Big NFL Training Camp Questions w/ Albert Breer. Kawhi & the Clippers Cleared? And a WNBA Chat w/ Ethan Strauss.

Hey, we're still a listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcast and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon music. It's Fran from Chicks in the office. The weather is getting cooler and Abercrombie's fall drop has everything I need for the season. The best-selling A&F Sloan Taylor pant is a closet staple for me. I'm always wearing it to work events. Happy hour. Anytime I want to be a bit more dressed up. And the viral Dylan dress is easy, one-and-done perfection. But my fall uniform will always be denim pair with a Henley sweater, a bra-free top. It's comfortable, effortless, it just never fails. Find your fall capsule at Abercrombie, shop in the app online and in stores. The Rhymer Sillo show is presented by DraftKings. Today's show we've got Abergrier on the training camp trail. He's been with two-thirds of the teams in the NFL. We're going to ask him what's real, what isn't based on his observations. Ethan Strauss, the house of Strauss. 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Do a little NFL here with a guy we love having on. It is Bert Breer from Si.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 and this new system. Cincinnati Dallas turnover on defense. Is this real? Like, 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's peak and everybody's saying the same thing. Like, you believe in a group that maybe it took being around them for a couple days that got you to change your mind about what that side of the ball could do. Well, firstly, part of my hat 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. Yeah. I mean, out to me, Ryan was like, I was, so they lose boy in Maffee, right? Who, you know, whatever, Cincinnati may be overpaid for them, a 20 million year. But that's still a 20 million dollar defensive 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, Genoa Osu, 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? Like, and it's just like with Seattle, it kind of feels like when you're up they're at their camp, like there's this embarrassment of riches and depth all over the place. You know? So that'd be one. I mean, the other, 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 Maffee 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. 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 Burrow, it was just kind of like talking to him about the field 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 to get to the Super Bowl in a second year, but in 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 can it be 12? Can it be 14? 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 our 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 Pittman to play receiver. They get older, you know, they bring back Jalen Ramsey, they bring back Cam Hayward, ultimately 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 like how's the injury not 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, the 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 tiers. And it just felt like, and then there's the 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 voice that. 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 are 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, you know, and eventually like when they get to the point where now you're having success, now, you know, like there's this mutual trust, I think it puts you like a great spot, you know, because you've been through that together now. And like Ben Johnson now has proof of concept with Caleb Williams. So Caleb Williams is going to list everything Ben Johnson says because he put him 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 going to 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 to 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 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 Vinkin, Christian Beresaw, you know, 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 room with enough answers? And like last year they tried to bring back Donald, 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 room 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, okay, 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 you know, like now that'll allow them to build the run game which they think is going to be better with Frank Smith there. That allows, you know, guys like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Edison 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, you know, 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 on the field because Kyler's probably gonna 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. Like again, maybe it is that bad, but I would feel like it's a waste. It's it's not doing enough. Like maybe you could argue, it's throwing bad money at bad money here, but it's the same time like or good money at bad money, I should say. I expect that he's going to get a couple starts this year, whether that's Kyler's injury history or Kyler, you know, at some point has shown us like I never forget like 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 like what should this team do a quarterback? Mangini's thing was like, if you've seen somebody at least do it for an entire season, you know, there's a chance like as bad as that sound, you know you have a chance at least. I think Kyler's had stretches where we're like, if this were to go right, like he's a really talented guy, but you know, he's probably going to get hurt and I think JJ will get another chance and look at see where he's at. And the reality is to Ryan like, I think it'd be much easier to go from Kyler to JJ than the other way around. You know, I just think that's the if 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 like I don't think, I think Kyler's a backup would be a little bit of an awkward fit, you know? And so like you don't start there. And I do think like in some of these quarterback competitions, that's what it can come down to is like, all right, like if we're going to use both these guys, like 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 like 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. Okay, 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 Stidham 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. You know, 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, attack? What are they getting from Milton Williams in his second year there is Christian Barmore still an ascending fire. 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 just right, you know, is Drake 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. If you look at like 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 effect of 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 the stuff that those teams in the playoffs throw at him? I think that's going to be a factor too. How many teams are better do you think in the AOC than New England then? 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. I think I'm going to pick them to be a wildcard team, which by the way, because I live there. People are going to clip that and call me a hater and that's fine. But I think that they're probably somewhere in that five, six, seven 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 ball. It's September. Right. And the Brady turned the ball over a bunch that year. And a couple of things went kind of haywire and then they ascended again after that. 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 Mae over Nick. 