← The Ryen Russillo Show
The Ryen Russillo Show
Mahomes’ Future and the Super Bowl Favorite w/ Matt Ryan, Plus What’s Next for Michigan w/ Bruce Feldman
02:04:50
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- [00:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Hey barstool listeners. You can find every episode of the Ryan Roso show on Apple podcast, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. The Ryan Rosillo show is presented by DraftKings. On today's show, we'll run through the headlines in the NFL, but most importantly, what does this chief season mean for the future of both the franchise and Patrick Mahomes? Some love for the Rams, why I always doubt Denver and why I was wrong. And one number from that Pats game that goes back a few years. We've got Matt Ryan on all the NFL stuff including Philip Rivers return, see if he was tempted at all and Bruce Feldman on the Michigan coaching carousel. What's next and what can it mean for other college football programs, including breaking news on DJ Lagway entering the transfer portal outside of Gainesvill 40 point quarters, triple doubles, buzzer beaters that shake up the standings. DraftKings sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NBA is where you want to be. How about this weekend? You may have missed it Steph 48, but a loss to Portland Charlotte Hornets the 8 and 18 Charlotte Hornets with 29 points from our guy Con canipple winning at overtime at Cleveland. The difference was eight points in overtime. Cleveland didn't score in overtime. You don't see that a lot, so that's what I've been excited about. Trying to sneak some of that stuff in. And on NFL Sunday, Player Props Live bets Same game parlays. Bet on the biggest moments of the holiday season and the stars that make them unforgettable. And remember, DraftKings has your back with early exit. If your player goes down in the first period, you still get paid in cash. With DraftKings, you're covered through the entire first half. Why bet Player Props anywhere else? New customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins, get 200 in bonus bets instantly. Holiday Hoops Limited Games Cash in Download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use the code Ryan Ryen. That's code Ryan R Y E N Bet 5 bucks and get 200 in bonus bets. If your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling Problem Call 1-800-Gambler in New York. Call 877-8-Hopeny or text hopeny467-369 in Connecticut. Help for problem gambling, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf.
- [02:33]
Bruce Feldman
Of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas.
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Ryan Rosillo
Pass through of per wager tax May apply in Illinois 21 and over.
- [02:38]
Bruce Feldman
Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
- [02:40]
Ryan Rosillo
Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Vet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required for additional terms and responsible gaming resources. See DKNGIO Limited time offer. When I sat down to get ready for week 15, I was so fired up. I want to thank all the other NFL teams in the one Eastern window for having blowouts other than the Bills come back and all the storylines going around Chiefs and Chargers, because that way I could just really lock in, like I was sitting there going, how many screens do you have available for all the stuff that you want to watch? You want to watch your guy Caleb, you know, and luckily, like every other game got out of the way and then we had a packed 4 Eastern slate. We had a JJ McCarthy late night prime time revival. So yesterday was awesome. Yesterday was just one of those days where I was like, I feel like I'm not going to have enough time to really dig in and all this stuff. But we were able to do it. And as much as I love the Rams, which I'll touch on, the Bills come back, we have a lot of stuff to do with Matt Ryan today as well. So I'm just going to start with a headline, and that is the Chiefs run is over, at least for right now. So out of the playoffs for the first time since 2014, there's still some Alex Smith stuff in there. So, you know, look, and I don't think those teams are necessarily dominant. So during the broadcast, it's a little bit like the decade run is over. It's like, I don't know that it was a decade run, even though technically 10 straight years, making the playoffs, third longest streak in NFL history, Mahomes out with the torn acl. You already know that. So really the question is, what now? But before we go into like a definitive answer of what now, like now what's going to happen is this? I don't know the answer. None of us actually know the answer to that. We know they have a lot of roster issues, certainly on the offense, but what they've done, at least during the Mahomes stretch, making five of the six Super Bowls, like it's just not supposed to happen. But because it's Mahomes and because it's the Chiefs, this impossible stretch, they make you think the impossible is still possible. So even as they were losing these games this season, the one score stuff, which we'll get to that number a little bit later, like, I don't know if you're different than I am. And look, you've been listening to this podcast all fall. It's like, I just can't quit that team. I can't quit my homes. I figured that they are always going to figure it out and now it's officially not going to happen. So there were two plays in the loss yesterday, the Chargers, that I think encapsulate this season offensively for the Chiefs. For me, right? And this is just a me thing of watching them. I watch every single one of their games because I love watching Mahomes. So there is a second quarter rollout on a third and seven. The offensive line is already a mess, the backup tackles out, so now there's another backup tackle in there. We can give their O line issues a little bit later as well. So it's a three man rush by the Chargers. They're keeping two linebackers back and they're not really even in coverage. It's like they're spies to both sides, right? Because what do we know from Mahomes? It's that third and seven distance. It's like, all right, I'm looking around, no one's there. I'm going to roll out. Even though I'm not the fastest guy, I'm always going to be sticking the ball right out past the line to gain marker and I'm going to get another super annoying first down. If you were the opponent or the opposing fan base. And in this case it's a three man rush, linebackers to both sides to prevent that kind of escape route for Mahomes, the right tackle gives a pressure immediately. It wasn't like it was a straight line to Mahomes, but I feel like the pass rusher wasn't derailed on that rush enough that Mahomes would have been able to kind of reset and stay into the pocket. So then what do we see? We see Mahomes roll out to his right side, which we see throughout his entire career. And he's looking. He's looking, but he's also looking at man coverage, which is something that's become basically the Chiefs kryptonite here for their offense is because they just don't have guys that get open anymore. So what happens on 3rd and 7? Rollout. He's rolling out. He could go out of bound. He's trying to keep the play alive. He's been doing this now for a couple years where he's keeping the play alive to like a dangerous level. I can't believe he made it through the season healthy last year. So we already know the knee's an issue. And of course that ends up happening a little bit later in this game. But on this play in particular, he's waiting. He's waiting. He's almost coming back in towards the middle of the field, just away from the sideline. And you're like, man, you're going to get crushed on this play. But how is no. 1, how is there not any kind of throwing lane for you? Right? And is it, is it that risk, reward where it's a second quarter and you're like, well, I'm not going to make this throw now. And then he ends up taking the sack. Later in the second quarter, it's third and goal. They'd run a kind of a. It was like a bubble to Rice to the left side. Kelsey gets destroyed on the block. Derwin James, it's granted it's Derwin James and Kelsey's not exactly thought of to be Gronk in the blocking game. But like Kelsey doesn't even give the play a chance. That blows up on the left side. So now we're third and goal at the Chargers nine. And whether it's by design where they just have the wrong look, but it's Mahomes flushed out again. There's no one open. There's no one to throw to. He dirts the ball incomplete. They kick the field goal. Those two plays to me felt like what I've been watching now for a really long time. And that Mahomes is waiting, waiting to make that magic happen. And yet no one can get open. On top of that, the pass rush. Now the offensive line issues are ridiculous, right? So Simmons, the first round pick, he missed time. Then he has the wrist injury. He's out. Taylor, false start machine. He's out of the game. More the swing tackle they spent a ton of money on. He's out of the game. Trey Smith, they're great guard. He's out of the game. So guess what happens. The Chargers, according to next gen stats, blitzed zero times yesterday, yet still got pressure on Mahomes on 49% of his dropbacks. So they can't protect. Look, I don't know that they protect when all the guys are there. Never mind the group that they tried to run out against. This Chargers front so they didn't even have to blitz. And they're getting pressure on every other drop back. They also can't run the ball. They may run the football all season long, especially anything that scares you. All right, Nate Taylor, ESPN does a great job. I was Reading his piece this morning, and he had this number they had this year on runs, 20 or more yards. So explosive runs. They had the lowest explosive run rate since 2000. That's in 25 years, which I think you can probably figure out. Oh, they also had the second most drops of any group. These guys don't get open. They don't get open. We can talk about injuries and all the different stuff. And Kelsey having a really good start to the season. There's been a clear decline. The Houston game, all these guys letting him down. So then Mahomes on a third and 12 at the Charger 17, they're down three. He throws a pick on third and 12. Now when you're down three, you can't do that. But I started thinking about Mahomes, and I will never forget, like, watching him at Texas Tech, and I was like, man, the good is unbelievable. But, like, what the hell is he doing on some of these other throws? And he explained it later on. He's like, I knew he had to score 50 every single week that year at Tech, so I just raised my level of risk. And I was wondering if we were seeing the Texas Tech Mahomes again on that throw where he spent most of the afternoon with no time getting flushed out of the pocket, trying to keep the plays open, and he's hurt and that Texans game in the back of his head, you know, and it sounds like I'm making excuses, but the point is, is on third and 12, do you think Mahomes is just bad all of a sudden? Because statistically, yes, this has been a continuation now of a few years. So it's like, what happened to that, like, absurd statistical Mahomes that we saw for all those years, like, why. Why is this falling off? But yet it was falling off, and they're still making the super bowl all the time. He still, I think, was number one in EPA on third and long last season. So if I'm. I'm sitting here going, okay, I know what the statistical profile is. I know who's winning MVPs. But, like, it doesn't mean. I mean, Brady didn't win MVP every single year. It doesn't mean that I'd want anyone over him. And with what happened this year, I was hearing that argument more and more, and I can't tell if I'm just the stubborn one or if I'm pointing out all the other problems that are happening around him. And if on third and 12, he's like, even though I know we have three points in the Back of our pocket. Even though Bucker missed more kicks, I think this season than any other point in his career. Like, do I. Do I just like this? Do I just like it? Because it's one on one against the linebacker and I think my guy's going to make a play. I imagine that's what he was thinking. So, look, he's 30. Brady, Tom Brady went nine years without a Super bowl win from ages 28 to 36. But the challenge for Mahomes is everything he's doing is being compared to one guy. And it's a bit like LeBron where there's no LeBron accomplishment that anyone cares about if it doesn't mean that he's going to overtake Jordan. And, like, no one's ever changing their mind on that. I don't think I've ever met one person that went, like, you know what? I was always a Jordan guy. But after that 20, after that 20 run, you know, I changed my. After the scoring title thing, I've changed my mind. Like, no one's really changing their mind about this stuff. But when Mahomes was on track after making five out of six Super Bowls, it's like, well, if he gets this one three straight, if they had won against Philadelphia, like, that's. That's how crazy the variance is here for Mahomes is that it goes from going into the super bowl matchup against Philadelphia to will he surpass Brady, which seems incomplete, to now out of the playoffs and the ACL tear on everything else, and that I'm supposed to think that this whole thing is now derailed and that he's not the same guy anymore, even though the stats clearly prove that he isn't. But I think there's a lot of other factors. And like I said, everything he's doing is being compared to just one guy. Hey, best win, it's Denver at home. Here's a number for you. So coming into the weekend, the Patriots and Broncos were the eighth and ninth teams, at least nine games over.500 to be listed as underdogs. Over the last five seasons, the previous seven teams went.07 against the spread. The Pats blow their lead.08 against the spread. Well, now it's one and eight because the Broncos won and obviously covered getting the one and a half. I don't know if that's what it was. I think it's pretty close to what the line was opening and kickoff. So Green Bay scores on their five first possessions. They're up 2314. And I'm like, I'm so smart. I'm like, I knew it. Denver three and out. They're like, all right, packers are going to pour it on, starting to run the football. What do they go with? They take the deep shot, certain picks it off. I don't even think it was a bad throw. I guess you could have said you could have gotten it out in front of Watson more. But I just think certain is that special. It's a special player making a special play that completely changed the game. And Knicks, who I haven't liked despite this win streak, like, I went through the throws again this morning. He had a deep shot where McKinney comes over and probably should have intercepted it because the receiver was open forever. Knicks got the ball to him late and McKinney's got incredible closing speed back there. And then when all the momentum was on Denver side in the fourth quarter, he threw a pick. Excuse me, he almost threw a pick to the right. It was a throw that didn't make any sense. It was a bad read. The point is, is that's like two decisions in the entire game. A game that statistically and considering what was on the line for Denver, who the opponent was, that may have been Bo Nicks best game he's ever had. And here's the other thing, because the other part where I would talk about Knicks and the air yards and not having the deep ball pressure that you probably really want if you're going to make it through a playoff run, it's something even Romo was referencing, is like getting the ball down the field, you know, Jim, Jim, you know, I don't know. And meanwhile he's lighting it up all day long with the four touchdowns. But I would say, okay, well, wait a minute. They have the best offensive line probably in the NFL. They have one of the best defenses, best red zone defense. Their secondary is incredible. I actually do like the receivers a little bit. I know they've had health issues at, at running back, but they have all of these other things and they're winning all of these games and it may be everybody's favorite defense not named the Houston Texans. Then you know, how much is he really doing on his own? Because the other part of this is this is an 11 game win streak, right? With the point differential and that 11 game win streak that ranks last amongst the 35 teams in NFL history to win 11 more games consecutively within a season. That's Sando and Pro Football Reference. But Sando continues on this one. The last month they're not playing great defense. So Knicks is not exactly being carried in the last month the way that he's been carried by this team, I would say over the first two years of his career. If you look at this number. So Denver keeps winning even though its defense is well below average, minus 3 EPA or worse. In each of the past four games since 2000, the only other teams went four in a row. The defensive deck stacked against them to that degree had Mahomes, the 18 Chiefs, Drew Brees 11 Saints, Manning, the 06 Colts, Carson Palmer, the 03 Cincinnati Bengals. The old team to win five in a row with a defense not supporting you over those circumstances is Brayden. All right, so look, you know me, I'm running out of teams to pick against the Denver Broncos. I'm probably going to be a little stubborn about it here, but like, I don't. I don't know what else is like the one part of the team that I haven't necessarily liked. Quarterback. Even though the passing totals haven't been great prior to what we saw yesterday. And then you just have this game completely turned upside down after that. After that pick, Parsons goes out the challenge on the. On the catch that was so obviously a catch costing the Packers a really valuable timeout later. And then of course, the corners for Green Bay. On top of everything else, I felt so smart picking the packers against Denver. I didn't feel smart once the game was done. Worse loss. Pat's up 21 nothing at home. They had won 120 straight of 17 or more points, the longest streak in NFL history. They're still the number two seed Denver has at Jacksonville, who won again. No one seems to care at Kansas City, whatever that game means now and then. The Chargers at home. A little love for the Chargers and this defense we all know about. Derwin James Henley, number zero, and Tony Jefferson, who's been around for a while outside of Oklahoma. He got tossed the game I thought the hit on Thornton was. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen. But Rasheed Rice, who. Who no one's going to have any sympathy for considering his bullshit. And I'm not trying to be funny here and saying that last week against Houston, his body looked like a crash test dummy and everybody had the jokes for it. Rice got lit up again all day yesterday. The part where you watch it in slow motion, like, how does a body even get up from some of this stuff? So I don't know that Rice was pissed at Tony Jefferson because they hit on Thornton or if Rice was pissed about the beating that he's taken the last couple of weeks. But I have no criticism for Jefferson. I have no criticism for the way this secondary and the linebackers for the Chargers hit. There's a part of football that I think gets lost sometimes and that we forget about the fight. And when you're watching this Chargers team play, even though there's a bunch of stuff, especially in the offensive line, that you don't necessarily love, and you're like, how good can this team really be? Well, I pick them against the Broncos if they're playing him in the playoffs. There's something about the fight of a football team that can really be overlooked. With all the things that we obsess about, that Marvin Hagler part of it, where you're down, you figure the Chiefs are going to be really prideful. They're at home, their season is on the line. Like, that's a huge spot where you're like, hey, I'm going to pick the Chiefs in this one. I'm just going to give them a benefit of the doubt. And over the course of this game, the way those guys play, the way they hit, the way they stay in the fight, and they're like, we may be down, but all of this stuff, the bill is going to come due later on. I do think we lose sight of that in football. New England finishes with Baltimore, which feels like a really challenging game at their place. Lamar, I thought finally looked a little bit more like Lamar in that win against Cincinnati at the jets in the Miami. All right, I got some numbers for you here.
