Hey, we're Silla listeners, you can find every episode on Apple podcast and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon music. If your hair isn't performing like you used to, the answer isn't another hat. It's a proactive approach. NutriFull is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand. It's also NSF certified for sport and the official hair growth partner of Major League Baseball. The only hair growth supplement trusted by the pros. Visit NutriFull.com in our promo code PMT. Get 10 bucks off your first month subscription and you get free shipping. That's N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com promo code PMT. The Ryver Silla show is presented by DraftKings. Ethan Strauss, the house of Strauss, we actually had him on to talk about the WNBA because I had had some thoughts for a long time and then didn't share any of them. So today we did. What we also had breaking news, Kawaii Leonard appears like the NBA will not be punishing the clippers for their Kawaii Leonard dealings and we touched on the leaker sale a little bit and a longer life advice. Something big is coming on September 2nd, DraftKings game day arrives with massive deals, exclusive offers and an all day celebration built for sports fans. The countdown has begun. All roads lead to game day. The DraftKings sports app is now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement. One app, every sport, all 50 states, DraftKings game day is yours. Remember the day, September 2nd, DraftKings game day is the kickoff of a new season, a new era and the biggest day in sports history. Get pumped. Get ready to celebrate. New DraftKings customer sign up with the code Ryan spent five bucks to get 150 in rewards within 14 days for all markets, that's code Ryan R.Y.E.N. in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Bet with DK Sportsbook, gambling problem called 1-800-GAMBLER, 1-800-MYREESET, Connecticut called 8-8-8-7-8-9-7-777, or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Kansas, Bettax pass through may apply in Illinois, 21 and over. Void in Canada, event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss, availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York, bet to get bonus bets that expire in seven days, trade to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. $50 in rewards issued every seven days via click-to-claim for 14 days. One non-withdrawable reward redeemable. Nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability. Varys by state, terms at dkng.co/offer, limited time offer. Do a little NFL here where the guy we love having on, it is Bert Breer from S i dot com, the MMQB you can see his YouTube page. This week's piece, a lot of quarterback stuff in there, which I always enjoy. But I want to kind of start with something simple here. I think you've been to about two-thirds of the team's training camps. There's talk about, you know, look, Lamar in this new system, Cincinnati, Dallas, turnover on defense, is this real? What was something that was new that felt real? You can say it about a quarterback, about a coach, about a new defense. Something where you were like, okay, this goes beyond the coach speak and everybody's saying the same thing. Like, you believe in a group that maybe it took being around them for a couple of days that got you to change your mind about what that side of the ball could do. Well, firstly, part of my mind is that like what Seattle did last year was no fluke. I was saying, I mean, they've resigned to a ton of people, so I want to start there. Like, out to me, Ryan was like, I was, so they lose Boya Moffe, right, who, you know, whatever, Cincinnati may be overpaid for him at 20 million a year, but that's still a 20 million dollar expensive end. And I'm standing on the edge of their practice field, and their D.C. Addender Day is on the sled, and he's got four guys standing there, and it's like, it's Derek Hall, Jenna Oosu, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Dante Fowler. And it's like, Jesus, like, these guys just lost a guy at that position, and they're still 4D. You know what I mean? And it's just like, with Seattle, it kind of feels like when you're at their camp, there's this embarrassment of riches and depth all over the place, you know? So that'd be one. I mean, the other one that I just, it just jumped out at me was the level of confidence in Cincinnati that the defense is not going to be as bad as people think, and that Dexter Lawrence is going to be a major agent of change, and they bring in Moffe from Seattle, and they bring in Brian Cook from Kansas City, and they've got some young guys they like. And like, again, there are a few teams like this. Like, I put Dallas in this category, right, where they just have to be pretty good on defense and the offense is good enough, Houston's the reverse of that, right? Like where Houston, if they can just be pretty good on offense, the defense can carry them. And you know, when I was with Borough, it was just kind of like talking to him about the feel that he had on the makeup of the team, and guys holding each other accountable, and this realization for Joe after, you know, this career started in the way that it did where, you know, not only did he get to Siouxville in a second year, but the third year they get back to the FC title game, and like played well enough to win an arrowhead again to the last three years of the injuries, and then, you know, the having the historically bad defense in 24 when he played like an MVP candidate, and there's just like this sense of urgency because of that. Like, these shots aren't going to come forever, and so I think Cincinnati will be the one where you look at their defense, and it's like, okay, like this isn't going to be the best defense in the league, but cannot be 12, can't be 14th, and if it's in that range, maybe that's good enough with the offense they have. Is that good enough to win the division then, if they're just a mid-level defense? Yeah, and there's so many ifs in the division, I mean Pittsburgh and Baltimore for the first time in forever are both going through coaching changes now, you know? And I'd say with the Steelers, it's, I, you know, I actually like the higher Mike McCarthy for the makeup of the team, the makeup of the team that they have, right? It is an older team, and I think a lot of us looked at last year as, okay, Aaron Rogers is coming in, and this is their last big shot at getting it right with this core players, and if it doesn't work, they're going to tear it down. And then they come back off of last year and they double down, you know, and they bring in Jamel Dean to play corner and Michael Pitman to play receiver, they get older. You know, they bring back Jalen Ramsey, they bring back Cam Hayward, ultimately they bring back Rogers, and so I just think with like the Steelers, it's a little bit of a narrow path, I think there's a, the makings of a good team there, but when you're that old all over the place, it was like, how's the injury like going to swing? And you know, Baltimore again, that's it, there's a lot of change there, you know? So they thought they were going to be really, really good last year, and I think the internal expectation in that place, a big reason why Harba is not there anymore because they didn't make the playoffs with that expectation hanging over everybody's head. And so can they reach where they, what they thought they were last year? There's just like a lot of ifs in the division, you know? So I think Cincinnati could win the division for sure. You spent a lot of time on Caleb Williams. It's definitely a big departure from where we were last year, at least nationally, talking about him, whether it was Sando in the QB tears, and it just felt like, and then there's a big Yahoo piece where you just went in to be like, is this guy, is he the worst quarterback prospect ever? And he was not. I boys said, I think the brilliant stuff is there with him. And I thought it was really interesting in your piece that he'll like do a play with Ben Johnson. It's like, all right, what do you want to do? And it's always something simple. It's like a check down, and it's almost him trying to condition himself. Look, there was a lot of coach speak in there, but there was also something that I felt like was important that felt a little more genuine. It's that he seems to have a little bit more equity built up with his teammates to it's, you know, it's one thing to be the young talented quarterback and supposed to be the leader. But nobody wants to hear it from a guy like year one or two, unless you're absolutely like through the roof special. But this, this whole thing is just in such a better place, 12 months later, when you were starting to wonder last year, based on everything that everybody's writing about, Caleb Williams like, is this actually not going to work out? And now it feels like what's the extension going to be like? That's, you know, Ryan, that's actually like what I respect most about the way they did it last year is that Ben Johnson legitimately didn't give a shit. What everybody else was saying, you know, and he challenged Caleb in ways that I think, if you're coaching in that market in Chicago, you know, as you know, that's like one of the most football intense markets in the country. And they will track your training camp practices like their games and assess them like their games. And knowing you're walking into that environment and then taking the young quarterback and feeding them through a fire host, you know, I'm going to throw everything at you. And it's going to look bad and people are going to write bad things about you. And is Tyson Beijing the better answer, which was like a real story, I mean, you know, it sounds crazy now, but late July, early August, or people there are like, I don't know, you know, like Beijing looks pretty good. And like Ben Johnson's willingness to stick to his guns on that is like, no, like we're going to see what he can handle. And then we're going to pair it.
down to what he can do well. And we don't care where everybody in the outside thinks. And then Caleb has to trust that. And eventually when they get to the point where now you're having success, now there's this mutual trust. I think it puts you like a great spot because you've been through that together now. And Ben Johnson now has proof of concept with Caleb William. So Caleb William is gonna list everything Ben Johnson says. He's he put them through all that last year and it produced great results. And the stuff that didn't work last year now he has recall on it. So it's like, okay, this didn't work last year. Now we're gonna reintroduce it. Maybe it'll work better now that you had a year on the system. It's just, it's like a really logical way to do it that I think is really hard to pull off in as intense an environment as you have in Chicago. And I think it's a credit to both Caleb and Ben that they were able to do it that way. - Were you surprised at all that Kyler Murray whose name started over McCarthy? - No, because I do think Kevin O'Connell, despite what people might think, I do think he agonized over this. And I think what the difference maker was, was that they felt like with Kyler, they could project. Whereas with JJ, they were still hoping if that makes sense. And like so, I think a big piece of this is the scars of the last two years. And there are a ton of guys in that locker room, right? Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Andrew Vincankel, Christian Derisaw, Blake Cashman, Byron Murphy, veteran players that have accomplished a lot in the league that 114 games two years ago, and we're on the doorstep of the number one seed in the NFC going into the last game of the season. And those guys then had to go through last year where like quarterback basically conspired to bring them down. And I don't think Kevin O'Connell felt like he could put his team through something like that again. And so for him, it was like, how do I stock the quarterback in with enough answers? And like last year they tried to bring back Darnell, they tried to bring back Daniel Jones. Those guys had better opportunities to be long-term starters elsewhere. So they went all in on JJ. And in this case, it was like, we're going to create a legitimate competition. And we are going to stock the quarterback in with answers, like legitimate proven answers. And we're going to see where it goes. And I think it just got to the point where Kevin O'Connell felt like he owed it to his team to start building towards the season. And it's like, OK, like we can project now what Kyler Murray is going to be in our offense rather than hoping that JJ's progress, which has been really good, keeps going. And now that'll allow them to build the run game, which they think is going to be better with Frank Smith there. That allows guys like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Madison to build a rapport with Kyler with plenty of time left before the season. So I think that's sort of what it came down to. I don't think it was a route. I don't think Kyler wanted a route. But I just think after what they went through the last two years, they were sort of in this position where just having the certainty of what Kyler is in the NFL gave everybody a comfort level to go forward. I also think it's the easier way to get JJ back in the field, because Kyler's probably going to get hurt. And this way you start with Kyler, and you let JJ take it easy. He's only had 10 starts to his career. You spent this draft pick on him. Again, maybe it is that bad, but I would feel like it's a waste. It's not doing enough. Maybe you could argue it's throwing bad money at bad money here, but at the same time, or a good money at bad money, I should say. I expect that he's going to get a couple of starts this year, whether that's Kyler's injury, history, or Kyler. At some point, it's shown us-- I'd never forget the Eric Mangini thing when we were talking about, I think Matt Castle wants. He was in studio, and we were trying to figure out what should this team do a quarterback. Mangini's thing was, if you've seen somebody at least do it for an entire season, there's a chance. As bad as that sound, you know you have a chance at least. I think Kyler's had stretches where you're like, if this were to go right, he's a really talented guy. But he's probably going to get hurt. And I think JJ will get another chance to look at see where he's at. And the reality is, too, Ryan, I think it'd be much easier to go from Kyler to JJ than the other way around. I just think that's-- if you're looking at it and saying, we'll probably have to play both, it makes sense to start with the experienced guy. And I think Kyler's a backup would be a little bit of an awkward fit. And so you don't start there. And I do think in some of these quarterback competitions, that's what it can come down to, is like, all right, if we're going to use both these guys, who is the better guy for a week, one to week for? Who is the easier guy to detach from if we're going to move from one to the other? And I do think there's some nuance to that, too, where if Kyler doesn't play well, it'd be pretty easy for them to just turn to JJ, if they have to. Right, right, nothing else to add on that one. OK, the New England Patriots. 