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 Yeah, and then you have Buffalo that feels like even at a transition year, it doesn't happen because Alan's up there with anybody else So these are not I mean Buffalo's fasting me though. You know why go ahead. Yeah, please. I think Buffalo I think Joe Brady is going to look a little different in his First year as a head coach then he 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 for him was Dennis the menace because he had all these crazy ideas, right? And Parcell's had to rain 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 gonna 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 that he hired a really aggressive attacking defensive coordinator and Jim Leonard Who worked under Vance Joseph and played for X Ryan I Think the field of the team's gonna 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 personally 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 something I've always talked about with basketball is like sure Like sometimes you think of depth just because it's the familiar like what that doesn't mean this day Just means you can name a lot of the guys and I would are you a draft by 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 be like oh my god That's why I was 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 cuz a coyote Mac and I remember a coyote Mac versus Devin and Clownie And there were people that would tell you then like no Mac Mac might be a better player than Clownie And it was hard to believe because we saw Clownie blowing people up in the SEC Well, you know, I mean you look at the careers now and that's not clowny got hurt and all that but it's sort of an example Yeah, yeah, Mac was better than Pete Clownie. 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 Clownie like weekend and week out even a South Carolina You're like I don't know that it's quite the Michigan play. Yeah, all the time with him I remember being on the sideline for a Clownie game once and there was a tackle. It was like I'd break his ribs in the pros Like he's he's too high he play I was like why because he's tall. He's like no, he plays too upright So now we're doing a big Clownie 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 gonna 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 Oliver's gonna be a good fit for what Jim Liner's gonna do with him So Deon 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 alburnards on his second contract coal bishop played really well As a rookie the safety that they took him a second round a couple years ago max Harrison Who's been banged up, but he's a first-round corner right to me like so much of it with Buffalo is gonna be okay Like are these guys gonna 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 that piece of it goes if you have a bunch of guys that now all the sudden You know Deon Walker looks like a dominant nose tackling. 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 Liner's defense It it have 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 that the bills have Josh Allen on you know It's like the Colts back in the day. They 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. Yeah And looking at it like To think of the NFC North which 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 there 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, or nine 97 and one Yeah, they were nine three and one finish 97 and one and then lost their playoff game. Yes Yeah, that's Well, I know it took us a little while. I screwed you up there. Do you feel like the NFC's top is 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 death was so incredible at the top because you had Kansas City had the charges 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 the Broncos lose their quarterback before the AFC title game the Chargers will 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 um You know you just look at all of these teams that like had something go really really wrong And I think it's like reframed 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 too 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 the conference that has you know the four best quarterbacks of this generation And its ranks in in Alan my homes Jackson and burrow Um, 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 NFC 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 NFC was Clearly the better conference So I think all those sort of swing factors in the AFC old determinant 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 NFC quarterbacks first ASC quarterbacks and even with my homes getting hurt Will tomorrow 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 look 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 gonna be fine. I'd love herber 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 stride 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 um The best thing the people that are say about him right now is that he's a steady consistent offseason and a quiet offseason and I think a lot of the idea there me 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 ethically. So it was whatever police say 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 like 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 stand still pretty much to this point in camp, and it's like we know that, but we know what's coming tomorrow because it was going to be a big 11 on 11 day the next day, ensuring that 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 is in there and he's going to be a tone setter for them. They like Woody Marks 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 him now. And it's just like I feel like the coaches are handing CJ the keys and being like, hey, just hands a 10 and a two, 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 out. 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 of this guy when he first came on. And wasn't that so much as just he's got such tremendous arm talent. He's really smart. And like it's I think more than anything else is just look like the offense is going to work for you. Let it work for you. We've got good talent around you now. We think the offensive line is 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. I think it's just this feeling that they've got enough right around him now that where, 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 the world of anyone on offense. Yeah, because 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 AFC quarterbacks. Right. And now you're like, okay, is the Donald thing a fluke? So going into last year, people thought Stafford's back might not hold up, he wins MVP. I think the NFC South, other than Baker, I know Bryce made the playoffs, but although everybody seems to like Tyler Schuck a lot. Yeah. You could say, yeah, you know what, I think I think the simple, what do you think happens with the Eagles in the NFC East? Yeah. So I think the NFC East is vital, but I could see any of the four teams winning the division. Believe it or not. Like I just all four. I think all four have a chance. Yeah. 