The Ryen Russillo Show - Bills Roll Lions, an NFL Nerd Out Session w/ Greg Olsen, Plus a BIG Announcement w/ Sam Vecenie!

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Ryen begins with some thoughts on Josh Allen and the Bills’ offensive explosion and Allen’s crazy rushing rate. Then, Greg Olsen stops by for a big NFL nerd-out session, talking about Caleb’s continued ascension, whether the Giants are this year’s Bears, and some of the NFL trends to look out for this season. Then, Sam Vecenie joins for a big announcement and to talk about the Clippers’ mess. And finally, Kyle and Ceruti hop in for some listener-submitted Life Advice, including another college lie. BILLS-LIONS RECAP (2:30) GREG OLSEN (10:30) Caleb & the Bears (16:30) What makes Brian Flores’ defenses special? (19:15) Broncos-Jaguars (22:30) Lions-Bills (26:45) Bengals-Texans (30:00) Giants on the up? (36:10) The ‘under-center’ trend (48:00) More NFL trends to look for (1:06:00) Youth Inc SAM VECENIE (1:13:15) Big Announcement! (1:15:45) Clippers drama (1:30:25) Kawhi Raptors optimism LIFE ADVICE (1:39:25) _ _ _ _ _ Reese’s. The Official Candy Partner of Barstool Sports. Go Get Reese’s Wherever You Shop _ _ _ _ _ Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. One Love. _ _ _ _ _ Watch every game, every Sunday, all in one place. YouTube TV plan required. Terms & embargoes apply. Digital-only games excluded. No refunds. _ _ _ _ _

Hey, Rasillo listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcast and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. The Ryan Rissillo Show is presented by Draft Kings. All of our episodes available on Netflix. Today's show is Packed with Football. I react to the Bills, nice win at home in their new stadium. And the Josh Allen question is they take out the Lions. Greg Olson's going deep.

We're going to preview a bunch of weekend matchups in the NFL, and then he is going to give us an education on what is happening in the NFL right now. we've got a big announcement, Sam Bacini, a good 10 minutes. We're going to talk about the Clippers' future, maybe not being as bleak as others think, but there's a great future ahead for Sam Bacini. So you can hear that announcement here. We've got life advice. The wait is over.

Football is here, and so is Draft Kings. The Draft King Sports app is now live at all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida. Every fan is in on the excitement. And this September, Draft Kings is giving customers the opportunity to get boosted every football game day. That's right. Every game day, all month long, Draft King's customers, can get a football profit boost.

One app, every sport, all 50 states, new Draft King's customer, sign up with the code Ryan, spend just five bucks, get 200 in total rewards within 21 days, includes all markets. That's code Ryan, RYEN, in partnership with Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler, 1-800-Meyer reset. Connecticut, call 888-78-9-77-or or visit ccpg.org.

On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, vet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over, void in Canada. Bet with Draft King's Sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with Draft King's predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York. Non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50 click the claims every seven days for 21 days.

One single use boost per customer per day. Expires at the end of the final select game when offered. Valid for select football transactions on the platform for which it's been issued. Terms at DKNG.g.com slash offer. Limited time offer. Nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability. Ferries by state. offer. Start the show with a little recap. We stayed up for Thursday night football. And just a reminder

to when we taped with Greg Olson for this episode, it was earlier in the day before the result that we had. So Buffalo, the final score will look okay for this one, maybe a few weeks removed. Like, hey, Detroit hung in there, but it was over quick, 21-0. I love when they show you the end zone replay of what Allen is looking at. There's a bunch of things from this Buffalo game that obviously all of us would like to have watched it. But Alan rolling out and having these tight ends follow him on these routes where it's okay i've got a tight in here on one of the touchdown passes he had a tight end that like changed his motion underneath another tight end where allan still probably could have just run it in as he's rolling out to his right so if you're the defensive end

and even hutchinson almost getting him proves how special a specimen hutchinson is on that sack sort of non-sack as it wasn't a sack you got rid of through out of bounds but watching the end zone replay of all the different things that, you know, we're aware of, but it just shows you when you're totally locked in as a quarterback and you're rolling out and you're like, all right, I've got all of these options in front of me. I've got a crosser on the left side. Okay, there's a safety that stay down. That's out. And it's like immediate, right? Ball of snap, you look, you see that safety help. Okay, deep shots probably not there because I think a lot of times quarterbacks will look deep first for those explosive plays and then quickly like cancel it out.

and then there can be a go route on the rollout side where he's like if there isn't any safety help and my man has a step, then Alan can just send it through the air. Then he's got a tight end. Then whatever James Cook is doing. And then Alan just keep it the entire time. And he is running at a crazy rate. I'll get to the pace for how many carries he had

because he had a ton tonight. But it's just kind of beautiful to watch him go through the progression and on these slow motion replays, you can see how quickly you have to decide and then his default is maybe I'll just run for 10 yards every single time. On top of that, James Cook, one of the best running backs in the league. I love that they gave Cook the carry where he was out of bounds right at the pylon. I'm like, are they going to sneak in with Allen again and give him another touchdown?

I love that Joe Brady or whoever made the decision to be like, hey, let's give Cook a chance, at least to get into the end zone with the work that he's done tonight. He had 100 yards at the half. The offensive line, I couldn't believe that Dawkins story, their left tackle, saying that he dropped 45 pounds. They were talking about how slimmy looked. He still weighs 340. I mean, is it possible he was playing at 385 last year?

And he was still good. But that's a recipe for getting hurt. So he was terrific tonight, kind of neutralized Hutchinson in their matchups and a defensive line for Detroit that was kind of supposed to be the strength because of really how bad the secondary is right now. This was going to be a tough matchup for Detroit

for two specific roster reasons. out Kirby Joseph, who had a great year, two years ago, only played six games last year. He hasn't been cleared to play. Brian branches out. So that's why Maddox was in on a third and 11. And here's another thing with this bill's offense right now. Like third and 11, you're kind of like, I kind of expect him to get it. I mean, I know that's absurd. And the great thing that they did tonight is everything was like very third and manageable. And they still had a drop ball on a third and eight where it was like, hey, they're actually backed up here a little bit. everything felt like third and short was the recipe to their success.

But on that third and 11 busted play, Maddox covers a crosser. It was kind of like a post route from the seam. And he was covered. And Maddox just lets Palmer go right past him. So it's third and 11. And now all of a sudden, Alan's like, this isn't even part. This isn't even supposed to happen. throws the pop up to him.

Palmer runs it in for the touchdown. So we knew Detroit was going to have to find a way to survive being down in the secondary. and they're also going to have to figure out a way to survive this offensive line, which had already switched their tackles before the season started, a new player at center, and they were out two starters going in it tonight. So you're already kind of, you've got some things you've got to figure out when everybody's ready, and then two starters inactive for this game. So it kind of played out that way in the beginning.

Gough is good. I don't think golf is great. I don't think this is breaking news. I mean, when he's in rhythm, it's really nice. So if you want to round up and say, hey, there's only, I think Herbst Street even said, like, I think this is seventh or eighth best quarterback. I wouldn't get in a huge argument about that with golf, but the problem is, especially with the defensive line rotation that they're working with right now, when it's not in rhythm and they can't get into play action, it's a problem. But you should be able to throw on this secondary for Buffalo. I like Benford. I guess I like Bishop a little bit. Igbenosin, my guy, just a nasty penalty on Jameson.

James James, James, one of those nights who were just like, you know, where is he tonight? And then St. Brown with a ton of play. So like there are throws out there and that's why Gough ends up going for 300 yards tonight. Couple things that I wanted to get to here. Kind of probably to just close out the game. Because, you know, I don't know that we're going to learn a ton. It was a tough spot for Detroit. As you mentioned with the inactives here. I don't know if it's going to matter for Buffalo if they don't have this brilliant secondary because this front is incredible. Rousseau, two more sacks, Bradley Chubb had a sack and a half. Deanna Walker out there making incredible plays. Like, they had to double team him.

I mean, this guy really is starting to feel like for the first two weeks of the season, like an absolute middle of your defensive line game wrecker. And it was great on the battered ball. He was double teamed and knew he was like, you know what, let me not use all of my energy here trying to get through this double team. Let me get up and try to deflect the pass and he was able to do that. The final point that I want to make on Josh Allen here, and I don't want to be like dramatic about it.

It's 17 carries through the first two weeks. Okay, six against Houston, 11 tonight. By the time we're taping this, we're taping in the night. That turns into 153 for the season. That would be 30, 29 more carries in his career high a few seasons ago. So I don't know that they're going to keep them up at this pace. I mean, it's so incredibly ridiculous, like how successful it is, how hard it is, how hard to defend. Again, these rollouts, like, what do you do?

What do you do if you're on the rollout side? and you go like, am I supposed to keep, like, am I supposed to fall this tight end that I'm sort of lined up with? Or do I go at Allen? And Alan's got a lot of like, not the, the, the magic, you know, the eye sizzle that he throws at you, but he's just really good at screwing you up, too, even when you think he's made the decision. Because he's been playing the position a long enough time. But watching him and knowing the history, again, if Cam Newton could hold up physically, all right, Cam Newton, who's the most spectacular, specimen at the position we've ever seen. And we know that Alan's a specimen as well. And even with a

punishment that Alan hands out, like this game has a way of slowing that player down. So watching how great they look tonight and seeing how tough it is to defend this team, and granted, Detroit had some limitations. It makes me think, again, not to be dramatic about it. It's like Buffalo's got to get to the Super Bowl and get one this year. Like they've got to get it this year and next year. And then you start to like wonder, is Alan still going to be like at the peak of his powers? And him being slightly less as a runner isn't that big of a deal. But it was just something I was thinking about going like, he's got to get there soon here because, as we know, history tells us the running quarterbacks usually start to slow down, especially if he's going to have this kind of workload

this season. There's something for everyone when it comes to Reese's. And that's because Reese's has been hanging out together, peanut butter and chocolate for decades, okay? This is not Jacoby Berset to Marvin Harrison Jr. I don't even know if it's burrowed or Jamar Chase, although, look, that's nasty. This is Braided a Moss that season. This is Montana to Rice. This is Sammy Baugh to noodles Three Finger Johnson.

This is an all-time relationship, a combination that can never be beat, and you know it and realize it, not just on the first clip in the all 22, on the first bite. You don't even need a replay on this one, because biting into a Reese's peanut butter cup is an experience that you get to have

over and over and over again, and you know why you keep coming back. Rees, the official candy partner, Barstool Sports. Go get Reese's wherever you shop. Getting ready for week two and excited to do it with somebody who's been nice enough to spend some time with us over the years. It's Greg Olson and Fox, also Youth Inc. And he's got a new thing with Luke Keekely that's launching October 19th, which we'll get to here. So let's start with, you've got Vikings at Chicago. I'm sure you went through the tape from last week. What do you see from this Bears offense that obviously every one of us have been talking about

here for a week. Yeah, that was about as impressive an offense. I mean, and not perfect, right? They took a couple sacks, a couple plays, but I'll tell you, from a, on a per play basis, their ability to generate explosive plays, both in the run and the past, the volume and offense in which they were able to implement

considering it was week one. It's about as impressive a performance outside of the framework that it was week one. You know, you so often see in week one there's unknowns. everybody's trying to worry more about themselves. You hear coaches talk all the time about not trying to chase ghosts. You have all offseason to build these really elaborate game plans

and you end up kind of tricking yourself. Well, they had a lot of volume. They had a lot of different play styles. They had under center play action run with all the motions that people talk a lot about. They had play action pass. They were able to go spread, you know, four or five wide empty spread and do traditional dropback pass. They can do movement pass.

I mean, there's really not a lot of offensive style. that Ben Johnson's not able to implement scheme-wise, and obviously Caleb Williams being able to direct it at quarterback. It was about as impressive an offensive in offensive or performance as you're going to see. And that's one of those game films. Like you can't wait until Monday morning to put on and say, okay, how do you score 59 points on the road

against a team like the Panthers who put a lot of time and energy this offseason and resources into improving on the defensive side of the ball? So, I mean, we can dive into as many of the specifics or whatever you want to dive into, but just overall big picture, that's going to go down as one of the best offensive performances of the entire season. We definitely saw the jump with Caleb from year one of year two. I mean, that's not even debatable here. But I think one of my favorite parts of that afternoon was it just felt like when it got ugly,

he still stayed in the play longer. It felt like he's like, I know like our offense, if this is happening here, it doesn't mean then I have to bail on everything, which I think is like the greatest sign of growth for any of these, especially these extremely gifted quarterbacks. Yeah, I think, you know, when you look back to early in his career, especially, you know, rookie year and, you know, not diving into system or personnel, just some of the things he had to really improve on, especially when Ben Johnson got there a season ago, was he took way too many sacks, he wasn't willing to stay within the rhythm of the offense.

the timing, the progressions, and just play through, where are my eyes starting and then click through his progression? And he generated a lot of negative plays, right? Whether it was turnovers, whether it was sacks or, you know, getting outside of the framework. So that was obviously a huge element that Ben wanted to really spend a lot of time and emphasis. And I think we saw a lot of growth there last year.

