Bill Bellamy and Rebooting the Booty Call, Plus the Russini-Vrabel Situation

Summary

Ringer Tailgate – April 15, 2026
Episode: Bill Bellamy and Rebooting the Booty Call, Plus the Russini-Vrabel Situation

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Episode Overview

This episode of Ringer Tailgate offers a lively mix of college football news, personal banter, and a special interview with comedian and actor Bill Bellamy. The conversation ranges from sports media scandals (the Russini-Vrabel "situation"), the evolution of college football culture, and career transitions for athletes, to a nostalgic and hilarious deep-dive into 90s pop culture with Bellamy. The show maintains its signature blend of sharp analysis and playful chaos, making it fun and insightful for both die-hard and casual fans.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Opening Banter & Birthday Shoutouts

Timestamps: [00:43]–[04:27]

• The hosts—Van, Joel, and Tate—exchange playful birthday wishes, riff about their group text etiquette, and share personal stories.
• Joel jokes about his texting habits in their group chat:

  “It’s me sending a series of links, and it being ignored until the day of the show.” [02:47]

2. Modern Dating & 'Franchise Mode'

Timestamps: [03:08]–[06:52]

• Joel recalls his “three-call” dating rule, leading to reflections on modern dating, reciprocity, and respect.

• Van argues that mutual interest is always obvious:

  “Any woman who likes you, even a scintilla... she will have no problem calling or texting you.” [06:03]

• The discussion humorously pivots to the idea of “Franchise Mode”—sometimes opting to “do for yourself” rather than play the dating game.

3. CFP Logo Redesign Reaction

Timestamps: [10:21]–[13:14]

• The hosts react to the new College Football Playoff (CFP) logo (now “more gold” and branded as “CFP” instead of spelled out).
• Joel jokes:

  “That’s the coaster that I use for my football can here.” [11:03]

• Van sees it as part of the college football "12-month news cycle."

4. Russini–Vrabel Situation & Ethical Debate

Timestamps: [13:14]–[29:45]

• The team addresses the alleged romantic relationship between reporter Diana Russini and coach Mike Vrabel, tackling the media fallout, ethical implications, and double standards in journalism.
• Van emphasizes the gravity of public accusations:

  “That leap that is being made... is so profound to me that it angers me a little bit.” [17:49]

• The hosts discuss the nuances between personal and professional boundaries, exploitation, and the realities of media relationships—calling for more caution before making serious public judgments.

5. Bill Bellamy Interview: 90s Pop Culture & Career Insight

Timestamps: [30:06]–[72:08]

Bill Bellamy Joins the Show

• Warm intro and mutual admiration with the hosts; Bellamy jokes about struggling to get on crowded Zoom podcasts.

Rebooting The 'Booty Call'

• Bellamy explains how the "booty call" concept has changed:

  “Because of the phone, it has changed the complexity of what a real booty call is like... It needs a revamp.” [31:30]

• Nostalgic tales of 90s home décor (waterbeds!) and dating culture.
• Hilarious exchange about the “technique” required for waterbed intimacy:

  “Basically, you ride the wave.” [33:37] — Bill Bellamy

Janet Jackson, Star Encounters & 90s Sex Appeal

• Bellamy recounts behind-the-scenes stories from MTV and touring with Janet Jackson:

  “Janet climbs on this dude and does ‘Anytime, Anyplace’... Every night, I was standing right by that goddamn bed. And she did not pick me.” [36:07]

• The crew explores what made Janet Jackson an icon and the energy of sexiness in the 90s.

Tupac, Shaq & The Realities of Fame

• Bill reveals Tupac's lesser-seen fun, charismatic side, contrasting the rapper’s public persona:

  “He was actually a fun ass dude with personality and jokes... and then two minutes later, he had a shootout with cops.” [40:25]

• Stories of growing up with Shaquille O’Neal—realizing the difference between regular fame and superstar fame at Disney World:

  “I did not know how much love and how famous he was... Shaquille was more famous than all of us put together.” [44:18]

MTV VJ Life & Black Culture in the Mainstream

• Life as a 90s MTV VJ and being an ambassador for Black culture on a mainstream stage.
• “I knew that my purpose was I had to do a good job. I was like, yo, man, I can’t mess this up. It means too much to the culture.” [45:09]

On the Demise of Music Videos

• Bellamy laments the loss of “art piece” music videos of the 90s, replaced by lower-budget, YouTube content.

‘Any Given Sunday’ & Celebrity Hoops

• Training with NFL greats for the movie, Bellamy experienced a "car crash" of real football contact:

  “I thought I was a football player till I got hit. I thought I was nasty.” [53:28]

Longevity in Hollywood & Avoiding Pitfalls

• On outlasting others in showbiz:

  “I didn’t grow up in the Hollywood game, bro. Like, I grew up like a civilian... I had structure.” [55:27]

• Tales of wild Madden tournaments with hip-hop stars and actors—“all the hip-hop guys... were traveling with their controllers.” [58:02]

Lightning Round: Celebrity Comedians Name-Check

• Joel quizzes Bill on knowing famous comics; Bellamy affirms some, hilariously admits he’s never met others.
• The segment validates Joel’s earlier claims about comedy circles (see [62:06]–[64:09]).

‘How to Be a Player’—Classic 90s Film

• Van asks if Bellamy could have “adapted” after his character’s legendary defeat at the film’s end:

  “Me getting caught gave the movie redemption...” [68:16]

• Bellamy on casting diverse female roles: “I kind of wanted every kind of chick… like, Baskin Robbins.” [69:22]

6. Headline Roundup: News & Debate

Timestamps: [74:45]–[111:42]

Leonard Fournette & Athlete Transitions

• Discussing Leonard Fournette’s struggles post-football: “I would get out of bed at 2am, drive around and cry.” [80:14]
• The crew reflects on the loss of structure and purpose for retired athletes. Joel: “You shouldn’t wait to find your second dream or your second purpose in life...” [83:11]

The Professionalization of College Football

• Ohio State's Ryan Day says, “If you’re not a first or second rounder, then this probably isn’t the right place for you.” [89:54]
• Van: “What he’s telling you right now is that he runs an elite ship…” [89:54]
• Debates on player development, college as a minor-league, and team-building through recruiting.

College Sports Labor Economics: Layoffs at Cal & HBCU Challenges

• Cal athletics lays off entire marketing department to shift resources; discussion on trickle-down effects of increased athlete compensation.

• Van and Joel dissect how the money flows—and who gets squeezed.

• HBCUs (like FAMU) face academic bans, leading to their star athletes being harvested by bigger programs.

  Van: “Now... what you're going to see is every single one of these guys that exist at these programs… now they will be harvested.” [106:53]

State of Higher Education

• Broader crisis in underfunded public universities, the impact of privatization, and political adversaries.

Fun: Bryce Underwood’s Behind-the-Back Pass

• Viral video of Michigan’s Underwood making a crazy throw triggers excitement.

7. Last Call: Moncrief Hall 227 & Podcast Hijinks

Timestamps: [112:13]–[119:17]

• Playful chaos as the group debates the location, history, and significance of Joel’s freshman dorm (“227”), and schemes about a live show there.
  • “I wasn’t gonna help you now.” – Joel [115:28]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On group texts being ignored:
  “It’s me sending a series of links, and it being ignored until the day of the show.” — Joel Anderson [02:47]

• On 90s MTV & Black culture:
  “I can’t mess this up. It means too much to the culture.” — Bill Bellamy [45:09]

• On celebrity dating standards:
  “Jermaine gave hope to a lot of dudes.” — Bill Bellamy on Jermaine Dupri dating Janet Jackson [34:41]

• On NFL reality:
  “I thought I was a football player till I got hit. I thought I was nasty.” — Bill Bellamy [53:28]

• On the college football news cycle:
  “This is the type of news trickle that is just meant to make college football a year-round sport.” — Van [12:03]

• On ethics and accusations:
  “Before we call her that… maybe just let it get a little bit down the road.” — Van, on jumping to conclusions in media scandals [19:59]

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Timestamps: Important Segments

• 00:43–04:27: Welcome, birthday talk, group chat etiquette

• 10:21–13:14: New CFP logo

• 13:14–29:45: Russini-Vrabel media scandal debate

• 30:06–72:08: Bill Bellamy Interview

  • 31:30: Rebooting Booty Call
  • 33:37: Waterbed technique
  • 36:07: Janet Jackson tour stories
  • 44:18: Fame with Shaq
  • 45:09: MTV VJ experience
  • 53:28: ‘Any Given Sunday’ football story
  • 55:27: Surviving Hollywood
  • 69:22: Casting ‘How to Be a Player’

• 74:45–111:42: Weekly football headlines

  • 80:14: Fournette’s transition struggle
  • 89:54: Ryan Day’s recruiting philosophy
  • 94:36: Cal athletics layoffs
  • 106:53: HBCU struggles and transfer portal loopholes

• 112:13–119:17: Last call, Moncrief Hall 227, podcast plans

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Tone & Takeaway

Ringer Tailgate balances irreverent banter with frank, sensitive discussions on ethics, sports culture, and the changing landscape of college football. The Bill Bellamy interview anchors this episode, delivering nostalgia, comic relief, and sincere perspective on longevity, Black excellence in media, and changing times in both sports and entertainment. The breadth of topics—from scandals to nostalgia to athlete well-being—showcases the show’s deftness in blending fun with thoughtful analysis.

Transcript

[Van]

Focus features in Blumhouse Obsession.

[Joel Anderson]

When I have a crush on a

[Van]

guy no one knows, be careful.

[Joel Anderson]

I wish Nikki loved me more than

[Van]

anyone in the entire world.

[Bill Bellamy]

Who you wish for?

[Van]

Obsession is 96% fresh on rotten Tomatoes.

[Joel Anderson]

I love you so, so, so, so much.

[Van]

It's blood soaked nightmare fuel.

[Joel Anderson]

What kind of spills you put on her?

[Bill Bellamy]

You have been warned.

[Van]

Obsession.

[Bill Bellamy]

Rated R under 17, animated without parent

[Van]

only theaters May 15 with special engagements in Dolby foreign.

[Host/Moderator]

Welcome back to Ringer Tailgate, the Wednesday edition of the show. Hope everybody's having a nice April. We're very excited because the guest that was promised is finally here today. We got Bill Bellamy joining the show. Very fun interview. Joel gets a little redemption in that interview. Before we get to Bill Bellamy, though, let's say what's up to our guys. Van in studio. What's up, Van?

[Van]

What up? What up? What up? Let's raise.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I was getting my arms in position.

[Van]

What's up? Talking about arms in position. Crazy. But yeah. What's up, everybody? Rear tailgate is back. Y' all know how it goes.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, you know how it goes. We got a lot to get to. Joel Anderson also there and ready to raise the roof. Always. What's up, Joel, man?

[Joel Anderson]

What's up, y'? All? I'm. I'm hyped. Well, that's overstating it a little bit, but I'm glad to be here, man. I'm gonna show y' all that I'm operating in good faith and teamwork and all that. Good. Are we gonna skip? We're gonna say a nice little word about the Duke whose birthday was over the weekend.

[Producer/Assistant]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Come on out here. Let's get it. Let's get it. Yeah. What number birthday was that? What number birthday was that?

[Host/Moderator]

You don't ask people their age, Joel.

[Joel Anderson]

He's a man.

[Producer/Assistant]

Wait, what does that mean?

[Joel Anderson]

Well, I mean, I would not ask it of a woman.

[Producer/Assistant]

Why not?

[Joel Anderson]

For antiquated notions.

[Producer/Assistant]

Are you a sexist?

[Host/Moderator]

I treat people the same.

[Joel Anderson]

I just said antiquated notions of sex and gender and an appearance. Wait, you buy into this also convention? No, no. But I do think that some conventions are conventions for a reason, you know? And I would not ask a woman her age. Interesting.

[Van]

All right, interesting.

[Joel Anderson]

But I would ask a man. Billy, how old are you? Doug?

[Producer/Assistant]

39.

[Bill Bellamy]

Oh, okay.

[Van]

There you go. That's fantastic, Duke. My birthday, by the way, is tomorrow.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna bring that up, too.

[Producer/Assistant]

Happy birthday.

[Van]

Number 46. I'll be 46 tomorrow.

[Host/Moderator]

Shout out look at us celebrating.

[Joel Anderson]

What are y' all gonna do? Y' all should get together and do something, man. Oh, that's right.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, we'll figure it out on the Text Bros Chain.

[Van]

Yeah, we going to. We going to. We're going to topgolf.

[Joel Anderson]

You didn't hear? Let me tell you something about our text thread. It's me sending a series of links, and it being ignored until the day of the show. Nobody respond. And I'm not really complaining about this.

[Van]

Hey, did y' all see this video of these groundhogs?

[Host/Moderator]

Sounds like a complaint.

[Producer/Assistant]

What?

[Van]

Yeah, I just. I got. I gotta cut Joel off with this grief.

[Joel Anderson]

Every show starts with a. Oh, I'm sorry. But it was. It was just crazy because, you know, I used to have a thing when I. When I was dating. I'd be like, I'll call a girl three times. Okay. But if she hadn't called me and one of them three, you know, and, you know, before three strikes of her.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Then I'm like, oh, no, can't holler.

[Van]

Wait, you. You would call a girl three times in a row without giving you a callback?

[Joel Anderson]

No, no, no, no, no, no.

[Host/Moderator]

Three separate calls.

[Joel Anderson]

Now we've established I've got your number. We're talking now.

[Van]

Now.

[Joel Anderson]

All right. And if in a week, I might call you three times and you answer that for that one time, I call you a second time, you pick up the sign, we have a little conversation. Third time, I call you, you pick up whatever, we have a little conversation. But if you don't call me at all, like, you don't initiate a call, at some point, I probably. I would start losing interest.

[Host/Moderator]

And then you're going Franchise Mode.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, I didn't really have friends. You know, I didn't really have to. I mean, I did, but I don't have. I don't have to do it that often.

[Van]

But you. You play Franchise Mode, like, out of. Franchise Mode for you is out of, like, you know, just whenever you want to play in Franchise. Like, I think people sometimes think that Franchise Mode happens when.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah.

[Van]

You can't go online. That's not true. Sometimes you could go online, and sometimes you choose Franchise Mode.

[Joel Anderson]

That's it. Fair enough. Yeah, like you said, because sometimes you just, you know, you gotta do for yourself.

[Van]

Franchise Mode. Franchise Mode. That's it. It's Franchise Mode. I know. The Duke. The Duke gets really.

[Host/Moderator]

Look.

[Van]

Look how bad she looks. Guys, we gotta. Okay, I wanna do a show. I want to do a show where we have a sex therapist. Come on the show.