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's, 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 is going to be a problem for Hertz because 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 mean, it's still a really nice roster. Yeah. I mean, the line of scrimmage is always going to be like the line of scrimmage is always going to be well fortified. They're offensive lines 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 Tevian, Wix, and McKay Lemon, Sequoans, a year older, and I'm not saying the wheels are going to fall off. But you know, 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, 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 hurts knows that, you know, but 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 the 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 a lot of, a lot of other good stoicism. When dudes are in their early 20s, talk about stoicism. It's usually a red flag for me. I'm like, I don't know, I bought the book. You have enough experience to be stoic. Yeah. Like, I don't think you're really a stoic, as you say. And by the way, if you are, I don't think 23 year old me was definitely not stoic and want to be stoic. I don't think I had much interest in being stoic. I thought though, I thought people were trying to be stoic at that age were weird, but that was me. Yeah. No, I think there's a weirdness to, I'm just going to 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, we're into it. There's another player I'm thinking of right now, his, his, 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, 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. I wasn't like against him the way people that wanted him to be a failure from week one of his rookie year because they just didn't like everything that went into it. I didn't think that was necessarily a fair way to evaluate QB. But yeah, again, check out SI dot com MM QB. It's burp rear. His YouTube page will have him on again before the season kicks off. Thanks man. All right. Thanks Ryan. 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Terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. - 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 wanna 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 be critical or giving them credit for the things that are challenging. And I kinda was like, well, I don't need to do it now because I think the WNBA's 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 wanna figure out a way to do this where we're fair, but like I said with you, it seems like you don't wanna 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 dwarfed 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 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 wanna be, I think there's like three categories of WNBA people, right? There is the guy that's still mad that Meena Kimes is on TV. So he's just not even worth listening to. He's just gonna be so misogynistic about every single thing. He wants the WNBA to fail. He's excited when the ratings go down. So 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 am certainly a part of. And then I think beyond that. And again, we could do all sorts of categories you've wanted to. Then 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 'cause they feel like you haven't earned the right to talk about it. But I would say like, look, if somebody who had to do it every day on the radio, there were stretches with the NFL where all we talked about was the NFL and a negative light. All we talked about was concussions for like two years. We didn't even, it felt like we were never even talking about games. Baseballs had its steroids run. The NBAs had all sorts of drama that have nothing to do with games. So when I hear at 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 drama-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 dying 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 not established enough as these other leagues that have been going on for decades and decades. And 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 gets dragged 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 gonna happen. It happens to all of us, all right? And it 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 WMBA, but that's gonna be a huge story, it's gonna be a huge thing, but 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 Rangula, who some people know from Lakers Twitter, but he works over at Stratackery, 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 WMBA 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 pulling 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 booze them. And you know what? There's an authenticity to the crowd then 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 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 Caitlin Clark timeline moments here, or 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, 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 graphic, which, go ahead. (laughing) Well, yeah, that's always happening where we'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 had 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, fouls 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 fouls. 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 wanna see. And so she's thriving, she's doing better. So it's this dynamic right now, where the NBA, which controls the WNBA or is whatever you wanna 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's studio shows and they were talking rookie the year. And one of the analysts was like defiant. It was like it's Angel Reese. It's Angel Reese over Caitlin Clark. It's Angel Reese over stand, she goes, I'll go standings. And I was like, oh wow, I don't know the standings off the top of my head. It seems like Caitlin Clark's a lot better than Angel Reese. I think Angel Reese being sold to us as a star probably doesn't help the WNBA 'cause 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 adamant, adamant. It's about standings, Angel Reese's team is ahead of Caitlin Clark's team standing. That's why I would go for her for rookie the year. Couple of people disagreed. So I was like, man, I gotta check the standings. I checked him. 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 being presented as if the fever were seven games back in the standings and that the Chicago sky were gonna 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 half a game behind Angel Reese's. I don't, I guess I could, 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, 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 some sort 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 wanna 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, Caitlin Clark. They wanted 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 to turbocharge 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 this Harvard Business Review thing that she was involved in by nearly every metric. 2024 was a standout year for the WNBA. 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 multiple, whatever the baseline WNBA finals viewership, it's going to be multiple of that. I don't know if it's going to be three X, I don't know if it's going to be two X. 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 'cause she has some nights where it is Luca. It is peak Luca where she's so annoying. I don't know anyway or other say, like I love Luca. I love what he's capable of. When Luca's really on one for a game, it's not a blast. It's not a great thing to watch. And I would say when he was at his peak level of comfort, when he was with Dallas, and then it was like, all right, new place, I'm gonna 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, 'cause she can be kind of a tough watch there for a while. It's great as she is, it's 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 it's 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 wanna 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 gotta take care of your sister, right? 