The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Tim Hasselbeck on Has Allen Caught Mahomes? Bruce Feldman on Harbaugh to the Raiders? Plus Jorge Sedano on the Heat As Contenders Again

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Russillo shares his confidence rankings for every NFL divisional-round team (0:34) before he is joined by ESPN’s Tim Hasselbeck to make Round 2 picks (12:49). Then Ryen talks with Bruce Feldman of The Athletic and Fox Sports about the Raiders looking to hire Jim Harbaugh and NIL’s impact on college football (44:15). Next Ryen talks with ESPN’s Jorge Sedano about the Miami Heat’s return as a playoff contender, the Nets' playoff hopes if Kyrie Irving is not allowed to play in home games, the Bulls, Lakers, Clippers, and more (57:06). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:29:45). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Tim Hasselbeck, Bruce Feldman, and Jorge Sedano Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast loaded packed i'm going to give you all the picks in the four playoff games you're going to go over those picks with tim hassebeck we're going to talk with bruce feldman about jim harbaugh potentially going back to the nfl and the raiders. We've got George Sedano on the Heat and other NBA stuff, including some Lakers stuff. He works in LA. And an update on Kyle's workout with a Nigerian guy. And life advice. I'm going to rank the four playoff games on most confident

to least confident of the picks. And I'm just going to start with this. I'm not confident about any of it. I really think all four of these games could go either way. So I'm going to give you the line. I'll give you my pick, but I'm going to give you a little bit of insight into how this game may play out and some of the stuff that I went over. All right. So let's start with San Francisco at Green Bay. I'd say I'm most confident with this one because the Packers at home with Rodgers and Malafuor are 24 and three. They're actually 19 against spread. All right.. I know the Lambeau

has not been the same historically for the playoffs. We certainly know that with the Packers and Rodgers recently, but overall with Matt LaFleur and Rodgers, they've been terrific. Now, let's look at Jimmy Garoppolo's last three games, five interceptions. Aaron Rodgers has had four all season long. Rodgers continues to put up these numbers. Although he had that little dip there, we were wondering. And yet, you know what? He told us we shouldn't have to wonder, even though I thought there were some arguments to be made about it. All right, so here's the point.

Is that Jimmy Garoppolo with those picks, you go, okay, but does it mean anything? And the pick against Dallas basically brought Dallas back into a game that they felt like they were being dominated throughout. And who knows beyond the pick. And then if the Kittle catch were a catch and fumble, we'd be talking about Dallas and potential matchup here. So we know that Rodgers is better than Garoppolo. But here's something that I thought was really interesting. When they played each other in week three,

it was a late field goal win against a San Francisco team that I would argue last year was a complete wash. Their COVID and injury numbers were unbelievable. A couple of years ago, the Niners were able to get them twice. And that was a really stacked team that went to the Super Bowl. And I still think there are remnants of that roster and all of their talent that we're starting to see all over again. But what we really like from San Francisco recently

is that you have a rushing attack that is a completely different rushing attack. Because in that week three win by Green Bay on that late field goal, San Francisco only ran it for 3.2 yards per carry, and they had a chance to win that thing. They're totally different now with Debo. Debo's first half of the season, he ran the football six times. The second half of the season, Debo Samuels run it 53 times.

So there are some things here here if you were to say, hey, San Francisco's rushing attack is different. They have to account for Debo. There's a way, I guess, you could kind of talk yourself into it. It's just I have a hard time picking Garoppolo on the road against Packers and Aaron Rodgers.

I mean, I'm just going to make it a little bit more simple. I'll add one more tidbit to this. If you check out the great work on The Athletic, and by the way, I use some stuff from The Athletic from the NextGenStats for all this breakdown stuff. There's a film study of San Francisco

against Green Bay, and there is an area of the football field where Garoppolo's throws live from 6 to 19 yards down the field. The way Green Bay aligns itself, and again, most all these teams are in sub-packages. I remember when I first got started in radio, I'd be arguing, be like, oh, is this team better suited for the 4-3?

No, they have to be the 3-4. Well, no one runs a 3-4. They don't have traditional D tackles. It has to be 4-3. You're like, dude, you're in sub all the time now. But having said that, Green Bay likes to align with one inside linebacker in

some of these downs where if you look at Garoppolo's tendency and where he makes his money, it's these in-cut throws that he's really, really good at. And there's a number that this film study looked at and said, if you look at the Packers with two linebackers, inside linebackers, not overall linebackers, two inside linebackers versus one inside linebacker on these throws from six to 19 yards past the line of scrimmage. The Packers defense goes from like 10th to 31st when they go to their preferred alignment of just the one inside linebacker. Again, if I'm able to figure this out from reading it, I probably had to read it twice, and the athletic guys are able to figure it out from breaking down the film.

Clearly, all the guys this weekend know what the deal is, but it's just something to look for if Niners start moving the football with a combination of Debo as this threat and Garoppolo picking them apart in some of these intermediate routes, you'll now know why that happened because of the alignment or Rodgers just beats him deep all the time. OK, next game, Rams at Tampa. I'll give you the picks at the end. Rams at Tampa. Rams are plus three in this one. Let's talk blitz rate. All right, let's get a little nerdy here. Brady is the third least blitz quarterback in the NFL this season. He faced a blitz rate of 24.9%. You know who's second least?

It's Matthew Stafford. The guy he's going up against at just 24.8%. Now, watching almost every Brady game for the past 20 years, I used to always go, oh, you're going to blitz him the whole time? That's smart. It isn't. The best quarterbacks, the more you blitz these guys, it usually ends up burning you because they figure it out. Now, you can't do nothing, and we're going to get to another number

a little bit later in a different game that's pretty amazing, but Stafford, through all of the problems that he's had, when you blitz him, you can make a statistical argument that he is the best quarterback this season when actually facing the blitz uh week three another week three game here rams beat tampa what felt like it was their kind of super bowl everybody was off the rams in november but they beat him 34 24 um he was great in the game against tampa bay both teams have injury issues on the offensive line left tackle whitworth for the rams but i think note boom backup, it's actually serviceable if it's going to be an issue. But then you have the center

and Werfs, the tackle. These are terrific linemen. Jensen as well mentioned the center and tackle combo here for Tampa, which is an issue. And some of the weapons, they're not as deep weapon-wise. And on top of this, I think I like the running back combo and how they complement each other with Sonny Michel and

Akers being back. They had decent numbers. They were run heavy, I thought, in their playoff game against Arizona, but Arizona also went completely down their legs. I don't know what we really learned about the offensive approach, and Arizona's making it that much easier for you. But this is a Rams offense that's going against a slipping Tampa Bay run defense. They were number one overall defensively last season,

and this year they're number 12. I think some of their rushing defensive numbers have actually gotten worse the last couple weeks. If anybody can figure out the offensive line miscues that Brady could be potentially dealing with, then it would be a guy like Brady. But a Tampa team that's healthy on defense, you actually may not want to send the house

after Stafford because he's been really good, and that's why he doesn't face it that often. Next game, Cincinnati at Tennessee. Cincinnati's getting three and a half in this one. Burrow, in his last five games, has completed 75% of his passes for 9.8 yards per attempt with a touchdown interception ratio to 13 to zero.

Here's the all-time number for you. This is so good, I'm afraid it might not even be true, but I found this as well. 28 of the last 32 playoff games, the quarterback who had the higher yards per attempt over the course of the season has won the game. That's nuts. 28 out of 32.

I read it like three times and then waited and went back and read it again. That's the number said. So we know that in this comp, Burrow was first this season in yards per attempt. Tannehill came in 18th. Don't worry, Titans fans. You're going to be happy at the end of this. The Titans were the 23rd ranked defense against deep passes. Wait a minute. Another factor that would make you feel good about Burrow to chase. Cincinnati, though, has an offensive line that is third worst in pressures allowed, but it's facing a pass rush that is third worst in getting pressure with no blitz from the second half of the season. Tennessee has all kinds of stats that I've already used.

I've talked about the point differential thing. There's all sorts of stats that make it look like it's a bad matchup and that Cincinnati plus three and a half is the play. But there's also a version of this game where Derrick Henry is running around the edges. There's no D-tackle there from Cincinnati who's out. They do get Hendrickson back. But all of the Tennessee stats are kind of entirely unfair, and I'm admitting that because you've got the A.J. Brown part of it, Julio Jones having two times where he doesn't step in, and then Henry not being there.

And Cincinnati is probably going to have some moments, even with Burrow being on fire like this, where he is probably going to get blasted a couple times just because of the O-line. He gets blasted. The guy gets hit a lot. As we said a week or so ago, of the last 54 quarterbacks to be sacked 50 more times in the regular season, none of them got to the Super Bowl. So I can give you a bunch of stats in favor of Cincinnati, but I think the overall stats of Tennessee are completely unfair to them because we may see

the full version of them once again for the first time in a long time. Final game. You want to get real nerdy? Let's talk blitzes again. I love this stuff. This is from NextGen. Kansas City's given a point and a half here at home at Arrowhead. NextGen stats, you can pull these up yourself.

The Bills are the only team Since they started tracking Blitzes by NextGen 2016 So we're going 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 Six seasons of tracking this data The Bills are the only team To attempt no blitzes

For an entire game Of any game That we've seen from any team. And they've actually done it twice. And you know who they did it against? The Kansas City Chiefs in two regular season matchups, this year and last year. Now, they lost the AFC Championship game,

and Mahomes in that game was blitzed nine times, seven to nine, 68 yards, I think, two touchdowns. He kind of ate him up. So they went back to the zero attempts at blitzing. I don't want to say zero blitz. Because Mahomes, you can also point out to some of his splits. You go, okay, so why were teams doing that? Why would Buffalo never blitz Mahomes?

Now, never blitzing anyone, even if it's somebody like Brady or Stafford or some of the other guys we've already talked about. I think never doing it is probably a mistake. All right? But whatever's gone on with the let's drop everybody back, keep everybody deep, if they don't want to take what we're giving them, that's on them. I think there's some real truth to it because in the first 12 games

against not facing any extra pressure, Mahomes' numbers were 60% completion rate. The QB rating, I think, was around high 80s, 90 or so. And his touchdown-interception ratio, this is the staggering number. Again, some of these picks were kind of just really bad luck. 22-11 split. 22 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. The last six games where Mahomes has faced a defense that did not send any extra pressure at him. No blitzing, which the Bills, again, have done now twice,

which they're saying on NextGen is the only two games the team has ever done that in six seasons, which seems crazy. Completion percentage jumps up. QB rating goes up 20 points, and the split is 13 touchdowns to only one interception.

So has he completely figured out this approach of not sending any blitzes, and are we going to see a departure from what we've seen in Buffalo the last few regular seasons? I think Allen is right there with Mahomes. I would still take Mahomes. The fact that I'm even saying that out loud blows my mind,

but there have been some things over the second half of the course of the season, and I'm saying, it's not even being late to the party, it's just you keep seeing stuff being like, I can't believe this throw. I can't believe that throw. I can't believe you did this. He imposed his will. He was an absolute madman against New England, where he's like, I'm just winning this game and I'm doing it all by myself.

So if anybody has a chance, I think Allen does. And this Buffalo defense, which may be one of the most overlooked statistically great defenses that we've seen in recent history. Like I always have to kind of remind myself and others like this is the best defense in the NFL. And yet it's never part of the conversation and that's because we don't care about defenses as much and maybe we shouldn't you know maybe we shouldn't because I went through this six of the top 10 defenses in

the league this year well they're home watching the playoffs Buffalo's number one Dallas finished two New Orleans finished three. New England finished four. Arizona finished six. The Colts finished eighth. And Miami finished 10th. And they're all watching. Here are the picks. Go to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Download the app. Confidence meter. Most confident to least confident. I'll go Green Bay minus five and a half. Give me the Rams plus three at Tampa. Give me Cincy plus three and a half. You knew I was going to do it to your Titans fans. I'm sorry.

And then, God, I want to pick Buffalo. I'm the least confident about this one. You know what? I'm just going to do it. Give me Buffalo plus one and a half. I changed my mind at the last minute. That probably means I'm wrong. Again, FanDuel Sportsbook.

