Colin Kaepernick

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dax Shepard. I'm joined by Lily Padman. Hi. Hello. Today we have Colin Kaepernick on. You know who Colin Kaepernick is. I don't have to tell you, but he is an activist and a former professional football quarterback. He has an incredible book. I love, love, love his book. It's called The Perilous Fight, and it is out now. And it is the story of his life leading up to the moment we are all quite aware of. The kneel. The kneel. Yeah. Kneeling during the anthem. And then the fallout of that. Really interesting man and story. Incredible. Incredible. And very, very revealing about the experience. Of being a football player. A professional athlete going into the NFL. Yeah. Yeah. Really wild. I enjoyed the hell out of this. Please enjoy Colin Kaepernick. We get support from Quince. I have to say, I am so ready for fall. I want sweaters. I've been craving a true crisp morning where I actually need it. I need a jacket. I can't wait. 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He's an Armchair Expert. ♪ He's in a chance fight ♪ ♪ He's in a chance fight ♪ - Hello. - Hello. - Hello there, how are you brother? Good, how's it going? - Good to meet you. - Good to meet you too. - Welcome. - Oh, thank you. - Hi, hi. So nice to meet you. - Oh, I don't wanna hold up. - Great to meet you. - Come on in. - Hi. - What's up? - This is your spot. - Hey, how's it going guys? - Great setup. - Oh, thank you. - Thank you. - This is good. If we hadn't had the camera over a little further, we might be fucked right now. - Oh. - Yeah. - True. - We might have some blockage. - It's true. Well, that's okay. - Just look like you're hiding in the bushes, speaking. - Everyone gets half of my face, which might be preferred. - That's fantastic. Yeah, that is preferred. We don't need to be on camera. - No, no, no, no. We don't love seeing ourselves. I was excited to meet you and see how we compared physically. And you are taller than me to my disappointment. - By a lot. - How tall are you? - A lot, Monica. - Sorry, I noticed it. - I almost wore my red wings today. I'm like, I could use another inch, probably. - Seven inches. - How tall are you? - Six-five. - Six-five! - Yeah. - Okay. - But you actually read like seven feet. - Oh, you do? - Yes. - Oh, because we have a theory about this. Once you hit six feet, each inch is exponential. - We think it's over six, too. - I think it's over six feet. - No, you think it's over six? Each inch actually accounts for an extra amount. So that's why you look like really, really, really tall. - I presume you've met Shaquille. - Yeah. - So Shaquille is seven one. So he is seven inches taller than you, or eight inches taller than you. - Yep. - Did he not feel like he was 14 inches taller than you? - Very tall. I'll say the part with him is also how big he is. - Oh, he's massive. - You're not supposed to be that tall and that big. - Yeah, it's true. - We got pretty distracted by the hands. - Yeah. - I was like, my Lord, that hand is as big as my whole torso. - The first time that I met him, it was some award show. I was talking to someone. I felt someone's hands go on my shoulders. And I was like, I don't like this. Whoever this is, is a big human being. And I don't like it 'cause I know they're bigger than me. - Yeah. - And it was him standing behind me. - Do you know, we had almost the same first experience with him, which is I was walking 20 years ago into a movie premiere and he was behind me. And I said from behind, "I'm sorry, sir, you're gonna have to leave. "I like to be the tallest people at premieres." And he turned around and he was laughing. And then he put his hands under my armpits and he picked me up like a baby. And I was like, in the air, I was like, "Fucking hell, how strong are his delts?" And he could just lift 200 pounds up like that. - Crazy. - Yeah, that's different. The other person I met more recently was Wemby. He's between like 7'4" and 7'6". - Holy shankies. - Oh my God. - So I met him while, I don't know, on Nike's campus training. He had just got drafted at that point. I walked over to say hi. And I was like, "I don't like the fact "that I have to look up like this." - Yeah. - I had a moment of, man, is this how people feel? They're like mid five feet talking to me? - Yes. - Looking straight up your nose? - 'Cause I'm like, this is terrible. Like, I like this. - Yes. That's how I walk around the world. I'm five feet tall. Everyone I'm looking up at, I'm seeing in everyone's nostrils, everyone. - But back to the explanation. - Yeah. - The exponential nature of it. - Yeah. - What was interesting was we took a picture, right? So it's Shaq, it's me, it's Monica. Well, so Shaq is 11 inches taller than me, but I'm 13 inches taller than Monica. But the gap between me and Monica seems insignificant, but this gap above, it seems insane. - Yeah. - It's like that 6'3" mark. Now I'm like, oh, okay, you're tall. - I agree. - 6'2", 6'1", I'm like, you're solid height. You're still tall, but like- - Respectable. - You haven't hit the point where I'm like, oh, you're a tall person? - Yes. - Yeah. - Couldn't agree more. That is the number. I think everything north of 6'4", you're exceptionally tall at that point. I'm comforted that you have put this much time and thought into it, 'cause I certainly have, and I imagine it's all from envy, but you're a phenom as well, and it's very comforting to know like, oh, no, you're here for what's going on around you. Okay, well, I just wanna say, I really, really enjoyed your book. As much as I don't think you could be alive in 2016 and not be aware of you, I wasn't, terribly aware of any back story. I didn't know anything about you. I don't follow the NFL all that much. I'm a lazy fan and watch the playoffs, or if Detroit's doing good, I watch Detroit. So yeah, I really didn't know any of your personal story other than what I saw, and then saw, of course, the media frenzy that surrounded that whole event. So I really enjoyed learning about you, and I really enjoyed your book, just for starters. - Thank you. - And it's fun. I do recommend people listen to it, 'cause it's very well produced. You're reading it. There is music. There are real clips, if a historical clip exists, it's in there. It's very Malcolm Gladwell-y. - That's awesome. - How did you enjoy writing it? - It was a process, writing it. It's interesting, 'cause I've done children's books in the past, which are like, all right, distill everything down to its simplest form. This is obviously a much more elaborate process. You do have to go back and relive situations and go through that process. At the same time, it's balancing how the story is going to ultimately connect. What are the things that actually readers and listeners are going to want to engage with that you think are important? And balancing that with the level of depth and detail that you want to go into in each of those. - What about the stress of having to write about your parents and write about your childhood? - What I was trying to accomplish with the book is giving this context of, I know my parents love me. I know they want what was best for me. They did things that, set me up morally, gave me great foundation, allowed me to go out and be successful. At the same time, there's this dynamic of acknowledging my blackness and navigating my blackness and what that means for me showing up in the world that they just didn't understand. - They're ill-equipped. - Yeah, they don't have the lived experience of it. Even if they're trying to understand, they're not ever going to have that full experience. And in doing so, it's like, you obviously want to make sure that you're, for me, trying to protect my parents and that relationship. - Yeah. - But also I have to be truthful about the experiences. Otherwise, it doesn't do the job that it's supposed to in not only telling my story, but hopefully giving insight to other people in relation to how to be able to navigate this in the future. That's actually been an interesting part for me is the amount of other adopted people that I've come across, even in the last week or so, that have been like, yes. - Yeah, that's me. - Like, yes. - Yeah. - Yeah, so let's just start, 'cause I don't know that one would know, because I certainly didn't know, you were adopted adopted in Milwaukee at five weeks old. My biological father was black. Biological mother was white, was adopted into an all white family. My parents had two other kids. And I got, not to be mean, but super white family. I mean, dad's like a cheese executive and this is Wisconsin. Is that like Louisiana white folk or, you know, we think of white folks really can Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern Michigan, you know, I didn't know that either. And they had two white children. Yes. And two biological children. What ultimately led to them adopting me was they had two other children that had congenital heart defects who ultimately ended up passing. So the recommendation was you probably shouldn't try to have more kids, but they wanted to have a larger family. And that led to me being adopted. I mean, right out of the gate, psycho, these are really sweet people. Yeah, of course. You know, we're starting with some well-intentioned people probably, you know. Yes. You start the book and I think it's a great jumping off point. Tell us about this experience you had when you were eight. The family, when you're five years old, you guys moved to. Four years old, we moved to Turlock. Okay. Turlock, California, which is a dead center of California. Great place if you're white. Dad takes a great job as a VP of production at a cheese place. Yep. Okay. Cheese. What an industry. Yeah, yeah. I know I'm starving. So it's a very, very white neighborhood you're living in. And then what happens when you're eight? It's any eight-year-old. I'm outside right around, playing sports every opportunity I get. And one summer day, I'm on the way back from playing in the street with everyone. Sun's about to go down. So streetlights are about to come on. It's like, all right, we got to make it home. And on my way home, I see a few of the kids that I've just been playing with. Maybe we have a chance to keep playing. Like competition goes on. But I go up to them to see what they're doing. And they grab me, tie me to a rope, and I'm a rose tree. Call me a nigger in the process. And it was a moment of like, I'm not sure what is happening. At that point, I hadn't had anyone like sit me down and talk to me about racism that I'm going to be facing in the world and how that may show up. So these are kids that I had seen around the neighborhood. In my mind, I was like, well, we've been playing together. So we're friends. And that obviously just was not the case. It got to a point where, you know, I'm running home and backtrack. Before I actually started running home, the only reason they stopped was a neighbor drove by and was like, hey, what are y'all doing? Didn't stop, just kept rolling by. But they ultimately ran the house. I was able to get out of the rope, run home. But this goes into some of the conversation of my parents not understanding my blackness and the dynamic there where when I get home, I'm like, I can't tell my parents. I don't know if they're going to understand me. I don't know if they're going to have my back in this situation. I got to deal with it by myself. And I ran upstairs, got cleaned up, and came downstairs. Like, nothing happened. Yeah. Mom asks, do you have fun playing? You're like, yeah. Yeah. This will be hard to answer in a sense, but what do you suppose you were afraid would happen if you told them? What did you fear they might say or feel that you were trying to avoid? I think the core of it is like, would they have my back or would they believe me? Part because I knew this was around me being black. I didn't have the full context, but understood, all right, they're calling me the N-word. At that point, I had heard them say the word before. But there wasn't really any other black folks around to be like, all right, this is what it is. This is how you should be thinking about it. Don't ever let someone call you that. Yeah, exactly. Here's the history of this word. You just knew it was kind of a bad word. I know it's a bad word. I know it's related to black people. Right. But that's all. But I don't have the historical context. The depth of the word. And also what can come alongside of it. Yeah, because you also had an experience when you're like three playing with your older sister and a bunch of kids and cousins. And one of the little girls says, catch the N-word as they're chasing you. And then your mom says, don't say that. But then there's really no debrief beyond that. It's just like, that's a bad word. Don't say that. Yeah. I mean, that was one that I didn't even know until I was in the NFL and my mom was recalling this to me. And I was