17 wins last year. Still can't believe they played in the Super Bowl. But the AFC seemed to kind of collapse around them and the historically easy schedule. And then you end up, you know, you're going up against Jared, stood him to get to the Super Bowl. But this team wasn't that good. So to say last year was a fluke, is the team improved enough to offset what is likely a tougher path? Yeah, so the injury luck had swaying. Like you said, the schedule is tougher. They are older in some spots, too. You know, like Carlton Davis is older at corner. Harold Landry is older on the edge and is already banged up. AJ Brown is somebody they're going to rely on. He's older, you know? And last year, they had a lot of older guys stay healthy. I'm not wishing injury on anybody, you know, don't take it. But that's just the reality is, I think the commanders showed us that, right? Like the commanders were older in 2024 and it worked out and then they ran it back with a bunch of the older guys. And the injury luck swung the other way all together. So like I think there's that piece of it. But they're more balanced, they're deeper. I think how they've been able to flip the receiver room and like turn that from like a really glaring week. And it's one of the worst receiver rooms in the league to, you know, maybe one of the deepest has been pretty remarkable. And I think like a lot of like where they go from here. And this isn't like the, this isn't the sexiest thing to talk about. But I think a lot of it's just going to be internal, right? Like, so what does, you know, what does Will Campbell look like in year two, at tackle? What are they getting from Milton Williams in his second year there? Is Christian Barmore still an ascending player? You know, at safety Craig Wilson showed a ton of promise. Can he take another step? So there's a bunch of guys like that on the team where it's like, you get that internal improvement and then maybe some more from your rookies, you know? And you could, you could see where you can kind of level off like the natural regression that could come. And then I think the other part is straight, you know? Is straight, capable of carrying a team now. And, you know, I think he's got the potential to get there. I do think like just having talked to him about this, like, I think there's a lot of lessons he takes from the playoffs in that he was, I, if you look at like the, the, the, the charger game, the Texan game, the Bronco game, and then the Seahawg game, like there wasn't a great performance in there, he turned the ball over a lot. And so being challenged in those ways, does he grow from that? You know, like, I think that's a big piece of it, too, because every team in the league now has a full year of tape on him in Josh McDaniel's offense. And I think some of the effective that was felt in the playoffs when you get teams that have really good players, really good schemes that are able to drill down on you. So like, can Drake learn to counter punch against some of this stuff that those teams in the playoffs throw it in? I think that's going to be a factor, too. How many teams are better do you think in the AOC than New England? I mean, I still think Kansas City bounces back. I think the Broncos, the Broncos have the most balanced roster. They don't have like a lot of superstars, but I think the Broncos have the most balanced roster. And I mean, like they were toe to toe with them without their starting quarterback. So I'd say Kansas City, Denver, Buffalo. I mean, I'd probably put them somewhere. Like, I think, I think I'm, I think I'm going to pick them to be a wildcard team, which, you know, by the way, because I live there, people are going to clip that and call me a hater. And that's fine. But, you know, I think that they're probably somewhere in that 5, 6, 7 range. And you know what's interesting, too, Ryan, is a lot of people forget this. But, and I know you don't, but after they won that first Super Bowl, you know, one under Bella check with Brady, there was a step back here the next year, you know? And Brady turned the target September, right? And the Brady turned the ball over and bunched that year. And a couple of things went kind of haywire and then they ascended again after that. It, I don't know if it's going to be that type of step back. But I think something like that could be in the works. It would make sense because it still was not this extremely talented roster. You know, really fun season for them. But look, I mean, all of all the teams you've named ahead of them, like, I'd rather have May over nicks. So you can talk about.
especially the O line, the edge guys, secondary, I mean Denver does feel like it's a really nice roster, one through 53. And then you have Buffalo that feels like even at a transition year, it just didn't happen because Alan's up there with anybody else, so these are not. I mean Buffalo is fasting to me though, you know why? Go ahead, Buffalo, I think Buffalo, I think Joe Brady is going to look a little different. In his first year as a head coach, then you looked at the Offensive Coordinator, and I brought this up to him when I was, I was with him last week, you know, his mentor is Sean Payton, and I don't know it's so long ago, right? But Sean Payton at one point was stripped of play calling by Jim Fossil in New York, and then when he was in Dallas, Bill Parcell's nickname forum was Dennis the Menace because he had all these crazy ideas, right? And Parcell's had to reign him in, and then once Sean Payton got on his own, and it was like, oh my God, you know what I mean? Like look at like what he's doing now, and I'm not saying like Joe Brady's been held back by Matt rule or Sean McDermott or anybody that he's coached with, but, you know, just talking to him about it, I know. You're always when you're the Offensive Coordinator, you know, the play call, but you're not the head coach, there's always this, okay, like this is what the head coach wants, and this is the type of game we're going to play, and this, and I just, I'm really interested to see what Joe Brady looks like, free of that with Josh Allen, you know, like I just, I think it's sort of telegraphed with the defensive coordinator higher, but he hired a really aggressive attacking defensive coordinator and Jim Leonard, who worked under Vance Joseph and played for Rex Ryan. I think the field of the team is going to be a little different. I'm really, really interested to see what they look like. It may not matter that Buffalo's defense has to be like even top 10, but I would say personnel wise that group has been slipping now for multiple years. Yeah, even if I like a bunch of the names, like there were times where I'd have to stop, like, hey, just because you can name all 11 guys, it doesn't mean that's what I was talking about with basketball. It's like, sure, like sometimes you think of depth just because it's like a familiar, like, well, that doesn't mean that they just means you can name a lot of the guys. And I would argue the draft, why you, why you like the Alabama guy more than the guy from like, you know, yeah, more than the guy from Buffalo or whatever, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, there was an SEC D line thing that would go back 20 plus years. I'm talking like when I was still on the air in Boston, I mean, it's not even like a newly biased thing. They were just like, who's this freak from Kentucky? Oh, my God. That's why I always kind of laughed about the NFL draft is like, there's some interior defensive lineman from school. You've never watched a minute of it and you're convinced you, you have to have this player. So I mean, I think there's my head because of Clio Mac, and I remember Clio Mac versus Judevian Clowney, and there were people that would tell you then, like, no, Mac, Mac might be a better player than Clowney. And it was hard to believe because we saw Clowney blowing people up in the SEC. Well, you know, I mean, you look at the careers now and that's not Clowney got hurt and all that, but it's sort of an example of, you know. Yeah, Mac was better than Pete Clowney. I mean, if you want to do that right now, but I mean, it's, it's, it's hard when it's Buffalo. Even though I think you could argue if you were watching Clowney like weekend and week out, even South Carolina, you're like, I don't know that it's quite the Michigan play all the time with him. I remember being on the sideline for a Clowney game once and there was a tackle that was like, I'd break his ribs in the pros. Like he's, he's too high. He played, I was like, why? Because he's tall. He's like, no, he plays too upright. So now we're doing a big Clowney retrospective. I just am I wrong for being like, we can name guys on the bill's defense, but are we making a mistake expecting it to be something that's complimentary and or is it that they're just going to be so aggressive that they hope they take these wild turnover swings. I say what they need on defense is guys to live up to their draft position, right? Like so they've got a lot of young, like high draft picks on that side of the ball. Now I think at all there's going to be a good fit for what Jim Linner is going to do with them. So Dion Walker, the big nose tackle they took from Kentucky, TJ Sanders, the detackle they took from South Carolina. Greg Russo, who's a first round pick now on his second contract for Albert Nards on his second contract. Cole Bishop played really well as a rookie, the safety that they took him a second round a couple of years ago, Max Harrison, who's been banged up, but he's a first round corner. To me, like so much of it with Buffalo is going to be okay, like are these guys going to live up to their draft position and we don't know the answer to that yet. And so I'm interested to see where that piece of it goes. If you have a bunch of guys that now all of a sudden, you know, Dion Walker looks like a dominant nose tackle, he's massive, right? TJ Sanders, who didn't start playing football until he was a junior in high school. Now all of a sudden, he's a factor with offenses planning for Oliver Russo takes a step playing standing up in Jim Linner's defense. It had to be a bunch of things like that, you know, and that's sort of the reality of having a quarterback on the contract that the bills have Josh Allen on, you know, it's like the Colts back in the day. He needed a lot of young draft picks on defense to contribute. That's where Buffalo is. NFC, AFC by the end of the year, it felt like the NFC just has the better teams. And looking at it, like to think of the NFC North, where Detroit comes in last place at nine and eight. The Packers who last, they what they lost their last five games, including the playoffs, which I was kind of shocked when I saw that again. I was like, okay, so they were nine, four and one and then end up at what would be nine, eight and one and they lost their first playoff game. Yeah. So I guess right. Yeah. For nine, nine, seven and one. Yeah. They were nine, three and one, finished nine, seven and one and then lost their playoff game. Yes. Yeah. That's why I know it took us a little while. I screwed you up there. Do you feel like the NFC's top is superior to the AFCs? I wonder about that because that's the other factor. You know, when you're talking about New England, kind of where they were. And I remember talking about the Patriots last year and was like, well, who are they better than? And you looked at the AFC last year and it was just the quality and depth was so incredible at the top because you had Kansas City. You had the Chargers, you had Denver, you had Houston, you had Pittsburgh and Baltimore and Cincinnati and Buffalo. And a lot of those teams had something catastrophic happen, right? The Broncos lose their quarterback before the AFC title game. The Chargers lose both their tackles for most of the season. They got six games out of those two guys, like combined and those two guys were like basically the identity of what they wanted to be. You know, Houston has the quarterback go the wrong way at the wrong time. You know, you just look at all of these teams that like had something go really, really wrong. And I think it's like reframe the way we look at the conference. Pittsburgh and Baltimore, of course, you know, towards the end of that season, things kind of come undone and two long time coaches are gone. So like it's all the things that we thought about those AFC teams last summer or those things still true. And now that some of those things have changed, whether it's health, who's running the team, whatever, is the AFC going to go back to being the team, the conference that has, you know, the four best quarterbacks of this generation. And it's ranks in Alan Mahomes, Jackson and Burrow. Is it going to go back to being what we thought it was the beginning last year? Like that to me is like really, really fascinating because I think I don't think anybody on this day last year, Ryan, would have told you the AFC was the better conference. I don't think you could have found a single person that knows what they're talking about that would have said that. And yet, because of everything that happened over the course of the year, we were left where, you know, the AFC was clearly the better conference. So I think all those sort of swing factors in the AFC will determine it. Well, if you did it from a quarterback standpoint, you're absolutely right, because I remember specifically, it wasn't even a show idea. I was in the car listening because I still loved to listen to everybody. And I forget who it was, but they were making a great point. It was like, let's run through the AFC quarterbacks first AFC quarterbacks. And even with Mahomes getting hurt, Lamar taking a step back with the brushing part of it. Maybe there's still some people out there selling some to a stock, but it just looked to the point of this whole exercise. From where we were at last summer, like how much is it, how much is totally changed? Like I'm fine with them home saying it's going to be fine. I'd love Herbert to play a playoff game with both tackles as well. Nick's, I think, is a little overrated, but they had an awesome season. The Stroud thing is getting alarming. Yeah. I don't know if you have anything on that, but I just feel like from what he was in the beginning, like it can't possibly be this bad the last time what we saw him. Yeah. I'd say with him, the best thing the people there say about him right now is that he's a steady consistent off-season and a quiet off-season. And I think a lot of the idea there, look, this kind of, this goes back two years to when they felt like the offensive line situation in 24 imploded everything. So they decide we've got a culture problem in that room and we need to blow it up. And they felt like they couldn't rebuild it without trading Laramie tonsil. So they trade Laramie tonsil. And last year was sort of the transition year. And what they're looking to do is sort of match the culture ethos. Whatever please show you want to use.