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Bruce Feldman
Do you know how easy this is for me? Do you have any fucking idea how easy this.
- [19:37]
Ryan Rosillo
This is a fucking joke. We're going to do more on the Rams with Matt Ryan here. Detroit's up 2414. I had this whole Jameer Gibbs thing that I've been workshopping. Maybe it's a Wednesday segment. I'm talking about drafting the value of running backs, which we've all been opposed to here. This is not the week for it, because even when they were up 2414, it wasn't because of Jameer Gibbs. Oddly, they seem to try to get back into the game in passing situations by giving the ball to Jameer Gibbs later on, which maybe is just a compliment to him. So, 2414. What does this mean for the Rams? Well, it doesn't mean anything. It only means that they're my favorite team in the NFL right now. If you had to say, hey, let's do one of those playoff draft things that you never revisit later, on and see who won the draft and all that kind of stuff. The Rams would be the number one pick. There's. There's so many numbers here that I love. Number seven, defense, opposing yards per play, number seven against third downs, number two, red zone, touchdown percentage allowed. This is the most important thing they allow. The third fewest. But on the lines, they are top eight in pass block, win rate, run block win rate, pass rush win rate, run stop win rate. The worst they are is eighth in the NFL on any of those four groups. The offense, the only thing I could find that's even not great is like third down conversions, bottom third of the league, but their fourth down conversions, third best. And their offense is number one yards per play. This team, when their pass rush is on, it feels like World War Z where there's just a faucet of zombies just filing through. There'll be some hole on the offensive line. It's like, wait, where's that? That guy's coming. They're so fast. The only thing I could think of when they were down 2414 is I'm like, is there anything to their defensive line being a little lighter and is there some matchup there somewhere in the playoffs or. An offensive line is so strong, you know, is this the Eagles? If they ever look like the Eagles again, and even their losses, like, if you're doing college football, you'd be like, okay, well, they've got some losses, but they're up 267 on Philadelphia. That's disappointing to blow that one on the road. Turnover differential in the Niners game and overtime division game turnover differential. They lost that one in the Carolina game and Carolina went 3 for 3 on fourth down. So they've got the cleanest resume of any team with all the star power. Yes, I know the receivers got dinged up in this one with Adams and Nakua, but they, they have to be the favorites to win a title this year. We'll do more on the Rams with Matt Ryan. For those who haven't heard yet, Skims now offers men's underwear and I'm here to tell you it's worth the hype. Skims stretch boxer briefs finally give you all the movement you need for working out without feeling like you're walking around wearing gym clothes the rest of the day. Plus they never lose their shape or ride up. I'll tell you, it's been a dilemma over the years. You go to the gym in one setup, you pack up your gym bag, maybe you've got a high level meeting with executives and you shower, you change. You're like, I'm going to head out to there. And you're like, oh man, I packed compression shorts. These aren't going to work with this suit. And then the other way around, you're like, hey, I'm going to the gym. I'm running. I'm like, oh, a really loose fitting boxer while I'm about to do Bulgarian squats. Like, this doesn't make any sense. I can't do this. Here's what I love about skims. Some days I am in a rush when I'm packing up the old to go bag and then I look down, I'm like, oh, wait, I'm like, you know what? This is the Shohei Otani of underwear for men. It can do both. Shop skims@skims.com let them know we sent you. After you place your order, select podcast in the survey and select our show in the drop down down menu that follows. And if you're looking for the perfect gifts this season, the skims holiday shop is now open@skims.com this is good timing to have this guy on. Matt Ryan, one of the best quarterbacks during his time now with CBS and obviously part of the Netflix Christmas coverage. He'll have Cowboys and Commanders. I, I'd start Rams, I'd start Mahomes, but I haven't talked about Philip Rivers because I was looking at it. He hadn't played since 2020. You hadn't played since 22. Were you inspired at all by your guy yesterday? Thinking, like, I might have a few snaps left?
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Matt Ryan
Yes. I mean, it was a really cool story. And it is a cool story, you know, to see him coming out of it. I thought his comments after the game, him talking about his sons, like that kind of stuff. It was, it was like, it hit you kind of, you know, when you're watching it. Did it inspire me to want to play? No, I'm good. You know, I feel differently than he does from that respect. But, you know, I have had the thoughts. I feel like all of us, you know, retired players, especially the first couple years out, and I'm watching like, you know, every game on the desk all weekend and seeing everything. I'm like, man, I think I could still, I think I could still go out there and like, you know, complete a few passes. But I am sure he's waking up today and it hits different, man. It hits different when you get older, the feelings after the game. So I can't imagine how he's feeling after playing yesterday because he Took a few shots. He took a few shots in that game. Went, like, straight back to the ground. So he's got to be hurting today, but it was fun to watch.
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Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I think, like, everybody. There was, like, this curiosity part of it, and then you're wondering, like, what can the Colts do to even compete with the Seattle team? And then they're right into the very, very end. And there was like a third and seventh throw where I was like, well. And then I was kind of like, well, wait a minute. That was always his. That was always his delivery. It always felt like he kind of put everything into it. So. Yeah, right. So I'm like, it can't get out. And then there was, like, that pop up that he got pounded on. And I'm like, yeah, but, you know, whatever. Like, they're in this fight, they're fighting through this whole thing, and he was always such a bigger guy that. That maybe, you know, I was just trying to figure out, like, the reality of, like, what's it going to be like the rest of the season? Even if the way it was explained to me, it's like, hey, he talks with this staff all the time. So as absurd as it was, he hadn't played in five years. There is a comfort level with him versus anyone else. You're going to find on the practice squad that even if it seems ridiculous, he still gives him a better chance because of his understanding of being on the same page with this group than just a younger dude that there's zero relationship with. So once that was explained to me, I was like, look, I still think it's crazy, but at least I understand the background of it a little bit more.
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Matt Ryan
Well, for sure, you can at least go out there and operate. You know what I mean? Like, you can. You can break the huddle, you can set the protections you can do. You can at least, like, keep it moving, you know? And I think that's. I think that's so often why you see guys that have played with coaches where they're getting picked up on practice squad or whatever, that you're like, really him? Well, yeah, he makes sense. Because if you're going to, you know, fill the gap for two or three weeks, like, we don't have time to get you up to speed. We need you up to speed now to be able to go out there and do it. And. Yeah, it was still wild, though, man. It was still wild, like, seeing him out there and playing. And they had a chance, which was crazy. They had a chance.
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Ryan Rosillo
Let's start with The Rams. I was talking about him a little earlier in the pod where, you know, if you're looking for the profile of a team to check all these boxes, I don't know that you can do any better than them. And they get down, they come back and sure, we can start going like, all right, well, how deep the receiver group going to be, but it's not like they're putting three receivers out there all the time. Like, every time you're looking up, they're in this 13 personnel, they're going one receiver. If Naku is just a cramp thing, you know, his, his playmaking ability, him winning the 50, 50 balls. And I know Devonte had like, you know, nice start, nice close to this whole thing. But if you could have one team, is it the Rams?
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Matt Ryan
I think so. I think they're playing the best football of anybody in the league right now, you know, and you were really just talking about the offense. I mean, the defense is. The defense is really, really good. Young, talented, physical, good against the run, good pass rush, pretty good in the back end. Complete. You know, they're a complete football team. And I agree with you. You know, I think on the offensive side of the ball, we'll see how bad Devonte's hamstring is. I think that's hard, hard to come back from the older you get. I know he's, he's like a workhorse and, you know, just will do everything he can to, to be ready to go. But hamstrings are temperamental for, for older wide receivers, it's just difficult to come back the area. I think they'll miss him. And this could be one of the things if you're going to pick a hole. His red zone production was off the chart, you know, just off the chart. And a lot of it is Stafford, but a lot of it is. Is his release off the ball to. His ability to create just a little bit of separation and Matthew's, you know, ability to put it, you know, in the right location. So I think if there's one area you can look at that hurts them, I think is the. If he's out, depending on how long he's out, what their red zone production might look like, but that's. That's it. You got a head coach that's a champion, you got a quarterback that's a champion who might be playing the best football of his career. You got like this ultimate X factor in Puka Nakua. You got two good running backs. The offensive line is playing pretty good. They create matchups with personnel groupings and you got a defense that is good in all phases. Like, it is to me, the most complete team in the NFL.
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Ryan Rosillo
When I think about Stafford's career, you know, one of the reasons why, you know, he's with Detroit, and it's like, oh, hey, I thought this guy was awesome. Number one pick, the whole thing. And the physical nature of the way he can play, just the zip, some of the. Just the ball looks different out of his hands almost compared to like anybody else. And maybe Peak Rogers is. Is at the same level LA and all that kind of stuff. Right. But we don't need to do that right now. But it was also him getting his ass kicked a lot. And there's times the Rams, they had to kind of reinvent this offensive line on the fly. And maybe it's the play calling. It's like, look, if we don't think we can hold up, then we got to get creative and do some other stuff. Like, I always felt like Brady did the best job of that of anyone I've ever seen. It's like, okay, if I know I don't have this, then I have to figure out how to operate with this. Or I think there's other teams. It's like, hey, I guess we're just not going to block today. See if you can figure it out. Which kind of blows my mind too, at the NFL level, it's like, well, I guess we can't pass protect, so, you know, we'll see how it goes. They don't get sacked. He doesn't get sacked anymore. I mean, you know, yes, it's not zero, but it's the lowest sack rate. And I was watching him yesterday, I'm going, you know, there's something about him too, where, you know, when they're winning, everybody looks like they're having a good time. But I'm wondering if you're seeing something with him where so many seasons he's worried about that part of the game. And now I think with the way this offensive line has dominated that this thing that's probably always lingering in the back of your heads when you're playing that position going, I don't have protection this season, I have protection this week. I think he's playing with a freedom now because he's not thinking about something that usually was happening to him throughout his career, even when he was great. I.
- [30:52]
Matt Ryan
There's no question, right? Like, even the best, even the best. When you're getting hit over and over and over again, it is so difficult to just you know, not think it's going to happen the next play, you know what I mean? It's. It's like you have to trick yourself in some ways that, like, each play is a new. A new play, but it does accelerate your clock. It does kind of speed up, you know, your decision making. I think, I think he is playing with a freedom that, that's kind of what I see. There's. There's a freedom to trusting that the protection is going to be trusting guys are going to win in the back end. And I think, I think you're seeing that. The beauty of him, though, is I think all of that experience, if they have a game where, you know it's not perfect, right? And there is some of that. He knows how to play that game too, which I think is going to be important as they come down the stretch run of the season and through the playoffs, is, you know, he's got this great database and this great timing and rhythm from this entire season and a feel of that offensive line protecting him. But if the game goes sideways, he knows how to play that game as well. And so it's almost why you see a guy like Philip get a chance again too. Right? Because you have to be able to operate and get the ball out and not take sacks and stay on schedule. And I think, I think Matthew, you know, that experience in Detroit, it just makes him so versatile, so versatile. But quite frankly, I think, I think he's playing the best football of his career right now, as good as he's ever played.
- [32:20]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, we could get into some of the stats stuff with it, but I mean, even this year would, would hold up as well. And then considering, like coming into it, it's like, hey, I don't know what his back is going to do. And it's like, oh, may, or maybe he'll win mvp. So, like, what, what kind of conversation we were having about this guy in August and then where we're at now, I think anybody that's watching it week to week, you know, look, you never know this league, something could happen. It doesn't mean they're guaranteed.
- [32:41]
Matt Ryan
But I think with that back, though, I think to your point, it's like, is he going to play again? To. Is he the. Is he the best player in the league right now? Which is a wild, A wild range. There's a lot in between there.
- [32:59]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay, so if we go back to your rookie year, you start all 16 games. Okay. How many college starts did you have? Do you want me to look it up for you? Because I'll have it if you want me to.
- [33:10]
Matt Ryan
Probably. Let me see if I can get this off the top of my head. I'm going to say 14. My last year, 12. I don't know, maybe like 35, 36.
- [33:23]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. See starts. I have 43 games, but I remember the old Tom O' Brien thing. I remember asking you about this once where you would come in for that series if you were the backup. And I was like, I love this. And he was like, you're, like, the only person who likes it.
- [33:35]
Matt Ryan
I think. I think you're the only one on the planet. I know the starter didn't like it. I was pissed because I wanted to keep playing. But Tom liked it. Tom liked it? Yeah.
- [33:44]
Kyle
I don't know.
- [33:44]
Ryan Rosillo
I. I always really liked it. But again, I've talked to enough guys that played for Spurier, like, it's the worst thing ever. I'm like, it's not the Spur. The Spurrier thing. You never knew. You never knew. At least this was like, when you were developing the next guy, you knew you were getting this series, 32 starts. You were right on it.
