Are the Ravens Actually Chokers? NFL Week 1 With Mike Sando. Plus, Oklahoma Is Relevant Again and More From Week 2 of College Football.

Summary

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The Ryen Russillo Podcast – Episode Summary

"Are the Ravens Actually Chokers? NFL Week 1 With Mike Sando. Plus, Oklahoma Is Relevant Again and More From Week 2 of College Football."

Date: September 8, 2025
Host: Ryen Russillo (The Ringer)
Guest: Mike Sando

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Episode Overview

This episode kicks off with a sweeping recap of NFL Week 1, highlighted by Buffalo's historic comeback win over Baltimore and what it means for the Ravens’ growing reputation as a team that can’t close. Ryen Russillo dives deep with NFL insider Mike Sando, covering not just the Ravens’ psyche but also major power rankings, Green Bay’s dominant win, coaching hot seats, the enigmatic Miami Dolphins, and big-picture observations across the league. The second hour features rapid-fire coverage of college football’s second week, with Oklahoma’s vintage return to relevance, the rise of new quarterback stars, and evolving narratives among heavyweights. The show closes with life advice and a lighter movie/TV sidebar.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ravens-Bills: History, Collapse, and Narrative

• Buffalo Completes an All-Time Rally

  • The Bills erased a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit (down 40–25 with under 10 minutes left), marking one of the biggest comebacks in recent NFL history ([02:30]).
  • Teams in similar situations (up 15, under 10 minutes to go) were previously 53–0 since 2000.
  • “Good luck having a better win than what Buffalo pulled off. Good luck having a better win all season because that was just absolutely historic.” — Russillo ([02:00]).

• Baltimore’s Reputation for Blown Leads

  • The Ravens have now lost 8 games since 2021 with a win probability of 90%+, far and away the NFL's worst per Ben Solak ([20:16]).
  • Russillo and Sando agree: Baltimore frequently gets big leads because they're good—but have a unique problem closing.
    • Sando: “In fairness to them, they’ve lost…six games since 2022 where they led by two scores, you know, nine to sixteen points in the fourth quarter. And it’s by far more than any other team… There’s something there with them.” ([27:21])
  • Is it John Harbaugh's ‘model organization’ cursed by mental baggage, or just bad luck? Sando leans towards some emotional carryover.

• Does Last Night’s Loss Foreshadow a Season Spiral?

  • Russillo: “Even with their playoff disappointments…I still think this group…should be seasoned enough to get through it, and they should be pissed by it, not disappointed.” ([16:00])

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2. Green Bay Packers: Statement Win & Executive Buzz

• Packers dominated Detroit 27–13; Love was sharp and the receiver room deep ([24:00]).

  • Jordan Love’s QBR: 92; “The opening TD throw to Kraft was just beautiful.” ([24:00])

• Sando reveals Green Bay now sits #2 in the NFC per a panel of league execs (behind Philly):

  • “They may end up having the best receivers in the league… if Jordan Love…is a little bit of the uncertain link, you know, that’s pretty good.” ([34:49])

• Detroit’s HC/OC issues cost them an executive’s vote, putting the Lions as low as 11th among NFC teams in one ballot:

  • Russillo: “11 is ridiculous. I’m sorry. No, dude. That’s too talented of a roster.” ([38:42])

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3. NFL Power Rankings, Hot Seats, and Early Trends

• Miami Dolphins Collapse
  • Down 30–0 to the Colts at one point; now coach Mike McDaniel is betting-favorite to be first fired.
  • Sando: “I have felt like a little bit of a lack of institutional control there. Right, haven’t you?” ([42:26])
• Coaching Hot Seats
  • McDaniel (+200), Dable and Steichen viewed as vulnerable.
• Early Quarterback Drama
  • Justin Fields has (statistically) his best career start for the Jets—a potential “rare fifth-year success story” ([18:30]).
  • Aaron Rodgers leads a cathartic Steelers win in New York, raves about new special teams: “He would have lost that game as a Packer… in that game, I was really struck by, hey, they’re forcing a fumble and a return to get the ball back for him. They’re making 60- and 56-yard field goals. That’s a total Rodgers loss and they were able to win the game.” — Sando ([48:47])

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4. Other Notable NFL Storylines

• Red Zone Russell Wilson:

  • Giants’ red zone woes against Washington—lots of failed fourth-downs, negative plays, field goals instead of touchdowns ([17:00])
  • “The thing about Wilson is that… the longer he’s allowed to play and it looks like this, the worse it’s going to go for him.” — Russillo ([17:00])

• Denver’s Dominant Defense

  • Sando: “I’m giving Denver’s defense all the credit, and it’s going to be their best friend… defense raises you, gives you a high floor. It just does.” ([44:53])

• Chiefs: Is the Dynasty Fatigued?

  • Loss to Chargers raises questions about energy.
  • Sando: “I think they have struggled with this and it’s just human nature… can you really be as up for stuff?… Andy Reid knows his team and for him to say that after the first game of the year, hey, we just gotta bring more fire…” ([53:48])

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5. Caleb Williams, Bears, and QB Processing Panic

• New Bears QB’s Processing Is Under Microscope

  • Bears’ new coach Ben Johnson is “keeping pressure” on Williams instead of publicly building him up ([65:40]).
    • Sando: “There’s something there that’s a little bit unsettling to me. If I were a Bears fan… I want to see you kind of resolved.” ([64:14])
    • Russillo: “The people that didn’t like him didn’t like the nail polish… I never heard anybody knock his football ability… now it feels like it’s the actual football.” ([64:19])

• Monday Night Spotlight

  • The tension surrounding Williams’ high-profile Monday night debut: if he bombs, “it’s going to be a rough rough week in Chicago.” ([66:59])

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6. College Football Week 2: Oklahoma, Underwood, and More

• Oklahoma’s Defense Is Finally for Real

  • “This is what it’s supposed to look like in Norman… with Brett Venables as the head coach, this is what Oklahoma fans should expect.” — Russillo ([70:48])

• Michigan’s Bryce Underwood Debut

  • Poised but rough statistically; praise for physical tools, criticism for play-action mechanics ([70:48])
  • “The more frustrating thing if you’re a Michigan fan is, what the fuck are you guys doing on play action? Sorry to be so harsh about it, but I didn’t. The mechanics of the play action stuff with Underwood is terrible.” ([70:48])

• Other Standouts and Surprises

  • Illinois’ QB Luke Altmeyer: “Terrific… 75% completion rate, six touchdowns, zero picks, 10 yards per attempt. Great versus Duke.” ([82:00])
  • Mississippi State rallies against Arizona State in a dramatic comeback, knocking ASU out of the top 25.
  • Clemson struggles early but ekes out a recovery win over Troy, drawing questions about title-contender status ([82:00])
  • Bama, Oregon, USF also spotlighted for key wins and narratives.

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7. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Ravens Collapses:

  • Sando: “We’ve seen tremendous growth with Lamar Jackson…but it’s hard to ignore they’ve lost so many big leads… There can be some emotional baggage on it that can become its own thing to overcome.” ([27:21])

• Green Bay’s Rise:

  • Sando: “One of the guys I really respect…couldn’t really come up with a weakness on their roster. He said, ‘They may end up having the best receivers in the league.’” ([34:49])

• On Coaching Shifts:

  • Sando, re: Miami: “The problem for Mike McDaniel was… they were coming off Brian Flores and he was the hammer. So a lot of times you pivot, it was like that was, hey, that was tough… Just a totally different type of a person.” ([42:26])

• Caleb Williams Discourse:

  • Sando: “I would like to hear more of that [support] from the people around Caleb Williams on the Bears… There’s something there that’s a little bit unsettling to me.” ([64:14])

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8. Lighter Side: Movies, Life Advice, and Gym Etiquette

• Post-game, Russillo, Ceruti, and Morgan riff on actors worth seeing “sight unseen,” (Tom Hardy emerges as a consensus pick), streaming nostalgia, and oddballs at the gym.
• Life Advice segment explores gym etiquette (don’t hoard equipment!), the reality of joining fraternities (“Don’t just join something because it’s the only one interested…”), and more slice-of-life dilemmas.
  • Russillo: “If somebody’s taking up six pieces of equipment, she’s not going to stop until somebody says something.” ([95:50])
  • On joining a frat: “I wouldn’t just join something because it’s the only one that’s interested in you… It sped up the process a little bit on the social part of it.” ([105:10])

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Ravens-Bills discussion, blown leads: [00:10]–[20:20]
• Packers-Dominant win/NFC power ranking: [24:00]–[39:00]
• Jets-Steelers/Aaron Rodgers narrative: [18:30], [48:47]
• Dolphins coaching hot seat: [19:14], [42:01]–[43:49]
• Denver's defense: [44:53]–[47:46]
• Chiefs’ malaise/energy discussion: [53:12]–[58:15]
• Caleb Williams debate: [62:02]–[68:31]
• College football rapid-fire (Oklahoma, Michigan, others): [70:48]–[84:47]
• Life Advice and light banter: [84:47]–End

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Tone & Style

Ryen maintains his sharp, candid, conversational style—mixing stats, insider info, and wry humor. Sando is measured and analytical, offering league context and executive perspectives. The banter is lively, especially during lighter segments. NFL and CFB analysis is data-driven but unpretentious.

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Bottom Line

This episode is a must-listen for fans seeking informed, high-level NFL and college football analysis, leavened with humor and everyday relatability. The main themes: Don’t overreact to Week 1, but don’t ignore patterns (Baltimore! Miami!); keep an eye on power shifts (Green Bay! Denver!), and the future star QBs are about to face the fire. Plus—never let someone hog six kettlebells at the gym.

Transcript

[Mike Sando]

Foreign.

[Ryan Rosillo]

