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Today's episode of the best of its podcast on the Ringer podcast network is brought to you by Spotify, where they offer the best podcast listening experience you can have if you can change speeds. And at one point to guy, you could check out all of their different charts for the best trending pieds, biggest pieds pod, separated by genres, whatever you want. The discovery is awesome. It's a great experience. Check it out. Check out Buffalo Wild Wings, basketball.

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It's finally back, it's time to celebrate the return with Buffalo Wild Wings, where the wings come in 24 sizes and seasonings. When you watch at home, make sure you watch with a wing bundle just perfect for the playoffs, which are about starting a week. There's no better way to watch than with Buffalo. Wild Wings were also brought to you by the Ringer Dotcom and the Ringer podcast network. If you care about football, the Ringer NFL is ramping back in the form.

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We have our new Ringer Fantasy Football show where they are breaking down people left and right. That one just like you should be subscribing to that one. If you care about fantasy football, it's really good to. New podcast launched this week, Sound Only with Michael Peters and Justin Charity that runs up first one's up. And we also have ten questions with Kyle Brandt. Check both of those out because they're both really good and speaking a really good podcast, the Khazars podcast, which we launched.

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I'm going to say like six, seven weeks ago, I can't remember. But with the Kamala Harris news and a pivotal day for the Democratic Party, for the election, everything. There are very few people better suited to discuss this than Bakari Sellers, so he is doing an emergency podcast. I would highly recommend listening to it. He's got some great thoughts on the whole thing. So check that out. If you're not, listen to that podcast or subscribe to it.

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I don't know what the heck is wrong with you. Coming up, we have a three guest podcast yet dipping back into the old. Well, Kevin Clark is going to come on, you know, some sad news with college football seemingly getting canceled for 2020 and all the ramifications that that has. We didn't want to get into the somber stuff. We wanted to talk about how this would affect the NFL and the draft and all kinds of different things.

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So he's on to talk about that. I let him talk about the magical. But then then Jim Belushi, who I've never had on this podcast, if you like pop culture, if you care about old SNL stories and his brother John and Canibus eight, I can't do better than this. Jim Belushi, he's really good. And then at the tail end, my dad comes on because he has been on really since the pandemic and he's been guilt trip for me to come talk about Boston Sports.

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So we just decided to have the phone call we normally would have had on a Tuesday. We just decided to tape it and put that at the end of the podcast was good. TATMAN That's all coming up. First, our friends from Pearl Jam.

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Kevin Clark is here, I did not bring him out to talk about the Orlando Magic. In fact, nobody cares at the Orlando Magic, but we will talk about them at the tail end of this football. Are you ready for Thursday night? Friday, Saturday night, Sunday night, Monday night, five days a week, National Football League action, because I feel like this is now in play. So the Big Ten just postponed or cancelled their season, depending on how you define it.

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Everything is in play. The NFL has made a living over the past decade, half decade of Justin slicing all of their packages. That's why there's Thursday Night Football. They really that's why Amazon has rights, all that stuff. And so if they see an opportunity to move to Saturday, they will do that for the full season. The reason they do it late in the season now, they're going to go for a full season and they'll get more money for this, right.

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They'll try to yeah, I mean, it depends. There are so many contractual things, can you move a game off of CBS or Fox and move it to a special package on Saturday? I don't know. That has to be hashed out in the next month. It would be amazing if the NFL somehow made more money during a pandemic if if they somehow increased their revenue. Who's the only the only institution we had that somehow figured out how to take advantage of this?

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I fully expect the Saturday Night Football at least. And then, you know, if I'm CBS. Or I'm on Fox and Goodell comes to me and is like, hey, man, what about that? That Jacksonville Texans game that you're going to show in two markets on Sunday. What if we just threw that on Friday night at interest here? Yeah. You know, give a little extra a little extra money. Not that much. But any interest like CBS is doing that.

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Yeah. Or the old SCC slot three thirty Eastern on Saturday afternoon. I mean, you can program this. There's a reason college football is so popular and one of them is that it's in a great timeslot and it's really easy to move jets because there.

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Right. Well that's where we're going because I think we're even seeing it now at the NBA where this kind of March Madness bubble thing we've had for the last couple of weeks, where it's just kind of one game constantly. I know the ratings are a little down, but they should be because, you know, the way they had it before, everybody's just watching the NBA at certain points now. It's more spread out. But it it's been more fun as a fan and I think as a football fan to have to not have 11 games on at one o'clock on a Sunday.

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And you take three of those, you move them around would be more fun.

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You now get the same experience as an NBA fan that Premier League fans get, which is just game sneak up on you. It's like, oh, my God, it's nine a.m. Why are the why are the Bucks and the Suns playing? What the hell is this? It's it's a nice feeling to be caught by surprise by a game.

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So you had Warren Sharp in your podcast on Thursday and he, with a straight face, convincingly laid out a case for the Browns to be our 2020 sleeper. And I haven't really allowed myself to think about football. This is the latest I have ever I have not started my homework yet. I haven't read anything yet. I did. I've just kind of had my guard up. But now I think. It's so clear for the pro football will happen because these owners are just like, hey, if if we have 20 guys get it, just bring in 20 more like they're just not going to care.

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So the Cleveland conversation was the first time I had really allowed myself to start thinking seriously about where we're heading here. I thought he should win the Oscar, but give one chazelle right now. Yeah, I mean, by the end of it, I was a believer. I was thinking about like, oh, yeah, maybe maybe they win the AFC.

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So Kevin Stefanski, you invented wins, but for him more a decade ago. Yeah, I feel like it's possible he should pass the torch. Raheem Morris, who's now a very good position coach, by the way, has has it should now pass the torch to Freddy Kitchens. Kevin Stefanski will come in and immediately be so much better than Freddy Kitchens that as Warren Sharpe laid out. Remember, this time last year, the Browns were the literal favorite in a division that had Lamar Jackson in it.

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I mean, that's how quickly the NFL changes. My pet theory is always that we're too early on hype in the NFL. We see a couple of pieces. We talk ourselves into it. We neglect the things like offensive line. The other reason teams win games, which is little things like the offensive line and head coach and all that, and GM and the Browns have spent a year shoring that up. And so I'm not predicting them to do anything other than be in the mix for the last wildcard spot.

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But it's it's real. Why wouldn't they have a bump? Because now they have a competent head coach.

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It would seem like that would be I don't know if there's fifteen reasons. The one threw thirteen would be that the coach shifted. I don't know the wins against Raheem Morris. One of the reasons I love that was because of the acronym was warm. Wins above Morris was warm, so I don't know what we do with Friday kitchens, how I'm perfectly happy. And I also I think Raheem Morris, he was so young when he got that job. That was one of the reasons he flamed out and now he's kind of redeemed himself.

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Freddy will never redeem himself, but I don't know. I do from an acronym standpoint, at the combine back when things were normal, I was in a restaurant in Indianapolis and I saw the Giants coaches at a table and I saw Jason Garrett sitting next to Freddy Kitchens. And I almost I thought I had a stroke. I mean, like, that's that's an NFL team. Put that together. They're having dinner. I just it was unbelievable to see.

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So New York Giants football, everybody.

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So maybe it's just winds above kitchens. It's just called whack. Yeah, I think that's a great that's that's a great way forward, can sit too early to say I'm going to really miss him. Who's who's gambling? Ten thousand twenty Freddie kitchens. Do we have any need for a first year head coach? I mean, that Patricia is is kind of in Perpetual Kitchen's dome. And I think that I think that there's a real I mean, first coach fired.

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I'm not sure what with with this weird year, all that stuff, how first Coach Fire's is going to get played out. But Matt Patricia is is all for spots on Mount Rushmore right now.

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Was there a first year coach that we were a little dubious of? No, I mean, I I think that most of them are generally competent coaches like Matt Rule is a good hire. But, you know, again, Kevin Stefanski is a good hire. I think Joe Judge run, Joe Judge watching in New York only because he's so inexperienced. And I've actually been kind of impressed with what he's been able to. He's been he's been talking. The only thing you can judge right now is how they how how much they talk about different scenarios for covid or whatever.

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He's actually been on the forefront of that. And that's the only thing there is to judge off of.

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And so, Joe Judge is OK right now, but just because of the position he was coming from not being a a long time assistant or a coordinator or anything like that, hiring, trying to hire a lot of guys from his Mississippi state days, like he just there is some some hint of kitchen Z'Ha'Dum, but I feel like he's going to be OK with there is going to be a hint of some of the worst headlines, some of the worst newspaper headlines, the most forced puns, Judge.

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Yeah, Aaron, judges in New York as well. So you have a way to go with a judge being if he's potentially incompetent, you get a lot of you be the judge. Yeah. Are the Giants changing coaches? Yeah. Judgment Day, week 16, judge coaching for his job. Yeah, a lot of that. I would say, by the way, the coaching thing, this is really important.

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So I was talking to some some decision makers today who said that the cancellation or potential cancellation of the college season has one sneaky. Unintended consequence, college coaches are available. College coaches are available to consult there and they're going to be available to come into your building, is there going to be a bidding war for a consultant fee? I'm not saying that a team can say we're going to give the reins and Nick Saban for the next five months. But I'm saying that I talked to some folks this morning who said there is going to be a real maybe we bring in maybe we give Lincoln, Riley, whatever he wants to come in and just be a souped up offensive consultant for the next six months.

