The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Thirty-two NFL Awards, Steph Drops 62, and Every CFB Team Sucks

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

In honor of the last week of the NFL regular season, Russillo hands out THIRTY-TWO awards (1:30) before discussing Steph Curry’s career-high 62-point game in a duel with Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers (29:00). Then Ryen briefly talks about the upcoming national title matchup between Alabama and Ohio State (35:00) before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (44:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

okay hope everybody had a great weekend safe over the holiday as well and we have a solo run for you here on a monday for the ron rossillo podcast the plan for today no guests i decided to do this we got kyle though so that's always good. We are going to do NFL awards, but slightly different, 32 of them. A little on Steph's 62-point night and rounding up a way to find out if every college football team is actually bad and then some fun life advice at the end. 17 weeks of football, we made it.

Fam. And here we are. Every week on this podcast, we've given out NFL awards after the week is over. This could be a bit ambitious, but 32 teams, 32 awards. Let's go. We were going to call this one the best 6-10 team of all time award, but the Washington football team stepped up, so now we've renamed it already. We had to change the award on the fly in the moment with breaking news.

The best 7-9 team of all time award, the Washington football team. Now, can we say that definitively? It may be too early to say. Last year, Tampa, Atlanta both went 7-9. Those teams didn't even make the playoffs, so the early lean is that Washington could be the great one of all time,

but we don't know yet. Speaking of that game, the Clockwork Orange Award goes to the New York Giants because they had to watch it. I, at one point this season, banned myself from NFC East games. I said I wouldn't watch any until the teams were over 500. I watched Step drop 62 instead of being super locked into Washington, Philadelphia, and I don't feel like I miss much. I know there's a lot of controversy. We'll get to that maybe a little bit later. But imagine having your eyeballs taped open like Clockwork Orange and being a member of the Giants, having to watch that game.

You're like, Nate Sudfield? Now, look, we can sit here and be upset about it, but you could have gone 7-9 and gotten another playoff. So how sorry can you really feel for the Giants? The Skeletons on the Zahara Award. Yes, some of these awards will be references some won't get.

But boy, when you do get a weird one, you're going to go, man, I get that. All right, that award goes to the Las Vegas Raiders because at the beginning, it looked promising. Nice little boat trip,

trade some spices. Oh, wait, we're crashing into rocks. Not a big deal. Here's some locals gathering on the beach here to help. Nope. Now we're marching to our own death in Africa. So it was very pro Gruden. Hey, maybe this Gruden guy knows what he's doing. And then you're like, wait, does this actually suck again? The drought continues. The Raiders have not won a playoff game since 2002. The Notre Dame award that goes to the Green Bay Packers. Great record. All right. Green Bay

is really good. They're 13 and three. They're the one seed, but nobody outside of their own fan base is rooting for this team. Not only because of the history of hatred, although I imagine there's way more anti Notre Dame stuff out there than it is anti Green Bay, but no one trusts you. Yes, you're 13 and three, but that's three NFC conference Championship game losses in the last six seasons, a couple down years. They've turned this thing around. They are the one seed, but everybody's kind of over it already before it's even started. The Parents Weekend Award.

That goes to the New Orleans Saints. You guys know the deal. Parents Weekend, there's a dad. He wants to stay out with you guys, and he's older. He's a little beat up, and you're like, I don't know. We're going to stay out with you guys and he's older. He's a little beat up. And you're like, I don't know. Like we're going to go out.

We can't say no. We respect him too much. It doesn't look great. Doesn't make a ton of sense on paper. There's some bad stats in there, but you have to let them do it. You have to let them try. And the thing is,

is you and your buddies are like, there's no way this, this is going to end well, the Iceman award that goes to the buddies are like, there's no way this is going to end well. The Iceman Award. That goes to the Dallas Cowboys. That's right. Ice, man. I am dangerous.

What is with this? Don't, hey, don't let us get hot. This is insanity when this was part of the storyline throughout the Cowboys broadcast. Yes, you won three in a row against Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Yay. Then you lost to the Giants at home.

You came in 11th in the NFC. But if you were to get in, look out. This is now it's our time. You were 11th in your own conference. Dangerous. You had 16 games to prove that you're only dangerous to your fan base's expectation. Or perhaps the understanding of what the word danger means. The G League Award, San Francisco 49ers. They had 28

players at one point on IR or another injury COVID list, which was the most in the league. They used the most IR slots. They lost the most games to injury in the NFL. And even with a losing record, my coach of the year is Kyle Shanahan. I can't believe how competitive they were all season long. The Dabo Award. That goes to Kirk Cousins and the Vikings. Vikings got to win. No one really cares. They're one and five to start. People were already over this team. So their disappointing season was so disappointing so early that it was just all of a sudden just completely off the radar, even though they turned some things around there a bit in the middle of the season with Dalvin Cook.

But watching Cousins dance reminded me of Dabo announcing his TikTok account. Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock. Coach Sweeney's got that drip, and now he's on TikTok. The House Hunters Award, that's for the Atlanta Falcons because you can never change the channel. You're like, do I want to watch this? Like, I don't know. Atlanta's making a run at this again. I mean, Matt Ryan's still pretty good. And it's the same thing with House Hunters. Like, why do I care which house they're going to pick? I don't know

these people. I'm never going to know them. After the show's over, I'm never going to ever hear from them again. I don't care what Jeff and Debra do with their house, but one is closer to the bagel shop, but the kitchen sucks. That third one, they could put a pool in. The one with the backyard is over budget, but just like the Falcons opponents, the wife wins 90% of these anyway. It's the same thing as the Gold Rush shows, a thousand miles north of peddler's creek this loose box could end their season but it never ends the season because the miners have all their stuff there and they're getting paid to be on the tv show so you know anyway um never change the channel i don't know why the rams award that goes to the colts Good teams. Top 10 defenses. I like their staffs.

I'm not sure about the QB. I'm even less sure about the Rams QB. I have no idea what to do with these teams. The Colts award, that goes to the Rams. See above. Be careful what you wish for award. The Chicago Bears. You made the playoffs.

And now everybody's staying, it looks like. You cool with that? The Marvin Bagley's dad award. That goes to Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz apparently wants out of Philadelphia. We've not heard from any of his family members yet, I don't believe. Marvin Bagley of the Sacramento Kings, his father tweeted out

trade my son, which is a new level of player empowerment. That's dad empowerment right there. It said, thanks, coach. That's probably not the best idea. I understand you're probably a little frustrated, but your son hasn't been healthy. That's probably the bigger issue. And speaking of Philadelphia and Wentz and Hertz and Sudfield and all this stuff, primetime theory in full effect on this one.

So because that game happens at night, it's a free for all. And I thought Collinsworth and Michaels were very honest about it. Like, okay, we're putting out Nate Sudfield, who's just seeing it on an NFL field. You go, man, this is not good. And he said, oh, we want to get him snaps ahead of time. He looked at some of the inactives. The Eagles wanted a better pick. Instead of picking night, they now pick sixth.

