The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Trading Russell Westbrook. Plus, Brady Quinn on CFB Conference Roundup and His NFL Run.

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

Russillo shares his thoughts on the idea of trading for Russell Westbrook (2:00). Then he is joined by analyst and former NFL QB Brady Quinn to talk college football, including Notre Dame's strong start, Mac Jones vs. Kyle Trask, the top QB prospects for the 2021 NFL draft, Oklahoma's nice stretch of games, and more. They also discuss Brady's time as an NFL QB, playing with Tim Tebow on the Denver Broncos, the inaugural NFL veterans combine, and more (10:00). Finally Ryen answers a listener-submitted Life Advice question (1:01:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Friday. What's good? All right. Brady Quinn's going to join us from Fox. He's done some NFL games, but we're going to do a lot of college football. I also want to talk to him about his career, where it went wrong, kind of the Tebow stuff, because he was on that Denver team while all that Tebow stuff took off, and then kind of the end of it. So let's hang out with Brady Quinn for a while.

We'll do life advice at the very end. Let me start with Russell Westbrook. Okay, Russell Westbrook asked for a trade this week. Teams have talked about trading for Russell Westbrook for a long time because in the very beginning, it was not working out. He was never a Daryl Morey guy. Daryl Morey would never trade

for Russell Westbrook on its own. But Harden wanted Russell Westbrook, which meant Fertitta, the owner of the Rockets, wanted Westbrook. And apparently Fertitta's son also was big on this deal because, hey,

we're just going to put these guys together that were both MVPs and they wanted Chris Paul out of there paul was more than happy to not play with james harden anymore so that's where we had it and i remember when i brought up westbrook first being mentioned by other teams like yeah i think he might actually be available and i brought it up that got turned into a bunch of different things and of course everybody said that i was wrong about it um this is different though so i'm not even claiming a W on it because it's different because this is Westbrook actually asking out and saying he wants out. So I would ask this, what does Russell Westbrook want? Is it really about the culture? Is it not being consulted on the Steven Silas hiring? Is it not being consulted on the

Daryl Morey thing? I mean, Daryl Morey has been close to leaving for a year now, although he did want to spend time with his family. I guess he got that out of the way because then he signed with the Sixers. By the way, Darryl, I'm disappointed in Darryl Maury. I would think Darryl Maury would have a better reason to resign. We knew he was resigning because then ultimately

he was going to have a much better opportunity with Philadelphia and better ownership, more stability. But I would expect Daryl, if he is the architect of some of the most advanced ways of looking at basketball rosters, that he would have come up with something a little better

than I need to spend more time with my family. I would have loved to have said, I'm starting an architecture firm in Yemen and that's where I'm going to be spending a lot of my time coming up. Just say something. If I ever had the chance to do that and then was hopefully never having

to be forced out or maybe I'd resign at my own accord because I was so successful in other things, I'm never going to say, well, I don't have a family to spend time with, but I would just, I would make up something ridiculous. I'm working on a book about the evolution of igloos, volumes one

through seven. Like what? What the fuck did he say? So Westbrook, 32 years old, maybe the best athletes that ever played this game. His effort is everything I want in a player, and yet his approach is nothing I would want in a player. If you trade for Russell Westbrook right now at this point with 41.3, 44.2, $47 million,

that's a player option in 2022-23, probably going to go ahead and pick that one up. If you trade for those numbers at his age and his approach to the game, you should then immediately fire yourself. Trading for Westbrook at this stage is a fireable offense. And again, I go back to,

is it that Westbrook doesn't like the culture, wasn't consulted, wasn't this or that? Or is he like, you know what I liked? I liked being in charge of everything. I like being in charge of every possession. I like the bigs having to defer to me to let me get all the rebounds. I like to have historic usage rates.

That kind of bumps up good numbers into absurd numbers that got me an MVP having to defer to me to let me get all the rebounds. I like to have historic usage rates that kind of bumps up good numbers into absurd numbers that got me an MVP because the MVP was really more about him being embraced by Oklahoma City and him staying when Durant left. We all kind of fell for that story. Some did not and voted for other people for MVP. I want to be able to dictate when media availability is. I want to be able to shut out media. I want to be able to take every shot. I want to tell people what the temperature should be in the locker room. I want to be in charge because I'm not that in Houston. My guess would be that's more what he's about than it is. I wasn't consulted enough because what does that mean? You have to, you should consult

your stars, but you can't consult them so much that it's every single day. Because when you do ask people's opinions and then you still make a decision based on what you want to do, then the person's like, well, I told you what I wanted and you didn't listen to me. It's like I could not ask you or I could not agree with you. So you're kind of screwed no matter what you do when you're in charge on that one. But I think Westbrook wants what he had in Oklahoma City. I think that's who he is. And if you're Orlando, I think it's a no from Orlando.

I'll tell you guys when I feel stronger about something, I feel pretty good on that. The Knicks are linked to it all the time. I don't know if that's what Leon Rose and those guys came in to do. They've put together a very specific staff, and a lot of that staff is with relationships. It's about relationships to other players that are on other teams right now that people are not even whispering.

I mean, people just been kind of talking about like the Knicks are looking at, you know, having space and going after younger players. And that wouldn't really be Westbrook. But I do think any of the teams that are talking about Westbrook,

I get it. Like you sit in a room and go, hey, we're really stale. We've had no stars here. And even if Westbrook at 32 is probably not heading in the right direction, you could sell jerseys.

Kids would be excited. Again, there's no fans. So maybe now is the time to not do something like this. So it's not the excitement as far as attendance. But there's just, hey, if your franchise has lacked juice for a long time, then I can understand why you would at least kick the tires on the Westbrook thing. And then once you examine it and talk about it, these are all temporary, short-term things. These are not things that you should be making

these kinds of decisions with when you're paying them $47 million in two years from now. So, you know, the bulls were brought up. I mean, somebody will probably, I know as bad as the contract is, we've been told, we've shown too many times. This league has told us too many times, you know what? You guys all said that this deal was unmovable. Well, we moved it again. So I'm not

going to make that mistake. But Charlotte has been brought up. And if it ends up being Charlotte, that's the one where I go, yeah, okay. You know, you got to pay 90% of the salary anyway. You got to pay somebody. There's no stars on that team right now no one that even projects to be like hey maybe this guy should make an all-star team i'm not even talking about perennial all-star team i'm talking about can we put him as the seventh guy that was potentially snubbed to get clicks on an article because i just i don't enjoy snub articles a bunch of good players some don't make it move on but yeah charlotte's charlotte's the one like uh and i don't know if it's a jordan thing with the westbrook jordan brand that feels a little collegey but it'll be brought up by somebody uh maybe i just brought it up but uh yeah there's a lot of these guys i'd love to know like

hey james hart what do you actually want well he wants to stay apparently even though he's friends with westbrook he wanted him there and now apparently, even though he's friends with Westbrook. He wanted him there, and now Westbrook already wants out. I think Westbrook wants to be Oklahoma City Westbrook more than he just wants to be out of Houston specifically. Brady Quinn will join us in just a moment. Brady Quinn joins us now. Fox Sports, part of my favorite show right now for college football,

the big kickoff show, new kickoff that leads into all this coverage. It's with Leiner, who's been on Reggie. Obviously, Urban's been terrific on the show and Rob Stone, neighbor. And the whole reason to bring it up is Brady asking me about where I'm from. And you're blown away by the vineyard thing. So when you hear Martha's Vineyard, go ahead. Go ahead. It freaks everybody out.

Everybody thinks like I'm just doing this as a hobby because I'm from Martha's Vineyard, but go ahead. Your first instincts were what? My first instinct was I've never heard or met someone who's actually from Martha's Vineyard. I don't know. I was picturing like this very scenic-esque, I don't even know, New England landscape on the water. What do you do there? I i asked you is there a high school there is there actually there is a high school it's so much bigger than people realize first of all i think it's when i was there and then it started to creep up again and then it turned but it's it's six towns um it's much bigger than you think all of that yeah yeah so i think it's 27 by 30 miles there's 12 to 14 000 year- residents. I could be off on that number.

There were a hundred kids in my graduating class in high school. It's so much bigger than people think it is. And the biggest thing that it's the other assumptions that every one of us just have our own estates and the Kennedy's and everybody's stopping by. And it's a self-sustaining community. I mean, there's somebody that has to do the septic. There's somebody that works at Cumberland farms. There's somebody that does your electric. There's somebody that's a surveyor, you know, there's believe it or not, there's parts of the Island. I mean, look, every piece of property there has, there's, there's no like entry level

thing property wise, which is terrible for some of these long vineyard generations. Cause they just can't afford to stay there. And it starts to price them out more and more, but it's a little more, well, actually, excuse me. It's way more blue collar year round than people can understand. It's so I kind of figured that part, like part of it initially when it hit me, I was like, wow, that's a first. I've never met anyone who's actually from Martha's Vineyard. Yeah, I think my sister and brother in law just went there for like a little quick getaway vacation.