Let's talk football, basketball, and college football with our guests. Let's do this. Tim Hasselbeck, dear friend from ESPN. What's up? Good to see you. Hey, it's good to see you. Good to be on with you. Okay, let's break these matchups down. How much of a gap is there

between who Josh Allen is now and Patrick Mahomes? Not a lot, if at all all to be honest with you um and i think you could probably say something similar going back to last year ryan like in terms of physical ability right like josh allen's gonna check all the boxes that that mahomes checks quite frankly he is probably better at some of the things, you know, like design runs. Josh Allen's a better design runner than Patrick Mahomes is in terms of arm strength. Yeah, I think that there's probably very little, if anything at all,

that separates them. Yeah, athletically, I don't think it's any kind of stretch at all to say Allen's a better athlete and i would say look bill's fans have got to see this up close now as he's turned himself into really like a top five guy but i mean even the atlanta game where he had a bunch of picks there are throws over the course of some of these last few weeks and they're starting to make the rounds on social media what this guy can do we've we've all been amazed with the arm angle stuff that mahomes can do but it feels like alan can do all of those things so you know i don't i still resist being like hey alan's actually better than mahomes that's just hard for me to say i don't believe it

but it's a great feeling knowing that you're one of the few teams that can go into kansas city and feel like you don't have a massive disadvantage of the position well right think about this you know in terms of um arm strength running ability all that stuff like we agree physically you know pretty much right there similar here's the other thing josh allen does not get nearly enough credit for he is really good before the snap like you look at some of these teams even going back to last year that would try to uh you know on a third down have some type of exotic blitz his ability pre-snap i think is um not talked about enough you know like all the the really good quarterbacks that have played for a very long time whether it's

you know whether it was breeze the way he would do it rogers obviously brady you know guys that were really good pre-snap, it was obvious. You could see them check to a player, alert to a player, do things like that. But Josh Allen's doing that same stuff. And then I would take it one step further in terms of why what he's done is so impressive. A lot of times you look at a stat sheet at the end of the game, and you're like, all right, he he had 48 attempts and he had 16 carries

like look as great as Patrick Mahomes is I like you would like if you're like hey you can start a team pick one like I'm probably picking Mahomes but like Mahomes isn't asked to carry the ball 16 times in a game and you and I have talked about this before i'm sure it's like you kind of use a basketball analogy for it like okay shoot foul shots right now you know run up and down the court 50 times now shoot foul shots like you're not going to be as good it's the same thing as a passer like if you're asked to run quarterback power and then two plays later it's third and eight we want you to hit a 15 yard in cut accurately it's not as easy if you run quarterback power you know two two plays

earlier something i broke down in the open was kind of the not zero blitz because we don't want to confuse the terms here zero blitz is basically sending everybody but just the no blitz approach that we saw more against my home it's like we're just going to clog all these lanes. You guys don't really run it. You know, you're not. It felt like for a long time that Kansas City was kind of stubborn in their approach. And now we've seen in the last six games against no blitz attempts, which is something Buffalo's done against Mahomes in the regular season, not the playoffs, that he has clearly figured this out. And again, for somebody who played the position,

do you pick up on this? Like, I only see it kind of after the fact. Again, I'm watching it on TV. I'm not looking at the full coach's film. Do you notice anything in particular? Because it felt like week to week there, we're like, what the hell is going on? Like, you know, it felt like you guys were talking about

a lot of the same stuff. And whatever that was, it feels like Mahomes has solved it somewhat. Yeah yeah i think that there's a combination of things i know everyone's made a huge deal about like hey they're getting all these too high looks and the safeties are playing really deep and you know so was there an element early on about having less patience like yeah i think there's an element of that i think it's also fair fair to Ryan to say, like, there's some unlucky plays too, right? Like the ball bounces funny sometimes. And so, like, was there just an actual overreaction? Like, shockingly, could you imagine that that happens every know every day uh talking about sports yeah i think there was an element of that too and i think that's one of the best things about andy reed yeah i think sometimes like if teams were to go through what kansas city was going through offensively

uh early in the season and there wasn't a coach that had the same type of confidence in his process, his coaching ability, the culture of what they're coaching and how they coach it, ability of the quarterback, how much he trusts him, all of that stuff. I think there would have been people in that situation that would have panicked. And I think that that is one of the beauties of Andy Reid as a coach, I believe, is because I don't think he panicked or changed a thing. I think he was kind of like, look, look, we know how we coach ball security with our running backs. Like we know how we coach our receivers to catch the ball we know what we coach our quarterbacks in terms of um you know like what their progression is or why they're working this side of the field or why that's a matchup they take like we don't need to panic and change any

of that stuff and i do think there was a time where he probably said to patrick like hey like a little less backyard football would be good for us until we get back on track. I do think there was an element of that. But, Ryan, I think they're calling the same plays. I think they're coaching things the same way. And I think the ball, you know, isn't bouncing, you know, as unfortunately as it bounced at times early in the season.

All right, so who do you like in the game? I mean, listen, I think I like Kansas City. I think I like them, quite honestly, to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. You know, what's interesting about something that's happened with them is they drafted these young offensive linemen. I think they drafted some pretty good run blocking offensive linemen. And because of that, even with the issues they've had at running back, they've become a pretty good power running team. And then as we talk about like these two high looks, like that means you're just

getting like a good number count in the run game more often. And so if you've got good run blockers and you've got a good number count, like the, you know, the run game, you know, typically is math. Like do your numbers add up? Do you have good angles, you know, to get blocks and how much space do you create? Well, you create a lot of space when you have Kelsey and Tyree kill and all those guys. So, um, I think their balance, um, and their ability to run the football with some power ends up being a difference i really like what i saw from mckinnon last week too it's just this kind of extra element of hey there's another guy that you kind of have to game plan a little bit more that you weren't even thinking about a few weeks ago you know i kind of thought i forgot

about that but like that's a guy honestly like if he didn't have the injuries that we saw him have like if he never had those injuries in san franc, I think he would be viewed as a completely different back. That's a great point. Okay, you said something, and this is a little deeper, and we'll get to the other three games in your picks, but the pre-snap stuff. How quickly can you tell on a Sunday when somebody is totally dialed in and completely confused? I think first few third downs. I really do. You know, and like, I feel like I've seen, you know,

I feel like I've seen both sides of it. Like give me examples. I'll give you a couple of examples. Eli Manning's rookie year. He played the Ravens, and he had a zero quarterback rating in the game. And it was kind of one of those points where it was like, hey, 52 is the mic.

And then all of a sudden, Rex Ryan's got him moving around and stuff. And then they're switching. It was like, no, no, no. Okay, now it's 57 is the mic. And I guess it got so bad. Like, I wasn't there that year, but we were watching those cut-ups the next year when I was in New York. And, like, we were laughing so hard, like, with, like, Sean O'Hara, who was the center at the time, and Eli. It was like, it just got, like, to the point where, like, I think, like, Ray Lewis and Bart Scott were, like, yelling back at him.

Like, no, no, no, he thought I'm like they were like talking to him about it you know like that would be an example of like an extreme like an absolute extreme um and then quite honestly there'd be like other examples like back in an era like before the coach to quarterback communication on defense or you know the play caller on defense we're like you know you'd have the other team signals and so to be like hey it's all right past 67 solid double post you'd be like ah hey uh you're getting too deep just check it down to the back you know it's like i'm seeing let's just say for that does give you a bit of an advantage pre-snap okay because a lot of us watching at home this is why i love you know just the perspective of something that's i think there's

a massive detachment from you know i i really do i always find football more frustrating because there's so many other things going on that most of us just don't even know what the hell we're talking about so when you were you know your career i you i think you'd be okay saying we're probably not hanging any jerseys anytime soon dude are you saying i got caught we have we have we have covered this did you have a moment where you're good enough to you know be at a major program you're good enough to be in the nfl and a couple rosters where you were like what the hell is going on around me? I mean, did you have an Eli Manning moment and then did it ever get better,

but it was too late? Yeah. Yeah. Dude, I think I put Terrence Newman in the pro bowl in one game. Absolutely. I had those moments and look, there were times, um, you know, where, you know, I would be somewhere. Look, I remember being in Philadelphia and like there was a conversation one time with like Corey Detmer, AJ Feeley, myself and, you know, Donovan for whatever people kind of want to think about. like a perennial pro ball player. Like that team was going back to NFC championship game after NFC championship game. He was really good. And, and, you know, there were times where like quarterbacks were like, man, I wonder what this offense would look like if, if, if we had the play, you know, just cause like he could do so many things that like a lot of us could do, you know? But but yeah there are definitely that moments and

there were times where i think um look guys would come off the field well i mean listen you like my career was my career like i certainly don't it's documented there's no reason to run and hide from it or uh try to pretend it was something else. One of the cool things I got to do was kind of be around other guys that were really, really good. And Kurt Warner is a good example. There were times Kurt would signal a route and then anticipate an end cut, and it just was remarkable. And so, yeah, I think there are elements of that where, you know,

like you just see certain guys that have incredible ability. Is there any part of you that believes in Jimmy Garoppolo at Lambeau? Yeah, because I think with what they do and because of

the experience that he has, I don't think it's like this done deal. I think what's interesting about his situation, Ryan, is that I think he's in a totally different place than he was at the beginning of the season. Think back to the beginning of the season. It's like totally looking over your shoulder, right? Like, here's a guy that, they like they moved up to go draft his replacement that player is going to have a little bit of a package in each and every game plan and I think what they have going on now is completely different like I mean Kyle Shanahan came out

I don't know three four weeks ago was like look when he's healthy like he's our starting quarterback and with what they do offensively like he's good at that stuff so look I think everyone's always waiting for like the oh hey that's a terrible play like he had in the Dallas game but the reality is too like this is also a player that like was in a super bowl and like in some ways and no fault of his own like doesn't win the super bowl like he is good enough to win a super bowl especially with like kyle is the play caller so i like do i believe in them some like yeah like what if they're running the ball really well and he's got to make 20 you and he's got to make 22 throws in the game? Can he do that? I believe that he can. I think he's a better player than the national narrative on him is. a lesser quarterback by saying like, hey, he's been in the Super Bowl. I mean, if we really want to go over history, we can find a bunch of quarterbacks that nobody would say, hey, I want that guy to be my franchise guy. They ended up being in the Super Bowl.

Your brother was pretty good there towards the end. Look, even the Peyton Manning, the second Super Bowl, that's one of the worst quarterbacks over the course of a season. But again, he was always going to be smart enough. And then that Denver defense was off the charts. So, all right. Let me ask you this about Debo. Because I touched on this too.

As creative as Shanahan is, as much as everybody loves this staff now, especially Mike Jones, assistant coach. Everybody's in love with this guy now. Do you know that dude at all? He played at Yale, right? I don't. Mike McDonald? He seems impressive, yes.

Yeah, right, right. So they're running Debo way more, and now it's like, look at this guy. And this is incredible. But is the NFL perhaps too stubborn still of having just a dominant physical force? We're like, hey, you want to just try to use them a little bit differently? Like I'd expect other players, like I don't know if it's going to be DK Metcalf or whatever. I wouldn't say he's as twitchy as Debo is, which feels insulting to Metcalf because he's a freak. But doesn't this tell us that there's some receivers that you could get really creative with?

Because these guys are special athletes. It does. tell us that there's some receivers that you could get really creative with because these guys are special athletes it does so i think that there's an element of like let's just go back to like pop warner football here for a second and figure out like all right if we're picking who are we picking first like we're picking the dude that's like fast and can run and just good with the ball in his hands and sometimes what happens with receivers like and put it in this i guess if you look through it look at it through this lens um julio jones is the most and this may be exchanged with how this year has gone for julio but julio jones is the most targeted player uh per game than any wide receiver in the NFL, okay? About 10 a game, okay? So you're like, all right, this guy clearly is a freak.

And I'm not saying Julio's that player, just like I'm not saying DK's that player that lines up in the back. But you're saying, all right, so one of the most dominant receivers of all times gets the ball thrown his direction 10 times a game. It's like, all right, well, so maybe he catches seven of them. Maybe he catches eight of them.

Like, who knows? Or what if you guaranteed some of that number and you handed the ball to him? And so now it's like, well, we know he definitely is going to have at least five carries. Like, we're not going to have a game where the guy isn't touching the football as much as he needs to touch it and so yeah I don't think there's any doubt that there are players that maybe it's like well maybe we can kind of change

this and go back to pop corner football a little bit and it's like hey listen Bobby's our best player like let's give him the secondinking ball. Like, this is stupid. Like, he's fast. He's quick. He's got great instincts. And so, like, I will tell you, like, I think I've called a few college games where I've seen coaches do that. Where they're like, look, here's the deal. Like, he never lost in high school.

