The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Troy Aikman on an All-Time NFL Weekend, the Future of Mahomes vs. Allen, Aaron Rodgers, and Why Toughness Matters

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on an incredible NFL postseason weekend (0:28) before he is joined by three-time Super Bowl champion Troy Aikman of Fox Sports to discuss the Chiefs’ overtime win vs. the Bills, just how much the QB position has evolved since the 1990s and 2000s, the Packers’ loss to the 49ers, whether or not Aaron Rodgers’s future includes Green Bay, Troy’s thoughts about jumping to a new team near the end of his career, and more (13:24). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (44:12). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Troy Aikman Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

one of the all-time football weekends we will remember this weekend for the rest of our sporting lives as consumers of it we also saw another product this weekend and that was toughness i will explain troy acheman will go through all of. Even some of his end of the career stuff, which is going to be a lot of fun and life advice. I've read a lot of stuff this morning and, you know, some of the stuff last night of how this was the greatest weekend ever. So,

you know, before we're, I'm not sure. I'm just kidding. That was fucking insane. That was unbelievable. I mean, that really was one of the,

I don't know if it's the single best NFL weekend I've ever had or I've ever experienced. I'm not going to argue against it. We'll worry about that historically a little bit later, but here's just an example. Okay. I mean, Saturday still was a lot of fun. The Green Bay San Francisco game, it still was close the whole time. You're like, is this actually going to happen? And then it happens. The Packers lose at home in the playoffs again to a Niners team that didn't look like we could do anything offensively because they didn't. Then you have Joe Burrow, who looks like he's not even going to make it through the game. And then they pull that one out. And then the Rams debacle, which I was so happy for Stafford

because at one point I was so upset for him being like, he's done nothing wrong and they have four turnovers and they're going to end up losing this game because of Brady. Like, Brady's going to pull this one out. And then we get the main course and all time shootout. And so I was watching NFL rewind last night as I was cooking dinner at the estate here, a little home meal. It was funny. Cause I was, I was figuring, you know, there's some stuff I missed or Hey, what, what happened on some of these plays? Cause I was just, I just wanted to keep it on. You know, I didn't want to like not do anything football related I wanted to make sure it was still

football stuff because I was just in awe like you're just walking around your house by yourself going like this is I don't want this moment to end because of what we just watched and whatever the ESPN thing was doing they and then they switched it back to like all right let's go back to Tampa and revisit what happened there I was like, all right, let's go back to Tampa and revisit what happened there. I was like, oh, that's right. That was like four hours ago. The Rams game was four hours ago,

and I had forgotten it. I really feel like last night between the Chiefs and Bills and the Super Bowl, I don't think there's a team that Bills lose to. There's no one else. There's no other quarterback

the Buffalo Bills would have lost to yesterday. And as an aside, I actually feel bad for Bills fans. I just do because I know how much it matters to you. I know how much you care about this. I think no matter what, you have to respect a fan base where you know it is that important to them.

And it's a really good football team. And you just lost to Mahomes. And I don't even know that the Mahomes-Allen argument is even settled with this. I personally have a hard time putting anyone ahead of Mahomes. When I picked the Bills on Friday, I was like, I feel like an idiot even doing this because I'm picking against Mahomes. I don't really want to get into what the gap is. I don't think that because Mahomes won this game, it proved that the gap is in his favor. I just still would always defer to Mahomes.

It was perfect quarterback play. Perfect quarterback play. Mahomes accounts for 447 yards. And we saw him running a bunch early on. Why? Because there wasn't a ton of blitzing. They were keeping everything in front of him. They were playing deep. A lot of the stuff that we had talked about on Friday through all that.

And then Josh Allen on the other side is doing the exact same stuff. He had 397 yards from scrimmage. Here's a stat for you. The highest passer rating in playoff history, minimum 200 pass attempts. Mahomes is at 107. Josh Allen's at 106.6. So the two highest current career passer ratings

in postseason history in the NFL is the two guys we saw last night. The Chiefs hosting their fourth conference championship game, fourth in a row, The first time that's happened in 102 years of this game of football. So then we have 17 points and under a minute at the very end. Do you remember who the Chiefs player is that fell down? I

don't. We definitely wouldn't have forgotten if that was the game winning touchdown. Davis for the Bills ends up with four touchdowns. And it's like, oh, that's a record. Jerry Rice has never done it, as they say in the broadcast last night. Not that that's to be forgotten, but so many things happen so fast. I mean, we're talking under two minutes.

We have 17 points being scored. And then you have the kick with 13 seconds left. It doesn't make any sense. I listened to McDermott after the fact. He said it was execution. Execution starts with me. It sounded like he was being

a little vague about it. I do think there's a time when the mob all kind of goes in one direction. I'm like, hey, is there anything else to this? I don't think there really is anything to this. And by the way, if you're saying they were avoiding kicking off to Tyreek Hill, he apparently wasn't even on the field for either of the previous two,

the kickoff there and the kickoff at the end of the first half. So to not squib it, realizing even with all the timeouts, the Chiefs probably have a Hail Mary in them because you can really get, if it's at 14 seconds, 13 seconds, can you get them to two plays after it's squibbed and they have to return it? I don't know. I don't know if that's what you're able to do. And then you're playing sidelines, it looked like, maybe on some of the coverage, when it doesn't matter why you're playing sideline on the throw to Kelsey to set up the game-tying field goal when they already have all their timeouts anyway. So sideline doesn't even matter. The entire field is open, so just stay

with your regular coverage. You then have the overtime part of this come into it, which is a revisitation of every America's favorite topic, hating football overtimes, where I think it's funny how we simultaneously hate both, yet when one exposes itself as flawed, we somehow want the other one. Everybody hates college football playoffs too. I think it's pretty simple in the playoffs. How about this in the playoffs? The overtime rule should just be both teams get a chance to the football. That's it. I don't care how long it takes. I don't want to hear about a safety issue at this point for Josh Allen and not have a chance where normally I will say, Hey, stop them. Don't let them kick the field goal. Don't let them do

all these different things. I think it's okay to say in the playoffs, both teams should get a chance at this. And the funniest thing, the most ironic part, you probably already know this, is that Andy Reid and John Harbaugh headed up a group, I think, what, less than three years ago. It was back in 2019 where they were heading up a group trying to change the overtime rules and they got shot down. So the rules that Andy Reid was trying to get implemented didn't happen. And that was the best thing that could have happened to the Chiefs last night. It was just perfect football. It was perfect football from two quarterbacks. They're going to be dueling out forever. This feels like the beginning of Manning-Brady. It really does. And that's saying something because Manning-Brady will, I think there's an argument to be made that that's the number one kind of back and forth especially when you're in the same conference going at each other all those years when Manning

was down huge. They got that comeback against New England. He wins his first Super Bowl which felt like whoever got out of the AFC that year was beating the Bears. This is really what this feels like. It's the start of it and it was a reminder of why we love all this stuff. But there's another thing that I want to touch on here, and that's toughness. Because that's what was on display this entire weekend.

Toughness was also the product. It wasn't just football. When coaches talk to us constantly about physical and mental toughness, then they connect the two because they are connected. If you're able to hold up more physically, if it's conditioning, if you will not want to have your body shut down, and they connect the two because they are connected. If you're able to hold up more physically, if it's conditioning, if you will not want to have your body shut down, that's going to make your mental toughness that much stronger because you're not going to be impacted by fatigue

and then making poor mental decisions. All these things are talked about all the time. Go ahead, look it all up. Trust me on this one. But coaches, for the most part, we think they're crazy. And they are to an extent because they are in pursuit of something that's unobtainable right they're in pursuit of this this perfect game uh for my job which isn't nearly as cool

but i remember when i started off and i would screw up or i'd tease something wrong or have mispronunciations or whatever you know what i mean especially back then too i was doing like some six-hour shows and i would get so mad because i was trying to and the guy with the guy that i was working with i remember he was like hey there's no such thing as a perfect broadcast it just isn't it's not going to happen so stop trying to chase it and I was like no no I can figure and it was like no it's just not going to happen and that's why I think coaches drive themselves crazy sometimes drive their players crazy because you can have the most dominant win in basketball and then you're going to be watching the film you're like hey you know what you need to help earlier here you know

this you should have boxed out there and you're like all right I mean there's never going to be watching the film you're like hey you know what you need to help earlier here you know this you should have boxed out there and you're like all right i mean there's never going to be a version of a football game where you're going to go through three hours of film again game time versus what real time is being understand the point where you're not going to find something that could be a little bit better and that's why these guys lose their minds i think and i think that's why why they they have they are wired they are obsessed and they are constantly disappointed because the thing that they're chasing is never actually going to happen, that perfect game. But the toughness thing is solvable to a degree.

