Pistons Take Game 1 & OKC Are Coasting, Plus US Soccer Legend Clint Dempsey

Hey, we're still a listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcast and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon music. Tired of nicks, cuts and bumps? It's time to ditch the blade. Nair, the award-winning number one hair removal brand, gives you silky smooth skin in as little as three minutes. That smooth that lasts for days longer than shaving. Easy to use, blade free, dermatologists tested, and made for all skin types. Plus discover our new sensational fragrances that turn hair removal into a whole vibe. Shave less, glow more. Find Nair at all major retailers. The RhyroSolo show is presented by DraftKings. On today's show, I'll run through game once, Detroit's win, O.K.C.'s win, Duren's big night, not just the box score and why O.K.C. isn't even really taking these games. Well, they're taking them seriously, but there's some stuff that they're doing as well where you're like, God, they are not even close to being challenged yet. We've got life advice and we've got Clint Dempsey, U.S. men's national team legend. He has a new documentary out. I will talk soccer with him and then the soccer will get a little bit better because Saruti's going to jump in and talk to him for a little while. Clint was a great hang. So there you go. The NBA playoffs are here in DraftKings Sportsbook. An official sports betting partner of the NBA brings excitement to every game day, the whole post season. When the lights get brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round and DraftKings turns it up with them from the first round all the way to the finals. Bet player props, bet live from the opening tip to the final possession, every bucket, every dime, every clutch takeover matters, and only DraftKings Sportsbook keeps you in on the action all the way through. New DraftKings customers bet just $5 and you get $100 in bonus bets instantly. 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So the first three things, let's start with number one, Asar and what his defensive assignment would be. And it's on Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell had nine points in the first quarter, nine points in the second half. He was doing that big windmill Euro step thing, which is just unstoppable kind of play from him. But it still hasn't quite happened yet. And I'll run through a scoring history for you here. Nine and 19 from the floor. Okay. He's had 32 and 30 in games one and two against Toronto. He's now gone six games or he's below 25 points. You're like, all right, well, look, he's still getting his 20, but this is not who this guy has been in the playoffs. Even if you want to talk about his team and the games that he's had that's been disappointing, like the reason I kind of defend him in the analogy that I used about the ratings thing, which the more I think about it, it's good. It's like, do I have a product that can at least get me an absurd number? If there's a game seven in the NBA finals, or if I have this live rights package, is there a potential like I blow the ratings numbers out of the water? Like that's part of the price is that there's a chance. And I think part of the price and admiration I have for Mitchell is that you just expect one of these absurd playoff games where he's going to be completely unstoppable. And that might win you one or two in the series, even though again, historically guys never got out of the second round. So, and that's also kind of the rule on how the Sorcerer NBA players like Mitchell's never considered a top five. He's not in the hunt for best player. So you're almost kind of in that Jimmy Butler lane of drafting all the other guys that we've all accepted that are better than you, because they're all better than you. And so when you're a little bit more disappointing on the playoff resume and never in the MVP conversations, you live a little safer because you're just not taking all of the heat that those other guys are. But to my point about his playoff resume, these are games. These are scar like I could have done more if I wanted to, he said 38, 57, 51, 44, 45, 37, 37, 39, 38, 50, 39, 48, 43. He's had those games on his playoff resume. He has now seventh all time in playoff scoring. That's actually down. I think, I think it was fifth before the playoff started because that has gone down. Now, how is this happening? Because I keep going like, look, that game is coming. That 40 piece, that 45 point game is coming from Mitchell. However, the free throw numbers for him aren't even close to what he normally is. And I'm not sitting here saying, Hey, I wish these guys get more free throws. Hey, I wish they sold calls more because we have, we could do an hour on that collectively, if you all want to do this, we're at the game of risk right now and everybody's picking which country and in this case, player, they want to attack based on the way they're playing in some of these games. Mitchell's not getting to the line. Six free throw attempts per game during the regular season in the playoffs. Now he's at 2.3. He has taken 18 free throw attempts in eight games last year in the playoffs. He played in nine games. He had 89 free throw attempts, 18 and eight, 89 in nine games last year. They talked about it after the fact. I thought Cleveland was very fair reasonable the way they talked about the whistle because they were saying, Hey, look, he's not going to the line. Mitchell was frustrated. Hey, maybe I need to sell it a little bit more. I need to flap. But I think I saw two lines there from Atkinson and Mitchell or either they were saying the exact same thing where it was like, Hey, we did not lose this game tonight because of the whistle. Want to make that clear because that's true. That's not why they lost the game. They lost the game because I think Dern was a beast. Do not be fooled by the box score here. 11 points on four of 11 shooting because of all the different things that I'm looking for and how all these series starts, right? I could just list a million things and some things I may not even be thinking about. But with Cleveland in particular, it's all, how will this double big thing look? Will they give up spacing offensively? Their preference is to stagger these guys, start with Mobilean Allen and they just kind of sub-min and out, sub-min and out. They close with both, sort of. Sometimes they won't, but you know, it's this thing that's kind of great. From a talent standpoint, I like Cleveland's talent much better than I like Detroit's talent in this series. But Cleveland has to figure out a way to not let Dern do what he did last night multiple times throughout the series because he's got 12 boards, which is the same as Allen and Mobilee combined. Granted, Allen had foul trouble early three in the first quarter. He played the first six minutes. He didn't play again in that first half. And then he was out again later. He contested Dern did 21 shots last night at 88, 82. Ron Holland at the line. How about those Ron Holland minutes? Hide your kids, huh? He comes out. He's at the free throw line. He misses the second free throw and Dern just beast Mobilee. It's like Mobilee's having these possessions. You do realize it's the playoffs and this guy is a beast and he's really strong. You have to prepare yourself on the box out for what's coming. You have to prepare yourself on a cut. You know, if he's going to try to seal you, you're going to have to match his early work with your early work and fight for this stuff. Like this isn't regular season anymore. You know, just let everybody kind of waltz into wherever they want to go and set up offensively. You've got to fight them and you have to fight Dern because he doesn't want to be more than 12 feet outside of the rim. And Mobilee on this huge spot where, you know, Cleveland's going through this momentum push. They had a momentum push in the late third quarter. They've got this momentum again. They did tied at 93, but that offensive rebound from Dern kick it out to Duncan Robinson. Just an aside, I was worried there was a Tommy altar curse going on between Bridges, bad offense, Cam Johnson. And then what was going on with Duncan Robinson missing some of these shots? Ben Stiller going to the mat. Like a lot of Tommy's, if Trey Murphy were in the playoffs, I don't know what to expect, but I think the Tommy altar curse is over. We don't have to worry about it if there even was one, because Duncan was terrific last night. He was even making twos. He was like, wait, I can take these, but that kick out makes it 91 82. And that's even more work for Cleveland have to fight back. So the double big staggering, you would think that Cleveland would say, we will give up some spacing here and not stagger Allen and Mowgli as much will give up spacing for crowding. Because if we can keep these guys around, that should be able to cut down on Dern's effectiveness, Cade's ability to just run to the rim as much as he wants to. But the Allen Fowler trouble thing, I don't think we've learned anything about what Atkinson's plan is after just game one. I think Allen was out 347 to go in the fourth quarter. Allen was out. They needed the scoring. They closed with Wade and Struz with the other three guys. Detroit closing group. And this is with them playing mostly with a lead other than that 93 93 part there. They went with Dennis Jenkins and Duncan Robinson. So Robinson was given a plenty of offense and spacing, but they went with a more spacing lineup than they did defensively because the SAR had getting into some of the foul trouble stuff. I thought a couple more bullshit fouls, but Cleveland was much happier with the spacing, which is opening up some other stuff with the drives. What do we do with Hardin? I did the Hardin tracker last night. I told myself I wasn't going to do it. I swear to God, I think they may send somebody after me. The crazy thing is, I don't even know if it's real or not, but somebody DM me once on Instagram and was like, Hey, man, part of team Hardin would love to collab. And I was like, what? So you aware of the work we've been doing over here? It may not even have been real. Really nice message. Totally professional. May not have actually had the authorization to collab on anything, but his first half, if you had told, and he's never going to tell you this, but you just said, Hey, this is the first half you're going to get from James Hardin. You go, well, cool, we'll just play Dennis Schroeder. I knew you're not going to believe me. And are you going to tell me you got 13 points to the fourth quarter and then I'm being harsh? He looks like he doesn't want to be out there. And he almost lost the ball, driven up a transition when there was no one around him. I mean, I could rip through all the turnovers. I could rip through. I've got a couple plays here defensively, or it's like, if you're on a