The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Was More Really Better in Wild-Card Weekend? Plus Former Chief Mitchell Schwartz on Chiefs-Bills and the Cowboys' Comedy of Errors

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on NFL wild-card weekend (0:26), before talking with Super Bowl champion Mitchell Schwartz about the Chiefs’ Round 1 win over the Steelers, their Round 2 matchup vs. the Bills, strange sequences in the Cowboys-49ers game, the effects of playoff expansion, and more (13:40). Then Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (47:14). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Mitchell Schwartz Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast recap all of the wild card games was any of that surprising any of the results and we'll go over the chiefs and some of the other stuff as well with nifl schwartz who played for kansas city just a couple years ago and we've got a packed life advice for you. Trying to fix people. I want to go through all the playoff games. And I guess there's now pushback to Super Wild Card weekend. I'm not 100% sure. The games weren't great. It wasn't a great weekend of football, but we all watched it, right?

Is anything that happened this weekend actually surprising? So I want to go through it and kind of rank them this way. Because the least surprising thing ever was Tampa stomping Philly. I told you on the end of last week, I go, you know what? I just don't see it with Philadelphia. Where's the good win? Congrats on 9-8. But basically, Philadelphia was Miami with an easier division.

That's all they were. Hurts had a tough game, but I would say he did enough this year to at least have an open mind about him improving to the point of maybe having something although you could also flip it the other way and say he did enough that maybe you're going to hold off another year from addressing the quarterback situation which may just delay the entire process I don't I don't necessarily even think it's that great of a team to begin with and then in classic fashion which happens all the, is Philly gets a couple plays there.

Devontae Smith gets involved and says, hey, how come this didn't happen before? You want to know why it didn't happen before? It's because before, the other team wasn't up 31-0 and didn't give a shit anymore. It's the same thing that happened with Pittsburgh, putting together a couple decent drives, and Roethlisberger being more aggressive with his throws

because the game was 42-7. So this happens. It's not because the team was stupid. It's likely because the other team that's up a billion goes, eh, we don't really even care. Like we're just not playing with the same level of intensity. Go ahead, get your throws, get a late touchdown here or there. We just want to run out the clock. So not surprising there, not bashing the expansion part of this, but Tampa, you know, is a really good football team. It's a two-seed. We're talking about it against another team

that I don't think really has that impressive of a win all season long. And just a few weeks ago when they lost to the Giants, we were like, what the hell's wrong with Philadelphia? Kansas City-Pittsburgh, again, not surprising. Kansas City goes 0-5 on its first five possessions. There's a pick in there. T.J. Watt gets the fumble.

It's Pittsburgh 7-0. They're starting to – a little love. Is Ben going to pull this out? What's wrong with the Chiefs? And then they score 42 points. The McKinnon part of this makes them scary. He's been around a long time. Remember, McKinnon was with Minnesota a bunch of years.

But athletically, I mean, I think he's 29 now. He looks like he's 21. That's the most they've ever used him in a game, whether it was just handoffs or using him in a passing game. He adds another element that we felt like hasn't been there with Edward Zolaire and the injuries and then Williams' inconsistency. So not surprised that Kansas City would run away from Pittsburgh in this one

just because Pittsburgh, we know what they are. They throw it short of the sticks all season long, and you can't really blame it on their weapons either because even with the inconsistencies and a couple drops here or there, there's still options there for Roethlisberger. So we don't know if it's over. I would love Roethlisberger to self-report

that the early reports of his retirement were premature. That's what I'm banking on. Cincinnati and Las Vegas. I felt like Cincinnati was in control the entire time. I thought they were the better team. They were at home. Not that big of a deal. Burrow, in this game, a couple of throws

where you start to really, and unfortunately, we just continue to do this constantly where it's just like, hey, is this guy top five? Is this guy like, and unfortunately, we just continue to do this constantly where it's just like, hey, is this guy top five? Is this guy like, and the throw that he makes to the tight end behind the back of the linebacker,

and you're like, is this guy top five? Yeah, is he top five? I don't know. All right, I don't know if he's top five. He has throws that are top five-ish, okay? And in the back end of this, this was like a classic NFL game

where one team's completely in control the entire time, like it felt like Cincinnati was, and then all of a sudden, it's like really late, really late and you're going wait the Raiders have a chance to tie this thing out tie it up and like wait this is a game here Derek Carr had a really interesting season because I think Carr's entire career has been that of expectation versus performance where in the very beginning I think like year three or so he had this incredible statistical season I think the Sandoe tiers had him flirting with the first tier I think like year three or so, he had this incredible statistical season. I think the Sandoe tiers had him flirting with the first tier.

I think he was like a top 10 guy. He was kind of the sneaky pick for MVP. And then he doesn't come close to being that guy. And then it's like, oh, he wants to move on from a meeting Gruden, who seems to always want to move on from his quarterbacks all the time. Carr was good this year. He's not a franchise-caring quarterback, but he's probably better than he's been talked about

over the full scope of his entire career that he's been in the league. I just thought Cincinnati was going to be the better team. So that one, not surprising. San Francisco-Dallas. I gave out Dallas because all the public money, I think it was 81% was on San Francisco. It was the same reason why I gave out New England, even though I thought Buffalo was better than them

and I thought Buffalo would win. But I just was like, look, this doesn't make any sense. I'm just going to fade myself on it. And it ended up being that Buffalo smashed them. We'll get to that game in a second. But San Francisco and Dallas, I think the only thing, at least with Dallas, is at home, they average over 36 points per game at home in their eight games. They scored 50 points twice in two of the last three games. It was also the perfect Jimmy G game.

You look at the stats, you're like, alright, 16 at 25, 172, but no one really cared. There's a couple good throws in there. And then he throws a Jimmy G pick, which is almost devastating because this, like the previous game that I just talked about, San Francisco was in control of this game throughout,

but it's a classic NFL deal because we're really only talking about two points being two possessions, right? Instead of it's 14 points, but it's really classic NFL deal because we're really only talking about two points being two possessions, right? Instead of it's 14 points, but it's really two. And you look at Dallas back in this thing and a chance. Now, I think the Cincinnati game was the one where there

was far more angst about the officiating. The difference here is that Dallas had fans. I guess it was a bunch of Boston fans that flew down for that game, throwing stuff at not just the refs, but the players. Then Dak afterwards saying that, all right, good for them because he thought they were throwing with the rest. I don't know. It looked like guys were throwing at everybody. So I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what the discussion or follow up will be to that.

But for Dak, I think this is one of those games where we're kind of left being like, wait, what do we do with that? Because statistically, at times, Dallas and Dak felt like, okay, this is a top five kind of offense. And a defense that unexpectedly became not just a good group with Dallas, but a group of guys that had playmakers. Bosa goes out. Fred Warner, who's one of my favorite linebackers in the league, he goes out, but it was a lot later. CeeDee Lamb was invisible in this game. Let me double check what his numbers were, because Dalton Schultz ended up being their leading receiver. CeeDee Lamb

didn't have a catch. Oh no, he had one catch for 21 yards and one carry. He was a guy I really like and he did nothing in this game whatsoever. So at home, and I don't think San Francisco, especially missing some of its personnel, you should be intimidated

by this team by any stretch. I mean, San Francisco was kind of the hot, sexy team at the end because they were 10-7 coming in. This Dallas team won 12 games. And again, maybe it's just a byproduct of the division, but this is where even with Dak getting the money, good for him, I think we'll go into it kind of being like, wait, what's up? Because him running it on the QB draw at the end and not knowing the rule,

that's just such a tough look. You have to be completely locked in for that play to be pulled off. It's 23-17. You're still going to have one shot at the end zone to win the football game. As odd as these three hours were, you have this chance to maybe steal one, and you don't know the rules. So that was a tough look look and romo was all over that and let's just finish it with buffalo the way they finished off new england i don't know if this is a good or bad season for new england by patriot standards it's a bad season but considering who they were last year to looking like they may have something at quarterback

although i've been trying to say all season long even when new england was like the fake number one seed um which i felt like at that time, it's like, oh, they're going back to the Superbowl. This is Superbowl. I just never felt that way because he's still going to have to win one shootout in a playoff game.

I'd imagine. And I don't think Mac Jones is built for that. And like this team is built for that. It's not where they invest their money. They don't invest in the outside. They like the tight end formations, multiple tight ends. They like guys that work off the slot a little bit better.