It makes sense. But I can also understand the other part of it. And I'll be fair with you, too. The media members that defend it, who I think deep down don't really like sports and just love the job, it makes me want to be more mad about what the Eagles did, even though I'm probably not. I understand it. And here's the other part of it. For those of you truthers that want Peterson to admit the truth, yes, we tank, we tank.

Ask Sam Hinckley how that worked out for being that obvious about what you're doing. So Peterson's never going to say anything. Clearly, the front office dictated this whole deal. I guess it was just because it was sort of close and there was something on the line. But again, see above. No sympathy really for the Giants when you play as poorly as you did. All right. That award went a little bit longer.

The American Movie Award. That goes to the Cleveland Browns. I don't know how many of you remember the great documentary from 1999. American Movie was starring Mark Borshart from Wisconsin. I can't pronounce the name of the place. I just forgot already.

And he had a buddy, Mike Shank, I believe. And they did a documentary. Other people did a documentary about them, these small-time guys, trying to make this horror movie. This guy, Mark, was an incredible main character. He ended up on Letterman a couple times, but he's trying to make this movie. He's absolutely broke. He's freaking out.

He's just obsessed with the American movie process. And as he's going through his bills, this happens to him. Man, who wants to be faced with this crap? Your AT&T Universal card has arrived? Oh, God. Kick fucking ass. I got a MasterCard.

I don't believe it, man. Life is kind of cool sometimes. And that's how I feel about the Browns. Because even if you've rooted against them, some of you, I would say, in a national audience here, you're not emotionally attached one way or the other to the Browns. But considering what Browns fans have had to go through over two decades, to have that team in the playoffs just feels right.

Especially when you factor in what could have happened there with the Browns on the conference record tiebreaker, where they could have been out with a really good record, which would have felt so Cleveland Browns. But I think all of us, a big collective hug for Browns fans because they deserve to be in the playoffs. Just like Mark, even though he probably didn't pay that credit card off immediately, deserved a pre-approved credit card. Kyle, do they still do pre-approved credit cards? They still send those to you guys? I think that, I'm not sure about that.

I'm not as suspicious when I get them now, but yeah, I think so. All right, I thought there was some law that was passed about that. All right, moving on. Let's not get into credit card law. The first impression rule goes to Matt Rule. Now, it's an award,

but I'm just trying to be clever. Now that I said it out loud, I don't think it is all that clever. Matt Rule went three and two in the first five games. And it was like, man, this guy. There's some Teddy Bridgewater numbers out there.

You're like, look how many times he wins outright as an underdog. Look at some of these other guys he's gone against. Then they lost eight in a row. Now, to be fair, the Panthers, that schedule was really tough. You go through those eight straight losses, not a lot of gimme's in there. Then they lost eight in a row. Now, to be fair, the Panthers, that schedule was really tough. You go through those eight straight losses,

not a lot of gimme's in there. But because there were no expectations and because they had a nice first impression and then no one really paid attention in the middle again because the Panthers were kind of out of the picture, you only hear positives. You only hear in this next run of coaching hires,

hey, where's our Matt rule? And I'm not even anti-Matt Rule. I'm not telling you it's a bad hire. I'm not even. I'm saying it's a good hire. But the first impression means everything. And I wonder how many of those owners know that they lost eight games in a row in the middle of it.

The Marriage License Award. That goes to the Buffalo Bills. I thought of some other ones here with the Buffalo Bills. I thought, you know, these colors don't run, but Josh Allen's like a dual threat guy. It just feels right that the Bills are in it. It feels very Browns-ish that, you know, you can sit there and look at that Bills fan base and go, you know what? Good for them. Good for them finally getting through and winning the AFC East. Because if you were to ever tell your kids like, hey, it's probably going to be like a couple of decades

before this happens again, be like, what? And that's what happens. It's amazing how long these droughts can go. It's the same thing I say all the time about college national championships in football. You'll be at these unbelievable programs. You'll look up and see a banner and go, imagine if you told those people in 1961 that they wouldn't have another championship for four decades. Would you keep showing up on Saturday? So the reason this is the marriage license award for the Bills is because cowherd my guy here down in the South Bay he has decided to wed himself to this idea that bills are the best team in the AFC now he might be right but unless Kansas City transferred to the CFL I don't know that we lost them in any deal that I was not aware of in the last 24 hours to be all in on the bills

is one thing to be all in on the bills to the point thing. To be all in on the Bills to the point where Cowherd, I think, has sent 400 tweets in the last four weeks proclaiming them the class of the AFC seems a little premature. Kansas City was possibly a fourth quarter away from going 16-0 if they played everybody in Week 17. And it's a collective meh because it's Kansas City. The Jay Cutler Award. That goes to Baltimore and Lamar Jackson. We are going to be talking

about Lamar Jackson, whether or not he's really good or not that good every week for 10 years. Just wanted to give you a heads up on what your schedule should be because we did the same thing with Cutler. And by the way, the last five weeks for Jackson were really good, not the greatest teams, but you know what? They beat up on the Browns. That was one nice win in there. His QBR that I was looking at all season long after being amazing last year, his overall stats had dipped down a lot. He jumped back up, finished into the top seven. So he finished strong on this one, but we're going to be year 11 doing this with Lamar Jackson, guaranteed. The celebration is in the Collaboration with Cooperation Award. That goes to Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks. I don't know what that means. I made it up. It

sounds like something he would say that he made up, and there you go. That goes to Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks. I don't know what that means. I made it up. It sounds like something he would say that he made up. And there you go. That's my Russell Wilson award. It's also I watched this Kobe video. I understood what he was trying to do. I think at times I didn't. But it was

a lot going on in there. Alright, we'll leave it at that. The Planes, Trains, and Automobiles award goes to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Great movie. Steve Martin, John Candy. And for those that don't know, spoiler alert, not worried about it at this point, Steve Martin's just trying to get home for the holidays. And he ends up meeting up with John Candy. And it's just a disaster. Nothing's working out on the travel stuff. And it's just a fun predicament type movie. Hey, Kyle, can we double check? That's going to be John Hughes, right? That's going to be a John Hughes deal. Double check. It sounds like it though.

Yeah, it does. It does. So just like the Steelers, the beginning, you're like, hey, I'm having fun. This is a good time. And then there's a couple signs along the way. You're like, you haven't seen your wife in years. Like what? What's going on? You guys can't run the ball in short yardage situations. All right. Well, they lost to Washington. Okay. No big deal.

This guy's a little sketchy. I don't think I'd let him borrow my credit card. Like, all right. Wait, they lost to Cincinnati. This isn't good. Like what the hell's going on here? And then at the end of it, when you realize that john candy's been lying about his dead wife for years you're like all right this guy's a psycho like i thought i was watching just

a a fun comedy here with steve martin a couple legends and now all of a sudden we realize this guy has like major emotional problems and i don't like i just left that movie at the end going now i'm kind of bummed out that got real serious and dark and it's weird and now John Candy's at his house he's got that fucking trunk with him again so yeah that's how I feel about the Steelers this season the Ryan Rosillo award it goes to Sean Watson big numbers solo meet the parents circle of trust award the Miami Dolphins I love to out of school and theua throw against Georgia was making the rounds again when he came in for Jalen Hurts and won a title.