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I think that's a real big thing that might develop in the next couple of months. Again, we don't know how it goes because it's only been 20 minutes since the Big Ten suspended itself. But I just think that there's there's some real interesting wrinkles as far as that goes. The Patriots did that in 1996 when Belichick got bounced and they basically just brought him in as a I think he was like an associate head coach. I forget what title was special assistant to the head coach or whatever, and he just kind of came in almost like he was doing a grad school year in England or something and just kind of help the defense.

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And of course, they made the Super Bowl that year. The Saban thing would be really interesting with Belichick. Those guys are close. If he was like, can you imagine, hey, Nick, come on in, we'll just we can hang you get to be in Foxboro at Providence. No restaurants are open. Any any interest, Eddie? I think there's it's going to be so chaotic, the side effects from for the next couple of months.

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I talked to a guy who is a private quarterback, coach Quincy Avery, who has a lot of the top quarterback prospects.

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And he was telling me that if the season gets canceled, they're just going to have like a seven on seven, like basically like a league in October and November. And teams are going to be able to look at that sort of stuff. There's going to be rogue games everywhere.

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And so I think that it's going to be no, I mean, I think it's great. I think it's really cool.

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You know, it's I just worry about so many things that could go wrong with road games, especially. Oh, no, I'm trying to exploit them, you know.

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Oh, yeah, I know. I get it. But I think that this is a really cool thing to sort of unsanctioned players. Players are not going to be able to unless the All-Star Games expand in January. Players not be able to showcase their talents. And so you might as well start showcase them together.

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It's a cool thing until like Busta Rhymes is running the road games on some deal with FS one and you're like, what's happening?

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Why is Busta Rhymes that commissioner unstructured games? What about the rock SFL head? Oh, he just heard that name this morning. He does, but it's Butta SFL. I have no inside knowledge on the rocks feelings. I will just say and talking to people this morning when we started talking about these sort of unsanctioned seven on seven games, there were people who said to me, maybe the rock is interested. Maybe you get the SFL branding out there and you have a Trevor Lawrence or something that you can pay them.

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Who cares?

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So the rock, I would I would rather see that than Busta Rhymes or Kenny Chesney, I think would I think our two worst case scenarios.

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I think Kenny, I would not tune into a Kenny Chesney, Kenny Chesney. He might be involved. He's consulting about, oh, my God, what happens with the draft?

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I mean, this could lead to more draft mistakes than maybe we've ever seen in the last ten years combined.

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Yeah. So I think that there's generally the draft can go back until June. OK, and I talked to John Robinson last week and we talked about what this looks like. And he said basically you're going to have scouts looking at twenty nineteen tape and looking at every game a guy played instead of just four or whatever. So twenty nineteen to become overanalysed. There will not be breakout candidates. A guy like Trillanes who played Division one AA or whatever that's called, he will not be able to have a breakout season that people anticipated from him.

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I remember Joe Burrow, he said this. He said this time last year he was like a second rounder, right? Yeah. I mean, get second round if he's lucky. I mean, he was not talked about as an NFL prospect when he came on. So we're not going to have that. And the sport of football changes so much now that a guy like Baker Mayfield, who was not the prototypical size the NFL teams were able to talk themselves into him being the first overall pick because of the season he had his last year on campus.

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This keeps happening. Someone like Kyla Murray, who is as talented as any player in the NFL right now, he was considered too short and then he played his way into being the first overall pick. He probably would have been picked a little lower had he not had that electric final season. Right. There are so many guys we're going to slip to the second, third, fourth round because they had not they didn't have their breakout seasons like they were going to have.

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And so, yes, there's going to be this sort of unsanctioned games are probably going to be a little important. But but teams aren't going to figure out how to judge that. I think there's going to be mistakes I think is going to be smart teams like we already saw with the Seahawks who trade their picks for good veterans because they don't want to play the game with first round picks and trying to figure out who is who. I just think that it's going to be probably the most fascinating draft we've ever had.

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Because what happened I mean, our I talked to some somebody this morning who said that they're getting more into analytics just to try to figure something out, because, by the way, they have time. If all these scouts and you have so much free time because you're not going to be on the road to Louisville on a Friday night. And so the sport is going to learn about itself because they've got 20 guys sitting around dealing with special projects on the phone with guys, whether that's coaches, whether that's prospects.

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And then, by the way, if you bring in a head coach of a college, they're going to have special insight. So it's going to be the most fascinating draft ever and it's going to be confusing draft ever. And I think it's another thing where it's going to divide the smart teams in the dump teams.

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The college coach thing has a lot of potential because there's the Belichick piece. You know, I think Saban would be the odds on favorite to bring in Sabin's also. Really, you know, I think he's independently pretty wealthy at this point. Maybe maybe we'll just take the six months off. But Belichick could align with somebody that who in college football is there a coach that everybody hates? That would be the funniest person to bring into the Patriots. Oh, my gosh, there's no like villain coach, is there?

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I guess Mike Leach would be the closest.

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No, I don't know. I mean, I think I think people like Mike Leach's kind of pirate persona, there's no real there's no real villain. I would say there's no doubt yourself.

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Saban has built himself into kind of the Darth Vader situation because he's just won so much and because of his oftentimes sour.

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Well, you know, I know my Nick Saban feelings. I do, yes, Mãe Rubin, I talked about it yesterday, we were discussing this very topic. Congrats on all those titles on the on the lower degree of difficulty league of College Football. Congrats, Saban. Way to go. Way to go. Wait, I wait. All this halfwits in the SCC with Belichick just hires all of the coaches. Why would you think he would be spending doing today?

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Isn't that the Jerry Jones move? Isn't it the Jerry Jones bootblack? I've got Lincoln, Riley and four other and just completely overpay for this college coach coalition basically. And then Mike McCart than their stories about Mike McCarthy is a little threatened. He doesn't like having all these people. Jerry Jones better. Again, I think there could be some comedy in that. Yeah, it's the unintentional and unintended consequences are going to be unlike anything we've ever seen.

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And also, by the way, you talk about just the idea that there's not going to be game film or whatever. I mean, there's some old school games and scouts who just adore game film and can't look at anything else. Like when I was talking to John Robinson, the GM of the Titans last week, he said to me that one of the reasons, one of the ways he scouts toughness is he likes to see guys at the end of blowouts and he just watches them and he wants to see if they're still hitting guys.

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Once they finish games, if they're up or down 30 points or they still knocking people off their feet. And you're just not going to get those little nuances. And I think that's important. And so there's going to be scouts and GMs. You just have to adjust. Interesting. Well, one other thing you had in that short podcast that I hadn't thought about, that, you know, hadn't really wrap my head around the lack of home homecourt, home field advantage and what that's been like in the NBA where we've just seen the last two weeks.

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And I like the bubble, I think it's really worked, but it's also removed some of the not only advantages, but the feeling of playing in different stadiums and the the different quirks, things like that. I hadn't even thought about how coaches would take advantage of that. If you're playing in a place that doesn't really have noise, you know, and are they going to put in rules that the teams can jack in, you know, noise that would be like this fake home field advantage?

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Basically, it's not it's not going to be like this sound vacuum. But I he was saying, like they could use this example buffalo with. Yeah. You Josh out and just like Josh Allen, no huddle, just like attack, attack, attack with, you know, big tight ends in there and just and, and just trying to wear out the other team. That whole thing made me think like this can actually be a pretty cool football season except for the pandemic part of.

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But we're just going to see all these weird things that we never expected to see in a season. Have you thought about that stuff at all?

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I thought about it a lot. And I think that there's the audible part of it. We're going be able to hear every single thing everybody says unless, again, there's some weird jackin sound noise. But I don't think that I think teams will adjust to that and they'll they'll have more dummy calls. I remember talking to guys when they put the microphones on the center of the guard, which I think was around twenty twelve, and the teams basically started coaching their quarterbacks or even their linemen to start yelling out more dummy calls because the TV could pick up on that stuff.

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And so you'd be you're going to have the smart teams trying to figure out how to use that to their advantage and basically speak gibberish. And I think that when I've had this theory, that is the very simplified season. And if you if you have Julio Jones or you have Odell Beckham or you have Michael Thomas, you're just going to give those guys the ball. And that defense won't be able to tackle because they weren't they didn't have pads on all that stuff.

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And when I was running that by some folks this week, they said that's kind of it, but it's not the whole way. If you have continuity, you want to make things as complicated as possible. The teams that are going to win this year are the teams that have been together four or five, six years. They almost have a sixth sense and where everybody's going to be and they can run complicated schemes against a bunch of defenses that are going to be able to be complicated.

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So if you're the Falcons and you have Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, are you the Saints, you're going to be able to get really complicated out there because you understand it and you're going to be able to own these defenses. We're going to be flat footed. I mean, I'm never going to bet against Tom Brady, but this would have been an amazing year for Josh McDaniels, the Tom Brady, to be together because they could just say, hey, and if Gronk was back, whatever you could say, hey, remember that play we ran in twenty fifteen, let's do it right now.

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And that is going to be an advantage this year. This is the continuity season. This is the veteran season. And this is I've been calling it the Occam's Razor season. The simplest explanation is going to be the best. If you have talent and you have continuity, you're going to win. I I don't I'm not going to miss Tom Brady and I'm not going to miss the potential of what that could have been this season, where you could do other shit, because we have our new savior, Cam Newton, on the Patriots.

