Kurt Warner on Brock Purdy’s Ascension and More on Jayden Daniels’ Elbow Injury. Plus, Geno Auriemma on UConn’s Dynasty & the State of Women’s Hoops

Hey, Rosillo listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hey, Kirk Herbstreit here. During the college football season, my golden retriever Peter and I are constantly on the road. Yep, Peter knows ball. When you travel this much, you want the gold standard. That's why Peter and I partnered with Hertz. They've got a brand new fleet of rental cars, a great app, and the best loyalty perks in the biz. So if you're traveling to cheer on your favorite college team or kicking off a different road trip, book direct at Hertz.com slash Peter. The Ryan Rosillo Show is presented by DraftKings. All of our episodes available on Netflix. On today's show, we have a long sit-down with Gino Auriemma, the all-time best footballer in the world. The all-timer at UConn with all of his national championships. A new documentary is out on Apple. And honestly, this is one of the best conversations we've had in a long time. Kurt Warner, the Hall of Famer. He's got some great things to say about Brock Purdy. He also, you know, had some comments about Jane Daniels and the elbow thing that turned into all sorts of other stuff. So we're going to talk some football with Kurt Warner and life advice. And look out, the Alliance. The football season is heating up and every week feels bigger with DraftKings. The DraftKings Sports app. Now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement. Follow the teams you love. Keep up with the biggest games and experience the excitement of football all week long. No matter which game you're watching, you're always connected with one app. One app. Every sport. All 50 states. New DraftKings customers sign up with code Ryan. Spend just five bucks and get 115 rewards within 14 days. Includes all markets. That's code Ryan. R-Y-E-N. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Bowling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777. Visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas. Fed tax pass through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Canada. Bet with DraftKings Sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with DraftKings Predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York. Non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50. Click to claims every seven days for 14 days. Terms at dkng.co slash offer. Limited time offer. Nationwide based on Sportsbook. Predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability varies by state. Kurt Warner, Hall of Famer, ESPN, Westwood won, and check out his study ball breakdown. I saw some Week 2 stuff on Josh Allen that I really enjoyed from him. It's good to see you, Kurt. How are you? I'm doing great. Good to see you. Busy, busy times, but it's good times as the season's starting. Yeah, you're a busy guy, and I was looking at some of the stuff that you had going on on Twitter, and it was just kind of raving about this Brock Purdy clip, and I'm with you, you know, because I'm forever challenged by this. And I'll paraphrase here a bit, but get your deeper thoughts on it. But Brock was like, look, you know, when you're playing quarterback and people can talk about like what you can see, what you can't see a little bit about him being undersized, like 60% of the throws I know I can see it. He's like 40% of the throws I don't really see other than I expect this from the route. I expect this from the coverage and all this different stuff. And you were just kind of head over heels about the whole thing. What was it about that clip that get you so excited about Brock? Well, it wasn't just that clip, but I love that clip. And I actually did a breakdown. I did a breakdown of Brock this week as well. And what I love so much about Brock is that, nope, he's not six foot three, six foot four. He's not, you know, a big guy doesn't run, you know, even though he's athletic and he can move. But, you know, we don't know him for for running and doing that or the or the cannon arm or any of that stuff. But the way he plays the quarterback position, all the nuance that goes into the quarterback position, I believe he does better than anybody in the league. And that was my breakdown this week. I think he was 20 for 20. In the game against Miami. But when you watch him play, it's the little things that, to me, make a great quarterback. The ability to tie your feet and your eyes together, the ability to understand what a defense is doing so you can play fast, the ability to find different ways to make throws so it doesn't always have to be a rocket and be a huge window. Can you throw it up and over, guys? Do you understand how to throw different throws? His ability to step up in the pocket. It was one thing that I broke down. You watch so many guys in the league that they get to the top of their drop and they just stop there. And so they make it easier on these defensive ends or they start fading back or their first movement is, you know, back and trying to create where he has a couple of, you know, great clips where, you know, there's pressure coming and probably going to be sacked and he steps up hard into the body, you know, kind of the belly of the pocket and he makes a throw, you know, and he makes a decision. And it's stuff like that to me that separates him from. Everybody else. And I know we don't fall in love all the time with his throws because he doesn't have wow throws, but that stuff wows me. You know, when you talk about learning the quarterback position, those are the things that carry quarterbacks. Now, if you've got some extra ability, great, you know, that can maybe carry you in certain ways. But for most of us, you know, and again, why I think I appreciate it is because that's who I was. You know, I wasn't a guy that was going to give you, you know, 70 yard throws or give you, you know, 20. 25 yard runs or run over people. I had to play with my mind and all these little nuances. And that's what Brock does. And that's why he's so good. I think it's why he doesn't get appreciated because, you know, people don't appreciate a 10 yard throw, even though you might if you understood the nuance that went into making a perfect throw from 10 yards around bodies and resetting your feet. So that's the stuff that I really love. And when you're teaching quarterbacks, that to me is the heart of playing the quarterback position, because most people aren't going to be like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and Patrick, like most people aren't those guys. And so most of us have to play with that nuance if you want to be great. And I believe Brock is the perfect example of a great quarterback in the NFL that relies on that instead of, you know, the extra in terms of the physical ability that he brings. We can keep it on Brock. I'd love for you to expand it out on some other guys. But I imagine when you're watching, you can see when a guy is locked in, right? Like, what are some of those things that you notice that maybe those of us just watching on Sunday don't notice to tell the difference of like, OK, this guy's 100 percent, even on this incompletion, this guy's completely comfortable in what's happening out there. To me, it's all about, you know, being able to see the field. And I know we throw that term around a lot. You know, he sees it. He's seeing it really well. What does that mean to me? That is the connection. Between understanding your concept, understanding what you're trying to do, who you're trying to attack, where you have, you know, a player in conflict or, you know, those types of things, and then being able to tie that into what the defense is doing and process that in a way where you're playing the game on time, you're hitting guys when they're open, you're taking advantage of, you know, where the defense is. So putting that together, that's what I look at when I talk about seeing the field. And still to this day is as we're the most. We've ever been at quarterback, but still to this day, the best quarterbacks and the ones that have the consistent success are the ones that can do that over and over and over again and do that the best. It's not the ones that, you know, even though we'll look at Josh and he does incredible things with his legs and running for touchdowns or Lamar doing the reason that they're really good is because of how they play in the pocket and how they process and see things. And that to me is what I watch when I watch tape. And most people have no idea. What that means. They have no idea how anything connects to anything. And it's just like, oh, terrible decision. Oh, great throw. Like they have no idea the nuance that goes into that. And that's what I look for is I try to, you know, pull out, okay, what's the concept? You know, where, you know, if I had this play, where do I attack on this play? Because every play can only attack so many places on the field, right? Well, we got five receivers. We're not attacking everywhere on the field, but we're attacking certain places. So where are we attacking? When can we attack them? How can we attack them if they do these coverages? And that's what I'm breaking down. So the guys that are playing the best football are the ones that see that, that understand that. And then they're tying the physical part to the mental side of it. And, you know, you talk about Josh Allen's playing at a high level. Lamar Jackson's playing at a high level. Patrick Mahomes this past week, he looked like Patrick Mahomes, like we've seen before. Brock Purdy, Joe Burrow is another one that always seems to play. And, you know, always is a strong word, but is consistently playing. That way, playing fast, understanding it, getting the ball out on time. And those are the best guys in our league. And it's not by coincidence. It's not just because they're physically talented. There's an extra layer to it that most people don't understand. You were breaking down some of the Josh Allen stuff. And I think it was the tight end throw going right to left, where you had a receiver lined up to the left. He was like on his own side. And then you had like three, but it was off of like a tight end on the right side. And, you know, you were really good on all Allen is doing is looking at the safety on the left side. Like, is that receiver lined up on the left side going to hold that safety? Because if that safety is held, then he feels like his tight end has a great matchup against kind of this one-on-one thing, usually because the size and the route was only, I don't know, 10, 15 yards or something like that. Is that something that you feel like with Allen is like the next level for him? Not that he wasn't doing this stuff the last couple of years, but it seems like you were, so excited because it was like, it's automatic for him now, where maybe it took him a little longer than some of the other guys. Is that fair? Yeah, I believe Josh was a work in progress when he came into the league. We've seen that physically with like his accuracy. You know, he had good base and good technique, but his feet were kind of all over the place early in his career. And, you know, his completion percentage was way down. And now he's up in that 65, 66, 68% on a yearly consistent basis. And so he worked a lot on the physical part of it. And then I've seen that happen with the mental side of it is understanding that big picture, understanding, hey, like on the play you're talking about, the only guy that can really stop me from doing this is that guy. I need to verify him. I need to hold him. I need to do whatever. So I know those first two steps, if he's there, boom, he can't get to this, this other thing that's happening. I think a great example is for those that watch the opening game of the season between New England and Seattle. And, Drake may makes throws an interception, um, you know, that, that, that he's trying to throw a seam down the, down the middle of the field and the backside similar throw in the backside safety intercepts it. And, um, yeah, similar type throw. And so Drake also looked at that safety, but a, he looked at the safety too long and B he made the wrong kind of throw. So when he got back to the middle throw, which was the right throw based on what the safety did, he was late getting there and he lobbed the ball instead of driving the ball. And so that becomes another piece of it is understanding how to make different throws. Josh held him long enough. Boom was back to his guy, drove the throw in backside safety had no chance to get to it. The same thing should have happened on that Drake may throw, but because of those nuance of playing the game a little bit slower, I don't fully understand the kind of throw and the timing of that throw. It becomes an interception instead of a touchdown or a big play. And those are the nuances that go into playing this position, understanding it, understanding the timing. The elements, what I'm looking at, and then being able to, you know, to make the proper throws and all of those things. I think Josh's plant is doing at an extremely high level right now. You would mention how March, when you installed a new play, he was meticulous. You know, there's probably some people that would be like, this is obsessive. And then I would think like, okay, but he's not telling you to stop at 10 yards. He's not telling you to do this at 15. He's not, he's not just making all of this stuff up. Like these guys have sat there for years and years going against. This coverage, like where is the help? Who can recover? Who will be wide open and all this stuff? And you, you clearly loved that. He put that much detail into every single play. Uh, who does that really well still? Because it seems like you're suggesting some teams are not putting in there. So I want examples of teams that you think do it that well and teams that don't. Um, you know, hard to say, but I would say I like Cincinnati, what they do with their detail. It seems to be, um, you know, line up, you know, at times with what I'm thinking. Um, you know, I like what Sean McVay does, um, you know, in terms of that stuff. And so, you know, what you're talking about is, so I want to take it into a little more understanding for people to, to really know is that, you know, I was in some places where I remember, you know, they would tell guys, okay, we want this route from 12 to 14 yards. And I'm like, hold on. Like, is it 12 or is it 14? Like I'm going to anticipate. Like, that's how I, did they think you were crazy by the way? Yeah. Yeah. They never really changed it, you