They just this is maybe like a month ago. They said it was awesome. My sister's all into that. I don't know how she drug AJ into that. But I mean, and by the way, thank you for explaining that someone has to do the sewage like i do read that everybody poops to my daughters i'm trying to get my two-year-old tegan to learn how to poop like in an actual toilet you know i would imagine yeah i imagine that's what you're talking about the next step for that oh yeah someone has to do the sewage

obviously i mean i didn't think you guys just, you know, throw it out into the ocean there in Martha's Vineyard. No, look, look, here's another thing. Like the parties in high school, it was a tough place to go to high school, I'll admit. And it was tougher for me because I was moving in there at, like I think it was a month into my sophomore year

and the sports part of it, you know, sports are a big part of everything. I was like, I was as good as you guys doing stuff, but the sports had always worked out. And then i got there it wasn't working out like wait this is weird so it was really it was a really weird it was a very great lesson for me because i was like a loser all of a sudden for a couple years so it gave me a better perspective on like what was important and what it was so they have good sports programs there um yeah the football team again it's very small it's a very small level thing but back when i was

there they they never lost games they the nantucket rivalry this is crazy but and you think of these two islands off the coast of massachusetts back when i was there i mean it was the biggest thing ever they did documentaries on it where basically one island that was the away team would shut down and everybody get on the boat and then go to nantucket and watch the game. And then, you know, same thing would happen the next year when Nantucket would come over. When we play basketball, we would take a plane over. So we'd be high school kids getting on a plane, landing in Nantucket. And that's got a, yeah. Cops would give you the finger.

Like there was an actual, you know, look, our coach that we had wasn't very good and he started trying to do like a raw, raw, you got to beat Nantucket, you got to beat Nantucket. Everybody had sort of checked out on the coach. But football, it worked. I mean, football, that stuff was serious. And then we were on Nantucket, I don't know how many years after we graduated high school, maybe a couple. And a friend of ours had a band, and they were playing at the Muse on Nantucket.

I've always thought Nantucket was more fun because I think being from the vineyard, there's more going on and more people you're connected to. Nantucket, you can just go have a blast for a couple of days and it's not where you're from. So it's just different. But there was a fight at that house we rented

because one of the guys was a football player and it was this Nantucket vineyard thing popped. I didn't play football, so I didn't really care. But these guys started fighting. We're like, what the hell was that about? Like, oh, he's a Nantucket guyyard thing popped i didn't play football so i didn't really care but these guys started fighting we're like what the hell was that about like oh he's a nantucket guy it was hilarious this is amazing there are turf rules in martha's vineyard yeah nantucket uh that's unbelievable can i see this last one yeah martha stewart is martha stewart ever seen just what you

know gallivanting around at martha's vineyard because i i just i feel like when i was young i used to be like oh yeah martha stewart bays me out in this part of this vineyard i don't think there's any connection i don't kyle i don't know we get it on that she may have a house out there i mean that's kind of how those those those towns roll you know once the clintons came out it took it to another level and obama was there all the time and obama was there up until recently still playing golf at this country club that my brother works at, which is this exclusive vineyard country club. That's so it's,

you don't even know where it is. Like you'll drive past it, not even realize that it's there. I mean, people that know, know that where it is, it's not like it's supposed to be a secret, but they don't do anything where it's like some advertising,

but I'll, I'll leave people with this because we get it all the time. Martha's vineyard is one of the most diverse areas, especially year round. And it's more diverse than you realize in high school because it was one of the first, I believe it may have been, and some people can argue this, but one of the first, um, luxury leisure vacation places where blacks could buy property and it wasn't some huge problem. And whenever I'll talk with somebody who's in sports or, you know, some other kind of industry, you're like, oh yeah, man, July. And I would bartend and where I would bartend, it would, there wouldn't be any white

guys. So it was a much more diverse area too, than people would think when they see, you know, these old whaling houses and all these different things. It's, it's just different. It's, it's a lot different than the rep, but I'm not going to try to tell you that it was this, it wasn't rough. It wasn't like a tough place to grow up or anything like that. I'm just saying that it wasn't right. Not every kid in high school was going back to their yacht and cottage that was off of, you know, a acreage spot on the, on the water. So there you go. Right. That reminds me of Amelia Island. I think there's probably similar in regards to just the culture, the diversity, kind of early on, just the way the state of Florida and that particular landmass was like taken

over between like the Spanish to the US and Native Americans, all this stuff. But anyway, Amelia Island's got some kind of history like that as well. Yeah. I mean, we had the Wampanoag too, a Native American tribe that was, it was, you know, of course, hey, you can have the area that's the furthest away from everything and the coldest and then it's actually i think in most people's opinion the most beautiful part of the entire island so i think martha's vineyard is always more scenic um i don't even think it's comparable scenic wise nantucket but the restaurants fun

all that stuff nantucket has it all over martha's vineyard and a shout out to our man rocky the chicken box. If I ever go, I'm hitting you up. And you got to give me some recommendations because I don't know when I'll be able to go. I got three little girls, although the age of four, but at some point, I'm sure my wife and I will be able to get away at some point.

Yeah, Vineyard's probably better for the family stuff. I really have always thought that. Oh, really? Okay. If it was just you and the wife for a weekend, I would say go to Nantucket. Okay, let's talk some football. Let's talk some football, man. I'm fired up about this because,

okay, as the ND guy on the set, and I've used this example before. It's the Ohio State theory. I'll make it quick for the listeners that have heard me say it too many times. But when Ohio State loses the back-to-back title games, then it becomes Ohio State. And you're like, oh, really?

We're supposed to feel bad. We win the Big Ten. We beat Michigan every year. We play for a national title. We lose two. And now we're the jerks. And? We're supposed to feel bad. We win the Big Ten. We beat Michigan every year. We play for a national title. We lose two. And now we're the jerks. And I believe that happens in Notre Dame. I think there's more anti-Notre Dame stuff historically than there is any of the other ones.

So here we are with a team that looks great. They beat number one Clemson. They've been a really good team under Brian Kelly. I think it's the most talent that they've had really steadily since Lou Holtz. And I would even include some of those Charlie Weiss teams that you had there. I think Kelly continues to put out huge talent, but there's as the ND guy,

do you feel like there's all this resistance to it, both historically and because of the most recent playoff performance? Yeah, I think that's, that's part of it. You know, I think the, the history of them,

you know, not wanting to join a conference and whether you want to go back. I don't know why anybody cares about that. I don't know why anyone cares. I don't either. And honestly, I was so ignorant to just like the, the appreciation for being a part of conference, but also the appreciation for being an independent. Like I, I got all these like conference media days and now like professional as a broadcaster. And I remember being like, well, this kind of would have been cool like to come to as a player, especially like for someone who, you know, started as a freshman.

I played in every single game of my career. Like it would have been neat to be kind of acknowledged like that. At least within your own conference and at least annually and just gotten to know other players there as well. Like when you were at Notre Dame, like, yeah, there's a, there's a national attention or focus, but you don't have those sorts of events. I mean, yes, every single week, you've got a press conference, you've got a huge media contingent that's out there, but you don't really, you know, you don't really get to know anyone else within your, you know, quote unquote

schedule or conference. Um, and so that was kind of like one of those neat things that you kind of miss out on being an independent. You don't have like that appreciation for like, Hey, I was a part of the big 10. So when it comes to bowl season, I run for the big 10 teams. I don't care if it's Michigan. I still want them to beat, you know, whoever, but except when we play them, there's a little bit of that that you miss out on. So I've never really understood the resentment for Notre Dame because they've chosen to go this independent path because there's history there with the big

10 and why they haven't joined or why they didn't join. This year, they've had a quasi-join for other sports. This year, it worked out where they joined the ACC for this year, and then they'll go back to what they've been doing. But they've got the rights to deal with NBC. That's a good thing for them. What a lot of people don't know, Ryan, is they're actually leaving money on the table by not joining a conference.

Everyone thinks, oh, they're getting paid so much by NBC. Back in the day, you're right. The NBC thing was great for them, but this is never brought up. So not to interrupt you, but it's been a shift in what that deal's meant for them. It's been a shift because of how much money now is coming in through these conferences that it kicks out to all these schools. And yes, Notre Dame receives a portion of it, but you combine that and what they make from NBC, and it's still not going to equate to what the SEC, Big Ten, or ACC makes as a full-time

member of those conferences. The importance or the value of the NBC deal and really the independent schedule is when you can play in LA, Chicago, and New York, they've done that before. In one year, you can draw up so much interest and so much fundraising from your alumni base. And, and, and there's power to that, right? There's, and the way Notre Dame does it as far as, you know, networking and fundraising is second to none in my opinion. Um, and, and so I just think there's, there's this, there's this component that like you, you can probably put a dollar value on somehow. And I'm sure Notre Dame can measure it,

but like we don't see it quite as much. And I think for that reason, a lot of people look at it as, I don't know, elitist or however they view the program, but we've got these historical robberies that like, we'd probably have to give up in essence, if we were going to join a conference full time.

