.

What does that mean? Well, let's take a look. And this past season, the SEC went 6-8 in Bulls. Granted, that last loss, kind of a big one, title game. Big 12 had a good Bulls season, 5-2. We'll get to that in a second. Pac-12, 0-5. In 2020, the SEC went 7-2.

The Big 12 went 5-0. So good Big 12 years back-to-5. In 2020, the SEC went 7-2. The Big 12 went 5-0. So good Big 12 years back to back. The ACC actually went 0-5. It could be 0-6. I don't include Notre Dame. They don't include themselves in the ACC, so let's not do that. I'm not going to add that to make it look even worse for the ACC.

2019, the SEC went 8-2. ACC went 4-7. Big 10 went 4-5. Big 12 went 1-5. ACC went four and seven. Big Ten went four and five. Big 12 went one and five. The Pac-12 went four and three. 2018, SEC down year form, 500, six and six. The best winning percentage of any of the major five conferences, the Big 12 led the way going four and three. So there's also another thing that seems to happen here is that when the SEC loses

a bowl game, it's like, oh, I thought that conference was good. Yeah. Texas Tech put it on him, man. Beat the shit out of Mississippi State. I don't know what to tell you, but there are other conferences that in all of the recent years have had disastrous, disastrous bowl seasons. And yet those parts of the country point to when Purdue beats Tennessee. In 2017, the SEC went 5-6. The Big Ten was awesome that year. They went 7-1. The Pac-12 went 1-8. Now, I could go even deeper if I wanted to on the bowl records. If I wanted to do that, I could, because we can find some nuance in there. The Big 12 went 5-2 this year. Well, they also had Baylor beat Ole Miss, where Matt Corral gets knocked out of the game, and Kansas State's pounding their fucking chest because they beat LSU who had a wide

receiver at quarterback. But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that because we can find holes in all the bowl stuff. But if you look at the collective of the last five years for some down SEC bowl seasons, you've had every other conference with a disastrous bowl season. All right. Here's the other exercise. Do this and be honest with yourself. Run through the Power Five standings. Look at the teams and say, how many teams can you get to before you start laughing about them

winning a national championship? The ACC. Clemson, no doubt. Florida State, as bad as it's been. You're not going to sit here and say that it's incapable of that to happen. And then what? Miami, don't you fucking dare.

Then who? I'm waiting. Louisville? Because they've had a taste. Pittsburgh and Wake? Because they're ranked this year. NC State? I don't know.

Big 12, I think we can get to four. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor. Yeah, I believe Baylor. I guess Iowa State. If you want to include Texas you can maybe get to five Gary Patterson in his prime at TCU yeah not impossible Big Ten has real ones Michigan Ohio State Michigan State Michigan State was in a playoff Penn State I think can be in this and I really do think if things broke the right way for Wisconsin one year

that it's not impossible to think of them winning a national championship. And Iowa does recruit well. They've had good records. They've had good teams. But watching, if I were to do another exercise and say, did you watch Michigan and Iowa? Did you watch Georgia and Alabama? Did you think it looked like the same sport?

Because I didn't. Pac-12, I'm not even going to bother with it. I'm not going to bother. Hell, the SEC with A&M, who was fifth just outside of the playoff two years ago, A&M is going to end up in a playoff. They're going to end up in a playoff at some point. I feel very strong about that. That would be six teams for the SEC. So we know that they have the most draft picks. We know they have the best talent coming in. They know that they win the most championships. We know that they pay their coaches the most. They

put the most resources into their programs. We know When I watch it, it just looks better. There is no other version of this where we would argue, that thing, yeah, it's not as good, actually. Wait, did you hear what that guy just said? Yeah, I did, but actually he's wrong about all that. Why is he wrong? Admission

rates, they don't play in the cold. Really? That's the reason like now and that's kind of my point is we the reason i bring it up the reason it annoys me so much is because no one would actually look at that resume of facts and go yeah that's not true yeah it's just not those guys because usually the people that are so mad about it are guys that played at other programs in other conferences. I don't care. I didn't play anywhere.

I just like telling the truth. And when you start to hear somebody kind of veer into that neighborhood, you know, you're like, hey, sorry, Purdue fucking beat Tennessee, man. But I always wonder what the motivation is behind it. I always wonder why it starts to happen over again. I'd be like, actually, actually, it's not as good. Like, okay. Because the person's lying to you. And they're honestly lying to themselves.

Eric Dickerson is our guest, Hall of Famer. His new book, Watch My Smoke, coming out. And Eric, I'm going to start by this. You may think I'm kissing up to you a bit, but you were my first favorite NFL player. And it's funny, I think for a younger generation, like when we were kids, everybody wanted to be the running back in the backyard. Now, I don't know if that happens anymore. Now, everybody wants to be the quarterback now, but everybody wants to be the quarterback these days. Yeah, yeah.

So, look, your relationship with football is basically the kind of the premise of the book you know and i love kind of the times you're like this is this is where i love it this is where i don't love it and it makes a lot of sense it's your life in football but you have a moment in this book where you share with us for for the rest of us mere mortals what it's like to be fast what it's like to run in a stadium. Tell me about what you would describe as the greatest feeling of your life. Breaking an open field. Breaking an open field. There's nothing like it.

And knowing that you cannot run everyone, or at least you think you can, and never looking back. It's that feeling of exhilaration. It's a quiet moment, I can say. I can think of a couple of times when I played the Dallas Cowboys at home in the playoff game, and I had a 62-yard touchdown run. And then my first big run was when we played the New York Jets in 1985, 1883, my rookie season.

And I remember the players were tossed left and I remember making a cut and just all of a sudden I got an open field. I could hear nothing. I could hear nothing but just see myself breathing. And then when I got to the end zone, I could hear that out of boos. But, you know, it's just such a great feeling.

I gotta say, you know, that feeling is gone. I can't run like that anymore. Yeah, I wonder if it's worse having it and not being able to do it again or never having it. You know, I'd rather have had it, but it's kind of that weird thing. It's almost like fame in a way, where if you've never had it,

then you don't really know what it's like to have it and then not have it again. But I don't know how you process that. You know, that's a great question, because my friend just said that to me a couple of months ago my best friend when we went to college together he played fullback he said did he say i don't know what's better he say being able to just be as good as you were and then having it or not having it and then lose it because you get older i said well you know i really appreciate it i mean i appreciate the gift

that i had and then losing it because you do say like, man, I can't do that no more. I'm just too old. I mean, it's frustrating because, you know, it's your mind. You think you can still do it. I mean, especially when I was like in my late 30s and 40s,

I thought I could still do certain things and I couldn't like, like got to try to run somebody younger. Oh, that hamstring. Oh, wait a minute. I can't do that no more. I can't take that. I don't have that fast twist muscle.

But I would still say I'd rather have it than just lose it because it's nothing like having it. I can tell you, it's nothing like it. Yeah, and by the way, the people saying

that it's better to not have it are people that never had it. So you're right, by the way. It's always one of those things that I've thought about. Let us know more about Sealy, Texas, where you grew up, what that was like for you,

that experience. You know, it's a small town right outside of houston back then you got to think it was 1970s um and i was born in 60 but it was 70s playing football um you know segregation was segregation when i grew up you know black set blacks live on one side white living on the other side of town but we know we know all the white kids we knew them all it was it wasn't It wasn't a thing about race, really, it wasn't. I think that's the great part about being in that small town, I can say.

