The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Willie Colon on Josh Allen and the Bills’ Dominance and Playing with Geno Smith. Plus Mexico City Travelogue and F1 Recap.

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Russillo shares his five most important takeaways from NFL Week 8, including another decisive Bills win, the early NFL playoff picture, Jalen Hurts's deep passes, and more (0:27). Then Ryen is joined by Super Bowl champion Willie Colon to discuss the Bills' dominance on both sides of the ball, why the Titans are the third-best team in the AFC, shifting expectations for the Packers, Patriots-Jets, Geno Smith's revitalized career, and stories from playing with Geno in New York (11:30). Then Ryen talks about his journey to Mexico City for the Mexican Grand Prix (43:12), before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:03:21). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Willie Colon Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's a lot of fun. I'm in Mexico City for F1. I'll tell you about my Mexico City adventure for a couple days, what I learned, most important things from the NFL this week, and of course, Willie Colon, story time with him. Unbelievable stuff, so I don't even need to really get into it.

We got life advice from Kyle in the the back end live from mexico city what's up everyone let's recap week eight five most important things that i saw okay number one last night the bills are good you know what's nice about the nfl every now and then it's nice when we see a team that is really good like the bills beat a team we don't think is any good anymore, like the Packers, and the way the world works actually makes sense because there's so many NFL outcomes that you're like, what happened? The guy just complimented the Raiders.

I was like, you know who's sneaky kind of good on offense? The Las Vegas Raiders. They were third in points per game, 17 yards per play, and they get shut out by the Saints. So I'm like, oh like oh okay good timing on that compliment because i felt like in a way because the raiders got off to the bad start there's the josh mcdaniel's hangover of like this guy got another job after flaming out in denver there

was just a lot of anti-raider stuff yet was still going under the radar and every time i would look up the different statistical stuff i'd think wait the raiders actually really good in a lot of different departments here and then they get shut out. So the point is to see the natural order play out every now and then, especially in a primetime game where we've been denied that at times, to see the bills. And even still, a 27-17 score, you could talk yourself into, I don't know, a month or so from now. Not us. Not us that are locked in, right? That are listening to the podcast. But somebody down the road would be like, yeah, you know, they played them close.

No, they didn't. They didn't. So it's nice to see that. Because there still are other outcomes where you have the kind of, what does this mean scenario? Whether it's Washington finding a way against the Colts. I'll add this in here. Sam Ellinger, the quarterback out of Texas,

and I'll offer up this as well. College football hardos, which I would include myself in that group, we watch way more NFL than NFL hardos watch college football. Not debatable. I don't even think that's necessarily a win. I'm just telling you, people that love college football watch both. People that love the NFL rarely watch college football. That puts me in a position at times where if it's a young player, a guy who I've watched a lot, certainly Sam is one of those, quarterback of Texas, incredible story, an absolute gamer, a guy that carried that offense

at times, especially in short yard situations where it felt like he was their only option. If he's a long-term star in the NFL, I'm going to be fucking shocked. He feels a little like Tebow without the GNC membership, but then he's in a game and they're going back and forth with Washington who Heineke is the epitome of a long-term backup himself where Heineke is like, man, this guy, I mean, the throw to McLaurin, McL're like, man, this guy.

I mean, the throw to McLaurin. McLaurin grabs away. That guy's a stud. He doesn't get enough shine just because of the situation of the team that he's with as well. And yet, Heineke, I feel like if he ever were brought in to be your starter, you'd be sitting there as a coaching staff going, okay, what can we do to make this better? We could probably do a little bit better than this, even though he's still going to win

you some games because he's got the arm. He doesn't give a shit. He's out there. He probably has the right mentality of like, I'm not going to start overthinking this. I'm just going to be out here and hold onto this job as long as I can.

At least he plays. I mean, Chase Daniels, the lifer backup and never has to play. Taysom Hill, basically they spent a ton of money on him and it pissed off Drew Brees and they took him off the field. And now he's behind Dalton and Winston and listed as a tight end. He has eight pass attempts this year. So back, bringing it full circle,

it's just nice to see a Bills team that's number two in scoring offense, number one in scoring D. They're allowing 14 points per game, which going back is the lowest average allowed since Pittsburgh averaged, they allowed 13.9 points per game in 2008. So it's nice to see things kind of just play out the way they're supposed to and their depth. Bill's depth

everywhere. Every Bill's game I watch, I'm like, oh shit, they got that guy too. And oh wait, these two guys are still out and it doesn't even seem to matter with these defensive numbers. So let's bring that in the Packers because point number two is, are we looking at a class of the karma QBs? We've been

over the Rodgers contract. My biggest issue with Rodgers was always, you are not convincing me that you deserve the victim label that you are pining for. You've got to convince me. You need to do a better job of

telling me how bad of a time you've had it in Green Bay. And you're not. And then you get a massive contract and then you come back. And there's something to be said of maybe Devante Adams, if he were more settled in Green Bay and knew what Rogers was doing, would he still be there? Would they be able to afford him? Could they figure that out? Or do you just want to go back to Vegas and play with Carr? That's a really good part of it too. So let's move on from that. But what about karma? Even though it's tough for people in my business, we don't necessarily believe in it all the time. What about

the Russell Wilson karma part of this? I mean, it's going so bad for him. The guy wasn't even throwing a Hail Mary at the half. They were just trying to run out the clock and everybody called it a Hail Mary on social media. He is taking shots all over the place now. They won. They finally beat Jacksonville.

Jacksonville team, we thought early on, hey, are they actually good? Trevor Lawrence is kind of exciting. Don't see a lot of that anymore. And I'm not off of it necessarily. I'm just saying it was kind of fun there for a little while, Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence. Okay. With Russell Wilson now, we had Lockett after the win, after the Seahawks beat the Giants at home. Lockett's quote essentially is it's nice when no one cares about who's getting the credit shot at Russell Wilson. Richard Sherman had Marshawn Lynch on his podcast and they were talking about how much Russell Wilson was struggling. This was weeks ago. And Sherman was like, man, I'd like to get in touch with him.

And then Marshawn was like, yeah, I would too, but I don't want to have to reach out to your manager. Both expressing that they couldn't get in touch with him directly despite being teammates for almost a decade. And they started laughing at the idea that we actually have to reach out to someone else. His own line getting pissed at him back when he was in Seattle after he went on the media rampage about how bad he has it when half, if not more of his sacks are because he scrambles around so much. Then they talked about his office. He has his own office in the stadium in Denver. Shannon Sharp blasted him for that one. And then they had the Ravens on a team flight, and a guy was taking a video of Justin Tucker,

the kicker, and he started talking about Russell Wilson's high and east. The kicker made fun of Russell Wilson. So it got me to thinking about karma. Again, I'm not sure that I believe in 100 but and if I were worse at my job I would throw Brady in this mix as like oh he's struggling because I've made two good examples and I'll make a third one that's bad but three is more than two so I'll just do that and I'm not putting Brady in this group you know it's not his fault he married somebody that can't stand that he only has seven to eight months off. But the fact this is going so bad for Rodgers and Wilson on the field the same time after constantly complaining about their plights with teams that won,

it can't help but pop into my mind and make me think about it. Number three, let's take a look at the playoff seats. Tennessee is actually number two in the AFC now. Kansas City is a three seed. Does any of this matter? I just like going over at this point in the season, so we're going to do it. The difference with that, the tie break,

is that Tennessee is four and one against the AFC. Kansas City is two and two. Baltimore is the toughest strength to schedule of any of the seven AFC teams slated in the playoffs right now. The Chargers are the seventh seed. They're four and three. That's versus a 394 strength of schedule. It is so far and away the easiest so far that it is concerning. Yes, there have been injuries. They should still have a better record. The NFC, how about this?

Philly, one seed. Another win. We're going to get to an amazing stat here on Jalen Hurts. Minnesota's your two seed. They're six and one. No one cares. That's how anti-Kirk Cousins everyone is. And by the way, I am too. But they have all these weird stats.

They're 17th and third down percentage. They're 18th in yards per play, but they're eighth in points per game because they score touchdowns when they get to the red zone. They're the fifth best offense in the NFL. Their defensive numbers are pedestrian at best. Some of them are terrible. They're 28th in opponents yards per play. So there's all these things with Minnesota. You're like, well, if this evens out, who is this team? There's some signs that tell you they're not going to be a 6-1 team. That would also be math

because you're not allowed to only play 7. Bad joke. But they're number 3 in turnover differential, which may be another part of this. And then your 3 and 4 seeds are Seattle and Atlanta, just like everybody expected. Number 4. Speaking of Hurts, here's the best stat I read. I always like Mike Sandoz recap on

Monday mornings on The Athletic. Pick 6 column. Jalen Hurts had four touchdowns yesterday, 19 yards, 27 yards, 29 yards, 39 yards past the line of scrimmage. Okay. He's the fifth player since 2007 with four TDs that far downfield in the same game. So that's past the line of scrimmage. Those throws three of those were to AJ Brown.