And they like to run the football. And when you give up seven straight touchdowns on seven possessions like the Pats defense, which is pretty good this year to Buffalo, you're not going to win any football games. Here's a couple numbers from this domination by Buffalo, and good for them because that fan base deserves it. They're awesome, and we kind of have come around on Josh Allen over the last couple years for obvious reasons because he's insane to watch now. Look at some of these numbers. Josh Allen completes over 80% of his passes, throws for 300-plus yards, rushes for 50-plus yards, and has five TDs.

No quarterback during the Super Bowl era has ever done all of those things in a single game, regular season, or playoffs. For the team, the Bills, no punts, no field goal attempts, no turnovers. The Bills became the first team in NFL history to go an entire game without punting, kicking a field goal, or turning the ball over ever on Saturday. And this is also the second worst loss of Belichick's Patriots career. The worst loss is a game I remember pretty well. The 2003

loss where they got shut out. I think that was when they got rid of lawyer Malloy and then the Patriots were all bummed out for an entire week. So on the whole, not a ton of great football, not super competitive. That led to this is what happens with expansion. I'm anti expansion and the playoffs. I don't think we need to have a nine and

eight Eagles team get a chance to win a championship. I don't love that the number two seed doesn't have the bye. It's only number one. I might be wrong about all these things. There will be years where we get a number seven seed where we kind of like that team. We maybe like them better than two or three teams ahead of them. We don't have a lot of sample with this, right?

So we don't really quite know how it's all going to play out. Will the number one seeds, if we do this for 10 years, end up having this dramatic thing where it feels like they're always going to the conference championship because they get the extra rest and they're at home? I don't know. Another part that was brought in was that, oh, this adds an extra playoff officiating crew.

The booger game for Cincinnati Vegas was a disaster. And I'm not talking about the inadvertent whistle because, honestly, that was going to be a touchdown no matter what. So even though the rule says the inadvertent whistle means the play is dead and the officiating crew just for whatever reason decided not to pay attention to it and NBC could have done a little better job of getting that from the truck to their guys Tirico and Breeze a little bit quicker because everybody on social media is like wait what the hell's going on wasn't there a whistle but the way it played out until we had actually seen the replay was as if the whistle was the

main reason the touchdown was scored it's just not the case like everybody just stopped that was going to be a touchdown so actually the right play happened even though the rule says you're not supposed to have the touchdown so we can argue about that one later the problem is for three and a half hours with that Cincinnati game it's just a you know how like in bar rescue when they have the stress test which I hate because any bartender i don't care how good you are you can have three tom cruises back there 80s tom cruise and if you drive 100 people through the front door all ordering drinks at the exact same time it's not gonna work out it's not gonna go good man it's just not so um that's what a jerome boger game felt like it's just out of control at one one point, New York calls in and is like,

hey, before you guys even waste any more time on this, this is what the deal is. There was even some of it in the San Francisco-Dallas game where one of my biggest beefs with all these replays and reviews and all the stuff that we talk about is that the drama, the dramatic moment has been removed, whether it's a college basketball tournament, NBA games, but these NFL games, like we sit around,

we don't know what the hell's going on, we don't know where the spot is. They take forever because they want to get it right. So there's no drama. The stadium is quiet as can be. Everyone's just standing around. We're all sitting at home and you're like, okay, so what's, what's going to happen? And then even on the last play, it's like, what, what happened? What's going on? Is it going to be the clock? They're going to put a second back on. It's like, all right, well, I've sat here for this whole time. What happened? Oh, game's over. I'm like, oh, okay, the game's over. I know the ratings are going to be through the roof, and we can't stop watching it. And hell, it's my job to watch it, and I watch it all. But there are moments where I watch it and go, that wasn't even fun. I miss the dramatic moment

where something happens where you can't believe it. And it's not to say it never happens, like Minnesota and what, New Orleans in that playoff game where it was just ridiculous years ago. I just, I guess I feel like, you know, we get this, we get these games, the booger crew or some of the plays

that we don't like and then it's like, oh, well, this is what happens and we have all this officiating. I guess I've given up on the officiating part of it. What is that saying about control of things you can control? We can't control bad officiating. There's going to be three or four awful things that happen next weekend. What I accept it is,

I just think that's what it is. I don't think there's this magical universe of a different way of training officials or the whole full-time versus part-time thing. I don't know that we get a different result. It's kind of like when people make fun of GMs for getting quarterbacks wrong all the time. I've seen guys that I work with that'll say, well, you know, if these guys just did a better job because we want to believe that maybe we're smart enough to figure out the thing that nobody else has been able to figure out.

But I think that's kind of the point. I just think there are things that are always going to be incredibly flawed, whether it's drafting quarterbacks or officiating three and a half hour football game. We're going to have some huge mistakes and I don't know if there's a better way to do it. It'd be nice if there was.

But I don't think expansion is necessarily the reason why. I think Boger's crew is just, you know, crew's going to have a tough day. And they proved that one on Saturday. A guy, I guess we would call a friend of the program here, Mitchell Schwartz,

former tackle for the Chiefs, and a guy we kept in touch with for a while. So what's up, man? Thanks for joining us. Yeah, I'm doing good, man. It's been a lot of football. We've still got one more. It's kind of crazy. But hanging in there. I got pretty hired last night,

so I'm glad the Chiefs were able to make that one a runaway. Poor guy. All of us complaining about watching football all weekend. Because look, I have my moments too where I was like, okay, because we just, we weren't really getting great games. The Dallas Niners game was the one that we're like, okay, finally we have some drama here as much as it felt like they were trying to ruin it, which I talked about in the open.

Let's start with your former team here. You know, this has been a weird stretch for you now. You're over it too, right? We've talked about this. You watch not with envy. You watch with comfort at home, right? Yeah, definitely. My body just can't do it right now.

I don't have the, oh man, I should be out there. They screwed me. It's just me watching my friends and I enjoy it. It's a lot of fun to see them back finally playing like they they should first quarter side but uh it's it's been a nice development yeah this was almost a classic Chiefs thing where I felt like the way the game started it's like they knew there was no threat from Pittsburgh so they didn't really care and then they needed the wake-up call and the walk touchdown to be like all right you guys want to actually start playing executing and then they just take off there's a bigger question but let's just start with at Did the wake-up call and the walk touchdown to be like, all right, you guys want to actually start playing and executing?

And then they just take off. There's a bigger question, but let's just start with at least from the game itself. What did you see that they were trying to do in this game? Well, you saw both sides of the Chiefs. You saw the good Chiefs and you saw the bad Chiefs. Pittsburgh isn't a team that's good enough to really capitalize on the bad Chiefs. They did it for a quarter and a half, and then Kansas City started to put their foot down and were able to run away with it. So it gives you a little bit of pause

thinking about Buffalo coming to town. You know, Chiefs score six touchdowns in a row and everyone's excited and we kind of forget about that first, you know, quarter and a half and Buffalo's coming in after having played about as perfect of a game as you can. So I think there's still a little bit of worry there.

You know, Kansas City, for the most part, starts fast for whatever reason in the playoffs. It seems like that's not what. Kansas City, for the most part, starts fast. For whatever reason, in the playoffs, it seems like that's not what Kansas City does, especially the Super Bowl year. I don't know if there's some little thing in the back of everyone's head that like, oh, we got Pat. We'll be able to kind of bail it out. That's the way. I never

thought that way. I don't think many of the guys think that way, but I could see a subconscious kind of leaning towards that. But I think Kansas City did what they wanted. You know, they ran the ball efficiently at times. Turns out the best running back on the roster is the guy they haven't been playing at all. You know, I think specifically for that offense,

because of the space it creates and because of the way teams are playing to take away the deep stuff, having a fast guy who can utilize all the space that's created is really beneficial. And so they've kind of got that in McKinnon right now. And hopefully they're able to, you know, ride the hot hand at running back.

Yeah. Are you talking to your guys on the team about McKinnon and, and kind of like, all right, he's been around for a while, but the way they started using them last night and some of the developments with him, like he's,

he's certainly scarier than, than Clyde, who is having a hard time staying healthy. I understand what Edwards-Alaire, I get the things that he's really good at, his routes out of the backfield, all that kind of stuff, perfect fit. You're going to go wide with this Chiefs thing.