I think we saw the sack numbers went down. He did a much better job protecting the ball. I think then phase two of that, and again, small sample size now just being one weekend. But I think the next iteration of the Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson's offense in their mind was we don't want to take away the improv, right? You don't want to make a player like Caleb Williams be a statue and just go, what's my progression? One, two, checkdown. Sometimes that is the right play. Sometimes one, two, get it to my checkdown, live for second down, live for third and manageable, is the right play. But you know what also is the right play? Sometimes

you got to let athletes just go be athletes and you got to let him go. I don't like one, I don't like two. I'm feeling a little something off the backside here. I'm going to go create. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to try to generate a big play down field. I'm going to try to throw the ball over their head and I'm going to operate more

in like a scramble pass mode than more of like a traditional in rhythm timing. So him knowing when it's time for both, I think is something that Ben Johnson and him are going to continue to spend a lot of time talking through. What's the score? What's the down and distance. What's the situation

of the game? I think there's going to be a lot of elements that control and put some guardrails into that play style. But the last thing you want to do as a coach, and obviously Ben Johnson's up there among the best, is like, you don't want to take that playmaking element out of Caleb Williams'

play style, but you have to make sure that that doesn't get in the way of operating Ben Johnson's system. So it's a delicate balance. I think we saw him play both styles a week ago. I think his scramble improv pass. He generated a lot of big plays down the field,

whether he activated himself as a runner, or he was able to find guys unfolding downfield in the past game. But then we also saw him, whether it was in the play action under center or it was in the gun, we saw him operate in rhythm as an accurate pocket quarterback.

So when he's able to play both of those styles simultaneously on a play-by-play basis, with Ben Johnson dialing up the plays, it's just a handful. It's just a lot for these defenses. You almost have to guard two plays. You have to guard the play Ben Johnson called, which is hard enough. And then on most of the plays, you've got to guard a second reaction play,

which is Caleb Williams being among the best athletes on the field, having the ball in his hand. So it's a huge challenge. We saw Carolina really struggle with it a week ago, and that's something defensive coordinators are going to have to get a grip on because there's no magic answer. What impresses you the most about prepping for a Vikings game and seeing what Brian Flores does with this defense? Man, I said this to, I was talking to my producer just about some ideas for the game.

And I said to Pete, I said, you know, the best way that I could characterize Brian Flores. And there's a lot of ways to talk about his defense. We've seen the offensive style of play in the NFL and the defensive style of play universally around the league really become pretty consistent. Right on the offensive side of the ball, we want to score as fast as we can. You don't want long sustained drives. We're not looking to score in 10, 12 plays. Time of possession and all that has really become an afterthought. Offense is known the longer they stay on the field, the more likely it is they take a sack, a penalty, a tackle for loss, something to get them off track and ultimately stall the drive.

Well, defenses are now understanding that mentality as well. So what are defense is saying? We're going to play from depth. we're going to play with the fewest amount of guys in the box as humanly possible, as many small bodies as humanly possible. Keep a shell, keep everything underneath, tackle well in space. And if you're going to score a touchdown on me, you're going to have to go 10 plus plays, execute in the red zone.

And if you score, I'll tip my cap, right? That was Seattle, their defense. They mastered it a year ago on the way to the Super Bowl. So that's really what NFL offense has come to look like and defense. the Vikings and Brian Flores say, screw all that. We are going to attack you. We are going to put as many guys at the line of scrimmage than anybody in football.

We are going to play all of our coverages from the line of scrimmage back. The whole league now is starting everything in shell. And then when the play snaps, those guys gradually fall to the line of scrimmage from the top down. That's kind of the style because they don't want you to run by him. Brian Flores is flipping that upside down. He is starting with six, seven, eight guys. the line of scrimmage at times, and then sprinting back from low to high to build two high

shell cover two and all these elaborate things. And blitz at the highest rate. He blitzed over 80% of the plays last week in the opener against Green Bay. So like, it is such a counter philosophy to the trends in the direction of the rest of the league that I find it fascinating. It's a fun defense to watch. It's a fun defense to study. And the confidence that he has both in the personnel and their ability,

to implement it on a per play basis, you just don't see a lot of people doing it. And their ability to create negative plays, whether that's sacks, tackles for loss, of course, takeaways. Like, they are a, while offenses are hunting explosive plays, Brian Flores is hunting splash negative plays.

So like the exact opposite. And he has taken that aggressive offensive approach and just applied it to the defensive side of the ball. And I find it fascinating. Is there anything from the Denver loss? You know, it's the prime time game. It's the play calling storyline where Sean Payton didn't exactly disguise how he felt at halftime with Davis Webb because it's feeling like, I mean, it might need a little bit more balance, might need to start running football. Look, I love the receiving group for Denver there.

So it's not surprising like a first time coordinator against his Kansas City defense, trying to figure out who's in the secondary and all that kind of stuff. It's like maybe we're going to throw the ball here at 10. Is there a result from Denver Jacksonville that would have you questioning Denver's place in the AFC? I don't think so. I try not to really pass too much judgment after week one, good or bad, right? I think, you know, we saw Chicago score 59. I don't think this would happen, but would it be out of the realm of possibility? They score less than 20.

I mean, certainly anything's possible. So I think we're going to see, it usually takes like four or five weeks for teams to kind of fall into. they're kind of where they are. Especially now, right? Yeah. Like with the lack of stuff that's happening in August, that's anything that's remotely locked in, like September, it should be

kind of sloppy based on what the run-up is now. Totally. So I think we're going to see defenses. Some defenses start hot, and then some offensive coordinator cracks the code, and then you see, you know, the copycat of the subsequent weeks, and they start coming back to reality. I think you're going to see some defenses start slow, and then they're going to find out, their new personnel. Maybe they've got new play callers, maybe a combination of both.

And then they find their stride. And then the same thing on offenses, right? So I think you're going to see some offenses that come out of the gate. They catch people off guard. Maybe it's a new style, new play caller. And then the league smartens up. And then, of course, you know, what we saw with Denver where an offense that we're used to seeing, Sean Payton led teams, he gives up play calling duty. He obviously thinks very highly a Davis Webb wants to get him more as, you know, NFL play caller, you know, reps wants to maintain him. You don't want to see a young coach like that be snatched away, you know, by another organization to be their play caller. So there's so many moving parts that cause organizations and coaches to make the decisions

that they do. I don't think it's an indictment of how the rest of the season. Now, if we're sitting here in weeks four and five, and they're scoring 10 to 17 points a game, and it just doesn't look like a Sean Payton-led team that we're used to seen over the years where it's mid-20s to 30 and they're really gutting for points. And Bo Nix doesn't have the year he had a year ago. And there's some regression. Yeah, there'll be some conversation about play calling and does Sean Payton take back play calling.

But I think as so often, that was a tough matchup, right? The chief sun defense are good, right? I mean, spags is it spags can play. So I think there's a combination of your opponent early in week one, new play caller. And as much as we all want teams to be their finished product right out of the gate and be perfect, for the vast majority of these teams, there is going to be a period. where it's going to take some time to figure out exactly who they are, where they fit, and then try to play to those strengths and build as the year goes on.

I love Kincaid coming out. We know that he's been dealing with injuries. If you look at the snap count stuff that I was doing like a 24, 25, you're like sub-40% of the snap counts. Plays a million snaps, heavier personnel against Houston. The fact that you can go into Houston after, you know, Allen surviving eight sacks last season and do that against that defense. I'm sure if you're Houston's defense, you're like, okay, what was Josh? Allen like it sucks, we'll button this whole thing up. There's kind of two parts with this

matchup against Cincinnati. One is, well, this has nothing to do with it. I just quickly, because of the tight end thing with you and Kincaid, I don't know that he can be McBride, but where could Kincaid be as far as like top tight ends if he's healthy for a season? I think it's a great question. He's wildly talented, right? I've got to see Dalton up close and personal in Nashville the last couple summers when he's come out to TEU. And watch them run routes. And you know, you can watch a guy on tape and you can study a guy from afar.

But there's something different about standing on the grass next to him and watch it, you know, what's his body type? How does he sink his hips? Getting in and out of breaks. What's his burst? Accelerations. How does he track the ball with his hands above his head? Like, you can just get such a better feel for guys

watching them work out in T-shirt and shorts from a movement capacity. He has very unique movement skills. I know he's not at 6-5, 260. pound body type. But for a tight end, he has very unique ball control, body control, in and out of breaks, ability to sink and start much more so than like some of the more tall linear guys like me who, you know, the in and out of breaks was not always our thing. We were more kind of go linear and get downfield. So I think from a physical tool standpoint, he has a lot

that you can work with. Obviously, having an offensive-minded head coach now in Joe Brady, who's going to steer that offense to be a little bit more aggressive and go out there and chase points and all those things. I think the biggest, and I try to tell guys this at our TEU, especially for some of the guys that are like tweeners and people question their ability to block, your ability to be on the field,

the more you can be on the field, it's actually easier to play with some of your limitations. So, like, my best example is, I'll just take myself, when I played, if I only came on the field when it was time in a passing down to win in the passing game, I would have been significantly less effective as a pass receiver.

If I only came in the game to be a quote unquote blocker, which was never really like my main focus, but only when it was time to block the guys that were asked to do that, their ability to block that guy on a rundown only because they know when number 88 only comes in the game, his job is to block,

their job gets exponentially more difficult. The fact that I could be on the field on every single snap, and sometimes I release that defensive end, and sometimes I pin him, and sometimes I short-set pass him, sometimes I cut him off. He never knew what I was going to do. All of a sudden, my ability to get open in the passing game

got easier because they couldn't just lock in that it was a pass when I was in. My ability to block him got easier because for three-quarters of the game, I didn't block him. He's so used to me releasing that the handful of times I would get in there and block them, you almost have the element. So I think with Dalton, it's the same thing.

I think he's going to find himself wildly more effective, both in the passing game and as a run blocker, doing some more of the in-line stuff, the more they scheme him in the game in all personnel groups, and the more he can just physically handle the volume of snap count. So using guys as a package when they're young, I've always felt is a disservice to them. I think it makes it harder, even if that's what you do,

do best. Everyone on the field knows when you run in, this guy's only in because it's a pass. He's only in because it's a run. I don't know anybody that's good enough to be that overly effective over long periods of time when everybody knows what's coming. So I think Dalton's a perfect example as his career unfolds. Beyond the field as much as you can, Joe Brady and staff help keep him more involved in all the different personnel groupings. You're going to see him more effective in the past and you're actually going to see it's counterintuitive. You're going to see him become a more effective run and pass blocker, the more he's on the field. Okay, I love that Kincaid breakdown. So I was kind of doing two things at once there,

because I'm also really excited about Cincinnati Houston here, because to the earlier point, Houston has to just go, all right, let's turn the page on this. Burrell comes in. We know that he has the sore back. Houston's probably the last team I've wanted to play with a sore back on top of everything else. But, you know, granted, it could be an opponent thing there. Cincinnati's invested in this defense, and it's all wrapped in the week one qualifier here. But is there anything that thing that gives you a read on this game from what you saw. Listen, if you would have told me Houston was going to give up that many points, and I know it was Josh Allen, and I know it was the bills, and I get it.

But as, you know, so as we're calling our game, we have like a monitor between Joe and I that has all the out of town scores. So as our game's unfolding, we can, you know, between the break, we'll point, go, hey, how about that game? You know, there went, we can track what's going on around the league. I didn't know if, I thought it was going to take three weeks for Houston to of up that many points. Like I thought going into the season,

especially with what they did a year ago, the stories coming out of their joint practices. I lived here in Charlotte where all the stories came out about their joint practices with the Panthers. And it was like the Panthers couldn't get a playoff. They had to take out Will Anderson and Deniel Hunter because like ruined practice. Like I had in my mind,

and they still might end up being that dominant. So having said that, I still think this Houston defense is like, I don't want to say historically good, but last year they were damn close to being historic. historically good. They still have that in them. I still think it's a huge challenge. But that's why I'm paying Joe Burrow and T. Higgins and Jemar Chase. I'm paying all those guys that much money because the expectation is as they try to still figure out their defense and they

still try to figure out how they're going to keep people, you know, from scoring 30 a game on them. Like the expectation is that offense needs to carry the load. And I did the game last year between Buffalo and Cincinnati and they went head to head and it was a late pick six on a kind of a fluky play that ended up being the difference for Buffalo. But when that Cincinnati offenses roll and they can protect him and he can dial it up, her back, whatnot, they got to handle the pass rushers. But that since Cincinnati to me, when people talk about like AFC contenders, I have Cincinnati like at or near the top of my list.

I think as the year unfolds, I think they're going to scare a lot of people offensively. if the defense can just hold serve, I think when all the dust settles, I think they're going to find themselves in the running. That might be one of the best games, along with our game. That might be one of the best games of the weekend. Yeah, I can't wait for that one. And I know that I've probably been,

because the defense has been such a disaster. I hate to think of just because, like, hey, we get a couple new guys that everything's all sorts fixed. And I don't love hearing a burrow injury update week two with it. But I'll admit, like, when I'm looking at the AAC, maybe because I just ran out of time, because of how many teams you're like, well, that team, that team. Like, I still feel like Kansas City of all the Mahomes years other than the first year, you know,

and I was talking with Vaughn Miller about this because I went on his podcast. So we were talking because he loves talking Denver, even though he's on Dallas. Right. And he's just seeing like, what are you thinking? And I go, you know, there's probably never been a year for Mahomes other than the first year as a starter that Kansas City's ever been this collectively overlooked by all of us, which has to be the weirdest feeling ever. And we all like what we saw from week one. And another week one thing before I jump in

some of the more play cally stuff that I want to spend some time on with you is the Giants. And I can read the depth charts. I can look at the unit rankings and all that kind of stuff. And I'll admit with the Giants in their history, I'm like, I don't know, you know, whatever.

And then I'm watching them on Sunday night. I'm like, you know what? There's like eight guys on this team I really like. And granted, it's probably a lot more fun for Jackson Dart to start the season with neighbors healthy and likely on the team as opposed to what he was dealing with towards the end of last year.