And I don't think they want to do that either for the tradition, the history of what Notre Dame is. But it's been hard this year, I think, to convince, you know, Reggie, for example, that, you know, they're legit or other people that I'm around because, you know, honestly, some people just kind of don't watch them. And that's part of it. Like they're more dialed into whatever else they're more dialed into. But as you said, I mean, and I'll admit it, this is –

our class is really talented at Notre Dame. You know, but, but we didn't necessarily hit as many classes like that. If you want to measure going to the NFL, but they, they, they know their identity. They know their identity. They can get any offensive lineman in the country, any tight end in the country. Why? Because they know those guys have succeeded and performed the highest level. You know, you see this stud, there's this kid named Kyle Hamilton.

There's a sophomore now. He's going to leave after next year. He's that good of a player. The safety? The safety, Kyle Hamilton. Yeah, he's filthy, man. So how does that work? Well, Harrison Smith signed a huge deal in the NFL, right?

So when you see other guys move on from Notre Dame and do that, it makes it easy to recruit. And then it becomes like you don't even really have to. Like offensive linemen should be drooling when they get that offer from Notre Dame, because they know they're going to be a part of a group that runs the football and they actually get to prepare for what they're going to be asked to do at the NFL level. Not all these schools are doing that right now. Michael Mayer, that tight end they have, that's a freshman. He's gone after, you know, in two more years. So, you know, when that starts to happen, it snowballs. And when

you know your identity, you recruit to it, you play to it, and you can beat any team in the country when you play really sound, executed football. Who's better, you or Ian Book? Well, here's what any quarterback would tell you. You could say me or any quarterback, and that quarterback is always going to tell you them because you've got to have confidence, man.

You've got to have confidence. And I think i think one we're two completely different players you know i think when you look at how ian plays uh his mobility his ability to extend plays and running all that he's a better athlete than i ever was i mean that kid is tough i mean he is tough as nails the way he will carry the football at times and the hits he'll take and get back up from it so um i've got a lot of respect for him the way and the way he's played the game. And by the way, also just the way he's handled a lot of the talk on the outside, people not believing in him. I thought this past week's game versus Clemson was one of those examples of like,

how about them apples? You know, like kind of saying that to everyone else out there. I really, really loved the start of the game and the way he – we went over it a little bit earlier this week, but I just came away so impressed with him. I think he makes – I think he attempts some throws other college kids are afraid to make. I thought his accuracy in some tight spots when I go,

I don't know how many other guys would even attempt at those passes, and it kind of set a tone for me too. He's an accurate quarterback now. He is an accurate passer. I've had to watch him for a while. I think one of the things that people don't appreciate about what he's had to deal with is, you know, you go back a couple of years ago, Myles Boykin was the lead receiver. You go back to last year, it was Chase Claypool. You go to this year, he's got to start over every

year with a new guy. You know, I was classmates with Jeff Samarja, you know, Raymond McKnight, Maurice Stolvo. These guys were a year older than me. So I never really had to deal with the transition of like going through another group or another guy. Like I had those guys, it was more of dealing with a different, you know, different system. It was dealing with, you know, those guys eventually had, you know, the guys ahead of me had to move on, but it was dealing with those sorts of things or those guys mixing and getting more playing time. He hasn't had that luxury.

And so that's another thing that I think when people would second guess the passing game it's like well you know look at what they you know look at what they were at the end of the year last year because he had to start over again with chase and then this year it's the same thing and they're getting better and better as they go yeah look the winbush thing was was weird because he had put together a season in 17 we were like okay this guy's not getting replaced because how dynamic he was. And then we both kind of realized with Wimbush, it just sort of fell apart and then book steps in and you're like, wait, no book is just, he's just steadier. And, and, and, you know, obviously you feel bad for Wimbush because it just was very clear.

There was just something, there was some hitch that he had. Um, but I want to spend too much more time on ND because then when you look at, uh, you know, I'm going to ask it this way, uh, Mac Jones or Kyle Trask. Oh man. I would say kyle trask i mean if you're looking at well i've seen a little bit bigger sample size watching him last year than in this year we saw mac jones last year but you know barely i think i think it wasn't that much it was like four games so the thing I appreciate about Mac Jones' game, you kind of talked about Ian throwing some balls in tight windows. Mac's not scared to put balls in certain spots either.

He really is. With Devontae, you're never worried about it because you just figure he's going to win every time. I think that's the hard part, right? When you've got Kadarius Toney, you've got Kyle Pitts, who may be the best tight end in the country. You know, those guys – now Kyle Pitts is probably better than any tight end they've got Kyle Pitts, who may be the best tight end in the country. Those guys, now Kyle Pitts is probably better than any tight end they've got on Alabama's

roster, but that's outweighed by the fact that Smith and Waddle, and you look at how good the receivers are in totality, it kind of factors in where he doesn't have to do quite as much as I think Kyle Trask has to do. And Trask is a better athlete

too. I mean, we've seen him to have to take off and run a little bit more be a little more mobile so i just think he's had to overcome more i don't think their offensive line in florida is as good as what bamas is so i give him a slight edge for how he's played this year really the past couple of years now what we've seen it's hard for me i don't know if it's the same way for you i think it all is for us collectively like when i look at ohio state the big, I go, who am I picking against them? And that's with respect for Indiana and what they've done for a year plus. Because you watch them more and more last year, beginning of this year,

you're like, look, that's just a tougher team. They're a different mindset. And Allen's done a good job with them. But I don't want to feel like I'm going to fall for the same thing with Florida and Alabama. Am I just sitting there going, well, it's Alabama, and I'm obviously going to pick them against Florida? I mean, how much separation, if at all, do you see between those two teams?

There's a decent amount of separation. I think Alabama has just been consistent. You know, I think that's one of the bigger differences for me is if you're looking at, like, all right, you never know how a team's going to come out and play in a big game. I mean, I think we expect Nick Saban teams to always come out and perform. But let's just say they have that floor game, for example, and it just so happens it's in the SEC championship game versus Florida.

I feel like we've seen Florida play at a lower point this year, or when they play bad football, it can look ugly. I don't know that we say that as much about Bama, maybe defensively. This isn't the typical Alabama defense that we're accustomed to seeing. I don't know that they have the same type of guys up front as we're accustomed to seeing that have moved on to the NFL. And so for that reason, I think that's more of like a little bit of your hesitation.

But I think Alabama has a higher floor, probably a higher ceiling when you see how this team's played this year. I do think like with Alabama and you say, oh, it's not the same defensively. I don't know that anybody not the same defensively. Um, I don't know that anybody's the same defensively anymore. And Florida, you could,

you could say, even especially at the beginning of the season where Ole Miss moved the ball all over the place. It was kind of like my LSU thing from last year where I would see people move the football against them. And some of the stats would look bad, but I'd be like, that's kind of when the game is decided.

Think of back to when you were playing in college, like how weird is it? How different can you be week to week? Do you have a great example of just, you've had these talented teams, you have the expectations, yeah, you're a favorite, but there are just so many lessons

that we've learned over the years of watching this where you can't assume anything. And I do think we lose perspective in how different teams can be week to week depending on the message or what you did the previous week. I think it all depends on to the type of scheme and the type of, you know, style, at least on offense, right? Or defensive game plan that you do, right? Like when I had Charlie

Weiss, he was an NFL style. So week to week, we could be drastically different. I mean, Ryan, there's weeks where we would have certain personnel groupings, certain formations and shifts and motions, all these things that you did back then that you don't see quite as much of now. And then it would change the next week. Next week, for example, week one, I remember when Charlie first got there, we went to Pitt on the road, played against Dave Wanstead. He was the head coach. They were a top 25 ranked team.

No one knew what the hell to think of us. And I remember that game was about a couple different players. There's a guy named Darrell Revis. Not sure if you remember him at the quarterback spot. I'll look him up. We tried to work away from him. That guy named HB Blades was a linebacker, son of Al Blades, I believe. Or was it Benny Blades?

And then I think I'm mixing up the Blades. There's so many of them at this point. But the whole point was we were like, all right, this is the game plan. We're essentially going to try to get a hat on blades, not even worry about throwing towards Darrell Rivas' side, and we're going to try to work in some screens and some of the quick passing game, this whole elaborate offense. The next week we go to Michigan.

