The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Week 16 Recap With Chris Long | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

Russillo is joined by two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long to discuss NFL Week 16. They discuss the latest development in the NFC East saga, the Eagles' win over the Cowboys, Rams-49ers, Bills-Patriots, Cardinals-Seahawks, Bengals-Dolphins, Ravens-Browns, “Who won the decade?,” and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

one more week to go chris long live from the east coast i am back in cold los angeles and today's episode of the ryan russell show with chris long is brought to you by state farm if you're fumbling with insurance state farm agents are here to help because with over 19,000 agents, they're local to you and available to help whether you connect in person by phone or through the State Farm mobile app. Agents are here to help, so go with the one that has coverage and agents you can count on. State Farm, talk to an agent today. Let's do a quick shock media shout out. What do you have going on, the website, the podcast? Because the HQ looked to be just absolutely locked in week 16

yesterday oh absolutely locked in yeah you saw you saw it on a video on facetime yeah we had uh we had action bronson on this week on the fishbowl uh and that was one of my favorite interviews that we've done and then also started my dad in the other day yeah irishman star i have my then a literal irishman uh my dad uh came in uh to the studio to do a pod so he lowered his sensibilities to uh hang out with the common folk the podcast folk and we had about like a almost an hour long conversation about raiders stories the coliseum and all that stuff so that out. That's legitimately entertaining and good. That's perfect. I can honestly say you'll like that.

I'm going to check that out on the drive back. But, you know, traffic's a little light. The holiday season. Is it? Yeah. I looked at the commute this morning. I went, hey, we're good. But, yeah, we have a few days of rain. Okay.

It may be gloomy out here, but it's certainly a lot darker in Dallas. They lose to your Eagles 17-9 at the link. I sent you a text. I sat down at Houston's right after the gym and I go, all right, I'm going to get that Thai noodle steak salad. I'm going to take this in and I send you a text. I go, you know, I could see Philly just winning this game despite the fact that it makes no sense. And I know there's plenty of times where we've all watched football games where we see a team move the football in the first drive, and you're like, oh, this team's going to win,

which is really, really stupid. But this is a bad loss, no matter what way you slice it, with Philadelphia, some of the stats for the snap counts and who was out there at receiver. Greg Ward's like his number one receiver right now, the Houston quarterback. So let's start with Philadelphia getting this, and then we'll get to all of the Dallas stuff,

where, again, Dallas is still alive for the playoffs with the upcoming Week 17 schedule. They've got to win, and they've got to hope the Eagles lose to the Giants at New York, which is still a possibility, despite what Philadelphia did yesterday. Well, now this team's playing with house money, right? I don't think anybody at this point if they slide in or not I mean if they lost the Giants which you you should be worried about Saquon starting to look healthy again glance of that that game yesterday put up

about 40 on a little tackle optional little yeah that that Redskins team did not look super locked in um yesterday no they did not they did not and and Philly has look super locked in yesterday. No, they did not. They did not. And Philly has to be locked in Week 17. Historically, the Giants, the last couple years, have played us, the Eagles, tough in 17. The Super Bowl year, Nick Foles' first or second start, we barely survived up there.

We were down with five minutes to go in the game. I think we won 31-29. I know I hate the cliche cliche the trap game thing because you're still playing for your playoff life yeah what's it is a trap game right but i mean the the trap there is that i'm going to tell you what happened yesterday you can do anything at the link like literally you could beat anybody on any given day in the link we've seen it so i I, you, you got the, the momentum, whatever you want to call it early, the energy after that first drive, and they didn't relinquish it. And that was the key. Like even they had that big dip,

the defense then stepped up. So, um, yeah, I think whatever happens after this, they'll still remember that game first, because this is as much about Carson and getting over the hump and beating Dallas as it is about making a playoff run to me. Okay, let me hit you with a few Dallas tidbits here. And I know this is the kind of thing where, you know, as a non-Dallas fan, I get as annoyed as any of you listening right now as a non-Cowboys fan of the oversaturation of the coverage. But, you know, when teams are the hype team and they lose in spots when they're not supposed to lose, that can become the overriding story. Then the team that wins, you may, when teams are the hype team and they lose in spots when they're not supposed to lose, that can become the overriding story.

Then the team that wins, you may not like it, but it's the way it's done. I will offer you up the Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Lakers as the best example ever of the obsession. But then I think that everybody kind of overdoes it. Like when you're in two weeks in the summer going, what do you think Zeke Elliott's contract is going to be on 10 straight radio shows? Then you've screwed up. Then it's too much. what do you think Zeke Elliott's contract is going to be on 10 straight radio shows, then you've screwed up. Then it's too much. But Dallas is kind of a fraud team,

but they're also kind of just an extension of what they were last year. Here's some numbers for you. In 2018, and this is always one of those things that makes me laugh when a team's going into a new season. Like, hey, you know, we were in 10 one-score games. You know, we're right there. In 2018, on average, all 32 teams played in eight and a half games decided by just one score, okay? And now I'm using the eight-point differential.

So last season, including the playoffs, Dallas had 10 wins in one-score games last year. And the fact that that Rams game was what it was, like you come off of that going, all right, well, Dallas should win the division. They're the most talented team. The offensive numbers are absurd. The metrics are really high.

The traditional stuff, they were number one in the league going into that game. You can talk about schedule and division, but like if you're still the number one yardage team offensively, like something had to have gone right, you know, and they were fifth in scoring.

But there are one in six now in one score games in 2019. So 10 wins last year, 1-6 this year. Only Cincinnati has more losses at 0-8. Think about that. Cincinnati, 15 games in, has played more than half of their games as one-score games, and they're terrible. So there's a correction there. Lawrence hasn't been as good vander esch is out all the defensive stuff but here's what i'm going to ask you now as i set all this up is what about the avoidable shit what about not having cooper out there on the last play and then three different explanations after the fact what about punting on fourth and one and then fourth and six and they got it a

couple minutes later seeming to change the philosophy or the the diet you know like how you're coaching series to series because you're like all right this didn't work last time and what's happening here the run pass splitting chris all that stuff like how do you actually have an nfl team where it's the biggest possession the biggest play of your season and amari cooper and randall cob both aren't on the field, and then they say it's just rotation and a go route and a corner matchup and Tavon Austin. How is it possible that this can keep happening with this franchise? Because the guy that took off in his G5 and looked out the window at that giant American Airlines plane full of players on the tarmac or the buses, whatever he saw,

hasn't held his coach to a standard, that's a championship level. And we've seen this movie so many times, it gets more and more magnified, the more talent they've acquired, and it becomes less and less acceptable. Now, I think the things that have been going on routinely are huge deals even relative to dallas's presence in the media and in the landscape of you know being quote-unquote america's team i mean there are coaching complaints on both sides i mean eagles fans were complaining about not rolling carson out more there were some questionable kick choices but garrett like conservative on fourth and one after the pass right yep um and then no Zeke on third and one no Cooper on fourth and eight the option play I mean I don't think it's as much having the wrong protocols in place as it is having no protocols and I think Garrett's

been honestly coaching like hey I organize practice I the script. I don't know what my philosophy is. And that's what it looks like. And you talk about yardage and all the metrics that say their offense is great. They've also had a bunch of stinkers. So what that means is they're really feast or famine, man. And you talk about Cooper. The road splits have been bad. I don't know if that's why he was off. He had a big drop before the half. He was targeted a bunch. Only a couple yards a catch or an attempt. But still, right? Even with a drop from Cooper,

in what world were you going, you know what, I like our chances better here? No, I don't know. But then there's also mysterious stuff from a personnel standpoint, which is Cooper's home road splits are ridiculous. The difference in his production and his dependability at home and on are ridiculous. The difference in his production and his dependability at home and on the road. This team's a mystery. And I think we pay way more attention to it because

they're talented, but they're just not a good football team. And I was wrong. I got fooled earlier in the year thinking that they were an NFC elite, like some light ball was going to go off and they were going to be different from a standpoint of executing the easy stuff as you you mentioned but that's how talented and tantalizing that that group is it really probably should have sunk in or maybe we should have just you know when they lost to the jets and everybody's like what the hell happened there and it was what week well they lost me a lot of money that weekend i was in a hole that week and i was like i was in a hole that weekend and i was like uh i really need just a winner i'm gonna take dallas and money line like they can't lose and and and that cost me and i should have learned then

i should have learned like later in the year when i picked them didn't bet on them but picked them to to win the Minnesota game. Teams have been getting well against the Cowboys. The Rams, I think we fell for it because we overvalue the Rams. Last week, we were like, all right, they got back on track. Everybody got well against the Cowboys but the Rams this year. That's everybody's get-right game. On the other hand, Bears fans thought Mitch was good for like a week.

Yes. Because the Cowboys are like a drug that wears off after, you know, a couple days. They're like, hey, we feel great. We just beat a really talented football team. Oh, no, we actually just suck. And, you know, like that's what I worry about with anybody. It's a big win for Philly because it's in division and it's remarkable from a personnel standpoint what they won with. I mean, like that's been beaten in the ground. I'm not going to take my big victory lap because I think Carson's great, but Carson made the throws

he had to make early and late. In the middle of the game, you know, both teams had their cold spells, but the big throws to Goddard and hitting the tight ends all day, usually those are easy security throws. He was making tough throws. The late throw to Goddard over Heath. Sanders is, I think he's got the most yards from scrimmage in a single season in the Peterson era. This guy isn't just a good rookie. He's damn good. So they've got some pieces and that's got to make you feel good about the future. They're probably not a Super Bowl run team, but I've seen weirder things happen in Philly, right? Yeah, right. So they're at the Giants. You got to imagine Dallas beats Washington at home. So we could be sitting here, and all it would be doing, I mean, this would be refinancing a house you can't pay for if Dallas ends up.

Like, after everything that happened yesterday and the way everybody feels about the Cowboys and like, get me, I'm so sick of this team on and on and on all the different stuff and everything's a bigger deal there like and by the way guys that are going on TV that worked in the NFL like Rex Ryan was on get up going yeah Dak cost himself a lot of money he should have taken the contract how can you guys work in the NFL your entire careers and not understand how this stuff works I don't think Dak's lost any money I really don't I don't I don't think he'll have lost any money and you know we'll see what those final numbers come in at going into next year, unless they want to go ahead and use two of the different franchise options on them.

And I'd imagine they wouldn't do the one where they lose him for draft picks, but yeah, I'm just, I'm just sick of it. I do want to say one quick thing though, and shout a couple of guys out in Philly because it was ironic the type of players they won with being this beat down but there were also players that weren't like people have heard of Big V uh the tackle who of course had to step in for Lane but in Philly he's been much maligned because he's had a rough couple years that guy did a pretty good job yesterday at least surviving against Lawrence and Bennett and those guys uh you know Sidney Jones who's a first round pick who's been first-round pick,

who's been much maligned as well, sitting a lot, not getting snaps until, like, late in the ballgame, and he's very talented. That's been an interesting case study. But he makes the play at the end of the game. There was a bunch of guys that just stepped up. I mean, Isaac Samalu, who's been up and down, and people have hated him at times in Philly,

making the big block on the touchdown at the end to seal it. Like this is a ragtag group, man. I'm just telling you, it's not just ragtag on the surface because you never heard of Greg Ward or any of these guys. If you're a Philly fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This team gutted it out with players that you never thought would be the keys. Yeah. Thank God for Miles Sanders because he's their all everything right now. I mean, I'm so impressed with him. And look, we liked him in college. But then it's like, hey, we need you at a really young age here to step up and be an option. And then it's not just Greg Ward, Robert Davis, Josh Perkins out there.