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 will 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 'cause like I know when I work 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 gonna 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 in sports and I'm talking about the guys that aren't dicks about it. it. But when they're talking about women's 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 a, if it's a completely flawed theory because I think the women of WNB have been like, are you serious? Like you think people bring nice to us? Like everybody's dumping on us now for two straight years. But I wonder if there's kind of like this, 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. That it's pretty. 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 as 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 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 were 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, or 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 drunken pop bellied Billie Jean. There we go against the drunken 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 Inez Cantor 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 Inez Cantor would get destroyed out there by Asia Wilson. And it's we don't have to lie, dude. We really don't have to lie like that. Now I would defend interests in the WMBA 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 WMBA 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 lighter boxers, Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, and enjoyed that. We can enjoy that and understand the context within they succeeded, while also understanding that thousands of dudes could just completely kick their ass in the 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 WMBA 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. 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 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 LeBotard's 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 as Canter, Royce White stuff, like I, you know, it's one of those things where like all of the things that you have to attach yourself to. And 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 PRFication 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 war 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 to a 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 that Steve Balmer owner of the Clippers funneled money to coi 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 but is it Wachter and Lipton 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. 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 and now I'm just getting kind of crazy extemporaneous. 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 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 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 in the Bay Area. I'm glad you brought that one up because like I was not dismissive of this because it 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 given the 38 million dollars the 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 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 to 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 and 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 to rant to go to the warriors they badly wanted that Lynn Merritt big shot at Nike he was there at the opening press conference 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 armor's momentum it's something Nike badly wanted now if Nike paid to ramp 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 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 all 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 over 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 that it was just yeah now that it was kind of just a straightforward thing for a guy was in the self-spot that it isn't uh 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 Iger 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 Laker 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 to go okay DOJ investigation hey why don't we do this 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 a 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 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 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 thirties and forties 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 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 lists 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. Yep. Okay. Technically 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 Cain's is turning 30 this month to celebrate the milestone. Cain's 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 Cain's, the brain is also launching a commemorative 90s plush poppy available beginning August 26th featuring Cain 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 Cain. So every time I go to raising Cain's, 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 Kaniac. 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 Cain's chicken fingers, one love. You want details? Five. 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. She'll never use way. It's actual savings on gas and the saving 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 good vibes. 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 it. 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 it's something I didn't really think about before and then I fuck around and 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 little 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. I'm going to be honest. But, you know, I was at the beach too. So it's like, you know, it'd be some sand and things, things get kind of weird. But how do you know? So how do you know, you have an 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 set 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. I get what you want. 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 sorority, 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 in case. Right. Just the way you told that story, you were opening yourself up. So listen, it's open season on sorority all the time. So it's fun. You can just come at me with, I do clue my ears to decent amount. But I just, you know, it 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 before, if you know, you know, greenie got his ears cleaned every six months. He was blown away when I told you that. He was like, you don't get your ears clean right away. 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. You are doing it right. In the draft of like, hey, first round picks of people who I think would get their ears clean, 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 are just 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 was 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. They're making up. Yeah. It's an apple, right? All right. We had a ton of pro seruti emails come in about the anti-seruti emails came in. I stand with seruti. Everyone's wrong about seruri, seruri, seruri. I don't know that we need to read a ton of them. So I mean, I don't know if you want me to. Yeah. Fine. We'll read one five ten two fifteen thirty one player comp a slow speedy claxed in. First time emailer was listening to life advice after the recent Mike Sandopod. It cannot believe the amount of backlash that he was getting first take on the husband's sister and wife brother hooking up. I'd not even listen to the original life advice so naturally I went back and listened to it specifically to determine whether seruri was being unfair. After reviewing the evidence, I regret to inform Ryan Kyle and the other e-mailers. I am with seruti. 