Big NFL Training Camp Questions w/ Albert Breer. Kawhi & the Clippers Cleared? And a WNBA Chat w/ Ethan Strauss.

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Grab yours now at stowbluecoffee.com, Amazon and select retailers nationwide. The Ryersono Show is presented by draft kings. Today's show, we've got Albert Greer on the training camp trail. He's done with 2/3 of teams in the NFL going to ask him what's real what isn't based on his observations, Ethan Strauss, the House of Strauss.

We actually had him on to talk about the WNBA, because I had had some thoughts for a long time, and then didn't share any of them. So today we did, but we also had breaking news, Kauai Leonard appears like the NBA will not be punishing the clippers for their Kauai Leonard dealings. And we touched on the linker sale a little bit in a longer life advice.

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a lot of quarterback stuff in there, which I always enjoy.

“But I wanted to kind of start with something simple here. I think you've been to what”

two thirds of the team's training camps. There's talk about, you know, look, Lamar in this new system, Cincinnati, Dallas, turn over on defenses. This real like, what was something that was new that felt real? You can say it about a quarterback, about a coach, about a new defense, something where you were like, okay, this goes beyond the coach beacon, everybody's saying the same thing. Like, you believe in a group that maybe it took

being around them for a couple of days that got you to change your mind about what that side of the ball could do. Well, firstly part of my hot mind is that, like, what Seattle did last year was no fluke. I mean, they've resigned a ton of people, so I just want to start there. It's like how to me, Ryan was like, I was, so they lose boy and motha, right? Who,

hell, whatever, Cincinnati may be overpaid form at 20 million a year, but that's still a 20 million

dollar fence event. And I'm standing on the edge of their practice field, and their DC hadn't dirty is on the sled. And he's got four guys standing there, and it's like, it's Derek Hall, Chen O'Wosu, democracy's Lawrence, and Dante Fowler. And it's like Jesus, like, these guys just lost a guy at that position, and they're still four deep. You know what I mean? Like, and it's just like with Seattle, it kind of feels like when you're at their camp, like there's

the other, the other one that I just, it just jumped out at me was the level of confidence in Cincinnati that the defense is not going to be as bad as people think. And that Dexter Lawrence is going to be a major age in a change, and they bring in motha from Seattle, and they bring in Brian Cook from Kansas City, and they've got some young guys they like, and like, again, there are a few teams like this, like I put Dallas in this category, right? Where they just have to be pretty

good on defense, the offense is good enough. Houston's the reverse of that, right? Like we're Houston, if they can just be pretty good on offense, the defense can carry them. And you know, when I was with Burrow, it was just kind of like talking to him about the field that he had on the make-up of the team, and guys holding each other accountable, and this realization for Joe after, you know, this career started in the way that it did. We're, you know, not only did

you get to Super Bowl in a second year, but in the third year, they get back to the F.C. title game,

and like played well enough to win an arrowhead again for the last three years of the injuries, and then, you know, the having historically bad defense in 24 when he played like an MVP candidate, and there's just like this sense of urgency because of that, like these shots aren't going to

“come forever. And so I think Cincinnati would be the one where you look at their defense, and it's like,”

okay, like, this isn't going to be the best defense in the league, but cannot be 12, cannot be 14th, and if it's in that range, maybe that's good enough with the offense they have. Is that good enough to win the division then? If they're just a mid-level defense? Yeah, and there's so many ifs in the division, I mean, Pittsburgh and Baltimore for the first time, and forever, are both going through coaching changes now, you know, and I'd say with the

Steelers, it's, you know, I actually like the higher Mike McCarthy for the makeup of the team, the makeup of the team that they have, right? It is an older team, and I think a lot of us looked at last year as, okay, Aaron Rogers is coming in, and this is our last big shot at getting it right with this core players, and if it doesn't work, they're going to tear it down. And they come back off of last year, and they double down, you know, and they bring in Jamel Dean to play corner and

Michael Pittman to play receiver, they get older, you know, they bring back Jamel and Randy,

they bring back Cam Hayward, ultimately bring back Rogers, and so I just think, but like the Steelers,

it's a little bit of a narrow path, and then there's the making of a good team there, but when you're that old, all over the place, it like how's the injury lock going to swing? And, you know, Baltimore, again, there's a lot of change there. You know, so they thought they were going to be

“really, really good last year, and I think the internal expectation in that place is a big reason”

why Harba is not there anymore, because they didn't make the playoffs with that expectation hanging over everybody's head, and so can they reach where they what they thought they were last year? There's just like a lot of gifts in the division, you know, so I think Cincinnati could win the division for sure. You spent a lot of time on Caleb Williams. It's definitely a big departure from where we were last year, at least nationally, talking about him, whether it was Sando in the

QB tears, and it just felt like, and then there's the big Yahoo piece where you just went into being like, is this guy, is he the worst quarterback prospect ever? And he was not. I boy said, I think the brilliant stuff is there with him, and I thought it was really interesting in your piece that he'll like do a play with Ben Johnson. It's like, all right, what do you want to do?

And it's always something simple. It's like a checkdown, and it's almost him trying to condition

himself. Look, there was a lot of coach speak in there, but there was also something that I felt like was important that felt a little more genuine. It's that he seems to have a little bit more equity built up with his teammates too. It's one thing to be the young talented quarterback and supposed to be the leader, but nobody wants to hear it from a guy like year one or two, unless you're absolutely like through the roof special. But this whole thing is just in such a

better place, 12 months later, when you were starting to wonder last year, based on everything

“that everybody's writing about. Caleb Williams, you're like, is this actually not going to work out?”

And now it feels like what's the extension going to be like? That's, you know, Ryan, that's actually like what I respect most about the way they did it last year is that Ben Johnson, legitimately didn't give a shit. What everybody else was saying, you know, and he challenged Caleb and ways that I think if you're coaching in that market in Chicago, you know, as you know, that's like one of the most football intense markets in the country. And they will track your training

camp practices like their games and assess them like their games. And knowing you're walking into that environment and then taking the uncoordered back and feeding them through a fire hose, you know, I'm going to throw everything at you. And it's going to look bad. And people are going to write bad things about you. And it is Tyson Bayesian, the better answer, which was like a real

I don't know, you know, like Bayesian looks pretty good. And like Ben Johnson's willingness to stick

to his guns on that, he's like, no, like, we're going to see what he can handle. And then we're going to pair it down to what he can do well. And we don't care what everybody in the outside thinks. And then Caleb has to trust that, you know, and eventually like when they get to the point

“we're now you're having success. Now, you know, like there's this mutual trust, I think it puts you”

like a great spot, you know, because you've been through that together now. And like Ben Johnson now has proof of concept with Caleb Williams. So Caleb Williams is going to list everything Ben Johnson says because he put him through all that last year and it, and it produced great results. And the stuff that didn't work last year now he has recall on it. So it's like, hey, this didn't work last year. Now we're going to reintroduce it. Maybe it'll work better now that you had a year

in the system. It's just, it's like a really logical way to do it that I think is really hard to pull off and as intense an environment as you have in Chicago. And I think it's a credit to both Caleb and Ben that they were able to do it that way. Were you surprised at all the Kyla Murrow's name starter over McCarthy? No, because I, I do think Kevin O'Connell, despite what people might think. I could do thing he agonized over this. And I think what the difference maker was was that they felt

like with Kyla, they could project, whereas with JJ, they were still hoping if that makes sense.

“And like so I think a big piece of this is the scars of the last two years. And there are a ton”

of guys in that locker room, right? Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Andrew Van Gingel, Christian Derisaw, you know, Blake Cashman, Byron Murphy, veteran players that have accomplished a lot in the league that one 14 games two years ago and we're on the doorstep of the number one seed in the NFC going into the last game of the season. And those guys then had to go through last year

where a quarterback basically conspired to bring them down. And I don't think Kevin O'Connell

felt like he could put his team through something like that again. And so for him it was like, how do I stalk the quarterback room with enough answers? And like last year they tried to bring back to Arnold, they tried to bring back Daniel Jones. Those guys had better opportunities to be long term starters elsewhere. So they went all in on JJ. And in this case it was like we're going to create a legitimate competition. And we are going to stalk the quarterback room with answers,

“like legitimate proven answers. And we're going to see where it goes. And I think it just”

got to the point where Kevin O'Connell felt like he owed it to his team to start building towards the season. And it's like, okay, like we can project now what Kylo Murray is going to be in our offense rather than hoping that JJ's progress was just been really good keeps going. And you know, like now that'll allow them to build the run game, which they think is going to be better with Frank Smith there that allows guys like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Adams to build a rapport

with Kylo or plenty of time left before the season. So I think that's sort of what it came down to. I don't think it was a route. I don't think Kylo won an route. But I just think, you know, after what they went through the last two years, they were sort of in this position where just having the certainty of what Kylo is in the NFL gave everybody a comfort level to go forward. I also think it's the easier way to get JJ back in the field because Kylo's probably

going to get hurt. And this way you start with Kylo and you let JJ take it easy. He's only had 10 starts to his career. You spent a strap pick on him. Like, again, maybe it is that bad, but I would feel like it's a waste. It's not doing enough. Like, maybe you could argue it's throwing bad money at that money here, but at the same time, like, or a good money at that money, I should say. I expect that he's going to get a couple of starts this year. Whether that's Kylo's injury,

history, or Kylo, you know, at some point has shown us, like, I'd love to get the Eric Manjini thing when we were talking about, I think Matt Castle wants. He was in studio. And we were trying to figure out, like, what should this team do a quarterback? Manjini's thing was, like, if you've seen somebody at least do it for an entire season, you know, there's a chance. Like, as bad as that sound, you know, you have a chance at least. I think Kylo's had stretches were like, if this

were to go right, like, he's a really talented guy. But, you know, he's probably going to get hurt.

And I think JJ will get another chance and look at the see where he's at. And the reality is to

Ryan, like, I think it'd be much easier to go from Kylo to JJ than the other way around. You know, I just think that's the, if, if you're looking at it and saying, well, probably have to play both, it makes sense to start with the experience guy. And, like, I don't think, I think Kylo is a backup would be a little bit of an awkward fit, you know? And so, like,

it can come down to is like, all right, like, if we're going to use both these guys, like,

who is the better guy for a week, one to week for? Who is the easier guy to detach from? If we're going to move from one to the other? And I, and I do think there's, like, some nuance to that, too, where if Kylo doesn't play well, it'll be pretty easy for them to just turn to JJ if they have to. Right. Right. Nothing else to add on that one. Okay. The New England Patriots. 17 wins last year. Still can't believe they played in the Super Bowl. But the AFC

seemed to kind of collapse around them and the historically easy schedule. And then you end up, you know, you're going up against Jared Stidham to get to the Super Bowl. But this team wasn't that good. So to say last year was a fluke, is the team improved enough to offset what is likely a tougher path? Yeah. So the injury, luck, it's weighing. Like you said, the schedule is tougher.