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And and it's been wonderful so far. I ordered my son and Cam Newton Jersey. He demanded it arriving in a couple of days. Just got an email today about it. Cam Newton Time is here. He is the second wife. He's coming in. It's mixing it up. He's younger. A different kind of look. The gist are, are, you know, the friends have to choose in your life. They're like, I don't know if I know if I could be friends with the second wife.

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I don't know if we can double date. And you just like, well, now I'm going to learn who my true friends are. That's how I feel about the Cam Newton thing. Tom's gone. He left. We have a new guy now.

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Do I sound saying you lost me at the second wife double date thing, but I'll just pick up and you start talking about Cam Newton while you're there with Kyle all the way in.

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All the way. Yeah, Kyle's it kind of Kyle gets the second.

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I think he gets it. OK, so, yes, I think that. Bill Belichick and I would say it's for Sean Payton, too, that's why he's always done the Taysom Hill B.S. They have always wanted to experiment a quarterback and they haven't been able to. And there's a reason they signed Tim Tebow. There's a reason that, yes, they were able to he did some interesting things when he had both Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby and he was able to dunk Bill O'Brien into a trash can with Jacoby Brissett three, four years ago, whatever.

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That was great. I feel like having Tom Brady, the best quarterback of all time, led to a lack of experimentation at the quarterback position, which is a nice problem to have.

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But now we're going to be able to see everything he dreams up. You know, Josh Daniels went to Gainesville and visited with Dan Mullen in 2006, right before the 2007 spread offense came to New England. And they wanted to learn about what basically Alex Smith was running at Utah and before that at Bowling Green. And I wrote about that a couple of years ago. But they've always been intrigued by by the guy who can use his legs and his arms.

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The math problem. Belichick talked about the single wing and the evolution of the running quarterback all the time. And so I think Cam Newton can can you know, as a if he's twenty eighteen, Cam Newton, let alone let's set aside twenty fifteen. Cam Newton. I don't think it can be twenty fifteen Cam Newton. But if it can be twenty eighteen Cam Newton he can pass, he can run with Belichick schemes with Josh James. That's interesting.

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Can they overcome the six opt outs and Donta Hightower and a lot of talented guys baling. I don't know. And so tough. It's a tough one and obviously there's a reason those guys did that. I, I support any and all opt outs and they they're making and probably the decision best for themselves. But from a schematic, from a competitive standpoint, it made me feel better. I was always on the fence about picking the bills just because I was so terrified about picking against Bill Belichick.

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And now I'm not on the fence anymore. I'm OK picking against Bill Belichick because of the opt outs. Yeah, MacDaniels, like the first wife, didn't want to play tennis with them, didn't really want to travel. She was a homebody. Now Kam's like, Yeah, let's go. We'll play tennis. We'll play golf. You want to go to Barbados? I'm in joshed. The whole world is his oyster. Now you do all these things he couldn't do before.

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Do you wish Mo Bamba had opted out of the bubble before the bubble started? Would that have been just easier for magic fans there now?

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We wouldn't have had footage of Taco Fall playing golf there. He uploaded yesterday. I saw that with Obama. Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. It's a tough time. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up. I felt like I stuck. No, no.

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I still believe in. In Mo Bamba, as a global player, you can't beat al-Qaida unless they're in the family bomb behind.

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OK, so I was talking myself into the magic to win two games in the first round to I was probably getting too heated. I was probably getting a little too high. That's probably a little too frisky.

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You start looking at the old Toronto matchups and remember that time by Toronto by 10 Augustine.

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Augustine, yeah. Made the three last year. I was looking, quite frankly, at ways to have socially distanced friends over for the playoffs because I thought we were going to win some some of my Orlando Diaspora people here and here in Los Angeles. And that would not be happening. I would not be inviting anybody over to my backyard. Jonathan, injury is set us back at least a year, maybe 10.

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It's there's a lot of things that we can't if we wanted to. We can't trade. Aaron Gordon, now you're looking at I thought Jonathan Isaac, when he plays, is nailed on for all defense and at least in that mix for the rest of his career if he was healthy. But he just hasn't been. And I'm now at some point it becomes extension time for him. Are we going to make another mistake? We've signed a lot of bad extensions in our days as a franchise, even though this regime has not.

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And it's just it's tough. I'm not I'm not having a good time with this Jonathan Isaac injury. Now, Terrence Ross has left the bubble for personal reasons. I'm not. It's not good, Bill, and the irony is somebody is going to win the NBA title in Orlando. Yeah, the Lakers did that 10 years, not not it won't be the magic to any other football supports for you. That you that you feel like aren't being hit enough right now?

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I thought the Rogers stuff was pretty interesting in that Kyle Brandt thing about how candid Rogers was. And it made me think. It would be fun if we were heading toward this twilight of Aaron Rodgers is prime before he becomes the official old QB Aaron Rodgers, where he just starts getting super candid and starts giving great quotes and talking about the hurt is different things like that. I thought that would be fun. Anything else? Yeah.

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So I think that the Rogers thing, Peter King, was in my part a couple weeks ago and he brought up the fact that Rodgers could sort of Tom Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo this. I mean, the ball is in Roger's court. If Roger's ball is out the next couple of years, Jordan love's not going to start. There's not. Even though they have the big contract. No. And all that stuff. I mean, there is nothing. The reason Rogers started over Farve when Farve kept basically when Ted Thompson moved on from Farve when he kept retiring, was Aaron Rodgers looked amazing in practice.

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And so. Yeah, and better than far. And there's a scenario where that doesn't happen. So I don't I don't know what happens with Rodgers. I do know having interviewed Rodgers a handful of times in my life, he is one of the most interesting guys I've ever talked to. You know, his TV takes are really as good as his football takes and his football takes are really good.

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I mean, we could if we want to give him a, you know, make him third man on the watch or something like he would fit right in his unfiled takes or even more his UFO takes or makes a really good I mean, it's there's a lot of buckets for his post career podcast is all say about that.

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I think that, you know, with with this season, I think getting through it without a major disaster from a health perspective is so important. And when I talked to Peter King said this a couple weeks ago about how the Lions might potentially win the Super Bowl just because they have fifty three guys to remain healthy. When I talked to Thomas Dimitrov actually this morning for a story I was doing, he was talking about how this is a it's not just the continuity part of it that's important with the veterans.

[00:29:59]

It's the veterans being able to tell the guys not to go out and don't go out and get get you risk yourself as a as some of the baseball guys have done. You know, there was a story a couple of days ago where the Cleveland into it to Cleveland Indians got caught leaving the hotel by private security guards. That's not going to happen in football because they're going to go to their homes.

[00:30:18]

So you can't even build a bubble. And then what happens if a bunch of four offensive linemen test positive on Tuesday? Is the game canceled? Is a push back? Is there a twenty week season because you need the flexibility. And hey, this this got canceled in week two. We're going to move back to week sixteen. They shortened the season. So I think that the flexibility of the season is going to be one of the most important subplots possible.

[00:30:44]

And I'm just really fascinated. See how that develops.

[00:30:47]

So we extend the season an extra three weeks. Yeah, we have games every day of the week except Tuesday and Wednesday, but Tuesday and Wednesday will be the Rock and Kenny Chesney introducing these unstructured seven, eight, seven games there. We'll just have football every day. And whoever makes it makes it. That sounds good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:31:08]

I also say that the cap, the cap next year is going to be really fascinating. I mean, just as far as we had ten million dollars a cap growth every single year since twenty thirteen, that was supposed to happen in perpetuity or even more with the new TV deals. That's not happening now. So from a team building standpoint, it probably be a lot of good guys who are available in free agency next year. Or you might get a little NBA as far as who's available.

[00:31:31]

And so I think that the next twelve months in football are going to be the most fascinating ever from a draft standpoint, a team building standpoint. I just think I think, again, we're going to see a huge gulf between the smart teams and the dumb teams.

[00:31:46]

And I somehow Bill Belichick will be able to to game it to where they're contenders in twenty twenty one, Belichick, Saban and whoever the most popular coach, whoever the coaches that would cause the biggest uproar in the Internet, those would be his Dabo Swinney, but for different reasons. Dubbo's like you said, he was going to quit if they ever paid the players or whatever. Oh, yeah, that would be a good one. Yeah, who I people would just get upset about that, too.

[00:32:12]

He needs to pick I think Lincoln Riley is the simplest guy to bring in here. Just give him give him a Godfather offer, let him come in whenever three days a week and just make your quarterback into something special.

[00:32:26]

What is it what what kind of mask are you wearing when you're like walking around? I have an Orlando Magic mask, OK? Because the reason I brought that up was basically the first week of the pandemic. I went on Patriot's Dotcom, the pro shop, and I bought the three pack of different Patriots mess where you have people, people and all. They are going to be able to see this.

[00:32:49]

But this is the old logo. Once they have this one, there's another one that just has little tiny flags. And then there's one that says, this is my fuck you, Kiawah, like this. It just says Patriots and big letters. And that's the one I try to wear when I walk around L.A. I want people to know where I stand. They don't know anything about me other than I'm wearing a hat and I have a giant patriots on my face.

[00:33:12]

I would say this. I would say my Orlando Magic mask does not count as an f you mask.

[00:33:17]

I don't think people. I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think I don't think people are generally intimidated by by that. And so I yeah, I will say I will say this. I very rarely I don't want to like pretend like this happens all the time. But there are there are occasions where ringer fans approach people happens, happens from time to time. I would say I'm I it's happening more because I'm doing a poor job of hiding by the fact that I have my face.