But McKinnon is adding an element here now that kind of makes the Chiefs feel scary again. Yeah, and so for Chiefs fans, a lot of people dream about what Jamal Charles would look like in this offense. And obviously McKinnon's not Jamal Charles, but having that smaller, faster, quick guy who can utilize the space, it's pretty exciting

because there's a ton of space that's created in a lot of these RPOs, and most of the runs are from spread formations anyway. And so you're able to get that guy into a linebacker that maybe a guy doesn't break a tackle for. I think that's the biggest thing with Clyde is in college, he broke all those tackles. We loved watching that spin move and you got him in space

and he was able to make a guy or two miss and keep the play going. And I don't know if it's been the health or what, but he has been able to break the tackles in the NFL like he has in college. And so having someone that can utilize that space properly, it's been a big dimension. And I think we all know, I mean, the Chiefs aren't going to rely on the run game to win games. But having a guy who can get those extra yards, who can be a huge factor in the screen game. And we saw the screen game come alive like it hasn't in a while. And anytime you can add speed and playmaking ability when you already got four of the guys

who can do it, it just threatens the defense that much more. So give me the bigger picture view of the Chiefs then. A team that, you know, our expectations are through the roof. The defense was historically atrocious to start the season. And then Mahomes starts. I didn't think it was him being confused. I thought it was a lot of frustration picks. And, you know, Mahomes has a little like Steph Curry in him,

where I almost feel like Steph Curry during some of his stretches, he'd get a little bored and see what he could get away with. And I think Mahomes does that at times too. And so then it starts to just look like what the hell is going on with this team. They get blasted by some other teams we think are good. And now I think everybody's scared of them again. And obviously a tough game against Buffalo. So I'm not really even sure which way this thing's going to go.

But how do you look at them over the course of almost 20 games now? I think a much improved team. Not much is obvious from earlier in the season. I would say it's still not a complete team, even though when you look at it, it's still going to have a top three, top five offense. It's got the best quarterback. It's got the best head coach.

As you said, the defense came from historically bad to, I mean, for Kansas City, historically good in November, December. And so you look at that and you're like, okay, well, this front four is awesome. Ingram, Frank Clark, Christian's in the middle. The special teams unit's good. Bucker, no one talks about him as being a top kicker, but he's been a really reliable guy for a while, which is important in those cold night arrowhead games. And the offense is what it is. So you look at it and say, okay, this is an awesome team. They've been there, they've done it. But there's just that element of it doesn't come together as clean as we'd like it. And there are self-inflicted mistakes and whether it's a drop or whether it's a funky play and a tip pass and a fumble, those things happen enough that it's not a

coincidence. And I don't think it's just a luck thing it seems like they've happened too often for this type of team and what our expectations are and so yeah they're a good team and they played a 87 90 of their potential and what we think of them but that 10 to 13 could definitely you know spell disaster especially against a team like buffalo coming to town were you ever intimidated i don't know if it's intimidated it's the right word were you ever like oh you know't know if intimidated is the right word. Were you ever like, oh, we've got to play these guys? I mean, I imagine New England, maybe there's a little of that with Brady because it was still newer for you guys.

You're still not sure who you are, what you're capable of, even though you're putting up these numbers and everybody's realizing how special Mahomes was. But were there any moments of doubt for your group when you were there? Well, it's not necessarily doubt. But you definitely know going into a game against certain guys and certain teams that you've got to

bring in and that there's an expectation of oh, hey, it's Brady. We can't have the ball in his hands at the end of the game. We have to get up big enough early to turn it for us. I thought it was interesting the 2019 season we play New England in the regular season. And to me, it felt like the coaches

put a major emphasis on beating them. You know, they were giving us more speeches throughout the week and making sure that preparation was right. And I think they expected us to showdown against New England in the playoffs we had the year before in the AFC Championship game. Obviously, we lost that one. And so I think there's this element of, all right, we've almost got to beat them in the regular season

so that mentally when we go into the playoffs, it's like, all right, we got this team. We already beat them. Let's do it again. It's not, oh man, we lost the championship last year to them. We couldn't beat them the first matchup. Tennessee took care of that one for us in the playoffs. But I did think that New England's probably the one team when you look towards a team that has an aura to them or that you understand who's coming to town when it happens. And so that regular season game always sticks with me because I feel like the preparation that week was a little bit more than a normal regular season game, even more than a normal big-time matchup regular season game because our staff wanted us to have the confidence

that we'd already beaten them that season. Yeah, and you did beat them towards the end of the season there. And you did beat them despite having a couple turnovers in that one as well. So, you know, this year I think with certain quarterbacks, like we saw the Eagles change what they did with Hurts. We saw maybe a different approach with Lamar where it was like run blitzing and it's like, okay, now has everybody kind of figured him out? With Kansas City, that's why I'm always a little hesitant when I'll hear is

they're like oh they're playing him different now and and now it's over and even with Lamar I go like I don't I don't think like he's now he's ruined he's always gonna throw picks because he's facing these run blitzes all the time um the thing with Kansas City was where you're never gonna beat us deep so you have to take all the underneath. And it's like, oh, now that they can't beat anybody deep, then they're just not the same. And I don't know. Like, what did you see?

And you probably can speak to it even better talking to your friends that are still on the team about, hey, this is what we're doing now, and now this is what has to be countered. Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of a mind shift for the offense when you're so used to the big playability and Tyreek McColl, these guys having these bombs. Kelsey obviously seems to outrun everybody who tries to catch him.

He's like deceptively, I know it's bad to say deceptively for a guy like that, but deceptively fast because he does run away from a lot of people that we don't give him credit for. And that's what the Chiefs have been for the last three or four years. And so this year, teams go into the game and say, all right, there's not going to be these explosive plays. They're not going to catch 20 plus yard passes. They're not going to score 70 yard touchdowns on us. We're going to force them to, you know, quote unquote, dink and dunk underneath and make the sure play and check down to the running back and basically change the structure and the thought process of the offense because we're not going to give up these explosive plays. And I think it did have an impact on the team the first month or two. Obviously, Coach Reed knows how to beat a cover two. That's the most foolish narrative that, oh, he doesn't know what to do with

two high safeties. Come on, man. The NFL is cyclical, too. He was dominating when the league was a cover two league anyway. But yeah, the Chiefs have changed their style a little bit and they've gone to these longer drives, these eight, 10, 12 play drives.

I do think that's led to some of the inconsistency because, I mean, I've said it all year, the NFL is tough. Even when you're the best offense, it's still tough and the other guys are good players and relying on 12 straight positive plays, drive after drive, that's a tough thing to do. We've seen the mistakes from the Chiefs.

We saw them in the first quarter and a half this past game. So yeah, the structure of how teams are playing them definitely changed things. And as you said, maybe the mindset of Mahomes and the team, you just get a little bit bored and it's a little bit frustrating to have to take these checkdowns and to take these underneath plays.

So they, you know, craft the code on the league that's figured out their style on how to play them. So it's, it's nice to see a blend and the team is also getting back towards those, you know, longer passes. We saw a few pretty deep passes in this game. And so I would imagine Pittsburgh went into that thinking,

Hey, we're not going to get beat deep by Tyreek and he's scores a 40 yard touchdown in the end zone. And we're not going to let Travis catch deep overs at 20-plus yards, and he does that and then runs away from everyone. So I think the Chiefs are starting to figure out how to best play with what defenses are going to show to them. Against the Bills, do you feel like, hey, whatever, this is –

I mean, you can't think it's easy. I mean, I'm going to ask you for your pick. You're just going to take Kansas City anyway, so I doubt you'd take Buffalo. Although you guys are different. Maybe you would, but I mean, how do you feel about the matchup? This one definitely gives me the most pause because I mean, Buffalo statistically is

a top defensive team as well, so for whatever reason, it doesn't feel like they are maybe because they don't have that dominant edge rusher or dominant front you know, front four guy. But they all play good football together. They've done really good on defense throughout the year. I know those advanced stats kind of parse out the fact that they get to play the AFC East and the other offenses in there. So we can't use that as an excuse to say they're overrated.