[Bill Bellamy]

I'm serious.

[Van]

This is what I want.

[Joel Anderson]

Our next one.

[Van]

I want our next. Or it could be a sex therapist, could be a podiatrist. But I want. I want someone to come on the show because I want.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm not gonna say I want.

[Van]

I want to get to the bottom of whatever the hangups are that the Duke happens. The Duke has. I want you guys to go back and look at how uncomfortable the Duke gets. Look how uncomfortable he is now. Look at him now.

[Host/Moderator]

He went from a birthday shout out to conversation.

[Producer/Assistant]

Yeah. And I was just trying to figure out, like, Joel is basically like, if I call you three times and you don't call me back, it's over. And it's like, okay, well, that's a lot.

[Joel Anderson]

What's a lot?

[Producer/Assistant]

I mean, it's just presumptuous of you, you know, that people have to.

[Host/Moderator]

You should.

[Joel Anderson]

You should think of me and want to initiate a call with me. I feel. I feel like that's a real trouble with a lot of men, is that they don't. They don't know what. They don't know what it is to experience love. Like being loved and wanting to be desired. Right. Like, I feel like I have enough respect for myself that I want a woman to want me as much as I want her. I don't feel like I gotta do no chasing, no shit like that.

[Host/Moderator]

You wanna be salt. You don't wanna see.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I'm as much of. I'm a prize, just like you. You. You know what I'm saying? But I think it's so. It's a form of respect I have for her, and it's form. Respect I have for myself.

[Van]

Respect for myself just for everybody listening. Any woman who likes you, even a scintilla. When I say a scintilla, I mean, if a woman likes you that much, she will have no problem calling or texting you. And it's like almost something that doesn't need to be like. Like, if a woman likes you, like, legitimately likes you, there's no, like, there's no way. She's so happy to hear from you. Yes, she's had. Like, there's no. It's actually gonna be the other way around. It'll be the other way around to be like, hey, why haven't you called texting me?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, if.

[Van]

And by the way, to women, if the guy actually likes you, if he actually likes you, likes you for real.

[Joel Anderson]

Kakali.

[Van]

No. No problem. Gonna be no problem.

[Host/Moderator]

At least.

[Van]

How you doing? Good morning. What's Up. Even if it's cool. I think we sometimes make this shit too complicated, and that's a lot of people out here playing or whatever. Whatever. But if. If the person actually likes you, this is not gonna. None is gonna be.

[Joel Anderson]

You can't wait to talk to them, and they can't wait to talk to you. So I just need to. I just need a little get back. And in reference to that, on our. In our text thread, it's just me sending link after link after link after link and nobody responding.

[Producer/Assistant]

You gonna stop?

[Joel Anderson]

Why can't you take the hint here? Yeah, well, you know what?

[Van]

Yeah, like, why don't you stop doing it?

[Joel Anderson]

Starting. I'mma stop. I'm stop. I'mma stop.

[Host/Moderator]

There's also a lot of people in that thread that you're sending it to

[Joel Anderson]

tailgate.

[Van]

Donnie Beachum is in there. I didn't even know Donnie was in.

[Joel Anderson]

He might think of something. They might.

[Van]

I understand that. What I'm saying is graphic.

[Producer/Assistant]

No, no.

[Van]

Somebody. Somebody.

[Producer/Assistant]

Yeah, you're sending things in there questionable sometimes. And other times you're in there just quote, unquote, waking up, feisty, stirring up if we're gonna be.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, you're trying to start fights.

[Joel Anderson]

That's. Wait, when did that happen? What? When did I.

[Van]

It just happened. Are you nuts? Are you losing your mind?

[Host/Moderator]

It was the same.

[Van]

It just happened. You just, like, got on the thread and started a fight and then went, hey, guys, I. I just. I just wanted to fight today.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, you said that you kept it with, like, sorry, I needed to fight somebody, basically.

[Joel Anderson]

Hold on, hold on. Let me make sure y.

[Van]

Make.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, no. You know what happened? No, look, because you had started complaining as well. Do we really want to. Do we want to have this?

[Producer/Assistant]

No, that's not what happened. You started that problem. There's some infighting here in the tailgate world.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, we were trying to tell. Yeah, you're trying to litigate.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, we were having beef. And what I said, essentially. Yeah. No, you created the beef. Okay, do like. Okay, I'll tell you what happened that morning.

[Van]

Okay, here we go.

[Joel Anderson]

We decided against using this story a lol. And then I said, you know what? I kind of wish I'd pushed back on the Chappelle anecdote. I was looking forward to that fight.

[Host/Moderator]

Listen to the press box tomorrow for Chappeller.

[Joel Anderson]

Great show, by the way. I'm just in a feisty mood for whatever reason.

[Producer/Assistant]

Exactly.

[Host/Moderator]

That's from you. You said that.

[Van]

That's from you. You said Those are all from you. You Said that.

[Host/Moderator]

Now, listen, going back to the original point, no one ever responded.

[Joel Anderson]

Why is that starting a fight?

[Van]

Just so the audience knows there's an ongoing conversation about how far we can push tailgate. Because there are limits, right? There are limits to what we should be discussing. There are limits to, like, whether or not we're on.

[Host/Moderator]

When do we close the gate? Yeah, the gates.

[Van]

When do we close? So. So. And you guys know that I don't care about any of that, but that's also why I need to be produced, because there should be limits and there should be things that maybe we don't do. Joel, for some reason, after a decision was made not to put something in the podcast, brought it up, threw it in there, and then came back and said. Not that he wanted to have a substantive conversation about it, just that he was looking for somebody to fight.

[Joel Anderson]

He's going to rubble you up.

[Van]

Yeah, we all know.

[Bill Bellamy]

No, wait.

[Joel Anderson]

I was looking for somebody to fight as part of the chappelle. Not y', all, but anybody who finds themselves on the opposite side of the argument.

[Host/Moderator]

Again, there's like 15 people in this chat. It probably could have been in the chat, just us.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, y' all felt differently. Y'. All. Y' all just. Y' all had a problem with the way that I was coming at it.

[Producer/Assistant]

Thank you for the birthday wishes, Joel.

[Host/Moderator]

Happy birthday, Billy.

[Joel Anderson]

Thank you. Three, nine. That's what's up.

[Host/Moderator]

All right, well, we're going to get to Bill Bellamy here in a second, but quickly. One big reaction. We'll start here. New CFP logo. I just wanted to start and just see if this was worthy of. Of a reaction or if we needed a new logo. They put it out. They changed the color. It's a little bit more gold. They said it's championship gold. They put in three big letters that were. I faced that said cfp. Just in case you did not know what the football was referencing. You can see it right there on the screenshot. The free for pulling it up. So that's the difference over from College Football Playoff all the way spelled out to now just cfp, I guess, for branding purposes. Joel, do you have a reaction to this? Do you care and your thoughts?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I mean, I. I hope then, because this is actually that's enough.

[Host/Moderator]

Just the football's enough.

[Joel Anderson]

That's the coaster that I use for my football can here. So, yeah, I hope I get a new one when I go to the championship game next year. Because they give you. They give this out as part of the swag.

[Host/Moderator]

It looks Better without the typeface. Like, I don't think it needs cfp, you know?

[Joel Anderson]

You don't think it needs cfp?

[Host/Moderator]

I don't think it needs anything.

[Joel Anderson]

The thickened bracket strokes is what they call them.

[Host/Moderator]

I like the crystal ball. I thought the crystal ball was perfect.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah, I could see that.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean it's still, it's still, it's, it's still a catching logo, you know, saying no fewer than every time that my kids come in my office they say what is that? So whatever it is, it catches the eye.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. And there's nothing on that. It's just the football.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, it's true, it's true. Also, I mean it's better than focus on this than like adding a bunch of teams to the playoff. Like I just like, yeah, focus on, let's burnish up the current logo. Do all that, make the 12 team playoff better. You know, better them to work on that than be like well we should add 16, maybe we should add 24.

[Host/Moderator]

Like yeah, that's right. They got them focused on something else. Van a reaction to the CFP logo. Do you care?

[Van]

No. And I'll tell you why. Because this is the type of news trickle that is just meant to make college football a year round sport. This is the type of thing, just a story, just a story to kind of keep us involved in college football. And if you are a true college football fan, this is one of the most consequential times of the year. Right. This is when things are settling in in the spring. You're trying to watch spring practice reports, you're checking in. If you are a casual, then you're probably not paying too much attention to what's going on right now. But if you are a die hard, you're trying to see how these transfers look, you're on the message boards playing, not playing. You're looking on the message boards. Oh you look, you're watching practice reports. I'm watching practice reports right now from Power Hour lsu, from all the different

[Joel Anderson]

lsu which recruits came to the spring game.

[Van]

You know, all of that type of stuff. You looking at all of that stuff. So like to me, these little news trickles like this, I understand it, kind of got to keep it, but they don't really mean very much. You're hearing all kinds of different stuff.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, they just wanted to be a 12 month news cycle similar to the NFL. Just get people involved, get them reacting. And again, the real big change.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah.

[Van]

Know what they should do then? They should have some well known reporter get Caught at a hotel with. With a really important college football coach. And that. That's type of thing that keeps news cycle going. Right there.

[Host/Moderator]

Lane Kiffin is right there. He's ready to go.

[Van]

Whatever. Whatever happens to one of them should happen to both of them. How's that sound? Whatever happens to one of them should happen to both of them. So if one of them has to resign from their job in disgrace and go somewhere else, should happen to both people. I'm not saying that either thing should happen to either person, but whatever happened, it looked like two people were involved in it. So if you're going to be fair, they. It should happen to both of them. Whatever needs. What. What. Whatever's going on.

[Host/Moderator]

You're going. Hammurabi. Eye for an eye there.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm gonna.

[Van]

I'm just saying. No, I'm just being for real. What I'm saying is that.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, I'm with you.

[Van]

Honestly, I don't think. I don't think it's nobody's business except for what's going on with these people, unless there's some sort of ethical breach that people are talking about. And if that's the case, you would need way more information to get to the bottom of something like that. You'd have to have a whole investigation. You have to do a whole. That's the thing. But what I'm saying is if something happens to one of them, it should happen to both of them. That's what I'm saying.

[Joel Anderson]

But. So, but tell me. And I, I don't. I don't necessarily disagree, but what is the compelling reason to fry Vo. What would the. What would the top.

[Van]

I don't think that there's a compelling reason to fire either of them.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, now if you're.

[Host/Moderator]

But the reality was a resignation, right? That was the.

[Van]

It's a resignation. Like, by the way, she claims that she didn't resign for that, but like, what I'm saying is if there's an ethical breach there, is there a chance that maybe Rabel is swinging this shillelagh to try to get access to reporters and have them do stuff like that? I mean, I guess there's a different set of ethics. He's not really breaking any competitive rules. But to me, the way I look at this is that, like, I. All too often I see situations like this when there's only consequences on one side of the equation. And to me, if in fact this is the case, then there should be some sort of consequence for a player or a coach in that situation having that type of relationship with a member of the media. If in fact, that is what's happening.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, so I don't disagree that this is a problem of patriarchy. The issue for me though, as a journalist is that if what is alleged or what seems to be rumored is true, Right. Which is like, that could just be the range from we've never had sex before. The only time we've ever touched at the times, you caught us on camera and we're just filling things out to, they've been butt naked all weekend. Right. Like, it could range that whole thing. Right.

[Bill Bellamy]

Right.

[Joel Anderson]

So if, if, if, if that's the case, then that's not an ethical way to get news. And in mainstream media. Right. Like, that's just not cool because. And again, I'm not going to be foolish enough to sit up here and say, well, it makes it bad for other women in the business. I mean, we know how motherfuckers are, man. I mean, like, like you're going to assume that of a lot of women, regardless because of sexism, or you're going to assume that an attractive woman who works in sports journalism, particularly in, like, there's a trade of information that they're using things other than their brains and know how to do it. Like, that's just kind of the, if you can look at any series of comments on the Internet and you can see that. And so, but I, I still think, though, that it just sets a bad tone in terms of getting news. It also, like, you can't really be an objective, an objective observer of this team anymore. Like, she's not a columnist. So that would be, that would be the argument for her to lose a job. And with Mike Vrabel is kind of like the argument that I could construct is like, you're supposed to be keeping that in house. Why are you, why are you being a source for the media? Like, what now I can't trust you.

[Van]

So, so let me tell you, I come. I completely agree with everything you said.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah.

[Van]

But let me tell you what I have a problem with.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van]

Number one, if there's, there's a possibility here that these two people are engaged in a relationship that is illicit from a moralistic standpoint in terms of the fact that they are married.

[Bill Bellamy]

Right.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van]

And then there's another chance that they are engaged in both a relationship from a moralistic standpoint that is wrong and a relationship that is wrong from an ethical standpoint because there's a quick pro quo quote. Pro quo.

[Bill Bellamy]

Right.

[Van]

There is one video or one group of Pictures. That seems to prove one of those things. There's absolutely nothing right now beyond speculation that proves the other thing. Nothing. So it could very well be that they decided if in fact is the case, that they wanted to fuck, right? And that they wanted to fuck. And through that relationship, whatever else happens, right? But to make that into a relationship where she is having sex with him for access is to call her a whore. Now, that leap that is being made, that leap, that being that is being made is so profound to me that it angers me a little bit. It pisses me off, just a smidgen attack. I really don't give a fuck about none of this. But to make that leap, it's a little bit. When we know. When you know and when I know that there are powerful people that use all different types of methods to sweeten relationships that they have with people who are in the media to give favorable coverage. It happens everywhere, all the time. If sex is the breaking point for that, let's have a conversation about it. But I can tell you one thing. I know people that have gotten Laker game tickets, sideline. I know people that get invited to parties. I know people that get access. I know people that get stories. I know people that get. I know people that just get shout outs. I know people that have people embedded in places. Like, I know this. I don't. I'm not thinking, Like, I'm not. This is not conjecture. 100% sure. Like, I know people that have leaked the names of their children, the. The names of their kids to Goddamn. Because these places are going to cover them in a specific way. So it's a tale as old as time.

[Bill Bellamy]

And.

[Van]

And if it's wrong for anyone, it's wrong for everyone. But we both know that that's the way that it goes. Now, if, in fact, that's what's happening here, obviously it's fucked up. But that accusation is so fucking serious that it cannot be left up to the court of public opinion.