- [34:02]
Matt Ryan
Okay. Yeah. Right around there. I knew I was. I knew I had a chance to be good. When I became the starter and the next guy behind me didn't come in in the first series of the second quarter, that's when I was like, okay, maybe I got a shot. Maybe I got a chance. Tom doesn't think we need to do that right now.
- [34:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, right. Right. At least with you. Yeah. There's probably an argument like, maybe you stay with Matt. Maybe we stay with Matt. So the reason I'm asking this stuff is I always want to get a better understanding of it, but when you think of your rookie, like, you have a pretty good. You're not like one of these guys who's starting 15 games in college and then coming in. Right, Right. Because then that draft pick comes in, and it's like, you're going to have to be really patient. You're going to have to, like, the system doesn't even apply to what they're doing in the NFL. Even though I think the games are probably a little bit closer on Saturday, Sunday, offensively than they were when you were coming out. But what is that, like, depth of. Of what your understanding is? Like, what. I know you're going to say, well, I didn't understand anything, but how much of the playbook can you have? And I understand it's like different offensive coordinators and different kind of systems, but I'm sure it didn't take as long as, like, I'm not saying Stafford. I don't think we're saying right now that the Stafford has reached this quarterback zen this late into his career. But how long did it take for you felt like every time you lined up, you knew everything and everything to expect.
- [35:27]
Matt Ryan
I would say. I would say year one, you're keeping your head above water, right? You're just trying to survive. You're trying to, you know, get out of the huddle. You're trying to do that. Year two, I felt like I knew more than I actually knew. You know, you hit that space where you're like, oh, I got this, I got this.
- [35:45]
Ryan Rosillo
And then you realize it's more dangerous probably than rookie year, right?
- [35:48]
Matt Ryan
Way more dangerous. When in fact, I realized I did not know, you know, what they were doing or what I was doing. Year three was the first time I felt in control of our offense. Maybe not, you know, complete control of. Of what they were doing defensively, but, like, I knew our scheme and I knew the problem points within our scheme. So if I got. If I got caught off guard, I knew my answers. I knew how to get it out. I knew. I knew how to adjust protections. I knew how to kind of operate within that scheme. I would really argue, though, year five. Year five for me was when it felt different. There was a level of confidence, a level of belief, an understanding of like, yeah, I can play in this league. I can play at a high level in this league. I know what I'm looking at defensively. I know that if you get me, I'm not going to make big mistakes. I'm going to get the ball out of my hand. There was this realization that, like, that I could really do it. And it's not that I didn't play good football in those first four years, but that was the first time. Year five was really the first time I felt like I was in complete control of what we were doing and had a great understanding of defensive scheme and fronts and how fronts and coverages tied into each other, blitz packages, those kind of things.
- [37:05]
Ryan Rosillo
So when you're watching somebody, like when I watch Drake May, the thing that stands out to me is, okay, he is decisive and I know they blew this game, but, I mean, he's had an incredible second year. I don't even know how much you count the first year against him. And then with the JJ McCarthy, who, again, it's really his only year playing. Cause he was hurt last year. He's had a nice little stretch here for two Weeks, but there was accuracy issues. Can you watch and go. This guy's putting up decent numbers, but this is kind of like my Bo Nix thing a little bit where I'm like. And he was unbelievable yesterday. But I was like, yeah, you know, I still had all these. These doubts about, like, what his ceiling would be, especially as we start getting through and try to pick all these playoff games. So can you watch and see somebody who looks like, yeah, the numbers are okay and they won the game, but I think that guy's a little bit lost versus somebody who you think is, like, completely locked in.
- [37:58]
Matt Ryan
I. I think there's a feel to it. You know, like, there's a feeling and there's a. It depends what numbers you're talking about, right? So, like, if you're telling me you're going out there and we're just going off of, like, touchdown to interception ratio, you know, he had nice game. He was 17 at 25, and he had three touchdowns, zero interceptions for, you know, 1:50. I'm like, okay. You know, like, yards per attempt to me is. Is like the most underrated stat because, you know, you. You start talking about if you can hit a completion percentage that's like above 67% and you've got. You've got like nine yards per attempt somewhere in that, like 8.7 to 9 point somewhere around there in yards per attempt. To me, that's. That's where you want to live, right? You want to be completing footballs, but you're also. You're also making plays, you know, down the field. You're creating chunk plays. So, you know, I feel like that yards per attempt stat is the one that. That oftentimes I look at and I'm like, wow, okay, that's higher than I thought, or that's lower than I thought. And it oftentimes confirms, like, yeah, it did feel like a lot of checkdowns or it did feel like a lot of screens, or it did feel like a lot of quick game or keepers and movement and that. And you see these, you know, six point. I can't remember what Bo Nix's was, but Bo Nix's yards per attempt to. To your point, I can find that stat somewhere. I don't have my stats in front of me.
- [39:25]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, he was 27th in the league, but not all qualifier in the sixes.
- [39:29]
Matt Ryan
Yeah. So I think that's part of what you're feeling is like, yes, he's been clutch in fourth quarters, but across, across the board, it's been a lot of. It's a mixed bag, right? It's a mixed bag in, in terms of what you're getting. And I agree with you. I thought he played really, really well.
- [39:44]
Ryan Rosillo
He was nine yesterday, by the way.
- [39:45]
Matt Ryan
There you go. So there it is. There's that magic number, I think, I think if you get in that space of completion percentage up in the high 60s to somewhere scraping 70, which is really, really good. But that yards per attempt getting closer to nine to me, that's like the magic number in, in, in those stat lines.
- [40:06]
Ryan Rosillo
So if you could have any of the young QBs, you know, you can go. It doesn't have to just be from the 24 class. I don't know that you pick any of the rookies. But like, is, is it Drake May and then a gap?
- [40:17]
Matt Ryan
Well, I mean, ask us that question last year and it's Jaden Daniels and then a gap, right? It's, it's number one. He's been hurt most of the year. They've, they've been inconsistent across the board. Caleb's starting to get better, man. Like, he's starting to get better. I think it goes back to your question of when did I feel like I was in control of, of myself and the offense that was like five years into it. So I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't want to choose yet. I still think the upside for all three of these guys and Bo Nix, you toss him in there as well and you know, you got McCarthy and Michael Penix who are in that, that other gap that's, you know, not in the, in kind of the same category. I, I don't know how it's all going to shake out at the end. If I had to choose right now, of course I'm taking Drake May just because of, of the season he's having. But I'm bullish, I'm bullish on Caleb, I'm bullish on Jaden if he can stay healthy. And I like what I've seen from, from Bo as well.
- [41:22]
Ryan Rosillo
Even with the uncertainty, all this stuff, I mean, the Allen week to week thing feels like the constant, right? And they go into that game without, I think their best defensive player. You know, maybe that could be in Benford being out who, you know, every week when I watch him on defense, I'm like, this defense just isn't that good. And maybe, you know, like that Cincinnati game on top of everything else. Granted you could go snow a little bit there, but I always thought, you know, you look at what Cincinnati does that week and then what they do against A finely healthy Baltimore team. You're like, man, that looked a little bit different. So I had said a couple weeks ago, I was like, this is setting up the best it ever has for Josh Allen because 100 Mahomes is gone. But it's also happening at the same time as this is the worst defense, maybe you could say the overall worst team that they've had in like this five year run of Josh Allen putting together all this stuff. So the Allen part of this is the thing that you can bank. There's very few things in this league you can bank on every single week. Is there enough there and what you think of the rest of the AFC to, to want to go like, I'm not asking you, hey, pick your super bowl participants right now. But all I can see is Super Bowl. But I looked through this AFC list of like, I can't believe how wrong I was in the Green Bay outcome of that game. And I was, I was comically wrong. All right, Jacksonville, like just keeps winning.
- [42:42]
Matt Ryan
They have some defense is good, man. Jacksonville's defense is very good, but it's.
- [42:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Not as good as Houston's defense, which is, you know, another thing that. So there's these teams in the AFC that again, we have a hard time with new because it's all kind of collectively new that I don't know that I'm just going to go for the Bills here. And it's like you had, you had 17 games to not believe in this Bill's defense. Like, why would you pick them against these other teams that show up and defend for the most part every single week?
- [43:11]
Matt Ryan
Well, I said it on our show a couple of weeks ago, two weeks ago. You know, as you look at the playoff seating as it is right now in the AFC and you've got an absence of. And this is, we're doing this on Monday, so we've got an absence of Baltimore or is Baltimore in now that they had one? I can't, I can't remember. But depends on what happens with Pittsburgh. Okay. There could be an absence of like you said, Lamar.
- [43:43]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, Baltimore's out as of right now because the tiebreaker. Well, they're actually half came behind Pittsburgh, but they still don't have the tiebreaker with Pittsburgh too. So keep going. Yeah.
- [43:52]
Matt Ryan
Okay. So as of right now, Lamar is out, Joe Burrow's out, Patrick Mahomes is out. Yes, I like all of those defenses and I agree with you. I think they're all very good football teams. Denver's excellent. You know, Houston's defense is Excellent. I think Jacksonville is very, very good. The one guy that can put the team on the back and is a known known is Josh Allen. And we saw it yesterday, man, you know, down 21, nothing, and they just chip away and come back and he just makes plays. And it's seemingly like, because he's £250, he can run, he can fling it, he's accurate, he's fearless, he's all those things. It negates, like, some of the strengths of these defenses. Now, I will say this, though. His kryptonite has been Houston. When he has played Houston, that is the one time he's looked different. And it can go all the way back to last year and their performance against them this year. Houston seems to be the one team that has his number. And what scares me or what would scare me about that Houston team is CJ Stroud starting to play really good football again, too. And, you know, if they get rolling on offense, they very well may be the most complete team in the afc.
- [45:17]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I'm with you on Stroud. Like, if you look at first year and third year, you'd be shocked at how, like, there's numbers in there that tell you he's even better this year, but he just doesn't have any of that, like, fun momentum. I know that sounds really simple, but it was so fun when he's a rookie in d' Amico and you're like, look at what this team did year one. This just isn't supposed to happen. And now that it's year three and the offense for a while there looked terrible. The offensive line getting embarrassed in big spots. And then you're like, all right. You know, it's kind of like when the Bills lost to Atlanta. You're like, what the hell's wrong with this team? And they're still like, we know what's. Like, there's. There's something wrong with this team. They're not. But when they lose to the Texans and you're like, what is. And then it's like, well, actually, like, that doesn't. That doesn't look like a bad loss. It's like the same thing with the Chargers when they lost to Jacksonville 35 to 6 to Jacksonville, I'm going like, you're going to have faith in Herbert and Harbaugh more than you are Lawrence and. And Liam Cohen. But that's. You cannot ignore this result. Even if I thought in the beginning of the year Jacksonville had a nice record because of this absurd turnover margin thing that I didn't think would be able to keep up. So I don't know if you have a few thoughts on, like, Jacksonville, if it's a matchup that you would like them against, but I feel bad that I should be talking about them and having more faith in them. But I'm just going to be honest and go like, I just haven't cared. I haven't cared all year.
- [46:42]
Matt Ryan
I think you're not alone. We talk about it every week on the show and it's like, are we really. Should we talk Jacksonville and we've been pushing, you know, from behind of, like, watching them. Yeah, we should. They're good. Jacksonville and Houston, they remind me a lot of each other. Defense, defense, defense. And improved quarterback play. And we've seen that throughout the course of the season. Both these quarterbacks have gotten better. I know CJ was out with the concussion and Davis Mills shout out to him. Right. He gets the assist of the year of keeping them in contention during that stretch. But Trevor Lawrence, man, that'd be a good award.
- [47:19]
Ryan Rosillo
That would be an award like. Well, just. I don't even know. Yeah, I don't know what it is. Like, if you had a backup tackle that had to play For a month.
- [47:27]
Matt Ryan
100% filled the gap for. For a certain amount of time, like.
- [47:31]
Ryan Rosillo
That should be an award.
- [47:33]
Matt Ryan
But like Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence is playing really, really well. The last three or four games, he has looked excellent. And, you know, I think everybody in the media world at different times has been critical of his play, critical of some of the things we've seen from him, but it's the best I've seen him play in his career. And the timing and the rhythm, passing, that is something that I think he has struggled with throughout his career. Has looked really, really good. Like, the athleticism has been there. He has nice ability to run with the football, and that showed up yesterday as well. But like, his timing and rhythm in the passing game, I think can't be undervalued because he's doing it really, really good right now. And I think Liam Cohen, like, it might be the best thing for him because everybody's been like, he hasn't lived up to the potential. He hasn't done this. He hasn't done that. And I think he's got a coach that understands how to put him in favorable situations. I think Liam's doing a great job. I think Jacksonville is good. I think they're legitimately good.
- [48:39]
Ryan Rosillo
Back to your year. Five point. It would make sense because I got sick of waiting and I think that's what it was is that even if they were winning some games early, the Chiefs win where, you know, that whole time you're just expecting the Chiefs to get that game, which. Which speaks to some of the chief stuff that we're going to get to here. And then you're like, all right, well, they won that one. But, like, I still can't. For me. And I think for a lot of people, that was still. I can't believe the Chiefs blew that game. So then it's not credit to Jacksonville.
- [49:04]
Matt Ryan
Yes.
- [49:05]
Ryan Rosillo
And then you go through, like, halfway through the season, I'm looking at Trevor Stats. I'm like, he's the guy. He's the same guy for five years. Like, enough already. But yeah, for the last five, like, yeah, he lit up the jets, so nobody's going to want to pay attention to that. But you know that Chargers. Yeah, right. I mean, lit them up. But you already know what's going to happen.
- [49:22]
Bruce Feldman
It's just.
- [49:22]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, it doesn't. But you're right. For the last five games, I think that, you know, the Arizona game wasn't great, but for the last five games here, he's put together a nice little stretch. Let me now go to Mahomes. I spent a lot of time, you know, by myself in this episode, you know, because I'm a huge fan. So I'll admit it sounds like I'm making excuses because I was, in fact making excuses for all the elements of this falling apart around him. He's 30 years old. The dynasty is. It's like, you could say it's over, but we don't know that it's over. That seems absurd for a guy that I still think is better than anyone else playing the position, even if the stats don't necessarily back it up. So it's almost fitting that it ends both with their playoff run streak ending. And then it sucks that he goes out with the ACL because of, like, how much he was propping stuff up. So bigger picture, like, what did you see from the Chiefs this year? And then kind of like, what do you think happens?