But yeah, it's tough. And Josh Allen just played as good of an offensive game as we've ever seen a team play really in any situation. I mean, seven drives, seven touchdowns, and then they kneel the ball on the eighth drive. So Buffalo has everything you'd want coming to town to win this game. As I said, if Kansas City plays to the best of their ability, I think they're the best team.

We just haven't really seen that for a full four quarters at many points throughout the season. So I'm not really a betting man or anything of that nature, but I think it's going to be close game points-wise, and I could definitely see either team taking it. And I'm going to side with Kansas City at the end of the day just because I got to do that and they're my guys. But yeah, this game is probably the worst matchup and

I don't think Buffalo is going to come in overconfident or I don't think they're going to think they're the best team after this past week. I think it's going to give them the confidence to say, all right, we're going to go in. We're going to do our thing. We're better than these guys. We can put it to them. And they're definitely not going to be like afraid of the Chiefs or they're not going to worry about

that because I mean, defensively, it's like, all right, well, we got Josh. They're balling over there like it's okay we give a touchdown who cares we'll come back the next drive and get them yeah it's an amazing feeling knowing you were like okay well now we just have to answer your touchdown which is why I was kind of anti-New England even during the win streak because I think you need to do that I think you have to figure out a way to kind of go score for score with another team at some point during the playoffs and new england had no chance against buffalo in that one uh last chiefs related question eric bnme i think slated to get one interview um but this is a yearly tradition now where we all try to figure out what's going on with eric bnme i mean you played for him so what do you think the hesitation seems to be or like

why is this happening every year where it doesn't seem like he's getting a chance yeah i don't know it's tough to figure out because we've seen this with all the coach reed assistants like you're the offensive coordinator for two or three years the team has a ton of success the team wants to come grab you and doug peterson won the super bowl so he had good success i mean you can say what you want about naggy but that first year they were 12 and four he was coach of the year uh the guys have had success. Bien-Ami is the next in line. He is an awesome guy in the building. I mean, he watches a ton of film.

You can ask him any scenario, any question. He's watched it. He's prepared for it. I honestly think his greatest strength is accountability. You know, he's the guy that holds everyone accountable from, you know, Pat all the way down. He's preaching that, you know, he'd be a great hire for any of these teams that are looking

for a guy to come in and kind of do that. A couple of teams waveredly picked some guys the past couple of years and maybe EB would have been a little bit better for that. But it is strange that he hasn't gotten that opportunity. So it makes you think that something else is going on because you look at all the main criteria and he seems to be a great candidate. So something's got to be going on behind the scenes. I don't know what. I know there's a few different theories out there on what that could be. I wish I knew more to be able to speak on that. But it is odd. I hope he gets his chance. I think he's more than deserving at this point. And so I guess we'll see if he gets the opportunity. But as you said, it feels like these coaching candidates

have like a two to three year window where they're the hot name and everyone wants to interview them. And then if they don't get hired in that two, three year window, it just seems like that Lee kind of forgets about him and happened with special teams coordinator, Dave Tobe. He was considered to be a potential head coaching candidate

a few years ago and he got some interviews for a couple of years and then it doesn't seem like his name has picked up since so it's uh it's definitely strange i hope he gets the job obviously i i love the guy and you know i think he can do a pretty good job let's talk a little dallas san francisco um did you what did you think of the draw or the qb keeper i guess is really what i should call it, with Dak, knowing that there's a chance they could have pulled that off, but everybody had to be on the same page. Everybody had to know the situation. And clearly, Dak didn't with getting the ball reset, the official,

which Romo pointed out. When you're watching that happen, your reaction? So my first reaction, when the ball snapped, I kind of watched the offensive line and do a big picture view of everything else. And the O-line started going forward. I was like, what the hell is going on? Why are they run blocking? And sure enough, it was a quarterback draw. So that made no sense from the get-go. All these situations, McCarthy blamed the analytics guys after saying that they had the time to do it. And it was their call to run that play in that situation. But I think it's pretty well established that 14 seconds is right on the precipice of being able to run a play, get the ball spotted,

get that spike off. And in that situation, you don't necessarily need those 10 yards. It's a situation where throwing the ball from the 35 versus throwing it from the 27, that's not really going to get you that much of an advantage in the end zone. It still comes down to a Hail Mary type play or one of these special plays where the quarterback kind of rolls out and tries to buy time and finds

a guy. So it wasn't giving you that much of a tactical advantage and they should know that it's not enough time to safely and securely run the play, get the ball spotted, get it down. The other thing I've been thinking is, all right, so Dak takes the ball. He kind of drops back like he's going to throw it. And then he's the one that has to run to the back to the line of scrimmage. That's six or seven yards. And then from there, however many yards he picks up, I think he ran for like 17, which is too many.

But say he runs seven yards total. Well, he's running 14 yards total. Wouldn't it be quicker to just throw a slant to one of your fast guys and the ball zips across, he catches it, he gets down, he's able to spot it in front of everybody. I feel like there's a lot better play calls in that situation if you are trying to get a few extra yards and get the ball spiked. So on top of the timing just not working out at all, I also think the play call itself is pretty poor. And it's kind of baffling from every direction.

I haven't really seen anything or heard anybody say something that made a ton of sense to me on why you have that specific play call on that particular spot in the game. I guess I'm throwing in the end zone from 41 versus what would have been the 24 yard line. I can at least see like it feels like maybe you get something off if you have. I can at least see like it feels like maybe you get something off if you have. I'm just thinking out loud here. Tripp's right and you screw up the handoff on somebody. I think there's a better chance. Would you rather have three shots from the 40 or one shot from the 24?

Because that's the equation. You had 14 seconds. So realistically, that's about three shots at the end zone. So I think you're playing those odds of three chances. We haven't really seen a Hail Mary before the last play. And so I don't know if those all get no calls in the end zone. We know on Hail Marys, they don't call pass interference. But if it's with 14 seconds left, and maybe the refs are more likely to call some PI.

And so you're leaving one play from 25 yards out to win the game, and that's the only opportunity. I kind of like the idea of just taking a couple shots at least at the end zone, and maybe something squirrelly happens. Yeah, I'm with you there. I mean, it's kind of like the Raiders spike in the football, and they spiked it at, I don't know, 31.

If they had ran a play that was an incomplete pass, the clock probably would have been at 28. So you're like, was it worth it giving up one play for three seconds? And that's where I think guys just freak out, and they're not really thinking about it enough there. So with Dallas, if you're going, all right, you're taking away extra chances even though we're going to be closer because they're giving us the middle of the field.

Oh, by the way, there's also a chance like this is going to come down to a second um but hey we have the right like i just think that certain quarterbacks will probably figure out how to make sure that happened and with that you know i don't know if that speaks to him not knowing but that's you can't not know that rule in that spot. You can't be sitting there being like, you know, I mean, after a violation, you have to give it back to the ref in basketball so he checks it in. And Romo was on it immediately. And then you're thinking a home clock, they'll probably still stop it. And they just couldn't.

So even though it looks stupid, if you're a Cowboys fan, you can't really blame the ref on that one. The false start, I thought, or the delay a game earlier, I thought maybe you could get on the ref a little bit for that one because you're like, look, you realize the play clock is late. Get out of the way. Do whatever you can to spot the ball and get out of the way here. And he kind of felt like he stayed there long enough

as they were subbing off for the defense. And then it's like, okay, so now we can't even snap the ball. So that one I'd have a problem with if i were a cowboys fan the last one i can only be upset with my quarterback and my team not the ref right i'm with you on both of those as as a fan i would say i'm actually with the refs on this one on the punt play the defense is allowed to substitute and get lined up and do what they need to do after an offensive substitution and so that's why these running the punt team on really quick and then running them off and the offense comes on like that was in vogue a few years ago and i remember chicago i think it was

naggy they were big into that and then the rule changed where the defense is given as much time as they need to get the substitutions in i think chicago ran it once more after that and it didn't work same situation like they either had to call the substitutions in. I think Chicago ran it once more after that, and it didn't work. Same situation. They either had to call the timeout or take the delay because the ref's standing over the ball. He's doing his job. You can say, yeah, you should know,

and the clock's winding down, and maybe run back there a second or two earlier to give the Cowboys a chance, but he's supposed to allow the defense to have plenty of time to get their substitution in. I think it's just a dumb play call on the whole. That's another one where I had an issue with, I don't know if that's,

you know, fossil, the coordinator goes to McCarthy or whatever, but like the rule is very obvious. Plus they reset the 25 second play clock. So it was already down to like 16 or something as everyone was trying to figure out what the hell Dallas was doing. And I don't know why the punting unit stayed on the field at all.