like, oh, like what? It gave me context around some of those experiences, especially reflecting back. Even at a young age, I remember going to kindergarten and my mom bringing up, I was constantly targeted for playing aggressive. Those were moments that even she called out, like, he's just out there playing. Why are you singling him out? I was taller. I was a tall kid. But those things showed up early on. This is a tricky question, but it did cross my mind. I was enormous. It looked like I flunked. Other parents thought I was a dum-dum. I also was dyslexic and I was a dum-dum. I couldn't read for a long time, right? So I had a lot of stuff coming at me, but I was like, I was like oversized and other parents were afraid of their kids around me. How do you begin to parse out what all the variables are that are resulting? I mean, does it even matter? I'm just curious. Like there's probably many, it's a dynamic situation. Yeah. And how I try to break this out is like, yes, I was taller. I know that was a factor, but I also wasn't the only tall kid in the class. By the way, I'm not trying to minimize what was going on. I think one of the cruel aspects of being different is like, it's hard to know what thing is going on sometimes. Oh, yeah. Right. Is this just a normal dust up between people or is this element on the table? Like in this situation, there has to be a bit of confusion often about like, what is the thing that's happening right now? How do I figure out? I know something different is happening right now. To me than other people. Well, part of it also is culture, like the culture you're in and what you're exposed to. Like you do know innately like, oh, this is about, I mean, we talk about this sometimes. I have like a spidey sense about that too. I'm like, oh, this is about race or this is about being a woman. You know, there's all these things that you get used to when you're on the other side. But I could see if you are not that, that you're just like, well, maybe they just think this or maybe they just think this. But I think it's just like an eight. You feel it. But like even, yeah, for you, you can be in situations where it's like you're young and you're wealthy. So that's triggering to some people. You're also a woman who's got power. That's a whole thing. And then you're brown. So that's one thing. And it's like when you're in that situation, I guess you're saying you just intuitively kind of know which of these things is triggering this person. In the way you have a spidey sense about like men being violent. It's like, I think when you're other, you really get granular about the way people are looking at you and talking to you and you know, what it is. To that point, I think you start picking up all of the cues that lead to behaviors. So you may not be a hundred percent. This is what it is, but you may pick up on, oh, I've seen these behaviors before. I've tried to look at patterns. Yeah. We're all pattern recognition machines. Exactly. You can't not notice it. So, I mean, when you have explicit, it's, this is like the one I had that becomes like, okay, that's a defended milestone and like benchmark to be able to look at. What it also gives you insight into is, all right, what were all of the other interactions that I had with them? And are there signals that I can pick up there that I'm seeing in other places that are producing the same outcome? Right. And be ahead of it for your protection, right? That is one of the things coming out of that situation as traumatic as that is, is also a realization of, oh, I'm not going to get got like that again. Looking back, there was always a little bit of like, oh, I don't fully know what they're thinking like. There was a little bit of like, I can't quite read you. Whereas other kids, it was like, oh, we're just playing. And I can tell you're just enjoying playing. And like, that's the only thing. And at this point I'm eight years old, so I have a limited number of experiences. But I'm like, I don't know, maybe they're having a bad day. Maybe they're just a little bit meaner or they have a different attitude. I don't fully know. Now on the tail end of that, I'm like, oh, okay. I don't know. Maybe they're responding or engaging with me in this way that they're a little more pulled back or a little more reserved or a little colder in this. Let me make sure I'm aware of the situation and what I'm walking into and the surrounding environment. For me, I don't ever want to just jump to that assumption. I want to assume everyone has good intent. It's going to approach things that way. But I'm also not going to ignore the signals that I've been able to pick up over a lifetime now. Yeah. You can't be naive. Yeah. It happens. There's others. Again, if we can make a good faith argument for your parents, I wonder what they thought when they adopted you. I wonder what they thought like, well, we're going to have to address this or were they just like, no, people are people and we'll raise them and love them like our other kids and everything will be fine. Do you think they just maybe were naive about what was coming down the path? I think to some extent, my parents are great people. I think they were doing it with good intention. I don't think there was any malice of like, oh, I'm going to kick him and we're going to like, we're going to put him in a fish out of water situation and just watch. That's not what it was. Yeah. But I do think it was a sense of they had done things like, oh, they got me a black, my buddy doll. They'd give me an insight of like, hey, this is where we think you're from in Africa. So like, there wasn't a question of like, hey, you're not black. But some of those like superficial things are the areas that I think they took actions that were like, oh, this is going to help. And I would say, those things did. But the depth of everything else that followed then became cultural differences. And I think that's where it was like, well, this is how we were raised. They can't pass on what they don't have. Yes. But I think it's also having the insight and wherewithal of, hey, we don't have this. Exactly. Like we need to go find that for you. Correct, yes. And when that does show up, we need to support you in it. Those are areas where culturally where it comes up is like hair, clothes, music. What age are you when you fall in love with Allen Iverson? He's like your first hero, yeah. I'm like middle school. Okay. Four or five years after this incident with the rose tree. Yep. You see him and what does he represent to you? Someone who is unapologetically himself. He shows up in a world that tells him to conform and tells him to assimilate. And he's like, no, this is who I am. His peers, other franchise players, Jordan, Pippen, they're wearing suits to games. Yep. That was kind of the standard at the time, right? If you were a franchise player, you showed up in a suit, you did that thing. Iverson just did not do that. And at the same time, also went out and was the best at his craft. It wasn't a, I'm showing up as who I am, but like performance isn't backing that up. Yeah, yeah. It's like, no, I'm one of the best players in the NBA. Going back to the size conversation, ask someone who's undersized at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's better looking than everyone. So we got to adjust there. We got to give him some points there. He might've been the prettiest player in the league. Yeah. So that helps. He has the swag, the presence, the aura. Yeah, the jewelry. All of it. So you have that. And then for me, I'm seeing him having to combat that and having to fight just for who he is at the NBA level. And for me, that translates into, I feel like I'm fighting a similar fight just in how I show up within my house, within my community. Yes. And that becomes a parallel of like, I can look up to him and model some of what I do after him. We also see this with Randy, Moss in football. And we see it with Ken Griffey Jr. in baseball where they show up and they're the best at their craft. But culturally, they shift the entire league and they shift the culture and you see other players following. Well, they give permission to the other players to continue to be themselves. Exactly. But in the process, they take a lot of heat. Yes. I love it. I don't know if that's a process of change, but I wish it didn't have to be in a space where they had to navigate and go through that just to show up. It's who they are. Yeah. Back to not really sharing with mom and dad what you're experiencing and being isolated in this kind of loneliness and this awareness like, oh yeah, massively different. Everyone's aware of it. We're pretending it's not a big issue, but it is. You know, keeping that in, were you at all thinking, oh, these people adopted me. I don't want to be a pain in the ass to them. Like, was that in your mind at all? No. It's good. Yeah. I wouldn't think that's healthy, but I could, I could imagine an eight-year-old thinking that. This also speaks to just how they approach things. It was never like, oh, you're the adopted son. Right. It was like, oh, you're just our son. I think part of that bled over to like, oh, you're just our son. We don't need to think about like all the black elements of you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like how we nurture that. That wasn't a factor or something that came across my mind. Yeah. It was more so just on the basis of what is the response going to be? What are they going to say? You might've known intuitively they weren't going to offer any help. They weren't going to be capable of offering any help, really. Yeah. Were you worried they were going to like blame you or be like, what'd you do? My assumption was, oh, what's going to come back is, you know, what did you do? See, yeah. Why'd you put yourself in that situation? And all this, and it's like, well, I didn't do anything. I was trying to play. You're a parent now. I'm a parent. I do think parents inadvertently victim shame their children, but behind it is like, we got to prevent it. I'm so scared this is going to happen to you all the time. What happens so we can figure out how it cannot happen again? Yeah. Which definitely comes out as victim shaming. But I do think, again, there's like fear on the parent's side of like, oh no, how do we prevent this? This is terrifying to think this is happening to you. You're left to figure out what you did to justify getting attacked. Yeah, because also in some ways you're protecting them by not telling them because then they have to sit with, oh no, our son is dealing with this. This is horrible. What do we do? We don't know. We don't know what to do. In some ways you're protecting them by not telling them. And that's really too much for an eight-year-old to shoulder. On the other side, though, it gave me useful skill sets. Obviously don't want to go through that situation, but it does build a sense of resilience and a sense of like, hey, if I have to, I can navigate anything by myself. I've gotten comfortable now walking in spaces being like, if this is just going to be me, like, I've done this before. Yeah, yeah. You've got some earned confidence. When you deal with difficult situations, you get through them, come out the other side, then it becomes, in many ways, that's a source of strength because you went through that. It builds some of that resilience or character and also going back to pattern recognition, it builds some of that pattern recognition of like, I'm going through something difficult. I've already been through things that are way worse than this. I can navigate this. Yeah. You're having some moments where you do get to interact with Black culture, right? Yeah. You go to the Pop Warner tryouts when you're 10 and there's a Black mom there and she kind of immediately wants to single you out, right? She wants to check in with you. I was eight years old, trying out for the football team. The teammate I had, Joey Attaway, he was 10 years old. Oh, right. And he was a big boy. He was the star running back. He is also, unfortunately, the person that one of my first tackling drills ran straight through my face, which was not my favorite experience. But another moment of you get back up and keep going. It was his mom, Mrs. Attaway, who, again, I don't know if this was like instinctual for her or if she was consciously like, I'm going to make sure I reach out to you. Yeah. But anytime I saw her, she's like, hey, baby, come here. How are you doing? Are you doing good? And always just so loving and so warm. Yeah. And Turlock having so few Black people, that meant everything. Was there something visceral in those exchanges that felt, for lack of a better word, right? Like, oh, this feels familiar without any reason for it to feel familiar or something? Very much so. It's almost like a sense of community and familial connection. If something happened, I know I could go, Ms. Attaway, and she