[Joel Anderson]

It just can't. Well, so the thing here is that the Athletic and the New York Times hold the cards here, right? They can make a decision of what they want to do with Diana Rossini. Well, you know what the hard part is for them? That seems to be the breach in trust, because they said, all right, Diana, we believe you. Now prove that you had three friends with you this weekend and that apparently she's been unable to produce that evidence. And then they claim that they found other evidence that things were not on the level, so to speak, so that the Problem at that point then is like, it's not that who deserves to keep their job or whatever. It's like, I'm your editor. You may have came and lied to me. I was prepared to defend you, but you got to tell me the truth. But you lied to me, and I really don't like the way you would get news anyway. So it would have made it tough for her to have kept her job under any circumstance. I really would not argue for her to keep her job. Now, if I think you make a compelling argument about Mike Vrabel using the argument that I used, which is that you're a mole, you know, like, we don't do that around here. You're a mole, bro. But why would. The fuck. Why would you. Even if he is a mole, you played in the super bowl this past year, you know, Super Bowl.

[Van]

So let me ask you this. And because once again, you come from a place. It's like, where I come from in this situation, anything goes, right? When I say anything goes, I mean, there's going to be. I'll say this to the cows. Come home with tmz. Everything that was put out while I was there, the thought was that it was 100% accurate. There was never even a smidgen of things that made it to the TMZ website that the reporting inside of the place that they did not think was true. Now, are there things that turned out to not be true? I mean, maybe, but when you source something, you're relying on that source. I think people don't understand this sometimes. If, in fact, if, like, for example, there was a very famous Lil Wayne story that happened to where TMZ reported that Lil Wayne was being read his last rights. Right? Well, like that and that Lil Wayne. It almost seemed like death was imminent. First of all, never reported that Lil Wayne was out. This was not my story. I wasn't even producing stories at the time. But, like, never said that Lil Wayne passed away, said that things were really bad, and they sourced that story just so people know if there's. If. If. If Tate. If something's happening with Tate, right? And Tate's girl tells me or Tate's mom tells me, and they want to tell me on background, whatever they say, that's a reliable source into Tate's life. So from a journalistic standpoint, I can. Tate's gonna. Tate's gonna get an NBA tryout. Something stupid. I don't want to say anything negative. Keep. Keep it. Let's raise the rule for positivity.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, Keep it Cute. Yeah. That's what's up. Yeah.

[Van]

Tate's gonna get an NBA tryout for whatever. Whatever's happened. His mom tells me that. Right. I go and I check the sources have I heard this bumble boom they talk about. But a source close to Tate tells us that many. That different NBA teams are like, that's a good story. 100%. Yeah, 1,000%. It's a good story. I heard it from somebody who would know about that. Right.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Van]

That doesn't end up happening. The source was wrong. And what you want to make sure that you do in a. From a journalistic standpoint is do enough work that you. That you track down your sources and kind of check their work. Right. But if you want to go and say that somebody, a source, real close told me this, that story is true. And the reason why I'm talking about all of this is because, like ethics and journalism, if it's wrong for a reporter to have sex with a potential source, to me, it's only wrong if it can be proven that that source is being harvested, that the sex is actually the point of the relationship that you're trading.

[Host/Moderator]

Sex is transactional.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, so that actually is part of this investigation.

[Van]

Okay, cool. Well, like, to me. And if that's a thing, then. But I just want people to understand when we're talking, you're calling a lady a fucking prostitute. And I would just say that before we call her that. I'm talking about across the board with alligator. Before we call her that. Then maybe just let it get a little bit down the road. Maybe a little bit down the road. Now, the murky thing is. And I'll stop after this. Is if it's not that one to one. If it's, hey, we're pillow talking while something's going on, and you let something out and then I go with it, then you really get into a situation to. Where is the intent of this relationship? To harvest it for information? Or is the closeness of this relationship resulting in information? Because some people would say that the latter is actually good journalism. That the fact that you could be in a party around people and hear things and. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. And we come from two different schools.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. And I. So I. I don't. I get why that makes sense. Right. Like that is a good. Like that information is still good. The information that Mike Vrabel gave Diana Rossini isn't any less wrong, you know, any less wrong just because they may have had an inappropriate relationship. Right. Like it's still all that stuff could be true.

[Van]

But.

[Joel Anderson]

And again, this is blaming this. I'm putting the burden of. Of. Of this on the women when it's a fall of patriarchy. But it sets the standards really bad for reporters coming into the situation if that kind of. Those kind of. Those kind of deals are being brokered for information. Right. Because then you might have other people be like, well, this is the kind of relationship I got over here. So what you gonna do for this information? Again, that's kind of silly, but that's kind of one of the arguments for, like, nobody else has access to that information in quite the same way. But again, if that's how far you're willing to go to get the information, I kind of understand. I'm like, you know, would you fuck for tips?

[Van]

Fuck for tips?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. News tips?

[Van]

No, I mean, well, you know, it's different. Yeah, but fuck for fun and then maybe get a tip, but, like, give you just a tip for a tip. But, like, what I'm saying is, like, the. And everything that you're saying is right. First of all, let me tell you, you're right. I'm wrong. Right. Like, you came through traditional legacy media. I came through a place where, you know, it was kind of like, you know, you're in a gl. You're in a viper pit. Right. I don't know anybody at TMZ that ever did anything like that ever. Right. Or. And by the way, I'm not saying that she did it, so I'm not saying that that's a common practice there. I want to make sure, like, the

[Host/Moderator]

standards that you're saying, the implication is. Is a pretty heavy implication, so.

[Van]

Pretty heavy implication. And just to let you know what? If you are invited to parties, you get to hang out on private jets, you get to go with people place. There are perks in being a journalist, and you get invited places. And that is always, always for the expressed purpose of manipulating you to produce and report the stories that people want you to. Yeah, that is the. That is. That is the purpose. You in a room with all of these people, you have your favorites. You have people that give you information. And. And there is. There's There is always horse trading that goes on. Yeah, sometimes there are other things. Like at tmz, they would straight up buy stories. That's something that would have never happened in any of the places that you want. Like. Like they were straight up. They will pay for stories, they'll pay for video, they pay for tips, they pay for all of that stuff. That Is different. If the payment is in some other form, then what it really becomes about is the sex. And it gets back to a central notion that. That this is specifically about, like, dragging a woman across the coast to, like, call her a prostitute in this regard. And I get it. I understand everything that you're saying is right. But God damn, man. This just. This seems a little gross to me.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, one last thing and then we can move on. The other thing.

[Bill Bellamy]

I'm not going to respond.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, no, no, no. Well, you can respond, but. Yeah, but the thing that's a problem. The only other thing that's a problem here is the collection of clips in which either she is extremely positive about Mike Vrabel or overly critical of her husband and her marriage. Because I felt. And I feel like that's not fair. For the record, I don't think that's fair because we all know what the game is when we trying to get in the media, man, you gotta make people remember you when you get on the microphone. And there's a lot. You could try to make people laugh one kind of way or a different kind of way, or maybe just you overwhelm them with your information or. But you want to stand out. There's not a lot of people that get to talk for a living. And Diana Rossini, by creating a trail of clips of her denigrating her husband publicly and praising Mike Vrabel, also just led people to think, that's kind of weird. And I can kind of. Again, I.

[Host/Moderator]

But it was funny until we got this context.

[Joel Anderson]

Right, Right. Yeah. Did she deserve to be fired? I understand why she was. Put it that way.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, she wasn't fired. She resigned.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, fired, resigned. She pretty much seemed.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, yeah. The idea was that it was going down that direction.

[Joel Anderson]

Right, right. Yeah. And again, she said, you know what? We don't know how the investigation would have turned out. Like, if she had stayed, maybe it would have proved her, you know, proved her case. So anyway.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, well, we luckily don't have that story in college football. Yeah, let's hope that we don't have that story in college football. And I think those are very valid points. Now let's have some fun. We have a guest that Joel has been clamoring for for weeks. He said he was the only comedian that he knows. It is the great Bill Bellamy that is going to be joining us on the other side of the break. And let's raise the roof one time for Bill Bellamy.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, Bill Bellamy.

[Van]

Billy Bellamy.

[Host/Moderator]

All right, now you have it. Joining us now Bill Bellamy. All right, as promised, at the top of the show, our one big guest and a very special guest, someone we've been talking about for the last few weeks. We're excited to have him on the show.

[Van]

Thank you.

[Host/Moderator]

The great Bill Bellamy is here. Bill, how you doing?

[Bill Bellamy]

I am. I'm excited to be a part of the podcast. Yeah, you guys, you know, y' all doing a good job. You know, I just left the gym. I said, oh, I'm gonna be on time. You know, it's hard. Y' all have so many guests. It's hard to get in on the zoom, you dig?

[Van]

We're not gonna raise the roof for Bill Bellamy, though. Yeah, yeah, we raise the roof, man. What we do here on the Pocket. Well, Bill, in case you didn't know, Joel down there, he invented that.

[Bill Bellamy]

Oh, he did.

[Joel Anderson]

We were talking. Look, look. So, yeah, it was a different iteration, and then it kind of took off and did some other shit. But it's funny you say that, because you get clear and free credit for booty call. Nobody disputes that. You came up with that, right?

[Bill Bellamy]

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Bill Bellamy]

Booty call. Booty call is. Is locked in Wikipedia with Bill Bellamy. Most dudes in the 90s didn't even know what they was getting until I came.

[Van]

You know what I mean?

[Bill Bellamy]

It was just in the streets, and then I was like, yo, yes. A booty call. They was like,

[Van]

so, Bill, you know, I don't know if you've seen the statistics. I don't know if you've seen the stats, but young people not having sex as much as they used to because they. On their phone. Do you think that the booty call needs to be brung back? Because, like, the kids are not having. Young people not having as much sex as they used to do. We need to bring the booty call back.

[Bill Bellamy]

Let me tell you why the booty call needs a revamp. Because of the phone. It has changed the complexity of what a real booty call is like. So in the 90s, when I came up with it, at the time, a booty call was like, just basically, you know, calling the chick over. You know, you got your new crib. You know, you got your joints set up nice. You know what I mean? You're like, I want somebody to see my place.

[Host/Moderator]

You know.

[Bill Bellamy]

That moment when you're like, yo, my place is set, right? I got my. I got food. You know what I'm saying?

[Van]

Water bed.

[Bill Bellamy]

Water bed. Oh, yeah, yeah. The joint. The joint. The joint where your pillows do like this.

[Joel Anderson]

I don't wait. I don't think they may not be old enough to have slept on a waterbed before. Tate, you ever slept on a waterbed?

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, me and my grandparents had a waterbed. Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Shout out, oh, shit.

[Host/Moderator]

It's all, I'm here.

[Bill Bellamy]

It was luxury, like back then. 90s. In the 90s, I'm gonna say, like, 93, 94. That was like a waterbed was kind of like almost like the dope leather couch.

[Van]

Word.

[Bill Bellamy]

Leather couch. In your apartment, you wanted a waterbed and you actually wanted a tub. Cause most people only had, like, showers, but if you had a tub and then you could put a chicken tub.

[Joel Anderson]

Come on.

[Bill Bellamy]

You was living. You was living.

[Van]

I gotta ask you, when you clapping shit in a waterbed, is there a technique? Do you ride the waterbed? Do you get. Cause. Cause like, Bill, y'. All. Bill's face got serious.

[Joel Anderson]

Look, it's hard to get,

[Producer/Assistant]

Like.

[Van]

Because. Because when you're not in a waterbed, when you're not in the water bed, you know, it's a lot of knee strength. Sometimes you use the feet. Back when I was. Yeah, you know, you get. But when you're using a waterbed, do you go back. Do you, like, use the. How do you. What's the water bed technique?

[Bill Bellamy]

Basically, you ride the wave.

[Van]

You dig.

[Bill Bellamy]

And so what? Whatever wave, you create the waterbed following you. So that's why the water bed was adding to your game, because chicks was like, yo, oh, my God, that was crazy. They don't know it was the waterbed. But, you know, you had an assistant, so.

[Joel Anderson]

So you were like, I mean, you know, I mean, you were the face of the movie how to Be a Player. So I gotta ask you about this, because also, it's gonna cross some lines that we brought up on the show before.

[Bill Bellamy]

Go ahead, go ahead.

[Joel Anderson]

So we couldn't help but talk about in the 90s when you were on set with Janet Jackson and how she was so clearly flirting with. Clearly flirting with you. We just said. We were like, God damn, man. I want to build bellamy hat Janet Jackson. And then you. And you said that it didn't happen. But the one thing you said that I want you. That I want you to respond to. If I had known Jermaine could have had it, I would have pulled it.

[Bill Bellamy]

I could have be. If I knew it was possible. Jermaine gave hope to a lot of dudes. Jermaine Dupree, no disrespect. Gave hope to a lot of dudes that a little, you know, a little dude could Go out big, you dig? Like, you know, he's big as his iPhone, you know?

[Van]

But he got me.

[Bill Bellamy]

So we tall dudes, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm six three, you know, I'm like. I'm like a basketball player, smooth kind of cat. I didn't even know at that time that Janet Jackson was actually, you know, kind of feeling me like that because we was friends, you know what I mean? And so when we was doing the interview, all that came out and I was like, oh, snap. If you go back and watch the clip, you could see me say, oh, my God, like four or five times. Because I was just like, yo. Because in an ordinary situation, I mean, that's. That's everything, you know? I mean, if a female showing you that kind of affection, that's basically saying, yo, she dig you like that, right? But. But I'm working. You're right.

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Interview, I'm on the video set. You can't necessarily respond to that energy in real time because you're working. So I was kind of like, oh, my God, I know she ain't doing this right now.

[Van]

Oh, my God.

[Bill Bellamy]

But this is the funny part. I could tell you. So we go on tour together, right? I'm the opening comedian for the Velvet Rope tour. And there's a dude every show that they pick out the audience, the strap to the table.

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

And Janet climbs on the thing. It's got, like, little pegs on it. And Janet would climb on this dude and do anytime, any place. Do you know how every night, I was standing right by that goddamn bed. And she did not pick me. I was like. She always picked the dude that passed out and was acting crazy. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm gonna be like, baby, let's get it.

[Van]

But the whole my thing was this bill. When I used to. During that time in Janet, the whole crew of dancers was top level, fine.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van]

Halo was in there. Joseph Harris was in there. Yeah, everybody was fine. You didn't think, okay, Janet, maybe not, but, like, maybe give somebody else a spin. See if there was someone. Nobody, all professional. Bill Bellamy, consummate professional.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah, but. But you gotta understand, man, like, I don't know who. What artist right now has that energy. I would say Beyonce or whatever at this level. But at that time, Janet Jackson was that girl. Like, that was defined as sexiest. And, you know, she always had them sexual undertones with. To her music. She was the first chick that I ever had seen with a belly ring. You know what I mean? Like, belly Wings like nobody had their belly button pierced in 91, 92.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

So with the cut jeans and she had abs.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Oh, she was super duper sexy. So. And then her, then, you know, her dances had to be sexy because that's what they were, you know, they were young, sexy, beautiful women that could dance. Right? And so with that energy, man, being around that was nuts.