of the defense on offense. And so this kid they drafted out of Georgia Tech, Keelan Rutledge, is, I've heard he started fights it. Something like five practices so far in training camp. Like he is a brawler and he is fighting back and they have Wyatt Teller there now. And I know that sounds ridiculous, right? But like it is this, like when you're practicing against that defense every day, there is a, we need to stand up to them. And I, the day I was there, I remember I was talking to some of the coaches the day before. They were like, some of the offensive coaches were like, no, we've played them into a standstill pretty much to this point in camp. And it's like, we know that, but we know what's coming tomorrow 'cause it was gonna be a big 11 on 11 day the next day. And sure enough the defense got the better of them. And I talked to Will Anderson after the practice and he was like, it was like, yeah, like we wanted to reestablish ourselves out there. But that's sort of what they've been looking for, right? Is Ken the offense stand up to the defense? So that's starting to happen. And you hear about the running back position being improved because David Montgomery's in there and he's gonna be a tone setter for them. They like what he likes coming back in year two. The tight end room is deeper. And at receiver, they think Jaden Higgins has got a real chance to break out and be like a pro level receiver this year. So now you'll be dealing with like, kind of like these twin towers on the outside, these big long guys. Like, one of the coaches said, it's like almost like we have a power forward and a small forward, like Nico Collins, the power forward, Jaden Higgins is the small forward. So all these things are going right around them now. And it's just like, I feel like the coaches are handing CJ the keys and being like, hey, just hands it 10 and 2, run the offense. You know, do what you did three years ago. And, you know, I think it feels to me like that, this coaching staff that the offensive coaching staff has his trust. And if they're able to play the way DeMiko Rines wants them to play, which is kind of matching like the attitude and the edge of the defense, then CJ doesn't need to be a superstar. He just needs to run the offense and they think he can do it. - Boy, I gotta be honest, you had me right until the very last sentence where it's like, I hope they're not selling you on. Well, he just needs to like manage things. It's like, that's not what we thought in this guy when he first came on. - It wasn't that so much. It's just, he's got such tremendous arm talent. He's really smart. And like it's, I think more than anything else, it's just, look, like the offense is gonna work for you, let it work for you. We've got good talent around you now. We think the offensive line is in the right place. And they think that like really looking back, like that was kind of one of his strengths as a rookie is he's got really high football IQ and he let the offense work for him. And I think it's just this feeling that they've got enough right around him now that we're, you know, if you can just, if we can start there, we'll be in a good place. And obviously with the defense they have, they don't need to ask the world of anyone on offense. - Yeah, 'cause again, back to that conversation that we were having like a year ago, the big problem was okay, the NSC quarterbacks don't match up with the A and C quarterbacks. And now you're like, okay, is the darn old thing a fluke? Although going into last year, people thought Stafford's back might not hold up. He wins MVP. I think the NSC South, other than Baker, I know Bryce made the playoffs, but although everybody seems to like Tyler Schuck a lot. - Yeah, they're interesting. - Yeah, you know what, I think the simple, what do you think happens with the Eagles in the NSC East? - Yeah, so I think the NSC East is vital but I can see any of the four teams when I'm in the division, believe it or not. Like I just, all four, I think all four have a chance. Yeah, and I just, I think if you ask me to say, to pinpoint who has the best chance, the other three, to overthrow on the Eagles, I'd say it's Dallas. I just think Philly isn't an interesting spot. It's kind of a funky spot, you know, where it's, they got older in some places. They've done a good job, you know, I think replacing some of the talent they've lost and filtering out guys over the last few years, like Jason Kelsey. And you know, now AJ Brown, Darius Slay, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, like they've lost a good amount of talent, they've done a good job replacing it. I, here's my quote, like it's still a really good roster. What is their overwhelming strength right now? - Well, I don't know. I really like some of the pieces of their secondary. I think I love the idea of their front, although I don't know that all of those guys, like back to that familiarity of who was drafted where and hey, that guy's supposed to be awesome. I don't, I don't know if that front takes over games the way that I thought it would. - Yeah. - So not having both receivers, I think it's gonna be a problem for Hertz, 'cause it's, he had two great go ball guys and just go up and get it, which is what he wants to do. - Right. - Is it the old line? Is it a healthy old line? I don't know, I'm, I mean, it's still a really nice roster. - Yeah, I think the line of scrimmage is always gonna be, like the line of scrimmage is always gonna be well fortified. Their offensive line is still really good. But on defense, that defensive front, now you're really relying on Jalen Carter. You go from having Jalen Phillips at the end of last year to now Jonathan Grinard. Jonathan Grinard didn't play great last year for the Vikings, right? You're going at receiver from AJ Brown to some combination of Don Tavian, Wix and Kyle Lemmon. Safe ones a year older. And I'm not saying the wheels are gonna fall off, but he's a running back going into year nine now. So it's just, it's like one of those where it's just, you look at it and I'm like, this team was so great at so many things a couple of years ago and it just feels like they've leveled off a little bit which I think opens the door. And you know what else it means is, it means that a quarterback needs to be better. And I think Jalen Hertz knows that, you know? But like the one thing that can make up for some of these things is the quarterback playing really, really well. - Thank you for finding some time to visit with us. We'll have you out again before this season starts. So we'll do some official predictions if you're down with that. But I know you're all over the place right now. 19 camps I think so far. So you can check out the MMQB this morning. A stoic Caleb Williams willing to learn, willing to listen. - I don't write that in a lot of minutes. - A lot of other good. - When Stoicism, when dudes are in their early 20s talking about Stoicism, it's usually a red flag for me. I'm like, I don't know. I bought the book. - You're having enough experience to be stoic. - Yeah, like I don't think you're really a stoic as you think. And by the way, if you want to-- - I don't think 23-year-old me was definitely not stoic. - I don't want to be stoic, maybe I don't do that. - I don't think I had much interest in being stoic. I thought the people who were trying to be stoic at that age were weird, but that was me. - Yeah, no, I think there's a weirdness. I'm just gonna tell you right now, if you keep track of every pro athlete under 25 that says he's a stoic, see if there might be some correlation. But again, Caleb was awesome last year. So we're into it. There's another player I'm thinking of right now, he's somebody who's telling me that he's a stoic and I went, okay, all right, I'll continue to monitor. - It also feels like it's like one of those things where you just have to be it. It's tough to kind of tell people you are, you know? - That's the other thing. - But Caleb's always been a different guy and it certainly worked for him last year. - Yeah, I'm happy for him. I know that there was a shift on some of the inaccuracy last year where it sounded like I was totally off of him, but I just was getting so frustrated and then it kind of like turned a corner. But I wasn't against him the way people that wanted him to be a failure from week one of his rookie year 'cause they just didn't like everything that went into it. I didn't think that was necessarily a fair way to evaluate the QB, but yeah, again, check out SI.com, MMQB, it's Burp Rear, his YouTube page, and we'll have him on again before the season kicks off. Thanks, man. - All right, thanks Ryan. - I don't think there's anything worse than the feeling of missing out on Sunday NFL. Maybe the play of the year just happened and you missed it. Maybe your fantasy team's in a nail-biter and you can't watch your players. Sometimes your local broadcaster doesn't carry your hometown team's game and you're stuck piecing the game together through highlights and alerts and by the time you catch up, the moments are already gone. You can just miss a play, you miss Sunday. That's why there's NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV, every game, every Sunday, all in one place. Then you throw a multi-view into it and you no longer need to decide between which games to watch. You can have up to four games on it once and you can keep tabs on the games that matter to you. Check out under your fantasy players and still catch the moments everyone will be talking about five minutes later. No missed action because the NFL isn't about hearing what happened. It's about experiencing it when it happens. New users pay $240 or eight non-cancellable payments of $30 a month, first charged at purchase availability varies with NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games and YouTube TV for local and national games. YouTube TV required terms, restrictions and embargoes apply, commercial use excluded, no refunds. Go to youtube.com/NFLST to get NFL Sunday ticket for eight payments of $30 a month for new users. Hey, it's PFT. Look, we all know NFL Sundays are sacred and so we found the perfect way to make sure we don't miss a single snap of NFL action. We're fully dialed into NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. When you bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game, every Sunday period. The best part, the multi-view feature So let's you watch up to four games at once.