would be like, tell me what happened. We're going to make sure things get right. She had your back. You knew that immediately, even though with your parents, you're like, ooh, I'm not sure. Well, my guess would be she understands immediately what you're experiencing. She's a Black woman living at Turlock. And she's got a Black son. Yes. Who she most certainly has observed other things that you've gone through. She knows what's happening with you without having to even ask you probably, right? Those become parts where it's like, culture shows up. There's a media understanding. Yeah. Tell me about going to the barbershop because that's a similar one. That ties in similar. Playing football, it's one of the other Black families in Turlock, the Clays. And Ryan Clay was the younger brother. Marcus Clay was the older brother. And Ryan had come to, to practice and he had his hair braided. And I was like, this is my shot. Yeah. I have someone I can ask. Yeah. Because prior to this is like, there's literally no one around me I can even ask where to start. This is like pre-internet era that we are living in now. Right, right. So it's not like, oh, you can quickly Google it. Yeah, cornrows near me on Google. That did not show up. Especially not in Turlock. But that became the opportunity for me to ask. And he was like, yeah, I'll set you up with a woman that did mine. It was a young woman that was in high school. And he was like, no, you got to grow your hair to be about three inches long. So I'm going through this process, growing my hair out. You go through like that in-between phase of like short hair and a little bit longer hair where you're like, this doesn't look great, but like you got to get through it. You just got to get through it. That leads to me going to the young woman's house, trying to get my hair braided. Now at that point, my hair wasn't quite long enough to be able to braid. Also, my curls in my hair are a little bit looser. So she was like, I got to work with this a little bit. And she was rubber banding throughout to be able to make sure that everything stayed. We get about halfway through and I think it was her sister that came in and was like, oh, we need to go to the mall. Like we got to go right now. We got this event tomorrow. I don't remember what it was. I was like, all right, well, we got to jump in the car. It's like you were at urgent care and they were like, we actually got to go to the hospital and all. I just go outside like this. Like I got half my head braided. At that point, it's like, well, I don't really have any other options. So I, all right, I guess we're getting in the car. First time I have ever met them. I was at Cadley now sitting here as a parent. I'm like, I probably wouldn't love that. Yeah, exactly. But drove to Modesto. They jumped out, got their stuff from the mall. As we're leaving, this is also my first Krispy Kreme experience. Oh, okay. Yeah. Very memorable though. Yeah. Were they hot? Was the light on? The hot light was on. Oh baby, what a day to hit it. Yeah. We were leaving. They're like, oh, the hot light's on. We got to go. What an incredible gimmick they figured out. I can't tell you how many times I've eaten one. I didn't even want them because I saw that hot sign on. Oh, and it's such a universal. So I can't pass it up. It's like the bat signal. It's like, you just got to go. That was the day I got put on game. But then drive back, finish my hair up. The other part, just going back a little bit to the Mrs. out of way kind of connection. The comfort to just jump in the car with them and be like, all right, I know I'm going to be all right. That connection was there. Got back, finished doing my hair. Was supposed to have my hair braided and then be back home. Modesto is 30 minutes away. So we're probably gone for an additional two hours. Come back, finish my hair, call my mom. I was dreading calling her. Yes, of course. I'm like, I know I'm getting yelled at right now. I also am like, I didn't really have too much control over the situation. But that very quickly led to, if we're doing this, we're going to find someone that's a professional then. And that led to, okay, we're going to the barbershop and found a barbershop in Modesto. And going to the barbershop, it feels wild saying this now. Middle school going to the barbershop was the first time that I walked into a black barbershop. I've been at Supercuts previously. It was like, they're just shaving my head. There's nothing else to it. And going to Modesto, Modesto has a larger black population than Turlock does. So walking into the barbershop, I was like, oh, there's a whole community of us in here. This is a whole new experience. Walking into the barbershop was like being at peace. I didn't know anybody in there. Well, it's your first time not feeling different, presumably, in your whole life so far. Yeah. And it's also everyone within the barbershop, culturally, we're looking at things very similar. I'm not going to say exactly the same, but for the most part, it's like, oh, okay, we're all on the same page. Now, I'll say with this barbershop, the front half was not a barbershop. The front half was a clothing store. And the back of it was the barbershop. So it was like all of the clothes that I was trying to negotiate with my parents, I want to get these. We're all in the front. It was one-stop shop. It was everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Turnkey. Whoever the owner is, well done. That became another pivotal moment for me because I got to experience culture in a different way that I hadn't previously. Even within that, when I walked in and it's like me walking in with my mom, who's white, she is the only white person in this store. Yeah. I could tell the people within the store were like, okay, like, hey, we got you. We know what's happening. It's interesting looking back. I know I do it now. If I see kids or if I see particularly adopted kids, it's like, yo, you're good. Let me make sure I'm looking out for you. And whether they knew it or not, like what that meant to me, just to have a sense of community, you don't even have to explain. Like, you're good. And when you come from a space where it's constantly like you have to try to justify why you're here or like, oh, you walk into a room, it's like, all right, I have to explain the family. Whether people realize it or not, every one of those conversations is like, oh, I know you're different. Yeah, of course. When you get into spaces where it's like, oh, you don't have to explain yourself, the sense of relief that comes along with that. Well, it becomes rote. You like literally have a script you respond to. Like I have when people are like, where are you from? It's like, okay, well, I'm from Georgia, but my parents, you know, it's like, yeah, it's like this whole thing that just comes out of your mouth because you've said it so many times. Yeah. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert. If you dare. We are supported by Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. Not checking if your alarm is actually set before you go to bed. You could have sworn you said it. Even remember looking at your phone. But apparently looking at it and pressing the button are two different things because now you're waking up to sunlight and panic. Yeah. 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Now, the sports that you were drawn to, you were good at all sports and you were particularly really good at baseball. Do you think you had more aptitude in baseball or football? In high school, baseball. You were getting scouted in high school, yeah? Yeah. I had offers from major universities across the country. Major League Baseball came and sat in our living room, said they wanted to draft me. Yeah. Going to the Area Code games, which is like the all-star game for baseball, where they do it by regions. Went there, pitched in front of MLB scouts. I believe that same competition or tournament, Clayton Kershaw was pitching as part of that. Not saying I was Clayton Kershaw in high school. No, you were in that realm. Those were the type of players that were playing and competing. So, it was like baseball, I was just in a different conversation where football was like, will one of y'all please give me a scholarship? Well, in fact, they rank, you were saying in the book, it's out of five stars. They rank these potential athletes for schools and it's out of five stars. You were a two-star ranking. Yeah. That's not ideal to get a full ride at a D1. No, it is not ideal. Okay, now looking back, do you ever model out what your life would have been if you just went and done baseball? A, you could play. Play longer. You'd be less injured. There's a lot of benefits to that sport. Longevity seems on the table in that sport more. It definitely is. Pitchers, you have to be careful of shoulders, elbows. Well, you would have had a, what is it, Tommy John by now? Probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But at this point, where science is, is like Tommy John, you'll be back pretty quickly. Right, right, right. It's just crazy. But going down the baseball path is so hard to project out because there's so many levels within baseball. You actually get to the major leagues and just a lot of variables within that. Yeah, you can get hurt in the minor leagues. I don't know the full politics of the different levels and dynamics there. So what would happen? I don't know. I was in a great position in high school as far as a foundation to go out and be successful. Just a lot longer journey there. Also, a lot of opportunity for development because at that point in time, I was like 6'4", 170 pounds. So we're talking about heights and builds. There was a lot more development to be had. But you enjoyed football more? I loved football way more. Well, in the book, there's two elements, right? You found the camaraderie to be much more significant in football. And then also, football's blacker. Yeah. You're in search of that, right? You want to be immersed in that after a life of not being immersed in it. How do you find the community that you're a part of? I found that in football. I didn't know this stat until I read your book, but NFL is 70% black. Yeah. And Major League Baseball right now has been on the decline, from my understanding, in relation to the number of black players. Do you blame the Japanese for that? We'll cut that. There's so many great Asian players now. I was going to say, Japan is producing incredible baseball players. Yeah, they really are. Currently, the best baseball player. Yeah, exactly. Oh, it's on me. Dude is so fucking serious. It is so ridiculous what he's doing out there. Yeah, he's so serious. I don't even know how to put that into context for people. It would be like Tom Brady also being the best defensive player to ever play. At the same time, it's like, that just doesn't make sense. Yeah. But interesting to go to the Japanese baseball side. One of the parts that I learned, I went and visited Nintendo in Seattle. And part of what opened that pipeline was, I believe it was the founder of Nintendo, bought a stake in the Mariners. And that's how Ichiro came over, from my understanding. Oh. So they have, within Nintendo's headquarters, they have a section. For Ichiro, as part of that, and I believe that's what opened up the pipeline to Japan. But on the baseball side, I think a lot of the drop in black players within baseball is actually tied to the economics around it. It's gotten so expensive to be on these travel leagues and all this. Travel leagues, baseball gloves, baseball bats, cleats. The bar that you have to be, as far as financially, has drastically gone up. So to fast forward, you send your DVD of your highlights to every single D1. one school in the country, and you end up in Reno at University of Nevada, you get in a fraternity there, you make some best friends there, you have a 13-in-1 season there, you get a gun pulled on you there, you get in a icy car accident there. Like, tell me from how you entered college coming out of Turlock to when you leave, how did you change and evolve in that section? That's a lot of shit to happen to somebody. Well, for me, it feels like a normal college experience because it's the only thing I know. It's probably not the norm. But one of the big pieces is as I went to college, one, you have the independence there, but two, you now have a space where I get to choose everything. I get to choose when I show up, how I show up, where I show up. And some of the early connections and relationships I built were obviously through the football team, but that quickly expanded into some of the broader community. And that turned into one of my teammates asked me to go to church with him, took me a second Baptist church in Reno. You'd only been to white church before that, right? Which was a Lutheran church, I think you said? Yeah, I grew up in a Lutheran church. Baptized