Is there a path that you could see where, like, hey, the Giants could be not just on the In-the-Hunt graphic there, say, week 10, but something about this team where we're going to have to look at them differently. Like, I tougher out, especially with this Rams matchup this week. I thought going in, and I'm not just saying this in, like, revisionist hindsight, you know, since they look so good in week one, I thought going into the season, I felt about the Giants. Kind of how I felt a little bit about the bears a year ago. In the sense of, I think their roster was better than their win-loss totals. I thought they lost a lot of really close games that could easily go the other way. Like when you're looking at teams to either have regression or teams to over-perform comparison, some of the easiest things, like for regression, you're saying,

what was their record in one-score games, what was their turnover differential, and what was their history, right? What was their injury history? If those three things, they went all the close games, they took the ball away at a high rate, and they stayed relatively healthy, I start looking at those teams saying, okay, maybe there's a little regression.

I thought the Giants were the opposite. I thought they had some bad injury luck, right? They lose neighbors. They lose Scataboo. Jackson Dart was in and out, and a lot of conversation about him taking hits and concussion protocols and all that. They had some stuff banged up up front.

They lost a lot of games at the end, which were like almost hard to lose. lose, right? I think it was the Denver. It was the Denver game where it was like the really big, they were, they had Denver beat and they had, it was like a big meltdown. I think it was Denver. I called the game where they, they should have won in Chicago. I called that game last year. So I thought going into this year of any team in the NF, NFC that had a chance to like really pop that maybe was under the radar was the giant. So I thought they looked really good Sunday night. I thought the offense looked good. I thought Jackson Darts.

decision-making. I thought his ability to play on the move from the pocket, be on time, generate explosives, move the ball around. I really like the system, mix of under-center stuff, getting him on the edge, using his athleticism. I think defensively, they're very talented. I think they've got a lot of guys up front. They added two really good first-rounders in Malinoa and Arvel Reese. So, like, I think that defense is young. I think they're athletic. I think they can go run and chase. I think if they just continue to focus on situational ball and how to close games out, I think they're going to be a problem. So I think the Giants being good changes everything within the NFC East. And I think it changes a lot of the picture as the season unfolds just in the

NFC in general. Yeah, the Giants gave up 33 points in the fourth quarter to Denver in the game that's what it was. I thought it was Denver. I couldn't remember the exact details. I mean, think about that. If it's a close loss, it's probably Denver because last, season every single week. You're like, Denver pulled it out again. But yeah, that's, which goes back to my question, like, which goes back to my point before, when you start looking over like year to year expectations, typically what you find is there's going to be some inevitable regressions in certain categories, right? Like one score games. Some teams do play better in one score games because of coaching, because of quarterback play, game management. So you can tip the scales.

there is an element of luck. And to ignore that and say all close wins are the result of you doing everything right and close losses, you blew it. While there are certainly elements of that, we've seen teams go from winning the most close games like Minnesota a couple years ago to one year later, they can't win a close game.

So same coach, you know, obviously quarterback changes. So typically that's a regression, taking the ball away. Very hard to just say, okay, we led the league and takeaways last year. We're going to do it again. Typically, there's a regression. So there's a couple of those areas

where it's just hard to sustain hanging your hat on certain things and saying, well, we were good last year, will automatically be good again. As you study these trends from year to year, it typically doesn't play out that way, generally speaking. I mean, going down to LSU games for a long time,

everybody knows that, and getting to meet Todd Graves, back in the day has been a real treat, not just to see him and Raising Cainz grow into this unbelievable restaurant and business. But, you know, the guy who used to be able to just, you go up to a suite and you're like, wait, am I going to be able to get in here right now? Luckily, we go back long enough that I think I still have the invite. Keynes is also sponsoring PGA tour golfer, Sam Burns, an LSU alum, Louisiana, and a native and a good friend of Raising Cain's owner and founder Todd Graves.

You may have seen the Cain's logo on his collar during tournaments this season, ahead of the BMW championship, Sam and Raising Keynes hosted kids from first tea and boys and girls clubs of St. Louis for meat and greet and golf lessons by Sam himself at a driving range in St. Louis. And of course, Cain's Chicken Fingers and Cain's sauce. I just had to shoot an ad. I got to eat chicken fingers all day.

And you know what was even better? Is there was sauce as much as I could possibly. Because sometimes you're like, I hope I have enough sauce. Friends, today I had enough sauce. Raising Cain's Chicken Fingers, One Love. I want to talk about this under center craze. Yeah. Did you see this coming when you were talking to teams in pre-production meetings and what they were prioritizing?

Like, let's go back to even some of the 25 stuff, because the 26 numbers, if you want to go by the tracking stuff, and there's some stuff I want to go here in depth with you on. I think we were at the highest under center rate in week one since 2012. but it felt like people were talking about this all summer, so we saw it coming as the numbers started creeping up the last couple of years. Yeah, so I think this is one of the coolest conversations going in the league, and it's related loosely to the conversation you and I had last year about the way offenses now are, the pendulum has swung from everyone wanted to be past-centric, shot done, throw the ball, and take advantage of defenses and score fast

and explosives lead the points. And then defenses said, okay, we're not going to let you do that. We're going to go small. We saw this big influx in high two safety defenses. We're going to play dime to all personnel groupings at the very minimum nickel. We're not going to put extra de-linmen. We're not going to put a lot of big bodies because you can't run the ball. Again, this is generally speaking.

You can't run the ball week in and week out, effective enough to generate explosive plays, to score enough points to be. That's what defenses came to the realization on. So then the offense said, okay, how do we combat this? The offenses said, you're going to put all these little guys on the field. I'm going to put a bunch of big bodies on the field. And I'm going to make you decide how you want to match me. Do you want to keep all those little bodies on the field?

I'm going to run the ball down your throat. I'm going to bludgeon you. And I'm going to take advantage of those little defensive backs and undersized linebackers that people want to play with. and both your safeties are a million yards off the ball. And then what they found last year, the Seahawks and the Rams and the Bears are now doing it. So they said, okay, yeah, we're going to bring all these big guys on the field.

You think it's not to run the ball. We are bringing these big guys on the field because if I go 13, three tight ends in a back, you're probably not going to play me dime or nickel unless you're Seattle and you just have unique personnel like they did a year ago where they could match it. you're going to bring extra linemen, extra defensive back, extra linebackers.

So what am I going to do? I'm going to throw the ball. I'm going to go big to throw the ball downfield on you because I still know hunting explosives is the best way to score points. From there, the realization became the best play in football to throw the ball over your head is under center play action pass. Turning my back on the defense creates more downfill run action. by the defensive line and the linebackers.

It ties into my run game better. It's a better fake. There's a better misdirection. Everything about the under center pass, we know is the most efficient and explosive play in football. So if I want to be under center pass, I'm going to marry now my pass game with under center run. And the best teams do the best job of pre-snap,

everything that I do from formation to, alignment, to splits, to quarterback positioning, to motion shifts. Everything I do, there's going to be no different between pass and run tendencies. So again, all of this under center stuff is all under the idea of what gives me the best chance to throw the ball downfield chunk plays at a time. Get under center and throw it. So then how do I marry my run? I get under center to hand it.

That's the evolution of all of this. This has been the trend for years now. We've tried to talk about it and highlight it. If you want to stand in shotgun, four and five wide, ask Philadelphia. They had a unique quarterback, they had unique skill, and they had the best offense line in football.

But over time, standing in static formations, shotgun, every play, inside outside zone to a running back it's virtually impossible in today's day and age to play that style over long periods of time and the best coordinators have said we're not going to major it anymore because this is a lot easier to protect it's a lot easier to run the ball and it's certainly a lot easier to generate

play action pass we're only talking like a few years ago though when we're just spreading it out you know shotgun formation for so many of these quarterbacks because I think there's a lot of quarterbacks that are just, when you hear this all the time, which you, of course, know, is that they're just not super comfortable turning their back on the defense and then having to come back. Because they don't do it. From the time they're 10 years old, no one's ever taught kids how to get under center anymore because coming up through Pop Warner, high school, and certainly college football, it is 90 plus percent shotgun and any of their quote-unquote under center run, they just run out of the

pistol, which is shotgun. So they just don't teach it. and it hurts it hurts these guys when they get to the league okay how much of this is connected i imagine quite a bit when you look at the zone coverage on dropbacks now i think it was north a 60% week one so this was used to be a man league probably back when you were playing and now you go all right well if everybody who's playing zone because they're worried about these explosives well you know look some of this play action stuff on man coverage the corners don't even know what's going on a linebacker could be just running to cover somebody so they're not going to bite on it. Do you think this emphasis of

under center because yes, clearly the under center play action is just a nastier fake? It should be a nastier fake. There's a moment there where you're not 100% sure. You can have this mesh point thing, but we know the running backs on one side. You know, the quarterback's likely reading kind of one thing on those handoffs. Do you think this under center is a direct correlation to those play actions being that much better when a zone defense is faking you in the eyes just, you know how it is? like two, three hours into a game, you know, it's just human nature to kind of want to go to where you're assuming the ball is going to go. Is that part of this as well because of the zone increasing? Yeah. So I think there's a lot of elements to the zone increasing. I think one of the

biggest ones, especially on early downs is, you know, picture of the bear, right? So the style And I meant that as like an under center play action counter to the heavier zone packages that everybody's seeing is what I'm talking about. Yeah. And I think it goes both ways, right? So I think teams are implementing more defensive zone coverage against these under center offenses, especially with the variety of personnel groupings and big bodies and motions and shifts and movement at the snap. If I tried to man that, I'd have guys pre-snap on defense passing things off and running back and forth. And if this guy goes in motion, he becomes your guy. But now Christian McCaffrey lines up at receiver and Debo's in the backfield,

back in the day. And that's where it all started, right? So it all started with people trying to figure out how do they stop Shanahan, right? Where they had Kittle and they had Debo and they had Christian and, you know, those years in the playoffs. And it was like, okay, do we treat the back as the back?

But what if the back is the wide receiver? And what if the wide receiver is the running back? Screw it. We're just going to play everything as a shell. We're going to zone everything out. And you guys are just X's. You guys are just X's on a fence post. And we're going to just,

the formation is the formation is. formation. We're not going to get wrapped up into who's where, who goes in motion, who carries, because it just got super complicated. So that's, of the many reasons, that's one of the reasons. The style of offensive play has made zone coverage to be a lot more effective. And the zones are better, too, right? I mean, just real quick, I mean, I just love this so much. Is it generally agreed that people are just better at zone now, too, because it used to feel like back in the day, it's like, if I have this first round corner, like, what the hell am I doing? like the whole point of having this first round corner

is to run and follow the other number one the entire time. It feels like the zone stuff isn't just like, hey, here are all the soft spots, even if they're going to show up it sometimes. It just feels like teams are better at it because they're playing it more too. Yeah, yes, that's 100% the case. Back in the day it was, all right, I got Dorel Revis. He's going to

guard your best player and then the other 10 players can worry about everybody else. That was certainly one way to go about it. We've seen it with numerous guys over the course of history. I do think, though, it's important to point out that most teams, again, speaking in generalities, there are man principles to all of these zone coverages.

So this is not old school, put a cone on the field, I'm the flat player, I drop to the flat, I'm a hook player, I drop to the hat, you know, the hat, and I just read the quarterback's eyes and break. These zone coverages all have manned principles built into them. How many vertical receivers? What does number one do? And as the play unfolds, if you watch like an all 22 of Philadelphia with Vic Fangio or even, you know, with Brian Flores, it's, again, it starts a little different.

But all of these teams, no matter how they start, as the coverage opens up, if you press pause, they're all matching guys as they come into their zone. It's like the Jim Beheim, like half court zone that turns into man match basketball. Yeah, match up zones. It's the same idea. Guys enter their zones, they are pattern matching. They are saying, okay, who has the second vertical, who has the first vertical, number one sits, where do my eyes go? Like, there are very sophisticated patterns and rules into these quarters coverages and half-field coverages and single-like, they're not just guarding grass. The days of just spot dropping, and I have the middle third of the field, I have curl flat, I have hook curl.

And if someone comes, great, if not, this is my area. it's not really how teams are playing it. So yes, it's zone. Yes, it gets checked off as zone. But at like two seconds into the play, it plays a lot like man. And we start just once you've buried that guy and once you've bought him, you're probably carrying him throughout the rest of that pattern and whatever the concept is. So it's yes, yes, it's zone.

It's not old school zone like when I came into football, where everybody was just guarding a patch of grass and just looking at the quarterback's eyes and when you threw it, you break. It's gotten a lot more sophisticated. It's gotten a lot more pattern matching where they still, you get the benefit of the eyes of the defenders are still on the quarterback to start.

So there's a lot of eyes in the backfield. But then as the play unfolds, we get the elements of man that we want as far as taking up space, closing the distance on the receivers, without having to just say, I have Christian McCaffrey, you have Ushack, you have Kittle, and it turns into like a matchup game that gets very difficult. Because now, not only do we have to line up in those positions to play that man,

but hey, by the way, they're going to hand the ball off. So now I'm an outside corner, but I'm guarding whoever all game. Well, what happens when Justin Jefferson lines up in the slot? I got to guard Justin Jefferson in the slot. Well, what happens when they hand the ball off? who becomes the run defender? Me, but I'm not a run defender. I'm an outside corner.

So, like, that's where the game has kind of evolved into, and the great offensive coordinators could use your match tells to formation you that now you got the wrong guys at the point of attack. You got the wrong guys trying to defend the run, and it just breaks down the integrity of your defense. Another product, byproduct, I should say, of this, is that the design runs for quarterback, like to see Jalen under center,

to see what's going on with Lamar, the design runs on a week-to-week average to what we saw week one, it's dramatically down. So it feels a little bit like, are you never going to have Lamar on like six or seven design runs? And maybe there's just a preservation part with him

and the natural decline of any of the dual threat quarterbacks where it's like, hey, this is what happens to you in the NFL. Like eventually you're just not running for 900 yards all the time. that seems to be, again, I'd say a byproduct of this, even if I'm like, do you really want to completely eliminate that or maybe it's a one or two snap design run just to keep the threat there for the defense mentally? That's a huge part. I'm glad you brought it up because I was going to add that earlier to when we were talking

about it. So I derailed you a bit and I can't believe we got back on track. So good. No. So, no, I think it's a great point, though, because remember a huge difference between college and the NFL, why shotgun. is so much more prevalent in college is, A, the willingness to run the quarterback.