know, because I'm like, I want to throw it before he turns around. How do I do that? If I don't know if he's going to stop at 12 or 14, like let's set a depth. So I know where the ball's coming out, you know, or you have, you know, a guy, you know, whatever, running a corner out. And, you know, when I was with coach Mars, it was like, you got to release this way and we're going to release this way because it helps get through. And, you know, because of what the quarterback sees and all this stuff. And then I was other places where it's like, Hey, just run the corner out easiest released. And I'm like, no, not the easiest release, you know, because it's not just about the corner route winning. It's also about what it does for the other people in the concept. And so when I watch a lot of teams, there's terrible spacing and, you know, it seems more like, Hey, you're running a 12 yard in route. I don't care if you go around that defender or underneath that defender. And I'm like, I need you to go underneath that defender. Cause I got another in on the outside. And so you go underneath, even if you're not open, you've taken that linebacker. So I have the other throw, like all of these things are so important for me as a quarterback, for you to do the right thing. Because if, if, if we're just saying do whatever now, all of a sudden our spacing and our timing gets thrown all off. And that's what I see a lot in the league is I look at things and I'm like, what are we doing here? And again, it could very easily be coaches are coaching it and players are not doing it on the field. That happens all the time. It's speed up and whatever. Um, but that becomes to me what Mike March was so good at is like, no, this is not good enough. You can, you, you have to do this because you know, if I'm running around five yards and you're at eight yards, that does nothing. One guy covers both of you guys. We need the distribution. We need the timing. We need you outside and this guy inside, um, you know, a common example for me. Um, and again, see if you can follow this. So, you know, a lot of people run the choice routes. Okay. So the choice routes underneath guy has the ability to hook or run in or run out. And then they run a seven route or a corner route over the top of it. And what you naturally see with most teams is that the choice route is trying to win. Okay. Which I get it. We want to win on the choice route, but he's just trying to find an opening. So he's open. What we would have done in March's system is we would tell the choice runner, understand there's a corner route over the top of it. And then he's going to run the top of you. Okay. Why is that important? It's important because I want you to try to break outside or get width on your choice to grab the outside defender. So now that defender is in conflict. He's got to color you, or he's got to drop back and cover the seven. And we're open. If you try to split the outside defender and the inside defender and try to get yourself open, all of a sudden outside defender falls back inside defender squeezes you and covers you. And now a route that should be really good is not really good because we're not teaching it with the detail of a choice runner, understand what else is going on and how we make this play more successful than just you getting open on a play. And that's the kind of stuff I see. And it frustrates me because a, it's not that hard. Um, and you know, and B because of what it does for a quarterback, you know, what is a quarterback supposed to read? Who are they supposed to get their eyes on? How are they supposed to get their eyes on? If there's so much gray area with all these routes. And so it's a part of the game that, that I love. I love teaching it. It's why I do it on my breakdowns on, on why these things are so important. Um, but it frustrates me watching this stuff and just saying, what's the disconnect? What's the problem? Do coaches not know? And I believe there's some that don't know. It's kind of like, Hey, we've always done it this way. I had coaches that said that to me, you probably know Hey, we've done it. We've always done this way. So this is how we're going to do it as opposed to having a true why behind why they're teaching it. Um, and so I think that's, you know, part of, of the element that really hurts quarterbacks. And I get frustrated for those quarterbacks going, I don't know, you don't really have a chance here because they're not doing it with the detail that could make this so much easier and more effective. Guys, the NFL season is finally here. And if you're like me, your Sunday revolves entirely around making sure you don't miss a single snap of the action. Why limit yourself to one game on Sunday? You should be in total command, seeing every big play and every touchdown across the entire league right there on your big screen. But thank God for NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. It literally gets you every game, every Sunday plus features like multi-view. So you can watch up to four games at once. You can just lock in and watch the games unfold without missing a thing and get this for new users. It's just eight payments of $30 a month. Stop stressing out and go sign up right now at youtube.com forward slash NFL ST. New users pay $240 or eight non-cancelable payments of $30 a month. First charge of purchase availability varies with NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games and YouTube TV for local and national games. YouTube TV required terms and embargoes applied device and content restrictions apply to multi-view commercial use excluded, no refunds. After the Jane Daniels injury this week, we were left to kind of speculate like, okay, what's going to happen with the dislocated elbow? You had first time. You were on TV. You explained. So I want you to explain that. And clearly the follow-up is kind of the aftermath and reaction to you explaining like, yes, I did play the next week with this. So go ahead. Yeah. I mean, first thing is as an analyst, you know, what I'm always trying to do is take people into my experiences or into the locker room, right? That's what they want from guys that have played is, Hey, let me take you into a situation where this happened in some way, shape or form. It's never going to be exact, but similar. And so, you know, I'm going to take you into a situation where this happened in some way, you try to shed light on what would be happening in the locker room. So Jaden suffers a dislocated elbow. Uh, I suffered a dislocated elbow in 2007. Um, and my point was I was able to, you know, play the next week, you know, we got it, you know, diagnosed, this is what it is. Um, you know, put a brace on it. So it was stabilized enough. Obviously I got a few pain shots, uh, before games to make sure that I could tolerate the pain. And then I had to learn to kind of hand off with my right hand in both directions. Cause that was the hardest thing for me to do was, you know, that pain of, of handing off to a running back, running through my elbow, that was, you know, little overbearing. So I had to hand off with my right hand both both directions. They actually took me out in the tight red zone because of the handoffs and the things you had to do. They took me out there and put in, you know, Tim Rattay, our backup because of the nature of that. But yeah, I was able to play the next week. And so I made that statement on TV to just, and again, the other part of what I'm always trying to do is give hope to a fan base is that Jaden goes out again with an elbow injury again. And oh my gosh, the sky is falling. This is over. What are we going to do? And my point was just, hey, I had the same injury. Yes, it was painful. But what I knew is it wasn't going to get any worse. So I could brace it and I could go out and play. And so giving the fan base hope that, hey, this maybe doesn't mean the end of the season after week two, that Jaden could possibly come back and play and play with the brace. And then, you know, as you know, the aftermath is, hey, you're calling Jaden weak or, you know, not tough or you're forcing him to go back. I'm doing nothing of the sort. I'm simply just saying here is an experience where I had it. I played. It's possible that he comes back in the short term, not the long term. But to me, it's like every situation is different. Of course, I was an older guy. He's a younger guy. What does this mean for like all of that stuff? But, you know, when you get, you know, 45 seconds to talk on TV, you don't get to, you know, explain and expound on everything. But that was the point of, you know, just trying to share an experience. An example of similar situation I was in that I played in hopes that there's a little bit of, you know, settling down from the Washington fan base to go, hey, OK, maybe our season is now. Maybe Jaden can come back in the short term again and he'll be all right for the long term. And we'll be able to function this year. I'm telling you, I saw the reaction before I saw the clip and I knew I knew it was like, look, I know you a little and I know your reputation. And kind of how you carry yourself and everything. And I thought there's no way that that's how it happened. And then I think from like, if I'm a television, if I'm producing NFL live, I'm going, hey, anybody want to do the Jaden thing? And you go like, yeah, raise your right hand probably and go, yeah, I dislocated the same elbow. Yeah. And I was able to come back and play. It's like, oh, my God, this is unbelievable. Like we have the person who had this experience. Right. Sure. If you want to be really sensitive about it on the outside, you could say, well, you're implying that this can all happen. And you just said, everything's different. That is that is what you're paid. You guys played. What were your experiences? Here's the job. Sit at the desk. Tell him you had firsthand knowledge of this whole thing. So I don't know, man. I mean, I say just never stop. Like, I know. I know that it won't. But like, you shouldn't have to get up there and give qualifiers when your elbow is dislocated and make sure no one thinks you're actually attacking. But I understand. You also have to understand both sides of it, Ryan. Like, I understand. I understand the other side. I understand why. I understand that perspective. And so I'm not naive to that stuff either. And it's OK with me. It's just the bottom line at the end of the day is I understand your point as well. Just don't take mine out of context. I didn't stand up there and say, hey, if Jaden doesn't play next week, man, he's not very tough. Like, no, I mean, I get it. You know, and people are going to do different things for me. You know, I said I always had two qualifying, you know, questions when, you know, when I would suffer an injury is, you know, the first thing that I would ask is, you know, can I physically do what I think I bring to the table for my team to give us the best chance to win? So with that elbow injury, could I go out and throw and think and do the things that I'd always done? The answer was yes. OK, so once that was yes, that I can help my team or I believe I'm the best option for the team. The second question I always ask the doctors was, will it get in the worst? Like, is this something that can affect me long term or will it get worse this year? And so I can't play at some point. And if the answer to that question was no, it was always like, OK, you know, let me go see if I can do what I need to do and I'm going to play. That was my mentality. And now, you know, I even tweeted out my wife text me after that and she goes, well, you did play, but now you can't straighten your left elbow. You can't do yoga and you can't lift me in the dirty dancing pose anymore. And so. There are sacrifices that you make if you go back out and play again. But that was, you know, for me, it was like, OK, you know, if I can't fully straighten it again, so what? I want to be out here with my guys and play. That was just my mentality. And so, again, I understand all sides of it. I, you know, I don't take offense to that. It's just I hate when people, you know, just take something when you didn't say that specifically and say, oh, he was insinuating this when I wasn't insinuating that at all. But for the record, your elbow can't be straightened now. And not fully. But, you know, it's, you know, it's not bad. Not fully. Not fully. I can still do most things. I'm right handed. So it's all good. You know, this is another thing with and it's not just you, but it is kind of like falls in the same category. I'll watch, you know, and I know that if I've never played the position and I don't know what the coverages are and I don't know what it's still like. I can tell when it's like, OK, that was a bad interception. I think those are fairly obvious. Like, why would you throw it on three guys? You never saw the safety. I feel like I'm getting a little bit better at it. I always felt like the guys that were really cooking, like when you were in that elite tier of quarterbacks, those guys made mistakes because a linebacker did something that they weren't supposed to do. So they come back to say and everybody knew. And you're like, why did that happen? You'd be like, well, the linebackers actually not supposed to do that. And that was always like a sign to me that this is how great this guy is, is that he's making mistakes because the other person made a mistake. The position where you would expect them to make a play. Yeah. But then it gets into the online stuff and then I'll be like, well, this is a pretty compelling point. Maybe that safety was supposed to be there. And then I'll be maybe convinced. Then there'll be another guy who played who's like, that's totally wrong. You have no idea what's happening there. The offensive line thing. I'm no I have no interest in being in that dissection. You will get in there, though. You will get in there. You will mix it up. I never know now. Like, I want to defer to the Hall of Famer. I kind of never know what to believe because there's so many smart people. I think making great points. And yet you'll you'll come to the conclusion that two people see the same play two entirely different ways. Yeah, I think you do see that. But I still, again, convicted in what I believe, of course, you know, or what I think on a particular play. But I'm also a guy that that really tries to simplify it. And so, you know, some of the things that we saw, I mean, you could go back to that Drake May play I was talking about earlier. And there was a lot of, you know, questions. Oh, was it three double