But it is an offensive line that you think, OK, they can hold up. And it gets a Dallas team that can't get pressure against quarterbacks that much really since week 10. And Lawrence numbers are bad. And it's not just sacks it's the pressures the quarterback hits and collectively Dallas whether it's a back-end thing versus the front but he just there's certain throws in there where you're like was it Dak being hurt and then you know he had that throw where it looked like he missed Cooper but I also think Cooper shut down the route a little early too yeah I think sometimes we overestimate or underestimate

the effects of certain injuries for quarterbacks that you're like, and I'm not sitting here dumping on Dak. I think Dak is very talented. To your point, he's still going to get paid, but he missed some throws late, even on balls that they converted on that guys had to stretch for. And listen, that's what we do. We put these QBs in the NFC East under a microscope and he didn't show up, but he showed up a lot in clutch situations before in my book, uh, and made big throws. I think the biggest thing is sometimes you think, cause a guy showed up and he was questionable all week that maybe it wasn't a big deal. It could still be a big deal. He could be hurt. Yeah. Maybe, maybe that's, that's all it is,

but I guess I just look at that team and go of all the, all the, of all the games you needed to win throughout this whole run in trying to figure out who you are, you lost to a Philly team, which I don't want to discredit because, as you point out, the link, you know. You played there. It's just a little something different. But I don't want to act like I'm surprised by any result except for maybe Arizona beating Seattle,

which we'll get to a little bit later today. But to cap off the headline here, which is really where we should have started, had to be the worst plane ride with a lot of people chiming in, like to get stuck after if you're Dallas and think you may be going to be stuck there all night. I can't imagine a worse thing unless you're Isaiah Thomas at Philadelphia being a cowboy and having to stay out.

Would you go out if you were on the Cowboys that night? Depends on when the plane's leaving. I'm probably not going you go out if you were on the cowboys that night uh it depends on when the plane's leaving i'm probably not gonna go out i might go get some of those like bootlegger uh pints from the gas station behind the little dirty glass uh the glass window and get a bunch of those little like you know those little pints and i might just get liquor drunk in the in the hotel room or on the bus i'd definitely be drunk on the bus i mean they sat in in the hotel room or on the bus. I'd definitely be drunk on the bus. I mean, they sat in the bus. Evidently they didn't get back till two 30 in the morning. I know. Cause I got a text, uh, when they did from one of my buddies that plays there. And I, I just, I can't imagine sitting in the parking lot for three hours. And here's what the worst part is that people don't realize

coaches always sit in the front of the bus. And can you imagine feeling those eyeballs just staring at you on that dark bus that's just idling? And nobody's saying a word. That's what happens. Nobody says a word. Then somebody jokes. Some young kid jokes and laughs, and he's loud. And then there's tension. It's like, hey, shut the fuck up.

We just lost the game. And Jason Garrett's up there. And the coaches are always up there with their wives. And so that's super awkward. They brought their family to their professional funeral. It's just like the tension has to be absurd. There's, I, there's so many things I'd rather do than sit on that bus for three hours, like terrible things. Brutal. I can't that, but that was my life for like, you know, minus the delays. Although we had a lot of weather issues in the Midwest and St. Louis, but that was my life watching people's professional funerals on dark quicks buses after football games. What about the kid joking? Like,

was there ever a story from a kid that joked and everybody like don't vets feel like they have to get extra mad, even if it was funny? I think there's, we all know the types of losses. There's a fine line between a loss you can laugh and joke on the plane after and a loss that you need to just be quiet. But on all those bus rides or plane rides after losses, you can get drunk. That's permissible. That's allowed. It's called medication.

What's the drunkest you've seen a guy on the bus? Did it ever get like, whoa, dude, what are we doing here? I've seen a lot of crazy shit on buses. Craziest stuff I've seen doesn't even have to do with people getting hammered. It more has to do with people catching full body cramps, especially early in the year. Like if you get out of Miamiamps especially early in the year like if you get out of miami or tampa late in the year and and you get on the on the on the the plane and guys are cramping at 30 000 feet full body in the aisle getting restrained by like five different trainers like full like you can't

it starts in your quad and you'll see a guy and the cramp will start and you're like oh shit and then you'll watch as he over compensates for the quad then it's the hamstring and then he's sideways and he's like all pretzeled in the seat and then all of a sudden the guy that sits next was like oh trainer trainer and the guy's writhing on the floor like he's having like a terrible seizure he's like con air or something like con air exactly so um that's the worst i've seen and i told you the time i told you about the time i was getting on the bus after we tied the niners and had a long flight and a long bus ride. And I ended up tripping and falling right in front of Jeff Fisher on the, on the bus. That was the drunkest I'd seen a guy. And that was me, but Jeff Fisher didn't care. Jeff, Jeff Fisher, Jeff Fisher,

as I got up and I said, Oh, Hey didn't see that step yeah this this is how i remember it and and he smiled and he's like you played a great game chris and i did i played good that's good it's good that he wasn't lying to you so you got dallas washington philly at this offensive i love the celebration videos of of eli and the boys and i-huh. I mean, I love it. I love that Eli was like napkin guy, apparently throwing napkins up at the air. And anybody ever wants to... He's just kind of over it. I just think it's, you know,

we talk about Philip Rivers, like, oh, Philip Rivers wants to come back. Well, no kidding, he wants to come back. Hey, Eli said he's not done. I never understand why, and it's really a media thing um more than anything but we always react to canned answers no well that's that's different i just mean that we always want to retire these guys before they want to retire

and we want them to retire in a way that we find easier to dignified or digestible. Yeah. Like if Eli wants to go battle for a starting job somewhere next year, like why would I care? I have very smart, talented, financially secure friends who chased the dragon for years after it was time. Uh, you know, that's just kind of how it goes either it's one of the hardest things is can you get out on time or do you stay too long that's why 95 of people stay too long and and i can't blame them because it's really hard right i mean where else is eli going to in a couple years hang out with a bunch of younger dudes throwing napkins in the air like where's that gonna happen soccer philip rivers invites him over to one of

his kids birthday parties that's about it right they'd be like oh remember how hammered eli got it at tophers kids fourth gonna take it easy maybe not don draper levels hammered in the in the first you know i haven't watched mad men front to back. Really? I'm in the midst. I'm in season four again right now. Okay. I love it so much. I hate Henry Francis so much. Like, Duck Phillips, I don't like. But Henry Francis, I'm just...

I'm wondering... Don't even know who... Don't know who that is. I tried a couple episodes a couple years ago. I got to get in it. It seems like there's going to be a of uh people having sex with other people's spouses at at like an office and people you know with degenerate drinking habits they do drink a lot bad holiday parties i can't even fathom what it would be like at like 9 30 and you go just gonna bang out a whiskey here at work 9 30 is late for an alcoholic. Eight goddamn whiskey sours.

I can't stop thinking DiCaprio. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Yes, that's a great movie. I forgot about that line. That's a tremendous movie. We were going through movies, and we'll get to the decade thing in a little bit, like decade superlatives.

Yeah, we're doing our best of the decade. Yeah, I might have forgot about that one, so we'll keep that in mind. I just felt like it was recency bias. Okay, so we hit out headline there because that was the biggest thing. We did plane ride because that's the worst. Do you want to transition the next topic out of best plane ride to just hammer it all out? Yeah, best plane ride for me was the Saints.

I mean, that was like you talk about people winning different ways. This is a team as the other NFC teams have trended down um although they lost to the Niners that that that Falcons game feels like an eternity ago for me yeah you know uh two really impressive wins for them albeit against AFC South opponents that you could feel a plethora of different ways about, but we know Indy's kind of hapless at this point, but I still think

the Titans are one of the best maybe three teams in the AFC. They're right there with the Pats for me, and that was a big win for them. They were down 14-0 early. Drew outside, you were like, okay, what's it going to be like? Last week he was football, jugs machine, Peyton Manning jr indoors in a vintage like Superdome performance where he only has one incompletion you look up in the first quarter he's got like multiple incompletions etc

getting hit the guards are out you know he gets sacked for the first time in 112 passes you're like oh this is going south now now the Titans didn't have Derrick Henry. And that wasn't dumb to sit him because they didn't need him. This game, there was nothing to gain for them. But this would have been the perfect game for Derrick Henry to be there with a lead. And they didn't have him. And the Saints were too much. That third quarter was electric for them. Right. And then there was the questionable fumble after the catch thing when they were down 31-28 where I go, you know, I'm not convinced that that's always ruled a catch and fumble after the catch thing when they were down 31-28 where I go, you know, I'm not convinced that that's always ruled a catch and fumble. And I'm not turning this into, hey, I love the NFL, but I'm going to tweet about how much I hate it all day on Sunday because I think there's enough people

out there doing that. And you're right. Like I remember. Yeah, it's a saturated market. Yeah. There's just a lot of competition right there. I cover this. All you're doing is firing off. There's something wrong with this thing that I can't quit and I hate it so much, but I'm going to watch it obsessively and tweet about it even more. Like there's plenty of people that are doing your job. Right. Yeah. It's tough to stand out in that market. But when they were down 14, nothing, I'm like, wait a minute.

I missed something. Like think seating is still alive here for new Orleans. What am I missing? And one is still in play looking at some of the odd stuff. Um, it's still more likely. I think that they would end up with the two seed, you know, we got a Monday night or here and then the rest of the game. So a lot of the stuff still in play. Are you saying that predicated on the Hawks losing at home in week 17? No, I I'm the Packers. I have a tiebreaker. Can you break it down for me?

Because I'm very challenged with these playoff seeding things. Okay, so the Saints are the two seed right now behind San Francisco, and that's temporary a hold basically because if the Packers lose to the Vikings the Monday night or game, they'll be the Saints stay at two. If they don't because the Packers have the tiebreaker, then the Saints would be at three. They're going to have the tiebreaker because a better conference record to get to the number one seed. New Orleans would have to root for a Packers loss or a Seahawks

win over the Niners a week. 17. I think both happen, right? I really do think, I think both happen. I'm more inclined to say, I'm more inclined to say the Packers lose up there. They haven't won in that building. And, you know, it's a little fishy to me because no Dalvin Cook, but the line opened at like five and a half or something. And I'm like, what's the deal here? Maybe they know something. I don't know.

You would think that no Dalvin Cook would. Yeah, they probably do. So I'm going to say Minnesota wins. Cook. Yeah, they probably do. So I'm going to say Minnesota wins. And I still think the Hawks, as bad as they've been up front and as wounded as they've been, I think they have the Niners number. I really do. I could be dead wrong. Yeah, we can touch on that Seattle thing when we ask the question, is Cliff Kingsbury just a seven now. A little bit later, but that was an unbelievable win by Arizona. Speaking of really one nugget here on the Saints, though, looking at this deal with Michael Thomas,

145 catches. He's at 1,688 yards. He's 350-plus yards in the number two guy. He had 176 targets throughout the season. Hopkins is number two with 150. And then Burt Breer from the Monday Morning Quarterback, and we've had on the podcast, he said this. He asked Thomas, have you talked to Harrison?

And Thomas' quote was like, shit shit dog, I'm ducking him. No, I'm just kidding. That's funny as fuck. I don't know if people remember the background there. No, I mean, again, some people only call him Harvin Marison because they want to keep his name out their mouth. But I just thought it was really funny

that Breer was like, oh, have you talked to Harrison? And then the quote from Thomas was actually, no, I haven't. Dude, it's hard not to like Mike Thomas. I mean, even, listen, when did he do the grill? Because the grill thing is amazing. I feel like it was last year. It was out of left field for me. It was the last year.