I can remember one time, our principal, because some of the black guys, they'd date the white girls, the white girls would date the black guys, and the black girls would date the white guys. And the principal kind of had a problem with it. It brought some of the parents in, some of the white parents. And I'll never forget this. It was just an amazing

moment. That was like 1970s where the parents were like, you can't tell our kids who to like and who not to like. Because the kids, that's how the kids felt. And that just goes to show that in some places, it doesn't make a difference. It's just about the person, the people. And, you know,

my town wasn't the perfect town, but you know, I'll say this much. It was a perfect time for me. I'm glad I grew up in a small town. I still have that small town mentality and I still have a house back in my hometown to see that with my mom when she was alive. So I still go back. You start making a name for yourself, you know, and I think like a lot of, a lot of people, like in the beginning of the greatness, it like wait i'm that good i'm i'm this big of a deal and i watched all the documentaries and all the recruiting and stuff but before we get to

some of the media parts of it what was that like for you in the beginning when now all of a sudden you go from hey i'm fast i'm scoring some touchdowns to wait holy shit like i'm i'm the guy everybody's trying to get me well you know I didn't even really realize that until in the book it talks about a guy named James Abernathy. He called him Shaq. He lived in a town called Brookshire, which is 12 miles away. He was a big football fan, just a big sports fan. And I quit football. I quit my sophomore year.

I quit playing. And he came over to my house. And I always liked Shaq. Everybody in town liked Shaq. Even though he's from the rival town. He came over and I said, hey, what's up, Shaq? He said, hey, how you doing? I'm talking to my mom.

He said, Mr. Diggs, do you mind if I take Eric and talk to him for a minute? I said, sure, take him and talk to him. So I got in the car with him. He said, Eric, how you doing? I said, man, I'm good. He said, man, I heard you quit football. I said, yeah, man, that man is racist. And I said, you know, all of us.

Your coach. Your coach Harris, right? Yeah, my host coach Harris. All I said, you know, all of his coach. Your coach. Your coach Harris, right? Yeah, my coach Harris. All the black players are cool except one guy. And so he said, he talked some more. He said, Eric,

let me ask you a question, man. What do you see in this town? I said, nothing. He said, Eric, exactly. There's nothing here. He said, let me tell you something, son. And I still remember

him saying this to me. He said, you a sophomore. He's 16 years old. But Eric, you're one of the best athletes we've ever seen in these parts. And I'm remember him saying this to me. He said, you're a sophomore. You're 16 years old, but Eric, you're one of the best athletes we've ever seen in these parts. And I'm like, you know, I'm like, I think he's just talking. Like, really? He said, Eric, I'm telling you. He said, you have a gift.

He said, you really should go back and play football. He said, I'm not saying it's your way out, but it could be your way out of here. He said, I don't want to see you wasted. He said, if you don't want to play in the seed, he said, come over now. Brooks would love to have you there. So when I went back home, my mom asked me, what did he say? And I told him exactly what he said. And I won't

forget her reply. She says, Eric, I don't like football. She says, it's a very rough sport, but I don't want to see you quit anything. But if you want to go play in another town, I'll take you over to see you. I'm going to tell Brooks you to play. At that town, I'll take you over to see me go to Brookshire to play. At that point, I thought about it and some of my best friends

at the time, Gary Hill, he called me and said, man, has Ralph Harris been to your house? I said, no. He said, he's on his way over. So he came by my house and he'd been talking with all the black kids. I was talking to each one of us individually about coming back. I told him, I'll think about it. We all got together, all of us kids.

It's funny how all of us got together and we talked and said, man, let's just go back and play in spite of him. And that was kind of the start of it, really, I got to say. And I'll say this much. It wasn't a feel-good story with my high school coach. It didn't turn out great. But we won a state championship my senior year. And I think it was around my junior and senior year

when I started seeing it. I didn't say I could think I'm going to be a great college player, pro player, but I knew I was better than a lot of kids that I'd seen in my area. I was fast. I was big. In my senior year, man, it was like it was almost like my senior year in college.

It was like I felt like a man playing with kids at times. I mean, that's just how, you know, I got to say that's the gift that God gave me. It was that exceptional. And I just, I loved it. So you've got, and from the book, you know, Harris, your coach in high school,

is trying to get you to go to Texas, which makes you wonder, okay, he's really pushing Texas. And then you get A&M saying, well, look, if you're going to, you know, this part of the state, you got to go to A&M. And then you get SMU that saying, well, look, if you're going to this part of the state, you got to go to A&M. And then you get SMU that doesn't really have much of a history. And then you wanted to go to Oklahoma

on top of everything else. Let's start with that. How much did you love Switzer? Oh, I loved it to death. I just wanted to go there so bad. I came to my state championship game, came to my house, you know, recruited me. Rex Norris was the other guy.

Rex Norris, Coach Rex Norris came. We don't know how I remember Rex's name. But I was excited that he came. And my great aunt who raised me, who was adopted, she didn't listen. She wasn't saying much. And I committed. They showed me a highlight tape. I think they won the Orange Bowl.

I'm like, I'm coming. And, you know, she didn't say much. And they walked out And they showed me a highlight tape. I think they won the Orange Bowl. I'm like, I'm coming. And, you know, she didn't say much. And they walked out. I'm never going to forget. When they walked out, she said, you're not going to school, Eric. I'm like, Mama, no, that man's a liar, Eric. I don't trust him. I'm like, Mama, no, Eric, you ain't going there.

She said, first of all, you're a Texas boy. Why do you want to go to Oklahoma? I'm not going to get that part of it. So I'm like, it broke my heart. It really broke my heart. And, you know, the thing about Ralph Harrison, he wanted to go to Texas. I found out later that

if I went to Texas, he would get to be a coach there, supposedly. And, you know, I give him this much credit. We were through our bad relationship, and it was bad. Not just mine, but pretty much all of us. He called me. A guy called me about three years ago.

And he just passed away last year. A guy called me. He said, hey, Eric. I said, what's up, Dana? He said, good, man. He said, man, I got a guy on the phone want to holler at you. I'm like, okay.

I put him on the phone, and it was Ralph Harris. I'll never forget the feeling. said hey eric my heart started beating fast all over it's like i was like i was at that high school kid again and i'm telling you i tell all young kids this and coaches you can have a real good impact or bad impact on a player a kid and they never forget they we don't know we never forget and so And so when he said, hey, Eric, I said, how's it going, Ralph? He said, Eric, it's good. I said, good, man. I said, what can I do for you?

He said, Eric, I just want to say I've seen all the stuff you've done. He said, man, you've had an amazing NFL career, college career. I said, I want to say congratulations. And I'll never forget. He said, Eric, I just want to say

I'm sorry. I want to apologize to you and all the players of how I treated you guys. And, you know, when you're a young kid, you think that, you know, kids, you know, you think I might have been wrong as you get older. Like maybe to apologize to you and all the players of how I treated you guys. And, you know, when you're a young kid, you think that, you know, kids,

you know, you think I might have been wrong as you get later. Like, maybe I was, you know, overstepping my boundary where I was, but I said, and that made it right.