The entire game we ran no huddle. We didn't huddle once. It was all 11 personnel, all three wide receiver sets. Every once in a while we'd have two tight end sets. All 11, all no huddle, entire game. And that was the start of the season. So, you know, we were much more multiple like that and the way we'd go about trying to attack

or exploit weaknesses on defenses. Nowadays, you get a lot of times systems. And these teams just kind of have the system, they run it, and it's about execution. It's about, you know, running certain plays that might exploit what they're doing, but not like attacking one individual guy outside of maybe throwing a go route on them a bunch of times.

So it's, I think it's changed and it's become less schematic and more on the part of execution. And the coach is now putting these kids in the best plays. Then, you know, compared to like us going out there and audible or a check with me, which was way different back then. Yeah, that year was the year you played USC in that game. It was. You know, that Michigan State game, that was your first loss. So you beat Pitt, who was ranked, you beat Michigan, who was three in the country.

And then I remember watching that Michigan State game. I think I was in Vegas and I just it was one of those games. It was back and forth and you were just like, ah, you know, and then you'd still weren't quite sure. And then I remember being back home watching the USC game. And I know you guys have already talked about this because the 50 year anniversary and all that kind of stuff, but like the lead up to that week, are you guys doing the fake week? We've got this, or are you doing the, we are absolutely in this game based on planning and what you saw on film? Um, Yeah, I mean, that was the interesting thing is what Charlie did that week that was so unique

was we watched the Arizona State game from the week before. He had our entire team come in and watch the game. And his whole thing was like, I want our offense to appreciate how good Reggie Bush is, how good this offense is led by Matt Leiter. He wanted us to watch that so that we understood exactly when he talked to us about the game plan, how, you know, we were going to try to slow down the game. We were going

to try to run the football, even if it wasn't successful early on, we were going to, we were going to make sure we did it. Our passing game was going to be more controlled until we want to try to take some shots. And so, um, you know, going through the week, to be honest, like we were probably practicing and working on executing what we were about to do. It wasn't until we went into the lead at one of the locker room at halftime of the lead until we were like, Oh, Oh shit, this is working. So, um, you know, that, that was one of those things where like, I think we trusted Charlie. Um, but until we saw it happen, right. I think a lot of people had to see it to believe it. And that was one of those like kind of moments where it was like wow everything's kind of coming to fruition you know he told me earlier in that week the game the play i scored on to go ahead up in the game

he told me during that week he goes you're going to score this play to win the game and he also said to me though the person has the ball or team has the ball last is going to win and so unfortunately both those two things ended up being it just meant we ended up winning the football game. Well, at least he got an extension or two out of it because that was the most expensive loss in Notre Dame history because they were like, man, and it was funny to,

I mean, people can make the wise jokes about it. I guess I sort of just did then, but at that time, everybody was, everybody thought he was going to the Giants. Everybody thought he was gone. And you can understand the fear of Notre Dame when we finally found the guy was that everybody thought he was going to the giants everybody thought he was gone and uh you can understand the fear of notre dame going we finally found the guy and it didn't turn out to

be the guy but it's just you have to put yourself into 2005 to remember what the climate was like and how how it just was like okay notre dame is back they figured this thing out and it was all because of a three-point loss to number one USC. Yeah, which was, I mean, they were one of the probably greatest college football programs in our teams of all time when you look at what they did the year before and the run that they'd been on from Carson then to Matt and just the way Pete Carroll built that thing up.

And my thing with Charlie was, look, I wasn't there after, you know, obviously I left after my second year there. And we continue to get better and better, at least during my time with them. But, you know, we don't have like we didn't have a lot of the things they had now. Like they have training table there now. They have a new indoor. They have all these other things that, you know, I don't know the intricacies of how that works and if that would have mattered for recruiting or mattered for their success and whatnot.

But, you know, I think I think one of the things some coaches fall victim to is when you recruit and you make it about like, Hey, I'm going to send these guys to the NFL. You know, when, when, when that's your pitch, when you're all about like, Hey, this is the, just this, this is kind of that median to get you to the NFL. Um, then if it kind of becomes about something that's bigger than what you're actually in right now. And so if you, if you don't appreciate the process and you don't appreciate like the competition at the college level and appreciate everything that comes along with that team in that moment. Um, I think a lot of times you can lose guys. If your team just gets off to a bad start and you've got a bunch of guys who are already thinking about Sundays when you're

playing on Saturday. Yeah, no, that makes sense. It's just with so many kids when they come in, that's all they're thinking about. Like my, my favorite, when I went to Georgia that one time and I was talking to the strength guy, I go, how many guys think they're making the pros? He was like, maybe three don't. I was like 3%. He's like, no, like three kids out of a hundred that actually get jerseys and stuff. Like every one of those guys and the guys that don't go pro think it's our fault because so I can understand that being part of the pitch. Let's talk fields in Ohio state because it does, as we mentioned before, feel like their conference. Every week I watch him, I just keep telling myself, whatever the gap is, whoever ends up with him after Trevor Lawrence in the draft shouldn't

feel like they missed out as much. I don't know. That sounds crazy. As great as Trevor's been, I've asked some other people about this, but how do you see fields in relation to his improvement, how he just throws the football, and that maybe this gap between he and Lawrence isn't as big as I certainly thought it was last year? He's got a lot of good things going for him. I mean, naturally, he's got as strong of an arm. I think that's fair to say. It's so quick. It's crazy how quick it's out. So go ahead. It's so quick. It's crazy how quick it's out. So go ahead. And then I think the other thing is,

you know, so fundamentally he's good. He's got the strong arm you're looking for. There's a few little things that I think I would look for out of him, right? Like I would want to see his timing a little bit better, a little better anticipation. You know, not to compare to Lawrence, like he's been out the past couple of weeks,

but like DJ Uyunglele, he did some things in his first game versus BC. I was like, wow, like you don't see kids now getting done, catch the shotgun stab. One, two, three off the plant throw. He was putting balls. Now, granted, they weren't most accurate, but he's a freshman and he's gotten thrown in there as the backup. And he was throwing balls before these guys are out of their cuts. I'm like, there's going to be NFL scouts watching this kid going, he's already there. He's already got that portion of the game down. And that's one of the hardest things,

to confidently throw a football before a guy's where he needs to be or he's going to be where you think he's going to be. I mean, it is one of the most exhilarating things in life. Like I can't explain to people. That's one of the joys of playing quarterback is when you can throw the football to a spot where no one's at, but you're like, Oh, the other hundred, a hundred thousand people are like watching it, but you know, he's going to be there at the proper time. It's going to be in the proper place. It's a talent. I mean, it really is. Um, that is something that Trevor already has, uh, even though I'm using DJ as the example, Trevor already has that.

Justin could use a little bit more of that. There's times in games, you see him still a little bit late. Um, they're equally very good athletes. Um, I don't even know if there's a winner in that capacity. And I would say the other thing is if you go back to like that second Wisconsin game last year in the Big Ten Championship game, Jim Leonard sort of confused him a little bit with the disguise of coverage and the different pressures and packages.

He really struggled in getting to two and three in his progression. That's the thing about the NFL is you've got to be able to diagnose very fast what the defense is doing, whether or not you can get to one, two, three, and then down to that back. There's five eligible guys. Usually you're not getting through all five. And that's the only thing I think he just lacks, and that comes with experience.

The only way to improve at getting better at playing quarterback and playing football is playing football. You can walk through all you want, do virtual reality, whatever you want. It's not going to change it. So he's the second best in this upcoming draft class. And then that kid out of North Dakota State, Trey Lance, I think is number three. Yeah, and he's probably still going to go really high

despite the one game because of how high everybody was on him before. I don't think the one game, which wasn't great by his standards, is going to be that big of a deal. Slow start. He got into it, though, in the second half. Yeah. Okay, Big 12. Oklahoma looks like the best team, and maybe I'm falling victim of some of the things we've already talked about here again.

But look, I don't like the way Oklahoma State played against K-State, and K-State had problems at quarterback, and really, if you watch that game, they kind of gave that one away. Iowa State probably feels a little bit better than Oklahoma State at this point, but even with the two losses, Oklahoma gets Oklahoma State at their place. They finish with an easier schedule than Texas. It feels like, and again, the projections have Oklahoma as the best bet to get out of there with two losses, which would mean the Big 12 will be out of the playoff, I would imagine.

But this Rattler thing is working. And I know no one likes him, but you see why he was recruited the way he was and where he was ranked in the arm talent. What do you make of that conference in him? Oh, by the way, I like him. I love the kid. I think the way he plays the game, he's, again, he's got a lot of those things that you're looking for. First off, his touch, his downfield throws and accuracy.

I mean, the way he whips the ball out, he's also actually a pretty darn little good athlete too. He doesn't demonstrate it quite as much. And I think when you compare him to Kyler Murray, you're like, all right, everyone pales in comparison to what that looks like. And he's probably not, you know, Jalen hurts, but he is more mobile than Baker Mayfield was. And he can hurt you a little bit with his legs. And we tend to forget like he's not, you know, Jalen Hurts, but he is more mobile than Baker Mayfield was. And he can hurt you a little bit with his legs.