Now, a lot of it is the makeup of who your roster is. A lot of it is your leaders. A lot of it is the coaches. But toughness, even though we've looked at football over the years and there's been some eye roll stuff about how a football guy carries himself. It can feel a little Neanderthal-ish. That seems to be outdated. It seems to be uncool.

But here's what's never been uncool. The tag, the baddest man in the planet has never been thought of as like, that's an uncool thing. I wouldn't want to be the baddest man on the planet. I mean, most people probably don't think about that, but you get the point. Like it's something we love. We do deep down, if you love football, there's this part of you that does kind of love,

look at all these guys on the field, taking it out of each other for three hours, because it's a hard job. Think about being a defensive end and having 70, 80 snaps and trying to get to the quarterback. And if you don't get to them all day, it's like, hey, thanks. Or the tackle who's like, I blocked you 70, 80 times. You get them once, and then you beat me. And it's just hard. It's frustrating. And then you're going to want to quit, right?

Because I don't know how many of you, anytime you've ever done anything physical, whether it's as a laborer or just anything, just working out, right? When you're so exhausted physically and you're like, I just want to stop doing this. Most of us get to just stop. Other than the Masons out there listening and the football players we watch this weekend, you don't get to stop. You have to keep going. In those moments, you're like, I just don't want to do this anymore. But you don't have that choice really in a football game. Or if you do make that choice, that means you're losing a lot of football games. You may not have a career very long.

So even though football guy, whether it's a Dan Campbell at a press conference, you may not have a career very long. So even though football guy, whether it's a Dan Campbell at a press conference, you're like, what's this guy's deal? Or some old school dude in his bike shorts or Zubaz being an actual sober decision during the nineties, the football guy's different than us, but the message has always been the same. You know, think about the college coach that loses his shit in some presser, and you're like, I wouldn't trust this guy to make me toast, never mind be a leader of men. But his message about toughness was never a lie.

And that's what this weekend was. Think about Joe Burrow getting his ass kicked all day against a Tennessee front that destroyed them. He got sacked nine times. Keep fighting. Get times. Keep fighting. Get up. Keep fighting. San Francisco had zero offensive points.

Green Bay goes right down the field. It's 7-0. It's Lambeau. It's Snowy. It's Rodgers with an MVP season. He's looking for redemption off of all the bullshit over the past year. And the Niners are coming back after every punt, coming back to that sideline. And clearly they have the right dudes,

whether it's Bosa or Warner or Trent Williams or Debo or Juszczyk. Take your pick. Every time the offense looks like it has no chance, their defense is holding up, and the message on the sideline, I'm sure, is, hey, keep fighting. Keep fighting. This is football.

We still have a chance. Think about what Tampa and L.A. went through. L.A.'s up 27-3. Tampa's trying to convince themselves they're still in it. Brady's never thinking he's out. So that changes the dynamic for a team dramatically just because of his personal resume. When Brady got strip-sacked by Vaughn Miller, fumble strip-sack. me when Brady got strip sacked by Vaughn Miller fumble strip sack Brady was on the ground and he looked done I haven't seen I'm never gonna say I've never seen Brady look like that but I can't

remember how often I've ever seen Brady have the look on his face that he had when the camera was in on him he was on the ground he took a minute to get up, and he kind of looks up, and it looked like a guy right there that was like, I don't want to do this anymore. But that's not Brady because Brady was going to keep fighting. And on the other side for L.A., up 27-3. You blow that lead. It's 27-27, and you blew the lead to Brady.

Brady's going to pull this thing out. But for a Rams team that has some pieces from a Super Bowl run, but all the doubt ready to happen for Stafford, despite the blowing of the lead having nothing to do with him at all, there had to be that message of keep fighting. And think about last night. How many other teams, how many other quarterbacks would have thought, ah, this guy that I'm going up against?

How many other teams would have deep down had a moment where like, we lost this game? And that's what they did. Both sides, they kept fighting and who knows? If there was no sudden death, we might still be here. I think it's just an important reminder because there's always the eye roll for the Dan Campbell type that just keeps hammering the basics of toughness, physical, imposing your will, all that stuff that, again, seems to feel a little outdated, but it's never been a lie.

These coaches have always been telling us the truth because that's what this weekend and what football has always been about. Troy Aikman, Hall of Famer Fox Sports um this is going to be fun because I I I hope you don't you know mind the approach of like those of us who watch this who never played like what's it like for a Troy Aikman to watch Mahomes and Josh Allen battle Oh, man, it was, I guess, like the rest of America, just was a phenomenal game between two amazing athletes, two guys that are going to be the face already are in a lot of ways of the NFL for the next, you know, 10, 15 years. So that was terrific. It's one of those games. I, I always love seeing great quarterback play. Uh, I love seeing the younger guys, even though, you know, my homes is obviously, uh, an accomplished players, accomplished player as is Josh Allen. Um, but to see these guys do what they're able to do, you hate to see anybody lose a game like that. I think that's the, that's the takeaway for me that just a terrific game. I hated that one of those

teams had to lose. It was more of an NBA guy. I've grown really frustrated over the last few years because I've always felt like the older generation of players was dumping on these guys as if the evolution for humans was all in one direction, except basketball players somehow was going the other way. Sometimes it's pettiness, sometimes whatever. I understand some of the differences, but the shot making alone is off the charts. The shot that is acceptable for so many other players is just so different. I've talked to Steve Young a bunch from all the ESPN days. I completely agree as I'm sure you do as well.

The rule changes a lot of things that make it easier to make it safe for the middle of the field is open in a way that's never happened before. And even though all of that's right, is there a part of you though, that looks at like the arm talent, the precision, the throw decisions, like where are these guys now in comparison to kind of what you thought the position would be in the nineties, 2000? Yeah, I think there's a, I think it's a really good question. I think it's a fair question. Um, I think probably now more than ever, it becomes increasingly more difficult to try to compare quarterbacks or players of today's era from even back. I'd like to say the short time ago that I retired, but that's been 20 years now. So it's a lot of time has passed.

But I think each generation of players, the game has changed and it's hard to compare those those athletes. But what these guys are doing now is is pretty phenomenal. Each generation of players, the game has changed, and it's hard to compare those athletes. But what these guys are doing now is pretty phenomenal. I know that the game, I felt, has always been important to have quality play at the quarterback position if you're going to ultimately go on and achieve what you hope to achieve, but now more than ever. I think it's interesting you bring up the comparisons to basketball because I think that over the years, football has always been regarded as the ultimate team sport because there are 11 guys on each side of the ball that have to kind of play in unison in order for the team to have success. Although now I think that quarterback and we watched it last night with Mahomes and Allen that the quarterback now is impacting games at a level that we've just not seen before like a LeBron James or Kobe Bryant does or did in basketball. And so that part of it has been a lot of fun watching how the game has changed from more of a run oriented offense to primarily a passing attack and the things that they have to be able to do.

And they do do. And these games come down. You know, we'd have a few of those games each year, but these games all come down to the last five minutes. And in that sense, it's a lot like basketball, too. And I think that's what's made the game so popular uh with the fans is all of these games there's just so much drama at the end and we witnessed that uh to the you know nth degree over the divisional weekend each and every one of those games just coming down to the very end how much did jimmy let you do what you wanted to do in the beginning uh Let me do it in terms of what? Decision making. Yeah. No, Jimmy.

I mean, Jimmy and then the context of letting him do what he wants. Those two things, whether it was me or anyone else, Jimmy had us on a pretty tight rein. But when North Turner came in as our offensive coordinator, we did things within our offense um that were that were unique i think to what was happening around the league in a lot of places but not to the extent you know you didn't have the freedom and the leeway that you're seeing uh now pretty much across the board with all of these guys yeah because back to the basketball thing like at some point you go maybe we should have now pretty much across the board with all of these guys.