- [50:17]
Matt Ryan
I think there's gotta be changes. And I'm not saying that like, Andy Reid, he's the man. He's there. He's got the right pulse for that team. Patrick Mahomes is going to be there. I still think Travis Kelsey's playing good football. Like, I thought he played pretty good for them this year. I think there needs to be changes. Offensive and defensive line, I think O line. I know there are some injuries and such, but like inconsistent play on both sides of the ball, offensive and defensive line, inconsistent wide receiver play. So, you know, like, one of the things, I think when you watch the Chiefs, they don't get stuff in rhythm in the passing game. It's so reliant on play extension and improvisation by Patrick. And I think that's tough to just. It's tough to hang your hat on that week in and week out. And I think the way you do that is you gotta be better running the football, right? So there becomes play action, there becomes stuff that you can do off of that to give yourself some of those open completions on first and second down to keep you on schedule. And then defensively, you know, inconsistent pass rush. I think they relied too heavily on the blitz and, and it exposed a secondary that I think needs some pieces. So, you know, I think they need. I think they need to. I think they need to add some pieces to that team. But if I were to start, it's offensive and defensive line, you know, as boring as that sounds, that's where the game is won. And I think they weren't good enough in those two spaces this season.
- [51:51]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay, final thought again, I want to remind all our listeners that Matt Ryan's going to be part of the Netflix Christmas game coverage. Cowboys at Commanders. That's a brutal one for the Cowboys. You know, I've had some like, up and down moments with Dak where it was like, what an amazing story. And then I was like, is just a lot of stats. And then wait, is he second in mvp? And then like this year I was kind of all in on him again. Like there was a stretch there for a month. I was like, this might be the best offense in the NFL. And then, you know, of all people, J.J. mcCarthy has a really clean night for him. So if you're looking at these two teams, granted the Commanders is a massive reset year with their injuries. Knew it was an older team and, and a surprising NFC title game run last year. But your preparation for this game, like, what are you looking for as far as, like, probably what's next for both of these teams?
- [52:39]
Matt Ryan
Yeah, I mean, what's next for the Commanders? I think, you know, number one, that starts with getting, you know, Jaden Daniels healthy. We'll see, you know, if, if he's available for this game. Selfishly, I hope so because he's so fun to watch and dynamic. But we'll see what they decide to do, you know, from that light. But I do think that the defense, they have not played good defense in Washington this Year. And, you know, I think that Dan. Dan Quinn, who I played for for a long time, you know, I just. I have belief in him that he'll get that right for them long term. You know, I think you could probably use another piece at the wide receiver position, you know, to. To kind of stretch the field vertically on the other side, you know, and ERT's going out, too. I mean, he's at the end. We're seeing a lot of guys. It's an older football team where it's a lot of guys who, you know, probably are moving on. So I think they're going to look very different next year. You know, as we sit here today, it's like, you know, we got three games left. This does. Dallas is some. Because Billy hasn't looked great. And I know they beat Las Vegas, and maybe that's the turnaround in the ship, you know, but maybe there's a chance. Maybe there's a chance something happens this weekend where they. They. They can figure out a way. So, selfishly, I'm hoping that that's part of the case, you know, for this call. But I like what Brian Schottenheimer has done there. I think a lot of people critical of. Of, you know, that hire at the beginning of the year, and I think he's done a really good job. I like some of the pieces Jerry picked up at the trade deadline. Like, I think the defense does look better. Maybe he. Maybe he had a plan that we didn't know about prior to all of this, but he did a good job with that. I think this team. I think this team is going to be in the mix next year because I'm a believer in Dak, you know, and I get the, you know, sometimes he's the MVP some. Is it just filling stats? I just. I think he's a good player, and I think. I think this team's going to be primed to make a run next year.
- [54:44]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, that's the one thing Jerry, like, the way that was rolling, right? They have that comeback against Philly and you're looking at some of the front office stuff, and you're like, would anybody actually, like, take a step back and be entirely fair about this? Because his approval rating on any transaction, like, people just over it, right? They think he's the constant. He's the reason they're not getting back to Super Bowls. And I still don't know that there's any justification of moving on from somebody like Michael Parsons, who's just.
- [55:07]
Matt Ryan
I get that. And I agree with you.
- [55:11]
Ryan Rosillo
But there was part of it. You're like, hey, have you noticed, like, all the other stuff that they've done really well?
- [55:16]
Matt Ryan
Yes.
- [55:17]
Ryan Rosillo
And it's like, well, now that none of that, can't we.
- [55:19]
Matt Ryan
Yeah, we can't. We can't acknowledge that.
- [55:22]
Ryan Rosillo
Hey, have a great Christmas. We'll all be watching and look forward to our next visit. Thanks, Matt.
- [55:26]
Matt Ryan
All right, Ryan. Appreciate you, bud.
- [55:31]
Ryan Rosillo
It's official. The Big Shack is out. Now, let's run through it. We're talking two Angus beef patties, three buns, new secret sauce. It's stacked, balanced, and built the right way. You get everything you expect from Shake Shack. Fresh ingredients, that toasted potato bunch and sauce that pulls the whole thing together for 9.99. It's kind of wild how much burger you're getting, especially one that doesn't taste like typical fast food. It's big, it's fresh, and it's legit. One of their best burgers yet. I went to Shake Shack the other day, and, you know, I was thinking about that scene from Mad Men where Peggy talks about the routine of the Popsicle and that it's really not even about the taste or this icy treat. It's really about the routine, and it's about family, and it's about sharing that moment together. And I was watching these families, probably fresh back from the mall, Christmas shopping, maybe volunteering, maybe they cut down their tree, and as they drove back into town, they could see Shake Shack on the horizon. Right? Kind of like if you're lost at a festival and you're like, I found our tent and Shake Shacks right there. And I could see these families coming in, and it was the routine. And the thing is, is you could see the kids, and they're sitting around as if the table itself in Shake Shack were the tree on a Christmas morning. And instead of unwrapping presents, they were unwrapping their burgers. And the kids. It was a new video game system. It was the extra Angus beef patty and the three buns. They're like, I didn't even know this was real. Did Santa do this? If you've been waiting to see what all the hype's about, today's the day. Go to Shake Shack and order the Big Shack. Sounds familiar. Made different. He's one of the best voices in all of college football. Bruce Feldman from the Athletic and also Big Noon Kickoff, covering the game on Saturdays throughout the season. He joins us now. Okay, Bruce, we know Sharon Moore is out as head coach of Michigan. That's Old news news. At this point, you had a piece up of what their options were. Before we get into all that kind of stuff, let's just start with the timeline, because I think anybody that's a little plugged into this game was hearing things out of Ann Arbor like, all right, they're not going to have a ton of patience with him. And there were sort of rumblings you didn't really know what necessarily believe. And now the story's turned into a disaster with the inappropriate relationship and then him ultimately going to her house, being detained. I mean, this whole thing is crazy just to see the visuals of all of this stuff. So he's done. What can you tell us, as you've understood. Understood more about this story, how it's played out?
- [58:08]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, it is. It's a really ugly, disturbing story. I think there's parts that are connected to the actual on the job aspect of it, where you talk to people, as I have, especially in the last week, where they feel like the culture inside the program has dropped dramatically since he's taken over. You have a picture of somebody who was very fragile emotionally and just kind of all over the place. And that level of dysfunction, I think, was something that a lot of people inside the building, from what I understand, saw. There's an investigation now going on to. Basically, this is the way it's been put to me. It's not just, what did they know and when did they know it? It's like, why didn't they know this at. You know, before it was. It was that glaring to a bunch of people. The AD Ward manual. And this. This factors into the. The coaching search where we're, you know, gonna go in a second, is it. It doesn't look like I'd be surprised if he's still the AD much longer because I just think that everything that's lined up with, you know, their investigations. The first one, which didn't seem like. From. From our reporting at the Athletic, as you said, and I think a lot of people knew of these rumors for a while, at least a couple of months and. But it was like they couldn't prove anything. Well, how far did they really look and how many people did they talk to? And now, you know, another investigation after this because, you know, as we had reported, somebody else had come forward to.
- [60:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Basically.
- [60:05]
Bruce Feldman
To show their hand, at least in this. I think it's just the situation is. It's hard to say, oh, this is like the Mel Tucker situation or anything, because I feel like in a lot of ways this. This actually is broader and maybe more disturbing situation. I mean, you know, bad is bad, but it's just. It's crazy. Some of the stories we've heard from. From people inside the program over the last couple of days and, you know, where they go from here. Now, obviously, you know, not to. Not to.
- [60:42]
Ryan Rosillo
We stay with that. No, can we just stay with that, though? Because I think it's, you know, it's. It's. What can you do to clean this up? And I've seen people say, like, well, if. If all of you college football people had known about this, and it's like, well, that's just actually not how it works. Right. Because if you. Especially if you're working for an outlet and you start speculating on this stuff publicly, like you're setting yourself up to be destroyed if you're wrong on this.
- [61:07]
Bruce Feldman
So, yeah, you're also, from a, like a professional standpoint. We cannot go out there and put rumors into it before the school says they fired him for cause. You know, there's people on Twitter who can do that. But it's much different if you work for a professional outlet. And you have to be responsible. I mean, on the podcast, I do the Audible, my colleague and I, Ralph Russo, and this is. We were taping it. I think it was the morning when he was going to get arraigned, and there was a lot of stuff we knew and we were pretty confident in, but you can't put it all the way out there in that light. And then there's an element also, Ryan, when he got fired, I think there was a lot of emergency podcasts and everything, and the story was moving so fast, I think you had to worry about, because the reports and things we were hearing from law enforcement were. This story already feels tragic, and that's how somebody at Michigan described it to me. But it felt like it could have taken an even darker turn that night. And so you're just trying to measure. Trying to balance what's appropriate in the comments about this and the. And the discourse around this of what you want to say publicly. I mean, you know, even having a. A. What's the next step for them coaching wise? Which is a question, honestly. A lot of Michigan people also are wondering, is it appropriate to put it out that night? It didn't feel like it was. You know, we. I think we held something for a day, and then. Then that story that I did came out. So it's just a. It's just a very complicated story. It's more complicated, you know, right now because of the way social media is, right? And just there's a lot of, there's a lot of rumbling. There's, there's definitely stuff that, you know, people listen to police scanners so they hear some stuff that is, that, you know, is being brought up in law enforcement. You know, now what gets set on police scanners is a lot of stuff that I think, you know, people in the media often are just, well, we're not going to run with that because there's a lot of stuff there that can fall into a gray area that may not be accurate. It just may be categorized a certain way in the heat of the moment.
- [63:34]
Ryan Rosillo
I also think it's important too. Like, I guess originally there was an investigation into the relationship. Again, this is somebody who works in his office and if you have two consenting adults denying the whole thing, but yet everybody says this is happening, it's like, okay, then what are you supposed to do specific to that allegation? And then, you know, I do wonder, I mean, I can't help myself but thinking like, how much does the end of the season have to do with Michigan's motivation to want to.
- [64:05]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, I know a bunch of people have brought this up. Well, if they ended up beating Ohio State again and then they're in the playoff, does this come out? You know, given the disturbing nature, I.
- [64:16]
Ryan Rosillo
Mean, it sounds crazy, but. But I'm with you. Like, obviously it passes. You're like, I wonder what would have happened had it turned out that way. So keep going. Because, I mean, I, I don't know how anyone doesn't at least have that thought.
- [64:26]
Bruce Feldman
I think the reason why is given more credence to probably that thought is how did you not know all some of this stuff that's now come out sooner? I think so. That's why I think it reflects into some levels of Michigan leadership where you're like, okay, they stuck their neck out there for a pretty inexperienced. The guy had been an offense coordinator one year and then got the head, got the job. There were definitely times where you could see him being over the top, emotional, you know, in different, you know, public settings. And I think there was definitely some, some things that you didn't have to look too hard to go, okay, this, this guy, is he going to be able to grow into the job? What's going on? I mean, you're the head coach at Michigan. You're not the head coach at like a Division 2 school here. It's one of the, it's one of the bluest of blue blood schools and so you're just kind of scratching your head at some of these things. But I'm not surprised people have made some of those inferences because, again, to know what it seems like a lot of people inside Michigan knew, and it. And it didn't get to this point until, like, you know, relatively a few days after they. They lost and didn't make the playoff. I mean, that's not a great look for them.
- [65:49]
Ryan Rosillo
So what is next? What can we do to sift through the real possibilities and the stuff that is not going to happen with the big names that we've heard attached to this job?