They are older in some spots, too. You know, like Carlton Davis's older at corner, Harold Landry is older on the edge and is already banged up. You know, AJ Brown is somebody they're going to rely on. He's older, you know. And last year, they had a lot of older guys stay healthy. I'm not wishing injury on anybody. You know,

“don't take it. But, but that's just the reality is, I think the commander showed us that, right?”

Like the commanders were older in 2024 and it worked out and then they ran it back with a bunch of the older guys and the injury luck swung the other way all together. So like I think there's that piece of it, but they're more balanced. They're deeper. I think how they'd been able to flip the receiver room and like turn that from like a really glaring weakness. One of the worst receiver rooms in the league to, you know, maybe one of the deepest has been pretty remarkable. And I think like a lot of like where

they go from here. And this isn't like the, this isn't the sexiest thing to talk about, but I think a lot of it's just going to be internal, right? Like so what does, you know, what does Will Campbell

look like in year two at tackle? What are they getting from Milton Williams in his second year there?

It's Christian Barmore still on ascending fire, you know, at safety Craig. Well, woods and showed a ton of promise can he take another step. So there's a bunch of guys like that on the team where it's like you get that internal improvement and then maybe some more from your rookies, you know, and you could, you could see where you can kind of level off like the natural regression that

“could come. And then I think the other part is straight, you know, is straight capable of carrying a team now.”

And, you know, I think he's got the potential to get there. I do think like just having talk to him about this, like I think there's a lot of lessons he takes from the playoffs in that he was, if you look at like the, the, the, the, the, the charge again, the taxing game, the Bronco game, and then the C hockey, like there wasn't a great performance in there. He turned the ball over a lot. And so being challenged in those ways does he grow from that, you know, like I think that's a

big piece of it, too, because every team in the league now has a full year of tape on him, in Josh McDaniel's offense. And I think some of the effective that was felt in the playoffs when you get teams that have really good players, really good schemes that are able to drill down on you. So like can Drake learn to counter punch against some of the stuff that those teams in the

“playoffs throw it. I think that's going to be a factor too. How many teams are better? Do you think”

in the AOC than New England? Um, I mean, I still been Kansas City bounces back. Uh, I think the Broncos, the Broncos have the most balanced roster. They don't have like a lot of superstars, but I think the Broncos have the most balanced roster. And I mean, like they were toe to toe with them without their starting quarterback. Um, so I say Kansas City Denver Buffalo, I mean, I'd probably put them somewhere. Like I think, I think I'm, I think I'm going to pick them to be a wild card team,

which, you know, by the way, because I live there. People are going to clip that and call me a hater, and that's fine. Um, but, you know, I think that they're probably somewhere in that five, six, seven range. And you know what's interesting, too, Ryan, is a lot of people forget this,

but, and I know you don't, but after they won that first Super Bowl, you know, one under Belichick,

with Brady, there was a step back here the next year. You know, and Brady turns out to get September. Right. And, and the, the, the, the Brady turned the ball over a bunch that year, and it, a couple things went kind of haywire, and then they ascended again after that. I don't know if it's going to be that type of step back, but I think something like that could be in the works. It would make sense because it still was not this extremely talented roster, you know,

named ahead of them, like, I'd rather have me over nix. So you can talk about, especially the O line, the edge guys, secondary. I mean, Denver does feel like it's a really nice roster, one through 53. Yeah. And then you have Buffalo that feels like even at the transition year just didn't happen because Alan's up there with anybody else. So these are not, I mean, Buffalo is passing me, though.

“You know why? Go ahead. I think Buffalo. I think Buffalo, I think Joe Brady is going to look”

a little different in his first year's ahead coach thing. He looked as the offensive coordinator. And I brought this up to him when I was, I was with him last week. You know, his mentor is Sean Payton. And I don't know, is so long, though, right? But Sean Payton at one point was stripped of play calling by Jim Fossil and New York. And then when he was in Dallas, Bill Parsell's nickname forum was Dennis the Menace. Because he had all these crazy ideas, right? And Parsell's had to

rain him in. And then once Sean Payton got on his own. And it, it, it, it, it was like, oh my God, you know what I mean? Like, look at like what he's doing now. And I'm not saying, like, Joe Brady's been held back by Matt Rool or Sean McDermiger. Anybody that he's coached with. But, you know,

just talking to him about it. I know you're always when you're the offensive coordinator,

you know, the play call, but you're not the head coach. There's always this, okay, like, this is what the head coach wants. And this is the type of game we're going to play. And this is, and I just, I'm really interested to see what Joe Brady looks like free of that with Josh Allen.

“You know, like, I just, I think it's sort of telegraphed with the defensive coordinator hire,”

that he hired a really aggressive attacking defensive coordinator in Jim Leonard, who won't work under advanced Joseph and played for X Ryan. I, I think the field of the team is going to be a little different. I'm really, really interested to see what they look like. It may not matter that Buffalo's defense has to be like even top 10, but I would say personnel wise, that group has been slipping now for multiple years. Yeah. Even if I like a bunch of the

names, like, there were times where I'd have to stop. Like, hey, just because you can name all 11

guys, it doesn't mean, you know, that's what we're always talking about with basketballs. Like,

sure, like, sometimes you think of depth just because it's, like, for a million. Like, well, that doesn't mean that they just means you can name a lot of the guys. And I would argue the draft by you, why, why you like the Alabama guy more than the guy from like, you know, yeah, totally more than the guy from Buffalo or whatever. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, there was an SECD line thing that would go back 20 plus years. I'm talking like

when I was still on the air in Boston. It's not even like a newly biased thing. They're just like, who's this freak from Kentucky? They're like, oh my god. That's why I was kind of laughing about the NFL draft is that there's some interior defensive line from school. You've never

“watched a minute of it and you're convinced you have to have this player. So I mean, I think there's”

my head because of Cleo Mack. And I remember Cleo Mack versus DeVy and Clowny. And there were people that would tell you then, like, no, Mack might be a better player than Clowny. And it was hard to believe because we saw Clowny blowing people up in the SEC. Well, you know, I mean, you look at the careers now. And that's not Clowny got hurt and all that. But it's sort of an example of you know, Mack was better than Pete Clowny. I mean, if you want to do that right now,

but I mean, it's it's it's hard when it's Buffalo. Even though I think you could argue if you were watching Clowny like we can in week out even in South Carolina, you're like, I don't know that it's quite the Michigan play all the time with him. I remember being on the sideline for a Clowny game once and there was a tackle that was like, I'd break his ribs in the pros. Like, he's he's too high. He played. I was like, why? Because he's tall. He's like, no, he plays too

upright. So now we're doing a big Clowny retrospective. I just am I wrong for being like, we can name guys on the bill's defense, but are we making a mistake expecting it to be something that's complimentary and or is it that they're just going to be so aggressive that they cope, they take these wild turnover swings. I say what they need on defense is guys to live up to their draft position. Right. Like, so they've got a lot of young like high draft picks on that side of the

ball. Now, I think at all, there's going to be a good fit for what Jim Liner is going to do with them. So Deon Walker, the big nose tackle they took from Kentucky, TJ Sanders, the Detacoli,

took from South Carolina, Greg Russo, who's a first-round pick now on his second contract for all

Bernard's on his second contract, Cole Bishop played really well as a rookie, the safety, but they took him a second round a couple of years ago, Max Harrison, who's been banged up, but he's a first-round corner. Right. To me, like so much of it with Buffalo is going to be, okay, like, are these guys going to live up to their draft position? And we don't know the answer to that yet. And so I'm interested to see where that piece of it goes. If you have a bunch of guys

that now all of a sudden, Deon Walker looks like a dominant nose tackle, he's massive. Right.

all of a sudden, he's a factor with offense is planning for all of her Russo takes a step

playing standing up in Jim Lunders defense. It'd have to be a bunch of things like that, you know, and that's sort of the reality of having a quarterback on the contracts that the bills have Josh Allen on. You know, it's like the Cole's back in the day. They needed a lot of young draft picks on defense to contribute. That's where Buffalo is. And if C, AFC, by the end of the year, it felt like the end of C just has the better teams. And looking at it, like to think of the

NFC Northwood Detroit comes in last place at nine and eight. The Packers who last, they what, they lost their last five games, including the playoffs, which I was kind of shocked when I saw that. Again, I was like, okay, so they were nine, four and one and then end up at, uh, what would I need one and then they lost their first playoff game. Yeah. So I guess, right. Yeah. Or nine, nine seven and one. Yeah. They were nine three and one finish nine seven and one and then

“lost their playoff game. Yes. Yeah. That's what I'm going to do. Yeah. Well, I know it took us a little”

one. I screwed you up there. Do you feel like the NFC's top is is superior to the AFC's? I, I wonder about that because that's the other factor. You know, when you're talking about New England, kind of where they were. And I remember talking about the Patriots last year and was like, well, who are they better than? And you looked at the AFC last year and it was just the quality and

death was so incredible at the top. Because he had Kansas City, he had the charges. He had Denver.

He had Houston. He had Pittsburgh and Baltimore and Cincinnati and Buffalo. And a lot of those teams had something catastrophic happen. Right. The Broncos loser quarterback before the AFC title game. The Chargers lose both their tackles for most of the season. They got six games out of those two guys combined. And those two guys were like basically the identity of what they wanted to be. You know, Houston has the quarterback go the wrong way at the wrong time.

You know, you just look at all of these teams that like had something go really, really wrong.

“And I think it's like reframe the way we look at the conference. Pittsburgh and Baltimore, of course,”

you know, towards the end of that season, things kind of come undone in two long time coaches are gone.

So like, it's all the things that we thought about those AFC teams last summer. Those things

still true. And now that some of those things have changed, whether it's health, who's running the team, whatever, is the AFC going to go back to being the team, the conference that has, you know, the four best quarterbacks of this generation. And it's ranks in an Allen, the homes, Jackson, and Burrow. Is it going to go back to being what we thought it was the beginning last year? Like that to me is like really, really fascinating. Because I think I don't think anybody on this day last

year, Ryan, what to told you the NFC, was the better conference. I don't think you could have found a single person that knows what they're talking about that would have said that. And yet, because of everything that happened over the course of the year, we were left where, you know, the NFC was clearly the better conference. So I think all those sort of swing factors in the AFC of the tournament. Well, if you did it from a quarterback standpoint, you're absolutely right.