And the refs gave them an extra like nine seconds on the play clock. And then they still did this weird delay game thing. So I think those are both dumb decisions. You know, I tweeted in the moment, everyone's crushing McCarthy for the QB draw thing. But to me, he's not the offensive coordinator. It's been established that Kellen Moore is the offensive coordinator. I imagine it's kellen moore calling that play and he's the one you know kind of behind all that now the only pass i would give him is some coaches have very specific end the game situation plays and you know we always had the same six or seven plays and in this spot this is what we do and to run time off this is a play we'd have um so maybe that's like an old mccarthy thing from green bay that like that's always been his 14 seconds steal another eight yards.

It's going to be a QB draw. Um, but yeah, I tend to think that it's a little bit more Kellen Moore cause he is the one clawing the plays and it's just so easy to pile on McCarthy. And as you know, once we get these, you know, kind of Twitter, uh, antagonists, we just, uh, love to put them through it. Yeah. Once your Q rating is that low on social media, then you can never really recover.

It's over for you. But you're right about the McCarthy-Kellen Moore thing because on the right day, Kellen Moore is like, oh, we're going to lose this guy. This sucks. And then on the wrong day, it's like, well, normally I'd trash Kellen Moore,

but we like him more than McCarthy, so we'll just blame McCarthy again for the whole thing. I thought maybe they did the punt lineup deal. I still think at the very end, the ref could have been a little quicker on getting them the ball back there before the delay of game. I was wondering if they did that

because Kingsbury and Arizona had done it to them a couple weeks before on the fourth down field goal decision, and they ended up getting Dallas to burn a timeout, which actually ended up being like to burn a timeout which actually ended up being like something it was almost like hey do you want to do one of those things where you try to confuse the other guys and they burn a timeout and Shanahan's just looking at him going fine if you want to run a play with this personnel grouping go ahead yeah I'm not calling a timeout it's weird because at the time they're down by touchdowns. So it's like you're trying to get the team who's going to possess the ball

and not want to use their timeouts to burn a timeout at the detriment of running off a minute of game time when you need all that precious time to score two touchdowns to get back into it. So yeah, that's part of why I think it was dumb. I get the concept of it, and I get the utility of getting the team to burn their timeout. I just didn't think of that scenario. That was necessarily the smart thing.

I crushed them. It was towards the end of the third quarter. They're down 16. It was fourth and two and they're at their own 33, so on the wrong side of the field. They punted. I thought that was a bad call at the time. You're down 16. Every indication with San Francisco was controlling that game. And you're supposed to have one of the top three or five offenses. And I think you need to go for it down two touchdowns and the playoffs, let alone down 16, which realistically is probably going to need a third score.

So they run the punt team on before the fake punt. And I know everyone was firing up Twitter. We all had the tweet ready. This guy's an idiot. I can't believe they're punting from the situation. Of course, they ended up, you know, throwing the ball. And as they mentioned on the broadcast, I mean, San Fran was in like a punt safe look.

They just didn't think that the punter would rise up and throw it to the guy on the outside. Yeah, anger connected there for 16 yards. How about that? That was your roommate? Yeah, Caler connected there for 16 yards. How about that? That was your roommate? Yeah, Cal. Senior year. So are you still in touch?

I feel like you're just like, hey, we were roommates. But do you send him a text after that? Or do you just let him know? We usually, honestly, we catch up on the field when we see each other. We're not necessarily text buddies. But I just had to throw out he was a Cal guy. I know you love when I mentioned that i went to cow you're way better about it than than other cow guys i have a cow guy uh who's a neighbor who is still telling me how the sec success is all propped up

by propaganda and i was like that's absurd it's propped up by the Pac-10 just not giving a crap for years and then riding USC who stopped trying a few years ago. I just didn't know what to tell them. What has it been? Three bowl seasons since they've won a bowl game? Yeah. It's been rough. Yeah. I just was like, yeah, man.

It's awesome seeing you. But I can't even engage in this discussion with you. This is a non-starter. It's all right. We dominate rugby, so we're good. Do you guys have a good rugby program up there? Yeah. I think they won 26 championships in 29 years or something.

Are you serious? Yeah. The rugby team, they got some ballers. They wouldn't let any of you guys as football players play rugby, right? No way. Well, so the funny thing is, so when they were renovating the stadium, we basically took over the rugby field and we converted it into like a turf football practice field. And of course, rugby sitting there like these guys,

like we're way better than them and what we do than the football team. And we like built all these bungalows and had meetings up there and just totally took over their field. And they were, they were pretty pissed at us. But we like their championships. They add to the school. So we like to ride them. Yeah. I mean, I imagine like scholarship guys is a non-starter.

It's not like any of you would be like, hey, I think I'm going to go out for rugby too. You're like, no, you're not. I can imagine like some of the tackling dummies were allowed to if they wanted to, right? Yeah. The thing with rugby guys is like they're way more athletic than offensive linemen because they have to run. And we've seen like Helody Nata was a rugby guy and Maialata, the left tackle for the Eagles, was a rugby guy.

Every now and again, you get the 6'5", 330 pounder who just steamrolls people. But for the most part, that's way too much running for me. I'll be happy with my two to three yard maximum sprint window. And they're also just like nuts. They kind of have a lot more of the hockey player mentality and vibe than they do football. I think on the whole, they're probably a little bit tougher and much crazier than football players. I'm surprised they haven't been banned then. The whole rugby team disbanded from Cal for being so masculine.

In part of the cost-cut, yeah, I know. And part of the cost-cutting measures, I think they were going to cut rugby at one point. And of course they were, again, like, we are the best team at this school. Why are you guys trying to get rid of us? Yeah, we need a little bit of masculinity there. So

it's a net positive for us. I went to the Oregon game when Chip was still with the Ducks, and it was actually like a close score, but it wasn't really a close game. And so I was in there, and it was just as I think the renovations were going. And where that stadium is in town, on campus, and how it just – you're kind of like walking up a side street, and then boom, there it is, and it's like over you.

So I don't know. I don't know what it looks like since all the renovations, but the old setup for it was it was almost like out of Europe. Like, it's just crazy that you'd be kind of walking down the street and then all of a sudden it's like, no, no, no. Like right up here is this massive stadium with this whole backdrop behind it. And then there were people living in the woods. There were students living in the woods there. I don't know if it was a protest for the expansion or what, because then some of the staff guys from Cal came over

because they were telling me I had to get in and out burger, and they were really cool. They were listening to the show and everything, and then we started running routes on the field, and Stanford Steve was throwing us balls. And then i was like what's going on back there and they were like oh there's just students living in the woods for a little while and i was like okay i think the people living in the trees might have been hired to do

that the idea was that they were going to cut down too many trees and they were uh historic trees that had been there since the stadium was built and of course you go back and i think memorial stadium was built in like 1923 and there's like three trees total on the ground. So that wasn't true. And the school, like for every tree that they took out, they were going to plant like four more around the world. There was that. But yeah, when I first got to Cal in summer school, they're walking us around and showing us the facilities and there's people up in the trees. They've got their buckets of fecal matter. And sometimes if they got annoyed with you, it would start raining down on you. So we kind of had to navigate that situation. But yeah, the stadium is awesome. It's still in the same spot. They just added

a bunch of press boxes and kind of made it nice and you can have weddings and stuff there. But the offensive line tradition, because we're fat and lazy, we managed to find a route to get from the bottom of campus up to the stadium without ever having to actually walk uphill. You just kind of zigzag campus down different buildings, took elevators and escalators and just like never actually put any effort into walking

uphill. And that was one of our fun offensive line traditions. It wasn't an easy walk, man. No, it gets steep. It's like a very steep curve of exponential growth that it wasn't an easy walk, man. No, it gets deep. It's like, it was like a, a very steep curve of like exponential growth that the first, you know,