Yeah, because back to the basketball thing, like at some point you go, maybe we should have just let more guys shoot threes. Maybe you should have just like, because as soon as Steph did it, then other guys were like, maybe I can do this too. And I asked the Jimmy question, knowing probably what the answer is.

But, you know, even Stafford, there was a moment, but I think it was difficulty from the sideline getting the play into the comms. And he just waved him off. And I think I remember him saying, like, I got it. Like, look, I can call a play. Right. I know what the look is. I'll figure it out.

Where there feels like, is there part of you or maybe your generation that looks at some of the freedom for the quarterbacks that are trusted? You know, I wouldn't say every guy out there is trusted, but there's a little bit more manipulation. There's a lot, hey, you're out there, you're seeing it. What are you comfortable with? And this kind of stuff where it felt like there were times where you were so restricted. The position was more restricted than it is today. Yeah, I agree with that. I think it definitely was. They definitely put more of the game in the quarterback's hands. And I believe that these quarterbacks are well-trained. And when you're talking about guys like Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady, the older quarterbacks in this league, they just got a wealth of knowledge. I mean, in a lot of ways, they not only have the same knowledge as the

person who's calling the plays or as the offensive coordinator, but then they also have on the field experience, which is unique. So I think you take advantage of that, but we see young quarterbacks come into the game that are far more prepared because of the impact that the college game has had on the NFL. And we're seeing those young players also be given a little bit more freedom with that as well. So the game, the clearly, it's more of a fast break attack, spread offenses, throw it around. Whereas I think we were certainly much more structured. There were a few teams, Green Bay and San Francisco, that compared to my era were more wide open attacks,

but still nothing to the level like we're seeing across the board in the NFL now. How surprised were you by the outcome of the game that you did there in Green Bay? Not surprised. I would not have been surprised if Green Bay had won, but much like San Francisco going into Dallas and winning that game, And much like San Francisco going into Dallas and winning that game, it wasn't that I just felt that San Francisco was going to win the game, but was not going to be surprised as to whatever the outcome was. And that's how I felt with the Packers and the 49ers playing in that one, really all the games. I just thought that, you know, all of those teams had a legitimate chance of going on and winning. And I think San Francisco's built, we talk about where football is right now with a lot

of these teams and a lot of these quarterbacks. To me, the 49ers are built a lot like the teams that I was a part of that won championships. They're very physical. They run the football, the play action game. And when you're able to, when you have that toughness, which they have on both sides of the ball, you can go into a place like Green Bay in those conditions and find a way to win, which is what they were able to do. This is open-ended, but how do you feel about Aaron Rodgers? I think he's fantastic. I know Aaron well. Consider him a friend.

Great player, of course. But yeah, no, I think a lot of Aaron. Is there any part of you that, well, if you're that close with him, then you understand his frustration greater than any of us could. You know, we're just people talking. So I personally was like, okay, you're this upset about the situation. I understand there's plenty of stuff that I don't have information on, but it's a really good team. And I know it's a disappointing loss,

but it's a team that's positioned moving forward to still be competitive. I mean, if you're that close with them, then you're probably not going to share anything with us that would betray that trust. But I think it's something that maybe a lot of us have a hard time of fully understanding what his priorities would be moving forward if there's's a big decision coming if there's a decision as far as whether he wants to go play elsewhere yeah yeah i i don't know about that we haven't gotten into those conversations um as far as what he may or or may not be thinking um i i don't know i think that

when if he comes back i mean on the on the one hand, they drafted a quarterback that is his heir apparent, uh, which is what happened when he was drafted when Brett Favre was still there. So I think he recognizes that, that the organization drafted who they at least initially thought was going to be the one who replaced, replaced him. And I think that he wanted some assurances that he was going to be in their plans for several years. What that looked like or what those conversations were, I really don't know. We've not talked about that.

But if he stays in Green Bay, I think that it's incumbent on the organization, as it would be if he went elsewhere, that they have good players around him and you don't waste the talents that he has on being with a team that's going through a rebuilding. I can't imagine if Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback. I just don't think you're in a rebuilding process.

I mean, it doesn't make any sense. So I don't think that – I know that's the term he used. He doesn't want to be part of a rebuild. I don't feel that that's the case in Green Bay. And it would be – I guess if he left, it would be a lot like what happened in Tampa Bay with Tom Brady. Tampa Bay was not a real good football team when Tom decided to go there. But they got a lot of really good players around them. And they went out and then won the Super Bowl. So I think sometimes the idea of maybe going somewhere else. And I think everyone out there

listening to this can probably relate. Not if you're a Packers fan, because, you know, you're pretty narrow-minded with that. But I think we all understand that, hey, you know what? Sometimes change is good. Sometimes that's fresh. Sometimes that re-energizes you. Is that what he's thinking? I really don't know. I know he loves playing for the Packers. I know he loves playing with those teammates that he has. He's said many times that he's loved that locker room this year more than any team he's been a part of. And I think right now he's just going through a really frustrating period because when, you know, I said it last week and I think some of it got kind of taken out of context,

but when you go into the post season, if you don't win a playoff game and for Green Bay, they had higher aspirations than that, but it is is such it's a disappointing letdown when you lose in the postseason anyway but when you lose in the opening round especially when you're the number one seed it doesn't get more demoralizing than that there's teams that didn't make the playoffs that don't feel as bad as the Green Bay Packers and so I think that probably a lot of emotion that he was experiencing following that loss were you able to connect on the jordan love thing because it was similar to when craig cupp came in to back you up that story is it made the rounds again because it basically was on the internet it was like here's the time where troy aikman forgot that cooper cupp's dad was backup that was when you told that story on the broadcast I could tell it

was just it was actually so funny too because it was just out of nowhere uh yeah I mean I I know I knew Craig and I know Craig but I had totally forgot that Craig was was Cooper's dad and that he had been with us I mean he was he wasn't with us for that long of a time. I don't know how long he was with us, but someone mentioned it. And I think it was Sam Farmer who went and did an interview with the family and said, hey, Cooper's dad played with you. And I said, really? And then he's telling us, oh, man,, yeah, you're right. I mean, I didn't know that was Cooper's dad and he wasn't with us really all that long. I'm not even sure exactly how long, but, but yeah. And so, and then, you know, it's a crazy world we're in. I, I, I mentioned that,

uh, I loved, uh, uh, you know, Craig when he was with us and, uh, then that was taken, like I was taking a shot at him, which I was not. But anyway, I think Cooper is, I think Craig's awesome too. They obviously did a heck of a job raising Cooper. But Cooper is an amazing player. I'm a huge fan of his. Yeah. I mean, what's going on there?

What's the numbers that he put up? Anyway, he was with you for 91. I guess you'd gotten hurt. I looked it up. You'd gotten hurt, and they brought him in to add depth behind Steve Berline. So, you know,

I'm sure there's a few backups there. Yeah, I missed five games. I missed five games there in 91 at the end of the season. If you look at the end of your career, and we know, and this isn't the end of the interview or anything,

but I just, you know, I think Tampa and Tom, you know, it was a unique situation because I think Belichick and the Patriots, or truly Belichick, that's the only scenario where Tom Brady's on a different team. You know, that really is. I don't think there'd be any other team after 20 years that'd be like, no, we're good if you go somewhere else. So people could see what he does. We've heard rumblings about more quarterbacks. It's a different era, right? I mean, it's still 20 years ago,

but was there ever a moment for you towards the end that you started looking around where you started thinking about your own future somewhere else because the team was struggling? Yeah. Yeah, there was. When I was leaving Dallas, it was clear towards the end of my last season with the Cowboys that I wouldn't be back

in Dallas if I were going to continue to play. There were a lot of reasons for that. Some of it was financial. But I then was starting to look at whether or not I wanted to maybe try to go play somewhere else or if, in fact, I was going to retire and truth be told that North Turner at the time was the offensive coordinator with the chargers. Mike Riley was the head coach and I had gone to San Diego and had met with everybody, but their general manager, John Butler, who John had come from Buffalo and Buffalo at the end of that season was, it was obvious they were either going to release Rob Johnson or they were

going to release Doug Flutie. And I'm having these conversations with Norv and other people in the chargers organization. And I had decided that I was going to come back and play one more year. And I was going to sign with the chargers if an offer was made. And then the bills released Doug Flutie. And I was going to sign with the Chargers if an offer was made. And then the Bills released Doug Flutie. And I got a call from Norv the next day, and he said that the team had just signed Doug Flutie as their veteran quarterback.