Because I remember specifically, it wasn't even a show idea. I was in the car listening, because I still loved to listen to everybody. And I forget who it was, but they were making a great point. It was like, let's run through the NFC quarterbacks for status. You quarterbacks. And even right, my home's getting hurt. Well, the Mar taking a step back with the brushing part of it. Maybe there's still some people out there selling some to a stock. But it just, look, to the

point of this whole exercise. From where we were at last summer, like how much is it? How much is totally changed? Like, I'm fine with the home thing. It's going to be fine. I'd love her to play a playoff game with both tackles as well. Next, I think, is a little overrated, but they had an awesome season. The stride thing is getting alarming. Yeah. I don't know if you have anything on that, but I just feel like from what he was in the beginning. Like, it can't possibly be this bad,

“the last time what we saw him. Yeah. I'd say with him, um, the best thing that people”

there say about him right now is that he's at a steady consistent offseason and a quiet offseason. And I think a lot of the idea there, you know, this kind of, this goes back two years to when they felt like the offensive line situation in 24 imploded everything. So they decided we've got a culture problem in that room and we need to blow it up. And they felt like they couldn't rebuild it without trading or any tons. So they traded or any tons. So, and last year was sort of the transition

year. And what they're looking to do is sort of match the culture, ethos, whatever, please

um, killing Rutledge. Um, is, I've heard he started fights. It like, something like five

practices so far in training camp. Like he is a brawler and he is fighting back. And they have why it teller there now and I know that sounds ridiculous, right? But like it is this like when you're practicing us that defense every day, there is a, we need to stand up to them. And the day I was there, I remember I was talking to some of the coaches the day before they were like some of the offensive coaches were like, no, we've played them and it was standstill pretty much

to this point in camp. And it's like we know that, but we know what's coming tomorrow because it was going to be a big 11 on 11 day the next day. I'm sure enough the defense got the better of them. And I talked to Will Anderson after the practice and he was like, it was like, yeah,

like we wanted to re-establish ourselves out there. But that's sort of what they've been looking

for, right? It's kind of the offense stand up to the defense. So that's starting to happen. And you hear about the running back position being improved because David Montgomery's in there and he's going to be a tone setter for them. They like what he marks coming back in year two. The Titan room is, is deeper and at receiver, they think Jaden Higgins has got a real chance to break out, be like a probable level receiver this year. So now you're be dealing with kind of

like these twin towers on the outside, these big long guys, like one of the coaches said it's like almost like we have a power forward and a small forward. Like Nico Collins, the power forward, Jaden Higgins is the small forward. So all these things are going right around him now. And it's just like, I feel like the coaches are handing CJ to keys and being like, hey, just hands attend to,

“run the offense, you know, do what you did three years ago. And, you know, I think it feels similar”

to this coaching staff, that the offensive coaching staff has his trust. And if they're able to play the way Demiko Rines wants them to play, which is kind of matching, like the attitude and the edge of the defense, then CJ doesn't need to be a superstar. He just needs to run the offense. And they think he can do it. But I got, you had me right until the very last sentence, where it's like, I hope they're not selling you on. Well, he just needs to like manage things. It's like,

that's not what we thought of this guy when it first came on. It wasn't that so much. It's just,

he's got such tremendous arm talent. He's really smart. And like it's, I think more than anything else is just, look, like the offense is going to work for you. Let it work for you. We've got good talent around you now. We think the offensive line is in the right place. And they think that like really looking back, like that was kind of one of his strengths is a rookie, as he's got

“really high football IQ and he let the offense work for him. And I think it's just this feeling that”

they've got enough right around him now that we're, you know, if you can just, if we can start there, we'll be in a good place. And obviously, with the defense they have, they don't need to ask the world of, the world of anyone on offense. Yeah, because again, back to that conversation that we were having, like a year ago, the big problem was okay, the NSC quarterback's don't match up with the ASC quarterback's. Right. And now you're like, okay, is the Donald thing of fluke

while they're going into last year. People thought staffards back might not hold up. He wins MVP. I think the NSC South other than Baker. I know Bryce made the playoffs, but although everybody seems to like Tyler shook a lot. Yeah. There. You can say, yeah, you know what? I think the simple quote, what do you think happens with the Eagles in the NSC East? Yeah, so I think the NSC East is wide open. I can see any of the four teams winning the division. Believe it or not,

“like I just all four, I think all four have a chance. Yeah. And I just, I think if you ask me to say”

to 10 point who has the best chance the other three, to overthrow the Eagles, I'd say it's Dallas. I just think Philly's Philly's in an interesting spot. It's kind of a funky spot, you know, where it's, they got older in some places. They've done a good job. You know, I think we're placing some of the talent they've lost and filtering out guys over the last few years, like Jason Kelsey. And, you know, now AJ Brown, Darius Slay, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, like they've lost a good

amount of talent. They've done a good job replacing it. Here's my question. It's still a really good roster. What is there overwhelming strength right now? Well, I don't know. I'd really like some of the pieces of the secondary. I think I love the idea of the front, although I don't know that all of those guys, like back to that familiarity of who was drafted where and hey, that guy's supposed to be awesome. I don't, I don't know if that front takes over games away

that I thought it would. Yeah. So, not having both receivers, I think is going to be a problem

to do. Right. Is it the old line? Is it a healthy old line? I don't know. I'm, I mean, it's still

“a really good roster. I think the line of scrimmage is always going to be, like the line of scrimmage”

is always going to be well fortified. They're offensive lines still really good. Put on defense,

that defensive front. Now, you're really relying on Jalen Carter. You go from having Jalen Phillips at the end of last year to now Jonathan Grinard. Jonathan Grinard didn't play great last year for the Vikings, right? You're going at receiver from AJ Brown to some combination of down-tavion wicks and a Kyle Lennon. St. Juan's a year older. I'm not saying the wheels are going to fall off, but you know, he's a running back going into year nine now. So, it's just, it's like one of those

where it's just, you look at it and I'm like, this team was so great. It's so many things a couple of years ago and it just feels like they've leveled off a little bit, which I think opens the door. And you know what else it means is it means that a quarterback needs to be better. And I think Jalen hurts knows that, you know, but the one thing that can make up for some of these things is the quarterback playing really, really well. Thank you for finding some time to visit with us.

We'll have you out again before this season starts. So, we'll do some official predictions if you're

“down with that, but I know you're all over the place right now. 19 camps, I think so far. So,”

you can check out the MMQB this morning. A stoic Caleb Williams, willing to learn, willing to listen. I don't write in a lot of it. Well, a lot of them are good. Stoicism, when dudes are in their early 20s talking about stoicism, it's usually a red flag for me. I'm like, I don't know, I bought the book. You have an experience with stoic? Yeah, I don't think you're really a stoic, as you say. And by the way, if you want, I don't think 23 year old knee was definitely

not stoic. I don't want to be stoic. I don't do that. I don't think I had much to do it. I thought though, I thought people weren't trying to be stoic at that age where we are, but that was me. Yeah, no, I think there's a weirdness. I'm just going to tell you right now, if you keep track of every pro athlete under 25, that says he's a stoic. See if there might be some correlation, but again, Caleb was awesome last year. So, we're, we're into it. There's another player I'm

thinking of right now, his, his, someone who's telling me that he's stoic and I went, okay, all right, I'll continue to monitor. I also feel like it's like one of those things for you. You just have to be it. It's tough to kind of tell people you are, you know, but that's the other thing. But Caleb's

all, yeah, but Caleb's always been a different guy and it certainly worked for him last year.

Yeah, I'm happy for him. I know that's like there was this shift on some of the inaccuracy last year, where it sounded like I was totally off of them, but I just was getting so frustrated and then it kind of like turned a corner. But I, I wasn't like against him the way people that wanted him to be a failure from week one of his rookie year because they just didn't like everything that went into it. I didn't think that was necessarily a fair way to evaluate the QB. But yeah, again, check out

SI.com. MMQB, it's Berpure, has YouTube page. We'll have him on again before the season kicks off. Thanks, Ben. All right. Thanks, Ron. I don't think there's anything worse than the feeling of missing out on Sunday NFL. Maybe the play of the year just happened and you missed it. Maybe your fantasy teams in a nail bite are and you can't watch your players. Sometimes your local broadcasts or doesn't carry your hometown teams game and you're stuck piecing the game together through

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PM on rumble premium and everywhere else at 8 p.m. Eastern. I've been thinking about talking

“about the WNBA. I have this monologue that I've written now numerous times. I think I started writing”

it out over a year ago, but then I also didn't really want to just be the guy that was mean about the WNBA and Ethan Strauss joins us now, House of Strauss. He's been, I think, one of the best on talking about the WNBA, where they're being critical or giving them credit for the things that are challenging. I kind of was like, well, I don't need to do it now because I think the WNBA has been on a run of some of the dumbest decisions I've ever seen from a league the last two

plus years. So I was like, well, if I don't do this monologue now, I can just do it in six weeks or I can do it. And here we go. I want to figure out a way to do this where we're fair, but like I said with you, it seems like you don't want to keep writing about it and they give you

all of these opportunities to continue to be critical of the product. It's amazing how much

of the cultural mind share they just keep consuming and I keep thinking, I can leave this thing alone and I can return to other sports topics and then somehow the league suddenly tops itself and becomes even more of a new story. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say right now, Ryan, that national sports talk, the WNBA is dwarfing MLB, even if baseball is obviously more popular. There's just something about this league at this moment, this Indiana fever team,

things adjacent to Caitlin Clark that are all consuming. It's nuts. Yeah, the funny thing is is that you're in this really good window for attention to be paid to you. And as I learned firsthand, baseball is a regional topic. It became less and less national and even if baseball is far more popular with ratings and revenue, all that kind of stuff, it just wasn't a great talking point. And the WNBA has all of these things involved in every

single discussion, which make great talking point. So I don't know if that just means because some TV shows or radio shows or talking about it, I have not wanted to talk about it because I just don't want to be like, I think there's like three categories of WNBA people, right? There is the guy that's still mad that mean a time is on TV. So he's just not even worth listening to. He's just going to be so misogynistic about every single thing. He wants the WNBA to fail.

He's like excited when the ratings go down. So like that guy's not great to hang out with.

