Best of the Bus: Nickmercs Opens Up About Streaming Journey, Getting Banned From Twitch, & Dr. Disrespect

Summary

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Bussin' With The Boys – Best of the Bus: Nickmercs Opens Up About Streaming Journey, Getting Banned From Twitch, & Dr. Disrespect

Date: May 9, 2026
Hosts: Will Compton & Taylor Lewan
Guest: NickMercs

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Overview

This episode brings fan-favorite streamer and content creator NickMercs onto the bus with NFL vets Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. The conversation moves from deep dives into college football (especially Michigan and Nebraska), through Nick's unconventional rise as a streaming legend, to open, candid discussions about internet culture, streaming controversies, and personal growth. The boys also dissect fanhood, life lessons, and generational differences with Nick’s father joining in for some great stories.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. College Football Fandom, Michigan Troubles, & Nebraska Pride

Timestamps: 02:00 – 22:00

• Taylor and Will recap their wild college football weekend, flying private to Michigan and Nebraska.
• Taylor rants about the psychological advantage of losses for Michigan fans:

  "Losing is the best teacher you can have." — Taylor Lewan, [04:11]

• Nick and Will’s dad weigh in on Michigan’s troubles this season, emphasizing lost talent, cautious optimism, and the pain of unrealistic fan expectations.
• Nebraska’s resurgence provides hope that the culture is headed the right way:

  "The optimism and the juice right now in the city is real." — Will Compton, [14:04]

• The gang teases each other about “delusional” fan attitudes, debating how many losses Michigan could suffer this year.

2. Gaming, Streaming, & Nick’s Origin Story

Timestamps: 45:14 – 55:00, 82:00 – 91:14

• Nick recounts starting his streaming career as a kid competing in tournaments, winning cash, and convincing his old-school football dad that gaming could be a career:

  "I was 12 years old and had to have him at the bank with me to open an account for my tournament winnings." — NickMercs, [47:20]

• His father shares how he shifted from a skeptic to a supporter after seeing Nick win big:

  "I'm standing there looking at you holding a cardboard check that says 40 grand on it... Maybe I better get fully behind this." — Nick's dad, [49:37]

• The struggles and pressures of being a “pioneer” in streaming, with stories of tough family conversations and heart-to-hearts about passion versus tradition.
• Discusses how gaming and streaming evolved—Justin.tv, Twitch, the rise of Fortnite, and collaborating with Ninja:

  "These last 10 years, we've seen gaming go from this to that, and it’s like, really, it was just hard to digest and take it all in." — NickMercs, [88:25]

3. SEAL Training & Life Lessons

Timestamps: 54:51 – 61:46

• Nick shares his intense and humbling experience attempting Navy SEAL training after being inspired by the difficult realities of the world.
• He learns new lessons on teamwork, failure, and self-discovery after washing out for failing underwater tasks:

  "I should have done more preparation on the underwater stuff, and I really fell short there, you know..." — NickMercs [61:27]

• Both he and his father reflect on the journey, with mutual respect and reconciliation.

4. Internet Culture & Fandom: Positives, Negatives, & Tough Conversations

Timestamps: 91:16 – 109:38

• NickMercs discusses being banned from Twitch for using contentious language, sharing regret, intent, and his stance on difficult cultural issues:

  "I did use the word 'tranny.' ... I really did not know that that was used as a derogatory term... I spoke out about that, and there's a lot of people that probably think I hate them, but I don't." — NickMercs, [93:30]

• Talks candidly about freedom of speech, parenthood’s role in changing his perspective, and the cost of being open about hot-button issues online.
• The boys question and comment on cancel culture, how quickly the internet "moves on," and the necessity of patience and fact-checking in the face of serious allegations.

5. The Dr. Disrespect Controversy

Timestamps: 100:41 – 109:38

• Nick discusses his friendship (or lack thereof) with Dr. Disrespect and the streamer’s recent scandal:

  "People think that we're like best friends. That's not true... When all this stuff came out, it’s been real hard because the internet, the gaming world hates a guy like Doc. They hate a guy like me." — NickMercs, [101:19]

• He describes how he navigated public pressure to speak out against Doc, waiting for facts before commenting, and ultimately severing ties after Doc’s own admissions:

  "If you're speaking inappropriately with an underage person, it's done. For me, that's done." — NickMercs, [105:28]

6. Life as a Father, Content Creator, & Businessman

Timestamps: 45:34 – 91:14

• Nick discusses how becoming a father changed his outlook on streaming and what kind of sponsorships/associations he’d accept:

  "Especially now that I'm a father, you know, the companies I represent, the people I want to do business with, it's not as open." — NickMercs, [90:40]

• Talks about balancing passion and business, crediting genuine, original energy for his lasting success.

7. Internet Personalities: Streaming's New Era

Timestamps: 116:05 – 121:42

• The crew discusses problematic streamers like Neon and Jack Doherty, who thrive on clickbait and provocation:

  "There's a new era of content creation...anything for some clicks and clips." — NickMercs, [116:42]

• Highlights the dangers of young streamers gaining rapid fame without maturity, and the difficulties of teaching responsibility and humility when their wildest behavior is profitable online.

8. Fighting, Humility, and Life Lessons

Timestamps: 122:01 – 127:23

• The guys share stories about getting their "ass beat" as a vital part of growing up.

  "Truly part of growing up is you gotta get your ass beat a few times." — Taylor Lewan, [122:01]

• Nick recounts being humbled in a Detroit boxing gym by a 14-year-old future champion.
• The importance of real-world experience and humility, especially for young men, is emphasized.

9. Podcast Origins, Barstool Partnership, & Reflections

Timestamps: 131:42 – 135:31

• Will and Taylor recount starting "Bussin’ With The Boys", initial reluctance, and how the show grew via viral moments and Barstool partnership.
• The value of authentic, laid-back, team-driven content.

10. "Tier Talk": The Best Vintage Gaming Consoles

Timestamps: 141:34 – 154:59

• Each participant ranks their top vintage gaming consoles—with deep nostalgia and banter:
  • Highlights: N64, OG Xbox, PS2, Sega Genesis, GameBoy Color, Xbox 360
• Notable console moments, e.g.,

  "Greatest console all time? 360. You got Gears of War, Call of Duty, and Halo all on that console." — NickMercs, [151:28]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Family and Passion:

  "At the end of the day, in life, I think it's really important to just be passionate and follow your heart." — NickMercs, [51:06]

• On Streaming's Rise:

  "You can’t really go to anybody, ‘hey, how do I do this?’, they don’t know. It’s trailblazing." — NickMercs, [88:25]

• On Handling Controversy & Online Hysteria:

  "Like a fart in the wind on the Internet, bro. When things are good, this'll be gone; when bad, it's over in 24 hours." — Will Compton & Taylor Lewan, [99:01]

• On Parent Perspectives:

  "I think there's a perspective that's gained after having your own kid..." — NickMercs, [97:01]

• On Cancel Culture:

  "In any light, when somebody says that a person did something, you can't just throw them down the hill. You gotta prove it." — NickMercs, [104:02]

• On Humility:

  "I'm a lot of things, but I keep it a pancake with you always. That was the most degrading beatdown..." — NickMercs, [125:55]

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Additional Highlights & Funny Bits

• Fan Delusion vs. Realism: Taylor’s playful rant about optimism and delusional fanhood, with Nick eager to keep it real.
• Life on the Road: Emotional ice cream on a private jet, and jokes about renting fake jets for influencer clout.
• Parenting Stories: Behind the scenes of their own upbringings—wrestling tapes, quitting sports, discipline, and eventually sharing pride in their sons.
• Classic Football Stories: Locker room tales about postgame fights, getting chirped by fans and family, and the eternal Michigan/Nebraska barbs.

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Episode Flow & Atmosphere

True to Bussin’ With The Boys’ signature style:

• Unfiltered, brotherly, and vulnerable
• Heavy doses of sarcasm, competitive banter, cultural insight, and deep honesty
• Candid reflections on success, failure, family, and the crazy world of content creation

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Episode Timeline with Timestamps

• 02:00 — Guest NickMercs boards the bus, college football/road trip stories
• 05:16 — Michigan Wolverines breakdown, optimism/pessimism
• 13:00 — Nebraska talk: culture, turnaround, crowd energy
• 23:00 — Learning from losses, NFL and college team vibes
• 45:14 — Video game & streaming roots, Nick’s competitive childhood
• 54:51 — Navy SEAL/BUDS training stories, father-son reconciliation
• 82:00 — Streaming's business evolution, Fortnite/Ninja, sponsorship ethics
• 91:14 — Gender/trans issues, Twitch ban, freedom of speech online
• 100:41 — Dr. Disrespect controversy, the pain of public accusations
• 116:05 — Modern streamer/gamer culture, provocateurs and young internet fame
• 122:01 — "Getting your ass beat” stories; real-world humility
• 131:42 — Bussin’ With The Boys podcast origin and Barstool partnership
• 141:34 — “Tier Talk” vintage gaming consoles, nostalgia segment
• 154:55 — Wrap-up, signing the helmet, gratitude, goodbyes

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Final Note

For fans of sports, gaming, or internet culture, this episode delivers genuine laughs, vulnerable stories, and high-level insights into streaming, fandom, family, and the unpredictable landscape of online fame.

"Grassroots, turns me on, boy." — NickMercs, [156:59]

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Transcript

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[Will Compton]

Over here. We got him here.

[Taylor Lewan]

Nick. Come on.

[Will Compton]

Perfect timing.

[Taylor Lewan]

Too perfect. You're just. We're three minutes into our intro. Get on.

[Will Compton]

Introducing Nick Merck.

[Taylor Lewan]

Come on, baby. Yeah. We had the going, huh? What's up, brother? Get in here.

[Will Compton]

We got you a seat.

[NickMercs]

We getting right into it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Get right in. Sit down.

[Will Compton]

Papa Mer.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, I was hoping he'd come.

[Will Compton]

Papa Mer.

[Taylor Lewan]

I was hoping he come. Come on, man. I was telling Will. Yes, sir. Traveling, man.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that's what we were just recapping.

[Taylor Lewan]

One take a no for an answer. What's up, brother?

[NickMercs]

How are we, man?

[Taylor Lewan]

Living, man. Living. Living.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Give me one second to recollect my thoughts. I'm high on a Lucy right now. Let me get. Let me get dialed in like I

[Will Compton]

was saying came at a perfect time. We're breaking down Michigan.

[NickMercs]

Oh, God.

[Taylor Lewan]

So. So when you win, when you win so much, the world gets used to you winning the regular season. People feel it all the time. I. Another Michigan Saturday. Mission's going to win. Oh, Michigan's away. They're going to win with that. You stop. You stop knowing that feeling, what loss is. You stop understanding why you play the game because you win all the time. What makes the win so great? Anybody? The losses. Because when you know what it's like to lose, the winning, the feeling that Will Compton has right now, it wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for the last 10 years of his life. If it has stopped over everybody every single day, beating Colorado 50 billion to zero, it'd be like, yep, another day at the office. But because Will's done the trials and tribulations, he understands these. Boy, you only get so many opportunities every fall and you got to make the most of them. Now your team sitting at two and oh, and you guys are in the top 25. That's incredible. Now Michigan feeling good. He feeling good, dog? He's feeling good. Losing is the best teacher you can have. It's the best teacher, cuz now when we get back to winning, it's going to make it that much more of a better feeling. You're going to walk in those Saturdays because I guarantee you, them boys, when they, when they won the last couple of years, it's kind of like, yeah, we knew we were going to win. Of course we knew we were going to win. Blake Corm, he's been eating corn his whole life. That. Those types of mentality, that kind of arrogance that you could. That's a teacher.

[Will Compton]

In his hype video for Michigan, that was a tough. I DM'd him and said you couldn't motivate me to get out of bed, bro.

[Taylor Lewan]

That was a tough one. I hope the boys pull it up a little bit because it was. You had to have some fluctuation in your voice when you do it. Do I think Michigan's dead? No. Are we as good as we were last year? No. But guess what? That's what happens when you leave your lose your head coach, your DC, your DB's coach, your wide receiver coach, your head strength coach, and 18 players to the draft. You're going to have a step, take a little step back now. Sharon Morris, he's the right guy to have in there. You're going to keep that boat motoring. You got five new offensive linemen. They're going to continue to gel. They didn't have the best game, but I will say this, I thought protection was pretty good. And if Colson Loveland hit, catches that ball in stride that Warren missed him on in the second quarter, might be talking about a whole different game. We might be talking about a Longhorn loss. That's what we might be talking about now. Horseshoes and hand grenades, right?

[NickMercs]

Beautiful.

[Taylor Lewan]

Close. Doesn't cut it in the game of football. It doesn't fucking cut it. So we're just going to keep on moving forward. We got our Kansas State coming up this week at home. Thank God.

[NickMercs]

Love that you. Love that you called it Arkansas.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because that's what it is.

[NickMercs]

That's what it is.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's what it is. Is it Kansas? Yes, at AR Kansas. Boom. We'll play them. They're 28 and a half point favorites. I don't know if we're covering that, but I know that dub's coming. I don't know if we're going to cover that, but the Bulls need to continue to gel. They need to continue to jail. Here's what I'll say about the trip. So we were just breaking down our trip.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, Nikki got that right.

[Taylor Lewan]

We were able to. We were able to. We were able to fly private from

[Will Compton]

weird flex from national, but necessary.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's necessary because it's. It's. It's only a flex if you're not. Don't have gratitude behind it. And it was an epic. An epic 27 hours, right? Go from Nashville to Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor to Lincoln. Next morning, Lincoln International Wings.

[Will Compton]

Because I thought to myself, I'm like,

[NickMercs]

I want to interject, but he's cooking right now. I'm let him. I'm let him cook.

[Will Compton]

I was thinking to myself, like, do I post about the private jet? And then, then quickly I was like, yes, you do. Like, we don't do this every week. We're eating wings from Mr. Spots on the private jet right in Lincoln.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm surprised you had that thought process.

[Will Compton]

We had ice cream waiting for us.

[Taylor Lewan]

Emotional ice cream. Emotional ice cream. I told Will you really needed that. But we were flying back. He's like, hey, the driver just asked if we could pick anything up. I was like, I go ice cream. Vanilla caramel sprinkles, ice cream, right? W ate my feelings the entire that. Because it is like, people do get weird about the whole posting about a private jet. If you get on a private jet, it's an experience. It's an experience. And what are we on social media to not show experiences all of a sudden. That's the line.

[Will Compton]

Well, you got.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's crazy.

[Will Compton]

Of influencers that would go and just rent a space that looked like a private jet and would flex about it. Yeah, people were onto that, right?

[NickMercs]

Oh, that's a thing.

[Taylor Lewan]

You did it a couple times. No, no, no, no, no, no.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, Real deal. Holy field pops. Yeah. Remember we used to. We would do the PJ to the helicopter. Yes, sir.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, who's flexing now?

[NickMercs]

Weird flex type, bro.

[Taylor Lewan]

Helicopter is a weird transition. Usually it's helicopter to pj. What were you doing?

[NickMercs]

We went from the. Went from the big island to, like, the. The big island to the little island. So you're like, dang, dang, dang, pop, you know, and then you're on the beach.

[Taylor Lewan]

What islands are we talking about here? Oh, billionaires playground.

[NickMercs]

St. Bart's, man. Yeah, I heard about St. Bart's.

[Taylor Lewan]

I had a weird thing about aviation. I know that little landing strip when you kind of go down dangerous.

[NickMercs]

It looks like you're gonna go right and then you just duck in. You're like, whoa.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay. Yeah. It's good, though. Twin prop going in.

[NickMercs]

It's worth it, man. It's worth it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Oh, the food. Yeah, it is worth it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Do they have Mr. Spots wings there?

[NickMercs]

No, you need some chicken wings over, bro.

[Taylor Lewan]

Billionaire chicken wings gotta be ass. There's no way billionaires.

[NickMercs]

Everything's good, bro. Trust.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, my.

[NickMercs]

That's cool, though. I'm happy you took your boys in a pj, man. That experience had to be nuts, man.

[Will Compton]

Dude, it was all time.

[NickMercs]

And at least we ended the day on. On a cuz, dude, if. If both teams would have lost. Don't ever get out of PJ again.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, no, no. You're flying back at the plane on the way home.

[NickMercs]

Commercial.

[Taylor Lewan]

Commercial. We might even walk back.

[NickMercs]

Well, crazy, man.

[Will Compton]

How are you feeling about what you saw from Michigan?

[NickMercs]

Oh, I'm down. Horrible, man. Yeah, Pops is down.

[Will Compton]

Horrible.

[NickMercs]

It's all bad. Oh, is that at the Peach? Yeah, yeah, yeah. St. Bart's yeah.

[Will Compton]

Dad, you're a big Michigan guy, too.

[NickMercs]

He coached, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Coach, get the mic.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

How do you guys feel about watching the Michigan Wolverines? Because I feel you guys lost a lot. If you look back, Georgia, they had 15 draft in 20, 22 before they repeat in 23. So the. It's like the fall from being on top of the world. It just feels like that's not a. An outfit you're happy about putting out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hold up.

[NickMercs]

Don't Be optimistic on the podcast. You got to be real. Keep it.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, no, but before you keep it real, before you keep it real, understand this. Georgia, Alabama, those teams get five stars every single day. We are a three. We get the three stars and the four stars and a sneak couple fives from down south and then we develop those cats. So the drop off, that's.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Sweep that out of the way over here. And you know, we're used to seeing Corum and, and, and, and, and, and

[Will Compton]

JJ, McCarthy, all of them, man.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

You know, even on the defense, Sandra still. And all these guys make their plays and then. And then they're not there this year.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

And the. The smallest case of being exploited this year, and it's just. We're not used to that. It's.

[Will Compton]

How were you feeling on Saturday? Because I've. You're holding a lot in right now. I gotta hear. I gotta feel it. This is a pod where you feel your emotion.

[NickMercs]

I actually.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I actually. Actually kind of left for a while and walked around.

[Taylor Lewan]

Gotta get this.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, he gets a little sad, you know, I mean, but we get beaten up for. Bro, look, hey, man, you gotta. You gotta live off that championship. They don't come around often. Come on. Championship. We're still the reigning defending champions. Eat a dick, bro.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know what I mean?

[Will Compton]

Sorry.

[NickMercs]

Saying they can eat it all they want, right? Until. Until there's a new champion.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's.

[NickMercs]

It's us, right?

[Will Compton]

So I'm feeling good about that. Who listened to the Port Nor video and he's like. He's right. We are defending.

[NickMercs]

Porno's a goat man, by the way. What are you. How. What's it are. You and him like. You guys are cool, right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool because we're

[NickMercs]

talking about that too, man. That.

[Will Compton]

Okay, well, I talked about.

[NickMercs]

Well, sometimes. Sometimes I feel like he. He loves you, but he hates you. It's crazy.

[Will Compton]

For sure.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. It's like a weird thing.

[Will Compton]

It's his love language.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

He loves to be mean.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

He loves to try to get under your skin. He likes to get you going, get you active. Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Dave openly calls you this guy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, well, he does.

[NickMercs]

He gets on you.

[Will Compton]

It's like, you know, it's like the easiest card to pull when something happens. You just got to eat.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

You're not gonna make every point, Jack. Pull all this stuff up right here.

[Taylor Lewan]

What did Rocky say? It's not about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

[NickMercs]

Don't do that.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's what it's like when you're working

[NickMercs]

for, like cringy, like cringey. Yeah, it's a cringy. It's too early in the pod, by the way. You know what I love about this pod? When you move, I feel you move, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's just the vibration of my passion.

[NickMercs]

Like, we're really in it. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. We're actually on the bus.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Like, if you get hype, I'm gonna feel it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Look at that.

[NickMercs]

Right. Right on cue. Oh, come back.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Dude, it was a tough game. It was a tough game on Saturday. It was a tough game Saturday at noon, boys. Didn't look good. There's not. There's not a whole lot of whole. To hang our hat on as far as, like, we can get excited because of X, Y and Z. Kicker got a good kicker. We got a damn good kicker. Right. I don't think anybody in the nation's mess with our kicker.

[NickMercs]

But you gotta stop, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right now. Here's my. Here's my number.

[NickMercs]

Who's half the games this year?

[Taylor Lewan]

What are you doing?

[NickMercs]

I'm just being real.

[Taylor Lewan]

You can't go with this whole we're the national champions until.

[NickMercs]

I know it was a great year, but. But if we're looking at this one, man, we. We can't score points. Can't score points. That quarterback's not ready yet. The offensive line's not ready yet. Yeah, they'll gel throughout the year, but we're going to lose to Ohio State. We're going to lose to msu. We're going to lose to Penn State. We're going to lose to Oregon.

[Will Compton]

Illinois.

[NickMercs]

We might even lose Illinois.

[Taylor Lewan]

Erroneous. Listen, we're going to lose. We're going to lose. That is the most ridiculous thing I've

[NickMercs]

ever come back to this pot. Look, part of being a fan is you got to be real, man. Like, just expect. Expect it to be bad. That was really bad.

[Taylor Lewan]

Every week you got to go in thinking you're gonna win as a fan. Here's the problem. Michigan fans are like you because when we. We had to leave the game earlier, we knew that going into it. So in the third quarter, we did leave. And as we're leaving, traffic's back.

[Will Compton]

We had to make the.

[Taylor Lewan]

We had to make the flight. That was already a. It was already a pre draft.

[Will Compton]

Taylor wanted to. Taylor wanted to stay the entire time. And even leading up.

[Kal Penn]

Right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hey, we do got to get going.

[Will Compton]

Time out.

[NickMercs]

Which game am I looking at to give Taylor.

[Will Compton]

To give Taylor credit, this. The entire. At first, like, a couple months ago, it was going to be all Nebraska that day, like, that was the game. We're going to go to Nebraska. Then we were going to go to.

[NickMercs]

What was it?