- [65:59]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, I mean, there was a. There was about five guys I said I thought could end up in play. And for this job, you know, Kalyn DeBoer was an obvious name. He's from South Dakota. He's in his second year at Alabama. He's, by the way, the head coach who lost in the national title game to Michigan. He's a terrific offensive coach. Michigan's had all sorts of problems offensively, especially the last two years. And here's where I kind of landed on it, because Deborah's name was circulated a little bit for the Penn State job, and a Source close to DeBoer had been adamant with me. He was. He had no interest in that job. There was never any discussion from him or, or people representing him about Penn State. And so everything I've heard is that he is. And his family likes it there. You know, he knew he was taking a big job, that he was replacing Nick Saban when he accepted that job. Like, he knew. I think he knew to a large degree what he was getting into. First year didn't go great. They don't make the playoff. They end up losing the Michigan in the bowl game, by the way, and then this year they sputter down the stretch, but they do get into the playoff. But you have the loss at home to Oklahoma, barely beat Auburn in the Iron bowl, and then you get just destroyed in the SEC title game by. By Georgia, a team they had actually beaten at home earlier in the season. But they're in the playoff. So if they lose this game, this coming, you know, this coming Friday night at ou, so it'd be a third loss in a row to Oklahoma and also be an early exit from the playoff. Would the heat ratchet up around. Around Kalyn DeBoer, where people close to him would be like, hey, you know what? Maybe a time to hit the reset button. Maybe you don't need this kind of thing. Everything I've heard, including his statement over the weekend was that, no, this is where I want to be. I think Alabama is trying to, you know, ratchet up their commitment to him to kind of tamp down this kind of thing. And I get it. I don't think Michigan has a lot of options here going forward because Michigan, as I said, you have to worry about alignment now. Right now. You're probably going to have a new AD in there fairly soon. The leadership is, is kind of all over the place. You're going to have players that seem like they're teeing it up to go on the portal. And how does that play out going forward? Like, what kind of hole are you digging out of to take this job? You know, Jed Fish, the Washington coach who just, you know, won a bowl game over the weekend, their season's done, you know, wins nine games in year two, did an amazing job at Arizona and did work for Jim Harbaugh early in his tenure at Michigan. You know, I could see there being some interest in Jed Fish. He's also a terrific offensive coach, which I think could help them. And he knew what Harbaugh. He kind of was around Harbaugh for a couple of years early on. I think he gets what Michigan football wants to be. You know, whether he decides this is the job I would leave after two years at Washington, different story. But I don't think Jed Fish getting the job after, you know, taking an awful Arizona team and getting them to number 11 in the country in his third year and then winning nine games in his second year at Washington, I don't think that's like, oh, my God, I can't believe he got the, got the Michigan job after that. I feel like it gets, it gets even thinner. You know, now there's Biff Poggy, who's the interim head coach, who everybody inside that program loves and respects, you know, even more important than probably loves, they respect him. He was Harbaugh's right hand guy and helped Harbaugh get that program out of the ditch and going. I mean, everybody I talked to in there thought he was as vital to Harbaugh getting things turned around as anybody. Now he had, he had a short tenure as the head coach at Charlotte, ended up getting fired, then they fire the ad. I don't know if that was like a great window into what he would be, but I think this part could make some sense for Michigan if it goes in this direction is you need an adult in the room after just what they had with Sharon Moore for a couple of years. Biff Poggy knows that program better than anybody. And he's, you know, he's a guy who has made a fortune in the business world. He's a legendary high school coach in, in, in Maryland. I wouldn't be totally shocked if that was a direction they went and said, hey, we're going to try to, we're going to have Biff take over the program for maybe it's a year or two, see if, you know, to get some stable to stabilize it. Because I think that a lot of the players, you know, really believe in him and that could be an option for them because there's just so much uncertainty. You know, there's wild card names. I'd mentioned Jason Ek in my column. He's a Big Ten guy. He was a former Wisconsin offensive lineman, done an amazing job at a couple of smaller programs, Idaho and now New Mexico. I don't, I don't think there's like, oh, Jason X. Definitely going to be a guy we would be looking at. But I think their list is short. And if they're going to go outside the box, he may make a lot of sense because he's 48. He's, he's not like a 33 year old guy. He's been coaching for a long time, worked his way up the ranks and if they need to, you know, try to take the wild card approach and say, hey, is there somebody else who could. We could completely flip the page on this. Maybe this is an answer for them.
- [71:30]
Ryan Rosillo
If we stay with the deboer thing. You know, I always wonder, like, are we making this decision for him? Because we know how much of a pain in the ass it is for him in Tuscaloos, supposed Saban, like, whatever you did, you were never going to keep it at that level. Like, if the standard was, hey, can you repeat the greatest run that we've seen in college football history? I was like, yeah, no problem. I'll just do that. And so I was listening to somebody talk about it and it's like, you know, I think there was a graphic going around of like what Saban was in his first couple years and what DeBoer was. And it's like, okay, well, first of all, Saban took on a team that lost to Louisiana Monroe in the first year and then immediately was right where it needed to be. And DeBoer was inheriting the Saban team, not what Saban was inheriting. So you can't put the graphic up side by side and be telling the truth with all that kind of stuff. But it does Feel like this is the difference between having information and not having any information. But it felt like the college football public just collectively was deciding to be like, he's probably just better off in Michigan. And. And, you know, he made the statement. He made the statement with his family. Clearly you have to do that ahead of a playoff run. You hope it's a playoff run. The recruiting element, the transfer portal stuff and all that different stuff, but it just, it sounds like that you're kind of backing up this. This thing is like, who's actually speaking for him? Because when he speaks for himself. Although we've played this game plenty of times, countless times before with coaches telling us they're never going to do anything, it feels like the conclusion seems to be coming from everyone else feeling like, well, why would he want to deal with that place when he's already in the playoff and it's still not good enough.
- [73:05]
Bruce Feldman
They lose. Yeah. And that's a big. They could easily. I mean, not easily, but they could beat Oklahoma. It's not like they didn't. They, you know, they lost the game the last time, but it wasn't like, you know, they didn't look like they belonged on the field. Right. So I, I also, I thought that.
- [73:20]
Ryan Rosillo
Game was a gift actually to Oklahoma. So.
- [73:23]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, I did. Honestly, I did too. And a lot of people did. I think there's another piece of this from the Alabama side. And I know Greg Byrne, the AD, really thinks highly a Kaylin DeBoer and believes in him. I also. You got to factor this in. We're talking about the Michigan search. If Kalyn DeBoer were to leave, what is Alabama's coaching search going to look like? They ain't hiring Lane because I know they.
- [73:47]
Ceruti
They.
- [73:47]
Bruce Feldman
That's a place that was. Had no interest in Lane Kiffin. I don't know that where they would go.
- [73:52]
Ryan Rosillo
Do you think Lane, if you were offered the Bama job, would take it?
- [73:56]
Bruce Feldman
I would. Do we put anything past Lane Kiffin?
- [73:59]
Ryan Rosillo
Let's be honest, even that seems a little aggressive. I mean, I know everybody's joked about it now for a week since all of this has happened. It's like, well, Deborah goes to Michigan and then that means Lane. I don't even know if Lane is capable of that one.
- [74:12]
Bruce Feldman
Lane, listen, let's not kid ourselves. I wouldn't put anything past Lane Kiffin, but I know from everything I know Alabama would have zero interest in him. I don't think he was ever an option on their radar based off of how they. How leadership feels about him, but take Lane out of it. Where does Alabama go if Kaylen Deborah leaves? You know, it's like, this is where the land.
- [74:38]
Ryan Rosillo
We haven't got the Lanning's name because it just feels like any major program just goes, well, we'll just go get Lanning. And it's like, man, I don't know if Michigan's that much better of a job than Oregon.
- [74:48]
Bruce Feldman
It's. By the way, it's. It's not right now because.
- [74:51]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, it's not right now.
- [74:52]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah, yeah. Lanning has an ad.
- [74:55]
Ryan Rosillo
He's one of the best ads in.
- [74:56]
Bruce Feldman
The country in Mullen, and it's stable. And he wouldn't have an ad in Ann Arbor. Lanning has a lot of stuff set up. His GM is there a lot of things. He's got relatively three young kids who seem to like it there. I.
- [75:09]
Matt Ryan
You're.
- [75:09]
Bruce Feldman
You're in the same league, right? You know, it's not like you're going back to the SEC or anything like that. You know, if Lanning leaves at some point, I don't think it's going to be anytime soon. My guess is he maybe would, you know, five years from now or ten years from now. Maybe he wants to be in the NFL, but it's a guy who's. I just don't think everyone's, like, wants to move him. But, like, you know, they were the number one seed in the playoff last year. They have a chance to win it this year. I would assume, you know, they're going to throw a lot of money to keep Dante Moore, you know, there for, for another year. Anyway, recruiting's going really well, so I don't know why. And I'm not saying he's thinking this because I don't think he is, but, like, why you'd go, yeah, I want to jump into that mess, which is going to feel pretty. Like right now the Michigan situation feels pretty toxic, you know, given the investigations going on.
- [76:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Jed's probably the best option here. I mean, when you really think of the timeline and stuff, like some coaches will get hired and you go, okay, but you have all this momentum and you're kind of the sexy hire. But now you're going here. And so, and for Jet, it's like, okay, I finally get a chance to be a head coach and he crushes it at Arizona and he does so well, but he's there in a short enough time that then he doesn't, like, cool off momentum wise. Like, there's a, there's a conversation about Matt Campbell now Going to Penn State where it's like, oh, I guess we got Matt Campbell. Like, if you had gotten Matt Campbell a few years ago, be like, we got the number one guy. And this is what kind of frustrates me about just the momentum of the industry and some of these hires. It's like just because the guy, you know, had won a bowl game and went 12 and 2 or, you know, whatever the record is now with the extended season. But it's like, oh, well, you know, it's not as cool now because he only won nine games. And it's like, well, you either got the right guy or you didn't. But at least for like Jed on the momentum thing, it's so hard to do what he's done here in back to back stops, where he goes to Arizona, competes, he goes to Washington Post.
- [77:08]
Bruce Feldman
Deborah Leaving almost no starters back from the national game. One starter of the 22 on the field who came back.
- [77:15]
Ryan Rosillo
The only thing that was the same was the uniforms. You're absolutely right. And then to have them where you're watching them this year going, okay, they're not great, but like, they're in it and they're competitive in a bunch of these games. They've got a really nice young quarterback. I look, if Jed wants it, he's probably the best option. And considering, you know, which we know is so important to not just Michigan, but Michigan, seems to put an extra layer of like, you can't have this job unless you have some part of your history that's associated with Michigan football.
- [77:49]
Bruce Feldman
And he, he does have that and he does know people. I mean, he's a guy who is very savvy. And I think when he is around a place, you know, some head coach, some coaches or assistant coaches just, you know, are there, and I think they maybe don't build some relationships with people around, you know, who matter. I think he's one who seems to know how to do that. He's also like a terrific offensive coach. I mean, you look at what he did at Arizona, I don't think people realize just how awful that program was when he took it over. And by the way, they did not want him. The, the community around there, even like the local media, they all wanted Brent Brennan. You know, they didn't want Jed Fish coming in there. And Jed Fish crushed it there. And he's done a really good job at, at Washington in two years. As you said, like Damon Williams Jr. Could win a Heisman. I mean, if you asked me right now, who would I have more confidence In. I'm not saying Jed is necessarily. If he gets this job, he's bringing Demond with him, but he's a better quarterback right now than Bryce Underwood. Now, maybe Bryce Underwood down the road will be better because he's bigger, but, you know, who knows? You know how that goes. But I, I think it's a. If I was a Michigan fan and I'd be like, yeah, we could definitely do worse, by the way. We just did do worse with, you know, before. But, like, this search is. Is not going to be easy because of the. The situation that they're in for. For like 11 different reasons. And he is a legit head coach, but, you know, also on top of it, like his alma mater, which I know is a job that, you know, in the back of his head for when he was, you know, rising up the ranks, was a job that, you know, Florida, you know, he broke in under Steve Spurrier. I think that would have been one. Well, he's not getting that job. That job is already, you know, John Summerall already got it. So, you know, I don't. I wouldn't see him leaving Washington for anything now. Maybe an NFL job down the road, but like Michigan. Yeah, I think that would be a tough one for him to say. No, but again, it's a really weird situation because of the investigations and the AD situation.
- [79:59]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay, last thing before we let you go, because Whittingham's gone. One of our favorite guys ever. I mean, unless he has an issue with you that I'm not aware of. But no, he might.
- [80:08]
Bruce Feldman
I might have asked him a question coming out of halftime when they were losing where he wasn't thrilled with me, but no. Yeah. A ton of respect for how that, you know, like, to me, you're on the sideline a lot of games. Ryan, that is the. One of the few teams that when you see them in person, you have a way different appreciation than when you see them on tv. I mean, it's like a car crash every game. It's every. Every snap. They are the most physical, violent team. And you see them up close, you're like, damn, okay, I can see why they're a problem now.
- [80:37]
Matt Ryan
Yeah.
- [80:38]
Ryan Rosillo
I mentioned this in my open because it reminded me of the Harbaugh. I was watching that Chargers games against the Chiefs yesterday, right. And I was like, you know, there's a lot of stuff that, that unless you played at a high level with coaches, there's just a lot about this game that you can lose sight of. And I think in the last few Years with the past happy nature of all this stuff, although it's been a bit of a correction of it. And again, the audience has already heard me do this rant, but I'm sharing it with you here a little bit in relation to the Whittingham conversation is that sometimes we lose perspective on the fight, on what this is. It's a fight for three plus hours. You can look bad, but if you're, if you're guys and you come back to the sideline after giving up, like you can just stay in the fight and just physically wear the opponent down. Like that was the time where, whenever you'd watch Utah, granted, I know, you know, this year and with the injuries they've had a quarterback, you know, it's, it's a team that I've. Look, I mean this year technically they, they had kind of a successful year, but I, I thought they were kind of up and down depending on the quarterback play. But over the full thing that I should be emphasizing here of Winningham's tenure is like, you knew you were going to be in a fight with those guys and that there was a buy in from that group that was going to still just keep hitting the out of you until the very end. Anyway. The point is, is that Whittingham is out. You know, Saban basically left because I think the nil thing was just like, if this is what we're doing as.
- [82:00]
Bruce Feldman
Much he said as much when, you know, his exit interviews. And it was like a, I didn't like the answers I got from all those players. I'm done.
- [82:07]
Ryan Rosillo
So then, you know, if you go back, not that long ago, like Liam Cohen decided to go to the NFL. But then I was like, okay, but that's a young coach leaving, leaving to go like map out his career to become a head coach. And you know, here he is with the Jags. I think the Jeff Hathley one was, was kind of, you know, the framing around it was, well, if this guy's leaving a head coaching gig to go be a coordinator in the NFL, like what does that tell you? And then when that message is being pumped out, is it the message or is it the person that is pushing out the messaging that has this position and a lot of college football media members, maybe older players that are so against what we've seen, whether it's the portal or the players getting paid, that it can be an agenda that's being pushed that I find kind of like a waste of time because it's like, what do you think is going to happen. They're going to have a meeting because of your segment and then they're going to decide to go back to the old ways. But on a case by case basis. If you're only paying attention to those, you can make this claim that's like, hey, this game is so out of control right now that people don't want to be associated with it. What I would say is, well, maybe some older people don't want to be associated, but the younger guys will come in and they'll only know this version of college football and they'll adapt to it. And these are the rules. Because these are great jobs. If you're football coaches, this is all you really want to do. And so a Saban can look at his resume and go, you know what, I'm not doing this anymore. It may be the exact same thing for Winningham. So I don't know that it's a, hey, do we really want this? Look what's happening to two of the biggest names in the sport. Or if it's like, hey, this is just what it is. If you started off under a certain system, you would hate this system. And they'll just be replaced by younger people that become head coaches fully accepting of this system.