I actually think this is more interesting. to scrimmage those throws. Three of those were to A.J. Brown. I actually think this is more interesting. Hurts has yet to attempt a pass while trailing at halftime. Number five, final thought here. It's something I've been thinking about

doing. It's a segment I want to do. I was thinking about doing it this week, but I'm just not ready yet. I'm going to get a jump on this because it can be a little dangerous too. Knowing that if I did it right now, some would be right and some would be incredibly wrong. Ranking the quarterback replacement teams. Because next week's the halfway mark of the season. If you look at mock drafts, would Detroit get off a golf already for a stud? Probably. They could get off his contract

after this year as they want. Golf's okay. He's been okay. He's 28 years old. Houston, Davis Mills is the guy in your friend group who you think nothing of, but is a good hang. And you go, you know who's fun? You know who was fun last weekend golfing? It was Davis Mills. That feels like his entire career because he was not the highestly touted draft prospect. But you watch me like, ah, he's all right. He's much worse this year. He's much worse this year. So I'm not sure that he's the guy.

Carolina, I think they'd be bringing in somebody else. Probably not somebody else's flamed out top 10 pick. They've already tried that twice. I don't know if Pittsburgh would do it again. I mean, that's one of those weird things where you could miss on somebody because you feel like you owe it to the guy you just drafted, but

I don't know. If you ended up with a top three pick, do you owe it to Kenny Pickett? Tampa has the eighth pick if you look at the records as of today. Probably think they'd want to address it at some point. The what if that I thought was kind of interesting is the Bears have the 12th pick based on what I saw today

with all the different tiebreakers, which is actually a much lower pick than I thought it would be. Yeah, I'm going to do this, but I'm not doing it today. I don't want to do it today and start ranking the teams most likely to replace their current quarterback.

But we're getting close. We're getting close to that season. Willie Colon, my guy. It's been too long. What's up? I hate it when I don't see or hear from you enough. I feel like I always know you're doing great, but I wish you had your own, I don't know, besides the podcast. But I wish there was a visual

dialing that you just see what you're up to. We just spent 20 minutes of you talking. He was at the F1, and I'm like, I just wanted to see you in action, just seeing you in your mode. Yeah, no, I could text more. I could text more. You're right. Look, let's talk some ball. After that Bills performance last night,

that's where I want to start. If somebody wants to tell me they like the Chiefs better, okay fine but statistically the defense isn't what Buffalo is so when you look at the Bills how much of a gap do you think there is between them and I don't know if it's everybody else or Philadelphia or where you have it but how do you feel about the Bills versus everybody else?

I think they're just a junk now right now and I think they know who they are. I think you talk about this defense led by Von Miller and Ed Oliver, man. I thought one thing about, you know, it's tough for me because being a former Steeler and playing alongside some historical defense, I try to see what, I try to compare the two, right? And a lot of things of what I see what Buffalo does well is they're selfless. It doesn't matter

the mission. They're just going to execute and they're going to get it done. And obviously the mission was to get out there Aaron Rodgers' ass and make him extremely uncomfortable. And you saw that last night with a multitude of fronts. Von Miller looks like he's aging backwards. You're talking

about Ed Oliver. I think he's starting to emerge. Val, you had the big injury with him, Poitier last night, with Michael Hyde being out. But you just saw different aspects of that defense just rise up in different times during that game. And they just look fearless, man. And they're playing fast.

They're playing strong. And they're playing bully football. And the whole world got to watch it. I mean, there's no secret that the Buffalo Bills are just, they're that team. They're that team that is spooky season when they come into town yeah i'd said in the open like every now and then when you just realize how special some rosters can be and how you put it all together with the cap restrictions you know because there's some teams you're like where's your talent and then you look at buffalo and the rotation on that front like i've

always liked epinesa going all the way back to college. And then I'm like, oh, you know, like, hey, there's another guy. There'll be guys that you don't even hear their name called one week. And then the next week they're making plays. And then they have a receiver come in late and catches a huge ball down the left side that wasn't really part of the game plan. So it's a scary amount of depth for a team that feels like, you know, if you want to nitpick, sure. But there's just not a lot of flaws there. Well, that's also, you know, Ryan, this is what I,

I have this conversation randomly, but it's, it's good teams know who they are and they know what the mold looks like. Right? Like when you draft a guy or when you're drafting a guy for your organization, a lot of Pittsburgh Steelers, the Seahawks, the Patriots, I feel like these are the teams that do it best is there's, there best, is there's a checklist of what they want their players to look like. And I think the Buffalo Bills are at that moment. They got to be tough.

They got to have range. They got to be scrappy. And they got to be about that life. And that's just all characteristics. And then you go down to the 40-year speed and all that other stuff. So there's a mold in which, you know, they know what they're looking for. Like the Patriots. You say what you want about the Patriots, and know, they know what they're looking for, like the Patriots. You say what you want about the Patriots, and I'm not a diehard Patriot guy, but nevertheless, all their guys are smart.

They don't beat themselves. They know what to do when they're on the field. They're well prepared. They're well coached. And they seem like they're always ready for the fight. And so different organizations know how to go after guys that meet their mold and meet their characteristics. And Buffalo Bills have that. So you talk about the depth. Depth is important for this time of year. When you get to week 8 through 13, everybody's banged up. Everybody's hurt.

Your depth is what carries you. And so when you see good teams move on and continue to progress, because they got quality depth. Yeah, Settles out there too. I was like, my God. I mean, he wasn't even on my radar, you know, earlier in the season with them. And then I was just like, you know, every time I look at their depth chart,

I'm just like, man, this is something every fan base should be jealous of. Okay, so having said all that, I feel like I'm still partial to Mahomes because the peak of it and the picks for Allen, like, I don't know. I guess I didn't really care because I felt like the game was over, even though eventually the game log will look like he had a couple turnovers, which fine. I mean, technically he did. But the run to the pylon in the first half where you're like, all right, Mahomes can't do that.

I guess I'm still, like I said, I'm partial to Mahomes because I feel like there's a ceiling that I've seen there that is just another level. But I don't know. If somebody told me they liked Allen better, I'm not sure I would argue with them. Well, I think Allen just gives you that all-American hero feel, right? He gives you that Arnold Schwarzenegger early, late 80s action hero feel where it doesn't matter if the building's blowing up. He's going to defuse the bomb

and save the lady at the end of the day. He gives you that type of feel. And so I'm with you. I don't have anything against Mahomes. I just feel like sometimes he can go rogue and he can cost the team. I think Allen's always going to be true to who he is. And if he's willing to put the whole team on his shoulder

by running the ball, by going head first into the pylon, by not being fearless, going head-to-head against a safety that's coming downhill. He has that. Mahomes seems like he's going to go into his bag to try to win you a game, and that can go bad for you at any given moment. But when it's good, it's great.

But Josh Allen just seems like the all-American hero. He gives me a la Young Big Ben vibes and also his moxie about. You tell me that he just, the kid who, you know, when he was coming out of high school had no offers. You know,

he was scrawny and then he lands in Wyoming and then he becomes this, you know, he becomes this renegade and he lands in a Buffalo Bills and when he gets there, nobody gives him a shot.

People are already writing him off and then year three, he's biting at the cage. He's a dog. So when you see him now, I'm really happy for the kid because you can tell he plays with that, like, I got this. Just put it on my shoulder.

And then, for Christ's sake, Stephon Diggs is unguardable. And Gabe Davis is just balancing out that offense. And that offensive line is just a bunch of bullies up front. Is there a third best team in the AFC then? For me, it's the Titans, right? And I know you say, well, Tannehill's out, and then you say, well, okay,

then what else they got? Well, I was like, well, you got to win the game in the trenches. I love Jeffrey Simmons. I think he's absolutely, he's a bulldog. I like what they got

in the offensive line. I think they're going to do enough with Malik Willis where they're not going to hand him the key, but they're going to give him a governor's cap, right? They're going to be like, you can just drive it, but I'm going to give you everything. I'm just going to give you enough. And Derrick Henry, listen, what he did yesterday is monstrous.

So for me, I like Tennessee. I think they're grittier. They're tougher. It's easy to say Baltimore, but Baltimore defense scares me. You know, they just don't do enough for me at times when I think it's important. I think Lamar Jackson's worth it, obviously. Mark Andrews, when healthy, he's that guy. He's probably one of my favorite tight ends in the league.

But I think Baltimore is just too up and down for me. I think Tennessee right now is probably – and then, listen, they're in a division where they can't rank any. And he stinks. Jacksonville, Jacksonville, and Houston, Texas, you know, nobody's thinking about him. But I do think right now that Tennessee is probably my number three team. I think they're a team you've got to play all four quarters of football

to beat them. Off the Packers' loss last night, and this speaks to anything bigger, and we can kind of touch on a bunch of different teams here. But, you know, look, they're down receivers, down like three guys by the end of the game. I like to Alps, though. I do. He had that great catch to the right back pylon. It's weird because we have expectations for the Packers, right?

We have the same thing with the Rams, same thing with the Bucs. We covered this a little bit here on the pod. But it's almost like from the outside, when you're a disappointing team, we had expectations for, and you, you end up being bad. It's almost like all of us think that you guys just quit. And there are examples, you know, there are teams that are like, Hey, it just went South and we couldn't get it back going. But what is it like to be on a team? We were like, fuck that. Like we're here to fight every single week. And like, we have to, like, I'm sure you've been on both kinds of teams where you're like, we want to figure this thing out and write the ship and we all have to stay in this together. It, it's the part of the game that I don't think enough of us understand from the outside of how the personalities inside the locker room, the 50 plus guys, how, if you have the right group, you can find a way to salvage a season versus everybody expecting us you know we always look at these teams like ah they're three and six they stink they're done like man they still have

to play a ton of games and it's the nfl like the seasons can be very different within this season itself so do you have examples or how hard that is or times it's actually worked bro i mean for christ's sakes my second year with the Jets, we ended up 4-12. It ended up being Rex Ryan's last year. The GM at the time is John Izzik coming out of Seattle. And I was telling a story a while, I'm in New York, so I'm running to Jets for him. It's crazy. And they've watched enough of my career to understand I've been through the good days and the bad days. But as far as the team that year, man, we had a lot of scrappy veterans.