Methodist, raised Lutheran, you sit in church, you listen, you stand, you sing the hymn. You suffer. You sit down. Yeah, you go there and you prove you can suffer for an hour. It is very like. Rigid. Then going to second Baptist church was, for the most part, all black church, but also was a culture shock in relation to what church looks like and what that experience is. Obviously, I had seen black churches. I hadn't been to one. And this was the first moment of me walking into a black church. Can you have fun in church like this? Everyone is so hype in here. I was like, I've never seen this energy in a church before. I can come back to this. Now, the other part, Lutheran church, it's like 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. You're done. Baptist church, when it ends is TBD. And I don't know how yours was, but I went with my grandparents who are all from the South. And yeah, it ends. And then there's a potluck afterwards. So like when you go to church with them at 9 in the morning, you come home at 3 p.m. It was like the whole Sunday. It's a full day experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do y'all have potluck afterwards? They did sometimes. But if it wasn't that, then it would be the friends in the church. They're like, oh, come over for lunch. And one of my close friends, Mike Smith, went to church with them. And they were like, oh, come over for lunch. And one of my close friends, went to that church. And he was one of the first people I met in Reno. His family, they're like, oh, come over. We'll do lunch. And that was like another space that was like, oh, this is family and community. You never knew what it was going to be. You couldn't make plans on Sunday. And then you get the like, take your time, pastor, take your time. You're like, we've been in here for three hours. So you get that experience. But it also gave me a space where it was like, as I was playing in Reno, and got to a space where more and more people knew me because of the success on the football field, that also became a space that was like, yeah, you're just Colin in this space. So I didn't have to show up as like the quarterback for the Wolfpack. It was like, oh, just show up is who you are. You're worthy of love without any spectacular, because prior to this, and I should have mentioned this, you were very drawn to anything quantifiable where your value could not be questioned. I got this great. I got this great on this test. I like math. I get these scores. I get these points. I have data. You can't deny me. And to experience that you didn't need any data is lovely. Yeah. It's interesting because I think there's a decent amount of people, whether consciously or subconsciously, are drawn to spaces where it's like, if you try to tell me I don't belong somewhere and I can find a space that makes it so definitive that you can't tell me I don't, then it becomes like, oh, well, those are spaces I'm interested in now. It's not just like whether or not you like me or whether or not I resonate with you. It's just like, it's proof. No, this is what it is. All of this, there's so much obvious comfort that came with this. Were there challenges and friction? Like, I can't imagine this isn't a fully faceted experience where there's also moments of confusion and challenge or no. One of the first moments was the first time I walked into church and I was like, oh, I have not dressed up to the standard here. You have experiences and learnings in that way. Were there any parts you didn't like? Were there any parts of this Black culture you were getting to immerse yourself in that you didn't like or that you were shocked that you didn't like? In college, there was such a tight community there. It wasn't something that I was like, I don't like this or I'm going to try to run from it. Did you ever feel too white? You get the color conversations of like skin tone and all of that. What's interesting, my experience is. Yeah. Typically, that comes from a space of have you assimilated and are you rejecting Black culture and rejecting your own culture? Or are you actually embracing your culture? I think that's a lot of where that conversation comes in because there are people that are, well, I would just say Black folks that may be lighter skinned, but they may be mixed or biracial. Oftentimes, that experience is one of two extremes. You either fully embrace Black culture and that's just who you are, or the flip side, you just go all in on like assimilating and trying to prove your proximity to whiteness or, hey, I want to be accepted. I think that's where that normally comes in. I also think you can get left without a country. I have a really good friend and she got to go from the Bronx to a boarding school in Connecticut because she was brilliant. And so there she was fucked because she was the only Black kid there. And then she'd come home to the Bronx having been there for eight months for school. And those kids thought she was fucking snobby and shitty now, but she wasn't. And it somehow made her someone without a country. And I'm like, well, that's so cruel. I'll say I haven't had that experience. I also take the spaces of like, are people going to crack jokes? Absolutely. Am I going to crack them back at them? Absolutely. I think it is also people will test to see how you take things and are you going to take it in stride? And I'll take offense to those things. I think some of that also comes out of like the space of football, where it's like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. You're constantly going to be challenged. That's just part of the environment of it, right? Oftentimes, those are some of the closest relationships is when you are challenging each other, whether it's our running back in Reno or our tight end or our linebackers, people that I have phenomenal relationships with. We would yell at each other and be going back and forth in practice, trying to make each other better and push each other to our limits. You get thick skin if you're in a team sport. Yeah, you can't not. I'll also say, this is just insight that I've gathered after having trained with players across the country and different trainers. I think the time period that we're in Reno, it was just a different culture and mentality. The way that we trained during that period, we were nuts. All of the players that came off of that team that went and trained other places, what were y'all doing? Because just the mentality of it was a little bit absurd. So we had our defensive end go out and run a 4-4 at the combine. We had our tight end break the tight end vertical jump at the combine. It was like 43 or 44 inches. Yeah, you said when you got there, your 40 was slower than some of the defensive players. It was bad. It was bad. And you couldn't squat 225. No. And you were humiliated. And it was time to get serious. So the tight end who went out and jumped, I think it was like 44 inches at the combine. That's crazy. He was my roommate when I first got to Reno. He came in as a receiver at 6'2", 6'3", 220 pounds, probably like 7% body fat. A monster. You're a receiver? I'm like, yeah, I have to get it together immediately. I go and try to squat 225. I get buried. He's over here squatting 315 plus. And I'm like, I need to figure this out immediately. But he was also. He was also the person that was like, this is what we're going to do. Every night we're doing push-ups. When we go to the weight room, here's how you're going to train. Like, this is what helped get me here. So you build this camaraderie of like, yeah, I saw you get buried, but I'm also going to make sure I help you prepare for the other side. In that process, they're also definitely going to talk shit to you. Right, right, right, right. You're going to get made fun of. That's where some of that thick skin comes in, where it's like, you don't take offense to it. You learn to be able to push back against it and be like, these are moments I have to rise to the occasion now. Well, there's a rad anthropological thing happening, which is you guys have all declared. It's so declared unlike the rest of life. You are an in-group. It's us against everyone else. And once you're on an in-group, we know instinctually there's love, support, and dedication. And so now I can receive all of this teasing and ridicule because it's safe. That's where you're able to thrive and grow to levels that you're like, I didn't know I would be able to get to this. My college teammates, we just went back for our Hall of Fame induction and immediately interacting with all of them was like, never miss the beat. And because you have this experience of in many ways, you go through hell together to try to accomplish this goal. And when you do, then it's like we're forever bonded in some way. Like that connection is there. And that's one of the pieces that was beautiful within that too, was the dynamic coming out of it. and when I went back was like a lot of my teammates were If people saw me walking down the street with them, it'd be like, all right, how was this relationship built if no one had a background? I have teammates that now are like, hey, I do gun therapy in South Carolina and live on a ranch. And it's like, it's probably not the first person people would be like, oh, you're walking down the street with. It would be like, that's one of my good friends or one of my teammates mullet living in Arizona. Probably voted for Trump. Maybe. Like, I don't know. But you don't care because he's. I don't know him in that regard. Right, right, right, right, right. We went through this of like, hey, we're trying to accomplish this goal. We're in the trenches in that way together. You know something way more significant about him than whatever opinion he might have on this other thing. Yeah. I just know them as phenomenal people that in moments of adversity, they showed up. If I got in a situation and I had to call them, like I know they would show up. That becomes the bond that you build. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's substantive. I think when you align because you have the same opinion on a topic that arose three months ago, and that's the union, I don't think that's terribly substantive. I think the other thing is. Yeah. The action, showing up for each other, having each other's back, being there when you need someone to pick up the phone. Those things are real things. What team sports gives you in addition to what you were saying. It teaches you to rely on other people. It shows you you need other people. If everyone isn't coming to the table, doing their best, the whole thing falls apart. And it is such a good life lesson. You need each other. Especially as a quarterback. Your physical well-being is dependent upon everybody doing their job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They need to protect you. Your confidence there has to be so high. So that trust in that relationship. You more than anyone. How many guys are coming at you? 10? Depends on the play. But 11 on the field. But any play, it could be anywhere from three to eight people running at you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You've got the target. You also know if anyone has an opportunity to take a shot on you as the quarterback, they're going to take it. Yeah. When you're like at the arcade and you're shooting the things, and one says 200 points, and one says 500, one says 10,000, like the quarterback is worth 10,000 points. You're the 10,000. I want to find out the transition or go through the transition. I think a couple of key things happen. The combine in particular, this was very informative to me, and I think a lot of people have limited knowledge of the combine. And even if they watch it on TV, they're seeing a very small piece of what the combine is. So just tell people briefly, what is the combine experience? You get out of college, you go to this thing, you get evaluated, and how does that work? Think of the combine like an interview process. Basically, that's the football interview process. Your point, what everyone sees is the final day of the combine, which is your 40-yard dash, your vertical jump, all of the skills and the drills. 40-yard dash, debatable. But those are things that actually translate to playing football, your ability to go out there. The three days prior, a lot of that, candidly, is just nonsense. You go through the medical exams, which that makes sense. The extent of it and some of the process around it is a little. Because you had a bunch of fucked up shit, right, that they didn't catch there? I had stress fractures in my left shin that I think they did catch, they just didn't tell me. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because later, the Niners were like- This is none of your business. Here's your x-ray from the combine, and we're going to put a rod in your leg. Oh, wow. But I didn't hear about that until months later when they drafted me. So at that point, I didn't even know I had stress fractures. Coming out of college, they were like, "Just deal with the pain. You'll be all right." There's that component. Then there's the actual interviews that you do. They're a free-for-all. They're wide-ranging. I had interviews like I did with the 49ers that were purely football. How much do you understand running an offense? Here's your offense. Here's this coverage. What are your reads? Why are you going through it? Why are you making these decisions? What's the progression? It was also like, "Well, here's our playbook. Repeat this play back to us," which the first time going through this came out of a spread offense. We did a lot of signaling from the sideline. Our play calls were very short. So that process was interesting. There's other interviews, and these have been reported on where it's like, "Hey, are you gay?" Whoa. You're a prostitute. What? These are real questions from the combine. After 2016 and the protests, how do you feel about Colin Kaepernick? Oh my God. As I heard you detail it when you were talking with David Resnick, what you observed was many of the questions are to really find out how obedient you are. Yeah. Are you someone that is going to be combative or push back on these ideas, or will you just accept them? Yeah. I think that's a good question. to today. Now we are in a position today where there's more black quarterbacks in part because it's become so undeniable. Yeah. If you can have someone that can sit back there and throw the football and also run a 4-4, yeah, we're going to get the best of both worlds. But that has been a long history and a long battle. It's still one that continues today with how quarterbacks are talked about. Also the grace that is given in relation to their performance or the critiques of their performance. So we still see it play out. There's a lot of bias within that. You are constantly facing and navigating. Yeah. Well, and then let's jump to, so Colin joins the team in 2011. You get this operation. Your rookie year kind of is awash. 2012, the starting quarterback gets injured. You're put in, your 10th start of your career is the Super Bowl, which is crazy. Oh my gosh. Yes. But you have this really extreme situation you're in and you fucking run. Yeah. And then you have this really extreme situation you're in and you fucking run. Now, please educate me. The National Anthem and the Star Spangled Banner are the same thing, right? Our National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner. Yes. Tell me there's a section, I heard you talking again to Resnick about this, like there's a section about the slaves? What is known as the National Anthem is just the first verse. The third verse includes language or verbiage within it. That's basically like no slave will escape. Right. Like everything's good. The slaves won't be escaping. Most people don't like to acknowledge it. But it's like, all right, if you're going to take the song, take the totality of it, which is like, it's racist. Yeah. You like the song? You're obligated to know what the song is. Yeah. It's not like a debate. Oh, dude, I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's new book that's not out yet. And it's all about the Second Amendment. And it's all about the notion of militias. The militias were not to defend us against a tyrannical government. The militias were to keep the slaves from fucking having another Sonos rebellion. That's what was happening. Yeah. Yes. It's cut and dry. It's fucking nuts. And those are the parts why history matters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's also why reading matters. Mm-hmm. Education matters. People can read. It's also why fighting against book bans matter. Yeah, exactly. It's like we should be able to engage with the content that gives us the context to be able to understand how we got here. Yes. And ultimately how we move forward. Okay. So tell me about Eric Reid. Because again, I don't know this part. I don't know the Nate Boyer part. And I don't know the Eric Reid part. Originally you're sitting, you're sitting during preseason games. And then how does it evolve to the taking a knee? After the third preseason game, Steve Weiss, who is a NFL reporter, came up, asked me why I'd been sitting. I gave him that rationale. It was around police killing Black folks, trying to address that issue specifically within the larger systemic oppression that Black people, people of color are facing. On the back of that, a lot of backlash, also a lot of support. But my teammate, Eric Reid, who was our first round draft pick out of LSU, was a safety, came up to me before our next game. I was like, hey, can I talk to you? I believe in what you're doing. I also see some of the pushback that you're getting. Let's talk through this. And through that, he was like, look, here's my thoughts. People are saying you're separated from the team because you're not up front with them. They say you're being disrespectful. Let's go take a knee up in the front. And we'll address both of those. We'll address both of those concerns so we can get everybody focused on the issue. Smart. I mean, not that that worked, but smart. If you're doing things in good faith, like, hey, we're addressing the issue. Oh, guess what? We have a new issue. Exactly. From that point, yeah, let's do it. So Eric is now in the protest, and we're going to be going out that night to do it. After that, the 49ers had asked us or asked me to meet with Nate Boyer, who had written an open letter. He had played in Seattle, I think. For a short period of time, was a Green Beret. And they're like, hey, he's in town. Would you sit down and talk to him? Like, all right, we can talk to him quick. So I think we had like a 20-minute conversation. Was he supportive? Yeah, supportive. He had some of his critiques around it. He had that outlined in his letter. In that conversation, we told him we're going to go out and take a knee at that point. He was supportive of that. Also said he was going to go out and take a knee with us. We're like, okay, great. You want to join in? The more, the merrier. Now, we went out that night, right before the Star-Spangled Banner. He came up and was like, I took an oath. I actually can't take a knee with you. Okay. Because of the Green Beret-ness? Was that the explanation? Who knows? No one knows. Okay. I don't know what changed between that meeting and that night. What it felt like is this is much more of a photo op than like, hey, I'm going to be in this with you. So from that point, he went around saying like, hey, I told them to take a knee. That was part of the conversation that went on out there. Really quick. Do you think? His intention was to take credit for that? Or was his intention to say, I've co-signed on this? How it came off is both. And I think the both part of it, one, it was opportunistic. That very quickly led to like movie roles coming out the other side of it. But it also became a much more convenient narrative for people to engage with. It was like this white man, a vet, came in and told them what to do. So like, that's more acceptable in our eyes. And I think that speaks very similar to like the black quarterback conversation of, well, who should be leading? If it's this white man that's helping lead, that's better. Versus these two black men out here who came up with this and are trying to address a larger issue. We don't like that as much. Well, and then we know everything that happened after that event. I guess my last question for you is, I don't know about you. But having kids has forced me to re-examine my own story in all these wonderful ways. Illuminating ways, you know. Things that I would have said that were the result of nurture. Because I grew up in a very chaotic place. Lo and behold, these kids have the same nature as me, right? And they don't, you know. So I'm like, oh, I guess that's a bit of my story. I mean, maybe genetically I might be a lot this way. And I just wonder, this huge journey you've been on. Having this baby girl, has it made you poke at certain areas of it that you had total conviction about? The first one that it makes me think of is when we first had our baby girl. I was like, she is her own person. I almost got defensive when people were like, oh, she looks like you or she's doing this like you. I'm like, she's her own person. Like, don't try to make her be. Just like I was my own person my whole life. And now there are things that she does that I'm like. Oh, that's hard to deny. That's pretty on the nose. So she is a very determined when she is locked in on something, she is locked in. She is also, and we've tried to instill this in her, but I think she instinctually has this too of like, want her to be independent and want her to be willing to like push the bounds on things. And recall this moment of, and this was just a few months ago, sitting at the dinner table. She hadn't been doing a great job of listening. How old is she? Sorry. She's three. At this point, she was three. She just turned four in August. Yeah. She's young. Yeah. Bar is high. So I'm sitting there. I'm like, all right, she's not listening. Sitting at the dinner table. And she's like, can I play after dinner? I'm like, no. One, you haven't ate your food. Two, you haven't done this. Three, you haven't done this. And this little girl goes, what's four? And I was like, oh, you don't. You don't care. You do not care. These kids. She is willing to challenge. Yeah. And is also okay with the consequences on the other side of it. Yes. And I'm like, this is fascinating to watch. Colin, I had the exact same moment. People have heard the story. But our littler daughter, her whole life was these Paw Patrol toys. She carried them around everywhere. She talked to them. Her whole life was these things. And they were in the bathtub. She left them all in the bathtub. And then we had friends over. She would not stop coming out of her. And she was like three, like your daughter's age. And then like 12th time, she will not just stay down. I pick her up and I take her into the bathroom. I've snapped. I'm not proud of this decision. I grab all the Paw Patrol toys and I throw them in the trash can. And I say, if you come out of your room again, this trash can is going to the outdoor trash can. And she looked at me cold and goes, daddy, you forgot one. And I looked and sure enough, there was one in the tub. And I was like, oh. There's no like mono and mono battle with her. I'm going to win. I got to completely change course right now because this is untenable. This is not going to work. I had the same experience. Try to like take stuffies away from her. And she got to a point that was like, oh, are you going to take this one? Let me offer it to you. Are you going to take both of these? Yeah. Here you go. Isn't it cool though? It's beautiful because she has. But it's hard. No fear. Yes. And it teaches you like, listen, your stubbornness and your bravery has served you and served so many people. It has. And also you don't pick when it's useful. You're also a pain in the fucking ass. I guarantee. Oh. As soon as you have one of yourself, you're like, oh man, I'm also a pain in the fucking ass. That is Nessa's favorite part. Yeah. She was like, you have to deal with you now. Yeah. She's like, you deserve this. Enjoy. But she's not going to get pushed around. It's so great. That's also part of it that I'm like, all right, she's going to be a little light-skinned black girl. Yeah. She's going to have Kaepernick as her last name. She's also tall. I know she's going to have to face things she ain't asked for. So I'm like, you have to be prepared. I'm going to have to prepare you earlier. It sounds like you don't have to do much preparing. Oh man. Sounds like she might already have it. She is just walking in it. Yeah. Good for her. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Like, don't direct it at me. Yes, exactly. No, that's for the enemies. That way. That's for all of our enemies. That's not for us. Well, Colin, it's been a delight to meet you. The book is called The Perilous Fight. And again, I really do recommend listening to it. It's a very well-produced and fun listen. Informative and specific, and I loved it. So I hope everyone checks out The Perilous Fight. It's been a delight having you. And hopefully next time we meet, I'll be taller. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. This has been incredible. And also, congratulations on all the success. Oh, thank you, man. Appreciate it. We have a ton of admiration for you. Thanks for coming. Thank you. He is an armchair expert, but he makes mistakes all the time. Thank God Monica's here. She's got to let him have the facts. How are you doing? Did you have a late night? I know you went to a party. I did go to a party. It wasn't supposed to be a late night, but it was a late night because they could not find my car. They lost your car. It was really very upsetting, but we can get to that later because you have stories. Oh, well, I just wanted to give my update on the very special trip to Las Vegas. Yeah. Which, Monica, it couldn't have been a better trip. Go on. Well, I mean, where do we start? We go out to eat on, we all arrive on Thursday. We go out to a steakhouse. We get a bonkers delicious meal. We gambled for one hour, and when we were all done, we were up $25. Which is. That's great. Nothing feels better. Yeah. If you can get an hour of entertainment and walk away $25 a head, we're in the right frame of mind to go now to the show. Uh-huh. And I got to add that the show just kept getting better and better. The Metallica show. Metallica at the Sphere experience just kept getting better and better, which was first off, I had just begged Marcel to see if he could get tickets. It was sold out. Marcel is Kristen's publicist. Yes. And he's also a publicist. He lives in Nashville with a lot of musicians, so he has a lot of great music connections. Yes. So I always beg him to hook me up with someone. So whatever. I just bought tickets. Mm-hmm. Then I'm. kind of interacting with some folks about those tickets and then they said like well hey we can have someone meet you at the entrance and show you to your seat and i'm like oh that sounds great yes please uh-huh then a day later the next email was like hey as it turns out we can put you in the suite and i was like oh my lord this is incredible so it went to suite so then we met this wonderful woman at the uh door and she took us up to the suite level and this is where this really involves you the merch counter up there wasn't open yet no one was there yet and it was on the suite floor and she said do you want to go to the merch table and i said oh my god yes we want to go just learned you had to go i've never had a party at a merch table the way this party unfolded there was the most incredible filipino woman about 50 years old who um she and i immediately had a thing it was so fun and exciting we were going bananas um we got everything right tyrell it was me weekly and tyrell the two errands and it was so much fun buying this merch and when we walked away tyrell said i think you just healed like a good chunk of my childhood trauma because he finally got you can't get well you're not allowed to get merch when you're younger and not only did we get merch we got all the merch it was so exciting i want you to reach behind the cushion you're leaning against oh boy there's a hidden present for me i think hold on you can do it you can do it wow i even got my friend thank you my new vintage shirt yes that was the smallest size they had great you'll have to fold it up at the bottom no it's cute i'll tuck it in it says life burns faster sure yeah and it's what in that's the truth as as the band members age and i age oh wow yeah it just starts going faster oh it's also like the back is kind of spooky for halloween uh-huh it would be a great halloween shirt for you maybe i would just wear this as you see i put on the same one so that you would have it yeah i love it thank you because you said get me merch and i laughed in your face i'm like i'm not gonna wait in line for an hour to get merch yeah and it hurt my feelings but um it worked out for everyone that's what i'm saying i'm not gonna wait in line for an hour to get merch i'm not gonna wait in line for an hour to get merch i'm not gonna wait in line for an hour to get merch that's why this relationship works talk about under promising and then over delivering yeah oh wow okay this is exciting okay i can't now go into the suite monica okay which immediately we're like are you fucking kidding me there's yummy food mind you we just ate so much steak we didn't care we started eating immediately sure we meet bill who i don't know he's the manager of the place or he seemed very official and like aaron kept saying weekly kept saying he thought bill owned the place that's what i'm saying i'm not gonna wait in line for an hour to get merch okay he said do you want to go on a tour of the sphere well first he said you want to go down to the bottom and see what it's like next to the stage of course this is before the band's playing we're there early so we go down and we check out that scene and that scene is really cool it's such a different perspective than being in the middle where we were as far as seeing the screens and everything you can kind of see the whole audience and it's quite huge yeah and we're getting to walk around the way they've got the stage built you can be behind them or in front of them it's very creative and then he's like okay do you want to see like how this thing works and i'm like okay and we got to go you're not you're probably not supposed to share secrets i'm don't think i am but i need to say it's the most impressive thing as like an engineering nerd there's 120 000 square feet of screens in there wow there's 53 000 panels wow it's 16k they have more power than my house does oh per every hundred square feet i think and i was saying what happens when these screens go out there's 50 some thousand screens they must glitch and he was saying yeah they do and someone on the floor shoots a laser beam and then the laser beam alerts someone who repels down to the screens to reset them and fix them while the show's going on oh there's people repelling inside of that place crazy and then we got to see the inside of the exoskeleton the thing you see on the strip the big outside display which is completely different it's not screens it's all these like big diodes so we were in hog habit we could have left we got done with the two and we're like trip totally worth going to vegas if we left right now i left out a very special part on the flight there i had a friend who from the program who wanted some advice and so i go i'm just getting on this airplane give me five minutes i sit down in my seat before we take off and i call him and we have like a 15 minute conversation about what he's going through and apparently there was enough language happening that when i hung up my phone the guy next to me goes you sound like a really good sponsor oh that's nice and i go oh man um that's so sweet i'm not his sponsor if anything it's a co-sponsorship i'm often calling him but then i was like oh are you in the program i learned i talked to this guy is like from takeoff to landing oh that's nice he was gonna be at the show too wow he's been sober for like 28 years or something a musician then he was in the suite next to us so now we're hanging with this sweet dude i met on the airplane wow i feel like everyone there was sober because they were all it went so hard everyone either died or yeah that was who was that metallic yeah who was like metallic was the religion as a kid yeah it's a great observation probably a high sobriety yeah the show's fucking spectacular it's crazy they play fade to black they i mean they play search and destroy there's i mean it's it's so awesome how long is it going to be how long is it i think it's 90 minutes we're supposed to be around 90 not very long perfect great amount of time you know you you'd be out of there at 91 minutes oh yeah the cream on the top oh cherry you must remember the cherry on the top thank you you must remember the three of us have known each other since we were little kids i know it's so cute we love metallica yeah you love it after the show lars invited us back to hang out nice wait this is a whoa what's happening this is also a ding ding ding because you just told a story about how you were with lars and that you met 2012 right and that you met oh the other guy yes yeah the lead singer and he didn't really like you this is on the adam grant episode yes and i came full circle and recognized i was bringing an energy still he's the lead singer of the band okay and i i gotta say i want to give him a shout out he has kept it beastly he like he's he's older than i am but he still looks like the lead singer of metallica he has kept himself burly and it works so well and did he like you this time or what he wasn't around just lars invite i know lars is okay yeah in fact i was so flattered he invited us back because i'm like i doubt he remembers 14 years ago that i hung out with him through bradley is why i was there bradley cooper yeah famous actor extraordinary director um so anyways the fact lars invited us back the fact that he was talking with tyrell and weekly so engaging yeah and we just spent like half hour hanging out with our fucking favorite drummer yeah it's exciting stuff then the big battle of and this was the highlight of the trip the battle once you're leaving the sphere is i think there's like 17 000 people some kind of capacity like that and you're all gonna what get a cab back to your hotel so we bounce off this side door i'm like we're just gonna have to walk really far and get away from this place we'll see you in a minute as soon as we bounce at this door we see if one of those fucking bicycle taxis a rickshaw but it's a bicycle a rickshaw i think they're carrying you with their feet yeah um not a tuck tuck like lincoln and i did where the guy drives this guy's on a bicycle and there's a bench and back belt for two i think okay but all three of us got on sure we take off we're going about 100 yards and all of a sudden i see the sign it says a hundred dollars a passenger oh and i'm like oh now i'm like it's a hundred dollars a person and he's like yeah i'll give one for free okay i'm like all right i mean whatever you're gonna get an expensive cab i'm gonna get a 25 cab i bet they would be surging well the cabs don't surge they might have yeah all to say we were on this thing for a half hour we were very far from our hotel as it turns out or much farther than i thought were you on the strip yeah but at the very very end okay and so this um this bicycle cab ride through heavy heavy traffic and construction zones and red lights and u-turns and drunk people was the most fun we've had in a decade we were laughing so hard he was blasting metallica so fucking loud he's pedaling his ass off midway through this trip i'm like this trip's worth much more than two hundred dollars like this guy is pedaling his brains yeah that's too much for him he has three big people on his for a half hour yeah yeah it's six and a half hours and he's like oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry yeah that's you owed him 360 pounds on the back wheels too much i gave him more than he asked it should be a dollar per pound well we couldn't have gone that far that's yeah i think that's a great way a great way to charge it's just a baby on back yeah a ten dollar fare but this this bike ride we were like i want to i want to take a bike taxi everywhere i go now if it's with those two yeah okay so so then we go back to the room and we're watching the jay-z documentary all together you have to watch it he's he's the most beautiful fucking human being on planet earth i don't know how this guy did all the things someone does in a without a like incredible yeah so the three of us who are trying to better ourselves we're just loving this role model so that's delightful next day as you already know i had to wake up early to get the breakfast because i had a credit this is a big this was a tactical blunder i did it two mornings in a row so i never got enough sleep i said i think this is even though i'm not one to generally do what i'm about to do which is like gender things yeah i feel like the free breakfast is gendered is really a dad thing i think men not necessarily dads like men feel that they have to capitalize on the free breakfast for sure and mind you it wasn't even free because it was a credit which of course we blew way the fuck past yeah yeah it makes no sense in retrospect because i did the only downside of the trip is that i got back with a level of exhaustion i have not known in years but doesn't matter we're not there yet oh we hit that breakfast then then we hit the pool oh great we go to the pool that's fine that's your update that you go to the pool we're not pool types we go to the pool you are pool types what are you talking about three of us in our our friendship we haven't spent any time at pools if that wasn't our thing you have a pool five feet away yes i go in the pool the three of us have never been on a vacation and gone to the pool for two hours right okay it was really more fun than we were expecting fun people watching okay okay then best friend roy choy's restaurant everyone has to go i love roy choy i love roy choy so much yes this is the luckiest weekend i've ever had oh i gotta add too because it's a merch weekend uh-huh the band also sent some merch after we had bought all the stuff the band had sent up some merch okay i have a question is this merch that you got me like you can only get it there yeah it's a sphere um right like you can't