- [84:00]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah. I mean, just one quick thing to on caveat on Whittingham is he. We were told he didn't retire, he stepped down. Now if they offered him the Michigan job, I don't know what he would say. I'm guessing he would say no, but he might not. You know, it's like I think it was almost time for him to move on there. I don't know what the next if he ever coaches again. But they made a point to say he stepped down, not retired. With. With regard to the NFL versus college. I hear from so many college coaches, they all want to get to the NFL. It's a better quality of life. There is an off season where there isn't really an off season in college football. A source I have close who's close to both. Jesse Minter. Because Jesse Minter, you know, is now Harbaugh's defense coordinator. A little like Jeff Halfley in that he's probably not far from getting an NFL head coaching job. Right, Right. And he's got a show. Cause it's going to expire soon as it relates to Michigan. But this person said, I don't just want to be a college head coach. Why would you want to have to have every player on your roster be a free agent every year? Because that's the way it works right now in college football. Well, that ain't the way it is in the NFL. And in the NFL you don't, you know, it's like the system has such a structure. There is no structure in, in, in college football. And the aspect of having every player on the roster be a free agent every year and these conversations end up popping up in mid season and different times. I think that's the thing that gets to be exhausting for college coaches, you know, And I go to the combine. I may have told you this story, but like I'll go to the combine every year and I'll catch up with like a BU guys I know and then I'll run into some old college coaches I know. And there's a line coach I'm buddies with who was a really good college line coach and now he's in the NFL. He's been the NFL probably like five years and he's like, he'll like, we'll talk about youth sports and he'll be like, I get to coach my kids baseball team. You know, I would. That would never happen if I was in college, if I was still in college, you know. And that's not different from like a lot of the stuff I hear about like they have an off season, they don't have to, you know. One of the guys I know who was, you know, probably spent six years in college and probably now like 12 in the NFL was like, if my defensive end gets into a bar fight in college, that's a big headache for me if it happens and I get the call in the NFL, which I wouldn't. He was like, if he calls me, I'd be like, tell your agent, call your agent, don't call me. You know, it's like one of those things where you're dealing with grown men as opposed to this, this way different, you know, sort of adolescence coupled with, coupled with a professional aspect of it. So you know, like, look, Matt Patricia came back, came to college football. I think the last time he was in college before this run at Ohio State, he was a GA at Syracuse, you know. But like goes back a little bit to the old Chris Rock line about like a man is only as faithful as his options, you know, I don't know how many people were hiring Matt Patricia to be defensive coordinator in the NFL. He got a really good job though, you know, in the, in college to, you know, with Caleb Downs and Arvel Reese and all those guys. So I'm sure it was intriguing, you know, does he want to spend the next 10 years of his life as a college coach or would he rather be in the NFL? I don't know. I mean, but I think for a lot of guys, given the option, go to the NFL. But if you can't stay in the NFL, then college is probably where you're going to want to work because you have to, because you'd rather do that than because there's still money there. It's not like you're going to be a high school coach.
- [87:49]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, right. You know, these jobs, I think the jobs are going to get filled. I don't know that there's going to be like a help wanted on a Power 4 job anytime soon, despite the challenges that the coaches face now, real quick. So I may be putting you on the spot. This just happened. DJ Lagway, quarterback for Floor, has entered the transfer portal. So I don't know if you knew that this was going to happen, but that is now official. So any thoughts on that?
- [88:11]
Bruce Feldman
I mean, he's really talented guy, but he's two years up and down there. Where it felt like they were constantly trying to save Billy Napier's job, obviously that didn't happen. They couldn't save it for two years in a row. And I think his connection to Napier was a big deal.
- [88:26]
Ceruti
Right.
- [88:26]
Bruce Feldman
So I think people expected it. John Sumrall, who's the new head coach of Florida, lost his quarterback last year, Darian Mensah, in the portal for, you know, three plus million dollars, whatever Duke paid him and they ended up beating Darian Mensah at two lane. I think John Summerall will be fine. He's going to find another quarterback and hopefully for Lagway, you know, because I think it was a lot, you know, for him just up and down just to have to try to save your coach's job. And I know he had a ton of appreciation and love for Napier, so I think that's a, that's a tough situation there. But I'm curious to see what his next step's going to be.
- [89:09]
Ryan Rosillo
I still have faith in him. You know, I know it's up and down, but the up is really impressive. I think he's insanely talented. There's other big time recruits that come in the background, the whole rating and all that kind of stuff in the chase and then I'll see him and go, what's going on here? Like, I think this guy's pretty limited and maybe it's because they're younger and I'm not talking specifically about Underwood right now. But I, I think whoever gets Lagway, if they have the right staff and right system in place with them. I don't know. I think a lot of him and maybe I'm just being stubborn. That's Bruce Feldman from the Athletic. You can read all of his latest stuff there. They may ask you for an upgrade to the New York Times. That's an option too, once you click on any of the articles. And of course, you see him throughout the season. And we'll see him on some of the bowl coverage as well. Thanks, man.
- [89:56]
Bruce Feldman
Always a pleasure, Ryan. Thanks for having me.
- [89:59]
Ryan Rosillo
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- [91:30]
Matt Ryan
Fine.
- [91:31]
Ryan Rosillo
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [91:34]
Matt Ryan
What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [91:45]
Ryan Rosillo
So.
- [91:45]
Matt Ryan
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.
- [91:48]
Ryan Rosillo
Life advice. The email address is lifeadvice. Rrmail.com We've got Kyle and we have Ceruti. We missed you on Friday. Ceruti. I don't know if you got any feedback. Any relatives?
- [92:00]
Ceruti
No, no. A lot of the boys that I was. I was on a golf. I did well. So I actually didn't listen to life advice. I listened to the Fred Warner interview, and Fred was great. So that's awesome. Off to a great start.
- [92:08]
Ryan Rosillo
But you P1. He works on the show.
- [92:12]
Ceruti
Yeah. Well, sometimes it's good, like, to not be involved in the show and listen to the show once and be like, all right, how's it sound? What's it look like? What do we need? And, you know, I don't know.
- [92:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Fred was really Kyle. So when. When you're off, do you go back and listen to every episode?
- [92:24]
Kyle
No, but sometimes I will go back after. It's usually the life advice. There's something you guys are still talking about. And I'm like, oh, this is weird. I don't know what the hell's going on, so maybe I'll do that. But it was nice that Ryan made a real point to say how we missed you when we had a little bit of a. Got our wires crossed on life device a little bit.
- [92:39]
Bruce Feldman
So.
- [92:39]
Kyle
So it was nice of him to let me know on air that he wasn't really happy with how it went. So I'm glad you're back.
- [92:46]
Ceruti
I will go back and listen.
- [92:47]
Ryan Rosillo
I wasn't happy with myself.
- [92:49]
Ceruti
Okay.
- [92:49]
Ryan Rosillo
I gave myself a C plus show. So.
- [92:54]
Ceruti
Did have some dudes on the trip that a lot of people wanted to talk about. The guy trying to move in with his buddies, that's just the talk of the town, man. Everyone I know who knows since the show just has an opinion on that topic.
- [93:06]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm gonna be devastated if that guy never follows up.
- [93:09]
Kyle
It's almost like a fairy tale, though, you know? It's like.
- [93:11]
Ryan Rosillo
Right?
- [93:12]
Kyle
It's crazy.
- [93:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.
- [93:17]
Bruce Feldman
We.
- [93:18]
Ryan Rosillo
People won't stop emailing about it. They're still emailing. And I. I just.
- [93:22]
Ceruti
Nobody has anything actually figured out. Like, no one has an answer. That's like, oh, yeah, that's what you would do. There's no answer. It's just like a what about this? No, that wouldn't work.
- [93:31]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, I'm sure there's some aggressive plans, like theories of, well, what if you did this? And it's like, my friend mom isn't doing well, and we grew up together, but it's like you can't be doing that to somebody you want to let yourself.
- [93:47]
Ceruti
Well, the guys did love Kyle's just fake a terminal illness. We got six months, buddy.
- [93:57]
Kyle
Yeah, guys. Guys on a trip would think that's funny, but that's also terrible too.
- [94:02]
Ryan Rosillo
It's also bad month 7. Like what's going on? Like he's getting better.
- [94:06]
Ceruti
Yeah, they probably.
- [94:07]
Ryan Rosillo
People think. People think it's just trial.
- [94:09]
Kyle
Can't really talk about it right now because it's under.
- [94:11]
Ryan Rosillo
All under. You know, you went to.
- [94:13]
Ceruti
You went to Turkey. It was. Yeah, I think it's okay now.
- [94:14]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we had a lot of emails to that. We had a lot of emails on the dog thing and for the most part they're pretty straightforward. We did hear from. There was a common theme whether people in the vet business or people that have gone through this with having to decide when not or when to put down a dog. But I think one of the common things that was shared is that if you really think your dog is suffering that much, then it becomes kind of selfish that you don't want to do this. Even though I understand how incredibly hard it is, especially when you get kids and like them dealing with death the first time ever, which is not a conversation I think anyone would ever and be having with a child that you care so much about, but that there's a line of like, are you selfishly keeping this animal alive at the level of pain that the animal is going through or in this case, I think specifically this emailer wasn't necessarily a day to day pain. It was just that it was clear the dog no longer enjoyed living. And then we started doing some on the fly lab research. 13 years, 11 years. So I don't know if that helps you rationalize a very tough decision for the guy that was emailing last Friday about that. In that in particular, if you think of it from the dog's perspective, I.
- [95:37]
Kyle
Think he almost wanted a little bit of guidance from the vet to being like, you're right. I'm actually seeing some stuff here that would lead me to believe that he is actually in pain. But all he got was like, numbers look good.
- [95:48]
Ryan Rosillo
He was like, are you serious?
- [95:50]
Kyle
So maybe he was just looking for.
- [95:52]
Ryan Rosillo
Like a little bit of a, like.
- [95:55]
Kyle
A nudge in one direction or another.
- [95:57]
Ryan Rosillo
But he didn't seem to get it. I don't know what, what email address. I for some reason. Oh, I was on Friday feedback. I was like, none of these are good.
- [96:11]
Kyle
We've got a lot of email addresses. We've really just been collecting them.
- [96:17]
Ceruti
Okay. I do our first Friday feedback, by the way.
- [96:19]
Ryan Rosillo
Oh, we have. Well, there's a ton there, but I.
- [96:22]
Ceruti
Do one for Christmas.
- [96:23]
Ryan Rosillo
I was reading those while I was talking, and I'm like, why are none of these making the good ones?
- [96:28]
Kyle
Like, what.
- [96:30]
Ryan Rosillo
What is happening? All right. Okay, let's see here. Yeah. All right, let's do. Let's do this one out of the box. Wife suddenly thinks I'm cheating. Six foot two, forty dudes are enormous. That listen to this show we've got. This has been an. We've been on a size and athlete run here lately. 31 max. Bench was 285. Not anymore. Mostly cardio and dumbbell inclined at this point. Happily married, three kids. My wife has always been a little jealous, but I thought it subsided after our wedding. And kids, usually that's when they know you're pretty committed to it. Until recently. Uh oh. Seemingly out of nowhere, she started freaking out on me and thinking I'm cheating. We have some old neighbors that moved a few years ago and decided to move back to our street. When I told her I was excited because I like the family, she started accusing me of only being happy because I want to bang the wife. The wife and I have barely ever spoken. I was excited because I like the dude and their kids are the same age as ours. She basically berated me for an hour and said I can't speak to them anymore and made me delete the wife from Facebook. Which is super weird because they just moved back. So the. How's that gonna look? The other day, our kids were at my parents and she wanted to get her nails done. Our security system sent a notification to her that someone was at our door, and instead of checking the camera, she dropped in on our Alexa and started grilling me about who was there. You can do that with Alexa? Who's there right now? I have no idea.
- [97:56]
Kyle
You could just. It's like an intercom to the house. Get it out.
- [98:00]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, I don't think so. I don't need Bezos listening.
- [98:06]
Ceruti
That is, by the way, just a quick aside. You know, anyone who does anything in front of a house, now you just have to assume it's a camera there. These people that like, you know, see somebody like, hey, you leave some on the front door light on fire. The old school thing, it's like you're getting that still.
- [98:19]
Ryan Rosillo
You've seen a lot of videos of.
- [98:21]
Ceruti
An example, but it's like, it's hard.
- [98:22]
Kyle
To know when they're postal worker Those videos are.
- [98:24]
Ceruti
Yeah, it's fair. But if you're like a postal work and you want to. I don't know, you're doing something weird. Like, I've seen some kick dog videos. I'm like, you gotta always assume you're on camera. Kick dog.
- [98:33]
Kyle
Wow.
- [98:34]
Ceruti
My algorithm is all messed up. Yeah, it is going on. That's probably because I was in Florida. There you go.
- [98:38]
Ryan Rosillo
Steve, can you help with the kids lunch? Nope. Watching shit videos upstairs. Yeah, well said. So she jumps into the Alexa, started grilling me about who was there at the time. I was on the phone with my business partner. Had to hang up to explain to her that I took the trash out, and that's why she got a notification. This is clearly becoming an issue. You think it's hurting our relationship with other couples? My own business partner, and she's even randomly dropping in at my work to check on me. I also constantly wake up to her searching through my phone. I've never given any indication I would cheat and constantly tell her she's the only person I have eyes for. At this point, I'm honestly starting to think she's the one that's cheating. I can't fathom getting a security notification on my home or on my phone and assuming my wife asked our neighbor to come over the moment I left to go to the gym or something. I feel like the only person that thinks that or thinks like that is someone with a guilty conscience. Any advice? Much appreciated. Love the pod. Merry Christmas.
- [99:35]
Kyle
Well, glad he said that. I didn't want to have to say that stuff. So that's.
- [99:39]
Ryan Rosillo
You were going to say that?
- [99:40]
Matt Ryan
Yeah.