[Will Compton]

Just hanging in front of Michigan, usc.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. We were going to go to Michigan, usc, and split it up. But once we combined them, it was like, hey, the. The. The priority was always Nebraska on week two. Nebraska, Colorado. So when we snuck that in and figured out how to do it, he wanted to stay the whole game. And I was like, bro, we cannot. Yeah.

[NickMercs]

If you want to be positive here today, bro, Nebraska kind of looks.

[Taylor Lewan]

They look good.

[NickMercs]

They kind of look good, dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

They look good.

[NickMercs]

They kind of look good.

[Taylor Lewan]

And here's.

[NickMercs]

They got it all, man. They got. They got a good defense. You know, you had them people fired up, man.

[Will Compton]

Fired up, bro.

[NickMercs]

They were fired up. You saw the little. That. All my stands are going nuts, bro.

[Taylor Lewan]

I need to feel you.

[Will Compton]

The stadium to go big Red. I was truly, like, one of the greatest feelings of my life.

[NickMercs]

Fuck, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because I.

[Will Compton]

We all Husker fans just lay it on the line. And like Taylor was saying earlier for the last decade, like, this place wants something, a good product to root for. And it seems like the culture that Coach rules building and just the engagement that. That they had from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, like, the songs they're playing, the stuff they're putting up, like, even the little hamster in the fourth quarter to keep everybody engaged.

[Taylor Lewan]

The hamster.

[Will Compton]

So everybody just dialed in. Like, the optimism and the juice right now in the city is real. Custer fans all over the country. And, you know, that's what everybody's fired up about. Like, yes, we're two. And, oh, we're all we got. Got our chest out, we're smiling, we're feeling good. But it's like, more than that. It's like, it. We've been down for a minute, and we know that we have a brand that you can root for and believe in if you just get the right guys, the right coach, the right players. And I like, that's building up. So there's a lot more pride outside of just being two. No, it's just that you're feeling it all come together for real.

[Taylor Lewan]

There was a couple passes in the game where Raiola kind of missed the guy or the dude dropped it. Anything Raola did, you could just hear it was me and Will kind of joking about it. But also, everyone around is like, man, he's just got it one of his office, he, like, ran up and helped me. Everyone's like, see team guy as halftime, like, guys are running in rails walking. He looks at his right receiver say, hey, stay here.

[NickMercs]

Okay?

[Taylor Lewan]

Stay here. As he's walking, it's just like kids walking up. Kids, a freshman walking with team out.

[NickMercs]

Him and the coach, he wanted to go for it. And the coach was like, no, no, no. Come on, come on, let's go for it, Coach. Like, get over here. And then he has. Calm down, calm down. The kid wanted to go for it, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

It was like. I forgot how much they needed, man. He's got ready to go.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's.

[NickMercs]

He's hungry, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's getting dangerous towards, like, kind of creepy with his Patrick Mahomes stuff, though.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

But even the pregame jump, you gotta have some.

[Taylor Lewan]

Have you seen the clip of him. Him and Mahomes, each other? And Mahomes is doing his.

[NickMercs]

He's right, though. He's right. And he does the same.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's the same thing. It's the same dress.

[NickMercs]

He's inspired. He's inspired.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's inspired. If he does this. If he does this, he's going to end up in a Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant situation where he can never be the goat now because he. He basically did the same thing as he got. Look at this. Watch this clip. This. That's.

[NickMercs]

Those.

[Taylor Lewan]

Those both aren't Patrick Mahomes.

[NickMercs]

Wait, are they the same number?

[Taylor Lewan]

Same number.

[NickMercs]

Oh, God. That makes us.

[Taylor Lewan]

So now the kids. The kids are stuck.

[Will Compton]

North Star, man. All right.

[Taylor Lewan]

No question.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, no question.

[Will Compton]

You had your. You had your poster and you.

[NickMercs]

I mean, Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback in the league right now, right?

[Will Compton]

Oh, 1000.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's the baby. Go right now at his stage of

[NickMercs]

his career, the only one that can maybe take down Tom. Yeah, yeah, right. Well, right now in the league.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right now in this many years in the league. And Tom, you compare those side by side. Pat is better.

[NickMercs]

Oh, he's. He's beating him out right now.

[Will Compton]

Super Bowls, I think, completion percentage, touchdowns,

[NickMercs]

dominated that AFC for so long.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's scary. It's scary. And you kind of got the Josh Allens, the Lamar Jacksons, the Joe Burrows.

[NickMercs]

Are they going to go again?

[Taylor Lewan]

Those guys are kind of like, are

[NickMercs]

they going to go again?

[Taylor Lewan]

Mannings in a way where it's like, you got to beat Pat or Tom Brady and you know they're going to get theirs. They're going to get there. I hope they do.

[Will Compton]

We have.

[NickMercs]

It'll Be the first team we got

[Will Compton]

to back up for a second because we just. We. We glossed over it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I'll go back to it. Use. No fucking way we're losing to Michigan State. You got to stop with that talk. Is that what you were talking about glossing over? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. You cannot go and just start peppering. We're gonna lose. I think you said Penn State. We don't even play Penn State this year. Like we just. You just start glossing over.

[NickMercs]

All throwing names. I'm throwing names out. Yeah. I just don't feel good.

[Taylor Lewan]

Listen, we've lost a lot of guys and there's a lot of development to happen, but Sharon Moore is the guy. What I don't like. Here's what I don't like. Wink came from the Giants. I played Wink multiple times when he was with the Giants. And in other places, the exotic blitzes and all those things. It's great when you're playing a quarterback that can't dissect the defense. The way that I keep up his last name. Quentin. Yours.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, the way he did.

[Taylor Lewan]

But if you. If you throw those like you need to, sometimes you just need to go, man.

[NickMercs]

I mean, he's the best cover college football right now, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

He's impressive. It's an impressive cat. Look at this. That's you right now. That was me on Saturday.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, but you gotta. No, you get in the sauna, you have a iced tea, and you're back. But you. That. You gotta remember that's what it was.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's what it was. Was past tense. Now we gotta look towards the future. And I'm not. Listen, Am I gonna sit here and say we're gonna for sure win the Natty? No, but we can sit there and say one lost teams can still go to the playoffs.

[NickMercs]

It's 12 team playoffs, one loss.

[Taylor Lewan]

But you're putting the cart before the horse. You're just putting L's in our category. Right now there's only one.

[NickMercs]

Okay?

[Taylor Lewan]

Right now there's only one. And we got our Kansas State next week.

[NickMercs]

Let's. Let's go. And we got another muffin around the bus. And let's just everybody say how many losses on the season just for fun.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, that's not fun. Are you a Michigan fan? Are you a Michigan fan?

[NickMercs]

Are you the thoughts man.

[Will Compton]

Schedule published schedule.

[NickMercs]

And let's just go around the bus, man. You know.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know how hard it is to take a video for a minute and a half and flex that hard the whole time. You know how hard it is to do that.

[NickMercs]

Looking good, though, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Thanks, brother. Yeah, I was doing the trap.

[NickMercs]

Especially after that loss.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know, right now my hair. My hair is telling you we lost.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You see that?

[NickMercs]

Yeah. The song and the tease got you back in the game, though.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. You get.

[NickMercs]

You're back, bro. You're back.

[Will Compton]

Sure.

[NickMercs]

We can get the schedule and I appreciate the.

[Taylor Lewan]

Let's not. Let's focus on not being nasty. All right? Let's focus on.

[Will Compton]

It's not. Listen.

[Taylor Lewan]

Optimism.

[Will Compton]

If we say a loss, it doesn't mean nasty.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, no, no, no. But if you're.

[Will Compton]

The first couple weeks.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

We just thought I would say you guys. Your assholes should be tight against usc.

[NickMercs]

Yep.

[Will Compton]

Illinois.

[Taylor Lewan]

Stop.

[Will Compton]

Oregon. Dude, I'm. Bro, Illinois is not like they beat. It's not a walk in the park. Yeah. Kansas is ranked and they have a good team, bro. Like, we have Illinois in two weeks and that's not a game I am sleeping on, bro.

[NickMercs]

They got to go out to. To the. To the Northwest to. Man at Washington. I know that's not the same team, but we're not either. Right? That might be a hard game, Matt. Washington.

[Will Compton]

True.

[Taylor Lewan]

First away game. First away games.

[NickMercs]

I'm just saying that we have a really hard schedule and to lose to Texas the way we did at home. Like, I see five losses soon possible here.

[Will Compton]

That's. That's what I wanted to go back to. Like defending national champions. The high that Michigan fans were on for the majority of that stadium to leave.

[Taylor Lewan]

It was gross.

[Will Compton]

Early in the third.

[NickMercs]

That actually happened.

[Will Compton]

No, that was. That was real.

[NickMercs]

Oh, I didn't know that you were

[Taylor Lewan]

waiting to talk next.

[Will Compton]

Shitloads of people leaving the. And as good as. And you know, he's ruined my day a couple times on College football. 25. Mason Graham. Graham. Mason. Mason Graham. Mason Graham. Some of his body language, like as one of the best players on the team and a leader. Some of his body language was not exciting.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it was tough contrast.

[NickMercs]

That guy's an animal, though.

[Will Compton]

You need your animals to be corralling cats. Like, you know, you remember being double

[NickMercs]

teamed the whole time, bro. That Texas. That offensive line. I mean, you.

[Taylor Lewan]

You.

[NickMercs]

I mean you. You know, but so good.

[Taylor Lewan]

They got a kid. They got a kid that might be a first round pick.

[Will Compton]

It just. It seemed like they were calling it in, man.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

It seemed like they were packing it in, walking to the sideline. And that's just me being real about it. Like, I. I think that kid is A stud.

[Taylor Lewan]

I didn't like. I didn't like Mason Graham's energy. There was one where it's like, second quarter, Texas was on the other side of the field, away from the student section. And the second quarter, and they called a timeout and they start walking over defense. Guy jogs over. Mason was walking, and that bothered me.

[Will Compton]

Defense is huddle by himself outside after halftime.

[Taylor Lewan]

I walk back, he's on the bike.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Some little things I walk past.

[NickMercs]

You guys would know, man. You've been in those huddles. I, you know, it just.

[Taylor Lewan]

You brought up a great point during the game. Aiden Hutchinson would have been losing his mind. And then the tough concert last night, by the way.

[NickMercs]

God, just every play, all over the place.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

I just love it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hey, listen, we've said on this podcast, white guys are making a comeback.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, I love your. I love the all white. The black versus white. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. I think we're getting cooked. But it's.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

But it's.

[NickMercs]

It's getting better.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, there's some good stuff to be. Alex Anzalone. Yeah, he was catching my eyes everywhere. Yeah, he was everywhere.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

But I'm building that up. That'll be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[NickMercs]

It's pretty crazy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Now, the contract contrast between Mason Graham and then number nine, which. I don't remember his name for Nebraska.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Ty.

[NickMercs]

Ty.

[Taylor Lewan]

So this kid, number nine for Nebraska, he was playing like a bat out of hell. Like, they'll hold that. No, no, no.

[Will Compton]

He's.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's like a nose three technique type of guy. But the kid was just playing with his hair on fire the entire day. High energy, keeping the guys around him. You. And it was. It was. It's tough for me to admit, but you watched Michigan. The energy didn't seem there. And then the perfect contrast was an hour and a half later, I'm in Nebraska and I'm watching a Nebraska team that seems like they're playing for a national championship. And it seemed like every snap mattered to them, every single moment. And I didn't. I. I didn't necessarily feel that after the first couple of series.

[NickMercs]

Let me ask you two a question, because you guys play NFL, you play college, high level, the highest level you can play. When your team changes a lot and you go from having a stacked team to then having, like, you know, you got a lot of guys have left, it's going to be really, really different. You prepare for this game, but, you know the team you're going against is damn good. Do you know you're Going to lose.

[Taylor Lewan]

I think it's different.

[NickMercs]

Hold on. Is there. Is there ever a game that you know you're gonna lose?

[Will Compton]

No, not a game. You go in thinking, we're gonna lose this game. You go in knowing that, you know this is going to be a tough. A tough team.

[NickMercs]

Okay, so maybe after like the first quarter, do you start kind of like maybe the first drive?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

For sure.

[Will Compton]

When does those thoughts that team knew that it was about to be a long day?

[NickMercs]

That's what I'm asking.

[Will Compton]

Similar. Like, even last year.

[NickMercs]

That's what you guys are saying.

[Will Compton]

You're saying he was killing us against Nebraska. It's like that second your boys quit, your voice quit once that tip pass happen, it'. Oh, here we go again. You kind of just get used to it. But what's surprising is that you go from a national title team. Like, the culture. There is still a culture. Like Sharon Moore, he was an internal upgrade or he was an internal hire. So the same cultures there. Like, when you're a young guy seeing everybody else play well, like, you can't wait for your opportunity the next year, like, yeah, you might feel like fans might feel like you're down in talent, but as an individual, you don't think, like, you're elapsed. You just think, oh, now it's my time. Like, that's how you train all offseason. You're like, yo, this is my moment.

[NickMercs]

Right?

[Taylor Lewan]

I think. I think when you're in college, you drink the Kool Aid so much. Like, when I was at Michigan, we were 09 to 13. We. We were not a bad team. We never won the games we shouldn't win, but we never lost the games we should. Well, we. Yeah, you know what I'm trying to say.

[NickMercs]

I got you.

[Taylor Lewan]

So anyway. But you go into all these games. Yeah, you go to all these games and you're like, yo, we're gonna. We're gonna dominate. Ball. Ball. As you get in the NFL and you get older and you start to see the talent level on teams, like, you kind of realize, like, okay, we got to play really well to beat this team.

[Will Compton]

NFL, you might chalk up some back half.

[Taylor Lewan]

You might look at him be like,

[Will Compton]

all right, we might drop this one.

[NickMercs]

Oh, no way.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Week 10. Week 10. I remember week 10, like, 2019, we were playing Kansas City at home, and I remember being like a no way. Like, we got to play with our hair on fire. Like, Kansas City was on such a. Such a roll. They're up 10, 0 after the first quarter, and we Came back and won that game. Game. And that's when we had a big run. But that was like one of the only few games I was like, man, I don't know about this one.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, because you guys start off two and four.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, we started off tough and we were just, you know, not really gelling as a team. Here's what bugs me about Michigan the most. They've got talent. They're lacking in a couple of very key areas right now. Right, that sounds very, very key areas. But they've got talent. Like when I, When I watch.

[NickMercs]

I also when I watch, when I watch quarterback thing, man, I, I really know the two quarterback thing is. Is just the stupidest thing. It's not. It doesn't work, man. When does it work?

[Taylor Lewan]

It doesn't to a tongue of Iloa

[NickMercs]

for like a play.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, no, he was. Jalen. Jalen hurts was in there for tua. No, they benched him and they put him in during the national championship and came back. No, but that's not. But that's not.

[NickMercs]

That's not what I'm talking about.

[Will Compton]

You're talking about balancing two, three.

[NickMercs]

I'm talking about playing two, two quarterbacks like on purpose throughout the game. That man, Alex Orgy goes in and they all know what we're doing. And then we do it every time.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, the.

[NickMercs]

I know. I know what he's doing.

[Taylor Lewan]

My grandma was third and one. We had a third and one in the red zone. And Orgy. Orgy came in, they call a timeout. Orgy goes back out, he sends a guy in motion, direct snap, and then runs forward for like a two yard loss. In my mind I was like, what the are we do? That's when the. The angry fan of me came out and I was like, bro, can we not. Can we not not do that? But like, like, it's tough, man. Like this Davis Warren kid, you know, he's gone. He's beat Leukemia. He walked on. He wins a starting job. He's got a hell of a story. And he can throw the ball a little bit, but he just, he's just missing guys right now.

[Will Compton]

Stories. Not enough.

[NickMercs]

And we heard about the story, though.

[Taylor Lewan]

I haven't seen him throw enough to know whether he could throw it or not. Now there was a couple against Fresno State where he rolls out, he has a guy open, throws at his feet. It's just like something's just not gelling right now. But there's talent on that team. And here's why the defense. Here's why this Is this is going to be Matt rules greatest season right now. Here's why. Because. Because next year they're going to get five star recruits and they're going to be guys that come in that are of the talent level similar to Raiola, where they're going to start to match receivers with him, match an offensive line with them defensive players. Guys are going to want to start going to Nebraska. This is going to be the season we look at for Matt Rule, where he goes, look what Matt Rule did with what he had. And that's not a shot at Nebraska. But what I saw against Colorado was pretty down. What I saw against Colorado is a young quarterback who's going to be elite. Probably a first overall pick eventually. A running. Two running backs are playing with their hair on fire and then the rest of the guys playing 11 dudes playing as a united front. And that's what Matt. That is what's so cool about Matt Rule in Nebraska, bro.

[NickMercs]

I'm sorry, what does that mean? Nebraska? No, none of these, none of these five star cats from down south, man. Those swamps beefy mother. They do not want to go play away from their mama and their papa and their family up in Nebraska. You wonder how I know. I game with these guys. Okay? I break bread with these guys, man. They tell me they don't want to go to Nebraska. They're gonna play at lsu, they're gonna play at Alabama, they're gonna play Georgia, they're gonna play in Florida, Michigan. I mean even that's hard to get him to go up there, man. It really is. It's tough. So tell me why it's way up here. They don't want to go play up there. It's cold, bro. It sucks half the year if not more in Nebraska. There's nothing Nebraska.

[Will Compton]

This staff is going to bring balance back to us being a blue blood.

[NickMercs]

You really believe that?

[Will Compton]

Yes, bro. I'm telling.

[NickMercs]

Look, I hope it for you.

[Will Compton]

I wish I see the vision for a weekend.

[NickMercs]

You would. I'm sure we have fun because you're you. But like.

[Will Compton]

But you would see. You would also see the vision. I mean we're still getting transfers. Like we're getting cats there.

[NickMercs]

If you were.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I was. I was schmoozing one up over the weekend.

[NickMercs]

Were you really?

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Five star old lineman.

[NickMercs]

I don't see jacket.

[Taylor Lewan]

The kid that was like six, eight.

[Will Compton]

The boy Jackson and Dawson Merritt who's committed to Bama right now. I say, hey bro. Would look good in red.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're both crimson actually.

[Will Compton]

You look Good in red.

[Taylor Lewan]

One of them's crimson.

[Will Compton]

Grabbing the biceps. Hey, I'm telling.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Commercial Narrator]

You.

[Taylor Lewan]

You.

[Will Compton]

You play at Bama, Georgia, like you're going to go wherever you go and decide it's going to be a great decision. But you go to Georgia, bam. And these other schools, you'll be a cog in the machine. You come and win here.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Forever. And this class will look just two and. Oh, right now, maybe got a trap game with Northern Iowa coming up. You can hear the preview of that on the locker room on Thursday when we drop that. But it's just. It's one game at a time. But this class, this team does have a chance to be remembered forever for bringing it back to what Taylor's talking about, where you start getting more guys in. I'm. I'm telling you.

[Taylor Lewan]

Can I have a quick timeout?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Can we respect the timeout now? Let's you and I just talk like, Nick's not here.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't like how this guy's coming in here and making us have to defend our schools. This is our show.

[Will Compton]

That's okay, though.

[Taylor Lewan]

This is our. This is our show.

[Will Compton]

This is. This is the. This is the batter's box.

[Taylor Lewan]

We should be able to.

[NickMercs]

I thought we were just having a real conversation.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. We're supposed to time out.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're not here.

[Will Compton]

Can I tell you something, though?

[Taylor Lewan]

Go ahead.

[Will Compton]

On your end. On Michigan's end.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

He's been a fan of Michigan.

[Taylor Lewan]

I know. And he's being disrespectful.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like, you've got. Like. To be a fan is to have delusion. You have to have, in a sense, delusion. You know that better than anybody.

[Will Compton]

But I knew that we were building something and people just had to. Hey, patience.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I can sit here and consciously say, yeah, missions going missions. Obviously, because we've lost all game. Has taken a step back this year than we have in years past. That's the reality. Other than that.

[Will Compton]

On half the schedule.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's what I'm saying. That's why he's. That's like crazy, guys.

[Will Compton]

And I hate. I truly. I want this to land as soft as possible. You guys might lose five games this year, and you gotta be ready.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm not getting what I need. Time back in. You're back in, Nick. Go ahead.

[NickMercs]

I'm not prepared. I. I'm.

[Taylor Lewan]

You pulled up my Michigan schedule.

[Will Compton]

Back of the bus feel, Jack.

[NickMercs]

What do you think? I've been waiting to go around, man.

[Kal Penn]

Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

I just looked at Michigan schedule. Hold on. So you guys have AR State next week. I think you guys will probably pull that one out.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

Usc, most likely. Y' all are gonna get.

[Will Compton]

Hang on. That. That, that's.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's nasty. Respect. And then say something disrespectful.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

So you did Minnesota. Minnesota. I think you guys have opportunity to win Washington.

[Will Compton]

Opportunity?

[Guest Analyst]

I don't think. I think Washington because it's a West coast game. Like Nick said. That's gonna be a tough travel schedule to be tough to win. Michigan State at Illinois.

[NickMercs]

You went. You went past Illinois.

[Guest Analyst]

Oh, Illinois. Yeah, we talked about. I do think Illinois is going to be a tough program for y' all to face.

[NickMercs]

They're good.

[Guest Analyst]

So that coach is real. I do think y' all are going to beat Indiana and Northwestern. Everything else is up in the air. Ohio State obviously is. Y' all's the scariest game of y' all season, being the last and your biggest rival. But I think you'll have Northwestern, Indiana and possibly Minnesota in the bag.

[NickMercs]

What about you, dad?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, we need a lot of improvement.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

There's just so much work to be done. I. I don't feel comfortable.

[Taylor Lewan]

Do you mind grabbing the mic?

[Will Compton]

I don't feel comfortable over under seven and a half wins this year.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Come on. Oh, man. Just say it, man. Who cares what people think, man?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Just say my heart is with Taylor, though. I want. I want to be like that.

[Taylor Lewan]

Me too.

[NickMercs]

But. But you're just looking at the schedule.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Yeah, I mean, I. I think five losses is real.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that's potential.