[00:33:47]

But then I'm wearing a huge Orlando Magic mask. It's not exactly blending in. I think if you're on the fence about whether it's me, I'm wearing a huge magic ball on my face. It's probably pretty easy to figure out who's behind that.

[00:33:59]

Yeah, you should. I wonder if we could make slow news day mess. That would be the only way it would be more obvious. It was you when a slow news day come back with one. You can do it on Zoome, we're going to do it, I mean, yeah, you were the last in person for Newsday. You know, that seems like that happened about. I don't know, twenty five months ago. It was like literally right before it was like right before we close our eyes in the last day, was it the last day our office was open?

[00:34:32]

We had to it was we had to pretty freezing cold takes no one. The entire show was about Tom Brady was staying. But then I said that covid cannot be caught through the air. You said that I did. That was that was that was medically backed at that point, that was scientifically backed. We didn't know about the droplets back then. I remember we were sitting next to each other and you said something and it made me move like two feet to the right and it might have saved my life.

[00:35:00]

Well, I haven't had it now, but just in general, like that could have been a decision that. Right, because we didn't know. We didn't we didn't know anybody in the room could have had it. I mean, we closed the office that night. So that was like the light. That might be the last person I ever do in my life.

[00:35:16]

It was the NBA was the Rudy Gobert That was that night. And then we put it up the next day. Good Lord, I guess. Day, TBD day, the last guest we had was Lamar Jackson, and so we are trying to up that now. What I will say is that the world is our oyster now because we don't need the previous prerequisite was that they would come to our studio in Hollywood, personalities at a table, and now we can get whoever we want.

[00:35:44]

And so we will be making attempts. Jason Gallagher once asked Obama to come on his show that. We got to ask them where he wanted them to know, he said. Jason Gallagher once sent an email to the Obama people and was like, Well, you come on, son.

[00:35:56]

Every day they passed, they said, someone watch it, though. Someone watched it and was like, this is charming now. And then we found out later that get even getting a note, which is kind of a thing. So maybe a week ago now that we did assume we could do it twice a week. You know what's funny about that, just not because I'm going to get a text from Gallagher in about six hours being like, hey, man, I heard you mention a Casey about going twice a week.

[00:36:23]

Were you serious about that? And I won't know whether he's bummed or excited. Maybe he would be excited, but we probably that was you could probably get whoever whatever gas you want. So fucking easy. I agree with you, although it is like a Lamar Jackson. We had some reception problems during the episode, which doesn't happen when they're in person. Yeah, sorry. I mean, that's come on season. And we're doing regular NFL show today, an emergency, one on college and all that.

[00:36:53]

So a lot of contact.

[00:36:55]

Yeah. And then when the season starts Sunday nights and then Thursday, but the ring ring and AFL-CIO, we with some stuff in store for us. We do have some stuff in store except for that. All right. Kevin Clark, good to see you. Sorry about the magic. It's I've learned to deal with it.

[00:37:12]

All right. We're bringing Jim Belushi out in one second. First, hiring is challenging, but there's one place you can go where hiring is simple, fast and smart, where businesses can connect with qualified candidates. Quotable co-founder Gretchen Hebner experienced how challenging hiring could be after unsuccessfully searching for a new game artist to grow their education tech company. Well, guess what she did? She switched to zip code or saw an immediate difference you can do by signing up for free at Zipcar dotcom jobs.

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[00:38:19]

Before we get to Jim Belushi wanted to mention because we talk about about last night in that pod, which at some point in life will be watching us, but we put up a new watch was The Last of the Mohicans on Monday. And we have another one coming up Wednesday night, bad boys, Will Smith. Martin Lawrence. Yeah, it was time. Twenty fifth anniversary. So that's coming up. All right.

[00:38:37]

Here is Jim Belushi. I can't believe she's here. I can't believe this never happened before. I've had a podcast for like 13 years. I don't know where you've been.

[00:38:48]

I have been hiding out man up on a farm in Oregon, there along the river. Fly fishing and growing cannabis.

[00:38:55]

Yeah, you're you're up to stuff. Tell me about your new show. It's coming out in a couple of days, right? Yeah.

[00:39:01]

It's called Growing Bellucci on Discovery. It's going to be at 10 o'clock Wednesday night. It is a reality show based on me and my farm and all these. People that I have working for me that were growing pot, legal, recreational, medical marijuana, and my cousin and I, we literally fill up our border, explore filled with pot, drive the dispensaries, sell the pot, get cash, go to the bank. I mean, it's it's an unreal situation, but it's really fun and a very good piece.

[00:39:42]

How does a kid from Chicago end up in Oregon on a 90 acre farm growing pot? Well, I have a buddy who lives down the river. He has kids of mine, kids are the same age, and he lived in L.A. also and became very friendly. And he said, why don't you come up to my ranch? And so we used to go up there twice a year in the spring, in the fall. And I dove into the river one time naked and I came out and it was like a baptism and it was like.

[00:40:15]

Now, I've got to look for a place around here, so I found this old Elk's picnic grounds. Yeah. You know, the Elks. They just they sat at the picnic grounds for years, had these huge parties, and they all got old. They never enrolled anybody younger. And then they were just ready to sell it. And I. I bought it. Were you always a pot guy or was it later in life because some people are late bloomers with marijuana?

[00:40:43]

Well, I was definitely in high school. I mean, I was going to rock festivals. She was born Kickapoo Creek, Wadena. I was, you know, a bit of a. You know, psychedelic guide to a bit of a hit, know, I was just right off of it like my brother John was at the Democratic Convention, right? He came home with tear gas burns. And the next day there was a picture. There was a picture on the cover of the Sun Times of two jeeps with barbed wire on it, pushing the young students, people along here, hippies up against the fence.

[00:41:26]

And he goes. But you see, right, right, there he goes, that's where I was. But, John, that's outside of the frame. Yeah, yeah, I was right there. He was a bullshitter, that guy, but he wasn't in that country. Yeah, that was me. That was when I said, I don't even see your hand, John. No, no, no. But I was right there. So anyway, you know, I was during that generation and so I smoked a little bit, I actually got busted for a couple joints here and there.

[00:42:03]

And then, you know, once I started really acting and. College and a professional, I really didn't smoke much at all of any. And then it just kind of came back around with this legalization. And all the different kinds of screens they have, they do different things to fix different things. I mean, there's a screen I have. That my body, who's paralyzed from the chest down, is a blues musician, a great singer, Johnny Wilson.

[00:42:35]

Yeah, and a harmonica player, you know, his legs spasm and he has no idea. So he likes the Chocolate Ashbery have because he'll take a few hits in the morning and all those nerves relax. So there's veterans that I've met with extreme PTSD and certain strains. Allow them to talk to their family, their children and sleep, so there's beautiful little things that happen with cannabis that. You know, just changed my life. Actually, that gentleman was the one I mean, I ran into him at a dispensary visit and he looked at me as though shaking hands.

[00:43:18]

And I said, are you all right? And he said, you know, I've got I was a veteran, I'm a veteran. I was a medic in Iraq for. For too long and I saw. I saw things happen, the human body that no one witnessed, and he said, I have triple PTSD, they told me. And I won't take the pills. But I can't talk to my wife and children, I can't sleep in your black diamond, Oji is the only thing that allow that to happen.

[00:43:48]

Wow. And then he teared up and he hugged me. And I said, hey, man, I didn't make this stuff. And he said, no, but you're the Stewart. Yeah, and that was the point that it really changed for me personally and it's become much more of a mission of healing advocacy like. I'm part of this last prisoners project, which is, you know, we're trying to get out all the prisoners that have been for years and decades for minor possession, ruin their lives, collapse their families.

[00:44:23]

It's legal. We're making money on it. And there's guys still in prison for being caught with three pounds of weed, you know? So I have to agree medical, but it's also joyful. It's fun, you know, people feel good. Have you followed how cannabis is playing out in professional sports? With especially with football and basketball, I think the last thing was, was that they're not going to support any more national football, right?

[00:44:53]

Yeah, but it took a while to get there and they were doing it every day.

[00:44:58]

I was friends with Steve McMichael during the, you know, the Super Bowl years in Chicago. Yeah. And, you know, he was a tackle. They're taking a banging man his back. He had pains and for him, the cannabis helped him get, but then he would have to go off for 90 days before summer. In order to clean out 60 days, 30 days, 30 days. And it really is a benefit to these athletes and I'm really glad the NFL starting to wake up.

[00:45:36]

Yeah, NBA within four or five years, I bet. It was legal, but for some reason there was a real stigma with it, I think the NBA especially, I think was really concerned about, you know, they had had a whole drug history dating back to the 80s and was so concerned about it. But now it seems like it's swinging around. Yeah, it's just different.

[00:45:59]

I don't consider it a drug, you know. I mean, when my brother was, you know, when he he passed, you know, when he died, he was doing drugs. Right. And marijuana was considered a drug. So when you're doing marijuana, you're it's like marijuana, a schedule one. Marijuana is on the same schedule is cocaine and LSD. And your own mindset was that. But it's medicine. What is research going on? That's incredible.

[00:46:28]

What's going on in Israel doing and combining the CBD, CBD energy and creating different. Medicines to do certain things. It's a long way off, but they are really moving in that direction. But I think. That my brother John was a pothead. He'd be alive today right now. He was a middle linebacker. We said legendary athlete, you could see it in the sketches for five bucks. Well, five, eight, he said. But we know it was five seven.