Like, he's just a bad dude in high school. Like, until someone proves that, like, that he can't do that same thing in college, like we're going to keep trying. And so I think that that's kind of the beauty. Maybe like Arthur Smith has clearly done it. It's not like it was his idea, but he did it with Patterson. And I think you'll see more people do it.

Like I said, back to my time in Washington, our best receiver was Lavernius coles well he's a running back at florida state like we probably could have had him in the backfield handed him the football not just throwing it yeah i i i kind of love those guys and in college it doesn't always work like dexter mccluster was always the guy where I go, I want to see what can happen. And, you know, he played for a while, but what he did at Ole Miss, and I'm thinking, is this possible?

And that's also another reminder of what this level is, the next level up that you can, you can do some of this stuff. Like, I forget, I was at Tavon Austin that some of the younger dudes ran into, and they were like, man, you, when he was in college i love those guys and yet we don't really ever see it happening you were just kind of like hey look how many of them came in and then it just you didn't even notice them at times so for debo to be doing this maybe does speak to how hard it is but i i bet you you're going to see next season more teams giving guys like this a chance. Not that there's multiple Debo's, but I think the opportunity. No, but Ryan, what he's doing is at such a ridiculous level

out in the backfield in terms of how he's running. Let's say you didn't have him, but you had somebody that was like, oh, he's kind of like him. He's your poor man's Debo. A lot of teams would still take that. I'll give you an example. I know you're friends with Chris Long. I call it a fair number of Virginia games.

I don't know how much you've watched them under Bronco Mendenhall, but they had this guy Keaton Thompson who was a transfer from Texas A&M. He's a quarterback. We had a shoulder injury. We wore a number 99. It was like well they wanted to get him on the field because he was an awesome athlete so it's like all right well maybe he can play tight end he's like 6'4 you know like 220 and then they're like well maybe you can play a

receiver and it's like yeah he's a pretty good receiver and they're like what if we put him at tailback and then they put him at tailback and And I promise you, every team that we talked to before they played Virginia was like, dude, that 99, like he's brutal to tackle. Like they line him up at tailback and it's like we were treating him as a tight end and now he's a tailback and he just broke four tackles. Like I do think there's kind of an element of like like don't be so sure that that you know handed dk metcalf the ball in some type of perimeter runs a bad idea yeah um to noel divine's another one that i just remember being like what like and this is in college you know tave on some of the

stuff he did in college um although he still ended up getting paid in the league but uh by the way a little cleanup on my end mike mcDaniel. Michael McDonald's a singer. Mike McDaniel, 5'9", 175 receiver, class of 2004, Yale. Now the San Francisco. Hey, McDonald, McDonough, Oki, Sully. Dude, we all know what you're talking about. Dude, no doubt. Okay, Tennessee, Cincinnati.

I have been, I guess, more critical of the Tennessee profile, even though I realize none of it may matter. It all may mean nothing. The Tannehill dips may mean nothing because if Henry's coming back, this changes things a lot. We know that Cincinnati has Burrow not only playing at an unbelievable level in his second year, but it feels like he's been peaking over those last month plus. month plus um i'm i went ahead and picked cincinnati but i am open to the idea of seeing henry just run all over the place again around the edge especially with the d tackle out for the bengals um this one obviously can go either way it's just that my build-up has been doubt in tennessee despite how fraudulent that doubt may be because we're going to see perhaps the real version yeah i think there's a lot of people that have doubted tennessee and you know i keep trying to like put my finger on like why everybody is like so so down and like i think the derrick henry situation is part of it um a big part of it right because like it just

seems like that's so much of our identity on offense i think the other aspect of it is, is like, like look at the quarterbacks. Like, I think if people were to rank AFC quarterbacks, the general consensus would have Ryan Tannehill fourth. And I gotta be honest. I think that's completely unfair to what he's done while he's been in Tennessee. And it's not to say that he hasn't had bad games. All these guys have bad games. But, like, you know, I remember in the offseason, we kind of did, like, hey,

like, rank these quarterbacks in terms of all these different traits. And, like, Ryan Tannehill, like, at least for my rankings, like, he was always in the top 10. Like, it didn't matter what it was. And, like, you look at some of his things that he's been able to do, like, you can zone read with him because of his ability as a runner. He's actually, if you look at some of the stuff in terms of play outside the pocket, has been really, really good.

And I think some people, you know, are kind of losing sight in terms of the criticism of him in terms of how he's been as a passer at times this year. Like, take into consideration, like, you know, Andrew Brown's been out, Julio's been out, then they're back, then they're back out. And so, you know, part of the time that he's playing, he's playing with guys that no one knows. that he's playing. He's playing with guys that no one knows. So I think there's been a – I think he has weathered the storm in a way that's been really, really impressive. I am expecting him to play really well against Cincinnati.

I do think Derrick Henry back, like, between confidence as well as, like, the physicality is big. And then Tennessee's defensive line is good enough to take over a football game. And that's the weak link, if you really think about it, for Cincinnati. So I think that ultimately, Ryan, as much as we don't talk about defensive lines and that type of stuff, I think that's the difference in the game. I don't know that I like Tennessee's defensive line as much as you do. You don't like them personally?

No, no, it's nothing personal. Jeffrey Simmons, in terms of as an inside player, Jeffrey Simmons has the ability to take a game over from inside. Very few guys have the ability to do that. Harold Landry, I think his deal's up.

Harold Landry, I think he's about to hit the market. Wait and see his deal. Like, he is a legitimate edge rusher player. And, like, they've gotten good minutes out of guys like Autry. Like, they've been really good on that defensive line. And I think that was – look, that was a concern for me since I had been playing the Raiders. I don't think at times, like you saw Crosby be disruptive and stuff.

I just don't think that they have the number of guys that Tennessee has that can win one-on-one. Here's the thing. I may not like Tennessee's defensive line because there's a pressure number that I used in the beginning that you're like, wow, without a blitz, they don't get there more towards the second half of the season. But if there's a team you're going to get right against, it's going to be against Cincinnati's whole line.

That could be the game entirely. I'm with you because the whole buildup of it all, I don't know what to do because we're going to see maybe Henry break something open here early, set the tone, and then I know Cincinnati's getting Hendrickson back, but not having their D tackle who went out in the Raiders game, I think is a big loss for them. All right, so it sounds like

are you picking Tennessee? Picking Tennessee? Yeah, I think, listen, I do think they need Henry to be healthy enough. And like, Henry seems like the kind of guy that missed his time, Ryan. Like, he's just so much physically better

than most guys. Like, you know, we're not going to see him like, hey, you know, I'm tired and see him with 12 carries. Like, I think if he plays, like, we're going to see him around 25 carries. I hope so. The only, and this is just a cautionary thing with the way injuries can kind of be covered the entire time, is that how many, it's more than weeks. I don't know if it's two months, but it has been a very long time of like, oh, we probably get Henry back late in the season,

get him right. Okay, it could be week 17. Okay, it could be week 18. If we had to go in the playoffs, and it was just the other day that we got the first report about him clearing the physical demands of whatever the practice was,

and yet we still don't really know what that is. I've just been around where other teams have kind of floated the idea that a guy is healthy and good to go, and then when it mattered, you're you're like oh this is why he actually didn't come back in week 17 for 10 carries or whatever because he is i don't know i don't know if there's gamesmanship to it i have i will say it once again i have an open mind on any possibility with this game because the henry uncertainty yeah i listen i think that's absolutely fair and there's no doubt there's been

you know people have been burned by gamesmanship in the past. I think because of either Schefter or Moritz's report, like, hey, they are expecting to get him back, that that kind of, like, you know, wet everybody's appetite for so long. Living here in Nashville, like, he's been on the field doing individual for a while. And I think when they saw how things were playing out and the fact that Foreman was kind of

providing some of that physicality that they that they were looking for and then it looked like wait a second play Houston week 18 if we get the one seed we get a bye I think it's probably part of it for Derek too like he's doing a lot of money next year like like this is one of these injuries it's not like this isn't a soft tissue thing this is like hey you know liz frank again like there's a reason they call it like the dreaded liz frank right like like hey here we go again so i think there was an element of player and team being cautious yep and like i said i'm open to any possibility okay last game la at tampa uh i'm taking the rams on the road in this one i have one specific reason um but

before i i don't want to lead you with how i'm going you're the guest tim give me the one thing like as you keep going over this all the shows the thing you keep getting back to how you're picking this one i'll go back to something that happened a few weeks ago, and I think it changed everything for Tampa. They lost their second most important offensive player, you know, to the quarterback, and it was Chris Godwin. Chris Godwin, to me, was the thing that made them, like kind of put them over the edge. Not to say like, you know, like Gronk obviously has his role and is still very good.

And, you know, if they're going to have four net, some of the things that he can do, he's obviously, you know like Gronk obviously he has his role and he's still very good and you know if they're going to have four net some of the things that he can do he's obviously you know proved that um you know kind of his influence on that offense and what it can mean and Brady's incredible but Chris Godwin was unique because like he was as good as any receiver outside they would move him into the slot the way that he would help in the run game. It was like, he was such a special player. It just made things so hard. And so I think when they lost him, they don't have a replacement for him. And so without a true replacement for him, I just, I don't think they're the same offensively. And, you know, the Rams to me, like that is a championship defense, like a true championship defense. So look, could Stafford, you know, could he have three turnovers

and have it, you know, you know, flip things that could happen. But I'm, I'm going, I agree with you. I think the Rams go in there and get it done. And I will go back to not having Chris Godwin and how that has changed what Tampa's offense is. Yeah, as I said earlier, Tampa, number one defense last year. They're 12th and they've been slipping in a run defense, like a team that you just were like, hey, there's certain things we can't do against you.

Even in this season, you can't run right at these guys. Things have been, i don't know but they are healthy on that side of the football so it's always tough to doubt brady on this one but it feels like the rams are kind of back after that awful november and you know the late picks by stafford and the san francisco game kind of hung over yeah listen i i'm nervous about those two like you know like his good is so good but then there are times it's like man like you just like you hope you can get the detroit out of them right just because it's like because his good

is so good where can we catch your stuff on tiktok uh i'm working on a new handle for that i'm probably gonna like do like a joint along with stanford steve you know what i mean at king street mobs with a Z. I just found out by the name. His nickname's not Stanford Steve. His nickname's Cocktail. Cocktail is actually his OG nickname.

So it's not... Everybody thinks it's Steve Coughlin. It's Steve Coughlin. And when I interviewed a guy, I forget. This is a long time ago. but it was one of his teammates from Stanford was on the Dolphins this is like 10 years ago I go hey what do you got on Steve

Cochran and the guy during the radio interview goes cocktails hey I had the same exact thing happen I was talking to a high school buddy that played with him at college and um i was like oh yeah you know i'm on with you know scott and stanford steve on on sunday nights after the game and uh you mean cocktail he's like i only know him as cocktail it's the only thing i know yeah that's that's clear i should not have pluralized it because i will i will hear from him being like hey dude it was just cocktail it wasn't what There was no S because you're right. Hey, man, it's always great. Enjoy the weekend.

Good to catch up with you, Ryan. See ya. I want to spend a few minutes with Bruce Feldman because he's been on this story, The Athletic, and also college football and Fox Sports. The interest of Harbaugh potentially going to the Raiders. So give me a timeline, obviously not your sources on this, but you're saying basically he would be interested if offered the Raiders job.

Give us a timeline of understanding it. So earlier this week, I had spoken to multiple sources inside Michigan football. I said, OK, if he's offered the Raiders job, what do you think he does? Each of the people I talked to all said they think he takes it. Now, the caveat is Jim Harbaugh is not the typical head coach where maybe there's a big agent behind the scenes who's maneuvering and different things and floating stuff, back channel. That's not Jim Harbaugh.

So I think right now the read from the people who, some of the people who are around him, think if he can get the Raiders job, he will leave. Here's some things to keep in mind of why. First of all, Jim Harbaugh has never been anywhere as a head coach for more than four years until Michigan. He's already been through, it's year seven. He started his coaching career with the Raiders. He was a quarterback's coach. He has a good relationship with Mark Davis, the owner of the Raiders. He met his wife in Las Vegas.