[NickMercs]

Taylor, don't count it out loud.

[Will Compton]

That's just potential.

[NickMercs]

Don't, don't. Don't count them like this.

[Taylor Lewan]

I see three potential losses on the schedule.

[NickMercs]

Which ones?

[Will Compton]

The. With the one.

[Taylor Lewan]

The three. The three potential is. Oh, yeah.

[NickMercs]

So SC or in Ohio?

[Taylor Lewan]

We already have one sc. Oregon. And I know that. I. Listen, don't be crazy, but I'm telling you, dude, I'm telling you, when it comes to rivalry games, bro, you gotta throw. You gotta throw records out the window.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, it's different.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's why when I was there in 2011 and 12, 2000, 2012 season, or 2013 season, they were better than us. We were a 75 program and we went for two at the end of the game for the win and didn't get it. And they were. They were.

[NickMercs]

You were right there.

[Taylor Lewan]

Top five team. I'm just saying we, we can. You guys can say all the things you want now. I extremely disrespectful that we're talking about Minnesota. That's CR like they've had.

[Will Compton]

They've they've done solid.

[Taylor Lewan]

They played North Carolina in week one, missed a field goal and sent off their fireworks. Will, you're not going to tell me that program's got their together okay?

[Will Compton]

By the way, you're just talking about Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts why

[Commercial Narrator]

did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem?

[NickMercs]

Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole

[Commercial Narrator]

filled with images of alarmingly graphic source in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that.

[Will Compton]

Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Sponsor Voice]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures [e-mail] Disclosures

[Kal Penn]

hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm the host of Irsay The Audible and iHeart Aud Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project Hail Mary Massive Sci Fi Adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.

[Ray Porter]

I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections. And it's like, okay, yo, yo, yo. Is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like, no. At this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that deeply, emotionally affected me. And I left it on the mic. That's great because it served the story. People will say like, oh, my God, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah, dude, me too.

[Kal Penn]

Listen to Irsay the Audible and I Heart audiobook book Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts away.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's a rivalry game as well. That's a rivalry game. That's for. That's for the Brown job. That's for the Brown. So once again, okay, okay.

[NickMercs]

So I respect that, by the way.

[Will Compton]

And also says Minnesota throw records out the window.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So also. No, hold on, Oregon.

[NickMercs]

I respect that.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're gonna look me in the eyes and tell me Idaho State and Boise State are a couple of good ball programs because they. Because I'm pretty sure Boise State was winning at one point against Oregon, and I pretty sure they went down to the wire with both those teams. So you're not going to look me in the eyes and tell me all of a sudden that they're going to walk home.

[NickMercs]

We're home.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, home. Michigan State. Listen, Michigan State is utter dog. I know they're dog, but again,

[Will Compton]

throw games out the window.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, you're saying we're dog. And we have the mental. We have the mental fortitude on them because we've been dusting that ass for last three years.

[NickMercs]

Tennessee guy. So he's feeling real good right now.

[Will Compton]

Tennessee's got a.

[Taylor Lewan]

And Jack. I like Jack to you to get away from the microphone because we weren't going to be nasty. Then all of a sudden we said dog walk. And we said, I hope you guys can pull.

[NickMercs]

Was crazy.

[Guest Analyst]

And I know it feels good because

[Taylor Lewan]

of how I acted. Like you could have said anything. I know it feels good.

[Guest Analyst]

I. I'm not saying I enjoy seeing like this at all, but I like seeing. This is what true fandom is, is dying every week because a team that you have no control over dictates Your mental health and that. That is college football. That's fandom.

[NickMercs]

Them.

[Guest Analyst]

It's not winning A National Championship Year 1. As a fan, this is truly how you become a Michigan fan. Obviously, you have all of the.

[Taylor Lewan]

The.

[Guest Analyst]

Whatever you played there, but this is what fandom is.

[Taylor Lewan]

Backbone of the program.

[NickMercs]

But.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah, 100.

[Taylor Lewan]

But this is what Phantom is. So you have to. You have. Okay, I'll tell you. Of all the people in here, of all the people in here, Nick, I'm most disappointed.

[NickMercs]

I know. I know.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because you should know better being a fan. You would have been one of the fans that left in the third quarter, too.

[NickMercs]

For you to sit here.

[Taylor Lewan]

It looked me in the eyes. Minnesota. Minnesota wins this win. Let's just say USC doesn't go away. We'll just. We'll. We'll play to the masses here and say it doesn't go our way. So you know what I think, because my math is for whatever reason, getting really bad. So we're 1 and 1, 2 and 1. Now we're 2 and 2. Minnesota. Yeah. 3 and 2. Washington 4 and 2. Oh, Illinois 5 and 2. Michigan State 6 and 2. Oregon. I've already said my piece. In Oregon, I'm going to say 7 and 2, Indiana 8 and 2. Northwestern 9 and 2. And then I've already talked about Ohio State. Dude, you throw those records out the window. And USC played a LSU team. USC played an LSU team who historically loses their first game against big opponents. Historically. So I'm not taking USC off the board either. I'm. We could win. We could win out. And it just depends on the boys. Gelling. They got a gel. But you can look at this schedule and be like, ohio State might be going to the OS game. I listen, in Ohio State, we might have the same record because they're going to lose in Nebraska and they're going to lose to Penn State. So we'll have a better record than them.

[NickMercs]

They're going to lose to Penn State.

[Taylor Lewan]

I love. See, that's how, you know Nebraska's made it. You just looked. You just looked over my comment about Nebraska and looked at. That's got to feel good.

[NickMercs]

Penn State ranked. They're horrible. I mean, that quarterback. I'm sorry, man, but he's just not him. Hey, you.

[Taylor Lewan]

Let's.

[NickMercs]

Let's do this.

[Taylor Lewan]

Give me a positive take about something.

[NickMercs]

Okay. I won a lot of sports bets this past. This past week. Like. Like NFL college, you name it. I.

[Taylor Lewan]

What was your best win?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I was gonna say, what were you most excited?

[NickMercs]

I put like, 8 grand on the Cowboys to win money line against the spread. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Oh, you took them with the points or you bet him?

[NickMercs]

No, I gave away points. I gave away points.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[NickMercs]

Seems like you beat the out of the Browns and we made so much money off that. Me, me, Tim, everybody, man, we all bet him.

[Taylor Lewan]

I didn't get to see.

[NickMercs]

It's just like DeSean DeShawn is done.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's pent up.

[NickMercs]

He seems like he's like. There's some real kinks in his game, and he needs to get that.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's definitely got kinks off the field.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

He needs to get back on the table.

[NickMercs]

Right. Ever since he ever said, here's what I saw a little bit. You know what I mean?

[Taylor Lewan]

What I heard is Bill o' Brien was running Clemson's offense at Houston because he couldn't conform to any other NFL offense. And now the Browns are trying to get him to go and run that offense, and he's just. He just can't do it.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, I don't see.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's why you see Joe Flacco come in and do what he did last year.

[NickMercs]

I don't see the Browns, man. I still see it.

[Taylor Lewan]

The Browns are in a tough spot and they give so much money.

[Will Compton]

He's still like the number two.

[Taylor Lewan]

You see part of my takes take on it. It is really good. Big Cow and PFT were saying that. I think we're at the point where we can say that DeShawn Watson, as good of a player he is on the field, he's even better off the field.

[Will Compton]

He's a better person than he is player.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's.

[NickMercs]

That's crazy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Which is.

[NickMercs]

Well, they kicked the homie out and they sent him down to Tampa, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, Baker.

[NickMercs]

And now he's balling.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. You're a Bucks fan, too. How you feel about Baker, you think? Yeah, yeah.

[NickMercs]

He's. Bro. He play. He plays with. With such attitude, man. It's hard not to love, you know? He just. He just wants to play football, man.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

He's not going to be as accurate as maybe like, bro, that boy Dak Prescott, man, he. He can put the ball anywhere. He's a psycho.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, you love that.

[NickMercs]

No, no, I think he's overrated. But. But during.

[Will Compton]

I think. I think people don't give him a lot of loves.

[NickMercs]

Like, the team always falls so short. But during the regular season, he's unbelievable. Believable.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, but the logo on. The logo on his helmet, dude, you're behind the eight ball every single Time. If you don't play perfect, well, it's a circus.

[NickMercs]

You know, he's not as accurate as a guy like Dak, but he plays football tough. And I think that the team that he's on, they. They enjoy that. I love Mike Evans. He scored two touchdowns the other day. That's my guy. You know, I think they got a lot going on down there, a lot of good things. But Dallas, if they can just win a game in the playoffs, man, this could be a scary team. I just don't know if they're gonna be able to do it, man. Dax just. He just never.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's the conversation after, like, they got

[NickMercs]

killed by Green Bay every year. Home in the. Come on.

[Taylor Lewan]

But Green Bay. Green Bay was the worst of NFL.

[Will Compton]

Guys you stream with.

[NickMercs]

I mean, we play with Hyquan Barkley. Great guy. I remember we were scheduled to do like a two hour stream and we played the whole day together. Yeah, yeah. Like, I was supposed to go do stuff and he was supposed to go do stuff, but we just played and we were talking the whole time just like this. He. He's actually not bad. And he's like this suit. He's got a kind of a calm demeanor, you know what I mean? And we were just kind of gaming and chatting. You remember that stream we played? We played like eight hours. We were scheduled for two. It was really strange.

[Will Compton]

Who's an NFL guy who you respect their game the most?

[NickMercs]

Mike Evans. He's better than me. A lot of those games, man.

[Will Compton]

No, I'm not kidding.

[NickMercs]

Because, I mean, I took a big step back. I stopped playing so much. And this, this guy, when he's home, he's playing, so. And he's cracked. I mean, he's unbelievable, man. He really is correct. He's unreal. He's very, very good.

[Will Compton]

One of the games.

[NickMercs]

He's better than you at Fortnite. He's better than me.

[Will Compton]

I know now, actually, Mike Evans is better than you at Fortnite.

[NickMercs]

He can build and edit like a keyboard guy. I can't. I can shoot. But you know that game, man. You got to build and edit the builds and stuff. He can do it all. And it wasn't always that way. When we first started playing, he was a bot and he was really mad about it. And I could tell. And we went like tournaments together. No, he was horrible. We went to tournaments together and we did super well. But he. He would get irritated that he couldn't keep up in these big tournaments. I kept telling, said Mike, half the lobby are pro gamers. Like, it'd be like me on the. On the field with you two and getting mad that I can't keep up. I'm not gonna. You know. But he had this look in his eye, man, like that competitor, and he would go home and practice on the low and eventually got to a point where he's.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's.

[NickMercs]

He's no joke now, man. It's crazy.

[Will Compton]

I love that.

[Taylor Lewan]

I love it, man.

[NickMercs]

That's unreal.

[Taylor Lewan]

I've never played a game of Fortnite in my life.

[Will Compton]

I don't think I played one.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[Will Compton]

I was. I was more pubg.

[NickMercs]

Are you not a gamer? You. You.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'll tell. I love, like, Red dead redemption. Yeah. RPGs. That's what they call them.

[NickMercs]

So no shooters?

[Taylor Lewan]

No, dude, I played a little bit of that Call of Duty with the zombies. Yeah, I had a good time. I thought that was really fun the

[Will Compton]

way he just said that.

[NickMercs]

He doesn't play this. That's great.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[NickMercs]

No Call of Duty with his eyes like my dad.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's crazy. Nintendo 64, Super Smash Brothers. I was filthy with that.

[NickMercs]

Fire.

[Will Compton]

Fire.

[Taylor Lewan]

Filthy. Cool.

[Will Compton]

You were best in the locker room with Super Smash Bros. Yeah, I. I control.

[Taylor Lewan]

I control.

[NickMercs]

You guys would have little lands in

[Will Compton]

there, and when I got to Tennessee, like, it seemed like they had a little thing going. Maybe it was mostly old linemen.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. We would play after every practice and stuff, like, brought it in. The thing that sucks is I broke this thumb. And it doesn't really. I can't.

[NickMercs]

No, it clicks, too.

[Taylor Lewan]

So my. My moving left is. My game has gone down a little.

[Will Compton]

Can't turn left now.

[Taylor Lewan]

I can't turn left. I'm essentially Zoolander. But we got the boys in here, we. We hooked it up one day, and they stopped wanting to play with me for, like, 20 minutes. But I was putting.

[NickMercs]

Oh, you were doing that much work.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Yeah. My freshman year at Michigan, one of my hallmates at West Quad, he was, like, all about Super Smash. And I would go in his room all the time. We would just play for hours.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And he, like, kind of put me on game of how to play. Well, hell, and eventually I ended up.

[NickMercs]

It's crazy, like, you know when your brain gets that into a game.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

The time. Just the time. Just. You blink and it's been like, eight hours.

[Taylor Lewan]

No doubt, man.

[NickMercs]

I'm so. I'm so.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's how it was for, like, Red Dead Redemption for me.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because I did that after my second ACL surgery. I Played that game and beat it in seven days.

[NickMercs]

They, they say that's one of the greatest games of all time, but I've never played this.

[Taylor Lewan]

You've never played it? You want to cry?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, that's what I heard. Like, no joke.

[Taylor Lewan]

I actually cried.

[NickMercs]

Like a moving type thing, man. Like, it's like, it hurts.

[Will Compton]

What's this? What's the newer game that you've been streaming a lot?

[NickMercs]

Elden Ring.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, Elden Ring. Is that like an rpg?

[NickMercs]

Same thing.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sounds like Skyrim.

[NickMercs]

Same thing as that. Same thing as Skyrim too.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Okay. They call it RPG 1000% need to stream red Dead.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, people were telling me to do that, man. I just, I don't know, man. I just haven't been into gaming as much lately, bro. I've been just enjoying time being a father and just chilling, you know. I've been streaming for like 20 years straight, non stop. Just games, games, games. So it's been good. Take a fat break.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, absolutely. How's that shifted for you, like since becoming a dad yet?

[NickMercs]

It's awesome. It's just, I mean, I, you know, I work from home, so that's super cool. I'm there all the time, you know. And I mean, he, he's, he's the best, man. It's so fun. I mean, but you guys know it, like, not everything changes, but the way you look at everything changes. And it's just been a lot of fun this, this period of my life, you know.

[Will Compton]

Was it hard, was it, was it hard transitioning away from gaming at first?

[NickMercs]

No. Hell no.

[Will Compton]

Like with the wife, were you guys ever kind of like, hey, the schedule, I need you to shift it around a little bit.

[NickMercs]

She, she's the goat man. She, she just, she just, just handles it all. If she needs help, she'll, you know, we'll have a conversation or whatever, you know. But at first I was streaming a lot, you know, when we had just had him. So there were times where she needed me. I took a little bit of time off, you know. But dude, she's a tank, man. She just takes care of. I, I, I, I, I have a great one, you know.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's awesome.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

When you got a good team.

[NickMercs]

20 years, bro. 20 years.

[Will Compton]

How long have you been streaming at a, at like a high level? You kind of exploded with Fortnite.

[NickMercs]

12. Yeah, 12 years now.

[Taylor Lewan]

What? So 20, 20 years.

[NickMercs]

I was, I was big before that too, man. I mean, you know, I was one of the first partner streamers on Justin tv, which is now Twitch tv. So way back when, when streaming was really, really difficult to break into, I had a buddy who was, who was a nerd who knew all about it. And I mean, I didn't. So he came out, he set me all up, and there was really only maybe like 10 or 20 people streaming then, you know, and you couldn't make any, any cash off it. It was just kind of for fun.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fun.

[NickMercs]

And I'm playing and there's a Chad, and it's all. It's this new experience, you know, I'm having fun with it and then it just kind of evolved into everything that it is today. But dude, I've been, I've been gaming since I was like a kid. I mean, competitively gaming since I was like 10 or 11. I remember begging him to take me to a, a small tournament like an hour away from my home. And he wouldn't do it. And I told him, like, I go look it, I promise you that there's like 400 cash prize. I'll win that thing. And he wouldn't do it. It. And then finally he cracked and he took me to one and I won. And I had like four or five hundred cash. I'm like, see? And he couldn't believe it. He drove me to a Bank of America and we made a bank account. I was like 12 years old and he had to be there because I can't make an account.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

And then he. So he's trying to. And he was super. We, we had a lot going on just because, you know, he coached college ball and you know, that environment, man. Like, you know, and my family, I mean, I know, you know, Alex, Brad, those guys playing the. I got cousins in the NFL, cousins that play high level college. My little brother's an athlete. He was an athlet. He. He coached. So for me to not go down that route and start doing this gaming, he. He was having a breakdown, man. You know, he had no idea how to handle it, you know, but we, I promise him, I look, I mean, look, I'm the best of this Gears of War, Halo, so just take me to these tournaments and I'll just cash out. He goes, all right, so we start going all these tourneys and I'm just. 400, 800, 500, 400. Just cash, cash, cash. Before I got 20 grand, I'm 14 with 20k in my bank account.

[Taylor Lewan]

I couldn't imagine, could not imagine that.

[NickMercs]

Now I'm like, yo, I just want to go buy, you know, but. But he won't let me you know what I mean? But we got 20k in there. And that's when it just started getting crazier and crazier, man. That was like 100k and then 150k by the time I was 18. 150 grand? Your bank account? 18? Yeah, from gaming. And I'm like, what the do I do with this? I'm sitting down with the tax lady with a. You know, it's nuts, man.

[Will Compton]

How old were you in 2012?

[NickMercs]

How was I? 20? Fuck, man. 20, maybe. Okay, right.

[Will Compton]

I think it's perfect that dad is on the bus because him being from the football mold, it's like, it's even still happening. Like, your kids. Like, if your kid wants to be a streamer or a gamer, the parents at the time, like, even myself, it's like, yeah, these dudes who are trying to make money streaming. Like, is there anything in it? Like, would you guys go toes about him.

[Taylor Lewan]

Him.

[Will Compton]

Him spending way too much time on the game? Like, I would love to hear dad, how much.

[NickMercs]

There's time.

[Taylor Lewan]

No doubt. There's no doubt. He was the guy knocking the door. Like, bro, it's time to go.

[Will Compton]

Even coaches are like, hey, stop playing video games.

[NickMercs]

Tell them about when my high school coach came to me.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Well, no, I mean, the breaking point for me was we were in Dallas for mlg, remember?

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

And you guys won that tournament. And I'm standing there looking at you holding a cardboard check that says 40 grand on it. And I'm going, damn.

[NickMercs]

Damn.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Maybe I better get fully behind this, you know?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I mean, no, we went at it many times to answer your question. I mean, she's fighting breaking Xboxes. I work for him now, But I talked to his high school football coach, said, please, man, you got to talk to him. Just. Just come to the house. You know, he doesn't listen to me. And he's knocked on the door, and Nick strolls up there from his gaming console, you know, and the guy's trying to talk him into coming to practice. And Nick's like, yeah, you know, maybe I will. Maybe I won't.

[NickMercs]

And you're pissed, dude, I couldn't. Yeah, he was super. So.

[Will Compton]

So, bro, you got you. You're gonna put your future into gaming. Like, there's no future in that. I'm sure you're feeling at the time.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Of course.

[NickMercs]

Exactly. Of course.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Because there was nobody to emulate, nobody to follow. I mean, he burned the pack, basically.

[NickMercs]

Like, we literally didn't talk for a couple years after that. That point. No, that's how bad he got like yeah bro. We would go at it, we'd yell. And then you know, your dad's gonna discipline you. You know, kick. Kick my ass. You know. And then. But he like from my pov, he just didn't understand that this is what I love to do at the end of the day in life, you know, I. I think it's really important to just be passionate and follow your heart. If you love something, get after it. And this is what I love to do. But I'm skipping my high school practices. I'm skipping school. My grades are falling behind.

[Will Compton]

You're skipping school?

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Because I was up to like three, four in the morning every night playing and really good. And we were winning online tournaments too. That's when they were pushing out those game battles online tourney. So now I'm cashing out on these like 2v2 little side gigs. I'm making like 300 bucks in my room. The I'm going to go to algebra for bro, you know, I don't care. And then I would go to school and I'd be so tired. That can't even perform here anyways, man. So I'm sleeping. My teachers are kicking me out. It's this whole thing. So they're thinking about kicking me out to like army camp like for kids

[Will Compton]

and which I love. I mean it's like you got a son that's not going to doing all the things that you should be doing.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

I look back, I know I don't follow him at all. I mean, I don't have any. Any Weir Weird in my heart. He. He was confused and he. And he. And. And he should have been. And he was just trying to steer his son in the right direction. I mean me being the. That I am, you just can't tell me what to do, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

So.

[NickMercs]

So I just kept. And eventually, you know, it. It popped off for me. But the truth is is back then I was throwing my life away. You know what I mean? Just because I love to do something that wasn't popular.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[NickMercs]

And it just so happened that when the whole thing blew the up. Because it blew up, I. I was right in the front, man. I was already one of the bigger guys. So my overnight went from, you know, okay, I'm making like 100k a year now. I'm making like a mil. You know. Now me and him got. Now we gotta try to understand all this, you know?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

And I mean, it's great. I love that. You know what I mean? But it's a pretty. It's a pretty crazy childhood in our family dynamic.

[Will Compton]

It was.

[NickMercs]

It was tough to grow up that way, you know, because.

[Will Compton]

Because you're like family. It sounds like they're all. You got his dad athletes, bro.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, his dad hated me for a long time, man. Man, he did. Yeah, he did. He couldn't stand you, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Your dad sounds like every single dad

[NickMercs]

I was, the wild man would have

[Will Compton]

been the exact same.

[NickMercs]

Exactly.

[Will Compton]

And there's wrestling in your family.

[Taylor Lewan]

If I skip. If I skip football.