[00:47:01]

Middle linebacker, OK, he had the most tackles in high school. He had the record. He used to love going to the games and hearing pollution in an revolution. Right. A tackle so proud. You know, he was the captain. And back then it was like, what's the matter, blueish? You got your bell rung. Get back in there. You know that we're getting concussions right and left, especially him. He was an aggressive football.

[00:47:31]

Yeah, there was one time in my kitchen. In the back, there is a little laundry room with the cement sinks, you know, little sink. And I went into the kitchen, turned on a little TV, you know, I wouldn't do it, but you've got to do it to be one of those things. And I went in there and he was sink. And you shook and it fell to the ground and I thought, you know my stuff, I just turn to TV now and then I got scared and I called my mom would call the police, pulled his tongue out.

[00:48:05]

You want to force seizure? And they did a spinal tap x rays, they couldn't find anything, but now. I really believe that. Oh, and I believe that when he started doing it, started smoking marijuana in college. That it was medicine. And then it just went on to other things, but that's why I think if he was apparently alive today and I think these athletes suffer so greatly from team and anything we can give them, then it's safe.

[00:48:45]

It's safe. You know. I think about that era live from 77 to like 86. Basically, Len Bias was, I think, the real turning point with drugs. But you think back there's like a nine year stretch there, especially with cocaine, where you have all these celebrities, all these comics, all these athletes in different sports.

[00:49:10]

And for years and years, it's like there's no awareness at all. Nobody understands really how bad the stuff is. I think until your brother was the first one. And then when Richard Pryor set himself on fire, those were the first two where people were like, wait, holy shit, what's going on here?

[00:49:26]

Yeah, I remember in the moment, like, kind of when things turned like that, hey, man, I remember, you know, seventy nine eighty being in Hollywood and just everybody and their brother in a production coordinator and the plays. And it was just everybody had a great time with them. It was just, it was just the social thing. It was the right thing, you know.

[00:49:50]

And I always said, you know, John was kind of led that they were like, yeah, he did run the show with the donut, you know, right on on in his face. And and when he died, it woke a lot of people up. Changed things, I'll tell you one thing, no one's offered me cocaine since 1982, right, John? But, yeah, it did change it. It did. It was a fun thing.

[00:50:22]

And then the TV show, we actually go to Columbia. I did a crazy thing and I took James or my cousin Chris, hired a camera crew nine days in Columbia, didn't know what we were going to shoot. And just improvised for nine days and it's two episodes in the series, and we did a whole thing on Pablo and John and Pablo kind of became famous at the same time, you know, and he was International Journals International. He kind of looked like.

[00:50:59]

You know, and he was dealing Coke and John was doing it, and what was his fascination with Pablo and. And it was like, you know. The difference is that John never killed anybody, they might have killed you with a slap, you might have been in your pants. But so anyway, we do a lot of exploration in the show about Pablo Colombia. Colombia looks very good in it because it's a very beautiful country and people are beautiful.

[00:51:29]

And they were terrorized by this man. And there's hundreds of thousands of people that have been affected by the hundred thousand deaths of Pablo. One hundred thousand families that collapsed. Right. And not only in Colombia, but all the way to my family. You know. So anyway, there's a section in there about that in the show, it's a very good show because there's nobody getting hired and it's not like a stoner show. Yeah, but it's about the farm.

[00:52:01]

It's about growing. It's about growing. It's called growing Bellucci. So I grow as a person. Plants grow. The business grows. It's very cool. It's very cool. So you're in your Chicago in the 70s. And the comedy scene's taken off their. And your brother ahead of you is in the legendary comedy troupe, which name I'm blanking. What was the second city? Yes, second city. And there's all this great stuff happening. And yet at the same time, the sports scene is an abomination.

[00:52:36]

You have the the balls, it's pre Jordan. You have the bears, it's a whole decade before the eighty five bears, you have just Walter by himself, you have the cubs are just in a wasteland and the White Sox are owned by Bill Vak. And the highlight is disco demolition night. What what was it like to be a Chicago sports fan in the 70s?

[00:53:00]

You're making me want to smoke a joint. You're upsetting me so much. You're giving me PTSD shakes because that was super happy. Everybody's won since that that was a terrible time.

[00:53:12]

I stopped watching the Bears. John would call me on Sunday. To make me watch and we'd watch together on the phone a long pauses of just watching, you know, it was terrible. It was a terrible time. It was a terrible, terrible time. We used to do a sketch. Yeah, OK. Me and another guy are in the bleachers, right, and we're going, I know your mother, this is your mother that is screaming, you know, screaming at you suck, you suck, you stink.

[00:53:46]

You know, what are we going to do? I had this pitching state, blah, blah, blah, blah, over the amounts, but goes now pitching for the Chicago Cubs ticket number one zero four four.

[00:54:00]

Yes. Yeah.

[00:54:03]

And she was so bad. They're pulling people crazy.

[00:54:08]

Oh, my God. Yeah, it's. And then the eighty five bears happen. Jordan shows up. And everything leads to this Cubs, were you a Cubs guy or White Sox go Cubs? OK, so then everything leads to the Cubs, which they have to win on a game seven, the same week Trump gets elected and their hat, they have to blow it in the ninth inning, but then there has to be a fortuitous thunderstorm that resets the momentum and then they win an extra innings.

[00:54:36]

I still think you even have to turn if you turned in that script to be produced, they would go now, knock it's they would cross off the thunderstorm boxes, two of them just winning in the ninth inning.

[00:54:47]

The thunderstorms cross.

[00:54:49]

Our biggest night shots ring. Right? Right. You wouldn't believe that.

[00:54:55]

How did you know change? How did your life change getting a World Series out of the way? Well, I'll tell you what.

[00:55:01]

My life really changed when I was in New Orleans and the Bears won up against my patron. That was really the moment wasn't close. It was so beautiful and that was an out of body numbing kind of feeling. I remember standing outside. With my girlfriend at the time, I was like, this is it. This is a life is going to be different now. We had a big movie coming out that year, too, that was like your breakout.

[00:55:35]

That was the year I moved to Los Angeles. That was the year about last night. Open Salvador open. That was the year my career took off when I became a multimillionaire. And I still have been waiting for the Bears to win another Super Bowl, another kind of reinvention.

[00:55:54]

But were you thinking of your brother when they won because he would call them on the phone, you know, like what would have happened to him in New Orleans and the day that the night the Bears won the Super Bowl?

[00:56:06]

What, your brother being in the world?

[00:56:09]

I have no idea. I can't even fathom the clothes that I had. No Rockets fans. Oh, well, John was a middle linebacker. Yeah. So, you know, Butkus was always to this day, I mean, there's Gael's shares and sweetness, but Butkus was our our bloodline, our. He was the man I had I had Rob Lowe on the podcast last month, and, yeah, we were going through I basically was like, we're just staying in the 80s because I'm a child of the 80s and I'm like, we're just going through every 80s movie.

[00:56:46]

And you tell a story about each one. And then we got to about last night and we both agreed, like, first of all, kind of paves the way for 40 years of rom coms. Right. It's this it's a romantic comedy that has the relationship fall apart, get back together. It's got the crazy best friend for the guy and the crazy best friend for the girl. All of these recipes are in place that then when Harry Met Sally happens and then all of a sudden rom coms are in.

[00:57:18]

But about last night was like basically the first one, right. Wow. I love hearing that. How about that? The R although there is one little scene in there where a little note there where Rob is wearing a t shirt and said no lights and really beautiful. Because that was the year also. Oh, yeah. But, yeah, that that's true. I never looked at it that way, but. Yeah. It was good because it was edgy, it was funny, it was real.

[00:57:50]

Well, it's based on the famous play, too, based on at the Play With Sexual University in Chicago by David Mamet, and it was a 60 minute play. Yeah. And Jim Kenzer. And she needs to Cloo wrote the screenplay and it was an hour, 50 minutes. So they contributed quite a bit. But most of my stuff in that movie came right out of the play by dialogue. Yeah. Run its mouth. I remember when you showed up on SNL because that was s that was my show from as soon as it was I was on my to watch it, you know, and that's how your brother, you know that because they used to show on NBC, they used to show the greatest hits, shows that like ten o'clock.

[00:58:33]

And that was different in like seventy eight, seventy nine. And I'm like, who are these guys. And then just immediately of the guys became idols. But then by the time you showed up and it was basically Eddie's show. Yeah. And you, you kind of overlapped with that a little bit. Right. You're on the same. Was that the year that he taped all his stuff ahead of time and then was out through?

[00:58:54]

The first thing I did was that the Gumby scene and it was a pretape. He would pretend like ten scenes in a day so we could do trading places. Right. Which I also did trading places. Right. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Eddie and Joe Episcopo were really kind of running it. They kind of kept that show alive during a demeaning years and almost died that show. Right. And then the next year they left. And that was the all star cast the year after Marty Short that that season was excellent.

[00:59:32]

Well, you got to play the chess coach ever, so it's a very smart man. Yeah, and he went out and bought the Yankees, you know, he went out and bought some stars. It wasn't like guys coming right from the Midwest, second city and. You know, growing, he bought Pro and Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, Marty was a pro at that point. Harry Shearer had been around since the early days, you know, so he was smart.

[01:00:00]

He did a good job.