And we tend to forget, like, he's young. You know, he's what, a redshirt freshman? He's probably not running because he's still pretty slight frame-wise and everything. And I can imagine Lincoln doesn't want him out there. I mean, Kyler was just such a different runner. And Jalen was strong. Like, Jalen used to set all sorts of weight room records and stuff.

So he's not going to be those guys. He was squatting after games, right? I'm as big of a meathead as anyone else. He was the Brady Quinn. I promise you, Ryan, I was not squatting after we won a football game. I was usually going and trying to ice down my arm, my legs, and then maybe grab a cold beer at some point for my Irish heritage. So it's like he was just unique in that way.

But, no, you see some of the same like, uh, that, that was, he was just unique in that way. But no, you see some of the same things though, too, watching him. I mean, he holds onto the football a little bit too long, but he's young, he'll get there. And it's more of his pocket presence. Like that's the thing where he's just got to do a better job of understanding when he really needs to leave and when he needs to just kind of, you know, slide and move, you know, like kind of like a boxer in the ring. You know, I think people who first get into boxing, when they go to kind of move their head,

head bobbing and then try to duck punches, they move more than they need to. They really waste energy doing that. It's kind of the same thing for a quarterback in the pocket. You really want to try to be able to just slide subtly, stay in a good position to kind of throw that overhand right, which is similar to throwing a football. And that's something that I think he could improve on a little bit. But they'll be playing the Big 12 championship game,

and they're going to be playing against Texas. That's right. You're going to see Red River again in the Big 12 championship game. Even with the way Texas' schedule finishes up. Texas will win out. Oklahoma wins out. We're going to see a rematch of Red River, and we should be excited about that because that was an unbelievable game.

It was a great game. Oklahoma winning out seems far more likely than Texas winning out but maybe you see because I swear even though Ellinger and we respect the hell out of him I'm scared to think of what Texas would be without that kid the last couple years but there's also some games I throw on we're like okay wait he's 5 of 16 right now like oh 109 yards on the ground like what's going on I mean he's he's probably of 16 right now? Like, oh, 109 yards on the ground. Like, what's going on? I mean, he's probably the only reason they're this competitive, but I don't know, man. I've just watched too many Texas games where I –

assuming that they're going to beat those other two good teams is a lot, I think, at this point. I don't mean to say this to, like, downplay the players that are on that roster, but, like, when's the last time they had, like, an absolutely dynamic playmaker? I mean, maybe you could throw Devin Duvernay. Duvernay, in a weird way, looks more dynamic now. You're right, first of all.

Right. Name the best last Texas wide receiver. Roy Williams? I mean, seriously, like, it's hard to answer that question. That track guy, was it Malcolm? I mean, he ended up not really doing it. He looked the part. I mean, every Texas kid who's 6'4", 215, and receiver looks awesome.

Colin Johnson looked the part. I mean, he never really came like the Calvin Johnson comparison we thought. Shipley? Yeah, Shipley. All the Shipleys. Pick a Shipley. Yeah, pick one. I think if you look at that, that's been kind of part of it, too. It's like they've gone to more of a show. Yeah. Pick one. I think if you, if you look at that, that's been a kind of part of it too.

It's like they've, they've gone to more of a spread. And if you're going to do that, all right, then you've got to have the guys to be able to win a big 12 championship, win a national championship with. And I just, you know,

when they, when they want it with Vince young, it's like, yeah, it's a good players, but we forget how good Vince young was. And he was a dual threat quarterback. Like he carried,

he was filthy. Yeah. Along with their rushing attack and defense I'm I'm pulling him up now because I think he had two touchdowns Malcolm Williams who was 6-4 he actually of course he got drafted by the Patriots it didn't work out but he was he actually didn't have great stats but I remember I think the 2008 game I don't know if I've lost your interest here at this point, so I apologize, Brady. But I think he had two touchdowns in Lubbock in that tech game. He did.

He did. So he had two touchdowns. Oh, my God. He had four for 182, I think, as a freshman. And we were on the sidelines for that game. You're like, this guy is going to be the next great one. I mean, he looked amazing. Those white uniforms, too. And you're just like, okay. And then what happened? going to be the next great one. I mean, he looked amazing. Those white uniforms, too.

And you're just like, okay. And then what happened? He went in the sevens round. But that's what I'm saying. They've got talent there. I'm not even saying he is. Right. But Caden Stearns went there, and he was one of the top recruits

of their defense back as a safety. And he's never really taken those big strides we're like he should be like a mink of fitzpatrick type player that we're talking about but that's just not how it's worked out for uh for texas's defense and then for a lot of the recruits there has not been the development stern now so you're talking the safe yeah i'll admit there's times when i watch him though where i go whoa like he he will he will put it on you if he gets a chance. No, he flashes. He's a hard hitter, but he, to me, should be consistently doing that. The whole defense should be for that matter.

Yeah, okay. I have one more Pac-12, then I want a little story time for you. But I'm not going to fall into the, hey, Oregon's the best team. Their schedule just doesn't, even if Oregon's awesome with Shook, look good, you know, Stanford missed a bunch of games,

but their schedule is so bad Even if Oregon's awesome with Shook, look good, Stanford missed a bunch of games, but their schedule is so bad that their only hope of getting in, or anyone's only hope, is we have to have two 6-0 Pac-12 teams squaring off in that game for them to even have a chance. And it may be completely unfair, but I'm trying to have an open mind about the Pac-12. I don't want to be dismissive, but it just doesn't feel like they even have a chance. I don't feel like they do have a chance for a couple reasons. I mean, to think that they're not going to be impacted by COVID like the Big Ten has. One of those teams won't be.

Even if they follow the rules, they're vigilant. It could be the other team they're playing, right? That's going to work against them. And I just think there's this – you've already got the equity built in right now with the ACC teams, the SEC teams. You know, Big Ten got started a little bit earlier. But there's this perception that Ohio State's going to be one of the best. I think one of the craziest scenarios there is they don't play Maryland this week.

They're supposed to play IU next week. What happens if IU's like, yeah, we've got a couple COVID cases. We can't play you guys, right? But then, like, they play – they went out, out, and then Ohio State actually ends up being more impacted by COVID than IU. IU's got the better record in the East. They're the ones that go on to the Big Ten championship game with a better record because they've played one more game or something

and are both undefeated. Like, it'd be an interesting scenario. But you could see how that could potentially – By the way, the idea of the Big Ten wouldn't have an emergency meeting being like, guess who's cleared to play? Like, like there's just no and i'm not even saying that's big 10 specific but that is that is some all-time gamesmanship i wonder if the patriots could find a way to do that uh no that's it would be if ohio state doesn't go to the big 10 championship and then like the college football playoffs like yeah but they're undefeated we think they're better

than iu so they might though yeah exactly if you look at them and what they've done, and that's why I think Bama, if they're undefeated and they were to lose a close game to Florida, like I mentioned in this video that's coming out this week, it came out already, that I'm like, don't write them off.

Because I still think if Tua, if they beat Auburn and the way the number four argument worked out last year, no one believes me when I say this, but I'm just telling you, I think Bama would have been the fourth team in last year i think they were going to put them back in if two were on the team um because two two would have at least put them in a position

they probably don't lose to auburn even though mac jones those guys still scored over 30 points right let's go back we know the cleveland part of it where um and you're back and forth derrick anderson there's coaching changes all all of that kind of stuff. Uh, I guess we could talk about how frustrating that is. I just want to do kind of some of the rapid fire, like trying to figure out how your career is going as it's not going in the direction that you want it to go. So like Cleveland to Denver, how does that go down? Yeah. So I had a Liz Frank injury my last year in Cleveland and I ended up getting a call from,

you know, the new general manager at that time, uh, who I'd never met before, never spoken to. I literally thought it was a crank call. Uh, I was, I was doing rehab for my foot. My now wife was with me at the moment. I had my car packed up to drive up to Cleveland that night, dogs in the back of the car, all that, uh, for off season workouts. And they're like, Hey, we're trading to Denver. And I was just like, this has to be a joke. Like someone got my numbers. Can't be real. So I ended up getting a call from Josh McDaniels. He tells me it's, it's obviously true. So now I'm going to, I'm not going to fly to Denver, figure that part of my life out. Uh,