If I have a running quarterback, I had Cam Newton at Auburn, every time I lined up Cam Newton or Lamar Jackson or pick a guy under center, the defensive coordinator goes, whew, thank God. Because outside of a hoop action pass, his ability to keep the ball and be an extra runner

is really negated when he lines up under center. So you see so much in college, I'm not worried about getting my quarterback hit. quote unquote in college because there's such a weapon in the run game, that every time I line him up in gun, I keep him activated as a runner. Then you also think about RPO game that became such a big craze in college. The rules are different, right?

The linemen can be further down the field. If the ball is thrown at her behind the line of scrimmage, I'm allowed to be engaged downfield blocking. Those rules don't exist in pro. So all of a sudden now I'm standing there in gun. I'm unwilling to consistently run my quarterback, generally speaking to preserve them and not get them hit. I can't have the extra run count guy be defended in the zone read.

So what's the next thing? Okay, I don't want to run my quarterback. So I'm not going to run zone read. I'll RPO it. Well, I can't really RPO it like I can in college because my linemen aren't allowed the same buffer downfield. The second they get more than a yard downfield, it's a legal man downfield. All right, well, I'm going to get my screen game activated out on the perimeter.

I'm going to throw screens and bubbles. my receivers can't block downfield past a yard like they can in college. I can throw the ball behind the line of scrimmage and block the entire team run down field in college. I can't do that in the NFL. So you start taking away all of the advantages to standing five yards behind the center and shotgun. And these teams started saying outside a third and pass, where I just do it more from like a protection standpoint, just get me away from the D-line and let the quarterback visually see.

On first and second down, you start asking yourself, what are the advantages left to lining my quarterback up in shotgun? Yeah, especially you brought up the bubble thing too. Like even with the yardage rule, like good luck getting two NFL receivers to win two outside blocks on two NFL defensive vats. Like in college, maybe you just get two dudes that can manhandle a couple other guys and it's a conference game.

It's like these are two two star corners and like my guys are six-door. I swear, in the NFL, like you see even when they have numbers, you're like, good luck. Like I feel like that's playing never breaks. The D-Lyman come out of the stack, they chase it down. It's just, again, every once in a while you see it pop. And I'm not saying perimeter screens are highly, highly valuable and slows down rush against the quarterback. I'm not saying there's not a time and a place for all of that.

It, as time has gone on, it comes down to teams have found that the benefits that used to exist of putting my quarterback in the gun when I was in all the spread wide formations to stretch the defense, throw to open guys on the perimeter run game, activate my quarterback as a runner against light boxes, pick up an extra man. All of those things, that was Cam Newton. I played in that offense for of the nine years with Cam, I'd say like seven of them. That was us. And it's highly effective. But all of a sudden you become unwilling to run your quarterback. You're telling your quarterback to slide. Well, it loses, it's not worth running the play anymore. If every time your quarterback gets out in space, he just gives himself up. You're not gaining any yard. So I think the evolution of all that is fascinating to track. I think the

pendulum swings back and forth between offense and defensive adjustment. And right now, it'll change again, right now until defenses adjust. The answer is go on first and second down, go as many big people as you can, under center, tight formations, add as many gaps. That's a whole other. Another, conversation all this. I don't know how like in the weeds you want to get. I'm like a football nerd. So I love getting in the weeds of all this shit. But like go for it. If you have the time, like I just love listening to it. Here's another really important thing to understand about like the styles of these under center run games. When you go under center, traditionally speaking, the formations get tighter. Right. Like you're not, you don't see teams lining up under center

with an eye back and then all the receivers out by the numbers, right? There's typically one or more tight ends. The open side receiver has a cut. split, meaning he's closer to the offensive line to tackle or whoever. Typically, there's a lot more bodies in like the, like in the behind, you know, like the sky cam view of the replays. Like how many guys are in the sky cam view? Typically in those under center formations, not though, maybe not virtually the entire offense, but damn near close.

Like they got nine guys in that box. Sometimes they got 11. Well, now defensively, every defense, there's an A gap, right? center to guard is the A gap, guard to tackle, they call it the B gap, tackle to tight end is the C gap, D gap, etc, as many bodies as there are on the end of the formation. Well, all of a sudden now I have a guard, a tackle, a tight end, a cut split receiver, and an outside receiver.

Well, I've made like six gaps. Well, someone has to account for those gaps, corners, safeties, nickels, like every one of those gaps to stop the run on paper has a guy assigned to be in that gap. And the idea is we don't want any open gaps and that's how we're going to stop the run. Well, I'm asking now my nickel corners and my safeties and my outside corners, hey, sorry, but like it's no longer A, B, and C gap for 2D linemen and a linebacker. I got six gaps, but I still only have 2D linemen and a linebacker. So who's picking up the other gaps? Defensive backs, secondary players.

And now we're not even talking about when one of those guys goes in motion or on the snap of the ball and you see those receivers just people go, why is that guy just running to the left? Well, he's running to the left because he just lost the gap to the side he was on and theoretically added a gap to the side he's running to.

You need to compute all of that on defense and, oh yeah, set hut. That is why team. are doing all of this. The motions, tight formations, pre-snap movement, post-snap movement. It is all to mess with run fits

and then how that run-fit attaches to my past responsibility. And the Ben Johnsons of the world, the Kyle Shanahan's and the McVease and et cetera, they have mastered the idea of putting you in conflict that your run-gap responsibility, both pre-and-post-snap,

that might be different and at odds. But even more so, not only is that at odds, but your post-snap pass game responsibility is completely in conflict with your run game. You can't guard this gap to the front side. And oh, by the way, when I go in motion and then say, set hut, you're the weak side hook player on bootleg pass. That's why guys are running all over the place wide open

on all these play action fakes. And so why is no one guarding the tight end on the overrower? route because the guy that's the weak side hook, he's the front side B gap player. So when they fake the ball to Christian McCaffrey, if he doesn't fill that gap, Christian McCaffrey, if it's a run, is going to run for 20 yards. Oh, by the way, if they fake it to Christian McCaffrey, you now have to be able to guard the backside zone where George Kittle is running four or five on a bootleg pass. You have both of those things.

It's hard. That is modern football. This is what I love, though, about you're breaking this down because of course, enjoy, like, you explaining it to all of us. But when everything freaked out and we went shotgun and it was, it was four wide, it was all this stuff, it's like, yeah, that makes sense. Like, I used to kind to get to the point where it's like, what's the point of running it right up the middle for like a two or three yard game? Because that's like generally 90% of the time, that's the best that you're going to do on these. And I'm like, that feels like a wasted bullet. So why not, you know, spread everybody out

and do all these different things? And then it gets to the point. It's like, is the defense ever going to adjust to all this stuff? So that's kind of the zone conversation that we started talking about. And now with this under center thing to try to counter it again, what it feels like, especially if you look at the scoring output from week one, which is the highest combined scoring that we've had since the 1970 merger, it feels like offenses have had like two peaks very close to each other coming out of some of the late teens, early 20s, probably spread them out stuff. Then there was a slight decline in the overall scoring. So I don't know if it's a week one thing. Like there was some stuff I'd saw in college where

I'm thinking like, are the offense is just completely out of sync? Is the same thing going to happen in the NFL? And then you had the first two games that we had between San Francisco and the Rams, where I felt like there was a lot of sloppiness offensively and then even more so. But maybe that's because Drew locks in and not Sam Donald. And it's Drake May facing a defense even with Seattle down, a couple guys in defensive backs. I was like, are we going to see like a weird defensive correction here? We've seen the pendulum, but we're getting the same result with a completely different, like,

base setup of what teams are doing, which I think is crazy that it's happened so quickly in just a few years. Yeah, and there'll be a regression. Again, at the end of the year, could it be the highest scoring? Certainly. Could be week five. You're right. Yeah, like we'll see how all the dust settles.

You know, one week sample size on either end of the spectrum, it could always be, it could be a sign of things to come, certainly. Or it could just be a weird week, right? Weird matchups. Weird, you know, as the season goes on, things will regress to the mean. we'll kind of see where it all shakes out. But certainly the cat and mouse game between offenses and defenses

is never going to change. We have seen this throughout... I've seen it just throughout the course of the time I played in the league and whether it was the style of defense. I mean, you can even look like something that's super fascinating to even just think about

is think about when like the Seahawks dominated the league in like the early tens, right? 11, 12, 13, like the Pete Carroll, Legion of Boom. They dominated a league, right? And you saw so many teams from that tree, either take guys from Pete Staff and make them the coordinators

or, you know, whether it was Dan Quinn or Gus Bradley, Robert Sala came from that tree. And everything was single high, big bodies in the box, overload your box with players, say you can't run, and then we're going to just play everything low to high

and we're going to rush with four and we're going to dominate you. And a lot of people tried to replicate that. And people got better about attacking the seams in single high zone. And they understood where they're back. And teams started to figure it out when you didn't have the personnel that Seattle had. Well, now the Robert Salas of the world and the Dan Quinn's and the guys that 10 years ago, 12 years ago, they were that tree. That was the way they learned football.

And that was their, that was Dan Quinn's original defense that he implemented when he got the head job at Atlanta. And then you look at what he did in Dallas, and you look at what they're doing now in Washington, and it looks wildly different. And you ask yourself, why? Like, what about it? It's not that that defense wasn't good in 2012. It was dominant. It was, they understood that the style of deep offenses that they're trying to play

and the way that matches the defense isn't the best way to defend explosive plays. It's not the best way to defend vertical routes. It's not the best way to defend play action or whatever the case may be. So all these guys have evolved into, instead of everything starting and carrying it deep, everybody starts deep. Vic Fangio, like that kind of tree that really started that whole like umbrella coverage. And then everything plays down as the play is snapped. That was an evolution, but the complete opposite of the P. Carroll system where everything started down.

And as the play went. The floor stuff that you're talking about. Deep. It's all just a pendulum back and forth. And then as teams start generating explosive plays in the passing game, in the run game, defenses will have to adjust. Not to go long-winded here, but I love this stuff. The overall arching point to all this that I think people just need to grasp.

If you grasp one thing, all of this football talk will make a lot more sense when you're watching the games. Offenses aren't running the ball more because they want to run the ball more. The idea is run, pass, screen, offensive guys don't care how they do it. They want to generate 10 plus yard plays, explosive plays. We just know it's easier to generate explosive plays throwing the ball. So what did teams start doing? They just threw the ball more because on a per play basis, I'm going to get more yards over long periods of time.

That's just the way it is. If teams could generate explosive runs and you play me in such a light box that I can generate 8, 9, 10, 10 plus yard runs, I'm happy to run the ball. Teams aren't running the ball more because they want to. Offenses are running the ball more because defenses want you to run the ball. As long as, if you run the ball 40 times at me and you end up with 160 yards, I'm thrilled.

You're going to have low possessions. You didn't have a ton of explosives. You haven't four yards to carry. Now, on the paper, I gave up 160 yards. In the football, I came into the league, every coach in the league. We're going to hold them under 100 yards. Well, if you held them to 80 yards and they threw for 3.30 and three touchdowns, you probably lost. So what teams are finding is it's not about the gross yards.

It's how many yards am I giving up a play? Now, if you rush the ball for 160 yards on 20 carries, I got a problem. Now you've gashed me and you've probably scored 30. But if you ran for 160 yards on 40 carries, you slowed the game down, the clock ran more, you had fewer possessions, I get one turnover and two red zone stops, even if you marched the ball up and down the field on me the whole game,

because you have so few possessions, you probably didn't score more than 20 points. That's how the modern game is evaluated when they put together game plans. how many yards I give up to you mean nothing. I want to know how many yards I gave up on every play. If I'm giving up a lot on the run, that's a problem. But I certainly don't want to give up a lot per play, run or pass.

That is a recipe to give up 30 plus a game. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, because it used to drive me crazy like the first time I started working in this and everybody would just say the same stuff over and over again. Stop the run, stop the run, stop the run. Yeah, it's bullshit. They don't really, they say it because they believe they,

In my heart of hearts, and maybe I'm wrong, I believe players and coaches alike have been programmed for so long to publicly say, we are here to stop the run because I think there is a built-in, you can call it machoism. Totally. That's exactly what it is. There is an element of,

if you're going to beat me, it's not going to be because you're tougher than me. You're more physical than me. I can, I'm not saying I agree, but hypothetically, I believe a lot of football coaches say, if you're going to beat me, you're going to beat me because of your past game and you threw it over my head and we're going to tell the corner to be better, but you're not tougher than me. And I think the new age coaches go, the point is to score more and give up less. It doesn't matter to me how we go about doing that.

If you ran for 180 yards on me and you scored 16 points, I'm thrilled. Who gives a shit if you were deemed to be tougher than me? I scored more points than you and we won. So I do believe we're like slowly getting out of that, but teams don't like the idea of the perception being, you ran the ball down my throat. You're right. It feels uncomfortable.

And I would argue, well, how many points did you give up? Yeah, no, I'm with you. I think you nailed it. I want to ask you what you're doing with Luke Keekely because I know you've got a new video series coming out October 19th. Yeah, so Luke, myself, Jonathan Stewart, my dad, we've been coaching the middle school team here in town

at our kids' school, Charlotte Christian. This is our third year coaching it. Luke, my dad and I have been doing it for a lot of these kids for five years back when they were in like fifth and sixth grade at Pop Warner. Then in seventh grade, they join, you know, we do it at school. So this is our third year doing it.