50% is pretty flat and you don't feel it. And then at the end, it just like ramps way up and got to use Haas school of business. They have the best elevator and facilities to, to get there. I'm looking forward to Haas this next year. So, um,

all right. Do I have anything else? Any other observations I need to ask you about? Or we got it covered? Well, so I think on the whole, like it felt like a lot of football, like I said. Part of it's that the games weren't really awesome. You know, the two versus seven matchups

ended up being the duds that we expected. And it's not even that like, oh, Pittsburgh shouldn't have been that and they're a bad seven seed or Philly's a bad seven seed. But by adding them and making the two seed play and not have the buy, now you're looking at a much worse matchup where traditionally three versus six, you know, they're probably pretty close. Four versus five, they're obviously pretty close. But once you add two versus seven, you're talking about like very, very, very fringe playoff teams versus teams who traditionally get the buy

you're looking at those mismatches and so i think that's one of the things that maybe wasn't fully taken into account is that yeah we're adding these games and it's more football and it's more revenue but uh the quality of the game is gonna drop off and a few years ago like every single thursday and monday night game was just a crappy matchup in a crappy game and the ratings dipped a little bit which was also political stuff. You know, we kind of talked about, is it oversaturated? And when there's only one single game on you,

you can't have it be a bad matchup. And so, you know, three and a half of the five games that we just watched were pretty bad matchups and we're over pretty soon. So I think that's something that the NFL is probably not going to care because it's going to make money and people are going to watch anyway, but just an unintended consequence. And I'm not sure too many people

thought about. Yeah, I'm with you. I really hate that the two seed doesn't have the buy. I don't like that only one team has the buy and, you know, it'll depend on quality of one seeds and we'll have to have it go out over years to see if it truly is the advantage that I think it would be. But if only one team gets to rest and it's at home the rest of the way, but maybe I'm just conditioned to always thinking that the two teams deserve, that's top, deserve to be those bye teams. Because, you know, look, the Chargers could have been in, and it's a talented, fun team, which is better than Pittsburgh.

There's a couple teams that are on the fringe that are still, I think, decent teams. But I don't love expanding it out. I mean, I never, I never like expanding it out to giving lesser and lesser teams a chance to win a championship. Cause then it's like, what the hell did we just do for four months? That's always my position on this stuff. Although I know, like, I don't get that worked up about it because I just know it's a losing proposition. They're going to expand it. And who knows? I mean, it's going to go to eight before it ever go back. So, you know, yeah, what they should do is once college football goes to 32 teams after five rounds of that you know Alabama and Georgia will still be left standing and they become the two seven seats and they get to play the two seats and then we finally get to see

can Alabama beat an NFL team that's what they should do not this year's Alabama team that's for sure uh Mitchell Schwartz, man, always great. Thanks a lot. Enjoy the Bills game, all right? Yeah, appreciate it. Thank 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 can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. The email is

lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. What's good, everybody? Everybody have a good weekend? Yeah, chilling. Kyle's back at Frolic Room, right? Gave me a call Saturdayurday night it was good times oh yeah i pitched you an idea after a few brews he did what was the what was the pitch i can't let this go oh no you'll be hearing about it trust me okay all right that's tbd yeah it's good stuff i appreciate that one uh speaking of frolic room somebody chimed in and i i did not

know this but did you know the 311's song frolic room is apparently about frolic room i have no and it doesn't surprise me at all but i didn't know that i i didn't i didn't know that that's what it was about uh some guy actually i gotta be careful now on twitter because some guy when i was in there uh he was in chicago illinois and he started playing like a Game of Thrones song from the soundtrack. Like once, once I posted that I was in there and I mean, it was like, it was like a sad one too. It's the reigns of Castamere. And it was like, what the fuck is going on? So I'm starting to look around because I'm like, all right, somebody's fucking with me. And the guy was in Chicago. So, um, I gotta just not let people know I'm in there because they can just throw some

money into the, uh, the old jukebox app and just terrorize us. It got skipped, by the way, guy. It was going for about a minute, and then they skipped it. No kidding. So guys are just messing with you, huh? Yeah, but then he asked me what I wanted, so I asked him for a Big L, and he did a Big L Tupac.

They didn't skip that one, so thank you. Well, that's good. That's good that's good uh don't tread on me the 2005 release from 311 um in case anybody's in case anybody's wondering there is a 311 picture on the wall in there wait you were a big 311 guy steve no i said ryan big 311 guy i was yeah oh yeah no doubt which actually kind of surprises me about you I don't know I mean I guess maybe it shouldn't because what was that like college years for you I think everybody knows that one song what is it

whoa Amber that's what it is that's like the only 311 song I know yeah no I was Transistor came out of my birthday bro that was that was a big deal Transistor's I think when they sort of peaked uh yeah i really liked him really liked him there for a while and i know it's kind of funny because

it's almost like you get made fun of for it you know yeah i think it's like to to have people make fun of the dave matthews band guys that's me. Yeah, but I just... You realize the band themselves are actually incredible, right? Do you accept that or no? Yeah. So I've had this debate a million times. It's not that I don't like Dave Matthews band. It's that I don't like the fans of Dave Matthews band. I don't like the

concert vibe. That's what it is. So yeah, no. They're incredibly talented, obviously. Just not my scene. Yep. Yep. That's fine. Have I gone to 311 Day? No. Would I?

Doubt it. They still touring? Not too late. Yeah, some few years ago. Okay, here we go. Let's get to saving lives. 6'1", boxer, former D3 point guard, local legend at 6 a.m. ball. They either love me or think I carry the ball on every play.

Everybody carries the ball on every play now. So, I don't know. There's some of these videos, these breakout videos of dudes crossing up dudes. You're like, why don't you just take the basketball, wrap it in Christmas paper, and fucking put it in a UPS overnight box, and then go left. All right. The important information,

I'm 26. I've been going to the boxing gym for the past year now. I love it. This gym is primarily a place where you have workouts designed and use boxing as the cardio. You learn real boxing. For those that want to dive deeper into the box, you can. Since I have been going, I've made a good amount of friends there. Most of them in their 40s or above.

Most of them had been going there for a few years before I showed up, but still welcomed me into their fold. Well, dude, you're not joining a gang. I would have thought they'd be nice to you. But who knows? You know what? If you're a brash 26-year-old, you'd be like, who's this guy? I think he is. And then everybody's trying to size each other up. One of the members I'm particularly close to, she is in her mid-40s. Super charismatic. A lot of personality.

Has a fantastic body. I would be lying if I didn't notice. We get along super well. I've been over to her house with another member. We text a few times every day. We always make the effort to work out with each other and talk to each other more than just to the friends in our group. Sideling up a bit. We were planning to have a wine night over at her house next week.

Just the two of us. It is mainly to talk about new goals, etc. But maybe an excuse to drink wine. So Rudy knows. I'm obviously interested in her! I'm not sure where it would go or what it would lead to, but she's an awesome person and the thought has crossed my mind. miss this and if it were lead to anything would that be too big of a barrier to get through we've both been divorced and lead similar lives and just have a great connection I also don't want to ruin the relationship we already have things don't work out last thing she has a son

that just turned 18 so if it works out at least I can bond with the son by sharing gamer tags guy you were divorced at 26 holy shit this guy's got gotta be from the south midwest maybe

um also I'd love to hear the highest age gap everyone has dated easy bet but I'm sure Kyle is the one with the largest gap um so Rudy could be a sneaky last minute bet no chance no fucking way

so Rudy's dated somebody way older than him that's the worst call of any email here do you want to just go ahead and confirm that now Cerruti yeah he's correct my wife is three years younger than me so yeah but I'm saying age gap of anyone that you've ever dated there's no way there's some like story that I don't

know about no not dated yeah not dated yeah okay and then sorry, Ryan, you're just a stay in your lane kind of guy, which isn't a bad thing. No idea what that means. None. Okay. So let's examine here on this one. I think this is pretty straightforward. You're thinking about it more than she is because you're younger. And the great thing, and I'm not going to summarize every older person, but there's a pretty good chance she knows exactly what she wants. All right. She's been divorced, got 18

year old kids. He's gonna be leaving the house soon unless he's not. Um, and she's into you and you're into her, then stop asking a million questions and let this one play out. If it doesn't work out, it will not be the first time people who were at the gym, um, didn't have something work out some people let that be super awkward and then they change gyms and all sorts of or you could just be adults about it and be like hey whatever we used to hang out um i now would never leave a gym because of relationship i probably would have in my 20s so i kind of get your point here but you have to understand whatever your you seem to kind of know what you want to do you want to