get it online i haven't looked but i don't think so great yeah thanks what have you what have i said i think you're gonna let you through in the trash i just got nervous because you said the other merch got sent up what was the same oh i ended up with a duplicate of it got it okay which is great one will live in nashville i've already got a whole game plan for my second one right i might also cut the sleeves off that one because okay well no be careful because remember these are vintage cheese for the best friend okay yeah best friend this restaurant roy choy's restaurant is so good you've eaten there rob yep oh i want to go rob will you get me in there too yep you got it okay not only is it impossibly good this fucking fried chicken we had there oh there was so much insane good stuff and everything tastes so original roy was there he's not always there oh fun so he came and sat yes he came and sat with us for a while so we got to catch up with him and i was reminded like he is the most beautiful fucking dude guys for real if you have not listened to him i'm not listening to him i'm not listening to him i'm not listening to his episode it is one of the best ones i know i've been throwing that around i told him when i saw him i said i want you to know that i've been around monica over a hundred times and when she says that you are her favorite episode we've ever done guillermo did he tied it's like top three i think it's roy choy guillermo and kihi kwan he's up there okay this trip is already impossibly great you also have to remember from the perspective of tyrell yes he lives we're going places and like lars is inviting us to hang out it's very fun we go to this incredible restaurant they hand us a bag of merchandise does it say best friend yes in aaron weekly best friend aaron weekly now is a sweatshirt it looks like he has his own merch i was gonna say okay that makes more sense you know i don't eat dessert okay can't even i'm so nervous i have too much stuff to get out just go no go tell me about dessert you love dessert it wasn't even about dessert it's about best friend merch yes tell me about it tell me i just it does make sense that aaron but i that would have also been appropriate for me yeah yeah yeah go on okay dessert i don't order dessert right i always feel bad if i eat dessert so i don't do it yeah but they sent out three desserts this upside down did you have the upside down pineapple cake rob i don't think so i would have never ordered a pineapple cake yeah if anyone's listening goes to best friend get six of those pineapple cakes we tore into this final we were we couldn't we were beside ourselves we ate all three desserts yeah yum then we go back to our hotel we go to cirque de soleil michael jackson oh how was that incredible and again i'm a little nervous my boys aren't like this is my softer side who loves cirque de soleil and who doesn't like cirque de soleil well that's the thing i have a hunch everyone does if they see it but i don't think most dudes are like we got to hit up cirque de soleil right it's incredible the show starts there's like 300 drones inside of the with you flying around your head and doing all sorts of crazy light stuff were they doing acrobatics oh yeah they were doing all the fun but in tons of dancing okay because it's michael jackson of course at the end you get a hologram of michael jackson and i gotta say we we concluded that if you saw this show in 1980 you would not know that was a hologram like we know enough to know that's a hologram right but i think you could have fooled people in the 1980s okay that's how convincing it looks that michael jackson's on the stage also just one second i don't know if you know what i'm talking about but just one second i'm michael jackson these dancers in this show are insane right and they're doing all the stuff he does but they're showing a lot of clips of michael yeah and i gotta say i don't know that there's ever been a better dancer even if you're doing the same moves as michael jackson he had a little bit of tude and just a little bit of fucking spunk on every move i know it's unreal he was a one-of-one dancer that's true well that concludes my trip it was the greatest trip ever we went back to the room yes we watched more jay-z on saturday and it was just perfect good i'm so glad you had a lovely trip with your best friends yes the errands and that's just so sweet and lovely we did an episode of mom's car with tyra yeah i wanted to bring this up there was a major sim thing that happened there what happened this is this is i mean i have to say this is tied with xanthan gum okay so we do an episode of mom's car with tyra yeah tyra has a very very beautiful story then i'm really happy people will get to hear good so it's a very special episode okay we're all wearing our matching metallica shirts right yeah and reminder to everyone if they've not seen the show we are actually uber eats delivery people so we really pick up real orders and deliver to real people and that's happening while we're interviewing someone so we're hanging in the car we get a pickup thank god we're in the pacifica in the van yeah because we go to this house and it's this woman and she comes out and she's oh she already looks a little bit like a woman and she's a little frazzled a little over her head she's holding two bags good size bags and i grab and she goes i'm sorry there's 14 more and i go oh okay um they don't tell you that no this was a wild pickup i i didn't know this was even on the menu yeah you gotta think you could have someone move your entire apartment on uber eats god so she says there's 14 more so then it's like well everyone should get out of the van right so now i'm thinking from her perspective what has happened she ordered uber now three men get out they're wearing matching metallic the whole scene looks so ridiculous but she comes out she sees us in her things and she immediately goes oh my god you guys all look so cute in your metallica shirts okay great so she likes it yeah thank god it could have looked intimidating like why are there three people on this uber yeah you're famous but go on but but again i don't think she no go on knew who i was so we load this van for a while monica we load the van to the absolute fucking hill the inside next to tyrell's fault we are all three of us are moving busy yeah it takes us 12 minutes to pack this van yeah so then i just felt start following the directions to my drop-off which is in the middle of the valley at a warehouse yes so i pull up to this warehouse i said oh 4b that's it i get out well we all get out because there's so many packages and as i'm walking out two guys are walking out and the one guy looks at me he goes oh hey dax of course and i go what do you mean you're a uber driver he knows me why isn't he freaked out i'm the uber delivery guy and i go why of course and he goes well you're dropping off all the stuff for your wife's party tomorrow right and i go wait what what are you saying he goes all this stuff is all of the props for the nobody wants this facebook marketplace premiere premiere party tomorrow yeah i know what so how could we have picked up the fucking i know all the props for the party by coincidence in a city of six million people it's so strange right like to the point where i'm like is somehow netflix's ai is there some sophisticated pattern someone recognized and put this together i know i delivered all the props you saw at that part no i know okay and i found this out because um i went to that i went to the party that's where my car was lost that maybe we'll talk about maybe we'll get to when you're done and i get there and actually i look over and and some people are putting up these trinkets okay and i was like oh what what is that and then whatever you know obviously i'm drawn to trinkets but then i think it's like housewarming right exactly the theme was housewarming because that's a part of the season and all of our friends are there so molly's there and we're chatting and then we're talking and then we're talking and then we're talking and And then Molly, everywhere we go, if I'm ever somewhere with Molly, she knows someone it's wild. She knows it. It's definitely part of her AI. Okay. Her programming. Yeah. She knows absolutely everyone. And so she ran into someone she knew that what, that like maybe her daughter went to the school with blah, blah, blah, whatever. And in the middle of the woman goes, Oh no, it's crazy. My husband arranged, do you know, Dax picked up all this stuff? And then she was like, you know, Dax. And I was like, I know him. I've heard of him. And, and then, yeah. And then she was like, he picked up all this stuff. And I too was like, Oh, I mean, yeah. He did her a favor. Yeah, exactly. And then she was like, he's like has some Uber thing. I was like, Oh, mom's car. Yes. This happened on an episode of mom's car. And then, so Molly knows like that guy, I guess. That I delivered to. I think so. Yeah. Okay. And he said he did see her name. I was like, is this, this couldn't be Dax Shepard. So then maybe when he saw you, maybe he was like trying to compute. Yeah. Well, we told the lady, the lady's like, you know, you look so cute in your Metallica shirts. You guys all delivered together kind of a thing. And I go, Oh no, we record a podcast while we deliver. Like we told her that. That's so weird. It was beyond kind of weird. Yeah. Like it can't have, I delivered all of the housewarming. By the way, there was a ton. Oh, good. I'm glad. Yeah. The whole thing. I didn't think that when I, I was like, when I found out, when I found out what happened and I saw those trinkets, I was like, how did they, that's a lot to ask. Yeah. I was glad I had two men with me and I was driving a van. You could have probably not. Cause a lot of those things ended up at our friend's houses. Cause they were, they weren't props. They were things people could take. Yes. Yes. I'm telling you that it wouldn't have fit in Kristen's car, which is what I'm registered as driving. Well then see, that's weird that it would pair you. Well, I don't know if she, if she was fully honest about the amount of items or I don't know how that works. Yeah. I just, I'm like, they really hit the jackpot. There was three of us and we had a van. Yeah. Otherwise that's not working. That is so funny. So strange. So strange. If you dare. Okay. Did you have a fun time at the party? I did have a fun time at the party. Um, did you guys like by the pool? There was a pool there. It was Michael B. Jordan's old house. I heard that. Yeah. So people wanted to go upstairs. So I was traveling, I was in New York and then I was back and all of that was great and amazing. Well, maybe we'll talk about that one day. Not one day. Next fact check. I want to hear all of New York. No, I mean, there's not much to say. It was just great. So I've been talking. We've both been tired. We've both been tired, but like, I don't know. And then yesterday I did another resi. You're on fire. Another resi story, which was really fun. We went to a different area. Wine in the morning. It wasn't. Well, yeah, it was. Well, first it was half a margarita. This is the perfect job for you. It's you have to drink for your job. This is heaven. And eat all these amazing restaurants and talk. What do you mean like being a cocaine reviewer in the late nineties? No, it really is perfect because I get to meet all these fun, like awesome chefs and eat their food and drink. Oh my God. It really is. Anyway, so I had that in the morning, but I had to wake up at six o'clock. For I know a lot of people listening, that's like normal for them. Yeah, yeah. If you have kids. Sure. But I don't. And it is not normal for me. And I'm a late sleeper. I'm a night owl. Late riser. I go to bed late, even if I'm in bed. Yeah. I go to bed early. I don't fall asleep until late. Yeah. So I was tired. I was really tired yesterday. You were dragging ass. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and then we had this party and I really wanted to go because of course, like fun party. And I wanted to support Kristen. I wanted to support Ana. It's a big deal. And, um, it was up in the hills, which like. Yeah, they always are. I'm on the record saying I never want to go back up there. I hate the hills. Sure. Okay. Yeah. If you don't love driving. And you get lost easy. Exactly. It's not for you. But even if you, it's like, it's too windy. It's dark. Yeah. It's, uh, I hate it. Okay. So anyway, it's one of those things where you're driving and it was so traffic because it was like around six 30 heading that way. It was bad. And you know, when I start to pull up and I missed a turn, you know, this horrible. And I'm like, should I just go home? Okay. You were thinking about. Yeah. I was like, I think maybe I just need to go home. I'm tired. I don't. But okay. No, I'm going to keep going. Okay. Did you have. If it's anyone with you, you're driving solo. I was driving solo. Okay. And I get there and, uh, it's a valet. And so I, but there's like a lot of people, it's kind of chaotic, you know, whatever. Then I pull my car in. They're like, okay, leave your keys in the seat. They gave me the ticket. Great. Go in. Great time. But I'm tired. So I'm ready to leave like kind of early. So a bunch of us go to leave. We all give our tickets. I'm like second to give my ticket. So Molly goes, her car comes. So obviously my car. She'll come next. Right? Yeah. No, it's not coming. Okay. Weird. All right. Um, then I'm seeing a lot of people leaving. Coming and going. Whose cars, who they arrived much later than me. And then obviously Anna and Kristen get in their car. They leave Erica and Amy. We're starting. Everyone's now starting to be like, huh, this is a little weird. And then the valet comes up to me and is like, Hey, uh, what color? What's your car? And I was like, Mercedes. Uh, and he was like, yeah, he was like, what color is a dark blue? And he was like, okay. He goes a lot more time is passing and I'm getting the anxiety is starting to creep. Now, are you thinking my thought at this moment would be, oh, they parked it somewhere and it got towed because they're just parking on these streets. Like there's no magic parking lot. They're going to the street parking, which is a beat down. Yes. And did it get towed? That's what I would have thought. So, okay. I didn't, I didn't think about that. So then still waiting, Erica and Amy's car comes and they are like, should we drive you home? Well, they're like, we don't want to leave her. Can you just move the car over? We're going to stay until her car comes. Yeah. And they were like, no, her car is coming. Don't worry. It's coming. I parked it. It's coming. And like, they're basically making everyone leave because it's so tiny. Right. Sure. So then they go and not, and then my phone is, it's dying. It's on red. I was on a little red. One last red sliver. Yeah. And then the guy and the Valley comes over and he's like showing me pictures of keys. Oh, and he's like, are the, is it, are these your, which one's your key? Oh, Jesus. Yeah. And I am like, I don't know. I couldn't really tell from the pictures. Okay. And I was also just like, where is my car? Like I was really, and then, and it was hard because there was all these, you know, there's other people there. And then now everyone's like, where's your car? Oh no. Now you're getting attention for it. Too much attention. And then, but, but also no one's like, they're kind of taking it seriously, but also everyone's laughing. And I just, and I am at full anxiety at this point and I want to be alone. Yeah. And making wrong turns in your car. I want to be alone in my thoughts. I don't want to be trying to like chit chat with people while my car is lost. That's right. And so I think I might, I'm nervous that I was like maybe a little like, short with some people, which I didn't want to be. And also, so Nicole's husband, Kevin was there and Kevin and I were chatting and then, you know, his car comes and he also was like, he's like, oh, like he doesn't really want to leave. People who know me don't want to leave because they're worried, obviously, but then they have to leave. Don't you kind of want them to leave? Just leave. I don't want a bunch of attention over there. Like I did, but then I wanted to cry because I was alone. Okay. So you want a lot of things. Only for the people who I love. But like when it was strangers, I didn't want them to. You just wanted inner circle. Yeah, but they all left. So, and I was afraid my phone was going to die and I wasn't going to be able to call anyone to come pick me up. Yes. A lot was going on. Although this is a great, this is one of your many opportunities to go for a ride home with the valet driver and find out that they have a really interesting life story. This is kind of like your routine. I didn't want to do that because they were not being all that nice to me. Oh, blaming the victim. Yeah. Because then at one point I went back over and I was like, Hey man, what's going on? Yeah. Yeah. And he was like, it's there. There's nothing I can do. And I was like, there's nothing you can do. Get my car is what, you know, cross your mind to say, Hey, I'm getting real close to calling the police to say my car has been stolen. No, I didn't. And I should have. Okay. You really needed me there. Yeah. So then he, yeah, he was like, it's, it's, it's there pulling all the cars up. And I was like, okay, but you know, I've been standing here for a very long time. I did say that. Yeah. Okay. And then the other guy said, I know, I know. I'm sorry. But like, they were kind of gaslighting me. Like, this is normal car. We're just bringing cars. I was like, no, no, no. I'm aware that this isn't normal also. Cause this man is showing me pictures of keys and is confused. And then I heard them talking in the other valet was like, no, I parked her car. Like the key. So we couldn't have lost the keys. And I was like, Oh my God, they might've lost the key. So it was so So it was really stressful. everyone's gone at this point it's like me and some stragglers are waiting for their ubers you know and um i pull up with aaron and aaron pick up all the trinkets to return them to the ladies oh my god um and like one of the guys that was came over a straggler was big noah from the show and like and i love i love him i'm a fan of him i loved him on girls and he's great on this and i like i was just like i don't i can't even talk to big noah like i i just want i need to like i wanted to cry very badly yeah um i'm sorry but i was like but i'm not gonna i'm a grown woman but like my car was stolen i know i know you should have cried then i'm sorry i said grown woman you would have cried if your car got stolen i would use my other it would be the same thing that you had i just my my my manifestation would be different i know it would probably be rage and then i was like i want to text erica and amy but how many texts do i have left yeah yeah and i knew i was like i'd have to get down this hill on a red sliver yeah it was a lot how did they end up telling me what happened today it just it came there was no explanation yeah they obviously you're maybe maybe it did get towed well no and they had to go hours no that would have taken hours i mean it took a long time yeah how long i wish so what time did you get home 10 after 10 i was expecting you to say midnight no i left that late i know but like we went up there at like 8 50 okay and this isn't far away no no no you live very close to michael b jordan his old house maybe he'll move back maybe we'll see if it moves anyway that was like i really hated that experience i'm sorry that happened and i don't want to go back up there okay i'm not gonna ask you to um thank you all right oh some facts oh yeah i remember okay this is for colin kaepernick great episode what a brave man what a lovely man yeah but what he did was quite brave and he stands up a lot i see it i see it all the time he's just like constantly a voice of he's not afraid to stand up for i mean ironically stand up yeah or kneel down whatever for what whatever this situation calls for yeah he's great yes he was enormous too yeah he was so tall he really made me look tiny yeah we talked about that in the episode because i was like he's a lot taller than you yeah yeah but he's actually not a lot taller than you which we discuss again yes exponential also his afro is enormous so he's getting at least six seven inches on me on the hair cool yeah yeah it really is yeah gorgeous pro okay so speaking of ding ding ding the modesto barber shop to where he first went to and he said there were clothes in the front and it was a kind of a one-stop shop i did google this okay and unless this is a different one it says the shop you were looking for is live wire clothing store and live wire barber shop oh great it's still one stop i hope it's the same one yeah how could there be a second in the same mall except that it's no it's not at the mall the mall was the one he went to with the with the girls yeah this one is owned by rapper jay stalin okay so i don't know if it's the same but i hope it is okay tommy johns oh the surgery yeah it's a terrorist brain of the ulnar collateral ligament ucl uh-huh which is the intermedial ligament of the elbow that stabilizes the point into it for the viewers watch on youtube so you can see even if you skip everything else come see where i'm pointing yeah because you don't know where your elbow is no inside your elbow it's like such i can feel it oh i know i yeah it feels like you're funny bone would be triggered impermanently right that's what it feels like oh i hate that okay um yeah it stabilizes the joint during throwing and high stress arm motions i looked up total recovery time because he says with science it's gotten a lot better yeah 12 to 18 months for pitchers and overhead throwing athletes it feels long it's long yeah um but maybe it doesn't take you out completely from the game yes how many black players in the mlb or percentage of black players in the mlb or percentage of black players in the mlb or percentage of black uh in the mlb they make up six to eight six point eight percent that's no that's yeah only six point eight percent of major league baseball is black yes rob does that feel right to you yes i think it does okay maybe it's because they're generally the best players and i'm i'm like i'm over inflating the numbers peak representation was 18.7 to 19 in the early 80s okay so it has gone down a lot and probably that's when obviously early 80s is when i first started watching baseball and probably when it ended me watching baseball so i locked it in that makes sense also i'm just always aware when mookie betts is at bat for the la dodgers i'm not like aware of a ton of players and i'm aware of like five i'm aware of him too because his um your brother loves yeah well his i don't know if he loves him so much as i mean i'm sure he loves him he must yeah his instagram handle is a play on his name yeah um you want to give it out so you get some followers no they can okay they can get their own followers search neil padman and we see one that sounds like jukey bets you can look at my you can follow me on instagram i'm gonna cut that oh you're gonna look at me on instagram and then you'll find a picture of him he'll be tagged okay there we go okay um scavenger hunt did the founder of nintendo buy a steak in the mariners and that's how ichiro came over okay the connection comes from hiroshi yamachi the great grandson of nintendo's founder and its longtime president hiroshi purchased a majority stake in the seattle mariners baseball team in 92 and nintendo later signed ichiro to the team in 2001 facilitating his historic move to major league baseball i'm a tokyo giant like ichiro i am back to jc there you go all roads lead okay kids sports and their costs okay average annual family spending on one child by sport this is from playground equipment.com i always go there for all my sports data ice hockey yeah i was i nailed it you did 25 2583 that seems low though yeah that does one kid but still that's low anyway um skiing is after i'm just i'm not going to say the numbers i'm just going to say we have ice hockey we have skiing snowboarding uh we have field hockey how is that expensive okay well it says registration equipment travel travel is a big part of that yeah because there's not one on every corner uh-huh lessons and then camps interesting gymnastics oh sure that'll get you lacrosse tennis bicycling okay so we have ice hockey we have skiing snowboarding uh we have field hockey how is that bicycling huh well bikes are very pricey right but you only need one but remember i bought a used one off of my friend who was competitive oh and the bike was 21 000 oh my god yeah that's insane okay i paid 2 500 just for the record okay golf swimming martial arts something else i can't read uh baseball supper okay so it's interesting about our difference in eye degeneration i know is i need to get further back from something when i can't read it and you were leaning in and squinting yeah because i have normal i don't have age one yet yeah but that's not why this is all fuzzy see okay it's not me um was it warren moon who he said intentionally ran a slower 40 yard dash so that he wouldn't be removed as quarterback yeah it was wow and it was david whitley his facts were on point he really knew his facts yeah um for sporting news an aol sporting news joint venture in november 2012 that wrote that article about tattoos and you want your quarter to look like an inmate or something yeah i did read i read part of it on cbs sports and i was like this is ridiculous anyway um those are the facts oh thank you thank you for all your you're welcome investigation and your due diligence thank you all right love you love you you