“I think there's kind of this middle ground thing of like, hey, what's going on over there?”

Which I am certainly a part of. And then I think beyond that, again, we could do all sorts of categories. You've gone into them. There's the hardcore people that are doing it all the time. They're watching these games constantly that hate both of the other categories because they feel like you haven't earned the right to talk about it. But I would say like, look, if somebody who had to do it every day on the radio, there were stretches with the NFL where

all we talked about was the NFL and the negative light. All we talked about was concussions for like

two years. We didn't even, we felt like we were never even talking about games. Baseball has had

its steroids run. The NBA has had all sorts of drama that have nothing to do with games. So when I hear at WNBA people that are like really, really close to it going, unfortunately no one's talking about any of the good stuff. That's partly their own fault and also not that different than other leagues having these stretches where it felt like it was overwhelming, negative and drama based. Well, the weird part about it is that it's arguably helping the league. I've heard Bill talk

“about how the commissioner should perhaps be fired from the WNBA because of this. Now, I think”

their commissioner is really bad. I don't disagree with that aspect. But I don't think anybody is capable of tamping down the noise that just has become part and parcel of this league. And where is in the NFL when people are talking about other stuff? We can reasonably argue that this is detracting from the product. This is making people less interested in the product. They're these negative stories. People just want to watch their sports. They want to distraction. This is

messing with that. The WNBA is weird because it wasn't very popular previous to Kate and Clark arrive in some people who are died in the wall. NBA fans would or WNBA fans would argue against that. But we've seen the numbers. And right now, a lot of people are watching. So this toxic

conversation somehow helps them. It's crazy. You've got to league that never wanted or at least

institutionally. The insiders appear to have never wanted it to become really popular and have a lot of casual. A lot of normal people paying attention. And they try to fight against it happening. But the way they're fighting against it happening is so controversy stirring that people can't stop

this ever happening in sports. Yeah, because it's it's not established enough as these, you know,

other leagues that have been going on for decades and decades. And you're you're totally right. Like all here are certain things of like, oh, it's not about Kate and Clark. It's not about this. And it's like, oh, it's built on the backs of all these players and all the generations before them. I'm like, you mean like the thing that was attacks right off. Like this isn't really something to take some victory lap over. Like, yeah, people played. But nobody had paid attention to this

thing. And you know, whether like the stuff that happened was Stephanie White, I just I was like, we're doing this again. This is fucking happening again. You have your player get wiped out by an opposing player who has a nasty history of some of this stuff, right? And so what happens in all the sports that I pay attention to? That coach, when given that moment, goes at the other player and defends her play. And in this weird like prioritizing feelings, mission statement that the

WWE NBA has been on now for like two plus years where it's like, well, if I'm Stephanie White, I have to think about the criticism that's going to happen to designate Karynton and you're like, what? And so when I couldn't believe when it happened, I'm like, this is actually happening. She's downplaying the foul and therefore not having her own players back. And then guess what happens? Stephanie White's gets dragged again, which is something she must be used to by now.

She then loses her shit on the media as if it's the media's fall. And then she's on this crusade about like mean people online. And you go, hey, guess what? When you're doing something

“that's public, you can assume that's what's going to happen. It happens to all of us, all right?”

And it still somehow was everybody else's fall, even though it was an explanation that didn't make any

sense that, I mean, there's replays of this stuff over and over and over again. Her first move was,

I want to make sure I'm worried about the opponents' feelings that my own player. That's what it felt like to me. Maybe I was wrong. I, okay, so there's a lot there. And it's all happening simultaneously with the Indiana fever being first in their conference. And they're not the best team, but if they own a title run, I know a lot of people are dismissive of the WMBA. But that's going to be a huge story. It's going to be a huge thing. But instead, it's this. And as much as we can say,

this is crazy and stupid and it is and unreasonable, the way the coach was acting and it is. Dom and Rengula, who some people know from Lakers Twitter, but he works over its trajectory, it's a tech newsletter. He was on my podcast and I thought he made a great point, which is that fans love authenticity and a lot of what we look down on with some of the controversies of the WMBA or I think the actors within it are acting in ways that we wouldn't necessarily want that

from some of the other sports we watch. There's an authenticity to this drama that appears to be polling people in. It's crazy to me that Stephanie White appeared to throw her own player under the

“bus potentially because of some ideological reason. I don't know that to be sure, but that's what it”

looks like. If she did, there's an authenticity to that as crazy as that is and then her home crowd booze her. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in sports. I don't think I've ever seen a coach not support their player in that situation and the home crowd booze them. And you know what, there's an authenticity to the crowd then hating her because of that. So to what you're saying, yes, she's acting in a way where there should be blame and there should be accountability. She doesn't

take accountability. But in lieu of the accountability, there appears to be authenticity and that appears to be what's resonating in part about this crazy league along with the politics that people loved to argue about. How many examples can you come up with with it's seeming like this world? Maybe they don't put you in a tough spot to do it off top of your head. But it was a different Caitlyn Clark timeline moments here with the league and being left off the national team. And then that's

when I was like, okay, first of all, this never happens. The NBA would never do this. They would never

do this. Hey, we have this thing. It is the biggest thing. Let's make it global. And then you had kind of like WNBA serrigates on social media going, well, she'll have her chance. It's like, no, no,

“none of you should be defending this. None of you should be saying that this is a good idea.”

This is a stupid, stupid idea. So then you start to realize like, oh, that doesn't make any sense.

that I couldn't believe that you brought up. Wasn't there some Sunday night game? And the graphic,

which go ahead. Well, yeah, that's always happening where they'll have some sort of graphic

and it won't be Caitlyn Clark on the graphic. Right now, MVP, people talking about MVP, it seems like she's getting left off of a lot of lists. And there's a subjectivity to that certainly. But she's been playing great. I mean, there's another side note, side plot. I wrote about this. I thought

“to get a reaction, but it did not get much of a reaction. I think people prefer arguing about the”

politics and the proxy word for politics. But Adam Silver does not like Caitlyn Clark. It knocked out of the air. That's something that he is not into. And he is expressed as much. You can read between the lines. But he hasn't been quiet about it. He knows there's a golden goose here. And this

year, fouls are way up in the WMBA. I know Ryan. You might remember a little time in the NBA,

where they just under the cover of everything changed how they were calling fouls. In that case, they swallowed the whistle. In this case, the WMBA has shifted more of a finesse game. And Caitlyn Clark's free throw attempts are way up for 100 or whatever metric you want to see. And so she's thriving. She's doing better. So it's this dynamic right now where the NBA, which, you know, controls the WMBA or is whatever you want to say, the umbrella organization over the WMBA

understands that there is a generational opportunity to make money and promote this superstar, who commands a disproportionate amount of interest in the league. But the institutional people under that umbrella within the league are doing all they can it seems to poo poo it, suppress it, resent it, and seem to dislike how many people are now watching the league whom they

“find to be disreputable. And I think that's what you're identifying right there. They're doing”

a little bit of it, or I should say they're succeeding a little bit. But for the most part, it just is appeared to make her a martyr to a lot of people. And Caitlyn Clark train has not gotten to railed off the tracks. Her rookie year, I was watching one of the WMBA studios shows and they were talking rookie the year. And one of the analysts was like, Defiant. It was like it's Angel Reese. It's Angel Reese over Caitlyn Clark. It's Angel Reese over Stand, you know,

she goes, I go standings. And I was like, oh, wow, you know, I don't know the standings off the top of my head. It seems like Caitlyn Clark's a lot better than Angel Reese. I think Angel Reese being sold to us as a star probably doesn't help the WMBA because then you watch your play basketball and you're like, this is a star. That's weird. So back to this thing that I noticed for rookie year, the San Jose on TV just like Adam and Adam and it's about standing Angel Reese's team

“is ahead of Caitlyn Clark's teams and standing. That's why I would go for her for rookie the year.”

A couple of people disagreed. So I was like, man, I got to check the standings. I checked him. Both teams were under 500 and Chicago was a half game ahead of the Indiana fever. And I'm like, that is such a terrible argument. It was like it was being presented as if the fever were seven games back in the standings and that the Chicago sky were going to make it to the playoffs. Both teams, I think at the time of this debate were out of the playoffs, both below 500

and Clark's team was only half a game behind Angel Reese's. I don't, I guess I could make it simple and just say, hey, I get it. But I think the league now because they fucked up the Clark thing so bad, they actually have less patience as opposed to like a more reasonable, like, hey, me, like when, when Kathy said that to report, was it, was it before the season started something? It was like, would you ask a man that question? You're like, what the fuck we're doing here?

You're a commissioner of the league. And you think the commissioners of the men's leagues are treated with kid gloves the entire time? Like, Roger Goodell got destroyed for years where he had to kind of do somewhat of a makeover. So it almost feels like the more people bitch about the WNBA, the more defensive they get instead of learning any kind of lesson that makes you go like, I don't know if you guys want to do some of this stuff. And especially

as an emerging league that you would hope to invite more customers in. Well, they seem to resent how top heavy it is. They seem to resent how much of it is capable and Clark. They want it to be that they did it on their own. And I think Engelberg, she was written up in Harvard Business

Review, talking about just the incredible job they've done to turbocharge interest. And it was a

just staff. It wasn't just staff curry that made the warriors this all consuming dynasty, but he's at least most of it, right? They have a similar impulse where they want it to be them. They don't want it to be her. I'm looking at, you know, this Harvard Business Review thing that she was involved in, by nearly every metric, 2024 was a standout year for the WNBA. As transcendent rookies, Caitlyn Clark, Angel Reese in Cameron, Brink entered the league, regular season games, true in

average of 1.2 million viewers, up 170% from the previous season. This is what Engelberg said.