wants. So you can track your fantasy matchups in real time, you can watch your favorite players, and keep tabs on everything across the league. It's the ultimate setup for the NFL season. Plus, new users can get NFL Sunday ticket for $8 payments of $30 per month. Go to youtube.com/NFLST and get it done. Don't be the guy guessing what's happening in the other games. Be the guy in the living room who sees it all. New users pay $240 or $8 non-cancellable 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, restrictions, and embargo supply. Commercial use excluded. No refunds. I've been thinking about talking about the WNBA. I have this monologue that I've written out numerous times. I think I started writing it out over a year ago, but then I also didn't really want to just be the guy that was mean about the WNBA. And Ethan Strauss joins us now. House of Strauss, he's been I think one of the best on talking about the WNBA, whether it being critical or giving them credit for the things that are challenging. And I kind of was like, well, I don't need to do it now because I think the WNBA has been on a run of some of the dumbest decisions I've ever seen from a league the last two plus years. So I was like, well, if I don't do this monologue now, I can just do it in six weeks or I can do it. And here we go. I want to figure out a way to do this where we're fair, but like I said with you, it seems like you don't want to keep writing about it and they give you all of these opportunities to continue to be critical of the product. It's amazing how much of the cultural mind share they just keep consuming. And I keep thinking I can leave this thing alone and I can return to other sports topics and then somehow the league suddenly tops itself and becomes even more of a news story. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say right now, Ryan, that national sports talk, the WNBA is dwarven MLB. Even if baseball is obviously more popular, there's just something about this league at this moment, this Indiana fever team, things adjacent to Caitlin Clark that are all consuming. It's nuts. Yeah, the funny thing is is that you're in this really good window for attention to be paid to you. And as I learned firsthand, baseball is a regional topic. It became less and less national. And even if baseball is far more popular with ratings and revenue, all that kind of stuff, it just wasn't a great talking point. And the WNBA has all of these things involved in every single discussion, which make great talking points. So I don't know if that just means because some TV shows or radio shows are talking about it, I have not wanted to talk about it because I just don't want to be like, I think there's, there's like three categories of WNBA people, right? There is the guy that's still mad that Meena Kimes is on TV. So like he's, he's just not even worth listening to. He's just going to be so misogynistic about every single thing. He wants the WNBA to fail. He hopes, he's like excited when the ratings go down. So like that guy's not great to hang out with. I think there's kind of this middle ground thing of like, Hey, what's going on over there, which I'm certainly a part of. And then I think beyond that, and again, we could do all sorts of categories you've wanted to them. There's the hardcore people that are doing it all the time that are watching these games constantly that hate both of the other categories because they feel like you haven't earned the right to talk about it. But I would say like, look, somebody who had to do it every day on the radio, there are stretches with the NFL where all we talked about was the NFL in a negative light. All we talked about was concussions for like two years. We didn't even, we, it felt like we were never even talking about games. Baseballs had it steroids run. The NBA's had all sorts of drama that have nothing to do with games. So when I hear it, WNBA people that are like really, really close to it going, unfortunately, no one's talking about any of the good stuff. That's partly their own fault. And also not that different than other leagues having these stretches where it felt like it was overwhelmingly negative and trauma-based. Well, the weird part about it is that it's arguably helping the league. I've heard Bill talk about how the commissioner should perhaps be fired from the WNBA because of this. Now, I think their commissioner is really bad. I don't disagree with that aspect. But I don't think anybody is capable of tamping down the noise that just has become part and parcel of this league. And where is in the NFL when people are talking about other stuff, we can reasonably argue that this is detracting from the product. This is making people less interested in the product. There are these negative stories. People just want to watch their sports. They want a distraction. This is messing with that. The WNBA is weird because it wasn't very popular. Previous to Caitlin Clark arriving. Some people who are died in the wolf, NBA fans would, or WNBA fans would argue against that, but we've seen the numbers. And right now, a lot of people are watching. So this toxic conversation somehow helps them. It's crazy. You've got a league that never wanted, or at least institutionally, the insiders appear to have never wanted it to become really popular and have a lot of casuals and a lot of normal people paying attention. And they try to fight against it happening. But the way they're fighting against it happening is so controversy stirring that people can't stop paying attention. And it just leads to even more people watching. I can't remember anything like this ever happening in sports. Yeah, because it's, it's not established enough as these, you know, other leagues that have been going on for decades and decades. And you're, you're totally right. Like I'll hear certain things of like, oh, it's not about Caitlin Clark. It's not about this. And it's like, oh, it's built on the backs of all these players and all the generations before them. I'm like, you mean like the thing that was a tax write off? Like this isn't really something to take some victory lap over. Like, yeah, people played, but nobody had paid attention to this thing. And you know, whether like the stuff that happened was Stephanie White. I just, I was like, we're doing this again. This is fucking happening again. You have your player get wiped out by an opposing player who has a nasty history of some of this stuff, right? And so what happens in all the sports that I pay attention to that coach, when given that moment, goes at the other player and defends her player. And in this weird like prioritizing feelings, mission statement that the WNBA has been on now for like two plus years, where it's like, well, if I'm Stephanie White, I have to think about the criticism that's going to happen to Dijonet Carrington and you're like, what? And so when I couldn't believe when it happened, I'm like, this is actually happening. She's downplaying the foul and therefore not having her own players back and then guess what happens? Stephanie White's get straged again, which is something she must be used to by now. She then loses her shit on the media as if it's the media's fault. And then she's on this crusade about like mean people online and you go, Hey, guess what? When you're doing something that's publicly consumed, that's what's going to happen. It happens to all of us, all right? And it's still somehow was everybody else's fault, even though it was an explanation that didn't make any sense that, I mean, there's replays of this stuff over and over and over again. Her first move was, I want to make sure I'm worried about the opponent's feelings than my own player. That's what it felt like to me. Maybe I was wrong. I, okay. So there's a lot there. And it's all happening simultaneously with the Indiana fever being first in their conference. And they're not the best team. But if they go in a title run, I know a lot of people are dismissive of the WNBA, but that's going to be a huge story. It's going to be a huge thing. But it's dead. It's this. And as much as we can say, this is crazy and stupid. And it is and unreasonable the way the coach was acting. And it is. Dom and Wrangula, who some people know from Lakers Twitter, but he works over its trajectory. It's a tech newsletter. He was on my podcast and I thought he made a great point, which is that fans love authenticity. And a lot of what we look down on with some of the controversies of the WNBA or I think the actors within it are acting in ways that we wouldn't necessarily want that from some of the other sports we watch. There's an authenticity to this drama that appears to be holding people in. It's crazy to me that Stephanie White appeared to throw her own player under the bus, potentially because of some ideological reason. I don't know that to be sure, but that's what it looks like. If she did, there's an authenticity to that as crazy as that is. And then her home crowd booze her. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in sports. I don't think I've ever seen a coach not support their player in that situation and the home crowd boo them. And you know what? There's an authenticity to the crowd than hating her because of that. So to what you're saying, yes, she's acting in a way where there should be blame and there should be accountability. She doesn't take accountability. But in lieu of the count, the accountability, there appears to be authenticity. And that appears to be what's resonating in part about this crazy league, along with the politics that people love to argue about. How many examples can you come up with with it's seeming like this world and maybe I'm putting in a tough spot to do it off the top of your head, but with The different Katelyn Clark timeline moments here are the league, and being
left off the national team. And then that's when I was like, okay, first of all, this never happens. The NBA would never do this. They would never do this. Hey, we have this thing. It is the biggest thing. Let's make it global. And then you had kind of like WNBA Syrigates on social media going, we'll have her chance. It's like, no, no, none of you should be defending this. None of you should be saying that this is a good idea. This is a stupid, stupid idea. So then you start to realize, oh, that's, that doesn't make any sense. And yet there's been all these things that have happened, whether it was like the graphics thing that I couldn't believe that you brought up. Wasn't there some Sunday night game and the graphics, which go ahead. Well, yeah, that's always happening where they'll have some sort of graphic and it won't be Caitlin Clark on the graphic. Right now, MVP, people are talking about MVP. It seems like she's getting left off of a lot of lists and there's a subjectivity to that certainly, but she's been playing great. I mean, there's another side note, side plot. I wrote about this. I thought it'd get a reaction, but it did not get much of a reaction. I think people prefer arguing about the politics and the proxy war for politics. But Adam Silver does not like Caitlin Clark at a knockout of the air. That's something that he is not into. And he is expressed as much. You can read between the lines, but he hasn't been quiet about it. He knows there's a golden goose here. And this year, Fowls are way up in the WNBA. I know Ryan, you might remember a little time in the NBA where they just under the cover of everything changed how they were calling Fowls. In that case, they swallowed the whistle. In this case, the WNBA has shifted more of a finesse game and Caitlin Clark's free throw attempts are way up per 100 or whatever metric you want to see. And so she's thriving. She's doing better. So it's this dynamic right now where the NBA, which, you know, controls the WNBA or is whatever you want to say, the umbrella organization over the WNBA understands that there is a generational opportunity to make money and promote this superstar who commands a disproportionate amount of interest in the league. But the institutional people under that umbrella within the league are doing all they can it seems to poo poo it, suppress it, resent it and seem to dislike how many people are now watching the league, whom they find to be disreputable. And I think that's what you're identifying right there. They're doing a little bit of it or I should say they're succeeding a little bit. But for the most part, it just has appeared to make her a martyr to a lot of people and the Caitlin Clark train has not gotten derailed off the tracks. Her rookie year, I was watching one of the WNBA studio shows and they were talking rookie the year and one of the analysts was like defiant. It was like a Tanger Rees, a Tanger Rees over Caitlin Clark, a Tanger Rees over stand, you know, she goes, I'll go standings. And I was like, Oh, wow, you know, I don't know the standings off the top of my head. It seems like Caitlin Clarks a lot better than Angel Rees. I think Angel Rees being sold to us as a star probably doesn't help the WNBA because then you watch her play basketball and you're like, this is a star. That's weird. So back to this thing that I noticed her rookie year, this analyst is on TV, just like Adam and Adam. It's about standing Angel Rees team is ahead of Caitlin Clark's teams and standing. That's why I would go for her for rookie the year. Couple people disagreed. So I was like, man, I got to check the standings. I checked them. Both teams were under 500 and Chicago was a half game ahead of the end again, a fever. And I'm like, that is such a terrible argument. It was like, it was being presented as if the fever were seven games back in the standings and that the Chicago sky were going to make it to the playoffs. Both teams, I think at the time of this debate were out of the playoffs, both below 500 and Clark's team was only a half game behind Angel Rees. I guess I could make it simple and just say, hey, I get it. But I think the league now because they fucked up the Clark thing so bad, they actually have like less patience as opposed to like a more reasonable like, hey, me, like when Kathy said that to a reporter was it, was it before the season started something? It was like, would you ask a man that question? You're like, what the fuck are we doing here? You're the commissioner of the league. And you think the commissioners of the men's leagues are treated with kid gloves the entire time? Like Roger Gidell got destroyed for years where he had to kind of do somewhat of a makeover. So it almost feels like the more people bitch about the WNBA, the more defensive they get instead of learning any kind of lesson that makes you go like, I don't know if you guys want to do some of this stuff. And especially as an emerging league that you would hope to invite more customers in. Well, they seem to resent how top heavy it is. They seem to resent how much of it is Kate on Clark. They want it to be that they did it on their own. And I think Engelbert, she was written up in Harvard Business Review, talking about just the incredible job they've done, the turbocharged interest. And it was a little bit like when Joe Lake, up way back in 2016 was saying it's not just staff. And yeah, it wasn't just staff. It wasn't just staff curry that made the warriors this all consuming dynasty. But he's at least most of it, right? They have a similar impulse where they want it to be them. They don't want it to be her. I'm looking at, you know, this Harvard Business Review thing that she was involved in by nearly every metric. 