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. Keep the 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 10 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's 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 stand with sorruity. Could it work? Sure. Obviously people can meet. All right. 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 the 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 that it was wrong. And I was not wrong. It's not wrong. I'm not saying like I know it's not let me talk 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 bad thing, but I just felt like I wanted to share that. Okay. Let's get to a couple 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 if I have any point near 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, you know, 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, at my last place, we did it this way. I think you only get a couple of those before everyone kind of 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 like, 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, because you have that perspective and no one else does. But as far as like phrases you can use, I'd 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, like, you know, when you're texting, there's so much like punctuation matters so much, you know, if you put an exclamation point at the end of it, or you actually mad, you know, the way that you could say, okay, if you spell it out versus just okay, two different things. You know, I don't know, I feel like it's everyone's in their own head on this stuff. Also, who you're talking to matters, like if you are at my last place, there was a couple people that like if they're above me and they're talking about something that needs to happen, they're not going to be maybe nice isn't the word, but like maybe stern or firm or whatever, you know, 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, you know what I mean? Like if you're talking to people that are under you in some sort of, you know, they brought you from another company, company of your, if you're like a 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 like across the the org chart and you're like asking someone for something they're supposed to be doing, I think you have to, you might have to throw a couple of exclamation points in there when you're like, thank you so much, you know, but it might just be, you want to 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 because none of us really have to worry about it, but can you, it depends on like, who's more important to you than you're talking, you know, 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? Because that doesn't allow for the vague, I can't wait, I can't wait to circle back on this, you know, language, you know, because it's a perfect observation and 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 might be like, oh shit, well, maybe Wednesday. I don't know if I want to 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 a, 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 in the initial question too. Like, put the time stamp on it in the in the question. Instead of like, when do you think like, you know, this isn't going to work if it's not Wednesday. So do you think we could do this by EOD Wednesday? I've seen a lot of EODs in my life recently. -Receo, yeah. Well, just like stuff, deadlines, 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 watching. -No, I'm like a BCC kind of guy, but I still, you know, I still watch. -You're aware of what's going on out there. -Yeah. If you have any questions, you could probably ask me off air. 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 notepad. He had a little notepad. Then he was like, everybody should have a notepad. Everybody should be writing stuff down. We just think of segment ideas and you're thinking of different things. Like, everything. I think I've had a couple courses not recently, but, you know, years ago when I was in the course world where there were people just hammering the idea of like, have a notepad 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. 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 was like really big on it. He would have dinner and he'd open up his notepad and be like, all right, what's like the most important thing for you the next six months or something? And he'd feel so important. You'd be like, well, you know, maybe not the next six months, 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, you know, 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, you know, who will around you, you know, is somebody whatever. So we go on and that motherfucker never looked at that no pat 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 pat is an illusion of effort. That's, I mean, it's right. It's more. It's a lot of effort though. Man, but 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, right? Because 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, you ever go back in there? You ever go back in there and get a little pages? Yeah. I see the ones over. So then I just stopped going to the dinners. I was like, I don't I know this is a really nice guy, but I just was like, you can't, you can't keep asking me all these specific things. And then writing it down on the notebook and being like some 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 to that's not something that you would ever do. Sit down with somebody who, now I'm just saying notes in general, like you take note taking seriously, you know. Yeah, I don't just the art itself. I don't, I don't like that. So not to be mocked, you know, it's a to real our fart. Let's get to some bummed out guys here. See if we can't help saw my ex at a wedding. Hey, fellas, big fan of the show. I know what it isn't needed about generally apologize. In advance for the lengthy note. This isn't even that bad here. A height and weight 64 190 player comp Bobby Portis fan favorite good post game can stretch the floor also potentially overreacts though to Norman Powell talking about it right. I'm a guy my late 20s recently saw my ex girlfriend for the first time in a long time. My best friends 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 a 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. Boyly plate. Yeah, standard. I mean, yeah, immediately 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 it 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 exo was genuinely 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 I'm seeing her after two and a half years brother of me is that. 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'm ex, I went from being excited about a first day to being emotionally compromised by women 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 that 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. Yeah. 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. Like don't just, you know, like don't about masking it. 