I got out there and I probably wasn't a hundred percent, uh, in through that off season and ended kind of in that training camp. Um, I didn't get my foot surgically repaired which i actually did uh about what maybe two years ago not quite two years ago now finally um but it's it was pretty tough to go through because i didn't feel 100 moving around running and throwing all that stuff but i had to kind of play it off because i felt like it was an opportunity for me new place great team great organization and then i just never got that opportunity um and that was orton right and it was orton and then i just never got that opportunity um and that

was orton right and it was orton and then tebow comes in correct so you you sort of lost out to orton but then the tebow thing happens yeah i gotta tell you like i remember every week going i can't believe they just won again like he wasn't that good and i know tim would you know i've met him enough and i really like him but I just couldn't believe it worked and then it became this phenomenon of like there's just you can't quantify what he's doing when in reality I just didn't think he was all that great and you got really lucky and you had a good defense and then it sort of became exposed and other people have different theories on it what was it like watching it from the sideline if you could be completely

honest because I have to imagine you'd watch him at certain times and throw in the football being like I can't believe this guy's winning or maybe i'm speaking for you i shouldn't do that but at least that's how i felt watching it every week when they kept winning well time well the the thing was is like you're right like we had an unbelievable defense and we had a great rushing attack willis mckay he was like an unsung hero that year because now we're talking about 2011 so this is like because tim got drafted the year i got traded there um and so we were there together for a year josh gets fired there's a whole spy gate two thing that happens and you never played because you were i mean you just didn't even play in a game that year right well no or was the quarterback the entire time until

josh gets fired he starts the next week they wanted to start working in tim tebow intermittently which i was at this point like all right i'm over this like release me let me out of here after the season my first talk with john ellie was like hey how you doing pleasure to meet you you're a legend i need to get released like i gotta get out of here like i gotta get an opportunity how did he take that he was like i just got here like i don't know everyone really likes her i'm here we would like to keep you alone we're not sure about all this so you know he he was like yeah i don't know where to take this conversation right because i'm the type of person where like i'm i'm like pretty kind of you know

pretty even keel and so like yeah hey man i love you you're great that's such a legend but i need you to cut me you need to release me like what do i need to say to you to get released right in this moment like i'm not i'm not kidding you i'm being serious even though i'm smiling i'm just thinking about the joy of me having an opportunity to actually start and play somewhere else um no but in all seriousness it was like uh just kind of like it was an awkward conversation because after that i'd see him and i'm kind of like dude you know i'm not happy about my situation like you can feel free to make a roster spot anytime you want let me go try to compete somewhere else. But to go back to the experience, I mean, Tim, to his credit, was so much better in games than how he was in practice.

So that was one of the craziest things. Like, everyone was in awe of, like, how the games would work out. I was more just like, wow, like, he's playing so much better than what he looked like in practice. And so I now remember vividly times when like no shot right. He threw a pass to notion. I don't know if it was like way off or just into the ground and skip to him or something, but he literally picked the football up and like punted it.

And I think it went like into the road. Cause there's like back in the old facility, there's like a road that's somewhat nearby, like where the end of the end zone is in this wall. And I was like, wow, I was like, this isn't voting well well but then we get in the game and he would play better than what he practiced with and our defense would play lights out and we'd run that crap out of the football he'd be a part of that so that's the thing is he was a great competitor like I think if anything that year taught me that you know you you it doesn't have to go how the play is drawn up in fact like

whatever's drawn up on paper is kind of irrelevant. It's just how you go out there and like, whether or not you make a play. Um, now that's not something that I could do. Like I wasn't that type of player. I needed to be in a system and be able to like operate and have control over certain things and changing things. But, um, yeah, so that I never played there. I ended up becoming a free agent, could have signed back, uh, and been Peyton's backup. And that's probably one of the biggest things i regret just you know and i have the experience of learning from him and seeing how he prepares and all that you know who knows like playing there another year or two if it would have extended my career even just as a backup but i i was i'm the type of person like the masters are going on right now right i would i would, I don't, if someone invited me to Augusta

to go watch the masters, I would politely say, no, thank you. I'd rather be on a crappy golf course playing golf than going watching someone else do. I'm just that type of person. And it was, I got to a point like that in my career was like that, where I was like, I'd rather go take a chance where I feel like I have a better chance of playing, even if it's not a great situation, just so I can play. Because I can at least feel better about the fact that I'm out there playing and not standing and watching. You know what I'm saying? I totally get what you're saying.

I mean, if I were to share a moment with you, sometimes I get sick of – all I do is talk to guys that are way better at the things that I talk about. If you really break down what my role is, I've spent my life talking to guys that are awesome at the thing that I'm obsessed with and I'm just not good at. And for you as a young guy, too, and it's really hard. Your first round pick, you have these incredible records at Notre Dame. You were an awesome quarterback there. You're not in the mindset of like, oh, you know what? If I just stick around and know I'm not going to play for multiple years,

that'll actually set me up better in the future. And especially as a competitor, that makes all the sense in the world, Brady, is what I'm telling you. So for you to go to Kansas City and then beat somebody out and be like, all right, I'm going to get some starts. Like you're still seeing it as all of you should have.

You still should have been seeing as I got screwed over in Cleveland. I go to Denver and then this Tebow phenomenon happens. Like I'm still capable of starting and playing this league in a long time. And anybody, I think a lot of you guys are all wired the same

and would have been the exact same thing. I'm not going to sit here and concede that I'm already a backup and not even 30 years old. Like I'm not doing that. And you know, so then I, then I have an opportunity

to go to Kansas city. Um, head coach, I was familiar with at the time and Romeo Cornell, Brian Gable, the system, uh, I get there and obviously Matt Cass is our at the time, Romeo Cornell, Brian Dable, the system.

I get there, and obviously Matt Cass is our starter. But I kind of knew the situation. I knew, hey, look, there might be a chance where I could get a shot to play at some point in the year. The problem is it wasn't until like week seven or eight. We'd only won one game at that point in time, which obviously isn't a great scenario to jump into. But for me, it was like, all right, I still get a chance to play. And that was really what it was more about at that point in time.

And now the season didn't go well. We had an awful season. We had stuff that happened off the field. I had a couple of concussions. I had one in preseason and then one, once I did get the chance, I got a concussion knocked out for the next few weeks. So it was just a battle of like trying to just finish and not be on IR like I was in 08, 09 in Cleveland. And, and so then after that year, I had the opportunity to go to

Seattle. And that was honestly one of the best things for my life about football, because as much as I hated Pete Carroll from our time in USC, you know, the way, the way I won that kind of quarterback battle, um, you know, that was one where there's multiple guys going for liner was one, they ended up choosing me for that. And it kind of just opened my eyes for my love for football again, given how tough, uh, everything that 2012 was with the football, but really the Javon Belcher situation, everything else that came from that. He made football fun again. He really did. And he added a ton of respect for the environment he created,

the culture he had there, all those guys, I mean, Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner, like the guys are even still there now, you know, they really had a great team. And I got there. I remember like in practice, I was like, Holy crap. I've never played on a Superbowl team. We'd been to the playoffs one time ago. I was like, this team feels like that. And they went on to win it that year. Now I wasn't a part of it. They released me last cuts.

I got picked up right away by the jets. It's kind of like a, a stop gap. That was the Sanchez hurt shoulder. They drafted Gino Smith. And I remember getting there thinking like, wow, this between Isaaczzik and Rex Ryan, like you could feel the disconnect. They were just on two different pages. And I was only there half the year trying to prepare Gino the best I could. At that point, I kind of knew that was my role. And so at the halfway point, they told me I was going to get released. I was like, all right, I get released.

And just so I haven't seen Bradford, Terrence's ACL. I get a call right away. And next thing I know, I right, I get released. And just so I haven't Sam Bradford tears his ACL. I get a call right away. And I'm next thing I know I'm in St. Louis and I'm getting ready to try to potentially go be the guy there. Kellen Clements takes over first game. I think he loses that first start. And so the next week, I'm getting reps at practice that Wednesday, feeling great, feeling good.

Go into the weight room. I literally warming up back squatting had it done in a year. I don't know why I even did. And I herniated two discs in my back. And I was just like. How much was on? It was like 185. And then by the way, like not, I'm not, I'm just nothing, right?