We've teamed up with whistle sports. They are, they're doing like a hard knocks behind the scene. They've been videoing weight room sessions back in the spring, summer morning workouts, film sessions, bus rides, talking to the, like a hard-knock see behind the scenes of like our season from summer workouts all the way through the games and the rest of the year. So it'll come out here in like another month. They've been filming a lot.

We've been teasing some of the videos online on social just to get people a flavor and a feel. But from the early response, I think people love it. I think there's an appetite and a desire for like wholesome grassroots local sports and just watching a bunch of young boys be coached hard. And we are on them. We coach them hard. We demand a lot. It is not an easy team to play for.

But I think people I've really enjoyed seeing like what this looks like at the young level. and when you do it when it's important and it's disciplined and it's hard. And I think people have really eaten it up and they've just gotten a taste of what we're doing. So Whistle's been a great partner. They've been producing this whole thing and capturing it. And I think we're all excited to see what the finished product looks like. Is that going to be on YouTube or where is that going to be? Yeah.

So it'll be on YouTube. You can go to our You Think Instagram account where a ton of our videos are, just some snapshots of us coaching, some of our drills from the summer. film session, weight, it really encompasses our entire middle school program at school. But yeah, it'll live on YouTube,

both at Whistle Sports and at You Think. And I think it's eight, I think it's when it's all done, it's going to be eight episodes. And if you want, one of those tasty lids, Greg is rocking for those watching on Netflix, Youthinkshop.com.

Appreciate that. You get all the information there. This is awesome. Enjoy your game this week. And I'm sure we'll catch up again this season, Greg. Thanks. Yeah, man. It's always good to be on. I love talking ball. Sorry, I can nerd out a little bit.

I just love to talk to other people that love it. Don't apologize because for me, it's an education too. So I love it and I know the audience does. So thanks, man. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you, man. Take care. Football is here and so is Draft Kings. The Draft King Sports app is now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement. And this September, Draft Kings is giving customers the opportunity to get boosted every football game day. That's right. Every game day, all month long,

Draft King's customers can get a football profit boost. So we have some trends for you here. We know we've messed around with, what was it, fade couch, sharp, where I would get a pick, but it was getting in so late. And then it was like a disastrous year for people that were good at it. And again, it wasn't me picking it. And then I would do whatever I saw on the couch and then fading the public. So it was a complete disaster. So we're going to try to run that back. do. We're due for that one. If you look at the most handle of any single game, it's Philadelphia against Tennessee. Now, if you're looking at handle by size, which is usually like fading what

everybody's betting on, this is actually a very kind of non-public pick. But the Jets are actually at plus three and a half against Green Bay getting the most amount of money bet on them. Number two is Philadelphia minus seven and a half against Tennessee. That number opened at four and a half. and then Tampa is in third, the most amount of money being bet, minus eight and a half for Cleveland. So the Tennessee Cleveland one are very public things, big numbers laying that as a favor against bad football teams. But, you know, a little sneaky, sneaky Jets offense plus three and a half against Green Bay. That actually surprised me a little bit. As far as props, Jamar Chase is just running away with the entire podium.

He's the most bet on over 100 plus yards, the most bet on 70 plus yards, the most bet on 80 plus So it's three different Jamar Chase ones there for you. So if I'm looking at the public amount of money that's out there, which is something that you can try to do, there's a bunch that, look, on paper, you're never going to like picking the team. Nobody else is picking because you're like, well, no wonder nobody wants to bet on Miami. Plus 12.5. 12 and a half is a staggering number in the NFL. There's also maybe the Saints, because after that, that's probably one of the most public

things where no one wants to take the Saints against Baltimore. It means I kind of don't want to either. So you probably plug that one in plus eight and a half for them. But I'm going to go with Denver. A lot of people on Jacksonville laying the two and a half points visiting the Broncos after the week one disaster for Denver. And Jacksonville looking so good. So I kind of like Denver in that spot, minus two and a half at home. One app, every sport, all 50 states.

New Draft Kings customer sign up with Code Ryan, spend just five bucks. Get 200 in total rewards within 21 days. Includes all markets. That's code Ryan, RY, RYEN, in partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. The Alliance marches on a little later this season because you were trying to figure everything out. So let's bring in the boys right now.

Did Kyle end up winning last year? I can't find the, I have the NBA. But Kyle did. Yes, I did. He did. I won it all, guys. There was some controversy. I pretend like I did or didn't.

I won it all. Yeah, listen. Give me my fucking footlong sandwich or whatever you're supposed to give me. Let's just, we are, you're supposed to have the prize before we start the new thing and we didn't do that. We're already starting to like stand up late.

Not a night owl newsflash. All right. Well, the board is yours, Kyle. Champ. Thanks. Just for the record, Kyle was 55%. I was 50%. Ryan, 38%.

So. I won. Thank you. Sure. Vibes pick. I'm just taking the Patriots spread. I don't care what it's going to be. Right now, it's five and a half.

I'm taking them. It's vibes pick. I'm wearing that same jersey again. Hopefully I'm not going to end up at a billiards place because it's a Sunday, but emotional bounce back. Totally, totally. Okay. All right, I like it.

You mentioned you liked Denver. I like the over in that game. I actually would pick the Jags, I think, if I was taking a side as well. I'm just kind of a Trevor Lawrence believer now, I guess. Maybe I'm a Liam Cohen believer, and they kind of whipped their ass last year in Denver, too. So I kind of, I'm a Jags believer, but I think they'll just be points in this game. I think Denver's going to be desperate, so give me over 45 and a half. I feel like the secret is out about how bad Western Kentucky is.

But let's see if we can keep it going one more week. The Hoosiers. Indiana, Hoosier Daddy. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-800-Gambler. 1-800-800-800-9-777-7-7-7. Or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas,

bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Canada. Bet with Draft King's Sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days. trade with Draft King's predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York. Non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50 click the claims every seven days for 21 days.

One single use boost per customer per day. Expires at the end of the final select game when offered. Valid for select football transactions on the platform for which it's been issued. Terms at dkng.g.com slash offer. Limited time offer. Nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability. Ferries by state. Limited time offer.

Minus 44 and a half. against my secret typing. Sighting. Not a tight operation down there for the hilltoppers as it right now. We're locked into that one Saturday. We don't do this a lot. A bonus 10 minutes inside of the podcast. A little NBA talk, but there's a reason behind it.

I've felt for years now that San Vicini is the best draft guy that I read, and we've had them on the show. We haven't had them on enough, and now we get to have them on as much as we want, because one of the things of me coming over to bar stool was I wanted to try to find people that I wanted to work with, and bring them in and we're here to announce that Sam Vassini and Game Theory are coming over to be a part of my thing and partnering up with Barstool and Sam joins us now.

I love it. I'm super excited to team up with you. I'm super excited to see him up at Barstool. Like, I think this is an amazing fun ride that we're going to go on. Like I'm, I couldn't be more pumped. Yeah, look. I and Surrudi is is pumped. I think he wants to work more. So he was like, you know, your show's cool and all, but I want to start doing more stuff. And, you know, look, you get it. We're huge fans. And it's funny because I feel like I get so caught up in the draft stuff. It's like I just don't have Sam on enough to just do NBA because I know that I'm just,

you know, how my draft schedule works. So it's going to be great. So what are you doing Sunday, Tuesday, Thursdays? And then the first show is going to be when? So plan is for the preseason. We will go Sunday and Thursdays once the season starts. Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday will be our normal Sunday show that I always do. Tuesday will just be me by myself.

So Rudy and I are talking about setting up a voicemail feed for you guys to be able to call in, ask me questions. We'll just fire away. Tuesday games are often pretty good. I think that's the Amazon night if memory serves. So typically we get some good games on Tuesday night. And then Thursday night will be the normal show. We have a couple of really fun people that are going to come on throughout the year. I know that.

Definitely a couple of episodes a month. They're going to be draft centric. So really excited about that. And then throughout, we're just going to supplement. with different interviews, people who want to come on. I'm sure, you know, I hope that some of the Barstall people want to join in and have some fun. So yeah, I mean, I'm really, really looking forward to kind of expanding this now that I don't have any writing to do anymore. So you're not going to do any writing.

You're not going to do anything on substack, all these scattering reports. We'll see. It's possible that like in March, I feel like I need to do something and like release something. but I have left the athletic, so I don't have a place to write right now other than the substack. So I'm pretty good. That is the smile of a writer who doesn't have to write as much anymore. It really is. Man, those were those were dossiers on every single guy.

So, all right, well, let's do a quick topic here. I'm not ready to do any kind of NBA preview, and I don't want to do anything like that. Now that the dust is settled with this clipper situation, and by the way, like, I can't really knock the clippers for releasing the fact that Balmer was basically going to accept the punishment and turn the page on this and releasing it during Sunday night football with Dallas and New York. But it's so obvious why they would be releasing it by then. I also couldn't like, I don't want to apologize. Yeah, I don't want to apologize to me like, that's dirty. But it's also tactically probably the right move with this. But look, a lot of wrong moves have led the clippers to this. And whether it's you

kind of taking it all in, we've never talked about it or looking at the roster, go wherever you want. Yeah, I mean, so two separate things. Like I thought the punishment was justified based off what they found in the Wachtel report. I found it interesting that Kauai sort of got off Scott free, but then you listened to Pablo Torre today, as we're recording on Tuesday night, rather. He reported that Kauai and the Players Association kind of came to the table. And they were like, hey, we're willing to negotiate in a way that the clippers weren't. So given that, you kind of understand why it ended up being the way it was. where Kawhi got off scot-free. And once the Players Association was involved in this deal,

it became very, very difficult for Steve Balmer to really challenge it in any way. He couldn't take it to arbitration. He needed to either make a decision on do I take this to court or not? Do I try to sue the NBA? And I don't know, man, like, I'm not saying Steve Balmer's guilty of anything beyond the Quile Leonard Capsar Convention thing, which the Waxel report lays out. But like, I often think that with billionaires, you may not want too, too many investigators digging into a lot of your life. And you open yourself up to a whole lot of scrutiny and discovery if you decide to go down that road. So I'm not super surprised that the Clippers decided to just let this go. What I find interesting, though, Ryan, and I'm interested to hear what you.

you think about this. I've seen people say like straight up the sky is falling for the clippers and that they're going to be terrible for the next decade and everything. I just do not agree with that. I think that they are not in a great spot, obviously. But I don't understand why people look at this with Steve Ballmer still being the richest owner in the NBA, them having a ton of flexibility here moving forward on their cap sheet. Also having three first round picks still.

It's not like they have been left with none. they have three first round picks still in their cash. Like I'm just confused why everyone's like, they're done. This is curtains for like the Clippers organizationally. So someone say like they need a rebrand. I was just like, like let's chill out a little bit here.

I remind the audience of this all the time and why the audience gets mad at shows, but there's just no real way to do this topic the next day on the show without saying that the sky is falling. Because if you're sitting at the desk and pick whatever TV show desk you're at, it's just like, It's almost like the pre-show meeting if you go, yeah, well, I can see their way out of it.

It's just more fun. It's a better conversation if everybody's trying to out doomsday scenario, everyone else. And that's what happens. Well, especially when it comes to punishment, you know, it's like in the moment when people start speculating like what punishment should be. And you're like, wait a minute. And then everybody tries to like out punish punishment to everybody else. I thought it was significant punishment, but I'm with you.

Like, if you look at the way teams work and, You know, if there is bad, like, I was looking at it. Like, if Wago turns into something, then maybe it's a path of, like, thinking you're flirting with the play in, but that's a huge, huge leap as of right now. I still like Garland a lot. He's also really expensive. If you go through their depth chart and look at the center situation, it's pretty brutal. And I'm not a Brandon Ingram guy. I never will be.

He'll scores 20 a game. I don't care. He's also pretty expensive as well. But I'm with you because, like, it, there's a, look, there's a chance they're not good for, like 10 years and everybody will point to this. It's like, well, there's also chances like other teams aren't good for 10 years. But with their resources and the fact they'll probably flip these picks for somebody else and then when they have cap space and it's for a player that can't get that money somewhere else,

guess what he's going to do? He's going to sign where the cap space is. That player is not going to care about all of this stuff. So to act, you know, and to talk about this the day after I get the motivation behind the certainty of no way out in 10 to 15 years. but I can see where, you know, we could be sitting here in three years going, well, they kind of found a way through this thing, not necessarily to be a title contender, but a way to be far better off than anyone is thinking in 2026. Yeah, just thinking about it from the perspective

of, okay, so the Nets made in 2013 the massive trade for Paul Pearson, Kevin Garnett, that essentially turned into a death penalty of sorts for their organization. within five or six years, they had signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and were set up to go make a deal for James Hardin because they drafted Jared Allen and Karras Levert and all these guys that, you know, DeAngelo Russell ended up making an all-star game there. Then it turned out to be pretty good. So on top of that, the clippers are just way more well set up than what that Nets organization was. And I think the two situations are actually relatively comparable because you're looking at richest owner in the NBA in the L.A. market versus. you know, Brooklyn under Prokerov or whatever, right, at that time. And I think Si is the one that ended up taking over and ended up signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie. But

it's a very similar situation to me, this big market little brother type of team that is trying to get over the hump, trying to get past the Lakers, trying to get past the New York Knicks in the case of Brooklyn within their own marketplace. And they actually have a top five pick in Keaton Wogler that you and I both really like. They have really nobody on the books outside of Wogler and a couple of their other younger guys here moving forward beyond two years from now, including Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram. They have the ability with Steve Ballmer where if they wanted to take on really bad

contracts in order to get draft picks, nobody in the NBA is going to be able to do that with more ease financially than what Steve Balmer is going to be able to do so once he takes over the team again in a year. And on top of that, they have like interesting guys like Rui and Chris Dunn and Derek Jones Jr. And other guys like that where if they don't extend those guys, they're going to be able to trade them for maybe not anything more than, you know, a bottom five first round pick. But at the very least a bunch of second round picks that they'll be able to take flyers on. And the last thing that I'll say about this too in terms of what their future is you talk to people around the league and you get to know people within the Clippers front office, which I'm sure you do as well. this front office is widely, widely, widely respected as having one of the deepest benches in the NBA.