Whenever it happened, it was like, man, that's cool. I mean, he is all in with this grill thing. I mean, and it's it was like man that's cool i mean he is all in with this grill thing i mean and it's it's a nice grill i'm no grill aficionado but that thing looks like it's probably pretty expensive and and i'm sure it's not and he is and and he is he is fun to watch man the way he goes up and gets the 50 50 stuff he also you know there is no 50 50 ball with thomas there's no yeah it's like it's like it's like 80 20 20 or 90, 10. So Hopkins are the best 50, 50 guys I've seen in the modern era of receiver. It's amazing. And, and, um, and on the Titans end of thing, I mean, they, they need, they need to win this weekend. Uh,

and I think if they win, it doesn't matter what the Steelers do. Uh, and I really do think if they get Henry back, they're going to be a tough tough out in the playoff Tannehill you have to feel good about whatever the result is from a regular season perspective they had big plays in the first half right and by the way that tight end uh Jonu Smith he's impressive and he can really block I remember playing against him he's a good all-around tight end they got him he's young AJ Brown the reverse really well called um he's a total stud so the future is bright there. And Tannehill made big throws in the second half when they had to counterpunch.

So that's a good sign for Tannehill in the future. It's a good sign for Tannehill if they get to playoffs. They were down. He punched back. Two really big third downs that he bought time on those touchdowns to Sharp. So big day for them, even in a loss offensively i feel good about the titans if if i'm on that team so to finish the quote that he actually gave burper he said no i haven't talked to him i haven't checked social media or my phone yet like like harvin would was he gonna dm you um i know his son's going to ohio state i got to meet him last spring at the spring game and catch up with him some boom there you go all right so it's all good yeah i think i think everything's good i was i was making a joke there let's do starting to beef let's do two different two different games here uh because i thought you were great when i was texas i was

flying back and i caught the entire niners rams game which was a lot of fun but i go you know this is one of those games where a lot like dac over the years i go how good is he and i think the best thing to do with dac is go i don't know that he's ever solidly going to be in the top five. There's stats that this year would tell you he's been a top five quarterback. But I think for me, a top five thing is something where I know every single week, like you're going to find a way to win tough games. And Dallas doesn't do that. Dallas does not win tough games. But again, on paper, it appeared they won tough games last year, so is Dallas really softer and they're not tough?

I don't know. In the moment right now, I don't trust them. Where I know at times we've had Goff in this lofty status, and there was a stretch there where it was, what, 17 games going from last year to this year where he was arguably one of the worst quarterbacks statistically. And then I look at their offense and go, is it just the culmination of shots where he can have two bad throws, but there's always going to be some crossing route that opens something up to cup or a great throw to woods or some sort of go route with cooks where the numbers are going to be good at the end of the day. And then Garoppolo has this awful stretch in that game

where I'm like, what the hell's going on with this guy? And then they come back and win it. And so it looks like it's a 30-30-something game with both teams moving the football all over the place. But it's just San Francisco's gone through a brutal stretch here with the schedule, like an unprecedented stretch of the teams they've had to play. And the defense is certainly not the same statistically.

First seven games versus the last eight. But that was one of those games where I go, what am I supposed to do with these two QBs that get flirted, who have at times flirted with the idea that they are going to be the next big thing, and I don't think that's the case for either of them. And sometimes that's okay. I think what we're realizing is coming off this era of the elite five or six quarterbacks

that were kind of clustered together in age, and you're seeing their twilights, you're starting to realize that a lot of these new quarterbacks, in general, for a number of reasons, rely upon coaching and scheme. And, you know, as much as it is about the quarterbacks, and it's okay not to be a top five quarterback. Your team can still win. So, you know, rams aren't dead you know the the niners are not fatally flawed um but these are two guys and i do think garoppolo i'd probably rather have him than than golf but um these are two guys that are hot and cold and and you get great throws from golf but then you get like the pick six um that's

also fred warner who warner well it is he's awesome it's fred if it was if it wasn't if it was an isolated incident and by the way fred warner the niners have had a lot of bumps and bruises but one that they're not you know they're not freaking out over as much as i would have thought would would have been the um the kwan injury because Fred Warner has emerged as this total stud it's gonna be interesting to see how the they play together or what when when when um when he comes back so next year um I look at Goff and he throws that ball which is not an isolated incident we've seen him just carelessly dump easy throws the screen earlier to Armstead well it wasn't to Armstead, but it damn near looked like he was throwing it to Armstead. It's a pattern where some of the easy stuff,

it's like he takes it for granted. And I really think everything for him is predicated on getting them open guys. And you could say, hey, yeah, every quarterback's like that, but not necessarily. He can throw some nice balls to open players. And as we've learned, you can't take that for granted today. You know, with the Cowboys game, he struggled. He threw into a lot of tight windows, 20% all year. McVay, who's been shit on a little bit, you know, which is a new thing, has had him thrown into about 10% tight coverage, which is a league low, you know, through the first, you know, 11, 12 weeks. So McVay has done everything he can to manage his quarterback's deficiencies,

but that's kind of what both these coaches do. And a lot of coaches around the league, Shanahan's scheme's awesome. He's the new hot thing, right? And a lot of people are shitting on McVay on account of Shanahan saying, Shanahan's the guy McVay was supposed to be. Well, I would say it's a little bit earlier in this Shanahan and Garoppolo thing. I know you could say, well, it's technically year three. It's not. I mean, you had the end of 16 or the end of 17. Then you had all of 18, which was an injury. And then now you have 19. So people get a beat on people. I don't know if Shanahan's going to get figured out, but I think it's early just right off McVay and crown Shanahan. I love what he's doing, but I'm not on the McVay-Hay train thing.

Absolutely not. Both are really good coaches, and I was reading this thing the other day about the Shanahan tree from Mike Down and Kyle and then who's running what and whether it's not LeFleur connected to it and then McVay sort of connected to it indirectly, although McVay had success before Shanahan and then what Tennessee's still doing post-LeFleur. And, you know, some of the stuff that you're seeing, they're like, actually, a lot of these teams

are some of the best offensive teams, the Vikings as well. So to just write all this stuff off, and, I mean, look, San Francisco's sitting there at 12-3. They win in Seattle. They're the one seed. They lose. They could be on the road in the wild card here. So a lot still at play for them against a Seattle team that, you know, hasn're the one seed. They'd lose. They could be on the road in the wild card here. So a lot still at play for them against a Seattle team that hasn't played as well. But again,

I know I keep pushing back the Seattle thing because that's a top five what the F result of the entire season. But it should be pointed out with the defensive slippage because it is dramatic when you look at some of the numbers where you go, okay, this is where San Francisco's defense was the first half of the season and this is where they're at now. Dramatic slippage, because it is dramatic when you look at some of the numbers where you go, okay, this is where San Francisco's defense was

the first half of the season, and this is where they're at now. Dramatic slippage. It's unbelievable what the stats are telling you, but it's, hey, let's play the Rams, the Falcons, which shout out to that crew where they've just been salvageable. I think the Jets are in that Falcons award. They're the AFC Falcons where you're like, oh, wait a minute. We still give a shit.

Yeah, it's the we still give a shit award. have a seven and nine season like how is that possible but again here's the schedule Seahawks cards Packers at Ravens at Saints Falcons Rams and then Seahawks that's a that's a ridiculous second half so yeah I'm not off the Niners I'm just telling you they're different they're a little different right now. Yeah, and you're seeing it with different teams. I mean, different teams are coming back down to earth, and that's one thing. Being realistic about a team is not a slight,

and I know Niners fans who have been disrespected in their minds for a while in the public eye. I don't think too many people. There were some people who called this, but not too many people called this ascension this quick. I will be positive, though, about the Rams. Who would have thought that this late in the year, a month or two ago, that they'd not give up a sack? I don't think they gave up a sack to the Niners the other night.

So the O-line, they're starting to stabilize that, and you're going to need that because, like with golf, everything's late-breaking stuff, like the deep crossers, play action. So everything's predicated on him buying time unless McVay wants to retool this thing and make everything a quick timing offense I don't know he sees the field well enough for that so it's important that they stabilize that and the Niners pass rush has fallen off a little bit I mean let's just be honest and D Ford they miss him so I don't think any of these are fatal flaws for the Niners but they are limping into the playoffs a little bit and I would expect that that. I mean, they've had that tough run. Yeah,

they've had some injuries, but so has basically everybody else. I mean, this is why this sport is so hard that you're basically this team first four weeks, maybe the first half of the season, but there's a strong reality, you know, unless your quarterback's healthy, like we'll always miss. We do this poorly in the media. We'll go, hey, do you know how hurt they are at secondary? Do you know how many linebackers they're picking up from their practice squad? Like, whatever the numbers are week one through eight, that's not the same team that's going out there. And San Francisco's had a little slippage, but just like everybody else, you know?

And players that you look at the box score, if you're breaking down a game, a lot of people are like, oh, well, that guy's kind of like, you know, like a Craven LeBlanc in Philly or something. Somebody like that who gets hurt, who helps out and plays a couple different positions, who's not a big name. Some people write those things off, but they're domino effect injuries. And late in the year, the attrition of not just the big injuries, but the guys who do a couple different things and throw off the entire, like a swing guard tackle guy or something like that i mean teams are missing those guys but i will say this because i have very fairly heard a critique of our pod here this this

year um that we don't talk good about the niners enough i think at times i haven't jimmy garoppolo made some big throws down the stretch and and that's the difference right now is he's had these moments and he's had better moments than a golf and um you know he's had some the two third and sixteens you're like okay they hadn't they hadn't done a third and six no they hadn't done a third and 16 and 50 tries do you know any third and sixteens there are in a game probably on average one or less so it's been years since they i mean if that's true what i read 50 third and sixteens they they got two of them and he stepped up and that was his moment. I got to imagine when there's a busted coverage and Jalen Ramsey is coming over to talk to you, that's going to be a lot of fun because that's basically what led to the game winning field goal and that Sanders deep throw. Pats, little leftover thing from there, and one defense that actually deserves

some credit here we're not going to spend a ton of time on because talk about evolving teams and units and getting better and getting worse, and it's hard to get better at times. We'll do that. And then is Cliff Kingsbury no longer as hot as we used to think he is with that amazing win. But let's hear first from our custom segment

here from State Farm. And now it's time for the State Farm Safe Bet of the Week. The New Orleans Saints, you can count on. Now, originally when I was looking at this, because they're getting really adventurous with these all season long. It's gone well. And I wanted to go, you know what? It's going to be a safe bet is the Eagles actually lose to the Giants.

The Cowboys beat the Redskins, and they get back into the playoffs, and we start talking ourselves into the Cowboys again. But that doesn't feel really safe. It feels too dangerous. So I actually can't go ahead and do that one. I did want to do it, but I still can't fathom. Now it's probably going to happen. And then you're just going to be like refinancing a house that you can't even afford. Speaking of insurance on a home, if you're fumbling with insurance, State Farm agents are here to help because with over 19,000 agents that are local to you and available to help, whether you connect in person by phone or through the State Farm mobile app, agents are here to help. So go with the one that has coverage and agents that you can count on. I'm going with the New Orleans

Saints. Now, why am I doing that? I'm talking about a deep playoff run. Now, the seating is all over the place. I mean, the Niners could be the number one seed or ended up playing on the road a wildcard weekend. But New Orleans going into that Tennessee game down 14-0 on the road. We know the splits for that offense. What are they like outside of that dome in a hostile environment in New Orleans? Well, they bounce back in a big way, especially with a defense that's just better than you think that they are. The Saints defense has been a top 10 defense and actually trending in the right direction for a few weeks now, despite the loss of Davenport on that defensive line. But Breeze to Thomas is the most dangerous one-two combination in the entire league.