I'm like, okay, I wasn't wrong. I knew he was treating us like this, and he apologized. And, you know, I think that meant a lot to me, but talking about A&M,

A&M was, Sealy's an Aggie town. I mean, it was Aggie. It was hard to get out was, Sealy's an Aggie town. I mean, it was Aggie, it was hard to get out of there. It was Aggie town. One of our biggest supporters was right there

in Sealy. And, you know, I didn't want to go to A&M for two reasons. I know it sounds funny now, but, you know, being a kid

in 17, 18 years old, it's different. I didn't like their uniforms. I didn't like that guy with the big chin. I just didn't like it on the helmet. And I didn't like the Yale leader thing. I wanted some cheerleaders. And I said, that sounds, I know, think about

I was 18 years old. I said, I want some cheerleaders. And so I just couldn't go to A&M. But you know what? So the guys, the guys in overalls, it just wasn't going to close. It just wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't kind of me. it just wasn't going to close. This wasn't paying me. All right.

And I know you've been asked about it a million times. It's funny. Your words come off as annoyed in your own book about the Trans Am, which became known as the Trans A&M. Because the SMU part of it, it's like, oh, man, these guys must have been cashing in. They must have been cashing in. The weird thing about the car is that they basically had, what, your grandmother pay for it and that they would reimburse her?

Which actually, again, correct anything that I have wrong here, that sounds a little dangerous, especially considering you committed sort of A&M, but you were like, I don't really want to go there either. So I don't know if grandma got stuck with that bill or what. No, no, grandma didn't get stuck with the bill. See, my grandmother and my grandfather lived in Houston. That was my real grandparents. And they could afford a car. They always got a new Cadillac every couple of years. That was their thing.

She'd get a new Cadillac. So when the car came about, I won't forget, they met us at Leo Johnigan. Leo Johnigan. What is it? and talking about the car and it was all involved so the guy went in came back out

our papers signed, they made a couple calls and my grandmother was there and I never knew what happened because I never really asked and I asked one day, she said don't you worry about that you ain't never got to worry about it and you ain't gonna get no trouble for that. So years later,

I found out, I think I found out, really, I was in the pros when I found out. I finally talked to her about it. She said, we paid for that car. And they gave us,

we paid for it with a check. We paid for it. We wrote a check for it. And they paid us the money back. You know, they gave us the money back. And so that's how the car, that's how the car came about.

And I'm like, you said, I get, man, people think I got all this money to go to SMU. But I got really nothing. I mean, you know, that school was chosen, really, I got to say,

by my mother, Viola Dickerson, because she felt this. She said, Erica, a Texas boy, she loved Ron Meyer. And she said, look,

you need to go to a school where you can be like the first. You can start something. They'll be talking about you forever. You see that Oklahoma, USC, they got their guys. Texas, they got their guys. She said, you can be that guy. You and that guy, Craig James. And I got to say, man, she was right.

She was right on both parts. I mean, really. Yeah, that's still crazy. Because, I mean, we always we always i mean i remember being a kid and hearing about it after the fact you know i mean smu and the death penalty and all this different stuff and then you know the documentary comes out you're like oh those guys must have been crushing and it's like now you go you ended up getting more from a&m it sounds like by not going there and by the way credit to you for being a high school kid going

i don't want just the black Trans Am. I want the gold one. I want the gold Trans Am. That was the one I wanted. The gold Trans Am with the big eagle on it. With the T-tops. I had that. Have you ever thought about buying it again? Man, I saw one on one of those car shows.

You know what that car went for? That car cost $14,500. That's what it cost back in 1979. That car went for $114,000. I'm like, there's no way in the hell I spent $100,000 on Trans Am. No. So, no. I don't know if anybody's going to give you one now.

All right. So, you go through SMU. I do want to transition a little bit into the pros. You go number two in the draft behind John Elway. What was your understanding about all the different stuff, all the different pieces moving and trying to figure out where you were actually going to start your pro career? You know, really, I didn't really have an idea about the pros

until probably in the middle of my senior year. You know, people, you know, they're really, man, you're going to be number one, you're going to be number one pick. As a matter of fact, my good friend Harvey Armstrong, who I recruited at SMU, he was at the Eagles.

And they came to town to play the Cowboys. And he had an apartment there. He said, Eric, I want you to come on. I want you to meet Wilbur Montgomery. I'm like, oh, cool. I'd like to meet Wilbur Montgomery. So when I go over and I meet Wilbur, and I'm like, man, he's small.

I'm like, if he can play, I can play. I small. I'm like, if he play, I can play. I'm thinking in my mind, if he play, I can play pro football. And so he says, Eric, he said, man, they've been talking about you. The Eagles asked me about you. How big you are, how fast you are. I'm like, really? And so he said, they're talking about drafting. We're talking about drafting. He was going to get drafted. Because it was

not like it is now. I mean, it's really nothing. People don't understand. You know, you don't have like, you know, you all pretty much know, you know, your junior year, all the seniors, you're going to get drafted. So,

I said, really? I said, so you're talking about the first round draft? I said, what do they make? He said,

they make a lot of money. I'm like, really? He said, yeah. So at that point, then that's when, you know,

the stuff started, you know, people started talking to agents and all that kind of stuff because Ron Meyer was gone. If Ron would have been there, I think I'd have been, I'd have had more in the loop. I'd have been more for sure.

Because Bobby Kyle's in that group, that job was really over their head, to be honest. So that's when I started finding out more. And it really didn't matter because I had a couple of teams come out and run. I had to run a 40 for the Rams, I think the. The Redskins, I run a 40 for them. I run a 4-3-1 and 4-3-flat. My best friend was there and he was down there because he was going like, yeah. I'd go

and talk to him. He said, man, they can't believe it. He said, he's too big to be that fast. Is your clock right? I was 6'3", 225. Basically, when I started hearing about the draft and the Rams might draft me, I talked to the Rams. As a matter of fact, the night before the draft, they called me. And a guy called me.

I forgot. I think it was Jack Fogler. Eric Dickerson. I said, yes, this is Jack Fogler from the Rams. They want to let you know we're going to pick drafts here in the morning. We made a trade with Houston. So we have a ticket for Parker from the Rams. They want to let you know we're going to pick draft you in the morning. We made a trade with Houston. So we have a ticket for you at the airport. You know, I said, 10 o'clock flight to be at LA.

Somebody will pick you up at LAX. And that's how I knew I was going to be with the Rams, pretty much. And then I would get in the car. We'd drive to the airport. Me and my best friend, Charles Drake, drive to the airport. And on the radio, you know, they took Johnny. I'll wait first. And then he said, the Rams make a quick pick.

Eric Dickinson from Southern Methodist University. And that's how I knew I got drafted by the Rams. You'd gone out to visit USC and you say in the book, LA wasn't for you at the time. It appears that LA was definitely something you were far more into as a pro athlete. Oh, most definitely. For sure. No doubt about that.

As a young kid coming out of the CBI, I wouldn't have been to LA. I mean, I really wouldn't. I mean, I would have been so homesick. I was homesick in Dallas, and it was only 250 miles from Seedless. So imagine being 1,500 miles from home. So when I got to LA, I won't forget, the guy picked me up, and we're heading, I think we're going to the facility right there in LA. We drive and I'm like, LA behind us. I'm like, I say, isn't that Los Angeles behind us? He said, yeah. He said, we're in Orange County.