cloud? Or was it covered five or cover six? Right? Which, in essence, there's a lot of the same principles in a lot of them. The real difference is the safety that intercepted it. Was he moving to the middle of the field? Or was he staying on a backside quarters position? At the end of the day, like we can go back and forth on what the coverage was. And at the end of the day, I look at it and go, I don't care. I don't care what you call the coverage. As a quarterback, what I need to know is, I don't care what you call the coverage. I need to know is, where are guys? Not where are they supposed to be? Where are they? And so I talk about how, you know, I've kind of developed this theory, I call it the 10 zone theory. And so I basically break a field down into 10 zones, five underneath zones, five deep zones. And what you realize on every play that that is designed, if you put a play up on a board, I'll take you through what zones we're attacking on this play. Like, we can only attack certain zones with five guys, you know, can't attack them with five guys. And so I talk about how we're going to attack all 10 of them, we're only going to attack certain zones. So my goal as a quarterback is to A, understand my play and what zones we're attacking. And then B, see what the defense is doing, where they are at, and can they take away the concepts that we have. And so ultimately, at the end of the day, I don't need to know what 11 guys are doing. I don't need to know what exact coverage it is. What I need to know is, what's that backside safety doing? Did that backside safety run to the middle of the field? If he did, I'm not throwing the ball. I'm throwing the guy down the middle of the field. If he holds outside the backside hash, now I can throw it down the middle of the field. That's all I needed to know. Because the principles of everything else were exactly the same, whether it's three cloud, or cover six principles of same except for that one guy. So once I know what that guy's doing, now I know I got the high load to the front side, or I don't have the high load to the front side. So that to me is where I think a lot of guys online, where you say they make some good points, they do, but they don't understand the big picture of everything. And that's where it gets hard. Because it sounds really good. And it sounds like it could be legit. But you have to know the position and know what's going into it. I watched a couple guys yesterday break down some protections. And you know, they're like looking at it after the fact. They're like, Hey, why are you doing this and putting the back on this guy? Why not slide the offensive line to this guy, and then you get your back out and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, that's not a thing. Like, we're not going to take our offensive lineman and pass the Sam and pass the mic, and then slide him all the way to the will and not have anybody for our back to block. Like that's, that doesn't happen very often at all. So to be able to talking about it on film and go, Hey, you know, they should have done this. And it would have freed up that and it's like, but that's not even a thing. Like, that's not something that a normal team would do, they would leave the back on this guy, they might slide them, you know, the offensive line to one one guy over, but very seldom do you slide them to two guys, over, unless you just see a ridiculous blitz that you know, is coming. So it's stuff like that, that sounds really good when you look at it and you leave there going, Oh yeah, why didn't they do that? I mean, that sounds great. And you know, you have somebody that, you know, is smart in the business or played saying, yeah, you should. And I just kind of shake my head. Like, that's not a thing. Like we don't do that. Like, that's just so rare for you guys to act like it should have been done by a team is crazy. Or the quarterback should have done this. No, the quarterback could have done that. And it would have been high level to do that. But to say they should have done that is to me unfair to the position. And so that's what I try to bring when I interact and, and, and have those conversations is just like, I want you to see it, truly see it from, from how we play the game and understand how hard this really is. You know, Dan Orlovsky, who I respect, cause I know he watches film and we go back and forth all the time. And I tell him and I text him, I'm like, I'm going to go back and forth with you on Twitter. So people can learn and people can, you know, jump in on the conversation and see that two people can disagree or talk about it differently. And, and we don't have to argue and we don't have to hate. And like, I want people to learn through this. But so he said something on, on, you know, one, one thing where again, I can go back and see, or you can watch the tape and go, yeah, man missed an opportunity there. And then I looked at it and go, well, here's what I think happened. Drake felt he was a hot in a situation. They had to get the ball out of his hands quick. And then the defensive end, you know, took too long to get there. And so he had extra time. And so when that happens as a quarterback, once you think you're going to throw it quick and hot, you don't just settle back in when a guy's coming free and go, Oh, he's not coming as fast as I thought. Let me go back and read this whole concept. No, it's like, okay, where do I get another completion at? And so it's, it's that thinking part of it that I try to lend to the situation. So people go, Oh, what that person said sounded really good and looks really good. But now when you take a step deeper and you go, Oh, now I get it. Now I understand what a quarterback's going through when they're playing and how fast it happens and, and, and how you have to process information. And that's the layer that I'm always trying to bring because I love the quarterback position and I'm not afraid to critique a guy if they make a mistake, but I'm also not afraid to defend a guy if it looks like they should have done something. But I think that there's more to it than, you know, than meets the eye. Is that also part of why you resent whenever it's talked about, like with Purdy, that he's a Shanahan guy? Well, I mean, yeah, I hate that argument. Well, I mean, I heard the argument forever too. Like, I mean, I was surrounded by great talent in St. Louis, whatever. And everybody's like, well, anybody could have gone in there. I wonder, I wondered if that was like a little sensitivity. And again, like, and I understand their point always, like I was surrounded by great talent, no doubt about it, but nobody else was in that situation. Nobody else, you know, did what I did with those, those players. And so, you know, there has to be something that goes, okay, just because you have talent around you, doesn't mean that's the only reason that you're good. Like Tom Brady, like if you plugged any other good quarterback into that situation, would they be as successful as him with a good defense and a good defensive coach? And no, you know, Joe Montana, like all the great ones, are great because they're great. Did they have talent around them? Yes, they did. And then with like Shanahan, Coach Shanahan is unbelievable at creating different opportunities. He also can make the position really hard for a quarterback, which people don't understand. Like some of the things they asked Brock Purdy to do, the layered throws and, you know, not really, you know, using, you know, different routes to pull down defenders to make those throws. Those are hard things to do. And, and people don't appreciate, what they're asking Brock to do within that offense and how hard some of it is. Yes. Coach Shanahan, just like Coach McVay and all these great offensive coaches do create great opportunities for the quarterback. Mike March did that for me. Like, yes, Bill Walsh did that for Joe Montana. Like, yes, they do that. But there's also things that they ask people to do. Like when I was playing and say, nobody was doing what we were doing at that time in that era, throwing down the field and having to, you know, attack down the field and hold the ball and get hit in the face while you like, nobody was asking people to do that. And so I also see that aspect of things that people don't appreciate how tough it is at times to play in the Shanahan offense as a quarterback and the kinds of throws you have to make and the anticipation, anticipation you have to have and the touch you have to layers of, of throws. And that's, I think what irritates me is that, you know, you see great coaches and great coaches are great coaches and they help players be better, but that doesn't automatically mean a player is not special because they have good talent. They have good talent. They have good talent around them, or they have a good coach around them. That's been the case since the beginning of time. You know, the great quarterbacks have had great talent and been in great situations. That's part of it. But Brock to me does things in that system that nobody else has done. It's reason why he's had his success and he puts up the numbers and he's consistently good because he does that. He's also going to throw some interceptions in that offense. I threw some interceptions, a lot of interceptions too, when I was playing, but I also understood they were asking me to do what else was asked to do. And they're doing the same with Brock. He's got to make these layered throws, man. You have to try to make that over and over, throw it over a linebacker, drop it under a safety. Every once in a while, you're going to throw it a little high. It's going to hit a safety in the numbers, like, because you're asking him to do something that's not easy. And he makes it look easy a lot of the time. And then he misses one and it's like, well, he throws a lot of interceptions. Well, you have to understand all of the picture. And that's the reason why I defend guys like that. Where to me, whatever, there's lots of guys that have played for different coaches. There's certain guys that are better than all the other guys and separate themselves. And Brock is one of them. Yes. Kyle Shanahan has made some good quarterbacks, you know, or some average quarterbacks a little bit better, but nobody has played it like Brock. Brock is really good at what he does. And we need to appreciate that. Who would you rather have next five years, Brock or Justin Herbert? Just based on what I've seen. I'm taking Brock. Like, again, I want consistency. I want a guy that I know what he's going to give me every time out. A guy that can, you know, win at the highest level. Brock has shown that. So I love Justin and he does so many things well, but I still need to see that piece that elevates everybody. And, you know, we're in the moment he plays his best football. I've seen that from Brock consistently. And so even though he's not as physically talented in certain ways, I would go with Brock. Love it. That was a lot of fun, man. Let's do it again. And you can check out, you'll be breaking down the week three stuff on YouTube as well. Again, that is Study Ball, right? Yep. YouTube. I'm at QB Confidential on YouTube. And then it's the Study Balls all over the place. Awesome. I can't wait to watch next week, man. Thanks, Kurt. All right, man. You bet. There's something for everyone when it comes to Reese's. Now, Reese's is my favorite because I know exactly what I'm getting. It gets the job done. I expect, I anticipate, and it delivers. It delivers. Much like Kurt Warner's St. Louis Rams on offense. I mean, granted, yeah, I know Pats fans are going to say what you're going to say. But look, that's the point. As you know, what to expect those years, you throw it on Sunday, man, let's watch Kurt Warner throw it all over the place for 350 and four touchdowns. And that's what I love about candy. I love that there's no surprises with Reese's. I know the game plan. They know the opposition. They know what I want. And they deliver it. Every single time. I'm trying to think of modern combos. We've talked about Brady and Moss. That doesn't feel modern. What about Purdy and Shanahan game planning? Delivering on a Sunday exactly what you'd expect from them. That's it. Reese's gets it done. There's no surprises. Reese's, the official candy partner of Barstool Sports. Go get Reese's wherever you shop. It is a treat to have Gino Auriemma, one of the greats in the basketball world, and he joins us here on behalf of Apple TV's new documentary that's out, The Dynasty, UConn, Huskies, and Gino's in his office right now. When I was watching the doc, I noticed all the championships. Which one takes front and center of all the titles that you have or the trophies behind you at the desk? Well, obviously the first one, I think. That's big. You know, they're all lined up equally. You know, somebody does that, and they take turns and make sure that they're all nice and, you know, orderly. Maybe that one. Maybe there's three. The one in Philadelphia. You know, my family, all my friends, my family, we're all there. And that was our second one. So, you know, the first one, you know, I always say is an accident. Two is a coincidence. You know, three, it's a little bit of a pattern there, maybe starting. So I would say that, the one in Philly. And then, believe it or not, the last one, because those championships were 30 years apart. I think 1995 and 2025. Yeah, and the doc, it felt like this last one meant a ton to you. because of the way the conversation, the way the story's kind of built. Have you got a chance to watch the whole thing? I mean, some people would be like, hey, I just sat there forever. I don't need to watch it. Have you had any interest in watching all three parts? Like I said, I saw the initial screening of the three. But, you know, they're going to go back and they're going to do this, this, this. And so I've not seen the actual finished product, but and I don't want to see it with anybody else either. If I watch it, I'm going to watch it by myself. But I was funny, Rebecca, Rebecca watched it. Yeah. And she said, hey, I watched it in a with a big audience and the reactions were great. She goes, so if you watch it, I recommend that you watch with a bunch of people because you're really going to appreciate their reaction. And I'm like, no, I don't think so. I'm not entirely shocked by that answer. Actually, getting to know you even more. Through the show. Let's go back to some of the beginning stuff. Why was it always going to be basketball for you? A life in basketball? It wasn't. To be honest, Ryan, it