And watching that Tua, I went, where's that guy? That guy doesn't even look like... Wait, that's right. He used to do that stuff. What happened? And I'm not putting it all on Miami because I don't think that that's fair, but they had a quote from Chan Gailey

during the broadcast. He said, you know, my job is, you know, we use two of the way that we trust them. Apparently, I don't trust them to do anything. And honestly, it hasn't looked that good. I'm not off of the two a thing.

I'm just telling you this first year was below my expectations, even for a new guy, even in this system, even with a shortened season. All these things that worked against him. Justin Herbert had the same stuff working against him. So, you know, I got to tell you, I'm not thrilled with this, but it's a lot

like Ben Stiller at the in-laws, potential in-laws, where he's looking around going, does anyone trust, like if no one trusts you, it actually can start to impact your own performance. It's Raining Men. Hallelujah Award goes to the Tennessee Titans. A man's man at coach, a beast in Derrick Henry.

If Ryan Tannehill's name was Ryan Manahill, I think just sponsorship alone, people would just go, I like this guy. He's got something to him, Manahill. But they also play the most man-to-man defense of any team in the NFL, and it's not great, Bob. It's really bad. It's last in the league on a bunch of different categories. And the most important thing that I look at a lot, like this is a playoff team. I know what they can do offensively. I know what Henry does. They are last against third down in the NFL. They allow 52% conversion on third down. The I Ran Out of Ideas Award. That goes to Cincinnati. Self-explanatory. the I ran out of ideas award that goes to Cincinnati self-explanatory.

The DVD season recap award goes to the LA chargers. Now, for those of you that don't remember, they used to have these things called DVDs and they were round and they were plastic and they looked just like CDs, but they have video on them instead of audio. It was crazy. Yeah. We'd carry them around.

And the first thing you did when you moved, you'd be like, all right, time to, you know, people displayed their DVD collections. Like when you sat down in their living room you'd be like next to our reclaimed russian oak nightstand is this is the sixth sense and over here is the first two godfathers and it's been remastered yeah so anyway they also used to do these dvds where

every nfl team had their own season own season DVD and you can't have the DVD who the fan is buying being like man this this team sucked they were lucky to get to four wins all right everything was incredible how positive it was and then they'd re-air them on ESPN and like NFL stuff where everything is positive because it's being catered strictly to that team's fan base so here's your recap. If you bought the Chargers DVD for this past season, this is how it would end. Big voiceover guy at the very end. You know, there'd be some highlights.

Herbert's just chucking around all over the place. They went seven and nine, but seven of those losses were by one score, and the electricity around the Chargers is sure to shock some opponents in 2021. And then the DVD would end. But we've got Capspace Award. Jacksonville Jaguars, 81 million.

That's a lot. It's the most of any team. But as we said at the beginning of the year, for all the teams that are going to keep talking about their Capspace as if it's a first-round draft pick, that's awesome. Four teams have over 60 million in Capspace. Six teams have over 40 million in cap space. Six teams have over 40 million in cap space. There's a lot of cap space. It means you probably can overpay, really overpay

for one guy in free agency. You'll get some other pieces there too. I'm not talking about just only signing one guy, but if somebody is really, really good, he's going to have a lot of options, a lot of options with teams that also have cap space. It's not me. It's you, award. That's from Matthew Stafford to the Detroit Lions. As much as I feel like I've been on this early

with the first-round draft picks of quarterback, and it's playing out again, 50% bust rate, first-round quarterbacks, last 20 years, the two most recent classes, it feels like that's going to hold again.

All right. But if you're looking at a Stafford or a Ryan who aren't that old, okay, they're not, I mean, especially when you look at the older spectrum now of what Breeze and Brady have been able to do, doesn't it make all the sense in the world to throw a later first or a second and a third at one of those teams? I mean, if it costs you the 12th pick in the draft for Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan, I know some of you probably object to that. I'd rather do that than go, hey, do we have a 50% chance at one of these other QBs that all of our scouts are going to

rave about? And then after four weeks, you'll be like, yeah, he had some limitations. You're like, what happened to this guy? All right. So just again, to recap, two stats. Stafford's run 12 years with Detroit. In the 12 years he's been with the team, the defense has ranked 21st over that span. They went five years, five years

without a hundred yard rusher. Not Peyton Manning award. That goes to the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes could possibly lose the MVP to Rodgers by not playing in the final week. If he decided to put up a ton of numbers, it would add to it, and everybody could kind of look at that stuff and balance it all out. I would vote Mahomes, but I wonder if he loses it by not putting up some stats because, look, the Packers wanted to play their game against the Bears.

The Chiefs didn't need to. They already had the one seed locked up. play their game against the Bears. The Chiefs didn't need to. They already had the one seed locked up. But I always find it interesting isn't even the right word. It's predictable in that we are excited when individuals don't pursue individual success. Like, hey, that was really, you know, it's a smart thing to do. I don't know. I'd want the MVP. I would, I'd want to play. You could sit there and say, Oh, what if you get hurt? Okay. What are the odds really that I'm going to get hurt? And yes, it would suck. And so you could sit there and talk about it being selfish, but I don't think it really is selfish. And the reason this gets back to the Peyton

Manning thing is because in 2009, the Colts were 14 and O and they lost the last two games, but Manning played enough in the last game to get dallas clark contract incentives i think there was another player too so they did a bunch of stuff to dallas clark got him the incentives boom and they were done so you're like wait so is it selfless to rest before but is it selfish to get your teammate the incentive or is it selfless to get him the incentive and a lot of guys are doing the incentive this thing this week and that was great i'm not against any of it. But it was just funny that it was like, ah, the Colts.

But the biggest reason, too, when the Colts are 14-0, because the Pats lost to the Giants on the last drive, all of a sudden, a couple years later, it was like, well, it proves there's no point in going 16-0. Like, wait, this is stupid. All right, so anyway, there you go. Jets F. Tank can't do that right threw it Seinfeld

season eight award that goes to New England Patriots and Cam Newton no Larry David on that last season and I don't think we knew that at the time and clearly understood Larry David's impact on that show until we saw Larry David do the Larry David thing but much like no Larry David no Tom Brady boy it sure looked different and Cam Newton going into that last game against the Jets, he had five passing touchdowns on the season. Going to the last one, he had three against the Jets, so it bumped up a bit. As far as guys that are considered guys, somebody that can be a starter end-to-end, can't put together one of the worst quarterback seasons I've seen in a long time. I don't know how anybody debates it any differently. You can talk shoulder, you can talk system, you can talk

COVID, you can talk system, you talk COVID, you can talk weapons, you can talk all these things. It's one of the worst end-to-end seasons I've seen from a quarterback in a long time. Of a guy that's actually

supposed to be average, right, as a guy. I'm not talking about the guy who's going to win you all these games. I'm talking about somebody around the league that was talked about

for years. Certainly not this offseason, but for years as somebody that was almost like, hey, you don't give him enough credit. I know anyone that has argued that is going to make all the excuses in the world again for him this past season. Yes, he was great in the locker room.