I'm like, what is Orange County? And I had no clue. He said, oh, we're outside of LA. I'm like, oh, okay. So when I got to Orange County, it was different. I mean, it was almost like being in a small town. Because driving down the 453, where you see all these pretty much orange groves, there's orange trees.

I'm like, wow, you get close to Orange County. I'm like, wow, this is like the country, not the city. And I didn't really like living in Orange County. I lived in Orange County a little bit. I bought a apartment my first year, then bought a condo because I was building my mother's house and bought a condo. And then I wanted to move out. I wanted to move back.

I wanted to come back to the city because I go to the city to go out i mean i would go from think about drive you drive 50 miles to go out to the clubs come back and come back home just to be in l.a because it was l.a was way different boys kind of i mean the girls were different the clubs were different you know and you know you saw more people of color you know so most definitely i just wanted to be in l.a and when i got the got to get to get the feel of it um you know and my first super star that i met was magic johnson i won't forget that we made him at venice beach we were out there being a couple of rookies from training camp we're out on the beach and i saw i saw a uh uh a yellow rose rose he had magic on the place i'm like this magic johnson star and sure enough we saw magic on the place. I'm like, this is Magic Johnson's car.

And sure enough, we saw him on the beach. I'm like, man, so we walked over to him, introduced ourselves. I said, I know you're a first-round draft pick. I said, yes, sir. You know, he said,

you know, you're a great player, blah, blah, blah. I said, I'm now a big fan. And I'll never forget when I walked out, I said, I want to be like Magic.

You know, I want to be known in LA. And so, you know, that was the start of my LA experience. So what was it like? They take us through it. Man, the 80s was just great.

I just got to say. I know it sounds like, like saying the 1800s was just great. Man, it was just, it was, it was, you know, for a thing about it, 22 years old, young kid coming out of the city, the girls, the girls,

the clubs, you know, you know, it's been sex. I mean, I wouldn't have tried to do drugs. I mean, I saw drugs, but I never seen, I never seen like cocaine till I got to LA and I never seen it. Um, but I went to drug, I didn't do drugs and just the parties and, you know, people knowing you and that wasn't a big deal but just you know you're you know you've had a couple years and i'm kind of jumping around a little bit i mean you set the rookie record you set the record record and you've got this look i mean i remember waiting you know kids don't even understand i had to wait six to eight weeks for that stupid poster of you with the back of the sports illustrated i was like i want that one

you know and you had the look yeah the jerry curl. I was like, I want that one. And you had the look. The Jerry Curl. Yeah, the Jerry Curl and the whole thing. And again, you're fucking huge for running back. I mean, what was it like to be Eric Dickerson in Los Angeles at that age? Man, I can say it was great. I can't put it into any other words.

I went to a Lakers game. I was a doctor. Dr. Curlin was our doctor. He was a Lakers doctor. And he said, Eric, do you want to go to a Lakers game. I was doctor. Dr. Curlin was our doctor. He was a Lakers doctor. And he said, do you want to go to a Lakers game? I said, sure. And the player said, man, Dr. Curlin sits on the floor. And I didn't know what the floor was.

I'm like, he sits right on the floor, like on the hard floor. I'm like, really? So I go to the game with Dr. Curlin. And we sit on the floor. And Magic comes over and introduces himself. And, you know, clean that Bujibar. I mean, Byron Scott. I'm like, wow.

And then they announced my name on the PA. They gave me a standing ovation. I'm like, oh, my God. I was embarrassed. But I'm like, damn, this is L.A. And I'll never forget, I went to a restaurant. It was by the side of the restaurant I used to go to called Nicky Blair's. And there I used to go there pretty much every Friday night to go home.

And I was in Orange County driving from Orange County to LA. I look over and I see Clint Eastwood. I'm like, that's Clint Eastwood. And I said, Nikki, man, is that Clint Eastwood? He said, yeah, Eric. He said, you'd like to meet you. I said, no, I don't want to. He said, no, come over.

And I was so nervous. I get up and walk over. As I walk over, he says, hey, Eric. And I said, how you doing, Mr. Eastwood? I said, I'm good. He said, I'm a big fan. I said, me too. And that's just how, I mean, LA is just LA.

I mean, seriously. And me being a, I guess, like you said, superstar, a well-known athlete, I mean, I could pretty much go and not do anything. Just go anywhere I wanted to go. People knew me. Yeah, that's a really interesting time because it feels like, you know, the reason people loved L.A.

is that they took care of the stars. They really did. They really did back then. Really did. Seriously, I got to say. You were treated like a star. And it made, it was just,

it was different. I don't know. I guess I can say it was different, but it really was. You just felt like you were part of the city. The city was a part of you. You loved everything about it.

I can remember waking up. I'm from flat Texas. We'd have to see in the mountains. Sometimes I'd see the snow in the mountains. It was almost like living in a dream. I'll say this much to you. To me, it's still almost like living in a dream because I still live out there.

I still think about, man, I'm from Seedy, Texas. Five seasons in, you get traded to the Colts. I'll never forget. I remember being like, wait, what? Like, he's going to – what happened? And back then, like, you couldn't get information. Exactly.

What happened? How do you trade Eric Dickerson? This doesn't make any sense. What was the lead up to that? I know it was a contract thing, but take us through that and how you felt. The whole deal was a contract dispute. I mean, honestly, I was getting paid nothing. And people thought, like, I'm making all this money.

I'm like, you know, they call me at these, Eric the Ingrade and all that kind of stuff. The malcontent. I love playing for the Rams. I mean, I wanted to play my whole career with the Rams. I love them. The thing I will never forget, I want to play for the Rams because I used to love that. Once again, the uniforms. I love that horn.

That horn just looks so cool on the helmet. I thought about that in college. That's a cool looking uniform. You know, it was a bad deal because, you know, we had no free agency. Players had no rights. And my contract wasn't a good contract. I mean, it wasn't even for back in those standards.

I mean, I had a four-year deal of $2.2 million, a $600,000 signing bonus as a rookie. And my base was $150,000. And basically, my signing bonus was a loan. It wasn't even a signing bonus. I had to pay it back to him, to the team. My agent said, well, they'll probably be giving the loan, but we're going to sign it anyway.

And so I was a young kid. I signed the contract, and it wasn't a good contract. I mean, my first year I went for 1,800 yards. I had to make it 150. The next year I went for 2,800 yards. I had to make it 150. The next year I went for 2,000 yards. I was making 175. And I just wanted,

I just told him, I said, just pay me. I mean, I was trying, I said, pay me fair. I said, I want to make what the quarterbacks make. Like Elway was making a bad five.

I said, pay me close to that kind of million dollars. He was like, no, we're not going to redo your contract. You know, you're in a contract. So it just got worse and worse.

And then finally, I went to one of the last meetings I had with John Shaw. I went down to his office and John Shaw was the general manager. And John had that real nasally voice. Well, you know, how's it going, Eric? And I'm trying to set up a meeting.