A ton of football for you. We got it for over two hours. Here's the deal. Baltimore lost that game. You probably know by now all time comeback by Buffalo might be the best game in the entire city. I don't know if we're going to be able to top that as far as the stakes, the teams that are involved and is there anything to Baltimore's trend of some of these late blown leads. We'll ask Mike Sando that. We'll ask him about the impressive pass Packers. Also the feedback that he got from NFC and AFC executives on power ranking the teams in both conferences one one guy had Detroit 11th so we're gonna have to talk about that. Even though the packers are dominant, all sorts of stuff from all over the NFL including a look ahead to Caleb Williams not debut but debut in year two, the new coaching staff and the debut with JJ McCarthy and the Chiefs kind of lost in the schedule a bit. Anything alarming about their loss against the Chargers? So a lot with Sandow. I'm going to do a bunch of stuff off of Week 1 in the NFL, more on Baltimore and Buffalo, and then I'm going to rip through a Saturday of college football results and life advice. This is the Ryan Rosillo podcast presented by FanDuel and the NFL is officially back. So if you're going to be in it, be in it with FanDuel. They've got the goods. Futures, live betting, SGPs, that same game parlays your way, bets, all of it. The app's clean, it's fast, and yeah, when you win you get paid instantly, which is nice because Sunday patience doesn't exist. So get your bets in, build something bold and make every game feel bigger. Download the FanDuel app or head to FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N to get started. The ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 plus and President in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 100 Gambler, visit rg-help.com call 887-89-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut paid endorsement all timer last night with Buffalo's comeback win against Baltimore. So I'll run through a bunch of stuff from Week one. Really excited about the Bears. We'll see. I'd like to do Best win, worst loss every week. Good luck having a better win than what Buffalo pulled off. Good luck having a better win all season because that was just absolutely historic. So look, it was the packers all day until we saw what happened last night. So Baltimore felt unstoppable. Let's talk at least a little bit about how good they looked. And Collinsworth just gushing, which he should have been. Cause at one point he's like, I don't know what you do, I don't know what you do with this Ravens offense. Henry had a 30 yard touchdown run where as soon as he gets the handoff, when any kind of momentum, you're like, what's going to happen here? It's like your safety's not even going to touch him and get thrown to the ground. So they go up 10, 7 on that one. He has a 49 yard run. That set up the Lamar 10 yard touchdown run. Henry, I think, should lead the league in this new statistic called yards before decision. Because the defensive back Strong was running side to side with Henry for about 20 yards before he finally figured out how to tackle him. So actually credit to Strong for even making the tackle. But if you look at, you know, when he's getting close to him and running with him, it goes on with what feels like forever until he's like, how am I going to get this guy? After he just saw, I think it was Bishop get thrown to the ground on a previous touchdown run. So Lamar runs it in for 10 yards completely untouched. Because now you're completely freaked out about Henry. The Bills went to a too deep safety look to try to stop the run because they felt like, oh, maybe if we have a second guy coming into this and getting any kind of angle on Henry, Henry, also at this age 31, at this size, we understand like getting to what, 21 miles per hour when he had that huge run in the second half as well. So it's just, it feels like when Baltimore's rolling like this, it's. It's just the worst for the defense. So we're looking at what the Bills are going to do, which credit to the Bills for getting three points out of the end of that first half, which ended up being huge later on. This episode is brought to you by wayfair. Your home is more than a space. It's where you express yourself like, we've all got our own game day set up, right? Mine is an investment. Mine is my office. When I moved in my home, it was furnished. I was like, this couch does not work for me. This couch is going to be one of my closest Friends, I spent a lot of time on this couch. 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I ordered it, it showed up, I installed it, my wife were here, she would have thought I was her hero. Get inspired with room ideas and curated collections, all with everyday ways to save. Shop everything [e-mail] with free and easy delivery straight to your door. That's Wayfair. W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com Wayfair Every style, every home. But you're looking at seeing what kind of adjustments you're going to get from Buffalo. And it was pretty apparent that they were going to try to sell out, to do whatever they could to just clog up everything around the line of scrimmage. And with that, then it just means Zay Flowers is wide open all over the place. So. And despite the comeback here for the Bills, I think all of us should maybe again, we're talking about the Bills as a Super bowl winning team, right? So we're going to hold them to a higher standard with the changeover. Some of the pieces on the defense, the secondary, I don't think necessarily had this great night, but it's the constant fear factor of whatever mesh point decision you're making against Lamar and Derrick Henry and then realizing that Zay Flowers, one on one, is just going to be open the entire time and sometimes they just completely lost him. So I am a little worried. Other than Bedford. I, I am worried about this bill's secondary. However, having said all of that, it's 40, 25. I don't know what you're doing. Apparently Some Bills fans were leaving. Bills fans like, come on, you're the Buffalo Bills. What else are you going to do? So Buffalo is down 40, 25. Baltimore has the ball at 9:18 left of the fourth quarter. Teams are 53 and 0 since 2000, up 15 points with eight to 10 minutes left in the game. Baltimore goes three and out. A touchdown and 3:20 from Buffalo. You have the Henry fumble. Another touchdown from Buffalo in just a minute. Eight a three and out. Some people debating the fourth and three decision to punt, but it's 1:33 left and granted at this point you kind of feel like both defenses are spent even though they're stopping Baltimore here, which is something you just didn't even think was going to be possible from everything that happened earlier in the game, from them getting to 40 points. But I don't know man, 4th and 3, your own 38. If you don't get it, then it just feels like you're giving them the field goal where I still think there's a devaluing of backing up a team and seeing them have to execute multiple times. But again, some of these games the guys are so tired at the end of it, it just ends up being a free for all. So sometimes I don't even know that you can necessarily judge and go, okay, well now what's wrong with Baltimore's defense and everything? It's like, well they were just out there for a ton. But granted, you know the same thing was happening at Buffalo and they were able to shore it up. So I still think that you punt there because if you don't convert on 4th and 3 and there's a minute 33 left, like you're not asking Buffalo to do anything. However, Buffalo does everything they need, including Coleman who looked like he was going to run him for a game winning touchdown, which I would have been fine with. But you realize this actually may be better because now they're going to be able to run clock. They run clock. We had the two point conversion thing that ended up getting messed up for Buffalo because the receiver was out of bounds when he came in. They kicked the game winning field goal with a guy that was working at a high school field earlier this week. So Alan, you knew as you were watching the game you're like the only way this is even going to happen here for Buffalo because Baltimore felt like the superior team throughout much of the night, which I still think it is important thing like after these losses, after a win be like who actually felt like they were the better team. I granted I know, no one's keeping track in the standings of who felt better as opposed to wins and losses. But I still think it's. It's an important exercise when you're watching these games. So you knew Alan was going to have to put on the cape. He does. So I don't think the MVP debate carryover now is like C. I mean, Baltimore scored 40 points. At no point did I feel like, yeah, Lamar's a little limited with only 14 completions because I just don't think he needed to throw the ball a ton because of how they were dictating the line of scrimmage. Baltimore finished with eight yards per carry. No. Henry fumbled. This is not the same headline. And that's it because I know that there's. And we'll get into this with Sando a little bit. This, this number. I also have it too, from Ben Solak who tweeted out just the number of times. Now Baltimore's lost some of these games and it's becoming like a Harbaugh issue. Yeah, sometimes, I mean, but last year the receiver was out of bounds against Kansas City. Henry fumbles. If Henry doesn't fumble, like that's on Henry, as great as he was last night and looks like he's primed for another great season, you just can't fumble in that spot. And Buffalo needed something special, some kind of momentum turnover play to even get back into this game, and they got it. So if you're Baltimore this week because it's a seasoned group and yes, coming up short in the playoffs all the time in this tendency to blow some of these games, I still think what you do is you look at last. I mean, I know this sounds hard, but you look at last night as a positive, like this is what we can do against one of the best teams in the NFL at their place. And it sucks what happened at the end. And it's a horribly. I mean, this is one of the all time games that we're this lucky to get this on Sunday night to start the season. But you should be motivated about what you're capable of and you also should be motivated to be completely pissed off that you gave this game away. So that's it. I mean, it's a tough first half schedule for Baltimore, much like last year. They'll get Cleveland, but then it's Detroit, Kansas City, Houston, the Rams, the four after the Cleveland game. Remember, they were 2 and 2 last year. They did get it to 7 and 3. And there was talk, you know, about Kyle Hamilton and moving to safety and then that changed the defense around it. It also changed the defense around that they played a much easier group of quarterbacks the second half of the season. So we'll see where they're at standings wise. Because if they don't get off to a great start, it might have more to do with the schedule than some sort of mental hangover. You would think this group has been around enough now, even with their playoff disappointments, to not have some sort of mental hangover blowing that game. As devastating as it was, this group should be still seasoned enough to get through it, and they should be pissed by it, not disappointed. Well, I guess they should be disappointed, but you get the point. All right, Green Bay, they needed this one big time. 27:13. They're up 24:6 on Detroit. Total domination throughout this game. Late score there from Detroit, whatever. They've been 1 and 6 in their last seven against the Lions. Love finishes with a QBR at 92. He had 10 different players with a reception. The opening TD throw to the tight end craft was just beautiful. It's that linebacker throw where the linebacker has. These quarterbacks know this. The linebacker, when he is turned chasing a tight end on that throw, the linebacker almost never has a chance of making the play. So it's over the linebacker who's like kind of blind to the whole throw. He's watching the hands of the receiver and then inside of the safety coming over. Just an absolutely gorgeous throw from Love, who last year did not build on the momentum that we had off of 23, whether it was health or whatever. But I think it was fair. As excited as we were about this packers roster to go, like, is there a chance? Because we've already talked about this kind of stuff. I think at least for an afternoon, it was great. This wide receiver group I've mentioned before, Dobbs felt like the primary guy, even though I think Reed ended up with more targets. Then you got Wicks, then you got Watson, and of course Matthew golden was the first round pick. So Watson, who's out, I think with the ACL injury till mid season, I don't know, he's on the PUP list right now. But you figure if they have that entire group healthy, even if I've at times thought it's Reed going to be nasty, is Watson going to be the one that's really nasty? Is Dobbs actually the best of this entire group? It's. It feels like it's a group where you're expecting one to really stand out. I know that at least I have at different Times with all of them. But maybe the point is that this doesn't really matter because with Kraft and those four guys, if Watson comes back this year and has any kind of impact, it's a pretty nasty group of receivers. The old line held up great against a healthy front from Detroit. I love Detroit's roster. I still love their roster. You even with this kind of game. But this defense for Green Bay, whether it's Gary who now gets Parsons on the other side, Van Ness making plays. Wyatt defensive tackle my guy Edan Cooper leading the team with 12 tackles. They held Detroit to 46 yards on the ground, 2 yards per carry. And even when there was a completion, it felt like two or three packers were there to clean it up for really nothing after the catch other than that one LaPorta play. There was a pretty big yard after the catch number on that one. So dominant from them. They needed it maybe more than anybody. That's at least considered a Super bowl contender considering the history against Detroit. Not worried about Detroit. Yeah, the coordinators. The interior of the offensive line was definitely a mess, but I still think it's too talented of a roster. And it was kind of nice to be like, oh yeah, when this team is healthy, there's all of these guys even on defense that I really like. But again, that D line was neutralized quite a bit by the offensive line of the Packers. So the best early game, I think it's the Steelers win against the Jets. Rogers, four touchdowns, three touchdowns off of play action, his most play action touchdowns in a game since 2016. And they come back and pull out the win in New York, which I'm sure meant a ton to Rogers. He again found a way to have kind of like a weird quote after it. But I'm sure it felt really good for him because none of these guys that are that special ever think and this is kind of what part of what makes him special. They never think that any of this stuff ever could have been on them. And his exit was nasty. So I'm sure for an afternoon he felt great about himself. The Steelers defense, I don't know, I mean it fell off in the second half of last year. This just defense that I want to get to here is one of the more interesting groups because of so many. The dudes that I like again, another group where I like their personnel. But the numbers didn't show up at least for a day yesterday. But Fields is kind of the story here, even in the loss. It's his 45th career start yesterday. We use and we Use it with Sando all the time. The expected points, added numbers for offense. This is Field's best EPA in a game of any of his 45 career starts. So some really nice stuff on third down, you know, being the threat to run. Not every third down work for him on some of the keepers, but you give him the rushing output that you're going to get. Like most quarterbacks are going to look pretty good. And then you on on top of that, the physical gifts that made him a first round pick in the first place and why so many Fields defenders still exist today. I did think it was kind of interesting. Like do Bears fans or Steelers fans? Would they be more disappointed if Fields turned into something because the Steelers were off of him quick, which I don't know that was that big of a mistake. But the Steelers issues in the second half of the season last year really I thought had more to do with their defense. But Fields was terrific at least for a day. So we'll see. But again, 182 yards on the ground from the jets. For a team last year that had the second lowest rushing yards per game of any team in the NFL. Vegas was the only team that was worse than them. And again this jets personnel on defense though, what the fuck is or who the fuck is that guy? Edgering Cooper award probably will McDonald, the first round pick out of Iowa State. Edge third year now he was fantastic. Just chaotic all day long. But this Jets D think about this last year. Third in yards allowed per game. So third best team when it comes to that. 20th in points per game allowed. That's hard to do. A lot of it has to do with penalties from last year. They put up the graphic during the game how many penalties they had had, how bad it was or at least penalty yards. I think it was the more damning number for them. Worst team when it came to missed tackles. But there's still a lot of guys in the front. And then of course sauce as well. But the field story, you know, I don't know. I'm certainly not here to make any definitive statement on a guy that I haven't had a ton of faith in. But could he possibly be the rare fifth year success story? Staying in New York with the quarterbacks, I thought watching Wilson struggle yesterday against the Commanders, I was like, I think he's going to be the first quarterback benched this season because of play. I thought it was insightful early in the game. By the time the game was over and you saw the media rounds, it's not insightful because it feels like it's going to happen. Jamis inactive yesterday. Was wondering. But look, it was week one for me too. A little behind on the deactivated players list. I don't think it makes a ton of sense to put dart in there this soon. The Giants defense actually again, another group I like, a lot of the names held up pretty well, but the offense couldn't do anything. Let's talk about red zone Russell Wilson because this is a carryover. If you looked at the play calling with the Steelers last year, how much they didn't trust him because they just didn't feel like he could rip the ball, didn't feel like he could get out and, and get anything going with his legs. Let's run through these red zone possessions here for the Giants yesterday against Washington. So the first one pass minus two yards incomplete. Third down, he tries to run it, he gets cracked, fumbles, is able to recover his own fumble. They're going for it. On fourth down, it's an incomplete. They get a penalty, then scatter Boo runs for a negative yard after an incompletion. Third and goal, incompletion. They kick the field goal. The next red zone possession, which was set up on a fourth and two at the Washington 33 where Wilson threw a pick but it was roughing the passer. They start over at the Washington 18. First and ten. Wilson a one yard touchdown run. The second down, he hits a 14 yard pass. So here we go, first and goal at the three giants football. Incompletion. Incompletion. Incompletion. Incompletion. The thing about Wilson is that, well, obviously it looks like it might be over, but the longer he's allowed to play and it looks like this, the worse it's going to go for him. Which in New York, in a major market, which is really important to him. Like a lot of this stuff, which we've already covered now for years. I mean, I've been talking about this for a long time is he had a quote yesterday was like. And again mid quote, you can tell he doesn't really know where he's going to land the plane, but he's just making sure he's checking all the boxes and saying all the right things. But in his effort to do that it just feels so like. I don't know if disingenuous is the right word. But again, we've, we've covered all of this stuff with the Wilson quotes. But if he's in New York in that media market every single week doing the Same thing after bad performances.

[Mike Sando]

It.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It might be better for him in the brand focus to just move on to somebody else because that market is going to lose their minds if that's the kind of post game stuff they're getting after those kinds of games. Worst loss, Miami. I mean, does it get worse than being down 30 to zero to the Colts and having Daniel Jones score in every single possession? I guess something Manning and Luck never did in a game. Early healthy Miami. You're like, all right, we'll figure it out too. We'll get that. Start slinging it. That didn't work. It seems like a million years ago, but it was only two years ago. Miami was 5 and 1 with a week three win against Denver where they won 70 to 20 and all of us are kind of losing our minds being like, what is this team capable of? But it's a mess. And McDaniel now moves to the front of the list for the first. At least the betting odds for the first head coach to be fired at plus 200. Dable second. Steichen is third. But maybe you feel a little bit better about him after yesterday's win. Okay, some numbers for you every week.