And Alvin Kamara even got back into the end zone after looking like he was never going to score from the red zone after long stretches this season. And I always think it's funny whenever we do this thing where we go, oh, the Saints, you don't want to play them. You know who you don't want to play? Is any of the NFC teams, for the most part, except for the NFC East winner,

because the rest of those teams are all really good. I mean, hell, I'm not even sure what's going to happen with Seattle and San Francisco as the Niners have to go on a road and finish off a brutal second half schedule that they've still navigated through and could still be the number one seed. But I'm going to go with the Saints

with back-to-back road wins away, going into the playoffs as a two seed is the team that you want to counter. State Farm, talk to an agent today okay Steelers this is something you've been on are the Steelers the best defense in the NFL but it's not going to matter now no it doesn't matter and it's been wasted um but I think and there'll be people who are like well you're just being reactive of course I'm being reactive to what I see on the field what I see on the field is that they're the best defense in the league just because they have had the least to work with

from a complementary football standpoint. They're in bad positions regularly, and they continue to make big plays. And again, T.J. Watt, it's not just the 13, 14 sacks he's had. A ton of players have that many sacks in a year. But it's been the timing and the clutch gene that he has. A lot of rushers don't know when to have a big rush. I know that sounds simple, but a lot of rushers don't have that thing where they're like, okay, this is the situation that I use the move I've been saving up on, or this is the situation where I need to dig

a little bit deeper. That all sounds cliche, but but I promise you there's a lot of productive rushers who don't show up in big moments. And, uh, and TJ has done that time after time, the forced fumble before the half that ended in points, but they didn't have enough. Um, and, and now it's gonna be interesting to see if Baltimore rests their starters, or if they're like, ah, I'm going to sprinkle a couple in still, cause we don't want our rivals in the playoffs. But that would be kind of count. That would be counter doing what I think would be the smart thing and letting the Steelers win,

because I'd rather see the Steelers in the playoffs and the Titans. Yeah. The Steelers still alive, but that loss to the jets, just brutal, especially now, like, and this is my whole thing about exposed quarterbacks,

the more unknown you are and the more everybody starts falling in love with you, and Kyle Allen's a great example of this. Again, it's like, oh, we're good. We're good. You know, and then you start going, do we want to move off of Cam Newton this soon? Like, we only own one year of money. Like, we're just going to go ahead and eat that because we thought Kyle Allen, you know, darted around a little bit in the beginning of the year.

And Duck Hodges is a mess, and Mason Rudolph is not a guy either. And they're still alive at eight and seven, but there's a few things they need to have happen where they could beat the Ravens because the Ravens don't need anything, but they're going to need the Titans to lose to the Texans. Certainly not impossible on that one. And then there's another version of it where it's like four teams, including teams.

I wonder which game is early in which I wonder if there's an early late split there so that the, the team knows. Because a lot of times, if you're playing at the same time, it can get really weird on week 17. But if you have a 1 p.m. and a 4 p.m., you know the difference. I'm looking at it right now. No, they're both at the same time, so they're both in that 4 Eastern window.

Sketchy, weird week 17 stuff. Yeah, they actually had this loaded up loaded up for the uh second second slot there let's do just a little something quick on the pats and bills because you know this is not surprising that new england wins at home against buffalo uh and i don't want to say it's surprising that brady finally played well because statistically you could argue this is the bet well it's the best completion percentage of the season 79 it's his highest QB rating since week one the other thing they've got going here is Sonny Michelle's had a nice couple weeks the running game has had better success the last two and I didn't leave the Cincinnati going game going all right they

figured this whole thing out but you know Josh Allen had a few big plays I feel good about the bills but nothing really is going to change my mind of, like, what I think the Pats offense is. I just don't think it can stay series to series with Baltimore or Kansas City. So even though, yeah, you beat Buffalo at home and this division stretch is unbelievable and it would be almost 20 straight years if it weren't for Brady's injury in 2008. But this is, you know this is

a nice week after five straight weeks of Brady having some of the worst stats at quarterback of anyone throwing passes you know there was about a five-week stretch where his numbers were worse than anybody else with 100 attempts or more yeah the Pats just won't die they just no they won't you wouldn't expect them to, but... No, but I mean, you see signs that are totally reasonable throughout multiple seasons. And this one I do think is a little bit different. It's later. It's going to be harder for them to morph into the team that they need to be like they did last year. But you can tell they're trying, and that's the crazy part. They're just willing their way, just crawling, like scrapping,

whatever they can do to be a team that establishes the run. They're trying to will trust between Tom and the receivers. You can see Harry getting a lot of touches last week, a lot of touches. And I think he'll get a ton this weekend as conditioning for the playoffs. I think you force a lot of of balls to young guys this weekend to try to get ready for the playoffs and build that trust even more but it's like they do whatever it takes on defense they started off they were this you know historically good defense they're not that but they do whatever it takes and they're still very good

and uh you know Allen did some good things he He also was very inaccurate. The Bills struggled on third down. You know, and at the end of the day, you're looking at it, and you're the Bills, and you're saying, they lose Marcus Cannon in the middle of the game for the game on an already beat-up O-line, and we can't take advantage of that? I mean, that's a fatal flaw for them, too. I know that they're still up there in sack numbers, but as far as winning one-on-ones in the playoffs, it's something I worry about.

They were bad on third down. I think they were two of 11. So another unpatriot-like thing, Rye, is do you remember before the half, the Pats have the ball in plus territory, and not only do they not come out of it with points because they get stopped in short yardage, they actually give up a touchdown in two minutes out of it. So it's that sort of thing that's just very unpatriotic. And you can force the Band-Aid all you want, but there's different things that are happening to this team that just situationally they don't sit right. Here is one number that I found this week that was brutal.

Beginning of the year um brady had never had more than six games in a season which he completed 56 of his passes or less through 14 games so going into the bills game he had done it half the season so um and they were five and two in those games and he look he completed a ton of his passes he got it out to everybody. But I'm still kind of – I don't think there's going to be any result. There's going to be no result because I'm going to go to the playoffs, and you know what?

I've doubted him before, and I've been wrong, and I know that's why everybody freaks out about the whole thing. But, man, I mean, there's still – Just sit back and watch. Yeah. I mean, just sit back and watch. I mean, it's going to be so entertaining. The storylines in the AFC are so entertaining.

As much as everybody hates the Pats, I don't feel more fulfilled as a football fan than when I watch the Pats win or lose in Foxborough. I watched the Kansas City game the week before, and I was just locked in. I was glued in. I can remember everything from the game. I'm not focused on anything else.

This weekend with the Bills game, it was the game I was looking forward to the most. The storylines are so thick. And then Josh McDaniels deserves credit as well. I know I talk about Carson not throwing to a lot of people. Tom's not throwing to a lot of people. Tom could have been hurt the past month. I don't know.

But Josh comes out of the half, and he's always got something. You had the fake reverse to Neal, and then you had Burkhead for a lot on the screen. You get the play action going. You get Meyer on a big reception, and then more screens the burkhead they do just enough and they find creative ways to win arizona beats the seahawks 27 to 13 and they beat him up there um russell wilson wasn't good they couldn't run the football now they're saying that Marshawn Lynch is coming back and I think the most damning thing was it wasn't like Kyler Murray was lighting him

up but then Brett Hundley comes in because of a Murray hamstring injury and then Hundley's running all over those guys where you're thinking well wait a minute this shouldn't be some thing where it's a completely different guy he's just a slower version than the other guy that you had to prep for. That's a really good running quarterback. And in Kenyon Drake, I mean, as soon as I write him off after fantasy people ranking him as a first round pick for years and doing nothing in Miami, he has been arguably the MVP of the team since he's come over from Miami. And we've asked the question, fair or not? I think it's fair.

Is Kingsbury just a solid seven now instead of a Kentucky Derby nine? Yeah, he's aging, bro. What happened? I don't know what it is about this. Well, I don't know. You would think living in Lubbock, drinking rail whiskey, I don't know. You would think living in Lubbock, drinking rail whiskey,

partying all hours and night, and, you know, college coaching hours would be harder on you in the NFL. But he's looking – he's coming back down to earth, man. These young coaches, these young pretty boy coaches, the NFL is aging them. I just – I'm just trying to figure it out. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to overreact. But Kingsbury went from

every single interview he did, it was like, hey, being hot. Oh, look, it's Ryan Gosling or some shit. Who, was that who people were comparing him to? Yeah, it was Gosling.

But you'd sit there and go, hey, being hot, does that help you recruit in the kitchen with the moms? I remember one time, like Van Pelt and I interviewed him and go, hey, being hot, does that help you recruit in the kitchen with the moms? I remember one time, like, Van Pelt and I interviewed him, and I was like, what? How annoying is the how hot are you stuff getting in all of this car wash stuff? And he was like, yeah, you know, pretty annoying. It'd be great if we could start tackling some people down in Lubbock.

You know, it's not going to matter how hot I am, even though I went there. Like, people are going to bounce me out. I'm legitimately worried because, like, I look at somebody who's been around football forever. Like, I thought you asked me this morning, you're like, how old is Desmond Howard? I'm like, 28, 29. I'm just saying, dude. He's 51. It's a lot harder coaching than it is being on TV.

Just take a look at some of these coaches. You know how presidents come in into the office and then they come out looking like. No doubt. You know, a corpse, a corpse. Yeah, like... A lot of these coaches... These coaches sleep like three hours a night, dude. It's sick.

Now, I'm sure Cliff, with the cell phone stuff and being pro players, because I do think sleep is important, but it's one thing coaches are so stubborn and their egos are so big. It's like, we don't need to sleep. And the players don't either. But they age hard, man. I've had coaches that slept on the couch in their offices on the regular. Yeah, listen, on a football front, Arizona has played them tough the last four times they played them before yesterday.

And actually, I paid off all my Christmas presents with that game. So I felt good about Arizona being tight up there. Well done. Well done out of you. Yeah, boy. Seattle, you know, they lost to the Rams. After they beat the Vikings at home and you go, all right, you know, this is the Russell Wilson. It's always weird after those games where everybody watches.

And then the next day, every show is like, hey, you know who's awesome? It's Russell Wilson. Like, what are you doing? Like, he's, like, what are you talking about? Then they get blown out at the Rams, which was just ugly. I mean, they got dominated in that game. A close one with the Panthers. You're like, oh, the West to eat.

And then they weren't even close in that Cardinals game. So that's three straight weeks where it hasn't been really impressive, and now they're going to beat the Niners at home is what you're saying. I actually like them at home week 17. I don't know if this was a look ahead game for we do this thing, this cliche thing. So I'll do it. Maybe it was a look ahead game.

I've never thought the Seahawks as a team were that good this entire year. I mean, like I respect their ability to beat people because they can be really rangy in how they play. They can implode. They can put the ball on the ground. I don't know what's going to happen with Chris Carson. That's a big deal. Is there any update on that injury?