SAR, you don't even have to defend anybody. Like, if you don't have to defend a SAR, which is basically what he's allowed to do, you take off every single defensive possession, unless he's put into the action, which actually isn't happening a lot, at least in game one, pick something else to do, man. Again, Mitchell Schwartz, find work. So I'm not going to do the hard tracker. I did, I do have it at the ready, but I'm not going to do that. And, you know, he had, he had an incredible series of floaters there. He also had five points on the foul baiting, the three point thing. I don't know why you NBA rest let this keep happening to you. You know exactly what he's going to do. Nothing's working for him. He's turned the ball over constantly. He's totally disengaged. When Cleveland put together that run where they took him out at the end of the third quarter, it just looked different. It was like, Hey, wait, there's a little bit more action. There's a little bit more intention on this stuff. The, the intensity is cranked up here a little bit instead of just some of these passes from Harden bringing the ball up and then he's whipping it to somebody else. It's like, okay, so he doesn't want to be out there right now. But he ended up on those free throws tying this game up. So at 93 a piece, Harden, who again, there's four sick drives in there. I'll give it to him on those. He throws up a floater. Durin blocks this and Kade brings the ball down. It's an unbelievable block by Durin. Let's go through a couple of his makes off of all the Kade stuff. Kade brings it down and four people are on Kade. And this is another one of those deals where Harden was totally off of maybe it was Jenkins that he was assigned to. And Harden's not closing out to anybody. And it's like, he kind of just does a swipe. And that's when you watch a film and you go, Hey, if you're not going to be on the guy in the perimeter, which is fine. If you want to help the Kade, which is, I don't know if it's the rule. It's certainly something you would do naturally as defensive player going like, maybe I can get in there, disrupt us a little bit, then do that. Do that. You can't play it like a regular season possession. So K drives four guys on him. That's Durin's first make. Then K beat Struess without a screen. And then Alan comes up to meet him. Kade's so strong that he moves Alan's body backwards on the contest. Could have been a foul and then dumps it down to Durin for a dunk make number two. And then this play is kind of what I'm talking about with Mobley and some of the stuff where it's such a great play. And it's such a great play by Durin. Durin, they're in transition. Durin gets to like the left elbow and he gets inside position on Mobley. It's open underneath into the paint. And Durin waits for K to bring it down, seals Mobley off. Mobley just lets it happen to him because he wasn't playing with the same intention or awareness that Durin was in this huge possession. K brings it right down. I mean, it's a nice pass and it's great that he saw it. But the work, the best part of this play is Durin doing that work. And I'm telling you right now, do not look at the 11 points and think that he was disappointing last night because he was, he was the difference. And then there's also just the K Luca thing that I would bring up here. I'm not saying they're the same guy, but Kade is entering because it's not like he made a ton of shots in the fourth quarter at all. But Luca is always going to take more shots than a Kade. But if you're thinking about the handful of players with the ball in their hands, huge spot, huge playoff possession, like, will I at least get a good look out of this? Kade is really high up that list where like, I always think, hey, Luca is probably going to get a good shot more often than maybe anybody else in the NBA. Certainly SGA is on the list and all that kind of stuff. But I think Kade, he doesn't even have to do it with scoring any points because once he gets some sort of angle against, again, Harden in a switch, he smoked Mitchell where he just smoked him with the ball. It wasn't even a screen. Getting the angle on Struess, the Dean Wade stuff where, you know, they want to be able to body type, kind of match Kade and Wade for the most part has been a really nice defensive piece from this team, something that they desperately need. If they're going to try to play some of those other guys out there. So look, great win, great win from Detroit. We'll see if that Mitchell game is coming and we'll see if Harden wants to play any of the first three quarters of game two. Okay, CLA. I don't have a lot of negative things to say about the Lakers because the fact that they're even here is pretty remarkable considering what's happened injury-wise. I would argue that Houston of the realistic first round opponents for the Lakers, certainly not Phoenix nor Portland because the Lakers are not going to be a one or two seed. But if you said, all right, let's go through all of the other teams that they could potentially have played. Would you pick this Lakers group against anyone other than Houston, especially without KD? Now with KD, I would have picked the Rockets even though I didn't necessarily like them. I think we've already covered all that stuff. So when I watched what happened last night, I'm like, well, this is kind of what's supposed to happen. But I think the game planning has been really good. I think the role players have had moments for the Lakers throughout this entire thing, where they've stayed in games. But we also just remember, just because one team is out, man, it doesn't mean they're going to be down 20 points in the first quarter. There's always kind of that 28 to 22 first quarter that makes you think the underdog has some kind of chance here. Reeves has struggled. I could be harsh on him, but I don't even know that he'd be playing if it were the regular season coming off of his injuries. But it was rough last night. Last night was the second time in five seasons where he scored eight or fewer points playing 36 plus minutes. So the turnovers continue to be an issue for the Lakers. They're turning the basketball over on 18.8% of their possessions. It wasn't the nightmare scenario last night because there were only two more turnovers than OKC. That was a little sloppy with the basketball, but that almost 19% turnover rate, that is the worst of any NBA team in the playoffs so far. They hung in there on the boards only a minus three, especially with the big lineup in the first half that OKC threw at them, which we'll get to that in a second. It's not a free throw game. This is not some massive free throw disparity. I saw the SGA Clips 2 because I also watched the game, but I saw kind of the marketing after the fact. Look, I hate it too. I hate it whenever it's anybody that's unethical. I think we've covered this. I think you know kind of where I'm at with this. Like, hey, do you think this guy's like, if we did the unethical rankings, maybe we'll do it this summer. But I hate it as much as you do, but it's also not what happened last night. Like, he didn't get the calls despite all the shit that he was trying to do. And I don't blame you if you just get frustrated with OKC fans that are online all the time defending all this garbage. But it's not the result from last night. So another thing here with the thunder is that they're basically fucking with teams five games through the playoffs. Like, think about some of the stuff that they're doing. They played 11 guys in the first half last night in the second round of a game. They played 11 guys in the first half because their second best player is only played in two of five games. Jaylen Williams played, I think to this point, is it 52 minutes? He's played 52 minutes total in the playoffs. They played the three bigs 36 minutes and 30 seconds in the first half. And that's why I was kind of like, hey, the Lakers hung in there rebounding wise. And OKC, you know, last year, there was two alarming numbers about them throughout the playoffs that still didn't necessarily matter. Last year, they were 12 out of 16 and rebound rate for all 16 playoff teams. They won the title and you throw in the fact that last year, they were 13th from the three point line. So they were one of the worst rebounding teams. They were one of the worst three point shooting teams. And yeah, look, they had two game sevens in there. So it's not as dominant as they feel, because maybe it's mapping out who they're going to be for a long time. That was not some all time foe foe foe run from the thunder last season. That was not a 17, 18 golden state thing. This and even they had a deep Western Conference finals. But this year, through the playoffs, again, only five games completely outmatched teams, their fourth and rebound rate and their fourth in three point shooting. So despite them deciding, you know, in these information gathering games that are actually like, hey, these are also the playoffs, it doesn't matter. And they win by 18 on a night where SGA doesn't crack 20 points for the first time, the first time in any game since game three of last year's Western Conference finals. 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And the best part, if it's sports, it's real fans. It's not analysts or those talking heads, guys, or those podcasts breaking it all down to the most honest, entertaining way. Even if it's off season, Reddit sports communities don't go quiet, trades, drafts, and preseason discussions always happening. So Rudy is all over the Orlando magic subreddit. He also loves explain like I'm five, which may be what some of you magic fans feel like of not being able to understand the season. Reddit is where the real fans hang out, download the Reddit app and dive into hot takes, fresh memes and the group chat that never sleeps. Download the Reddit app today. We are psyched to have a legend in us soccer history. You don't know where I'm from dog is a comprehensive look at the life and career of American soccer legend Clint Dempsey produced by CBS sports and also streaming right now on paramount plus and Clint Dempsey joins the show. What's up? Thanks for doing this. What's up? Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. I am. I can't even say I'm a casual soccer fan. I'm below casual, but I would say that I'm proud of myself like a sign of maturity is instead of being a kid who played other sports and thinking soccer was lame. I was stuck in a hotel for a bunch of days and watched some of the UEFA stuff and I kind of fell in love with it, you know, and I think it's once you understand it, you're more into it. So I guess my first question is where do you think this sports popularity is the way it's talked about today in comparison to when you first started coming up playing for the Rebs and then obviously internationally? For sure. I mean, globally it's always been the biggest thing. There's no comparison in terms of like around the world and when World Cups come around, but states side, I mean, it continues to grow. I mean, it's a country that is really diverse. It has a lot of people from different backgrounds. And I think that it's an area that continues to improve. I mean, you see with Messi coming now being in the MLS and having this sport being talked about more on a weekly basis as opposed to waiting around every four years for a World Cup to happen for the needle to move. So you're starting to see some changes there, but I think truly it's going to take, I think a U.S. team winning a major trophy or really performing well and starting to get more of a buzz with the whole country as opposed to just making just a little bit of noise here and there. The ramp up for this tournament, what is the actual downside to automatically qualify as the host nation for the U.S.? I think the downside is you don't really have competitive games to like iron sharpening iron to make sure you're truly ready for that tournament and had your backs against the wall and experience what it's like to, maybe I get the result you want away from home and being in a must win situation every time you're on home soil and really fighting it out to truly deserve to be in the competition. I think there was something beautiful about that, going through that qualifying process and preparing you to truly appreciate what it took to be able to play in a World Cup. But it is what it is. You have to make the most of the situation you're in. I mean, it's great to be in a position that you don't have to qualify and you get to have a World Cup on home soil. So maybe it's a chance to experiment a little bit more than what you normally would do. I mean, the only thing I think that has made this one a little bit more difficult of a situation is you had the Copa America two years ago on home soil and you're the first host country to not get out of the group. And then you have the next competition being the Concacaf Nations League. You have a semifinal game versus Panama and you're losing that. So it's not a situation where you're able to take another step forward after what they did in 2022. They qualified for the World Cup, played in the World Cup, got out of the group stage, they lost to the Netherlands and then it's like, okay, what's that next step forward you're going to take, right? And with the Copa America, the Concacaf Nations League, that being so close to the World Cup this summer and the Gold Cup, yes, they got to the final, but they didn't have all their, the full roster wasn't there in terms of some of the players that were in Europe. I don't think the fan base for the States has really gotten that sense of excitement about this team. I think it hurt a little bit, the last friendly window losing to Belgium and Portugal in the way we did. And now the only thing we have left is the Senegal, Germany friendly matches to prepare us for this World Cup. I have heard you describe, I think you'll take this as a compliment, but as a motherfucker of a player, right? And just yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm someone who had to do it the hard way. I mean, I think everybody who makes it at a high level, they, they had some things to overcome, but I mean, it truly was a grind for me. And the hardships that I face, I think kind of always had that chip on my shoulder. So I agree with you. Yeah, I think it's one of the best compliments you could have as an athlete. And yeah, I'm wondering like how this team, because I think we always kind of look at US soccer and be like, Oh, if the best athletes played, like if we had more talent and all that kind of stuff, we played a different style. I think there's a feeling that collectively it's, it's the most talent the teams had, but is the team getting away from this grinding mentality that maybe your group had that was just tougher to play and that maybe the country's adapting to a style that doesn't necessarily fit them and make them as tough of an out internationally. Um, I think they're put into a position, right? We, I was part of the team that didn't qualify in 2018. And it was kind of like a rebuild. So you had a lot of new faces coming in. I think the issue that we had in the past is you had a lot of teams that weren't qualifying for Olympics. So you didn't really have that resurgence or whatever it's called. If you kind of breaking into the national team and really pushing the veterans and having a good mix of younger and older players, it seemed like the development kind of wasn't there. And then now you have this young group that was going into the World Cup. They qualified for it in 2022. And it was a lot of, it was their first time. And then it's like trying to go on and take it to another level. But there's not really many veterans in the team in terms of, you know, that 30, 31, 32 year old player that's played in a few World Cups or are able to like give some of these younger guys an idea of what it's like to go through that World Cup qualifying process or to be in those competitions like World Cups and Copa Americas. So it's been a lot of these guys kind of learning on the go. Like you said, I think not having the chance to qualify again for this World Cup, it, you didn't get to get that test to go through that grind and to battle together. Because I think through hardships, you kind of form more of a bond and you understand that you really have to have each other's back if you want to be successful. And it's almost like you can sometimes maybe take something for granted if it's kind of given to you. So, but I still believe in this team. I still think there's some fighters in this team. I mean, a player that I relate a lot with is Weston McKinney. Just in terms of what he's had to deal with at the club level of always kind of being questioned beginning of the season on the outside looking in always kind of earns his place back into the team and being one of the main players each year for the club team that he plays with. But yeah, I still think that they do have some of that fighter mentality in them. It's just we were kind of robbed of seeing them kind of have that bonding experience or that World Cup qualifying time since they got an automatic bid. What's your favorite American team sport, you know, other than soccer? Oh, I mean, growing up, I like baseball a lot, even though it's completely opposite. There was a lot of stoppages in that. But my grandpa, he was just a big baseball fan. And I think you kind of get passionate about the things that people in your family are passionate about because it's a way that you kind of bond with them. But I really like all the sports, whether it's basketball, American football, I mean, as a kid, I did everything. So it's one of those that I just think it's important to try everything to kind of figure out what you're passionate about. But I have an appreciation really for every sport, but like growing up in Texas, I mean, those are kind of really the only sports that I was around. Because one thing that I know about American sports, especially like football, I don't know, it probably happens in the NFL more than it does even in college. But that is like, if your team isn't playing well, then you start with something that you could just say I don't like the plays or calling. I don't think the coach is very good. If there's one thing that I've noticed about soccer fans is that no matter who is coaching the US men's team after an exit earlier than everybody wants, it just like I sort of laugh about it as a not day in and day out soccer guys is going like you guys hate the coach no matter who it is every single time. It's like, hey, we need to go back to this, go back to that. So in basketball, in the NBA, I would say it doesn't really matter who the coach is football, it has a lot more to do with it. What can a coach actually do with your sport in advancing a team like taking their ceiling to a different level? Or is it really kind of more on the players the way it is in the NBA? I mean, I feel like in any sport, though, like everybody's just completely criticized whether you're the coach, whether you're a player, I just think you're under that microscope and the people who are passionate about whatever sport that you're playing, they're going to have an opinion and something to say about it. But it's important that the coach kind of manages everybody in a way that they feel body that there is a blueprint to get into the team that through training well that your spot is kind of earned to play on the weekend. Obviously, depending on what talent you have on the team, what kind of formation you should play, what's going to help your team kind of be the most successful, whether it's you're a really skillful team, maybe you figure out total football possession, building out of the bag, how to get forward and create really good attacking opportunities and getting goals. But if your team who struggles and keep in possession, maybe it's a team that kind of sits back and is more defensive with the counter attacking style. So it's just like everybody kind of has their own thing that kind of makes them tick. And depending on what kind of players you have, you might need to dumb it down depends on what the expectations are of your fan base and what they want to see. And as a coach, like what kind of backing that you got to take risks because some people are kind of put in situations where they're just kind of like they're not picking maybe they're not able to pick the players they want to come in. They don't have the complete backing or go after the players that they truly want. So I think it's a difficult one to kind of answer. But I mean, the most important thing is I think creating a culture that everybody feels that you have to earn it to get into the team and that you have to fight for each other and you have to bring more people along than that are in the starting 11. You have to keep on the bench that believe that they're still part of the team and they can make a difference when they go on. So I think that's that's a true skill to just manage people and to keep everybody bought in. Would you ever want to do it? Me to be honest with you, I would man. I'm not at this point right now. I mean, I just think it'd be so stressful. It's a grind you're on the road all the time. I mean, I have six kids so I would miss out on a lot of her stuff and I just think Are you trying to build a team? What's up? Are you trying to build a team? Your own five short? That's what it looks like. But you know, during my playing career, I mean, I was moving my family around a lot, you know, whether it was from, you know, Fulham to Tottenham and, and, you know, being in London and coming all the way back to Seattle, it's like, how long do you keep kind of chasing your dream? But then it's time for them to kind