[Van]

Damn.

[Bill Bellamy]

Damn. You saying damn. You wasn't even there.

[Van]

But this was important to me. This is when I came of age. This is when this. I'm looking at you like you used to do the thing. You jump up, grab the rim with both hands. But on the MTV joint, and then at the same time, we see you with Jan Jackson, we just thought it was a matter of time until we popped up and saw you and Jan Jackson on we cover Essence magazine together. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Let me ask you something else.

[Bill Bellamy]

Go ahead.

[Van]

Let me ask you something else. You knew all of these people that were so important to entertainment in terms of like the biggest stars. Jani, Tupac, Michael Jackson. You met all of this stuff. Biggie, is there anybody that we are all wrong on that is nothing like we think that they are right now?

[Bill Bellamy]

I would say Tupac. Oh, let me, let me tell you what I think most people get wrong about Tupac, right? He's definitely the consummate Gemini, you know what I mean? He was, you know, two dualities. You know, he was, he was on one hand, he was the rapper guy, he was Mr. Charisma. He was very political. You know, he was purposeful with his words. He cared about black women and all this. But on the, on the flip side, he was actually a fun ass dude with personality and jokes and calling me. I remember he used to call me up, talk about, you ain't the only funny man. Like him being on the phone and him saying some bugged out. And I used to be like, yo, Pop, you crazy. He's like, this is how I'm living.

[Producer/Assistant]

And.

[Bill Bellamy]

And it was so nice that I would have this side that most people didn't see because we didn't have social media back then. And then two minutes later, he had a shootout with cops. I was like, what? That's the thing about Pac. You be like, yo, I was just with him.

[Van]

What happened?

[Joel Anderson]

This ain't the Oakland's thing, was it?

[Bill Bellamy]

No, this was in Atlanta where he shot.

[Joel Anderson]

Atlanta. Oh, the off duty cops. That's right. That's right.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah. I was on MTV at the time and I had just hung out with him prior to that. And I Was like, yo, how do you get in the shootout with cops? Are you kidding me? And where did you get your gun from? It sound like something. A scene from a movie. And it really happened.

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

And he got off. And the thing was. He got off.

[Joel Anderson]

That's right.

[Van]

Because he was in the right. Actually, he. He was in the right. He was defending somebody in that game.

[Bill Bellamy]

Something, something. And two nights later, he was in the club. I was like, all right, cool. Whatever. You live a rock star life, baby.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. You mentioned, like, all those stars in the 90s. One of those stars is your cousin Shaq. And I know you get asked about Shaq a lot because you guys are family, but what was that like for you? I mean, you're the biggest comedian in the world at the time. Also, your cousin now is the, you know, biggest star in basketball outside of Michael Jordan. Basically, it was.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

How much did you guys talk about that?

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

You know, what was so crazy, man? Before we. We always knew Shaq was going to make it to the league. Like, he's just. I mean, it was just an anomaly to see somebody that big, that athletic. And even even though he started playing basketball much later, it still didn't matter. It was just, you know, inevitable that he was gonna be a dominant guy. Right. I didn't know I was gonna be a comedian. Like, I thought I wanted to go to the league. Like, everybody from my. Around my way, we all thought we was going to the NBA. Like, if. Like, if we wasn't selling drugs, we was definitely gonna play ball, you know? So, like, it was just the one two in Newark, New Jersey. But all jokes aside, the most unbelievable thing about me and Shaquille was he was at lsu. I was at Rutgers. I started cooking when he left LSU. So just imagine, he's coming in the league at 95.

[Van]

Right,

[Bill Bellamy]

right, right.

[Host/Moderator]

95 is when he beat Jordan, though, in the Bulls. Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Okay, so 92. Just imagine, swept by the rocket. This is how dope life goes. I just get my MTV job. Shaq is in the league. He's in Orlando. He is Mr. Orlando. I am Mr. MTV. We are at Disney World in Orlando. And I thought I was famous. I said, you know what? I said, yo, you just regular. You just regular, bro. You know, you with me? You with me at Disney World, big fella. You know, that's the running joke. Until we went into the park,

[Van]

oh,

[Bill Bellamy]

my God, I did not know how much love and how famous he was, because, you know, he was like a. He was like the Jolly Giant. Jolly Green Giant. Like, he was just, like, this big. A charismatic, lovable guy that everybody loves Shaq. All the kids want to take a picture with him. And if you think I'm lying, the only other person that was at the park that day was Mariah Carey. And nobody even cared about Mariah Carey.

[Joel Anderson]

God damn, bro.

[Bill Bellamy]

It was famous. Super famous. Famous. Shaquille was more famous than all of us put together. And I was like, God, I can't beat this dude. It was a beautiful thing we were

[Joel Anderson]

just talking about before you came on, like, one of the great jobs that doesn't get talked about a lot is the MTV VJ in the 90s. Because at least for us at home, a teenage boy watching you, young brother, famous, handsome comedian. And then, like, all these celebrities are coming up. You know, beautiful women are coming up. So, like, what was it like to be an MTV VJ in the 90s, being Bill Bellamy? Like, that must have been a lot of fun.

[Bill Bellamy]

Well, I'm gonna give you two answers. One, it was a fantastic opportunity to be a young African American male on a all white, super duper huge platform. It was bigger than YouTube at the time. So I knew that my purpose was I had to do a good job. I was like, yo, man, I can't mess this up. It means too much to the culture. I was like, you know, MTV is playing our music. You know, hip hop is turning the corner. Because you got to understand, they wasn't playing hip hop on my show. They was playing mtv. They was playing yo. And it was mostly underground. It was segmented. Like, rap is over here.

[Van]

So.

[Bill Bellamy]

So MTV Jams was that cross over. Like, where you getting salt and pepper? Snoop, Ice Cube, you getting rapping forte, you getting Busta Rhymes. Now you're not just getting knives. And, like, you're not just getting knives. They was playing Nas on yo. They was playing Group Home. You know what I'm saying? If your videos went from yo to jams, you went from platinum. You went from gold to platinum. That's how important it was, right? So I was like, yo, this is super duper dope. And I'm gonna tell you how I knew I was an ambassador for the culture. How people was responding to me on the street. Cause the people tell you who you are. You know what I mean? It's like guys like you were saying, yo, man, yo, we watch you every day, B. Man, how you get that job? Yo, man, I seen you talking to Pac. I seen you with Q. What it's like to talk to the west coast rappers. Like, everybody was living through me because it was like stuff they never seen before because we didn't have Internet. So I knew I couldn't make no mistakes. I knew I couldn't try to holla at the females that I was interviewing because I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want to catch a stray, you know what I'm saying? I was like, nah, I'm keeping it strictly business because if I mess this up, it's a rap. They probably never hire another black guy in life, you know what I mean?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, that's real.

[Van]

Yeah, it's real.

[Bill Bellamy]

That's why I always kept it to G, you know, I always kept it G. And I was just like, yo, it just means too much for the culture. It means everything to, to the kids, you know what I mean? And then I was. I was user friendly for the white suburban kids as well. So it worked. It worked. Yeah, it worked. It worked on all levels.

[Van]

Bill, I'm gonna do something. I'm gonna put you on the spot real quick.

[Bill Bellamy]

Go ahead.

[Van]

30 seconds. I'm gonna put 30 seconds on the clock and I want you to name as many MTV VJs from the 90s as you can.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay?

[Van]

Okay.

[Bill Bellamy]

Okay. Let me know when you're ready.

[Van]

30 seconds starts now.

[Bill Bellamy]

John Cincio. Daisy Fuentes. Jon Stewart. Adam Sandler. Duff Kennedy. Matt Penfield. Mark Brown. Downtown Julie Brown. Martha Stewart. No, not Martha Stewart.

[Van]

That's pretty good. We.

[Bill Bellamy]

We tried Ananda Lewis.

[Van]

Ananda Lewis. Rest in peace, Ananda Lewis. We. We tried to do it before and you named some names that I hadn't even thought of. We, like, we tried to do it. We were trying to name all the MTV VJs because people now, there's no celebrity now like the MTV vj. It kind of doesn't. Maybe the, maybe the people on. Maybe the YouTube influences and stuff like that, people that are that famous that you see all the time, there's not. It was hard to tell people just like how crazy you would go, like, I remember one time I went out to the beach and Martha Quinn was like on the beach, like interviewing someone or doing something. I was like, I was in la. I was like, Jesus Christ, she's a real person. Like a big deals are a real person. Let me ask you. So the death of the music video, right? MTV doesn't exist. And in a way, when you watch music videos now, they are just way different than what they were in the 90s. In the 90s, they were true art pieces with gigantic budgets. They birthed some of the greatest directors that we have right now. For someone whose job it was to talk about the music video and. And. And. And sell the music video to people present the music video. The fact that we don't have music videos right now in a robust way like we used to, that means what to you?

[Bill Bellamy]

You know, it's actually kind of sad because to me, the music video was like a 3D experience. Like, you know, you heard the music, you imagined in your mind, you know, what a music video would be like. But then when you saw the music video, it would lock you in on the song. You remember?

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

So you be like, a lot of music on the tower records. You got the album, you rocking it in your headphones. You're like, oh, that's my number. I like, 5, 7, 8. I wonder how they gonna do a music video. I wonder, are they gonna do a remix? Because back then they used to do remixes and it made us enjoy the music even more, Especially if they knocked the music video out the park. You like, yo. Because the music video would take your single cells through the roof.

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

That's why I think back in the day, they used to do such a good job, because now you could drop two more, you could drop another single because the first single went through the roof, went platinum on you. And so now you gotta drop two more. That used to be the bomb. To me, I'm like, now I'm going YouTube, dudes shooting their music videos in their car, like, while they driving.

[Van]

I'm like,

[Joel Anderson]

you know what I mean?

[Bill Bellamy]

Camera.

[Joel Anderson]

So I have a question, because, you know, this is a college football podcast, and you were in, like, you know, one of the definitive football movies of my lifetime, you know, any. Any given Sunday. Right, Right. Yeah. So you didn't play football in high school or nothing like that, though. And. And. And. And the other thing I want you.

[Bill Bellamy]

I play basketball.

[Joel Anderson]

You play basketball, Right. But you talked about being on set, and first of all, you told a great story about jim brown getting body slammed, but you talked about how, like, the atmosphere on the set gassed you up, too. It's like, what was it like all y' all being out there on that set? They kind of got it. You know, we got, like, these legendary tussles on there.

[Bill Bellamy]

Well, it's funny, for me, any given Sunday was, I. I want to say biased, that it, you know, was one of the best football movies ever because it made you feel like you was inside the NFL, like, you know.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

And so for me, who always wanted to play football, but I was too skinny. You know what I mean? My parents would never sign that list that didn't know that waiver for me to play. So I couldn't. But to be able to do it in my 20s, like, yo, I get a chance to be an athlete or pretend to be an athlete, and now, now I know NFL players, so they helping me. You know, me and Terrell Owens is still friends to this day because of any given Sunday. Jacquez Green helped me. Deion Sanders helped me. Antonio Freeman helped me. So, like, I was. I was in camp with these cats. They was, like, teaching me how to run routes and how to, you know, come out my breaks and, you know, and how to look real like you. You know, it's like your bill, man, your mechanics got. So their thing was you gotta have an NFL player look at you and see you as a football player. Like, every movement, how you run your. How you run your slants, how you run your post corner, how you run your hooks, they gotta look real. So, like, these dudes was on my ass. So for me, I thought I was a football player till I got hit. I thought I was nasty.

[Joel Anderson]

Wait, so you really thought you were good? Like, you really were like, oh, I could do this.

[Bill Bellamy]

You know, Pause left and right. I was shaking cats. And see you. It's like a car crash. So you know how, like, if you. If you hooping in, a dude run into you, drop his shoulder. That's. That's nothing compared to you straight dude, that full steam to blow your spine out, that is. I got hit so hard one time,

[Van]

bro,

[Bill Bellamy]

I literally saw my spirit float above me, come back in my body. I was like, yo, all right, I'm good. Oliver Stone was like, yo, guys, you can't hit the actors. That was crazy.

[Van]

Great.

[Bill Bellamy]

Cut. He kept it, too. He kept it. He kept it.

[Van]

Your career has spent so much time, and not only are you here, but you're thriving. Thank you. And to me, I love to see this. I love to see Tommy Davidson thriving, Bill Bellamy thriving. Long, prestigious careers. Yes. Why do you think, for you, we never read the headline that Bill Bellamy is fucked up, that you out the game. Why didn't you? I was talking to one of my younger homeboys that's getting started. He's doing really well. Well, I said, some of the people in the town, you're gonna have to out talent. Some people in the town you're gonna have to outwork. But some people in the town you just gonna have to outlast. And like, you, sometimes you just you're gonna have to outlast some of them. Just be there.

[Bill Bellamy]

That's true, man.

[Van]

And not let anything take you out of the game. How did you not let anything take you out of the game?

[Bill Bellamy]

You know what? I didn't grow up in the Hollywood game, bro. Like, I grew up. Up like a civilian, like a real dude from Newark, New Jersey, like, not knowing I would ever be an actor, comedian, or become famous, right? And so I live my life a different way, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I came out the corporate world. I had structure. Can you hear me?

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Okay.

[Joel Anderson]

So.

[Bill Bellamy]

So coming in, to me, coming into Hollywood was just like, it's a business. You know what I'm saying? It just. It was just a different business. Like, I'm like, yo, you know, I wasn't doing drugs. You know what I'm saying? I wasn't doing the wild, wild party stuff or, you know, doing the diddy, you know? You know, I miss. I missed. I missed the duty, the Diddy thing. You know, them Cats was doing their thing, and I was, you know, I was at the crib. You know the funny thing. Me and my boys always laugh, like, because I wasn't even drinking till I was like, 34. Yeah. Let me tell you how goofy I was, right? When. When. When Cats was, you know, doing the diddy parties and party, I was playing Madden for money. You can ask Everybody in the 90s. Me, Warren G, Morris Chestnut, we had.

[Host/Moderator]

That's a good group.

[Bill Bellamy]

Cats was playing Madden for thousands of dollars in the hotel. Wow,

[Van]

bro.

[Bill Bellamy]

I lost so much money playing Mad.

[Van]

Who was the best? Who was the best player?

[Bill Bellamy]

The dopest dude that I lost money to was Warren G.

[Host/Moderator]

You know, he's a dude.