I'm going really like those three. That's really what's going on. It's Clark, recent Brink. No, it's just, it's Clark. It's Caitlyn Clark. And I can understand in a way because that's scary. If she tears an ACL, then all of a sudden there's dramatically less interest in your league. But I don't think that you can fight it or it's not reasonable to fight it. And there should at least be a measure of gratitude for it. I would think with all she's brought in because the numbers

do not lie. Anybody's looked into this can see it clearly. And like I said, if the fever make a run, if they're in the finals, there are many, they're multiple. Whatever the baseline WNBA finals viewership, it's going to be multiple of that. I don't know if it's going to be 3x. I don't know if it's going

“to be 2x. I just know it's going to be an x. And so I think a lot of what's happened if you just”

look back at the history of the league. They didn't have to make money. They didn't have a lot of

scrutiny. And so they're used to this condition where they can kind of make their own rules, absent accountability. And a lot of the institutional actors are still talking that way. Meanwhile, it became a real league despite themselves. And it became a real league in large part because, yes, Caitlyn Clark. I wonder if she played a different way if there would be this much animosity towards her because she has some nights where it is Luca. It is peak Luca where she's

so annoying. I don't know anyway, other say like I love Luca. I love what he's capable of. When Luca's really on one for a game, it's not a blast. It's not a great thing to watch. And I would say like when he was at his peak level of comfort when he was with Dallas. And then it was like all right, a new place. I'm going to ramp it down a little bit and he builds it up. So I don't know, if everybody would get along with her better. If they felt like that she wasn't, she can be kind

of a tough watch there for Luca. It's great if she is as much fun as she is. She will have these stretches where she's just yelling at everybody and you're just like all right. So I don't know if that plays in her a little bit. I thought you brought up a great point there, though, where like hey, in the past, no one cared. So why do you care now? Even though that was the whole point is everybody

“cares now. Like I think that's brilliantly set. I want to throw a theory at you. And I actually think”

it comes from a good place. Okay. Like if you're a boy and you have a sister, what's the number one thing? Your dad is like you got to take care of your sister, right? There's an inequality to it that is to be expected that you are going to as the man be looking out for the woman. All right. And you can be the same thing when you're taking care of your mom. As you get older, it can be the same thing about having a wife. I mean, there is this just accepted thing

that between the male female dynamic, a lot of us would just grow up with a really simple rule of like it isn't equal. Like we want you to look out for this person and be deferential and protective of this other person. All right. So having said that, it's a little complicated because like I know when I work with women and sports and then it just turns into like, hey, go back in the kitchen. Like the guy cannot help himself. He's just like, I can't believe a woman is talking about the

NFL. It don't want to hear her talk about the NFL. All right. So that's always going to exist.

So if it's a woman being criticized by the general public, it's going to be like, well, I'm a woman in sports. This shit's happening me all the time. And this is why this is happening all over again. But I also wonder if there's, I don't know if it's pandering. That's not exactly the right word. But there are times where when men are talking about women's sports and I'm talking about the guys that aren't dicks about it. But when they're talking about women's sports, there may be

is this, not a relapse, but like a feeling or a hope that's like, well, hey, you're going to be like, this mean to us when you've never been this mean growing up. And I don't know if there's anything there.

“I don't know if it's a, if it's a completely flawed theory because I think the women in WMB and be”

able, like, are you serious? Like, you think people bring nice to us? Like, everybody's dumping on us now for two straight years. But I wonder if there's kind of like this, this thing at least from leadership at the top where, hey, we're actually not used to having this many people against

no, no, no, I like that you went there. It's a tricky subject because I don't think men generally

treat women the way they treat other men and I don't know if women generally, if they experience that like that or are used to that when it happens. And when you become a legitimate league in this way with a lot of attention, suddenly people are gambling on what's happening and say nasty things about you when you come up short and lose them a few thousand dollars. I don't think they're

“used to any of this. And I think that the word you were looking for when it comes to the way some”

men talk about the league and this kid gloves man or I think it's difference. I think that's the word you might have been looking for. Sorry to be so arrogant as to choose it for you. But no, this is dynamic. It's this dynamic that I don't know if people are comfortable talking about because in mixed company men can sometimes be deferential to women in a way that changes the vibe. I see it within side where if it's Barclay and Shack and Ernie Johnson they're all just snapping

towels at each other and being totally mean and off the rails. If Candice Parker is there in the studio the energy changes and to be clear it's not her fault. It's not something she's doing but the guys are now operating differently. They're a little bit more careful and I think you see a lot of those dynamics play out with a women's league where maybe people who would ordinarily have commentary that could be sharper or demand were accountability for instance like you were saying

they hold their tongue and then maybe the people within that institution they don't get the criticism you should get. They only get the criticism from the ogre online say back to the kitchen. They cease to have any realistic understanding of where they're screwing up and running a foul and so I think at its root and it sounds crazy to say it beyond the politics, beyond the politics and the proxy war, some of why the WMBA discourse is so messed up is just that basic issue of

men and women not entirely knowing how to deal with one another. I think that is part of it and

“I'm glad you brought up Candice Parker because I'll never forget and I think it was like 20 years ago”

there was a high school dunk contest I think it was on ESPN and she did the same dunk four times. It was like front of the rim, left of the rim, right of the rim and then I think she did front of the rim and guys are throwing shit off the backboard and she won the dunk contest because that moment everyone on that judges panel decided we're gonna be nice and it's incredible. It can't as Parker could dunk but I wasn't home as an endothal massage in his guy. I was just kind of

sitting at home going like fucking really like this is gonna win the dunk contest and you're just going like what am I supposed to want am I supposed to want truth and that her dungs weren't nearly as good like is that important to me is that gonna change anything? No that seems a little dramatic but what like did I was I was I offended because like I couldn't I was offended I wasn't sure

why I was offended and I wonder if some of this to your point of it never exactly being something

we can figure out how to nail perfectly here of like if you're willing to do that for women and sports or are we just is it a good thing that maybe we don't want fairness at times when it comes being critical you know even if that's wrong it seems like the wrong way to do the job.

“Yeah that's a really interesting moment with Parker and I think the reasons to be offended”

not saying it's the crime of the century there's just an absence of honesty I remember when I was a kid and I heard about the battle of the sexes with the whole bobby rigs versus now I feel terrible I can't remember the actual women's tennis player off top my head who won that match against a drunk and dropbellied Billy Jean there we go against a drunk and popbellied rigs and it was funny my

mom of all people said she never liked how people reacted to it because this guy clearly wasn't

the best in the world so what were we proving with this woman beating him what was really going on here and so you're seeing aspects of that right now where there's this push this defensiveness to try to tell people this is such a great league and then the people making that case will almost try to make it sound like the players are better than what you would have and the NBA or have aspects to them that are better there's this denial I don't need to get into the crazy

voice white in as canter thing but there are people saying they shouldn't be allowed in the league which they should not but also that they would get just completely destroyed by Asia Wilson you can

have to lie dude but we really don't have to lie like that now I would defend interest in the

WMBA in a way that's honest and I would say that I enjoy watching it but I also know that no duh NBA players are way better than WMBA players that's just an obvious thing that for whatever reason you don't hear a lot of mainstream commentators say even though everybody knows it but I've made this comparison and it kind of triggers some of my subscribers your big boxing fans but it's the best I can do and it's look a lot of us loved watching some of those later

boxers pack you out Floyd Mayweather and enjoyed that we can enjoy that and understand the context within they succeeded well also understanding that thousands of dudes could just completely

kick their ass in the street fight because they're the size of your average high school freshman

I'm not trying to denigrate them or say they weren't great what I'm saying is that sports are contextual so I can enjoy the WMBA even though you barely ever see a dunk and even if any reverse lay up that happens you're kind of wondering if that's going to fall even if it's open just because this is contextual and in this context I'm curious who the best women in the world are and instead of making that case insane this has something going for it it's cool it's the best

women it gets into this battle of the sexist territory sometimes and I know some people might think I'm crazy but I've seen that sort of advertising for this league there was a Nike ad for the

women's team saying that it was just better than the men's team because and literally said

be as the stuff of your was just the patriarchy and it gets a little combative and competitive

“and I don't really think it needs to I don't think you need to say that Manipackia would beat”

Klitschko to get people interested in watching Manipackia so that's my I hope nuanced defensive the league is a product yeah I for whatever you think about the league that you can hate the league but championing Royce White and Canter to attention-seeking guys that I want nothing to do with like it it is a bit political though in that way like I was watching somebody on scene and that I know is very liberal and they were asking this person about his son Piker who sucks and I enjoy

him on Levitar show doing it at me a preview however but I just was like hey why can't why can't you just be a left wing person it's like hey this guy that kind of sucks like I think he sucks and like you can so if you if you're if you're really pissed at the WNBA like you want to start retweeting and his canter Royce White stuff like I you know I just it's one of those things

“where the like all of the things that you have to attach yourself to and today's in today's”

world like where it just is like hey I can I can believe in all these things but I'm also not going to believe in these three things is that okay yeah and I think that's that's that's kind of like the root of the problem that we get to not just with this but I don't want to make it specific to just the WNBA but I think that's a problem a lot of people run to and everything that we're doing that's publicly discussed oh my god yeah and I'm not good at cleaning phrases I want to I want to

make fetch happen but I called this one the PRification of everything which is not a good coinage but it's this sense that just everybody's acting like some unpaid PR official for all these causes and they get very protective and then it corrods their ability to be honest and I think that's a lot of what we're talking about where you don't want to admit certain things because somebody might get the wrong idea about the WNBA you want to admit certain things because if you

criticize somebody on your side who's a radical and extremist it might reflect poorly on your side people used to be less self-conscious people used to just have opinions they would put out there but now that we're on social media it just becomes all part of this broader war or a proxy war and as crazy as it sounds to make a sharp shooting role player on the Indiana fever part of the broader American political hot war that's just what happens it's like everything is about everything

“somehow and I completely sympathize with your with your wearing this over it even though I think”

to agree it helps pay my bills over at House of Strauss that people are so crazy about these things and a verse to being honest about them breaking news as we were taping this apparently according to sources there's no evidence the Steve Balmer owner of the clippers funneled money to coi-lettered

letter to team sponsors constitutes a violation of the league's rules prohibiting salary capture

convention to the sources said the league is examining whether clippers are guilty of quote failure to supervise employees though it's unclear what specific rule the team would have violated or what the penalties would be to the sources said so the 11 month investigation in salary capture convention allegations expand beyond lenders deal with aspiration that now to funk group

“so yeah I guess if that's what we're to believe on the sources that's on an official statement”

yet from the NBA your reaction to that well reacting in real time I would say it didn't look good is what I would say I haven't gone down the rabbit hole I don't know what but is it

walkeder and lipped in or whatever the lawyer firm the NBA uses to adjudicate such matters

I'm just sort of yeah I mean okay this might be wrong I might offend Pablo when I talk about this and I'm not saying that what he in cover was incorrect I'm just personally saying I don't know how much I care at this point obviously the NBA needs to have some sort of full work against guys getting paid beyond the salary cap but this is also a situation unlike the Houston Astros for instance where the clippers effectively destroyed themselves by going down the quiet

lended rabbit hole so my feeling at this point is I'm not sure what justice is being sought I'm