And that year was actually when they drafted Drew Brees. Flutie was the starter in that 0-1 season. Brees was his backup. And so when they decided to go that route, and now I know why I didn't meet John Butler, because he was always going to take whoever Buffalo released. It was either going to be Rob Johnson or Doug Flutie. Then when they took Flutie, then I said, well, that makes it easy. Then I'm going to go ahead and retire. And I did. And looked at maybe coming out of retirement a couple of different times. But then ultimately, as you know, I didn't. And it was probably the best thing that I didn't. Did Jerry help you at all through this decision? Because I know with certain guys, he'd be like, look, I still want to talk to you because you're one of the greats. I just wondered if you never want to see you in another uniform.

wondered if he never wanted to see you in another uniform. No, Jerry and I did not have that conversation. Well, we had conversations because as it related to my contract and what that was going to do to cap space, if I was released after June, then it would be more favorable for the Cowboys. I didn't want to wait till June because if I did, there was a chance that if I wanted to play, that the teams that I would have wanted to play for

wouldn't need a quarterback. So we worked through that. Jerry and I did. In that conversation, I was released prior to June. I was released in March, but then ultimately didn't play. Whenever the Cowboys lose, as we had last week, I always feel like there's kind of these rules where if we can label something, as we had last week, it's, I always feel like there's kind of these rules

where if we can label something, if we can point to one thing and something goes wrong, it's that much worse. And for the Cowboys, when it goes wrong, like it goes wrong for most teams in the playoffs,

and then this is an extended run of disappointment based on what this franchise has been during your time, it's okay. Well, it has to be because of Jerry. It has to be because of all these things. And I don't know if that's right or wrong.

I know that this roster seems really talented. I know that it seems like Dak is the answer for a decade plus. I'm sure you have great understanding of what's real and what isn't, but what's real about what you think has been the biggest issue for the Cowboys having kind of this long drought? I think it's hard to put your finger on it, quite honestly. I mean, this was a team that last year was obvious. I mean, they didn't get into the postseason.

They lost Dak Prescott. The season was essentially over at that point. This year they come back. And even though they had some injuries early in the year, Dak was healthy and key players were there at the end. And they were a really good team. As someone who gets to travel around and see most teams in the NFL at some point or another during the year the Cowboys stacked up as as talented as anybody in the NFL so to then get into the postseason and just not play your

best football which happens I mean it happened to me in 94 we lost the championship game and got off to a terrible start it happened when we looked around the league this past week, teams that didn't feel like they got it done. So that's the disappointing thing. Why has that been the case seemingly for the last 25 years? I don't know. There's been times where maybe the team hasn't been quite as good as what everyone has thought. But in recent years, that hasn't been the case. They've been the number one seed at different times, have failed to get out of the divisional round, haven't yet made it to a conference championship game since I last played one in 1995.

And so it's a hard one to really quite figure out because the team, when you look at the regular season record of the Cowboys over that period of time, you know, they're one of the best teams in the regular season. They just haven't been able to get it done in the postseason. And it hasn't really mattered who their quarterback has been or who their head coach has been or anything else. They just haven't been able to get it done. And I guess if Jerry had the answer to that,

he would certainly be winning Super Bowls because there's nobody who wants to win one more than he does and is willing to try to do whatever it takes to do it. Because when it was him as the GM, it's like, well, he's a bad GM. And then I'm like, man, I look at that roster. I really like it. Yeah. Yeah, I think Will McClay, he's had opportunities to go on

and become the, you know, he's, he's, he's not the general manager as far as titled that in Dallas, but he does a lot of the general manager responsibilities. And, you know, he's played a significant role in the acquisition of talent, the drafts, and all that goes with that. But yeah, they're really talented. You can't, if the general manager's job is to acquire talent and put the roster together, pretty hard to argue with the roster that they had this year. You had said something a little earlier in people, you felt like people took it out of

context a little bit about losing early. There was also something that came up from last week when you were doing the Tampa Eagles game that everybody seemed to love. You hinting that you would have loved to have been calling the Cowboys and Niners. There were headlines that said Aikman furious over assignment. That was not you being furious. I don't know you that well, so I don't think furious is the right way. But what was the reaction to that? I have no idea.

I mean, I really don't. There were some that were trying to say that I said I'd rather be doing that game than the game I was doing. That wasn't the point at all. I mean, I'm thrilled to be doing any game. But Joe said, hey, that should be a, I'm thrilled to be doing any game. And, uh, but we, Joe said, Hey, that should be a great game. It should be an amazing game. And yeah, I would have, I would have loved to have called that game. You know, there's no question I would have, it's a huge ball game. And, uh, but I, but that didn't mean that I would love to be calling it

over the game that I was calling or that I was upset that I wasn't calling the game. I was confused quite honestly, when, when it first came out, I thought that there was upset that I wasn't calling the game. I was confused, quite honestly. When it first came out, I thought there was a chance that we would be calling that game. And that if we weren't calling that game, then that meant that it was either going to be on ESPN or it was going to be on NBC, which is what happened. We have that happen a lot, especially the final game of the season and the regular season over the years, the league is the one who assigns those games. But I was confused when an NFC matchup went to the network that covers the AFC with CBS. So I didn't understand that. I still don't really understand that.

They say that CBS paid more money to get that. I don't know how all that works. I was a little confused by it. And I would have loved to have called the game, but that's kind of where it starts and where it ends. I wasn't furious. But I think that's the irresponsibility of media and social media and all that we have. They decide what your intentions were or what you meant by something. And then they run with it.

It's not much you can do about it. I've always thought you and Joe are fantastic. Um, you know, which is, it just goes without saying. And one of the things that I've always appreciated about the Fox side of it. And again,

I was at ESPN for a decade and a half. So it was different is that Fox feels like when they have the group, then they just kind of let it work. You know, there's not, you don't tinker with it. You don't fuck with it every season. You just go, Hey, and maybe it's just them being lucky that you and Joe are that terrific. And that the pregame guys have known each other as long as they have.

And it, there, there isn't this tinkering. I guess I'm asking you because it's not like you were at ESPN, but there just seems to be an incredible amount of trust from Fox executives to go, Hey, we think we have this right. And let's not mess with it. What's that been like for you? Well, I think that's right. I do think that's right. I think that's kind of, kind of the approach by Fox. Uh, I think you're right in saying number one, because there's a lot of continuity. The pregame guys, they pretty much do their thing the way that they've been doing it. They're the best at it.

And everyone understands that. Don't mess with a good thing. They've been doing it since, what, 1994. Pretty much the same crew. And then for Joe and I to now we're wrapping up our 20th year together and the number one booth is pretty incredible and and i and i've also had the same producer for all 21 years of my broadcasting he was with me when i first started out my first season uh richie zion so uh i think that yeah i would hope i mean after 20 years you'd hope that they they feel good about the work you're doing and and they understand you know how to to go call a big game and get it right.

So it's been good. I think that Fox is unique. Of course, it's the only place I've worked. But I think Fox is unique in that we don't have a whole lot of layers. And it never has been that way. It's always kind of been this mom and pop type operation. never has been that way. It's always kind of been this mom and pop type operation. So when I was hired, David Hill was running Fox Sports and then Ed Goren was the other one. And whenever you had a concern or they had an issue with you, you heard directly from them. Or if you wanted to ask about something, not just me, anyone, you talk directly to them. So immediately as a talent, an on-air talent, I'm talking immediately to the people, the decision makers. And it's that way now where we've got Eric Shanks

is now taking over for David Hill. And then Brad Zager has taken over for Ed Gorn. And so it still looks and feels the same. And those guys all had relationships with David and Ed. So there's been this continuation of how things have always been and it's remained that way. And I know when people do come from other networks, they talk about that. It feels really good. It does feel like a family. I don't know if ESPN feels that way or CBS feels that way, but Fox definitely does. And I think people who come from elsewhere, uh, they feel that. One of the things I appreciate about you as a broadcaster is that, you know, it's a, it's a kind of a tough spot, right? You can, you have access to these coaches, these players, the quarterbacks, you don't be a dick. You know what I mean? Like you end up, you end up getting to know a lot of them.