[Bill Bellamy]

Hey, Bill, I'm gonna tell you right now, man, you gonna set up your audibles. You already cook, homie. Yo, this is what I knew. I thought I was nice when I played Warren G and he took 10 minutes setting up all his audibles.

[Van]

I was like, yeah, nah, you're in trouble.

[Bill Bellamy]

I said, oh, man. No huddle, offense. Warren taught me the layers to Matt and backwards because he was so meticulous. He had. He had bluffs.

[Van]

He had. Oh, man.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yo, man, I'll ask him if you ever interview Warren G, he'll tell you

[Host/Moderator]

got a silent count.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Wait, so give me a list of people who came over to these Madden. This sounds fun as hell, man. Like, who else?

[Bill Bellamy]

It was all the. All the hip hop guys. Cats was back then. Cats was traveling with their controllers. You Gotta understand. Madden came out early 90s.

[Producer/Assistant]

Yep.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

So Madden. Madden was big. And also NBA, NBA live, NBA live, NBA live, N.B.A live.

[Van]

95, 96. Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Irish cube, Warren G, Snoop was playing.

[Producer/Assistant]

Damn.

[Bill Bellamy]

I'm trying to think of some of the R B. A lot of R B cats in New York was playing the rappers. Because Madden was like part of the culture.

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

I don't know. And Cats would be like, yo, we on tour. Hey man, bring your man, bro. I don't want to hear nothing, man. Bring your. Hey man, bring your old little ass controller, homie. Unplug the game. Some cats would unplug the game,

[Van]

Reset the game.

[Bill Bellamy]

Reset the game. No honor, automatic forfeit.

[Van]

So you was. I know that is out here. I know some of the guys. Cause I'm, you know, Shout out to my man Dwayne Martin. Shout out to a lot of other people that was out here really hooping.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah.

[Van]

Out here in la. The runs amongst the celebrities. I know that I hear the stories and most stories you hear, they put Dwayne on like a different level of basketball because he really gets busy, right?

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah, yeah. At that time he was really good too.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van]

And who. Who was at that time when you had runs, the celebrity runs. Who were the guys that were actual real Hoopers that could actually go in

[Bill Bellamy]

the 90s that we played with that.

[Van]

You play Flex.

[Bill Bellamy]

Flex Dondre. Brian McKnight.

[Van]

Oh, yeah, you heard this?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I heard about Brian McKnight.

[Host/Moderator]

He was good in the All Star Games.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah, yeah. This guy named Brooklyn, who's an actor.

[Van]

Brooklyn was. No hold. Shout out to my man, like Cole. And by the way, shout out to him everything he been through and he didn't come through it.

[Bill Bellamy]

Brooklyn was the toughest guard. He was a lefty. His jumper was crazy. I mean strong too though.

[Van]

I played with him like last. Yeah. Like I played with him like 10 years ago, like cold. Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Allen Payne used to play with us. We had. You gotta understand, when I moved to la, we used to have a real celebrity league. Like these dudes was damn near semi pros. Like it was Cats that played in college and didn't make it. But now they acting. And we had a bunch of really, really, really good runs in the early 90s. Which end up turning to the NBA Entertainment League, if you remember that.

[Van]

I do remember that for the time

[Bill Bellamy]

that was going on. So my team, my team was nuts. Like we was beating cats by 30, 35. We was running through Cats. It was. I'm gonna tell you how crazy my team was. Our team was so crazy when we came to the NBA Entertainment League, they was like, yo, B, man, they gotta be real actors.

[Van]

How many credits you got?

[Bill Bellamy]

We was mopping everybody up. Everybody was catching it. It was crazy. And all the hot. All the hot chicks was at our. At our games. That was another place. Place if you were single, used to go to the games on Sunday, buddy boy. Crazy. It was crazy.

[Joel Anderson]

It was funny. So I got one last question, and we. And in some ways, it's kind of under duress, but I'm going to ask because we. There's a list of comedians that I want to see if you're familiar with. Okay. All right. So this is the. Look. Tom Segura,

[Bill Bellamy]

definitely no time. We. Our kids went to the same school. Go.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay. Sebastian Maniscalco.

[Bill Bellamy]

Work with him. Great dude. Damn.

[Van]

Okay, T. Joel, it's not just kid. Just keep doing it. Just keep doing it.

[Joel Anderson]

I got two more names. Bert Kreischer.

[Bill Bellamy]

I don't know Bert. I don't know Bert.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van]

All right.

[Joel Anderson]

Brett Cryer.

[Bill Bellamy]

Never met Brett Crier.

[Joel Anderson]

Bill Ingsall.

[Bill Bellamy]

I'm. I. I know who Bill. Bill is, but I've never met him, like, in person, but I definitely know who Bill is. Yes.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay. All right. That was my list of five. I think it does confirm what I've been saying, but that's fine.

[Van]

Bill, let me ask you a question. You know who all those guys are, though, right? Some of them you've met, some of them you haven't.

[Joel Anderson]

No, He. He said he didn't know Bert Kreischer. You said you didn't know.

[Bill Bellamy]

Didn't know Break Crescent.

[Van]

Okay, so this is the thing.

[Bill Bellamy]

I've been seeing the work.

[Van]

Just to let you know, Bill, we. I. I used to box with Tom Segura. I know Tom Segura, big comedian. Sebastian Manacowsko, big comedian. Joe here don't know no comedians.

[Joel Anderson]

That's. I know black comedians, Joe.

[Van]

All the black comedians we know shout out to all of the home. But Joel is. Is looking at us crazy because I tell him he should know who Sebastian Manacowsko is. But he's like, I never heard.

[Joel Anderson]

No, no, no.

[Van]

Do you know who he is? Right?

[Joel Anderson]

Do you. Do you know how this happens?

[Bill Bellamy]

Sebastian is big time. You crazy.

[Joel Anderson]

No, no, no, no, no. So you're gonna.

[Bill Bellamy]

You don't know who Joe Coy is? That's crazy.

[Joel Anderson]

No, man. No, look. No, Bill, listen. The way that this happened was that we were going to have Tom Segura on the show. And the whole. I Was like, oh, I don't know. Unfamiliar with this work. I mean, you know, I. I'm sorry. I didn't know who Tom was.

[Bill Bellamy]

Hell, too ridiculously funny. I literally just saw him, like, two weeks ago at a restaurant.

[Joel Anderson]

See, I mean, I. I believe it, but they were going on. I was like, y' all talking like, this is Bill Bellamy.

[Host/Moderator]

That's how we got here, Bill.

[Van]

Yeah, yeah, that's how we got here.

[Bill Bellamy]

And I like. I like that.

[Host/Moderator]

Joe's like, if we're gonna get a

[Joel Anderson]

real comedian, let's get.

[Host/Moderator]

Bell.

[Joel Anderson]

Bell. Let's get.

[Van]

And then we was like, man, yeah. Then we was like, that would be dope to have Bill Bellamy, though.

[Bill Bellamy]

He ain't got some gangster right there. I like that. He ain't feel better. I'm gonna tell you a funny story real quick before we get out of here, right? So, you know, when you have kids, you don't know if your kids, you know. You know, get who you are. You're. You know, my kid. My kids is, like, 19, 22 or whatever, right? This is the funniest way my son said to me. He was like, yo, dad. Like, yo, you was on Bel Air. You moving? Was like, yo, dad, my friends are going crazy. You on Bel Air? I was like, what, about 28 years of work?

[Joel Anderson]

No, Bill, they never even saw you in, like, Love Jones, nothing like that.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like I'm saying, for the next generation. All right, I'll give you another one. That's funny. So I'm somewhere, right? And this young chick, she might be, like, 20. And she was like, oh, my God, my cousin and my aunt is going crazy. Who are you?

[Joel Anderson]

Who are you?

[Bill Bellamy]

I say, call your mama. Call your mom right now.

[Van]

Oh, there you go, right?

[Bill Bellamy]

The mom gets on the phone, she's like, so, you know, I gotta stay in my generation. You know what I'm saying, Bill?

[Van]

Okay, we're not gonna hold you. You reminded me of one more question. I always want to ask you this. So in. In the theaters. Just one more question. I always. In the theaters, I go to see how to Be a Player, right? One of my goats. We all went. We don't even go to the. We all went to go see the movies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We go see how to Be a Player.

[Bill Bellamy]

Oh, yes.

[Van]

Oh, yeah. Everybody got Max lit. Yeah, man. Everybody in the movie, Max, Julian, the whole nine, right? Like, the whole joint. We go and see movies to see how to Be a Player at the end of the movie, because Maury Morrow is in this movie. And she is the cold. So cold. It's like, super cold. But at the end of the movie. Cause Lark Voorhees plays your girlfriend. And at the end of the movie, very famously, Mari Morrow, you finally get with her, but then she hangs you out to dry. And she says, adapt. Because real players adapt. If y' all don't know. He's talking about how to be a player. And he says, you really. Bill's character says, you really can't put a real player in a position that he can't adapt and get out of facts. Mari Mo. And at the end of the movie, Mari Morrow, like, legitimately, like, think she leaves her underwear or something like that. And then she said her shoes to indict, and she says, adapt. In that situation, how would you adapt? I always told myself, because it seemed like she got you. How would you adapt? Can you adapt out of what happened at the end of Def Jam's how to Be a Player?

[Bill Bellamy]

Well, in. In real life, probably not unless y' all be admitted. But in. In movie magic. Now, let me tell y' all something. I've been told a lot of people about the film. So we had two scenarios. We had the scenario where I literally got away with it. None of the women. None of the women liked the movie. The women, when they screened the movie and they tested the movie back then, they used to do test audiences. All the women hated me getting away with it.

[Joel Anderson]

Wow.

[Bill Bellamy]

Me getting caught gave the movie redemption. And so they kept. They used that ending because it would have been too slick for me to just be, like, magically to get out of it. You feel me? So, yeah, in respect to the film, I thought that it was. Definitely gave it more believability because obviously, when she came up the staircase, where. Where did I throw the other stuff?

[Van]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

You know, like, the time frame from her coming up the staircase to the other chick being in the bed to her coming around thing, and I'm just laying there. Sleep was nuts. She would have had to be in the toilet. Right?

[Van]

It was.

[Joel Anderson]

That cast was incredible by.

[Host/Moderator]

Because, like, even the Bernie Mac.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, well, no, Tate, what are you talking. I'm about to say the.

[Van]

The women, man.

[Joel Anderson]

Because even was one of the few white women that, like, you could say was attractive in front of black women. And black women would not argue.

[Bill Bellamy]

They had. They had to say.

[Joel Anderson]

They're like, all right, I can see that. Yes. So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Because Amber. Amber was at that time, she's probably about 6ft tall, 5 11. And she was a playboy. She was a Playboy model at the time. Actress. And so that was a big deal. Big, tall, blanche chick. And so when I did how to Be a Player, I kind of wanted every kind of chick. Like, I felt like I wanted it to be like Baskin Robbins. Like, there's all kinds of fun. There's all kinds of, like, you know, attractive women. I didn't all want all the girls to look like video girls and shit, you know. So when we were casting the girls, I was hand picking the ones that I was like, yeah, she'll be this one. She's the earthy. You know, she'll be like my earthy chick that got incense in her crib. Yeah, we got the little fly Jamaican chick. She got her little vibe. She come over with her little curry gold and, you know, then I had the little white chick that was the nurse, you know, Cool, cool, cool. Then I had the S M chick that was. Wow. You know what I'm saying? Then I had the cute. The cutie. That was my main chick. That was like dope.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Like, Lark Voorhees was like the joint. You would want to be your main chick anyway.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. I wonder how many people in our audience know he's talking about Lisa Turtle.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They gotta go. They gotta Google that, man.

[Van]

They better look up. They better do their Google.

[Bill Bellamy]

Was the biggest show on tv.

[Joel Anderson]

It was. Yeah. Beverly Johnson. Yeah, Beverly Johnson in that crew, too, man.

[Bill Bellamy]

Was it matter of fact at that time, if we gonna keep it a buck, I think right now, back then, Lark Voorhees might have been top 10 finest sister in the game.

[Joel Anderson]

Not cold.

[Van]

Oh, yeah, like, crazy cold. Like, cold as cold could get. Like, come on, man, that's vintage cold. Don't get. Yeah, don't, don't. Like, that's cold. Legitimately cold.

[Bill Bellamy]

That's cold.

[Van]

For our entire childhood, anytime she showed up in something.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van]

What?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

Was so goddamn fine. Natural.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bill Bellamy]

You know the young, Young brothers, right now, they got filters on their chicks. Hey, yo. In 90, in the 90s look like that. For real. Yeah. Yep.

[Host/Moderator]

Oh, man.

[Bill Bellamy]

I'll let y'.

[Van]

All.

[Bill Bellamy]

I gotta go, man. I gotta.

[Joel Anderson]

I gotta.

[Bill Bellamy]

I gotta do two more interviews.

[Van]

There you go.

[Bill Bellamy]

And just pray for me.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, we're gonna be on you, brother.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, we're helping. Yeah, we're gonna help you out there, Bill. Appreciate you coming on the show, man. Thanks so much.

[Bill Bellamy]

Absolutely, man. Love you guys. I appreciate. This episode is brought to you by State Farm.

[Van]

You know, those Friends who support your

[Host/Moderator]

preference for podcasts over music on road trips.

[Van]

That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance.

[Bill Bellamy]

With over 19, 000 local agents, they

[Van]

help you find the coverage that fits

[Bill Bellamy]

your needs so you can spend less time worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go [e-mail] Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

[Van]

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[Joel Anderson]

Tomorrow morning is knocking.

[Bill Bellamy]

Stock your fridge now.

[Joel Anderson]

How about a creamy mocha frappuccino drink?

[Bill Bellamy]

Or a sweet vanilla smooth caramel, maybe? Or white chocolate milk? Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries.

[Host/Moderator]

All right, there you have it. Bill Bellamy. Appreciate him coming to the show. Sounds like he's, you know, someone that could get back on the show at some point. We have a lot more questions that we weren't able to get to. I wanted to ask about Rutgers football. He did go to Rutgers. That is the birthplace of college football. We are a college football show. Forgot to ask him about that. But regardless, love to have him on the show. Joel, did it live up to your expectations?

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah. But I mean, again, as far as the Jermaine Dupree Janet thing, I mean. Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

Do you feel vindicated?

[Joel Anderson]

He said things that I would have never said in public, you know, about how that all went down and the surprise of it. So he kind of covered it all. And I feel like as somebody who was a con, who was contemporaneous to all that right in the middle of it, if that's what he says, I kind of got to go with Bill Bellamy on that. And not a bunch of people on the Internet who was saying, well, you don't understand women, because sometimes women will like you if you have a personality or you are brilliant. I understand how the world worked, dog. But I also, I think there was

[Host/Moderator]

only a couple people that said that. There was a lot more people that were, no, no, no side, Joel.