“not sure what punishment needs to happen here the NBA needs clear rules preventing it but I”

think what's also difficult about it is this and now I'm just getting kind of crazy extemporaneous this stuff is really hard to police Ryan I mean not maybe not this one specifically but you've all heard you've heard the rumors we can't we can't have owners buying a guy a house we can't have that but I don't know if it's possible to really tamp down in somebody's softer means of influence like how in Kevin Durant came to the warriors suddenly he's getting all these shots that seed rounds and

investment capital and whatnot out here in the in the baby brought that up because like I was not dismissive of this because it it really felt like okay this is bad and then it's like okay but what are they going to actually be able to prove like where is the paper trail that's going to be there were bombers like given the $38 million from aspirations like done and done you know like was that ever going to happen and you knew that since it had been gone on almost a year

here that that wasn't going to happen but I'm glad you brought to Durant one because I'll never

forget it was applauded when Durant went to Silicon Valley because it was like oh the think about all of these deals that he's going to be able and nobody was even like thinking about that as as a downside we have we have for years applauded what it means to be in this market versus another one we've also heard plenty of stories of like whether or not this player is staying at this owner's house or this apartment here I don't know if you can police any of the plain stuff maybe it

doesn't really matter so I'm not saying like hey I'm actually I've been totally fine with circumventing the cap for 15 years I love that stuff I'm not saying that but what I'm saying is I'm not surprised if this ends up based on this news and we're going to need more clarification on everything here I was not going to be surprised if the result was underwhelming I wasn't either just based on the noises you were here and out of there and frankly some of what's been

said about the closeness between silver and balmer how it's nice to have a friend as rich as balmer which I guess was the entire Pablo point that he was so much wealthier than the rest of the owners that it was distorting but yeah some of these incentives are just impossible to police I mentioned to rant what I didn't mention was Nike definitely wanted Kevin Durant to go to the warriors they badly wanted that Lynn Merritt big shot at Nike he was there at the opening press conference

I was at and he was just celebrating and crowing he was saying we got him both when it comes to the finals between Lebron and KD and that move over shadowed staff crushed under Armour's momentum it's something Nike badly wanted now if Nike paid Durant more to come to the warriors will we even know about it those contracts aren't public would that be violated of anything I don't know I'd assume

“not so those sorts of incentives I think are very much hard to police and I think all you can really”

do from the perspective of league is make sure that nobody gets a grieges or especially sloppy with making these sorts of payments because it's hard it's a very liquid world as we can see

don't know if the NBA CBA has enough heft to stop at all I mean it's funny to be in a way too when this stuff happens Ryan they have an investigation they have the lawyers and people are calling on they're calling on justice to be served and they start talking as though Adam Silver's uncle Sam

“and the NBA has powers beyond what I think the NBA has it's not the law they're not the FBI”

they can't raid Steve Balmer's house so unless something is completely over I think it's quite difficult for the league to really pull rank and start doing punishments have you allowed yourself to feel good about the lakers flipping that it was just yeah that it was kind of just a straightforward thing for a guy was in a tough spot that it isn't people want this one to be the conspiracy theory yeah well okay I would say that it's a continuation of the summer of Adam as I'm calling it I've been

critical of Adam Silver I think a lot of things are going right for him and I know people have issues with

this I know they're saying that he's not picking the most reputable owners but to get this flipped as seamlessly as he did when the feds appear to be hot a Mark Walters trail I mean hypothetically if the owner of the lakers went to jail while owning the lakers God that would be a mess but this happened quite quickly under the cover of night maybe through some connections the way Bob Iger has been talking about it it would appear that he got some sort of tip off I would guess

“it's through Adam since there's such good friends and it all went rather quickly and I think at”

least right now I see certain laker fans getting mad about it I think the name Kushner is something to do with that even though it's Joshua Kushner and he's not Jared Kushner it's like the name Kushner it's a brand thing and it provokes a certain reaction I think you got to be happy about it if you're a laker fan versus the mess that could have happened if this didn't go through yeah the Kushner part of it is just too sexy for people who go okay DOJ investigation hey

why don't we do this we'll sell the team and then we'll give it to somebody related to you and the number of times I kept reading like direct correlation through marriage to president Trump and I would say most people that are probably like lakers fans hate Trump so that was something that was like too much but then you know that hedge fund world is not a very big world and then you start realizing like what Walter was doing and that it was something he needed to fix immediately

“and if selling the lakers which known whatever think you're buying them to flip them so I think”

we're all in the same page there I just don't know that it might be Pablo Torres fault actually that everyone wants these things to be super nefarious and you've got guys tweeting to like 1200 followers going this is what I've been able to uncover you like oh you have fucking internet

your place too that's amazing so to why that there is there is a default to wanting

everything to be the worst version of it now when it comes to this kind of stuff and yeah sorry sorry to interject yeah I don't it's like it's not nefarious but it is sketchy is how I feel about it and I think some of those people see something that sketchy they start really attaching a lot of other stuff there and it's like obscene list and international conspiracy and nor or is it that the MBA has opened up

it's financing rules to allow for private equity to be part of it and now guys are buying teams who are over leveraged and they're buying the teams with more money than they actually have and we're seeing some of the consequences of that potentially is that really more what's going on than some sort of international conspiracy I say that well also noting that it helps to have an inside guy when you're trying to get a team like Bob Iger having a friend if I'm a laker fan though

I'm not worried about Kushner or Thrive Capital or some conspiracy theory about Trump leaning on Walter to do this I'm worried about Bob Iger Bob Iger is 75 years old I am not trying to dump

on old people I love old people I think a successful old person could be an incredible advisor

but I have like doubts and concerns about trying to lead massive global enterprises like when you came back to Disney for instance in a did not go great or right now if he wants to be the

because hey it's not cutting time teams need to win football games so what do they do

they hire NFL coaches in their 30s and 40s when they're still a Q wouldy there but for whatever reason and the politics world and I guess often in the business world they give it to people

“long past their primes and Iger's got a bit of an ego and I think if I'm a lakers fan I'm looking”

at the situation going is he going to be running this is he going to make Chris Paul GM because Chris Paul's his buddy is this the guy I want to be in charge of this is the steward that to me that would just have me more concerned than any of the 12-dimensional chest stuff and client lists and everything else you hear people babbling about. Great visiting with you today man I really appreciate this make sure you check out the house of Strauss subscribe to a sub stack

and also make a check out his podcast a couple days a week right you do in those two days a week one week two days a week yep exactly we got to get your one we got to get you on some time I'm doing that awkward thing for the guests to ask the host to come on the podcast at the end but I will extend that one to you in private Ryan and say I enjoy being on and it's great talk and with you and thanks for having me thanks man raisin canes is turning 30 this month to celebrate the milestone

canes is hosting a 30th birthday pop-up museum in Baton Rouge located directly behind the original restaurant the mothership. Todd Graes will be unveiling the museum on August 25th in honor of 30 years of canes the brain is also launching a commemorative 90s plush puppy available beginning August 26th

featuring cane in her 90s best net proceeds benefit pet welfare organizations here's what I love

about being back in Baton Rouge because it was the first time my experience came so every time I go to raising canes it's kind of like a history lesson for myself you're like what are they doing? is it really going to be that good and it is that good I go canyette I leave the slah I do the extra sauce and if I'm feeling really randy I may order myself an extra side finger raising canes chicken fingers one love he want details bye I drive a Ferrari 355 cabbiole

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 so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required today's life advice is sponsored by Shell I don't usually get excited about loyalty programs they promise big rewards and then it's like you actually have to eat 50 sandwiches to get one free

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open up I share something with you guys off air and it gets brought right into the top of life advice you know I didn't have time to digest you like you were just all said bang we're in and I've got more questions but we can skip it if you want I mean well it's fine I was just saying I it's something I didn't really think about before and then I fuck around caught an ear fungus like two years ago and I had to go to an ENT a bunch of times you know it could happen to the

best of us I was doing anything weird but just happens and then I went had a couple like actual you go into this ENT office and they like really get everything out of your ears and you know old guys used to be like go get your ears cleaned and like I actually got it and I was like dude I feel like a new guy so I was just saying that because it really was saying Ryan's coming at a little low there was a reason for that and it's just I bothered him a little bit so I was like you know

“what maybe you should get your ears cleaned in a nod I did literally yesterday throw a swab in there”

and I was you know a little disgusted to see what we saw going to be honest but you know I was at the beach too so it was like you know these some sand and then things things they kind of weird but how do you know so how do you know you have any ear fungus like was there like a growth I was actually no no it wasn't now well I don't want to get in all that but I guess what I was saying like it just I started to not hear as much and I was like let me go get this looked at when you care they set me to a

specialist and I was like dude by insurance just like I can pay 10 bucks and you go in there and just

all that stuff out of my ear and I was like well wasn't expecting this I was hoping that old guy could

do it but whatever it's kind of hard to get what you want her yeah all right fair enough all right so

“that's what we were laughing yeah I guess I mean I don't I have a few follow-ups but I also don't”

because serruti I feel like you put yourself in a spot where it was like I threw a swab in there and you made it sound like you do it once a year which I used to know in case right just the way you told that story you were opening yourself up so listen it's it's open season on serruti all the times it's funny you can just come at me with my dude clean my ear to decent amount but I just you know felt a little weird and there again there was probably some sand some salt water and uh

but like you know they they tell you not to use the tips but the tips feel so good sometimes you know like you know you're just kind of pushing it back in there but Lena yeah I got to do a little swirl yeah it got to be gentle gentle pepper if you know you know greenie got as ears cleaned every six months you know you don't get your ears clean regularly I was like what what I was like I kind of just do it at home I'm a DIY guy and he was like really because I get my clean my doctor every

six months yeah yeah you know what he's right man maybe you are right he's right you are doing it