was. I see something just popped up. When I was a kid, I didn't I didn't like basketball like, well, who? No, I said, I'm going to I'm a baseball player and I'm a football player. Basketball, not so much, you know. And even my ninth, even when I was in ninth grade, you know, I got I got cut from the freshman team and and I could care less. I mean, my friends were playing, but, you know, my sophomore year, one of the guys on the team said, hey, coach, saw you play and want you to try out for the team. So I did. And I made the team and that was that. And when I was done, I was done. You know, I went to college. I played. I'm done. And again, no interest until. I was kind of talked into it. Can you come and help me with this? You know, I think you'd be pretty good at helping these kids get a little bit better. And and it just wore me down until I finally said yes. And I went and did it. And here I am coaching these girls that were in high school. And I did that for two years. And then Jim Foster. The guy that was coaching there calls me one day and he goes, you know, I just got the head coaching job at St. Joe's in Philadelphia. I said, you, you're a freaking high school coach. I said, well, how the hell do you know anything about coaching college basketball? And he didn't. And it was a part time job. And so he goes, come on, come down and do it with me. I said, I got, you know, meanwhile, I'm driving a truck or I'm working in the steel mill. I'm working construction with friends of my father's. I'm stocking shelves in the supermarket just so that I can coach in the afternoons. There's some nonsense like that. So I said, this ain't for me. And and then I was working a basketball camp and Martelli, Phil Martelli was running the camp and he's the head coach at my high school now, my old high school. And so he asked me to come over and first chance I got to jump into the boys basketball. I said, that's it, man. That's what I'm doing. And then I get there and I got a teaching job and I'm doing this and I'm doing that. Like one thing after another happened to me. It's not anything that I then said, hey, I got to figure out a way to make a living at this. I got to make this a career that never, ever, ever entered my mind ever. You had a really honest moment that I think any, you know, younger man, especially like growing up playing basketball, where you say in the doc, you're like, I don't, you know, coach girls. I don't I don't want to do this. And I think that's a very honest assessment. And I think the way a lot of us would have been wired as young. Guys, what made you change your mind? Like, what made you go, wait a minute, this is actually something I do want to do. The lead up to coaching was like, why? Like, why? And then when I when I went to like that first practice or second practice, I was 21, maybe 22 yet. I'm still in school. And these kids were. 15, 16, 17, 18 high school kids. So I'm like, could be like an older brother today. And I went in there and as I'm, you know, trying to show them the things that I learned when I was, you know, being coached, you know, I had good coaches. The look in their eyes and what we were doing, it kind of hit me that. Wow, they they think I'm helping them. They're responding to what I'm doing. And, you know, it was a really, really good feeling. So I wanted to do it again the next day and help them again the next day. And if I hadn't gotten that kind of response, I probably would have walked away from it. I really would have. But I got a great response and I felt like there was a connection there. And when they did something good and we won a game. I mean, it was joy beyond. Joy and I thought, look at this, you know, and and I just kind of said, OK, as long as I can have an impact, I'm going to do this. You say when you took the interview in stores and look, I remember just to give you a little reference, I remember going to the old field house, you know, my father's from Glastonbury, you know, went to Hartford basketball was an absolutely like it was the first thing in our lives. And so we go watch Dom Perno get his ass kicked by all the other. Schools, the East and, you know, they show some footage and you're like you roll into stores back then and you go, what is this like? How is UConn was not on the map? It wasn't cool if you were in state. It was like, I don't even want to go here. Yeah. You when you tell them, hey, just give me the job will be top 20 in four years. Did you believe that shit? No, no chance, no chance. I mean, Ryan, you know, because. You grew up in this area or whatever, but people have to understand that 1985 and I say this when I speak to alumni groups, I say, how many UConn grads here? You know, guys raise their hand. OK, if you graduated before 1985, 87, 88, 90. There's two reasons why you went to UConn. One of these two is true. One, you couldn't get in anywhere else. And they all laugh. Two, you couldn't afford to go anywhere else or both. So I said, because it was the kind of school that you visited just in case you didn't get in anywhere else. They call that, you know, they call it a safety school, you know, and like 90 percent of the kids that were going to school here were from Connecticut. So it was it was like a big high school and the campus hadn't been updated in like 50 years. There hadn't been a new building in like 45, 50 years built. So the field house was a leaky old. Even Hoosiers wouldn't have been filmed there because it would. It was, you know, there was buckets and towels on the court because it leaked every time it rained. There was a track around it and you couldn't get the professors. You've got to tell them, yo, dude, can you get off like we got a game tonight? I'll get off when I'm finished running. You know, there was guys lifting weights, you know, the guy would have guys would come in with those big boom. Boxes, you know, put them down and you're trying. The track team was on the track practicing. You're trying to do something in there. And and and I've never seen this before. They have. We had a game that wheeled in some bleachers and they had benches. Go, hey, go to the bench. Well, the bench is like a series of like 15 chairs. No, no. These were benches. Bus benches waiting for the bus on. These benches. They had a back to them and sides. I was like and. I and I'm just coming from UVA where it was like as good as it can get anywhere in the country. And and I remember walking to Don Perno's office. I said, Don. I said, you're trying to beat Syracuse, St. John's and Villanova and Georgetown and this shit. I said, you got no shot. And he goes. Welcome to UConn parts, you know, and I was just flabbergasted. And I could see once I got here, I could see why their record was what it was, why the struggle to win in basketball was what it was. But as you mentioned. The passion for basketball at this school. In the sixties, in the seventies, in the eighties till today was incredible. And it's gotten to a whole nother level now. But even as overmatched as they were, the passion is always there. So you knew that if we ever got something going, anything. People would jump on. You get Lobo in and obviously that is a point in time that that changes the program. How do you get kids to say, hey, we we're going to do something different here, but you need to be part of like I'm. I'm going to build this. I mean, I can't imagine how exhausting it must've been and how you maybe have times where you think back being like, how did I even do this? But at that time, like, how do you do it? How do you convince everyone to be part of something new and build something like this? You're so young. It's your first head coaching job. You're cocky as shit. You think you can do anything. It's kind of like you, you know, like you think you can do anything. You think that just give me an opportunity to do something and I'll be able to do it. You don't see any of the pitfalls. You know, they're there. You know what all the negatives are. You know what all the obstacles are to get players. But in your mind, it doesn't matter. When I get into this kid's house, they're going to come play for me. That's what I thought. And the best players aren't going to come because this doesn't meet their expectations. But that second level, third level player, that kid will come. And that kid will come. And the selling point is exactly that. We have nothing. Your high school facilities are better than ours, but you can be on the ground floor of building something. And it's going to feel amazing when you do. Did I, did I believe it? And those first couple of years, man, it was really, really, really hard. It was really hard. But little by little, as it grew, the, the feeling, you know, between me and Chris, Chris Daly, the feeling was, man, we're winning games and these guys ain't the best players. If we can start recruiting the best players like Rebecca Lobo and, and then the Keisha sales who are national players of the year. I said, if we can do this with this, I think if we can get those kinds of players, we can, we can be really good and then we can get the hell out of here. Chris, we can go someplace where we can win and we won and we won a lot. We won a national championship in 95 and I'm waiting for all the job offers that come in and nothing. And so, you know, 41 years later, I'm stuck here. Wow. Um, that 95 game and I know, you know, it, um, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it again, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it again. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it again. And clearly Tennessee had already made their mark as a program. And maybe I'm a little biased, you know, being from the Northeast, but I remember that title game being in the dorms in college. And this is the first time it's never happened, but it was a bunch of guys being like, Hey, the Yukon Tennessee games. And you go back a year, probably not one guy, even if he wanted to have watched the game, would have said that's what he was going to do that day or that night. My father called me and was like, are you watching these games? And his love of basketball and the passion. And I think it is a point in time for this sport. And I'm curious, your thoughts, like how much do you think that title game in 95 changed the willingness of men to then be like, Hey, this is, this is how I'm going to spend my time. And a program that I'm going to root for. Yeah, I think you hit it, you know, you hit it on the head. Tennessee was like, you know, people to follow hockey, to miracle on ice. Tennessee was like the red army team, you know, the Russian red army team. They just steamrolled everybody. And every once in a while, somebody would be a challenge to them. So that was the, that was the standard that everybody kind of made. Measured themselves against. So when we played them Martin Luther King day and it was national television and the game was unbelievable and, and it was sold out and we won and became number one in the country. Now we play them again for the national championship. And even though the geniuses out there were like, there's no way they beat them twice. Even after we beat Stanford by 30, their coach said, there's no way they beat Tennessee tomorrow. All right. That game. And the way we played, the way it played out and all the attention that we had gotten all year, people were curious. It's not that they were interested or they had a roof. They were just curious. Let me see what this looks like. And we won. And that I think started a groundswell of whenever Connecticut played Tennessee. Well, national television guys, we're going to watch. It was the only game in America played by women that guys are going to go in a bar. Hey, put the Connecticut Tennessee game on. They, and then when we got Diana, then it became like off the charts, guys fell in love with watching us play. And especially against Tennessee. And that's kind of how it all started. We, we weren't getting those guys as fans before that, you know, um, and it became, uh, um, something that no one could envision it ever become. Raising cane started back in the day by our friend, Todd grapes. And look, if you're ordering canes, you already know the move. You get the box combo. That's four hand battered chicken fingers, golden crinkle cut fries, Texas toast, and a side of cane sauce. They stick strictly to high quality chicken finger meals, made fresh and cooked to order parent with a freshly squeezed lemonade or iced tea. And you're set. Yeah. We had some canes over here at the house. 1.5 million views NBD. Um, but yeah, there was a lot of chicken here and man, was it a treat just the middle of the day? It was like, I wasn't even expecting to do this. Next thing you know, you're eating chicken fingers and you're eating them at home. Head to your local raising canes or order on the app. Raising canes, chicken fingers. One love, I'm glad that Calhoun got a little airtime, um, and I remember too, like, you know, 87, he shows up, they win the NIT and you're like, wait, Yukon men won the NIT and, you know, we used to care about the NIT back then. And then the 90 run, you know, the 90 run was wild because you're just like, they're going to win the conference and, and then they have, you know, the regional final loss and everything. And, you know, I don't know. I, I love Jim a lot because of, um, you know, just, just appreciating what he was able to do in much like you did, like put a flag down. But I always wondered if the animosity was like inevitable because of both of your personalities, or if there was something with Jim where it's like in any other, on any other campus, I'm the shit because of Gino and all of his success. Like I actually still. Maybe the second most popular program in the state because of what you were doing. And I, I wonder if you think that's accurate or if you think it was beyond that, but I, I'm just wondering if, if some of that frustration from his side was like, this wouldn't happen anywhere else. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of truth to what you said and there's some other things. First of all, Jim would be unhappy no matter where he was coaching. So Jim is such a competitor. When he came here, he always, when he came here, he would spend hours in my office. Me and Chris shared an office, the size of like a small kitchen. And he would just sit there like Jim does. You just sit there and talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And finally we would say, Jim, you got to leave. We got work to do. We got to go to practice or whatever. That was his first year, you know? So everything was great. Like, Hey, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. I think what happens in situations like this is, and I got it. I understood it. I'm like, we won the big East championship in 1988, 89. And the idiots in the world. Well, how come the men can't do that? Well, you dumb ass, because it's a different game, man. This is not, it's not the same. This is completely different. So we didn't have internet back then. Imagine if we had internet, forget it. It would have been like. I don't know if we had internet back then, but if we had internet back then, we wouldn't have had internet back then, we wouldn't have had internet back then. We wouldn't have had internet back then. that i'm good with that it's okay i'm just trying to do my thing and and i'm supportive of their thing but you know jim was just a competitive mother man and he he wanted to win at everything and he and god bless him i mean if it wasn't for him i i don't know that because them winning helped us and i think us winning helped them because we were both bringing the university to the national scene you know so um but you know but here's what bothered me ryan there we go yeah you know people you know like even our ad or god rest his soul lou perkins said yeah i got i got so many headaches you know i got these two assholes i got to deal with on in the basketball program i'm like whoa whoa whoa why you why are you throwing me in there i'm on the receiving end of all this shit i'm not going in there causing problems i'm on the receiving end okay so i i wonder if there's any parallel though because i think that in the women's basketball world you were kind of deemed the bad guy in the geno pat summit stuff oh yeah right and so i think some of that you own right you own the women's basketball world and you own the women's basketball world and you own because you're like hey i was younger i'm up and coming i'm i'm trying to knock her out i'm trying to take the title from her i wonder how you like look back on that saying like hey i wish i wish that wasn't gonna happen i wish it didn't go down like that or that was inevitable because that's who i was back then the same way you're kind of like describing you know jim like jim being like that was inevitable i don't know if there's any and they're different dynamics and different settings and all that kind of stuff but i'm just wondering if you think there's any sort of parallels of you being like yeah but when you're in the gym and you're in the gym and you're in the when he was worried about my stuff like i was obviously worried about pat stuff so i was kind of doing some of the similar things you know i always had one thing going against me i'm a guy in the woman's world so the more we won the more the old faithful that have been around for a while my success our success if i was a woman doing all that none of this would have happened everything would have been peachy keen they're great instead i'm like i'm a philly guy pat's a southern born and raised bred so obviously we're different but what people failed to realize we're really really a lot alike because if we weren't a lot alike we wouldn't have been able to have the success that we had so me though being me and where i'm from i'm like all right let's have some fun with this and um let's see what we can get out of this so it wasn't like intentional a lot of things it's just natural that's how i grew up let's have some fun with this you know and if you're getting into it with somebody that kind of means you like them a little bit because if if you didn't get into it with them you would just ignore them but you couldn't ignore them but i think we raised the so high our two programs we're like but you need that but i was never going to be the favorite i was always going to be the bad guy i was always going to be the guy with the black hat no matter how i acted because you just don't do that you just don't come in there and beat tennessee as many times as we beat them as bad as we beat them you're not going to do that and nobody's going to go like this yep that's the new that's the new standard even if we even if even when we became that it wasn't going to be that it wasn't going to be that and there's nothing i could do about the the women's establishment doesn't want a man especially a guy like me being the face of women's basketball i mean we can't have that now because of so much uh attention that we get and now in this so many so many things that came our way and all the championships and all the fans and all the tv time and you know the incredible players that we had national players of the year over and over and over and over again it's like we started to like be a little bit like we win too much you know it's like anybody somebody asked the coach one time right before the final four they go who do you want who do you want to win the national championship they go anybody but tennessee and connecticut of course of course but when they needed somebody to draw attention hey we got this issue we need you to speak up on it they came to me all the time you not serve the purpose we brought attention to the game does that mean you'd be reluctant to accept the commissioner of the wnba position if you were offered well i don't have to worry about that thank god um yeah no that would never happen that would never happen because i i can tell you're hinting at it you know there's an interview from maybe 25 30 who knows how long ago it was and somebody's going you know why do people hate you so much and you go because we win and then you pause you go among other things and i think it makes a lot of sense it's like we can't have geno be the face of women's basketball um women's basketball is blown up in popularity and with popularity comes more attention which means more attention becomes more critical stuff and i think the wnba has had a hard time with that they're like wait a minute i thought everybody kind of like left us alone and now everybody's paying attention which is good it's good for business but now we don't like a lot of this the tension that we're getting um how do you think the wnba has handled this new level of popularity um before we get off the previous topic when you said that i was having a conversation with my mother one time you know she passed away a couple years ago at 92 and i was having a conversation with her and we played we i don't know whether we played poorly or something and she said you know in her broken english she asked me a really important question she said why are you mad all the time i said i'm not mad all the time she goes yeah you're mad all the time i watch you on tv you're mad all the time you're mad at your players you're mad at everyone why are you mad i said i don't know i just want to play good i get paid to we could play good and win games she goes you don't have to win all the time i said well that's the goal isn't it to win no no you don't have to win all the time that's why nobody likes you because you win all the time so even my mother said nobody likes me because we win all the time god bless her but now as we trans transition into this no it's good nba nonsense and this wmba nonsense that is the the growing pains of media popularity and for the longest time the wmba was not a sport wasn't wasn't treated as a legitimate sport and i i work with robin roberts i did i did the color on on those games the first two years that the league existed and they sent their best crew there man you know tim cargan was in charge of that operation they they they had the best people treated it like it was professional basketball but within that they were more like a cause you know we're next and they came up with all these slogans you know um almost like come on help us out here help us grow and instead of maybe they had to do that because maybe the the level of play wasn't that great right well little by little by little by little we come to today the thing blows up the players are really good competition is great and here comes all the attention and now we're not a cause we're a big business and we're trying to compete with the nba major league baseball the nhl the nfl all right well if you want that you're going to get the other thing so if you want all that attention you know in the big east we used to think you know if you're if you put yourself out there to get more exposure and you can't deal with it you're going to get exposed so more exposure is great but you have to learn how to deal with that and i think that's the phase that we're in now everyone learning how do we manage all the things that come from all this added exposure that we're getting and throw that into the political climate that we have and then it becomes you know black white right left gay straight you know so you get into all these different things and everybody takes the thing that they want and uses it against whoever they don't like and then the players get in the middle of it and you have what you have now i think there needs to be a better messaging i think the new commissioner whoever it is needs to get with the players and say we need to have a voice we need to use our voice but we need to use it in a way that pushes us forward and doesn't kind of take take the um the focus off how we're playing the game and make it about all this other stuff the messaging from the players has to be really really really good that's a great answer i actually do want to get back to something your mother had said to you because it was something i kind of had down here to talk to you about is that i think coaches are just tortured in general because you know you're not you're not you're not you're not you're not you can get the outcome that you want so desperately but there is always a better version of the game that could have been played and that's it i mean that's that's why you guys are the way you are it's like hey i just won a championship it's like you know we didn't box out though really well you just go okay man and i wonder if your fear was always that if i'm not kind of torturing myself then i lose my edge if i'm not making myself worry about these things like once i stop worrying about it then i lost i'll have lost my edge and we won't be yukon basketball anymore you know i i think i've been like that since i was a kid thinking you know i came to america you know you're like seven years old almost eight you don't know anything about anything you don't know shit about shit you know uh the clothes i wore you know my mother made you know the food i brought to school weren't ham and cheese sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly man i don't know anything about it i don't know anything about it i don't i was coming in there with two big slices of italian bread with sausage and peppers in there you know field cutlets you know and and you know you don't speak the language your parents don't speak the language shit i didn't even have a car i had to walk everywhere i went until i was almost a junior in high school um so right away you know i think it was just kind of a feeling i gotta be i can't be just as good as everybody else i gotta be better um this probably wasn't true i don't think anybody said that hey you need to be better than the average person but i think if i felt that way and when i got this job at connecticut i felt like i need to win every game to prove that i can coach now that's not true you don't have to do that that's how i felt like how can we lose now how can we lose to that team well now that team right there they're really really good yeah well we're gonna beat their ass now we got a team we're gonna play that's not very good oh god damn it we're gonna do everything wrong we're gonna lose to these guys so you know you get this you know non-stop and to your point yeah i'm like that with everything i played tennis in college i don't care if you win six two six two you're thinking about the two games you lost and it could have been better you're playing god you may have played your best round but you're thinking about the time you three-putted that way one green you know so everything we win a national championship we're all in our in my room we're all in my suite in minneapolis and i go put the vhs in they put it in they're cheering they're they're announcing you know we're watching the game and something happens and i go hey pause that i want to go look at that again and and one of ryan one of my players turns around and goes just gives you the finger yes like yo dude we just won a national championship we're not listening to this shit i don't blame him in that moment but you know whether it's the rebecca part of it or the page part of it i mean it just seemed like tarazi you just like yeah i don't have to worry about her mindset ever um and that's why i think you know i've talked to you before there's just the reverence that you have when you're talking about diana i can just kind of tell um she's just everything a coach would ever want but yeah you know um it's like she was a way better version of me in the sense that here's a kid whose parents really are all over the place argentina father born in italy you know the whole thing so she grew up as a child of immigrants and her parents had no idea about diana's life because they never lived that life like now i know about my kid's life because i kind of lived that life so i get it no my parents had no idea what i what life i was living her parents had no idea so i remember talking to her during the whole recruiting and i said look dude you can't bullshit me i know your life i know exactly what you've been doing your whole 18 years because i already lived that life i was just never that good you're special you know you're a special kid and you're an even more special player um and then i remember when i said to to everybody i said it out loud i said what you know why i feel so confident in every game i said we have diana and you don't that's why we win games guys and they all got pissed off like that you're arrogant son of a bitch no i'm not being arrogant i'm actually giving you some credit dude you call time out you talk to your team they come out i call time out i talk to my team your team does some something half-assed my team comes out and diana does something great if you had her and we both said the same thing you would win that's it i'm not being arrogant i'm telling you this is why this is why it works for us and it may not work for you not because i'm smarter than you and i've never seen a kid take on responsibility and embrace it and cherish it crave it the attention the the competitiveness