However, we also were the second youngest team in the league. We had a really good defensive line. We had Snacks Harrison, Sheldon Richardson, Quentin Copas, Muhammad Wilkerson. We had a really, really good young defensive line. But the team, we just didn't have – as a team, we didn't have enough talent. We were just missing certain pieces. We didn't have, like, a number one receiver.

We didn't have, you know, we didn't have that dominant kind of slot guy. We had a good slot guy in Jeremy Curley. But the organization right now was trying to go through a lot because Rex was getting berated in the media. Literally, while we were on the practice field, there was fire John Izzik signs going over the practice field. There was a plane dragging a sign

that said fire John Izzik. It went across every day at 315. I remember before 9 on 7, we would look up and it would be a plane. Some rich bastard who had the cake just was like, I hate the Jets so much. And I hate John is a key. Hired a plane to go every day over our practice field. I said, fire John is on Saturday means Ryan, no bullshit.

On Saturday means when you're going down 80, there's two big billboards. It said, fire John. Is it a fire? John? Is it the Jets? This is what this is us going into Saturday meetings. So you talk about just a mental grind. I can remember saying to myself, man, I just left the Pittsburgh Steelers,

a world-class championship organization. Now I'm home with the New York Jets. It was like I went from sugar to shit, and I couldn't figure it out. But I do remember as much as the media was down on Geno and down on the team and were god-awful, it was toxic, it was just all these things going on, I remember looking at Jason Babin, who was with the team at the time,

and being around Brick and being around Nick Mangold, Antonio Cremona and all these guys. It was like, listen, we've all played enough football collectively to know now we're going to have to wield some wins, right? We're going to have to do enough to just – we don't have enough talent, but what we have, we're going to have to fight like dogs. And it brought us closer, especially the older guys, because we were a little long in the tooth, and we already kind of – some guys already, like myself, saw the light coming at the end of the tunnel.

So it forced us to just be more detailed, play better, and also show the younger guys, like that young D-line that I just mentioned. Like, bro, every day increases a blessing. And we want to show you how to grind it out and how to just be better on Sunday and prepare and fight. And so those guys were able to suck up some of that energy. But talent-wise, we just didn't have enough. But I thought we were scrappy, we were gritty. But the overall, Rex and Izzik, they were feuding. And it was just a meltdown from there.

What is it like then? I mean, you know, has Rex ever talking about it with you? Is the GM ever bringing it up? Like, I can't imagine they would want to waste their time addressing billboards. I mean, how could you not? You know what I mean? Like, how do you look up in the sky that says, fire your GM or fire Rex? You know, it was

a lot, and Rex addressed it as, it's us against the world. And I tell you every Saturday, I mean, Ryan, this dude, bro, I wish I,

I don't have anything around, but every Saturday, no matter where we were at in the season, when we, when we on a three game losing streak, whatever this dude gave an Oscar Oscar performance on trying to get us up for a game. He would have you so jacked up and fired up you would you would you would burn your own you would burn your own high school and plant a flag like he just

had you fired up and then we would go out there and they shook the bed on sunday but he he was consistent saturday he was he was he was consistently just great as this a motivational he would cry he would throw things he'd be pounding the table and we i'll be back in the room shaking like i can shake everybody in here he had a soul he had me so he had a soul bloodlust um that was one of my biggest regrets that i didn't i didn't we didn't match his we didn't match rex energy on saturday and and translated to sunday because he had you mentally there, spiritually had you there. And we just couldn't

bring home the W's, man. But this dude, I love Rex so much. And I would even, sometimes during the week, man, it would be, we have a steam room. I'm letting you really behind the curtain. We have a steam room, man. And I was an old dog so I'll be last out

getting treatment and cold up and all that stuff and Rex would be in there in his goddamn towel you know balls just dripping hanging down

from underneath that towel and at the time I a defensive coach defensive coordinator was Dennis Thurman who's now in Jackson State

with Dion and I would go in there because I was kind of the OG of the locker room. They would allow me in there with them. And we would talk old school football in his days when he was a young head. And we would just talk about the glory days with the Ravens. And this dude would have me fired up in the steam room.

It's already hot. You know, it's already, we're already sweating balls. You know, we're just, and he would have, and he would just, but you could tell he genuinely loved his players. He genuinely loved everybody that he coached with, and he was 100% ready for battle at all times. The biggest issue with Rex was, and particularly that year, he was too loyal. He was too loyal that it led him to his death. There should have been people that should have been fired.

There should have been things that should have happened more that kind of turned the trajectory of that team. When you're down, when he calls you family, he means that, man. He's the most loyal human being I've ever met in my life. So, yeah. Wow. I didn't expect a five or six minute advertisement for

Rex Ryan, but it sounds like if he gets a gig again, now a fan base will be excited about it after that Willie Colon endorsement. All right, let's stay on the Jets. This version of it. Anything with this team? The record is good. I think

the defense is good. You do postgame for them. You still care about this team. You understand it as well as anybody. Who are they? They're in that kind of limbo where they're struggling with the development of Zach Wilson and also how much the time is now, right? Because here they're sitting at five and three. I thought yesterday Zach had a bad day, right? I think he regressed a little bit. But I also think it goes to that situation where they were only down nine points and you had a chance to beat the New England Patriots.

Why wouldn't you throw in Mike White to start the fourth quarter? Somebody who traditionally can give you a spark. You come back out of that game, you still can start Zach Wilson against Buffalo. Nobody was asking for that. So I think they're in a transition period like, all right, how long do we ride with Zach? Because we're not getting that second-year wow out of him.

He had that big wow moment in Pittsburgh on the road when he went five for five in the fourth quarter, had that big throw to Corey Davis, and they were able to get out of Pittsburgh with a dub. But on top of that, you got your defense who's fighting their tail off, keeping you in that game. The offense has enough pieces, but it comes down to Zach making the right decisions with the football.

So right now, they're a team who's very talented. Credit Joe Douglas. He's been able to add some quality depth. They've had some significant injuries with Elijah Veritaker, Brees Hall. And then the secondary, I mean, DJ Reed and Sauce Gardner, they're legit. And the defense line led by Quentin Williams is a monster. So they have enough pieces. The talent is there.

The depth is there. I like Robert Sala. But they're in that point. They're in the fork in the road. How much do we hang on with Zach Wilson and try to trust that he's going to mature and maturate in the right period? Or do we say, all right, you're not ready yet. Let's start winning games. Let's not blow

this momentum that we've been able to accumulate. And I think that's where Sal is at right now. And it's tough for him because he doesn't want to give up on Zach Wilson. I don't think the team wants to give up on Zach Wilson, but they're hot and you can't lose that fire. The Jets haven't been here forever. You know what I mean?

They were only 13 against the Pats going into yesterday's game. So you know what I mean? So they only 13 against the Pats going into yesterday's game. So, you know what I mean? So, they can't waste it. And they got Buffalo next week. They're going to buy. They turn around and get the Pats again. So, they got to figure it out.

Okay, you brought up, you know, pushing Zach out and bringing Mike White in. Honestly, I thought after the Pats were so bad against the Bears, I think you could argue that's the worst single loss of the season of the NFL. Not that I think the Pats – look, I don't think the Pats are great, but statistically going into that game, they're a little bit better than people realized. Then you have the quarterback part of it. So I felt like them coming off of – because the Bears, I don't think are that good.

And then the Bears put it on you like that. And you're at home. Yeah. And it's a prime time game. So it had – there's a lot of things i'd have to go through every single week again to be like is there a worse loss where you're like what the fuck happened there maybe kansas city losing to the colts just because of what you think of kansas city and certainly i think more of them than new england but having

that happen and then the jets coming in this felt like a classic like new england isn't this bad and maybe the jets part of this feels a little fluky. But when you bench a quarterback, because it happened with New England, I agree with like, I don't like the idea that, oh, if you bench your young quarterback, and then you can't ever go back to him. And I think it's such bullshit. It's such bullshit. Like if a guy is that soft mentally, then it's never going to work out for him anyway then so you're already wasting your time but i think people would still be really surprised

for you to say that so what what is that like what is it like do the rest of you even care when it happens i mean i'm sure you talk about it but do you care well for me it's it's hard to win one game in the nfl right and so you're looking at the new england patriots at the time they kicked they kicked five field goals so it wasn't like it was like like they were just bombing up the field and they were running through it wasn't like that at all they kicked they they pretty much played all right we're gonna play tough defense and when we get down there we're gonna hit a field goal nick folk won in the game our special the jet special teams was god awful yesterday offensively they just when they when they come out in the second half, Zach was starting

to get his wind a little bit. He just went awry yesterday. When you listen back to his presser, he pretty much said, I kind of got bored out there. It started to become the same thing. That's what Belichick does. He takes away the best thing you do, and he forces you to beat him somewhere else. The best thing

to just do is run the ball. He loaded the box. Yet, the checkdowns were there. The little dinks and dunks were there. But Zach didn't have enough patience within the game to play the game. So he just went awry. And the game got away from him. So that's the maturation the Jets need. To understand it's not about you at the moment.