2024 was a standout year for the WMBA. As transcendent rookies, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink entered the league. Regular season games drew an average of 1.2 million viewers, up 170% from the previous season. This is what Engelbert said. I'm going really like those three. That's really what's going on. It's Clark, Reese and Brink. No, it's just, it's Clark. It's Caitlin Clark. And I can understand in a way because that's scary. If she tears an ACL, then all of a sudden, there's dramatically less interest in your league. But I don't think that you can fight it or it's not reasonable to fight it. And there should at least be a measure of gratitude for it, I would think, with all she's brought in because the numbers do not lie. Anybody has looked into this can see it clearly. And like I said, if the fever make a run, if they're in the finals, there are many, they're multiple, whatever the baseline, WMBA finals, viewership, it's going to be multiple of that. I don't know if it's going to be three acts. I don't know if it's going to be two acts. I just know it's going to be an X. And so I think a lot of what's happened, if you just look back at the history of the league, they didn't have to make money. They didn't have a lot of scrutiny. And so they're used to this condition where they can kind of make their own rules absent accountability. And a lot of the institutional actors are still talking that way. Meanwhile, it became a real league despite themselves and it became a real league in large part because yes, Caitlin Clark. I wonder if she played a different way if there would be this much animosity towards her because she has some nights where it is Luka, it is peak Luka where she is so annoying. I don't know anyway or other say like I love Luka. I love what he's capable of. When Luka's really on one for a game, it's not a blast. It's not a great thing to watch. And I would say like when he was at his peak level of comfort, when he was with Dallas, and then it was like, all right, a new place, I'm going to ramp it down a little bit and he builds it up. So I don't know. I don't know if everybody would get along with her better if they felt like that she wasn't, because she can be kind of a tough watch there for a while. It's great as she is as much fun as she is. She will have these stretches where she's just yelling at everybody. And you're just like, all right. So I don't know if that plays in it a little bit. I thought you brought up a great point there though, where like, hey, in the past, no one cared. So why do you care now? Even though that was the whole point is everybody cares now. Like I think that's brilliantly set. I want to throw a theory at you and I actually think it comes from a good place, okay? Like if you're a boy and you have a sister, what's the number one thing? Your dad is like, you got to take care of your sister, right? There, there's an inequality to it that is to be expected that you are going to as the man be looking out for the woman, all right? And it can be the same thing when you take care of your mom. As you get older, it can be the same thing about having a wife. I mean, there is this just accepted thing that between the male female dynamic, a lot of us would just grow up with a really simple rule of like, it isn't equal like we want you to look out for this person and be deferential and protective of this other person, all right? So having said that, it's a little complicated because like, I know when I worked with women in sports and then it just turns into like, hey, go back in the kitchen. Like the guy cannot help himself. He's just like, I can't believe a woman is talking about the NFL. I don't want to hear her talk about the NFL, all right? So that's always going to exist. So if it's a woman being criticized by the general public, it's going to be like, well, I'm a woman in sports. This shit's happening me all the time. And this is why this is happening all over again. But I also wonder if there's, I don't know if it's pandering. That's not exactly the right word. But there are times where when men are talking about women's sports, and I'm talking about the guys that aren't dicks about it. But when they're
talking about women sports, there may be is this, not a relapse, but like a feeling or a hope that's like, well, hey, you're going to be like this mean to us when you've never been this mean growing up. And I don't know if there's anything there. I don't know if it's if it's if it's a completely flawed theory because I think the women of WMB have been like, are you serious? Like you think people are being nice to us? Like everybody's dumping on us now for two straight years. But I wonder if there's kind of like this, thing at least from leadership at the top were, hey, we're actually not used to having this many people against us. And it may be something that feels new. Hmm. Oh, you said a lot there. It's pretty strong. I know. I know. Because no, no, no. I like that you went there. It's a tricky subject because I don't think men generally treat women the way they treat other men. And I don't know if women generally, if they experience that like that or are used to that when it happens. And when you become a legitimate league in this way with a lot of attention, suddenly people are gambling on what's happening and saying nasty things about you, when you come up short and lose them a few thousand dollars, I don't think they're used to any of this. And I think that the word you were looking for when it comes to the way some men talk about the league in this kid gloves man, or I think it's deference. I think that's the word you might have been looking for. Sorry to be so arrogant as to choose it for you. But it's this dynamic. It's this dynamic that I don't know if people are comfortable talking about because in mixed company, men can sometimes be deferential to women in a way that changes the vibe. I see it with inside where if it's Barclay and Shack and Ernie Johnson, they're all just snapping towels at each other and being totally mean and off the rails. If Candice Parker is there in the studio, the energy changes. And to be clear, it's not her fault. It's not something she's doing. But the guys are now operating differently. They're a little bit more careful. And I think you see a lot of those dynamics play out with a women's league where maybe people who would ordinarily have commentary that could be sharper or demand or accountability. For instance, like you were saying, they hold their tongue. And then maybe the people within that institution, they don't get the criticism you should get. They only get the criticism from the ogre online saying back to the kitchen. They cease to have any realistic understanding of where they're screwing up and running a foul. And so I think at its root and it sounds crazy to say it beyond the politics and the proxy war, some of why the WMBA discourse is so messed up is just that basic issue of men and women, not entirely knowing how to deal with one another. I think that is part of it. And I'm glad you brought up Candice Parker because I'll never forget. And I think it was like 20 years ago, there was a high school dunk contest. I think it was on ESPN. And she did the same dunk four times. It was like front of the rim, left of the rim, right of the rim. And then I think she did front of the rim. And guys are throwing shit off the backboard. And she won the dunk contest because that moment, everyone on that judges panel decided we're going to be nice. And it's incredible that Candice Parker could dunk. But I wasn't home as a Neanderthal misogynist guy. I was just kind of sitting at home going like, fucking, really? Like this is going to win the dunk contest. And you're just going like, what am I supposed to want? Am I supposed to want truth? And that her dunks weren't nearly as good? Like, is that important to me? Is that going to change anything? No, that seems a little dramatic. But what, like, did I, was I, was I offended because like, I couldn't, I was offended. I wasn't sure why I was offended. And I wonder if some of this to your point of it, never exactly being something we can figure out how to nail perfectly here of like, if you're willing to do that for women in sports, are we just, is it a good thing that maybe we don't want fairness at times when it comes to being critical. You know, even if that's wrong, it seems like the wrong way to do the job. Yeah, that's a really interesting moment with Parker. And I think the reasons to be offended, not saying it's the crime of the century, there's just an absence of honesty. I remember when I was a kid and I heard about the battle of the sexes with the whole Bobby rigs versus now I feel terrible. I can't remember the actual women's tennis player off top of my head who won that match against a drunk and pop bellied, Billie Jean, there we go against a drunk and pop bellied rigs. And it was funny. My mom of all people said she never liked how people reacted to it because this guy clearly wasn't the best in the world. So what were we proving with this woman beating him? What was really going on here? And so you're seeing aspects of that right now where there's this push, this defensiveness to try to tell people this is such a great league. And then the people making that case will almost try to make it sound like the players are better than what you would have in the NBA or have aspects to them that are better. There's this denial. I don't need to get into the crazy Royce White in as canter thing. But there are people saying they shouldn't be allowed in the league, which they should not. But also that they would get just completely destroyed by Asia Wilson. You can find people saying that he knows canter would get destroyed out there by Asia Wilson. And it's we don't have to lie, dude. But we really don't have to lie like that. Now I would defend interest in the WNBA in a way that's honest. And I would say that I enjoy watching it. But I also know that no duh NBA players are way better than WNBA players. That's just an obvious thing that for whatever reason you don't hear a lot of mainstream commentators say, even though everybody knows it. But I've made this comparison. And it kind of triggers some of my subscribers who are big boxing fans, but it's the best I can do. And it's, look, a lot of us loved watching some of those later boxers, Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, and enjoyed that. We can enjoy that and understand the context within they succeeded. Well, also understanding that thousands of dudes could just completely kick their ass in a street fight because they're the size of your average high school freshman. I'm not trying to denigrate them or say they weren't great. What I'm saying is that sports are contextual. So I can enjoy the WNBA even though you barely ever see a dunk. And even if any reverse layup that happens, you're kind of wondering if that's going to fall, even if it's open, just because this is contextual. And in this context, I'm curious who the best women in the world are. And instead of making that case and saying this has something going for it, it's cool. It's the best women. It gets into this battle of the sexes territory sometimes. And I know some people might think I'm crazy, but I've seen that sort of advertising for this league. There was a Nike ad for the women's team saying that it was just better than the men's team because, and literally said because the stuff of your was just the patriarchy. And it gets a little combative and competitive. And I don't really think it needs to. I don't think you need to say that Manny Pacquiao would beat Klitschko to get people interested in watching Manny Pacquiao. So that's my, I hope, nuanced defense of the league as a product. Yeah. I, for whatever you think about the league, that you can hate the league, but championing Royce White and Canter to attention seeking guys that I, I want nothing to do with. Like it, it is a bit political though in that way. Like I was watching somebody on CNN that I know is very liberal and they were asking this person about his son, Piker who sucks. And I enjoy him on LeBetard Show doing it. It doesn't be a preview, however, but I just was like, Hey, why can't, why can't you just be a left-wing person that's like, Hey, this guy that kind of sucks, like I think he sucks and like you can't. So if you're, if you're really pissed at the WNBA, like you want to start retweeting and it's Canter Royce White stuff, like, I, you know, I just, it's one of those things where the like, all of the things that you have to attach yourself to in today's, in today's world like where it just is like, Hey, I can, I can believe in all these things, but I'm also not going to believe in these three things. Is that okay? Yeah. And I think that's, that's, that's kind of like the root of the problem that we get to not just with this, but I don't want to make it specific to just the WNBA, but I think that's a problem a lot of people run into in everything that we're doing that's publicly discussed. Oh my God, yeah. And I'm not good at coining phrases. I want to, I want to make fetch happen, but I called this one the PRification of everything, which is not a good coinage, but it's this sense that just everybody's acting like some unpaid PR official for all these causes and they get very protective. And then it corrodes their ability to be honest. And I think that's a lot of what we're talking about where you don't want to admit certain things because somebody might get the wrong idea about the WNBA. You don't want to admit certain things because if you criticize somebody on your side who's a radical and extremist, it might reflect poorly on your side. People used to be less self-conscious. People used to just have opinions they would put out there, but now that we're on social media, it just becomes all part of this broader world.
or a proxy war and as crazy as it sounds to make a sharp shooting role player on the Indiana fever, part of the broader American political hot war, that's just what happens. It's like everything is about everything somehow. And I completely sympathize with your with your weariness over it, even though I think two degree it helps pay my bills over at House of Strauss that people are so crazy about these things and averse to being honest about them. Breaking news as we are taping this, apparently according to sources, there's no evidence to Steve Balmer, owner of the Clippers, funneled money to Kauai Leonard via sponsors. Instead the NBA is focused on whether or not the team's introduction of Leonard to team sponsors constitutes a violation of the league's rules prohibiting salary cap circumvention. Two of the sources said the league is examining whether Clippers are guilty of "failure to supervise employees," though it's unclear what specific rule the team would have violated or what the penalties would be to the sources said. So the 11-month investigation into salary cap circumvention allegations expand beyond Leonard's deal with aspiration and now to funk group. So yeah, I guess if that's what we're to believe on the sources, that's not an official statement yet from the NBA. Your reaction to that? Well, reacting in real time, I would say it didn't look good is what I would say. I haven't gone down the rabbit hole, I don't know what, what is it, walked her and lipped in or whatever the lawyer firm the NBA uses to adjudicate such matters. I'm just sort of, yeah, I mean, okay, this might be wrong, I might offend Pablo when I talk about this. Yeah, I'm not saying that what he uncovered was incorrect. I'm just personally saying I don't know how much I care at this point. Obviously, the NBA needs to have some sort of full work against guys getting paid beyond the salary cap. But this is also a situation unlike the Houston Astros, for instance, where the Clippers effectively destroyed themselves by going down the quiet Leonard rabbit hole. So my feeling at this point is I'm not sure what justice is being sought. I'm not sure what punishment needs to happen here. The NBA needs clear rules preventing it, but I think what's also difficult about it is this. Now I'm just getting kind of crazy ex-temperanias. This stuff is really hard to police Ryan. I mean, maybe not this one specifically, but you've all heard, you know, you've heard the rumors. We can't have owners buying a guy a house. We can't have that. But I don't know if it's possible to really tamp down in somebody's softer means of influence, like how when Kevin Durant came to the Warriors, suddenly he's getting all these shots at seed rounds and investment capital and whatnot out here in the Bay Area. I'm glad you brought that one up because I was not dismissive of this because it really felt like, okay, this is bad. And then it's like, okay, but what are they going to actually be able to prove? Like where's the paper trail that's going to be there were bombers, like give him the $38 million guy from aspiration is like done and done, you know, like was that ever going to happen? And you knew that since it had been gone on almost a year here that that wasn't