the most unbelievable kid to to rise to the occasion that the bigger the stakes the better she plays i was uh doing an interview with uh dan patrick one day and he says to me because you know dan played in college uh do you think um um i could beat diana in a game of one-on-one i said when when you were playing back then or now he goes uh you know i said no i don't care which no you would not beat her in a game one-on-one he goes how about horse i go even worse i say you get beat worse than horse and he's like huh well now fast forward like two months i'm in my car i don't know why i had the station on because i generally don't listen to this stuff but i don't know why it happened and he's got karan butler on hey karan when you were at connecticut was there a competition between you and the women in the women's team or was there a competition between me he goes hell yeah man because we share the same training room you know we're in we're in the same building and and yeah oh yeah they had one championship we hadn't and they let us know about it all the time you know no he goes uh hey karan you think i could beat diana terassi in a game of one-on-one and he goes karan goes no she goes come on he goes no you're not gonna beat her and he goes what are you talking about he says well after the season other gym and play pickup. And she would get picked before four of the guys that were on our team. So when, when, you know, when you're coaching a kid like that, you just go into every game going, all right, we might not, we might not win every game, but as long as I got her on the court, I feel good. Okay. Last thing I want to ask you here, cause we've hit on it a few times is you go into stores, you tell them everything they want to hear. You get the job. You're like, all right, you know, maybe I went 18 games and get back to the ACC. You, you win the title and you're still kind of thinking that was there ever that moment where the time came where it was like, this is tempting for me to leave stores. Yes. Yes. What was it? Oh, um, um, um, it was, was in the early nineties and, um, there was a job open in the ACC and I thought, I've done what I said I was going to do. Um, we got into the top 20. We went to the final four in 1991. You gotta be kidding me. I said, I think I've proven that I can do this. And, um, and if I was a woman, that would have been it for me at Connecticut. I would not be here today. I am totally convinced of that. Because of how pristine this ACC job would have been. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. We would have won championships there for sure. For sure. But I'm not going to get that opportunity at that point in time. And you know what? Some of it has to do with, all right, I'm a guy. So we're not going that way. We're not going that direction. The other part has to do with, if you're the men's coach at a school, you're like, I got enough to deal with. Do I want this sucker coming in here and now winning and now it's going to be like, blah, blah, blah, blah. So there was a lot of reasons why it didn't happen at that point in time. But as time went on, an opportunity arose on the men's side. And I was like, that close? Wait, is this what you're talking about right now? The ACC job on the men's side? Or is this is. That was a woman's job in the ACC. Another opportunity came by later in my life on the men's side in a different conference. And I was this close to taking it, but it came at the wrong time in my life. Had that opportunity come in the early 90s, I probably would have taken it. But it didn't come until much later. And my life was not in a position where I could just. And the same thing happened a little bit later with another school. And the timing was bad. And then another opportunity came to get involved in the NBA. And again, I was this close and I couldn't pull the trigger because by then I was so entrenched in this community. My kids are entrenched in this community, my grandkids. And I said, what's going to happen to all the people that I have in this building that have helped me do all this? I can't take them with me. And I'm so, you know, I'm probably so egotistical. People think, well, you know, life will go on without you, dude. They would still be pretty good after you left. So life sometimes gets in the way of things that you might have done. Can we rule out the Sacramento Kings as I'm trying to just figure out which team it was? Yeah, yeah, we can rule that out. You can rule that one out. I want to end on this. I was watching you be celebrated on campus, you know, in the doc. And I remember it happening when you became the all-time wins leader. And you talk about that moment and how you were kind of miserable about it because it's like, okay, yeah, but we haven't won. You know, there's a lot of stuff, which I thought was a little bit of storytelling of like, can Gino do it in this new era? And it's like, well, they're losing in either the final or the final four in the five of the six years they didn't win the championship back in 25. So I know that you're, you're kind of like, I just look, I've watched you enough. I've listened to you enough. I think this is the third or fourth time that I've interviewed you. So I get it, right. But the thing that I've always loved about the idea of becoming somebody in the college world is that you really do get to be part of a community, you know, in a way that you're never going to feel that at the professional level. And I'd always think like campuses are some of the most beautiful places in the country, like when a campus is right in the energy around it. And, and you can be a part of that as long as you've been a part of it. I hope and I imagine there are some moments, maybe you allow yourself to appreciate it. But you've accomplished something that I think anybody in sports, like, that's not a long list, you know, it's not a long list. And you got to accomplish something that I look at and going and all the paths that are available to you, especially if you love sports. Very few people get to do what you did. And I do hope you get to a point of appreciating it more maybe than you do in the show. You know, I'm sure they have a name for it. And I take medication for it. But I think, I think I'm wired to when something happens for the very first time, like in 95, or something happens like it did in Philly, or something happens in the United States, or something happens in the United States, or something happens when Sue and D and those guys are seniors. And they win. Or something happens like Miss Stewie and Tuck and Mariah Jefferson are seniors, and they just won their fourth in a row, where you really, or when it happened with, you know, that Paige, Paige's group, where deep down inside, you really feel like, damn, I'm glad I was able to deliver that for them. I'm glad I was able to help them. Because that's what they all wanted. You know, they all came here, like, I want to win the game of my career and ride off into the sunset as a national champion. But the winning and everything, maybe because I've been in one place all this time, it doesn't, the winning itself doesn't bring me the kind of joy that it used to. It doesn't. But the winning and everything, maybe because I've been in one place all this time, it doesn't, because I've been in one place all this time, it doesn't bring me the kind of joy that it used to. It doesn't, the winning itself doesn't bring me the kind of joy that it used to. It doesn't. Because I've not been able to enjoy it as much as I probably could. Because I'm constantly focused on the next thing, the next thing, the next thing that I got to do. And I'm sure it's the same way with you. You know, you do a show, you get off the show, and you go, okay, what could I have done differently? What could I have done better? And even though everybody says, yo, that was great, man. That was great. And you're thinking about, all right, well, the next show, I'm going to do this. And the next show, I'm going to do that. Next, tomorrow, I'm going to do this. Next week, I'm going to do it. And I've had an issue with living in the present. And I think as I've gotten older, maybe I can, to your point. And there are times when I walk through this building, and there's nobody here. And I look up. And I go, damn, if somebody said, let's go back and do it all over again. I said, no way. There's not even a chance in hell that you could do this. This is like fairytale. If somebody wrote a book about this year ago, that's fiction. You can't do this in real life. But we did. And I should appreciate it. You're absolutely right. I should appreciate it. And you know what? After we, and with the schedule that we have in the preseason, if we're five and five right before Christmas, I think I'll be doing the same thing you're doing. We'll be having the Genoa. There'll be more value. There'll be more sales in our show than there are in the entire community of West Hartford. We'll do a live show in Manchester. That's exactly right. Well, I know you're probably going to yell at somebody at practice later today. So I know you're not going to enjoy it today. But I enjoyed this a lot. And I really enjoyed the story, which I knew. But I think Apple did a terrific job with this. So thanks as always. Go ahead. Yeah. You know something that's kind of interesting? All these years here, you go through so many different generations of how kids respond to success and adversity. And you try to remember the 80s, the 90s, 2000, 2010. And you see the incredible difference. And how kids respond. And the challenge now is, can you find that right button to push like you used to back in the day? And I think for the most part, I can. You mentioned about, you know, I was doing a recruiting visit last week. And I asked the kid, I said, hey, how old are you? And he said, I'm 17. I said, hmm. I said, you know, we've been in the Final Four every year you've been alive. And as you looked at me like, what? I said, yeah, you know, people think like, you know, we had a six year period there where we sucked. You know, we've been in the Final Four every year you've been alive. So as long as we can keep failing at that level, I feel like I'm doing pretty good. Yeah, I think that is because it was a bit of a reminder. I'm like, God, man, they're talking about him like it was like, like, oh, yeah, with with with Instagram now, Gino can't he's losing his touch. And I was like, I'm like, I remember the offensive foul call against Iowa. So that was that seemed like a big game. You're the man. And I, I hope you know that some days. So, yeah, I appreciate this greatly. Yeah. You know, being Italian and being Catholic and all that shit, but all the guilt that we feel, you know, like you're embarrassed almost when people say all these great things. about you. That's why if I do watch the show, I don't want to watch it around other people. people. Cause you'd be like, but I do have a podcast and you would not believe some of the guys that I've had on men and women and at what level they are because they're at the highest level. And it's, it's called lessons and it's done through my agency, WME. But we talk to people who have gotten to a certain level and the decisions that they've had to make along the way. And I want to have you on. I'd love to have you on, you know, that's, that's an automatic. So whenever you want to do it. Yeah. We just talk for an hour about things in your life that like a river, you know, like when do I zig? When do I zag? Why, you know, what do I think about when this happens? What do I think about when that happens? So it's for people. That any, at any walk of life go. Yeah. You know, like I, I, I got three kids at home, man. And I'm, I'm dealing with this and that and this, and I love to hear how other people might, you know, navigate those same kinds of things. So, um, uh, I'll let you know and you give me some dates and, um, we'll put it together. As soon as you want to do it, we'll get it done. I'll make the time for you, Gino. I love it. All right. Well, thanks again for the time. This was awesome. Anytime, anytime football is here. And so it's DraftKings. The DraftKings sports app is now live at all 50 States. That means from Texas to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement in this September DraftKings is giving customers the opportunity to get boosted every football game day. That's right. Every game day, all month long DraftKings customers can get a football profit boost. All right. So last week, um, we'll bring in the Alliance here. Um, the Alliance is going to do, well last week, but we gave you out the winner with Denver at home, uh, against Jacksonville. Didn't feel great about that one in the first half. How about coaching adjustments? We actually saw them. Um, and we understood them is really the point not to say that there aren't adjustments, but I just don't think that they're described all that well. So if we run through some of the info here, we'd like to look at the public betting, uh, and some of the trends, the most bet game right now on DraftKings is Buffalo and the chargers. Um, the most bet side. So this is where you will really want to dig in here. And one of the things that we pointed out last week with Denver Jacksonville. So Buffalo is the most bet side minus seven and a half against chargers. Number two, highest bet side. Um, as far as money, not number of bets, um, Seattle minus seven and a half. It's, it's kind of minus seven and a half minus seven, which is a huge difference in this one, uh, against the commanders. This is actually the most bet game on number of bets, but less money than what's going on Buffalo and the chargers. And then you have Indianapolis at home. It opened plus one and a half. It's now plus two and a half against the Texans. Um, I love the Texans in the spot. So that would be my pick. I don't think you could go wrong going all three of these that nobody, like if you told your buddies, Hey, I'm betting the chargers to be like, what's wrong with you? Hey, I'm betting the commanders against Seattle who won the super bowl. What's wrong with you? The Texans I think would take a lot less convincing as to why you want to do that. So that's going to be my official play there. Houston, uh, minus two and a half on the road to get a win here and not start. Oh, and three. The other prop that I love that is, it's, I think the second most bet prop is Marvin Harrison jr. Over 29 and a half yards. I love that people are going, this can't be real, right? That is a, this can't be real. It also feels a bit like a loser move to be like this