It's not about how you're bored about having constant three and outs. It's about, all right, if the New England Patriots score three, let's get down and get – if we don't get six, let's get three out of it. At least let's play behind that defense. So it's, it's a situation where Mike White, I felt if he would have started that fourth quarter, he would have been a spark. He would have known, he would know to go with the football. He's mobile enough. If you blitz him, he can get out of there. And we had enough pieces out there with Garrett Wilson, Conklin, for Christ's sake, Elijah Moore. All our dogs was out there. It

was just a matter of Zach being better with the football and he wasn't. Let's stay then with a former Jets quarterback. Geno Smith in the Seattle offense has lightened it up. They didn't have to light it up against the Giants yesterday, but they moved the ball late to close that one out at home. The offensive

numbers are incredible. Geno's been around a long time. You spent three years with him. Are you surprised that he's this quarterback at this point of his career? No, man. I think you can attest to this. I think people forget how nasty Geno was in West Virginia. I think that people forget

that he holds records. The issue was I've always said, when I got to the Jets and Mark Sanchez was still there, and Mark, I thought was great. I thought he would, you know, me to try to make it was a competition battle. It was never a competition battle. Mark was winning the battle.

But Gina wasn't playing bad. We go to the Snoopy Bowl. The Snoopy Bowl is the Jets versus the Giants for some little copper-ass looking Snoopy Bowl, right? Snoopy, statue, whatever. They like to make a big deal about it. Both teams really don't care about it, but whatever. Ranks at the time cared about it.

Mark Sanchez is on the sideline with me, Ryan. We'll talk. We're on the sideline. This game is about Geno. How good is he going to look? They just want to kind of see a whole, they just want to get enough on film to kind of give a fair evaluation.

Boom. I'm on the sideline. Starters are out. I got my, you know, I'm popping my sunflower seeds, got my straps up, looking like a goddamn stud. Mark's sitting next to me.

And we're literally talking about going to dinner and hitting the clubs right after this game. Rex comes down, flying down the sideline and goes, hey, man, I think I want to get you out there just for a series. Just kind of, you know, we just want to get out there. So Mark's like, oh, OK, what's going on? He's like, man, let's just get you out there. Just go on. I'll sit you back down.

So Mark's a rider. Boom. Let's just get you out there. Just score one. I'll sit you back down. So Mark's a rider. Boom. Mark, mind you, if Mark was starting, it would have took him an hour or so to warm up that shoulder or just to get himself together.

He was as cold as ice sitting next to me talking about anything underneath the sun. He goes. He gets warmed up. Throws one, two, three passes. Goes out on the field. I think the first play was incomplete. I forgot what the second play was. But the third one was a boot rollout drill just drill right shoulder blown done and i remember saying to myself like it goes to season like that was

we just blew our season watching for the Snoopy Bowl. Like Mark, Mark was playing his ass off at camp. We all loved him. And it was like, what the hell just happened? And so Mark eventually goes on IR. This is,

this is Gino's rookie year. So this is 13? Is this 2000? 13. Yep. Okay. So Mark gets hurt. And then Go obviously is the next guy up. And I can remember going to our first game is against Tampa, and Darrell Revis is on Tampa now, right?

And so me, Nick, and Brick, because we're veteran guys, we went into the mindset, all right, we got the young kid behind us. Get him comfortable as quick as we can, right? Like, because for him, it's one thing to play in the NFL on your first game, but this dude, Gino, you know, he had signed with Roc Nation. He came out to the Jay-Z song. So it was like, there's certain things to us when you come out that you're letting the world know I'm that guy.

I'm him. You're looking for me. Right. So when he came out to the Jay-Z, I forgot, I think it was 99. He got 99 problems or something. Rock boys is one of them. Whatever he came out to the crowd went crazy. And then the genome comes out to smoke. And I'm just like the back of my head is like, I don't know if I would have had the balls to come out to that song. You know what I mean? Like this, I don't know if I would have had the balls to come out to that song. You know what I mean? Like this,

I don't know if I would have had the balls on my first NFL game. I'm a New York jet to come out to that. But if you feel like you hit, then be here. Right. That's just be that guy. If you feel like you, that guy be that guy.

I don't know if I would have, I would have came out to something generic, like, you know, Bruce Springsteen, even though I'm black for probably no one Bruce, I would have came out to something super generic. It's so fast. So fast forward, man, Geno plays well.

But I know as a mindset, once again, for the offensive line, we want to get him comfortable. We want to get his feet calm. We want to make the right throws. And we ended up winning that game. Close game, right? It was a close game. It was a hit out of bounds that kind of sprawled it.

A hit out of bounds on Geno that got us like a 15-yarder. We kicked the field goal. We beat Tampa at the end of that game. But to say all that, man, I knew with everything that happened this year and a lot of the woes, even to the second year, Geno just wasn't ready. He just wasn't ready for that stage because he wanted it. He's a fighter, but he's also used to being a winner. Right.

And so when you play in New York, you got to deal with this, the constant scrutiny of the media, you're dealing with a team that we, you know, we just didn't have enough pieces to surround him to kind of make him that guy. And on top of that,

you know, you gotta, you also gotta, you gotta deliver. And I think he just needed some time to watch the game, be around the game, or have somebody older in front of him to kind of show him the ropes. And that's how it went down.

Yeah, because Geno, I never know what's fair or what isn't. I've seen arguments that it sucks that it took this long for someone to realize that he's this guy and he's 32 years old yeah you know he came out of west virginia you're right he lit it up but it was weird because there was always you know there's always the part of the draft process that people get really upset about we start digging into the personalities but i'm like we can pretend they're kids but these are technically young adults that are going to have super important jobs here where millions of people care about the outcome.

So you hear that Baker Mayfield is tough to get along with, or you hear this about, you know, like the Gino stuff. I remember people were like, oh, you know, I don't know. You know, he's 39th overall coming out. So then did it linger into the NFL part of it? He loses the job with the Jets. The Giants situation probably wasn't the greatest for him. He started one game, but it was the whole Eli part of it. He loses the job with the Jets. The Giants situation probably wasn't the greatest for him. He started one game, but it was the whole Eli part of it.

We had Eklor on from the Chargers and I asked him, I'm like, are you surprised by this? He is lighting it up. It sounds like from a talent standpoint, you're not surprised whatsoever. It's just I don't know what's fair. If it's a career that was railroaded and was unfair to him,

or if it's like, Hey, he actually just kind of got a shot here at 32 and he lost his jobs, the other spots. Cause he wasn't good enough, which for me, I don't think it was fair to him. And then for Christ's sakes,

you know, I hate bringing this up, but you know, he gets, he gets cracked in the mouth, you know, his last year with the jets by IK and Pollock, you know what I mean?

So, okay. So let me, let me jump in there. Were, were you then no i was still there i was still there okay gino gets shit on because of that like it's almost like it's a negative thing that's hung with him like if like a quarterback is untouchable if somebody punches a quarterback that means nobody really likes him you were there there, like you just said. Why is it unfair? What have we all gotten wrong

about the Geno part with that punch? Just tell us a story. I shouldn't even ask a question. Just tell us a story. I hate telling a story because the guy is doing extremely well and I want to bury it for him because in the New York media, they love bringing it up when he comes a lot. Some things I just want to die, I want that to die for him.

But if there was a story, if there was something to be said about it is that you got to be careful who you talk to. you got to be careful who you talk to. Not everybody is, I guess, my point is, just because you're a quarterback doesn't make you bulletproof within the core of the locker room. You're bulletproof on the practice field. You're bulletproof in any other facet of the facility. But when everybody's taking showers and in their underwear, moving around as grown men, as all

alpha males, you're just another man. And Gino got it fucked up. And so, when you get another grown man's face and you use words and you have a demeanor as in, like, do something about it, you're going to get the reaction he got. Okay. And I think if

I'm reading that right, you're also saying here, because you like gino you i know it's it's very clear that you like gino and that you can do something you can it can play out wrong you can make a mistake but it doesn't mean that you're necessarily a bad guy and i think that's what that story turned into and then it turned into okay why is this why is he not getting another chance i look i'll admit at 32 i'm really surprised that he's leading one of the best offenses in the NFL. I always felt like when I'd watch him,

the more comfortable he got, sometimes it became more dangerous. I don't know if you would agree or not with that. Some of the games were like, oh, here we go, here we go. I was like, now he's really feeling himself? And I'd be like, uh-oh. Which is, you know, usually you want that, but sometimes you don't.

But look, he should be feeling himself right now. And I guess I'm just constantly fascinated with what the mystery is here because this doesn't really happen. It doesn't happen. And, you know, this is a Seattle team that people were talking about tanking. Right? They were talking about. Yeah.

Talk about Drew Locke. They talk about Drew Locke. You know, so there was so many question marks about this team. And then like, you don't even pay them attention. And they like, oh, they're first in the division. Led by Geno Smith. And he's like, all right, let me tune in now. You know what I mean?

So I don't think anybody's reaction to the Seattle Seahawks is, is different or should be, you know, or it should be shocking. I think it's just a matter of where do they end up? You know, how high, you know, how is this a Jeremy Lin type high on the hog situation? Or is this a situation where like, no, Gino has arrived. The Seahawks are okay. We're going to do this more often, Willie. You're the best, bro.