There's a lot of connections there that line up to think, okay, this one might be a good fit. They have a solid quarterback in David Carr. It's not like you're jumping into a dismal franchise that has no roster. I mean, they were just in a playoff game. So I think on that standpoint, it lines up. The other thing that would line up with it is a lot of the coaches I've talked to who know Jim Harbaugh pretty well all think, you know what, he's going to want to

make one more run at the NFL. He's 58 now. If he doesn't get it in this cycle, you wonder when is he going to have the opportunity to move if he really wants to move. Now, everything I'd heard is that Michigan administration is trying to work out a new deal for him because remember, he took less money a year ago with a more of an incentive-laden deal. Worked out great. Won the Big Ten for the first time in almost 20 years. And they obviously whipped their arch rival, Ohio State, for the first time in eight years. Is that enough? Is it feeling like, hey, I've accomplished pretty much everything I want to accomplish here, short of a national title.

I now want to go back and make a run in the Super Bowl. All right. Yeah, let's go over some of the facts of the contract, too, because I've seen people write about this. And he was about $8 million. I think one year he cleared $9 million. But, I mean, we're talking about somebody that was among the top five highest paid head coaches. And because Michigan still wanted him, he still seemed to want Michigan, which is why I was always fine with it.

We're talking about a guy who's won 72% of his games. But if you're not beating Ohio State, then eventually people are going to be pissed and pretend that there's another guy that's going to make all your dreams come true. So Harbaugh goes back to the table with him and basically cuts it in half to about $4 million. But there were bonuses that got him close to back to the $8 million because he had an amazing season, win the Big Ten, beat Ohio State, get into the playoff. But he gave all of that bonus money back to the athletic program. Right. Yeah, he gave it back because there were people who got laid off in the pandemic and different things.

So that's where that money ended up going to. Sorry, go ahead. No, I'm glad you said that because this is a very important detail. Because when I've read, I trust you a lot. Doesn't mean this is going to be right. Doesn't mean that Harbaugh is going to end up going to the Raiders. But I know you. I know your content.

I mean, look, I don't know. I know how you work. You've been doing this a very long time. You would not present this as why I like having you on all the time. But when other people write about it, which is a very predictable cycle in media where it's like, hey, national guy kind of writes this thing and then all the local guys just start dumping on it. And they're like, oh, this is just to go ahead and get a contract extension. This is just to go ahead and get himself more money. more money. And as you said, that's not really the way he's wired, even though all of us want more money. But if he was all about money, then he wouldn't donate millions back that he just got back in the bonuses in the first place. I mean, unless we can all be naive at times, and Michigan's clearly going to pay him again anyway, because they just beat Ohio State. But that is not the timeline of a guy that is about every last dollar. That's why I think people need to understand that a little bit more.

Right. And so one of the things that I also see, you see it on your timeline after you report something. And again, to be clear, what I had reported was numerous people inside Michigan program that I talked to this week. All of them said they thought he would leave if offered the job. He had told those guys guys that's my knowledge. That was their read on Jim Harbaugh and they work with him and that's on the situation. Now, what you said, that's exactly where I'm coming from. I don't think it's like, hey, this is a big negotiating play. The other thing that people jump to the assumption with is that, oh yeah, you're just getting something by like some agent. Jim Harbaugh really doesn't have an agent at this point.

And also this isn't like a Jimmy Sexton deal that people kind of rumble about. Like all of a sudden there's a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes that, you know, it's like a shell game or whatever. And I'm not saying that that's entirely what happens in a lot of cases, but I feel like that is what people assume happens if you're not in the business of, oh, this must be an agent telling somebody this. I can assure you that is not what is going on here. I'm not saying it's a done deal. I'm not saying the Raiders are about to offer them. This is what I'm saying is if you ask me, what do I think Jim Harbaugh is going to do? I'm going to go to the people I know who are most connected to him at this point and ask them what they think. And that's kind of what

I presented. I don't know Harbaugh as well as you do. I've interviewed him a bunch of times. I think I have a good read on him, which is to mean I don't really have any read at all, right? Like if you think you have a read on him, you're probably wrong that day. But I could see him being so competitively weird that he'd be like, all right, I got Ohio State. Now I can leave. He wouldn't look at the overall against Ohio State. He would be like, all right, got him.

He got him. He whipped them in. I'm not saying, I don't know if he would answer it directly this, but if you said to him, you can have one of these two things, you can lose again to Ohio state, but when a national title, or you can whip Ohio state and you don't win the national title, I'd be curious if he would say, Oh, I want the national title, but I'd never beat. No, I, you know, like you would have to think, cause they didn't beat Michigan state, but they obviously still won the Big Ten. But I think the way they beat Ohio State, they whipped them physically.

And this is a school that had beaten them eight times in a row. I think for him, and again, I'm not saying he said this, but I think for him, this would be a really ideal time to leave. Short of, if not this, and I know he had said after they beat Ohio State, this feels like a really ideal time to leave short of if not this and i know he had said after they beat ohio state you know this it feels like a beginning um you know i i don't think you know unless he's sitting there and looks at what he's doing and says all right i the next step is we can beat alabama and georgia they weren't really close to beating georgia obviously that's not to say they couldn't beat him if they played 10 times. They maybe couldn't beat him once or twice. But I think if you're looking at it,

if you really want to make a run at the Super Bowl and feel like because he was close. He played in a Super Bowl in year two. And remember, this is not a case like Urban Meyer was obviously a disaster this year in Jacksonville for people who are like, oh yeah, this is another college coach. We see how that works. Jim Harbaugh,

if you've forgotten, was wildly successful there, 44-19. And he took over the Niners after they hadn't had a winning record in eight years. So this is not the college coach who doesn't know the NFL. He definitely does. So I could see why the Raiders or a bunch of other teams might be interested. He's an awesome coach. It's not debatable. It just isn't.

And I know he didn't deliver to Michigan the way people wanted him to, but that's why I was always kind of rooting for it. It was like, if they're happy with it and he's happy with it, and I know it's not the Ohio State thing, but again, nobody beats Ohio. Michigan hadn't beat Ohio State. Look at the last 20 years. It wasn't like Harbaugh was the only guy that wasn't beating them. And it had been 17 years since they won the Big Ten title. That is a long time for Michigan. You and I grew up around when Michigan felt like a top five program. It hasn't felt like that in a long time. More you, but then me later on.

Fair enough. I'll take the ball around here. Last one here. This is going to be... If we were having a couple beers talking about this, this would be a different conversation than what we can share publicly you were on this early when the nil stuff first happened and all the coaches are like we have no idea what's going on we have none we're left to our own devices to kind of figure this out the ncaa's kind of let it play out for a year but some of the stuff i hear on

deals and whether or not they're really nIL deals or not, some of the transfer portal stuff, some of the demands that I'm hearing, it is if the public knew what the demands were and then maybe what some of the rewards were, because if I'm hearing what demands are, then I'm like, well, that must mean the number means this. And maybe the demands are all justified too. I'm not even, I'm not even anti the kids or the family or any of this stuff, but how crazy, how much crazier is it than the public even realizes? You know, from everything I've heard, and I don't know, it's, I don't think it's necessarily every kid who's in the portal who's considered a good player, but there's a bunch of names that I've heard where there is a bidding war that starts up. This kid's all set to go there.

And then all of a sudden, and keep in mind now that schools, it's not like, oh, a kid announces on Twitter, he's locked in. Until he starts school, he can transfer and just move seamlessly and decommit. So I don't want to say like a kid is going to say, hey, I'm going to go to school A. And it's almost like leveraging, hey, you really want me? Because I look like I'm going there. But there's a bunch of stories I've heard from coaches who aren't just saying, hey, this is what we think they're doing. This is what we have to do if we're going to be in that game. And so I

think what has happened, and look, it's funny, we were talking about this a little bit. I saw you in the summer at the Elite 11 in Southern California out here. And I remember the night before I was on the phone with my editor because I had a story that we were running from talking to an FBS head coach who was predicting and said, this is what it is going to be. And it is going to be, if your boosters are upset that some star recruit in their area is going to a SEC school, well, now here's your chance to step up and take care of it financially. And I remember talking to people who were like, yeah, but that's not right.

That's not how it's supposed to work. I'm like, I'm telling you, that's what they're telling me is going to happen. And there's a couple of layers to this that have also factored in, depending on what state you're in and how the law is interpreting, then schools can initiate and basically, you know, be the facilitator in some of these NIL deals. Whereas I think if you talk to a bunch of ADs and a bunch of places around the country, they'd be like, no, it's not supposed to work. We can't do that. And then other schools in different states are saying, oh yeah, we're doing it. We're doing it. And they feel like

this is something, because if you're a facilitator to it, I just think we have to wrap our heads around as, okay, this is going to be the new normal. I mean, I look at it as Travion Henderson, great running back, young running back at Ohio State. He had a big game. And I remember seeing that Monday on Twitter, there was a car dealer who I think has a lot of business relationships there in Columbus. I think there was pictures of Travion with, I don't know how expensive, it was a nice SUV truck. And I think that's the kind of thing where it's like good business for I'm

sure it's good business for them locally. I think it's good for the for the player because look, you know, in the end of the day, players getting a $60,000 vehicle compared to if you're at that level, the money you bring into the university sure they you know it's like i i don't have any qualms about it but i think it's like we are so conditioned to how this has been ryan it's all of a sudden in a year or not even a year it's all of a sudden your mind is blowing wow all this stuff is now happening and people really either they're it's not being put out there necessarily all they're not no one's showing all their cards but you're hearing about it now, and you're like, wow, this is getting interesting. And you just, you don't want

to paint with a broad brush, but that's going to, what's going to end up happening with this. You can read Bruce's latest piece on the athletic Jim Harbaugh to the Raiders. If interest, perhaps he would be on his way out of Ann Arbor. Thanks, man. Thank you, Ryan. George Sodano. Not only ESPN broadcaster and on the NBA coverage,

and you can listen to Sedano locally on 710 ESPN for 4 to 7 with Scott Kaplan. Okay, I'm going to give you a little timeline of my experience with the Heat. Saw him early, talked to a coach that played against him, and I was like, this team is for real, all right. I still have a hard time, even with Milwaukee's odd struggles and the way their schedule's played out. I know basically almost every team can make some sort of injury excuse. I have a hard time doubting Milwaukee. I'm going to have a hard time doubting Brooklyn when Durant comes back. I'm just going to. So I still don't know that I put Miami in that class, but we're talking about a team that's essentially tied for the one seed.

And after I got so excited about them, how hard they played defensively, some of the role players, then they kind of had this weird stretch again. And I know Jimmy wasn't around, but now they're back and they have to be taken seriously. And now it feels like the East is so wide open that it may not be them necessarily surpassing the teams I had ahead of them. It's just me kind of reevaluating the East in general. So tell me about kind of your expectations and so far what we've seen halfway through. When it comes to the Eastern Conference, like I tweeted this out the other day, like to me, there's three teams and you named them already. Basically, it's Milwaukee, Brooklyn and Miami.

Like one of those three teams, barring something crazy happening, you know, obviously, if Philly does something, I think that changes the equation some. But I think those three teams, one of those three teams will represent the East in the finals. I feel pretty confident in saying that at this point. I feel like Chicago is a look. Now they're dealing with injuries. Lonzo Ball and Zach Levine. I've always felt like Chicago is a nice story, like a good regular

season story. Their defense has come back down to earth after playing really well at the beginning of the season. I think they're like 19th now all of a sudden. You're not winning with a defense like that. And let's be real. I'll ask you this because this is kind of the question I've posed to everyone who's like, oh, but

Chicago, you're just hating on them. I'm like, I hate that word. Like, it's like, just because I disagree doesn't mean I'm hating on anybody. Like, if I told you your three best players, and these guys are good players, so I'm not trying to demean them. But if your three best players were Zach Levine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic, you wouldn't would you tell me that's a championship nucleus? No, here's what happens.