“right in the draft of like hey first round picks of people who I think would get their ears clean”

he'd be if he'd be a first round prospect no doubt no question and I look again I think those guys are doing it right I just I just don't really even think about it I think he may have done a tonsils stone procedure too which you're like you know you start going down that road some people are better off just not anyone will know about that yeah there's there's some luxuries in life that I just don't know about right we're not pretty we're not pretty to that

having your ears clean you know what I'm going to do it now I'm going to do a report back I'm telling you

you're going to be like I didn't know it's going to be like that that's amazing I was like smelling

sounds after that don't take a hearing test just to see what my number is yeah sir making up yeah heard it said apple right all right we had a ton of prosaruti emails come in after the anti siruti emails came in um I stand with siruti everyone's wrong about siruti siruti I don't know that we need to read a ton of them so I mean I just don't want if you want me to yeah fine we'll read one five ten two fifteen thirty one player comp a slow speedy

claxed in uh first time emailer was listening to life advice after the recent Mike Sandopod it cannot believe the amount of backlash siruti was getting first take on the husband sister wise brother hooking up I'm not even listening to the original life advice so naturally I went back and listening to what specifically determined whether siruti was being unfair after reviewing the evidence I regret to inform Ryan Kyle and the other emailers I am with siruti

by wise family has very similar situations those slightly different on her mom side there are

two brothers who married two sisters at first sounds great keep the family tree nice and tidy

everybody wins except the sisters eventually started having big issues with each other um like we're not really doing we're not we do not really get along at Thanksgiving issues okay I mean arguing how to take care of their parents when they were sick what to do with the finances when they died nasty stuff they barely spoke in each other probably the last ten years at least in a majority of time I've been around the family and because they're married to two brothers you

can not have the two people hate each other quietly go to separate ways now everybody gets dragged into it family gatherings become a logistical operation certain people do not get invited to certain things one of the sisters was not invited to a wedding there's constant figuring out who is going to be where and when and I'm sitting there thinking this is exactly why you do not need to add another layer to the family tree when you can avoid it so yes I stand with siruti could it work sure

obviously people can beat all right we got we got um I mean I think it's fair to least off

“or you don't have to be related to have that happen right that's what in in a self-scouting report”

that is true and I think my biggest issue in that is I don't think I did a good enough job of like explaining why I thought that way but I don't know that I have a perfect explanation for why I just feel that way you know and that's okay if you disagree um also didn't remember said you couldn't do it it's just just I was wrong and I was not wrong it's not wrong I'm not saying like I know it's not let me talk about I know it's not illegal it's just you know feels a little strange

and you're open yourself up for some future B.S. if things go wrong um but we had somebody who checked in with AI and AI or Chad GPT backed you up so I went okay so there you go I don't know if

couple emails here fake nice so I spent most of the last decade and a half working overseas primarily in emerging markets one thing I came to appreciate about the part of that world um about that part of the world is that people generally don't have much patience for bitching and moaning about minor issues there can be plenty of cultural formality but there isn't nearly as much fake nice it's usually pretty easy to get past the perfunctory pleasantries have an actual conversation

say what needs to be said and get things moving finishing things however is reliant on many more variables since being back in the states the corporate dog and pony show has been a bit of a culture shock there seems to be a remarkable amount of smiling agreeing and being exceedingly pleasant but I haven't even learned enough in your email followed by nothing happening I'm still recalibrating to an environment where that sounds great can apparently mean every anything from I'm on it to I have

no intention of ever doing this so I'm looking to expand my vocabulary of HR compatible ways

to say cut the shit cupcake any recommendations hmm I've never worked you know in a corporate

setting Europe so I don't I don't know how to compare that of the specific words I don't know if I have anything but I think the sentiment that you want to stay away from is well my last place we did it this way I think you only get a couple of those before everyone kind of turns on you

“at the place you are now I that's like I don't think that's what he's doing but if that's the”

sentiment that's coming across I would just I would just be careful you know there's nothing wrong with bringing experience with somewhere else but if it's key if you're like you know my last place this shit would never happen like this I would just say that's a good thing to have on the front of your mind because you have that perspective and no one else does but as far as like phrases you can use I'd leave that up to you guys I think I don't know I have great answers here either I

feel like and I feel like any phrase you could take like it you know when you're texting there's so much like punctuation matter so much you know if you did put an explanation point at the end of it or you actually mad you know the way that you could say okay if you spell it out versus just okay to do a few things you know I I don't know I feel like it's everyone's in their own head on this stuff also who you're talking to matters like if you are at my last

place there was a couple people that like if they're above me and they're talking about something that needs to happen they're not gonna be maybe nice isn't the word but like maybe stern or firm

or whatever you know I always knew where I stood with them and I never took it in a bad way just

like all right we'll put this one near the top of the list you know what I mean like if you're talking to people that are under you in some sort of you know they brought you from another company of your if you're like a superior or at least something like that maybe you just change their vocabulary with people that you need to tell what to do but when you're talking like across the the org chart and you're like asking someone for something they're supposed to be

“doing I think you have to you might have to throw a couple of explanation points in there when you're like”

thank you so much you know but it might just be you want to just set the tone with people that you need to get their shit together if you're allowed to I don't know if you can pull it off this way because none of us really have to worry about it but can you in depends on like who's more important to you than you're talking you know or you more important than the people you're talking to I imagine there's a little bit of both here for an emailer but can you lock people into kind of

like a date like hey when can we expect this done because that doesn't allow for the vague I can't wait can't wait to circle back on this you know language you know because it's it's a perfect

observation and the great can be I'm on it to I'm never doing this and you're like yeah I mean that's

feels like it's happened so many times I mean me where you just go you have to like learn the person and go oh this means you're never going to do it yeah I think it sucks once you get over the hump of like putting that like hey can I get this by EOD Wednesday I mean the first time you see that as in the request department you want to like oh shit well maybe Wednesday I don't know if I want to do it Wednesday now but once you like once you add that to your message like there's a paper

“trail of shit like that so you have to now make them say like either I can't do it which is kind of”

like a downing yourself be like I can't get this done by Wednesday but I think maybe just through it like you said throwing a timeline in there in the in the initial question too like put the time stamp on it in the in the question instead of like when do you think like you know this isn't going to work if it's not Wednesday so do you think we could do this by EOD Wednesday I've seen a lot of EODs and my life recently so yeah a lot of just like stuff that had lines for you stuff that

I'm seeing you know I'm on emails I see stuff that's great directed at you or not you're just you know I'm just watching you don't like a BCC kind of guy but I still you know I still watch do you know what I want out there yeah and if you have any questions you could probably ask me off there I probably have some answers for you yeah I had a manager who he take you out to dinner

everybody should have a note pad everybody should be writing stuff down what you think of segment ideas you're thinking of different things like every night I think I've had a couple courses not recently but you know years ago when I was in the course world where there were people just hammering

the idea of like having a note pad with you all the time because that way you can always organize

your thoughts something pops in your head you're always ready to go whatever I mean technically

“be you should be able to just do it with a phone now and send yourself a text or use the notes”

app or whatever but there was a sky was like really big on it and you would have dinner and you'd open up is no pad and be like all right what you know what what's like the most important thing for you the next six months or something and you'd feel so important you'd be like well you know maybe not the next six months maybe the next year or year after that I'd like to do this okay what can I do that's better for you okay cool all right well you know it would help we had a

little bit more transparency on this stuff sometimes the scheduling thing and this doesn't always make a ton of sense okay you didn't who who will round you you know is is somebody whatever

so we go on and that motherfucker never looked at that no pad again ever it was like he wrote it

all down in through the way whatever he wrote down as soon as the dinner was over and then I was pretty convinced he just wanted to be able to expense the dinner and the no pad is an illusion of effort

“that's I mean it's right it's more a lot effort though man it's more offensive like sit here and”

ignore me in a normal way did you see the no pad was he actually writing really down or was it just like it was not it's right because that happened like four or five times and I you know me I was like getting pretty close to being like hey you ever you ever go back in there you ever go back in there you know what's over so then I just stopped going to the dinners I don't do I know this is nice and I really nice guy but I just was like you can't you can't keep asking me all these

specific things and then right down on the notebook and being like some some good stuff right here we're getting to the good stuff and then you're like oh nothing nothing ever happens after the notes ever so just be careful some people who are on to you you know as a serious no take or two that's not something that you would ever do sit down with somebody who now I'm just saying notes in general like you take note taking seriously you know yeah I know just the the art itself I don't

“I don't like that so it's not to be blocked you know it's a real art far let's get to some”

bummed out guys here see if we can't help so I'm my ex at a wedding hey fellas big fan of the show I know what is it need about generally apologize is vance for the lengthy note this isn't even that bad here a height in weight 64 190 player combat be portus fan favorite good post game construction floor also potentially overreacts though to Norman Powell talking about it's right

I'm a guy in my late 20s recently some nice girlfriend the first time in a long time my best friend's

wedding we broke up about two and a half years ago and I genuinely thought I had moved on we ended up talking for a while it was actually really nice not to crazy happen but seeing her person again brought back a lot of feelings that apparently hadn't dealt with as much as I thought since the wedding I literally cannot stop thinking about her the next day I texted her hey just wanted to say it was generally great to see this weekend and now you don't want me to apologize anymore but I'm truly sorry it's been as long as it

has been I take full responsibility for that should have reached out I'm happy to know that you've been doing great she responded hey nice to see you as well it's a fun few days celebrating the two people who we put their name in here glad to hear you've been doing well also I'm going to be honest to you that's not the response you're looking for to your text will play yeah standard yeah immediately bring up two other people yeah that sounds great can't wait to do it may not do it right so basically

a polite response no questions no obvious attempt to continue the conversation well that definitely fucked with your head even more now you like her even more because you got a standard non-emotional text response here's where it gets complicated I have a first date tomorrow night with another girl before seeing my exo generally excited about the state now I barely feel excited about it because I can't get my ex out of my head my questions are one of my romanticizing my ex because of seeing her

after two and a half years broader knees that yeah partially two should I still go on the first date tomorrow yes oh my god yeah three should I reach out to my ex again at some point relieve the ball on her court that one's not easy to answer for how do I know whether I actually miss her versus just missing their relationship and the memories five and finally is this just normal post wedding emotional with Blasher did I reopen something I should actually explore

so Ryan I need some life advice because I'm ex I went from being excited about a first day to being

well they're not going on the date thing it's really stupid do we all agree with that

yeah yeah actually once you realize that she that text is she saying you back she's like this might be a guy that's gonna fucking bother me and if once you realize that's what she thinks about you you need to go on a date asap you have to yeah but I mean it maybe doesn't matter but like are you gonna be in the right headspace though like now don't be like bummed out guy at this at this date too like don't just you know like don't about it for yourself what about bummed out mask guy

that's really serious like what do you mean no like you're actually super bummed out but you're gonna mask it the whole time it might as well just be better off being depressed maybe you go simply angle at the date I don't know yeah those play sometimes um I I feel like meant two and a half years if you were having these feelings like whenever you see anything man like they're like