Because I was not looking at that game very closely. Well, the Marshawn stuff where Carroll says there's a really good chance that we sign him. That's probably not a good sign, although I would love to see Beast mode back. Anytime you can watch Beast. It's free Beast mode. It's extra Beast mode it's like it's you

know extra beast mode i mean we thought we were done with him twice and when he came back in oakland he still had some juice i'll tell you that we played them in december and it was about five degrees not real fun to tackle him with a windshield there he ever say anything yeah he ever say anything on the field marshawn yeah all the time we played against each other a lot in uh in st louis he's one of my favorite players, one of my favorite players to play against. Our Rams defense and them had some real battles. I got his jersey, a Raiders, a Bay Area Marshawn jersey

that's going to be top shelf in my man cave the last time we played him on Christmas in 17. So I really like Marshawn. Yeah, but... We know each other from a long time. But does he... Because you liked each other, would he be less reluctant

to tell you off or would he... Does he, like, tell guys off? Does he do the intimidation thing? Like, what does he do? No, no. He just has fun

and talks shit. Like what? Give me an example. I mean, like, I don't... I'm not a huge fan of... Yeah. Some of it's vulgar, but it's still fun.

Come on, there's got to be something that's kind of funny that you can share where you're not like... No, there's nothing I want to share about what me and B... There's just not. What did you say to him? What about something you may have said to him? I might have talked shit to him when I ran through him on a blitz pickup where they slid the line down and I kind of ran through him and grabbed Wilson and pulled Wilson down and Marshawn down. So I talked some shit to him there, but it wasn't usually something where it's like, hey, although I know that we respect each other, I'm not going to go talk shit to Marshawn Lynch and get him mad today. I mean, he's not going to get mad, but I'm just not even going to like... Don't pour gasoline on that fire.

He's one of those players you don't want him to get rolling. That's fair. That's totally fair. I mean, yeah, it's fair. Also, Chandler Jones, man. Hats off to him, man. This guy has been just getting buckets in obscurity. I think he has like, what, 19 sacks now?

He had four yesterday nobody talks about him and that's not a cliche nobody talks about him now the team is really yeah and that's that's the way it goes but uh he's at 19 now just uh just passed um well shack barrett slowed down a little bit there 16 and a half i think he was going to have one but he called off sides he may have been off sides for like a day um in that that first game that we saw where jamis just starts us right off with what we thought was back-to-back pick sixes that would have been incredible i wish i had his conscience if i had his conscience like it's dangerous to think you know how you would operate in life yeah imagine you were like jay right i mean you'd be sitting there at beyonce and be like how did you get beyonce be like oh i asked out the first two childs and then like what yeah i just

was it a party i do want to say though with the i do want to say with the hawks right though that the only reason i thought that they could make a run was home field advantage and if they can't beat the cardinals week 16 and again could it be a look ahead i don't know we'll see week 17 is huge because if they can at least look good week 17, they're not going anywhere. They could lose in a shootout, and I'd still feel decent about them, but to lose in the same fashion they've been losing, I wouldn't feel very good about them going into the playoffs at all.

The formula up front on both sides of the ball, they've struggled. How do you not get the ball to Metcalf and Lockett for most of the game? They got zero catches in the second half. It's like they did head-scratching shit. That seems impossible. Metcalf really has become the guy a lot of people didn't think he'd be out of the draft. And the Lockett numbers, the Wilson-Lockett numbers over the course of the season, that's been as, I mean than breeze and thomas i'm serious

and watson hopkins i guess you could argue but there's some there's some success rate stuff with lockett that like that's actually a really special uh two-guy deal there all right let's let's get all the fun stuff the decade stuff uh i do want to do it yeah the the text thread too that i thought was a little funny based on the coaches but first first we're going to hear from DraftKings. Okay. Before we get to this all decade kind of stuff before it's, it's kind of all over the place to close out the pod. I want to remind everybody that I'm doing a Christmas tales from the couch.

So I'm going to watch all the games except for probably the rockets and take notes, go over stuff, some trade tidbits. Is Zion going to play this year? Just some post-Vegas showcase nuggets of intel. I'm just going to be a dude watching games, taking notes, and I think I'll tape it late on Christmas night,

and then we'll hopefully have that thing ready to go because I don't know what the turnaround is going to be on somebody else. Kyle, who am I sending this to? You're sending this to me. Who else, man? All right. Well, I know I don't want to screw up your family stuff or whatever's going on,

but the earlier we can get that out on Thursday because I'm just going to tape it on the TASCAM and send you the file. No guests, tails from the couch. It may be great. It could be nauseating. One take. It's going to be one take, just a guy going.

So it may be an easy edit. So that's what we've got coming up on Wednesday into Thursday morning. So anyway, DraftKings, it's Christmas time, so you know what that means. Basketball all day long to celebrate the holiday. DraftKings has its biggest basketball contest of the season to date, plus an extra stocking stuffer. DraftKings is giving new users a free shot at the $1 million top prize with your first deposit

when you put in the code RUESSILLO, R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O, during signup. Draft your lineup and feel the sweat like never before. Every shot, every rebound and assist mean more with a DraftKings lineup on the line. It's simple. Just draft your lineup under the salary cap and see how your team stacks up against the competition.

Let's see. How about Toronto's comeback, by the way, against the Mavs? That was nuts. Just real quick, in case you guys missed that one, 110-107. That was an incredible tip split one time with my buddy Hartford Pete. We were bartending one night, and we're counting out the tips, and I had done a lot of the work, and he was like, here, it's the extra three bucks.

It's you. 110-107. So one of our mutual friends was calling him 110-107 for a little while. All right, yeah, so the Raptors down 30, I think, with two minutes left in the third, they outscored the Mavericks 47 to 21. And the Raptors did this without Pascal Siakam playing. And they were missing somebody else too.

So just an incredible, incredible game. Kyle Lowry, positive things all around. Okay. So back to DraftKings. Enough about that. Download the DraftKings app. Oh, I haven't picked somebody who, positive things all around. Okay, so back to DraftKings. Enough about that. Download the DraftKings app. Oh, I haven't picked somebody who's going to be awesome. Never mind. So back to DraftKings. Quickly here. Let's go...

You know what? Let's go Jason Tatum against Toronto. Because Tatum, who went from oh my god, this guy's going to be amazing, to what the hell's going on, to wow, he's great again without Kyrie. How come he's having these bad shooting nights? He's in a bit of a groove right now. The double wing thing for the Celtics, the two seed right now in your East. I'm going to just say go with Tatum.

Even though I still have more reservations about him than I've had before. I don't know what that's about. Alright, download the DraftKings app now and use my code RUESSILLO, R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O and play free for $1 million with your first deposit. That's code RUESSILLO to play for free $1 million with your first deposit only at Draft RUCCILLO to play for free $1 million with your first deposit only

at DraftKings. Minimum $5 deposit. Eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com for details. Again, the code is R-U-S-S-I-L-L-O. The reason I think the coach thing is real funny, real quick, because I don't want to miss... Oh, we have all the rapid fire stuff too,

which I thought was. Yeah, but the coach thing was funny. I mean, like basically you pose a really poignant question. You know, who are you as a head coach personality wise? And I had no idea. Well, Big Cat's on the thread. And there's always moments where I wonder when I say something, this was not one of them.

I'm like, do you think they're side threading right now about you saying something? No, that's how you, it's the driest thread in the history of thread so you're always going to be paranoid that people are talking shit about you on another channel well i have the because there's always moments where the age gap between me and then you two guys you and big cat where i go there's times where i'm like okay this is where you're like there's just when i went through and did the decade stuff right but when i went through and did the decade stuff, right. But when I went through and did the decade stuff, I go, this is really funny. Cause I remember doing this 10 years ago, obviously, and knowing kind of every movie

and every album and every band and all this stuff. And then I went through it this time. I'm like, this is comical, like half of the stuff I've never even heard is in die. I'm like, what was going on there? She named after the police. Like, I didn't know what was going on. But you guys know way more pop culture stuff than me. You think you seem old in that thing. I'm the youngest dude, I think. And I feel old as hell. But age is a bunch of different things. Like, one of the first things is how little you'll know.

You'll be like, oh, that's a YouTube star. Like, why does this person have 10 million people on Instagram? Like, who's this weird high school kid from from the oc like i'm big cats really plugged into that he's all plugged into it though because that's the whole thing is they they you know they they look for internet stuff and you surprisingly know a lot of internet stuff i don't know shit like i really don't know it's as if i live in a hole. But I also, the other day told a 10 minute story about returning my rental car. And I went, Oh my God, like, stop talking. This is, this is no, you didn't miss it. I was telling it to somebody else and I was like, Oh, well then you do this. And then you do that. And I actually go, what the,

what are you doing right now? And again, I waved to somebody, I grabbed breakfast in Manhattan beach, just gotten back to town. It was early morning breakfast, whole routine. Body wasn't awake yet for a big back day. So I pushed it off a little bit. And I waved to a guy who I didn't even know. Didn't even know. No, you did not. Yeah. I was like, oh, I know that.

There's nothing worse. That's my guy, Paul. And I go like, yo, what's up, dude? And he said, some guy like looked back at me. It was like, nice smile. I'm like, that's not him. You know what I did? I go, just wave and keep it moving like you never were gonna act like no you have to act like

you have to act so normal that that person thinks oh i must have forgot who that is i feel awkward yeah that's how you gotta act that's what i did i just went like yeah what's up yep not him dude been a while. Keep smiling. Although it's a little weird for us because there's a chance the person may actually recognize more so you. More so for you. Yeah. But we gave you the Vrabel.

Big Cat went with Mike Tomlin. The question was who's... That's who Big Cat thinks he'd be? Right. It was which personality do you think, like, your personality most matches an NFL coach's personality? Oh, Big Cat thinks he'd be? It was which personality do you think, like, your personality most matches an NFL coach's personality? Oh, Big Cat. He said Mike Tomlin, and then I said a sprinkle of Doug Marone when really I meant two cups of Doug Marone.

Two cups of it? So who are you? Did I miss it? Are you Kyle Shanahan? I couldn't believe you guys didn't go with Shanahan. That's the layup. Here's the layup. Here's the layup. Kyle Shanahan, a lot of West Coast beach vibes in his whole getup, bro.

That hat, that bucket hat that looks, it's a 49ers hat, but it might as well be a Hurley hat. Like there's no, my brain sees it as a Hurley hat. Yeah, no, Shanahan looks like, he's like, I'm just doing the double dip today. Like, I'm going up to Big Bear, and I'm going to crush some slopes, and then I'm just going to, but then I got a three-quarter wetsuit, and I'm going to be, you know, I'm just going to figure out. I'm going to be body surfing later out with the Seals, you know,

at Big Sur or wherever the fuck they go to do that. That would be too far. But I thought personality. Big Sur, if you body surf Big Sur, you the fuck they go to do that. That would be too far. But I thought personality. If you body surf Big Sur, you are a dog. I don't even know. I don't even know if this is real right now. I thought the Shanahan thing was perfect because it's like, I don't know. If you don't really know him, seems kind of like a dick.

But he's probably cool. But then you're assuming that you're complimenting yourself you're saying am i i don't know i don't think most people think that he's probably a dick but i'm actually really cool you're the one who said shannon it was never even brought up before do you think big cat thinks it's yeah do you have somebody else right now by the way i have a mustache right now so the variable thing works out pretty well yeah we said variable for you um i still think there's no yeah i'm underdressed i'm underdressed i think variable is probably underdressed to every function we talked about that earlier i think he can get beer drunk i didn't get liquor drunk i think he's probably the life of the party i would hope most people say that about me you're a great time you're a

great time thanks and even a great time. Thanks. And even if the night's getting loose, you just keep it on the rails. Yeah, I try to keep it on the rails. Okay, so there you go. I don't know if Big Cat really thinks he's Mike Tomlin. Mahomes, the draft pick thing, do you love it? Oh, you know, I do like seeing Mahomes have a little shit to him,

which is, I think it's dangerous for the rest of the league. He's starting to feel himself again, and that team's getting healthy. And the defense has given up 17-9, 16-3-3 the last five weeks. Scary team. Yep. They might be the best team in the AFC right now. Okay, so we got that one. Speaking of the best team in the AFC, your number one seed, Ravens.