[Kyle]

Do you know how easy this is for me?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Do you have any fucking idea how easy this is? This is a fucking joke. The Ravens have lost eight games since 2021 where they had a win probability of at least 90%, three more than anyone else. That's from our good friend Ben Solak. The Browns held Cincinnati to seven yards in the second half. It's the fewest yards in the second half for a winning team in 25 years. Speaking of win probabilities, I appreciate the Fox broadcast. When it was 10 7, Seattle against San Francisco. 1114 left in the third quarter. They threw up a win probability number 61% for the Seahawks. I was having fun with that game, but when I once I saw that, I was like, okay, now I'm in. Incredible comeback from Purdy without Kittle hitting the backup tight end for the game winning touchdown. Minnesota gets. Excuse me, Minnesota. Darnold now on Seattle gets it down. I'll be honest, I actually felt bit a little bad for Darnold on that fumble. Cam Ward, he had the second lowest QBR of any quarterback opening week, only better than Tua. He also had a lot of drops there. That guy's just out there rifling it. So against that Denver defense, Cam Ord, you know, look, first start, I thought that was a really tough spot for him. They kind of hung in there. So I guess you give them a little bit of credit. The overall numbers are not really great, but Denver's defense, once they were able to just send the pass rush and Ward was getting it out, but it was definitely a mess. And then he didn't even see the blitzer off his right side on that last throw. Travis Hunter, 39 snaps on offense for his Jags debut. Six snaps on defense. Dominant win for Jacksonville against Carolina, where Bryce Young very quickly ruin some of the momentum he had coming out of the 25 season. Okay, we're gonna rank stuff here. It's just a general observation. If you're dealing with something, you're in a bit of a controversy. What is the best way to post? What is the best way to just tweak through it? I was thinking about some examples recently and there's always, you go with the child. Here's my kid. I know everybody's pissed at me, here's my kid. After that. I think I've seen the move with a dog. After Jackson Hole, I thought about adopting a dog. Just be like, all right, but here's my dog. Everybody back off. Or you could just say huge third down here, which is guys that just live tweet games constantly and it's like third and eight late in the game. It's like, this is a big third down. It's like, no shit. So if you had to rank them, I think dog has. I think dogs in general have a higher approval rating than people. Not even sure that's debatable anymore. So it feels like dog one, child two. Huge third down three. The rhyme or solo podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Football fans, week one isn't over yet and FanDuel is the best place to keep celebrating because they're giving all customers a no sweat NFL bet on tonight's game. From the money line to player props to same game parlays, your no sweat bet can be used on any NFL wager type. And if it doesn't win, you get bonus bets back. Okay, Monday Night Football in Chicago. How about this line? Chicago at home plus one and a half against the Vikings. It's pretty clear it doesn't feel like anybody really knows what to do with setting a number on this one because, I mean, it's J.J. mcCarthy in his first career start. Granted, all the great things that Vikings did, a lot of personnel being there, but the fact that JJ's a 1 1/2 point favorite on the road in his first start ever probably tells you that, man, doesn't matter what the Bears did this off season. No one knows really what to expect. The total felt like a big lower scoring Sunday. So maybe under is to play 43 and a half. I'm going Bears plus one and a half. I'm going to keep my stupid Bears and Caleb Williams thoughts coming. Maybe week eight I'll give up. But here's the number I like the Most. Chicago Bears drive one player to catch a pass Cole commit plus 450. You know Ben Johnson this offense, Caleb feeling it out. How about a little, how about a little roll out to commit 5 yards down line from the line of scrimmage. Right? So that's what I like. I like that one better than any other thing that I looked there. So again Cole commit to catch a pass on the bears first drive plus 450. We gave out Chargers because we hated the line. Outright winner on Friday gave out Baylor plus the points outright winner against SMU and it should have been three straight wins until Lane Kiffin was up 10 and Kentucky kicked a field goal. So great. I guess Van Pelt was tweeting about being on the right side. Kentucky was not the right side in that game. I'm sorry Ole Miss was the better team. It's very fluky, very weird. Both teams lost their quarterbacks. All right, I got to get over that loss and move on and continue to read the ad because FanDuel is where you want to get it done. So this season make FanDuel your go to app for any snap. Just visit FanDuel.com Ryan R Y E N To kick off the NFL season with a no sweat bet every game day during week one. Play your game with FanDuel. An official sports betting partner of the NFL must be 21 and older. President select states 18 + and President D.C. kentucky, Wyoming opt in required refund issued non withdrawable bonus bets that require seven days after receipt. Max refund $5 unless otherwise specified. Restrictions apply including token expiration. See [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincenetic this episode is brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. NFL Sundays are back and you won't want to miss the action. NFL Sunday Ticket YouTube TV lets you carry every game every Sunday all in one place. And now get NFL Sunday Ticket month to month and cancel anytime. Head to YouTube.com rosillo and sign up now. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games. Base plan required. Renews every month during the 2025 regular season. Only your membership for the following month could be canceled anytime before your renewal date. Terms, restrictions and embargoes apply. Commercial use excluded. Mike Sando joins us to start our NFL coverage. We love having him on. He does the QB tiers. He also did something I thought was really interesting where he had eight executives power ranking, both the AFC and nfc. So we'll kind of get into that as we go through some of the results. But we have to start with what we had in Buffalo last night. All time comeback. Look, I think Baltimore's great as they prove for, you know, 57 minutes of that game there. But is there anything to the losses where they have more losses in these spots? Because that's being discussed a bit today, whether it's a style or Harbaugh thing. I mean, look, Henry doesn't fumble the football. We don't have this discussion here today. But is there anything to this that you think is a more than a just a random occurrence of luck here?

[Mike Sando]

Yeah, I think sometimes these things can become mental, you know. And what's interesting is Baltimore more than any team, if you went back five, 10 years and asked, hey, who's on top of the game management and all of this stuff, you'd say it's them, right? There's been stories written about their processes and everyone would say the Ravens are basically a model organization in everything they do, wouldn't you say? I mean, scouting, how they work, the comp pick system, all of these things. And then on top of that, we've seen, I think, tremendous growth with Lamar Jackson as the leader of the team and, and more than just an athletic quarterback, but, but a guy who really, I think since he signed the contract, gets it. Like, I mean, I, I feel better about the Ravens really now than I did a year ago, two years ago, three years ago. I do. But it's hard to ignore that they've lost so many big leads. And so to contextualize it, I look at, okay, number one, they have more big leads than other teams. Right? So you're going to lose more big leads. Carolina is not worried about blowing big leads, Right. They don't have to have a plan for blowing big leads. They're never up. So in fairness to them, they've lost, I believe, six games since 2022 where they led by two scores, you know, nine to 16 points in the fourth quarter. And it's by Far more than any other team. And so what I did is I looked at like, okay, well, who's the five or six other teams that have a similar number of big leads? And it's still Baltimore blowing the most. It's like six of them out of something like 28. And, you know, the Chiefs are like 24. No. In those games. Okay, for an example. And. And there's a couple other teams that have one, two, you know, one or two losses in those. So there's something there with them. And you wouldn't think it would be an issue because they're set up to milk the clock. Right? They're set up to melt the clock. So my concern for them, and I still have it a little bit with Buffalo, especially when they play Kansas City in the playoffs, is just being more on point throughout the whole game. Like, I felt like Baltimore and. And I think Buffalo last year in their playoff loss too, they were sloppy a little bit early in the game. Right. They just weren't buttoned up the whole way. And I think that's a work in progress for them a little bit. Just the details of everything. And I think Lamar's gotten better at that in terms of his game. It's not just him. It's just sort of the whole thing. And so I'm kind of waiting for that to, you know, resolve itself in some of these moments. But look at how last season began. They lose stepping out of bounds, and look how it ended. They dropped the key pass. Right. And you wouldn't necessarily fault Isaiah likely, for stepping out of bounds. He's trying to make a great play, you know, and Andrew's had a great career, but when they start to pile up, I do think there can be some emotional baggage on it that can become its own thing to overcome.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I like where you started it because when you think about, like, model organizations, this is the one. I mean, granted, yes, it'd be nice to have a Super bowl in there with this group, but they. They do already have one. And I think the Harbaugh stuff in those lean years and like the mid teens when I don't know if it was the hot seat, but maybe it was the warm seat and it was at least discussed. And maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong about any stuff, but it was like, Harbaugh's gonna get fired there. Like, could he. Could he be out? Because I think other franchises may have gone, hey, we're just stale. You know, we've had this. They had a, you know, a rough record stretch And I always felt like, well, if they like him, if the owner likes him, if they feel like he's doing the right job and he's the right guy, like, the other franchises would have just done something different to do something different, which, again, is an example of what I think most franchises aspire to, is this stability, right? Like, this whole Pittsburgh thing is really funny because it's like, oh, why can't we just do what they're doing? It's like, well, because none of you have the stones to keep a guy around for a fourth season when you think that it's not working out. And credit to the history that you've had in Pittsburgh, it's like, well, those three coaches, like, no one ever really needed to fire any of them. Wasn't. It wasn't like. So I. I know the record. I know the number. And you're right. Like, I think it's a good point. Or will this now be a team in the next big spot that starts waiting for the bad thing to happen? Which is the irony of ironies that it happens against a Buffalo franchise that has a fan base that expects the exact same thing. What I saw was a really impressive football team for most of the night that, you know, finds a way to blow a game that none of us expected. So I guess I just can't be that pissed at the Ravens today.

[Mike Sando]

They're going to be there. The Ravens are still going to be there in the end. You know, I think it's great for Buffalo. I mean, they've been on too many of the other ends of these, and I think it's very helpful for them to get some wins in it. You know, when you've. I mean, shoot, they were. They were running McDermott out of town not that long ago, you know, and they couldn't manage the end of a half or the end of a game. And shoot, for them, it's just. It's great. I think for all of us, it's awesome. And it's a great game. It's a great game. So it's week one. I don't think this is going to doom Baltimore, but it's just one of those things that, you know, you know, we're sort of keeping a tally on the side on here, and when you don't get over the top, that eventually can become your legacy.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I do wonder about the Jire Alexander acquisition, though, because I know based on his rep in the name, and it's like, oh, man, they got him. It's kind of the same as, like, Bosa on the other side. It's like, oh, the bill's added Bosa. It's like, well, we'll see. We'll see what it actually looks like and how healthy he can be. And Alexander had two specific plays, the PI and then getting beat on the other throw where you're like, all right, like, I know what the rep is. And Baltimore's thinking, okay, we already have these safeties in place. We've got Humphrey, like, we should be able to like add to this group. And, and he's been through it in the past. But if you had to pick, if they were playing in the playoffs tomorrow, like, who would you pick? Would you pick Baltimore again?

[Mike Sando]

I think I'd pick where for the game's being played. I think that's probably what I do. And I have felt like, I felt coming into the year that Baltimore probably had, you know, a little bit of a better roster and I, I might, you know, lean towards them. But when you take the other stuff into factor like Buffalo's schedule, you know, they could end up with. And they've won this game. Right. I mean, I feel like it may go through Buffalo in the end.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, that's what could have been decided is where this game is going to be played if these two teams play each other in the playoffs. I do want to ask you a chief's question a little bit later, but let's, let's go with Green Bay's win because it was dominant. I mean, the score, I don't think at the end of it, like, you know, when we get week seven, week eight or whatever, if, if we'll be. Because sometimes we do that with these NFL scores. We'll remember the game an entirely different way because it's like, ah, that wasn't that bad of a game. It's like, no, this is a bad game. This was an absolute ass kiss, ass kicking. You had a lot of people talking up the packers and I thought immediately it was like, oh, this is the recency bias acquisition of, of the Parsons trade. But you had a lot of NFC and AFC executives all over this packers team prior to that. Correct. So where did they rank as far as like, where the people that work in the league looked at them in comparison to the other NFC teams.

[Mike Sando]

They were second to Philly. I think everyone, you know, gives Philly it's due. You know, they won the super bowl and, and we'll see. So there were, I think six of the executives made Philly number one. The other two had Green Bay number one and There was Green Bay above Detroit. So I think it, you know, Detroit's losses on the coaching staff, probably it a little easier to push Green Bay up. But, you know, I was struck by, you know, one of the guys I really respect that I was talking to and just, he couldn't really come up with a weakness on their roster. And he said something like they may end up having the best receivers in the league, which, I mean, come on, right? You think it's Cincinnati, the high end guys, but just maybe as a group of guys, you know, that's been a little bit of a, a disappointing position for them a little bit in recent years. And so to think that that could be the case and he basically concluded and I had to find a weakness, you know, is it the quarterback? I think he'll be fine. But you know, that's pretty good. If Jordan love who people are really pretty high on is, is a little bit of the uncertain link. You know, I do think yesterday was huge for them. I, I think losing that game would have been tough mentally because, you know, then what's changed, right? Detroit took care of him. Detroit always beats him. I thought it was huge for them to get it and, and not just win, but it was easy, an easy win. They left points on the table. They could have scored even more. So that's the optimism on Green Bay was, be. Was before the Parsons acquisition. And what's interesting is in the league, it's not like everyone in the league is going, oh my gosh, great Parsons acquisition. There's still, you know, there's still people in the league who wonder if it's going to end up being the greatest thing for anyone involved other than, you know, probably the agent for Micah Parsons and the bank account for Micah Parsons, which are going to definitely win in this thing. But I didn't sense that people were riding the wave of Parsons. They, they saw it from both sides. Dallas and, and Green Bay thought it could have been handled better by the Cowboys but weren't like, oh my gosh, this is what puts them over the top. I think people like the addition, but just really like that team and roster too.