of help them follow there. So, you know, maybe when the kids are older and out of the house, maybe that's something I kind of reassess and look at. But for right now, I mean, I'm really enjoying just being on the the analyst side, being around the game, covering stuff that I'm passionate about, which is mainly US soccer and, and, and, and, and, and just kind of rooting them on and, and, and being able to do something that I am still able to like go to my kids' games on the weekends and support them. So they say never say never. So we'll see. But it would definitely have to be a situation where you have control and you're able to like take risk and, and, and kind of fully kind of implement your style and give you the time to, to build something. So we'll see. I made it over to London and went to Craven Scottish, where you play for Fulham. It was kind of a random thing for me. It's my first ever Premier League game. And I of course loved it, even with the rainy London weather. What was it like for you going over there? I mean, it's an open-ended question. I have, I have some more specifics, but to go over an American player, you know, playing in that league, what was that transition like for you? To be honest with you, it was awesome. I mean, I didn't really think about going to Europe or thinking it was a possibility until I played in the World Cup in 2006. And then it was like, I had the chance to, to go over and play with Fulham and playing one of the best leagues in the world against the best players in the world. And it's like, you couldn't ask for more than an opportunity to test yourself and kind of see where you stack up against some of the greats. So, and to go somewhere where the sport you played was the, was the most popular sport, right? Like it's a place that you truly, you felt like you belong because you got to think growing up in Nacodotius, Texas, and you told people you were playing soccer outside the Latin community. It was like, what are you doing? Why aren't you playing American football, baseball or basketball? Like, do you really think that you're going to get a college scholarship doing this? Or you think you're going to be able to make a living and provide for your family, you know, doing this sport? And for me, it was just like, wow, this is what I've always dreamed of being where everybody was all in, being around the culture, the fans of each team and the passion that they had and the pitches that you got to play on and the history that a lot of these clubs had and learning, learning about that and just taking that journey. And for me, it was really eye-opening and you had to start again from the bottom. I went from being an MLS All-Star to like a player that was a sub coming off the bench and happened to earn the respect to be a starter. And I was able to do that. Was there pushback maybe in the way like an international player comes in the NBA? I mean, the international part of the NBA is so common now that I don't think it's that much of a thing. But I think in the beginning, it'd be like, oh, this six-nine guy from one of the countries, I forget, which, you know what I mean? Like, was there a, hey, he's a nice player, but he was playing the MLS. Like, this isn't going to work. I mean, it's one of those things. It's like, oh, it's an American coming over here. There's been some before that have done pretty good, but like, really, like, what's he going to really do? I honestly felt like you couldn't just be better than like the British players. Like, you couldn't be equal to him. You had to be significantly better if you wanted to get on that pitch. You kind of had to force your way into teams and you had to put in a situation where you had to make them play you and they couldn't take you out of the lineup. And for me, being a tagging player, the only way you could do that was get goals, get a sis, get stuck in, you know, run into you. You couldn't run anymore. You know, you're looking at 11k to 12k game in terms of distance that you would cover from a midfield position. But yeah, I mean, that's what it's all about. And anything that you do, no matter where you from, you got to earn your respect. And I was happy to have the opportunity to do that and was able to do that in my first year really. I mean, getting the goal against Liverpool, my first goal for the club that won us the game, saved us from relegation. That's when I truly felt like I belonged in the Premier League because I wasn't part of the promotion process of when they're in the championship to earn their way up. So that's that's kind of when you like earn your stripes and you start getting respect that you can come up and make a difference in big moments. So that's kind of what I held on to and used to like build my confidence. And then every year was just trying to be better and better in terms of your goals and assist production. I feel like the soccer star, you know, depending on which club you're with, like if I'm just keeping it to the London area, like those guys, you know, whatever rock star level we have, I think it's beyond even the quarterback of the Cowboys or one of the best players in the NBA. How much of a culture shock was that for you is like a Texas kid. And now you're surrounded by like, again, these guys like have the looks down, they're in the tabloids constantly. It's it's just another level that I think even we have with our stars here in America. Yeah, I was never on the top four team. I think the highest finish that we ever had in the Premier League was six with Fulham. And then with Tottenham, I think we finished fifth just out of the Champions League spot. So there's a lot of teams in London, and in terms of like, probably bigger teams and bigger names that make more of the headlines and stuff like that. But for me, it was just cool. It was just kind of like, I was able to do what I love, still be around the game that was the most popular, but it was still kind of your little bit under the radar. But when I think back to my time there and like the best years I had, I mean, for sure, it had to be when I finished top four and scoring and all the Premier League, especially from like a midfield position. So yeah, it was it was really cool. Like seeing recaps of games in the newspapers, watching on sky, seeing highlights and being in those highlights from the games on the weekend. So and doing it against the best teams and best players. So it was a it was a great experience. And when I think back at like the most important and special moments that I had, I mean, I would say my club ball playing in England and I would say playing in the World Cup for my country is kind of what I hold my my hat on in terms of what I did in my career. Hey, it's Hannah Montoya. Abercrombie's new summer drop is our latest obsession. There's tons of colorful swim, flowy dresses, and they just released new linen blend matching sets. Everything feels so light and breathable. It's perfect for brunch or rooftop happy hours, just like you're on vacation, shop Abercrombie in the app online and in stores. I want to bring in our guys, Steve Ceruti, who you met before we started this. So I'll promise the audience this isn't a surprise. He's hosted soccer podcast in the past. And he has a couple of questions. So I want to sit back and watch the guys more educated talk about this sport. I wouldn't go that far. But Clint, I we can go wrap a fire on some of these two. But I'm interested like, how much does how much is this current crop of players, U.S. players, reach out to you for advice? Like, I think, I think we, I think we want players to play like you and be like you. And I think, you know, from a fan perspective, it's like, you know, we miss Clint, we miss the drive. Like, did they reach out to you and for any advice and stuff? No, I don't think the situation from players kind of reach out to me. But saying that I'm always, I'm always an open door or, you know, I always pick up my phone if anybody wants to talk. I mean, I do check in with players in terms of like, if they're going through a tough time or have an injury, I'll try to reach out to some of them and, you know, let them know that, hey, stay strong and hope to see you back soon. But I'm not one of those guys like, Hey, hit me up. Let me help you out. It's one of those things like, look, if you want my advice, I'm happy to give it. And if you don't, that's cool. But it almost seems like there's a little bit of that, you know, the former player and especially having some of them being more in the media and an analyst role, that maybe there's a little bit of a disconnect there. And I just think it's tough being in a position to like, try to put people in the locker room and to try to analyze in a game and talk about the good and the bad of the things that happen. But also it's like, you got to remember that you are a player as well. And you know how sensitive people can get when people are criticizing kind of what you do. And I think that's always a difficult balance. And because of that, maybe that disrupts some of the kind of chemistry or the reasons to kind of to reach out. But all you can do is do you and keep it real. And you know, people want to hit me up. I'll be glad to help out. And if not, then it's what it is. I don't want to speak for all fans, but I think we want some of them too. I think we miss some of the some of the ways that you play. Like I'm not, you know, I'm not blowing smoke, like watching you play back in the day was awesome. Like it was just like it was a different, it was just different than it is kind of now. And you know, Ryan and I were kind of talking before, you know, the interview and the question about like this style of play of like, Hey, you guys were just hard to beat back then. And like, maybe you weren't as talented, but like you just gave everybody hell. Whereas now it feels like are we a little easier to be? Are we more talented? We're trying to do stuff that we can't do. But I think, you know, I'm not trying to put the the bass signal out there. But I think I think we love guys to hit you up. I mean, it's one of those things though, like for me, when I think back when I was growing up as a kid, what I dreamed about as a kid, it was it was represent my country. It was playing in the World Cup. That meant the most to me. And once we didn't qualify in 2018, and my phone wasn't being, you know, hit up to come into a national scene camp. That's that's what I knew it was over with. I knew it was done because it's like, if I didn't have that, that was that was the truly the thing that I loved the most. Don't get me wrong. I love playing club ball. And I love being able to provide for my family. But if you're talking about the purity of the game, and what I dreamed about as a kid, it was always represent my country and putting on that jersey and trying to do something special in the World Cup. What do you so that's