I mean, it took me forever to get a meeting. I mean, it really did. So I finally got a meeting with him. And I said, John, I said, man, I said, my contract isn't fair. I said, I'm not playing this contract. Well, Eric, you're selling the contract. I said, I proposed this to him. I said, I'll tell you what, John.

I said, I am so confident in my ability in our offensive line that if I have, say, 1,500 yards or more, you paid me, like the quarterback, like a million five, a million four. I said, I'll just go year by year. And I think about that. Not 1,000 yards. I said, 1,500 yards. You know how hard it is to get 1,500 yards? And his reply was, no, we're not going to do that.

And I'm like, well, this ain't going to work. And it just started unraveling. It just got worse, you know, and I was really just disappointed, pissed at the team, not my players,

except the organization at the front office. But I'll say this much here, you know, I never stopped playing hard for them. You know, it was times when I was pissed,

but I would never, I would never slack on not playing hard for them, you know, and after a while it just broke down and, you know,

that's when I think we had an interview and one of the guys and the reporters asked me something about John Robinson. I said,

hey, John Robinson made more money than me, let him run 47 gap. And so, that's when stuff just started

just really unraveling. It was bad. It was bad. It was unbelievable. Like, I remember, you know, again, just being a kid like in like in my nfl sundays and trying to figure out you know and then you'd be whatever little league game or something and that dad would be like oh that fucking fucking dickerson and you know what i mean like it was very it's a lot like some of the angst that people

have towards nba guys where I don't think like everybody should be able to do whatever they want all the time but the the reaction is lessened right we've become more desensitized to players asking for doing stuff but for when it happened to you the acceptance of how much everybody dumped on you and the media and just you know it was bad man it was unbelievable it was terrible I mean you, I was made out to be a bad, bad guy. I mean, I was not a team player. Players didn't like me. I was an ingrate.

I was a malcontent. And the thing, I think the thing that really hurt me the most was is that my mother would read that and she said, that's not you. She said, I raised you better than that. She said, they're making stuff up on you and I don't like it. And I knew it. I mean, that's just how the sports writers were. I mean, if somebody wrote something in the paper back then, oh, it's got to be true. They wrote it. It can't be, it cannot be true. And you know, the players had no,

we had no outlet. We had no, nobody to go to. Like, that's why in a sense, Jim McGrady became a good friend of mine because anything I would tell Jim, he would write it just like I said it. And that made it, that was fair. I mean, just like I said it. I don't forget, I did an interview with a guy. And at the interview, he said some of the things I said, and then he had a quotation, but this is what he really needs. And he wrote this article. And I'm like, wow. So I'm like, he's a mind reader now. So this is what he really needs and he wrote this article and i'm like wow so i'm like he's a mind reader now so this is what i really so yeah it just got bad and it was it was a point where i mean i just kind of just shut down to me the guy didn't like the media and trusted me anyway at that point

it just got like hell no i can't trust any of these guys and then i think that's where the book shifts into the relationship with football that isn't as pure. Because I'd imagine at that point, yes, we all understand it's a business. But between the Indy stop and then the last couple other stops and getting traded towards the end, how different was the L.A. experience as opposed to the second half of your career? It was way different. I mean, honestly, when I left L.A., I was hurt. I didn't really want to leave L.A.

But you had to put on the face like you don't care because that's what you're taught if you're a football player. It's like you don't go back and say, man, I'm hurt. You know, I'm hurt and I can't play. You know, unless you really hurt, like you got to be injured. And that's when I saw there was an ugly business. I mean, I talk about it in the book, the other players. I mean, like I said, at one point, I was just playing for free.

If somebody just paid all my bills. I just loved it that much. The guys would tell me, the older guys said, look, man, this is a business. He said, you'll find out this is a real ugly business and it's not always fair. And it wasn't, because the thing in L.A. at the Rams is their thing was, John Shaw had

a saying, football players are like horses. You open the gate and they'll run. And that was pretty much true about a player, pretty much any player. You get out there, you can't let your teammate down next to you because you've got a job to do. You don't want to get him hurt. You don't want to get you hurt. So that's how I felt

playing football. I'm trying to play hard all the time even if I'm happy or unhappy. And it was times where I was just really, really pissed. And my love for the game, it started to dwindle. I sometimes loved Sundays,

but I didn't just love it like I used to. And it would break my heart because when I say I loved it, I mean, I loved everything about it. I mean, it had a smell. I used to love practice. Because I had some of my best moves in practice. Some one of my best i just practice working on your moves and stuff but after a while you're just like this is just a ugly business

i think i know the answer to this i don't i don't know if i've asked you this before um but i think i know it after reading the book you have the all-time record still 2105 yards i know that you're most proud of the rookie record which is a really important thing to put out like we'd look at a lot of these records passing records they're all gone because everybody just throws it a million times and the byproduct of that is these records maybe never been safer for you were you rooting for ad Peterson or hoping he didn't break your record? That's a good question. No. I wasn't.

I didn't want to break my record. I told him that. Matter of fact, I called him after the game and I said, AP, I said, man, great season. I said, great game. He said,

first of all, let me go back. I talked to Kevin Green, my friend Kevin Green, passed on. He was a coach. You know that thing? I think Green Bay, when he got close to the record.

Green Bay, I think it was Green Bay. I think it was Green Bay. I got it for you. I got it for you here. Who's the last game he played? Right. So he went for 2-12 in Week 14 against St. Louis. All right?

Okay, right. So this is just so everybody can play along here. It's a 2012 season for Adrian Peterson. And by the way, I think this is like the last season we've ever had a running back completely carry a football team. Because what they did in that team actually making the playoffs

and Ponder was the quarterback, that was an unbelievable season by him. So he goes for 2-12 in week 15 at St. Louis. And then at Houston, he only gets 86 yards. He needs... He goes... They play Green Bay and it's 37-34. He goes for 199

and he falls... Nine-yard short, basically. Nine-yard short. Nine-yard short. I've talked to my friend Kevin Green before he called me. He said, Eric, he said, man, let me tell you something. He not going to – I'm telling you, we going to stop him.

He said, we going to stop him. I'm making sure I'm talking to this defense. So I said, Kevin, no problem, man, because I know I can't. Kevin's an amped up guy. You know, he's like, ugh. He said, you know, where in the hell are you going to have no 200 yards on up? So I didn he came, Kevin called me. Kevin said, man,

these bunch of bitches. He said, these bunch of losers over here. I'm like, Kevin, something. He said, Eric, I'm sorry. I said, Kevin, he didn't break the record. He said, everybody came too close. I said, Kevin, it's no big deal. But was I pulling for him? No, I wasn't pulling for him to break my record. I called him after the game. I said, hey, hey, Pete. I said, man, hey, good. I said, how's it going? I said, Kevin, this is no big deal. But was I pulling for him? No, I wasn't pulling for him to break my record. I called him after the game.

I said, hey, hey, Pete. I said, man, hey, how's it going? I said, good. I said, man, great season. I said, let me ask you a question, man. I said, don't you have a record? I said, most yards in a game. He said, yeah.