Doesn't matter when you snap the football. And it was bad. The 2020 award for, well, you get it. It goes to the Denver Broncos. They won a full game without a quarterback and they played. And it was ugly. It was so ugly, it was actually entertaining. The Stern but Fair

Award goes to Arizona and Cliff Kingsbury. It's the second year. There was a Kyler correction, which feels like happens all the time with young quarterbacks. They come out on the scene, put up some big numbers. Hey, what about this guy? And then you're like, wait, what happened to that guy? Kyler did come back into the game hurt. I thought

he was hurt in the New England game and it's from lingering stuff when things started to go south for this team. Late game situation with Kingsbury. There's definitely times where even he, his second guest himself, admitted it. There's also times if you've watched where they're missing field goals and I think he's in the spot where he's like, I don't really know what to do. And when they couldn't convert on short against New England, I think that had more to do with Kyler's injury than a healthy Kyler. They probably win that game. But if you don't like Kingsbury, I don't think he should back for the third year. And I think everybody should get a third year unless it's an absolute disaster.

Like everybody knows like this is just this guy's not it. All of that is fair. And it's stern, but it's unfair when you start including his Texas Tech record. I don't quite get that. You're selling your point. You want Kingsbury out. You don't think he's good. Okay, fine.

But then you're including the Texas Tech record, which is pretty irrelevant at this point because, let's face it, most of you that didn't want Cliff Hire in the first place looked at the Texas Tech record, and now you're just including it in there when I would say two years in for who Arizona has been and the goals of having Kingsbury there to mentor a quarterback who's picked number one. It's a C, but a C is better for a team that's beginning Fs. All right, Tampa Bay, and this is our final Tom and Bill power ranking. So there's really no award here, but I know this is what everybody's waiting for.

Let's do the tale of the tape. Tom is taller. Bill is thicker. Push. Tom has never drafted a wide receiver in the first round that was a bust. Bill has most recently with the kill Harry. Advantage Tom. Tom takes pay cuts. Bill doesn't.

I don't know who's... Maybe Bill wins that because he doesn't take the pay cut and you got Tom to take him all those years. Both really seem to like Antonio Brown. Advantage? No one. Tom has been in the playoffs every year he's played since 2003. Won the title in 2001.

They went 9-7 in 2002. Remember the Target September t-shirts? Real ones, Remember that. They came back, won back-to-back Super Bowls. Tom has bred in the playoffs every year he's played since 2003. People forget this, but Bill has never played. Never played. Final legacy rankings. Tom won, Bill too.

Those are your Week 17 awards. I almost did college, but I felt like I was really stretching if I did that. Because I had a couple. Most likely to debate the best live version of Warehouse. People, sir. Matt Campbell. But that was just because of his hat. So. People, sir. Matt Campbell, but that was just because of his hat.

So I have no idea if Matt Campbell at Iowa State really likes Dave or not, but I had him winning that award. I was like, this is just too much. We'll stop at 32. I want to spend a couple moments on Steph because he scored 62

last night against the Trailblazers. I watched the whole game. I had so much fun watching it because I feel like the product the first couple weeks has been a little tough. I have some more thoughts on that. We'll get to that a little bit later. But I'm not going to do a huge, hey, I'm the biggest Steph fan because you already know that. I like Steph for the things

that he is in comparison to some of the other stars. It feels like a lot of the stars. I don't want to do a huge Curry and Harden thing here, but when Curry decides to just bail in a city that supported him and a franchise that's made all these moves around him and plugged in all these assets to make him who he is, if Steph does that, then I'll probably not like Steph as much as I do now too. So that's the simple one to get it out of the way.

But working at ESPN, I was always amazed how many other athletes were anti-Steph. I've always felt like Steph is one of the most disrespected stars, at least in this era of any of the sports. It's weird. When he was talked about, and I know I was guilty of this, is he the best player in the world because he put together those MVP seasons and he was talked about, and I know I was guilty of this, is he the best player in the world because he put together those MVP seasons and he was just statistically better than what LeBron was. And now looking at that about five years removed from those kinds of conversations, they seem stupid. I mean, Steph's great.

I love him. We know that, but he's not LeBron. And LeBron's proved that out more and more. LeBron clearly took it personal when those conversations were happening because this is their standing. You know, like, wait a minute. Now I'm not the best player in the world. This guy's 185 is like, are you kidding me?

They give me a break. I know he can shoot, but he can't do the stuff I can do. And at the time it was actually a conversation. And now it doesn't really seem like that much of a conversation, even though all respect to Steph, like he changed basketball, he changed his acceptable shot locations and he made these shots. Lillard has done it now, but wasn't doing it when Steph did it in the beginning. Although Lillard, which I think was part of what we saw last night, Lillard saying, hey, I've been doing the exact same stuff. It's just, you know, he was winning. I'm like, well, yeah, no shit.

And again, Steph had better teams. But LeBron took it personal. And it felt like people that were team LeBron, you know, hated Steph. They hated the 3-1 lead or they loved the 3, one lead thing and all the content that came from that. So there's been this building point of this anti Steph stuff that's been going on out there. I mean, look,

LeBron and the Cavs, those guys threw a Halloween party with, with a curry corpse at the doorstep to step over when you walked into the party. Yes, I know LeBron's people have said that was the catering company. Yeah. Okay.

All right. Got it. All right. Whatever. So what was going to happen last year was that steph was going to get this opportunity with no clay post the acl durant leaving it was going to be like if steph really is in this neighborhood of the elite of the elites a neighborhood where guys like lebron kawai you know russ has been in there but he didn't deserve it hardened debatable anth Anthony Davis probably is, but was he when in Orleans?

You know what I'm talking about? We're talking about a really, really short list of two or three players that sometimes we want to expand out to like eight or nine, and it probably isn't. Now, I think Steph's always been in that group because of the way he's dictated a game. If you look at all the plus minus with all the other guys on or off the court, like he was the constant where it was always different when he was out there

because defenses were freaking out. Now defenses have gotten better at figuring some of this stuff out instead of all of a sudden guy just dribbling past high court and pulling up and hitting it. And you're like, what the hell am I supposed to do now? People have just become more aware of this stuff because it's been happening in the league now for years. But there was almost a layaway of anti-Steph stuff

that was put off even further. Those payments were deferred even more so when Steph only plays five games last year. So at the beginning of this year, they get these blowout losses. They don't look good. They're three and three now. It looks like they figured some stuff out, but not that anybody needed a Steph reminder. It was just great to see him throwing a couple late ones. And Lillard was really good too in that game, by the way. He had a couple threes in the fourth. I was like, wait, this is actually still a game here.