[NickMercs]

Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying. My little brother was a two times. Hey champion. Because I did that. But I started skipping those practices as well. Dude, he would. He just gets so angry. But yeah, I mean, you know, look, I just loved it. I loved it. Like when you light someone when you're coming off the edge and bang. Did you just get that feeling? You know, I. I felt that too when I played football, when I played bad. I played all kinds of sports and I was good at them too. I mean, I. Right. I wasn't as good as you guys, but I was, I. I was decent. I had fun. But when I'm playing gaming, I clutch up and the crowd goes nuts. I mean, there was times I've been on land where I make a big play in the ground, shaking and this falling from the ceiling and stuff. I mean, I got clips of Aiden and I popping off and we're winning like 50 grand just by getting these kills and I'm killing them and the crowd's going crazy cardboard checks, which, I mean, that's what I live for, man. You know, so. Yeah, just. Just. It took a while to get there.

[Taylor Lewan]

What. So you guys. You said you two didn't talk for a couple of years. What? Well, inevitably brought you two back together.

[Will Compton]

Is it like.

[NickMercs]

I don't, I don't remember. I just remember him and I really not seeing eye to eye, obviously. And I think that, you know, I love my dad. Like my dad, you know, to me, this is my person, man. He's my guy. You know, I got my. But this is the guy that I wanted to. I want to be like, if I can be half the father he is someday. Great not to be too emotional.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Oh, keep going, keep going.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[NickMercs]

You know, you need to laugh.

[Will Compton]

Break up for that.

[NickMercs]

No, I, you know, so I really wanted to get that relationship back. And he did too, man. I'm his first son. You know, we. We got, you know, a lot going on. There was a lot. It was a tough situation. And we both are smart enough to know that that's not his fault or my fault. It's just, wow, this is a really interesting like position that we're both in. And we can't go anywhere for help because I don't have anybody to show him like, hey dad, here's this gamer that I can be like. And he doesn't, he doesn't have a parent to go to. Like, hey, here's this kid that skips. Everything important in his life is doing, is doing this.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

So we're in this weird place, but ultimately, you know, we just said, okay, enough's enough, man. You know, let's just be, let's just be dudes about it, you know what I mean? Let's, let's just, and we just, I

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

think right about then was SEAL training.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, then it was weird, man.

[Will Compton]

Talk about the SEAL training.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I, I coached him. Okay, get your ass on this track, boy.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know?

[NickMercs]

So to go to buds to try to be a seal, you have to get a buds, like contract. You can't just go. So you got to do a push up test, a pull up test, a sit up test, two mile run, like a swim, all back to back to back to back to back. And then you get a certain score and they only really draft the top scores, you know, every, what, two months or three months, I can't really remember. So we trained for like two years.

[Will Compton]

And at this point when you're training, you wanted to be a seal.

[NickMercs]

I stated, this is going to be a really quick story but, but I'm sure you guys can relate. I stayed up too late one night and I, I, I clicked on too many bad links and I saw stuff that was happening out there and I went to him, I, I tried to talk to him about it and he goes, Nick, I know man, it's, it's a crazy world sometimes we're living in. And it ate me alive, man, like for weeks I couldn't get that night out of my head. Just seeing that some of the stuff that goes on and I wanted to do something about it and I, and I, I, it was that night. And then I, I, I started to hook up. Like, who actually goes and deals with some of these people? And all the, all the Google searches just can't see. You'll see. Or see, you'll see. I'm like, I guess I went to a fucking recruiting office. I, I sat down with the guy, I told him I wanted to be a CEO. He told me how. And then we had to train For a couple of years to get that bid and we got it. And then I went into, you know, I went to boot camp in like a 800 division. It's like a sped up boot camp a little bit harder. It was pretty easy though. You know, people don't quit there. And then you go to pre buds, which is like a two or three month, you know, it was like kind of like a college football camp. Like you're just lifting weights, you're doing track sessions. All your trainers are collegiate trainers. It was super cool. David Goggins, he, he actually came, he actually came back to our class and I remember him screaming at all of us before we went on like some 20 mile thing in the snow. And he said if you, if you don't hang with him, then you're cut. I didn't hang with him and I didn't get cut. Yeah, it's hard. He's kind of hard to keep up with, but yeah. Then I went out to buds and I lasted about two weeks and I had, I had a lot of trouble with everything underwater. And they give you demerit chits. A chit is like a, like a blemish kind of on your contract. So if you, if you're not performing in certain areas and you're holding the group back, you get a chit. And if you get a certain amount of them, you got to go in front of the board and like address that. And I was getting all these chits for underwater stuff and finally the chief just said, hey, listen man, like you know, if you're struggling with underwater and you want to be a seal, that's a problem. Yeah, so he told me to meet him, you know, super early at the pool, just him and I, and he's gonna give me another chance to pass this underwater stuff. And I couldn't do it, so he kicked me out.

[Taylor Lewan]

What was the underwater stuff like? What, what was the underwater things that were so difficult?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, they tie, they tie your feet together, tie your hands behind your back and that's fine. You got, you gotta like bob up and down the bottom of a 12 foot pool. Then you got to do a 50 yard swim.

[Taylor Lewan]

Swim.

[NickMercs]

And I was having a lot of trouble with that. I couldn't go the whole way because the way they make you do it is you got to dive off into the deep end, like pencil dive. When your feet hit the bottom, you got to do a front flip, no push off and go. And you got to go all the way without popping up. And I could not do that. I even passed out twice. No, that's weird. Super weird. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

So you, you pass out underwater and

[NickMercs]

you're woken up on the side of the pool.

[Taylor Lewan]

That deck, they just mouth to mouth.

[NickMercs]

Wake the up. No, wake the up.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, cuz they cats die during this stuff, right?

[NickMercs]

No, not during that part. People. People have died. No, people have died in buds, but I think they die from, from different parts of it. Like, you know, hell week is crazy. I never even got to that point. That's like week four, I think, or week five, maybe.

[Taylor Lewan]

What week were you like, all right, this is it.

[NickMercs]

It.

[Taylor Lewan]

I. I can't.

[NickMercs]

The moment it began, I was like, holy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Really?

[NickMercs]

You start at 3am, you go to the blacktop and I mean, they're getting you up with LMG with blank rounds inside of a, like a, like a dorm room thing. We're all running outside with our boots, our belts hanging. We get down in that blacktop and there's just this jacked instructor up on the podium. Easy. All right, we're gonna take you through a workout. If anybody lacks or anybody struggles over, you put your helmet over there, you ring the bell, get the out. I'm like, holy. And we. And then we begin. I mean, you're getting your dick kicked in for two hours. And you know, periodically, every 10, 20 minutes, they're sending you over the sand dune, down the sand dune to the ocean and you got to get wet and then you get sand all over you. If you come back with any spot that doesn't have sand, you got to go again. It's just this. The sand sticks to you, your skin chafes. And it's just this, this experience that's meant to weigh on you. It's just over time, man, it just gets harder and harder. And then you see people quitting, and that's a shitty part too. I remember that. I remember like being up. You'd be up at 3, 4. I mean, that Pacific Ocean is freezing, man. And we're sitting in there, you know, they're. They got us all in the ocean. We're freezing our asses off and we're seeing people quit. They're standing up and just being. They're going to a van and they wrap them in a blanket and they give them a hot coffee. It's okay. But buddy, it's okay, little buddy, you

[Taylor Lewan]

know, you're like, that coffee would smack.

[Will Compton]

I was gonna say. And you're like, man, this could be so easy. Just go get this blanket.

[NickMercs]

I'm gonna say something like, no, Cap, bro. I, I, I used to, like, piss on myself to stay warm. Like, during those times, I literally just start peeing for a second. I'd feel warm, like, okay. Ah, man. Yeah, that, that, that two weeks was probably the hardest two weeks in my entire life. But I learned a lot about myself, you know, I got some friends that made it all the way through through. I don't regret any of it, you know?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And the thing, too, is, like, you stay up, you watch all these links that make you want to do this, and you're like, oh, I want to make a difference.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Going through those couple of weeks, whether it worked. It didn't. Obviously didn't work out, but the guys that did work out for you guys felt pretty good about our country. Yeah. You know, those dogs are out there.

[NickMercs]

Seals have to. The, they go through. And that's just the beginning, you know, you have to get through buds, which, I mean, I'm. I tapped in two weeks. These guys are going through eight months of training, then sqt. Seal qualification training, where they put it all together up there in Alaska for another eight months. And then, then you go pick your job, like, your specific job, sniper this or that, and then, and then you go to school for that for another age. I mean, bro, you are just. God. Yeah, you're just dialed, man. It's the machine.

[Will Compton]

And when you got cut, are you bummed? Are you kind of relieved?

[NickMercs]

Yeah. I remember calling him. The only place you can get service from is the top of the building. I called.

[Will Compton]

Were you nervous to call your own man?

[NickMercs]

Oh, my God.

[Will Compton]

Right?

[NickMercs]

It's one of the worst phone calls in my life, man. I caught. I, I couldn't get the words out. Yeah, right.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

That's sucked.

[Will Compton]

That was a.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

We worked so hard, man.

[NickMercs]

We did. We did. I, I just should have done more. I should have done more preparation on the underwater stuff, and I really fell short there, you know, and it was just, it was an area. And the thing about going through SEAL training like that is those instructors, the entire program is designed where they, they're doing all that on purpose, so as soon as they see the crack in the armor, they just attack it.

[Will Compton]

Right?

[NickMercs]

So, so they had my ass in the pool extra like, just screwing with me, you know what I mean? Because they knew that trying to break it you, that, that's, that's what they're doing. They did. But it makes you better, man. Look, look, I, I mean, I, I firmly believe that everybody should, should go through some of those things, because then you appreciate little Things a lot more, man. I mean, you know, super small. Like having your phone. I mean, you know.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[NickMercs]

You never know it, but it's crazy.

[Taylor Lewan]

My senior year, we went to like San Diego and we did like, we went with the Navy seals and did like three, four hours with them.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, they do that.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I was like at the end of the three, four hours, I was so I was done. There was no way I was going to do anything.

[NickMercs]

Remember what they had you doing?

[Taylor Lewan]

We were carrying the boat. We were doing. We were going over that same hill into the water, rolling around in the sand. They had that little obstacle course.

[NickMercs]

I saved a couple guys doing that.

[Taylor Lewan]

It was. It was nuts. Now Michigan, Michigan does like team 131. We were team 134, cuz we did the Navy SEAL thing and they jumped off and we started doing that. It's like all the seniors as like

[NickMercs]

my helmet as the boats.

[Taylor Lewan]

You can. Yeah, that's the dog.

[NickMercs]

That's me in pre buzz. My buddy Gardner.

[Will Compton]

That's you.

[NickMercs]

No, that's. That's. But I'm feeling. I'm asking what he's doing. So you have to clean all this off your belt. And there's even like a spec on it. And the whole class does push ups and they do that on purpose. You know, it's like peewee football. Like, you know when that kid that the coach didn't want on the team and he's on the team and it sucks because his mom is. He's forcing him to do it. He doesn't want to be there. He's got to play like eight plays. Those eight plays. He gets killed every time. And they just get. They get 10 yards. So everybody's just mad about this kid, right? Well, in practice, that same kid, because he just doesn't want to be there. Now we all got to run around that tree that's two miles away because this kid can't keep up. Yeah, they are the best at that.

[Will Compton]

Yo, if we would have loafs at Nebraska my senior year, like say I had three loafs, I would have to sit on the chair while the rest of the linebacker room would have to run three gas.

[Taylor Lewan]

Explain.

[NickMercs]

Explain what a loaf is Exactly.

[Will Compton]

Though a loaf is ultimately like not finishing to the ball. Like if you're not. The way that they would do it is if you're not on the screen at the end of the play or if you get outran by, you know, if you're a DB and you get outran by a linebacker to the ball or if you're a linebacker. You get outran by a D lineman or you change your, you change your tempo at all. Like you start to slow down because you think it might be an incomplete passing office in the catch. And then you start sprinting.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

That would be considered a loaf. So if you get loafs, if it got bad enough, they would make the person sit on the chair while the rest of the linebacker room would run.

[Taylor Lewan]

A terrible feeling.

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[NickMercs]

And then you, you write that feeling sets in. Now everyone knows it's your fault. Fault.

[Will Compton]

And you just feel shitty because everybody's getting punished for it.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's the worst part. When you're not getting punished. Everybody else is. Is the worst way to get punished in college.

[Will Compton]

Absolutely, bro. Bought in, brought in. It's this group called the program where I. They're either former SEALs or former something in the military. And they would come in and we just basically had 48 hours of this training to where you'd be there to like past midnight and then have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and then you're in the pool. Like at the Nebraska, in the Nebraska swimming area. We'd have full sweats on having to tread water. And then your teammates, like guys who couldn't swim, like they would have to trust the guy next to them that we would hold them up and you would have to like take off your hoodie and the other person would have to put it on. You're like treading water, having to put all this stuff on. It was, it was nuts. Carrying logs. Like all the detail. Like somebody left a cup in the team meeting room. They brought us all down, they made us warm up and then the guys us for leaving a cup out. That whole team would have their buds. They would have to run up. You'd have to run up to the team meeting room as a group and then run back once it was all cleared and they would give you like an assignment. Like say I was the guy from my group. They would tell me all the instructions and then I would have to be the one to explain it to the team. Nobody says anything. Like, even if you get an instruction wrong, you go throughout the entire process, like compete, do all this stuff and if you got something wrong, then they tell you after the fact and then you got to basically redo it. Yeah, nuts, bro.

[NickMercs]

A lot of super common things across the board. You know, that's, that's the best part about being on a team, you know.

[Will Compton]

I mean, yeah, dad, for you, when you got the phone call, when he got cut Are you disappointed? Are you thinking he wasn't putting in the effort?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

No, no, no.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, you were.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I wanted you to accomplish your goal, but I wasn't disappointed. Listen, it's like the UFC and tapping or not tapping. You didn't tap. You gave it everything you had, and you passed out under the pool twice. I mean, you didn't come up and breathe. I, I, I. No. No regrets. I'm super proud of the effort.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, he's the most supportive father in the world, bro, but he's. He's chilled out quite a bit over the years, man.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

That's for sure.

[NickMercs]

That answer would be a lot different 20 years ago, no question.

[Will Compton]

My old man as well. I mean, he was pretty. It's crazy. Yeah, yeah.

[NickMercs]

Like, now they're the best. And when you become a father now, you're so od. When we were kids, man, I think there's like, a.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's a. Something as a father coaching his son as he's getting older, you want him to be good so bad that it's like. You're like. It's like squeezing the baby too tight. You're like, man, I just want this kid to be the best version of self, and I know he's fucking things up. And then immediately when you become an adult, it's like, like, all right, man. Like, I did the best I could. I can no longer tell you what to do.

[Will Compton]

If you're on, like, a good track.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, if you're on a good track. But then as soon as, like, the good track and, like, you're of an age where you're essentially responsible, responsible for yourself, then as a father, you could sit back and be like, hey, this is the product I helped make. Like, it's up to them.

[NickMercs]

That's got to be a great feeling to have. Have a son that's doing well.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. I mean, my dad was pissed when I didn't want to, like, wrestle. I quit after, like, sixth grade.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's right.

[NickMercs]

He wrestled then.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. My brother was a stud senior, national champion. Went to Nebraska on scholarship. Like, he was a stud. So we had, like, a. A wrestling family. Older brother, the younger brother.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

I'm the oldest, so my younger brother, he was, you know, when it was. It wasn't football season. Cody was ultimately, like, the favorite because wrestling's, like, all year round. Like, you know, Cliff King, kickoff, like the triple crown going around when you're young.

[NickMercs]

Sure.

[Will Compton]

Cody was a monster.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, yeah.

[Will Compton]

And my junior year, I said that I would either. I said one like that I would play baseball because my mom was pissed that I wouldn't play, like, sports all year round, because after football season, I would love to, you know, whether just hang with the boys, video games, stuff like that. And then when I didn't play baseball, my parents basically said I either wrestled my junior year. My dad was like, you're either wrestling or you're grounded for the entire winter. So ultimately, I wrestled at 215, at, like, 200 pounds, and just, you know, gritted it out. I hated every second of them. But my dad always wanted me to wrestle because he's like, you know, it'll be better. It'll trans. It'll translate to football, which he's right.

[NickMercs]

It does, right?

[Will Compton]

My pro agility went down. Like, you live it. You live it like you live this tall for three months out of the year, just being in that stance. And I would get my ass whooped by this dude named Jason Wayne, who was a scholarship cat to Cornell. And, like, it was. You know, I hated it. But my dad was always pissed I didn't want to wrestle every year because Cody was really good.

[NickMercs]

Did your dad do it?

[Will Compton]

No, my dad did. He wish he had. He was like, I mean, I wish they had wrestling back.

[NickMercs]

You wish you would have done it, too?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Yeah, I would. Yeah. But I was too tall and skinned.

[NickMercs]

He was. He was a great basketball player, too.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Basketball?

[Will Compton]

Yeah. My dad's like, I wish they had wrestling back when, you know, he was young.

[NickMercs]

Well, they didn't even have it. Did you have it in high school?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Yeah, of course. I think. I think. Think as a father, all you want to do is make sure that they're trying to, you know, they're.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

They're creating the opportunities for themselves. And, like, by not wrestling, you're eliminating that possibility. You know, it's like, what are you doing?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah. And I love it, too.

[NickMercs]

Just open. Just give it.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Give the kid an opportunity, and then go get it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to feel it. When I. When I was a freshman in high school, my. In eighth grade, I got, like, a lot of trouble, and so my dad said, hey, you're playing football. Because I kind of quit playing all sports. Sports. And it was like, middle of July in Arizona, and this. The head coach, they were doing, like, camp kind of freshman through senior, like the big camp for all the kids to kind of, like, get acclimated, and we're, like, going around in groups, and halfway through, I go up to my dad, and I'm like, hey, I'm done. I Want to quit? I'm over it. And my dad's like, all right, that's the head coach of the varsity team. Go tell him you quit. I'll meet you in the car. And I literally. I looked at that coach. My dad walked and sat in the car.

[NickMercs]

Car.

[Taylor Lewan]

I was like, man, all right. So I finished the entire day. I get in the car, my dad goes, I just want you to know what it feels like to be on the other side of the hill. If you could just feel what that's like, I promise it's gonna work out. And I was like, damn. Yeah, it was awesome.

[NickMercs]

That's a good dad.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's a good dad. W. That was a good moment. Yeah, that's Chaparral High School, though. Yeah. That's when your boy was balling.

[NickMercs]

Oh, look how big you are, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Old Tommy Timer right there, number four. Couldn't run a slam.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I need wrestling videos, dude.

[Will Compton]

I. Bro. Growing up, when my boys. When my friends would come in the house, my dad would talk about the. The weekend from wrestling, but you want to watch some tape? And they'd be sitting there, we'd be. Put a tape in on the VCR that they recorded from being on the mat. We'd just have to sit there and watch our wrestling tournaments because my dad would, like, force people to watch wrestling. He loved wrestling. You and my dad.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I got a van out there with 400, 000 miles on it because me and his little brother travel the country and all those tournaments.

[Taylor Lewan]

Did y' all drive here?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

They wanted to.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

So you know Tulsa, Oklahoma?

[NickMercs]

Oh, yeah, he was out there.

[Will Compton]

He won Tulsa Reno. Yeah, man, that was so fun.

[Taylor Lewan]

Great.

[Will Compton]

So fun. Yeah, bro. Cody was like, then.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Then Steven would be in some wrestling tournament, and Nick would come to watch him, and half the stands are going to get autographs from Nick and not watch the damn wrestling.

[NickMercs]

And you're thinking, what the hey?

[Will Compton]

That's a solid feeling. Long days wrestling now.

[NickMercs]

It's a long day.

[Will Compton]

Long days.

[NickMercs]

You're up at 2, 3, and you're not done until 8.

[Will Compton]

But when your bro is. When your brother's good and when they finally, you know, the matchups finally start

[NickMercs]

happening, you know, it's something different about that sport. I know we've been talking a lot about football. You guys are both NFL guys and stuff, but just wrestling, bro. Like, when you watch your little brother go at it like that, man. Like, you look at the parent across and the brother across, and there's just this. There's this energy, man.

[Will Compton]

Like, A our family versus yours.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, that definitely makes it perfect.

[NickMercs]

You know him. So, like, a lot of the parents. Parents never really had it, but. But there were a couple parents that had some to say, and we would, we would. We would give him a look and we'd be like, hey, man, you be careful with the way. With the way you're talking right now, man. You know, it's like, even pinned this. I remember he pinned this kid. And the kid got up and like, pushed him. And Stephen's super humble. My little brother's a tank. But you never. He's really nice guy. He's a big baby, you know, he don't really want to hurt nobody, you know, so. So he's, you know, all right, fine, you know, cool. Gonna be a dick head. He raises his hand and his. His dad starts talking to him. And I was a lunatic at the time, man. I was like, full gym, just. And you can see it in your fight anywhere, man. So I started talking. You talking to him like that. Come here. And big thing in the middle of the mat, you know, it's just crazy. It was good times.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

You were boxing.

[NickMercs]

Oh, I was ready all times right then.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, wrestling, that's it.

[NickMercs]

But seeing him go at it like that, it's just different energy, you know? That's why guy, like, when we go to the MMA fights, and could you imagine that, like, you guys play football, but like, bro, imagine your job is to go fight.

[Taylor Lewan]

Your family's watching. Families.

[NickMercs]

Your wives are there.

[Will Compton]

It's an individual sport.

[Taylor Lewan]

And one of the. The other wife is like, beat his ass.

[NickMercs]

We're in the crowd like, like looking at that, like, yes. Wow, this is really it.

[Will Compton]

Once those gates closed, bro, in that octagon, like, drop the pin in the first cage. One other person.

[Taylor Lewan]

Dude, that Alex Pereira fight. The Alex Pereira fight, that was supposed to be McGregor. Chandler. Chandler. The face off he had with that Croatian dude, for five minutes, they just stared at each other. I've ever seen.

[NickMercs]

Have you met that guy?

[Taylor Lewan]

The Croatian cat? Yeah. No.

[NickMercs]

Oh, my God. I met Yuri with Pops, you know, and he goes, yuri, I go, nick, nice to meet you, man. He goes, paradigm Agency. I go, oh, that's your agency? That's cool, man. Yeah, well, that's Connor's thing, right? And he goes, paradigm Agency.