a good segue then you never played in World Cup on home soil. Was the World Cup though, was that like the most pressure you've ever felt? And what do you think these guys will feel like playing here in the States? I think I always felt pressure because it was like you always felt like you're on the chopping block. You always felt like, you know, especially when you have kids and you got to provide for them that like, you got to make the career last as long as possible because you want to give them the best life possible. But I just think I always kind of did a good job of keeping a lot of pressure on myself and expecting a lot and knowing that like, it all could go away so quick. I mean, I know it's like to grow up, you know, eating ramen noodles and spam and, and, and, you know, having to put some nickels together to be able to get something, you know, and I'm from a working class family. So that was always kind of instilled in me to you got to work hard and those are the things that you'll appreciate the most in the end. Who's your favorite player to watch right now? It doesn't have to be a US player, but just favorite God that you like watching right now. Oh, that's a great question. It's a lot actually. You mentioned Wes, but don't pick Wes, somebody else. Yeah, yeah, I mean, US team, yeah, I enjoy watching him. I mean, around the world, I mean, Lameen Yamal, he's a, he's a, he's a true talent. I mean, watching the players on Bayern Munich PSG, I mean, that game that we're looking forward to watching tonight, I mean, that is some of the, if you're an attacker, that's some of the best football that you're going to watch. I mean, in terms of like, when I was growing up and who I was watching, I mean, Cristiano Ronaldo, when he was at Man United and right before kind of me turning pro and then getting the chance like to go up against him and being in the generation to playing against, you know, Messi, but in terms of like, like inspired me growing up. I mean, I'll take it all the way back. I mean, Diego Maradona, Raquel May, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, the number that original Ronaldo, you know, playing, playing in, for Real Madrid and stuff like that. So, Zidane, I mean, there's just so many great players that I was privileged to be able to grow up watching and then also so many great players that I was able to go up against. Last one I got for you, and I maybe we'll get you like a prediction, I guess, for the World Cup on the way out. But if you didn't play soccer, if it didn't work out or you just did something happen, what would you be doing? What would you have done? What would you be doing right now? I probably would have tried to play baseball. I was, I mean, saying that, I mean, in fifth grade, I had to make the decision what I wanted to do because it was an opportunity to go play soccer in Dallas. And for me, it was a two hour, 45 minute, one-way drive and two hour, 45 minute back, and we're doing that twice a week. So, but I was a decent shortstop. I was, you know, someone that could get on base. I mean, I wasn't hitting a lot of home runs, but I was someone to get your RBIs and get on base. But in terms of like what I'd done, if I wasn't made in soccer, I mean, I probably would have been playing Men's League on Sunday. You know, who knows, man. I'm not a fan of the parking lot. Exactly, exactly. Having a beer after the game, saying back in the day, should have, I remember the glory days when we were in high school and he was nice. Yeah. But no, that's a great question. I don't know what I would have done. I mean, I would still have the same hobbies. I would still love fishing. I would still love hunting. But you know, those type of things. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I would have done. Was a rod your guy back then though? Shortstop, I guess, Rangers. Man, I liked a rod. I like Cal Ripken. I was a big Nolan Ryan fan. I like, I like pitching. I wasn't a great pitcher, but I love watching Nolan Ryan and watching this documentary, chasing Nolan. That was that was pretty cool just to see how everything developed and how he kind of changes, you know, the way that he threw to generate more speed and then just how his wife pushed him as well, how competitive she was and just what he was able to do. Not many people can go from a rival and still be loved, whether you're going from the Astros to the Rangers, but Rangers, but he was one of those guys for me that I didn't matter where you went. I was, I was going to follow. If you want to learn more about Clint again, it's up now. We were watching some of it last night. It's really good. You don't know where I'm from dog again, produced by CVS sports and streaming now on Paramount plus before we let you go, do you have a prediction for us, Clint? Prediction for the World Cup? Yeah. Or the NBA finals. Oh, NBA finals? I like the Spurs, man. I ain't gonna lie. I like the Spurs. I was, you know, I grew up. I was a Spurs fan. So basketball for, have you met Wemby? What's up? Have you met Wemby? Man, I haven't. I haven't, but I really enjoyed watching Tim Duncan play. Roberson, Tony Parker, Jenobley. So yeah, but I think it's exciting. It's exciting looking at the playoffs and seeing what's going to happen. I mean, Timberwolves ain't no joke. So that's going to be a good series. I think people, and that was really good. So we appreciate that. But I think people probably wanted the World Cup one more. Man, shoot, it's tough to look past Spain, man. They are a really good team. The way that they play, you know, you're gonna need to keep the ball, especially with this heat that you have in the States. A sleeper team, I'd say maybe one of the after-encuper nations, like Senegal or Morocco, and he can't look past Argentina. They won the last two Copa Americas, the last World Cup. It's Messi's last tournament. And, you know, Portugal, they won the last UEFA Nations League. It'd be interesting to see a battle between one final battle of Cristiano and Messi. Clint, you're a legend, man. We appreciate the time, especially as you're getting ramped up here. You're part of the coverage. And again, check out his doc on Paramount+. Thanks for the time. Yes, sir. Thank y'all. Only the very best. Warshead, committed to craft since 1905. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. 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 brought to you by Microsoft 365 Copilot. What if you could add an AI assistant to your work without leaving your workflow? Built into Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook, Copilot works where you work, helping you do more in the apps you already use. In Word, Copilot helps you turn scattered notes into a first draft. In Excel, it generates insights from your data. In Outlook, it cuts through the noise to get you up to speed faster. The apps you know go further with Copilot. Learn more at m365copilot.com. Not to oversell it here, but the other day I opened up a Word doc. We're doing some draft stuff. It was like, hey, what do you want to do today? And I was like, when I have more free time, I'm just going to... Who knows what I want to do. Make a new friend? Yeah, just type it in. That felt specific, Kyle. No, I'm okay. Sorry. Are you doing anything today, Copilot? Copilot's like, well, I just want to help you outline something. Do you want to maybe go to the beach? So I don't know if it's going to be able to do... We could be a couple of years away from taking Copilot to the beach and just chatting about Civil War stuff. Actually, he or she, who knows, they, them, I don't know. Think about the travel logs. Travel logs would be perfect. Never travel alone again. Oh my God. But also like, hey, how real is this Port-au-Wine thing with Great Britain? Is it really because they're a war with France? They're going to let me know immediately. So it could help because the research part of those travel logs is probably the part where I'm like, all right, I actually have to sit here and do two hours of research for this one segment. So yeah. Before we get to it, live show last night, 10 years part of my take, Uber driver dropped me off at the Cat Williams show. I didn't think that part of my take is successful as it is. I didn't think that it was going to sell out the Intuit Dome, YouTube theater across the street. And I would say for a moment there, I was like, this crowd looks a little different from what I'd expected for a part of my take live show. But I was like, this is unbelievable. I love that they're this big in LA. And then it was like, no, you're, you're across the street. So another Jerry O'Connell, I mean, didn't even know the guy. I've seen him now twice in five days. Yeah. Yep. Blake Griffin, backstage, incredibly likable guy. And then went out there and did some stuff. So fresh and ready to go. So thanks to you. It looks like a serious theater too. I was like, oh, yeah, big even from pictures like that was cool. Maybe we'll break down the wall because I was thinking, sorry, should I tell the audience what I was planning on doing or should I save it for something else? Well, what are you going to save it for? I don't know. Yeah, I don't really know that I could ever save it again. I'd like to be a part of this though. Yeah, you should probably tell us. Well, I was trying to figure out a way to do something a little different in the beginning, which I think over the years you'd say like, yeah, you know, try something that doesn't mean it's always going to work. And I wasn't going to tell anybody what I was going to do. But since it was Netflix as a joke, where you can watch all of our podcasts. And it's basically like 98% comedians doing these shows and the lineup of like, I was looking at tickets for something the other day and it was just all of these different places in LA, all these different venues, right? And so since they're already out on the set in the couches, I was like, I'll just go out and have a microphone that doesn't work and then stand center stage and ask for a spotlight and then take out some note cards and pretend as if I thought they were asking me to do standup because everybody's doing standup at the entire thing, but they wouldn't know. And then I would talk to the microphone that's not working and be so nervous, maybe even shaking the microphone a little bit for effect. But I don't know if I'm much of a physical actor presence, perhaps, but I don't know. And Well, what big cat and BMT watch you? Yeah, go like, what is he doing? And then I would just play it, you know, straight and go like, oh, I this whole time, like I've been freaking out for like four days. That's why I left Vegas early. I've been rehearsing this. I've been going over the material over and over and over again. Like I have 10 minutes. I've got all these note cards. And I actually wrote like how terrible jokes, but would act as if I was, nobody was going to hear