That's like warmup weight. And honestly, like what I regret was probably like moving too fast because it felt so light. It felt so good. And I remember like trying to go to the chiropractor that night, waking up the next day. I had no feeling in my right leg. Um, it like wouldn't come back. And so I panicked and I called their medical staff. They were great. And they just, you know, rushed me to get an MRI and they're like, all right,

let's try some epidurals. And I went through about a month of trying to get it to go away. And like, I couldn't get any movement back. I dropped foot, all these issues. I eventually got surgery. And then that was kind of it. Like I signed with the dolphins in training camp that following fall in 2014, but it was a camp arm situation. And I realized too, being there, I was like, I'll never feel the same moving around, running, pushing off my back leg and all that. And that's when it kind of broadcast and came into my life. And I was like, all right, maybe I should start giving this a

serious look. How tough was that veteran combine to look around and go, I'm still trying in 2015? I think the tough part about it was the night before, because when you're out there like throwing and working out stuff, you're playing football, you're having fun. You're like catching up with guys that you kind of know or been around. It was the night before we're like, we got to talk. And obviously there's like sponsors for this stuff. And I can't remember like where they were from or what it was for. I don't think it was like for like fidelity or something, but it was the night before where like, we got to talk and obviously there's like sponsors for this stuff. And I can't remember like where they were from or what it was for. I don't think it was like for like fidelity or something, but it was like one of these sponsors talking. And I was

just like, I think I want to leave. I was like, I don't think I want to do this. Cause it was just so like, it was more of like the talk that you should be giving. Like, for example, you talked about the college programs where like you asked the strength coach, how many guys think they're going to NFL? And they're like, Oh, probably all of them. Right. But like actually only three wind up wearing jerseys, these a hundred guys. It was very similar to that. It was like being there for like an experiment. And so I knew a bunch of people of the NFL and I knew a bunch of the scout people already there. And I'm like, why am I here? Because like, they know who I am. They know what I'm capable of. If they need me to give me a call, but like, this isn't going to help me in any way. It was more for like helping the NFL,

if anything, with like having a name or somebody who's a name be there. And, uh, and I just remember the night before, like the talk, this guy gave, and he made it like such dire circumstances, all this stuff. And I was just like, I mean mean i feel bad for some of these guys because like i at least played like at this point like i had played for seven years like some of these guys hadn't got any playing time like at all and they were like a year or two into this journey or quest and this guy's just shitting on their dreams like i'm like well this whole thing is like set up to give these kids a chance and it's just like i don't know it was it was one of the craziest things ever and then i remember i got like drug tests and i was thinking to myself

um i remember i had a long talk with like i think it's dr lombardo uh lombardi or lombardo and he was like yeah we're worried about you guys you older guys uh because you guys are the ones that typically try to take and all this stuff i'm like i was just looking around i was like maybe that was the other indication. Like I'm to an age now where they're testing me for HGH and other, you know, performance enhancers because of my age. Like no one else has to worry about that because they're all young.

Maybe that's the other reason I shouldn't be here right now. Those are some great stories, man. Uh, it was, it was always, it was so much fun to watch it at ND and it's been a lot of fun to watch you as well.

Big noon kickoff starts at 10 Eastern on Fox. They go for two hours. We've had liner on and we know all those guys and it's really my favorite college football pregame show. It's terrific, man. So thanks so much for your time, man. All right, brother. Thank you.

You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. Three5 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible.

Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Let's have some fun with it here on friday get ready for the weekend although i gotta admit uh i think everybody enjoys this segment but if your weekend is dictated by this segment then i don't know maybe right now that makes some sense how are your weekends right now kyle how are things a lot of the same not a new video game just came out so it's gonna be uh it's gonna be it's gonna be wild over here yeah you know it are you how is that i gotta tell you i have not played any video games since i moved i really

enjoyed it it was a it was a real like end of the day kind of a come down thing for me where i'd be like all right you know what i'm gonna relax detach here and then as a writer i just went hey no more video games spare time needs to be unimproved i know a lot of people that are like that and i think they're probably right but i also sort of feel bad a little bit it's just so cool plus i just finished vikings i was late started on vikings the show and just finished it like on the heels of this vikings thing coming out so i'm like a pig and shit so i'm good how do you think you would have done as a viking no not well i really i think about it all the time my dad and i have conversations about this i think i'm like a pig and shit so i'm good how do you think you would have done as a viking no not well i really i think about it all the time my dad and i have conversations about this i think i'd like

to be the the seer guy who may or may not be doing drugs what does that mean the seer like the guy who's in the hut and it's like basically just like oh the gods said like a brant from game of thrones the one-eyed raven yeah sort of but I think they were more common than Brants. I think probably every little clan had one. But that guy seemed like he had a sweet gig. There aren't a ton of Sears now. You don't hear about guys being like, oh, this is Dave, this is Sear.

They all have toll-free numbers. Yeah, he's got a place down in Redondo. We're going to maybe have some beers at his place. He's also a seer so um he doesn't have cable yeah there's so you think you do bad as if i think a lot of guys like to think they would do well as a viking i think if you went straight time machine to viking times like the nostalgic part of like hey where's my ax and cool bearskin vest. Um, they'd be like, yeah, but everybody smells terrible. And you know, if you get in an argument over a, an ear of corn,

I can just chop your arm off, you know? So you would, you know, man sharpening, man, iron sharpening iron, as we like to say on this podcast quite a bit, certainly would, would sharpen you up. I don't know what I was doing the other day. I think it was... Oh, I know what it was. I was watching some Sopranos episodes again because I started reading this book about it. And Tony has that scene

where he builds a kind of like man cave, but it's outside. It's like that side thing. It's before the separation takes place's outside it's like that that side thing it's it's before the uh the separation takes place so it's like season four and he starts cranking these bag pipes because he has this new surround sound back in the day when you had surround sound where you were so fired up for your components you'd wire it you'd screw in a couple rear speakers you'd have front speakers you put in a subwoofer that was way too big for

your apartment, which I did. I was like king of that. Like, yeah, what's wrong with a 16-inch subwoofer in a one-bedroom? And people would just be like, dude, you suck. But he had this bagpipes thing going on. So I just was super into the bagpipes for a day, maybe a day. I worked out to bagpipes. I can't even imagine what the neighbors thought walking by the place like what the hell's going on in there just a dude in there screaming like wait and bagpipes going so whenever I think of that stuff and just walking out into a a dew-covered field in the English Scottish countryside whatever I mean Braveheart we've all seen the movie and then you like imagine the adrenaline rush, especially if you were a guy that just had like a stick.

You know, you were a poor Viking or now I'm just combining all sorts of eras, which I understand historically here, but just like, hey, what are we going to do? Oh, we're going to go invade this clan. All right. Well, you know, Eric Von Erickson is going to play drums. And then, you know, Leaf over Erickson is going to play drums and then, you know, Leaf over here is going to have a stick and then luckily Thor has an axe.

So let's stand behind Thor. I just, that level of, like what's more at stake than just, okay, we're going to walk across this field and fight these other guys because we're mad about the wheat exchange from last wheat season. I think about it probably too much. You should watch Vikings.

Yeah, I know. I know I should. I mean, their hairstyles, I don't think it was that fancy back then. But just time machine, none of us would have any chance whatsoever. But if you were brought up in that era and there's something to be said of, of, of how, I don't know.

Maybe none of us should ever wonder how we would do. Cause we would all do horribly. You just be mad at me. Like this pillow sucks. I'd actually, I wonder like, what are the things that I could say? It's like,

I can't be like, look at the cell phone and be like, what are the things that I know? You don't know that I know because we've been around for thousands of more years i don't think the list is that long like what things i could just teach they wouldn't want to yeah they wouldn't want to hear about your pillow thing um exactly you know the wheel is around irrigations around their boating acumen off the charts i know like when you looking. My list of helpful things is very short, if even one thing long. CPR maybe?

Heimlich? I could do that. Heimlich? Yeah, that would be good. Same life. I'm sure there was a lot of, there was probably a lot of pork being digested that just, you know, Vikings don't look like they do the chew rules the right way. That's right.

Mead. What if you started saying like, no, no, that's called a hangover. Leaf. Here's what you need. Here's no, no, that's called a hangover leaf. Here's what you need. Here's what you need. That's what it is. Get you some eggs and some bacon and we're going to put some cheese over that

and put it in. Let's grab some wheat. Maybe you could come up with the first sandwich. I'm sure sandwiches around before then. Who am I kidding? Maybe a wrap, you know? Yeah, crazy am i kidding maybe a wrap you know yeah but i don't know something crazy like a wrap yeah i don't know what the tortilla situation would be i don't even know if vikings would like vikings probably eat anything i can't imagine they're

super fussy eaters okay so that was the viking segment on today's show let's uh let's get back to life advice life advice rr at gmail.com i love this email a couple weeks ago ryan i was befriended by a guy that I asked for to spot at the gym. All right. So you asked him for the spot. He got my number and everything. Wow. That seems strange, but I thought, well, maybe he just wants to get in a lift sometime. A few days pass and I get a call from him asking if I could join a zoom call with him sometime to talk about some things. I'm a nice dude. So I just went along with it and said, sure. It turns out he was starting to recruit me to what is most likely a pyramid scheme have you ever ran into a pyramid scheme

guy at the gym and how would you handle a situation like this when you probably would see me regularly at the gym moving forward um thanks for everything okay uh yes i mean clearly when a guy is that forward um he might just be the friendliest guy but think about this like the guys listening to this podcast now and it's kind of weird. If you consider yourself or you kind of know you've been a cooler guy throughout your entire life, you have a cool set of friends. You do cool stuff. People like you. You don't feel like you're ghosted from your friends. And I know this is kind of difficult, but let's just be real here. Some of you have socially aren't as cool as other guys. It's just, that's it. That's the way it works out.