[01:00:01]

Well, especially when Eddie left, because you had that first 10 years, I think. Chevy Chase, then your brother, and accurate together, and then Eddie, we're like the the three times people just almost became too famous for the show. It was like their opportunities in the amount of money you could make in L.A. It just could you couldn't go after what Eddie was basketball in high school and jumping ship and going. Right. Right.

[01:00:29]

And then Jon did four years. And I remember all where you go, where you go. What do you do? What do you do when you can't quit? And he said, you know, Jimmy, it's like high school freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year, and you got to go. OK. Well, what he did. I mean, the thing now with with him and I don't know if we'll ever see this again, is somebody who has the number one movie there on the number one TV show and they have the number one music album at the same time.

[01:01:01]

There's no way that will happen again. I don't see I don't see a scenario where that can happen. I think it's like impossible.

[01:01:09]

Prince. He didn't have a TV show, but, you know, it was me, Prince was also on SNL. Yeah, yeah. No, that was a it was a magical time. It was good to be the little brother I was really having a good time. It was beautiful. And then Eddie had he's on SNL, but then he has the number one movie in the in the country twice. And that was also impressive. But I think, you know, as the show evolved, he had a comedy album, too, right?

[01:01:41]

That was true. It was. Yeah, it was delirious. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe he came close to that, too. You didn't. I thought you didn't love being on the show though. Right. You kind of like some pieces. Not like other pieces. Oh, I wasn't mature enough for the pressure, was you? Yeah, it was wild pressure. You know, I'm a guy who wears my emotions on his sleeve. I'm not really that smart.

[01:02:09]

Dick Ebersol. Saved me. I was having a hard time. You know, you do something alive and that's it. I mean. Where you are in that moment and that day is where you're going to be forever, and it's a lot of pressure, I would say it was the hardest thing I've ever done, really, even even divorce. Easier than, as you know. But then I got a little out of hand, I got to say, and Dick Ebersol fired me.

[01:02:44]

And I basically beg for my job back, and he had to sit down with me straight my ass out, and I had the best semester. I was there two years you, John, sophomore year. Second semester. I always got it. And then we didn't do any more than I mean, some of those guys on the show for eight years, 10 years.

[01:03:11]

It takes a while to learn the rhythm, the pace, the style. You know, it takes a while. And I was just getting it. But I never saw you as. He was talked with me and. You know, it was great. Well, you had I mean, you had additional pressure because you were at that point your Baluchis little brother, and now you're on the show.

[01:03:40]

And that's probably the only time that's happening because it was something I lived with, you know? I mean, yeah, I know it was funny because at Second City, Brian, Bill Murray was on stage with my brother John. Yeah. And I used to go see the show all the time.

[01:03:58]

And there's a little place called Willoughby's in Pipers Alley, but they used to go and have beers afterwards and there's Billy and Billy was in a touring company. They only had one drink company back then, a small. And I looked at Billy. I don't much like. How do you do it, man? How can you how can you be here when your older brother is on the residence stage? Just do it.

[01:04:26]

And he gave me the freedom, yeah, permission. And so I went to the second city and then John even said, why would you want to do Saturday Night Live? We captured the hearts of America. No one's going to be able to capture the hearts of America.

[01:04:40]

I said, John, because you guys created the linkage from Second City, the stage to television. It's every every improvisational actor wants to be in that show. I said, I know you're my brother, but I'm an actor. So to me, it didn't bother me. Yeah, because, I mean, compared and. I'm cool with it, you know. Did you do you remember watching the first episode in 1965 and did you know right away this was going to change comedy?

[01:05:13]

No. I don't know, I got a sense of it pretty quickly when, you know, on campus. Everything shut down at 10, 30 at night in Illinois, and we were there were houses filled with 40 people around a TV watching the show, right? It was event. There's been a couple of really good SNL books, and it's really crazy how. Famous, that show was when you think about like now like like 30 million people on a Saturday night, you think like now that's basically the Super Bowl and that's it for for a TV audience, because it's so splintered.

[01:05:54]

We have hundreds of channels streaming. We have the Internet. But back then it was like even that first year that they became overnight superstars and nobody knew who the fuck they were a week before the show went on the air. You know, I don't think there's ever been anything like that.

[01:06:09]

Yeah, well, they were right there, man. They were leading the generation, the baby boomer generation are leading the resentment and the generation had from the 60s. I mean, you know, John was always leading that because when he did, Second City was the first time they actually did social comedy, opposed political comedy. You know, they were imitating he was imitating hippies and fathers of hippies, Mayor Daley. And then he did the lemmings, which was a great satire on Woodstock, their generation.

[01:06:46]

And then I mean, then the Lampoon show the Lampoon Radio Hour, then Saturday Night Live. I mean, he was always mirroring, mirroring what was going on him and that generation. And so when people watched it, it was like plus they had the skill about a deliberate joke. Right. Right. Well, do you think now you think like that whole comedy generation comes out of. All the shit that happened in the 60s and the Vietnam War era and this this really painful time for America and I wonder.

[01:07:20]

In twenty twenty, I wonder if this next decade that's coming, will something similar happen with comedy coming out of all the pain right now?

[01:07:30]

Luckly. Yeah, I hope so. Absolutely. How can you not comment on what we're feeling right now, what's going on in the world? What's showing up around us? That's where the good company comes from. I mean, there's great comedy that's silly and goofy and true, but the you know, the edgier stuff. Can I tell you what I think you're your biggest mistake in your career was made so many now when we looked at my list here now have all of them.

[01:08:03]

Let's see. I hear it is pretty.

[01:08:06]

No, no, no. You're going to like this. You're going to like this. I think the principle and you could have done like five. I think the principal five could have happened. I just think the principal could have been your actions. I don't know what I don't know why you gave that one up. I put it.

[01:08:21]

And you could have done 15 years of those.

[01:08:25]

I don't know.

[01:08:26]

I got a around that I get around canine. You know, that could have been your death wish. You could have been a broad set of the principal. Just you just keep taking over, do high schools. And so the people who run the school for the people listening. Mr. Bellucci made a movie called The Principal in 1987, which is a classic and it's like your principal. This school is out of control. It's being run by bad people, drug dealers, and you just go to war with them.

[01:08:59]

And there's a baseball bat. Yeah. Do you have a baseball bat? It was like, this is a great idea because it is I don't know.

[01:09:07]

I'd like to see it now, because now I'm going to do it and go on the street in a remote high school. There's nobody there. I've got to do it all through the the pandemic. You just assume threatening people stay in school. Because I think they made another one, but I think Tom Berenger was the principal. Yeah, yes, yeah, fuck that guy.

[01:09:30]

He should have been you know, she shouldn't like sex act.

[01:09:33]

Man did you see him in Platoon?

[01:09:35]

No, he's a great actor, but that you were the principal. Nobody else can be the substitute. Obviously the substitute. I think it was substitute. No, I think you're right. But they basically ripped off the principal. Yeah.

[01:09:48]

So, I mean, with Blackboard Jungle, I mean, you know, we all rip off. When did you realize?

[01:09:55]

I'll just do this TV series, these sitcoms, and this is a great life and I have a steady day every day, and because you were you were in on that pretty early in the 90s, you figured it out. Now, the second one is 2001, 2001, whatever. Yeah, we opened on October 5th, right after 9/11, it was a. It was a time that people wanted family again and a family that kind of was a rebirth.

[01:10:25]

And that was a great gig, man. That was eight years of 30 minutes from my house seeing my kids be raised, eating dinner with them and take them to school and bringing them to the. Larry, Joe Campbell, Kimberly Williams and Courtney, they were like brothers and sisters, it was low, it was fun.

[01:10:46]

Everybody who's ever had a second job makes it seem like it's like the greatest thing ever. It is.

[01:10:51]

It's the greatest gig ever. It was you get to have a normal life. Yeah, you get to have a normal life. Well, I mean, I remember talking to John Goodman a long time ago. He was Jim. We got it down to a three day week. Right. And then I was like, wow, because I worked my ass off for five days to get that script in order and ready and work out new gags. But after about three years.

[01:11:18]

We could have done. We actually did do a three day week, but Larry, Joe Campbell and I, we like to work. So we come in on Monday and Tuesday anyway and work on gags, physical gags and help with the writers. But yeah, I know last season I think Courtney came in on Friday. Wow, for taping, that's the life. When did you, an actress, become close? You know, after John died, I mean, almost no damage.

[01:11:45]

But after John died. Dahaneh. And John Candy. Of. They were really the only guys they came up to me and would be deep into my heart and said.

[01:12:05]

How are you, Jim? Yeah. But you are. You need anything? Yeah, and I just they put me to tears and they just kind of put their arm around me. I mean, my first show on Saturday Night Live, you know, the pressure of Jon.

[01:12:23]

The host was John Candy. I mean, he came into the set and I mean, he came to the offices and he said hi and all that, you're always like, oh, I'm on a diet. On a diet. You know, it's not a diet. It's a lifestyle change. He would order fettuccini for lunch.

[01:12:45]

I live part of a lifestyle. You can always have a little complex carbs anyway. I said, well, what you said, me, what do you want to do? And I said, John, you're the host, it's more about what you want to do. You know, we want to know what you want to do, what you want to, you know. This is your first show, Jimmy. What do you want to do? I was like, well, like to do, you know.