them though. Maybe the people in the front audience, you know, very front row would hear me just talking and not the microphone. And really all it was for was 30 seconds of just big cat and PFT to go, what the fuck is he doing? And I pitched it to Max. I was like, I'll tell Max. And I'm just telling you, like when you pitch something and the other person is like, don't do that. That was what I was getting. I felt like he was coming around to me a little bit more. I'm like, it's, he's like, well, what if it bombs? I'm like, well, of course, it's going to bomb, but I'm not trying to bomb. I'm just trying to throw those guys off for 30 seconds. And that's the joke. And we came up with something else because they made fun of Chris Paul a little bit. And so then I came out on fire being like, I didn't come here on a night off to hear you guys. You defended Chris Paul more than Blake Griffin did. Interesting. I definitely did. Yeah. That could have kind of backfired though, if those guys are more, yeah, if they were more unflappably, do you think they're like, all right, well, we got time, just do your, do your set. And it's like, you know, had a fake 10 minutes and now like, now what? Yeah, that would have sucked. You have to go sit down. You have to go sit down. Yeah. Big cat. That's something that feels like something big cat would absolutely try to get you. He would eat that shit up. Maybe a possible scenario for you. Yeah. I could also just stop because no one is like, power of no. Yeah. That was, I don't actually have 10 minutes for you. And there may be some people like, hey, that's a completely terrible idea. And they may have been right. Yeah, that was max, you know, he did get a little closer to my side. Like the beginning, I just tell you read a guy's face. And I was like, Oh, he hates this idea. You know, I was like, this isn't about bombing. It's about them being uncomfortable because they can't understand what I'm doing. And then that 30 seconds of the audience being like, what is he doing? And no one can hear him. And then there's some guy up in the soundstage being like, his mic isn't even on. Get a light on. Get a light. That's 30 seconds of panic. It's all worth it. Got any doctors? We'll never know. And we can't see it. All right. Let's read a couple emails. All right. That was a new one that I wasn't ready for. Barber arrested now what six foot 180. No crazy gym stats, but did, but the dad strength is real. Right? Seruity. How much stronger are you? Seruity? You know, people need to tell me it's not the baby. It's when she's like a toddler. Because now I'm like, yeah, I left arm. It's like, I don't know. I wouldn't like really like test it out, but I wish we had gotten some data on your strength. We should have done some strength tests. We totally had times. Yeah, I know. It would have been pretty unimpressive, to be honest with you. But yeah, we could have done that. But am I am I 3% stronger in my left arm? Maybe so. That guy has great shoulders. Three kids under the age of five. What does he work out? No. No. All right. I need advice on how to handle my next interaction with my barber for contacts. My barber runs an under the table barber shop in my neighborhood as a side hustle. He lives directly across the street from me. He only charges $10 and doesn't ask for tips. That's a good deal. I haven't cut my hair professionally in a while. $10. Is it a two all the way around kind of thing? It's fine. I love all the way. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. After I got home from work yesterday, I was sitting in the living room with my wife when three cop cars came down our street and stopped at their house. They surrounded the house and then went in the side door. My barber and his partner both came out in cuffs. We have a large window in our living room where they were clearly looking around to see if anyone saw them being arrested. I don't know if they could see us inside or not. We tried to keep a distance from the window but did not want to miss any of the action. I think the window, whether or not they saw you thing is a sunlight based thing. Right? So you're saying afternoon, depending on the angle, there's a chance they didn't see you at all. And he's probably, I don't know, his mind was probably on some other things if he was getting raided. So you may have gotten away with it. But my dilemma is that I have a haircut appointment with him Thursday afternoon. I'm sure he'll be out of the slammer by then as the charges listed online are minor. My question is, do I act? So this guy went online to find out what it, my question is, do I act like nothing happened? Do I make a joke to lighten the potential tension? My guess is that he knows that I saw him get arrested. I want to handle this correctly because a $10 haircut from professional barber is a perk I can't afford to lose. Especially if it's $10. He's probably, you know, filled up. But hold on. I mean, barbers, for me at least, they're always that point like, so what'd you do last weekend? That's usually one of their open, it's one of their opener lines, you know, what'd you do last week, whatever. So you say your, say your piece and then just ask him. I mean, I don't know why you would think that he saw you while he was being arrested looking, you know, a few houses down. I don't think so. I think you could just, once you, once you get through your, you know, your spiel of what you did, because that's at least what happens to me, just throw it right back at him. See what he says. If he doesn't want you to, if he doesn't want to discuss it, he won't tell you. Yeah, I wouldn't bring it up unless he brought it up. Like I would just, it would be business as usual, $10 haircuts, not trying to ruin that situation. It seems like you have a good thing going there. They may be 15 now. Yeah, I was gonna say you can give him $20 bucks and say that's for bail. I just think you've been doing a really good job lately, you know, I won't, I won't hear no. I won't. I will stand up here. I appreciate it. I will hear of it. You take this extra 10. Yeah, I don't think you need to adjust. Like you don't have to say anything, especially if you're a guy. Yeah, like guys are just that, just push, don't ask, don't tell kind of thing. Yeah, I don't, you're overthinking it. I mean, I get your point and it's kind of, you know, a humorous observation from you. Not so great for him, unless the charges are true, which again, they're fine. Well, I wish we knew the charges because like, are they kind of funny? It sounds like they're not barbershop related, right? Otherwise, he would have definitely told us about that. Yeah, is it like racketeering? No, I know what they are, but I'm not going to share it because he asked me to not share it. I would say it's not like, you're not rooting for him, but it's, it's a minor thing. I mean, I think the only reason he included that it was minors so that he knows he can still get his hair cut this Thursday. He'll be back. Like that's, he's not doing a moral thing here. He's more about, I would expect processing this guy. The mail is manageable. Yeah. This is a completely let him, he's Fred Astaire in this one. You just got to let him lead. You go in, what's up, throws on the apron. If he doesn't bring it up, you don't bring it up. And you walk out of there, $10 light and a hell of a lot fresher. Yeah, talk playoffs, whatever. Will Cubs come in. You fill the time, man. It's fine. Yeah. Like don't say something like that. Lou dork should be in jail. Easy. Stay away from endologies. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Law school is destroying my life. Wow. That's bleak. 510, 170 bench, 275 before law school started destroying my life. That's a great number buddy. 275 way 170, 24 years old graduated from, well, he puts all this stuff in here. I'm going to graduated from university two years ago, got a good job selling medical supplies. I was successful. Won some awards, medical sales awards. How long do they stay out on the mantle? Well, whatever the guy's proud of it. He shared them with us. He's telling us that he was, remember I got invited once to like go with somebody to Hawaii because they came in like third place nationally for some medical sales thing. I kind of regret not going now. Anyone can say those door to door people really when I'm sitting in a waiting room and I just have to get like they do it all out in the open. You know, it's just feels a little gross, but that's not door to door. Like that's, you know, doctor's office to doctor. So we're talking about equipment. Right. I guess when I'm thinking door to door, I'm thinking like when the guy came to my parents house to bring us the encyclopedia Britannica thing. I just mean they go to doctor's offices and they're like, you know, is he in? It's like, I'm fucking 20 minutes late for my appointment. You better not be allowed to talk to this fucking guy today. I'll tell you that, Ruch. I'm already waiting. Anyway, by the way, like if you work in the encyclopedia business, can you check in? Let us know how you're doing. That's going to be, I don't know, that didn't even really dawn on me until recently. Wicca pedia is begging for money. So maybe, maybe they're doing all right again. Just like, how's the Britannica stock price? Can we look that up? Can imagine. I don't know if that's ever going to recover. I was thinking about this the other day too, because like, I don't know that I've met anybody that's under 80 that's into being a ventriloquist. I feel like that entire industry is wiped out. I mean, there's probably some like weird country somewhere where it's like part of the culture. I don't know what that would be, but I don't think there's nearly as many ventriloquists today as there were when I was growing up. So I would tell you if you had a kid that was into it, way less competition than ever before, based on again, my observations. I googled Britannica stock price and then I just started listening again when you got under ventriloquist. And I don't know how it happened so fast, but it looks like they're targeting an IPO, but I don't think there's a stock price right now. Wasn't there like a, remember the like the medieval game that came with Britannica? Do you remember what I'm talking about? No, I wasn't a Britannica kid if you couldn't tell. Oh no, yeah, it was like this game. We got the first one though. We got volume A and then my parents were like, I think we're going to do it because we have kids and we want them, we don't want to be morons. And then my father was like, how much is this? You guys are going to be stuck on A for a while. I'm going to quiz you on A, so don't just think you're done. Alligators, Azores, locked in and get to the beast. The kid can't starts walking backwards. All right. It was a chill job that let me do my own thing. I'd always dreamed of going to law school and convinced