I've hung out with plenty of circles where I've looked around and gone, you're the least cool guy here. Just rein it in, you know, hang, hang in the background for a bit. And then I could be in another thing where I'm like, okay, I'm clearly the center of attention to this because none of these guys have had as cool of a life as I've had. So, you know, adapt, figure out your roles. Sometimes you take shots, sometimes you don't. So somebody who's really cool would never give you a spot and immediately say, Hey, give me your number. So that, that seems, I mean, unless you're the coolest guy of all time and you're giving off that vibe that this guy's like, I'm just going to hit on this dude because I want him to be in my friend group and hit on you in a friend way.

So chances are really, really eager contact guy. Something's going on. And so here you go. Zoom call. Ridiculous. And you're being recruited for this pyramid scheme. How would I handle it? I would tell you at an early age, but even more so as I get older, I enjoy conflict and I enjoy basically telling people, yeah, I don't want to do that.

Like, yeah, no. Yeah yeah that's a terrible idea but what actually what happened where somebody there's a story i forget oh i know what it was it was uh you know what fuck it i'll just share it there was a reporter that i think she thought i was uh i was into her i'm not sure i wasn't i was friendly uh professional and that kind of thing but i think she thought i was like a total mark and i was back in connecticut and my fridays really sucked because you know i didn't really have any friends. A bunch of my friends have been let go. You know, I didn't I didn't really have much going on.

And as far as the dating thing, I was almost exclusively doing long distance stuff. And so my Fridays, I sometimes would work out later. So I'd be at the gym at close that when I came home to eat, then the night would almost already be over, even though I was such a night owl back then, back in the East coast, cause I stayed up so late. So I would want the gym to be later than my normal routine where as soon as the show was done, I was all pumped up and like, you guys can make fun of me about the gym thing. I needed that. I needed that escape for the hour. I should be in better shape probably for somebody that works out and takes it seriously. But I needed that time because basically every waking moment

I had for 10 plus years, at least doing a daily radio show, all I thought about was the show. The minute I woke up to the minute I went to bed, all I thought about was the show. And I needed that time at the gym. And trust me, this will go back to the email here in a second. And so randomly, like one Friday, like a spring afternoon, I got right home. I trust me, this will go back to the email here in a second. And so randomly, like one Friday, like a spring afternoon, I got right home. I was like, you know what? I'm actually going to work out earlier. Maybe I can do something later tonight. And I get a call from this reporter and she's like, Hey, you like, Hey, what's up? She's like, what are you doing right now? I have a crazy idea. I'm like, uh, okay. She's like, what do you think about going down to New York city to pick up my dog?

And I was like, oh my God, that's a terrible idea. She was like, what? I go, oh my God. Yeah. I was like, I'm definitely not doing that. Are you kidding me? That's like two and a half hours at this time of day, Friday in New York city, and then drive back to get your dog.

Cause you're busy. Yeah. I'm not doing that. And she was like, what? Like, yeah, I'm not doing that and she was like what like yeah i'm not even that big of a dog guy honestly and then she kind of was like scaling back going well you know i was going to give you some gas money i was like oh yeah no i have tons of money i'm fine i don't i don't need your gas money yeah i'm going to the gym okay bye yeah yeah see ya and it was awesome because it was such a ridiculous request that i was going to get in the car and drive five hours

to pick up somebody else's dog because they were busy. I mean, who would ask? I might break up if I had been dating somebody that would ask me to do that. Like, you know what? I don't really see a future here and that's such an inconvenient five hours. Like, you know what? Why don't we just nip this in the bud now? So,

that's how I would handle that. And yeah, you're going gonna see him regularly don't we all need to do a better job he's the one that asked you for your number he's the one that recruited you for a pyramid scheme yeah he may drive a corvette whatever but you shouldn't feel awkward around him by telling him hey fuck off he should feel awkward about you that he used an opportunity for a spot to try to pitch you into buying into his pyramid scheme so don't don't have the guilt like we assign guilt in the wrong places all the time and for you the guy who just wanted to go get a lift in thought he maybe hit it off with some guy and he's gonna have a new male buddy you know sometimes we need that that'd

be great i've got a couple buddies from the gym, but it took some time. There were multiple spots. There were no pyramid schemes. And so that should be on him. Don't feel awkward. He should feel awkward. Fuck him.

I actually have a pyramid scheme story too. Have you ever been in a pyramid scheme, Kyle? No, like Cutco and stuff doesn't count, right? Because that hippocampus is pretty hard. Give me that. Give me that breakdown. I saw it coming a mile away, but everyone's like, no, dude, the knives

are like, these are solid knives. I'm telling you. And I just was like, I don't think I'm going to buy any knives to then sell knives. I just didn't, but I know there was a cutco was running rampant around poughkeepsie so wait a minute cutco is a uh knife company i don't even know if it's a pyramid scheme but i think you just you know you just buy a bunch of knives and then you sell them at a profit i think i think it sounds like tupperware because i remember being a little kid bored housewives would do tupperware parties right and so tupperware

would send you i think the stuff and then you would have tupperware parties and get people to sign up but then other person would have the tupperware party you know i think amway is this way but the pyramid scheme for me in college you know right on campus and i'm a pledge so i'm at a massive disadvantage anyway and i showed up to the house to probably do some errand or clean and uh these older guys i don't know they were like on a bender or something i don't know what happened i think it was like an all-night party and these dudes and so many of the older guys actually some of the guys that i just rolled with in school had so much money so it sucked being broke all the time but uh they were like, oh, no, pyramid.

They were doing it. No one advertised it as a pyramid scheme. They're like, oh, it's a money pyramid. And it took over campus for like days. It was crazy. So I was like, well, how's this work? And then an older brother was like, no, I'll bring you the ATM right now. It's 100 bucks to me.

And then once the slots below me are full, you have your own slot. And then the eight slots that are are full, you have your own slot. And then the eight slots that are being recruited for you pay you. And it's, you know, it's all you have to do is draw out a line and then two and then four and then eight, and then put arrows to who's going to have to pay it out. And there's your money pyramid because you know what, eventually it stops. And then a bunch of people in the middle get screwed over. If the people at the top even get paid people at the top at that one actually were getting paid. So that was the allure of everybody else doing it. I didn't know any better. And the killer line is, well, if you don't get your eight slots full, then you get your money

back, which is definitely not true. That's not how money pyramids work. It means that it spreads out. Some people get paid early on and then most everybody doesn't. And it sucks because then it puts you in a position where you're calling other people to invest in your money pyramid. I'm on the phone with buddies at St. Mike's being like, hey, are you guys aware of this money pyramid thing, man? It's like one guy made 2,400 bucks. And I wasn't doing it to be devious. I was doing it because I didn't know. I didn't know. And I'm like, yeah, I guess you get your money back if it doesn't work out. So, you know, it just keeps going and going and going. And guys are just on the phones, working the phones like crazy. And again, some people made money. And then of course, the guy at the top of mine was like, Hey, have you called St. Mike's yet? And then, you know,

after, after a day and a half, you're like, Oh, okay. Yeah. This is after you're trying to call and fill your slot, uh, you realize though, no, this is not going to work. And I'm glad I learned that lesson for a hundred bucks very early on. I could see you. Should we start a money pyramid though? Like if you and I get into it early and just... Can I be at the top?

Or like one of the lieutenants? Yeah, it's just... I just got to convince two people and then I'm good. Yeah, let me venmo you a few hundred then i'll call bill house and kevin clark yeah see that's your guy damn it i take i'll take o'connor yeah but you don't have to do anything if you're the start of it all you just sit back so oh that's true yeah i feel like o'connor would be a good one he just doesn't want to disappoint anyone o'connor would definitely pay the $100.

He'd be like, well, Ryan, I don't love this, but I really respect your word. Kev, my cousin really wants to get in it. He just doesn't have $100. Do you think you could sponsor him? So if you're really young and you hear about a money pyramid coming around, say, hey, how many days has this been going? And then how many payouts have there been? Or just say no.

Say no. Better say no. Because you know what you don't want to be doing is you don't want to be sitting there trying to pitch your other friends on this. has been going and then how many payouts have there been or just say no say no because you know what you don't want to be doing is you don't want to be sitting there trying to pitch your other friends on this okay we've done a lot of story time here we went a little longer with we're just going to do that one life advice and a big tease though big tease make sure you subscribe get everybody to subscribe rate and review need to keep doing that stuff so thank you for doing so van pelt joins us post masters on monday and i think vilma as well talking football because we're going to be

talking football on a monday no question but van pelt and i were chatting the other day he's down there butler cabin just you know the little pappy van winkle little short glass of it in his right hand and he's he's high-fiving. Well, he's probably not high-fiving. I actually am making all this up, except that Van Pelt, that part was true. He will join us. We'll talk Masters. We'll talk a bunch of other dumb shit as well because he's the man.

And it's always great to have him on. So we'll talk to you Monday. Have a great weekend. Thank you. you