[Will Compton]

That's right.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're right.

[NickMercs]

Really nice meeting you, bro. No way, man.

[Will Compton]

Oh, there's the big dog. Mizzou wrestler.

[Taylor Lewan]

There he is. We were just singing your praises. You're on the bas.

[Will Compton]

There he is.

[NickMercs]

That's when he won the state championship. I think something like that right back to back him.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm him.

[Will Compton]

Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts I

[Commercial Narrator]

I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.

[Will Compton]

There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 2477 Healthcare just got less painful.

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Kal Penn]

hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm the host of Irsay the Audible and I Heart Audiobook class. This week on the podcast I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project Hail Mary Massive sci fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.

[Ray Porter]

I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'M narrating some of these sections and it's like, okay, yo, yo, yo. Is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like, no. At this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that. That deeply, emotionally affected me. And I left it on the mic. That's great, cuz it served the story. People will say like, oh, my God, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah, dude, me too.

[Kal Penn]

Listen to Irsay the Audible and I Heart audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, that was team. Our team was like, cracked.

[NickMercs]

Remember when you won the States, though? It was against that kid that was talking a little. You had to put him down. Yeah, his mom was crying.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I was. I was getting like, cussed out.

[NickMercs]

I was chanting, cry, cry, cry, cry.

[Will Compton]

How bad you beat him?

[Taylor Lewan]

I. I don't.

[Will Compton]

I don't remember.

[NickMercs]

4 2, 42 or something.

[Will Compton]

Also, it was a match. It was like, dogs are coming.

[NickMercs]

Remember him heavyweight? Like, it's never.

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah.

[NickMercs]

Whoever just gets a takedown wins.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Or. Yeah, who gets to toss them over under.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Get an over under on somebody.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Like, it's that kind of thing.

[Taylor Lewan]

So. I don't know.

[NickMercs]

Stevie was an animal, man. I remember, like, I remember it was so weird when he was a kid too, because he was the sweetest kid, man. He's still, like. I say he's the nicest guy, you know, and he's not like me. I'm a. But him, he's the nicest guy and you never know it. And I remember when he started doing this, he go to these tournaments and he. He's this cute little kid. Our grandma's there, you know, and we're all hanging out, man. He's laying on grandma's, you know, and. And then he goes out there on the mat and he just pin, pin, pin, pin gold. Gold thing, you know, And. And he comes back and he puts. He puts his head on. On grandma, you know.

[Taylor Lewan]

What the.

[NickMercs]

Is going on, man? Figure it out.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's awesome, Grandma.

[Will Compton]

We grew up in that era where it was like the Palmers. Do you remember the Palmer Brothers out of Ohio? Logan Stiver? Yeah, steers. Yeah, the Steers. That was like kind of Cody's. Cody's Asian generation. The Palmer Brothers. Their dad was an absolute psychopath. Like, if they didn't tech. If they weren't teching kids in Tulsa and everything else. Like, they were getting on the side, like the Palmer Bros. They'd be. I remember Colin crying because he was like the magazine, but he was like the cat who won everything.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And they didn't necessarily pan out near as much. Lance. Lance, I think, had a better career than Colin.

[NickMercs]

Look at that arm, bro. Yeah, right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, bro.

[NickMercs]

They were.

[Will Compton]

That was a different family.

[NickMercs]

Some parents just.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

They're not. They're not doing the job.

[NickMercs]

I mean, they're just.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

They're just. Look at Ferrari's parents.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, what.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

You know, right? Craziness.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. It's a. It's the wrestling world. It's a different culture, man.

[NickMercs]

He's a little wild. He's a little wild, for sure.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't know anything about wrestling. Wrestling. I've wrestled Will three times. He's bodied me every single time. Really bodied. The.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

That's all you need to know.

[Taylor Lewan]

When I was a kid. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

When I was a kid, I saw one video of some kid getting slammed and snapping his elbow. I was like, I'm never doing that. That sounds like the dumbest thing ever.

[Will Compton]

Do you have, like, the rest?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

How much did you weigh in high school?

[Taylor Lewan]

You're looking at it. Well, this is my senior year. I was like, 254, 255.

[NickMercs]

God. But before that blew up, and I

[Taylor Lewan]

think my freshman year of high school was like, maybe 200, 210.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

So freshman year, sophomore year, would you put on about 30?

[NickMercs]

30?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I just kind of. I guess so if I was like 2:10. I was 10, 15 every year with Mike. Oh, you talking about college? Yeah, college was Mike Barwis. That was my coach for the first year I played. My retro freshman year at 285 in the Big Ten, I was like tiny, holding on for dear life. I played Adrian Claiborne, Ryan Kerrigan, jj, well, actually didn't play jj, but he was on a schedule.

[NickMercs]

Oh, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Cameron Hayward, bro. I remember my freshman year being like, this is insane. This is. This is the Big Ten. And it's like, first round pick, first round pick, first round pick. There's a Buchanan, a kid from Illinois.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, he was nice.

[Taylor Lewan]

He was nice. He was a first round pick. Played against him, too. I remember thinking to myself, by the

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

time you graduated, what did you weigh?

[Taylor Lewan]

When I graduated, I. Well, my sophomore. From my retro sophomore year to my senior year, I was right around that 300. And then to senior 310.

[NickMercs]

Jesus, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just bulking. Dude. Wake up in the morning, go to Was. It wasn't Peter, it was Pizza Hut. There was a Pizza Hut like downstairs in the common area.

[NickMercs]

In the morning?

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, no, I would go in the afternoon and get layout Alfredo pasta with chicken. Chicken Alfredo pasta. Put it in the fridge and then wake up at three in the morning, smack it, go back to sleep, wake up at 5:30, go get the workout, throw up, get a big shake, go to class. Just constantly eating, dude. Constantly. Yeah, it was nuts.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Bell's pizza.

[Taylor Lewan]

We got different Bell's pizza for the boys, dude. Oh, you get a 24 pack of hams. You get 20, a warm 24 pack of hams in college. And then a slice of Bell's pizza

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

from the blue front.

[Taylor Lewan]

Can't beat it. Yes. That one right across on Packard Street. Yeah, dude, that was.

[NickMercs]

Is that you on the right?

[Taylor Lewan]

That's me.

[NickMercs]

It's unrecognizable. It's unbelievable.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's Craig Row right there.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

In high school together.

[NickMercs]

That's super tight.

[Taylor Lewan]

RP the boy Craig, man.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. I mean Taylor's glow up is like. It's got to be a top three. You've had a nice glow up, bro.

[NickMercs]

It's strange. It's strange how the bigger dude dudes skinny out like when they get done in the league because we, you know, like Uncle Mark. Yeah. You know we have an uncle that played at U of M. He was an offensive miss. Guard or tackle. Yeah, yeah, he was. He was just same thing. 310, 320.

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Dude, is that better?

[Will Compton]

Love your old man.

[NickMercs]

He's great.

[Will Compton]

You just see it in his eyes.

[NickMercs]

I know he's a nice.

[Will Compton]

That's his dad that I know very well.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[NickMercs]

Our dads would get along great. Trust me. Yeah, trust me.

[Will Compton]

So when you get cut from the seals is that you already knew Plan B was going all into streaming.

[NickMercs]

I was trying different things, throwing darts at the board, you know, because gaming hadn't really taken off at all, you know. And we just, we all knew that. Well, we kind of assumed that it just was never going to.

[Will Compton]

Okay.

[NickMercs]

And I was playing Gears of War at the time and it was on that MLG pro circuit where you could go, go to a bunch of big tournaments and you could, you know, if you're good enough, you can win a bunch of money and you might come out okay. You know what I mean? And we were. They kicked it off the pro circuit and that's when it was like wee woo. Wee woo. Like we got to do something with our life now because there's Nothing else out there. Okay. And that was when I did the seal thing. And then when we had failed and I can't. When I had failed and I came back, I was doing community college. I was part time at a. At a powerhouse gym. Gym and gaming just with the boys, like for fun on the side. And we didn't have anything to grind or get after. But then Call of Duty had come out with Call of Duty Ghosts. So I bought that, played that, and I started playing these little small tournaments on the side and I'm streaming them and my viewership starts going from like 20 people to like 80 to like 100 and then like 400, 500 people. And now I'm starting to have this little. This little suaret in the. In. I mean, every night it's a, It's a party. I mean, I got 500 people coming in there. We're playing tournaments, man. We're locked in. We're doing the energy drinks. And that, that, that was the true beginning. I mean, I had been streaming before that, but it's only for fun when I had 500 people in there and the industry was starting to turn a little bit. Like there was more fire on it, there was more cash coming in. I was, I was in community college, man. I just did not. I. I was just doing it to check the box, like, yeah, I'm trying to do something, dad, you know? Yeah, yeah, right off my ass.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. How did the, the industry start to evolve? Like, was there a platform that, that came out at the time? Was it. Because I remember when, I think it was like 2018, 2019, when I felt like Roger Saffle, Kenny Vaccaro, they started to like, invest. People started to have.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Kenny Vacaro started a company for all gaming.

[Will Compton]

That's what I'm saying. I forget what it's called, but educate us on how that all started.

[Taylor Lewan]

We worked it up too.

[NickMercs]

Jack and the boys keep bringing up Tyler and Hinja. Big, big shout out to him, man, because. And we'll talk about him in a second. But let's, let's back up because this was great for gaming and it catapulted gaming to where it is today. But gaming was already on fire pre this. I mean, in my opinion. And I can give you some stats and you might, you might be like, damn. But when we were playing Call of Duty, like, I got that 500 people in the stream every night, you know, that was Call of Duty Ghost. And aw. What was happening was the technology was getting better, so that what we're doing here. Like, the podcast stuff. Like, you remember the podcast? Boom. Now everybody's got the mics, and we're all talking about, like, kind of like that with gaming. Like, it started to become super accessible to be a streamer to stream. So everybody starts doing it, and then everybody starts trying to create content, but only so many people can actually go and play these games at a high. Like, we actually compete, right?

[Will Compton]

Like, these, these, these guys suck and have personality. I assume that, too.

[NickMercs]

A lot of the people that are so good are, Are. Are like, talking to a wall. Like, there's just nothing there, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

They got that touch.

[NickMercs]

So I'm in this weird little area where I'm like, okay, you know, I got. I, I, I have my personality and. But I'm also cracked, you know? So, so my, so my viewership is just going. Start saying that now, dude. My. I mean, that was a big couple years, man. Call Call of Duty Ghost into Aw. No, sorry. Call of Duty Ghost into. Yeah, into. Into AW. Into Black Ops 3.

[Will Compton]

What's AW?

[NickMercs]

Advanced Warfare Steven. Right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Got you.

[NickMercs]

Gotcha. Just, like, new Call of Duty games are coming out, and we're playing them, and the viewership is just growing because we're just, we're winning tournament after tournament, and it's getting crazier and crazier. And it gets to this point where, you know, you got, like, two, three, four, 5,000 people in the stream every night, and you got like 10k people paying you X amount per month plus donations. I mean, now you scoop. You know, you're doing like, 100, 200K, and you don't even know how. How the. You got here. You. You're just a kid that was playing games. You're good at them. You win. You're passionate. So they're in the stream, being entertained by it. You're. You're thankful for that. You're. Now I'm. Now I'm finding ways to give back. Like, we're doing giveaways. We're doing community tournaments. Like, hey, listen, you might be a smaller streamer without an audience, okay? Like a smaller podcast group. You bring the small podcast guy on your podcast, and your podcast gives him great exposure, right? You just, you just hook them up. So now I'm doing, I'm doing a bunch like that. And then, you know, at that point, that's when Fortnite came out, and, I mean, I was already averaging like, 5,000, 6,000 people. And Fortnite drops. I had never played a BR and a BR is where like, you know, the gas closes everybody for themselves. Whoever is have to live at the end, end, you know, gets the win. And I didn't play a BR because, you know, PUBG was out. H1 was out. People were playing that. But that wasn't for controller. I'm a controller. I, I, I can't play keyboard mouse. I'm just ass. Before I had come out and I hopped on it real early because I was just super excited to play a br. And dude, it was just, it was, it was just a good decision in hindsight. I mean, the game just blew up and Tyler's a big, a big, you know, catalyst of that.

[Will Compton]

And I hate to sound dumb. Tyler's ninja.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he's a, he's a good buddy of mine. Me, him go way back.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, like, he's like one of the first streamers as from like a cat. Like, I don't, I don't know anything about the streaming game, but that's like one of the people that were like the face of streaming right when he

[NickMercs]

was the face of streaming because of like the streams that he did. Like when this game took off and took gaming to a whole new, like, just whole new. He, he was the guy in the front that did that. But like, like, look, he's up here, all of us are down here. But I'm in this, man. I mean, I was, I was doing my own thing, low key, like, really nice. I mean that, those, those 5, 000 people were 20k, 30k moving, man. But he was up like 100k, 200k streaming with Drake. That Drake stream had like 800000 people in it or some wild man, you know, those are, those are things we never thought we'd ever see.

[Taylor Lewan]

When you're doing 800k or 300k people streaming, what kind of money is that?

[NickMercs]

I had two streams in the history of my career that went over 400,000 viewers. And I mean, like you do, you do eight hours of that with ads and subs. I mean, dude, you're, you're legitimately making in a day. You're making like 20 to 50k. It just depends on how many ads you run, how many people sub. F, man, that's insane.

[Will Compton]

How did it.

[NickMercs]

We didn't know what to do, bro. You, you guys might understand because like, you got in on the podcast thing and like, you know, you got to build it up and you understand from that point. But like your people and the people that tune into your pot, like they were there you know, the football's been a thing for a long time. Like, gaming is just. It's like some trailblazing. Like, these last 10 years, we've seen gaming go from this to that, and it's like, really. It was just hard to digest and take it all in and how to move. Like, you gotta, you know, you can't really go to anybody. Like, hey, how do I do this? They don't know.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that's what I want to ask about. Like, how as you're becoming a streamer or as you, you know, you're a video game guy, you love streaming. How did you learn how to start building a business out of it? Because I assume that's really. I assume that's really hard to do. Like, again, you got. You're probably gonna have young kids now that want to know how to do it. How did that start to develop for you? You, like, you're like, okay, I'm getting all this money, like, building content, like, having the cameras.

[NickMercs]

It's going to sound crazy, man, but I think when people focus too much on the business side of things, even maybe in podcasting too, like, you guys got your thing you're doing here. You're with your homies. You guys are all real passionate about this stuff. You're on your bus, you know, like, this feels good, man. It feels like grassroots. Like, let's go, man. We started from here. We're just slinging it, you know, like, when you lose that, that it can. It can get weird quick, you know, you got to remember that you were that kid playing that Call of Duty in your room at 2am and you got to hold on to that. So, like, the creative business thing, like, yeah, I see where you're going, and you're right, it is a business. But, like, my first foot forward with anything is not truly ever about the business. It's more so just like passion, you know, like, if I'm into something, then I'll do it, you know? Like, I didn't come on this podcast for business.

[Taylor Lewan]

This.

[NickMercs]

I came on the podcast because I like you guys and I like football, and I like our conversations. I like our relationships, and I thought it'd be fun to have a conversation, you know, that. Now, I'm not going to be ignorant that this could help my business. There could be people out there that tune into this, that. That will now tune in for me or. Or back and forth. Right? So that's good. And you shouldn't ignore that. You know, you should put a percentage of thought process into that it's just you got to be careful with how much you dump in there.

[Will Compton]

But as you're developing and people are wanting to sponsor you, are you the one having these conversations?

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have a guy that takes care of a lot of that stuff, too, you know, but we talk about it all the time, Justin, you know, and he. He. He's my agent. You know, we're real particular about who we work with, especially nowadays, man, you know, I mean, now that I'm a father, you know, the companies I represent, the people I want to do business with, you know, it's. It's not as open. You know, I got. I got a little kid. I gotta. You know, I gotta. I gotta play my cards right. I can't be. Just partner up with anybody. You know, I gotta make sure. Sure it aligns with my views and how I see things going, you know, the direction I want the. Not only this country, but this planet to go in, you know?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Right.

[Will Compton]

I got another one if you go ahead. I was gonna ask. Explain this. Twitch universe. Are you. Are you currently banned on it?

[NickMercs]

No, I. I did get banned, though, for saying a derogatory term. The term.

[Will Compton]

You want me to say the term tranny?

[NickMercs]

It was tranny, you know, and true. And truth be told, I. I really did not know that that was ever used as a derogatory term, term for those people. I really didn't.

[Taylor Lewan]

I know, but it's just you're so. You're so well spoken. And then you were obviously in a hairy, like, watery situation.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And you're like, I just. Don't you just want to say the right thing here?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, you do. You know, I think I've stopped caring as much about what people think about my opinions. You know, I. I believe the things I believe, and. And if people ask me, I'm going to share those things, I'm confident in them. You know, I'm always eager to learn more and to explore the other side of the coin, but at the same time, I strongly disagree with all of that stuff. You know, I think it's inherently unhealthy, and it's a scary precedent to set going forward for young children to say, hey, listen, if they're feeling a type of way, they can do this, this, this and that. I believe, you know, through the way I was raised and now being a father myself, that there's other ways to combat that and that if. At the least, the first thing that we should do is try to find a healthy, easier alternative than the Things that we're doing. So, you know, I spoke about that, and there's a lot of trans people out there and LGB people that probably think that I hate them, but I don't. You know, the, the, the real truth is, is that I, I, I feel bad, you know, that they feel the way they do, and I want what's best for them. I just don't think that it's smart to pedal and push the things that they're doing. Yeah, I really, really don't. I think that that's bad, and it's been proven to be bad. You know, when you make those kinds of changes to your body and then you encourage them at a young age, that's, that's, that is just. I can't believe that we live in a world that does that. So I spoke out about that. I did use the word tranny. I did not mean to be derogatory, but make no mistake about it, I was talking. So, like, I mean, I don't want to sit up here and act like I wasn't talking. I was talking. But I'm giving it as good as I, I get it. Because, you know, when you open up that door, I mean, a lot of these people, they, you know, they live online, man, and, and they're about it online.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, that's what I was gonna ask them.

[NickMercs]

Trolls be, you know, be trolling.

[Taylor Lewan]

Did you. So did you become more passionate about this stance once you had a kid?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, I became more passionate about the stance, and I also became more comfortable speaking about it because like I said earlier, man, I think having a kid and being a parent, a lot of times you hear parents say that, like, you know, having a kid changes everything. I don't know if I believe that, that, you know, I haven't been a parent for too long. Right. But I do believe that having a kid changes the way you think about everything. So. And, and it. Look, look, I, I kind of always thought this way. I just. I wasn't as passionate. Right, right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because it's not necessarily affecting or has a potential to affect, so who cares?

[NickMercs]

Right? Just keep it going. But I mean, you know, you're seeing a lot more of it, and you're seeing it become an issue in schools, especially here in this country, and I, I just, you know, it. If and when, hopefully someday we look back on this time and it's a lot different, I would have been super disappointed in myself that I never said anything.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[NickMercs]

Straight up, that's what I thought about. I spoke to my dad about, you know, dad, am I making the wrong decision? And like, yo, you know, business wise, yeah, I'm burning all kinds of cash, but I'm set, I'm set, I'm good. So that's also a different. It's a little caveat in the conversation too. You know, you might ask yourself, you know, hey, Nick, should you have said something way sooner, you know, did you hold out because of the bread? I mean, the truth is that I had a kid. That's the truth. And that was a big turning point for me, you know, but it's definitely the combination of a lot of things, man. You know, either way, I have a community that strongly believes in me. There's so many people out there that agree with me on this topic as well. They're just afraid to talk about it, speak about it, because you get in big trouble. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta hop around, man. I mean, how do you guys feel about that if you don't?

[Will Compton]

No, I loved everything you said right there. I, I'm, I'm interested too. Like, you referred to speaking year old man. Like, I'm sure it's kind of difficult to try and maneuver your words when you, you. When you're like, in a world where it's just chat online. How are people thinking about me? How are people feeling to where you get to a point of freedom, of like, listen, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let it ride. I'm gonna speak on this. I don't. I. You, you give less about what people think. Was that like a difficult balance when you finally like, kind of found that footing?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, man, like a, A big, A big, A big hurdle, you know, because you don't want to make people like, I, I don't want to wake up every day and piss people off at the end of the day. The guy that's tweeting me, the paragraph where he's upset, like, I don't want him to be mad or disappointed me. I'm sorry that he feels the way he does about me, and I wish I could do something about it. And like, if he could really just rip the truth out of my chest and put it in front of him, he would see that I'm not this enemy. Unless he wants that being taught to kids in school, then you are my enemy.

[Will Compton]

Right?

[NickMercs]

So, you know, it's, it's just this thing. It's, it's, it's logically everything you said

[Taylor Lewan]

and I aligned line with, especially having kids. You, you run into those issues with things being taught to kids in School. It's when it's like, hey, you're going to school to learn the things you need to learn at school. Not the thing, not what you think the kids should learn, but just like, the math, the science, the history, all those things. And then. Let me go. Let me go ahead and then. And then it's up to us as parents to go in now, instill these beliefs that we want. If you're a religious cat, you want to instill religion. If you, you know, all those things. Things. Because it's very difficult for me to understand. Like, my children's opinions are really, like, the opinions they have are kind of the opinions I have and that they've heard, and so they just feel that way as well. So, like, it's. It's a. It's a. It's just hairy. When you start messing with kids and not allowing them to develop and grow the way you want them to, it just becomes more difficult. It gets more difficult to, like, stand by and just let it. Right. I struggle with that all the time.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, man. And I mean, you know, people. People like to say that, oh, you throw. You throw being a parent around. You throw being a parent. You know what I mean? Like, anybody can have an opinion, even if they're not a parent. I. I agree with that. I just think that there's a perspective that's gained after having your own kid, which I'm sure you guys can agree with, right? And it's just, you know, you know how impressionable your kids are, and you know how impressionable your kid is. You know, it's like, I. I know as well, like, when I do stuff in front of my little boy, you know, he does it back and vice versa. Like, we play all the time. We hang out all time the time. So we know how impressionable these young minds are because we were young too, man. Like, it. Like, dude, it's just not. It doesn't make sense to encourage these kinds of things when we know how kids are.