Like, hell, I mean, Belichick, I can tell is, you know, towards the end there with Phil Sims, it was, it was so close and that's not even a critique, but there's still are moments where the audience is at home watching something not work out. And you're like, all right, these guys are going to be critical of him. And I, there was a moment last year when it was the saints at bears in the playoff game. Right. And, um, saints were were up a couple touchdowns. It ended up being 21-3 and then the Bears scored a late

touchdown. But there was a three-and-out after Trubisky and the Bears had gone down 21-3 and they had just previously had a three-and-out. And you said something because I, for the most part, was like, I don't really feel like Trubisky's the guy. Again, that's me at home. But you said something that I thought was so revealing.

And you'll do it every now and then with a quarterback where you were like, hey, look, it's 21-3. You start taking some chances here. You start dialing it up a little bit. And if you're still checking it down and you're still throwing it, this isn't the job. The job of the quarterback has now changed based on game and situation. this isn't the job. The job of the quarterback has now changed based on game and situation. Do you have moments where you probably could give us more about how you feel about a quarterback and how he actually,

how his game is coming about? Because I think there's, there's hints. If I'm listening to you closely, there's hints where I can almost tell like you're sort of out on a guy because of some of the decisions that he's making, which is part of the job too, which may feel mean at times.

Yeah. I, um, I feel, I feel like my job is to certainly give my opinion. And yet I try to do it in a way that's respectful of the people on the field that are playing and coaching. I have great respect for those people. And so I think it's a balance. I have great respect for those people. And, and so I think it's a balance. I, I, I'm not interested. I mean, like I said, to begin, I admire all these quarterbacks and I want all these quarterbacks to play well

and do great things because I know how challenging the position is. And I know how demoralizing it is when you're not winning and having success. But I just try to, I think the, the viewer, I think you owe that to the viewer. I think that the person at home was probably thinking the, the same thing that I said. Um, and so I, I think you have to be, I think you have to be honest. Um, it's not always easy. It's not always fun to do. But I think that's what I get paid to do. And I and I try to like I said, I try to do it in a way that is informative, but yet also respectful to the people that are in the middle of the action. Before we let you go here, tell us about eight beer, which appears to be the farm to table of beers. ate beer, which appears to be the farm to table of beers. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like that.

Yeah. You know, I, I worked for a distributor back when I was in college in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I've had some relationships with people in the beer business. I like beer, but I never imagined that I would be making my own beer. But I was introduced to these three people who are now my partners through a mutual friend. And we began a conversation about whether it was a path that I'd be interested in taking. And the more we talked about it, the more I thought about it, I felt that it was something that was consistent with my lifestyle and what was important to me. And so we decided to move forward. I felt that, first of all, And so we decided to move forward. I felt that, first of all, there's over 8,000 breweries in America, and we dove into the segment of that that's probably the most competitive, the light beer category. But I felt that what's on the market, that it was time for something new, something fresh. I felt that we could do it differently and in a way make a better beer. And I feel like we accomplished that. So what makes eight different and unique than the other beers that are on the market is

that we have no adjuncts and no fillers. We have no corn, no rice, no syrups, no added sugars in ours. It's an all malt light beer, which is really unique. In fact, I can't think of another widely available beer that can make that claim. And it tastes fantastic. It has all the measurables that we had hoped for, 90 calories, 2.6 carbs. And so I wanted to make a beer that was made for those who put in the time, put in the work during the week, much like I do. I work out really hard. I'm very regimented. I'm disciplined in what I consume and what I put in my body. But I also feel that there are moments with family and friends and special times in life that are to be celebrated. For me, that's over a beer. And so to be able to have a beer that

doesn't compromise all that work that you put in during the week is what I wanted to do. And I feel like I feel like we did that. I like to refer to it as a better for you beer. I like what you said. Farm to table. We do use 100 percent organic grains. We use antioxidant hops in our beer. So it's, it's as, it's as clean as it can possibly be. And I can't wait for people to try it. It comes out on February 1st. It's exclusive to Texas to begin with. I hope we're having a conversation at some point in time about moving beyond the borders of Texas. Um, but I'm really excited about people trying it. Awesome, man. That's a, that's a pretty cool story. So good luck with it. Yeah. Hey, thanks. Yeah. Thanks for the time

today, Troy. Appreciate it. pretty cool story. So good luck with it. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for the time today, Troy. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Appreciate you. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am

liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Before we get to life advice, I think I need a ruling from you guys. And I got the finger yesterday in a traffic incident. I feel like the middle fingers are flying a little more frequently.

Lately, maybe it's the last couple years. I don't know if we can blame millennial entitlement and that doesn't seem fair. So we're not going to do that. So well, that's what I'm asking. That's what I'm asking. I don't think it was, but I'm open to potentially realizing that's on me. So that's what, that's what a leader does. Wait a minute. Come full circle. Yes. Yeah yeah we've got Christopher Nolan film noir filter over here for Kyle today what's going on with what is that husky do what I'm just I'm running out of filters and I'm saving the shocking ones for when we don't have as much going on in the offseason for football

so this is just a black and white filter just regular black and white yeah but yeah I hadn't seen it just threw me off. All right, so here's the situation. Two-lane main artery rosecrans, actually. I'm headed back into Manhattan Beach, leaving the gym. No big deal. And I needed to get left to go to the grocery store. So you know how those left light arrows are.

You know, you got to kind of catch it. Because if you don't catch the arrow, you're going to be stuck waiting. And, you know, who's in a hurry? I i guess we all are even though we shouldn't be so whatever so as the two lanes are merging um you know the two lanes are going straight and then the third lane sort of creates itself right the third lane starts to open up and exist so there's three red lights all the way across um there's some other details that I can get into, but I don't want to turn this into a traffic court situation. So we've all got reds, right? So the two straight lanes have reds and then the arrow has a red, but I know the light. So I was kind of like, all right, I'm going to want to get into this left lane so I can get behind a couple of

the other cars here and make sure I catch the light at this time. So as everybody usually happens at a red light like you just go up to the car that's right in front of you right it's pretty pretty common and there was a pretty tricked out all black windows mercedes benz i think i'm not sure benz beamer foreign car coupe and yeah right and she decided she was just going to stop like eight lengths behind the car in front of her, which blocked off my entrance to get into the lane. So, you know, I kind of pulled up, pulled up, and, you know, was turning my wheels so that it was clear that I was like, hey, I'm getting ready to get into this lane that's about to exist. You know, a couple of car lengths up.

If you just move up a little bit, I can get into it. And she just decided, nah, I'm not going to do it. So I couldn't see if she was on a phone. I didn't know if it was male or female even at that point. So I then kind of got like, let me get up a little bit more here. And she inched up a bit. And it was almost like, I'll move up a little bit to show you that I could, but then I'm actually not going to.

Yeah, it's almost worse. Yeah, that's worse than doing nothing. And I never honk, but I was just like, hey, now look, her position could have been, who gives a shit? They're all red. It doesn't matter. You're not going anywhere.

I can let you in the lane. You're not going anywhere either. What I'm arguing is, yeah, but positioning-wise, the sooner I'm in position, the better chance I have of making this arrow because it's your only chance of getting across. And if not, then you go back through the cycle. Again, grand scheme of things,

none of us need to get there as fast, but that's just not how any of us work when you're in the car. Like when you're in the car, you're like, why are you not pulled up? Pull up these car lengths. Let me get into this lane and I'll get in my position. And so I honk and she just decides she's not going to move.

And the light goes green. So now she has to let me in. And now I'm not sure if's not going to move and the light goes green so now she has to let me in and now i'm not sure if i'm going to make the light or not and then i kind of was you know i just leaned over to just look at her to be like what's what's your deal what's going on with you today here we go and just just window down finger right out of the window. How was your honk? Were you graceful in it? Tap, tap, tap. Sometimes it gets away from you. Less than a quarter note.