[Ryan Rosillo]

One of your voters on the NFC side had Detroit 11th.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah. Well, it's funny in the, in the.

[Ryan Rosillo]

NFC story in the nfc, nfc.

[Mike Sando]

It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And I talked to the guy yesterday. I was like, well, I mean, I guess you can take a victory lap after week one, you know, but I think in the NFC also, it feels to me like teams 4 through 13 are kind of you could probably throw them into a hat and not be super surprised. So Detroit is third, so they're a little bit above that. To me. To me, I would give Detroit more the benefit of the doubt. But, you know, I think you got to remember as great a job as Dan Campbell's done, and certainly the last few years, they've had great coordinators. I mean, when he went into the job, he hired Anthony Lynn as his coordinator and did a great job going to Ben Johnson, but they may have not gotten another Ben Johnson. So it was. There were some real questions before they had Ben Johnson. And you give Dan Campbell and the Lions credit for keeping him, developing him, identifying him, but I don't get the sense looking at it myself or talking to other people in the league that they think they found the next guy to run that offense. So, look, they're not going to play Green Bay every week. They may win next week by three touchdowns. They're still a very good team and roster, I think. But yeah, the 11 vote tells you that there's some people, maybe just one person, maybe I got the only person who, you know, question where they're at. And I do think that Dan Campbell had a right after they lost that playoff game at San Francisco. You know, he was really honest about that, may have been our best chance. And part of me believes that with this group.

[Ryan Rosillo]

11 is ridiculous. I'm sorry.

[Mike Sando]

It is, it is.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It's just we can get into the coordinators and everything, but this is too talent of a roster to have 10 other teams in the NFC ahead of them.

[Mike Sando]

Tampa says 23-33224. You know, that's where.

[Ryan Rosillo]

That's where it should be. Tampa, I think maybe some people would surprise. As high as three, but no lower than six. And as they were losing to Atlanta during the stretch yesterday, I thought, well, this is probably good for Tampa because they beat everybody else in the division. They always lose to Atlanta, and they've won the division all of these years. Tampa feels like. And granted, part of it's the missed kick by Atlanta there, but this team, it just feels like a max ceiling is lower than the other team. There's a ton of respect. People almost feel bad not talking them up more. But collectively, fair or not, they have. It's like they have a lesser salary cap for expectations and not money.

[Mike Sando]

So when I, when, when I did this poll, what I did from there was I looked at kind of the. I looked at, okay, what's the median vote for each team? And then where are the shelves right where are the. Are there sort of tiers within the nfc? And there were clearly Philly, Green Bay, Detroit were in the top three. Clearly Detroit's or Tampa's, kind of on an island as the fourth team. That's maybe a safer bet than any of the others. But we're not really seeing them go higher than that. Right. I think they're their own entity as sort of the respected next team that's probably not going to go to the super bowl, but also a high floor. They're probably going to win 10 games. Right. And then there's a group of three teams with the Rams, Washington and San Francisco that have all sort of, you know, been to a championship game recently. You wouldn't be shocked if they did it. But you have some questions about them, too. But, but they're definitely respected in the top half of the conference. And then you get into like Minnesota and Seattle is kind of the next tier where there are there people seem above Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago, but not in the same mix as the Rams, the commanders and 49ers. And that feels right to me. They've got new quarterbacks. I think they've got good coaches, but they've got some question marks, too. So I think there's definitely separation in there. And you mentioned Tampa. I think they're kind of on an island there without an elevator. That probably goes up much higher.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. Just less stories. And again, it may be unfair, but that just seems where everybody's been with them at least for a couple years here.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Did the person who voted Detroit 11th also have Miami 6th in the AFC?

[Mike Sando]

That's a good question. He had. I think this person was in it last year and I believe that he had Washington 6 in the NFC last year. I believe. Yeah, he called it. I mean, look, I love it when guys don't do just absolute chalk. You know, they're going to be wrong some, but. But they're going to get some stuff too. So let me see, you were asking if, if, if this person. What was your question again? If this. I got it in front of me.

[Ryan Rosillo]

If the Detroit voter who had them 11th had Miami sixth, which was their highest.

[Mike Sando]

No, he had Miami 10th. Someone else had Miami. Yeah, Miami was 10, 10, 9, 13, 11, 9, 6, 9. So 6 was the highest for them. Yeah, it looks like it's six. Maybe I left off the 1 16th. Must have been the vote for Miami after yesterday.

[Ryan Rosillo]

So I shared the odds that McDaniel would be now. I mean, he's, he's plus 200. I mean, it Feels a little nasty when you're talking about guys careers. But look, this is what we do in sports. It's. It's simple to point to the TUA part of the health. But what do you think happened? What do people say in the NFL about where this team has gone from where it was in the beginning of 23?

[Mike Sando]

So I think big picture coaching wise, it's easier to put the hammer down for early and then ease off later than it is to be Mr. Nice Guy early and then put the hammer down. The problem for Mike McDaniel was they were coming off Brian Flores and he was the hammer. So a lot of times you pivot, it was like that was, hey, that was tough. They thought he was too tough on TUA and was know was just a little too hard nosed. So you go with a guy in McDaniel who's you know, by all accounts nicer offensive side of the ball. Just a totally different type of a person. Obviously very quirky and it works for a while. But I think I have felt like a little bit of a lack of institutional control there. Right, haven't you just sort of felt like it's been out, out of his control at this point and there's not enough scheming you can do to, to make it all right. And they've also brought in, you know, Tyreek Hill is, is somebody probably best managed by an Andy Reid, right. Who's gonna a little bit more of, you know, skins on the wall. He's a little bit more iron fisted and guys will play for him. They will put, they will put aside stuff for him for the chance to win the super bowl, right. He can bring in somebody who. There's a little bit of a character concern here. You know what, we'll bring in Frank Clark and we'll win the super bowl. Right? And I don't think that Mike McDaniel is that type of coach. And I don't think that after coming in as a nice guy, you can tighten the reins as much later when you need to. I think it's just hard to do.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I want to talk to Denver. We knew their defense last year. It almost statistically was even better in 24 than where you would put them, right? And it's easy to look at the Denver playoff loss and go like what did you expect with O Nix in that game? So if anything, the 24 seasons, this massive, massive success, it was going to be a really tough spot for Cam Ord. They come in and over the course of a game 2.4 yards per play, which is the best of any opening weekend. Again, a lot of that stuff doesn't really matter because it's. It's schedule based. But once they had to, even though it was a game that probably a lot of us didn't expect, that was going to be even that competitive. Ward's first start in Denver, of all places. But that was as exciting as Baltimore's offense was. I'd even do a college thing. As exciting as Oregon's offense was. You're like, what the hell is this going to be on Saturday? I think that Denver defense, to close out that game even with the Ridley drops and Ward just slinging it out there, just total control, complete control of the situation, despite it being a closer game than I think any of us could have imagined.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah, I think they was ward 12 of 28. I mean, that's tough. And then I think I looked at, you know, all the week 1 starch by rookies over a certain amount of period, there was something like 38 of them, however long I was looking it up. And this was like the 37th worst, you know, by Cam Ward. And I'm giving Denver's defense all the credit, and it's going to be their best friend. It really is. I mean, it's just the defense raises you, gives you a high floor. It just does. It's just so easy to. When I remember, you know, 10 years ago doing a study before we kind of had epa and that type of stuff is mainstreamed, and it was like, I think I looked at when the opposing team, you know, doesn't score 17 or more points or something like that. Like, everybody wins 97%. Like Alex Smith has the same record as Tom Brady or whatever. Right. It was just. It's just an amazing equalizer for you. And it doesn't raise your ceiling always. You still got to be able to score and play offense, but, man, it means you're going to be a tough out and you're going to probably have a close to a winning record. The offensive side of the ball for Denver and just the overall temperament and I mean, the overall messaging from Sean Payton and just, you know, super bowl throwing the challenge flag all the time. Bo Nicks throwing caution to the wind. That was a little not complimentary to what their team is, I think, to me, and, and Sean Payton just is hilarious to me sometimes. Like, I felt like they got full of themselves this offseason a little bit, and then we're lucky they had that defense or we'd be talking about, can you Believe Denver lost to Tennessee after talking about the Super Bowl. Don't you feel that?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Totally. I mean, it was. It was wild and it was. Part of me was wondering. It's like, okay, well, maybe they thought in the game plan, like, Tennessee is just not going to have a chance against this defense. First NFL career start for Ward. It doesn't matter. He's the number one pick. So maybe we're going to show some of the stuff that we've been working on. I mean, they threw it, what, 45 times in this game or 40 times. They weren't very good on third down. I don't know. I just. I just think this defense is so filthy. Like, there's some certain numbers, too, like his tracking stuff. I think there was, like, one actual attempt towards him and he was following, you know, Ridley, who would be considered the number one for Tennessee in this offense. And just there's all these defensive numbers, Benito stuff. When you look at his pressure on, like, the 15 specific plays you would. Would focus in on. I don't. I. Maybe I'm guilty of it. Like, when I think of personnel and other groups defensively, I'm like, all right, you know, there's still a bunch of defenses I would like. I probably felt this way more in 24, and then Zach Allen, you know, coming onto the scene as well. But, yeah, they're good. It's just. It's just worth at least, like, I don't know how many weeks we'll be going in, but I wonder how many other defenses we're going to think is. Are better than Denver's. That's all.

[Mike Sando]

I'm totally with you. And then I think over the course of the year, Sean Payton will figure the offense will get figured out. I think they're better than that. So right now, yesterday, it was like that defense lets you, you know, go into the club and talk total smack. That's why Sean Payton was like, that's what that game was. On offense, like, you could just say whatever you want because your friend is. Could kick everybody's butt. You know, that's what it felt like. But. But I know Sean Payton's good. I know they got some weapons and I like what Bo Nix did last year. I think it. I think they'll get that side figured out. But the gap between those two was hilarious. Comical, almost.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, Nick's as I was pulling up the 40 attempts, he was sixth in the NFL in attempts last year, so it's just higher than you would have thought with Peyton first year. But he does Throw it a lot. So we'll see. But you're right, they have a massive get out of jail free card with that defense and so many of the guys that we like from them. What did you think is the most interesting thing from the Rogers Field showdown that we had in New York yesterday?

[Mike Sando]