“smells that you know songs that make me like man that was really remember that half you know like”

there's just things that you haven't heard in a long time that bring back this nostalgia and as always

good life T-Pain kind of right come on there you go um and uh I've been to in a house you getting tipsy you see probably not one no oh man I saw that in the wire the other day and I was like Kyle must have that song yeah listen you hear you hear something like that I mean for doing like a little counting calling response I'm in I don't know I I feel like this is a total normal thing and you have to hear she's like good like he hasn't liked her and two and a- I

be one thing if it was like hey this is the one that really stings and you're still gonna be thinking about her and it's like you're almost when you don't think about her it's a bit of reward I mean two and a half years is kind of a long time but it's happened to dudes but you haven't thought about her really at all and two and a half years then you saw her at the wedding and now it's like on oh I mean a lot of times I think this stuff is all your your current circumstance you

start judging every other thing based on your current situation not that long ago I was doing something and I was looking around and I'm like this blows and it made me miss somebody and then I went are you sure because usually you like this and right now you think it blows like this is weird this is like a weird dynamic like what the fuck is this move and I was like ah luckily you've gone through it enough you just go like yeah whatever I don't know what's happening right now I'm not gonna worry about it

so I think it you having access to this feeling for the first time in two and a half years

and then you feeling like this is actually tells me how misleading this feeling is because it's such a departure from everything else that you've been feeling like you haven't felt this way the entire time

“so that to me is like the thing you need to focus on and um well it'll probably go away”

I think yeah this isn't a movie like you know this isn't a notebook like you just you're you're not going to be forever changed from this I'm positive especially from like what you said earlier in the email I think I think 10 minutes into this date maybe even before the date starts you're going to be excited to be around another person but you know you're excited to go out with I think that's all it's not going to really it hasn't changed your chromosomes dude you're like you're still who you

are you just there I get it and I think I'll think about it but I think I think it'll it'll slowly wash away probably faster than you think but you get into a dangerous territory though in advance fresh off of seeing her again where you compare all of the good things that you think you like liked about this acts right and you forget all the bad things and then you start comparing that to any new girl and that's when you get to a really dangerous zone like oh I know and could ever live up to that

things so I kind of don't love the timing here of this to be honest with you but if this is your head

“space like you can go to it one of two ways like you need to be like she's going to be awesome”

you have fun on this day and it's going to be great and she can make you forget her or you're going to be in your own head about like all the little things comparing her to this girl that you just saw you completely probably romanticize all the good things that happened with you too I would agree with you if she didn't he didn't get that HR style email or text from when it sounds like his own up though yeah his hope is how can you I think I think anything other than have a good

summer like so yeah I look she could very well like I wanted to do that because that's how little she cares about him anymore but it's so well crafted it's such a good fucking HR email that it makes me think he she might still like him a little bit what have you done what I know she's like let me make this as nasty and as functional as possible like that felt like there

thinking there is maybe a little bit something it's true but women have to do this all the time like craft their speech to where it's like this guy I can't have any ideas like did I do this in a way where this guy can't have any ideas because it doesn't take much for a guy to be like about

“dude she totally she totally likes me I guess what you know it's muddy because they stay but I think”

women have to do this all the time with people they run into or meet for the first time so

what was your action like at the wedding too though were you guys like hanging out were you talking or was it just like you were in a circle together and you barely even you know I mean you just saw each other's kind of a comeback announcement that you were alive yeah like that kind of matters to what's the context of that we don't know that but I think you would have included it up if it was good so then yeah you would have included it yeah yeah yeah just go on the date man yeah you know just

enjoy being around somebody else because what else you could also go back and look at your ex's Instagram all night and soak in your house do that that's something good idea for a tropical Instagram story see if she walks it there you go you could see if she's even if you're even rattling around and her brain at all oh Kyle you devious bastard you with a dog maybe walking a dog yeah maybe out your dog but if you don't have one but you know it doesn't have a dog

your friend like I was going to go walking around the block of the you're really dead anybody have a dog

“I bring you to see my story yeah I love I think you're right on all right”

um com husk your Aaron Craft we get a lot of Aaron Craft Combs lately played basketball

growing up never a good shooter but played past first point garden defend it all 90 feet

my fiance and I've been together for nine plus years high school sweetheart did the whole longest in singing college both move back to our hometown scranton pa post grad she went to culinary school out of college got a job in scranton research and development at a chocolate factory Pam was always pitching about the job market scranton look at your fiance um specialized making good money she loved it made good money right out of college in a small town 70k I got a job in construction

sales and worked in my company scranton office both loved our jobs I loved my parents but it was time to get out of scranton my company had an opening in the DC region I went to college in Maryland and moving somewhere closer to my college friends as appealing the money was better and getting away from home was what I wanted I got to be honest to you this email man it's pretty specific so

I'm sorry if anything happens after that but I don't just like two guys have that have ever done

the right so um like hey did you read her in craft email the bacillus show i didn't know it's in construction my fiance girlfriend still at the time has a large family essentially all local scranton and was a little more hesitant moving meant finding a job leaving the one that she liked and leaving her family I didn't give her an ultimatum to move with me but I was very clear that I was ready to leave the scranton area she decided she'd come with me but she made it clear

she wants to come back home specifically when it's time to have kids she found a job in DC as a chef for sorority she loves it one downside is a lack of pants summers which means she makes less than she didn't scranton I'm doing well in my new position at DC if essentially doubled my salary for my time there we recently got engaged we'll be getting married next May by then we would have been in DC three and a half years I imagine after getting married we will want to

discuss the prospect of having children she is under the assumption that we will be moving back home when that happens I'm conflicted by this I like my job and the pay is getting better every year I'm well-liked in the office location as a whole is doing great for me for me to go back to scranton would be a large pay cut or finding a new job it's not like our social life in DC is a lead we both have work friends and friends from college but she's introverted and her social life

in scranton is better closer friends and family she firmly wants to move home and while I have no problem doing so it's certainly a much harder move for me not to mention my parents plan on moving into the Marylander Virginia area to be closer to me and family if we remove home it would look like we were only moving home once my parents leave and potentially take their future grandkids away from them well I mean I imagine that your parents are aware of this person you've been with for 10 years

that also wants to go back to scranton so I understand like you guys are moving right as we're moving back do I ignore this problem after the wedding do I explain to her that moving for me is much more difficult than she thinks do I hope she comes to love being down here more than her

“desire to move home any advice helps well I think I'm moving home buddy struggling a lot of balls”

here I think there's a couple of balls in here at this point right do you think I mean holiday scenes coming out I don't know when the wedding is but like this is like a topic that is not crazy to talk about with your family when you're all together and so you know and you can totally say my biggest reason for not wanting to go back there is because I some I like did this thing that's pretty hard to do which is double my salary I know you sacrificed what you were making

but like for me to go back up there I think like yeah we'll keep our keep our ears out but like

her that you're actually open to doing this in a way that is sort of reasonable if you're being honest here and you're not like I just want to fucking stay here which you know I know what that's like wanted to go someplace really bad so if you can just show that you're actually like being responsible about this you're like yeah I'm looking but I really don't think like after everything that I built it's tough you know it's worth it to just you know the bounce back so

I think if you could just show that you're actually on the lookout for it doing this in an acceptable way that might buy you some time just have like a zipper career open on your laptop all the time

“but you're not like you have to have a widget for your like your hot wear lock screen”

getting notifications he's always on indeed what's going on yeah he's really trying to start out there

I don't know many couples were when the wife wants to move home and the guys like on the fence because you're not adamant you're not like totally against it you're open to it she moved there with you the way you've explained it to me is that once you guys were having kids you were going to move back there so I think you're moving back to screen yeah maybe and it's going to be like a massive wake-up call well for one of you but the way you've explained this I mean I'm asking kind of like screwing

a Kyle do you think I'm wrong here it seems like it was sort of accepted hey that once this happens this is what's going and I've had like buddies it was like okay you can live here we can live here for a little while but like once we start getting closer to the kids like this doesn't have to be as soon as the kids are born but once the kids start getting a little bit older I want them near my parents really passionate about public school right where they grow up yeah but I don't

I don't know how often the man is winning that one I can I can run through a bunch of my head and go like none um right now that I can think of it it's been also it's been mainly all women so wait a minute I don't I I feel like you told her kind of what you wanted to hear and now you're still on the fence and my guess is that she's she's assumed this entire time that they you guys were going back to screen so that's going to be really really tough if you were like hey can we revisit that

maybe not do that now too it's the electric city there's so much you probably haven't even done there there probably is I don't know can you can you just play the money card though I can just be like this is not going to make sense for us like in what way like maybe PowerPoint presentation and just be like I'm not anti but like in what way is this better for us right and if she's still like I don't care I would take a fake up figure out I want to go back and you're probably definitely

screwed but I don't know Pat and sure what you've been doing yes our job and stuff down yeah

“yeah that's good what's going to be important to her that I'm six months and they don't ever”

address it again hey it worked on me for you yeah just in relation to general dudes just are taking notes whenever you just put one that would lead away more divorces just like totally calm life's losing got a lot done today yeah thanks where would you like to see me 12 18 months out

today what's the most important aspect of my growth to you 12 18 months and how do you feel

you've handled your responsibilities in the last quarter and then when you go to do it again she'd be like a way of it what doing this again we did this eight months ago and you didn't do any of those things like well but I do have my note pad but they are written down here though yeah but we're gonna write across them off when I get to everybody I love I love the idea of guys starting to know pad relationships up maybe we could want something like that be our first real

product okay relationship no pad heavy binding okay so we'll make a bit different sizes depending on how serious you want this to seem we can go fully a little one in the pocket yeah that's just that's just me number everything that doesn't look like it's for this you know we might need something

like full page still can be though because you always want to be ready to write down that person

thoughts and then you can just tuck it away perforated pages so you can tear out whatever you 've written down and make sure there's no evidence of it ever existing like we did this before like

“now we did there's no pages in here now all right that'll do it for the show I think today”

I think we covered it uh thanks to Tom Kevin seruity Kyle what's our schedule this week seruity

BCC and all of it's going crazy right now okay is I I know the least I was about it

“I was under the impression it was one thing and being told it's not a thing so TV date”

we'll have another figure out yeah we still have a travel pod potentially so would that come

out this week or no or is this all off the year no no maybe maybe who knows it's all on a table

“I wish I had more answers for you I will tomorrow I'd love to do that a travel pod going long by the”

way we're like question three hours so if you're going to long drive is it three hours you might want to

save it for Labor Day guys I don't know there's no way that's good if it's I guess a really nice

“music though you're going to love the music okay all right that'll do it for the pot”

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