I said, what is it? He said, I don't know, 290. I said, let me ask you this. He said, you want anybody to break that record? He started laughing. He said, no. I said, exactly. I said, I don't want you to break mine. He said, let me ask you this. You want anybody to break that record? He started laughing. He said, no. I said, exactly. I said, I don't want you to break mine. He said, I know it. So we laughed

about it. Yeah, I wouldn't. Good for you. I actually hate when people lie about it. Like, oh, no, that's great. So much support. No way. You hope no one and by the way, if he had broken that, then then he would have had it because I don't know if anybody's breaking that anymore.

Now the extra game and all this stuff, which I think is, you know, I don't like what it does to some of the records. Some of this stuff's easy to figure out. But yeah, like nobody should want. I hate when guys say like, oh, I hope my record gets broken. Because deep down, they don't. There's no way. There's no way that everybody competitive would want their records to be broken.

No, you don't want to. Because they asked me about Derrick Henry's last year and this year. I said, look, no, you don't want to. Because they asked me about Derrick Henry that last year and this year. I said, look, no, I don't want to break my record. I said, but if there's a guy that can break it, it's Derrick Henry. I said, one thing is, I said, I never want to see a guy get hurt.

I said, I really seen breaking records get hurt. Because I'm a running back. I know how football is. I know how rough that sport is. I said, I don't love a record that much, for sure. But do I want your record broken? No, you want to, look, you want to hang on to these records as long as you can.

I mean, I always say, a person that wants a record broke, they don't have a record. That's what it comes down to. Yeah, I mean, Henry did get close there just last year. Yeah. 2027 with that extra game, if he had that kind of year, then he would have gotten seen. That's where the extra game thing is going to bother you. It's kind of like some of the Barry Sanders stuff, where Barry Sanders' seasons don't count because he just didn't play in as many games,

and they wouldn't count the bowl game result, and now they count it on top of all the other stuff. So, I don't know. Protect the running back records is my entire point. I guess. Thank you, Eric. I appreciate this. Watch my smoke.

The book is out. And the great Eric Dickerson. Thank you. Hey, thank you very much. Smoke, the book is out, and the great Eric Dickerson. Thank you. Hey, thank you very much. Do we have a little ticker sound effect that we bring into this? Because the QB

stock game is over. The first season in the books for this podcast. Kyle, where are we on sound effect budget? Dude, I'll steal anything off of YouTube just tell me what you want. Give us a little something. We'll know about it want. Give us a little something.

We'll know about it after the fact. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this will be a surprise to all of us. You'll be hearing it as we hear it. Or likely me never hear it. So going into the last quarter, Q4 of the QB stock game, Cerruti had been just dominating off a Donald position that was extremely valuable. And then, I can't believe it, Cerruti called me last night.

I ended up winning. You did. What, we're 12 days into 2022, and this this is a bummer for me i was mad i was really upset because kyle was like yesterday we were talking about it it was before i did the math and he was like yeah whatever we'll just you know you win we'll just move on i'm like yeah that's cool it's fine and then i called you yesterday because like did you i was like did you really buy over a thousand shares of jared golf because because if so you're gonna get the dub and you know what sucks is the the reason that you won this is because the fucking Lions beat the Packers in Week 18.

That is the reason that you won. So congratulations. I finished second. Yeah, Q1, everybody kind of strong out of the gates. Kyle increased his $1,000 position to $1,600. I almost doubled my money. But Cerruti tripled his money in the first quarter. And he made, I mean, what did you do? You made like 1600 on Darnold in the first quarter.

Correct. And then I only made about $600 after that, which is probably the reason that I lost. Yeah. I actually had a really great Q4. I made $600. Russell Wilson's stock went up. I made a couple hundred bucks there. I made a couple hundred bucks on Mahomes, a couple hundred bucks on Josh Allen, but you made over $2,000 on Jared Goff because the stock price went from

$0.31 to $2.15. So, doing the math in my head, that's at least five, six, seven times, eight times over, and you had 1,000 shares. So, there you go. Congrats. You bought the penny stock. It was the lowest stock in Q3, and

it rose to over $2 a share. This was AMC when all those nerds got on Reddit. Correct. That's what it was. It wasn't even AMC. AMC was like... This was... Sounds like a couple pharmaceutical companies that I've owned. This, I'm just trying to see steady quarters. We all had one bad quarter, it looks like.

Sruti, were you ever negative? I was negative in the second quarter. Yeah, but not much. But I just didn't make a ton of money uh after i i made my huge i basically was that guy in silicon valley who sold like his startup and then didn't really do anything the rest of his career so i just you know i guess i had a nice start and then i couldn't i couldn't finish yeah alarming lack of activity q2 q3 for you but i had a bad i lost 170 bucks kyle lost two bucks in q3 low risk that's Kyle. We might lose, but we're not

going to lose your shirt. That would be. You got a filter going on today? Yeah, dude. I've been doing a filter every time. They just haven't been as egregious. Actually, I've got one I'm saving for when I really want to freak out. It's not going to be this one, though. I don't even know what it is. It's like a bar, but I can't read it.

It says loading. It says loading. You're about two-thirds of the way there yeah checks out you tired today buddy yeah late one no i'm quarantining at my house so not really i heard there was a new thing where you were allowed to quarantine at the one dive bar that you if you average five nights a week there over a 60-day period they're like, this counts as quarantine. Somebody should open a COVID bar. We're just like everyone who has COVID.

She just could just go and still hang out socially. You're not going to affect anybody else. Fucking genius. The best would be dudes without COVID trying to get in there. It's like the hot new spot. Yeah. Like, ah,

sucks. I have a vaccination card. We'll just don't show it to. Oh, wait, what? All right. You want details? sucks. I have a vaccination card. Well, just don't show it to me. Oh, wait. What? All right. 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 could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible.

Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. Life advice. you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. LifeAdvice, LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com Got a lot to get to here. I gotta do a better job of filtering through Kyle's submissions. Okay, 6-3 2-30, former D3

basketball player. Need some advice how to navigate a situation with my soon-to-be in-laws taking over any and every sporting event. Uh-oh. Background. Both my fiance and I are in our early 30s. We've been together almost five years. We've lived together almost four, getting married in the fall.

Growing up, my parents and two siblings were always big sports fans. They closely followed college pro basketball and football along with baseball during the summer. Every night in our house, some major sport was usually on TV. This led to me being a bit of a stereotypical sports junkie. I've played and followed team sports my entire life. My fiance has a very different childhood. She's an only child and her parents loosely follow the local NHL and NFL teams,

but it's more of an afterthought than a priority. They're much more into live music and outdoor activities than anything team sport related. While I played soccer, basketball, and baseball growing up, my fiance did Taekwondo, rode four-wheelers, and took guitar

lessons. Get it. Since we've been together, I really appreciated my fiance's effort to share my love of sports. I realize she will never be as passionate as I am, but she does her best, and I love her for it. I even got her to the point where she was jumping up and down in front of the TV watching Tennessee

vs. Purdue. We mentioned that on today's podcast. Oh, wait, the Sweet 16. Not the bowl game. A few years ago, because she decided she loved Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams, that she has zero ties. So, wow. Odd. She likes bigs.

Well, small bigs. Well, Grant's like a small big. Admiral's more perimeter-based, but Grant makes threes. Love Admiral Schofield. Love his game. You love Admiral Schofield. Kind of a little bit of everything. Shout to the magic, too. All right.