Hey, promote the radio show. Give me the time. And then obviously the postgame stuff with the Jets. Yeah, you can check me out on Morning Man on Sirius XM Radio, Channel 82. Me, Evan Cohen, Mike Babchek from 6 to 9 a.m. Friday. Once again, Channel 82, Mad Dog Sports. I'll be there.

Also, if you're regional, you can follow me on Jets pre and post on SMY TV, Willie Cologne 66 is my social media handle. I'll be there talking everything business, baby. Sports. Is your only fan still up? How's that going?

Do you have the tag? They blocked me once I started shaving my tank. A lot of nether region references today in the pod. Thanks, man. We'll talk soon. Love you, brother.

Be safe. I'm not doing college football this week because there's two games that I taped that I want to go back and watch before I do the top 12 because my top 12 is so important. It isn't that important. I don't know. I just had a hard time with it as we'll get through it. So we're going to do a little bonus reaction,

a little travelogue from Mexico City, four days here, including the F1 Grand Prix. let's do some quick facts on Mexico City 7,349 feet above sea level wasn't an issue largest city in North America 9 million people in greater Mexico City we're talking 21.8 million people and walking around for a couple days

those numbers check out it's called an alpha city not sure what that means but I like it. It was originally a group of islands on a lake called Texaco. Not sure on the pronunciation. The Aztecs established the area 1325. Again, some of these numbers, you never know,

depending on which book you've read, which article you're reading. Then the Spanish rebuilt it in the 1500s. A lot of revolutionary stuff going on here, as we will talk a little bit later on after one of the castle visits here. So basically, this is built all up on a lake. So when you come here, you're like, where's the water? And you're like, you're on top of it. So when you come here, you're like, where's the water? And you're like, you're on top of it.

And it's why, according to a couple different studies that I got kind of lost in a little wormhole of, is why when earthquakes happen here, it's even more dangerous because it's built on all this lake sediment. So they just started filling it in, filling it in. Actually, Boston has something very similar. Although when you think Boston, you probably don't think Mexico City all that much. So it just kind of is, and it keeps going, and it keeps going forever. It is massive here. There are people everywhere. And like I said, those population numbers, check out.

If I were short and it bothered me, I wouldn't rule out moving here. I'll tell you a couple times walking around. I mean, I'm not the biggest guy, but I was like, what's going on? I was like, I feel fucking enormous. The biggest person in the city, though, that's Checo, Sergio Perez, Red Bull driver. I've never seen an athlete dominate one city

with signage the way, maybe it's recency bias. Maybe Jordan and Chicago had it like this. I don't know. I started trying to count them all. Every endorsement that Checo had, I lost track. I gave up. I didn't care anymore. It was so funny. And I was bringing it up with some of the other people and they were like, he is fucking everywhere. Everywhere. On everything. On like calling card signs and whatever kind of drink there is. I don't even know what half the stuff he's endorsing is, but that guy's got a nice little

smile going on. His off-the-track revenue must be absurd. I am on the avenue of reform, I believe. I'm right here in town. I'm right next to the U.S. Embassy. The television situation I knew was going to be a bit of a challenge. That's why I usually don't travel out of the country because of all the sports that I have to watch. So it was a little tough to figure out. On Thursday night football, Baltimore-Tampa, I taped Friday morning. I was able to watch that game, but none of my apps worked. Amazon Prime wasn't going to let it happen. All the different stuff that I'd hoped to be able to watch basketball on, none of it worked. I was scrambling constantly. I hung out outside of a

Shake Shack to watch part of an NBA game. And I was like, you know what? You're probably going to be okay. The pod will survive if you don't sit here and hang out. Yes, I did have a burger. I'm sorry. Okay. So the other thing that I was trying to figure out with the TV is there was a channel. None of the channels were labeled right. And there was just a movie channel that was called Morbius. And it went on forever. All four days. If I turn it on right now, it's going to say that Morbius is playing.

And I didn't see the movie Morbius once, which is fine. I don't feel like I necessarily missed out. I just thought that was a really good tidbit. Okay, so Thursday night, watched the game, taped Friday morning, hit the gym here, dumbbells maxed out at 14 kilograms, not great. And I did a little research and decided to head to this other, I don't know if I call it a village, called Coyoacan. It was incredible. It's only like five miles away. It took us about an hour 10. The traffic here makes LA look like Vermont and Mexico city just kind of goes forever. The only thing I can compare

it to in a place that I've ever been is I think the first time I went to Houston, which was a really long time ago, the first time I went to Houston and I know it's a lot better now, but when I first, first went to Houston and our hotel sucked and we were trying to figure out like what we were doing and where we were going. And I'm like, where are we? And we're like, well, you're still in Houston. I was like, we are. I thought we left Houston, but it doesn't really feel like there's been any separation. Like now it just sprawls, man. It just kind of keeps going. And that's, I never got past any point of city. So even though I made it to this other village, there was never a point. And like, it's not even necessarily even a highway all the time. It kind of is and it kind of isn't. There's no break. There's no break from the city out. And it's not like I've, you know, canvassed the entire city in all these different directions. But in all my travels of the four days here, I never actually like made it past anything that didn't look like just another extension of the city.

made it past anything that didn't look like just another extension of the city. Why was Coyoacan a little bit different, a little bit slower? I'll admit a little timeout for the Rye guy. One of the cutest things I think I've ever seen, a bunch of Mexican elementary aged children leaving their elementary school, going to the recess part of it, all decked out in all their Halloween gear. But yeah, it was a very, very cute moment. Street tacos all over the place, ate like two different meals. It's a big foodie spot because I had a lot of people going,

oh my God, I love Mexico City, like freaking out about it. I was like, oh wow, you really like it. I think the foodie part of it, and I guess it just never really gets all that old, just stopping in a place being like, and I have three street tacos and it costs like six bucks. That part's another huge plus. It's just not that expensive here. The taxis are like, wait, how much is it? You know, the shuttle from the airport to here was $12. You know, I had dinner the other night where I just kept ordering as many tacos as I can, a couple of Topo Chico's and I think the entire thing was 18 bucks. So from that standpoint, like it's a total win. The hotels were crazy, crazy expensive because of F1. So I don't know what it's like when it's not F1 and Halloween in Mexico City all wrapped into one. So then we did the Houston comp there,

Street Tacos for Life, Cute Alert. The Halloween prep is very serious here. They take it very seriously. Orange flowers everywhere. All sorts of stuff just everywhere. Everybody's decked out in it and everybody's got face paint on. I've never seen anyone take it as serious as Mexico City. A little something about me.

I don't really like face paint on women. I felt this way a long time. Halloween parties in college, I'd be like, what is going on? I don't know why I feel that way, but I'm just admitting it to you because it all came full circle again this weekend. I'm like, what?

You couldn't just get a sword and a roughly shirt or something? Anyway, go to bed Friday, pretty uneventful Saturday, get up. And then the college football part of this, I'm like, all right, I don't know. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to figure this all out because when I started the day, they, they weren't on and I had to get the F1 passes and I didn't really know what the atmosphere was going to be for me, what I was going to be allowed to do. So I decided to go over to the track, grab the passes, and it was incredible. Like, thank you so much to F1 for what they did because they gave me the paddock club stuff so I could kind of walk in through the back. where you see pit lane, where the garage is, and then there's a door out of the back of the garage.

And then if you have these passes, you can walk between the back of the garage, certainly not on the track side, but you could do that on Sunday. And then they'd have their own little trailer camp. We shouldn't even call it a trailer. It was almost like their own apartment that was set up by team. And it was funny too,

because you could see by team, like, oh, the Ferrari lounge looks pretty cool, like Red Bull, Mercedes. And then just as you would imagine, depending on the team and how successful they've been, would almost be like a direct correlation to how cool the people looked. Like I'll admit, there was like one Williams guy walking by in a dress shirt where I went, yeah, that shirt doesn't really fit that guy. And's kind of what i thought no offense uh to williams or anything else going on it also made me think about how much better international things just appear to be like i'm trying to explain what f1 is to you know and i'm a newbie like so many

other people are to this so i'm not going to pretend but now that i've been to it and see what a spectacle it is and i'll get to race day two here very shortly, but it's like the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl went somewhere that was awesome in the world every week. I know that doesn't make a ton of sense because the Super Bowl, the outcome wouldn't be as important if you played it every single week, but that's kind of what it's like. Kevin Clark, who's liked it a lot longer than I have, had this amazing line when he was talking about f1 where he basically said like the people are beautiful and the people like where

they race are from the most beautiful places on earth imagine if like rusty wallace wasn't born in arnold missouri packing dips and instead was from stod or was from like majorca and knew how to grill octopus that's that's kind of what it is. So it's racing, but it's the most elegant version ever. And there's something else again, but it's not just European. And I know we can kind of get into the ugly American stereotype of it all, but it's just not uptight. Like I've been to a lot of stuff.

And when you're here in the States and it's something that's kind of going on, like I've been to NBA finals where I was on the court doing pre and post for the fucking network that was broadcasting it. Okay. A bunch of years at ESPN and you know, guys harassing you to get out of there. And you're like, no, I have a pass. My pass allows me to be here. It's the pregame. It's like, well, we don't care. Like get out. You and you're like no i have a pass my pass allows me to be here it's the pre game it's like yeah we don't care like get out you're like all right and then you go to something like f1 and you kind of can't believe you're allowed to go where you are but you are i guess i was standing by the red bull thing talking to somebody like verstappen he had a sprint by because he knew if you wasted time because you could actually just kind of go up to them if you have these paddock passes isn't say like hey how's it going? Like, somebody stopped Christian Horner and got a picture with him. So there's just something less uptight when it's international, when it's European, and there's more of a freedom to it. And guess what?