That was hysterical because I'm like, wait a minute. Is this going to be a bad game here? Baltimore started with a turnover on downs, a fumble, two punts, and then a two-minute warning, zero points, and then. No, it was unbelievable. I checked my app. I was sitting with a buddy watching games. I'm like, what the fuck is going on with Baltimore?

I was like, he's like, yeah i guess uh lamar's having a bad game and then pull it up two minutes later he's got 176 and like two touchdowns or three touchdowns and they're up you know 14 14 20 points almost no points at the half they finished with 481 yards and 31 points um do you think burrow was watching miami and cincinnati which may be the most entertaining game of the entire weekend oh it, it was a real barn burner. And Cincinnati went full deep cover, method acting, to not appear to be tanking. They came back from three or four scores down to force OT and implode. Well, not implode an OT, but lose an OT.

So I do think Burrow had to be watching, right? Burrow probably wants to play in Ohio, right? He's never going to say that. Unless he just doesn't want to play for the Bengals. Burrow would be the type. And, you know, listen to Burrow's interview on PMT. Like, he's not afraid. You know, he might be the guy that says it.

But now it comes down to, I just wouldn't want to play it when that dude put the when that dude put the x on the end of his name and ran out of the tunnel with a rose looking like tim robbins in front of like 90 000 people just just like ice in his veins the what is it the what is he doing like the double richard nixon peace signs he was like clapping and then doing the p i was like clapping and then doing the peace. I was like, this guy's got it, dude. He's just got it. I don't, this is his moment.

I don't think he's afraid of anything to your point. So I don't think Cincinnati scares him. In fact, I think he wants to play there. In the interview with those two guys, they were like, when did you think you could possibly win the Heisman, right? And he's like, well, you know, team, team. He goes, but after the Texas game. I'm like, dude. Stop telling you, dude. That was the second week the second week and you know he kind of screwed up like i was on the lsu sideline and after they got up he started waving goodbye to all the texas fans i was like

oh you're doing that you're one of those guys you're doing that and then meanwhile texas is throwing for a touchdown and lining up for an onside kick to try to tie the game okay so i think that's all the rapid fire stuff we needed to do here. Um, Oh, I got to ask you this though. Everybody has sent me the mic'd up video, like a bunch of DMS.

You're mic'd up. You're next to Malcolm Jenkins. And then you come over to say, it's a weird thing. Cause it's almost like, is he, is he telling you, or you thought he was telling you to stand on the other side of him?

No, no, no, no, no. So what happened? So, okay. So that's before the Chicago game. And, um, telling you or you thought he was telling you to stand on the other side of him no no no no so what happened so okay so that's before the Chicago game and um the playoff historically yeah double doink which by the way there was a double doink last night in that game if you didn't catch it

was awesome I was sitting on my couch like oh they're showing the play I'm there I am I used to play football um but yeah like Malik and I would stand next to each other but i would be on his left and it was almost like you know it was almost like a pattern yeah it just became one of those things like i better not not stand on the left am i superstitious no but i'm gonna stand to the left of malik every game in in the coin toss so or in the anthem so um i thought he was either telling me that the captains were were about to go go out or that I was on the left. So I'm about to go behind him and stand on the left. But when I found out he's mic'd up, I always go with the, hey, how's your rash in your mid, in your groin area?

That's just my move. And I executed it pretty perfectly. Does Russell Wilson think he's been mic'd up his entire career? I think Russell Wilson's mic'd up everywhere yeah because some guys aren't mic'd up when when people were doing the mic'd up thing and then they're it always blows my mind or it also just reinforces how little people do pay attention to certain things we're like somebody who I've been like yeah I knew this for like six or seven years but I know and I'm not talking about Russell Wilson anymore there are guys that are mic'd up that just that are different become totally different when they're miked up right they morph there are guys when cameras around that morph and um i i used to be entertaining engaging

with the media but i'm also hopefully just me i didn't like being miked up because it's really hard to be you like one you could say something bad two you could sound like a cornball and it's almost unavoidable sometimes like you know people are going to assume and look at it through the lens of oh this guy knows he's miked up so i mean it is what it is hey russ being miked up i a lot of people shitted on him but uh he just sounds he sounded like a video game quarterback. There's nothing wrong with that. He just had all the, you know,

like it was like very speccy, like let's go guys. Let's go guys. That's nothing wrong with that. Whatever. Yeah. Let's go to neutral corners on that one. Okay.

Cool. Nice. I am. Listen, I wouldn't say they're, they're not things I would say, but I'm also not a quarterback and a brand. Yeah.

I don't know. It's not even the mic'd up it's the post game stuff where you just go you're not listening to anything anyone is saying around you the line like your gears are going off in the head and it's like O-line go Hawks so on the creative

side we don't have a history lesson no real travel recap we have our decade moments kind of sports kind of hybrid also. So let's run through this right now. Let's do it. A football one first, the non-Tom Brady player of the decade. I'm going to go with J.J. Watt. I know there's, and you might have one offensively, there's probably good candidates offensively, but this guy has set himself up. I don't know what he's going to do after football, but he can do whatever he wants.

Like, he could be the rock, right? And he's been one of the most dominant players of the decade. He's won man of the year. He is a, he's just gotten off the mat a few times and looked really good off back surgeries. Like, even when the chips are down, he's looked good. So I think he wins the decade. I just realized my pick is terrible. Who's your pick?

I was going to go Peyton Manning, but he's missed half of it. It's true, though. He's missed half of it, but I think his comeback story was was really special and then the way it ended when he just wasn't that good and then he wins the Super Bowl like there's sort of a redemptive thing about him where he had to carry all these teams for such a long time the Colts defense was just never as good as New England's defense for a majority of those years and they went up against each other he couldn't get past that again that's the previous decade but the more i it's man i'm usually not like this i usually write it down and write it down conviction and carry it through and

just as you got done talking i went i don't know like i feel like the manning one's stupid considering you missed a season and he retired after 2000 how about that no i don't think i don't think it's stupid you know it makes it even more impressive that he did all that fairly quickly. God, he's been out that long already? Yeah, he's been out a while. Like 14, he was – I think 14 was his first year in Denver maybe. His first year. I saw Rodney McLeod.

He was there four years. Okay, so the year that I saw that we played that him was 14 and rodney mcleod almost like literally just ended emmanuel sanders on the sideline i'll never forget that hit but at that point i just remember thinking like yeah payton's throwing ducks and he knows it and that's just kind of how this team is gonna have to win is he's gonna have to just play smart and distribute the football and it's not gonna be pretty uh but that porter pick he was one play away from having three right well which you're talking about i'm talking about porter i'm talking about your uh the new orleans the ball off the new orleans all right yeah the yeah the miami onside kick right i mean it was uh it was very close to yeah he was very close to having three but to win

it on two separate teams and like to come back like yeah it was very poetic you know good you know carrying a bunch of teams and then he gets carried over the finish line it's a great point he even made i think it's a good pick he made he tricked me into thinking elway was an awesome gm for a couple years too so uh that was impressive well elway found drew lock maybe maybe or maybe drew lock is gonna be like the rest of these guys where uh okay give me uh your moment your personal moment of the decade uh well they're kind of i don't want to get too personal but you know probably my son whalen's birth that was you know becoming a dad's the coolest thing that could ever happen. And honestly, I was in kind of a low place, not a low place, but I was, I had just got cut a cap casualty in St. Louis IR for a couple of years. And I was side of the road

later. Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, all that stuff. And then in the hospital kind of figuring out what I want to do the couple of days after he was born. And I was down in the dumps, not like, not like sad, but just like, I'm kind of done with this thing. And then he, him coming along, I felt like this rush of energy. And I got a call that at the hospital from, from, uh, you know, my old D line coach who was in new England. So, uh, I don't know if I'd have taken that call in such a good mood as I would have if Waylon wasn't around and I might've not kept playing. So, um, that, that put me in St. Louis or not in St. Louis that put me in new England and gave me an opportunity to kind

of validate a career that was spent, you know, with the prime kind of wasted. So, so you were in the hospital when you get a call from the Pats, who was the D line coach? Well, so there were two, there were two calls, Brendan Daly, who's now with Kansas city, who coached me in St. Louis, uh, called me to kind of see how I was feeling about things when i was in the hospital um and then uh or maybe it was right after i got out of the hospital i don't know it was kind of like in that the early early days of whaling um and then uh and then bill called when i was at the supermarket a couple a week later so i i didn't know what to make of it, but at least kept hope alive that there might be a good situation. Because I didn't want to go play on a bad team.

I just didn't. And I didn't know who was going to want me after 2IR. So the Pats calling and that whole chain of events for me was big for me. Just make sure you don't overdo it on the fruit, the lettuce. You get too much of that no i had i had to never use it all i had to walk to the front of the store to get service you know it's like i'm picking up the phone and i hate um unknown calls i'm like motherfucker i like pick up and i'm like hello like just ready to just be like why are you calling me and i got a six pack

of beer and i've got the bread and, and that sort of thing. And it's like, hello, Chris is, uh, Bill Belichick. And he's like breaking up. I'm like, oh shit, I gotta get to the front of the store. I gotta take this call. But, uh, yeah, I was really happy to, to, to be able to do that. That was, yeah, I don't know how I'd feel about my career and there's things I want back and there's things I wish were different. And we talk about it all the time, but, um, but had that call not got received or made, I don't know how I feel about it. Yeah. Cause the retirement times that we've talked about it and you, you know, I'm always like, just go play again, just go play again, just go play again. Uh, cause that's just the way I would,

but I'm not the one whose body was getting beat up that way. But you know, it's just amazing to think of where you were and unfulfilled and the st louis stuff i know did not go the way you wanted to go collectively for a bunch of different reasons and the injuries in the middle of your career that drove you nuts but two parades later and yeah you know i mean give me a break life is good dude life is good i don't have anything quite on that level yet but i always tell you i haven't peaked yet so it's a little difference it's all relative dude it's all relative uh it really is dude i this this singular moment is is kind of ironic because in the moment i wasn't having the greatest day but i was in new orleans super bowl

you know the affinity i've had for that city now and van pelt and i you know because the first van pelt and i starting out was 09 but to go from kind of like hey fill in clown you know not really sure where it's going to go and things just went a lot slower in the industry back then it's like hey you know you're just gonna have to grind for a few years and then we'll decide if you're even worth it and then for scott to be like no no we weren't any friends he's like i think you're really good and the tariko called me he goes you know i've been listening to you a lot more and then we'll decide if you're even worth it. And then for Scott to be like, no, no, we weren't even friends. He's like, I think you're really good. And then Tariko called me. He goes, you know, I've been listening to you a lot more and more on the weekends. He's like, you just keep doing whatever you're doing and you're going to be a star. And those things meant a lot to me. Cause you're just, you're still like you're turning 30 and you go, is this going to be

worth it, man? Am I going to be grinding out? Am I going to be doing stringer stuff from Fenway Park at 45 years old? Like, I don't want to do that. No offense to the stringers, but there was this moment we were in New Orleans, Van Pelt and I are hosting it. We had these really cool pictures taken of it. We were in the house of blues and we're in that city and we're winding up a really cool week of shows. And Joe Montana shows up before we're going to introduce him. And Joe Montana's like, hi, I'm Joe Montana. And you're like, hey, Joe. And he's like, yeah, I listen to you guys all the time. And then he sits there and he looks at you and he's like, does anybody want to have a beer or do you just want to sit here?