[Will Compton]

When you get banned, is this somebody from Twitch reaching out to you? Let them, letting you know.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, I said that. I said that. And they banned me. For how long they pay me for is a week.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

One week.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. I found out when I was on the way to see you guys in Vegas. Vegas?

[Will Compton]

No.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. It was like three in the morning, and we. I woke up to being banned. I was like, okay. You know, I didn't really care, man.

[Will Compton]

These are not like. Like some strike system or anything. It's just kind of.

[NickMercs]

There usually is, man. And I don't have any strikes, but I will say they take that very seriously at Twitt. You know, like, look, I mean, Twitch and just the gaming world in general is very pro. All that. So I'm kind of like a dinosaur. I'm off on my own, you know, but, you know, my community.

[Will Compton]

I was gonna say your audience, they're.

[NickMercs]

They.

[Taylor Lewan]

The.

[NickMercs]

I think the majority of them align as well. But there are. But there are some that have not. And they've spoken about that, you know,

[Will Compton]

but now was that. And I'm sorry for being ignorant about this. Was that when you were like, we're gonna. We're gonna boycott Call of Duty?

[NickMercs]

I never called for a boycott. I never.

[Will Compton]

That was the audience, though, right? People were doing what people do.

[NickMercs]

I never said, like, hey, don't play cod.

[Taylor Lewan]

It has to make you feel good, though, knowing your audience is like that.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's crazy. It's like the Internet, though. Like, it lives for two weeks and then it dies. It's weird, you know, it's very strange.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's. That's another thing that people need to realize.

[Will Compton]

Like a fart in the wind on the Internet, bro.

[Taylor Lewan]

When things are good, it's like, hey, this. In a week, this will be gone. When things are bad, you think the world's coming out. It's like, this is going to be over 24 hours.

[Will Compton]

It's going to be something new there,

[Taylor Lewan]

but something new about, bro.

[NickMercs]

Always something to. About, you know, or be happy about it. It goes up and it goes down, man. You know? Right. But that was a big moment in my career, man. I mean, and I've never been in trouble like that. I've never been in heat like that, I guess, per se, you know. And I think currently today, I feel real good about it all, man. I'm very proud of myself that I said what I said. I know it's not an easy thing to say. And as time goes on, I'm getting. I'm getting more and more confident speaking on this. I've done a lot of research, man. I really. I've spoken to a lot of people on both sides of it, too, man. I think ultimately we all agree that we want. That we want what's best best for people, you know. And me, you know, I'm. I'm a pretty healthy gamer. And that's where a lot of this comes from, man, is just overall health, you know, like, do you take care of yourself? Is this taking care? You know, I sign off on every stream, every YouTube video. I do. I say, take care of yourself. Take care of each other. Peace and love, man. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean that. Take care of yourself. And is that taking care of yourself, cutting off pieces of your body, taking drugs that are horrible for you, your mind and your body, it's inherent, no matter how you spin it, a very unhealthy thing to do, you know? And I, I, I just can't, I

[Taylor Lewan]

can't sign off on that right after the week ban. What's your relationship with Twitch like now?

[NickMercs]

It's okay, you know, they, they understand there's going to be different flavors on Twitch, you know, but at the same time, man, if I had to guess, there's some people in that office who really don't mess with me. But it's like, look, I. Look, I, I don't have any weird shit in my heart about it, you know?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Appreciate you speaking on it, too.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, no, I don't.

[Taylor Lewan]

Mine.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, you do a good job.

[Taylor Lewan]

No doubt. There was the, the doctor and the notes here that Sherm gave me. Dr. Disrespect.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, that's a, that's a tough one right now too, man. I'm not gonna lie to you.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's tough. And you obviously know him personally.

[NickMercs]

Good dude. I know him. I know him. I know him personally. I do. I mean, we met in person twice, briefly, you know, and we've played a lot of games together throughout the years. There's this. People think that we're like best friends friends. That's not true. You know, and then people also say, oh, they only gamed a couple times. That's not true either. We're somewhere in the center. Like when he texts me, when he used to, he would text me in character.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right?

[NickMercs]

You know, like the doc does what the doc wants.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

All right, man. How about that parlay for Sunday, though? Yeah, I mean, that's the truth, you know, and when he, when all this stuff came out about him over the past few months or whatever, you know, it's been real hard because the Internet, Internet hates. Well, the gaming world hates a guy like Doc. They hate a guy like me. They hate a guy that represents family. You know, being a dude's dude, you know, you gotta dance to the beat of their drum, right? And we don't. We just don't. So he, he, you know, when he, when that stuff came out originally, everybody just immediately jumped on board with canceling this guy. Guy. Let's get this guy the out of here, man, Stat. I mean, everybody Did.

[Will Compton]

And everybody who hates him. When you're ready to see somebody fall and they start to fall, you want take any narrative possible to. To put this crack in the arm,

[NickMercs]

you know, pedophilia and, and underage stuff. I mean, that's a slam dunk, right? You know, I mean, so, so the, the Internet went crazy, but this was before we had not a single ounce of proof. All we had was an ex Twitch employee that had said. Said that this was going on. We didn't even have a comment from Doc, you know, so people. Oh, Nick, how come you don't text him on the side? I. I did, but he couldn't tell me anything because he's bound in this big suit with. With Twitch, so you can't say anything. He. He. He sent me a text saying, I can't really say much, man. I'm sorry. So that goes on. The Internet's canceling this guy and everybody. Because the trans stuff just happened. Happened. Everybody's like, oh, Nick, how about this guy? This is your boy, huh? Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Why don't you have a strong stance here?

[NickMercs]

Exactly. I, I go on, I say, listen, man, I understand what people are saying. Let's wait till we get some facts. Let's wait till we hear what's actually going on, and then. And then we'll make a decision. I was one of the only ones that did that. Everybody else just jumped to conclusions, not me.

[Taylor Lewan]

And let's put. Let's put a timeout real quick. The way you handle. Handled it maybe the most logical way to handle it, right? Someone accused somebody or something, you would think instead of just being like, right. Judicial system. And it said before, that's not the

[NickMercs]

way the Internet works.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I don't. And I. I could be. I could be talking out of my ass right now, because I actually don't even know the. The full context of the situation with Dr. Disrespect. But any of these things, you look at and you're like, all right, like we talked about Deshaun Watson earlier. One thing comes out, like, let's get the facts right. The one comes out, you're like, all right, right, let's get the facts. We start rolling down a little bit Hill. We're like, all right, now we understand now the doctors that. So I want to say, like, that is a. A great, logical way of handling a situation like that when you're being thrusted into essentially something that's not your business.

[NickMercs]

I mean, in any light, when somebody says that a person did something, you can't Just throw them down the hill. You got to prove it, man. It's got to be something there. Anything, something. So I waited, and I got a bunch of. For waiting. Everyone's like, you, man. Speak out on your boy. What the. I mean, I got. I got railed on social, but I was the only one that didn't. So I waited. Then he comes out with a statement. Are you. Do you guys know about that tweet? Yeah. So this guy comes out of this tweet and. Which is now deleted, by the way. It's this tweet of like a bunch of different paragraphs. And it was the worst tweet that I have ever seen from somebody in trouble. Not only was the original. The worst. Get this. This edits that same tweet like six times. He edits, like key words out of the tweet, but you can go back and see the original tweet on the thread. So there's no point of editing it out if you can just see it, right? So he's just making this horrible. So this comes out. Me, Tim, Denny, we all get together. It's like, fuck, man. And I can't believe it.

[Taylor Lewan]

He.

[NickMercs]

And. And he admits in this tweet to talking to somebody inappropriately who was underage. Now, let's just make sure the whole bus. Let's get time out on the bus.

[Taylor Lewan]

Timeout hard timeout

[NickMercs]

a bunch of dudes in here.

[Will Compton]

Respect the.

[NickMercs]

We all. Everybody agrees that if that's a case, it's done. Done no matter how it. I mean, if you. If you're speaking inappropriately with a. With an underage person, it's done. For me, that. But that's.

[Will Compton]

That.

[NickMercs]

That's me done. I don't care what the it is. You guys agree? Everybody agree? Agree?

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[NickMercs]

Anybody don't agree?

[Will Compton]

Agreed.

[NickMercs]

All right. So like anybody else who would in this bus, I go on there. Everybody's pressed. The whole world's pressing me, right? Because Nick can speak out on trans stuff, but when his own boys with the under eight.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[NickMercs]

Okay. I go out on Twitter, I say, look, facts came out. Basically, you know, this sucks ass. We didn't know about this, obviously, and we're going to cut ties and we don't condone or agree with any. With anything like this. They're not happy with that either. So.

[Will Compton]

So why are they not happy with that?

[NickMercs]

Because, like, oh, so you can go hard on some. Leave the kids alone. But when. When it's your boy, it's just like, oh, you're not happy about it. What the do you want, man? I said I don't condone it. It's disgusting.

[Will Compton]

And cut all ties.

[NickMercs]

And we're cutting ties. Done. So weeks go by, this guy deletes that tweet and then says that it was all a joke and he just was, he put out that tweet as bait to see who his real friends are.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oof.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, so, so he got his community reactivated. Nick, you turn on your boy, yada, yada yada, you know, that's his whole thing when like we know that's not true. I mean, he sent a text to me, Timmy and Clock as well saying like, hey boys, I'm sorry that this, I'm sorry that you guys are in this. You know, I wish I, I wish it wasn't this way. I apologize, you know, for that. And I mean he, he never, we, we don't really text like that like crazy. So. But putting that aside, man, like it's enough for me, you know, to, to cut ties and I, you know, the situation sucks dad in the back that, well, he feels some type of way because we met him, his wife and his daughter at the super bowl, you

[Will Compton]

know what I mean?

[NickMercs]

And he, I, I got, I got all of his fans on my dick like, yo, what a great friend you are. Yeah, bro. You meet his wife and his daughter at the super bowl and then find out this 44 year old dude is sleazing around with some 17 year old, you know. And we already know he cheated on his wife. He went on the stream and admitted that. And it was around the same timeline as all this stuff is coming out. It's like, dude, you know, like, get real man. You can't win with these people. That, that's what I'm realizing. Like the Internet is the Internet. It's going to Internet. You know, you do, you do what you do. You keep your nose forward, stay out of trouble, keep it popping. Be real. Yeah, be real, man. Too many are fake. Fake not only in this world, but especially in the gaming scene, man. A lot of two faced people, they, they pretend to care about things they really don't care about, you know, this shit's crazy stock stuff. I mean, that's, that's so fake. I mean, look, the guy gets on stream every day in a costume. So I, I, I guess it makes sense, you know?

[Taylor Lewan]

But what the play, the character playing a character.

[NickMercs]

I'm bitching about him being fake. He's, he's, look at him.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hell of a mustache.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, look, you know, look, I'll throw I'll throw his community a bone, you know, And I will say. And it shouldn't. It shouldn't go without. I mean, I. It shouldn't go without saying, man. I mean, what he did for the streaming world and gaming community as well, I mean, that's one of the. The biggest entertainers online in the history of the industry forever. I mean, for ever. His production, the work he puts in his next level. But. But you just can't do things like that.

[Will Compton]

And.

[NickMercs]

And to say that your friends are expected to stand by you as you make those kinds of mistakes, and when these are the same friends that got kids of their own, man. I mean, it's not like me and Doc are like you two. We don't live in the same town again, the same bus. No, man. This guy's in California. I'm in Florida. We play games together. But he's in a costume and speaks with an accent. I mean, we're not really best buddies here. Right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[NickMercs]

People were mad about that, too. That was playing down the relationship. But that's the reality of the situation.

[Will Compton]

Well, I think, too, it's like, you know, up until that point, it's like somebody in the streaming community, you see him as like, one of your boys. Not like best friends or nothing like that, but when something like that comes out and you're all the facts on how you ultimately want to believe the best and who you're kind of seeing at first, and then when it's not, you're kind of like, that sucks. I feel kind of dumb that I got looped into that and believe in this and that. So, yeah, just all around it is. It's a shitty situation.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I mean, you're not gonna win.

[NickMercs]

That's the truest part, is this situation is just because he's claiming that Twitch was after him, and there really might be some truth to that, like, they didn't like him, and there were some contractual things that lined up that make sense with his. With. But. But at the end of the day, he admitted to doing what people were saying that he did.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[NickMercs]

And then edited the tweet seven times and then deleted the tweet, bro, we're done. Say we're done.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know, we're done. Say we're done.

[NickMercs]

We're done, man. That's it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it's a tough deal, man.

[NickMercs]

We're Hot Topics today on the bus, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hot topics. Last 20 minutes, hot topics. We can. We can pivot. What do you. Hold on. I want to know, what do you enjoy more Sports gambling or playing cards,

[NickMercs]

playing Bach ride blackjack boys is unreal, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's a.

[Will Compton]

Have you won each time you've gone out there?

[NickMercs]

No, no, we went up the first

[Taylor Lewan]

time I saw you.

[Will Compton]

You had a good first.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, I thought you murdered.

[NickMercs]

No, we did the first. First time.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Both of us went up.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[NickMercs]

Second time tunnel. Chaos slaughtered tunnel.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know who is one of the more impressive human beings just putting their nut sack on the table. Is that exposed.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's a great guy. He is a lunatic. Because me like you know.

[NickMercs]

Did he send you the other night with lions?

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh brother. He. The way he sports cables is crazy.

[NickMercs]

100k on the Lions to win the Super Bowl.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm pretty sure he won $800,000 on the spot. Super bowl betting the Chiefs.

[NickMercs]

No, that was the MMA fight that we all went to.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's right.

[NickMercs]

There's a story behind that. Super quick. He. He put four zero. He was trying to do 40k on a parlay and he added another zero. Put 400k on the parlay to win 800. And he. He hit it and then they wouldn't let him change it. And we wrote it out. We wrote it out and it won. Yeah. I'll never.

[Taylor Lewan]

Same.

[NickMercs]

I'll never just ins.

[Taylor Lewan]

Pain the way he operates. And then when we're playing on the tables too, like when I play solo or I don't have. I don't have Dana.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

My numbers as far as big go way, way lower that actually the biggest bets I was ever doing was you, me and Cody that one night.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, we messed up when we were out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just wanted to win 10k, get a slice of pizza. Couldn't do it.

[NickMercs]

Get the pizza.

[Taylor Lewan]

Couldn't get the pizza.

[Will Compton]

Pizza.

[NickMercs]

We're just trying to get 10k and then pizza break.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. With two hands. 5k hand pizza. Slice of pizza the whole night. And it was sitting right behind us too.

[NickMercs]

Just.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[NickMercs]

That one even good. Yeah, it's good times. It's good times.

[Taylor Lewan]

But this guy Cody, man, he will go out there solo. Just him and his boys and play and I just. And he's awesome dude too. It's like being a good guy.

[NickMercs]

Some people are just. They. I don't.

[Taylor Lewan]

They just play.

[NickMercs]

I can't lose a million.

[Will Compton]

It's like.

[NickMercs]

I mean lose a million to Vegas.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, I heard. I heard the same thing about Aiden Ross. The way he goes about his gambling. I've been. We've obviously been around him.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

In that setting. I've never played with him, but apparently the kid puts massive amounts of money xqc I don't know who XQC is.

[NickMercs]

XQC is one of the biggest streamers in the world.

[Taylor Lewan]

Can you pull up xqc?

[NickMercs]

I think if you saw his face you'd probably know.

[Taylor Lewan]

The streaming, the, the, the follow me around streaming thing. I just, I'm.

[Will Compton]

I'm.

[Taylor Lewan]

I haven't fully wrapped my head around

[Will Compton]

Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts I.

[Commercial Narrator]

I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.

[Will Compton]

There's no question too embarrassing For Amazon Health AI chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful.

[Sponsor Voice]

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[NickMercs]

One of the things I love the most about working for UnitedHealthcare is that everybody matters. Every moment matters.

[Commercial Narrator]

There's a person behind every problem. I care because it's what I was

[Will Compton]

put on this earth to do.

[NickMercs]

I'm Ben and I work at UnitedHealthcare. I am just one piece of a larger puzzle. But every piece matters. It's more than just work. We wanna make the healthcare system better for for everyone. I care because I want to make a difference. That's what Committed to Care means to me.

[Kal Penn]

Hey everyone, it's Kal Penn. I'm the host of Irsay The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project, Hail Mary Massive sci fi adventure about survival and science and. And what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.

[Ray Porter]

I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections, and it's like, okay, yo, yo, yo. Is this indulgent? And I really thought about it.

[Taylor Lewan]

I was like, no.

[Ray Porter]

At this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that. That. That deeply, emotionally affected me, and I left it on the mic. That's great because it served the story. People will say, like, oh, my God, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah, dude, me too.

[Kal Penn]

Listen to Irsay The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever. You get your podcasts on that.

[NickMercs]

What do you mean?

[Taylor Lewan]

Like, the. Like, who's the Neo, then? Is that Neo Neon? Yeah, Neon. Like, he's like. He's a constantly streaming himself. No disrespect. I don't know. I had one interaction with him, I thought it was fun. Dad's gone.

[NickMercs]

He go. He goes around. Yeah, he's out. Yeah, he's gonna leave right now. He goes around with bodyguards, and purposely, he's like, purposely provocative. And then when it's ready to happen, the bodyguards come in.

[Taylor Lewan]

That bothers me that. That UFC fight we went to.

[NickMercs]

Really problematic, that UFC fight we were

[Taylor Lewan]

all at last time, apparently he was, like, talking about he's gonna try Trump or something like that. And then he gets to the gate.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I'm. I could be this whole thing up, but they don't let him in.

[NickMercs]

Well, there's a new era of, like, like, content creation. And you're seeing it. Like, that's what you're seeing. It's this, like, anything for some clicks and. And. And clips. And, like, when I say anything, like, he literally threatened Trump's life outside of the ufc. Like, you can't.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[NickMercs]

Like, what?

[Taylor Lewan]

And then try to get in the ufc. What, like, you're on the floor as well.

[NickMercs]

Right. It's a lot of that, man. The guy's just.

[Taylor Lewan]

I. I like this Neon guy. I met him one time, shook his hand.

[NickMercs]

You met Neon?

[Taylor Lewan]

I. I believe so yeah, yeah, Steve gave me a watch because me and Dana got him out of a pinch. One night we played, we got his money back. The next day he gave me a Rolex and neon, if I'm saying that correctly, was there. Oh, yeah. I was like, hey, he's a. Hey, man, great to meet you. Seem like a really nice guy. Boom, boom, wipe my hands. And I left. So my one experience I've had, fine. But I don't like. I don't like how these cats are ripping around with big black security guards.

[NickMercs]

That's what I'm saying.

[Taylor Lewan]

And they're fucking.

[NickMercs]

They're being provocative. I hate that.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're essentially being the Internet out in the real world, but with protection.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, there's a couple of those guys.

[Will Compton]

I get people spiced up where they

[Taylor Lewan]

want to be and then people want to try them. All of a sudden the security guards come in.

[NickMercs]

It's important. It's important to note though, for your audience. Aiden Ross is not like him.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, see, here's what I'll say about Aiden. I've only been around him a handful of times. We saw him in my Miami and I've seen him a few times before and I was, hey, man, we don't think we've officially met. And he was real cool in that moment. The times before that, he'd always kind of walk in the room with his crew through not really saying anything. So I didn't know what to think of him. But one time I spoke to him, I was like, oh, this kid seems like he's got it.

[NickMercs]

What's weird, man? Like with NFL and like, who's this kid?

[Taylor Lewan]

Who's this kid right here?

[NickMercs]

That's the white kid, that's Jack. He's one of the worst.

[Taylor Lewan]

He does the same thing, right?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, they're both horrible. The point I was getting at though, like pro ball players, you know, like, you guys live a life that's really interesting in a way, in a lot of ways. But something that's kind of hard to deal with, deal with is getting popular and getting fame so young. Like you're mad young, and all of a sudden you got all this cash, you got all this fame. How do you deal with it? And you see guys in the NFL struggle with that every year, right? Well, streaming is getting to the point now where kids can do this. Like a pop off stream can set a kid up for another huge year. And then all of a sudden you're this kid. And if you don't handle it right, if you don't have parents.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, that's funny the way you say it.

[NickMercs]

And then he's just right there, like

[Taylor Lewan]

the matching T shirt.

[NickMercs]

I don't care. You want to flex, you flex. But, like, it's just the things they do, like, when they're provocative on stream, they're going around. They're being disrespectful to people that don't even deserve it. Like, you know, his father should smack him in the head for that, you know, because if I did that, he. He'd beat the hell out of me if I did some like that. If I'd go up and screaming like I saw some other guy screaming. A little kid like, you just can't. You don't do certain things. You know, with great power comes great responsibilities. Spider Man.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I love it.

[NickMercs]

You know what I mean? I just. It's a new age. It's a new thing. It's becoming pretty popular, and these kids got to be careful, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's got a master.

[Will Compton]

I mean, that kid seems like a loser.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, he is, man. He really is.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's the.

[NickMercs]

But you know what? Like, it's hard to fault him, too, though, because now the success is so. Is so prevalent. So he's in this mode, and he's cooking. He's cooking right now. So. So now, how do you tell a kid like that, that's cooked cooking, and he's making all this bread, putting. I'm sure he's putting his mom on, his dad on. You know what I mean? I'm sure his parents are probably proud of him.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's got a good ecosystem around him, right?

[NickMercs]

So how do you slow a kid like that down? How do you say, hey, the way you're acting is ridiculous? He'll go, what the you talking about? Look at this Ferrari right here.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. I mean, it'd be hard to teach him.

[Will Compton]

It'll catch up to him at some point, and it's ultimately like, you sit back.

[Taylor Lewan]

How old is this kid? How old is he?