spend some time whether you're attracted or you're going over to your, you seem to kind of know what you want to do. You want to spend some time with her. You're attracted to her. You're going over to her house. You're sharing this email with us. I would say she's probably thinking about it less because she's been around a little bit longer. So instead of worrying about having to visit her in a nursing home in 40 years, why don't you just take a deep breath, fucking chill out and hang with her and not overthink this because chances are she's not overthinking it. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But you know, in the meantime, maybe you spend some time with somebody you really enjoy and then you move on. So don't, you know, don't worry about

feeding her applesauce in 30 years. Yeah. I think she'll absolutely, um, not necessarily make the first move, but if, if that's what's on her her mind you'll know it and she'll make it clear through one way or another if you're remotely paying attention so just go over have some wine maybe bring some cheese and then see what happens from there that's great yeah yeah i would say like older women usually are going to be the ones that probably make the first move and aren't afraid to try out so play it cool but i love how we also call it yeah yeah but i love how we also call it like yeah yeah but i love how we called it a like a wine like a what was it wine night like so you're going so it's a date so it's a date like we just call it what it is it's date that's what it is um and i think you

both probably know that but maybe you know you're both afraid to say that and that's cool because see how it goes see how wine night goes and then you go from there i hope your kid is out of the house 18 and not a fucking hang around 18. That would suck for you, dude. Oh, yeah. I mean, that would be, that would be, if the 18-year-old sucks. Or just didn't do,

or was always home. You're like, I hope he's like an out and about 18 and not a, you know, not one of those 18s. I could, I could add this in there though. If I were 18 and my mom were 40 and a 26 year old dude started coming by all the time,

I wouldn't be fucking pumped about it. Yeah. I'd be like, no way that's going to work. Yeah. Now granted, it sounds like this guy's an athlete and boxer, but what if I thought I could take the 26 year old when I was 18?

Probably not me at 18, but if I were a different person at 18 i might be like you know what you can you can fucking pound sand pal get out of here get out of here pal i'm not sure like call of duty or gamer tags is going to fix that problem either yeah i'd say leave him alone guy that's what i would say yeah right right um speaking of gyms i'm starting to work out with the crazy nigerian bouncer from frolic room today i'm gonna go three times a week i will let you know how it goes very excited whoa dude he said i'm gonna make you a fucking beast i'm excited

wait what's going on you're the door guy give me the origin of you. Was it a couple pops and you were like... Always a couple pops. Jack, bro. No, he was just telling me stories and stuff like that. I had seen him for two weeks and he was like, do I look different? I was like, I don't know. You look like you slimmed down a little bit.

And he was like, no, I've been working out a couple days. Look at me. I'll make you a fucking beast. Come with me. So he was like, meet me at Frolic Room at 8 o'clock, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I'll bring you to my spot. He wouldn't tell me where it is. So I don't know.

This is like this is going to be an experience. But apparently he says in a week I'll be a beast. So I'll let you know next week. He's just going to give you some steroids and not on the back of his car. Even steroids don't work that quick. I can't wait for this new element, talking fitness with Kyle. And I can't wait for Wednesday's podcast.

I seriously cannot wait for Wednesday's podcast. I want to finish this one up now just so we have more time. Perfect. Okay. All right. This is a long one, but I think it's an important one. Dysfunctional friend group, 64175, spelt and pale twenty six years old i need some advice my crew from college consists of three guys three girls who've been

friends and roommates neighbors since sophomore year seven years now there's definitely some serious codependency here amongst the group after we graduated a couple of us went to grad school the rest got jobs all in the same city uh oh that's great city yeah um this is like an episode of friends or maybe it's like seven seasons of friends here we go uh it's super rare i know but it's been pretty awesome i by the way if you're all friends with each other and you're all in this great city together i think it's great like this is terrific that you're all still this close all right we all live in the same building with three guys sharing a place and three girls sharing a place two floors down we have a dysfunctional family type of vibe spending an unhealthy amount of time together one of my friends

um I'll change the name here uh Topher was in a long-distance relationship all through college uh his girl went to school five hours away it was Rocky and they fought non-stop for four years always a good time yeah including a yeah it's the worst i look back at my feeling and i'm like what a waste of time um including a couple breakups in between when we all graduated she wanted him to move back home to the midwest but he decided to stay here and go to grad school they tried it out for a while broke up two years later all right whatever since he's single it's clear to me that tofer struggles to maintain platonic female relationships last year he drunkenly hooked up with one of our core friends, which caused a lot of unnecessary drama and awkwardness in the group. They hooked up a couple of times and then she started to catch some feelings, which made things even worse.

Luckily, that is water under the bridge now. Except now Topher has become infatuated with our other friend. Let's call her Becky. He's been extremely flirtatious the last few weeks. He's doing a lot of boyfriend type stuff for her, which makes the rest of the group uncomfortable, especially the previous girl that he hooked up with. I've spoken to Becky about it. She also thinks it's weird and has no interest in Topher romantically. We even told Topher this. We explained that he is making everyone awkward and that Becky wasn't interested in him in that way. He doesn't care. Just the other day, he told me he was planning a romantic gesture for Becky this weekend. He's going to decorate our apartment, buy some flowers, wine, chocolate, and cook her a fancy dinner to profess his love.

He already asked us to clear out of the apartment for the date. We've pleaded with him relentlessly to not do it. It will not go well. It might ruin our entire group dynamic. He doesn't care in his mind. He believes, A, it's important to at least tell her how he feels and will accept the outcome, and B, that he can seduce her and convince her they should be together. Guys, there's no reasoning with Topher. This is happening the way I see it. The rest of us have a few options. We can warn Becky about the ambush.

I don't want to betray Topher's trust. And if we tell her and she decides to not show up, it would be devastating for him. On the other hand, she's my friend too, and I feel like it would be wrong not to warn her. We can try and crash the dinner or something as an intervention of sorts. This would anger Tovar, but might be able to save the group dynamic. We can do nothing and let it play out. What do you think the best option is? There's something else we can do. Thanks, guys. appreciate your advice all right there's one thing here though um when you say in this email he's become flirtatious the last few weeks doing a lot of boyfriend stuff for her which makes the rest of the group uncomfortable especially the girl that he used to hook up with i've spoken to becky about it who is the uh target of his pursuit she also thinks it's weird and has no interest in topher romantically. So here's the thing. It sounds as if she already has some understanding of what's going on here. Like she is aware of the deal. So I think you just let this guy fall on his face here. I mean, unless he's that good looking and some wine and chocolate and maybe Becky was lying to you being like,

oh, I'm not interested because she doesn't want her friend to be mad or all that kind of stuff. But yeah, like, Hey man, meet somebody else outside of our group, you know, try not to hit up with 66% of our, our friend group, uh, on the female side of it. Um, this is usually a person who's selfish and on top of it, maybe he just struggles to meet people outside of the group. Like we had one friend from school where he was still great with girls that we went to school with, but when it wasn't a girl we went to school with, cause he didn't have any equity built up with any of them. He just didn't do that. Well, like it always had to be, well, it was also usually somebody else's girlfriend too, but, um, he just wasn't, he didn't have like any game outside of this very specific lane.

And so I don't know if that's why your guy Topher continues to do this kind of stuff. But he's not going to listen to you, which you've clearly stated. So the intervention and the crash to dinner doesn't make a ton of sense. But it sounds like Becky actually knows that this is all going down. And she's telling the truth. Then I think you just let this guy fall on his face here, Kyle. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you guys like could probably be honest with each other and stuff

like that. And, and yeah, I think she's probably gonna, she's probably gonna shut this down at some point, unless like you said, she's lying. The one thing I feel bad for, unless he wrote it wrong, it sounds like he's breaking into apartment and decorating it for her. Uh, that's kind of strange. I would say, uh, cause like when you guys into her apartment and decorating it for her. That's kind of strange, I would say. Because when you guys are all friends and stuff, I didn't know if

maybe he meant he was going to decorate his own apartment and he told everyone to clear out. It seems like there's a dueling apartment where they both just hang out. Yeah, well, good pick up by Saruti, but you're right. He actually says it's his own apartment. All right, fine.