myself I wouldn't be able to live with the regret regret that I never gave it a shot. So I quit my job after a year enrolled in law school. It's not that I can't do the work. I'm passing my classes even have a decent internship lined up for the summer, but I'm absolutely miserable. I have no money to go out. My friends on weekends or breaks, I have no time to do anything anymore. At times I feel the struggle is necessary for happiness down the line, but I think about my future sometimes. I don't know if I see myself doing this. Do I feel this way because I'm currently going through the struggle or is this an issue and I need to get out and do something else? Also, all time leading school or high school for his state. I just don't want you to give us too much information here, man. And then have like law school goes, so you hate your life, huh, man? He also sent in an email fairly soon after that and said, and I'd like to clarify, I think about my future and I do not see myself doing this. I'll just start real quick. I'm stupid in that my advice is probably wrong. Like my thing would be hate just finish. And then you have that law degree. It's going to be really impressive thing throughout the rest of your life that you finished law school and you have a degree. And I think it's a real separate. Now, maybe I'm way too old school with that of like, Hey, if you went through all of this stuff, it was a bit like one night when like six pledges all quit at the same time, even though we'd been getting hazed for like four months. And I was like, Hey, that's a long time. Oh, ours went forever. It's holy shit, dude. Whole story to the whole thing. That was very, it's actually sucks. Story sucks. But we had like a big meeting, right? And I was like, you're going to let these guys fuck with you for four months and get nothing out of it. Like, you might as well just finish and then we'll all be in and the guys you hate will be gone and you know, we'll be good to go. But there were six guys that were just like, Hey, something happened. This is the window. I'm out of here. Like anybody that was on the fence, like once one guy was like, I'm done, then the other guys are like, cool, somebody broke the ice, I'll get out too. Not the same thing. But my point is like, you've invested all this time, you've made this decision. And maybe the mental health happiness part of this, I'm sorry, sir. I knew you could need to get in here. No, is to get out now. Like there's probably for more people listening and you might all be right, get out now. But my advice is almost like you've already done this much. Again, maybe I don't know how far along in the process you are. Maybe part of it was learning you actually don't want to do it and that's the benefit, but I would kind of hate not just getting the degree part and, and you know, but maybe you already know the answer. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I've never really understood the like, Hey, I'm going to drop out a semester short of graduating. Like how far along do you say it was the year? I'm going to double check that because I'm here two years. I mean, it's I know the sunken cost fallacy thing. Yada, yada. But it's like, yeah, like, just, you know, you've gone this far. Like, I kind of feel like even if you don't want to be a lawyer, there's other ways that you can. This is maybe stupid. And I could sound dumb, just like you said, Ryan, but like, there's got to be other ways you could use that. I do have some lawyer friends as well. Doesn't seem awesome. Going to be awesome. No, no, no, no. Law school or being a lawyer, being a lawyer, both probably. But being a lawyer, man, like, I mean, it depends on what kind of law you're doing too. But like, I think it depends greatly on which field that you're in. Like, if you're in corporate law, it's like, ah, man, it's a lot of hours, a lot of combing through stuff. You could make good money, obviously. But I, yeah, I don't, I don't blame you for not wanting to have to have to have to have to live. See all those guys you haven't seen tonight since high school. We got a girl, we got a woman, female woman in the area, Hartford, whatever. She's got billboards. It's like straight out of what was the movie? I love you, man. Remember at the end when he puts up all those, it's literally the movie. She just has like, she's, there's one with her in Saquon Barkley. There's one with her in Jared Goff or last night's Goff. It's like unbelievable. Like, how much, and it's crazy. She, everywhere you go in the state of Connecticut, like, this woman's face is on there doing some creative and big things. Yeah, get some creative and billing there, you know, especially when we're talking like hundreds of dollars for an hour. Yeah. Anyway, so I don't know, I'm kind of with you. I would, I would stick it out. I did, I did dabble in the like, should I do the law school thing before I started ESPN? I took the LSAT. You did? I didn't even know that. Yeah. Yeah. No, I live in D.C. for a bit. I really liked it there. And I was like, do I want to kind of go down the political route, whatever. And thank God I didn't do that. Were you a lobbyist? I would have been. Back then, it sounded like it was the best job you can get. Now everybody hates those people, which is fine. But yeah, I think we should probably always hated them, right? Maybe. Great. Great anecdote. But yeah, I don't know. So I guess what I would just ask, do you quit stuff? I mean, you quit this job that you were doing okay at, right? He said he won like, did he win an award at Ryde's or anything? But he's like, he said he didn't, he has a award. Okay, he's got awards. He quit this because he thought that was cool. This is like news flash. This is hard. Did you, did you like, do you have a track record of this? It sounds like not in the workout department because that, that bench number was great. But I'm just, I'd ask yourself is like, do you think, don't you think everybody that's on like, you know, the medical track or the law track has like, has a moment where like, wow, this shit is real, huh? It's why there's like way less people that do this. So, you know, I would just, I would just think is it like, is it, is it just would be so cool if you could push the eject button and like life would get better mentally? Or is it just, you know, did you know it was going to be hard? And it's like, you're just, you're just saying this because it would be, it's fun to like, talk about what if I just ran away? So, I don't know. I think I would, I'd stick it out if you're already doing it. It feels like he's a year in. Like, what is this usually like three years? Three years. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I just couldn't get over like how backward I would have wasted. You know, it's like, Hey, I wasted down from three years. Like to your point, Ryan, like, I don't like it. It just, it just feels like there is some value in finishing it off. It's kind of like, if you've been watching the, like the barcelo stream that's going on right now, it's like just dudes touching a golf cart for how. Yeah. It's like the hands on a hard body. Yeah. I don't know if you guys have ever seen that documentary, which is incredible. I have not, but it's like, no. Should I? Yes. Okay. It's over 20. It's going to be over 20 years old. What's it called? Hands on a hard body. The documentary 1997. Got that right around your cutoff, Steve? No, no, we're good. 97 still in the green zone. Yeah, for the most part. But I would say, like, I think there's like three guys left when they've been holding this golf cart for like 36 hours. It's like at this point, like I would die before I didn't touch that golf cart. Like, what, what, how much, you know, much wasted time that would be. You know, you don't win this prize and you're holding this golf cart for two, for a day and a half. That's insane. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of how I feel about this. It's a little too, to a lesser degree. But what if I told you you were going to have to hold it for two more days and be incredibly miserable? But I lost, I'm already lost the day and a half. So whatever. But you know, you have, but you can just make it stop by just saying I'm done, you know, if, if that's all I think my advice is bad. I do. I think it's bad because I think there's a lot of people that are listening to this that are far more like, hey, we can't know everything, right? But that have gone through this. And maybe I just think it's cool when I hear that J. Billis also has a law degree. And I'm like, yeah, it's so cool. You take them more seriously, right? You like them a lot more. Yeah. Did I dabble in like going, hey, I don't have any kids. Like, could I just part time law school and see if I could do it? Because I'm a way better student. I'm a student of life now, you know, I'm better prepared. Yeah. I think I'd be much better. I think everybody says that though. It's like, oh, man, I wish I could go to school now. I would just take like history classes, get my PhD in history and get really to Genghis Khan, you know, like, I don't know, maybe. And all it is is like an impressive icebreaker. Right. It doesn't really matter because nobody's gonna want to talk to you about Genghis Khan if you're like, I have a PhD. Oh, don't talk to Steve. He's gonna talk to you about Genghis Khan. It's actually Genghis. Let's just start there. Yeah, right. Okay. We had an argument about this with a history teacher about whether it's Genghis or Genghis. Actually, my buddy, remember the story I told about the buddy who didn't go to school, but still want the classes? He's the one that got into an argument with the professor about the pronunciation of Genghis Khan. But yeah, anyway, that kid's winning. He was learning while not taking out any students loans. He didn't. He literally didn't go here. I'm sorry, I'm with the teacher. Can you just say that story again really quickly? Yeah, my buddy, he was between schools and he just kind of didn't have a lot going on. He just wanted to come to our history class and he came and he became an active participant. And so funny. Is he successful now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I would think he would be or it's like, I don't know, I guess I can go a bunch of different ways. I think there are people that are listening to this saying, you already know deep down to the emailer, you hate this. So why keep doing it? And if you have no passion for the law whatsoever, to continue to pay for school and to be miserable for a couple more years on top of taking the LSATs, everything else, like why would you put yourself through this? Maybe your education was that you realized up close and personal, this is not what you want to do. And now you're able to just move past it and to sit here and sacrifice a couple more years. I would just say like at 24, like no shit when your