And it's the same thing as Lamar Jackson moving the goalpost argument. It's not that we move the goalpost. It's that you move to a different neighborhood, and now we start judging you against the other people in that neighborhood. That's all it is. So if Lamar Jackson is going to go from, is this going to work out, to, wow, he's actually a starter, to, yeah, but I don't know about the playoffs,

holy shit, he won the MVP, to now, wait, is this guy one of the five best quarterbacks well no we haven't seen enough it's like oh you're moving the goalposts no we're not he's moving into a higher tier and we're wondering how he stacks up against that top tier it's the analogy for how i look at the chicago bulls the bulls are better than everybody thought they were going to be all right but now when you start going well how do i feel about you against milwaukee and brooklyn and i even said this the other night as they've gotten smacked a little bit here lately but again not having levine changes everything because when you have derose and levine combo as an offense you have to defend that's brutal to deal with and i also think caruso being out obviously impacts

those defensive numbers too but now we're comparing chicago not to are you in a play-in game not are you going to get past atlanta and boston a disaster, you know, those teams. Now we're comparing you to the teams you have the same record as, and Milwaukee and Brooklyn can throw size at each other. And when I brought up, like, look, now that they're in this neighborhood, let's compare Chicago to these teams, and they just don't have the size to defend a big wing the way Giannis can throw himself at Durant or vice versa and just some of the other combos whether it's a Bobby Portis I mean there's just more size there and then Bulls actual Bulls guys that cover the team were like well Javante Green's hurt I'm like are you fucking

kidding me that that's your answer yeah like I like what he did this year but he's 6'4 and I already saw him try to guard Durant. So that's a problem for them. And unless Patrick Williams comes back and is healthy, and then, oh, by the way, Patrick Williams, you have to guard these huge wings that are Hall of Famers, that's a big ask, too. So it's not hating on Chicago. It's now comparing them to a neighborhood

none of us expected them to be in. I mean, we are in total lock-and-step agreement here on this. I just think that, again, and I get it, man. They've had a rough go, okay? Since those Derrick Rose years, it's been bad. But, and I'm not even comparing them, you know, apples to apples to what happened with the Knicks last year because I think they're better than the Knicks last year.

I don't think there's any question than that, in my opinion, at least. But it kind of reminds me of that. It's like, we haven't seen them be good in a while. So everybody gets really excited. And it's kind of like, oh, yeah, to your point, they're not as good as those upper echelon teams. But to answer your question about Miami,

where I think Miami has an edge, particularly against Brooklyn, right? Like from a talent perspective, they don't have an edge. There's no question. But, man, you know what? They're way deeper than I thought. I went into this season thinking, Oh, Miami is only like seven or eight deep. That's going to be a problem. Those guys are going to wear down, but man, they've done a hell of a job. Like Adam Simon, who's their assistant GM is this guy who finds all these diamonds in the room. Who is this guy? Tell us more. Tell us more.

Okay. So he's like around our age, right? Like he's in his, he's in his forties. He's been with the team forever, dude. Like he has come up through like the scouting ranks, the video, like the video room. He is. I remember when I was covering the team, when I was on in 2006,

when Shaq was there, I was doing the radio pre, half and post game for them back then. OK, and back then, prior to all the owners realizing, hey, we can sell all these seats. I used to sit literally in the second row behind the bench and he was the guy sitting next to me for those years. So he and I became cool because of that. Like we'd always sit next to each other. This dude is just like, he is the grinder of all grinders. And he learned from the guy above him in Chet Cameron, who's been there forever. He's a Riley guy came with him, you know, many, many years ago. And, you know, between those two guys, kind of like, I guess the best way to describe it is like, like the old Jedi and the young Jedi, they've just kind of like created this force where they will scour the earth for people.

You have no idea who they are. Like, I'll give you a perfect example. Spoh told me a story about Duncan Robinson a couple of years ago. And I, you know, this is when Duncan was, uh, I guess the year he had like, he finished like third or second in like most three pointers made. So it was now two years ago. And I asked him like, you know, like, you know, how did you even come across him? He's like, dude, Chet Cameron, Adam Simon called me and they were at this workout where only three of like two other teams were there and they called me or they're like hey we think we've seen the best shooting workout we've ever seen in our entire career he's like whoa okay who is this guy and they're like duncan robinson and suppose that he

kind of stopped and he was like the kid who transferred to michigan was like the sixth man and he's like they're like, yes. And he's like, I mean, all right, if you guys think so, we'll put him on the summer league team. So these dudes, but particularly Adam with the young guys mining the G League, like he goes to all these G League games. He's at the showcase. I mean, everybody's at the showcase.

But like he goes to these G League games and finds Omer Yurtsevin playing for the okc blue and thinks oh we could probably fit him into what we want to do we need size we need a backup big and he's got some tools if you know we have our our you know our guys work with him we think we can make this work so he'll send like film and then like him and spo will go back and forth and be like yeah put him on the summer league team. And that's literally how they do it. Like this guy doesn't leave any stone unturned. Like he's incredible.

He's a machine. Okay. Your Steven is 12 and 12 in the last month. Every time I watch him play, he does something where I go, okay, this guy's smart. He's good. I mean, just to remind people that, you know, you're not going to be as locked in. You have your teams. I had to double check it.

Jimmy Butler's missed 18 games. Bam just came back after missing 25 games. And by the way, what Bam did after Jimmy got thrown out the other night, which he deserved to be thrown out of that game. Yes. Honestly, I mean, he'd announced your thing. We've touched on this topic a few times here on the podcast. Jimmy should have been thrown out on the first technical.

That was insane. And the announcers are like, all right, you give him the one, but he walked away. You're like, I can't believe they only gave him the one. Those are times with refs where I'm like, do you ever put yourself in the shoes of the refs? Like, I'm just supposed to take this shit for two and a half hours? And Jimmy's like

stepping to me. All right. So look, Butler's been awesome when he played. He's back. miss 18 games bam missed the 25 bam took over that game offensively yes it's portland but he took it over and closed that thing lowry's missed a handful of games i mean even akpala who i thought showed glimpses so you go um you're saving you go akpala the duncan story max streus iess. I mean, Gabe Vincent's had moments. They bring in Caleb Martin. This is unbelievable what this Heat team does. Whether it was Kendrick Nunn in the past, I think they are,

and I'm going to ask other front offices this. I may try to do this segment as I messed up your seven's name. I'm going to ask them, is there a better front office in the gray area because i don't think there is i think the heat do the best job in that those in-betweens the not immediate yes or no's those those fill in the gap play i think they just do a better job than everybody else with maybe i'm wrong they do i think toronto's in that category too um i think i mean look pascal siakam was a G League guy. You know, Fred Van Vliet was a G League guy.

And they're like cornerstones of what they're doing. And they're playing pretty well right now. But you're right. I think Miami still does the best job of that. The gray area. The fill-in-the-gap guys. San Antonio used to be great at that too for many years. I don't know if they're in that category anymore.

They were the best. They absolutely were. They're not now. Yeah. So I think it's Toronto and Miami. Miami being one and Toronto being two right now. But yeah, dude, they're just insane. And here's the thing. They do a really good job.

And now, thank God, now there's 30 G League teams. But they were kind of them in San Antonio and Toronto were the three teams that were literally running the same stuff with their G League team that they would run with the big club. And a lot of teams weren't doing that for some reason. Like, I felt like that was fairly obvious that that's exactly what you should be doing because then it makes the transition easier. But it's just those little details, to your your point that makes it that makes it easier for

them to maintain a certain level um but yeah look i i you also heroes out right now right and he's kind of he missed a little time earlier in the season he's been good and he's kind of back right he's kind of back to what we thought he was when he went on that run correct so i like them because they're deeper than i thought they were going to be way deeper. Obviously. I mean, you know, Dwayne Dedman's even playing big minutes for them and good minutes for them. So and they're just tough, right? Like with Brooklyn, the thing that worries me about Brooklyn is if they get into a slugfest with Milwaukee or Miami. I don't trust their bigs personally. Like, I don't think that they've got bigs that I feel like can hurt you. Yes, Claxton is playing well. LaMarcus is playing better. But I still feel like those guys can be exposed in a seven-game series.

Now, look, it may not matter if those three guys are cooking. But I do think that that is kind of one of the little areas where I feel like Brooklyn can be exposed. Milwaukee to me, let me tell you something, dude. I'm a big believer in experience. And they're 16 and three when they're big three play. They've now been through what it takes to win a championship. And we can argue that, yeah, you know, they beat a team that got super lucky on the other side or whatever. But that team has proven they're legit, too, now. So I just think that Milwaukee is no longer the team that we can expect to fold like they had in previous years.

Yeah, there's some stuff if you dig through Milwaukee, you can kind of talk yourself out of them if you want to. But not having Lopez needs to be mentioned. I mean, that's the thing is like i can't imagine doing the sideline stuff here you get to double check every single roster and go okay but how many games you've missed and like i said before it's a really selfish and kind of convenient thing when fan bases start saying like well yeah but we've been missing this guy this could be like join the club okay like philadelphia even though this is the full product they could still be saying we're supposed to have either Simmons or assets and we don't. So I don't know if the open

East at the top, but I guess let me just stop talking because I'm going to defer to what you said before. I'm with you. I still feel like Milwaukee is kind of my default through all of this

because I know it can happen. And I did say this yesterday and it seems obvious, but I don't think we understand truly how weird something is until we're in the moment of it happening. Kyrie not playing in a game seven at home, if that's what ends up happening.

I'm just bracing people for it. You think you know what that feels like. You think you know. Once it's happening for real and he's not playing, that's going to be such a crazy deal. A hundred percent. And it's going to be magnified times a thousand leading up to that particular game. And I don't know, man, like that whole situation is just insane to me. By the way, what happened to the report that Stefan Bondi put out there about like them

willing, you know, being able to pay some sort of fine? Like, is that real? Because I thought Woad shot it down oh who shot it down i thought woad shot it down because he said that the nba memo said that teams had to adhere to the state policies okay okay yeah that's what i read yesterday because i also found that to be odd only because well wait he's the only person that like figured that out like that i mean good for him if that was the case but i did not know woad shut that down i feel like there's so much news when it comes to like all this covid stuff that like it's hard to keep up with on a daily basis sometimes so um but yeah to your point if he if they're playing

game seven if they're the one seat and they're playing milwaukee or miami or whoever in game seven at brooklyn and he's not there they're already not good at home for whatever reason. Right. Then you add that into the equation. Man, he look, he seems to be fairly flippant about like all this stuff regarding not being able to play at home. I wonder what that will do to him and the relationships there, Ryan, between all those guys. We've already heard kind of some cracks in the armor, right, about Harden not signing the extension and maybe looking forward to testing free agency. Like, I think this thing in Brooklyn could be very short lived. I know Durant has signed. But, you know, would it surprise you if this thing goes south for them? He doesn't play in a game seven. All the blame goes on him. And he's just like, bleep it. I'm just going to retire. And then Harden leaves and poor KD is stuck by himself there. That would be insane. But I think

anything is plausible with that group right now. I decided this year, very recently, that of all the guys that we criticize, the guys that I like, I'm just not going to be critical of the smaller things. I'm just going to like KD. There's too much that I like about him. I'm going to always like Steph. I fucking love Giannis. I just love his personality. I love his fierceness.

I love that he's everything emotionally and mentally that you would want out of the face of your franchise. Obviously, everybody knows I love Chris Paul. There's just guys that I love that I go, you know, I'm not going to find ways to nitpick about it. Having said that, the poor KD thing is of his own making. No, that's fair. And I know you know that, but I mean, between hard and loafing around every night and finding a way to get 20 and 10 and then some dummies on TV going, man, you're still putting up numbers, and you're just like, give me a break. Sorry to sound so harsh about it, but it's a longstanding.

Here's what I'll say, and I don't mean to take the steering wheel from you, but you know what I was thinking yesterday? We talked about this on my radio show in LA because we've obviously been talking a lot about the Westbrook Lakers situation. I just said it out loud. I said, you know, I think LeBron's the smartest basketball player, like IQ wise I've ever seen, but man, KD saw this coming a long time ago with Westbrook and he deserves a lot more credit about the decline of Westbrook's play. Yeah. See the Westbrook thing. And I'm not going to, everybody's already heard it from me, but the Westbrook timeline is

a really interesting one in that when Durant left for Golden State, it became a celebration of Westbrook for staying in the small market, which also played into not only the triple doubles and us not really realizing his rebounding tendencies and the usage rate, because there are rebounds that Westbrook gets in his career that other guards would never get. But you start to learn about it the more you start watching it. And I know that I fell for it back then because I i was like hey he's got a triple double and we celebrate we celebrated the guy staying that evil kevin durant now i personally had watched enough

to know that durant i was like he doesn't want to play with him anymore right he wants to go play in basketball heaven and even looking back on it i'm like you know what it did kind of suck though like hey i'm gonna go join that team that won all these games so i'm not gonna argue for that even though i understood why you want to leave westbrook but it took why i've always been happy that westbrook was on the lakers it just took years for other people to kind of see what i think so many of us that were really dialed in saw and in oklahoma city it was the numbers he stayed he's doing the ads i don't want to go to la i don't want to do all these things and we embraced a guy that wasn't going player empowerment. And he drafted off of that for years. And then it was like, okay, so now he's on another team and now he's on another team. And if he's ever moved from the

Lakers, a guy who's going to be a hall of famer will have gone through five teams in his early thirties in four seasons. I don't know that the trade is out there that exists. I can't do more in the Westbrook thing. Everybody's heard it from me for way too long. So I'll just pass the mic to you as a guy that's covering the team, not only nationally, but locally every day with Collins. How do you see the story? Well, first of all, since we're sitting here doing mea culpa, and this is the great time to do it, right? We're kind of like at the half, almost the halfway point or about the halfway point of the season. Okay. I'm an idiot. All right. Let's just start there. I picked in the preseason, not only for them to win the championship. Okay. But

I picked AD to win the MVP. So let's just start with, I'm a freaking moron. Okay. All right. Now let's move past that. But it'll help you with my logic as to why I picked them in the championship. Cause I'm like, all right. AD was awesome in 2020 in the bubble. That was like a perfect scenario for him. He had a crappy situation injury wise in 21. This is the year he bounces back. And of course has not happened, but eight games into the season, Ryan. Okay. I went on my radio show in LA and I opened the show saying I have made a huge freaking mistake.