I'm not as concerned. But it just is strange that for the girl Good pick up by Saruti, but you're right. He actually says it's his own apartment. All right, fine. All right. Then I'm not as concerned as... But it just is strange that for the girl, when somebody that you're able to be on a certain level with and hang out with and talk shit about other people with is now flip the script onto you and is now pursuing you. I just feel bad for the girl, especially if she's not interested. So I hope he fucking knocks it especially if she's not interested. I hope he fucking knocks it off after she sets him straight.

I like, though, that you were like, hey, let's not get a B&E charge. Yeah, it's fine when you're friends. All angles. It's fine when you're friends, but then when it's like, actually, I came and fixed your sink and I'm hoping that we could talk about stuff. How do you keep getting in here?

Who gave you the key? I think you got to let him fall on his face. Maybe they live in Jackson Hole. like, top of that stuff. How do you keep getting in here? What is that? Like, who gave you the key? Yeah. I think you got to let him fall on his face. Maybe they live in Jackson Hole. Door was open. I think you got to let him fall on his face because, and I think I've diagnosed this guy's, Topher's character here. He dated this girl for four years in college, right?

And it was miserable, which I would never recommend to anyone. I did it for two years i missed out a lot of cool shit it sets you back from college i would just if you're having problems dating your significant other usually to carry over from high school into college if there are a lot of problems like cut bait i guarantee you i know it's tough in the moment you will not regret it in the long run you can always get back together move back to your hometown but i think this guy went four years without really getting any sort of social cues about like how like dating works or like how fucking up friend groups work and right now he's feeling he's feeling that out in the real world

and it's not working for him so i think you gotta let him fall on his face and learn his lesson yeah but it sounds like the guy writing in the email the other guy roommate like or maybe a little afraid of this guy's superpowers you know where you like it i mean are you guys getting that like they're afraid that maybe he can pull this off even though becky was saying like yeah i'm picking up on some of these like weird things he's doing now like i'm totally not interested in this guy at all um but it sucks i mean look at friends towards the end i didn't watch any of those episodes but didn't joey just start taking down everybody? I don't know. Yeah, sorry.

Here come the emails. I feel about friends how I feel about DMV. Honestly, what I would say, though, is if the guys are the ones that are feeling weird about it, just stop feeling weird about it. You guys are friends and you've been friends for a long time. This is just another thing that's happening in your friendship. Don't feel weird about it.

That's going to be annoying if you're just upset that he's with another one of the friends. That's none in your friendship like i don't feel weird about it that's gonna be that's gonna be annoying if you're like if you're just upset that like he's with another one of the friends like that's none of your business honestly unless he's like harassing her and she like needs help with him to stop like don't be uncool in that way and like maybe be a good friend i'm not saying you guys aren't good friends but like maybe take him out be his wingman at the bar so he's not constantly hitting on your on your friends like meet other people if you guys are like comfortable with that be his wingman and help him out so he's not just hitting on your friends. Meet other people. If you guys are comfortable with that, be his wingman and help him out so he's not just poaching people in the frame. Maybe it's just a science of proximity though too

because sometimes as anybody's ever known, especially when you're younger too, I don't know, maybe that never goes away, but there's some weird deal that goes on. Once you're just close proximity with the opposite sex, all of a sudden you just start feeling different about about each other i don't know or maybe maybe this

guy's the man and his his hat is run and now is like oh deep down the person i keep thinking about is you and that's why it feels like he has to go for it the entire time yeah they should have made that mistake three years ago it sounds like four years ago now now it's happening now they're like no dude we're supposed to get that out of the way it is interesting though like the interesting part to me is that so the first time he did this she caught feelings right this is a different yeah the first girl caught he and he and i would just by you know judging the story here like he probably didn't have the same feelings and that was the problem but he has feelings for becky right and they haven't even hooked up yet so it is kind of a different thing like i could see why toper would be like no this is totally different i'm like actually i'm actually

into this girl like i love her blah blah blah but i don't know i could also understand why the email or the other guy are like are you serious dude you're gonna do this again like you did it before it almost fucked up things it was a little weird i mean i'm not to be a jerk here but my guess is the second girl's like a little bit more attractive yeah right right and that's why the other one like originally was starting to like him and he was like i'm out and then this is the this is the one he's always wanted to pursue so that's why he's always felt this way but wasn't as had to like let a couple had to let the buy week go by on the previous acquisition i don't know there's not really any great advice because he's he's not going to listen to any of you guys and by the time we got this email i think it may have already happened so

why don't we do this i'd love a follow-up i actually would like a follow-up on this one because he's not going to listen to any of you guys. He doesn't care. You'd only make it weirder. You'd only make it weirder. It is kind of a tough... It's a little tougher than just, hey, this guy sucks. Stop doing this, though. Because if it were you

and you actually were convinced you were totally in love with this other person, you're never going to listen to anybody. And then if you're also one of those guys who, not knocking it, I just never could understand putting in that much effort being told no all the time. Although my career, I've had the opposite approach to relationships. Like the second somebody doesn't like me, I'm like, all right, cool, whatever. determined to pursue these relationships and i'll be like how many times she said she didn't want to hang out with you and be like oh for like two years man and then be like and you kept on pursuing this person like that's fucking insane and some people do it and i don't know it works for some

people i don't we had a buddy in our friend group um and it was like there was guys and girls and he was interested in this one girl in our friend group for a lot of high school into college like she dated different people like clearly was never like they were always friendly it never really fucked up the the friend group you know camaraderie or whatever but everyone kind of knew that he was into her and she wasn't into him and it just kind of went on for a long time we just kind of left it alone because it was harmless so if that's the situation and like it doesn't actually mess anything up it's fine um as long as becky keeps saying no to this guy uh but you know if it does fuck up the friend group that that's that's where you gotta probably put your foot

down i didn't think that happened anymore the yeah i just was i was blowing him off for two full years like i thought that was like people coming to america with 50 cents in their pockets like yeah that happened in the 40s but it doesn't happen anymore right isn't that harassment like you get put on a list for that now i didn't think that still happened i know i was just reading about ben franklin running away from home in boston ending up in philadelphia and they were like you know his last his last copper pieces he bought breakfast and then made a name for himself i'm like okay but there had to have been some other what did we skip here yeah you know it was a really good line in the book that i was reading

but it didn't i have a feeling like back then you could write your name and if your family back in you know somewhere else like it's just basically the first version of credit cards without cards is you would just be able to kind of like room somewhere on credit and then work it off i mean clearly franklin had some real vision about some of the stuff that he wanted to do and immediately was a big member of society in philadelphia but his father was so afraid of losing him they were his father's a candle maker and it was just you know rendered animal fat and it was fucking disgusting and ben franklin old old benny f hated it so much that he was like i'm running away and his older brother um maybe the first millennial just was like, I'm running away. And his older brother, um, maybe the first millennial just was like, this job sucks. Um, his older brother got on a privateer and decided just

like, all right, let me get on this ship, getting into some action. I'm not making candles. And I guess his boat was lost at sea. And so Ben was like, that's what I'm doing. was lost at sea and so ben was like that's what i'm doing and he was about to get on a boat legend goes and his father very connected found out that he was like going down to this boat he was like no he's like look i'll help you figure out some other path here if you don't want to make candles because he was he was so afraid of losing another son at sea you're sure you don't want to make candles we'll work something out yeah if you're really that anti-candle, let's figure out another option where you're not potentially going to be lost at sea. So,

yeah, that's what I'm reading right now. America's First Civil War. Nice. We're going to have this guy on? Who is it? For the Ryan Rosillo Books guy on Twitter, so we could say he doesn't have to say no books. It's a new book. HW Brands. God, that's a new book. H.W. Brands.

God, that's a fancy name. See you soon, H-Dubs. You're on the way. Well, you know, I'm only 100 pages in. So, you know, let's not assume anything. All right. That's today's podcast. Please subscribe.

Spread the word to your friends internationally and locally. We will talk to you on Wednesday. Are we doing Wu-Tang? We should just do the Wu-Tang book, right? On Wednesday, I'll do some basketball. All right, I'll do a ton of NBA on Wednesday and then we're going to have

our Wu-Tang author for an hour, the streets of Shaolin, Killer Bees. I'd like to try your Wu-Tang style. We'll do that Wednesday. Talk to you then. you