other buddies have normal jobs and have a little coin. Because when we talked about this post college thing where the first guy was like, oh my God, like, is this happening? Everything's going to suck. We had a lot of emails in from people where I admire that's like, you know, there's actually this extended thing that can happen in your early 20s to like 27, 28, depending on how aggressive your group is with like getting engaged, getting married. But there's a lot of people depending kind of where you're from or where you're living. I think it's more of a northeast thing than it is a south or a Midwest thing. But it's like, you can have this extended college adolescence throughout your 20s, because you're actually making some money, you can do like some really cool stuff. And if everybody's still connected and two dudes are living with each other, like those can be awesome years. And if that's what you're surrounded by, and you're missing out on that on top of everything else, like, does it mean you're going to miss out on it forever? Or does it mean you're going to have a law degree in two years and you pick it right back up with those guys? Like, I know for a fact, like I felt like I had way too much extended, pointless years that were fun. And then it was almost like the self punishment of once I decided to pursue media, knowing how broke I was going to be, because I was already broke to begin with. And then I was out of the mix with all these guys, but I just had to accept it. I was like, you're never going to go to any of this stuff, you're going to stop being invited to all this stuff. They're just going to be like, we're so those poor, don't even bother hitting them up. If that's what you're going through right now, well, hopefully it doesn't go like 20 years for you. It would, it would be nice to know that I can go back to that. But I mean, look, I don't know that it's really like, if you're getting to the point, I've had a couple of different moments in my life where it's like, my stomach hurts because of what I'm now doing. Like I'm so against what it is about where I'm at in my life. That I'm like, all right, I'm now physically, like I don't feel good. And I think I can remember like three different times that's happened to me. And honestly, I'm kind of glad it did happen, because then it was like, all right, this is, and if you're, if you're at that point, then maybe you're also prolonging this. And that's why I don't think I'm going to sit here and say with full clarity of like, Hey, you absolutely have to do this versus doing the other thing and bailing. I think there's going to be a lot of people that email and say, Hey, tell the guy you should bail if you hate it this much already. By the way, Co-Pilot does case law summaries as well. I just Googled that. So, you know, have you tried to Co-Pilot your way through this thing too? So, think about it. I do think your advice is the best, Kyle, though, of like, there are those periods where it's like, are you just miserable in this period and your life is going to get better and you just have to get through it? Or is this just like a life fork moment where you're like, I can't do this anymore? Yeah, I do think it's funny when you see like incredibly successful people be like, you know, I miss the miserable phase or like, I tell young people all the time, enjoy the struggle. You're like, dude, shut up. I live for the grind. Yeah. No, but to being happily married, telling the guys divorce like, Hey man, this is part of life. But to a lesser degree, like the conditioning week of like football practice when they're like, maybe a guy does quit or something and hell week. I'm not like two days, whatever we'd people out. They always say that. And like, in those moments, you're like, man, maybe I, maybe I could quit this. But again, I don't want to be back there, but it's cool that I made it through that one. You know what I mean? I don't want to like wish I could start that this week. Well, obviously I do. I wish I could just go to practice really just to somebody. So peer pressure me to, to finish my runs and stuff. But like, I guess my point is like, it's cool that you went through it. I don't want to start running more. You want to practice. You most guys motivation for running would be, yeah, motivation for running would be good for me. I think. All right. What if you did something for you made you per wind sprint? Like your bonus. That'd be sick. But again, I think just the, the ire of my high school classmates would do more than, you know, I mean, we could talk figures when we're off, off air. What if I pay you 10 bucks a wind sprint, can't go over 50, maximum 500 bucks a month. I can't, I can't, like that's, that's it. After that, your commissions are capped. That's, that's very interesting. Yeah, I like that. So I'll give you $10 for every film wind sprint that you give us. Oh, God, film. Yeah, of course it has to be. I mean, look, I can't, yeah, no, no, no content. Of course not. Maybe just hanging out part of my take last time. Great deal. Yeah. Think about it. Yeah, that's, that's pretty good. Totally stuffed on my point, but you know, I'll be, I stand corrected. That's great. As we close this topic though, I'd like to think that I'm not a quitter, but there is some freedom. There's this feeling of like, Oh, wait, I can just stop doing this. I'm in charge. I like, I'd ask this email, are you the oldest of your siblings? Did you maybe get parented the hardest? You know, or do you always look at things like I can never, are you trying to fulfill some sort of prophecy not only for yourself and for someone else? You know, because I remember one time when I quit working for J crew to load up all these fucking boxes. You worked at J crew. Now I did a thing on campus where it was like me and another buddy signed up for this thing and it was unloading these cargoes, like 18 wheelers of all this J crew stuff and then you set it up on campus and then you were just wheeling the boxes in and then it was like an outlet sale, right? And so me and my buddy morons, we went out at night and then went right from that to, I think we were 18 years old and I needed the money on top of everything else. But the only problem was he pointed me and the other guy out. We were doing all the hauling. We were like running the jacks and hauling for hours and hours and hours, all this stuff. And then everybody else was just setting out the sweaters, like color coordinated. My hands were bleeding. Okay. If you guys got any larger back there, put those boxes on first. There's a weird gap on the table. If it's French terry, it has to be over here. And me and my boy, dripping sweat, hands bleeding, fucking miserable. I don't know that I'd ever quit anything and I just looked at him and went, I think I'm out of here, even though I desperately want the 40 bucks. Like, I think I'm just going to leave. He's like, what do you mean? I was like, campus is right there. My bed is once again. College is not real. Like, you know, like you could do that in college. This guy's a real human being in life. Yeah, true. Because I was never going to run into the J crew. These were just like road ops people. It was all garbage too, by the way. Shit was terrible. Like, hey, had it straight to Marshall's after that. Yeah. Tangerine trench coat. Yeah. It's like, okay, that didn't sell the way. So quick, quick stop on the way to Marshall's and then now blow the back up. Yeah, right. The last stop will be some of these college kids are going to pay everybody nothing and then they're going to set up all the things and then the enticement will be that you'll get an even further discount on all this different stuff because I didn't have any money for clothes. So there was part of me that was thinking like, oh, I'm going to be booted. Dripped out. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to be like dope AF. Like you telling me I don't have both gray polos. I've got the two tones. Yeah. So I was so, so miserable. And I remember just going, hey, I could just leave. I could just leave. And then I told Trevor, I was like, I think I'm leaving. He said, you're just going to leave. He's like, dude, that means I'm going to be emptying the truck by myself if you leave. I was like, yeah, I was like, I'm sorry. I can leave too, dude. Yeah. And he stayed and then I immediately went back to the dorm, fell asleep, then I had a voicemail from him. He was like, I left a half an hour after you did. He's like, I was like, he's like, he left. And then he's like, it was so much worse when you were gone because I was the only one they put on any of the loading stuff. He's like, so I left too. I was like, all right. I don't know if that story works though. I don't know either. But it was. No, it does. It's just like, nobody's doing anything to you. Like that was like something that was done to you. They looked around there like, all right, this is good. Today's going to suck for you guys. I don't think law school isn't doing that to this guy. It's just what it was. This guy needs a plan. Yeah. No one was ever going to say like, Hey, this is my friend. He worked in the J crew outlet. Yeah. Campus store first. Yeah. That's different. I think the reason I'm telling that story is that it wasn't being dropped off at school for the first moment that I felt freedom. I think that day was the first time I truly felt free. I went, I don't have to actually do this. And I can leave. I think it was supposed to be like two or three days too. I was like, see ya. All right. That'll do for the show. Did you have fun talking to Clint MC today? Suri? I did. Yeah. He's, he's the man. He is kind of the man. He's like a, he feels like a, you go out with him, have a good night. And he's going to be one of your favorite people. Yeah. He reminds me of Chris Long a little bit. Yeah, I can see that. They're just both like real dudes. Yeah, you don't have to, you know, marinate on it. We'll talk about maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow, Brian Wynhorst, again, you can check out the full episodes on Netflix. Thanks to Tom and Kevin, Saruti and Kyle, Ryan Russela, show barstool sports. So when your meetings are powered by AI quality matters, shore builds video conferencing solutions engineered for collaboration, giving AI the clarity it needs. Sure. Built for collaboration. Learn more at shure.com slash collab. Hello, I'm here with Jose Mourinho and Snickers for football's rapid fire on or off your game. Right, Jose, you've got one or two opinions on football, so I want you to tell me whether the following is on or off its game. First up, the AR. Hostage. Half and half scarves. Off the game. What about backflip celebrations? Off. Cutting holes in the back of your socks. Off, off, off the game. What I hate. Even the ones without cuffs, they do the holes. Snickers, you are off your game when you are hungry.