Okay. I picked this team on championship. This team as currently constituted cannot win a championship. Okay. And I, I, I'm pretty close to still feeling that barring some miracle out of AD Brian Windhorst and I were chatting about this the other day. Unless he's 2020 AD, that's really the only thing that can potentially save them. And I just don't know if even that will save them, even if he harkens back to that. And I just saw it. It doesn't work with him and LeBron.

Vogel clearly has seen this for a long time. And man, what a tough spot for that dude. Okay. Like, A, you're the coach of the Lakers. B, you're the coach of LeBron. All those things individually, really tough. Okay. And then you throw this Molotov cocktail in of a roster that doesn't fit by any stretch of the imagination. You've got a guy in Westbrook who, at least at the beginning, when I was still thinking they could win a championship before the eight game mark, I said, all right, well, maybe he can play the D Wade role, right? Where, you know, he's coming off, he's cutting to the basket, right?

The ball's in LeBron's hands. He's setting screens and rolling, like do all the little things. And that's where I made my mistake. I'm like, yeah, he's not And that's where I made my mistake. I'm like, yeah, he's not Dwayne Wade. Yeah, okay, maybe their games in some way, shape, or form are similar. They're not great outside shooters. And, you know, maybe Westbrook is a little more athletic at this stage than Dwayne was, but he's just not the player.

He's never been the defensive player that Dwayne was in his prime or even at the latter stages of his career. And just doesn't have the same basketball IQ as Dwayne did. Or clearly the ability to be selfless in the same way. Now, I know Russ has talked about trying, including last night or this morning to Woj. And he told the same thing to Sam Amick the other day. But it's like, you could talk about sacrifice, but until you actually sacrifice, then it's just lip service. And what Frank did was ballsy as hell. Obviously, we found out after the fact that it was rubber stamped by the organization. I feel like, and this is just me recklessly speculating now, I feel like this is the organization and the coaching staff

kind of coming in alignment and saying, we're trying to take control back of this situation that we've let get out of control because we've kind of let the players kind of dictate what we're doing here. And look, it's no secret. Rob Polinka has said it out loud before, where he consults LeBron and AD on everything.

Okay? So I think they have realized, okay, maybe we didn't push back enough, and we need to kind of regain some control. But that's just me recklessly speculating. Anything else you need to add to this? I mean, is the city turned on Westbrook, or are you still to add to this i mean is the city turned on westbrook or are you still good guys i don't think they've turned on him right i just would say this yes he's an la kid there always is going to be love for him because of that but at the end of

the day they're looking at him as the guy like that is making the lakers bad right or at least that's the impression that he's the reason the Lakers are bad, whether you believe that or not, whatever. But that's the general consensus, right? That this didn't work. All the media people were right. How did they not see this coming? And he's the reason for it.

He has no equity amongst Laker fans, right? LeBron has equity. He won them a championship. AD, even with all the ups and downs and the injuries and whatnot, has equity because. He won them a championship. AD, even with all the ups and downs and the injuries and whatnot, has equity because he helped them win a championship. When you don't have that kind of equity, yeah, you're not going to get the love that you thought you were going to get. So that would be my answer to that. Okay. Of all the teams you've covered, and I know there's probably a few that you're more plugged into as far as being around or anything,

I know there's probably a few that you're more plugged into as far as being around or anything. Any lesson, and I'm cutting you on the spot here a little bit, but you're a pro. Anything where you had a perception of a team that was either enforced or contradicted after doing a game and kind of being around? I'm not even talking about the result, maybe not even a player, but is there something that you've learned through the first half of the season in doing sideline where you go, okay, I'm not going to forget this moment. This is going to impact my opinion on either a team's outcome or where they're going the rest of the way uh just kind of kind of having that access um i don't think that's a great question as far as games that i've done it would have been a great question to ask you last night

yeah right to tell you i was gonna do today um man uh I would say Phoenix like Phoenix has been the team that has surprised me because I kind of fell into that trap of yeah you know they kind of got a lot of breaks you know and and things broke their way and that's awesome for them right like that was kind of my thinking going into the season. And I'm like, they'll be in that top four or five. I'm not pushing them out of that area. But I don't know if they're the best team in the West. And the more and more I've watched them, I'm like, yeah, they're a machine, dude. And their numbers in the clutch and in the end of games is just incredible. They're just incredible.

Like, and here's the thing that has stood out to me the most is, look, I knew Booker was going to be great, right? It just was a matter of the pieces around him and them kind of figuring some of that stuff out. I've seen this Chris Paul thing coming for a while. And a lot of it, I don't know if people know this, you know, I know that there's been stories about, you know, him being more

plant-based, all that stuff. But the thing that doesn't get out there enough, Ryan, is that the group he's working with, with his body, the group he's been working with since, I want to say, kind of the tail end of his last season in Houston, are the group that LeBron used to work with in Miami and then subsequently in Cleveland, who he does not work with anymore. They work with Chris now mainly. They work with a lot of guys, but they work with Donovan Mitchell. They work with a bunch of guys in the NBA, NFL, etc. But Chris is like the guy that really like has them around a lot. Donnie Ramone was the guy who fixed LeBron's back in that 2014-15 season, and David Alexander. I mean, these guys are insane. They fixed Dwyane Wade's knees

post-LeBron. They fixed LeBron's back, as I mentioned. These guys are insane. And since he's been with them, we've seen this Chris Paul again, which we thought we'd never see again. So just the dedication that he's had to his body. I know we spent a lot of time for many years, deservedly so, talking about LeBron and he spends a million dollars on his body. Nobody talks about that with Chris. Like Chris has invested in his body late in his career. And I feel like that needs to be discussed more on top of the fact that we know how awesome he is. But I think that those things are directly correlated. So there's that and the impact Chris has had on the roster, whether it's Booker, who had some of this in him already from just kind of a personality standpoint,

but specifically Aiton, like DeAndre Aiton. I covered his first game, Ryan. We had it on ESPN. It was me, Dave Pash, Mark Jackson. It was DeAndre Ayton versus Luka Doncic, Dallas versus Phoenix. And we met Ayton. And I was like, yo, this guy is built like an Adonis. But I don't know if he's got the thing, the it factor, like kind of the personality to be dominant, right? Like can he, can he live up to the skillset that he potentially has? I just don't know if he's got

the right personality for it. And man, has Chris done an unbelievable job of snatching that out of his soul and making it something that we see outward. Like this dude is barking at people in the huddles now. Like this kid was a really chill, passive kid. He has become one of the leaders of that team. And I think a lot of that has to do with Chris. So Phoenix to me is that team for sure, for all the reasons I've outlined. And I haven't even gotten into the Cameron Paynes and Mikael Bridges and those guys who have obviously stepped up and have kind of fulfilled some of their potential, if not a lot of their potential already

because of that group that's there with Monty and Chris. Yeah, look at last night. They come back, beat the Mavs, outscore them 35-19 against a Mavs team that's completely changed their defense. I was noticing some of the stuff they were... I don't know. You're just seeing this a little bit more, guys kind of closing out more active to the ball and kind of

like selling out against let's stop them from trying to do whatever their first thing is and then we'll figure out the rest of it later I'm not saying it's happening to all those possessions it's also something I noticed with the Clippers and Jokic the other night where Jokic, that pass to Gordon in the corner, I was talking

to somebody in the NBA about it the next day. I had goosebumps just talking to another guy in the league about, he knew the whole time he had Gordon in the opposite corner. He knows the whole time he has him, and nobody else knows what the hell's going on, and it's a bullet pass. Gordon hits the three, they win the game. Dude, hit him perfectly in the pocket, okay?

Like, Tim Legler did a breakdown of it yesterday on NBA today. And no joke, it took like three or four minutes of Legler, like just breaking it down. He talked about how there's like eight different things that are going through his head. And again, this took seconds, right? It took Legler minutes to break it down in something that went and he processed in his head in seconds it's incredible stuff for sure yeah because you know i was trying to figure out like what do you do and they brought zubach all the way up to defend him and i'm talking as he crossed half court i was like okay the adjustment here from lou who's terrific as i go and again i'd have to go back and look at it

again and by the way he lured canard too by looking over at i believe it might have been bartner morris i don't remember who was on the wing well the weak side just can't help themselves it's like play action like they're like he's not gonna hit it gordon behind me yeah or i'll have time for sure and as he's pivoting around waving the basketball you're like does he not know how much time is left it's like actually he's the only one who knows what's going to happen right now in brandon boston if he doesn't hit him in the pocket okay if that thing is a little low a little high brandon boston probably gets there like brandon boston

made a really good contest on that play and a game of inches literally i know we talk about football being that but that was the equivalent of it for sure. So they were bringing up, because I was wondering like, all right, what are teams going to try to do here? And they were basically like, we're going to harass the hell out of you to even catch it. Yeah. And it's like, well, we know you're eventually going to get the ball back. Yeah. And start the offense.

But all we can hope to do is slow you down. And it still didn't really work. There was also something the Clippers were doing too where they were hunting him on defense. I thought Jokic actually was squaring up decent on some of those Reggie Jackson floaters and Reggie hit two of those, I think, that were unbelievable and then the one possession later that mattered.

The reason I'm bringing this up is the most important thing well, I guess we could debate a couple things, but as you talk Phoenix and Chris Paul and why you brought this up and some of the Dallas

defensive stuff was that they had somebody that was in charge late and they go, okay, you know what? They're starting to do some of these things like the Curry game

the other night against the Pacers. That was last night where he sees that a rookie in Isaiah Jackson is anticipating getting ready for the switch. So Curry's like,

oh, wait, you're already jumping the switch? Okay, I'm just going to stop and not carry to the switch, and now I'm going to hit a three in your face. Chris Paul's like, wait, you guys don't pay any attention to Bismack Biambo because he's in for eight and who's out? Oh, by the way, nobody should pay attention to Bismack Biambo. They run pick and roll for Biambo.

And so you have that, and then Paul hits the big shot at the end. Watch the games where there's a good team and a not so good team. And it can be close. Those last four or five minutes are everything. They're everything. Because you'll see teams fall apart because they can't figure out how to get an open shot because the first 44 minutes, everything was open. Right.

A hundred percent. And by the way, let me double back real quick on something we were talking about, about people who have done a good job of filling in the margins, the Clippers. Okay. Like give Lawrence Frank and Ty Lue credit, Amir Coffey, Brandon Boston, right? Like they, you know, Terrence Mann, they've done a nice job of like developing young guys that have helped them this year. Granted, they're under 500 or whatever, but you would think that without those two guys, I mean, they'd be in the lottery situation right now. They've done a nice job with that, too. They're not as good as Miami and Toronto, but they've done a nice job this season with those guys.

Yeah, they're still in the playoffs as of right now, 22 and 24, missing their two best guys, who I think this is going to be a problem for the Clippers, which we already sort of know. George Donnell, you're the man. Thank you. The U is back. It is. It's always back.

It's going to be back this time, damn it. I'm telling you. I can't wait. Let me know. We'll come back and revisit that. All right, man. See you. Thanks for having me on.