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I don't know.

[Taylor Lewan]

What's his name?

[NickMercs]

His name is Jack, I think. Jack Doherty.

[Taylor Lewan]

How. How old is this kid? Probably. I mean, dude, he's young, man.

[NickMercs]

I think he's like, 18, 19. I really don't know.

[Taylor Lewan]

The things you do when you're young, right? I look back and I'm like, bro, I would have. Jack and I were having this conversation. Jack and I were having this conversation when we landed in Michigan. Was. You always think back, like, man, if I could go back to high school football or college football with My, the mindset and the understanding I have now, like, man, that'd be so sick.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And then you reflect on some of the dumb you did. You're like, man, if I just didn't do those things. The problem is with these streamers who have their entire life on tape is they're gonna be 30, 40 years old and look back, have kids, try to teach them a lesson and then be like, but, dad, you see this right here?

[NickMercs]

That's a good point. But. But you are right. It's just part of life, right? Being a dumbass kid. And we all were. I don't want to sit up here on this podcast and make no mistake, man, these guys all know that we were boneheads. But, but I think the point that I'm trying to make and the point that we should, you know, the. If you, if you're in a position like this kid is you are now obligated to act a certain way. That's it. I don't care if you're young. Same with you. Get an NFL, right? You got to flip it on. I don't care if your little ass kids, though, because these guys are, man, they're so hard.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just this one video we're watching right now, him popping the champagne with the girls. If you're 18, 19 years old, how do you not think I'm listening?

[NickMercs]

This kid will listen to this and he's going to die laughing. Laughing.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Look at these old guys.

[NickMercs]

But you're right. Someday we'll look back.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. I mean, it catches up to everybody at some point. You can just tell this kid's never been in Oklahoma drill.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

Like you just tell some of these kids who are like, truly part of

[Taylor Lewan]

growing up is you got to get your ass beat a few times.

[NickMercs]

Oh, my God.

[Taylor Lewan]

You gotta get your ass. You gotta get punched in the mouth. What's the worst Aspen you've ever taken?

[NickMercs]

Oh, God.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fight school.

[NickMercs]

Oh, man, no, no.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Know the 14 year old from crack?

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, you got beat up by a 14 year old last month. What happened?

[NickMercs]

Oh, man, I was 19, I was boxing and I went to Cooper's Gym in Detroit. Really bad part of Detroit actually too, man. And I'm a white boy from Dearborn, and Dearborn's kind of like, rich. He's got money, you know what I mean? And I pulled up, I tell the guys, want to do boxing lessons. Like, all right, well, I start getting like, decent, you know, Like, I'm having some, some good, some good training sessions, whatever. I'M feeling myself. And I started taking a couple boxing fights, amateur fights, they're really easy. Three rounds, two minute rounds. You wear a big fat headgear. You barely even heal it. You're a little nervous at first, but as soon as you get top of the mouth at all, just now, you're flowing. Well, I was doing pretty good, so I went over to Kronk Gym, which is a famous gym on the same street as Cooper's Gym. And I went with my trainer who. Who primarily spars there. He takes me. The moment I walk in, it's a bunch of black dudes. They stop me, they let all the other black guys go, and they make me pay them 20 bucks, come to the gym. So right then, I know it's chalked, probably shouldn't, man, but here's your 20, you know, so I pay him, I go in, I put my hand wraps on and put my on, and I'm with my trainer, Blue. Blue was a professional boxer.

[Taylor Lewan]

Great trainer.

[NickMercs]

Name it Blue, man. He, Andre Leandre something, his name, but he, he was a pro boxer out of Crunk. Him and three black dudes getting ready to spar in the big ring. So I'm thinking I'm here to. Because I'm getting good now. That's why they brought me. I'm good now. So I'm doing my hand wraps and, and long story short, they're like, yeah, you, you're not sparring with us, man. You sparring with them. And they point over to like, what would be like a kid corner. And there's like little kids and there's this kid there who's like 13, 14. And I, I thought, I mean, I thought, I'm like, no way. My Blue, Blue, come on. He's a little ass kid. And he goes, look, you do good over there and you can come over here. I go, if I do good over there, like, all right, man, you know,

[Will Compton]

so I get so.

[NickMercs]

So the, the bell goes on, man. Man, I got, I got, I got 200 gloves. I got my, my boxing shoes, I got my nice Grant headgear. And man, I got all type of. My mouthpiece in. This kid had hane socks. The white was gray. It was the white and the gray, but it was all gray. They were dirty as hell. The toe was coming through the thing on the front, and he had a headgear that couldn't click with gloves, no hand wraps.

[Will Compton]

And you're thinking, they put me with

[NickMercs]

this cat, I'mma this little up, you know what I mean? So we Started sparring and you know, this kid hits me with a couple jabs off the rip, like, dude, dude, dude. And I'm like, what the. I lock in, dude. Holy. I'm. I'm trying. And I'm thinking in my head, like, what the is going on, man? I'm trying and he's hitting me. And I remember there was a point where I was up against the wall because we weren't in the ring. Because in the kid corner, I'm up against a wall and he was hitting me. And when he was hitting me, he was going, he, he was going

[Taylor Lewan]

like,

[NickMercs]

like a new kid. Screams. He hated me, bro. I didn't even know he hates me. I mean, he's hitting me, my wrist, he is beating the out of me. I slide down the wall, like in real pain. And Blue comes over and he goes, how you doing, man? And. And I'm like dying. And that was a real eye opening moment for me. I'm like, I called you. I'm like, yeah, I think I'm done with the boxing thing, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, he retired you. He retired you?

[NickMercs]

No, this kid went on to be a Gold Glove champion in like four or five time out of Detroit. And then he went to go, he went Floyd's team in Los of Hagus. I forgot this kid's name. He was all right for a little bit, but he. Dude, they pump him out over there, man. Really part of boxing is being hungry, man. That kid had a different hunger in him than me.

[Taylor Lewan]

Shots at the body.

[NickMercs]

Holy. I got, I was 19. Got up by a 14 year old.

[Taylor Lewan]

Humbling experience. Humbling experience.

[NickMercs]

Hey, man, I'm a lot of things, man, but I keep it a pancake with you always. But I can be a douchebag, man. I'm keeping real though. That was the worst. That was the most degrading beatdown. The worst beatdown I ever had was, was with my, my childhood buddy. When he picked that fight with the two kids in high school. They, they beat the out of us. Yeah, they, they. He. My, my, my bigger buddy started. He was like you. He was really big and I was really small. And he started to fight with some kids that were older. And I had to fight because he's fighting, right? Yeah, he started to lose, so I already knew I was losing, so I just gave my best shot. Dude, they beat the out of us.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hey, that's a huge move though. And they don't know you're gonna broke

[NickMercs]

my Haro bike that I spent 400 cash on. No, my silver horror bike. Oh, my God. It had pegs on the front end.

[Will Compton]

Good on you, though, for going in for your boy. Hear me knowing you're about to take.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I heard you with the pegs.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Two pegs on it, the front and the back.

[Taylor Lewan]

It really makes you a better human being getting your ass beat a little. You need it. You need it, gotta have it.

[NickMercs]

You can't stupid and not pay for it, you know?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, no doubt.

[NickMercs]

Speaking of painful, remember when you Remember when you got in the fight after the game? I wasn't going to bring this up, but you brought up fighting. Remember when that guy popped you? Dude, I thought you were going to

[Taylor Lewan]

kill him during the game. You talking about Michigan State?

[NickMercs]

No, bro, you were on the tight. You were on the team, right? Popped him.

[Taylor Lewan]

Josh Norman.

[Will Compton]

So I popped him. Like, swung on him? Like swung on him?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, bro, he hit the arrow.

[Will Compton]

That's right, the arrow.

[NickMercs]

And then he swung on you.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, he, like, tapped me in the back of the helmet. That was.

[NickMercs]

You looked at him. I thought you were gonna eat him.

[Taylor Lewan]

This. This is the. This is the funniest clip because it's brought to me everywhere I go.

[NickMercs]

Well, I. I had no idea. Bang. And he's trying to say I you

[Taylor Lewan]

up your greatest clip. This is probably.

[NickMercs]

I know. The most popular clips of yours. Honestly.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, that little patent helmet that one got me, I was.

[NickMercs]

You're about to do it.

[Kal Penn]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

But the good thing is, is Ben was there because I.

[NickMercs]

You really shot him with an arrow? That's hard.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't know how to, like, stop once I get kind of fired up. We had a situation this weekend.

[NickMercs]

Who does that in ufc? Patan. Yo, you were head.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, that was. That was Josh's. That was his move. The. So, Nick.

[Guest Analyst]

I mean, Josh Norman was also the guy that Der Henry stiff armed the life out of him. And there was that viral photo of him, like, getting flipped backwards, too, when he play for Buffalo on a different team.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, I don't remember that.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fourth and third and one or second and four.

[NickMercs]

Him. Yeah. Oh, my little, little boy. Derek.

[Taylor Lewan]

You got to get the first on that, buddy. Got to get the first.

[NickMercs]

Oh, my God.

[Will Compton]

You see. You see me come alive at the end of this clip? There's your boy coming off the bed.

[Taylor Lewan]

53, let go.

[Will Compton]

Popped up.

[Taylor Lewan]

That game was nuts.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Josh never had a good time with us. The reason why I've told this a bunch of times, but the reason why I went over to Josh at the end of the game was because he was trying to hurt Derek. In a four minute drill. You. You and that.

[NickMercs]

Put it down.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just put it down.

[NickMercs]

Busting with the boys? Hell, hell yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You can have. At least. It says that you got to take that with you when you leave.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, right. It wants to go with me, man,

[Taylor Lewan]

but yeah, dude, getting your ass beat. I had a situation in middle school. There was this kid. I can't remember his name, but I end up, like, hitting him, knocking him out.

[Will Compton]

And was this over that ipod?

[Taylor Lewan]

No, that was a different one. And this kid. So the kid goes to the teachers. He goes to the teachers and he's. And they were like, hey, what happened? Blah, blah. He's like, oh, nothing. A book fell and hit me. Like, he didn't snitch. So nothing really came of it. I just went to class. And then in fitness class that we had this big loop is Desert Canyon Middle School. We had this big loop. You'd go around, like, to warm up before, like, gym class. But on like, one part of the loop, there was these bathrooms. You'd run around the loop. So this kid was in the same class as me. I started running around the loop. He's behind me, and I. I'm aware of him back there because this happened like, the day before. Turn around that bathroom corner. Joey Luttrell and three of his friends were waiting for. For me. And I kind of stopped, and they're like, are you ready? And I was like, oh, what? And they. One of them grabbed me, put my arms behind him, and this kid came and just beat the. Out of me for a minute. And not like an actual minute, but, like, it felt like a long time. Yeah, it was one of those where he was, like, throwing a couple shots in my stomach, and I was like, I'm kind of eating these, like, for a piece of me was like, I, like, don't feel pain. And then he hit me in the jaw, and I was like, oh, my God.

[NickMercs]

Holy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like, this hurts so bad. Please, God, make this stuff. They like. They like, let me go or whatever. And. Yeah, that was probably the worst I ever got my ass beat in my life. That was tough.

[NickMercs]

Are you gonna be the guy?

[Taylor Lewan]

No, I didn't say nothing.

[NickMercs]

Are you gonna be the guy that says you never got your ass beat?

[Taylor Lewan]

Come on, man.

[NickMercs]

You really haven't.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I've been in a lot of fights.

[Taylor Lewan]

You can tell I'm not an.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, you're not.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, You're a pretty nice guy. I'm surprised, bro, because when you get tired, you can be grumpy.

[Will Compton]

Not like that.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

That I Bet Cody got some fights.

[Will Compton]

Cody gotten a couple. I mean, yeah, you never, like, you guys know, you just don't want to with the wrestlers, bro. They're just cycle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[NickMercs]

I think out of all the sports, they have the highest success and buds. I'm pretty sure you know that.

[Will Compton]

There's no question.

[NickMercs]

I'm pretty sure.

[Will Compton]

You go.

[Taylor Lewan]

You go to a wrestling house, like in Michigan. You go to the wrestling house. No girls, all dudes, dude. Bandanas on top of the head, no shirt hurts. Playing pong for about an hour and then everybody's in the lawn grappling, getting it going.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

These little 140 pound cats like, hey, you want to go? And I'm like, I guess. And also you're in a pretzel.

[NickMercs]

The worst.

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah, Polar Bear. Yeah, I never wrestled him. He was out there last year, bro. I mean, doing both sports is insane.

[Taylor Lewan]

Who's this?

[Will Compton]

The Polar Bear?

[Taylor Lewan]

Who's the Polar Bear?

[NickMercs]

We.

[Will Compton]

We interviewed him on spring tour.

[NickMercs]

He wasn't there.

[Will Compton]

Number zero. Oh, got you, got you, got you.

[Taylor Lewan]

I've had a couple on this podcast.

[NickMercs]

Good save, Huge save.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he, he got done with football last year and went right into wrestling. He wrestled.

[NickMercs]

How long is this? How long has this pod been a thing? It was just like 20.

[Taylor Lewan]

2018.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, 2018.

[Taylor Lewan]

Was it 2018 we started 2019? No, 2019. 2018 is when we met.

[Will Compton]

That's right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, that's right.

[NickMercs]

So 2018. 2019.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah. Yes.

[Will Compton]

The summer of 2019.

[NickMercs]

How did you guys decide to do this? Is this a conversation? And then boom.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I mean, this is.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. I mean, the way it kind of started was we did a. A podcast together, the official Titans podcast. And we kind of had some. We had some nice little chemistry.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fire.

[Taylor Lewan]

Will brought it to. Will really wanted to do it, and I was. I was kind of like, no, it's kind of lame.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I was wanting to rip a pod like back in Washington days. I just thought it'd be sick because I always listen to, like, Rogan and all those positives that were. Went on, and I just always thought it'd be sick because there wasn't really any. Any pause. Like J.J. redick did it with basketball, McAfee retires to do with barstool. But I just always thought it'd be cool, like all the conversations that happened in the song and the cold tub and everything else.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sure.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And fortunately talked Taylor into doing it.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. And then 2019, you guys kick off and Then Barstool brings you in.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that happened.

[NickMercs]

That was pretty quick.

[Will Compton]

With them in February of 2020. Yeah. We have. We had Variable comes on and talks about cutting his dick off for a Super bowl that went viral.

[Kal Penn]

Wow.

[Will Compton]

Jalen Ramsey talking about how he would DM wide receivers. Their girl, their girls in college. Oh, get in her head. That the Jalen Ramsey one popped off for us. Barstool DM'd us in, like, July or August and then flew out to sit and have a conversation with us on one of his off days in training camp. And then they wanted to stay in touch. We went about our seasons that year. That's when I went out to, okay, Oakland. And then when we went out to the super bowl in Miami in February 2020, like, that's when we locked everything up and signed a partnership with them. Crazy. Or it was like two or three years at the time. And then extended with them, what, a year or a couple years ago?

[Taylor Lewan]

It'll be two years in February.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, two years.

[NickMercs]

Barstool's great, man. Yeah. I mean, they have a great group of guys. I've been on PMT before. They're so easy. They're so easy to talk to.

[Will Compton]

They're like, great of. Of media. Yeah. All the different personalities, like, they got all the shows.

[NickMercs]

I know.

[Will Compton]

They are pumping, bro.

[NickMercs]

They're pumping, pumping.

[Taylor Lewan]

They really.

[Will Compton]

Now they got their HQ in Chicago, which is just like a fantasy factory.

[Taylor Lewan]

You've been out there.

[NickMercs]

New York.

[Will Compton]

You gotta go out to Chicago.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

That is Jerry. I've seen you go back and forth with Jerry Jersey Jerry.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, we play some games together, Jerry. This guy just randomly tells me that he used to be a crackhead. We. We were like.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I remember that.

[NickMercs]

We were loading into Call of Duty, and he was just like, hey, yeah, Nick, I used to be a crackhead. You know, I was like. I, like, looked at the camera. I was like, what? You know, I couldn't believe it. It was the most nonchalant, blunt way to tell me that ever. I thought he was kidding, but I'm like, yo, this isn't really something to joke around about, Jerry. And. Yeah, he stuck it, though.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

I like Jerry.

[Will Compton]

Shout out to bully.

[NickMercs]

He's great, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Jerry is a lot of fun guys.

[NickMercs]

And then they have. There's another homie, too, man. We follow each other, Caleb. God, great, man. They gotta. He's got a good team, man. It's a good roster.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, a lot of good guys.

[NickMercs]

I'm trying to think of some. Somebody I don't like, enjoy.

[Will Compton]

You know, I'm sure there's something.

[Taylor Lewan]

If you dove deep enough, you'd find one.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. There's so many, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's a lot of different personalities. Some people go into the radar, too. There's Frank.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. There's Frank the Tank. Yeah.

[NickMercs]

I've definitely seen him on the.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Yeah.

[NickMercs]

I hate baseball, so me and him would never get along with their own thing.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Baseball. You played, though, as a kid.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Taylor Lewan]

Everybody. That's like the number one American thing to do is you got to play it one year. T ball. That's like a bar mitzvah for an American.

[NickMercs]

Have to.

[Will Compton]

Have to.

[Taylor Lewan]

Got to play a year.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, that's.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's it. That's all you got to do. Twisted. Let's do A Twisted Question. How long has this podcast been going? Two hours and seven minutes. Oh, yeah, we could probably. Let's do A Twisted Question.

[NickMercs]

Whatever y' all want to do, man. I'm sorry about being late, man.

[Will Compton]

No, you're good.

[NickMercs]

2v2.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

$1 million tournament prize is on the line. Who is your partner, and what game are you picking?

[NickMercs]

I like that little one mil. That's a million, bro. All right. I gotta go Gears. No, I gotta go Gears of War, man. That's where it all began for me. That's got. That's cardboard checks. That's. I was a tyrant on that game. Gears of War. I go Gears of War two, and I'm gonna bring back my teammate, Predator. Me and him. Predator's the one. Not the one in the far right, but the next one in with the weird little faux hawk thing he's got going on there. I don't know what he was thinking.

[Taylor Lewan]

Is he still have it?

[NickMercs]

I hope not, but I'll go. Me and Pred2v2, Gears of War 2, and we're cashing that thing out. Easy money. If. If there was a line on that. We're. We're the favorites by far.

[Will Compton]

You're the heavy favorite.

[NickMercs]

We used to do that. That's what we did.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Oh, God. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

It's like riding a bike. It wouldn't be hard to get back in.

[NickMercs]

No, no. Well, you know, give me a couple days.

[Taylor Lewan]

Couple hours of practice. Hit a walk through with the boys real quick, make sure.

[NickMercs]

Twisted Te is great, man. We've done, like, three partnerships with them.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, they're all time.

[NickMercs]

They've sponsored, like, a couple of our gauntlets and stuff. They're awesome.

[Will Compton]

They let you rip it, too, bro.

[NickMercs]

They. They don't Care. I love that they don't care, because when companies care too much, it like it. It just restricts the creativity.

[Will Compton]

You can't say.

[Taylor Lewan]

And then you're not.

[Will Compton]

You're not actually motivated to even.

[NickMercs]

It's the worst.

[Will Compton]

Wanting to continue to.

[NickMercs]

They're not them. They. They let you just go.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

I love it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Tastes delicious.

[Will Compton]

Here's a bonus question. Your friend gets knocked in a 2v2 situation, do you revive him or push the enemy duo?

[NickMercs]

How weak are they? Are they weak?

[Will Compton]

I don't know. Let's say Predator goes down.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, Predator, too. Well, if Pred goes down and we have a guy down as well, and it's just him versus me, I'm taking my one, okay? I'm not reviving ever.

[Will Compton]

What if it's 1v2?

[NickMercs]

I'm gonna try to do a lot of damage and get the res off quick. If I can, like, hammer one and then take the res real quick. And if they let me get it, sweet. If not, 2v1, man. Let's go. I've done it before.

[Will Compton]

I love it.

[Taylor Lewan]

I have seen your eyes light up, too. Me, the passion. And the passion in that.

[NickMercs]

I was at MLG tournament. I was in the championship. 20k was on the line. Me and three of those guys were in that picture. The two on the right, right here, and the one on the far left. We were playing for 20k. It was against my buddy as well, who we play against all the time, and he was really good. It was me versus two of them on this pair pillar. And in Gears of War, you know, you're 3P, so you don't see the game from your gun. You see your whole character. So you can take the camera and you can see around things. And I'm on a big pillar, and they're both in front of me. It's me versus them. Dude, I worked that pillar like a stripper, bro. I. I was on the left, on the right. I had them both weak. I had them stuttering. They didn't know what to say or do. And I. I just. On both of them to keep us in it. And then we. We eventually came back and we won one, and then we got the whole tournament. And if I lost that 2v1, we would have been done. No, I remember. I remember because we. We were down big. I remember that when I. That when I killed both of them, everybody turned and they. They hooked at me. Oh, go, Shake. Good. Because, you know, we. With Gears of War, it's kind of like S D. So there's like a. You know, you. You win a round, there's a big break. So we got the win on the round. Everybody went crazy. I'm high five. They all.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

They look.

[NickMercs]

You see the look in their eyes. Everybody believed. It was like. It was like you're playing against a good football team and they got the best player and your boy lit him. The up helmet comes off. Yeah. Yo, well, we can these guys up, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right?

[NickMercs]

That's what it was, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's what's gonna happen Michigan State.

[NickMercs]

No one's gonna believe we're not back there. I hope so, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

I hope you need to turn on your fan card, the way you've been done talking.

[NickMercs]

I just. I'm a sports gambler, you know, I got. You know, I'm gonna be. Don't be careful betting on the boys.

[Taylor Lewan]

As a sports camper, you should know you should probably shouldn't bet on the team you like.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. I thought we were going to keep it close. We got railed at home.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it was hard. Tough day for the boys.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You make that catch of Colston Loveland in stride. Totally different game.

[Guest Analyst]

No way.

[Taylor Lewan]

Totally different game.