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 half, you know, like there's just things that you haven't heard in a long time that bring back this to nostalgia and as always. We love it. Good life. T-Pay and kind of. Right. Come on. There you go. There's been two and a half years. Tipsy. Easy. Probably not one. No. Oh, man. I saw that in the wire the other day and I was like, Kyle must have loved that song. Yeah. Listen, you hear it. You hear the wrong thing? We're sounding or something like that. I mean, we're doing like a little counting, calling response. I mean, I don't know. I feel like this is a total normal thing. And you have a senior. He looks good. Like he hasn't liked her in two and a half. Maybe 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. But you haven't thought about her really at all in two and a half years and 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 is 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, yeah, whatever, I don't know what's happening right now. I'm not going to worry about it. So I think 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 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. Yeah. Get out there. I get 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 either be like, she's going to be awesome. You're going to have fun on this day. And 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 she didn't, he didn't get that HR style email or text from from when it sounds like his hope is still up though. Yeah, but his hope is still up. How can you read that? How can you 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 as this 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 of something. 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 what 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 a compliment that you were on live. Yeah. Like that kind of matters too. What's the context of that? We don't know that. But I think you would have concluded it up. If it was good. So then, I think you would have concluded it. What else you could also go back and look at your ex's Instagram all night and soak in your house. Do that. That's something good. I did. Throw up a cool Instagram story. See if she watched it. There you go. You could see if she's even, if you're even rattling around and have right at all. Oh, Kyle, you devious bastard you. With a dog maybe. Walking a dog. Yeah. You're a dog, but if you don't have one, but, you know, because it has a dog, your friend, like, I was going to go walk around the block. I know you're really busy. Anybody have a dog? I can use this. You can look at my story. Yeah. I love it. I think you're right on. All right. Comp Husker, Aaron Kraft, we get a lot of Aaron Kraft constantly 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. With the whole long distance thing in college, both moved back to our hometown, Scranton, PA, post grad. 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 Scranton, too, and look at your fiance, boom, specialized, making good money. She loved it, made 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. It was time to get out Scranton. My company had an opening in the DC region. I went to college in Maryland, some moving somewhere closer to my college friends as 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 have ever done. You're right. So like, hey, do you read Aaron Kraft's email in the recillus 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 paint summers, which means she makes less than she did in 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 from beginning 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 and location as a whole 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. firmly wants to be. 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 as 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. I mean, there's a couple of balls in the air at this point, right? Do you think, I mean, holiday season's coming on. 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 could totally say my biggest reason for not wanting to go back there is because I some, 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 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, wanted 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 zipper grew or open on your laptop all the time. - But you're not actually-- - See if they have a widget for your, like your, where you're lock screen. Get notifications. - He's always not in deep. What's going, all right, yeah, he's really trying. - He is trying. - I don't know many couples where, when the wife wants to move home and the guy's like on the fence, 'cause 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 gonna move back there. So, I think you're moving back to screen. - Yeah, maybe. - And it's gonna 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 Serena and 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 gonna, 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 parents really passionate about public school. - Right. - That's where they grew up, you know? - 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. (laughing) Right 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 assumed this entire time that you guys were going back to Scranton. So, that's gonna be really, really tough if you were like, "Hey, can we revisit that and maybe not do that now?" Dude, it's the electric city. If there's so much, you probably haven't even done there. (laughing) There probably is. - I don't, can you just play the money card though? I can just be like, this is not gonna make sense for us. Like in what way? 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 it out, I wanna go back and you're probably definitely screwed. - Pull out a notepad and show her what you've been doing. - Yeah, start jotting some stuff down. - Yeah, right. - Ask her what's gonna be important to her the next six months. (laughing) And they don't ever address it again. Hey, it worked on me for you. (laughing) - It's interesting relationships in general. You just start taking notes whenever their wife isn't in our talk. It's like, I'm not listening. I'm listening now. - I can see your whole thing here. - Yeah. - What do you think? - What do you think it is about me that you'd like to see improved? And you just put one. - It's on show for me. (laughing) - That would lead to way more divorces. Just like totally calm, wife's losing her shit. - We've got a lot done today, yeah. Thanks. (laughing) - 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? (laughing) And then when you go to do it again, she'd be like, "Well, wait a minute. "Doin' 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. - They are written down here though, yeah. But we're gonna write cross them off when I get to. - Everybody. I love the idea of guys starting a notepad relationship stuff. (laughing) Maybe we could want something. Like that'd be our first real product. - Okay. - Relationship, notepad, heavy-binding. Okay, sorry. - We'll make them in different sizes, depending on how serious you want this to seem. (laughing) We can go fully out. - Like a little one in the pocket. - Yeah. That just means for phone numbers and everything. That doesn't look like it's for this, you know? We might need something like a full page deal. - I think time can be though. 'Cause you always wanna 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. All right, that'll do it for the show. I think today, I think we covered it. Thanks, Tom, Kevin. Cerruti, Kyle, what's our schedule this week, Cerruti? - It's a good question. I just got a couple of notes about that. So we'll talk about the show. - Yeah, I'm BCC not all of it. It's going crazy right now. (laughing) Okay, 'cause I know the least about it. I was under the impression it was one thing and I'm being told it's not a thing. So, TBD, we'll have another show. - We'll 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. - 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 isn't too long, by the way. We're like pushing three hours. So, if you're gonna 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 if it's-- (laughing) I guess a really nice music, though. You're gonna love the music. Okay, all right, that'll do it for the pot. Rhino's still a show. Full episodes on Netflix are still sports. (upbeat music)