Okay, man. So her parents are a different story. They're great people. I love them both, and I'm fortunate to be marrying into the family, but they're not sports people. With most of my friends and family, there's an understanding that during an important sporting event, any unrelated conversations are saved

for the commercial break so we can enjoy the game. This understanding is not shared by my fiance's parents. Whenever they are over at our house, they constantly loudly talk over any game about real estate, the stock market, current events, and many various other things. It drives me insane. You would think the answer would be to not have them over

during big sporting event weekends, but life doesn't always work out that way last year they were over for the nfl divisional round final four in two nba finals games dude why are they coming over for these things that they don't like seems like a simple solution here yeah don't marry her obviously no um all for reasons that were unavoidable we have one uh one small story don't marry her, obviously. No. All for reasons that were unavoidable. We have one small story house with only one living room with one TV, so there's no second TV to have a game on. I've talked to my fiance about it.

She completely understands where I'm coming from, but neither of us know how to say anything without offending her parents. Whenever I try to play it out in my head, I always come back to the fact they just don't get sports, and I worry about them getting offended about being asked not to talk during something they don't care about watching. Is there any way to bring this up in a respectful manner that won't turn into some big issue?

Or is this just a case where I should take it on the chin and deal with it? They're going to be at my house for wildcard weekend. So we needed to get to this one urgently. I'm going to be honest. Out of the jump, if you don't... All right, so you don't have our second room. You don't have a second TV. You're fucked.

I don't really think there's going to be anything I can tell you. I don't think there's some magic combination of sentences and ease and eye contact and shoulder rubbing that's going to solve this. I just don't. I think you either have to make the move to a situation where there's a second TV, which they're going to be annoyed by, too. They're going to be offended. They're not going to get that one either. I have no solution to this one. Why do they have to keep coming over?

They're not that big of sports fans, but they want to come over for every sporting event. Just say like, hey, we're having friends over. Maybe they're Sunday people though, and the fact that you're doing sporting events doesn't matter to them. It's like, are you kidding me? This is our Sunday deal.

What do you mean? People that don't get it, don't get it. So they're not going to get it. I mean, the only thing I thought of as we were talking this one out was for him to lie about maybe pursuing it as a profession because it used to happen with me a little bit. I'd be in a room and somebody would be

whatever. I remember right before I got started, I was staying at this little divey spot my dad came by was like hey do you want to do something I was like no what are you talking about and he's like what are you doing I go it's

Saturday I'm watching college football he's like do you don't want to go do anything he's like what time do you want to and I go no I go the game start at 12 and be done at midnight watch bradley van pelt you know and he was like you don't want to you're not going to do anything today you're just going to sit here and i was betting too which i don't think he knew how much i was betting but um i was like this is what i do man i was like this is what

i do he's like all right he's like all right cool enjoy and that was that was it so the only thing I could tell you was you know maybe have your wife lie and say you're starting a sports podcast and then you know when when they're over the mother-in-law could be like oh he's he takes it very seriously yeah side, side hustle, dude. He loves the sports people on the sports machine. He's very serious about his sports. Yeah, shh. Don't talk now. The sports are happening.

I don't think, you know, you're going to have to get a bigger house. That's it. That's all I can think of. So work harder. Get a bigger house. I would agree. I've used the excuse of, like, I have to watch this game that I don't really have to watch like a ton of times,

a million times. And, and it's easy to do it when, you know, you work in sports, you work at ESPN. Cause I'd be like Sunday, Maddie be like,

Oh, you know, we're doing this thing with my friends. Like, Oh yeah, you know, we got full slate of NFL red zone. Yeah.

Sorry. You kind of know the deal. And she doesn't ask any questions. So it is a good, like, I don't think her parents are going to ask you any questions and you made the right point. They're going to think you're ambitious for doing that. So you could try, think her parents are going to ask you any questions and you made the right point. They're going to think you're ambitious for doing that.

So you could try. But then they're going to be like, hey, where's the link to the pod? I want to take a listen. And then you're like, oh, shit. You might not follow through. They might not want to, though. You know, yeah, it's a risk. It's a big risk.

They might they might be like, I'm not interested in his podcast. You'd be like, haven't released the episodes yet. I'm still trying to hone my craft. Yeah, we're doing some run-throughs. Some mock-ups. Kyle? I've been really trying to think about what you could do.

And, I mean, is it like a pattern? Is it Sundays? Like, when he said that he misses... Well, I guess they're coming over this... It sounds like they're coming over Sundays, right? Well, it sounds like they're coming over this Saturday or Sunday hopefully it's not both days my god I don't know you give

them a puzzle in the kitchen right clear off the table okay do you guys see this new taekwondo horse riding puzzle it's amazing how quick do you guys think you can solve it yeah I'll time you it's like telling your kids to play the quiet game so you can win it? Yeah, I'll time you. It's like telling your kids to play the quiet game

so you can win. Maybe you might just have to go to a friend's house or something for every other one of these. I think you're going to have to lose. He's screwed. She's an only child. Okay, so she's expecting all the attention. And then they couldn't imagine him not wanting to be

with their only child because she's the best thing in the world to them like they think they're all supposed to hang all the time for all the stuff like you're you're marrying into this deal and that's that's what's understood so even though he's not doing anything wrong they don't get it the concept there is a disconnect and if you try to bridge it by hey do you guys mind not talking about the stock market during a wildcard game? They're going to think you're the biggest asshole ever, even though you're not, that's what they're going to think of you. So our man, that's what I said. The only

solution is eventually at some point having more rooms. That's it. Right. But then you're still going to be a dick because then you're going to be the guy in the separate room. Uh, and the problem is you can't hide behind her either, even though she's on your side, which is great. You can't be like, hey, talk to your parents, tell them to not come over and stop talking so much, because they're going to be like, she doesn't even like sports that much. It's just him.

So it's always going to be, the blame is going to come back on you. So there really is no win here, other than you starting a fake sports podcast. If they're into plays, maybe you go to a play together and you turn and talk to them during the entire play. Like, hey, do you see that stuff you see biden recent proposal what do you guys make what do you guys make of

that like hey that inflation report was pretty good news huh and they're just looking at you and then at the end go see what it's like but they i mean you can't tell these these parents hey your little observation and quips about current events during a third down gotta stop fucking doing it there's no way anymore there's no way you can't yeah this sucks this really sucks it does suck it's a bigger deal and that's why we read that one great pick by kyle okay let's get back to the dating game because we're super helpful in that one all right uh five five 190 bench 265 back squat 365 deadlift 425 sumo dude uh amateur rugby player oh definitely not sumo all right i met a girl let's call her new girl okay on bumble she's 30 i'm 34 what's up? We've been on two dates. She's even slept over already.

Whoa, dude. Must have been those deadlift numbers. She's great. I like her very much. Want to keep seeing her. My issue is that I went on a date with her younger sister, 29, about a year and a half ago, and she doesn't know. The sister and I were set up through a mutual friend.

We only went on one date. Did not hook up. Only a hug at the end. All right. Cool. I love that he included only a hug at the end. Alright, cool. I love that he included only a hug at the end, but I think it actually is important. I think that's like the

bare minimum of goodbyes on a date, but I don't know. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's if you made it to the end, but there's nothing else after that. That's basically what that is. Have you guys not made it to the end of a date? No, I have never exited early, but I know people have.