guy that seems not really all that into football. Um, you're like, yeah, it's getting worse every week. I'm in, um, I love the denial of it all. So there you go. One app, every sport, all 50 States, new DraftKings customers sign up the code Ryan, spend just five bucks, get 200 and total rewards within 21 days includes all markets. That's code Ryan R Y E N in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. We bring in Kyle who, um, the only one that won last week, correct? Yeah. Just keeping the streak alive. That's our guy. I'm all grown up. Um, so Rudy gave his pick. He did right under the wire. Just send it to me. Yeah. We didn't think we were going to have it. That's fine. Um, you want to share that one with us and then we'll let you take the board. He's a, I feel like he's been a big under guy or over guy lately. So he's taken Bengal Steelers under 42 and a half. So, um, that'll be exciting one to watch, um, root for unders. Uh, and I will, I'm going to take the Panthers just to beat the Browns. I don't know if I'm going to continue to disrespect the Browns all year. Cause I think they got a couple of dudes in the wide receiver department, but I think it's still early. So I will just take the Panthers just to beat them. So you're just doing money line Panthers. Yeah. Okay. Uh, all right. Give me a, I'm going to stay with my official pick here for Houston to get right. You know, I've been talking about them these last two weeks going, there's actually a lot that I've liked from what I've seen from them and Colts banged up defense here. And I'd much rather have it one and a half, but we'll go with the, uh, minus two and a half is the official play on top of everything else. Western Kentucky couldn't just suck for one more. Possession cost us that one last week. The word is out on Western Kentucky gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER 1-800-MY-RESET Connecticut called 888-789-7777. Visit ccpg.org on behalf of boot Hill casino in Kansas. Fed tax pass through may apply in Illinois, 21 and over void in Canada bet with DraftKings sports book to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with DraftKings predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year event contract trading involves risk of loss predictions offer void in New York, non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50 click to claims every seven days for $40. 14 days terms at DK NG dot co slash offer limited time offer nationwide based on sports book predictions and free to play sports contest availability varies by state. You want details by I drive a Ferrari three 55 cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Live advice. Live advice. RR at gmail.com. We have Kyle. We have no Steve. Steve is on a golf trip, which I'm very excited about for him. I have one coming up soon. Myself. We will still have all the shows. How are you, Kyle? Doing great. I'm doing great. This nor'eastern. You got a nor'easter coming through? It's coming through and it might be, you know, just in the way of this festival that I was stressing about, you know, last episode. So it's the garlic. You know, festival TVD. Yeah. You know, it's not looking good. Kind of right on the line here. So God did, you know, you have any literature on this festival? You know, just, just social media. I heard some people that went to it weren't wowed. Didn't really help me getting jazzed up for it. You know, it's people in the past. So well, I look at how you did some research on this. Yeah. Okay. Um, I think you're locked in because you always feel like I'm, I just feel like something's off and Saruti isn't here. And I think you were like, I said this to you often, you always mention it early in the segment too. I get me early on. I say something's off when it's just the two of us. Yeah. So you think like, if we were to hang out socially, I would always need a Kyle buffer. You'd need a Ryan buffer. Like it would just be weird to be like, those two are just together. And there's not another person, you know, I'm not really sure you've ever given that a chance. I'd be into it. You know, if you ever wanted to set something up, but yeah, sure. When I feel safer, when I feel like maybe it would go better if there was a different guy, uh, you know, van, if it were a van and then it's like, okay, this is, you know, I mean, Stanford, Steve in the wild one time was awesome. And I know I haven't really got that together. I feel like you guys together would be awesome. I could like pick my spots, you know, go away for a little bit, come back. I think that would be cool. Popping that, that would probably be my, yeah, my, my number one pairing there. Okay. Uh, let's see here. Somebody who's, um, going through a bad breakup. I feel like we've covered a lot of those. Um, let's see. Uh, yeah, I wanted to do this one. I mean, not, not that we need Cerruti on this. I'm just kidding. Uh, let's get to it. 5, 11, 174 precise 29 years old, no NBA comp, no impressive gym stats. I mostly lift to prevent running injuries. I'm training to run 30 miles on my 30th birthday in November, getting after it in my own way. You sure are, sir. All right. I've got a dilemma with my brother. Let's call him Tom. Tom and I are two years apart and very close growing up. We had a lot of conflict and grew apart in our college years. We had a very rough stretch over a fist fight that led to cops being called in 2017, where we basically were not on speaking terms. Wow. That's a, that's a good one. During that time, I had told some of my close friends that had given up on having a good relationship with him, but he reached out in 2018 after some counseling and said he wanted to rebuild our relationship. Having a retrospect, I wish I had done first as the older brother. Uh, we've both made a lot of effort to rebuild our friendship and brotherhood in the years since. Fast forward to May of 2025. He and our relationship was totally restored. He proposed to a great girl. We'll call it Rachel, who the entire family is on board with. Despite my wife and I just having our second baby, I took my oldest daughter and we flew in for 24 hours to celebrate their engagement. When he proposed, I don't know if he's aware of the kind of undertaking it was bringing a two-year-old on two flights, including a three-hour layover in Dallas. Younger brothers usually aren't. You could just assume that. Yep. I feel like this is building towards something. I assumed I'd be a groomsman and maybe a co-best man in the wedding along with our youngest brother. By January, there was no news on wedding details. And it hit me that I probably was left out of the wedding party. I texted our mom to ask since Tom hadn't been answering my recent texts. And she said my suspicions were correct. She said I should talk to him about it. I was hurt that I had to find out from her instead of getting direct communication from Tom. But I shrugged it off. I waited a week, but then decided to text him saying, quote, I heard I'm not in the wedding. I'm not offended. Kind of a lie, which he says to us. But I'd be doing our relationship a disservice if I didn't ask. Did you leave me out of the wedding party because there's something between us? Tom responded something to the effect of, yes, there's something that needs to be addressed, but I'm not ready to talk about it. I still want you and your family at the wedding, and we're excited to see you guys. I told him I'm ready to talk whenever he is, and we left it at that. Fast forward, we had a great time at the wedding. There's been no change in our relationship besides this weird blip. We have an active family group chat where him and I banded up. We had a great time at the wedding. We had a great back and forth with other family members. We even text each other individually on occasion, mostly to plan out hunting trips and coordinate dates on family functions. However, I haven't made the time to FaceTime him since the wedding or see him in person this summer. We live about 10 hours apart. I feel like the ball's in his court, but should I reach out again about this? I want to address whatever it is between us, but I don't want to be the overbearing older brother. Should I leave it and just be thankful that him and I have a relationship, even if it's not perfect? Thanks in advance. There you go. Uh, Kyle? Well, I think you got a couple things going here. I think as the older brother, you can always reach out. It's like, it's not like your friend who you guys are in like this weird stalemate and you're, you know, you don't want to lose face with your friend who's like on this level with you. It's your, it's your younger brother. So, I mean, you, you can always kind of cop out to that. I think wherever you are, unless there's some major betrayal, you can always sort of hit the reset button or try, you know, I think it's always worth a shot unless there's something that there's no coming back from, which sounds like you can't even think what it would be. So, I mean, you, you said yourself, I haven't made the time to FaceTime him. It's, it's a bit of, it's a bit of torture for you right now. You might as well just, you know, rip the bandaid off and see if he'll answer. Just be like, Hey man, I just want to, just want to clear this up if there's anything going on. Um, that's fine. The other thing is, you know, with the, with the whole wedding thing, it's like your brother just might have a ton of friends, dude. I mean, it might feel like he might've been stressing out being like, I got to get a couple of these guys, get a couple of these guys in the wedding party. Just, you know, your brothers, you said you've repaired it, but it's not like you've, you know, went a couple of years without talking. It's not like you're the same brothers that never have this problem. So, you know, it's just going to be a, a, a working, it's a, it's a journey. That's all. You just weren't, you weren't in the same spot that you thought you were. So I would, I would, I would take the high road as the older brother and just, you know, give him a chance to talk about this instead of just waiting it out. Yeah. I think high road is one way to frame it. I think another way would be the burden is on him. He's the one that told you there's an issue. He's the one that didn't invite you. To be part of the wedding party, even though you've told us based on the timeline here that things have been repaired. So he's leaving this thing out there that impacted his decision with all of this stuff. You reach out to him. He said he wasn't ready to talk about it right now. Like the burden is on him. That's true. You have to just let it go. I think, look, I mean, we're only getting this side of the story, but I'll tell you right now, I despise vague. I despise vague, is upset with you or they're giving you a hard time about something. And then you're like, say exactly what it is that you were upset about because the vague thing sucks. You know, I remember one time it was, it was a while ago, but it was just like this. Oh. And then I was like, Hey, whatever, whatever you were saying about me, um, just say, say what it is. And of course it ended up not even being true. And it was just like this stupid thing where the person was kind of being vague on purpose because they knew that it, there was like a good chance something that was happening wasn't even true. So it was like the person just wanted to be mad about something. And then I just remember like, and it's something I didn't figure out until later. It was like, if you're going to have a problem with me, tell me exactly what it is and why this is a problem. And instead your brother is like disinviting you or I, you know, look, who knows? It's not like you made the roster and then we're taking off the whole thing. Like he wasn't going to put you on the roster. I didn't think good part of this is that maybe, I think there's some people that would look at it and be like, all right, fine. Like if that's what you want to do, I'm aware of it. We've had this up and down thing, this back and forth. And like, it sucks that I wasn't part of the wedding party, but at least if we're good now, like this is whatever it is and I'm 10 hours away. So it doesn't really matter, but I don't think it's up to the email or whatsoever to try to continue to investigate what it is that led to this. Um, and I think it's really lame of the younger brother to do that, say there's an issue and then never, specify. And now it seems like it's been over a year. So, um, there you go. Yeah. I would, I would mostly agree with you if it wasn't a brother, if it was like a high school friend, you know what I mean? I would, I'd be, you know, that's when you ask questions like, do you even want to be around this person anymore? You got to really think it's like family. I think it's just a little different. I think you get a little bit of a wider birth and being an older brother. I'm not saying I expect below par from my under brother, my younger brother, but I am not shocked. You know what I mean? I have a contingency for when we're, we're putting up below par, actions, you know what I mean? And I, I just, I have a little bit of understanding because my parents are always just like that. He's younger than you, you know, and I, I, we get to a point where we're all adults, but I still have a little bit more grace just for him, you know, just for him. Yeah. I think that's, uh, that's a good part of it too, but I don't know, like, well, the mother can't tell you, you know, if like you really wanted to find out, it's like, well, you should talk to him. You know, that would, that would bother me a little bit, but then again, it would get to the point of like, you have to kind of go, all right, well, look, if you're never going to be specific, about what this whole thing is, I'm not going to sit here, you know, start whiteboarding out possibilities. Of course, fair time. I think one, one official ask, and then, uh, you know, content's cleared. All right. Um, coworker tried to fight me. Six, one, one 85 Walmart Rajan Rondo. Um, Hmm. Did people ever say Kmart instead of Walt back when Kmart was huge? Did people ever do that? They did. They did. Okay. Oh yeah. It was, I loved Kmart. So wild times at a company happy hour, a very intoxicated coworker tried to fight me for context. I'd never seen this guy prior. He's five, 10, maybe two 60. Let's call him big country. He's not someone who exercises, but there's a weight difference there. And I could probably seriously get hurt in a bar fight. I've trained a little, but anyone with steady wrestling MMA training would kill me