- [99:41]
Kyle
I mean, people who are stealing from you will lose their light or lose something and think, like, somebody stole it, immediately default to who stole my shit? And it's like a few minutes later like, oh, okay. But, you know, that's. Because that's. What would I do. Like, like, so I'm glad we don't have to go there. I'm wondering if she. Maybe there's something going around the neighborhood. There's a new scandal. Maybe she. Maybe this whole Sharon Moore things got her all bent out of shape. I don't know. Like, there's got to be something.
- [100:02]
Ryan Rosillo
Should have asked Michigan fan.
- [100:05]
Kyle
Like, there might be something. I don't think it would be as childish as, like, what's she watching on tv, but, like, maybe. Maybe something is making its rounds through the neighborhood. I don't know.
- [100:13]
Ryan Rosillo
That's what I thought of. What shows is she watching?
- [100:15]
Kyle
I didn't think.
- [100:16]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah.
- [100:16]
Kyle
I don't think she's like that impressionable. And that's an adult woman, but maybe. I don't know. But there's got to be something else that's dropped into her world other than unless you just got like, way hotter. Did you drop 25 pounds? And it's just like, just don't let that dude out the house, you know?
- [100:30]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know.
- [100:31]
Ceruti
Yeah, that my only thought would be like, yeah, was. Was this woman so hot that your wife was like, relieved that she left the neighborhood and now she's getting all this PTSD coming back of just being anxious about just her being so hot? I don't know. We need to see pictures. I don't know how hot the guy. Hope you know, know how hot the dude is either.
- [100:47]
Kyle
If it's bleeding into work, it sounds like it's not about the. Just the new neighbor, right?
- [100:51]
Ryan Rosillo
Not the neighbor. Not the neighbor's husband. You're not asking a husband.
- [100:55]
Ceruti
No, no, the guy. The guy sent in the email, like, is he a good looking dude? And like, I don't know. You know, sometimes it's weird.
- [101:00]
Ryan Rosillo
What's up with New Steve?
- [101:02]
Ceruti
Well, no, sometimes things do get weird though. Like when, you know, it's. It's sort of unfair in a lot of ways. But like, a guy will kind of age well. Right. And that could kind of suck for a wife in some ways. It's like, oh, wait, you're getting hotter and you're like the, you know, the, the silver fox thing is a good look on you. And all of a sudden, like, I don't necessarily look that way. That could be a pretty big bummer for her. So maybe that's what it is.
- [101:26]
Ryan Rosillo
Let's rule out that she's cheating on. Okay, yeah, you know, let's not take.
- [101:29]
Kyle
This that direction because I.
- [101:32]
Ryan Rosillo
You said something where, like, how we can all be incredibly influenced, like in a very. I don't know what it is. I don't know how different it is. I don't know if it's a human nature thing. I've just been thinking about this a lot lately. Well, I read something and then go, oh, well, that's what's happening. I think true education is when it's a subject, a field that you can read something and then you can go, oh my God, this is wrong for all. Not based on opinion. But this person that wrote this thing is wrong because of this, wrong because of that, wrong because of that. Not opinions. Just like, if I read an NBA article, I'd like to Think after this many years of paying this much attention to this league, I can understand the motivation behind the story that's getting out. I may have information on my own just because of a relationship, or I'm like, that's 100% not what happened. You know, it's really hard. Like, how. How many different fields could you possibly have where you could feel that comfortable being, like, this is what's being presented, but this is why it's all wrong. Which also I'm admitting in all these other categories. Like, it's just not what I do. So I might be incredibly easy to influence on some of that stuff. Unless you just decide you want to be stubborn because you felt like you were wrong in the past. So the whole reason I'm bringing up any of that stuff is just, like, what could be in her life that is influencing her down this road in a way that is abnormal? Like, is there anything new? Is there a new friend in the mix? Does she have a friend or a sister or a relative that just went through a divorce? You know, is she. Is there something that has changed in her life that may not have been anything planned, but that she's becoming influenced in a. In a very. I don't want to call her, like, naive, but it can. Like, really smart people. Like, I'd like to think that there's certain things that I would resist or any of us would resist, but, like, how. How easily when you keep seeing the same messaging over and over again, you can be swayed to ultimately, like, believe that stuff. And then you can get into, like, another level of, like, recreating scenarios in your head that then become things that you actually believed happened, because you're just, like, losing your mind. Like, I remember there was a breakup, and I convinced myself that a friend of mine was then dating the girl based on, like, different things that I remembered. And then I cranked it up to a level that was complete fiction. And then when I ran into him, I was, like, a little chesty about.
- [104:03]
Kyle
The whole, oh, no.
- [104:04]
Ryan Rosillo
And he was kind of like, what the are you doing? And I, at that point, felt completely justified.
- [104:10]
Kyle
You know, what's going on?
- [104:11]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. I created a reality in my head based on morsels of evidence that went nowhere because, again, I was. I was hurting, and I was going through something. So, like, I don't know if there's something that's happened in her life. I know I just threw a lot at you there, but I think I can kind of put it all back into the bowl here. If there's Something that's happened in her life that is, that has led her down this path. But you did say that there was some jealousy stuff in the past, right? So you'd like to think you get over that and like dealing with somebody who's jealous and then you explain to them a very like, hey, okay, this is your question and this is your theory. Here are concrete answers on why it's not those things. And then when they don't want to believe you, dude, get ready to spend a ton of energy on that doesn't matter. And you're going to get so frustrated because there's really like, if the other person's convinced, like, they, they don't want the rational explanation, they don't want the truth. And that's what you end up dealing with, man. And I, I think this is like an awful, awful sign not to make too much out of this, but this is a, like, she's showing up, up to work, dude. She's going through your phone every day.
- [105:22]
Ceruti
She's hacked into Alexa.
- [105:24]
Kyle
She's getting innovative, dude.
- [105:26]
Ceruti
That's. Well, so what do you do?
- [105:28]
Kyle
I mean, do you, yeah, this isn't.
- [105:29]
Ryan Rosillo
Going to be very legit about it.
- [105:30]
Ceruti
Like, you do.
- [105:31]
Ryan Rosillo
You just say, well, here's what I would do. Like, I, I think you need to match her, her, like disruption with another disruption. And I know there's going to be married guys and you'll be like, of course Rosillo said this. Like, you're an idiot.
- [105:44]
Ceruti
What's the most abrasive Mortal Kombat?
- [105:48]
Ryan Rosillo
Right? But I'm just telling you like this, you've, you've opened the portal of, like, this is going to happen for a long time and you trying to explain the truth is not going to work. I mean, if it in fact is that I don't think you would like send in this email and be like, actually, I lied to those guys too. Right? So, like giving you the benefit of the doubt. But you, you explain, like, I know exactly what you're dealing with. You're going to explain and you're going to have a locked up, up alibi for every single one of these accusations. And unfortunately, the accusations aren't going to end. So you're going to be coming home, you're going to be dealing with shit all the time. Her showing up to work is like a massive, massive violation because then your work people are like, what are we doing? You know? Seriously? Yeah, you may have to go the next time it happens. And maybe if it's minor, you counter her disruption with an even greater disruption where you go, I'm going to a hotel for two nights and you have to sit here and think about what your life is like without me when I've been this good to you. And again, we're taking your side based on taking your word here. But, like, you may have to match her crazy right now with a. With a diabolical zag of like, I'm in a hotel room for 48 hours and if I come back and it's the same shit, then we're going to have, like, a much bigger conversation. You may have to give her a taste because I know you're going to. Everybody's going to dump on me for this one and say, absolutely not. I've got kids. Like, that's not fair. And all these different. I already know all your hook up with our neighbor.
- [107:17]
Ceruti
Right, right.
- [107:18]
Kyle
All right, see if that's really what you want it to be, because I'm going to be going for two days either way.
- [107:22]
Bruce Feldman
Yeah.
- [107:23]
Ryan Rosillo
I'm just saying you're going to have to, like, sort of mentally rattle this in an awareness move because explaining giving her all these reasons why she's wrong is probably not going to work with this person unless you get to the root of, like, why all of a sudden this has happened. Maybe she cheated. Maybe she cheated on you with the husband. Maybe that's why she's freaked out.
- [107:46]
Kyle
Yeah, but you're right. I agree with the Jurassic thing because this is the sort of like the basis that divorces are made of anyway. Just this type of mistrust and just every single day not knowing how bad this thing is going to get when you're just, you know. Should I have stopped and put gas in the car? I took an extra 10 minutes.
- [108:02]
Bruce Feldman
Is that.
- [108:02]
Kyle
Am I going to have to explain this? Like, if that every day starts wearing you down? That's the stuff divorces made of Anyway, so I agree with Ryan that there's got to be some sort of, you know, you got to ratchet it up just to get the attention off, you know, get our attention in some way. Because this, this does sound. I mean, it sounds like no way to live. So I hope it hasn't been going.
- [108:19]
Ryan Rosillo
On for too long. Anything else?
- [108:23]
Kyle
No. This is another bummer. Are we. Are these all going to be bummers?
- [108:27]
Matt Ryan
Yes.
- [108:27]
Kyle
Friday was full of bummers.
- [108:32]
Ryan Rosillo
How about a quick one here? Was I a professional athlete?
- [108:37]
Kyle
You come to the right place.
- [108:38]
Ceruti
50.
- [108:39]
Ryan Rosillo
50 chance. 25, 6 foot 2, 185. No impressive gym stats currently, but bench 225 for one rep. One time in college. Four plates, bro. Good stuff. Player comp. Sean Livingston. Elite mid range jumper all around player, but not going to get buckets on an island. Pre knee injury. Sean Livingston was. He could have done anything. Solved world hunger. I need some help clarifying if I was a professional athlete or not. I played D1 soccer at a mid major college. Upon graduation I moved overseas to Melbourne Melbourne, Australia where I spent the last two years playing in the third division. Can you look that up? Suri, third division?
- [109:20]
Ceruti
Yeah, he's a professional athlete. I mean did you get paid?
- [109:23]
Ryan Rosillo
Technically, the league I played in considered a semi pro. However I did sign a real professional contract and soccer was my main source of income. I did work as a bartender and part time at a cafe to supplement my income. Imagine though your bartending be like hey, what are you doing here? Just, you know, visa. No, I'm a pro soccer player. Another Bud Light. Another Fosters. Sorry, should have said Bud Light. Now that I'm back in the US and my career is over, I keep having to explain the situation. So I guess my question is, did I play pro soccer? Was I professional athletes? Thanks. P.S. had a dream a few days ago that I met Kyle. Only he was an evil entity. Sort of like a skinwalker. I hated it. I think we had put that one in there.
- [110:02]
Ceruti
Okay. All right.
- [110:03]
Ryan Rosillo
He'd be the last guy to be a fucking evil entity.
- [110:07]
Kyle
I think this is all solved by just saying, yeah, I played overseas for a couple years. Some overseas ball isn't. Everyone kind of knows. What do you really have to. If they want to dig, they can.
- [110:15]
Ryan Rosillo
Dig and you can explain.
- [110:16]
Kyle
But when you say I played overseas, isn't that Exactly. That's what you were doing there, Right? That's why you spend all that time.
- [110:22]
Ryan Rosillo
You weren't doing a contract. Yeah, I think he's a pro athlete. I don't think there's any debate.
- [110:29]
Kyle
He's sighing. What does this mean?
- [110:30]
Ceruti
I did google this. The third tier of Australian soccer is generally the national premier leagues and it is a semi professional competition below the A and the second tier.
- [110:41]
Ryan Rosillo
Obviously Premier sounds good though. Good branding.
- [110:43]
Ceruti
Yeah. You played in the Premier League. Technically you don't have to specify which one.
- [110:47]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, don't do that. That's what guys on Instagram are doing. Former Premier League. I think all you do is you downplay.
- [110:53]
Ceruti
Like hey, would you as seen on ESPN and Fox Sports. Love those guys.
- [110:58]
Ryan Rosillo
Hello to our sisters and brothers down under. Checking out the pot. I think he played. I think what you do is you don't oversell it, you undersell it. And if they want to be impressed, let them be impressed. But what you don't want to do is sell it. And like, I was this close to, you know, playing in Bundesliga.
- [111:17]
Ceruti
I would, I would say it's not like you're one of those guys playing like, you know, adult full pad football.
- [111:23]
Ryan Rosillo
Like the guy over the love of the game.
- [111:24]
Kyle
Ireland. Nice.
- [111:26]
Ceruti
Yeah. You know, that. That to me is insane. And I wouldn't tell anyone that. This. You got paid. I think this is one of those things where you don't really outwardly like, brag about it, but if somebody asks you about it, you tell them, yeah, I played professionally. And then, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think you're fine there. And you technically got paid to play. You know, I don't, because I know I knew some guys in college who, you know, they played in the second division in Finland. Right. And they got certain things like they got, you know, they got put up for free, like in their housing and stuff like that. They got food and whatever. So it was like, kind of like an extension of some ways. Yeah. But like, you know, like, I don't know. If that guy told me he paid. If he said, hey, I played professional soccer, I'd be like, yeah, you played in Finland. It's a big deal.
- [112:05]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. If you say I played over Southern Finland. Yeah. Yeah.
- [112:09]
Kyle
There will be people who either want to know more or think they already understand what you're talking about and you can just move on.
- [112:14]
Ceruti
There will be the guy that Googles you, though, and kind of looks into, hey, let me check the stats. And there aren't really stats. Maybe the website's not really up to date. And it's like, this isn't.
- [112:23]
Kyle
I've got that 1998 feel to it.
- [112:25]
Ceruti
Yeah.
- [112:26]
Ryan Rosillo
So I don't know a page two Jim Caple piece where you're like, what's going on here? What kind of font are they using? I think you're fine. I think it's fine as long as you don't oversell it. So that no one can then come back to you and then be disappointed. But at the same time, retired baseball player. Seen that a lot. Seen that a lot. Technically, a lot of us are retired baseball players because everybody signed us up for Little League. You were a certain generation. I wonder what that's like.
- [113:00]
Ceruti
Retired early.
- [113:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Like the first wave. Your kid's seven, going, I'm not into it. Like, you can't make it to nine. Yeah.
- [113:09]
Kyle
Sometimes there's other stuff going on.
- [113:11]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. Sometimes kids know early on, like, I don't.
- [113:14]
Kyle
New skins. Dropping fortnite.