Trent Redden would have a GM job, a head of basketball operations job, if it wasn't for the fact that the clippers just continue to pay to have him around at the end of the day. You look at somebody like Monty McNair, like who just went there. Monty McNair was a former executive of the year. Mark Hughes is really well regarded. it is like an older head around that can really help kind of bring everybody together. They still have Ty Lou, who's a terrific coach. Their structural integrity as an organization is really, really high,

even without guys like Lawrence Frank around. Yeah, I would agree with that. Everybody raves about, I would say, everything that you just talked about, staff and Lou and all that kind of stuff. And I just cannot tell you how little players will care about everything that just happened. They're not going. These guys don't care about this stuff.

Ryan, Jalen Duren right now is like trying to find a way to get to Sacramento, which is one of the organizations in the league that I think would be pretty comparable historically to the L.A. Clippers, or at least reportedly he's trying to figure out if there's a route to getting him to Sacramento either by taking the qualifying offer or, you know, potential sign and trade outcomes, whatever. Does he want to play behind Ben Simmons? I guess if he gets the contract. point. Yeah. I mean, that's a whole new look. You know what's really funny about this, though, is I still can't get over the timeline of the Clippers wanting the win that was like the fakesest win ever for those 24, 48 hours after the ESPN report. Because you're kind of like, why? Like, what did it feel like to do that and then know that none of this was accurate? And, you know, as I said after it happened the next day, like, remember this the next time you think an investigation is taking a little too long. And, yeah.

If anything were ever rushed and done wrong, then the same people would be crushing them for rushing through this whole thing. And granted, the Kauai trade made it even stranger because you had this uncertainty, even though you had people in Toronto that had worked like pretty closely in the NBA that probably had an idea of like, hey, if I do this, is this a disaster? And it's like, well, it might be more on the clippers than it's going to be on Kauai to the point that you just made. But it's going to be one of those strange things that I'll just never quite understand of whatever. you can't even call it a win. The temporary window that they expect, it was almost like they were trying to convince themselves that it wasn't going to go against him.

And then the NBA releases that statement being like, yeah, that whole report isn't true. It clearly wasn't true. You go through the findings. And I think, if anything, the findings are telling us the reason it took so long is because the bad information never stopped coming in and we're still following up on some of this stuff.

And I could see the Clippers maybe originally going like, you know, anyone who watches these crime shows like, what do you actually have us on? And, like, well, other than Balmer handing a duffel bag of cash to Kauai at the 50-yard line of the halftime show the Super Bowl, like, this is fairly damning stuff, and it's not just a one-off. It's incident after incident. So, you know, sometimes I always try to think of, like, what was happening there? And I think it was survival mode.

I think it was survival mode. And then hoping that messaging would get out and that messaging would somehow influence this. But it's like, yeah, but no one in the league that got. and talks to everybody all the time is talking to anyone that's doing the investigation. Like this is an independent law firm. So when I went through the report, I went, like, if you kind of knew about some of this stuff were being asked and so many of your employees are being interviewed about this stuff, like you had to have known.

You guys were probably fucked. And they, for whatever reason, wanted to kind of fake everybody out for a couple days. Strange. So I'll almost take that on the other way. like, I think that they didn't think they were fucked. And all of their actions up until the last, you know, what, like week or so, once Palmer decided to say that, oh, we're going to comply. Well, the first action was, was the Palmer's personal lawyers saying that this has done irreparable harm to his reputation and like, well, will. Yeah, totally.

But, I mean, lawyers, lawyers, they love that stuff. It's like, this is awesome. I get to, like, really get mad on behalf of my client about something. To me, I think the whole thing was that. they feel like what they were doing was legal. Like, I actually believe that. And all of their actions up until now say that, including the actions of the front office,

because if you look at the report, Lawrence Frank cooperated with them, essentially is what the report says, is that he has diligent notes, anybody around the NBA that, you know, knows Lawrence Frank will tell you, he is a diligent, diligent note taker. And he had all these notes and was, you know,

comfortable speaking with the investigators with Wachtell Lipton and tell them what the deal was. Now, I think that the reality is that Lawrence Frank had to know what was in his notes, and he had to know on some level that he had spoken to investigators. He did it himself. The problem for me is that I genuinely think they didn't think that what they did was legal, because if they did, they wouldn't illegal, sorry, they, wouldn't have handled their operations and basketball decision making in the same way they did.

Think about losing the Aviza Zubots pick, right? So they trade Avita Zubots for Benedict Matherin, Isaiah Jackson, two first round picks, one of which was the pick that turned into Keaton Wogler. That only had a 50-50 chance of eventuating. So think about it in terms of what would have happened with that Zubot's deal, if the Pacers had kept that pick, right? They would have had this pick now extended out to 2028. They probably would have lost that pick. And they probably would have lost the pick in 2029

that they eventually lost anyway in this deal via forfeiting it in their penalty. So I actually genuinely believe, and then they let Ben Matherin just walk because they were comfortable letting Ben Matherin walk. I genuinely believe that the way that they handled their basketball, basketball operations and their decision making over the course of the last year says to me that they felt like what they did was actually not a problem. I think that they felt like introducing different sponsors to Uncle Dennis or whatever

was within the bounds. I think that's the only thing that I can logically wrap my head around is making sense. Maybe. And knowing the gray area of stories that we hear about different players and but like, oh, hey, if this guy goes here, like in some of this stuff is, as I've said numerous times, like some of it almost gets talked about is this is completely accepted by their shoe deals or all of a sudden somebody's popping up and doing advertisements for some combined sponsor. So maybe I also think they might have looked at zoo going, hey, this is a great chance at a top pick.

And so in a vacuum, we would do this no matter what. So it could speak to like, let's just keep moving forward even if we know we're in trouble. I mean, you make a really good argument for it. I just can't imagine Gillian Zucker getting done being interviewed being like, this is fine. like this is going to be good and then not telling other people and be like they have emails from my assistant

who's like a contracted employee of the Clippers essentially admitting that he's structuring or she I believe was structuring the deal for aspiration but look the last thought I have on it is that I can't wait to see what the Raptors extension is going to be for Kauai

because that was probably all worked out ahead of time those things are worked out ahead of time C-Trey Young's extension so that's one of those things that is just kind of an accepted part of this whole thing. Toronto always has a special place of annoying for me because I was even listening to a reporter on NBA radio not that long ago and he was talking about how the East stacks up and that Toronto is being overlooked as a favorite. And it's like, man, first of all, it's not about Toronto.

It's about the East. Like I got to argue maybe seven or eight teams to be a one or a two seed this year. Like the East is going to be incredible. But it also speaks to like when Toronto gets something, they're so much more appreciative of getting something because they think everybody's out to get them and everyone's against them. And I think more often than not, they're completely misguided and we're just able to throw an international label on this whole thing.

But Kauai is very lucky that he is the most reluctant superstar I've maybe ever seen in this lead. Because if this is somebody with a big personality, somebody that was everywhere, I mean, the irony being that Kauai doesn't have all of these endorsement deals except for apparently all of these,

that we will turn the page on Kauai because we've been so confused by him for over a decade. Like he just gets to kind of move on and he's not going to be the subject of talk shows because he's just never really going to talk about any of this stuff. And we've accepted that he's like a detached personality from a league that's full of strong personalities. Well, in that vein, too, I think that it has kind of worked to underrate how good he still is in a lot of ways.

from December onward last year, he was pretty clearly one of the five best players in the league. He was ridiculous. I also can't help but notice that it was before he was worried about his next contract extension. But to your point, he was, when you went through the number, it was kind of like, is he really doing this? Like, I'm watching it. Then you're going, he is off the church. So I'm with you. So keep going.

It was like 29, six and four on like 52, 42, 90 or something in his last 50 games of the year. It was absurd. He is genuinely the exact player that Toronto Raptors need to be able to push them because he is the perfect fit next to Scotty Barnes. He's not a guy that is going to attack the rim relentlessly. He's just a perfect score. What's Scotty Barnes? He's a guy that can really distribute.

He can play as a point guard. He's a really great defender, obviously. But where he took that next leap forward for me in the playoffs was he just sort of relentlessly attacking the rim. He was like, nope. I've figured out now that nobody. can stop me from getting here. I am physical. I am stronger than these guys. I'm more athletic than they are. I'm just going to live at the foul line moving forward. I think that Kauai is the

perfect compliment for Scotty Barnes as a player. And you look at what they have from like a positionless basketball perspective with Colin Murray Boyles, you know, being able to play the center position and hold that down. And then you look at, you know, Emmanuel Quickly and RJ Barrett and everybody else they still have in this roster. I get it from Toronto fans perspective. Like I don't know that I will have them at like number one in the regular season in the Eastern Conference or anything. They and the Knicks are probably the two teams right now I would not want to run into in the playoffs. Yeah, we'll see what Philadelphia looks like, but man, I think that team is so dangerous in a playoff setting. They can play big, they can play small. They have an absolute assassin with Kauai Leonard

as long as he's healthy and gets through the regular season. I think that team is super, super dangerous and I'm really, really excited to watch them. But yeah, that's a, that's a scary team to me in the East, to be honest. I'm worried that Kauai gets his deal and it's like, you want me to play the playoffs this year? But if he's playing, you're absolutely right, because he's so good and he's good in a way that isn't disruptive to your other good players. I mean, he's, I don't want to, it feels incents, well, in sense of a stupid word, insulting to say that he's a complimentary player, but you need someone to. compliment what scotty barnes just did because i'm i'm with you like whatever kind of up and down

relationship i've had with scotty barns and look the the downs aren't that significant you were just like i wonder if he's actually going to kind of be like a guy a guy or he's just going to be like really good it's kind of fun but maybe it's just never that polished i'm totally with you that cleveland series i was like remember this series when you talk about them next year and when you talk about scotty barns and who he is like who is contemporary should be like start to start to whatever that is Start moving him up because I thought that was a spectacular series. And I'm with you. I don't think Kauai coming in, even with the way he's going to get his touch and a lot

kind of stuff, I don't think it screws you up the way somebody's like ball dominant point cards. It's like, all right, well, cool. But now what are you going to do to everybody else that you're here? No, it's almost in some level a less ball dominant Brandon Ingram. Like Brandon Ingram is the guy that will catch, we'll hold the ball, we'll try to dribble four or five times and then he'll kind of take over the offense in some way. Kauai lets things come to him and yes, he'll live in the midposts sometimes and we'll take

jumpers. But man, I think it's pretty seamless. And I think it's just way better fit than what Brandon Ingram was for them last year, even throwing away the playoffs. Like people forget Brandon Ingram made the All Star game last year. That's the really funny thing. It was absurd when he made the All Star game over Scotty when it happened. But he did. He wasn't terrible throughout the course of the regular season like he was in the playoffs. It, It's just a better fit with Kauai because he moves the ball quickly. He's a lot more seamless in terms of his decision making. He fits that positional, you know, position list style of basketball that Darko Rykovic and everybody there wants to run so wonderfully.

Yeah, I mean, man, the Clippers thing is just so, it's so weird to me because they're going to figure out how to work Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram together. And do we trade one of them? Do we trade another one of them? Like, do we try to trade, you know, Darius Garland and get draft picks? They're just in such a weird position here moving forward. First episode is Sunday. Sunday. All right.

So we go Sunday. We're going to talk about rookies that we're excited to watch this year. So just keep it real simple, right in the bread and butter. We want to get, we thought about doing a mock draft to start, but we want to get it like really well set with graphics. And that's what the team at Barstool has been amazing. about so far is like, hey, we're not going low-fi anymore. We're going to have something like really nice to be able to present for people whenever we're doing shows like this. So that's what's going to be really, really great about the upgrade here in terms of moving

over to work with you and to team up with folks at Barstool. It's just really, really exciting. People behind the scenes of Barstool is going to blow you away. Like, I believe it. Even from like the limited interactions that I've had with them so far, they're amazing. It's incredible. And it's really important. impressive. And Serudi and I remember after like our first meeting and Sir Rudy was like almost chuckling like out loud just going like holy shit, this place is buttoned up. Maybe a redraft of the 26 draft? Is it too soon? You know, I think that we could probably do it. Yeah, do you want to come on and redraft the 26 NBA draft? And you know, preseason before they play a game. I think

that's the right way to go about it. I'm in zone coverage mode right now. So I'm in a couple weeks before I can do any of that. You're too busy watching Josh Allen just be like the greatest short you know, rushing player, not running back, but rushing player in NFL history. So I get it. Yeah, man. Wide stance. Wide stance on that guy. Thanks, Sam. And thank you for jumping over with us. And we're really excited to get started, man. I can't wait to start working with you. Couldn't be more excited, guys. Thanks. Today's life advice is presented by YouTube TV. Guys, the NFL season is finally here. And if you're like me, your Sunday revolves entirely around making sure you don't miss.

a single snap of the action. Why limit yourself to just one game on Sunday? You should be in total command, seeing every big play and every touchdown across the entire league right there on your big screen. But thank God for NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. It literally gets you every game, every Sunday, plus features like multi-view,

so you can watch up to four games at once. You can just lock in and watch the games unfold without missing a thing. And get this, for new users, it's just eight payments of $30 a month. Stop stressing out. Go sign up right now. now at YouTube.com forward slash NFLST.