Some of those Indonesian notes that you hear about that are even quicker than a quarter note. I don't know if you understand any of this vocal stuff they do. These people sing two notes at the same time. It was quicker than that. It was a polite honk, if you will. Yeah.

The only thing I could be accused of on the aggressiveness was I started pulling up to be like, hey. Like, you know, how you kind of like, so you hope you see it. If I'm in a situation where people tend to more today than ever before, lose focus a bit as you're stopped in traffic. You're like, oh, shoot, I need to get up. Or you kind of see in your rear view somebody kind of get on you. You're like, all right, well, that was on me. So I need to adjust. She was like, no, you're not going anywhere.

It's all red lights. Why do you care? And here's a finger. So she was wrong and aggressive. not going anywhere it's all red lights why do you care and here's a finger so that's she was wrong and aggressive that's not your fault but um i think you would have saved yourself a middle finger if you didn't lean over like you wanted to see what the fucking problem was well because it was because she was still kind of there like drag she just decided whatever like today's my day and everybody's gonna be held up i'll add she also had a yankees hat on oh yeah i've always wanted to do like i don't know if it's like a youtube show or something but like get two people in that situation who are clearly they both think

the other one is in the wrong after a traffic incident and just talk it out like what tell i want her to come on the pod and explain to her why she wouldn't move like maybe she had a good reason she probably didn't it doesn't sound like it but i would just love to hear her side of the I want her to come on the pod and explain to her why she wouldn't move. Maybe she had a good reason. She probably didn't. It doesn't sound like it. But I would just love to hear her side of the story. Because every time when you're on the road, you're like, this person sucks. They don't know what they're doing.

And I just want to know what's going through their mind. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no one is more self-serving than any of us in any kind of traffic. That's why I always use that theory of the four-way stop, where there's always somebody who screws it up. And sometimes it's you. And when it's you, the speed with which you try to pretend it's not your fault is like the fastest thing any of us have ever done. Right?

So like even when it's kind of on you and then somebody gives you the honk and you'd be like, well, yeah, what the fuck? You. I'm just trying to fucking go. You and it's like all right because there's always the guy at the stop and it's always a guy that is like oh you assholes wait like i just go i just do me and you're just like all right yeah cool you won us idiots over here going in order life advice rr at gmail.com kyle it's just endless um i guess you're just picking a few of these so you kind of lumped them together are are we anywhere with the nigerian beast workout uh no he he actually said funny enough he went on a bender on Friday because I saw him on Saturday. I apologized. It seemed like he almost forgot that we were supposed to do it. He was

like, do I look okay to you? I didn't go to sleep last night. And I was like, okay, so you didn't miss me on Friday. And he was like, what are you talking about? So that was okay. And then I really sat down, had a long talk about why eight o'clock is not good for me and why this is just going to keep happening if we keep it at eight o'clock. So then he says, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, what's the earliest you can get here? I was like, you know, if Ryan and I could get our stuff together, if we can all get it done, maybe I could be there at 1130, 1145 AM. But as I'm looking at it now, it's 945. He told me no 10 o'clock. So we're kind of in the same boat. We're just now at 10 a.m. rather than 8 p.m. Hopefully, I think he made it sound like we could try for 11. But what can you do? I'm going to take a walk today. I got some 35 pounders in

the house that I overzealously bought a year ago. I wish I went with like a 30 or a 25 because I could just do less with them. So maybe I'll just start working out in the old office. All right. Bunch of questions. Can't get to all of them today, but I don't know that I like that your trainer asked you after an all-night bender where he didn't sleep,

how do I look? Do I look bad? I haven't slept. I just don't know if I want that out of my trainer. Part of me likes it. Part of me respects the fact that maybe that's the perfect trainer for you. He's a real guy.

This guy gets it, and he knows how to get the toxins out. But now I also sense the hinting Cerruti ruling on this, a Cerruling, if you will. Am I partially to blame in your timeline? did i pick up on that i took detect a little no no ryan and i no no i told him i told him basically listen guy after after one o'clock i got nothing to do why do you think i'm sitting in a frolic room at three o'clock on a wednesday why do you think it is i got nothing to do and that's when you're busy is when i'm not busy and then you know tuesdays are wild. Tuesday, Thursday is wild card. Just with Bill, who knows?

And then it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday. After two o'clock, I'm good to go. And then he's like, all right, so sit around all day. And then at eight o'clock, we'll get going. So I was just like, listen, I'm going to just keep standing you up at eight o'clock. I don't want to do it to you. It seems like you forgot I was even supposed to be here. So that's fine.

So do you think we could work it out at an earlier time? And he's like, all right, 10 o'clock. I was like, okay, now that's a bad time as well. I know it seems like I'm trying to weasel out of this, but I'm thinking 12, one o'clock. And so it ended up with him just saying, maybe I'll just be late for work some days. I'm usually late anyway. So if you could show up at like 11 ish, then maybe we could do it. It didn't sound real strong. That's why I'm going to take a long walk today. And I'm walk today and I'm going to pump some iron in my office. Take a long walk. You got the 35s.

Do some overhead presses maybe. That's a good 35 one, right? You could maybe do some curls, some leg dips. There's a bunch of things you could do with 35-pound weights. Why don't you ask the guy to give you a couple pointers too

instead of maybe going all in. Be like, all right, give me a couple exercises to work out. See if we're on the same page, see if this is working for me. And then you can work out the time situation. I guess he told me like, it's going to be like some magic shit,

like not like magic, but he was just like, you don't even understand when you work out with me and you can eat whatever you want. He made it sound like it's going to be the best. He's like, I can eat whatever I want and I'm going to be a fucking beast per his words.

So, I mean, I'm really, I'm really hoping I can get in there at some point. But, you know, I was thinking, I mean, I'd love to get those benches that like you can lay down, but also you could put it up at a 90 degree angle. I don't want to be using this chair trying to do some overhead stuff.

I'm a tall guy. I'll probably end up putting those dumbbells through the ceiling if I, you know, if I try to do one of those things. So I'm not really sure where to start, but I think it might be a good start to get one of those benches that goes to a 90 degree angle all right well i don't know about this partnership i'll just say we'll just leave it at that but we'll gladly entertain the updates and

by the way the 35s are great 35s are perfect um curls by the way sruti easy easy over here fucking well kyle's a big dude i'm i couldn't do that i'm curling like 15s i'm not saying you can't curl through but like if you haven't lifted in a while just curling 35s out of nowhere it's yeah i wish they weren't 35 who is it steph curry i wish they weren't 35s why don't you just look do 20 reps of just flat bench do some do do them close together right can i come over some front squats yeah you know what i'm fine no no no no you're right. Cause Kyle sent a text the other day about an event that we were all invited to. And I was like,

yeah, I just don't really know if I can do that. I was like, you're on though. I was like, go for it. And then Kyle's like, we haven't seen each other Ryan in two years.

And I was like, wow, I didn't even know that. And then he gave us a sad face emoji and I felt guilty. Cut deep. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sharing that.

And I'm sorry. I didn't ask Kyle ahead of time if I could share that emotional exchange, but I'm sharing it cause I want the entire audience to be part of the community as well. Okay, here we go. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Deployment night out. 27-62-195.