Yeah, to me, Rogers, I think the fact that I wrote about this, like Rogers has been betrayed so many times by Green Bay's special teams. He would have lost that game as a Packer, they would have had something happen. So in that game I was really struck by, hey, they're forcing a fumble and a return to get the ball back for him on a short field. They're making 60 and 56 yard field goals. That's a total Rogers loss and they were able to win the game. So I think that was one. And then the second thing is he can really still make spectacular plays and throws. Just not sure how sustainable it is when five, six, seven, eight times a game you're throwing the ball with your feet off the ground and. And that type of a stuff. There was a couple of near picks in the game. I think some of that stuff's going to even out for him over the course of the year as he gets banged up a little bit. And so I think he's got to be a little wary. It felt great. Four touchdowns, no interceptions, and there were some amazing throws, but he can't move and some of those spectacular throws are going to come back to bite you. So that's about it for me. From a Rogers standpoint, I think you had to like it. You just had to like it a lot to get that many points. I don't remember any, you know, sideline flare ups or any of that type of thing that was going on. It looked way more of a seamless operation than you thought it would be. Like, how can. What are the Chiefs thinking watching that, like how bad their offense was and they've been together all these times and, and put in a whole off season and a long training camp and he was. And everyone was there the whole time. Like that was a. That was the. Pretty cool for Pittsburgh to be able to do that with this guy showing up in June or whatever it was.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Love the way he threw the ball. Just the full display of like, I can fit it in here, I can lead this guy, I can throw the baseball pass. But he also kind of got his ass kicked a little bit in this game. So. And look, there was a couple spots where it looked like it was going to be an interception. So I think on the whole, considering how it's looked now for even going back to the last Green Bay year for an afternoon, it's like, okay, this is where the bet is, is that, you know, we have somebody that can make some of these third and long throws that we just haven't had here in Pittsburgh now for a little while. And if you keep this guy upright, it gives you a much better chance than whatever they put together a quarterback the last two years in Pittsburgh. So I think that part of it's good. Did you have any Fields supporters? It looked like you had another Rogers point, but I do have a Fields follow up, so.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah, yeah, no, you know, I think we're good on Rogers. Yeah, I thought Fields looked great. I was very pleasantly surprised from their standpoint. They have such an unknown offensive coordinator, you know, in Tanner Inkstrin. I don't, I don't know much about him. I mean, he hasn't called the games and then you think, hey, you know, he gets out of Detroit, you know, so I just wondered how it was all going to come together with this very specific type of quarterback. At the same time, they do have Scott Turner there who was with Cam Newton as well, you know, so they have some experience with, you know, a quarterback who's probably needs to rely someone on his legs to be. Be effective. I just, I. That was better than I expected to be. I thought he passed it better than expected. So just a real nice positive first game. I think statistically it was maybe his best game ever. You know, EPA per play or EPA per pass play, that type of a thing. In 45, 46 starts, it was one at number one or number two. So not going to happen every week. Obviously, I think he's somebody that, you know, is not hard to figure out, but what a great first game for him. Bummer. They lost it.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I'm going to do another college football, NFL thing here. Arizona State, unbelievable story. Picked last in the Big 12 and 24, make it a playoff and like, hang tough in the playoff effort, winning the Big 12. But the carryover is okay. Now you're hunted. And also, you know, something we always look at in both levels of football is what was your one score, one score game record? And it feels like with Arizona State, with the way the rankings came out, it's like, all right, enough. Enough of you guys.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Do you think what you saw from Kansas City against the Chargers on Friday was like, okay, a little bit of a carryover of like, this is where the doubters are that, you know, it still seems a little ridiculous. Like, hey, this one score record run that they had, which is an absurd number, like that's the first one score game they end up losing in such a long time, but they still made it to the Super Bowl. So it's not like they got through, got the seed and then lost early. But I think for the Chiefs doubters, that game was. This is a carryover of all the things that we didn't like about the Chiefs in 24 and they finally didn't win it.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah, I'm with you. Also, you know, Andy Reid going up there, talking about the energy wasn't there for. It's week one. But I think when. I think they have struggled with this and it's just human nature, you know, when you've been to the mountaintop so many times, it's just hard to. It's hard to get up for, you know, just a game, isn't it? Don't you think when you're just, you know, you, you can't. I'm a. I was. Used to be a big boxing fan. You know, like Muhammad Ali didn't get up for every fight. I mean, he had some like, you know, kind of lame fights against some guys that were not close to being as in his class. Because when you have the highs be so high, it's just like, can you really pretend that? Can you really be as up for stuff? And I think they have put it together when they need to, even in the course of games. That's kind of been their thing, right? Hey, we're here. We'll. We'll find a way. We'll pull it out when we have to. But, you know, how sustainable, you know, is that when you've got these other really good teams in the conference and you've now had an injury to Xavier Worthy, you know, there's maybe some questions about their roster. I certainly like the addition of their left tackle coming into the season. I thought they would have a better year and I thought they would do more offensively. Maybe they still will. But that Andy Reid knows his team and for him to say that after the first game of the year, hey, we just gotta bring more fire kind of. I was like, yeah, that sounds like a team that's. It's hard to get them to. It's hard to get them going. You know, Andy Reid's mentor, Mike Holmgren, I covered him for years when he was in Seattle. Remember when they had that second super bowl loss to Denver? They won the super bowl and then they lost the next year. And I remember him saying, I had a hard time getting them to believe, you know, that whatever Denver was that good. It was like, you've been so good, you've had so much success. It's sometimes hard to just be up for every game or team. I wonder about that.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. And for Ali, the reason he probably didn't get up for the ones at the end is because everybody close to him was making him feel. Fight for a paycheck.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But through the 70s, like I, I've watched all of his fights and it was like, you know, he'd hang around, he would just sort of stand there with ron Lyle for 10 rounds. And then in the 11th round when the announcer's going, jeez, I don't know if he can do it, then he at least is a seven punch flurry and the guy's out, you know, and you're like, oh, okay. He could still do that when he needed to, but he didn't do it for 10 rounds.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. The Thomas Hauser Life and Times book, which was the first one I read a really long time ago because it.

[Mike Sando]

Came out in 1990, early 90s.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I just remember how disgusted I was with the end of the story. And it's why, like when Floyd Mayweather had said, you know, again, Floyd quotes, I don't know how much you want to be, you know, if Floyd Mayweather's making you that upset about a quote, then, you know, maybe you should move on to something else. But I did get upset about this one. When he's comparing himself to Ali, he started bringing up the losses at the end. I just like you read the end of that book from Houser and you're so disgusted with the people that are supposed to care about Muhammad Ali the most. And they, it felt like they give a. About him at all.

[Mike Sando]

It was, he was so done. He was so done for so long, but he could still rally when he had to. And that's a little bit where the Chiefs are at. Watch the. I love that all these are on YouTube. Go to the last two minutes of Muhammad Ali fighting Ernie Shavers. Okay. It's awesome on YouTube. I don't get goosebumps doing it watching it. I watch it two times a year probably. I love it. But I mean, it's sad because he, he's so much of a better fighter, but he's done. But when he had to do it, I mean, he rallied. He could rally like none other. And that's kind of. Yeah, a little bit of a parallel there, maybe to the Chiefs. We'll see. It's one game. I mean, they. They could. They could be ten and one still. And I actually thought they would do more offensively, but, you know, didn't look good the first game. They looked very disjointed, didn't they?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Maybe Andy Reid was going with, like, the Brazil. And then Ali's last fight being in the Bahamas.

[Mike Sando]

Yes.

[Ryan Rosillo]

In 81. So.

[Mike Sando]

Berbick, Trevor Berbick.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Right, right, right. Because when I've watched that fight on YouTube, I'm like, what the hell is this? It looks like a community center where you're thinking, this is a. This is a Muhammad.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah.

[Ryan Rosillo]

So sad. The point is, is that the Chiefs. It's week one of the NFL. It's not the Bahamas. Even though it was. Was.

[Mike Sando]

They should be fine. Did you ever watch the documentary Facing Ali?

[Ryan Rosillo]

I've watched most of it, but I don't know if I've. No, I've watched most of his stuff, but I don't think I.

[Mike Sando]

Okay, fine. Just. Just trust me. Find that one. What they do is they. They. They get about six guys that fought him, you know, from Henry Cooper to George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ernie Shavers, George Chavalo. Amazing story. And they talk to them, and all these guys just about are dead now, but they talk to them about what fighting Ali meant to them. You know, it meant. It changed their lives. But then you also get their stories, and it is amazing with the backstories and stuff and. And their perspectives on things. I just. That's another one I will watch. I'll watch that once a year. I love. I love the old stuff.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I haven't seen. I can't believe I haven't seen that, because I basically, yeah. Whenever I see When We Were Kings, I want to run through a wall.

[Mike Sando]

When We Were Kings is great, too. I think I've seen all of them. I mean, I used to collect fights before you could even get them. Before There was a YouTube, I used to get them 30 plus years ago. I used to get them on VHS. There was this dude in LA who would like, advertise in Ring magazine. That's the only way you could watch them, you know, So I get these grainy VHS tapes of fights from back in the day. I loved all that stuff. And. And I think facing all these. Probably my number one favorite one to watch.

[Ryan Rosillo]

So. Did you ever read the Larry Sloman Tyson book?

[Mike Sando]

I did not. No. I should. It was a great.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It's incredible because, you know, it's Mike. First person Basically. But, you know, Sloman does a great job with it, and I'd say there's probably 200 pages. You're like, all right, it sounds like you really liked cocaine, man. Like, I got it. But Tyson goes through every single fight. So I would read that book and then watch the fight on YouTube after hearing how he would describe it. I mean, the Holyfield stuff alone, I love that. So I'm. If you ever are going to get a Tyson book, I haven't read all of them, but I would get that one because he just starts from the very first fight and then goes all the way through. And it's, it's so much fun to read his perspective on the fight. And then, I mean, it's a long book. And like I said, there's. During the real bad times where he's just a mess, when he's totally, like, telling you about everything he gets in all of his legal stuff, it goes on because that was a big part of the Tyson story. But when it's just the fights and then you can go watch all of these, it's so much fun because, you know, they've seen all these fights as a little kid growing up, and then it's like, okay, so now it's like the guy's almost sitting next to you telling you, here's what was happening here. Here's what I was thinking there. The lead up to the Buster Douglas fight, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but what he's talking about that he's going through and the shit that he's doing leading up to that fight, I mean, I can't believe the.

[Mike Sando]

Guys in his corner. Yeah, the guys in his corner were. It was amateur hour. Yeah, I remember that. I, I, that was one of my happiest nights of sports of my life, because I was a big, I was a big Ali defender, you know, when it, when all my friends, because all my I was Tyson era, you know, so I was sure, you know, I was 21, 20 years old when Douglas lost, when Douglas beat him. So I had been saying, hey, I know Tyson's great, but don't forget these other guys. I mean, this era of the 70s was unbelievable. And so when he lost to Douglas, I was like, yes, these guys can finally, you know, I don't have to listen to the. Tyson was the greatest ever. He was great, though.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Is Caleb Williams potentially going to be the Floyd Patterson of number one picks?

[Mike Sando]

Well, last year, we, you know, we talked about it with quarterback. Tears came out. That was, you know, Last year.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I still remember that. That was only a couple months ago.

[Mike Sando]

I mean, last month. Yeah, last month. About. About last year. And people really questioning his processing. And then, you know, this piece came out by Tyler Dunn, you know, where he quoted about 250 people just shredding Caleb Williams, his work ethic, all this stuff. And, you know, part of me is like, hey, let's just let him play his second season. But the other part of me is I. Are you seeing a long line of people coming out and saying it's not true? Like, I want to have Ben Johnson or all these guys that are working with him now, or the teammates say, absolutely false. This guy is putting in on the time. He's a great teammate, all this type of stuff. So it's very interesting to me to have that heavy. I remember Tyler Dunn wrote the thing on Sean McDermott a couple of years ago that was pretty devastating, talking to a lot of people around him. And Sean McDermott is still there. He's a good coach. Maybe he even learned from some of those criticisms. But this is odd. This is just weird for somebody who was the consensus number one overall pick, didn't go out and, you know, rob a bank or anything that I know of. You know, it was a tough season. Sure, you maybe would have liked him to be more accountable or something, but this was like a real. Some really strong stuff set against him. And then while I've seen a few people, you know, I saw Kyle Long saying, this is cowardly, you know, people to say this. They should be happy to have him. I would like to hear more of that from the people around Caleb Williams on the Bears, that type of stuff. It'll be moot if he goes out, just plays great. But there's something there that's a little bit unsettling to me. If I were a Bears fan or that I want to see you kind of resolved. That makes sense to you?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, I just would like to see him play with Ben Johnson.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Man in the ship. And then see what happens. Because. Yeah, you know, I. I've said it. I'll say it again. The people that didn't like him didn't like the nail polish. They didn't like the quote that wasn't even his quote, that was attributed to him about ownership and all this stuff, and it was an agent and the crying part of it. Like, I never heard anybody knock his football ability. I never. I never really. Like, I thought the two years ago SC was incredible, or the second. Second to last year, then his last year that team was a mess. So I still, like, believed in him trying to figure out how to save that team on all these Saturdays. So from a football standpoint, I've never heard anybody prior to the draft pick be like, oh, he's just not good at all these things. Then you had your piece where it sounded like you took it easy on him by not just unloading the full clip on him of all the stuff you had. When you had told me, hey, there was like, this isn't five people that watched the tape that didn't like it. 20 people. So then you're like, oh, my God, is it really going to be this bad? Is it. Is it a football conversation and not a personality conversation? And this piece felt like it was all of it. So that's the part where I'm kind of shocked that a guy that goes number one overall that. That I understood why people didn't like him. But I never felt like it was about the actual football, and now it feels like it's the actual football. So. The actual football. Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Sando]

Then a new. Then a new coach coming in who isn't necessarily tied to him. I think the perception from the outside was, oh, Ben Johnson came to Chicago because of Caleb Williams. I don't think that's true. And in talking to people that investigated that as a job, thought, hey, maybe I have a chance to get interviewed. Maybe I'm going to be interviewed. I'd like to be interviewed there. There's. There were a number of those people in the off season who really looked at the tape, you know, and then talk. Called around, talk to people, hey, what? And a couple of them that was telling were, like, what I learned wasn't enough for me to not take the job, but, like, Caleb Williams wouldn't be the reason I was taking it. Isn't that interesting?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, I'm. I'm dumbfounded a year later. I think that that shocks me.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah. So. And like, I felt obviously the tenor to the quarterback tier stuff was, hey, a lot of people mentioned his processing. There's concerns, but part of me, too is like, he's played one year, you know, we'll have time for all of that. I didn't unload everything that I have heard on him, you know, and some of the. But at the same time, like I said, I would like somebody to be. I'd like more people to be pushing back, and I'm not hearing it. I don't have it. There's not like people I'm talking to behind the scenes or other people who are like that. This is all bs, you know, no one's, no one's really saying that that I know of.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. Normally you'd hear some people make up some that sounded good. Right. Like there's nothing funnier than. We all know it's not true. But you're just at the podium going, this is what I have to do and I have to back my guys. I've done to back guys that are in the locker room. The thing that I think kind of sucks for him is that it's a Monday nighter. Like it would have been really nice if he could just settled in with this new offense and you know, the new hopes for a second season with him at 1:00 clock start gets buried with the rest of the stuff. If he's bad Knight against bad tonight against a, a Vikings defense that's, you know, going to have a plan for him. It's going to be a rough, rough start.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah. I feel like Ben Johnson has put him on alert more than tried to build him up publicly. And so when you like see Jim Harbaugh someplace like Jim Harbaugh goes to San Francisco and he's like, hey, Alex Smith is elite. And all he'll talk about is Alex Smith's great, this and that. Justin Herbert is benched him. Yeah, exactly. But, but he always said the guy was great, you know.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah.