You want details? Bye. I driverari 355 cabriolet what's up i have a ridiculous house in the south fork i have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am liquid so now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, life advice, rr at gmail.com. Okay. A couple of things. We get a ton of engagement ring stuff. So honestly, I don't want to read a ton of followups on this because a lot of you guys did a great job with it. She really did. There was one guy in particular, apparently he watched an episode of the bachelor and or a bachelorette and the guys had to go ring shopping. And then they showed all these different rings and the guy said he was pausing being, well, what do you like

about that one? What do you like about this one or whatever, whatever. And then he was able to deduce from that Intel, which was actually pretty smart. But then I don't know, look, if the guy who emailed in about the surprise engagement ring deal, you know, if you, if you watch the bachelor, maybe you'd be like, hey, do you want to go? But again, if that episode already aired, that would seem a little obvious. Also, some Pinterest ideas. Does anyone under 100 use Pinterest? I don't know. Do you guys have Pinterest accounts? I've clicked on a link a few times, but you can't get in there without an account. So I've never been there. Again, there's going to be somebody who's like 38 who loves Pinterest who's going to follow up with us and be like, I can't believe you guys said that.

Like, all right, we said it. Our bad. It's been said. It's been said. We had a couple guys emailing in asking for the email address for the thick girl, which is not exactly what we're doing here. I think they were being funny. I hope so.

But you know what? Most of the emails, and we'll get to a couple, were about Kyle's workout with the Nigerian guy from Frolic Room, where, you know, if we don't do a remote

from Frolic Room at some point, I think that has to be on the to-do list. I'm down. I'm down. Kyle can host the show. I'll just hang in the back. Maybe I'll work security with a Nigerian guy.

But we were told, Kyle, on Monday, and I did not follow. That was on me. You guys are very good at letting me drive this thing, so I know how it is. It's like, hey, I want to remind you that you're forgetting about a follow-up. But we now have four days since we were told

that you were going to give us what you told us on Monday and where we're at on Friday. Oh shit. See, cause you know, a little bit of this already. Um, so, so Monday, um, was supposed to be the first day of the rest of my life. And, um, they all are eight, eight. That's right. So 8 PM, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'm supposed to be there, meet him literally outside the frolic room, not go into the frolic room and then walk to this undisclosed location, which I haven't seen yet

because shocker, I bailed twice. The first night was Monday. It was cards, Rams. There was no way. There was just no way. You were going to work out at night. But again, that game starting for us around five o'clock, you could get settled maybe on the couch at 430, correct?

I was at the frolic room at five on the dot. So I'm going to drunk work out at the Friday group at 5 on the dot. So there was like, so I'm going to drunk work out at 8. 30 minutes left in the game. It just wasn't going to work. It wasn't going to work and I was like, my bad. I'm sorry. What? Back up. You were thinking

you could just have a couple Monday beers and then work out when you haven't worked out in how long? Since they put the mask back on at the gym it's been that long take it i've never heard of i don't know too many guys that they're pre-workout is a couple butt bottles no no and it wasn't that i didn't want to do it i didn't want to do it that way but it happened that way and then i just like first half of the game i was like listen i gotta bail on you tonight there's no way i gotta watch this game there's no way um it's a big game it was a big

game um it was fun there was a lot of rams fans in there uh it was fun to watch them be happy so that was like all right friday or wednesday for sure i promise wednesday rolls around i get my hair cut it's two o'clock haven't hung out my barber in a long time he's like guess what i booked us a lunch right after the haircut and i don't have another cut until six. I was like, okay, fine. Haven't seen him in a long time, like in a friendship, fun capacity. Cause he's always working best barber on Melrose, Seattle friend studio. So, so then we're, so now it's like, I go at two o'clock, I'm ready to come back. And now it's 2 AM and we're at a Hollywood. It's like we've been drinking from 3 a.m. to like 2 a.m. And somebody was not happy with that when I got home.

But so Wednesday was a wash. And so now today's Friday. Was not Bill. Was not Bill. So wait. All right. So just to recap, Monday was going to be the first day of the rest of your life. Yes.

Were you hammered when you made the plans to work out with the Nigerian guy? Hammered, no. Hammered, no. But having a good time. Friendly, yes. Yes. Were you hammered when you made the plans to work out with the Nigerian guy? Hammered, no. Hammered, no. But having a good time. Friendly, yes. Yes. Definitely more. That's a great idea.

You know what? I'm definitely doing that. We should start a business together. Yeah. Okay. So Monday, first day of your life. Monday night football, huge game. You work in sports.

Totally understandable. Tuesday, work. Wednesday, make plans to do it again, have a haircut, go on a 13 hour bender. Spent so much money. It's disgusting how much money I spent. How much money did you spend? I actually haven't really totally looked. I've been seeing like email charges of things I did. I was like, whoa, wait, what? Why did I Venmo a guy 50 bucks? And it was like, it was somebody's birthday. And I was like, oh man, I'll help guy 50 bucks and it was like it was somebody's birthday and i was like oh man i'll help you out or it was i was so stupid it was somebody i knew i don't even want to get

into it basically it was just like i was spending money left and right and it's like i i don't do that often but it was amazing how i was throwing shit around on friday on wednesday on Wednesday. We shouldn't even have opened the podcast with the NFL games. I mean, I could do an hour on this. I have a million followers. You know what the problem is? 8 o'clock is a shitty time. It's a shitty time to be like, yeah, let's get it.

So the plan was to work out at 8 o'clock at night. Yes. I don't like that for you. I don't like it for me either. That's insane. Especially you start getting on that pre-workout stuff. You're not going to fall asleep. I'm doing stuff at 8 o'clock at night. Although, yeah, pre-workout Michelob Ultra, maybe we could

do some reads. Like, you know, you ever feeling a little behind at the gym? Slam back three Mic Ultras and hit the squat rack and tell me you're not having a great time. That reminds me of this time when I used to play pickup hoops this guy would dip while he played pickup hoops he'd run up and down the whole time and the whole thing was he would dip in a way where he could dip off of the court or actually he would spit off the court into like the grass or where is it an

outdoor grass yeah it was an outdoor court surrounded by grass asphalt black top and he was he was fucking awesome too but he would just he'd get the outlet he'd dribble he'd pull up from three he'd jab step make a great pass and then he'd spit and then go back and he never would like post up because he couldn't spit you know he wouldn't drive he wouldn't be in the middle of the court he played on the perimeter all the time just so that he could dip and spit while he played pickup hoops. I've never seen anything like it in my entire life. And I'm not telling you, let's see. Um, those are just the best times. I just go, I just got real. I just started reminiscing. Yeah. Cause I would, I'd be like, Hey, I got nothing to do during the day again today. because I would, I'd be like, Hey, I got nothing to do during the day again today.

And I was probably, I don't know, 23, 24. And I take my pickup truck and my ball and I pick out a CD, maybe mass appeal. Um, and I get all fired up and I would just drive around Burlington looking for games. It's like just a, you know, like bounty hunter, just looking for games. And then this one was, this one was grimy. This was a grimy game. Some really good players, some local kids, street toughs, because then I would see them out later. Uh, and I would see how they would, they would handle their business. And this one guy was, I don't know, probably late twenties, maybe 30, whatever. It's kind of a tough guy. He was a good basketball player. He must've been like unbelievable in high school, but he'd love to dip and pick up hoops. Wasn't going to get in the way. I've never seen

anything like it. So anyway, I don't know. Oh, I told that story, I guess, other than the pre-workout beers and stuff. So where are we at? Where are we at with you now on your workout routine? Because it was a bad week. Week one was not a good one. You didn't need a notebook for this one. Not great. I think 8 p.m., I hope there's something we could do to fix that. I'm going to try to go tonight. I'm going to try. But then you know what? This guy's in town. This guy's in town.

He got in town yesterday. And he's leaving Saturday. So basically leaves Friday night. What the fuck am I going to do? All the best stuff happens after 8 o'clock at night. So I don't know what's going to happen. Wish me luck. Maybe I'll talk to him about trying to get a better schedule going.

But I think his schedule is his schedule. And I wouldn't mess with his schedule. So I'll talk to him about trying to get a better schedule going, but I think his schedule is his schedule, and I wouldn't mess with his schedule. We'll see. He might be working out alone tonight. Maybe not. I'll let you know on Monday. I would say this. Just try to get a sweat in. Start that process. You know what I mean?

I don't know what he's going to try to put you through the first day. If he starts pushing you and fail your reps and all that kind of stuff, that's not what you need. And I know you're younger, but, um, you just need to get some movement. You need to get a little sweat. You know, I would start doing like full body stuff for 30 minutes. Really, really low weight.

You know, get your body used to the actual part of this, that this, this guy, what's his nickname? Christian Koye. Like I'm, I'm worried about his day one routine for you. Although, I don't know. He's probably a little more worried about you because it sounds like he had a great week. It just wasn't great for the workout part.

But I was good enough not to drink at Frolic Room on Wednesday when I was blowing him off. So I at least kept it together. Fair. Common problem here. Blast from the past is what it says. Like everyone else that emails you, I love the show. I don't think I've missed a pod since you started. You and SVP used to get me through so many work days. Devastated the show ended. Grateful you got this thing going.

All right. All right. Here we go. Situation I think you guys can help me with. Involving a childhood friend I hooked up with back in the day while on vacation with my mom. She's recently you guys can help me with involving a childhood friend I hooked up with back in the day while on vacation with my mom. She's recently resurfaced in my life. All right. I'm 36. He's in sales. He lives in the Midwest. He's given us a lot of stuff. 6'2", 210 lean though. And he's super into orange theory, which is important. Okay. Flashback 13 years ago. I'm 23, single. One day my mom calls me and says she has a three-day work conference. She has to go to San Diego. Asked me if I want to tag along.

She wants to drive north after the conference and see her friend Rachel. That's a fake name. And wants some company for the trip. She said she'll pay for it. I know that sounds super lame, but it was actually awesome. Had my own room, which he wanted to clarify for us. He said he played Torrey Pines, hung in La Jolla, went to Coronado. All that stuff's kind of fun. I would say downtown San Diego maybe isn't as highly rated as you would

think. So he said he loves his mom and he was broke, 23, trip to Cali, great. He said before arriving in San Diego, my mom also hits up Rachel's daughter, Sarah, it's also a fake name, who lived in San Diego at the time. For context, Rachel's an old friend of my mom's that used to live in the Midwest. Okay, on and on and on. All right, long story short about the weekend. Sarah and I hit it off. She's all grown up and is hot now.

So they were childhood friends. Now they're both 23-ish. She's hot. I guess this guy's hot too. Both of us single, so we end up ditching my mom for two days. My own room, no longer needed. Let's see what we're doing there. Yeah, and enjoyed a few steamy nights together at our apartment.

It was amazing. Had some hot tub action, beach action, hit the bar. This guy's leaving out no details. Might be one of the best weekends of my adult life. My Monday morning, it's time for me to hit the road with my mom to go see Sarah's mom, Rachel, for a few days and fly back home. My mom picks me up at Sarah's apartment on the way out of town because she had the rental i could certainly tell that my mom knew i've been sleeping with her friend's

daughter the last few nights but she didn't say a word my mom's cool like that digable planets i had dinner with uh with rachel and the mom or no wait he's got a lot of details in here all right so you slept with your mom's friend's daughter okay it was hot i have to edit this self-edit it i i i'm not i am long-winded and i love all the extra detail but we got a podcast we got to run here all right um sarah and i really liked each other and i decided i would just going to go back and visit asap i come back home even booked a flight back out to see her two weeks into this anticipation. We've been talking by phone a little bit.

She says to me, the guy she's totally into before their weekend together and come back into play. That was quick. Let's just say that guy was probably in play prior to this. So it never happens. All right. Fast forward to present day because they never saw each other again.

The magical San Diego weekend with sex all over every water sanction area you could possibly have and that you had dinner with her mom later, which I'd love that you put that in there. So they never talk again, guys. They never talk again. Fast forward to present day. I'm happily married. I've been together 11 years. Married for almost seven. We were friends for three years prior to dating because we worked at the same place. Side note, my wife is the jealous type and was with plenty of guys before me. Okay.

I even hooked up with her best friend before we ever got together. Her best friend worked at the same place as well. My wife knew about it and she still ended up being maid of honor at our wedding. I see her all the time and even go on group vacations together. Never been weird at all. We're adults. Shit happens. I love that perspective.

Most people don't have it. Most people don't have it. I would, if you sleep with my wife, you're not going to be in my wedding party. That's fair. Just a little I'm going to have. Right, right. Am I, is that my own issue? Sure.

Judge your way. So here's what happens. Right, right. Is that my own issue? Sure. Judge away. So here's what happens. Before Christmas, I run into Rachel at my mom's birthday party that she came to town for. She tells me that Sarah, remember the girl from San Diego, with a husband now and two kids, recently relocated to my city. I ask where they live. Turns out half a mile from my house. What a small world. Two days later, I walk into Orange Theory for my workout.