Golden State was up 20. I think they got it to like nine, maybe six. And then Steph just closed it out at the very end. But I don't know that all of a sudden it's fixed. Curry said about his critics, I like being talked about,

that he hears it all. I think all these guys hear all of this stuff. But there is a big conversation waiting to happen about Steph where it's not about 62 last night. It's about their record, and I ended up not picking him for the playoffs

because I just didn't know, and Kerr's adjusted the offense a little bit. Kevin O'Connor is a really good piece in the ringer that they're now running a little bit more pick and roll, and Kerr ran the least amount of pick and roll of anyone, and by the way, it worked, but Curry wasn't getting enough touches at the beginning of the season. It was back to like Mark Jackson level of touches for Curry in this offense.

And they did a little bit more. But they're not going to iso heavy Curry the whole game. I just don't think they are. I thought he was free throw hunting a little bit more, which is something that he might have to do. He's never been as much of a flopper as some of the other guys. But if they're going to call it, he may have to go ahead He's never been as much of a flopper as some of the other guys, but if they're going to call it, he may have to go ahead

and start doing some of that stuff. But really what will happen is if they don't make the playoffs and he has some huge year, I think the anti-stef people, like no one wants to hear from you in the next 24 hours, but there was this conversation

that was waiting to happen that was very anti-stef that just got put on hold because he didn't play last season. And it looked like it was about to get ramped up here again at the beginning of this year, and then he dropped 62. So we got the bowl games done, except for the national title game, and it is not as expected, Bama and Ohio State.

Now, the reason, the Bama part, we all knew that that was going to happen, but the Ohio State-Clemson part, at least the bludgeoning that Ohio State handed them. I mean, Clemson couldn't cover. Clemson got pushed around. They couldn't get pressure. You talk about them losing linebacker, but still, I mean, this was brutal in the back end. All the

busted coverage and fields was terrific again after not looking that great against Northwestern. He just didn't. And Ohio State kept trying to throw the football. What Trey Sermon has changed for this Ohio State team has been, especially this is the running back that transferred from Oklahoma, just he's better than Master.

He just is as a running back. So he gives them another dynamic there altogether. And even though Ohio State, that was kind of a constant thing you'd hear from people that know better than I do. Bama's talent up front

defensively is not what it used to be. Clemson is in Ohio State. Oh, usually has studs up there. That's not the case. And you try to weigh all those out, and you're like, just give me Trevor Lawrence. It didn't happen at all. Not at all.

Ohio State, you're left with, what do you do? If you don't like Ohio State, you're still bringing up the six games bullshit. I've always been pro the Big Ten changing this because of the circumstances. Indiana was a good team when they had Pennix Jr., and they lost to Ole Miss, it wasn't very good

But we'll get there, we'll get through all this stuff here But even if I'm watching the broadcast Where I thought it was kind of weird Where they're talking about Ryan Day saying Hey, we're at a disadvantage playing less games You're like, well, no, actually, give me a break Less games is probably a little bit more of an advantage I'm not saying it's a massive advantage

But less games, less chance to lose players to injury You can talk about continuity and all these things, but it's still same coaching staff, same quarterback. So it shouldn't be that big of a deal. But Ohio State didn't look good against Northwestern until they started running the football. So that probably lingered in my head a little bit. Northwestern's a good football team. They are. They were better than Auburn and they won that game. And I think the Northwestern-Michigan State game messed me up a little bit with Northwestern because I was like, would a team lose to Michigan State like that that was at the top of another conference? But you know what?

Look, and for Indiana fans that are still salty about the whole thing, think about this. Ohio State, they changed the rule for Ohio State because they were under the six games. So they get in. You lost to Ohio State. And if Ohio State had played Michigan and lost in the game that got canceled, they still would have won the division and played for the Big Ten Championship and then likely been in the playoffs. Or, I don't know, maybe they wouldn't have been in the playoffs. Maybe Texas A&M would have been in. So that's the stuff where I don't have a ton of sympathy for any of the Indiana people.

But we can find a way to have everybody be terrible if we want to do that. Because Notre Dame loses, A, was it really the best four teams? Okay. I'm not going to do a big pro playoff committee segment again. I think I've done that before. I'm just anti some of the complaints all the time. I mean, A&M, you've won your game against UNC, missing both their running backs. And if you've watched UNC play this year with both those running backs, it's a really special group. They embarrassed Miami, who, by the way, was comically overrated all year long, and we saw it again. But you don't know what to do with the rankings when you're running out of teams and trying to put them together. So A&M, I don't know that it was excessive. I mean, A&M is a pretty passionate

fan base, but I don't think you could sit there and wake up this week going, we really needed another shot at Alabama. Notre Dame smashed the UNC team that you had a tough time beating and were losing to when they were missing their top wide receiver and both running backs. All right? So there's really not much there. If we want to do, even though I think every game is kind of different, that's a tough comp to win when Notre Dame housed the team

that you had trouble with in the Orange Bowl. What we can do, Notre Dame, isn't good. We could just do A&M isn't that good. We just did that. Ohio State, we're not going to do that. But what do we know? The ACC, 0-6 in the bowl games. Does that mean they're terrible?

It's unfortunate. It's not a great look. But sometimes you'll just have a really bad run of bowl games. Bad, mad matchups. I mean, you can't call Clemson-Ohio State a bad matchup for Clemson because they were the team that was favored going into this. Miami, not shocking.

The UNC thing was down to kind of the last position. I know what the final score was, but come on, we watched it. It was back and forth the whole time. The Big 12, on the other hand, went 5-0.

So does that mean the Big 12 is an awesome conference now because they had this really good bowl run? The bowl thing probably weighs too much on some of the conference perception stuff, but let's face it. I mean, if you don't like the SEC, you love that

year where they lost all those games. You're like, ah, this conference sucks. You're like, all right, maybe they had a bad run. And then they kept winning games after the fact. I mean, the SEC wasn't great this year, but they still had a good bowl record. And people don't want to say, oh, it's just Alabama. This is less than a year after LSU just put together one of the greatest single seasons in college football history. So for me, it's always been how many teams can win a championship? What kind of run of championships are you having? And even in down years, I don't really know what to do with some of these conferences.

The Big 12, that record's really good. They beat Miami. Again, never a fan. They beat two Pac-12 teams. Iowa State's good. I think Iowa State's better than Northwestern. Maybe I'm wrong there, but Iowa State can say, we beat the Pac-12 champ. We beat an Oregon team that wouldn't even have been in the Pac-12 championship game if Washington had been allowed in, but they couldn't because of COVID. So Oregon ends up winning the Pac-12

against USC. Even in the game, they weren't really supposed to be there. So if you're doing a Oklahoma should have been in, look at the conference in the bowl games. I mean, that's a fucking stretch. That's a huge stretch. Oklahoma's got two losses. Yes, there will be a two loss team in the playoff and a 14 playoff, but I don't, you know, I think it'll happen at some point. There'll be a water down top. But if we want to try to do the exercise of everybody being terrible, we could, because you could say the big 12 actually isn't that good because they're two loss champ. I mean, they beat Florida. You can beat up on Florida for not having those guys there. Oklahoma put it on them.