[Van]

So there. So this was. There was a clear dividing line here. The. The dividing line was a lot of people was like, so I'll tell you why, how I feel about the dividing line was a lot of people were with y' all straight up. Just straight up. Like, a lot of people with y people. Honestly, a lot of women were with y'.

[Bill Bellamy]

All.

[Van]

Let's be honest with you.

[Bill Bellamy]

Let's.

[Van]

I'll keep it all real.

[Joel Anderson]

Real.

[Van]

But I'll say this. I do feel like there's a fundamental misunderstanding of, like, powerful ladies. And I could go down a list, bro. A list. Julia Roberts. L love it.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van]

Like, I could, like, Billy Bob Thornton is with Angela Delina Jolie, at her height,

[Joel Anderson]

kind of, you know, was a handsome, kind of smoldering dude.

[Van]

I. I could understand, like, what I'm saying. Like, Billy Bob Thornton is not the type of guy that you would think, but, like, the whole thing of Billy Bob Thornton was, like, a big deal, right? He's. He was a cool guy. Jermaine Dupree, it is an iconic, super important, absolutely top legend. Like, okay, give you an example. Bill Clinton, right? Maybe not a super great guy, probably worshiping Baphomet in 1995 on Epstein Island. But. But like, Bill Clinton, right? But Bill Clinton, when. When women were actually into Bill Clinton, he actually. Bill Clinton is not like a straight up, like, handsome, devastatingly handsome guy. But. But Bill Clinton is the president, and he's suave and he's powerful.

[Host/Moderator]

Got charisma.

[Van]

Like. Yeah, got charisma. Like, women into that. What are we. What, dog?

[Joel Anderson]

What do you want? What do you want to happen here? Do you want us to be

[Host/Moderator]

saying that Jermaine Dupree's got charisma?

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, Bill, again, again, I get. I'm not denying that Jervey Dupree, he's got games, a talent, a talent icon in the industry. But did you hear what Bill Bellamy said about him? And that's.

[Van]

I understand that.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. People think that. And people think. And people thought that you could have everything that Jermaine Dupri is, but also somebody in a more conventionally attractive package.

[Van]

But they're not many guys who are that. You understand?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, there's not many of those guys, period. But, like, Janet Jackson.

[Van]

What'd you say? Hold on, hold on.

[Host/Moderator]

I think you just agreed.

[Van]

Yeah, you just agree. They're not many of those guys, period. Which.

[Joel Anderson]

Hold on.

[Van]

Look, 30 seconds, then. I mean, those guys, period, and rarity. Even up the chain, right up the. Even for men. The reason why men, when they get super famous, ended up going get, like a Victoria's Secret model, they don't just go to a college of your choosing and grab the baddest chick. Some of them do. But the reason why is because they start to look for women who are not only beautiful, but also exceedingly rare.

[Host/Moderator]

Like.

[Joel Anderson]

Like Janet Jackson.

[Van]

Like. And Janet.

[Joel Anderson]

Bill Bellamy told you. Bill Bellamy told you with the R.

[Van]

And by the way. And by. And by the way, Janet Jackson had come off dating a guy named Renee Elizondo.

[Joel Anderson]

Again. Yeah.

[Van]

Who was a handsome guy. Right, Right. But didn't really have any type of stature. And she wanted a guy with stature.

[Joel Anderson]

She was married to Elder Barge.

[Van]

Powerful guy, huh? Before she went to Elder Barge for a second. Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

She liked. She liked Attack. Seemed at the time a type of handsome guy. Right. And so when she was flirting with Bill Bellamy, everybody understood what that meant. It was like, oh, Bill Bellamy is a tall, handsome, charismatic, funny dude. And again, there's no. It's just unfortunate because I'm a big, so, so deaf fan. I was listening to Funk Defied the other day. I don't want to talk about it like this, but we all know what's happening. We all know. We all know what Bill Bellamy meant. And you didn't argue. You didn't argue with him. You didn't keep the same energy with Bill Bellamy because you knew. Because you knew that.

[Van]

No, no, no, no.

[Joel Anderson]

He made the point. Yeah, you cut that.

[Van]

I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why I didn't keep the same bell. I'll tell you why I didn't keep the same energy with Bill Bellamy. Because Bill Bellamy was telling his story.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay?

[Van]

He was there. So, like, Bill Bellamy is telling the story of how he felt. He's not giving his opinion on something. He's telling the story of how he felt. But I'll tell you one thing. If Bill Bellamy would have said that women like Janet Jackson don't go for guys like Jermaine Dupree, I would have told him and given him information. He was saying the way he felt. Like, you said straight. What you said.

[Bill Bellamy]

Stop it.

[Host/Moderator]

That's what he said. He was like. He didn't know he was in the game.

[Van]

Like, what. What you said straight up was that you said that. Like, there's no way. Or like that. Like Janet Jackson. Guys. Women like Janet Jackson don't date guys like Jermaine Dupri. And they do. Like, they really do.

[Joel Anderson]

Again, we do, but we just also. It was a surprise. I understand that there are examples of that from life, but again, it was Janet Jackson. It was Janet Jackson who had a track record of dating a certain kind of handsome guy. Jermaine Dupri was none of those things. Right. But he was very talented.

[Van]

Come on, brother.

[Joel Anderson]

And he was much bigger in music than all those other stuff. Yeah. Let's move on, because Bill Bellamy said it all.

[Host/Moderator]

You did the. You. You said a Janet Jackson, like when Deja Bell said he made Thriller. Same tone of voice. That was.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man.

[Host/Moderator]

Let's get to our top five headlines of the week. Let's start here. Joel sent this to the group chat. Nobody responded, but it was a good point and a good story. Leonard Fournette talking about life after football. He said, quote, I would get out of bed at 2am Drive around and cry. We talked about this with Marcus Lattimore a little bit. Just about, like, the impact of football on you. And I thought Leonard Fournette, this was a podcast clip that kind of, you know, struck the same chord there. And I thought this was an interesting story and also a nice thing that Joel sent over to the people. But, Joel, when you saw this clip, your thoughts?

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, no, I. It just. I always think about how difficult that must be, because even if you were like, end of the roster scrub like me, somebody who was delusional enough even in college that they'll think, man, I might have a chance to win the Heisman, you know, and like, at the moment that it's all over, it's just a really difficult transition in your life. Like, oh, man, I'll never wear shoulder pads again. I'll never hear a stadium full of people, like, applaud for me again. You know what I mean? And I did nothing compared to Leonard Fannette. Like, I heard about Leonard Fnet when he was a sophomore in high school. I have a friend from St Aug. Yeah, I have a friend from St OG who was talking about Leonard Fadette when he was in ninth grade. So he's been that nigga for, like, 20 years of his life. You know what I'm saying? And for it to all be over, I can totally understand how you'd be like, well, man, I don't.

[Van]

TCU never had one like you do.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, you never heard of Ladanian Tomlinson? Have you ever? You did. You happen to forget that Ladanian Tomlinson is a TCU alone.

[Van]

Yeah, he was the man. Yeah, he was the man.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, he's a Hall of Famer.

[Van]

He's great.

[Joel Anderson]

He's great. Very good football player. It turned out to be better in college and pros than Leonard Fanette.

[Host/Moderator]

You don't take a shot at Leonard Fernet.

[Joel Anderson]

He's trying to. He's taking a Shot at my school. Take you, man. I'll tell you, bro, what is going on.

[Van]

This hierarchy, it's a physically dominating athletic back.

[Joel Anderson]

He was a great. I love Leonard for that. I thought it was a great running back. Yeah. But I mean, again, Tomlinson is in a different corner of the game, though. That's all right. Yeah. You know.

[Van]

Yeah. I mean, you know, I. I could say a lot of things about Ladan Thompson, but there's not much you can say. The man is fantastic. Ended up his best.

[Bill Bellamy]

He's great.

[Van]

He's the great. He's great. He's fantastic. He's the best. He's the man. He's fantastic. All of that.

[Joel Anderson]

Go ahead and cry about Leonard Fanette. Go ahead.

[Van]

I'm not about to. I'm not about to tell you this. I'm glad to see. There were two fucking interviews that I watched. I watched Leonard Fournette watch this clip. And then I watch also Terrell Pryor.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah, I saw that.

[Van]

And I am interested to see as Terrell talks, because everybody talks about the fact that there was only impermissible benefits and different types of deals being made happening. Where else. He talked about all this stuff that went on. But I'm interested to hear these guys tell their stories because these young men, and they're young relatively in their life, they're still young enough to really talk about this and be able to like, really lock in on what happened.

[Bill Bellamy]

Right.

[Van]

Or like what was going on. And I talked about something that happened 15, 20, 30. Well, sometimes it's 15, but like, they're talking about things that existed that are still relatively contemporary and they're still living their lives and dealing with in real time the results of their football careers. So it's just very interesting to me to hear these young brothers talk about what it was like to have to give the game up. The same reason why, the same way we had Marcus Lattimore on. It was fantastic, man.

[Joel Anderson]

Can you. Fernando is only 31 years old, man. Yeah, only 31. He has a lot of light. And this is just the last thing on this, because people are talking about. I mean, again, they're trying to over inflate how much they actually care about the academic careers of football players. Because we know that, like, for the most part, football coaches want to cordon them off on a particular part of campus, take classes that align best with their schedule and not what their interests are, all that kind of stuff. But I was just thinking about this, man. Somebody needs to tell these boys. And this is me being An UNC right here. You shouldn't wait to find your second dream or your second purpose in life, you know what I mean? Like, if you can do it, man, like, please don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Even if you seem destined for starting. Think about being a coach. I just remember when TJ Finley was up here, man, and he was like, I don't know if I want to be a coach, dog. You know, I want to play. And I'm just like, damn, bro. But, like, you've been, you know, a lot of different systems. You've got a lot of different experiences. Like, maybe that would translate into you to being able to relate to and recruit them and teach them. You know, you've learned from a lot of different quarterback coaches. And he hadn't even thought about it. You know, he just thought the best way, the thing that he could do was to keep playing. And I don't know, man, think about being a teacher, think about being a comedian and influencer, whatever. But I just feel like if you wait till it's all over, you've waited too late and.

[Van]

But I hope.

[Joel Anderson]

But it doesn't mean that you can't still find purpose. That's all I'm saying.

[Van]

Of course, what I will say is for a lot of people, and I know a lot of athletes personally, they find that in college, when they're in college, they are turned on to a lot of different things. They are around you have a lot of options. Around you, they have a lot of options. They take a lot of different trips. So we talk about sometimes, as college continues to be something that's like, professionalized and becomes a professional sport, why that's fantastic for the athlete, and it is. It's fantastic to make a lot of money doing something that a very low percentage of people can do. However, the college experience itself is valuable for a lot of people I know personally. Forget about anything else that we're talking about. If you're a young man and you're coming out of Idealia, you're coming. You're coming out of, like, Neville. You're coming out of a small place. Baton Rouge does not. It's not New York. It's not like, whatever. But when you get on campus, when you get on campus, though, you meet a lot of different types of people and you meet people that have been a lot of different types of places. And if you allow yourself, if there's room for you to stay in a place, develop and grow not only tentacles throughout the state, like connections throughout the State, but really other places, you know, one of Kalika's cousins played. He played D1 ball at Arizona, and he was a starter for Arizona. And just the people that he was around that were different from the people where he were from, that had different experiences than the people that he were from. Like, making college all about being a minor league, professional league, or a professional league itself does have a cost, because for now, you can take the money and go do a lot of things with it. But then there are stories like TJ Finley, where you chase it and you can't give up the idea that you're going to get a big bag somewhere and the opportunities that are right in front of you as not just a college student, but someone who exists in the culture where there are lots of different opportunities and lots of different types of intellectual curiosities that might not seem as valuable. So everything has a cost. There's a negotiation to everything. And we have to be honest about the fact that there are a lot of brothers, are a lot of athletes, are a lot of people. They're gonna find themselves in situations where they're like, my life's purpose is over at 31 years old result,

[Host/Moderator]

and you don't want them to be there. And like you said, the. The opportunities are right around you. It's also nice, socialization wise, just to be around people that are also, even if they're not playing a sport, trying to find what they want to do in life, too. And that can inform what you want to do when you meet people and the networks that you have around you. It all sort of matters.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, I thought about Von Miller being like the largest black chicken egg farmer in the country. You know what I'm saying? By. By taking a class on campus like that is sort of the ideal of all of this. And what I would say is I agree with everything Vance said, except, you know, I sometimes think that the schools and the administrations bear some responsibility to help facilitate for this turnover, to facilitate the kind of environment. I'm just adding on to that.

[Host/Moderator]

A lot of times they say that they want to do that, but like you said, Joel, they send you down a track where, you know, there's. It's not really a possible thing. And you're isolated with your team.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Van]

Good coach, in my opinion. In my opinion, good coaches do do it.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Van]

I'm serious. In my opinion, good college coaches are teachers like their teachers and their. And their players, like the really good ones. Their players are so loyal to them. They're so loyal to Them because they treat this as more than just a job. That is what separates them. Like for example, Brian Kelly. Brian Kelly, one of our old centers talks about the fact that he never really talked to Brian Kelly. They didn't have a relationship. It's like I never really had that. Like he would see me. Hello. Good coaches are interested, if only for cynical reasons and what's going on with their players, developing their players and they're there for them players. If it's only to get the best out of them, if it's only to make those players run through walls for them, if it's not for any other reason other than that, but they realize that that's a part of their job.

[Joel Anderson]

I agree. And were that there were more of them, the other thing that I would say is, I was trying to say this is like just go ask any of these coaches if 50% of their players could do a summer internship with a company like somewhere else, right? Like they got to go work in Minneapolis. Like see what they would say, like how much their academic careers and their, how concerned they are about their professional lives. Right? It'd be like, no, you got to be down here and work out, right? Because I mean, because it's a job and that's. They want them to prioritize it. And so that's all, that's all I have to say about it. I think we've, you know, I think we're all on the same page.

[Host/Moderator]

We're all the same page too. You mentioned Terrell Pryor. Let's talk about Ohio State. Ryan Day, head coach at the Buckeyes said this quote, if you're not a first or second rounder, then this probably isn't the right place for you. So he is definitely professionalized the situation there. There was some former Ohio State players that were fourth round picks, fifth round picks, seventh round picks, undrafted guys that were, that were responding to this and saying, damn, coach, tell me how you really feel. Van, when you hear Ryan Day saying that, do you think this is more just a, a pitch, a recruiting pitch, or do you think this is actually what he believes?