going to happen. But I'm glad you brought it to Durant one because I'll never forget. It was applauded when Durant went to Silicon Valley because it was like, oh, think about all of these deals that he's going to be able to and nobody was even like thinking about that. As as a downside, we have, we have for years applauded what it means to be in this market versus another one. We've also heard plenty of stories of like whether or not this player is staying at this owner's house or this apartment here, I don't know if you can police any of the plane stuff, maybe it doesn't really matter. So I'm not saying like, hey, I'm actually I've been totally fine with circumventing the cap for 15 years. I love this stuff. I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is I'm not surprised if this ends up based on this news and we're going to need more clarification on everything here. I was not going to be surprised if the result was underwhelming. I wasn't either just based on the noises you were hearing out of there. And frankly, some of what's been said about the closeness between silver and bomber, how it's nice to have a friend as rich as bomber, which I guess was the entire Pablo point that he was so much wealthier than the rest of the owners that it was distorting. But yeah, some of these incentives are just impossible to police. I mentioned to rant. What I didn't mention was Nike definitely wanted Kevin Durant to go to the warriors. They badly wanted that Lynn Merritt big shot at Nike. He was there at the opening press conference that I was at. And he was just celebrating and crowing. He was saying we got him both when it comes to the finals between LeBron and KD. And that move overshadowed staff crushed under Armors momentum. It's something Nike badly wanted. Now, if Nike paid Durant more to come to the warriors, will we even know about it? Those contracts aren't public. Would that be violated of anything? I don't know. I'd assume not. So those sorts of incentives I think are very much hard to police. And I think all you can really do from the perspective of the league is make sure that nobody gets egregious or especially sloppy with making these sorts of payments because it's hard. It's a very liquid world as we can see with the Los Angeles Lakers and the recent sale and everything going on behind the scenes there. And I don't know if the NBA CBA has enough heft to stop it off. I mean, it's funny to be in a way too when this stuff happens, Ryan, they have an investigation. They have the lawyers and people are calling on, they're calling on justice to be served. And they start talking as though Adam Silver's uncle Sam and the NBA has powers beyond what I think the NBA has. It's not the law. They're not the FBI. They can't raid Steve Balmer's house. So unless something is completely overt, I think it's quite difficult for the league to really pull rank and start doing punishments. Have you allowed yourself to feel good about the Lakers flipping that it was just, you know, that it was kind of just a straightforward thing for a guy who was in a tough spot, that it isn't. People want this one to be the conspiracy theory. Yeah. Well, okay. I would say that it's a continuation of the summer of Adam as I'm calling it. I have been critical of Adam Silver. I think a lot of things are going right for him. And I know people have issues with this. I know they're saying that he's not picking the most reputable owners. But to get this flipped as seamlessly as he did when the feds appear to be hot on Mark Walters trail. I mean, hypothetically, if the owner of the Lakers went to jail while owning the Lakers, God, that would be a mess. But this happened quite quickly under the cover of night, maybe through some connections. The way Bob Eiger has been talking about it, it would appear that he got some sort of tip off. I would guess it's through Adam since there's such good friends. And it all went rather quickly. And I think at least right now, I see certain Lakers fans getting mad about it. I think the name Kushner is something to do with that, even though it's Joshua Kushner. And he's not Jared Kushner. It's like the name Kushner. It's a brand thing and it provokes a certain reaction. I think you got to be happy about it if you're a Laker fan versus the mess that could have happened if this didn't go through. Yeah. The Kushner part of it is just too sexy for people who go, okay, DOJ investigation, hey, why don't we do this? And we'll sell the team and then we'll give it to somebody related to you. And the number of times I kept reading like direct correlation through marriage to President Trump. And I would say most people that are probably like Lakers fans hate Trump. So that was something that was like too much. But then you know, that hedge fund world is not a very big world. And then you start realizing like what Walter was doing and that it was something he needed to fix immediately. And if selling Lakers, which no one would ever think you're buying them to flip them. So I think we're all on the same page there. I just don't know that it might be Pablo Torres fault actually that everyone wants these things to be super nefarious. And you've got guys tweeting to like 1200 followers going, this is what I've been able to uncover. You're like, oh, you have fucking internet your place too. That's amazing. So do I, that there is, there is a default to wanting everything to be the worst version of it now when it comes to this kind of stuff. And yeah, sorry, sorry to interject, yeah, I don't, it's like it's not nefarious, but it is sketchy is how I feel about it. And I think sometimes when people see something that's sketchy, they start really attaching a lot of other stuff there. It's like Epstein list and international conspiracy and nor is it that the MBA has opened up its financing rules to allow for private equity to be part of it. And now guys are buying teams who are over leveraged and they're buying the teams with more money than they actually have. And we're seeing some of the consequences of that potentially.
is that really more what's going on than some sort of international conspiracy? I say that while also noting that it helps to have an inside guy when you're trying to get a team like Bob Iger having a friend. If I'm a Laker fan though, I'm not worried about Kushner or Thrive Capital or some conspiracy theory about Trump leaning on Walter to do this. I'm worried about Bob Iger. Bob Iger is 75 years old. I am not trying to dump on old people. I love old people. I think a successful old person could be an incredible advisor, but I have my doubts and concerns about trying to lead massive global enterprises like when you came back to Disney for instance and it did not go great or right now if he wants to be the guy running the Lakers. I think NFL, an industry we really care about, it almost shows what works because hey, it's not cutting time. Teams need to win football games. So what do they do? They hire NFL coaches in their 30s and 40s when there's still acuity there. But for whatever reason in the politics world and I guess often in the business world, they give it to people long past their primes and Iger's got a bit of an ego and I think if I'm a Lakers fan, I'm looking at the situation going, is he going to be running this? Is he going to make Chris Paul GM because Chris Paul is his buddy? Is this the guy I want to be in charge of this is the steward? That to me, that would just have me more concerned than any of the 12-dimensional chess stuff and client list and everything else you hear people babbling about. Great visiting with you today, man. I really appreciate this. Make sure you check out the house, subscribe to a sub-stack and also make a check out his podcast a couple days a week, right? You're doing those two days a week once week, two days a week. Yeah, exactly. We got to get you on. We got to get you on sometime. I'm doing that awkward thing for the guest to ask the host to come on the podcast at the end. But I will extend that one to you in private Ryan and say I enjoy being on and it's great talking with you and thanks for having me. Thanks, man. Raising Keynes is turning 30 this month. To celebrate the milestone, Keynes is hosting a 30th birthday pop-up museum in Baton Rouge located directly behind the original restaurant, the mothership. Todd Gray's will be unveiling the museum on August 25th. In honor of 30 years of Keynes, the brain is also launching a commemorative 90s plush puppy available beginning August 26th featuring Kane in her 90s best net proceeds benefit pet welfare organizations. Here's what I love about being back in Baton Rouge because it was the first time I experienced Kane. So every time I go to Raising Keynes, it's kind of like a history lesson for myself. You're like, what are they doing? Is it really going to be that good? And it is that good. I go Caniac. I leave the slaw. I do the extra sauce and if I'm feeling really Randy, I may order myself an extra side finger. Raising Keynes, chicken fingers, one love. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolay. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every tour 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. Today's life advice is sponsored by Shell. I don't usually get excited about loyalty programs. They promise big rewards and then it's like you actually have to eat 50 sandwiches to get one free. But here's the thing. The Shell Fuel Rewards program is actually super practical. You're already getting gas. You're already grabbing takeout. You're already buying snacks. She definitely didn't need but absolutely deserve with Shell Fuel Rewards. You just get rewarded for that and not in a fake point you'll never use way. It's actual savings on gas and the savings stack. So it's not like one side little discount. It's you fill up, you eat, you shop and it all piles up into real savings at the pump. Joining takes less than three minutes in the shell app and you'll save on every fill after that. Literally every single one. Join the Shell Fuel Rewards program and save like advice. Life advice
[email protected]. It's good to see everybody. I think it's I don't know why it's really laughing for the reason I think it's laughing because I try to open up. I share something with you guys off air and it gets brought right into the top of life advice. You know, I didn't have time to digest. You know, we were just all of a sudden bang. We're in and I've got more questions but we can skip it if you want. I mean, we know it's fine. I was just saying I it's something I didn't really think about before and then I fuck around caught an ear fungus like two years ago and I had to go to an ENT a bunch of times. You know, it could happen to the best of us. I wasn't doing anything weird but it just happens. And then I went I had a couple like actual you go into this ENT office and they like really get everything out of your ears. And you know, old guys used to be like go get your ears cleaned and like I actually got it. And I was like, dude, I feel like a new guy. So I was just saying that because Rudy was saying Ryan's coming at a low. There was a reason for that and it's just I bothered him a little bit. So I was like, you know what? Maybe you should get your ears cleaned in a non-offensive way. I did literally yesterday throw a swab in there and I was, you know, a little disgusted to see what we saw going to be honest. But, you know, I was at the beach too. So it's like, you know, there'd be some sand in there. Things get kind of weird. But how do you know? So how do you know you have any ear fungus? Like was there like a growth? I was actually no, no, it wasn't like. Well, I don't want to get into all that. But I guess what I was saying, like it just I started to not hear as much. And I was like, let me go get this looked at when I heard you care. They sent me to a specialist. And I was like, dude, my insurance just like I can pay 10 bucks and you can go in there and just get everything out. I wasn't embarrassed. There was like a young woman training and she had to pull all that stuff out of my ear. And I was like, well, wasn't expecting this. I was hoping that old guy could do it, but whatever. Yeah. All right. Fair enough. All right. So that's what we were laughing Yeah. I guess I mean, I don't, I have a few follow ups, but I also don't because sorrudy, I feel like you put yourself in a spot where it was like I threw a swab in there and you made it sound like you do it once a year, which I assume is not a case, right? Just the way you told that story, you were opening yourself up. So listen, it's it's it's open season on sorrudy all the time. So it's fun. You can just come at me with my, you claim my ear is a decent amount, but I just, you know, felt a little weird in there. Again, there was probably some sand, some saltwater and, but like, you know, they tell you not to use the tips, but the tips feel so good sometimes, you know, like, I know you're just kind of pushing it back in there, but Lena, yeah, I got to do a little swirl. Yeah, got to be gentle, gentle but firm, if you know, you know, greenie got his ears cleaned every six months. He was blown away when he told you that. He was like, you don't get your ears cleaned regularly. I was like, what, what? I was like, I kind of just do it at home. I'm a DIY guy and he was like, really? Because I get my clean, my doctor every six months. Yeah, my way. You know what? He's right, man. Maybe you are right. He is right. He is right. You are doing it right. In the draft of like, hey, first round picks of people who I think would get their ears cleaned, he'd be a first round prospect, no doubt, no question. And I look again, I think those guys are doing it right. I just, I just don't really even think about it. I think he may have done a tonsil stone procedure too, which you're like, you know, you start going down that road. Some people are better off just not anyone know about that. Yeah, there's, there's some luxuries in life that I just don't know about. We're not, we're not privy to that. Having your ears clean. You know what? I'm going to do it now. I'm going to do a report back. I'm telling you, you're going to be like, I didn't know it's going to be like that. That's amazing. I was like smelling sounds after that. Go take a hearing test just to see what my number is. Yeah. Serving up. Yeah. I heard it said Apple, right? All right. We had a ton of pro-siruti emails come in. About the anti-siruti emails came in. I stand with serruri. Everyone's wrong about serruri serruri. I don't know that we need to read a ton of them. So, I mean, I couldn't really want if you wanted me to. Yeah. Fine. We'll read one five ten two fifteen thirty one player comp a slow speedy clackston. First time emailer was listening to Life Advice after the recent Mike Sandopod. It cannot believe the amount of backlash that he was getting for his take on the husband's sister and wife's brother hooking up. I'd not even listen to the original Life Advice. So naturally, that went back and listen to what specifically determined whether serruri was being unfair. After reviewing the evidence, I regret to inform Ryan Kyle and the other emailers, I am with serruri. My wife's family has very similar situation. Those slightly different on her mom's side. There are two brothers who marry two sisters. At first, sounds great. Keeps a family tree nice and tidy. Everybody wins except the sisters eventually started having big issues with each other. Like, we're not really doing, we're not, we do not really get along at things giving issues. Okay. I mean, arguing how to take care of their parents when they were sick, what to do with the finances, when they died, nasty stuff. They've barely spoken to each other probably the last ten years, at least for the majority of time. I've been around the family and because they're married to two brothers, you cannot have the two people who hate each other quietly go the separate ways. Now, everybody gets dragged into it. Family gatherings become a logistical operation. Certain people do not get invited to certain things. One of the sisters was not invited to a wedding. There was constant figuring out who is going to be where and when. And I'm sitting there thinking this is exactly why you do not need to add another layer to the family tree when you can avoid it.