So even with the opt-outs there with Florida, I mean, that thing was ugly. And then Dan Mullen trying to sell us that that game doesn't count. And you're like, what is – I mean, this is the part of the sport where you either just embrace the insanity or you can get really worked up about it, okay? I thought Oklahoma may be better than Ohio State. I felt good about that after the Florida win, but then looking at what Ohio State did against Clemson, I'm not sure about that. I do

think Iowa State is better than Northwestern, but here's a good example. Okay. There were so many people that were mad about Georgia being ranked all the time. All right. Hey, Georgia. Oh my God. Georgia's top 10 again. Oh, this is ridiculous. Like who did Georgia beat? This is such a joke. The committee loves Georgia committee, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia. Okay, if you think Georgia sucks, you can't then give Cincinnati credit for playing a competitive game against them, right? It gets one or the other. It's the same thing with the Gordon Hayward contract. You can't be mad at the Celtics for losing him when you think the contract's one of the worst in the NBA.

It's one or the other. So either you think Georgia is terrible and Cincinnati deserves no credit for being competitive with a power five team, or you're going to try to do exactly what most of you guys do. And that is, I didn't like Georgia all year long. I got mad about the ranking, but now that Cincinnati and look, Cincinnati was, was handling on most of the game. Georgia puts it on them late there a little bit and ends up pulling out a close one. You're like, ah, see? Cincinnati can play with anybody. They should have been in the playoff.

Okay, well, that doesn't seem to make a ton of sense. So the Pac-12, I can't do much for you. The Big 12, undefeated in the bowl season. The crossover isn't great, but the Oklahoma win is unless you want to hold it against them because Florida had all these opt-outs. We can say A&M is good, but then we can hold it against them because of the UNC opt-outs. We could say Notre Dame never deserved to be there because look what happened

in the Clemson rematch, and then they couldn't beat Alabama when I don't know if there are three or four teams that could hang with Alabama. The Pac-12, I can't really do much for you. The Big Ten, everybody's just mad because it's Ohio State again. And here's the deal. If Ohio State wins, okay, if Ohio State wins and beats Alabama, you can both say, see, Alabama and the SEC wasn't that good, despite a decent bowl record for the conference, because you could say Alabama was the only good one and Ohio State beat them. And then you can say Ohio State got to play a short season. So that wasn't really fair to everybody else. So we did it. We found a way to say every team in college football actually sucks. Mission accomplished.

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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.

All right, a couple life advices to start the new year. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Love the show. All right, here we go. This is more of a work advice question since I know what to do if a girl cheats on me. Okay, glad you have that covered.

But I actually do need help advice since I also work in entertainment as a TV producer and your personality seems to mirror mine and is wondering if you're ever in a situation like mine and what you've done

or what you would do. I'm a hard worker, pretty talented at what I do, but I also have a problem biting my tongue when I'm clearly right in a situation. mine and what you've done or what you would do. I'm a hard worker, pretty talented at what I do, but I also have a problem biting my tongue when I'm clearly right in a situation. As for those thinking working in TV is glamorous, I consistently work 80 hours a week with zero benefits, zero life insurance, sick days, or paid time off, along with zero security for my future if the show gets canceled

or a different executive takes over and cleans house. Right now, I'm starting to feel like Jimmy Butler in Minnesota. I know everyone hates what he did, but if you break it down, I understand why he wanted to set the practice facility on fire. He was the best player on the team. The team refused him to give a contract

of what he was worth and gave it to the incompetent players like Cat and Wiggins and refused to give Jimmy the max. In the end, Jimmy just wanted to be paid what he was worth, and that's what I'm feeling right now. Yeah, Butler, I understood what he was doing,

but it was so orchestrated in how he did it that it was a turnoff to me. Like, you can be right, but it also is part of how you execute you being right. And Butler, you know, I mean, and look, we had done this

a couple of times at Butler already. So I used to always kind of defend Butler and I don't, you know, I'm not. All right, you know what? This is probably not a Jimmy Butler segment. So why don't I just stop myself? All right. A little backstory for me. I worked at a small production company when I first started out in entertainment, worked my way up from intern to writer producer from 2009 to 2013. I sacrificed a lot in living situations relationships so I can

pursue my dream of becoming a TV writer. The company grew from doing random small productions, developing one of the biggest shows on one of the major networks okay 2014 that show pretty much took over all aspects of the production company i was with i was left at a crossroads stay and only work on that one show as a producer and never be a writer or leave and pursue my dreams of being a writer well i chose to pursue my dreams over the next four years i did get some shitty writing jobs and the show i left turned into the emmy winning juggernaut it is now ouch in 2018 after turning 30 and continuing to struggle to sustain writing work, my old friend

from the show is now a high-level EP on the show, had an opening, and offered a lower-level producer job to come back. Alright, so his buddy's the co-EP on the show that he had left, but there was an opening, but it would be a lower-level producer job to come back. So he waited his options

and decided to take it. All right, so he's back on the show. Been on the show for three years. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of because I'm doing senior level work and fixing other people's fuck ups because I'm technically lower level, but also was around to create the show

and know the ins and outs to make it great. I brought this up to my friends that I came up with who are now supervisors and executives. And they said that they can't do anything because even though they trust me more and think I'm the best producer on the show, there are people ahead of me that have been around longer and they are next in line for promotions. And my friends can't make the decision to promote me over them because of politics, the office and the network. All right. All understandable. It makes sense. Happens a lot.

I've come to the realization that if I just stayed, I could have been a rich homeowner, supervisor, executive instead of a lower level producer. So not only are you annoyed that you think that you're outworking people above you, you left the show and then you come back and had you stayed the whole time, you'd be rich. Yeah, that's a tough one. My question is, do I stay and continue to fight for the position and salary I deserve since I'm doing work that is way above my pay grade? Or do I leave this massively successful show again to pursue the credit and the money I'm worth? I can't tell if this is eating away at me because of the regret for leaving. Yeah, that's different.

It's one thing to just, as we said, it's one thing to just feel like you're not being paid your worth. You're being overlooked. You're working too hard. But you have this different thing because you left this behind. Um, so, uh, then he says, yeah. All right. Can't tell if it's just a regret for leaving the first time or if I'm just pissed like Jimmy Butler because I'm not getting what I clearly deserve and I'm doing the work and fixing the fuck ups of the incompetent people above me who are winning awards, getting paid

way more than me like at Wiggins. Okay. Uh, he says, don't roast me too much. I'm not going to, I, I, I get it. I have to take you at your word here that you're, guy that's better than all these other people. Maybe that's true. Maybe that's who you see in the mirror. Maybe the people around you don't see it that way. That's happened to me at some workplaces where I'm like, I'm killing it. Then you go, oh, wait, these people don't really like me all that much. I've been lucky, though, as far as jobs. I don't know that I've ever. The only time I've ever lost a job was during the sporting news layoffs that happened in 2005. So for me, I don't even count that one.

All right. I was in a similar situation. Okay. So let me tell that story, and then I'll connect it to this. When I first started with Van Pelt, that was 11 years ago. So I was named as co-host in May of 09. The first show we did, I think, is July in 09. And nobody wanted me to be his co-host except for him. He was 11 years ago. So I was named as co-host in May of 09. The first show we did, I think, is July in 09. And nobody wanted me to be his co-host except for him.