[Van]

Man, you know I'm saying, man, you know, let just say the quiet part out loud, right? What he's telling you right now is that he runs an elite ship and if you're projected to be that, then he wants you. And if they got to develop you, he's take you from a two star to a four. He's not into that. That's not what they trying to do. And that's where we at is it.

[Host/Moderator]

It's very professional.

[Van]

Yeah, that's where we at. Like, if you, if you have first or second round measurables, we want you. If you don't, we. Like, like, we don't.

[Host/Moderator]

And you're not a top 64 player in your draft class, we don't care.

[Van]

Well, the difference is, is it used to be that, like, you couldn't really. You couldn't really say that. Like, you could say it. Everybody feels that way. But what used to happen is that you used to have to develop some guys that weren't like that. Like, they're on every. On your favorite college football team, the most elite college football teams, there were guys that weren't good enough to play in the NFL.

[Host/Moderator]

On your favorite ones that contributed.

[Van]

Yeah, that contributed. There were good college players that weren't good enough to play in the NFL. And not only were they not good enough to play in the NFL, they weren't good enough to get drafted high. They weren't good enough. And you had to develop them. But now the checkbook is open so big you can go buy the guys you need. If you can afford a team of all first and second round type prospects, you can have one. I mean, the rest of the guys go to tcu. TCU is a good team and they have season.

[Joel Anderson]

That's right. And it played in the national championship more recently than lsu, but that's fine.

[Van]

And also, I've never won one, but that's.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm letting it go. That's okay. Cool. Are you happy?

[Van]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Are you happy?

[Van]

Hey. All right.

[Host/Moderator]

Don't forget about 2014 DCU fans.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I mean.

[Van]

Oh, that's right. I forgot.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, also, I mean, they went undefeated and finished number two in 2010. And if you consider that maybe Cam Newton got paid to play at a time when that was not allowed, you make them ineligible to. I think I still consider TC national champion for that year. Let me just real quick, for the Ryan Day thing, I just think that we don't have to take him literally in this situation. I think. Yo, listen. Oh, that's your boy. Tell me what. What is the Trump thing? Because I get a little bit more into, you know what I'm saying?

[Van]

You're doing a Trump thing to where someone actually says something, he says, you actually say it plainly. And then somebody else like Trump says, hey, I wanna kidnap a star, right? And then bring it and put it in my backyard. And I'm gonna walk around with that star on my back. And I'm just Gonna burn up anyone who's not MAGA. And the MAGA people go, oh, Mr. Trump saw 2001 A Space Odyssey. He's talking about the third or fourth scene, blah, blah, blah. Or Trump says, I'm going to murder Cats. And they go, have you ever seen the movie Cats? It was really terrible. This is what Mr. Trump really means, where he actually says something straight up and then people are willing to, like, translate it for him. So that's what you're doing for Ryan Day.

[Joel Anderson]

Here's the number of first and second rounders drafted out of Ohio State since he'd been there. Three in 2019, four in 2020, three in 2021, two in 2022, three in 2023, two in 2024. And then he had seven last year in 2025. So it's getting better. The numbers are up there. But that was off a national champion. So I think he understands that he doesn't have all first and second round players on his team. What I took from what he was saying there, that to come here, you kind of have to have that mentality that, like, either you're that or you're going to be playing against that in hopes you can get to be that. That's like the kind of mentality that fueled USC under Pete Carroll when he talked about compete every day when you go to Miami and those tight ends of the running backs would line up, they'd be like, well, they've already got Clinton Portis, James Johnson. They've already got, you know, I'm trying to remember Jeremy Shockey or whoever else, and Jeremy Shockey and Kate. And wasn't Kellen Winslow the second?

[Van]

But you go there from the, uh.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, yeah, you think. You go there because you think, well, I'm that kind of a dude and if that's the kind of place where these badasses are, that I need to be there. So that's what I think. That's what I think Ryan Day made because he literally knows he does not have a roster of first and second rounders.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, you would have an NFL team at that point. But, yeah, the implication was there is that we want pros, which goes back to what we were just talking about before that next story. Big one Cal athletics has gotten rid of their entire marketing department and they said that they're going to do a, quote, complete redefinition of how we operate. And so California athletics is, you know, kind of signaling a change in the whole ecosystem here by getting rid of, I think it was 25 people that they got rid of Joel. You send this story to us? Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

I didn't respond to that.

[Host/Moderator]

Nobody responded. So I wanted to give you the floor to let people know what your thoughts are.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, no, I just thought it was interesting fodder. I mean, Cal is broke. I mean, you know, I mean, their

[Host/Moderator]

basketball team, everybody left.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

Justin Pippen, Dayday Ames, everybody. Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

All that money must have gone to keeping JKS there.

[Producer/Assistant]

I think so.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. You know what I mean?

[Van]

I thought for sure he was gonna be gone. We called. Hollywood Smothers was a. He was. Hollywood Smothers was gonna transfer. I thought for sure he was gonna transfer. But he didn't.

[Joel Anderson]

He didn't. He stayed. I mean, Tosh Lapoy, the new head coach, he tells a story on other podcasts that he. When he met with the team on the. On that day, he was like, where's jks? And they're like, oh, he's back home in Hawaii. And so he went and bought himself a ticket and flew to Hawaii.

[Host/Moderator]

He flew there and talked to him.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, right. It was that big of a deal for him. So. Yeah. I mean, but Cal, man, look, also,

[Host/Moderator]

when your former quarterback before him left and won the Heisman and the national championship, I think it makes it even more imperative to keep your quarterback.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van]

Because you see what happens. You export that type of talent.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, look, man, also, then acc, bro, this is. It just doesn't make any sense. It's a lot of money, man, that they're spending to do this bullshit. They don't need to be in that league and they're broke. And so something's going to have to happen. When people talk about crisis in college sports, where's this going to have to be about schools like Cal looking at themselves and being like, what are we doing here? Like, what is going to make more sense for running, like, a sensible athletic department and, like, leaving a conference where almost everybody is on the other coast might have to be one of those things.

[Host/Moderator]

But you're cutting support staff basically to then pay for players. Right. I mean, that's sort of the. That's the idea there.

[Joel Anderson]

Pay for a lot of things. I mean, they are. I mean, they are literally tens of millions in deficit every year. And they get. The reality is money for them.

[Van]

The reality is the economics of college football are now costing people their jobs. That's where it goes. Capitalism. Everybody wants to do a capitalism. Nobody wants to talk about the downstream effects of it. That's what the deal is. Yes. People are going to get paid it's going to the, the, the, the, the worst.

[Host/Moderator]

The real trickle down right there.

[Van]

Yeah. I think there is going. But, but there is a cost and that is not the only cost. And one of the costs is as the players become more expensive, some people that are surrounded, those people will lose their.

[Joel Anderson]

So many of those jobs. Yes. So many of those jobs were created because they weren't playing the players in the first place. Exactly.

[Van]

Whatever.

[Joel Anderson]

So.

[Van]

But I have free labor bodies on the line. But I'm telling you right now there are, there are people and there's the way that it goes. And we're. And creating a hierarchy of who's whose money is important is the way that America works.

[Bill Bellamy]

Right.

[Joel Anderson]

That I'm interested in the players getting paid.

[Van]

I'm happy that they could find.

[Joel Anderson]

They could find somewhere else. And also those are jobs that they don't even hire black alums for. Bro.

[Van]

Racializing it.

[Joel Anderson]

These, these depo jobs or these like fraternity jobs. All this people. You go in those job those places and no you'll see nobody that used to play there like maybe every night for the program again. I feel sorry for those people.

[Van]

But finally having to play the boys.

[Joel Anderson]

And that's.

[Van]

I'm not anyway saying that what Joel is saying right now is untrue. He would know. I wouldn't. I don't like as far as what I know is what I could observe from places that I've been, programs that I know. What I am saying is this. What I'm saying is in America as you, you, you take money and put money at the top of something. There's going to be an economic response to that. And there are going to be people that had jobs where they would take their kids to Sizzler and they come home now broke ass kids can't go to Sizzler. He's like dad, dad, dad, can we go get a hamburger and go down the water slide? Fuck it, son. Not only can we not go down the water slide, but it's time for you to get a job. So we need to take you over to the Dairy Queen slinging ice cream. Now dad used to have a job at Cal, but now we, we, we got, we gotta pay 70 million.

[Joel Anderson]

You know who they should be mad at?

[Van]

They got mad at. And so I'm gonna tell you. And it's gravy. It's all gravy. I'm just telling you Cost Joe.

[Joel Anderson]

They should be mad at those young niggas with all that money. Those millionaire niggas out there. That's who they should be mad at.

[Van]

That's not at all.

[Joel Anderson]

That's. Who's keeping. That's keeping the money from those. That's because that's what everybody wants you to believe. All those other, like, patronage jobs, the coaches get millionaires, the athletic directors get to be so many hundred thousandaires, all these other people. But it's like, oh, yeah, what. They never paid the labor that keeps going. Now they got to pay. And now that you got, you don't have a job. It's because of them, not because of all this art infrastructure we built around the game.

[Van]

Hey, what I'm. Joel is right. Everything that Joel just said is correct. This is the day of wrong for Van. Everything that Joel just said is correct.

[Joel Anderson]

He's right.

[Van]

I am saying that people are going to lose their jobs. They're going to be people around this sport who are less talented than the athletes that play it, and they're going to lose their jobs and they're going to.

[Joel Anderson]

The coaches won't fire themselves.

[Van]

All of this is going to be strong stress on all of these situations. And look, once again, this is the way America works. The way America works is you pay a bunch of money to the people all the way at the top, a huge amount of money to them.

[Joel Anderson]

They're taking a lot.

[Van]

And you. And, and, and you hope against hope that the people that are, you know, working people, even the other athletes, you hope that the people that are working people in the Middle east and at the lower that don't. They don't run. Four, three forties. You hope that they can sustain. And that cow, they clearly couldn't.

[Joel Anderson]

Niggas are taking your money, man. That's. I mean, this is. It's the oldest Republican.

[Host/Moderator]

It's just the top. The top is reallocating the money. That's what it comes down to. They want the infighting, but it's really at the top where the money is.

[Van]

And by the way. And by the way, see the point that Joel is making about how. How this is an issue. I don't run, you know, I don't run from that point because do you know what we talk about? We talk about income inequality or wealth disparity and income disparity between black people and white people all the time. Something that's actually under discussed is income and wealth disparity from inside the community.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, yeah, from.

[Van]

So there is. So. To other black people. To people. Yeah. There are niggas who are taking your money. There are. There are. Who are taking your money. They're like, they're like from inside the community. Intra community wealth and income inequality is a major, major. And all of these places where they tell you it's a Mecca. Here, come here. We got the most black millionaires. We got the most this, we got the most that. I will tell you that the system that we live in, the system of capitalism that we live in, even in those places, is picking a couple of winners and fucking the rest of the black people. So in this situation, I don't know who's. Whatever all that stuff. But yeah, when you flood a bunch of money into a situation like that and then choose which people make all of the money, even if it's a workforce that you think is a worthy workforce. And I'm not saying that it's not. These are the same type of people that I grew up with. One house over, one town over in my community. Cool. But like that is going to have a downstream effect.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I think you, I think you just buying the bullshit that they have to fire the people. I don't, I don't assume. I don't. They are broke, but they run deficits every year. Okay. They didn't have to. To me, I don't. Firing 30 people, man.

[Bill Bellamy]

What the.

[Joel Anderson]

I mean, come on. That, that's a, that's a drop in the bucket. I, I don't buy the assumption that these people have to be laid off. I think that they could find margins elsewhere that they just choose not to.

[Van]

Well, this is the way I look at it right now. Disney last year made something like $12 billion. Disney paid zero taxes. Yeah, paid zero taxes. Matter of fact, they got like a $1.7 million tax rebate or something like that. Something happened. They fired a thousand people.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, man.

[Van]

And so what I'm saying is the money, which is good. We live in a capitalist society. Nobody here is working for free. Maybe to do. But like nobody here is working for free. But the money changes things. That's it. So we'll see when the next batch is not gonna stop. We'll see when the next batch.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah. Well, I hope they find ways to, to, to eliminate waste amongst those, those, those really high up jobs in athletic departments and stuff. I hope they do that. That would be great.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, we'll see what happens. Next story. Florida A. M. This is an academic band that they have, but they have created a portal loophole because of the academic band. So you have players that are basically open season. The portal is not open. But you have players because of the academic band that can be Poached from this roster. This is a story that Joel also sent us. Joel, your. Your thoughts on this as well?

[Joel Anderson]

Did y'. All. Did y'.

[Bill Bellamy]

All.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, for your thoughts? Not all the thread, not all the links are meant to be. To be put into the show.

[Host/Moderator]

Hey, look, we need headlines.

[Joel Anderson]

It's just. It could just be a conversation point. I'm trying to start conversations and I'm

[Host/Moderator]

trying to start conversations with you about this. I want to get your thoughts on it. I. I mean, I love a portal loophole.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, well, I mean, I think it kind of stinks for fam. They used to be the gold standard of HBCU football programs. It has a proud tradition and legacy. And the fact of the matter is that these APR penalties tend to hit HBCUs disproportionately. There's reasons for that. Like, FAM is taking athletes. FAM is taking athletes that probably don't have very many other options. Right. In a number of ways.

[Host/Moderator]

They also have a postseason ban.

[Joel Anderson]

And. They have a postseason ban. Yeah, man. And so I just. I have a whole thing about, like, tying academic eligibility to athletics participation that I'm not going to get into here. But, I mean, it just sucks, man. I feel bad for fam. They've been. They've had all the. I mean, man, they've had just problems with the administration. This. They got a new school president that was installed by Ron DeSantis. There's just a lot of going on there, man. And beneath the surface, like, HBCUs are in a lot of trouble, man, on a lot of levels across the South. And this is like one of those things I look at, and it's just, It's. It's one thing. It's a football team that's facing a postseason ban and, you know, whatever, but in diminished practice time, they get to practice less now because presumably that will help people to graduate. But it's a real perilous time for HBCUs right now. And I think this is just a sign. It's just a little symptom of a deeper sickness that is going on. And I hope they'll always be here. I wish they were healthier. Yeah.

[Van]

I mean, the HBCUs, like, in case people don't know, HBCUs have been systematically underfunded, even the ones that are land grant universities, like, since the time that they've been around, like, it's like I go into a whole spiel about the reasons that the HBCUs were started, why the HBCU exists, and then the intentionality of underfunding the HBCUs. We'll say this though. One of the most valuable things that exists at the HBCU is the football program. And one of the most valuable things that exists at the football program is the football player. And what hap. What used to happen was you would bounce from lsu, there was a receiver, a couple people actually, receiver named Michael Haynes. Yeah, it really was a dog. Right. Ends up playing at Southern, bounces from lsu, goes to Southern. Right. Sure there'll be some guys like that now, but now what you're going to see is every single one of these guys that exists at these programs become. I mean now they will be harvested.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. Going from HBCU to a pwi.