The event still seems to work out somehow. Just an observation. Not sure if it's totally true. It just feels different. It's just another level. Okay. Saturday after going to the qualifying stuff, I make it over to Chapultepec, the castle that's right here in the city. Shout out to Denver as well.

They have like their Central Park comp over here. There's Museum of History. It was a little tough for me. Don't speak Spanish. Could make my way through maybe a couple paragraphs, pieces together, which means I'm definitely lying to myself that I think I know what it said. I don't. Hung out at the castle for about an hour.

Cool. Took pictures. Sentiment of family members. They seemed excited about it. Hey, it's a castle. You got to check it out. A lot of stuff on the timeline there that I'm not going to share with you. Just look it up if you want to because I'm like, wait, so who was in charge again and what was going on

with these people and Maximilian? Who was in charge again? A lot of turnover. A lot of turnover. It's like Browns quarterbacks. So, as I'm working my way back from the castle, I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to walk back to my hotel. This is super easy.

It's only like a mile and a half away. I'll walk. Workouts have been great. And also, just as a side note, I need to do some more research on these dons that I was checking out. A lot of dons, a lot of their pictures in the castle. So I walk back and I'm on the wrong side

from my hotel. And I'm thinking, well, okay, you know, this can't be that bad. No, it was that bad. I couldn't get across because they'd shut down the entire Reform Avenue or whatever it's called

for this massive parade, Parade of the Dead. I'm trying to figure this out. Like, I'm thinking about Dr. No and Junkanoo. And I was like, those guys just started shooting at each other.

Nobody really paid attention. Like, I could probably cross the street. So I'm trying to, like, knife through people and it's not working at all because then they had security fences up. And then even if I jumped it and ran across, which I probably could have, then to get over the fence on the other side and then land without trampling old people or kids that were right up against the fence, because it was probably like five to 10 people deep in those

spots and none of them were moving. They were just positioned there to watch the parade the whole time. I was like, I don't really know if I can box my way out. So like, could I have? Yes. I didn't want to. So I was like, can I find any spot? I asked a couple people, not a ton of help there. So I stopped and got something to eat. and I'm going to tell you right now, if the place's specialty is queso pizza with rock and roll violin, pass. Huge mistake. Huge mistake, because I was like, maybe I'll try something a little different. Maybe I'll get a little pizza. As soon as I took a bite, I go, something's up here, and then I look back at the menu. I'm like, why the fuck, instead of tomato sauce, would they go queso, queso mozzarella, and then normal mozzarella, and then your pizza toppings.

So the texture of it was all off. You didn't have the salty, or I should say the acid of a sauce to counterbalance every other taste that we're all pretty accustomed to here with pizza. I know some of you are adventurous and thinking, oh, that's amazing. No, it wasn't. While the guy is banging out electric violin Game of Thrones theme song. I have video. Now I'm stuck on the wrong side of the street. I can't get back to my hotel room.

I'm desperately trying to figure out what's going on in the college football games. None of the fucking TVs work. They weren't even playing soccer in this pizza place, rock and roll violin restaurant. They were playing videos of guys on scooters just killing on a vert ramps. Anyway, do not recommend that place. Parade ends, make it across, boom.

The only football game that was on, Coastal Carolina Marshall. Sweet. Try to go to the rooftop bar because Coastal Carolina and Marshall are playing. I go to the rooftop bar. I'm quickly thrown out. Why was I thrown out? I went in. It's pretty nice up there, 38th floor. And a guy came up to me and said, who are you? I said, I'm Ryan. And he goes, are you a guest? And I said, well, yeah, I'm a guest. I'm staying at the hotel. He's like, who do you know? I was like, I don't know really anybody. I'm here by myself. Maybe there's an F1 contact I have. What's the shakedown for? He's like, are you a guest? I'm

like, yeah, man, I'm a guest. I was like, do you need a room key? He's like, no, no, this is a private party. Are you a guest of anyone here? I was like, no. Oh a room key? He's like, no, no, this is a private party. Are you a guest of anyone here? I was like, no. Oh my gosh. What the language barrier. Like this could have been a real international conflict and it was a language barrier. Yes. I'm a guest of the hotel.

I'm not a guest. I didn't know it was a private party. It's a bunch of guys dressed up in Red Bull shirts that are all short. So I didn't know what the fuck was going on. And the guy's like, yeah, no problem. We'll see you tomorrow. I was like, yeah. Okay. Very, very problem we'll see you tomorrow I was like yeah okay very civil very civil it wasn't like a

rude throwing it was just I didn't understand why they kept asking me if I was a guest when I said it yeah what are you talking about I'll show you guys my itinerary when I check out of here alright so rock and roll violin out hotel rooftop bar didn't work out

queso pizza out Sunday gridwalk let's do it folks, show up to the Grand Prix over 400,000 people 400,000 people in attendance for this race day

paddock club pass and then as you go down the entire pit row of Red Bull Haas Mercedes whatever we all know the teams by now Alpine and then F1 has its own thing at the end of pit row

where we were right next to the Haas so we could see all the cars coming out formation lap get under the grid and then shout out to brandon snow who brought me out to the grid so the grid walk where you're seeing the guys interview where they thought paulo bancaro was patrick mahomes and brad pitt ignored everybody and whatever marty brundles over there interviewing people he walked me out to that you're standing right next to the cars we're minutes from the start of the race, and they bring it out.

The biggest observation is how pristine everything is. Everything is so clean. The track is spotless. And this is a racetrack, right? It's race cars. You'd expect a little grime. There is none. There's nothing wrong.

There's nothing on any of the cars, the tires, the rims, the downforce wings. Everything is immaculate. Even the fumes smell higher end, if that makes any sense.

So, gridwalk, and guess what else they do? They get you out of there. As soon as it's done, hey, they're so on top of it. They get you out of there as soon as it's done hey they're so on top of it they get you out of there the race starts you see it from our angle we waited to see some pit stops to see how that kind of would play out there's another spot where you can see that's massive turns

kind of the back leg of the lap until they bring it back around that straight Verstappen wins Checo places up on the podium over 400,000 people. One of the most impressive things that I've ever seen. Last tidbits here.

Daylight savings. Started this week here in Mexico City. Had everybody fucked up. I wasn't sure what time it was for an entire day. Made it back to a taco place where my driver said, go there. Those tacos are next to the U.S. Embassy.

They're not as spicy for you American people. I took no offense. And by the way, once again, the tacos are amazing. Mexico City, summary. Good.

Probably not going to be on the return list for you guys though. The no water thing's a non-starter. We've over that with me i need kind of the water nature element at some point uh the traffic is brutal but i would say this about the people big big hearts uh every single person that i spent any time talking with here that was local. The passion they have from where they're from, the hospitality that they want to show you, the interest they show in you.

It's really remarkable. There's a warmth to these people. There's, I don't know, man, there's an at peace. It's very different from some of the other places that I've traveled and why I know,'t know, man. There's an app, Peace. It's very different from some of the other places that I've traveled. And why I know, you know, look, I've been to other spots in Mexico, but I was just in it, in it here. So, yeah, food, great. People, great.

Location, meh. People, 11 out of 10. Location, we'll go 11 out of 10. Location, we'll go 6 out of 10. Mexico City. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Your life advice email is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com.

What's up Kyle has Rudy made the announcement yet I think everybody's kind of aware he's not going to be with us for a little while right he did Bill made the announcement at the end of his podcast yesterday so I was like boy I hope he did and then I looked at Instagram and it turns out he did I can say it too

congratulations to Steve and Maddie Saruti on their beautiful baby girl they had it I don't know Saruti on their beautiful baby girl. They had it. I don't know. Saruti was hitting us up from, from the facility. What?

Friday night last week. So we knew Friday. No, no, no. It was earlier than that. It was Thursday night. We woke up on like,

basically I, I woke up at like two in the morning and just, he was like, Hey, just so you guys know, wheels are in motion. I don't think I'll see you tomorrow. So that's right.

Yeah. Yeah. So the other guy's going to be off for a little bit. So, you know, we'll have a plan here. But we're in good hands. We're in good hands. All right, you ready? Let's get to it.

It's a good one for Kyle. Real good one. Hey, guys. 6'3", 38, dunked at 35, busted ankle, goal to jam again by 40. Should be able to do it. Most notable personal accomplishment is adding dame time to basketball reference nicknames after the Nuggets playoff game. Amicably divorced a while ago, kids off the table until she turned 27.

Learned lesson that 20s women may change their mind on that topic, so go to vasectomy to ensure any future partner knows I'm serious. Oh. Okay. Alright. This guy's very serious about not having kids. Moved to a small mountain town. Escalating career, but rent a room in the house.

Six figures, but literally can't afford a house condo of my own. Notable only for the question. Yeah, I mean, look, if you want to look at real estate explosion kyle knows this mountain towns it's out of control right you know what's up north conway you looked at zillow there you bother anymore so he's making six figures but he can't afford a house in these mountain towns.

It's almost doubled, if not tripled in price in some places. Sure. That actually, that checks out. So he says he usually dates younger women. I always get carded for my Zen purchases, young face,

post-divorce at 32. I'd count three. I love you. Six months plus relationship with 27, 29, 25 year olds. This guy's got a real specific way he words. He's got his numbers down too, yeah.