Huge fan. Long time in the Air Force. First deployment. Been happily married. Loved my life almost two years. Feel incredibly lucky. Deployment is hard, but we do a good job communicating and facetime for a little uh for a little bit most days a couple weeks ago a group of three of my buddies two that are married okay

so here we go four guys uh we're given overnight liberty out in italy that would have been you kyle in spain overnight liberty yeah who knows kyle could have been a general by now um we get a hotel hit the town eventually ended up in a strip club i'm not big into strip clubs but have been to a handful of bachelor parties etc my wife has asked before if i've been to strip clubs and says she doesn't really mind for cases like that this particular place was dead but had the weeknight all you can drink 40 euro trap which of course we all go for most of the night and it becomes hazy real quick. From what I remember, we ended up getting a couple of lap dances at one point during a dance, the stripper tried kissing me and I said, whoa, Hey, I'm married. I can't do that. I did spend

most of the night conversing that with that one stripper and things did get pretty handsy, but honestly, the night is very blurry with all the boozing we end up stumbling out of the club something like three four in the morning the next day i checked my credit card here we go and realized i swiped for nine hundred dollars at this place whoa don't know how much what caused it but consensus seems to be they saw a group of drunk americans and hosed us because all my buddies had similar charges there you go that's why they're so friendly the entire time. All right. Following the night, we discussed that we should not mention this night to our significant others. Ever since I've been feeling a little guilty. At this point, I feel like I have three options. One, tell her about it now over FaceTime. She'll probably be

upset and emotional because we miss each other so much and it may suck having this hang over the rest of the deployment. Two, tell her when I get back in a few months. She might be like, why did you wait so long to tell me this though? Three, say nothing. Even though I'm feeling guilty, she did say at one point, she didn't mind if I went to a strip club. Going back to the email, I believe the line,

you sent us, sir. The evidence you sent us counters that position. The quote in the line was, she says she doesn't really mind for cases like that, meaning bachelor parties. All right, so I don't know. However, I still know telling her

is only going to make her upset. Is it selfish of me to tell her so that I feel better about it? Anyway, I hope you don't think I'm a shitbag. I'm a huge fan of the war. All right. You're defending our freedoms, sir.

Can't let some emotional battle get in the way of that. Stationed in Italy. It's hot there right now. I would... Look. I would not say a word about this, but I also would not be with anybody that would want to divorce me for doing something like this either.

So again, not saying again, I'm not the template for marriage over here, but I think it's great that you kind of feel bad about it. It doesn't seem like it's your gear. It doesn't seem like something you do very often afford to believe everything in the email here um i would not facetime now while on deployment i think option one is the worst of all of them by far just ride out the rest of the deployment let it happen um i mean i guess there's some move where you go i'm immediately facetiming you because oh my god i

feel so guilty and they ran our credit cards away too much. It was part of the scam. We went in there, we got shit faced or whatever. I mean, look, you're 27, you're with your buddies, you're serving in the military, you're away from home. You had a bad night out where the worst thing that happens, you get overcharged a little bit and you get a lap dance. I would, I would, I like, could you do that one? Sure sure i think it's the worst one of all these i'm leaning towards not and maybe i have a little sympathy here because the military part of it which seems stupid but i just don't think you know it wasn't like you were cheating on her if you were cheating on her you felt like it was going to be some guilty thing you were going to

carry you forever here and you're married and all the all that stuff then yeah uh handle that how you're going to handle it But this one to me, I don't think is severe enough to be like, I have to tell somebody I had some left dances and then the stripper ran my card for way harder than I thought it would because that's what they do. God. Yeah. Guys don't tell other war stories.

That's just simplest fact. Guys, some things just don't get told. Right. I mean, when you're over there for the troops. Yeah. For the troops, they're afforded that, um, they're I mean, when you're over there. For the troops. Yeah, for the troops,

they're afforded that secrecy, I think. But also, is this going to be on the bill? Like when you go out for a night and you get night leave, are you guys married, right? I don't know if she looks at that stuff, especially that you're out of town. But I imagine most of your trips

are like 50 euros here, 60 euros there. I don't know if it's whatever a hotel room costs, but if it's just all of a sudden, it's like normal, normal. All right, he's back on the boat or wherever on base or whatever. And then, whoa, what's this 900 thing? She might call you about it. I don't know. That's what I would ask you. Is it realistic that she's going to notice something is definitely weird about this thing or is this your own credit card and she'll never find out and if that's the case say nothing and uh just keep on serving a couple things though one he said at the last line if i'm not mistaken was like he is not he's gonna have trouble living with himself if he has this hanging over his head. He wants to get it off of his chest.

So, listen, I'm with you guys. All things, if you take that out of it, I think you just let bygones be bygones. Don't tell her. It's kind of no harm, no foul. But he seems to really want to tell her. And I think it's kind of easily explainable. Your wife's going to know if you're a big strip club guy or not a strip club

guy. Seems like you're a stand-up dude in the military good for you you never know though i mean i've heard some weird stories i remember there was a story where i was like what happened with that like oh they got divorced be like why like he was addicted to prostitutes i'm like oh i could see that would be a problem she had an idea it's maybe if it doesn't sound like that's what this guy is and i don don't know. You know what? I, I, I trounced your point with a different point that actually isn't as

irrelevant because you're right. If he was big strip club guy, you're saying that she would probably know. I'm not saying, I'm not saying everybody would know, but yeah, you know, like strip club guys are pretty like strip club,

like strip club guys love strip clubs. And if, and if you're going to be nervous the entire time you're in Italy, because you're, you just don't like the way that this feels, you feel like you're holding one over on your wife or you're afraid she's going to look at the charge and call you on it. Sometimes it's better to get that shit off your chest, man. So I, I, I kind of lean towards just telling her. Well, maybe you're right.

You're the only one that's married. Is he not going to be nervous in italy like i don't know when he's done but like what if this is the first leg of his trip and then it's like she's actually not cool about it she's not so happy you told her and now you're in italy and you're getting just texts like massive texts like the text i was getting on wednesday when it was 1 30 and i wasn't home yet um you know you know, I wasn't doing anything wrong. Definitely wasn't serving my country, but it was just like, what if that's it for months? It was all right for the next hour. I was like, I'll be home when they kick me out of this bar and we can argue about it. Or

I'll just go to sleep and everything. I'll be fine. Cause I don't smell like a perfume and I don't have any lipstick on my collar. Like I'm just hanging out. But like, what if it's like that? What if it's like, no, I'm just saying like, like you know it was just somebody's upset that i'm you know out and about doing whatever and there's nothing i can do about it except go home you can't go home like it could be like this for a long time if she's not cool about it so um you weren't at a bachelor party you were at a night off and uh i don't know i think if it's not gonna get back to her you know you didn't do anything wrong obviously um i don't know. I think if it's not going to get back to her, you know you didn't do anything wrong, obviously. I don't think

anything should be eaten at you, pal. It's probably not getting back to her. I'm going to guess that this one's probably in the clear. Well, what Kyle said, though, that $900, if you share a checking account and she's doing the balance and the books, it's not that hard to be like, what the hell is $900? My wife and I,

if I spent 900 bucks, she would not know. But that's just kind of how our finances work. Like maybe this guy, they're tied together. Maybe she does a lot of things behind the scenes

and he like knows that she's going to find out. And if that's the case, that's a big worry for him. And getting it off his chest would be a good thing. And he also has to do the calculated risk of

he probably knows how mad she's going to be about this. OK, so is that worth you telling her her being mad or the potential of not only you not telling her, but then her finding out and she being even more mad. That's, that's the balance. I've been trying to figure out who Suri looks like today on the zoom.

It's the hair, right? Dial this thing up. It's the hair. Okay. And I finally figured it out. It looks like one of the characters from team America, the one that throws up.

He does have big hair. Although I think he was like blonde, wasn't he? Come on, I got like jet black hair. It's the eyes, though. It's the eyes and it's the bouffant that you're working today, minus the throwing up. I haven't had a haircut in a while. I know, just kind of let it slip.

Are you growing it out? Not intentionally. It's just kind of having got a haircut in a while, man. You know, whatever. I realized another thing this weekend after watching Dune this past week and then thinking about Harry Styles. Who's the Dune guy? Timothy Shallop.

Shallom. I don't know if it's Shallom or Shallom. Shallom. Timothy. The other guy. Different guy. Charlemagne. The God.

Yeah. Different. Yeah. Different guy. What are you going with kyle i i would accept a or b either one so timothy chan yeah um harry styles there's something about the kind of effeminate 170 pound white guy with hair thing that's like saruti that's his lane he loves those guys he likes soccer guys if you weigh 170 and have some sort of foreign thing with some hair saruti's gonna have a poster of you i'm in i'm in uh but i am a big shalame guy as we've discussed on this podcast i am a big harry styles guy uh listen you got hair you gotta flaunt it who else are we leaving out now that we've we've

uncovered you know what you know who's my number one uh this is getting weird now but fucking love joan hall love that dude i was team joan hall during the taylor swift stuff and he's had the bun hair situation like he he does it better than anybody else so he's he would be top of the list were you big into orlando bloom back in the day no actually i didn't like the pirates movies i'm surprised so no no i know it was actually kind of like kingdom of heaven come on kingdom of Heaven was good. I'll give you that. Phenomenal. I wasn't a big Orlando Bloom, Kira Knightley guy.