[Van]

Right, right. They will be harvested now. And like for. For schools that were already struggling to, you know, to. And had a. A resource that was very valuable, this is a matter of time before it's gone.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, it's, you know, it's kind of similar to like the cow thing. It's a symptom of a larger problem which is why it's a story there

[Van]

last or a larger reality. Maybe it's not a problem. Hey, yeah, they have wrong.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, I mean look man, I mean the thing about higher education right now is that it's in a really bad state. Like the University of Oregon was talking about having to make a lot of cuts just today, right. Like that they're in financial trouble and there may be. They may be facing wider layoffs. Like the problem with higher education in this country is because

[Bill Bellamy]

a group of

[Joel Anderson]

politicians are starving these universities. They're cutting and cutting and cutting because they resent them. They don't like them as centers of power and influence in this country. And so yeah, so it's, you know, HBCUs which were always getting dogged out and treated, you know, got the, always got the scrap, the relative scraps. They're being treated accordingly in this environment. So I mean higher education in this country is a concern and I actually think one of the sad things is that football and basketball fool us into thinking that like there's this robust academic culture in this country and that we prioritize higher education but when in actuality they are decaying right now. So you know, anyway. But we don't that. Well, I didn't mean to get that. I don't know why that happened.

[Van]

I'm sorry but, but like not to, not to be anti capitalist again but one reason why, like one reason, one reason why it's decaying is because of the influx Of. Of money. The privatization of these schools and the way that that changes the structures of them.

[Bill Bellamy]

There's.

[Host/Moderator]

And the people in power at those

[Joel Anderson]

places and the politicization of power. Right. Changing the board of trustees.

[Van]

There's actual data on what percentage of California was educated when the California. When the California university system was free or when it was very low cost. If you lived in California now, it is not low cost. And not only does that change how educated your population is, it also changes like considerations of how people go to school, the type of debt that they have to take on to go to school, the quality of the education that they are getting. Don't get me wrong, the cows.

[Host/Moderator]

And if the return on investment is there, right. I mean now you go spend all this money, you're not guaranteed to get it back.

[Van]

So all of that stuff becomes a deal. And that has a different sort of cultural tinge to it where it was just a bunch of people after a certain time that went, you know what? I shouldn't have to pay for your fucking education. Like, what does it do for me that you are smart? Like. And they can't see what community actually means and how having an educated neighbor or neighbors who don't. Like, they don't see like. Or people just exist without a whole bunch of debt like, like why that's also.

[Host/Moderator]

You can wield power amongst a dumber electorate. You know what I mean?

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Van]

So all of this stuff is a consideration but to the. Some of the problems that exist in higher education to me are directly related to just how for profit it's become in a long time and the fact that it's not a public good anymore.

[Host/Moderator]

There you go, last one. This is a more of a football fun story. Bryce Underwood behind the back. Touchdown pass. We got the video here. Freeze has it.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay, let's see.

[Host/Moderator]

You know, this is the time where we start leaking out videos and getting people excited. Look at this. Bryce rolling to his right.

[Joel Anderson]

Oh, that's a bad right there.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, that's. That looks good, right?

[Joel Anderson]

You think Kyle Whittingham liked that?

[Host/Moderator]

I think so. I think he's like, you know, I think that was that. That looks like a return on investment right there to keep it Michigan, man, what a great play.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I look forward. I hope that brother really shines this year, man. I'm looking forward to seeing his growth and development and becoming. I mean all the talent is there. Can I just real quick. Can you believe Kyle Whittingham? Is it Michigan? Because Utah couldn't wait to elevate Morgan Scally. And look, I just. Because our business is the way it is. Nobody ever talks about how crazy it is that Utah ran off one of the best coaches in school history to get a guy who was suspended because he found out. Been using racist slurs to describe black players he recruited from Texas. Like, that's the guy. Utah couldn't wait to get them all

[Host/Moderator]

saying he was going to retire.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, they ran him off. Yeah. Kyle Whittingham thought he was retired. Hey, Utah. I was like, we got to get rid of that man because we got to keep Morgan Scally in here. I just feel like that's crazy. And I wish more people would talk about it, because I'm like, what is? I mean, again, I know Scally. He's a. He's a Utah alum. He played there all. You know, evidently he has a good football mind. He's been coaching, waiting for a number of years, but I just can't believe.

[Van]

Young guy.

[Joel Anderson]

Young guy. I can't believe y' all gave Bryce Underwood. Kyle Whittingham, because y' all had to have him. That guy is your head coach. Just crazy.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. I mean, it kind of worked out perfectly for Whittingham, though, now that he walks into one of the best jobs in the country and one of the best quarterbacks in the country. So worked out in the end a little.

[Van]

I think Wyeham's gonna do wonders. I think the. The system is going to do wonders for Bryce Underwood.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Van]

Bryce Underwood's development next year is going to be one of the main stories to follow in college football.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, I'm right there with you. Just won the basketball national championship. Might be in a conversation. Get to the playoff and football. We'll see what happens. Billy, are you there? Let's bring on Billy. This is Billy's last call. This is a special segment that we have here. Let's raise the roof.

[Joel Anderson]

All right.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

Hurry up. My wife is. My wife. My wife is telling me. I got a few minutes. I gotta go get my girl.

[Bill Bellamy]

So, I mean, you spent an hour

[Joel Anderson]

that was there, so I'm not. I didn't debate. I don't believe in capitalism either. I'm on the same side.

[Producer/Assistant]

I have. I have an update here if you guys would want one. Last week, we sent. We sent the Gators out, and we had a task for the Gators because we. We haven't officially announced it, but, like, we're trying to do a 227 homecoming for Joel here.

[Host/Moderator]

You know what's right.

[Van]

And I was thinking, who?

[Producer/Assistant]

And I was thinking, what better week for 227?

[Joel Anderson]

I wish you a happy birthday. I wish you a happy birthday, man.

[Producer/Assistant]

Yeah, I'm just. There's a thread. We just got to connect the dots from episode to episode. We asked the Gators to help us with something. We got to make sure.

[Host/Moderator]

We got to follow up.

[Producer/Assistant]

Exactly. Reward them. So I'm thinking this hasn't been approved by anyone, but I'm thinking Maybe we do two to seven homecoming for TCU's actual homecoming week, October 24th. What are you guys thinking?

[Van]

I can't wait. Now I want. I can't wait. We got to do a tussle. We got to do a tussle off.

[Producer/Assistant]

Well, I'm glad that you brought that up, Van, because part of the problem is, in order to have a 2 to 7 homecoming, we need to figure out where 2 to 7 was. So we asked the Gators out there to help us figure out what dorm 227 was in.

[Joel Anderson]

You asked what the. What happened?

[Van]

We. We.

[Producer/Assistant]

We asked this on. On last week on the episode. We said we got to find out.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Producer/Assistant]

Joe, you were here.

[Joel Anderson]

I thought y' all made a personal request. No. No.

[Producer/Assistant]

And Joel. Joel does not want to be helpful because I had a gator reach out to me and say, I think I know which dorm 227 was in. I think that it was in Moncrief Hall. And I put that out there in the group text. And Joel said, that is not the dorm that 227 was in. Correct, Joel? That's not where it is.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah.

[Producer/Assistant]

Okay, so then we're then having to start from square one because we thought that we figured out which dorm room it was in. And then he's telling us that's not the building. So I say, well, there has to be a way to verify where this is. Do I reach out to Bo? Do I reach out to Stanger? Do I reach out to Fat Count?

[Host/Moderator]

Like, Fat Count could help.

[Producer/Assistant]

Who do I talk to? Black Superman? Like, how do I figure out where it is that 227 was? And fortunately. Fortunately, I was able to track down someone that could help us identify where 227 is. So freeze if you can, please. Roll the video where we have confirmed where227 is.

[Joel Anderson]

I had motherfuckers wanting to come to my dorm room, wanting to challenge me, because they'd be surprised. They'd be like, God damn. Damn. Joe got that on his back like that. I had beat a couple dudes Wrestling dog. Just like, just, you know, kind of getting them up, you know, hemming them up or whatever. And it was just like, I wasn't a top recruiter anything, so it was kind of embarrassing to a couple of dudes, you know what I mean? And so they're coming back for seconds one night. I swear to God. I'm in. In. I'm in Moncrief hall, room 227. And I'm in Moncrief hall, room 227.

[Host/Moderator]

So the fact that you were the source is probably the best part of this.

[Joel Anderson]

Well, you know what? I. You know what? Obviously y' all didn't know until y' all had to go look it up. That's fine. I was. I was never going to help you, and I'm not going to help you now.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, we don't need any help. We figured it out.

[Producer/Assistant]

Yeah, I mean, I reached out to Platt. Platt told me where it was at 227. I'm just wondering now, as a journalist, why. Why you're lying when you're asked questions.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm under no obligation to tell you the truth.

[Van]

Why are you so against this, Joe?

[Joel Anderson]

Because I don't want. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Because, yeah, I feel like it's over. I feel like, you know, it's. It's kind. I'm trying to think if there was something that happened. And at first it's like, you know what? I don't mind that. And then after a while, it's kind of like, you know what? I don't like it when that happens. And so I don't want. I don't want any more information out there about 227. But, I mean, you know, you could do whatever you want. Again, I'm not trying to stop you. You know what I'm saying? We want to honor you.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Joel Anderson]

We want to go back there out of here, Y' all honor me.

[Host/Moderator]

It's an easy flight to Dallas. We drive over to Fort Worth, we

[Producer/Assistant]

put up a plaque or something. You know, tussle territory, something like that.

[Host/Moderator]

I think we should do the pod in 227. Like, I think we should go there, knock on the door.

[Van]

Yeah, bro.

[Host/Moderator]

Maybe Joel tussles with the people that are living.

[Joel Anderson]

We'll talk about this on the text, and I know it'll be a one way conversation. Okay, let's try.

[Producer/Assistant]

Well, you lied on the other text. Honestly, a little hurt by the fact that we're trying to do. I don't know if there's any. TCTA is a TCU listening that can get us access or maybe connect us, maybe a listener

[Joel Anderson]

level. I hope you would do your best to protect me, you know? And don't. And don't. And don't. And don't respond to. You're just nonsense.

[Producer/Assistant]

You're being modest. You just don't want the honor, I think.

[Van]

Did you know a little history about Moncrief Hall?

[Joel Anderson]

I don't want to know.

[Host/Moderator]

Oh, no.

[Joel Anderson]

Hey, look, my daughter, man. I got to go get her. Better or worse than get to a playground.

[Van]

Oh, it's better. It's. It's better. Moncrief hall was built in 1988, and according to TCU Resident Life, that is the same year that never gonna give you up by Rick Astley hit number one on the charts. Okay, What a fantastic fact right there about tcu.

[Host/Moderator]

Just get Rick rolled.

[Van]

Yeah, Rick roll.

[Bill Bellamy]

It's true.

[Van]

It's true. It's like Moncry Paul, man.

[Host/Moderator]

It sounds like a move when you're tussling.

[Joel Anderson]

Hey, man.

[Van]

Rick roll. Fat Count. Roll. Rick rolled the. Out of you. Shout out to my fat count. That's a real name right there.

[Host/Moderator]

I think if we go to TCU and we do a podcast in 227, that might be the biggest show we do.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, no, let's go to Dublin. I'll go to that also. Let's go. I'm done. We've got. This has got. The show's going on long enough.

[Host/Moderator]

Joel, the fact that you outed the. The whole situation.

[Joel Anderson]

I didn't out out. I just said that I wasn't gonna help. I wasn't gonna help Billy with this, and I'm not going to now.

[Host/Moderator]

You did help Billy.

[Bill Bellamy]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

The video.

[Van]

Yeah, yeah. You did it.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Van]

It's like you, Joe, you did it, bro.

[Joel Anderson]

Okay.

[Host/Moderator]

It was.

[Joel Anderson]

It was.

[Host/Moderator]

Joel.

[Joel Anderson]

You all clearly talked about this on another text thread that I wasn't involved in.

[Van]

No, we didn't, bro.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, you did.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, you did, Doc. You said we got something special. This is Billy's call. This when you all are not responding to me on our main thread that we're supposed to be discussing the show y' all are coming up with like this.

[Host/Moderator]

Moncrief Hall 227, maybe a live podcast.

[Joel Anderson]

All right, T, let's go. I need to go see my. I got to go get Lonnie.

[Host/Moderator]

All right, so you gotta raise it for Moncrief Hall.

[Van]

Yeah, gotta raise it for Monc Hall.

[Joel Anderson]

I'm not gonna Raise

[Van]

Joel.

[Joel Anderson]

Joel. I only stayed in Monc for one semester, right? Maybe two.

[Van]

Two.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, one semester. So.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Van]

Think about how many tussles, bro. Think about how many tussles happened there.

[Joel Anderson]

No. Hey, I gotta go get my dog. Yeah, I care about my dog. She just turned 19 months the other day.

[Van]

Oh, very special.

[Joel Anderson]

Shout out, Lonnie.

[Producer/Assistant]

I love that. But that's 19 months isn't something we celebrate.

[Van]

Oh, no, this is a year and a half.

[Producer/Assistant]

19 months is a year and seven months. WHO celebrates that?

[Host/Moderator]

No, you do. Every month.

[Joel Anderson]

Every month until they turn two.

[Producer/Assistant]

But you had. You had an actual birthday for yourself, son, this week, and you're celebrating 19.

[Joel Anderson]

And I'm. And I mentioned Desmond every happy birthday.

[Host/Moderator]

Desmond.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, I will do that. Yeah. Yeah, I do. I mentioned Desmond on the show last week. Lonnie was Lonnie's birth. You know, we mark it on the 14th of every month, so let me go get her.

[Producer/Assistant]

Is it on the 14th or you just mark it that day?

[Joel Anderson]

Which it is on the 14th. Are y' all ready? What's happening?

[Host/Moderator]

I thought that was a nice way to wrap it up. We got a my solved here. Shout out to the tailgaters and shout out to Joel for giving us the information. We appreciate him. Shout out to Bill Bellamy for coming on the show. Great times. Appreciate everybody out there for watching the show. And we will see you all next week. Must be 21 or older in president. Select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino are 18 and older and President D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 1-887-897-777 or visit ccpg.orgchatinconnecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org In Maryland, hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE&Y or text HOPE&WHY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-7707.