New users pay $240 or eight non-cancelable payments of $30 a month. First charge of purchase. Availability varies with NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games and YouTube TV for local and national games. YouTube TV required. Terms and embargoes apply. Device and content restrictions apply to multi-view. Commercial use excluded, no refunds.

You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every tool you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Life advice are at gmail.com. That's the email. The inbox is just absolutely resonating. I mean, it's showing up on the Geiger counters. It's just a lot, a lot of activity, a lot of activity. Great hat from Cerroo.

Rudy, I can only hope that Revolve men will have that. I don't know that they will. This is a limited edition. But no, Kyle's asked me, I wore my revolve stuff yesterday. I just, you know, I just didn't pop quite like. Just didn't pop as much. All right. Yeah.

It was a nice little Viori, long-sleeve number. You know, I'm a dad. I get, you know, I like the Viori stuff. So he needs some gear. Kyle, is that? Revolve. This is Revolve. Yeah, I kind of had a 90s.

Yeah. I got one more. in the Ralph Loren. I got one more. It's also Ralph Lauren. But yeah, all sort of like, you know, turn of the century sort of stuff. I might go do a Sears photo shoot later today. I'm just really feeling it with the fall and everything. You do you dabble in the purple label at all? No, no, no. I mean, it's a dream. It's a dream. You know, a gal can dream. But it's a dream. Yeah. You're right. It is once you, once you hit yes, I feel like being financially secure, is clicking on,

two-day shipping, 20 bucks. It gives a shit. Yeah. That's real money. Right. No, you know what? I don't actually need another item to get free shipping.

I'll just take this. Yeah, free shipping four to eight days. Two-day FedEx? Yep. Things are good. Things are real good. It makes it easier on their end too, right? You know, it's a streamline.

You're doing them. Yeah. All right. Let's see here. Danbury Mall. Really? Fellas, I have, we get emails about Danbury all week. Really?

It's the hottest topic. That's awesome. And I don't have, like, anything to say about it. I mean either. I don't know. Yeah, no. It's out of my sense. What's their food court like, live show there?

What are what kind of numbers we do there? I don't know. I mean, it's kind of a, you know, we might get. some tri-state action over there. Which market you think we do the worst in? Live show. Because I was like, look in, I got a notification for this comedian who's doing the Kia Forum and I'm like, he can fill that place.

I'm like, that seems like no way. I was shocked. So I started like looking at tickets going, this isn't really going to happen. So I don't, I don't know that that's going to be yet. And now I'm thinking. And I started thinking about it. It was like, which, which venue would I go to where they're like? Probably any of tickets still available.

Probably Oxford, Oxford, Mississippi. No, no, no. I had to think about it. The Oxford show was a day show. I know. It was pretty full for it being the terrible time. Yeah. It worked out all right.

Considering, yes. But as it was happening, that was one of those moments. It was like, you probably should have thought about this a little bit more. A day show Thursday before the LSU. crew. I feel like I heard you say out loud to maybe no one in particular, like, I never want to do some shit exactly like this again. I think I heard.

Like, it's 100% my fault. I wanted to go to Ole Miss so bad. I was like, I want to do the live show. We're going to make this whole thing happen. We got van. Yeah, yeah, that works. Or that's good. Or what's going on there is I hold up a credit card in my hand with my number on it backwards because I need to pay a bill a little bit later. So that's probably going to work out great.

Blurred it out. Yeah. Thank you to IT. But yeah, that only show. Well, what happened when we were also waiting on LSU and then they didn't let us know, and this isn't their fault at all. I was like, we just didn't know what the team travel was. Could we get coach? And there's one person to blame, me. No, no, no.

I didn't want to do this. No, it's okay. Sometimes you just have to step up and go, I didn't think this out. And then I spent, fuck, man, I don't know how long it was there. I think I joined a 24-7 fitness. We did go out to that. We went out with a van and had those slug. she drinks.

Bagged, bagged cocktails. I mean, that's what then Van. Can't even put those down. We're supposed to have a night. You gotta hold them until you're done.

Van had the, his dog ate a tennis ball. Right. Right. So then he had to leave. He had to fly back to L.A. He just looked at me too. He's like,

I cannot believe we've been planning this night together. Right. Because it was going to be Van in the wild. And then we actually ended up having like, and I remember having like this moment too where I was sitting there and I was at one of the places and it was shout up to Lee. Because I wasn't at the other place.

I was at one of the other ones. And he took care of me a little bit. And then I was like, okay, what do you want this to be? And I was like, he should probably just go home. Because then Van left. I was like, I don't know, man. All right. Let's read some emails here.

Danbury, speaking of, I think I do okay in Danbury. Yeah, I was, I was really rack in my branch. figure out what the worst place would be like how big does this have to be well there's look anything over a certain number i would do awful so like let's throw that one size i mean any of the flyover states i mean you're taking a risk right flyover states i don't think taking a risk i mean just depending on how spread out the listenership is you know you might have a lot of people in the decodas but are they near where you're going i think we did if we did omar Nebraska show it'd be fine i love saying that's cow Nebraska i think

I think we do, we crush Nebraska. I love that. I think Iowa would be great. And I'm not nice about Nebraska at all. I'm like, that's never, the 90s is never happening again. Yeah. Maybe now we wouldn't do well. All right.

I am really just easing into these emails lately. Do you want me to tell you a story while we're dicking around? I'm going to do this for everybody. I was so annoyed by my phone. I was annoyed by all the incoming chatter. Nothing to do with the show, nothing to do with work. Work's been great. Works been fucking awesome.

We're almost a year in here, and it's been an awesome, awesome deal. I cannot express that enough. But just other stuff. I was like, I don't feel like dealing with any of this. And so I wanted to go play the par three, trying to gear up for the Cedar trip. And I haven't done this in front. I just was like, I'm not bringing my phone. Not bringing my phone.

Freedom. Yeah. On the trip or just for a few hours yesterday? To leave. Okay. Well, no, the whole trip would be a little difficult. Okay. If I didn't have work responsibilities or work in a place where you probably need to, like, be available for people asking questions.

I just was like, I'm going to leave the house without the phone, and I'm going to play the par three. And it was, you check for a phone that isn't there like three times instinctively, but then it wasn't there. And I'm like, oh, this is great. Like, who gives a shit? I kind of want to get back to it, man. you know like we found you can't do that for another like fucking 15 years till those kids are grown yeah he's like he can't even try that shit kids did great for centuries i know but now now there's no coming back no i mean i'm in the i what do you mean

i'm in the young enough age with them where like they don't need my my kids aren't getting phones until oh now your kids we're talking about what a daycare needs to call you dude yeah i guess that's true that's right maybe i got to get a line line perfect example of that right my kid is home and she got strep through. It was fun. Maybe I got to get a landline. Just bring the landline back, put the phone down and just, hey, if you need me, call my landline and, like, only a few people have that number. It's not, like, my phone is just half spam anyway, you know? But you're right. I'm on my phone, like, just like, why am I on the 4-U page with dudes arguing whether or not, like, Maclemore's

actually underrated or not as a musician? I'm like, I don't need to be reading this stuff. I'm good. You know what's insane about the political spam stuff that I'm getting out here is that it's all automated and every time it's an ex-girlfriend's name. It's the same ex-it's like, hey, it's, fill in the blank of my ex-girlfriend's name. It'll be like, hey, it's, and I'm like, what? It's like, curious if you've thought about how much almond farming is costing Californians when it comes to water. I was like, oh, it's like she would never bring this up. Stop.

Well, you guys get like the, hey, like, what are you doing or I think? I started like responding to those to see what would happen and nothing happens. so I don't know. I told one was live and she was like, do you have a stance on this political thing? And I was like, honestly, it's been just a really bad week for me. And she was like, are you okay?

And I just started like dumping all sorts of scenarios on her. I was like, I just didn't even know how I can stand for anything if I can't stand for myself. She was like super receptive to it. Like, oh my God. And then she checked in the next day. She was that worried about me. Oh, wow.

you know it's kind of nice so yeah yeah she was great or AI is getting even better but yeah I'm playing the par three and I did kind of get mixed up with the Miracosta high school team and so at one point there was like somebody straggling and I was like this is going to be a good look if it's like I saw her Silla playing with four high school girls at the par three the other day that's a little weird so then I didn't even know what to do like I'd say anything to anybody but that I noticed a hawk that was watching me for like 20 minutes, just floating above me. And I was like,

if I had had my phone, I wouldn't even see this hawk watching me for 20 minutes. And it was just up there in the wind, you know, magnificent. Back to the Danbury Mall. Oh, yeah, 10 minutes. Danbury Mall, let's go.

I told myself to not do this, but I can't help it. The hawk was unbelievable. I would have never noticed he was watching me for that long. I have a new coworker who's from Danbury, lives in Newtown, Newtown, not Newtown. He recently said that the Danbury Mall is, quote, heinous, end quote, and was built on the land.

Uh-oh. Stolen land? No, no. No, built on the land that used to be, quote, a famous racetrack. I need a ruling from Kyle. Is he legit? Do I trust someone who dares demean the vaunted Danbury Mall? Also, he claims to be a descendant of Sir Francis Drake.

Do with that as you will. Sir Francis Drake's approval. took quite a hit six years ago. Kyle, was it a racetrack? I don't know. I know it was a fairgrounds from my research. I mean, a fairground seems like a pretty good place

to have a racetrack, maybe from time to time. I don't know. I don't care. I mean, where is this guy coming from that the Danbury Mall is heinous? Like, what malls that are you coming from

that you can really shit on the Danbury Mall? It's better than my mall. It's just not 45-minute drive every time I need to go to a mall. I respect the Danbury Mall, and I respect that they probably had a bad H-Fact day, when I went there. But, I mean, to call it heinous, where the fuck are you coming from, dude?

Well, apparently it does sit on the former site of the historic Danbury Race Arena, which was like a stock car racing track. So maybe he's a, yeah. I'm not saying he's wrong about the facts of what used to be there. I'm just saying they add it, like bring the attitude down a little bit. Is the Grove your home mall? Like, where are you from that? Like, you can say that about the fine folks at the Danbury Mall.

I'm going to tell you right now, people don't know this, but Connecticut is where racing lives. There's racetracks all over. Stafford Springs or Stafford Motor Speedway, I believe that's Stafford. Am I run on the Springs part of that? I think you are. Yes. Connecticut is sneaky hick, and I say that like respectfully. Big time. People have no idea. Really? Yeah. You should just give the entire like, like, Fairfield County should just be New York It's a difference. Yeah. Right. Well, there's pockets. There's like there's this, yeah, there's that.

Like, it's really like there is this wild hick. Like Connecticut is so much more hick than people would ever imagine. Real country. Yeah. Strange. But nobody wants to believe it. They just see the Mystic Seaport and be like, like how fancy these guys, nuclear subs. Look at Harvard. Right. Look at Hartford 21.

those windows. Well, put, put some more in Connecticut. Put some points on my map. I'll go, I'll go back there. I feel like I cut Surity off. No,

I got nothing. That just, that, it just is, it's, like, I think that would surprise people. You drive 20 minutes in,

like a different direction in Connecticut, and you're like, where am I right now? Like, what is happening? You know, you get like, just like,

you know, stuff on people's front lawns everywhere, you know, like, yeah, it's kind of crazy. I'm telling you, if you go off 84 and,

like head east for a little bit. Just take a spin. Bring the kids. Never heard of Jewett City? Just saying. What? What is? Come on, man.

All right. Did I break into this girl's apartment? Ooh, I like this. Okay. 510, 185, 22 years old. Run, lift, two, three days a week, eat too much candy. I buy candy and I don't eat it. See, I'm the opposite.

I try not to buy candy because I will eat it. I like get something at the airport going like, you know what? You haven't had a sweet tart two and two and I'll be like, and they'll have like two and go, what are you doing? But I don't know. Something about being on a long plane ride.

It just kind of. Feels like it's a necessity. Oh, I subscribe to like things that happen when you're traveling. Like don't count. Like I, you know, bag of raisinets. you know, McDonald's.

9 a.m. cheeseburgers. Yeah, like there's just no time. 5 a.m. 24 ounce. 24 ounce drafts. Yeah, Goose Islands. Like, yeah, I'll make it a double Bombay Sapphire.

I'm flying a Cleveland. What's the problem? It's Wednesday, sir. We're not open yet. We open at 6 a.m. All right. I can wait. I'll go buy some combos and I'll come back.

Yeah. Hopefully I'll get delayed. Yeah. Yeah. call it combos. All right. I have run a marathon with no training 415, no impressive gym stats these days. I need to shed a few pounds, but it's been a tough, but it's been tough working 60, 70 hours a week, player comp. Drew Timmy. Good footwork, good dad bod, play above my height, although I crash the board's a little harder. I like it. He's like Timmy, but I'm better on the board. A better rebate.

I'm a single guy. I think this is a confident guy here. I'm a single guy working 60, 70 hours a week in car sales at the best. dealership in, he gives us the state. I'm not going to do it just in case this is weird. Making awesome money, but I have very little free time if I want to get more than four hours of sleep. Sometimes I make the sacrifice, but no more than three nights a week. I just moved to Phoenix from Seattle and I'm single. I don't really have time to go out and meet girls much because of my hours. I'm great at talking to girls. Whoa, full stop. Say that again. I'm great at talking to girls. Have done well for myself dating. Have good game. I just don't have a lot of time.

I got Hinge, been on a few dates, I finally found a girl that struck, that it's stuck so far. Super cute, funny, all the good stuff. Sorry for the long intro. Here we go. First date, Sunday, pick her up, drinks, bars. Super fun late night.

We really hit it off. Next night we watch a show. Wow, back to back. Maybe it isn't, but the next night, we watch a show at her apartment for a few hours. It was a chill night, third night in a row.