Yeah, the way he words shit. He's throwing a lot of numbers at me. Yeah. So he's basically saying he's had three relationships in the last six years that qualified as I love you that went over six months, but the women were 27, 29, 25. All right.

So he went to a Halloween party this week, hit it off with a well-known in town, extremely successful, recently single woman. She was clearly interested, but kept saying, you're too young for me. You should date my daughters. I asked, how old do you think I am? 29 is her answer. I asked her her age. Thinking late 40s, maybe.

She says 60. She's well-known, but you had no idea you were 20 years off? 6-0, bro. 60. That would mess with his average stats. that would skew the average so he goes six to midnight what time did he send this now it's in the morning guys i can always tell as kyle can tell too like some of the emails i'll be like what the fuck and they're like what time did this guy send this he'll be like oh 3 55 a.m like all right this checks out and sometimes we'll get the follow-up like hey could you not read that one

like yeah man well we got you covered here all right so he goes uh 6 to midnight whatever uh might have been the cocktails in her halloween costume but she's a rocket ship that's your costume no i'm kidding no no but like i said the way the sixth of midnight to express like how late it is got the number texted her a selfie of us as a gentleman does she responds with the heart button nothing else 18 hours later i can't stop thinking about her sir rudy kyle and Ryan, should I continue to pursue my new crush? Any chance this works out long-term? He then attached a photo.

He is a young-looking 38, extremely young. This is a tough picture of her because it's blurry, and he's not, which is really weird. She looks pretty good, but she also looks 60 Kyle

Ransom motherfucker it is I say do this man I don't know what we're even I mean I'd say here's what I'd say I'd say maybe like a nice early bird blue plate special date just just see how just give it one more look before

you before you are not sure anymore what you want to do so a non-lake like hammered Halloween party assessment is what you're saying four o'clock yeah exactly I think him saying that he only can afford a bedroom to rent is him saying that what if i date her and it sort of works out and then i've got like a much better situation because my first thought would be okay clearly i could tell from the picture side the well-known thing makes me wonder like okay what's the deal is she an actress former

actress or she you know the ex somebody else something what's going on i think this is i think this is another level beyond antique shop uh but it's it he's already he's shared with us the out loud thought um that maybe somebody else would you know that wouldn't make it the out loud thought is he's thinking what if we hit it off and i have a much better living situation so when he said i can't stop thinking about her he meant to say i can't stop thinking about her having a separate bedroom in this house that i really wanted like is that what he means? I can't imagine. I can't stop thinking about

not sharing a bathroom with four other people. That's right. Because why wouldn't he just say, all right, I want to date one of your daughters. If the daughters look remotely as good as she does at 60,

and again, a blurry picture, which sucks for the listeners because I'm not going to just post it. But, you know, I think you trust your guy here. She looks good. She also looks 60. it's a no for me she did have a party fedora on though so it makes you think you know i i say i say go get a senior coffee with her and just look at her one more time so what it's like it's mcdonald's you know 65 cents senior coffee with her and just look at her one more time.

What? It's like a McDonald's, you know, 65 cent senior coffee. I'm just, it was just a joke, an old person joke. No, no, but it's a funny joke. It's such a funny joke that I want to make sure that I, I heard it correctly. Get a senior coffee with her at McDonald's because they're cheaper. Just lay eyes on her one more time. And then, you know, cause I think maybe, maybe it's his problem is, uh, maybe the picture's too blurry and he's like, you know, because I think maybe his problem is maybe the picture's too blurry. And he's like, you know, you remember these things a little bit nicer than they were when we're talking about midnight.

So I think maybe just see if she'll, she might not even, she might make this real easy on you. And she might not even ever agree to see you again. Be like, this guy's crazy. So this might even be a non-factor anyway but i'd say just uh look at her one more time and then then you'll know then you'll know what you want to do great call kyle absolutely what we need to do but there's a really good chance too like she's if she was at a party with you guys not to get you jealous here she's already gone through this so many different times in her life younger guy like oh my god oh my god you know whatever so she she might just be

like oh here's another one like these younger guys just love me my personality and that whatever the rest of her deal is uh that she's doing the. I think the heart emoji gets thrown around in a way that's not real telling. It's almost like an LOL of emotion. Pretty ambiguous. Yeah, yeah. So I think Kyle said it best. Just check in one more time, kind of see where you're at, and we'll leave it from there.

Okay, Youth Umpire chiming in here. Big fan of the pod. Just finished our first Civil War. Can definitely see why Benedict Arnold turned. Yeah, not a popular thing to say, but after you read about old Ben, you're like, kind of a bullshit move, man. But can certainly see the groundwork

leading to your decision. All right, guys, 26, 6'1", 175. Don't do much of the big three lifts, but remain highly active through fitness and what is this? The H-I-I-T in pickup sports. Is it called HIIT? I think it is.

I don't know. More stubborn fat than skinny fat. I'm an umpire in a large city in Texas and have been for the last year or so. I play college baseball, currently play recreational, love staying around the game. Standing is also accurate. I'm new. I'm not new. I'm not new

to umpiring. I spent many summers in my teens in college when I could umpiring baseball and basketball. Sneakily the hardest sport to officiate. Basketball, I agree. I know sports in the South are generally more intense, but I umpiring baseball and basketball sneakily the hardest sport to officiate basketball i agree i know sports in the south are generally more intense but i found the parents to be mostly agreeable i think that's where this was going or at least not unreasonably different than parents in the sleepy midwestern town i previously worked the problem isn't with the parents or even the

kids though the risk of being the guy yelling at clouds people really shouldn't pimp anything of anything other that isn't a no doubter always talking about kids pimping yeah i i don't think that i think some of these guys you know i can single to right bat flip i don't need that the problem is with the umpiring association and specifically my commissioner let's call him rad i have the unfortunate look of being both relatively young and experienced making me a perfect person to mentor a younger dude it's mostly 16 to 20 my commissioner. Let's call him rad. I have the unfortunate look of being both relatively young and experienced, making me a perfect person to mentor a younger dude. It's mostly 16 to 20-year-olds just trying to make enough money to buy disposable vapes or some shit. These kids blow. I'm fine with

them being bad. Missing calls is part of the game, and this job is hard. I was new once too. The thing I'm frustrated with is the indifferent, distracted attitude of nearly every younger ump I partner with. They routinely miss calls by simply not paying attention. Most recently, I peeled the first base for a check swing and the umpire panicked, dropped the phone he was texting on and said he didn't have the angle. Wait, a guy was texting on his phone while he was umping during the game? Wait, a guy was texting on his phone while he was umping during the game? I am the common denominator amidst a slew of incompetent young umps, and I feel as if parents, coaches, and even the players seem skeptical or even resentful towards me before the first pitch is even thrown.

It's a great way to make a little side hustle and most importantly, get away from my wife for a few hours. But I can't continue to be partnered with the most inexperienced umpires. I feel as if I've become inextricably linked with them in a way that my presence in the game is a sign that the game

will be officiated poorly. Despite my multiple attempts at telling Brad this arrangement is making my job really uncomfortable, he continues to set me up in the same situation. Unfortunately, this is the only

umpiring association in town, so I don't have any other local options. I mean, I can try to referee basketball or football, but there aren't as many games, and I'm not as familiar with them from an official perspective. I really don't want to drive around drunk chicks or deliver food and groceries.

Okay. I like this guy a lot. You do? I just liked what he said right there. I don't want to drive around junk chicks to deliver groceries he doesn't yeah he doesn't want to do uber postmates no he likes baseball he wants to do it i think the problem is is that you are in something this is like a guy who's playing in a pickup basketball game that is really good at pickup basketball okay and

everybody around him doesn't give a shit all right and anybody i don't care who you are like eventually you have to kind of understand your surroundings you have to go like i'm not going to get on this guy's case for not boxing out he didn't fucking know what i'm talking about or hey get back if you're the other guard and i drive stay back like it doesn't so now all of a sudden you just have to kind of change your expectations. The problem for this is that I could say, hey, do that, but it's still somewhat of a performance thing where you're umping

and when you screw it up, it's out there for everybody. I can't believe there'd be an ump texting on the phone during a game. Is this level so low that it doesn't matter? So this is never going to be solved. It's not going to be because your level of... Your standard is so far beyond the rest of the guys you're around. I think if you're that good at it, you'd have to go to Brad and say, hey, I'm done. I'm done if you keep putting me with the worst guys. I take it seriously. It doesn't work. And I'm done. It's going to have to be a threat to get your way. Because if you've asked him nicely and you haven't gotten your way, and this is going to keep driving you crazy or you could have that zen moment of absolute fuck it-ness where you go

hey I'm going to do a good job and when we blow a call I'll go to the coach and be like yeah I'm doing my best yeah and that maybe pull him aside and be like yeah he sucks and you go to a mom and say yeah the guy sucks I don't know what to tell you you're going to have to maybe just get to some level of acceptance

because right now currently on this path of what's going on you're going to have to maybe just get to some level of acceptance because right now currently on this path of what's going on you're going to drive yourself fucking crazy because you're not going to be able to fix any of these other guys it's apparent they don't care they don't care the way you care and you probably have to have a little less care in you and I know that's I don't normally not say that very often about many things, but it's youth baseball. It's not the end of the world. And the guys are guys. I mean, I was trying to think of something else where you,

could you have something with the other umps who were like, Hey, let's all throw in like five bucks a guy. And whoever has like a clean day or whatever keeps the pot, you know, or something like that, which again, gambling with umps is a great,

great precedent to set. Or, you know, or something like that, which again, gambling with umps is a great, great precedent to set. Or, you know, is there something where each guy throws in a 20 and you're like, whoever has the worst fucking call, you know, we split up as 20 or something and everybody gets their 20 back. I mean,