Legolas? Well, that's different. He had long blonde hair. I can't pull that off. But Legolas is, I mean, if I was going to be a Lord of the Rings character, I would be an elf. What are we doing? Yeah, I know. We're going to clean it up here.

Did the guy ever write in? Did the Bills guy, Bills Chiefs guy ever write back in? No. Bills Chiefs guy, write in. Let us know from Salt Lake what happened. I'm worried then. Well, we had a couple guys that said, was the guy that ran on the field our new Chiefs guy?

The new Chiefs fan who went to the two game with the Bills fans. Was that actually the guy that called in? He got a couple pops in and decided to run on the field because he was a new Chiefs fan who went to the two game with the Bills fans. Was that actually the guy that called in? He got a couple pops in and decided to run on the field because he was a new Chiefs fan caught up in the moment. A couple people were throwing that theory out there. I think our guy was way too level-headed to do that. The fact that he was worried about what was going to happen to him at this game means he was way too level-headed to streak on the field.

I've got to tell you, that's the worst streak of all time. Yeah, he got decked. Well, no, it's not even that. It's that now you're going to miss what happened after. Right. And you're banned for life, aren't you? You can't go back to a game. My wife was literally like, why would you do that?

I'm like, I don't know. They didn't even show you on TV. You know what would be great? Somebody did it like in an Orioles game. And they were like, well, now you're banned for life. And they asked him why he did it. Because I wanted to be banned for life. So it's

no longer an option i didn't i didn't want the option of going to another game my friend's a big ors fan he keeps inviting me i don't have to say no anymore i just can't come all right here we go um last one this one's a little different the title is uh boys not supporting my twitter 59160 relatively unfit but i've been told i got long eyelashes so that's something i thought this one was fake and it's so dumb that i'm reading it and you're all gonna have to suffer through it the way i did too but the eyelash thing kind of caught you know i thought that was a little clever issue being none of my lads are liking my tweets just got on twitter and i've been throwing out some fairly fire zingers but to zero response a lot of my buddies who follow me will bring them up in convo and say they are

funny but when it comes down to it they won't rep me in public and give me that like not saying i do it do it all for the likes but when I throw out an eight and a half, 10 tweet, so he's saying an 8.5 out of 10 tweet and not one person likes it. It kind of rattles my cage. I think this is way funny that everybody else does. No, I'm laughing.

I hand out my fair share of likes, but never receive. Should I talk to the boys about this? Do I just suck at Twitter? Am I being a huge loser? For reference, my Twitter is... You know what? We're going to share it because we're going to

read some. That's at Gil Shapiro, but it's not the Shapiro way we'd spell it over here. It's at Gil Shapiro1. I was like, what's this guy into? He's foreign, clearly. Popcorn is just a delivery method for the salt.

That was January 20th. Hopefully that wasn't the 8 out of 10. 8.5 out of 10. That got zero. No likes, no retweets No comments How many followers does he have? 22 Yeah, you can't expect much out of 22

Yeah, that's just what you're going to do I just don't believe in boats Those things are much too heavy Someone's lying, just going to figure out who I smirked I smirked. I smirked. I got two likes. Dudes who call elbows

are the same lads who complain about tap water. I get it. I don't necessarily agree. This guy might be overstating his Twitter I guess it. I don't necessarily agree. This guy might be overstating his Twitter, I guess, greatness. Why does being in a Snapchat convo while someone is typing feel so dirty? Three likes.

I think I would have got that a couple years ago. It could have been, yeah. It could have been something. Still waiting on an Alex Leonard Terrence Davis tribute video. One like. I don't think I have a

cousin who's a stand-up comedian and I've noticed that when he'll tweet out jokes, like it just doesn't work as well on Twitter as it does. Like if he does it on Instagram or some other things, maybe Twitter is not the platform for you, dude.

I feel like you missed the Twitter boat. Like who was even getting followers now on Twitter? Isn't everything kind of like bailing on Twitter? It's like kind of dying out. Who knows? I don't, I think the Twitter growth movement was like a couple of years ago and you missed it.

So maybe you should try to find like a new medium to grow your platform. Cause I don't think Twitter is the way to go also if it's your friends like my friends don't aren't even like on twitter and i've got like one one friend that is on twitter and i get i get no engagement with him and so it's just maybe your friends don't care my friends i definitely don't i don't care about twitter that much either i just i keep stumbling onto it when i shouldn't but um i don't know it's. It's really not that important. But I hope what this did for you was worth it. I hope that there's at

least, I hope we could double your thing and a couple of those people will like your next tweet. He does bring up a good point, though. You guys have probably done this. I'll see a good tweet, but if it's from somebody that I'm not a huge fan of, I won't throw it a like like that's funny but i'm gonna i'm gonna be petty i'll be russell westbrook and i'll be like not gonna throw that away i'm not a big like guy to

begin with i don't know i can't see you throwing a bunch of likes out there ryan either no at one point like seven years in i had four likes total but now i do it now i do it to like bookmark an article i'm never gonna read yeah so if i'm not gonna read it then i won't be like what was that thing the atlantic was saying i like pat stuff i like stuff from full nfl throwback a good run from 2002 good cory dylan something like i'll like that stuff but i don't know other than that not much kyle said it before his buddies don't care nobody cares nobody cares um you know so that's that's it maybe this guy's gonna grab a couple more followers though who knows now the cross now the attention that you sought is there so yeah you might get haters though instead pal

just be ready for that yeah it's true be ready for the haters not all likes and retweets buddy i used to love when people would fill in for me and they would like tweets that said, oh, you're way better than Brasilo. You should have this show. And I'd be like, I'm tagged. Why would you like this? DM the guy in private if it's that important to you.

Be like, thanks. I really appreciate that. If it reinforced your... I just would be off and I'd go, wait, what? And I get like, oh, hey, Brasilo sucks. Great job today. You should be the host. All right.

Yeah, whatever. I mean, not going to happen. It's like, I remember there's a couple of things I filled in on and be like, oh, you're way better than the other guy. I'm like, no, I'm not. Like, I definitely am not. But people will just say stuff. But I always thought it was a little weird when you're like, you work with the person and they're liking tweets saying that you should be replaced by them yeah but that's such a loser move because i feel like that person is just looking for a like or retweet or a comment that's

they're only oh yeah and i hate that that's the worst kind of person on twitter it's like oh you're so amazing like why don't you have a bigger platform and you're like like like cool sick tweet dude that is so good now we're a little i always feel like we talk about this stuff too much but there is nothing better when it's like rando says the guy is like you need a bigger platform thank you and because the only reason you're responding to it it's not a like it's the quote tweet about you need something bigger because you think your bosses are going to be swayed by this. Yeah. Like, do you see what Doug92487 said?

He told, you know, he needs, he told Field Yates he needs a bigger platform. And the reason I say Field is because I'm friendly with Field. So I know I can say it about him and he's not going to be upset about it. By the way, congrats to Field Yates. I'm becoming a father. There I know I can say it about him, and he's not going to be upset about it. By the way, congrats to Field Yates on becoming a father. There's a little rapid on this one.

There was something that happened this weekend that was so predictable when Rodgers lost, the people that tried to pretend they were making football observations when it was only about how they feel about him politically. I mean, that was the only thing. And now, look, Rodgers didn't handle it well at all, and he thought he was smarter than everybody else by using a different term and you know this isn't a debate about rogers but it was funny because i would see somebody and i'd be like that's not what this is about this is about

political stuff but here's here's another thing i learned here's a rule if you have a few hundred thousand tweets maybe you're not the person to tell everybody when the conversation is over all right because when you're when you're north of a few hundred thousand tweets i actually think something's wrong with you yeah so for you to then say hey everybody let's let's all chill out on the commentary you're like are you fucking you haven't stopped talking in 12 years so that's the serial killer's manifesto the 200 000 tweets it's like wait he had 12 notebooks in his house about what he was gonna do it's like that's too much all right there you go we will uh talk to you on wednesday we get kevin herder wednesday cave on Cave on. you