- [113:16]
Ryan Rosillo
There you go. I can't. I got stuck in a wormhole of that guy. Who, me? Have you seen the videos of this troll who just goes on and I think if I explain to you this video game troll, because my brother sent me this stuff and it's like. Like I watched a couple and I thought, oh, so this guy just goes into different games and loses and shoots other people and crashes cars and it's. It's like anybody can fucking do that.
- [113:43]
Kyle
A lot of those stuff. So I don't even know what you're talking about.
- [113:46]
Ryan Rosillo
However, this guy. The best to ever do it. The best to ever do it. He's unbelievable. And he just keeps saying, like, who me? The whole time. It'll just like, wreck cars. Be like, go and hide. Everybody loses it. He's like, I said I was going high. He's like, you guys got to call your shots, man. All right, well, somehow it works. Somehow it works.
- [114:10]
Kyle
Maybe send it to me. I don't know. I never know if you get the stuff I send you. I try to pick my spots really carefully. Never even a reaction. Ceru will give me a little thumbs up, but I just don't know. I figured because we're following each other, we'll get through the resilo DM firewall. But maybe you send me and that we. We'll get it going.
- [114:26]
Ryan Rosillo
DM me on Instagram.
- [114:28]
Kyle
Yeah. Just like, funny things that, like, there's been five. There maybe has been five in five years, and I've just never got one.
- [114:35]
Ryan Rosillo
I don't know that.
- [114:36]
Kyle
Yeah. All right, well, that makes me feel better. I think we need a group.
- [114:42]
Ceruti
A group thread going because we do each other sometimes. That's not the.
- [114:46]
Ryan Rosillo
Okay, no, no, I'm saying, but there's so much that's. Ceruti and I talk about that. Kyle wants nothing to do.
- [114:51]
Kyle
That's what I'm saying.
- [114:51]
Ceruti
Correct.
- [114:52]
Kyle
Thought we could just have our own relationships, but I guess that's fine. I just need to put some guardrails up. That's fine. Whatever we have.
- [114:57]
Ceruti
Sometimes when you throw them in the group chat, though, it's like, more well received.
- [115:01]
Ryan Rosillo
Off.
- [115:04]
Ceruti
Yeah.
- [115:04]
Ryan Rosillo
There is something to be a group chat where you're like. Everybody's saying something of like, okay, I better. I. I thumbs up something that happened the other day where I wasn't super close with everybody in the thread, but they just wouldn't stop talking about how Great. Something was that had happened and I was like, I got to get involved here a little bit and throw a ha on one the of of these.
- [115:20]
Kyle
Get your fgas up a little bit.
- [115:22]
Ceruti
Sometimes I feel like that's worse than not responding though.
- [115:24]
Ryan Rosillo
Like that's probably.
- [115:27]
Ceruti
Oh, you gave me the thumbs up. You should have just ghosted me. I would have felt better about myself.
- [115:32]
Ryan Rosillo
Who me? All right, final one here. Can I gift my parents pillows for guest room? For the guest room for Christmas? What's up, guys? Congrats on the new pod with barstool. Checking in at 5:10, 1:55. No gym stats or pickup comp to share, but I play a decent amount of golf and fluctuate between a 10 and a 12 handicap app. That's great to hear. Emailing with a question about a potential Christmas gift idea. When my wife and I visit my parents house, they have the absolute worst pillows in their guest bedrooms. Their bedrooms, plural. Because we've tried different bedrooms in their house, hoping it was just one fluky room. But unfortunately the same hard pancake thin excuse for pillows are present in each guest room. Sleeping there is brutal because, well, it's painfully hard to sleep. I know the obvious answer would be to bring our own while we consider this. We have a one and a half. We have a one and a half year old. And as Ceruti can confirm, traveling with a little one means you're hauling a ton of extra stuff. That is pretty wild. Like if you were to look at the gear ratio for actual volume of human.
- [116:32]
Matt Ryan
Right?
- [116:33]
Ceruti
Dude, I just, I just said this. We went on a summer trip vacation. We went to New York Gansett. Great spot. And we had a. What? What? She was probably three months old at the time. And then like a two and a half year old. And I said to my wife, I was like, I think this is the most shit we're ever gonna have to pack into a car. Like, I think it only gets better.
- [116:51]
Ryan Rosillo
From here because the.
- [116:53]
Ceruti
Yeah, you're right.
- [116:53]
Kyle
It's a nice way to look at it.
- [116:55]
Ceruti
The smaller they are. Because she was like, should we get one of those, you know, tube things on the top? And I'm like, I don't think. I think this is max capacity. And we got it all in. So I don't think we need to go there yet. You know, who knows, like sports and stuff and all the travel. I don't know, maybe you'll need stuff for that. But like, you know, we were packed to the brim. But it's the little one. She Needs, you know, baby bag. There's a food bag, right? Yeah. And then you throw in the beach element of it. It's like, it's, you know, it's. It's a lot of stuff. We had like a full tent for her to sit in. And it's just like, I don't rent.
- [117:21]
Kyle
The chairs at that point.
- [117:22]
Matt Ryan
Right.
- [117:23]
Ryan Rosillo
So it was like the cowherd argument we got into. And I think it was off the air and then played out on the air where he's like, I don't check bags. We're like, what do you mean you never check a bag?
- [117:33]
Ceruti
Never.
- [117:34]
Ryan Rosillo
And then some people listening right now are like, I never check a bag. Never check.
- [117:37]
Ceruti
Yeah. People are hard at that.
- [117:38]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah. And it's like, I get it. I get the convenience of the never checking a bad thing. I've also seen some people inconvenience, too, that thought they weren't checking a bag and then ultimately ended up checking a bag. And then cowherd's like, going through this whole thing, and he's like winning the room. He's winning the segment. Everybody's agreeing with him. I was like, so what do you do? He's like, I just buy new clothes. You're like, now? Okay, here we go. Now everyone's out.
- [117:59]
Ceruti
He throws the underwear out after.
- [118:00]
Ryan Rosillo
After one year, right? So it's like, so you. You pack light so you never have to check it back, but then you have to go shopping every time you go anywhere for four days. And then I was like, then what do you do with the stuff? Ship it back. Like you ship it back or someone. A PA Ships it back who's working for some sort of roadshow. It's like, you know, cowherd gets off the plane, first stop, separate for all mankind, you know, and you're just like, all right, getting some 3232s. He's a. He's a. He's a Guy's in shape.
- [118:35]
Ceruti
This most recent trip, I real. I'm a bad packer because I just think of, like, what's the. What's the worst case scenario? I'm going to need this thing and.
- [118:41]
Kyle
I shit my pants every day for four days straight. I need that many underwear.
- [118:44]
Ceruti
Yeah.
- [118:44]
Kyle
Just in case. No, that's the worst case scenario.
- [118:46]
Ryan Rosillo
That's aggressive. Well, yeah, no, go ahead. I'm not.
- [118:50]
Matt Ryan
I also.
- [118:51]
Kyle
Underwear, too. So I get like. I like to sleep in cotton joints. But then I. I go out in the, you know, the skims type stuff.
- [118:58]
Ceruti
Out. About.
- [118:58]
Kyle
Out and about.
- [118:59]
Ryan Rosillo
So all Right. So, all right, back to our email here. This sucks for our guy. I know the obvious answer to bring our own. We already covered this. I really don't want to haul pillows as well. Plus it feels kind of rude to show up to someone else's house with your own pillow. These are your parents though, right? Like, doesn't the rudeness thing. Anyway, it brings me to this question, can we give them better? Can we gift them better pillows for their guest beds for Christmas? Is that weird or would that be more or less rude than just bringing our own? Thanks for reading and the advice. Hope the gang had a great holiday. Yeah, thanks.
- [119:36]
Kyle
Did you think that they would have just pillows for their bed and then give you their old pillows? Would that also bother you?
- [119:42]
Ceruti
It might be better still. It might be a net winner.
- [119:44]
Kyle
It probably will be better if they just went Amazon basics, just like one each and it's just damn. But I just don't know why their first thing isn't going to be like, oh, we'll put these in the guest room. If you got like some nice, really like we're talking high end pillows, why wouldn't they just take them for themselves? And then you're back to square one.
- [120:03]
Ryan Rosillo
Well, you're inside the walls here. This isn't the in laws, this isn't some other thing. It's not like you're inside the walls. And I think, you know, look, I know every family is different, but I would say most families like you should be at a stage now you have your own family. It's great you're coming back to visit, you're bringing the loo. They're going to be so fired up. They're going to be so excited that your kid's one and a half and that you're taking the time and inconveniencing yourself to travel and to go and visit them. I don't know that they're going to care about the pillows. There's a certain stage in life where you are going to wake up in a sleeping situation when you're traveling and you're going to go, I'm fucking done with this.
- [120:39]
Ceruti
All right?
- [120:40]
Ryan Rosillo
For me it was waking up. Up on a folded up futon inside of. I don't know if it was clean or dirty laundry, but it wasn't folded. I was visiting a buddy, I was in my 20s, we'd had a late night, there was nowhere else to sleep. I wasn't going to go stay at this other place. And he's like, you just crash at my place and I was like, this is what you've got. And then I woke up and was like, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm like, I'm done. It's over.
- [121:03]
Kyle
And that was like a Hilton Honors account now. Right?
- [121:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Get bored.
- [121:07]
Ceruti
Right.
- [121:09]
Ryan Rosillo
And that was me, even in my 20s, pretty, like, willing to deal with whatever I had to deal with and not feel like I'm above this. Okay. And so you have a wife, you have a kid. You know what it is when you have an awful sleeping situation we were going to visit somewhere else. And I already know the pillows they're talking about. They're not even real pillows. They're like stunt pillows. Yeah. They're so thin, you can't even believe the pillowcases work with them.
- [121:34]
Ceruti
You can stack five of them and it would make a difference.
- [121:36]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah, right, Right. So I would ship them, the pillows. Right. Or maybe you buy them near their place on location and then you wrap them up. Yeah, you wrap them up. And then you go, hey, I'd like you to open these now. You make a big joke out of the whole thing. Like, oh, we gotta wait until Christmas Eve. No, let's do it. Let's do it Sunday.
- [121:57]
Ceruti
Yeah. Or do you just even play it off as an even nicer thing? And like, hey, we bought some stuff. Stuff. Some for our place.
- [122:02]
Kyle
We love this brand, so.
- [122:03]
Ceruti
As well. Yeah.
- [122:06]
Ryan Rosillo
Yeah.
- [122:07]
Ceruti
And then. Yeah. And then you're just like, oh, cool. Like, not only are you here, but you're also thoughtful and bringing gifts. Like, that's how you do it.
- [122:12]
Kyle
I like that. Or if you're just like, who's gonna be offended? Well, who's gonna be. That's what I'm saying. Could you pull your dad off the side? Be like, hey, man, I got neck stuff. These are. These are good pillows for me. Is there any. Like, could you put. Can we just have these without being. Is mom gonna be upset? Like, who. Who's the one that you're worried about hurting their feelings? And could you just go to the one who wouldn't really care as much and just be like, hey, man, I love that we can come here. I just wanted to. We think we could put these in there. Now, Would anyone. Would she really be mad? Is there anything you could do to make it not so offensive if you even think she'll bat an eyelash at it? Like, who's.
- [122:46]
Ceruti
Or would it be funny if you just replaced the pillows and didn't tell them?
- [122:49]
Kyle
Right. I don't know. Stuff like that.
- [122:53]
Ryan Rosillo
That.
- [122:53]
Ceruti
You know, sometimes those rooms Though when they're older, they don't get touched. They just sit there.
- [122:56]
Ryan Rosillo
They look like Churchill's estate. Sometimes you visit some old people and you go into the old bedroom, you're.
- [123:02]
Kyle
Like, start changing stuff.
- [123:04]
Ryan Rosillo
Carbon dating. No, you can change just. They're so old. They're so old, man. I don't know what old people do to spare bedrooms, but neglect, you know that shawl, we can all see it in our head right now. Yeah, like what's.
- [123:21]
Ceruti
Yeah, it's like a. Yeah, it's got like something.
- [123:24]
Ryan Rosillo
It's been the 80s since anybody's actually pulled that shawl up over a body.
- [123:28]
Kyle
They.
- [123:28]
Matt Ryan
They have.
- [123:28]
Kyle
They achieved the perfect amount of trinkets in there and they just haven't moved for 20 years. They're like, this doesn't get better than how we've got these little figurines laid out.
- [123:36]
Ryan Rosillo
This corner hutches forever. That must have blown their minds on like, just like, hey, I can match a 45 degree angle on a corner hutch. Like corner hutches is. Whoever made those first, every old person was like, well, I know what I'm doing this year. Yeah, we are set getting one of those. I think I even put a few in. Oh, you staircase. Yeah. Well, you don't really have to. Instead, I mean, you could have a wall built one if you wanted one. But I just. The excitement, whatever it is about maximizing a 45 degree angle. Old people have never been more passionate about anything in their entire life than what that looks like. So look, if he's emailing us this, that means his parents will probably send some, right? He's asking this because of the history of his parents. And he has parents that are just gonna. I think Ceruti has a great point of attack here. Hey, we tried these. They are amazing. You have to try them too. That means you have to buy like conveniently give them the new pillows and then your own pillows. Honestly, for a week of sleep. If you're doing okay, it's probably worth it. You could also sneak attack the thing where you. Again, based on. I don't know if. They probably have a picture a Polaroid somewhere. So make sure when they come in after the fact, nothing has moved around. But you know, maybe you just locally buy whatever you need, ship them, switch them out for the whole week. Look, if they come to you and say, hey, I can't believe you did this. This is rude.
- [124:54]
Kyle
You know, you always have the back and neck thing. You'd be like, man, my doctor said I gotta figure something out. You could always be like, it's a me thing. It's not you. I just need these ergonomics.
- [125:02]
Ryan Rosillo
They should be so excited about a one and a half year old running around their house that I just don't know that they're gonna care about the pillows all that much. All right, today, let's be done. Thanks, Kyle. Thanks, Steve. Ryan Rosillo show 10 good minutes tomorrow, recapping some of the NBA cup stuff. Looking ahead as well. We'll tape that exclusively on YouTube tomorrow. We have another huge announcement for the show this week. Not sure when we're going to do it, so please subscribe to everything we got. Ryan Rosillo show part of the Barstool Network.
- [125:36]
Ceruti
Sa.