[Will Compton]

Did you go money line? Did you go moneyline with Michigan? Texas?

[NickMercs]

Of course, man.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Same.

[Will Compton]

That is one that you go. You believe in your squad. That's a.

[NickMercs]

That's money. Lined it up. Yeah. It got railed.

[Will Compton]

It would have been so over in like the second.

[NickMercs]

It was over.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

The Michigan money line is going to be so huge against Ohio State. God, we're going to make so much money on that day.

[NickMercs]

I'm. I'm definitely hammering it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Are you going to Vegas this week?

[NickMercs]

I'm hammering, right? No, I don't think so. You going to go?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

You guys both going? Oh, yeah.

[Will Compton]

No. Your boy's getting honored this week. This weekend, North County High School.

[NickMercs]

Are you really?

[Taylor Lewan]

Come on, kid. Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Congrats, man. Congrats.

[Will Compton]

About to go. Wave. Wave around. Hold the room.

[NickMercs]

Wave around.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I'm already in the hall of fame.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Just getting a little, I think, reflex. I think there's a sign, you know, first. First ballot, first round. Right when they opened it up.

[NickMercs]

Hell yeah.

[Will Compton]

But

[NickMercs]

you know something?

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't want Compton Stadium.

[Will Compton]

I don't want to say too much about it. You guys know I hate bragging.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

This.

[Taylor Lewan]

You. You.

[NickMercs]

You're having a month, bro. I am having great month for you.

[Will Compton]

You see that music museum?

[NickMercs]

Nah.

[Will Compton]

That Will Compton museum just opened last week. That I did see the museum Will Compton day.

[NickMercs]

It was a great tour.

[Will Compton]

In there last Thursday.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. A lot of. A lot of memorabilia.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[Will Compton]

The back stall in the bathroom is the Will Compton Museum at Barstool HQ in Chicago. He's got a bunch of pictures of

[NickMercs]

him above the toilet and.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, great. We'll be adding to it.

[NickMercs]

Will Compton shirts. Hell, yeah.

[Will Compton]

That is forever. Yeah. Big month. Big month. Birthdays. This. This month.

[NickMercs]

Oh, my God.

[Will Compton]

I know.

[NickMercs]

What the.

[Taylor Lewan]

September's a great month.

[Will Compton]

September's a great month.

[NickMercs]

I did, I, I, I did one. I did one of those. My was spinning.

[Will Compton]

Remember that, Lucy? He stopped breakers.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. I put one up top and then I put another one down low at the ufc. My was spinning. Remember that?

[Will Compton]

Good time. It's a good time.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Vintage gaming consoles. I love the pick this week. Shirt Germ. Thank you.

[Taylor Lewan]

I've already got mine.

[Will Compton]

We have a sponsor on Tear Talk. Are we good?

[Taylor Lewan]

We do not.

[Will Compton]

Are you familiar with Tear talk?

[NickMercs]

No.

[Will Compton]

Tier 1, 2, 3, if you got an honorable mention, go ahead and sling that in there.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

But you'll start at tier three, work your way up to one, but ultimately it's your top three.

[Taylor Lewan]

And also, don't just name, like, paint us a picture. Why is tier 3 tier 3?

[NickMercs]

Why?

[Will Compton]

Vintage gaming consoles.

[NickMercs]

You guys start. No way.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

I kind of don't know yet.

[Taylor Lewan]

Obviously, we've already proven that I'm not a massive gamer. However, as a child, I enjoyed plugging it in, sitting on my ground, crisscross applesauce, and playing some games. So this is what I'm going to dive into, the nostalgia category. My tier 3 is going to go to the OG Xbox. Now, there's a lot of people like to bounce back and forth between Xbox and PlayStation for whatever reason. Because of Halo. Yeah, Xbox was my game. I just, I really enjoyed it. It was like it was a mind to have Xbox there. You get the green and then the little thing pops up the X. You're like, we're about to really do it.

[NickMercs]

Hell yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Put in your little time, you're ready to go, and then.

[NickMercs]

Do you remember Xbox Connect? It was like the first Xbox Live.

[Taylor Lewan]

Before Live, they had the bar, right?

[NickMercs]

No.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay, then. No, I don't.

[NickMercs]

That was also.

[Taylor Lewan]

Tell me that doesn't make you get fired up.

[NickMercs]

That was also Connect, though.

[Will Compton]

He's right.

[NickMercs]

Okay, but connect with a C. Okay. It was Xbox Live before Xbox Live. That's how you know you're a crackhead. If you know what that is.

[Sponsor Voice]

You were.

[NickMercs]

You were a crackhead. Sorry.

[Taylor Lewan]

So that's my tier 3 Xbox. My tier 2 is Game Boy color. I think that Game Boy.

[NickMercs]

Is that a console?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it is. It's a pocket console.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Taylor Lewan]

Absolutely.

[NickMercs]

So we're throwing those in there.

[Taylor Lewan]

AA batteries.

[Will Compton]

Kind of changes the game.

[Taylor Lewan]

I had the purple see through. We can see all the things.

[NickMercs]

Pokemon with the weird little light. So you can see it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Pokemon yellow link. All that, bro. Yeah, that game. Game. You. You catch a little break in elementary school, you'll be able to pull that thing out of your pocket, pop it on real quick, get that wire. That was short.

[NickMercs]

Wow.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Public school.

[NickMercs]

That's the light. Look at the light.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, the little light at night time. But there was also a little cord that was probably five inches. That's way more than five inches, like seven to eight inches long. And you'd be able to plug it in, turn that cadaver into an alakazam. Because you can only evolve through trades, bro. You get that thing done in the sand in the playground at elementary school. School, you're showing all the boys in the cul de sac what you got. And then my tier one is going to go. This is my God tier. And I've already mentioned it once. That's going to go to the Nintendo 64. Maybe the greatest. Like we've all been in a place where the game's not working. You have to pull it out and give it the.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Put it back in. Then it gets a little bit older. So you have to go back into the left. You have to JFK that thing the way you have to move it just to get the thing to turn on. Super smash, bro. Goldeneye.

[NickMercs]

What A weird Mario 64 though, huh?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, the. I. I like those little things.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, they were great, but they were weird, dude.

[Will Compton]

Right? You have to take that left that one joystick.

[Taylor Lewan]

Mario 64. It was just.

[NickMercs]

What was the greatest ends 64 game, you think? The best 1 007.

[Taylor Lewan]

007 was good. I mean, for me it's super Smash.

[NickMercs]

But if you're playing super Smash, great Pick two star.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fox dude was also incredible.

[NickMercs]

Fox was cool. Remember, you could fight your boys in the planes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

Remember Quarterback club?

[NickMercs]

No. Brett Favre. NFL Blitz, though.

[Will Compton]

I remember that one.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, great.

[NickMercs]

P2000 Blitz was.

[Will Compton]

People love Zelda.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes. And the game always had a way of like just equaling things out. I feel like way better all of a sudden. You'd have fumbles, interceptions. It should just wouldn't go your way.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just kept every Zelda I never got into. I don't know why.

[NickMercs]

Just it's one of those Games where if you gave it some patience. It's incredible.

[Taylor Lewan]

Really beautiful game.

[NickMercs]

You go back and play it now. Was still kind of fun. Weird.

[Taylor Lewan]

My wife played this game, you know about it, the one where you, like, have a little community. You have a garden and all.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Harvest moon.

[Taylor Lewan]

Harvest Valley. Were you ever harvest Valley guy?

[NickMercs]

Make a little farm.

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Run out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Run your chores, dude. You hit double tap the Z, hit a spin. All those bullets ricocheting.

[NickMercs]

Left them on and it's unreal.

[Will Compton]

That's a great list.

[NickMercs]

N64 is definitely. Yeah. It's hard to a beat.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh. So for tear talk now we'll go around the room and we'll do one word to describe how we feel about the individual who just wins. Tear talk.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Amazing.

[Taylor Lewan]

Thank you.

[NickMercs]

Incredible.

[Taylor Lewan]

All right.

[NickMercs]

And I'm blown away that you knew all that. Sorry.

[Taylor Lewan]

Thank you. Barrel roll.

[NickMercs]

Barrel. Nostalgic research.

[Will Compton]

Solid. Oh, yeah. Oh, geez.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hell yeah. Hyphenated. Hyphenated. All right, which one y' all want to go?

[Will Compton]

I'll go kick it off. Yeah, man. Game Boy really changed the game for me. Game Boy is going to be my honorable mention. My tier three is going to go to my first love of video games, and that is the Sega Genesis. I got Maddened. It was either Madden 95 or Madden 96. That was the first console I got for Christmas that my eyes just literally lit up and I fell in love with video games. They would have this combine that you could do where you're tapping B and C. It's like this boxing where you're trying to take out Evander Holfield, Mike Tyson, where you're battling him. What was that? What was that one where you're trying to your backside?

[NickMercs]

I remember the boxing game. It was incredible.

[Will Compton]

They're. They're across from in your little back, and you're kind of just dodging the whole time. It might have been like Mike Tyson or something like that.

[NickMercs]

I don't know. But it was incredible. I remember Ali, Tyson, Holyfield.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. What was this Madden call? Is that 95?

[NickMercs]

That's 96.

[Will Compton]

Madden 96. But that is when.

[NickMercs]

I mean, this is where mad. This is where it began.

[Will Compton]

Fell in love with video games. My tier two is going to go to the PlayStation 2. When you could, you know, that's when you had memory cards. I know you had it on Xbox. I was never an original Xbox guy. I was a PlayStation 2 cat. The. I'm thinking to myself, game day 97. Game day.

[NickMercs]

98.

[Will Compton]

Every year on my birthday, I would get to skip school, go to work with my dad. He'd take a half day day. Then we'd go to Toys R Us. I'd get the latest edition of Game Day, we'd go home, and then for the rest of time, we would just play a season with the Dallas Cowboys, with each other. And then also, like PlayStation 2 is. I was nice on WWE. I was nice on. That's when NCAA. I want to say it was like 2004, when the lights would start to shine off the helmet and you just remembered the evolution of the video game industry would start to take place.

[NickMercs]

Starting to get better.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, they were starting to evolve.

[NickMercs]

2000. Look at that cover. Who's that?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, NCAA 2000.

[NickMercs]

Who's that?

[Will Compton]

Carson Palmer.

[NickMercs]

Carson Palmer.

[Will Compton]

And then also Grand Theft Auto came out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

Yes. Man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Crash.

[Will Compton]

What was it like? Not Supercross, but it was like where they had them both together.

[Taylor Lewan]

MX versus ATV Unleashed.

[Will Compton]

Like, just phenomenal. Video games are in that generation. In my tier one, I share with Taylor. The ends. The N64. Harvest Moon. I lived and died by Pokemon, where you could plug that. You could plug. You could slide in the game. They had like a little Pokemon Stadium.

[NickMercs]

Wait, they take the picture.

[Will Compton]

Pokemon Stadium.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's. That's Pokemon. That's. I think that's Pokemon.

[Will Compton]

But you could also play in Pokemon Stadium. You could connect. There's like something. Memory card. You could slide in your Game Boy.

[NickMercs]

You were Pokemon game.

[Will Compton]

And you could face people with the squad you had on the game.

[NickMercs]

Pokemon guy.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, big Pokemon guy.

[NickMercs]

You see the cards, too.

[Will Compton]

I won. I won a badge. What was the very first one with. With Brock and Onyx.

[Taylor Lewan]

Pewter City badge.

[Will Compton]

Boulder badge. I won a Boulder badge at a flea market back in the early days. Your boy was nice.

[NickMercs]

You were a Pokemon guy, bro. That's crack.

[Will Compton]

And then 007 is my favorite.

[Taylor Lewan]

Funny.

[NickMercs]

Oh, it's great.

[Will Compton]

007 was like my favorite game of all this.

[NickMercs]

What you talking about? Where you plug it in.

[Will Compton]

Pokemon Stadium.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, you could. You could fight other Pokemon.

[Will Compton]

That little N64 transfer pack, whatever you had on the Game Boy, like when he said yellow, red, blue, whatever. You slide that in, you get the roster. You got on your Game Boy. Pokemon Stadium with better graphics.

[Taylor Lewan]

How have you ever played that?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, you could upload your Pokemon, bro.

[Taylor Lewan]

All I remember is the Pokemon picture one. I thought that was kind of lame.

[NickMercs]

I thought it was kind of lame. The Pokemon Snap.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Where you.

[Taylor Lewan]

You take a photo, you Go around

[Will Compton]

slow and try to take, you know, the rare pictures.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[NickMercs]

My mom love that game, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

I went through a little bomb game

[Will Compton]

to like, you know, but that.

[Taylor Lewan]

I went through a little phase, like a year ago where they had these little, like, little apps where people would be streaming, like, opening games, opening Pokemon cards. And I bought a few of them things, got myself some Charizards.

[NickMercs]

Dude, I had OG Charizard. Actually, we sold it for 300 bucks. I did.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, my God. I bet it's worth so much.

[NickMercs]

My little bro took my card. No.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

When you wanted him.

[NickMercs]

Oh, yeah.

[Will Compton]

I hated the poke. He probably called him Pokemon.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

You know what I mean?

[NickMercs]

He knew what it was called. Pokemon, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Pokemon Snap. I never got on board with it.

[Will Compton]

That is my. That's my tear talk.

[NickMercs]

Okay, okay, okay. Tier three for me. I'll agree with you.

[Taylor Lewan]

We got words. Words for words.

[Will Compton]

One word. One word.

[NickMercs]

Oh, sorry. Yeah. Okay. I'll start, I guess. Or you start.

[Taylor Lewan]

Go ahead.

[NickMercs]

Do you have su. Surprising, man. I like you. I can't believe the Pokemon.

[Taylor Lewan]

More than one word.

[NickMercs]

Sorry.

[Taylor Lewan]

Pokemon Jolteon.

[NickMercs]

Oh, wow.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Sports.

[Taylor Lewan]

Solid.

[NickMercs]

Interesting.

[Taylor Lewan]

He didn't like it.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Charizard, I see.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, you said it right, too.

[NickMercs]

All right, pops.

[Will Compton]

Old school.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hyphenated.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah, there you go. Also, you guys use hyphenated to get around the one word. Yeah, make sure I do that next time. No problem. Tier three. Three, probably. The Game Boy. You guys bring up great points. I mean, we. That was what first got everybody into it. I used to get in so much trouble playing that you'd see the light on from the crack of the door. He'd bust open that door and what are you doing, man? I had that little light on there, and I tried to cover it with the. With. With the thing real quick, you know, and never got away with it. Yeah, that. That Game Boy. But the see through Game Boy, specifically, the one where I could see all the way, that was put together, the wires and the. I just used to love looking in that thing, man. Yeah, it was cool.

[Will Compton]

Cracked.

[NickMercs]

Yeah. Sorry. And then tier 2, I'll probably go with. I'll probably go with the original Xbox because that's what got me into competitive gaming. And that was when people would download Xbox Connect on the PC, was a program on your PC, and then you could play people in Halo the first Halo around the world. And me and my buddy would load up on 2v2, Halo 1 1, and we beat Nas. So I got. I got real twisted at that. And then that's Tier two, but tier one, greatest console of all time. I don't think it's debatable. It is the 360. You got gears of War, Call of Duty, and Halo all on that console. And arguably all the best games from each. From each one. Not only that, but they had the best controller of any. Of any controller in the history of Games Gaming. The 360 controller was next level. And that was when you it. They came out with this thing. You can make your own avatar, like a character of yourself and you could customize it. You had like a bio. I put like my placings in that. Then you had like a list where you could add people to the list. I'd make people pay to add me because I was so good. So like, you want me, my list? It'd be a flex. You have me on the list, so you pay me 100 bucks, I add you. For the whole year. I was doing that scummy weird shit, but I was doing it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hey, businessman, businessman. Business.

[NickMercs]

The business. Yeah, that was the dashboard, bro. Look at you, little guy. Man, it was crazy. But yeah, Gears of War 1, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty 4, the m. The.

[Will Compton]

The Modern Warfare.

[NickMercs]

The Modern Warfares, and then halo massive. Halo 3 came out on that one. And that's Halo 2 and Halo 3. I mean 2K, arguably the best halos, 2Ks as well. Grand Theft Auto. Yeah, I mean, you name it, it was on the 360. And it's just. It took gaming to a whole nother level, in my opinion. And the next Xbox didn't do it for me, you know, it was like a bad sequel.

[Will Compton]

Like the Xbox one.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

The 360 was way better than the next one.

[Will Compton]

I don't. Yeah, I agree with you.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

With that said. My word. Horny.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Pro. Legendary.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Unreal.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just a winner.

[NickMercs]

Cash cracked.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

And I agree.

[Taylor Lewan]

I've made it.

[Will Compton]

You're right about, you're right about the 360. Like the hours put in on the 360. I mean, Red Dead one, that's where Red Dead.

[NickMercs]

Was that on 360?

[Taylor Lewan]

No, no, no, no. The first Red. The first Red Dead was Red Dead Revolver.

[Will Compton]

Right, right, right. But that was on 360. It might have been on Xbox too, but I'm saying red dead redemption one came out on the three, 360 maybe. Hey, like that series right there.

[Taylor Lewan]

Knowing all that, I might have to change my ogx.

[Will Compton]

I wanted to throw back to the market, but you're right, like the Xbox360 is the greatest console of all time.

[NickMercs]

And the controller. Underrated, man. Like, I. They started, remember? The next one for the Xbox is huge and weird, but the 360.

[Will Compton]

You still argue with those PlayStation, though, about it being better. I was a guy who transitioned from PlayStation 2 to 360. It took a little time, but once I did, I saw the light.

[NickMercs]

I went from Xboxbox to play PlayStation. No, because competitive Call of Duty did. So we. We had to or else we couldn't compete. Right. So kind of weird. I probably would have stayed on Xbox. It's just better. Way better.

[Will Compton]

Okay. Hey, this.

[NickMercs]

I like the tears, man.

[Will Compton]

This has been an incredible podcast.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's been a great one.

[NickMercs]

I appreciate you guys for having me, man. You know, I, I. The bus is real.

[Will Compton]

The bus is real and it shakes, man.

[NickMercs]

It moves.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

When we get hyped.

[Will Compton]

This is an awesome pod. Having your old man on your brother.

[NickMercs]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Having dad chime in.

[NickMercs]

Shout out, brother. You know what I mean?

[Will Compton]

My dad's gonna be Juice when we're on the wrestling segment. He's gonna be at home because he watches every Wednesday, every Tuesday.

[NickMercs]

Your dad and his dad probably get along.

[Will Compton]

There's no question.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't know a man that wouldn't get along with Bill.

[Will Compton]

I don't know if he'd make it out there. I'd have to. You'd have to figure it out. You gotta struggle with him flying, getting through the airport.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

Talk him into the sphere, but can't go.

[Taylor Lewan]

Why? What's the deal? I was gonna. I wanted to bring that back up. Why don't you.

[Dad (Will Compton's Father)]

The sign's all over me.

[NickMercs]

I. I'm full swing right now at home, and I'm. I'm streaming a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot right now.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's football.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, man. Go out to Vegas how many times now? You can't.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know, I've been out in two months.

[NickMercs]

Oh, wow.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mention.

[NickMercs]

Okay.

[Taylor Lewan]

Literally, I was going to fly out Thursday, like, in the morning. Will texted me. He was like, you want to do pro football football show on Thursday? And I'm like, you got to say yes. You can't just say no to go to Vegas five hours earlier. Like, you got to say yes to it.

[NickMercs]

So you have your podcast and you're also doing a new show now.

[Will Compton]

The locker room, that is where we preview the weekend.

[NickMercs]

Is that pro football? Pro football, right.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's Barstool.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Barstool's pro football football show. That's just strictly NFL. The locker room, we do both College football and NFL, where we're gambling, we're making our picks, we're previewing the weekend, talking all ball. Second, the top of this episode when we kind of recap the weekend and just talked about our teams. Last year we would try and cover a lot more, but now we're putting everything thing into the locker room.

[NickMercs]

Like the sports gambling stuff. You're putting it on there?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Cool. Very cool.

[Taylor Lewan]

When we. When we're done, we'll show you the. The studio that. The set that we made.

[NickMercs]

Yeah, you got to turn off all the lights, so it's perfect in here.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Sick. You like it?

[NickMercs]

But, bro, this is sweet, bro.

[Will Compton]

Thank you, man. Stickers on here and I know we've been trying for a minute, but I appreciate you. We appreciate you having me, man.

[NickMercs]

I got a lot to come home, guys, man. I mean, Jack's my boy. The whole crew, man. You know, you guys are. You guys are awesome. Keep on doing your thing, man. Best of luck. The pocket cast stuff is cool, man.

[Will Compton]

It's grassroots.

[NickMercs]

Turns me on, boy.

[Taylor Lewan]

That boy right now, it's a.

[NickMercs]

It's a play of passion.

[Will Compton]

You play. You play college football? 25. Yeah.

[NickMercs]

All right.

[Taylor Lewan]

You good?

[Will Compton]

I'm not very good.

[Taylor Lewan]

You do me a favor before you go? You sign this helmet?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, sure.

[Will Compton]

Was he number three?

[NickMercs]

Are we loading this thing up?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[NickMercs]

Who do we got? There you go, bro.

[Will Compton]

Appreciate you guys tuning in. Subscribe. Leave Comments Sir.

[Taylor Lewan]

Big old love.

[NickMercs]

You got some real ones up here, man. Real ones.

[Commercial Narrator]

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[NickMercs]

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[Kal Penn]

hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast, Hearsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobook books available on Audible. It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[NickMercs]

Paramount plus is now the home of all your BET favorites.

[Taylor Lewan]

What?

[NickMercs]

Yeah, with all new episodes of Tyler Perry's Divorce. Sisters you've always liked, a little drama, plus a whole new world of movies like Gladiator 2. Now I will control an Empire Original series like the Shy. Just make sure we protect each other. And live sports like ufc. Welcome to the history books. New home, same family. Your BET favorites are now on Paramount. Subscribe now.