Then you have a beer with Joe Montana and then Fife Dog shows up. Yeah, right. I'm like, even if I wasn't feeling it, you'd be like, yep. And then Fife Dog shows up who, you know, is RIP to Fife. He shows up to perform and I did the set list. They asked me to do the set list, and because I picked this really obscure song, they had me come out, and they wanted me to rap,

but I only knew the beat. I didn't know the lyrics. And in the moment, I was actually furious because I was like, if you guys are going to tell me to do this, like, pick one that I knew. So it all sort of backfired. But it was actually a moment where it felt like, you know, in any creative person's

life, you just want to feel like you did something. So collectively it's more of the Scott thing. And then having that moment and still having that picture of my house where I go, I feel like at least in that stretch, we were doing something that people actually cared about. And it's, it's held up when people talk about it. And, you know, that's just, you want to be able to do things that you can create or be a part of the felt like people actually really enjoyed and made a difference of. So it's not really, I don't have this one singular day, like the, that's just, you want to be able to do things that you can create or be a part of the felt like people actually really enjoyed and made a difference of. So it's not really, I don't have this one singular day, like the birth of a son, but it's kind of a culmination, all those different things. And so you had a real good moment there that is like very vivid.

And like, I took it a different way, like butterfly effect moments. So that, that's interesting. That's, that's good. I got to give you the Ashton Kutcher butterfly effect. Right. That's interesting. That's good. Well, the funny thing is. I got to give you the Ashton Kutcher butterfly effect.

Right. But it's classic me in that day itself. I wasn't walking around with this huge smile on my face going, oh, my gosh, look how great my life is. It was more of I look back and go. When does that day happen? Oh, I can't wait. It's going to be amazing. It's one of the driest, most great life, awesome at everything he does.

But, you know, consistently got an answer to him uh well ironically ironically that was that was one morning in montana yeah i mean that's the word one of the worst days i've ever had was preceded by the greatest morning i'd had where i'm just hammering fish in the gallatin for five plus hours. And I was just, I was in Montana and I'm in that river. And I was like, this is the best I've ever felt in a long time. Proceeded by 24 hours later being like, this is about as bummed out as a dude could possibly be.

Of bad luck. And we can get into that story another time. There was some bad luck involved there. And I know you don't like to say that. You did take your medicine like a man in all seriousness there because there was a lot i would have been like wait but wait there's some details here anyways well when work tells you to shut up you uh you know you just gotta shut up is there a shot that you or a drink that you wouldn't have taken with joe montana like what if he was like hey two 151s a piece no done

i'd be like pour them tall you'd be like holding in puke with you'd have a pukey mouth like you used to play with your madden like madden i had him on sega i had him on the old school genesis where i used to throw those post routes it was just unstoppable and that was one of the weird video games that kind of did the up and down perspective like that was the better way to play games that kind of did the up and down perspective like that was the better way to play it which is weird just saying it out loud maybe i should the up and down thing yeah do you remember that by the yes i do and it was you felt drunk even if you didn't know what being drunk was i can't even i just gagged a little thinking about a shot

at 151 dude i just remembered this story so this is another great story, but this is before the decade. Uh, my wife, Meg, my wife and I, um, we, uh, we dated in college obviously and all that stuff. But one night at the bar, when we were courting, I got to the bar and didn't know that she was there and she didn't know that I was there. And I sat down across the bar and we smiled like, Oh, you're here. And she sent me a shot of 151 and she took a shot of 151. Yeah. And I had been drinking a lot that night. So I, she was on 151 number one and I was on, you know, adjusted 151 number six or seven maybe.

Um, and I couldn't hold it down. I had to act like I had to act tough. I literally have, I'm puking like in my mouth. I'm looking across the bar kind of with the half smile. We're dating and I have to run to the bathroom. And just, and the funniest part of the story is I'm a UVA football player at that time.

And some dude walked out of the bathroom. I never, I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for this guy in the stall that walked out. I was like, Chris Long's back there puking in the bathroom. That sucks because you're in college. You know what I mean? Like everybody there puking in the bathroom. That sucks, too, because you're in college. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I can't puke in the bathroom. And then you bought her a ring the next day. No, it had been a while. I had a guy do that in my 20s because he was trying to sleep with my girlfriend. So I was in Vermont. So he was trying to make you pass out? Yeah, so I'd just come back from a widespread show and I felt great you know and it was up on a ski mountain and you know that's the most widespread

panic setting I've ever heard right so it was a ski mountain I think tragically hip open for him too I gotta double check that that could have been two different shows and they just sort of got blended together and you're not a drug guy no i'm not i'm not at all which which is just wild because you're at a widespread panic show i just love the music chris you know i'm a fan watching uh that's like watching and i'm not a huge widespread guy necessarily but that's like watching one of those 3d movies without the glasses well i don't know man i i love widespread i i'm surprised you don't like them that actually that was i didn't i don't know i don't dislike them i just i never caught the bug i'm like i had i had it big time and they are known as more of like a drug band and i wouldn't

even say just the normal party stuff i think there's some like dudes that really really are into it and uh yeah that that rabbit hole can get deep. Yeah. So I go to that show. I think it was also my birthday. This is early twenties, maybe 25. And I knew I kind of had like one foot out the door mentally when I was living up in Vermont. And so it was my birthday. It was feeling good after the show. And then, yeah, I remember because I rolled into my place that I used to work at. And, well, I was still working there then at the time. And then my girl, who was really, that girl was awesome. She was always, like, really, she just put up with everything, basically.

Do you wonder where she is? No, I already know. I don't care. Long time. Okay. It's an obligatory question. No it was it was funny because there was this guy who was I don't want to call him like a he just seemed like an orgy guy he seemed like the one guy that like you're like what's that guy's deal you're like I don't know he's always the

orgy guy look like bro he just that's the only way I can describe him. I think he had a strip club for a while, and it was sort of this non-strip club, strip club, and it didn't make any sense. He probably had a single hoop earring back in this era. Right. I think he was tanning before people really were tanning. He used to ask the girl I was dating if she wanted to strip all the time,

and I was starting to be like, okay. But we all kind of got along. We all still kind of casually got along. the girl I was dating if she wanted to strip all the time. And I was starting to be like, okay, you know, but we all kind of got along. We all still kind of casually got along. And then I roll in fresh off the show, just up 89 off the mountain. And, you know, she and I are walking in. And of course I'm like, hey, dudes,

throw on more widespread. Let's keep this thing going. And he's like, hey, happy birthday, buddy. And I was like, oh, cool, thanks thanks and then i immediately just you know mouth explosion we're like and i'm running it was like warm well vodka and he didn't get himself one by the way and then i'm like he was trying to vodka water trick he tried to take me out right then and there and hey listen oh what i most likely did it ended up playing madden while she fell asleep that's little advice here rye i know it's late in the game for advice like this you've had a lot of experience but if you want to avoid orgy guy try not to act

like other orgy guy by still hanging out with him after he comes on to your girlfriend? You know what? Noted. It's like this simple shit here. Worst decision of the decade? Oh, that's a previous decade. This is a long time. I mean, we're talking, damn, I hate even saying this. This is single hoop earring, gelled hair, rave parties. It's almost 20 years ago when this went down.

So I'll check out that date on that show. Okay, a little lesser of an answer here best album oh best album for for me that's uh you know there's one hip-hop album i'll go good kid mad city because it reminds me of 2012 playing with like i know i think you picked the same one didn't you i did okay for somebody that loves rap and then i thought wait a minute another guy came along that i think i would put up there with anybody and it was that good and that's how special i think kendrick is it's just hard it's hard to get a newer rapper to overwhelm a guy like me that you know grew up with it who who loves this stuff and that was one where i went you're

gonna be kidding me he's next level and they were my and also what's interesting about him is that he what I love about him is he can make a whole themed album like there's a thread through the album and it's like it's part of a cohesive story which is cool which like you see more um in other genres but then um also it's hard to you ask 15 people what their favorite Kendrick album is, you'll get 12 different answers. That's what's cool about him. That reminded me of 2012. You talk about Money Trees, a song that takes you back to a specific location and time.

It was playing with the Rams, with that D-line group for me. We used to bump that album a lot. I also love the two War on Drugs albums that came out, Lost in a Dream and then Deeper Understanding. I can't decide which one's better, but they have the two best, in my opinion, of the decade. Check it out. Also, I want to shout out Awesome Wave, right?

That's the name of the All J album. Am I weird to put an All J album in my decade list? No, you do whatever you want. It's your list. Okay, I don't know. I think it would have been No, you do whatever you want. It's your list. Okay. I don't know. I think it'd been weird if you didn't. Okay.

You're right. We have rapid fire. We have the decade stuff. Today's episode of the Ryder Marcello show with Chris Long is brought to you by State Farm. If you're familiar with insurance, State Farm agents are here to help because with over 19,000 agents, they're local to you and available to help.

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no i mean if you don't have any that if you if you have one that's just like an awkward tearjerker or like very personal maybe we leave that on the shelf yeah i went to bonner well no i don't want to even bring that one up that sounds like it might be the right answer yeah um also maybe maybe and this makes me sad to say it um i do second guess not hitting the market after so i had like a 13 sack year and then I, and then I, um, what did I do? I read up after that year as Jeff Fisher was coming in. I may be in a rookie contract by the way. Is that off the rookie? Yeah, this is so, so I finished my rookie contract. I was, I had two years left on my deal. So I knew this was a big year that I could get read up and I had 13. And then, um, I was like,

okay, well now's the time to get paid. And like, you know, for a kid that, even though I made a ton, my rookie contract, I'm like, the last thing I want to do is like, wait another year and get hurt. So I, I took the deal and I went out and had 12 and was healthy and maybe have my best year. I would have had the freedom to go wherever I wanted. And I probably would have had a chance to win and not, um, spend win and not spend eight years losing. So that might be a – it's a downer, but maybe a bit of a regret. Yeah, but I've seen the numbers on that deal. Yeah, I mean, no.