[Mike Sando]

And I think Ben Johnson has gone in there and sort of let some of this stuff linger. Like, hey, I want to see what Caleb's all about. We're going to keep some pressure on him and everybody. He's done that with everybody. I mean he's made it clear he's upset when someone's in the training room too much or you know, not on point in practice. So he said he's taken a real, a different kind of approach to it and I'm very anxious to see in the game, you know, the Monday night game. Is he tailoring things to, to Caleb Williams to give him the best chance or is he throwing them in the deep end and saying, hey, number one pick, can you do it? Like maybe we'll get a sense for that.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Do you think they win tonight?

[Mike Sando]

I don't know about that. I think it's, I'm glad I don't have any money on it because I don't know what J.J. mcCarthy is going to do either. I mean that's a total wild card. Can you find a 14 win team that turned it over like that voluntarily? I know John Elway retired and they went to Brian Greasy. But they la retired. They couldn't have kept. They could have kept Darnold. I don't begrudge him for not. But this is a strange situation, isn't it?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, we touched on it before the season. Just because you think about that team. We've got the 14 wins. They lose the way they do at the end of the regular season with the seating, then they lose in the playoffs and it's like everybody seemed to be totally okay with a team turning the page after a 143 season and that's crazy, but you know, maybe think how much they must like him. One whenever a team drafts a guy shocker, they usually like him. Although I don't know if Belichick loved Mac Jones. Sometimes it becomes a quarterback need thing. But if you're going to take McCarthy that high when you already had things in place. Although it was still an uncertainty with Darnold, so I can't really say it's. It's that much of a certainty because we didn't expect, we didn't know what to do. Was another stop.

[Mike Sando]

There was rumblings about, there's rumblings about JJ this off season two, leadership of the team and all that type of stuff. I mean, it's interesting. So I can't wait.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I can't wait. And either way, whatever the result is, it's going to be, you know, it's that first impression. It's a new first impression for Caleb Williams, the first impression for J.J. mcCarthy and you know, I just hope it's a good game. I mean, look, I have all this Caleb stock that I, you know, I have people close to me being like, you need to dump all of this. You need to dump all of it. You need to get out. I just want to see what it looks like tonight. But if it's bad, it's going to be a rough, rough week in Chicago for what was supposed to be the face of the franchise, Mike Sando. I don't know if he's the face of the athletic. That might be unfair. We just appreciate his work so much. You can read all that stuff and you including that executive poll stuff which is always interesting and is pick six column every Monday. And it's up for you after a week in the NFL. So thanks, Mike.

[Mike Sando]

Thank you. I'm ordering that Larry Sloman book. I just found it now on Amazon while you were finishing up there.

[Ryan Rosillo]

So you're going to love it. Cool.

[Mike Sando]

Thanks. Appreciate it. Yep.

[Ryan Rosillo]

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Peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate, and peanut butter strawberry. My favorite flavor is vanilla. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. They taste incredible. I didn't really even know that much about it. And then I grabbed one. I was like, you know, I kind of like those things. And then I spent some time in the northern part of Europe. I'm like, waffles everywhere. As far as the eye can see. They've got all kinds of these things. And then I started buying them back here, the Honey Stinger stateside. And I think they're awesome. They taste great. And my favorite move is I throw a couple of these in the old backpack when I get on a flight, like banging out the latest edit. No problem. I'll have a little energy boost and some great flavor to go with it. So look, I think they taste awesome and that's why we're doing ads for them. I'm not the only one who loves honey stinger. Over 2000 college and pro sports teams rely on it. That means the hundreds of athletes you watch every day are probably using Honey Stinger to stay on top of their game. Head to honey stinger.com to try the new delicious peanut butter waffles for yourself. And save 20% with the promo code RESILLO20R u s s I l l o20. As we get deeper into the college football season, I'll start putting together my playoff grouping. But I just don't feel like doing that. I might not even do anything until after week four. So Oklahoma, Michigan, that's the headliner. Everybody's watching that game. That was into it because we had a pretty lean slate on Saturday. 24:13 Win in Norman, just when Norman's right, man, it's a, it's a tough spot and even more so for Bryce Underwood. Michigan's all everything recruitment, it's a tough spot for him. So look, he goes 9 to 24, 3 of 14 on third down for Michigan's offense. I think there's some really good stuff in there. The McCully deep throw is just a thing of beauty as McCully just kind of running one on one with somebody and he's going to lead him perfectly. He does. He had that first drive throw to Morgan with pressure right in his face. I mean, physically, all the stuff that you would want. I mean, the reason why this guy is this kind of like all time recruit and why LSU and Michigan are fighting over him, like you see all of this stuff and I think it was, it was really good to see him kind of on the stage. Even though the numbers weren't very good. The bad stuff is, yeah, sure, I could sit here and talk about the rollout to his right side where he misses a really great developing play, misses the player entirely. I mean, it's just a miss. I think the more frustrating thing if you're a Michigan fan is what the fuck are you guys doing on play action? Sorry to be so, so harsh about it, but I didn't. The mechanics of the play action stuff with Underwood is terrible. I don't know if that's on him or can. Can't somebody just pull him aside and be like, hey, this is kind of how play action is supposed to work. So the fake handoffs are terrible. Nobody should be budding on any of that stuff. And it was happening all night and then they. I feel like there's a couple plays where they had the run the running back on the wrong side or he was going to play action, fake to the wrong side of the running back. So I don't know whose fault that was, but that was really messy and that should be a little bit easier to clean up. So until that's cleaned up, like, nobody's going to bite on any of that stuff. If you can't at least just whatever kind of magic show you're supposed to have back there in the play action, they were lacking. So that's the Michigan side of it. Then you've got Oklahoma's defense, which the college football world get to see. This is what it's supposed to look like in Norman. This is what it's supposed to look like with all these guys flying around killing everybody. And certainly with Brett Venables as the head coach, this is what Oklahoma fans should expect. And they saw that. And then you have John Mateer, who I'm so happy in a way that it was a lean slate that this many people got to see why this guy's this big of a deal. He is unbelievable. And I mean, this is a compliment. His open field running, the change of direction, quarterback, you don't see that a lot. There was a goal line hesitation where I don't want to call him White Lamar, because I feel like it's insulting to Lamar. But Lamar, my favorite thing about him at Louisville was it'd be some kind of goal line run. And everyone is so afraid of what the next move is that he could then just walk straight in. And it wasn't because nobody went to go tackle him. It was, they were so afraid to move and be out of position, they would just kind of sit there. It was a lot like the Steve Nash stuff where everyone was so worried about the assist. Nash could just dribble right to the hoop because you would just be waiting, be like, well, there's no way he's actually going to do this. Lamar could just walk in with these moves, just foot in the ground, you know, and right in. And look, I'm not saying Matiers, Lamar, I almost, I, I, it is a compliment. But again, I don't want to be coming off as like I'm even comparing anyone to Lamar Jackson because that Louisville stuff is still some of my favorite stuff I've ever seen in college football. Let's talk about the end zone throw, because McShay broke it down on the tape. I retweeted it last night. So they get backed up after a penalty. Mater is deep in his own end zone and he's actually waiting for the right side, the route on his right side to develop. So he realizes, like, it's, it's not really a double move, but he's going to get the receiver clear of the corner with the way the throw is being set up. And he's doing this all while deep in his own end zone and there's a linebacker running free ready to kill him. I've told the story a couple times. I remember watching a game early, early on at espn. Mike Ditka and I are hanging out in a little side studio where you'd have like eight screens up. Brett Favre waited on a third down for the tight end, I think, to clear from the defender. Favre knew he was going to get killed, but he had to hold the ball to wait for the Tight end to get some kind of separation. He completes the pass. I think it ended up being a touchdown. And Ditka jumps up. Like, I thought he was kind of out of it. Jumps up, freaks out. He's like, far, man. He's got the goddamn balls of a mountain lion. Favre wasn't in his own end zone. That's the kind of throw that Mattia, like, this is the kind of stuff, I think the people that really do this, the guys that do the full evaluations of these players, like, I like when they're explaining to us like, this isn't just a sick throw. Like, think about all of the other circumstances around him to complete this kind of ball. Oklahoma schedule, have you looked at it? You know what? That'll be homework. You have to look at it. Gets a little. Gets a little rough those last seven matchups, but a nice night in Norman for a program that is used to that kind of defensive output. And now they have a quarterback to go through it. Go, go, go with it. And a linebacker now playing tight end who's just out there crushing dudes. I watched Arch Manning, second game against San Jose State, bit of a zag. If you look at the box scores and you see the four touchdowns. I was at four touchdowns in, like, five plus minutes. You're gonna be like, all right, figure it out. And look, it's a second kind of real start here in 25 after the Ohio State game where he wasn't very good and got crushed because everybody was watching it. I don't think many people were watching this game. I watched the entire first half because I wanted to see how he looked. I. I didn't think he looked that great. Doesn't mean anything. But it's. I think it's a different experience of watching that first half when they were up 28, nothing versus just looking at the box score. So it's not like, hey, this is alarming, but it wasn't. Like, he was super crisp all day long. And maybe again, I'm holding him to too high of a standard after going, like, look, he wasn't good against Ohio State. No big deal. First start at Columbus, like, did you think it was going to go great? San Jose State, for the first 30 minutes, this game looked like the most miserable football team I think I saw all of Saturday. Luke Altmire for Illinois, Terrific. Against Duke, like, look, at least I'll always give you credit. You're playing. Did you schedule a decent power four out of conference, you know, and Duke, there's some expectation with Their transfer coming in, a quarterback who still looks like he's defaulting the run a little bit more. But on Saturday, Altmeyer was on fire. He's been on fire to start the season. 75% completion rate, six touchdowns, zero picks, 10 yards per attempt. Great versus Duke. I think if you allow me to go a little mix shillo here. It's not his mobility, it's his movement in the pocket and staying in the pocket, clearing himself of pressure, getting to the throwing lane. And I think with Altmire in Illinois in the past, like those Penn State games bugged the out of me of taking them really serious. I think that win against South Carolina for that program was massive in the bowl game. It was one of the best bowl games, and it was like, you know, a lot of us had a lot of South Carolina momentum, the sec, sec, Big Ten stuff, but that's a really good win from them that they've now carried over into 25. So Altmire, I don't know what that means other than he's on the radar now. Mississippi State up 17, nothing against Arizona State down 2017. I'm like, there's no way they're winning this game. Arizona Levitt's out there just balling. He's got his receiver back. I'm like, man, this team is just tough mentally. Cowbells, you know, Again, nobody thinks Mississippi State's any good because of what they did last year. But last year's in the past. Now Blake looks even better in a second year of Mississippi State. And then you've got Brennan Thompson, who was at Texas, who was at OU, who on his first touchdown hit 22 mph and then breaks free for the game winner. I can't believe Mississippi State up 17 nothing, getting outscored 20 zip came back and won that football game. Arizona State drops out of the AP ranking. That feels a little harsh. It feels like voters are like, all right, enough of you guys. They're 26th technically because they're first and others receiving votes. And it has a lot to do with Mississippi State and who they were last year. But that was an incredible game. Clemson down 16 nothing at home. Detroit, not the way you want to see a team respond after losing a big one against LSU. Goose Crowder at quarterback. Troy, team that went 4 and 8 last year. So Clemson did close this one 27 nothing and held on for the win. I don't know how this game is going to play out, because it feels like after the LSU loss, you'd like to see Clemson come out and just destroy a non power team. Right. And that was not the case. But it was also a very weird first half including a pick six from Klubnick at his own like one yard line. So Troy was playing Goose was dealing. So it wasn't like hey, kickoff return pick six fumble at the one where it's just like how does that. But there was a lot of stuff in this game that was a little weird and it feels like I don't know if it's just hey, everyone's off Clemson as a title contender because I think that would be a mistake. But that was not what everybody wanted to see. But if you'd watch the first half of it, I do think more reasonable people could go, okay, this is just kind of a weird deal because you're thinking there shouldn't be any LSU hangover, you should be mad at the world. Even down I think three important starters including Williams at receiver. But again it was Troy. So nobody's going to feel bad for you when you're missing a couple dudes and you're Clemson because then you look at like a team like bama who responds 73 nothing against Louisiana Monroe. You may remember Louisiana Monroe in the Bama history books because in Saban's first season in 2006, he lost Louisiana Monroe second to last game of the season before losing to Auburn in the Iron bowl to finish out 6 and 6. They won the bowl game 7 6. So I remember I was like man, this Saban guy, like this was actually happening. Like I thought this guy was going to be good. They lost to UL Monroe. It worked out because he only had. It's the only obviously six loss season he had at Bama. He only had a three loss season one other time and it did work out. So if you look at those other 16 years after the first season in 2007, Saban average 1.43 losses per season. I love Saban. Facts. I can do them all day. USF game winning kick to walk it off in Gainesville from unranked to 18th in the AP poll. The coaches poll needs more data. Apparently sometimes we're in favor of that. They had him at 23rd. This was supposed to be the easy game for the Gators considering their schedule because now they've got at lsu, at Miami, Texas, at A and M, Mississippi State. Who are they now they've got Georgia. They finish with at Ole Miss, Tennessee, Florida State. I don't know. They might be still good and not be able to survive it. I know that there was a lot of leg up Gainesville again. I'm talking about Danny Cannell in particular. Posted a video immediately after not talking about any of the Power 4 conferences and how they matched up against each other after they played these first two weeks. But what if USF is just good Golish that coach? I don't know how long he's going to be there because this is back to back weeks where they've looked tough, they've responded. Brown a quarterback, it feels like he's been there forever. And last thought, Oregon might be horrifying three plays up, 13 nothing against Oklahoma State, who also coincidentally may be terrible. But another quarterback for Will Stein who might be the best coordinator at all of college football. It's a really long list. It'd probably be hotly debated. But more comes in. We weren't sure of what it was. Yeah, sure, easy start to the year, but horrifying stuff from the Ducks in Eugene in that game. You want details?