Who's there? Sarah is there. Jesus, F my life. Last time I saw her was when my mom picked me up at her apartment 13 years ago. She tells me she just joined and absolutely loves it. Wow. I've now seen her at Orange Theory

at least twice a week for the last three weeks. No big deal. We say hi and bye, then go about our days. I even told my wife all of it. We both laughed about it. Like I said, small world. So you and your wife are totally cool talking about everybody that you've been with in your past. It almost seems like you enjoy talking about it, which again, not judging.

It's just not the norm. Okay. Then one morning this past weekend, I'm on Instagram when I get a notification that I have a direct message from Sarah. So bizarre. She says that she would love to get together sometime for a double date, maybe drinks or dinner, meet the wife and also throws in. I haven't mentioned our past to my husband. Yeah, like most normal fucking people. But I actually think that you guys really get along. But I think mentioning our past would definitely sabotage any potential hanging out. So awkward, he says. would definitely sabotage any potential hanging out. So awkward, he says. But it got me thinking, should it never happen? I'm going to be seeing her regularly at workouts. We've known each other since we were kids.

We're in the trendy part of downtown where everything is at. She and her husband could be cool. They know absolutely no one, and my wife and I don't have that many couples friends. We relocated to the city right before COVID, which has made it even harder to make friends. Plus, is it even possible to make new friends at the age of 35? I'm not sure. It is hard. It is hard to do it depends on what you're you know what are your what's your application requirement right what percentage of friends are you letting in that

apply mine's low let's say we hang is it going to be weird god this is a long fucking email that is i was done where it's going yeah i don't i don't i don't know i don't think i thought this was going to be a little weirder and it isn't um he just says this let's say we hang is it going to be weird at dinner the three of the four people know that i've been with his wife i'll clean it up jesus dude what if we hit it off and become friends will this secret come out at some point and make all of this not even worth trying? What if he and I become boys? Maybe hit the golf course.

And while waiting on the 13th tee box, I think to myself, this guy still has no idea about the time I slept with his wife in a hot tub. We were 23. I can be an adult about it. There's zero interest in my end. She still looks all right, though.

She has a family now, and I would never cheat on my wife. What are my options? I don't know, man. She has a family now, and I would never cheat on my wife. What are my options? I don't know, man. There's two parts of this. One is I get the friend part of it, but pick somebody else. Pick somebody else. You're going to spend the whole time.

You're not supposed to ever tell them. The wife says you can't ever tell them, so you're never going to tell them. Think how you would feel. Now the wife says you can't ever tell them so you're never going to tell them like think how you would feel now clearly you don't care you don't seem to care about any of this stuff um there are couples that you never care about each other's past i've i've never been in one of those things i don't know what that says about me i don't know what it says about you i guess there would be more criticism of me for being like yeah i just don't want to fucking hear about it i don't want to hear about it. But the worst part of this whole thing is that she's like, hey, you should hang out with my husband, but also never tell

him about our past. If my wife were ever like, hey, you're going to meet Frank. He's a great hang. And then I somehow found out like five years later, if she introduced me to this guy, he's like, oh, because I slept with him that whole time. If the wife is admitting

that her current husband wouldn't want to hear about the past i think it's screwed up that she's then trying to make sure you guys are friends so unless this is all some sort of weird wops wife deal where this is how it all starts i don't know but i say no to all of it. Yeah, if I was that guy, I would do exactly what I've been doing to my friend, Austin, down at the Frolic Room and say, yeah, we'll totally do it and then never do it. That's what I would do. I would just, I would say, yeah, no,

we should totally get together. And then just for one reason or another, just don't ever follow through. Yeah, I just don't think you need friends that badly. I know that you got some things going on and there's just no way, if you end up golfing with this guy and you become

friends with him, you're always going to have this thing in the back of your head. Some people could live with that. Maybe he can. I know I couldn't and it would just bother me and I think I would always kind of hold back as a friend. I don't even think it would ever be a really meaningful, great friendship anyway. And it doesn't seem like there's like a swingers vibe here that she, you know, maybe from her perspective, it doesn't

seem like from the email perspective there is. He's just kind of interested in what he should do, but I just don't think it's worth it at all. I don't. I don't think I don't think that friendship is worth probably the juice is worth the squeeze, I should say. Yeah, but do you say no or you say yeah and then never follow through? I think you do what you did and just kind of say, yeah, yeah sure and then just never follow up.

Yeah, don't actually make the plan. So don't say you'll be at the frolic room at 8 o'clock but also you know, just say yeah, we'll totally do that. This month's a little crazy. Just, she'll get the idea and stop bothering you about it soon enough, I think. I don't think there's a lot more to do here. Yeah, I don't. It's sewed up. Okay, let's do

a little football preview life advice email on the do here. Yeah, I don't. It's sewed up. Okay, let's do a little football preview. Life advice email on the way out. All right, what's up? 26 years old, 5'8", 200, thick. I can't believe guys just being like, what was that girl's email address? Like, oh yeah, here you go. Here you go, Kevin.

Here it is. Fire away. Yeah. Glad I it is. Fire away. Yeah. Glad I could help. Please subscribe. Spread the word. Anyway, I'm traveling from Salt Lake City to Kansas City this weekend with the boys to see the Bills versus the Chiefs. My two roommates, also known as my best friends, are both Bills fans.

Big Bills fans. I'm no real Chiefs fan, but I was supporting them this weekend. What? Sounds like a dick move. I'm no real Chiefs fans, but I'll be supporting them this weekend. One of those buddies of mine gets super amped up and likes to talk a ton of shit.

Wait, I'm confused. Is he saying that he's not a Chiefs fan, but he's going to be rooting for the Chiefs while he goes to the two Bills fans? To the Chiefs game. So maybe he's just looking out for number one. Let's reread the entire message. Traveling from Salt Lake to Kansas City this weekend with the boys to see Bills vs. Chiefs.

My two roommates, also known as my best friends, are both big Bills fans. Stop. Full stop. I'm no real Chiefs fan, comma, but I will be supporting them this weekend. I mean, that leads me to believe

the way he wrote it. I'm wondering if he made a mistake. Because this reads as if he's going to root for the Chiefs, correct? I think he is. I think he is. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Well, I can just give you advice right now. Why would you do that if you don't even care? Like, ah, I'm just going to pull for the Chiefs

while I go with my Bills lifers buddies. Okay, all right, moving on. As he said, one of the buddies gets super amped and likes to talk a ton of shit, and it obviously gets much worse once he's drunk, which he will be heavily this weekend. It doesn't matter where he is or what he's doing. He likes to provoke people and getting them to react to whatever bullshit he's he's whatever bullshit thing he's poking at them with i mentioned to him that he's going to need to chill out a bit at the game so he doesn't get his ass kicked by a group of chiefs fans and because i'm his friend i don't get dragged

into it are you going to be beating him up with your other chiefs buddies the entire email is thrown off by maybe just poor phrasing of that he told me to worry about my fucking self. He's already drunk. Wow. And he's going to say whatever he wants to say to Chiefs fans. I'm not worried that because of what I said, he's going to try to prove a point at me at the game and result in his drunk ass getting whooped by a bunch of Chiefs fans. I do not want to end up in one of those ridiculous Twitter fight videos

because my boy was running his mouth thinking nobody would step up to him. What do you and the guys think I should do? Keep my distance if something happens or do I have to be a good friend and back them up if shit goes bad? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Maybe throw in a couple of barbecue suggestions if you're familiar with Kansas City. I was there for like 48 hours once. We did a live show, hung out with Dennis Eckersley, went to the home run derby. We were in and out. I don't even know if it was 48 hours.

It might've been 48 hours. David Jacoby came up to me at a bar, was like, Hey, he's like a ton of respect for you. And I was like, Oh, thanks.

He's like, you do a good job. I was like, Oh, it's always cool to have people say they like you. He's like, I didn't say I liked you. I was like, okay interesting yeah would you rather be respected or liked i feel like you'd rather be respected

so you know yeah yeah i don't sell yeah you know he was he was it was just a it was just a hard pivot i was like oh okay so let's go with the premise that they're actually, the Chiefs thing is screwed up and that he'd be rooting for the Bills and his buddies. Actually, you could argue none of that even matters. If you have one of these friends that's a complete wild card, maybe you were the wild card at one point. It's a selfish thing to do. It's a selfish thing to do to be the wild card.

And it's, I mean, look, nobody, I don't think anybody ever says, you know what was a really good phase of my life is when I used to go to sporting events wild card in it and it's i mean look nobody i don't think anybody ever says you know what was a really good phase of my life is when i used to go to sporting events and start shit with everybody i'm psyched i did that no regrets miss those days yeah you know older guys will buy a fucking car maybe they go see a concert you know maybe they get a divorce date somebody young you rarely hear about the guys like you know what Rosillo started doing? He started going to Lakers games and just motherfucking

everybody all the time hoping to get in a fight outside of... Just punching dudes. Yeah, he was outside of Tom's Urban just wrestling. His shirt was ripped open.

You know, it doesn't... Nobody ever misses those days. So your buddy sucks and you already know that. And the fact that he's already giving you the heads up of worry about yourself. how did these guys ever leave buffalo what brought them to salt lake uh you know maybe the lesson is is you don't jump in and you let him get his ass beat if that happens i mean i would hope this guy's got some sort of hands if he's going to be going in there like he's fucking

going to Liverpool in the 80s. Speaking of, never got that author on. Shout out to Bill Buford. I don't know, man. There's a pretty obvious thing and I would almost... I don't have a lot of help for you

on this, Kyle, so go ahead. Maybe I'm for you on this kyle uh so so go ahead i mean this is maybe maybe i'm too old on this one dude it's the playoffs it's gonna be way worse than a normal beatdown too it'd be like a playoff ass whooping i don't know this sucks this sucks this sucks um imagine the anxiety going into the stadium wondering if there's like a 30 chance yeah this sucks from the night before yeah this sucks from the night before the game i don't like imagine the anxiety going into the stadium, wondering if there's like a 30% chance you're going to get jumped at the end. Yeah, this sucks from the night before the game. I don't like this. The only thing you can hope for is that the Chiefs win.

If this guy who's emailing in doesn't care, it's better if the Chiefs win. Because if this guy sucks and he's talking shit and Chiefs fans have won, they're like, whatever. There's still a chance you're going to get into a fight, but they're not going to care as much. If this guy is wired the way I think we all understand that he's wired, and the Bills pull this off, which again, very doable,

and then he starts mouthing off the pissed off drunk Chiefs fans, and again, I'm not talking about, I don't know how to rank the toughness of football fans, but it's a numbers thing at that point. Nobody's going to be having your back back and you're just going to be sitting there. You're going to be lucky if you're only getting beer and mustard on you at this point.

And those, those, those fights, those Twitter fights in the stadium are gross. You know, the rules of the rules, somebody has the high ground to somebody's always got the high ground. There's one,

you're getting dragged across seats. They're rarely fair. It's a sucker punch fucking festival with those things too so you're gonna get i mean if it does happen you're gonna get punched and you get to think about it the drive there or the flight in pre-gaming the night before you get to think about all of this so how far you could not go you could not go i mean there's still probably a greater chance you don't get into something than you do, but if this guy's just looking for a problem the entire time and he told you to go fuck yourself when you said, hey, can you

chill out a little bit? I would just stop going to games with him. That's the ultimate problem solver, but you want to go to an awesome AFC, not championship game, but an awesome AFC playoff game. Maybe you could dose him with something. Maybe you could sedate him or something on the way over. That sounds like a good

idea. Give him a horse tranquilizer. Yeah, a couple NyQuil, just whatever. Just put it in the jungle juice, whatever he's drinking. Whatever they drink to stay warm in Buffalo. Just so he's a little more... Give him a Xanax before... Yeah, get him a little... I was going to say tie him up, but it sounds like

he would rage out of it. So you could just uh maybe you could dose him on the way over so he's a little it sucks you have that one friend that you're like and it's always younger it doesn't happen when you're older you know guys are younger maybe there's some sort of hormonal thing going on but it's like oh we're gonna go out with so-and-so tonight for this guy see what happens yeah so enjoy the game go Bills that's life advice thank you to Kyle and Steve

we'll be recapping all the NFL games and some NBA action and we have a producer from the Apple series The Line coming on next week too which is one of the best docs I've watched in a long time so fired up a lot of good stuff, as always. Thank you.