I was just trying to think of anything, but I think the ultimate thing is you need to go into this with an acceptance of the standard of those around you being a lot lower because that's the only way you're going to keep sane or you just straight up go i'm quitting if you keep putting me with the worst guys and if you're this good at it they're probably not going to want to lose you um but then again don't email us back if they call your bluff and they're like all right see you dude uh yeah i, I think the threat's probably the right way to go. I was like, you know,

it sounds like he wasn't jazzed about being a mentor to shitheads. So, I mean, you know, sometimes shitheads need a mentor. Like, I don't know if he's tried just being like, hey, you're really terrible at your job, and this isn't going to, like, it seems like maybe he's been reluctant to do that. Like, because he's not an old guy, but

I used to, when I was ground school, I worked with old guys and like the first week, one of the like old guys was like, Hey, you're fucking this up real bad, dude. I'd like ran over a fence, like my first day in the truck. And I wasn't like doing so hot with the, with the weed whacking on the side. And I wasn't cleaning up the grass or whatever. And just like in a week, he was just like, you know, Hey, you're doing a real bad job at this. And I mean, I, I, I'm, you know hey you're doing a real bad job at this and i mean i i i'm

you know made it my priority to get better at it and i did but you know those were guys who you know every summer would get you know high fresh out of high school kids like college kids and like you know sometimes you just gotta think maybe especially with dudes sometimes they just they need to hear like you're really fucking this up man like this is you know i guess you can't really fire him but you'd be like this is unacceptable man are you like are you're really fucking this up, man. Like this is, you know, I guess you can't really fire him, but you'd be like, this is unacceptable, man. Are you like, are you proud of this? I wonder if he's tried that or he's just been more like shaking his head at them quietly

because sometimes all you need to hear is you're really bad at this dude. Is it too hard or what? So, you know, maybe that'll help. well um the the holding somebody else the standard of like hey do you do you want to be this bad to the other guy i know i don't know i don't i mean like it's always great in theory when you think can i could just say something this guy and will it break through? I feel like I know this group. These are kids trying to make a couple extra bucks. They don't want to do too much.

This isn't like a real nine to five. You know, like this would be the type of thing for a lot of people where it'd be the second job that they're doing. That's true. But if it's the first job for some of these younger guys that don't do anything else, that kind of tells you what your labor force is all about. So I would, I would try to call, I would, I don't know. I would, I would go to the director and be like, I'm not doing this anymore. Like put me with better rumps or I'm done. And if you're as

good as you say you are, which I'm going to go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt, because it seems like you take it so seriously, I'd imagine they're going to make it work because they're not going to want to lose you. Yeah, what's another one of these guys to throw in there in your place? Okay, female checking in here. She said she wanted to cross the gender divide.

She said she's sending other emails, but hey, they don't make the cut. They don't, you know, it's pretty, Kyle's pretty strict about it. Okay, so here's the deal. She's married to a total stud in Smoke Show and a total sweetheart. Wow, this guy sounds awesome. He's the entire package.

While he's super sweet, he also has a serious competitive side. He was a D1 athlete in lacrosse and still regularly benches an insane amount. It's not uncommon for strange women to walk up to him in bars and touch his arms. Drives me nuts, but I digress. Years ago when we were first dating, I mentioned that although he's obviously world stronger than I am, I had decent confidence I could beat him in a sprint. I've done a few half marathons in under 145 and ran track in my very small non-athletic high school and i still run regularly and significantly less muscle to carry my husband could never be called dismissive or a condescending guy but his immediate reaction when i brought this idea up was disbelief quote never not ever was essentially his assessment um fast forward to a few years, marriage, maybe later, this loving disagreement still surfaces from time to time.

So the multi-part life advice question for you and you guys is, one, do I formally challenge him to a sprint or will it just result in hurt feelings and bruised confidence on both sides? Two, if we go ahead with the friendly competition, quotes, what parameters, distance, witnesses, bragging rights, do you recommend? Three, who would you bet on? Appreciate you guys.

Ready to run. All right. Well, when you say sprints and you start throwing around half marathons, like we're talking about entirely different planets here. We're galaxies. All right. So like, was he fast? Alright, so he's strong and he has big arms,

but is he fast? What age are we talking here? Like, if you don't sprint for long, because, you know, a lot of guys after a certain age don't ever run fast ever again, rest of their life. Like, you have no idea but the last time, like, you ever ran fast, you know,

it happens sooner than you would ever think. Unless you're playing pickup hoops, unless you're playing flag football really late, maybe you're still in a softball league and you're a faster guy and you just kept it, but if you don't do any of the, hey, I'm going to run fast

on a treadmill or any of that kind of stuff and you don't do it for a long time, your body gets real cool with never having to do it again and so if he were fast but then is jacked and doesn't ever run sprints anymore and it's been years then i don't know how fast he's going to be but at the core like was he a fast lacrosse player is one of those guys just clean people out all the time all right you got a bartending gig out of the back bar. So there's that.

The second part is who's going to be more hurt by this loss? So when you say sprints, yeah, I don't know what kind of running he's doing. But when you say sprint, it makes me think. When I think fast, fast, I'm not thinking of anything longer than probably an 800. Although the 800 is maybe the worst event ever as far as like testing somebody's actual speed, but then also slash endurance. So I don't know if you're just going to smoke it in a mile. I don't know if you're trying to make it a 400. I don't know if it's a 100-yard dash or any of those things. My guess would be if he were still a really good athlete who works out all the time,

he's probably going to beat you in a 100-yard dash when you're throwing these half-marathon times at us. If you're saying, no, actually, it's not about that. I'm going to make it a longer distance, then I don't know. Maybe you'll beat him. But what I'd ask you is if everything's working out, is he going to be a weirdo if you beat him on the sprint? Will that be enough?

Or are you going to be weird if he beats you because he was so dismissive? There's somebody in the relationship that's going to bother more. And if everything's going along great, is this actually worth it? But I would need to know the distance. I don't know anything about either one of you, so I have no idea who to bet on. You seem pretty convinced. He seems pretty dismissive. We haven't heard from him.

Science would tell me I'd probably lean towards the guy that's played these sports if it's a shorter distance, but if it's a longer distance, I would probably pick you. Do people do this kind of stuff anymore? Kyle, do you sprint? Do you have any arguments with your wife about feces strength or your fiance, your future wife? Not a big one, but I can't guarantee you this if we're all hanging. Because I'll say this and then I'll say the parameters in which I would do this. If we were outside at like a party summertime or something and she's like, I'll race to that tree right now.

I'll be like, let's fucking go. And we'll see what happens. Like, don't give them enough. This is how I would do it. I'd wait till you're outside, you know, another place where it's great fun to race hotel hallway. If no one's around, obviously you get a little dangerous, but like a long hotel hallway is pretty good. I, you know, I'm, I'm worried about like busting my ankle for stuff like this.

So outside is actually a little scary for me, but you know, I'll do it. Um, but yeah, I think,, I think doing it outside, friendly sort of situation would be better other than like, alright, let's go out. We'll go out to the straight road in our neighborhood and from here to there. Just like when you're outside and you're like, hey, I'll race to that tree. That's fun. A good old

race to the tree. I've said that before. Deck to the tree. No, that is fun. I feel like doing it this week. Now you start bringing it up. The witness part too, like she's old yeah yeah no that is fun but i feel like doing it this week now now you start bringing it up the witness part too like she's taking this so seriously that the witness part could actually make it worse i know i know like if you want to think of it that way i just think it's much easier to just be like all right let's go especially if there's people around um even if you like don't want to race you kind of will do it if there's people around and somebody

just like hey come on and race to the tree especially because it's been like like this a long-running joke like i just think that would be the that'd be the best way i'd want to do it i don't know if it's actually the best way and i'm sure we could pick it apart pop poke a bunch of holes in it but i just think that would be the quickest way to get him to be like into it and then um you know the results are the results and then you'll just both have to live with them. But, you know, it's a strong marriage, it sounds like. So I think welcome this challenge. Yeah, come up with a distance that favors you. Don't bring witnesses.

You're going to know who wins. You're both going to have to accept it. I don't know if he's the type of guy that would make excuses. But yeah, I would pick a distance where you have a real chance at this unless you're just really fast. You know, I don't know. If you have a real chance at this, unless you're just really fast. I don't know. If you're really fast, then make it 100 yards. Maybe he hasn't done anything.

Maybe he just lifts, doesn't do any cardio, doesn't stretch or anything. He's going to blow his fucking hamstring 20 yards into this whole deal. But yeah, it sounds like you're both pretty competitive, and maybe it's ready to put it to rest. But not to make excuses for him, if you beat him, and he's going to be somebody that's really weird about it after, I would ask you before you go, is this all actually

worth it? I say pick a tree. You say pick a tree. All right, there you go. Thanks to Kyle. That's Life Advice, the Ryan Russell Podcast. Please subscribe. Ringer, Spotify. We'll be back on Wednesday. Thank you.