So yes, I stay in with sorority. Could it work, sure. Obviously people can meet. All right, we got it. We got it. I mean, I think it's fair to at least offer up. You don't have to be related to have that happen. Right, that's what in a self-scouting report that is true. And I think my biggest issue in that is I don't think I did a good enough job of like explaining why I thought that way, but I don't know that I have a perfect explanation for why I just feel that way, you know? And that's okay if you disagree. I also didn't ever say you couldn't do it. It's just, just thought it was wrong. And I was not wrong. It's not wrong. I'm not saying like, I know it's not it, we talked about, I know it's not illegal. It's just, you know, feels a little strange and you're open yourself up for some future BS if things go wrong. We had somebody who checked in with AI and AI or chat GPT back to you up, so I went. Okay, so there you go. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I just felt like I wanted to share that. Okay, let's get to a couple of emails here. Fake nice. So I spent most of the last decade and a half working overseas, primarily in emerging markets. One thing I came to appreciate about the part of that world, about that part of the world is that people generally don't have much patience for bitching and moaning about minor issues. There can be plenty of cultural formality, but there isn't nearly as much fake nice. It's usually pretty easy to get past the perfunctory pleasantries, have an actual conversation, say what needs to be said and get things moving, finishing things, however, is reliant on many more variables. Since being back in the States, the corporate dog and pony show has been a bit of a culture shock. There seems to be a remarkable amount of smiling, agreeing and being exceedingly pleasant on how many points in your email. Followed by nothing happening. I'm still recalibrating to an environment where that sounds great, can apparently mean anything from I'm on it to I have no intention of ever doing this. So I'm looking to expand my vocabulary of HR compatible ways to say, cut the shit, cupcake, any recommendations. I've never worked in a corporate setting in Europe, so I don't know how to compare that. The specific words, I don't know if I have anything, but I think the sentiment that you want to stay away from is, well, my last place we did it this way, I think you only get a couple of those before everyone turns on you at the place you are now. I don't think that's what he's doing, but if that's the sentiment that's coming across, I would just be careful. There's nothing wrong with bringing experience from somewhere else, but if it's key if you're at my last place, this shit would never happen like this. I would just say that's a good thing to have on the front of your mind, 'cause you have that perspective and no one else does. But as far as phrases you can use, leave that up to you guys, I think. - I don't know, I have great answers here, either. I feel like any phrase you could take, when you're texting, there's so much punctuation matters so much. If you didn't put an exclamation point at the end of it, are you actually mad the way that you could say, "Okay, if you spell it out versus just okay," two different things, I don't know. I feel like everyone's in their own head on this stuff. - Also, who you're talking to matters? If you are at my last place, there was a couple of people that if they're above me and they're talking about something that needs to happen, they're not gonna be, maybe nice isn't the word, but maybe stern or firm or whatever. I always knew where I stood with them and I never took it in a bad way, just like, "All right, we'll put this one near the top of the list." I mean, if you're talking to people that are under you in some sort of, they brought you from another company, if you're superior or at least something like that, maybe you just change your vocabulary with people that you need to tell what to do, but when you're talking across the org chart, and you're asking someone for something they're supposed to be doing, I think you might have to throw a couple of explanation points in there when you're like, "Thank you so much." But it might just be, you wanna just set the tone with people that you need to get their shit together if you're allowed to. I don't know if you can pull it off this way 'cause none of us really have to worry about it, but can you, it depends on who's more important to you than you're talking, or are you more important than the people you're talking to? I imagine there's a little bit of both here for an emailer, but can you lock people into kind of like a date? Like, "Hey, when can we expect this done?" 'Cause that doesn't allow for the vague, I can't wait to circle back on this language. 'Cause it's a perfect observation of the great can be, I'm on it too, I'm never doing this." And you're like, "Yeah." I mean, that feels like it's happened so many times. I mean, me where you just go. You have to like learn the person and go, "Oh, this means you're never going to do it." Yeah, and I think it sucks. Once you get over the hump of like putting that like, "Hey, can I get this by EOD Wednesday?" I mean, the first time you see that in the request department, you're like, "Oh shit." Well, maybe Wednesday. I don't know if I wanna do it Wednesday now, but once you like, once you add that to your message, like, "There's a paper trail of shit like that." So you have to now make them say like, "Either I can't do it," which is kind of like, it's like downing yourself, be like, "I can't get this done by Wednesday." But I think maybe just throw it like you said, throwing a timeline in there in the initial question too. Like put the timestamp on it in the question. Instead of like, "When do you think?" Like, you know, this isn't gonna work if it's not Wednesday. So what do you think we can do is by EOD Wednesday? I've seen a lot of EODs in my life recently. - Race oh yeah, a lot of- - Oh, just like stuff. - Is that headlines for you? - Stuff that I'm seeing, you know, I'm on emails. I see stuff. - That's great. - Directed at you or not? - You're just, you're just watching. - No, I'm just watching. - Dude, I'm like a BCC kind of guy, but I still, you know, I still watch. - Just do aware of what's going on out there. - Yeah. - Look, if you have any questions, you could probably ask me off there. I probably have some answers for you. - Yeah, I had a manager who, he'd take you out to dinner and his favorite thing, he brought a little note pad. He had a little note pad, then he was like, "Everybody should have a note pad. "Everybody should be writing stuff down." You think of segment ideas and you're thinking of different things. Like, I think I've had a couple courses not recently, but years ago when I was in the course world, where there were people just hammering the idea of like, have a note pad with you all the time, because that way you can always organize your thoughts, something pops into your head. You're always ready to go whatever. I mean, technically you should be able to just do it with a phone now and send yourself a text or use the notes app or whatever, but there was this guy who was like, really big on it. He would have dinner and he'd open up his note pad and be like, "All right, what's the most important thing "for you the next six months or something?" And he'd feel so important. He'd be like, "Well, maybe not the next six months, "but maybe next year or after that, I'd like to do this." Okay, what can I do that's better for you? Okay, cool. All right, well, it would help. We had a little bit more transparency on this stuff, sometimes a scheduling thing, and this doesn't always make a ton of sense. Okay, who will around you is somebody, whatever. So we'll go on and that motherfucker never looked at that no pad again, ever. It was like he wrote it all down and threw it away, whatever he wrote down as soon as the dinner was over. And then I was pretty convinced he just wanted to be able to expense the dinner. And the no pad is an illusion of effort. That's, I mean, it's right, it's clear it's a lot of effort though. Man, it's more offensive, like sit here and ignore me in a normal way. Did you see the no pad was he actually writing real things down or was it just like, oh yeah, all right. 'Cause then it happened like four or five times. And I, you know, me, I was like getting pretty close to being like, "Hey, you ever go back in there? You ever go back in there and get a little hold on?" You ever go back in there and get a little hold on? You ever go once over? So then I just stopped going to the dinners. I was like, I don't, do I know this guy? Really nice guy, but I just was like, you can't, you can't keep asking me all these specific things and then right-knit down on the notebook can be in like some good stuff right here. We're getting to the good stuff. And then you're like, oh, nothing, nothing ever happens after the notes, ever. So just be careful. Some people who are on to you, you know? - As a serious note taker, too. That's not something that you would ever do. Sit down with somebody who-- - I'm just saying notes in general, like you take note taking seriously, you know. (laughing) - Yeah, I don't, just the art itself, I don't like that. So-- - Not to be mocked, you know, it's a real art. Let's get to some bummed out guys here. See if we can't help. So I'm my ex at a wedding. Hey fellas, big fan of the show. I know what it is that need about generally apologize advanced for the length you know. This isn't even that bad here. Hight and weight, 6419 D player comp Bobby Portis fan favorite, good post game, can stretch the floor also. Potentially overreacts though to Norman Powell talking about Detroit. I'm a guy in my late 20s recently. So my ex-girlfriend for the first time in a long time. My best friend's wedding. We broke up about two and a half years ago. And I genuinely thought I had moved on. We ended up talking for a while. It was actually really nice. Nothing crazy happened, but seeing her person again brought back a lot of feelings that apparently hadn't dealt with as much as I thought since the wedding. I literally cannot stop thinking about her. The next day I texted her, hey, just wanted to say it was genuinely great to see you this weekend. I know you don't want me to apologize anymore, but I'm truly sorry it's been as long as it has. And I take full responsibility for that and should have reached out. I'm happy to know that you've been doing great. She responded, hey, nice to see you as well. It's a fun few days celebrating the two people who we put their name in here. Glad to hear you've been doing well also. I'm going to be honest with you. That's not the response you're looking for to your text. -We'll really play, yeah, "Standard." -Meet him. -Meet him.