[Morgan]

Fine.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up?

[Kyle]

I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required life advice. The email address is lifeadvice rrmail.com we're doing ladies Week soon, but we don't know. We were trying to get Smallman on to do live.

[Kyle]

Yeah, yeah, we will.

[Ryan Rosillo]

We will. She's just so busy on Sportsman like every morning on your ESPN radio dial. All right, what do we got? We got emails here. I do want to start with this. Have you guys watched Tasket on HBO from our Guy Inglesby, creator of Mayor of East Town?

[Kyle]

I'll watch it either tonight or tomorrow night. We're having on Wednesday.

[Ryan Rosillo]

So. Yeah, watch the pilot this week. It's incredible.

[Morgan]

Really.

[Ryan Rosillo]

The pilot was unbelievable. So we'll see.

[Kyle]

There's big expectations for this show.

[Ryan Rosillo]

He's awesome. He's.

[Kyle]

I think we've just, I think we've talked about this. Into the Furnace is like one of the, I feel like the most underrated movies of the last.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Is that the prequel? What? It's out of the Furnace.

[Kyle]

Oh, out of the Furnace. Sorry.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Nice.

[Kyle]

It's been a minute. Great movie. Shout out to the Christian Bale.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It's a great movie. I don't understand why that movie is not.

[Kyle]

Should be way bigger. I don't even know the name of it. So apparently.

[Morgan]

Some trouble with the branding there.

[Kyle]

But there's a furnace involved don't worry.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Something's going on with you. I'm just trying to think, like, who are your auto. Like, who's your number one? This guy is in it. I'm giving it a chance. Well, it's probably Tom Hardy for you, right?

[Kyle]

Hardy's. Hardy's up there. I remember. I remember when. And this is going to be so basic of me, but I remember when I had even read the first article about McConaughey working with Nolan on Interstellar, and I was like, you, Space, Christopher Nolan, Matthew McConaughey. Like, three things that I. If I was making a movie, that's how I would start it, with three things. So that was. That was pretty incredible. But as far as just, like, a dude that I'm. I'm in on. Yeah. Tom Hardy's pretty. Pretty up there.

[Morgan]

Mobland sick. I'll tell you a guy who's snuck into that for me a little bit. Taron Edgerton, that guy who did Blackbird and a bunch of other stuff. I think that guy could be, like, if they wanted to go young James Bond, I think. There we go. I think that guy's been great in.

[Ryan Rosillo]

A lot of stuff.

[Kyle]

Is that Joel's brother? Are they brothers?

[Ryan Rosillo]

I don't know.

[Morgan]

I didn't.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Didn't look it up right now.

[Morgan]

Love that guy, too, though.

[Kyle]

Only because I just watched a show with Joel. Dark Matter.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, I don't see it. I don't see it on his. Wikipedia. I think it's actually spelled differently, too.

[Kyle]

There you go.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Maybe he was. He played Elton John, right? He did. That was an interesting branding. You didn't. In the queue.

[Morgan]

Yeah. So I guess, like I said, it's. It's new for me to be like, I'm not gonna see everything he's in. But if I.

[Ryan Rosillo]

If I.

[Morgan]

You know, if it flashes on the. The title screen, I'm like, I'll put that on the list.

[Kyle]

So, typically, Gyllenhaal's in this for me as well, but I actually haven't seen the new Roadhouse movie that he's in.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I haven't either, and I don't.

[Kyle]

I just wasn't that interested. But maybe I'll get around to it.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, that's a good question. Because then I started thinking, like, when I said Q, like, is there somebody still sending in DVDs to Netflix? So I quickly checked. Imagine there's just one guy still hq. It's like, Jesus, this guy in tennis department's been gutted.

[Morgan]

And I'm like, I'm the only guy Left.

[Ryan Rosillo]

He's like, do we have this available? Yeah, it's available. They stopped doing it in 2023, September. So it's only about two years, maybe a little bit later than people thought that we've gone.

[Kyle]

Still have a Netflix dvd. Was the. What was that movie? It was. It was Tom Hardy movie. Was Hardy and Shia LaBeouf. What the hell? Remember, they were like outlaw guys. What the heck was that movie called? It's pretty good. Still have the dvd.

[Ryan Rosillo]

So we don't have a definitive answer then. Right. So your go to. Because Hardy might be it for me after Warrior. After. Oh, great movie. Yep.

[Kyle]

He was also so great. Peaky Blinders.

[Ryan Rosillo]

But Taboo, you were all over it.

[Kyle]

Taboo was great.

[Ryan Rosillo]

You wanted to learn more about the trading companies.

[Morgan]

I used to be able to say Will Smith confidently, I can't do that anymore.

[Kyle]

Oh, man.

[Ryan Rosillo]

What is that?

[Morgan]

Just can't do it anymore.

[Ryan Rosillo]

You know, I love that it was Will Smith for a while, though.

[Morgan]

Totally.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I love that it was. So you don't have an answer either, Kyle?

[Morgan]

I mean, I think I would defer to Hardy. I mean, I always like when I see Leo's gonna be in a new movie, I'm like, that's gotta be worth it, right? And honestly, this one battle after another, it looks like it's gonna skyrocket him right back to the top of my list. But we'll see September 26th.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. With PTA. I mean, talk about. Yeah.

[Morgan]

Talk about a match.

[Kyle]

Yeah. People are probably expecting me to say Shalom too. It's actually, it's not because I haven't. I haven't seen Wonka. I haven't actually seen the Bob Dylan movie. I'm not that interested in the Bob Dylan movie. I don't really like Bob Dylan.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Him.

[Kyle]

No offense. I mean, I'm sure he's. You know, people like him. I get it. I'm just not that interested.

[Ryan Rosillo]

You've always appreciated his ability as a lyricist. True.

[Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ryan Rosillo]

But. Yeah, just somebody. You're like. Lyrics. Yeah. Lyrics. Hold up. I get it. I get that part of it. If we could bring Morgan in here for a second because, I mean, if he says it was Raiders gear, let's get. It's a big win, dude.

[Morgan]

Just get it over with.

[Kyle]

It was. Yeah. I don't. I don't actually know. I think I'm. I think I'm more like a director than I am like an actor that's going to like, get my seat in the theater. Who was. Who's the director then?

[Ryan Rosillo]

You?

[Kyle]

Paul Thomas Anderson. Guy, then. I don't know. Like, I'm a big, like, Mike Flanagan fan. Oh, me too. If you know him, like doctor Sleep.

[Mike Sando]

Yeah.

[Kyle]

Pontica Vale House. He's great.

[Mike Sando]

Love him.

[Kyle]

Midnight Mass. Yeah. Stuff. Yep.

[Morgan]

So he's like a guy a little spooky.

[Kyle]

That's a great answer from Morgan. I'm gonna be honest. That's.

[Ryan Rosillo]

That's.

[Kyle]

I. He's. He's incredible. Great crotch. I see him attached to any project. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna see that. I agree.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I think it's hardy for me.

[Kyle]

Okay.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I just want to get that because after, like. Yeah. I don't know if I could put Engle. Speed, like for writer. Maybe right now, TV show Fingers is making a show.

[Kyle]

You're. There's no chance you're not watching that, so it's.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. Right.

[Kyle]

I think that's totally fair to say.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It's a.

[Kyle]

It's a writer or director.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It's also Rafe finds. I don't know if you guys knew that.

[Morgan]

What?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, I knew there was something weird and I looked it up again, but I guess I was just desperate for Worgon to give us a crazy answer. You know, sometimes he delivers in a way I'm not expecting him to. It's like UPS on Sunday or something.

[Mike Sando]

I wish.

[Kyle]

I'm seeing that new Austin Butler movie tomorrow night, though.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I'll report back.

[Morgan]

Yeah, that's. That's on my list too.

[Kyle]

Yeah, me too.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. Full review. Love to hear it. Okay, let's get to some questions. Jim. Etiquette. All right, no problem. Six foot 190, 50 years old, bald bench 205, squat 300. Personal record, marathon 353 wargon.

[Kyle]

That's quick for a full.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Really quick thank. Yeah, couple ultras. So this guy's not kidding around. No pickup comps. Spend decades before the record. I once beat Steve Nash at bump in grade eight basketball camp. He's done okay since then, so I don't feel too bad about peaking early. Oh, he lives in Victoria, bc. Shout out to island reels. And I appreciate the recent shout outs to Western Canada. Also agree with you about Vancouver being overrated, but I only say that in hush tones around here. Otherwise I'd get some elbows up treatment from the locals. It's beautiful city. I didn't spend a ton of time there, so I'm not saying like, I'm a Vancouver expert. I don't know. I think I built it up too much in my head, but I guess I just still can't get over The HJ options right next to like the pharmacy and a north face. It's like, wow, this is.

[Morgan]

What are the words you're saying right now? The HJ options.

[Ryan Rosillo]

What are these words?

[Kyle]

Are you not around for this?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, yeah. You're just gonna have to.

[Kyle]

It's what you think it is.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Okay. Let's worry about the kids.

[Morgan]

High jump.

[Ryan Rosillo]

All right.

[Kyle]

So you don't like Amsterdam?

[Ryan Rosillo]

The same reason I was so young. I was like afraid when I was there. I was 17 and some of the guys were not afraid at all. But it was. They were not in seek of any of that. They just as much hash as they could eat. Okay. And I had like two beers and thought I was like a badass. All right. After years of running, I finally joined a gym, figuring I'll need more cardio as I head into my 50s. It's been good. I'm seeing benefits. But the gym's a small neighborhood place with limited equipment. People are polite, but nobody talks. Everybody's in headphones, scrolling between sets. Basically, it's like every other public place these days. Here's my question. What's reasonable when it comes to using multiple pieces of equipment at once? I try not to hog things. Stick to one or two dumbbells, maybe a bench. But some folks seem to treat the place like their personal garage gym. I've seen people spread across six or seven pieces. Rowing machine dumbbells, six or seven rowing machine dumbbells, Bosu ball, kettlebells, the works. Last week I watched someone monopolize six pairs of kettlebells. Six. That's 12 total. My breaking point was the lone lat pull down machine. I was bid back shoulder workout, hoping to finish there. But one woman parked her big ass Stanley cup on the seat, then rotated between dumbbell presses, long phone breaks, occ flat pull down set. I ended up doing Canadian conflict resolution, AKA swallowing my frustration, saying nothing and quietly switching to cable rows. So what's the deal? Is there an unspoken every lifter for themselves rule I've missed? Should I be calling dibs on everything I need when I walk in? Or is there actually baseline etiquette here that I'm right to expect? Appreciate your help on this one. Cheers to Kyle S. Orgon. Yeah, look, that sucks. Sounds terrible. That's not normal. I mean, if you're new to the gym, that's. I guess you could think that's a little crazy. I went Monday, Labor Day. It's the busiest day I've ever seen in my life. And it was Lord of the Flies. It was absolute chaos. I was doing like pull ups and band work and shit because I was just like, whatever. I'm not even going to because if anybody got a bench then they were never ever leaving it. So yeah, look, it's about you pivoting at 50 years old and you know, letting people know. Letting people know a little bit because somebody to jump your set mid set. And I usually set a timer in between every single set. If somebody jumps me in something, I'll be like, hey, I was gone 40 seconds. You know, it's like, no, you weren't. You were gone five minutes. I've done it like once or twice. I just hold up the phone and be like that right there. We're at 48, 49, 50, 51. I'm like, you know, like you just made up like if you were going.