He was the only person. And Amanda, our old producer then, too, was definitely an advocate for me. And everybody else in the decision-making process is like, who's this guy? He's been here three years filling in on these shows. He's all right. He's pretty good. But he's just this villain. So why the hell would we do this? They wanted to be Fowler.

But it didn't make any sense. Like they kept picking these huge, huge names that had all these other responsibilities where the argument for me was, Hey, Scott has to do sports center all the time. So Ryan can at least man the show when Scott's not there. And then when Scott's there,

like he, it's just, there's so much more to the story that I don't know. I don't know. It's kind of a waste of time, but so I get it. And so now that I've gotten it, I know there's immediate,

like whatever we'll see with this guy and see how long he's last. So it felt like, at least for me, it was, let's make the situation shitty and hopefully replace him. Once Scott gets his bearings, that's what it felt like. And that's what it was for a long time.

And so after the thing that had happened is they'd made me sign a contractor thing where it wasn't a head count. It wasn't benefits. It wasn't full-time status. It wasn't any of those things. And the first couple of years, I didn't deserve it anyway. I was just filling in and driving back and forth in Boston. The third year I was there, I was working a million shifts. So they're like, all right, we got to do something with this guy to at least get it on paper. I think some of this stuff is just labor stuff that I didn't understand back then. And I signed this two-year agreement on like, this is what you're going to make at the minimum.

And then here's what your bonus structure would be. And first of all, the minimum I was going to make no matter what, because that was one of the negotiation ploys they did with me, where they were like, hey, and if you never work, you get to keep all that money. I was like, well, obviously I'm going to work. I've been working nonstop this third year, so I'm going to work this many days, and I'm going to go over this. So that's not like – it was just a poor job by the guy that was negotiating with me. He was like, look at that, mister.

You get to keep all that extra money. I'm like, yeah, but you're going to use me all these days. And that's, doesn't, that's non-existent. It doesn't matter. What happened is I did that right before I was named Scott's co-host. So then I was like, well, Hey, you know, can I, I'm the co-host of the afternoon drive show at ESPN radio. Can I have headcount? Can I be a full-time employee? And they were like, let's give it a few months and see how the show does. I was like, okay, fine. So it was bullshit that I'm the co-host of the afternoon show to ESPN,

and I don't even have health benefits. And I waited three months. I thought it was pretty apparent to people that understood radio and radio shows that the show had something. It was different. People were going to like it. We were younger. Even though Scott and I weren't, I was young then. But you get the point. It had a different vibe to it.

It wasn't Colin. It wasn't Mike and Mike. It was different, but it played off of the lineup really well. And so after a couple of months, I went to this one boss who, let's just say, liked to keep things so close to the vest, you never really knew what he was doing. And I said, Hey, you know, look, you said after a few months, we could talk about a full-time position. I think the show kicks ass. You know, we have something really cool to build on here. You know, what do you think? And then the, the, the, the head of the department was like, when's the show going to kick ass? I was like, ah, what? And I was like, wait, you don't see? He's like, no. When's the show going to start kicking ass? He's like, I don't think it kicks ass at all. I was like, you don't think

that there's a chance that this thing could be like a really big deal. Like you may have hit on something here with this combination. And he was like, you see it that way. I don't. And a lot of other people don't either. Like, okay, cool. So then you leave because you don't, you're not going to sit there and argue with the guy anymore. I didn't have that kind of juice back then to do it. Um, you know, there'd be times now where I go, all right, what am I going to do? And so the problem that I made is then I got a little bitchy. I bitched to a couple other managers where I go, I can't believe he would say that to me. And then he doesn't understand. I go on top of that. Like, this is just wrong. Make me a full time employee. I'm working five days a week. I'm the co-host of the afternoon show. And because I complained, it got right back to him. So guess who wrote out a

subcontractor deal for two years as the co-host of an afternoon show with no benefits? This guy, no 401k, no dental, nothing. Now I'm not a Disney employee and I'm the co-host of the afternoon show for two years. That's what I had to deal with because I bitched to somebody else about it. It was, it was petty. It was unfair. It was wrong. It was just the wrong. It wasn't even about money. Just, Hey, make this guy a head count. He's on every day. He's on every day. And I'm filling out time sheets like a dishwasher. Okay. That was wrong. But where I screwed up is I told people how wrong it was. And people gossip, especially, I mean, look, the ESPN gossip is like, you can get three credits for every semester if you want to major in it. Scott's co-host. And now he's complaining. And you know what? I took it. I took it all, even though it was screwed up because I knew in the long run, I was going to win.

All right. So I had to take every, and this goes to a lot of people. You can't get mad every time you're slighted at work. You can't because then they're just not going to want you around anymore. So if you believe in yourself and look, you're going to have some people telling you you're pretty good. Like I had enough people that were important in the business that were like, yeah, man, just keep doing your thing. Like you're going to figure this out. So every bump along the way, I go, this sucks and I'm right, but I'm not going to let this get in the way of the fact that I'm going to have my name on an afternoon show at ESPN

at some point. Like I'm going to, I'm going to have my name on an afternoon show at ESPN at some point. I'm going to. I'm going to reach my goals. The better play for me is to suck up all these short-term losses, knowing the long-term win is if I ride this out long enough and I keep showing people what I can do, it's going to work out. So that's what I did. Every decision was about long-term though, this is the better situation for you. I remember when I finally got my name on the show four years after I'd gotten it, I was talking with another place. My contract was up and the guy was offering me a good, good deal. And he said, what else is on the table for you then? And I go, well, I think ESPN is finally going to put my name on the show. He goes, are you serious? He goes, yeah, stay at ESPN. He's like your name on a show

at ESPN, a marquee show, one of the three shows. Cause it used to be morning, midday and afternoon. That's it. That's where you worked. The money usually is always in the mornings because of advertising. Afternoons, you can't kill it. It's all different now. The traditional rules don't really apply anymore. So the reason I bring that up is that, yeah, maybe you are really talented. Maybe you are better than all these people ahead of you. And yes, there's a ton of regret because you made a decision that went the wrong way. So you have to do two things. You have to get over the fact that you bounced from because that's never coming back.

All right. There's nothing that you can do now that is going to change the four years you took away from the show. But if you are really good at this and you can succeed, and it sounds like you kind of want to stay to fight through it all. I mean, look, there's nothing stopping you from writing on the side, by the way. And if you're in this industry and you have these kind of connections, if you write something really good and you are this talented, you can do all that shit on the side. I know you're saying you're working a lot. Find a way. Find the time.