situation. Big country's aggression was prompted by me talking to fake name, Maria Maria as a female coworker, who I've been talking to for a long time. I've been hooking up with on the DL big country basically got on my face and said, I need to leave Maria alone. Big country implied I was harassing her being mean to Maria. I recap this to Maria after, because she just stepped out when this one went down and her thoughts were quote, that is so weird of him. When did he see us talking? I barely know that guy. Okay. Neither her eye or any other witnesses has been able to figure out what he interpreted, uh, what he interpreted as me bothering her after. Um, after a few minutes of big country and his friend speaking drunk fighting nonsense, I managed to deescalate. Yeah. You can probably beat me up, man, but I'm not sure why you're upset with me. Uh, what do you want to have happen here? That's always a good line. Uh, after a while I shook his hand and pat him on the back and we agreed we're all good and can be friends. He meets, he's made this big scene. I initially didn't handle it great, but ultimately deescalated half an hour later, his wife, also co-worker came up to me to apologize for his behavior. About 20 seconds of her attempting to apologize for him. He pops up again with, now you're talking to my wife. This is insane. It's a tough happy hour. Big country here. Yeah, this is a sketch. This is Tim Robbins. Oh my God. This is a Tim Robbins sketch. Right. Meanwhile, she's apologizing because of him. And now he's like, oh, here we go. You, you just can't help yourself, mister. Um, at which point he tries to get my face again and is then kicked out of the bar. I stay a little longer. Everyone nervously laughs it off. And then I go home with Maria, not his wife. That's good. Back to work. Although we don't work together directly, I have to go to his part of our office on a daily basis. I basically have to walk by the guy every day. Context to others. It appears that everyone there could see that he was blacked out and in the wrong. I wasn't a perfect saint, but the guy threatened me over literally nothing. Even his wife and closest work friends are not defending him. I don't feel, I don't feel compelled to involve HR. And I mostly just attributed to the guy making a drunk mistake. You're, you're in favor of not going to HR. Is that what I am? And also I think maybe he was a perfect saint. What, like he gave you so many ins, especially when everyone, like the crowd is on your side. I mean, you could have really embarrassed him. And I mean, granted the, you know, threat of physical harm was lingering as well, but I thought he did. I'd give him an a plus on how he handled everything. He might be saying like he got a little chirpy with it, but I don't know. I mean, if I don't know if that's, what he's kind of alluding to here, it just hasn't referenced it or I don't know. I don't think people expect you to be, you know, like Mr. Rogers. Yeah. What are you feeling right now? Tell me why. Just because the other guy has the physical doesn't mean that you're not allowed to at least be like, Hey, leave me alone or fuck off. Or like, why are you doing this? Right. But the guy threatened me over nothing. Don't want to go to HR. He's got kids and probably some demons. If he's that angry, I'm not going to go to HR. I'm not going to go to HR. I'm not trying to ruin the guy's life. However, another part of me is like, what the fuck are we doing, man? I also worry about the optics of me being involved in something like that. Yeah. I think it's good that you're worried about the optics of it. Right. Like, I think that's a good thing, but I mean, we all know what this is. This guy gets super banged up a little early at a work thing, which is weird. He probably has a little thing for Maria and that sort of ignited whatever protective instinct that he had, even though it's like, Hey man, you're not needed here. Go sit with your wife. Yeah. Right. The fact that wife is apologizing, the friends are apologizing. Here's the thing. Like you have to understand this guy, if he has any kind of conscience whatsoever, and he's not doing this like literally all the time. Um, so therefore he's like worn down his own level of anxiety and concern. Cause he just doesn't have it anymore. Cause he's like, yeah, that's what I do. Um, he is likely dreading you walking by him in the office because his wife has told him like you were an embarrassment and you went after that guy. So you're winning, you're winning in a way that maybe you don't really understand because there's, there's no way this guy, like he has to, he has to be embarrassed by this. And if anything, he should be reaching out to you being like, I don't know why that happened. Like whatever. I'm sorry. And it's a one-off, which I guess would make you feel better. What I'm telling you is even if he doesn't do that, that's probably if he's a sane person with any remorse whatsoever, he's probably feeling that. Yeah. He has just anxiety about even interacting with you because this was totally all on him. So I would, I would focus on that part of it instead of like the optics or how else you could have handled it. And you went home with Maria. So, you know, sounds like a good night. Yeah. You know, if it was me the next day in the office or whatever, this is like early on, I think, I don't know how long you've been passing him now in the hallways. Like I think every day that goes by, it gets weirder for you to be like, you know, Hey man, I just want to make sure we're all, everything's all cleared up. We're okay. And then that's where I would expect an apology instead of like this weird lingering thing. I mean, you could totally do nothing, but I think, I think early on in like the following week, I might've just like, you know, maybe not in the middle of everything. If it's just like, he's at his desk and I'm by him, I just be like, I just want to make sure, you know, we're all good here and then be waiting for that apology. And if not, then I know what time it is. He also adds this. Do you have any advice on how to handle this situation? Also, we think basically when you've told us you handled it great, but have you had any experience with random people trying to fight you? I feel like I have a disproportionate amount of these types of situations. I'm in my late twenties and maybe at a bar once a month, not going to get super drunk. Don't go out on my way to talk to women. Not particularly loud. I feel like I attract dudes seeking a fight and I don't get it. Um, he might have a punchable face, dude. I don't know. Yeah. He might just have one of those faces. Six, one, one 85, you know, you're probably not scaring anybody. And then if there's the guy that's bigger than that, maybe people were like, I'm going to leave him alone. And then I have a friend who's incredibly annoying, but he's so short that he never got his ass kicked because everybody was like, well, I would just kick his ass. This has to be against the law, right? Yeah. I told him for years, I was like, if you were six feet tall, you would have gotten beaten up so many times. Your nickname would be scrappy. Right. So Kyle, you're a big guy. You're a big guy. So I don't imagine like people are randomly. No, again, it's just the restaurant where, it's like, you know, I guess maybe we'll fight later or maybe this thing will cool off. You know, it was just the restaurant back of house. You know, I, the only thing I could ever think of is this is a long, long time ago, but just when I was still bartending in the college town and I'd feel like whenever there was some sort of fracas and we had to go break it up, I got punched all the time. And I, and I think it was from younger dudes that were like, he's still here. Like I'm going to fucking crack him when he's not looking. And so I wouldn't even know it wasn't even like straight on. I'd just be like, what happened? And then I'd have like a bloody head or I'd have a broken nose or I just would be like, what? Like, you know, it's just, everybody just kind of piles in and tries to pull something apart. And it wasn't like super dangerous. Cause it was, you know, it wasn't like it was grown men. It was like a biker bar or something. And you'd be pulling people apart. And for whatever happened, like I went through this stretch where the guys I worked with, who I love, we're all like really close friends. We're like, dude, you got cracked again. Um, yeah. And I was like, I think there's something going on here. I'm like, are you guys doing it? And I'm not seeing it. Like, is there, do you guys want, are you, we count the tips in front of everybody, you know? So I don't, I don't know what you think is going on. Oh man. It may have just been an odd, odd run. I don't, I don't know. Wrong place specifically. Wrong angle. Two feet to the left, wrong angle. Yeah. Uh, all right. One more here. Try to keep it quick. 23, 6, 2, 1 90 bench, 2 85 squat, 4 35 deadlift, 4 85 player comp Ronnie James, because he's not all that and only league because of nepotism. Oh, he has nothing to offer other than he just says he hates LeBron. I wanted to say that. Okay. Um, the situation is this work in personal finance, been in the industry almost two years. I recently moved from, uh, the Midwest down to Florida because I didn't like the firm. I was at, or how they ran the business, figured I'd get a warmer climate out of it too. And my dad, uh, who's a big fan of the pod. Well, don't offer your son a job, sir. Um, bought a house in Florida for our family. New job in Florida has been great, but there's issues outside of work. My girlfriend also moved down and she lives an hour South of me. So we see each other every weekend, but it's not a lot of time together, which we don't love. Yeah. That kind of sucks, especially if you like each other. Right. Uh, we've been together almost four years. Can has been discussed major dilemmas every weekend my girlfriend and i spent our weekend surrounded by people who are 60 plus which is no surprise because of the state um but we're very bored each weekend there's no nightlife unless we drive 45 plus minutes we have basically no friends down here i'm in three different softball leagues and every one of them everyone right 40 plus and i've tried other sports leagues as well this guy must be just dominating this yeah do you like being the Mark McGuire of softball in your county or whatever. Is he stealing bases? What's going on? My girlfriend and I generally have no plans most weekends. Our family visits occasionally, but outside of that, it's just the two of us. We try our best to be social and meet people, but age gaps are common. This would be my third job in two years. I've got a lead through a former coworker in Nashville at a big-time firm with openings. It comes with a $30,000 raise, and Nashville is a much younger city that fits where we actually want to be and would look to get an apartment together. Her sister also lives there with her husband, and we're pretty close with them, too. Is a third job hop in two years worth it, given all that, or does the start look bad on paper, no matter the reasoning behind it? Also ran the numbers, and I would save more money moving than I would staying here, but the biggest issue is wanting to begin building a life with my girlfriend in a fun city. I don't even know why you need our advice on this. It sounds like the only thing he's worried about is looking an interviewer in the face and saying why he left this one, which you actually have a pretty good three bullet points. Uh, yeah, I mean, look, first of all, it's going to come down to, like, how good are you at this job? Like, how good are you in your field? What kind of recommendations do you have? And, you know, the whole, like, good work is good help is hard to find type of thing. Like, if you're remotely good, I don't think anybody's going to care about this. And I think of being, well, how old is this guy again here? Like, you just go 23. In a negative way, maybe a recruiter or wherever you're interviewing could say, hey, man, like, is this guy just completely clueless? Clueless about how this works. But I imagine if you get in the room and you explain exactly what you just explained to us, any reasonable person that vows you what you would bring to the company, they're not going to care about this at all. Because you're going to go, look, I was here. I want to leave this firm. I want to be closer to home. But the dynamic with somebody who I want to marry, it was challenging. And she has family here. And it wasn't the right fit for us. It was kind of like a reset. And this is where I want to be. Set down roots. Tell them everything they want to hear. You know, I've got a, this is like, I love it here. I don't even work here and I love it. Can I get a shirt on the way out? Or a vest? Financial. Sorry, sorry. Can I get a vest before I leave? I really think an older person listening to what you just told us is going to completely understand it. You don't even have to get creative about this thing. So I would just rehearse that a little bit. But you don't even really have to because, again, it's exactly what happened. Maybe you don't want to get into too much. Like, there could be somebody. If you talk about why you left the place in the Midwest, be like, I don't like the way they ran their operation. Maybe hearing that from a 23-year-old isn't going to go over that great. But you could just say, like, there was a real motivation to go home, be near family and everything. And yet I'm realizing, like, this is the person I'm going to marry. And it ended up being a bit of a mistake reset. Here's where I want to be. Go Preds. Yeah. Go positive. Talk up the town you're, you know, prospecting towards. That's good. Go positive. Nobody likes a negative Nelly, you know? Yeah. It won't go. It won't go over well, even if the place notoriously stinks that you worked at. Nobody. I'm just telling you, like, older people, even if they're wrong and you're right. They're like, I just interviewed with this guy who said he thinks Goldman Sachs entire business model is off. You just go like, all right, ass elbow situation over there. Yeah. Right. Doesn't know anything. All right. That'll do it for us. Thanks to Tom and Kevin and Kyle. And thanks to Cerruti for just being part. I thought, I thought this went really well today. I think maybe this is our best duo ever. Duo. That's, that's double team on the offensive line. All right. That'll do it for the show. All available. Uh, all episodes available on Netflix. Ryan. We're still a show. show, Arsenal Sports.