[Morgan]

To have a dash cam right there. It's like moments.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I don't love the move, but if you're going to be bold enough to tell me I've been gone for five minutes, then I'm going to fuck with you right back. So, you know, these people, these people that do this, they have one, no shame and two, expect to get away with it because too many people are silent. You know, I'm not starting to try to, you know, I don't have time to start a movement right now. But I would say the reason you're taking these Ls is because they explain expect you to so you don't have to be a dick about it. You can be like, hey, I wasn't done. Stern, efficient, no nonsense. You can even throw out a little fake smile. Hey, I wasn't done. Do you mind if I finish, you know, and then see where it goes from there? And if the person turns into an, then it's great because you're like, cool. Now I'm not even worried about you potentially making the mistake, right? Because there's always times like I'll freak out. I'll even look like, oh, did somebody just leave that? I might even give it a minute and look around, you know, and then if somebody's like, hey, I wasn't done, no problem. Because I know how it feels right back at you. But it sounds like these are not seasoned people. If it's kind of a small little neighborhood place and if somebody's taking up six pieces of equipment, she's not going to stop until somebody says something to her. Anything else? No, you're right.

[Morgan]

I mean, I think I'm always in these situations. I'm always like, Thinking about, well, just. Yeah, just go and sit down while. As soon as, you know, she's on her 6th Circuit thing, wait until she's, you know, moves and, you know it's going to be five more machines till she's back. But I don't know if, like, if I'd want to like myself. Just like, yeah, I'll just work in without asking anybody. So I, I would defer to you. I think. I think it always sounds from where I'm sitting in my office that, like, yeah, just do it, man. But this guy's Canadian, so he might already be at a disadvantage. And also, I don't really know. I don't really know that. That feeling so well anymore. It's been a while since I've paused my gold membership. So, yeah, I just say I defer to Ryan.

[Kyle]

Yeah. Younger me would have absolutely moved the Stanley mug or the Stanley Cup. That's insane. Just putting water bottles on top of.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Equipment to go do something else.

[Kyle]

Yeah, like, that's. That mug would not have been there.

[Ryan Rosillo]

This isn't an Easter egg hunt, you.

[Kyle]

Know, like, but like, older me, I don't know. I feel like I've become less confrontational in these situations. I'm like, more Canadian now, and I'm just like, yeah, I don't know.

[Ryan Rosillo]

You're getting more Canadian.

[Kyle]

I had zero percent Canadian me. Now I'm like, I don't know. You know, I don't know. I just, I'm like, am I really gonna, you know, my. My mid to late 30s. Am I really gonna just, like, start fights with people at the gym? Like, yeah, I don't know. The only, the only time I ever just am irrationally mad is on the road, which I don't think is unique at all. But at the gym, I don't know. I think I probably just keep it moving, try to find another machine.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, you don't have to be a jerk. You'd be really, really polite. And then the second they are like, well, I'm actually using it. And you can be like, you're using that. That be like, oh, you got a busy day. You're hitting, you're doing a full body. Huh?

[Morgan]

I think that's what he needs. He needs a couple of one liners from you when this thing inevitably goes left. So that's good. It's a busy day. So think. Yeah, think about a couple of those. Because the, like, the tensions are high. This guy's probably like, he said he's Canadian, doesn't like this type of stuff. He's probably like getting a little red in the face there. So if he has a couple like one liners he can pull out of his pocket like that. Whoa, Busy day. You got this, this and that. That's nice. He might feel more confident about actually.

[Kyle]

You know, acting on this as my trainer. Oh, geez. A lot going on. You're really efficient.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Like, I'm going to grab a pen and write down the things you're not using.

[Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ryan Rosillo]

What? Just so I can keep track of that.

[Morgan]

Dude, you're nailing it right now. This is real life advice.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Okay? Urgent. Do I join a frat resilo and friends? I don't care if you respond to the pod or just email back. I'm probably never just emailing back.

[Kyle]

I need one now.

[Ryan Rosillo]

8, 10. Wait, 8 foot? No, 18. That makes more sense. 18. 5 foot 10. 155 week. Hey, dude, don't worry about it, brother. I think when I hit 170, that was like sweet one, seven zero. Look at me, I'm enormous. My basketball comp is Mark Titus. I love the game more than anyone, but I scored five points my senior year. That tells you anything beyond unathletic. Titus played Division 1 basketball, unlike me, but you get where I'm going. I know, but I just feel like that's a bit like Titus.

[Morgan]

You know how he scored more than five points his senior year in high school in Indiana? Dude.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. I'm a freshman at Clemson and cannot decide if I should join a fraternity. I decided to rush last minute, fell behind the eight ball, not making the connections to join some of my top options originally. It's also hard because I know nobody because I'm from outside the Chicago area. I signed up for five, heard back from two I knew the least about and had the least interest in after learning more about them. 1. However, I started to like guys but still don't feel 100%. That spot for me. I feel confident I'll get a bid, but I don't know if I should take it. I could always wait until the spring and rush then with a better understanding, but want to join now so I can meet people sooner and worry I'll feel left out and bored for a semester. I like some of the kids planning to pledge the house but worried to say yes is all I know and there could be better. Hoping you could help because I remember seeing you joined a fraternity. Love the pod. Hoping for an answer. Oh, this was five days ago. So this kid may have joined the.

[Morgan]

I thought he was going to be like, should I join a fraternity. It sounds like that's the only thing he cares about is joining. I was going to say, like, what are the. You know, what would be the objections or pros, Cons to actually doing that? It sounds like he can't think about doing anything else. He just wants to join the best one. So I guess I wasn't a part of it. So I'll lay out.

[Kyle]

Is there, like, a transfer portal for fraternities, too? Like, if you join one, like, do you get to. Do you ever get to move? Like, if you don't like it? How does that. I don't know, because I grew up. I went to school in the frats.

[Morgan]

Transfer fee.

[Kyle]

You just, like, could he go to this roof fixed? He joined one now, and then all of a sudden his stock goes up and it's great. All these other frats are, like, kind of interested in him. I don't know, but I don't know if that's, like, taboo at all, dude.

[Morgan]

I really don't think so.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It's like a rap.

[Morgan]

You got to get, like, jumped out.

[Ryan Rosillo]

It feels almost unheard of. Like, will there be someone. I mean, you know how cool you would have to be to be for everyone to be okay with, like, a lesser fraternity for the coolest one to go. We don't care that you went to eastern Connecticut, you know? No, I don't know why I said Eastern Connecticut is just, you know, the Connecticut roots.

[Kyle]

Yeah, Willimantic. What's up?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Anybody that's gone there? Yeah, Willamanix. Has it overtaken Hartford as New England's rising star? I don't know.

[Kyle]

It leads the state in some things. I'll just leave it at that.

[Ryan Rosillo]

All right, well, you know better than being average, right? So, okay, this kid may have already joined. So this email. We could have changed this kid's life with an earlier answer. And now I almost feel guilty about the whole thing. The spring thing. I don't know if that matters anymore, but I remember going in, thinking I would join in the spring. I was like, let me get my bearings, get everything right. My father was like, you're absolutely not doing this. It was one of the first times ever. I was like, well, I'm not listening. And then when I talk to the older guys, they're like, you're going to be a spring loser. I mean, that's all I had to hear. I was like, all right, yeah, there's.

[Morgan]

Guys your own age who did this fucking four months ago who, like, yeah, you're basically a dirt to them.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Right. I don't know.

[Kyle]

Well, let me ask you though, because I don't know anything though. So you like get to school as a freshman and then you like immediately start figuring out what frat you're going to go.

[Morgan]

Rush week. I think that's how it happens.

[Kyle]

I feel like you don't know anything yet. You know, when you want the lay of the land, it's probably.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, but sometimes, sometimes you'll know. You'll know. Like I knew exactly where I wanted to be before I was even there. Like, I knew during the summer because I knew. Like, this is the one that's considered the best one.

[Kyle]

But how did you know? Like, was this like a research? Did you talk to people?

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, we didn't have goo. I was LexisNexis. Just the local library rankings. No, there was older guys. I mean it was, you know, I went to high school in Massachusetts. It was uvm. It wasn't like I was going to a foreign country. So there was older guys around and they were like, this one sucks. This one is this, this one is this, whatever. And then, you know, so like the one I wanted was the only one I wanted. And if I didn't get into that one, I wasn't going to do anything else. And within two weeks I was a pledge. I mean, it's fucking stupid. I just turned 18. I've got like 20. I mean the whole concept now that I'm older, it's like I got a 20 year old telling me what to do and I'm out of the house for the first time ever in like two weeks. So. Yeah, but the spring thing, I don't know if the spring fall thing is even a thing. It's probably more of a school thing, the whole deal. But yeah, I, I don't, I don't think it's necessary. Maybe it's more necessary in the southern schools. I think you could have gone through a northeast school and it wouldn't have mattered. And by the time you're sophomore, you're all going to have the same friends. We had a lot of friends that weren't even in. Didn't really matter. It just sped up the process. It sped up the process a little bit on the social part of it. And yeah, like, to be honest with you, thinking back, it's pretty stupid that all of a sudden you could join someplace and girls would be interested in you. Like girls like that guy be like, yep. Like people do this typical SEC couple picture thing now.

[Morgan]

It's so funny though.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah. But like sometimes it's like, I think this guy's a dick. Yeah, you think he's a disaster. I mean, he's just rocking whatever 20 year old. Yeah, exactly. Thing in haircut and polo shirt. And like that's the look. I mean our look with the Patagonia vests and the hip packs and the pull down game hats. Like we were all clones of each other. It's like, man, that guy's so cool. He looks exactly like 60 other dudes. That house is the best. You know, I mean, it's whatever. We're young. I mean, you could say it'd be embarrassing, but it would be pretty dismissive of just the way things work and how everybody kind of ends up wanting to look like each other instead of standing out for fear of ridicule. But I would again, it might be too late. But I wouldn't just join something because it's the only one that's interested in you. And I don't know what you have to do. I think in the south you have to like really put in the time and show up to the rush events, maybe know somebody, put in the work. And it sounds like because you're not from there, you didn't do any of that kind of stuff. So maybe you're going to meet a ton of great guys. But I don't know. I mean, again, this sounds stupid, but like, I don't know how cool you are. Right?

[Morgan]

Damn near 50 active chapters of fraternities and sororities at Clemson. That's a lot. There was probably like 8 at Potsdam Boys and girls.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Is the Latino one you were in recognized?

[Morgan]

Let me check, Let me check. I know they're not recognized at Potsdam anymore.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Underground.

[Kyle]

I think it was two frats at Multicultural Greek Council.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I don't think that's what it is. This is like getting harder to read with all the non English words. I don't know what to do. It might be too late.

[Kyle]

Well, I figured Ryan's answer would be don't join because like, you don't want to pick the wrong one. You don't. We don't want to commit to the wrong.

[Ryan Rosillo]

That is my advice. Yeah, that is my advice. You're right.

[Kyle]

Which I think is the right answer. Like, why would you join this thing? Just because you feel pressure? Like, would you rather have no friends or a few friends or friends that you don't really like or you don't like thinking are cool? Like, that's.

[Ryan Rosillo]

I feel like the.

[Kyle]

I'd rather have no friends.

[Morgan]

I think honestly when I was like, getting like, courted. I pulled that out for like three semesters where I just kept, like, backing out. I'd get to go to the parties that like, a lot of people could, but then, like, I'd back out and be like, dude, my grades are just not here. And some of those guys I met that were closer to my age, they were just like, in like, quieter moments. They're like, I fucking hate like 80% of these guys. And I was just like, really? You're locked in, huh? Wow.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Yeah, that's the other misnomers. Like, you just like everybody. It's like, nope, no, dude, that's not true at all. But I remember when I first got to school, guys were kind of like, what are you gonna do? What do you think you're gonna do? You know? And then, and I remember like one kid being like, well, this one place I know, like, anybody can do a bid there if it's that important to you. I was like, well, that's. It's the automatic, like, disqualifier. Why the would I want to do that? Like, what's their pledging? It's like they do this three day retreat and then you're in. It's like, so you bring a sleeping bag Friday and then Sunday night you're good to go. Like, that's not. I'd want the marines to be trained.

[Morgan]

So, yeah, my, my fraternity guys weren't. Aren't in Clemson. They have no representation in Clemson.

[Ryan Rosillo]

Just so you know. You just go down there. Fake handshake. It. It's like the same handshake for like 20 of the same fraternities or 20 different fraternities. All right, so yeah, good luck. Keep us posted. That'll do it for life advice today. That'll do it for the show. Thanks to Oregon. Thanks to Jonathan Frias. Thanks to Ceruti. Thanks to Kyle. I'm going to do this just because I want to lost a friend this weekend and I want to just dedicate the pod to yuck. Ryan Rosula, podcast ringer. Spotify must be 21 and older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + in present D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit MD gambling help.org in Maryland. Hope is there. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 247 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.