bring up two other people. Yeah. That sounds great. Can't wait to do it. May not do it. Right? So basically we applied response. No questions. No obvious attempt to continue the conversation. Well, that definitely fucked with your head even more. Now you like or even more because you've got a standard non-emotional text response. Here's where it gets complicated. I have a first date tomorrow night with another girl before seeing my ex I was generally excited about the state. Now I barely feel excited about it because I can't get my ex out of my head. My questions are one of my romanticizing my ex because seeing her after two and a half years probably being exact. Yeah, partially. Two should I still go on the first date tomorrow? Yes. Oh my god. Yeah. Three should I reach out to my ex again at some point or leave the ball in her court. That one's not as easy to answer. Four, how do I know whether I actually miss her versus just missing the relationship and the memories? Five and finally, is this just normal post-wedding emotional whiplash or did I reopen something I should actually explore? So Ryan, I need some life advice because I went from being excited about a first date to being emotionally compromised by a woman I haven't spoken to in two and a half years all within 24 hours. Well, they're not going on the date thing. It's really stupid. Do we all agree with that? Yeah, especially once you realize that she that text if she sent you back, she's like, this might be a guy that's going to fucking bother me. And once you realize that's what she thinks about you, you need to go on a date ASAP. You have to. But I mean, maybe it doesn't matter, but like, are you going to be in the right headspace though? Like now, don't be like bummed out guy at this date too. Just, you know, like don't about it for yourself. What about bummed out masked guy? That's really serious. Like, what do you mean? No, like, you're actually super bummed out, but you're going to mask it the whole time. Might as well just be better off being depressed. And maybe you go simply the angle at the date. I don't know. Yeah, those play sometimes. I feel like man, two and a half years, if you weren't having these feelings, like whenever you see anything, man, like, they're like smells that, you know, songs that make me like, man, that was really remember that. I mean, like, there's just things that you haven't heard in a long time that bring back this to soldier. And as always, good life, tea pain and kind of right. Come on. There you go. Um, and there's been two and a half years. Well, you get tipsy. He's probably not one. No. Oh, man. If I saw that in the wire the other day, and I was like, Kyle must have loved that song. Yeah, listen, you hear everything wrong. We're counting or something like that. I mean, we're doing like a little counting column response. I mean, I don't know. I feel like this is a total normal thing. And you have to hear. He looks good. Like he hasn't liked her in two and a half years. One thing if it was like, hey, this is the one that really stings and you're still going to be thinking about her and it's like, you're almost, when you don't think about her, it's a bit of a reward. I mean, two and a half years is kind of a long time, but it's happened to dudes. Um, but you haven't thought about her really at all in two and a half years than you saw her at the wedding. And now it's like on, I don't know. I mean, a lot of times I think this stuff is all your current circumstance. You start judging every other thing based on your current situation. Not that long ago. I was doing something and I was looking around and I'm like, this blows and it made me miss somebody. And then I went, are you sure? Because usually you like this. And right now you think it blows. Like this isn't weird. This is like a weird dynamic. Like what the fuck is this move? And I was like, ah, luckily you've gone through it enough. You just go like, well, whatever. I don't know what's happening right now. I'm not going to worry about it. Um, so I think it, you having access to this feeling for the first time in two and a half years. And then you feeling like this is actually tells me how misleading this feeling is because it's such a departure from everything else that you've been feeling. Like you haven't felt this way the entire time. So that to me is like the thing you need to focus on. And um, well, it'll probably go away. I think. Yeah. This isn't a movie like, you know, this isn't a notebook. Like you just, you're not going to be forever changed from this. I'm positive, especially from like what you said earlier in the email. I think, I think 10 minutes into this date, maybe even before the date starts, you're going to be excited to be around another person, but you know, you were excited to go out with. I think that's all. It's not going to really, it hasn't changed your chromosomes, dude. You're like, you're still who you are. You just get out there. I get it. But I think they'll think about it. But I think I think it'll, it'll slowly wash away. Probably faster than you think. But you get into a dangerous territory, though, and then fresh off of seeing her again, where you compare all of the good things that you think you liked about this X, right? And you forget all the bad things. And then you start comparing that to any new girl. And that's when you get into a really dangerous zone. Like, oh, like no one could ever live up to that thing. So I kind of don't love the timing here of this to be honest with you. If you're, if this is your head space, like you can go to one of two ways, like, you need to be like, she's going to be awesome. You're going to have fun on this day. It's going to be great. And she can make you forget her or you're going to be in your own head about like all the little things comparing her to this girl that you just saw you completely, probably romanticize all the good things that happen with you too. I would agree with you if he didn't get that HR style email or text from from when it sounds like his hope is still up, though. Yeah, his hope is how can you read that? I think I can read that and see anything other than have a good summer. Yeah. And look, she could very well like have wanted to do that because that's how little she cares about him anymore. But it's so well crafted. It's such a good fuck you HR email that it makes me think he, she might still like him a little. Oh, what have you got? I know. She was like, let me make this as nasty and as functional as possible. Like that felt like there was some real thought put into it of like, how can I make this seem? I don't care at all that now I'm thinking there is maybe a little bit. It's true, but women have to do this all the time like craft their speech to where it's like, this guy can't have any ideas. Like, did I do this in a way where this guy can't have any ideas because it doesn't take much for a guy to be like, oh, dude, she totally, she totally likes me. I guess well, it's muddy because they used to date, but I think women have to do this all the time with people they run into or meet for the first time. So what was your reaction like at the wedding, too, though? Were you guys like hanging out? Were you talking? Or was it just like you were in a circle together and you barely even, you know, I mean, you just saw each other kind of come back knowledge meant that you were alive. Yeah, like that kind of matters, too. What's the context of that? We don't know that, but I think you would have included it up if it was good. So then you would have accumulated it. Yeah. Yeah, just go on the date, man. Yeah. You know, just enjoy being around somebody else because what else you could also go back and look at your ex's Instagram all night and sulk in your house. Do that. That's something good. I did throw up a cool Instagram story. See if she watched it. I think I could see if she's even if you're even rattling around and have read it all. Kyle, you devious bastard you with a dog maybe walking a dog. I don't know maybe not your dog, but if you don't have one, but, you know, because it have a dog, your friend, like, I was going to go walk around the block. I know you really did. Anybody have a dog I can use to see my story. Yeah, I love I think you're right on. All right, um, um, Comp Husker Aaron Crafts. We get a lot of Aaron Crafts lately played basketball growing up. Never a good shooter, but played past first point guard and defended all 90 feet. My fiance and I have been together for nine plus years high school sweethearts did the whole long distance thing in college, both moved back to our hometowns, Scranton PA post grads. She went to culinary school out of college, got a job in Scranton, research and development at a chocolate factory. Pam was always bitching about the job market Scrant 2 and look at your fiance boom specialized making good money. She loved to make good money right out of college in a small town 70k. I got a job in construction sales and worked in my company Scranton office. We both loved our jobs. I loved my parents, but it was time to get out of Scranton. My company had an opening in the DC region. I went to college in Maryland, some moving somewhere closer to my college friends was appealing. The money was better and getting away from home was what I wanted. I got to be honest with you this email man. It's pretty specific. So I'm sorry if anything happens after that, but I don't just like two guys have that I've ever done, you know, right? So like, hey, do you read Aaron Crafts email in the research show? I didn't always in construction. My fiance girlfriend still at the time has a large family essentially all local to Scranton and was a little more hesitant moving meant finding a job, leaving the one that she liked and leaving her family. I didn't give her an ultimatum to move with me, but I was very clear that I was ready to leave the Scranton area. She decided she'd come with me, but she made it clear she wants to come back home specifically when it's time to have kids. She found a job in DC as a chef for a sorority. She loves it. One downside is lack of paying summers, which means she makes less than she didn't Scranton. I'm doing well in my new position at DC. I've essentially doubled my salary for my time there. We recently got engaged. We'll be getting married next May by then. We would have been in DC three and a half years. I imagine after getting married, we will want to discuss the prospect of having children. She is under the assumption that we will be moving back home when that happens. I'm conflicted by this. I like my job and the pay is getting better every year. I'm well liked in the office. The location is a hole is doing great for me. For me to go back to Scranton would be a large pay cut or finding a new job. It's not like our social life in DC is elite. We both have work friends and friends from college, but she's introverted in her social life and Scranton is better, closer to friends and family. She firmly wants to move home and while I have no
problem doing. So it's certainly a much harder move for me. Not to mention my parents plan on moving into the Maryland of Virginia area to be closer to me and family. If we were to move home, it would look like we were only moving home once my parents leave and potentially take their future grandkids away from them. Well, I mean, I imagine that your parents are aware of this person you've been with for 10 years that also wants to go back to Scranton. So I understand like you guys are moving right is we're moving back. Do I ignore this problem after the wedding? Do I explain to her that moving for me is much more difficult than she thinks? Do I hope she comes to love being down here more than her desire to move home? Any advice helps? Well, I think you're moving home, buddy. Juggling a lot of balls here. There's a couple of balls in the air at this point, right? Do you think, I mean, holiday seasons coming out? I don't know when the wedding is, but like, this is like a topic that is not crazy to talk about with your family, when you're all together and so you know, and you can totally say, my biggest reason for not wanting to go back there is because I like did this thing. That's pretty hard to do, which is double my salary. I know you sacrificed what you were making. But like for me to go back up there, I think like, yeah, we'll keep our keep our ears out. But like, I don't think we should just do it to do it. Like it would, you know, if she can, if you can show her that you're actually open to doing this in a way that is sort of reasonable, if you're being honest here and you're not like, I just want to fucking stay here, which, you know, I know what that's like, wanting to go someplace really bad. So if you can just show that you're actually like being responsible about this, you're like, yeah, I'm looking, but I really don't think like after everything that I built, it's tough, you know, it's worth it to just, you know, to bounce back. So I think if you could just show that you're actually on the lookout for doing this in an acceptable way, that might buy you some time. Just have like Zippercrew or open on your laptop all the time. But you're not. We have to have a widget for your, like, your, where you're lock screen. Get notifications. He's always on indeed. What's going? All right. Yeah. He's really trying out there. I don't know many couples were when the wife wants to move home and the guys like on the fence because you're not adamant. You're not like totally against it. You're open to it. She moved there with you. The way you've explained it to me is that once you guys were having kids, you were going to move back there. So I think you're moving back to screen. Yeah. Maybe. And it's going to be like a massive wake up call. Well, for one of you, but the way you've explained this, I mean, I'm asking kind of like Stephen Kyle. Do you think I'm wrong here? It seems like it was sort of accepted. Hey, that once this happens, this is what's going to and I've had like buddies that was like, okay, you can live here. We can live here for a little while. But like once we start getting closer to the kids and like, it doesn't have to be as soon as the kids are born, but once the kids start getting a little bit older, I want them near my people. It's really passionate about public schools where they grow up. Yeah, but I don't, I don't know how often the man is winning that one. I can, I can run through a bunch of my head and go like none. Now that I can think of it, it's been also, it's been mainly all women. So wait a minute, I don't, I feel like you told her kind of what she wanted to hear. And now you're still on the fence. And my guess is that she's, she's assumed this entire time that they, that you guys are going back to screen. So that's going to be really, really tough if you're like, hey, can we revisit that and maybe not do that now? Dude, it's the electric city. There's so much you probably haven't even done there. There probably is. I don't know, can you, can you just play the money card though? I can just be like, this is not going to make sense for us. Like in what way? Like, maybe a PowerPoint presentation and just be like, I'm not anti, but like in what way is this better for us? Right? And if she's still like, I don't care, I would take a pick up figure out, I want to go back and you're probably definitely screwed. A lot of notepad and show her what you've been doing. Yeah, start jotting some stuff down. Yeah. And ask her what's going to be important to her the next six months. And then don't ever address it again. Hey, it worked on me for years. In just in relationships in general, dude, just start taking notes whenever their wife sings in our talk. It's like, I'm not listening. Listen to that now. I can see your whole set here. Yeah. What do you think? What do you think it is about me that you'd like to see improve? And just put one is on showroom. That would lead to way more divorces. Just like totally calm, wife's losing her shit. We got a lot done today. Yeah. Thanks. Where would you like to see me 12, 18 months out from today? What's the most important aspect of my growth to you, 12, 18 months? And how do you feel you've handled your responsibilities in the last quarter? And then when you go to do it again, she'd be like, well, wait a minute, we're doing this again. We did this eight months ago and you didn't do any of those things. Like, well, but I do have my notepad, but they are written down here, though. Yeah. But we're going to write cross them off when I get to everybody. I love, I love the idea of guys starting a no pad relationship stuff. Maybe we could want something like that be our first real product. Okay. Relationship, no pad. Heavy binding. Okay. So we'll make them a different sizes depending on how serious you want this to seem. We can go for a little one in the pocket. Yeah. That's just that's just for me for everything. That doesn't look like it's for this. You know, we might need something like full page deal. It can be though, because you always want to be ready to write down that person's thoughts and then you can just tuck it away. Perforated pages so you can tear out whatever you've written down and make sure there's no evidence of it ever existing. Like we did this before. Like no, we didn't. There's no pages in here now. All right. That'll do it for the show. I think today I think we covered it. Thanks, Tom. Kevin. So Rudy Kyle. What's our schedule this week's Rudy? That's a good question. I just got a couple of notes about that. So we'll talk post show. Yeah. BCC not all of it. It's going crazy right now. Cause I I know the least I was about it. I was under the impression it was one thing and then being told it's not a thing. So TB day. We'll have to figure it out. Yeah. We still have a travel pod. Potentially. So would that come out this week or no? Or is this all off the air? No, no, maybe, maybe who knows? It's all on the table. I wish I had more answers for you. I will tomorrow. I'd love to do that. A travel pod is long by the way. We're like pushing three hours. So if you get a long drive, is it three hours? Yeah, you might want to save it for Labor Day guys. I don't know. There's no way that's good. I guess a really nice music though. You're going to love the music. Okay. All right. That'll do it for the pot. Rhino Solo Show. Full episodes on Netflix are still sports. See you.
PodcastTranscript AI