[01:13:17]

You know, all of these different characters that he does, and we sat in a room for two days with two of the writers that we wrote. I was in six pieces. Wow. With Johnny this year, he was across from me and the most frightening night. And there was my brother, Johnny Candy. And is the same way he was like twenty five years ago, Dean, he said, you want to do the Blues Brothers. Come on, do the Blues Brothers with me, Jimmy, I can't do it.

[01:13:47]

Come on, I was giants. I know you don't know. No, you don't play cheap blues.

[01:13:52]

You play are brother zero Cita Brother the blues. You will be the lost brother we found in the mountains about being here. And you don't speak your music, but you could see dance like nobody's business. I said I can't do it. It does it feel weird for me to take over. And he said no. He said, it's like a law firm, yeah, partner goes down, the sun takes over, the brother takes over. He goes, this is a character.

[01:14:27]

These characters are created to live forever. And I said, If you don't feel weird about it, Danny, then I don't. And that was the start. And he just cracked open my chest, pulled my heart out with that music. Yeah. And that joy. And I've had that we're like brothers now, it's the Brotherhood, you know, it's just been a beautiful experience. And in this TV show we do the Blues Brothers, we there's a whole storyline with Danny and Judy, Pretty Girl.

[01:15:01]

When when they were touring and stuff in the late 70s, did you go to any of those? I went to the Universal Amphitheater one. Yeah, they were playing like big venues. Right. And with with, like the best blues people in the world. Steve Martin, it was Steve Martin show, and he asked for that. Yeah, he really gave them the break. Danny always gives them credit.

[01:15:22]

Well, that's I considered the greatest show in SNL history, the Blues Brothers and then the Steve Martin and the Kinks.

[01:15:28]

I think the King Tut sketch was in that like I think that's considered the well, the Universal Theater show was Blues Brothers Open and Steve Martin. Right. Then I mean, everybody in Hollywood was there. That three nights there, I was sitting next to Joe Cocker, OK, who knows who your brother used to do, the famous impressionist, right?

[01:15:51]

So when they came out and they did the first two songs. Joe Cocker turned to me and said no. So they're playing it for real because and I talked to Stephen Stills about it. He said, don't you understand your brother, Saturday Night Live lemmings, they all made fun of us. And we're always like, hey, man, don't don't cockblock us making a living. Leave us alone. We're just doing our music, you know? Yeah.

[01:16:24]

So when they saw the song Choices, the musicians and the commitment, they were like, oh, so you get it. And then they break them into the musical world. I always thought that was one of the smart things with them where they they decided to do it, which is at that point what comedian is trying to cross over to music. And then your brother, by sheer force of will, just convinces some of the best blues musicians in the world.

[01:16:52]

I mean, what you write about surely will, man, because I went with him. While he was trying to get Feighan. Who is a major dude? We went to his studio, you know, with me was John was Judy Tierney, the Paul Shaper, and we were the studio that was in his building, his townhouse up on the east side, west side. And I watched John pull his little gypsy charm into work and work woman like, you know.

[01:17:40]

And, you know, the guy ended up turning it down. But Paul Schaefer sent them off. Go get Doug done. Go get Steve Cropper. Anybody can do a job that you, John, would just go and do it. Well, that was one of the one of the best. I mean, I've read all the SNL books because I love I mean, it's my generation where they had Gilda Radner had her Broadway show at the same time as they're going on tour.

[01:18:11]

And Paul Shaffer is also in the guild. The thing. And then it becomes a tug of war. Who gets Paul Shaffer? And he ends up doing the Gilda thing. And John is so bad, he's like he's out of the movie, flips out, turns into this big territory thing with him and Lorne Michaels.

[01:18:26]

It was like a real thing. He was out of a movie. Yeah. And actually, you watch the movie now and and he Paul Shaffer, who would have been better, as I forget who they picked, but it would have been fun to have early. Yeah, early. Paul Shaffer, that movie had been fun, but in that movie he's just convincing all these different guys to be in the bed. It's like real life, basically. But I was basically based on a real life.

[01:18:50]

What is what is the the Blues Brothers from a business thing? Because that turned into a whole bunch of different things. Right. Like, well, it's it's. It's one of the major through lines of the series Growing Bellucci, it's about me and Danny and Judy and me. Proving to them that I deserve the Blues Brothers IP to bring cannabis, because to me, you know, what the Blues Brothers symbolizes is, you know, great music, mischievousness.

[01:19:29]

And a mission from God, right? And I think Carnaby's has all three of that, you know, the fun, the joy around it, the music, I mean, Live Nation, Michael Rapino, Michael Rapino, one of the great men in my life, and Disney's Michael Rapino. On an eight minute pitch, shook my hand, gave us a couple million dollars to shoot the show, so we just he's a beautiful man. But, you know, the mission from God is also.

[01:20:02]

The medicine and the healing power, so the brand itself sits on cannabis very well, so that's one of the businesses. That we're doing well, it's interesting, fortieth anniversary of that movie in June, which I couldn't believe because, well, we were going to do a whole thing in Chicago and, you know. Where are we going to do like a big outdoor concert or something we were going to we're going to do the Blues Fest, going to do the House of Blues.

[01:20:27]

We're going to drive the car up to the music box theatre and show the screening. Me and Danny, we're going to do a little motorcycle ride with the cops. We were going to celebrate, celebrate 40 years of a brand of music, of joy. That's nothing but joy, you know what I mean? It's the House of Blues.

[01:20:47]

Help, ever. Never. Here's my last question, yes. You realize that. You were Captain Kangaroo in the Jackie Rogers Junior jackpot, what sketch, which is the greatest sketch in the history of the show, and Eddie ruined Captain Kangaroo. He was never the same. I don't know how I don't know how he came back from that first.

[01:21:12]

And it's it makes me sad to do the job I was in. Captain Kangaroo really needs the buddy.

[01:21:21]

It was just that evisceration of money. Yeah, no, no. He introduces the ABC's Mary Gross was sold for something that that's to me.

[01:21:34]

That's the ultimate sketch. Oh, everybody. Christopher Guest with the Chuckle Babies guy. Yeah, it's legendary. What is the best one on that show? You never ran into Captain Kangaroo after that. Did you know Bob Gorshin? No, I think it was he couldn't have it happy.

[01:21:54]

I didn't mean for him. It was good. It was good stuff. Hey, it was great talking to you. Good luck with the show. So it's Wednesday. Thank you, man. Thanks for your support. Wednesdays, 10:00 p.m., 10 p.m. Wednesday, August 19.

[01:22:11]

Great. Good, that'll be great growing Bellucci, it's me, it's like Blues Brothers. It's got music, it's a mischievous and it's got a mission from God. It's got them all three and we're going to have a ball.

[01:22:23]

Well, if this works, I think the principle six could happen. They could pave the way. Yes, we will.

[01:22:32]

We'll do it in a remote and it's a pandemic. They can only hire retired principals, but he's still going to lay down the law in an empty slot.

[01:22:42]

Machines work.

[01:22:43]

Your face will come on just like this. Rick, Rick, what are you doing in school right now?

[01:22:51]

Thank you. This is great. Appreciate it. Thank you, man, it was a nice journey with you down all those. It was Joy. Thank you. All right. Thanks.

[01:23:02]

All right, some Boston sports stuff with my dad coming up in one second. First, sports, thank God they're back. The only way to celebrate the dramatic returns with Buffalo Wild Wings. Even if there's no fans in the crowd, that doesn't mean the real fans aren't at home cheering louder than ever from the edge of their seat, and they can still get that sports bar feeling with wings from beat ups. Anything as exciting as sports being back? Well, how about crushing boneless or traditional wings at home in any of their 24 sauces and seasonings like original Buffalo Wild or Asian Zing?

[01:23:37]

I am a I'm a wild guy personally. Order a wingman or get traditional wings and boneless wings and fries for the house. They call that the Joe has special because sports are back. There's no better way to watch than with Buffalo Wild Wings order Buffalo Wild Wings Dotcom or through the Buffalo Wild Wings app. Because now more than ever, we need sports. Sports need us at participating locations for a limited time, bundles only for takeout or delivery through Buffalo Wild Wings app or website.

[01:24:02]

Not valid with any other offer. All right, here's Medhat. All right, last but not least, my dad is here, you know, I found was Zoom, the older somebody is, the longer it takes them to figure out how to get into the Zoome. My dad's in his early 70s. This took, I don't know, three hours before we figured it out. But you're finally here. This is you ask me why you had a bet on the podcast.

[01:24:28]

Was that because I'm afraid of the technology with you and I just went through it. So that's why you've been on. But welcome to the podcast.

[01:24:35]

What, you assume that is the problem? My. Because we were both on a zoom in and you couldn't hear me or communicate with me, and we had to. But anyway, we're here. All right, let's start here. There's a lot of things to catch up on. Cam Newton is now the Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady has left us. You and I were both a little bit down on Brady last year. We thought it's a little bit overrated, the reputation kind of preceded, but we were watching, we tweak now we have this new guy who seems like he's healthy.

[01:25:13]

When did you officially jettison Brady out of your memory, moved to Cam Newton mentally?

[01:25:18]

Well, my complaint with Brady last year was he just seemed like such a downer in his press conferences were so depressing. He was depressing. It seemed like it wasn't happy. He didn't want to be here. And I guess he just ran its course. But Cam Newton just seemed so excited to be here. There's an article by Edelman in the paper today is not bashing Brady. He's just talking about how much he's looking forward to playing with the high energy has how shocked he was, how big a guy he is.