You were the old rookie deals too, so you hit it pretty hard twice. Yeah, I hit it twice. I was at the craps table, and yeah, things are good. You know, makes it easier when you when you make uh unsound money line that's your first fallout yeah but go arizona yeah then you get arizona all right uh i'm not gonna go too deep on this one either um i just think that it would be and this is a lesson for anybody and it's something that i'm constantly trying to figure the line of is is the grind of pushing yourself and never being satisfied versus just taking a fucking deep breath, exhaling and enjoying

what you're doing. Um, because I could have enjoyed this stuff with Scott a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got next decade. We could really just enjoy the, the, the heck out of this next decade. I'm not going to do with this one either i'm just you know giving everybody warning but you know 2030 look out yeah i just can't i can't i can't figure it out i'm neither can i i'm wired this way and uh i think it's part of the all right so i'll go best decision here it is moving manhattan beach and doing something that i wanted to do 17 years ago when i first visited the place and something I had planned on doing for years and looking and looking and trying to figure out a way, trying to figure out a way. And then I just said, you know what? I'm not waiting for anybody else

to give me permission anymore. I'm just going to go ahead and do it. And it is been, uh, it's been, you know, it's just a completely different vibe and it's just the best. If you love the water, I love the water, grew up around it. And to able to just say hey i'm gonna go be near the water in two minutes um i think there's something about the water i think there's something about salt water that's medicinal i think there's just a bunch of stuff going on there man i'm not trying to get real cosmic and crystal on you here but uh it's it's something i should have done a long time ago you got some depak show bro shit going and i'm all for it i know i know you love that uh do you go to those float tanks are you a float tank bro no no I just like I just like waves man I don't know

there's not much else going on there my best decision would be more it's a move um but it's to a less celebrated place and that was to sign with philly when i left new england like some people called me insane um and probably yourself included no i love i knew you i knew when you played 15 snaps in the super bowl with the pats i was yeah there were there were scheme things right yeah and so you know and being a situational rusher in new england a lot of people would kill for that but i i just i had this thing as insecurity that's like well it's insecurity for me listen i had done most of the things i wanted to do in my career i mean i had done pretty much everything um but when you get ir'd twice in the primary career and you're really rolling you're like i need to get back up off the mat this is the whole thing was like okay i won

now i want to have individual success and possibly win and And I looked at, I looked at Philly. I actually called them and I say this a lot because like, they didn't have any real interest in me. I had to like sell myself. Like it was a fucking audition, but I ended up in Philly and, uh, that, that run that ride, I just was back in Philly this week for a thing we were doing there. And, um, every time I'm there, I feel like I have a home. It's like, no matter what's wrong in my life. And I, and I had that in St. Louis, but it's not a football home anymore. Um, I just, I feel a lot of love from people when I go back and, uh, it's one, it's a place that's near and dear to my heart. Like I never go there. I was really proud to be a part of that run. I was proud to be a part of that play with Patrick Robinson, you know,

hitting Keenum's arm. Like I'll, that'll be forever special to me. And, and literally with time, it gets more special. And had I gone and played, I visited Washington. I visited a couple different places, um, the year before, and I had a chance maybe to go there the next year. I just made the right decision. It's the best decision I've ever made in my life. Actually, when it comes to a decision that there were a lot of bad choices to make. Wow's that's huge i'm expecting your next best decision will be whatever compound um you let me stay out of montana more so yeah no i'm down with that i'm down with that you you can always come back you got a good trip advisor rating i do i had a highland's hat i shaved wayland's hat um when there was an altercation big fork we all walked away from it

i got a gold star from your mom on that one the next day yep that was that was big because when you wake up hungover smelling like liquor in the morning and two grown men were at the bar till 3 a.m the last thing we could have done to make our night worse would be getting a fight and actually we were pretty tame that weekend thinking back on it it. We were back before, too, because then I did Late Night with Your Dad and watched West Wing. Remember? We were just going on after. I'm sure the last thing my dad wanted was two drunk dudes to sit uncomfortably close to him and watch West Wing. No, you're not giving us enough credit on this one.

We weren't hammered. We weren't hammered. No. Because it was just Big just big fork and we were like we're just trying to take it all in okay uh how many more do we still have to do best movie best movies yeah inception um i know shutter island i know people yeah you're the fact that you like shutter island better than inception to me the first time i just thought to execute that story the way they did and yes there are moments where it was a little harder to figure out but you

shouldn't have your hand held all the time in story making and you could still go back and watch it be like oh okay cool again it landed and it landed and it was just different it was so different wasn't just a cop drama wasn't just different. It wasn't just a cop drama. It wasn't just a doctor. It wasn't just a courtroom thing, hero, anti-hero. It was just different, and it really was one of the first movies where I went, oh, man,

like, it's just so cool that somebody could think of something so different than everything else, even though some people think it's, like, pretentious and whatever. I don't care. I loved it. No, no, it was cool.

It was cool. It was cool. Not in your time not i had a little quick list i got drive i love drive i actually had an impala because of drive and wrecked it and i had the scorpion jacket um x yeah they are hard to find shout out to meg for finding that uh best hidden gem rider. Have you seen that indie joint? No, I, maybe I have. It's you need to go see the rider. You need to go see the rider. You don't go anywhere to see the rider. Just download the shit, whatever, stream it, whatever you young people are doing. And, uh, and, and just soak it in. It's a little dark, it's heavy, but it's, it's good. Most visually stunning for me up there was Dunkirk. I really like Dunkirk.

Did you like that movie? Yeah, I did the special film release where I drove to a special theater for it because once the Christopher Nolan thing was hooked up to the veins, I just couldn't get enough of it. And if you don't like Dunkirk the story because the movie isn't like, hey, boy meets girl, girl doesn't like him, boy gets girl, then Dunkirk's just not going to be for you. They try to do something different, and the battle scenes are incredible. You think you're drowning in a plane. Oh, my God. I thought I was drowning.

Right. I was on a plane, which is a bad place to drown. When I was watching, I was on a transatlantic flight, and I was like, oh, my God, this is so sketchy. The strangest good movie was The Master. I don't know if you like The Master. The scene with he and uh uh walking living room no that that scene i mean it's based on the l ron hubbard thing

so i kind of when philip seymour hoffman and and joaquin are there together that scene is just all-timer two special guys i also love the movie. First man, very underrated, best opening in a movie in a long time. Okay, good. Uh, I, I,

I gave a special award. The movie that Michael, this is no joke. Michael Bennett would watch Django every fucking week on the plane. We'd sit next to each other and he would show me scenes in the movie. Like I'd never seen him before. He says he's watched the movie over 200 times. Uh, so that I, and I, that that's in my top 10 as well. Interstellar. I don't understand it, but I love it. Anybody who acts like they understand it. You don't, you just love it.

Uh, 12 years of slave was great. And then the best movie on a candy, the best first watch I ever, maybe of any movie I saw was the revenant i mean when you were cold in the theater were you cold i felt cold i felt like i was that slow motion battle in the beginning felt like a six minute scene and the next time i watched i was like yo check this scene out check this scene out watch watch it's just like so slow and it's a long scene and you feel like you're really in it. And the scene's like 10 seconds. Like that slow motion portion of that battle on the river. I mean, when they were eating snow, it was like one of the best weirdest scenes ever. Climbing in the horse. Horse? Yeah, the horse scene. Apparently that was all shot where they would only shoot it when the natural light was perfect.

I don't know if you read about any of that stuff, where if you look at the lighting for it, it all feels incredibly natural because people would wait around for hours and hours and hours until the director was like, all right, the light is perfect for what I need for this scene. So it wasn't just like, hey, let's set up lighting and bang out all these scenes. It was no, no, no. We're all going to sit and wait until everything is exactly the way I need it to be with all the natural light. Um, and that's, uh, that's film corner here on the podcast. It was, it was such a cool, I don't know, maybe is this is what, what do most people think of the Revenant? What's the, the, like, what are the kids saying about the Revenant? It's overrated. Well, i just think that the dicaprio winning for that one when he could have won for maybe better performances was one of the headliners from

that but i just look it was i thought it was going to be awesome and it was awesome i mean dicaprio that could be the thing here let's finish it on this who won the decade because it could be sports related it cannot be because i was thinking dicaprio by the way once upon a time in hollywood is so good that so i didn't want to do a recency bias thing and pick it as my favorite movie of the decade, but I really did like it that much that I'd even consider it. DiCaprio had an amazing run. Amazon, Jeff Bezos also did, but that seems a little lame.

Tesla's rebounded nice. I was going to say LeBron James won the decade because you go to eight straight finals you bring a championship to the city of cleveland the miami thing was a success and now here we are the lakers and granted much bigger things have to happen but they are awesome they're an awesome team this year the promise school and becoming really you know exceeding all expectations for what you were supposed to be when you're the next one and the chosen one, very few people ever exceed that. And he is one of the handful,

less than a handful of guys that did it. So I'm going to say LeBron won the decade. Yeah. And did it, I mean, like you can have complaints about his, you know, branding efforts or like certain little stuff, certain sound bites and stuff, but like this dude, you know, of somebody who was handed the world at a young age he's been pretty spotless as far as not getting into trouble doing stupid shit not like he being a good role model for them like he's he's he's navigated being you know 18 and having the world by the balls with pretty good you know results so i. So I agree. That's a great call. I, on my end, I, you know, I was thinking about like football. I took this more like football, um, trends. I think like anybody who authored like the air raid stuff, it was just taking the lead by storm,

you know, like Mike Leach, you know, any of those guys, I think indirectly, they kind of won the decade edge rushers at edge rushers are getting paid. Like, like nothing else. People are starting to realize, or not, Oakland, how important. And I'm not saying they're wrong. I'm saying there's a debate raging right now. Like the running backs thing. How important is it? And running backs of this crop won big.

But I think that because of them winning big, the rate of escalation that those contracts will come in at for the next crop of running backs will, will suffer. Cause now you've got Le'Veon Bell. He can't over, he can't push the jets, you know, over the top. You've got Zeke, you know, everybody talks about that girly, the injuries, um, and then next gen quarterbacks and young coaches. So that trickle down effect of high school offense, these mobile quarterbacks. You look up, and it's the elephant in the room for a lot of people who've been watching these standard lawn deer-type white statue quarterbacks in the pocket, and there's nothing wrong with either way to do it. And there are white guys who are athletic, and there are black guys who are not mobile.

But mobile quarterbacks and African-American quarterbacks have been big winners in this decade because you look at the top five right now, it is not white dudes. It is not poster children for the 60s, 70s, and 80s in the NFL. There's no Drew Bledsoe-type looking dudes in that group. So there's a lot of trends in football that have been winners. Check out Chalk Media for all of chris's stuff i will have a tales from the couch christmas edition nba mega cast solo uh that'll come out

thursday morning i'll probably be taping wednesday night at the compound and i want everyone who's celebrating christmas to have a Merry Christmas this week. Yeah. That was an amazing goodbye. I don't know what to say anymore. Do I say happy holidays to everybody? Oh, you didn't want to say Merry Christmas? I think it's okay if you say, hey, because it's in two days. Merry Christmas to you, Ryan.

But for everybody listening, whatever you're celebrating, just have a good one. I don't know what you're celebrating. Have a good one. I don't know what the hell you're celebrating. That goodbye was like, that was kind of like that meme i sent you was all the kids celebrating the warriors and then all of a sudden it's the last kid who looks more like drew bledsoe that is such a good that is such a good meme dude and it's gonna be so hard to to relate i will tweet it out because it's unbelievable because your last kid's rolling in like

2019, 20 Warriors. It's been around. I do dance record. I don't know what to say. You want to say happy holidays? I'm not being like,

I'm not being PC and I'm not being, I'm not trying to start shit here. I think it's okay when it's two guys that celebrate Christmas to say Merry Christmas

to each other. Wasn't sure if we were talking to listeners, bro. Well, I don't don't i don't i don't know man i think we could all do you want to do the whole you want to do the whole outro again hey when somebody says racio to me you know what i don't do get offended let's go all right whatever man okay let's go let's go all right okay reen racio i'm in i'm in oh e how do you say that all right that's enough he's doing a chris chris chris d'elia me do you do you follow him yeah i do but i mean that's the other thing like when you have i watched a stand-up guy he's d'elia right right but i watched a stand-up

guy the other day and you know it wasn't very and he was foreign, and he decided to do this whole thing about, like, oh, everybody mispronounces my name, like Americans are terrible. Just go, I was born in fucking Hartford, dude, and I get called Rocio all the time. Did it fucking ruin my day? No. Don't worry about it. You know, this is my fault. I know you're going to stay away from it, but I just think it's true.

If you have a different kind of name and somebody says it wrong, it's not the end of the world. It's not always easy, but it is on everybody to make an effort. Just make an effort. People get long wrong all the time. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. All right, everyone. Happy holidays as well.

Peace. Well, Merry Christmas, you... You bitch. All right, leave that in there. Check us out. Subscribe to the Ryan Russillo Podcast. Thank you.