Find a way to find the time to write something else on the side. And then you can show it to all these other people that are already in the business that most of us can't even get access to. All right. So you've got that part of it, but you're going to have to accept that even if you're right, you can't bitch all the time to everybody about it. Cause my guess is you're probably giving off some bad vibes here around the workplace. So even if people, and remember too, nobody understands your plight the way, no one else is walking around going, yeah, man, that guy left four years ago. He's so much more talented than all these other people

that are above him. His ideas are awesome. God, he's getting screwed over. Almost no one else is thinking that way. People didn't see me at the cafeteria going, man, you know, Priscilla doesn't even have healthcare. Nobody even knew. Nobody knew. I didn't do some article on it. I didn't tweet. Oh, I can't believe this. Oh, I have student loans too.

I just didn't. And maybe that's why I think the way I do about the industry is you get your dick kicked in at the beginning and then you make your way through it. And if you work through it and you're good, you get rewarded later on. Maybe that's the wrong way. But I don't quite understand why the carpet's supposed to be rolled out for you immediately upon entry in some of these tougher things. But you need to lose some of the baggage that you can tell you're carrying around in this email because I'm not trying to get all zen here, but if you're the pissed off guy all the time and rolling your eyes and sighing when somebody

who's your superior is doing something that may be wrong, then it's never going to work out for you. All right. Good luck. This one is, um, this one's actually pretty common. Hey, Ryan, before we get into the story, thanks for everything. Okay. All right, here we go. All right. My question backstory. One of my best friends has been in a long distance relationship for about a year. They met over social media, but I'm still not quite sure how this happened as I'm not the slide into the random girls DMs kind of guy. Shout out to you. He seems really happy with the relationship, which is great. I'm happy for him in that regard. However, since they started dating, they post pictures with one another as one would in a relationship that are always very cringe and have weird captions, emojis that make, um, that make you feel uncomfortable. It's something that reminds you of like 16 year olds in their first relationship using social media for the first time as an example, uh, would be just like a story of them having like a weird makeout session with gushy emojis and

captions. So they're making out in the IgE story with emojis. Yeah, that is not, that's not good content. Um, I've had a couple of our friends send me these posts. Yeah, that is not, that's not good content. I've had a couple of our friends send me these posts. Yeah. Now look, I think we all have friends that all of us screen grab send to the other friends

like Jesus dude, you know, or maybe you're that friend. Think about that. Can I blow your mind? Did I just blow your mind on a Monday? I've had a couple of our friends

send me the post stories. We kind of joke or laugh or discussions or weirdness of the photos. As a side note, she's just out of college and he's in his late 20s so maybe this is just a phase she is going through no this is not a phase this is this is who it is not official unless it's all over the place okay anyway uh i like i i think you've got to be like real real official before you start posting.

And some people are like, look, this didn't happen if we didn't post it. I live in a different city than him, and he's planning on moving out here with her later on in 2021. I kind of want to say something to him because it's pretty painful to see these posted, but I also don't want him to get pissed at me. I do think he's the type of person who wouldn't care about what I say and just brush it off. But I also don't want to say he conveys it to her and then she hates me before I even meet her. All right. It's good. You're thinking ahead here because all of you guys that want to say something to the guy about his wife, he's telling his wife. Okay. He is telling his wife every time I had a situation a while back where I'd gotten into an argument with the wife, but I was in the mix enough that it wasn't.

It was just a topic came up. There was a discussion. We argued. And then the husband and I got in the car together to go do something. And I went, man, that was weird. I was like, what the hell was that? And he looked right at me and gave me a look like, as well, what you have to understand. I was like, oh,

yeah. I'm like, I just tried to, I tried to treat this guy's wife, like the third buddy in the group. And then we were going to get in the car and be like, what the hell was that about? And he was taking his wife's side. You want to know why? He wasn't taking my side. He's not married to me. So remember that whenever you're criticizing the significant other of one of your buddies. You can think, hey, I've known this guy a really long time, but you're not sleeping with him. All right? You're not in the same bed every day for what potentially could be years if this works out. So most people are going to tell the significant other. So now it gets back

to the content. Yes, her being right out of college is something. He's probably just excited too. So he's going for it. I like that you said he'd probably kind of brush it off and not get super mad. So that makes you think you could do it. Here's, I think, the bigger thing we always have to ask ourselves. Why do any of us fucking care? What if he wants to do horrible cringe emoji stories on Instagram? What is it really doing to you? Is it costing you money? No. Is it costing him a job? I mean, all of us do usually something in the group. The rest of the group is like, and I've done this before, but it's true. Every one of this has something in the group the rest of the group talks about. And we're all making it. We're all still upright. So as much as I love confrontation, and I do, there's a lot of use, I would say, useless confrontation out there or scheduled potential confrontation that just doesn't really make any sense. It's a lot like, I've mentioned this with college where you kind of reinvent yourself. You take the things about

you that you like and you amplify them. And then you try to pretend the things you don't like about yourself don't exist. And then eventually you probably revert back to who you originally are. And that's why people like our best friends as freshmen in the junior year. Like, oh, remember that guy? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Didn't we?

Oh, yeah, that's right. You liked him for a little while. Yeah, yeah. That guy sucked because we're all kind of like conning each other in the beginning. But another thing that we'll do is we'll try to like attach ourselves to something, identify with something where it's, this guy likes this band a lot. Then you'll hear about this other guy that maybe likes them a little bit more than you're like, no way, dude, no one likes three 11 more than I do. I like them more than that guy does because you're like three 11 guy,

the same as cowboy hat theory guy where you're like, okay, you know, Pete's going to wear a cowboy hat all the time at parties. Like, is he a rancher? No, he's from New Jersey. Like, okay, why is he wearing a cowboy hat? I don't know, man. He just, he throws a cowboy hat on. Should we say something? I don't know. Just let him wear a cowboy hat. It's not a big deal. But when you're younger, you're not really processing all these different things. All right. So right now your buddy is, it sounds like you like him. You haven't mentioned anything else about him. That's weird. So that's great. He's got young, he's, he's the young girlfriend guy out of that group. And part of that arrangement, if you're going to date a girl right out of college, is you're going to post some bullshit on Instagram.

That's going to be super embarrassing. But right now, that's who he is in your group. And is it confrontation? Why don't you just do it in a non... This should be the opposite of the serious way to address it. You know, the serious address it once. And then if it doesn't work out, move on. In this case, you, next time you see him and it's the group, he's like, what's going on with those IG stories and let him explain. And if you get the sense from him that he's like, you know what, I really like her. And you know, it's cool. It's what she, they never bring it up again.

But if he says, why are they bad? And be like, eh, and then maybe he'll laugh. And then maybe, you know, there's a, what you should do is if it's really bothering you that much, and this is me just being older at some point where you go, what's who cares? Like let him post bad stories. But if it, if you want to confront him on this, let him, let him show his cards first. So you bring it it over casual way. Yes, a few drinks should be involved. You're like, hey, what the hell's going on

with that story the other day? Like, was that a special emoji package that you had to pay for in the app? What was going on with that one? And, you know, something with a seesaw and you guys are making out. And if he laughs or if he's totally serious, then you'll know your answer and how to navigate it so there you go

alright good stuff I hope you enjoyed it it was a lot of me so trust me we're going to be guest heavy the rest of the week please subscribe spread the word as always thank you Thank you. you