So that's three nights in a row. So this guy's too cool to even give the cool break. You know, he's too, he just skips over the, like, you know, we'll let the next 48 hours linger. He's too cool for that. I'll tell you, though, when you find somebody you like, and then you just are confident enough to be like,

I'm picking you up later. We're hanging out again tonight. It's a good feeling. It's happened once. Ever. All right. So third night in a row yesterday, I pick her up, get a nice dinner, go back to her place,

watch our show, and she talked about this snack. She likes some Trader Joe's. I was already planning on going to Trader Joe's the next day. So, of course, I'm going to get her the snack as well as some flowers and surprise her with them at her apartment. Here we are. It's the next day now. I got her the snack. Flowers wrote a nice note.

I waited outside her building until someone let me in, walked to her door and was going to hang the paper bag with everything on it on her doorknob. When I did that, the door slightly opened because it was unlocked. I knew she was at work and also that she was about 10 hours from being done and going home. I made the judgment call to go into her apartment, grab a vase, fill it with water, and set up what I, what I got her nicely on her table, pictures attached below. On my way out, it started to hit me

that this could be taken weirdly. It could. Yep. Yeah. I always did stuff like this in my last relationship, but I've only been on three days per. Okay, let's not compare things then.

I told my sister and a female friend a couple hours ago, they both love the gesture, but said it depends on how close I am with a girl. We're pretty close for three dates. My last girlfriend wasn't litigious at all. So, I mean, this should be fine. been three days in a row two and a lot of hours together he's trying to maximize the hours here

to make it more justifiable but i still just want but i still just went into her place without her knowing here i am she'll be home in four or five hours so he sent this yesterday you guys will read this after but my question is what do you think i should have done was this too much or do you think i'll be fine how the hell is this going to go i'm kind of stressing but hopefully she'll understand where my heart was at not the trespassing this looks like on paper. If you guys want, I'll send an update once you read it on the show. Thanks. Love the pod. Pick attached below. It is a nice setup. But yeah, I think this is a, I mean, you know. This is definitely an Oregon trail type. You could definitely, A, B, C, or D, they all have their own

paths, you know, like, they certainly do. Choose your adventure. Go into the goals. Start rummaging for a base. Is there anything, before we dig into this one, is there anything to be said that she's so chill, she doesn't lock her door regularly, that that would mean that she's going to be okay with this? I mean, if you got a nice, you know, nice, you know, lobby with maybe a, not a doorman,

but if there's a reasonable amount of security to the outside of the building, but it sounds like there isn't. He just waited until somebody left and shot right up to the staircase, you know? So, I don't know. I think I would have locked the door, and then just hung the shit on the door

like I was going to do anyway and not done anything. But now I'm thinking like, what if she's like leaving it unlocked because she doesn't have a key or like maybe there's a reason and now I locked her out of her own place? Totally fine.

But to the root of the issue here, would you guys have done this? No, I would have left everything right where it was. I don't think I would have called and be like, hey, I'm at your door right now and something seems off. Even though that could be like a, she might respect that a lot.

I think I probably would have just done what I came there to do. Maybe locked door. Yeah. Here's the problem though. He said, hey, I was going to drop this off, but. If you leave everything as is, she'd be like, well, like my door's open. Like what happened?

You know what happened? Maybe you didn't know. And you're like, oh, no. Oh, you know what? Yeah, exactly. And then you're like, well, no, it was open, but I didn't want to go in. And you're like, well, what do you mean? You just left my door open.

Like, there's just, you're just, I feel like you're kind of inviting. Like, there's a no win here situation for you. The good news is this girl clearly likes you if you're hanging out this much. So I think it'll probably be fine. And you could probably explain. it away, but in a vacuum, it's a tough look. There's probably not a good win here. I get why you should wear that purple dress more often.

Yeah. I think this is bad. Yeah, I don't know. I don't. I mean, there's a chance that goes fine. The vase, dude. She just totally days you and she's not. But this is one of those things where it's like, hey, one person who I thought was just

like this person and then it's like completely, like a completely different reaction. Early on, the vase is tough. The fact that you rummish. dude. You rummaged for a vase. If there was a line to be crossed, that's definitely on the other side of it. I don't know where the line is because this is money. But the vase is a problem.

Yeah, and I saw the snack. Like, those would have held up on a doorknob. It would have been fine. You would have dropped enough cavio. Yeah. I would like to know what she says. I would like an update on this. Yeah. Like, it's clearly it's harmless, but it's just. Did you lock the door on the way

out? Probably. If she has, you know what's a good rule? if the if the girl has to explain to her friends like yeah but he didn't break in he but i was thinking of the opposite like this could be a funny like hey you're you know five 10 years you're buried totally this would be great if this all works out after the third day he broke into my apartment you know like it could be kind of if this works out this is going to be an awesome story and i think i think yeah but that's the whole point is like there's a there's a there's a very thin line between wedding toast and i haven't

talk to that guy since. Right. Yeah. Totally. So he went into the garbage and he found all of my tax returns from four years ago. But he's a CPA and he saw all of these things that I'd missed. And that was our first date. Yeah, you don't want to, you don't want to be overstepping and that early, which unfortunately

you kind of fell into that one. How would you feel if this happened at you? Three dates. You come back. I've always lived somewhere where I'm. if I left my door unlocked, I mean, huge problem for me. So I'd be like, you know what? Thank you.

I've always lived somewhere where if I fucked up like that, you know, everything. I might be looking like the fresh prints when everybody moved out. Like, oh, my God. So that I... Did you get my snacks? Nope. And my mattress is gone. Specifically for me, I'd be like, thank you so much.

I wouldn't think too much of it. I don't think. I, uh, yeah, if I was into, I wouldn't care. It would be fine. I'd just be pumped. somebody wanted to come over. All right. Best friend, college lie.

All right. We also were inundated with these. So many people reaching out to us telling us about lies after we told a story. We read the email about the fake graduation. And then I told a story about we had fake graduation ones coming in that were incredible. But here's one that I really enjoyed. 510, 155, 47, obviously haven't lifted heavy in years, but do run 30 plus miles a week and did play D3 basketball. And D1.

track and field. Do athletes. Listen to this podcast. Sorry for the long email. This one isn't short, but I think we'll be all right. I, too, have a buddy who has lied to his wife

about his college accolades. That's right. It all started from the barbecue, D1, D1. Except my man hardly attended college at all. He's now so deep into the story that I'm not sure there's a graceful way out. My best friend of 35 years

has been happily married for about 20 years. And when I say happily married, I mean it. They're probably the happiest, most genuinely in love couple I know. His wife is extremely driven, very successful, and by far the breadwinner. She's done well enough that they have a vacation home and other location. We'll leave it out.

My buddy eventually settled into the Mr. Mom role with their kids, and honestly, it fits him perfectly. They have a great life. Here's the problem. Our sophomore year of college, let's just say he transferred to a Midwest school. My buddy was supposedly enrolled at a smaller school whose semester started a week later. So he came to our college town to hang out and party before heading back. totally makes sense except for this part

he basically never left he started hanging around campus going to parties even attending classes with girls he met at one point he'd actually sat for midterm in a class he wasn't enrolled in when the professor checked IDs he had to leave and apparently explained there must be an issue

with the Bursar I don't know I'm not for me so the man was not a student every few weeks someone in a close group would ask him the obvious question did you drop out why don't you just enroll here he'd insist he was still still enrolled at his actual school and say something like, I've been communicating with my professors

and sending a few assignments down. That sounds like grade A bullshit. We would call bullshit, laugh, and move on, but he would adamantly insist he was telling the truth. Fast forward a few years and he meets his future wife. She's ambitious, buttoned up and clearly going places. Somewhere during the dating process, he tells her he's finishing an engineering program. He was not finishing an engineering program eventually goes into another field. She shoots up the ranks in hers. They have kids. He takes on more of the stay-at-home parent role. Again, it works. They're happy. Nobody cares that this dude doesn't have an engineering degree, except apparently

him. Every blue moon will be sitting around with a few couples and will casually drop something like, quote, I really sacrifice my engineering career to make this call work. You've got to be laying low if you're this guy. What are you doing? This guy's kind of awesome. I mean, I don't really like them, but it's kind of just funny. Every guy in the room knows there was no engineering career to sacrifice. Other buddies have pulled me aside afterward and said, does he not remember that we were there? We know he doesn't have an engineering degree.

My answer is always the same. He's in too deep. We're all pushing 50 now. Nobody gives a damn where anybody went to college. He has a great wife, great kids, and what appears to be a genuinely happy marriage, the lie is completely unnecessary at this point, which somehow makes it even funnier when he dust off the old engineering career every couple of years. So here's my life advice question.

Do I ever pull my best friend aside and say, brother, you can put the engineering degree down now. We all know, nobody cares you won. Or after 25 plus years, is this lie now load bearing? What a great sentence.

We need to work that in somehow. Is this a load bearing issue? Does it all fall down? Just a terrific sentence from the email. So thank you to you. Who knows? Maybe we'll get it working in. So is this lie now load bearing?

And should I just let this man continue mourning the engineering career he never had? God, that's a good idea. You guys are 50 now. I don't think it would be something that would come out after a few beers if we're fighting. I think you just fight with your friends way less when you're older. I just, I'm hoping. But I aspire to. But I can see that.

now if this was happening you do Kyle you do okay good because I can see this now I'll tell you if there isn't any and then there's like a and there's a one year one volcano buildup I mean I've seen some shit where it's like this is never going to be the same right right late night nothing was the same nice the the the the late night barbecue when you should have left three hours ago and there's still guys around the fire pit and then it's like this is what it could come up you know they're arguing and now it now we're talking about this thing that I don't think that'll happen. I think you guys are old enough. I don't think I can hold this in. Sort of like we talked about with the D1 thing. I would, I would certainly be alone or, or as

alone as we could be before I bring this up, but I don't think I can hold this in, especially if it's, if he's continuing to do it. Like, that's strange, man. It's like he's like returning to the scene of the crime. Like, he wants to get caught or something. It's strange. Yeah, this, this is a situation where you don't, you don't, you don't like mess with this guy's, like, happiness. Like he seems like, you know, we're not trying to like break up families and be a homewrecker here. But that's not what he's saying, though. He just wants to know if he should like go one time. I think that's fair. I think you could be like, hey dude, like, what we're still doing this right? I mean, it's kind of insane that you guys have waited this long though to like

for this to become a thing. You know, I would have probably nip this in the butt a little bit earlier and it would become a thing in the friend group. But like now you're 50 and it's like no one's talked about this. It's kind of odd. Can you can you just kind of mess with them though? a playful way, like whenever the next time he brings it up and just be like, hey man, like, yeah, for the kids, you know, out of college, you think about maybe, maybe get back into it. What do you thinking? Like that's funny. A little ding. And just kind of like dig at him a little bit. And maybe his wife's like, oh, yeah, honey, you should totally do that. Like, that'd be great. And then put him in a weird spot. You know, I don't think that like harms anyone necessarily, but at least kind of like puts him in place,

maybe makes you feel good about your situation here. So that, that's what I would do. But I wouldn't, I don't know. Like there's a big difference between. How good is Georgia Tech's engineering school? Yeah. What would you get into? If he does think this is load bearing and it's been so long, like he may have convinced himself that you guys think he went. You know what I mean? He might be doing some fucking brain chemistry wizardry up here

where he thinks everybody thinks it. And it's not just, you know, he forgot that you guys were there, you know, because his lie is so sick. And he's got aspirations of going back to this career that never happened because he's just been doing it that long. I don't know what's going on up there. Yeah, I don't. I mean, it's really, really funny and it's sort of crazy and maybe why Mad Men worked beyond even the obvious reasons, you know.

Just all these Don Draper's checking in left and right. Like, this is crazy. I used to think from the first watch of that show that him being a deserter and taking on a new identity didn't really matter. And then it's like, no, that's this haunting through line. Like, the show still would have been great, but you needed something else. And there's just a lot of dudes walking around with this stuff. Not that it took a few emails for us to wonder about the whole thing. But I don't, I mean, there's, I think the emailer's like, he's not like mad, right?

He just almost like wants to have that one time with him being like, you know, we all know you're completely full of shit, right? And congrats, by the way, you have an awesome life. But I'm so entertained by it. Like, I think you guys should embrace it and never disrupt it. So everyone has those moments once every two years where he talks. talks about this engineering career that he had to sacrifice. And like, think about what's going on in his brain. Because a lot of these emails, the question's kind of like weighing the righteousness and whether or not someone should feel some sort of punishment, right, for doing something like this.

Like, hey, I want to set the record. I want to be able to challenge this person. I don't want to let this person be able to never have to address any of that stuff. And those are usually far more serious examples. But in this case, I mean, imagine what's dancing around in his fucking brain to just unroll this one every few years that he's still doing it. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, it's obviously a coping mechanism, right? Yeah, right. That's kind of amazing.

Your friend group has something no one else has. Everyone's group doesn't have one of these guys. Yeah, that's punishment enough. And you get to be entertained by it. It's interesting. And it's not really hurting anybody. I think you just, I like the next time you'd be like, all right,

like over unders on like how many. days. I'm like, all right, I'll say 450 days. I'll take the other. It's like Dan had you saying this in March. God damn it. All right. Because do you want to make him feel uncomfortable? Because it's going to be a little weird for him because he'll think like he probably thinks everybody believes it now. He's been doing it so long.

Yeah. It's not a lie if you believe it. It's the greatest lie ever. All right. That'll do it for the show today. All of our episodes available on Netflix. Thanks to Tom. Thanks to Kevin. Thanks to Kyle, who's just filling out a shirt like you read about in filling out shirt magazine. A little chambre action, our guy here, you know?

And our guy, Sarudy, who we hope doesn't get strep throat. Ryan Rosillo's show, Barstool Sports. Chew.