I'm sure you're not getting a hug on the way out. I don't think so. I don't think I've exited early. That's shocking, actually, to me. Yeah, you've never had somebody go like, no, I'm leaving. I couldn't see... I could see Kyle leaving, not someone leaving Kyle.

Kyle just being like, eh, you know, not for me. Let's just go our separate ways. Yeah, I some horrible dates i've never left good for you i once spilled all the drinks on the table on my date twice finished it out same date same date replay everything all right take a deep take a deep breath and share this one with us what what yeah i was uh I spilled two drinks. Where were you? What was going on? I was at Pizzeria Uno.

I was a young lad. Pizzeria Uno. I was in high school. And I don't know. Maybe I was jittery, a little nervous. I'm not sure what happened. It was kind of a wobbly table, and I spilled the drinks. And it was like, oh, my God, my life is over.

But then we kind of got it back back and she's still damp and whatever. But, you know, the waiters came back and replaced everything. And then I think I was getting up or something. And I like unbalanced the table and they went, look at me. I just did it right now. And they went all over her again. And it was like towards like this has to be a joke. This is the Truman show.

I'm in the simulation. There's no way I spilled my all the drinks on this table on her twice and we ended up dating for like a year or two after that finished it out i think i was like 16 did you have a car or something what i no no i was just a i think I was just a funny guy situationally. So I think that was enough. So it was just, it was just you two on the date or there are other people?

No, no. How many, so we're talking all the waters and sodas on the table landed on her twice. Yeah. I mean, it's a mix. I mean, I didn't all like pinpoint exactly on her,

but I didn't get any of it you know and she got if did you know about before this was this how how was the date set up you ask her out kind of like a family friend sort of deal um okay did you guys go to the same school no okay so it's kind of kind of blindy okay yeah i used to love hearing about dudes dating other girls from a different school. That was legendary. But then I moved to the vineyard and there was no other school. There was no hope for that.

There was no. I think my senior year there. You know what? This is a little too long ago. We're going to leave all this stuff alone. All right. Okay. So back to our guy. Hug. Does this bill any drinks on her? They made plans for a second date. girl's sister uh but the sister stood him up i figured she wasn't interested and did

not pursue her beyond that my question is when do i tell the new girl if at all about all this i did not think it's a big deal at all believe it's pretty funny little story maybe you do okay um the new girl and the sister seemed to be pretty close the new girl talks about her sister often she even told the story about her sister uh that the sister had told me lol oh her her sister who's one year younger there seemed close stunning stunning revelation there extra info i suspected that the new girl looked familiar when matched i brought this up to the mutual friend uh before even going on her first date and she told me the new girl looked familiar when matched. I brought this up to the mutual friend before even going on her first date. And she told me the new girl is the sibling of the one that she'd set me up with. Mutual friend is a bit unhappy that the younger sister stood me up.

She wants me to ride this out, not say anything and get myself invited to some kind of family function of theirs. Well, I think that idea is pretty funny. I recognize it's a bad idea if I want this to go anywhere with a new girl. All right. So your instincts are right in the last part. Your friend that set you up with the younger sister initially that thinks like it's lame that she stood you up. People stand people up. All right. You can handle it better.

Some people just bad at it. Whatever. The whole like, hey, get invited to something. Is it see what happens? That's about the friend wanting to get back at the younger sister. If you like the 30 year old new girl older sister don't do that because that's super fucked up because if it ever came out it's like yeah i actually did go on a date with younger sister i never told you and ta-da like where where are the starters that's

just not going to go over well um so i would i don't think i i mean you kind of can't this one's tough because it's really about her personality. It's not going to be about your strategy at all, right? Like your strategy is irrelevant to this. It's only about how she will react to the situation. She will one think it's funny that you had food with her younger sister a year and a half ago, or she'll be like, it's weird and it's creepy and I don't want to do that. So because you're five, five, I'm thinking maybe ride this out for a bit and just see where it goes. I think that these sisters are, I mean, one of them's on Bumble. The other one's getting set up on dates. They're just fresh out of their twenties. There's no way these girls haven't slept with the same guy at some point. So,

I mean, I think, I think, I think, I think that she would barely bat an eyelash. Obviously I think it would be a topic conversation, but I don't think she would think it's weird. I mean, it sounds like they're in the same town even.

Like, come on. There's no way that this hasn't happened, at least on your level, if not on a higher level, of actually stuff going down. See, I disagree. I feel like, I think exactly what Ryan said. I don't think there's anything you can do to make the new girl make it okay for the new girl. She's like I think exactly what Ryan said. I don't think there's anything you can do to make the new girl

make it okay for the new girl. She's either going to be down with it or she's not going to be down with it. And I don't know what you can do to probably change that. And, you know, because it's one of those things where if she's like, oh, my sister rejected you, then how could I date you? Does that mean I'm lesser than my sister? I don't know. That could be going through her head and there's literally nothing you can do.

So I don't know if she'd be cool with it, dude. How do you know who her sister is? Like, how would she know that you know who her sister is? You could totally feign ignorance until you're like, whoa, wow. You know what I mean? Like, how would she know that you knew and didn't tell her until you actually were in the same room with her sister? I think

that's a good policy. The mind of Kyle. That's a great point. You can just play dumb the entire time once it gets exposed because if it ends up becoming serious, it's going to get exposed unless the sister, the younger sister that you're going on a date with is like, hey, just so you know, I'm not going to say anything to my

sister because she's insane and she's going to get so mad. And then you're like, cool, I can't wait to date her. You know? So there's a lot of problems for this one i would you know you could you could jump the gun now and say hey i just want to get this out of the way where's the upside where's the upside it's right and but then it sucks for you too because then she could be like hey relax it was just a date why did you think you had to tell me this like

significant thing like i don't care. You have no idea. You have no idea until you get to know her better about this whole deal. I would say slow play this one, but not in a devious fashion. I would just say slow play it. And Kyle's advice, you could play dumb, but that means you're just lying again too. I would slow play it until you go, hey, I've had this realization. But I wouldn't go out of my way to go to some family event or some gathering

to be like, hey, look at me. Remember me? Here's the, are you guys friends on Instagram? Probably yes. So it'd be really easy to see a picture of her or her sister. And it'd be hard to play dumb, I guess, if you're like, you know, it depends on how much social media interaction

you guys have and how much, you know, if you follow each other. Yeah, yeah. I think that's it. I'd say wait till you're in a room tell her after wait until you're in a room what do you wait wait until you're in a room with her and her sister and for the first time and then later when you when you and her alone you and the girl that you're dating now are alone you just be like hey i think i went on a date with her like two years ago or something maybe it'll be another year from now before that even happens. But then it's like then you're being honest with her once you realize

and then you'll, you know, if her sister's the type of person that'll be like, holy shit, that guy, you know, then you've already, then it's like you're not caught and have to say something. It's good. It's a good, good omission lying by omission, which isn't really as bad as lying as we all know.

Well said, Kyle. Well said. LifeAdvice, rr at gmail.com. Thank you to Steve and Kyle, as always. And we'll be back on Friday. Please subscribe. Thank you.