[01:25:57]

I think that's shocking to most people as a quarterback and how excited he was to work out with them this summer. So I'm all in I'm on Cam's bandwagon. I'm going to get a cam hat. Well, your grandson has the jersey coming in a couple of days. He's this is he's more excited for Cam than any Brady thing because he's been playing Cam in the video game for a couple of years now.

[01:26:23]

Neither one of us wanted a repeat of last year's Brady in the foot out the door.

[01:26:30]

Brady Yeah. It's it's like he knew something none of us knew, which was there was no chance in the world he was coming back. And I found that. I find that very frustrating. As a fan, he gave us twenty wonderful years, six Super Bowls. I'm not going to berate him at all, but I just think he wanted out of here. And Cam's excited, so I'm excited.

[01:26:58]

Welcome to the Patriots camp. We lost we lost Mookie Betts. It was another thing that happened since the last time you're on the podcast, that one is not gone as well. We lost the best positioned player of of my lifetime that the Red Sox have had. The Dodger fans love them. The t shirt is there popping up everywhere. And it's been you kind of ruined that for me because here in Boston, we aren't talking about Mookie Betts. Yeah, he was never here until three or four days ago.

[01:27:29]

You told me you ran into a couple of people wearing BET's Dodger shirts and it bummed me out. It bummed you out. And then I saw that he had a game winning home run. Three went home a couple of nights ago and he's hitting the two ladies already. And we suck. Our team is terrible. I unfortunately had nothing to watch. I watched the last night. Of course, they lose a one on one run game. I couldn't get that final hit bottom of the ninth, the terrible.

[01:28:07]

So that's what's the matter, by the way. We would still be terrible, but be nice to have him on the team. Well, especially after with now that Rafaelle Devers has passed away, I think it would have been nice to have Mookie Betts in a spot. Oh, no, he's alive. I'm sorry about that. He said he went fifty.

[01:28:27]

All right. And then in ten, they had both passed away. But we don't know what happened to the dependent Tandi.

[01:28:37]

Remember that? Ben and I, we're trying to get his rookie card that year. We were buying packs that now I should probably just use those things as a coaster. So I don't know what happened to that guy. The last game I took your son to, I bought him a pun intended t shirt. Yeah, he tried to get his picture taken with Benny. His name is obviously Ben can be called Daddy. And now I'm sure they're going to move on from them.

[01:29:05]

It looks terrible.

[01:29:07]

It seems like he needs a sports psychiatrist or psychologist, whatever they use. It seems like there's, you know, and plus he can't hit any off speed stuff. I've tried not to watch too much Red Sox because I have a rule when four fifths of our starting rotation is also available in my only fantasy league. It's probably a bad side. Yeah, all of those things are like that.

[01:29:29]

Webber and Martin Perez, like all available two weeks into our season this season where we're drafting basically anybody who is going to play. And people were like, yeah, we don't need the Red Sox starter. So that that was an issue. But I guess it happens, right? We went four and fifteen years. Well, and now that. Yeah, you get your Gracieuse, we're the only team to have won four championships this century. So, you know, we're not going to be good every year.

[01:30:01]

I just never thought it would be this bad.

[01:30:04]

How are you? Are you worried? I mean, we had an unbelievable run, it was certainly two decades, you could have asked for more, but now, you know, there's a theory out there that it's over and now we're headed back to the pre thousand February 2002 era. You mean all our teams? Yeah, like the kind of runs over. I don't personally think that, but people are rooting for it out there. I know who you are out there, too.

[01:30:33]

Well, I think you just said the key thing, people in forty nine or forty eight of forty seven of the states are rooting for that. And I don't feel that way. I love the Celtic team. We might be the one player short or a bad can balkany short of doing some real damage. Yeah. Like team, even though they're very flat in the three games they played, I think the Patriots are going to be pretty good.

[01:31:05]

OK, good. Are you making me feel more optimistic? Yeah, I think that the team is the Red Sox. I'm OK. And the other three teams. I put away my Red Sox hat whose knees are in better shape, yours there, Kemba Walker's. You know, I watched the game the other night like you did two nights ago, he only scored four points. He doesn't seem to have that left in his three point shot at the top of the game.

[01:31:36]

Yeah, that is not going to the basket with any authority. It looks like he's bending the knee. If that's the case, we're not going to go that far. My thought in my hope is that he's taking it easy into the playoffs and just trying to get his conditioning up, but not wanting to take any chances. This is what I tell myself as I fall asleep at night. Really, that is one that might make it seem that way when you watch them on the bench.

[01:32:07]

He's very happy. He's not sitting on the bench smoking. You know, he's high five ing. His teammates is always laughing. He's just a happy guy. It seems like he's a happy guy when he's out there. So maybe that's a sign that we're reading too much into the knee, but. He certainly isn't playing like the guy he was playing, like when he was totally healthy and I hope the rest of he's taking it easy.

[01:32:34]

Is it true that you turned down a chance to be a virtual fan for home Celltex game?

[01:32:42]

You know, I got an email and of course, I had no idea how to do it correctly. So I'm not sure I turned it down as much as I had nobody here to help me participate. The same problem we had today getting on Zoom, right? Yeah. What would you be OK with me hiring an actor to pretend to you for one of the games that could just put them in a dark cardigan in a black cardigan, black cardigan?

[01:33:13]

Yeah, and I think I don't want to revive that website of you. You didn't want to play the Sixers, but then Ben Simmons is now probably out for the playoffs and you're ready to play the Sixers. I'm ready to play. Such as? I looked at the odds today. The odds are that we will say the sixth day, the Sixers. Yeah, they lose today. We definitely play them and they play Phoenix. And Phoenix needs that game today.

[01:33:44]

Well, we're we're taping this right before the biggest game in the Celtics season. They're playing the Grizzlies and there's like major draft pick ramifications. It's the biggest game of the year for the Celtics in back like three spots.

[01:33:56]

There was no mention of that in the globe. I wonder if you and I are the only two people talking about that, I promise you.

[01:34:03]

I am one hundred percent sure the Celtics organization is very aware of the stakes of the Grizzlies game, but it worried me in the globe. They talk about arresting people today, don't they? Don't arrest them for Memphis. Yeah. Arrest them next Thursday. Yeah.

[01:34:18]

Don't play them against Washington because Memphis loses. Maybe they drop a couple of spots. The odds of getting one of the top four picks come into play. Jackson, that hurt is probably out all next year. And suddenly we get a fourth pick a year from now. I see it happening. Wait, you're saying if Memphis moves into the top three, then the pick rolls over to next year? No, no, no. I'm saying if if they move to a 12, 13 or 14, then I guess.

[01:34:55]

Yeah.

[01:34:56]

And then the ping pong balls finally go our way. Nobody feels bad for us. I mean, we did win the lottery three years ago. I know that you just said the papabile is finally going away. We literally won the lottery three years ago.

[01:35:13]

I'm still bitter, bitter about Durant and and Duncan and Duncan. So I think we're owed a couple of no ones. Yeah, I'm sure America agrees with you on that, but I, I think we have Magic Johnson, a bottle of wine for taking Lonzo's second in allowing us to do that trade. That could have really been the greatest trade in the history of the franchise, except Sacramento inexplicably just started winning all these games last year. I still can't figure that out.

[01:35:45]

That was we should have been in the top three that we should have should have been in and look at them this year.

[01:35:53]

They're not a very good team. Again, you know, if you go back and look at that draft. With Alonzo. It it was so weird, it was almost like. The Lakers got bullied into taking Lonzo Ball that year, yeah, by the by the Lonzo UCLA thing and the machine that was going on and the father and all the publicity out there and I don't even think they looked at him.

[01:36:22]

I think they were locked in on ball for some reason and say magic was making the pick. Speaking of Tatum, I know you have, I know you have a message for him heading into the playoffs. About his shot selection. I've been a little disappointed in the bubble and his shot selection. It's his shot selection in the second half is much better than the first half. His shot selection in the first quarter is atrocious. My advice is your first four shots in the game.

[01:37:01]

All should be drives to the basket and get into the game, set the tone, set the tone, you know, get physical, then they'll play off you a little bit. But don't take these contested two people on you. Three point shots with four minutes done in the first quarter because they're not going in. He is not warmed up. Do I need do I need to be in a face time with you during the moments when Wannamaker plays in playoff games just for medical reasons, like if you're by yourself, should there be a second person in the room with you, at least virtually to make sure Wannamaker doesn't kill you?

[01:37:42]

I keep waiting for. The game turnover that inevitably comes, the bad play that inevitably comes once in a while, make a big three. Yes, certainly, certainly never in the last quarter of the last 10 minutes of the game, but. I wish they would play that young kid, but they're not playing at all, which our you like, we are alike waiters like waiters to. They're just not even in the bubble. They're not playing them maybe against Washington, the plane Thursday, but I think we're stuck with Wannamaker.

[01:38:22]

Yeah, I think you're right. And it's funny because I really like him, like he seems like a great teammate. I like that he plays really hard, like it's not like he's lazy or anything. Like he's really goes all out. He just does like four or five inexplicable things every game he does where he just like drive readiness. And it's like, what are you doing? You black shot, why are you doing that?

[01:38:48]

And you kind of wait for them to happen. You know, they're coming. His teammates seem to like it. He's a great guy. Yeah, he's a great teammate. He's awesome. I just it's I almost they almost need to, like, hypnotize him to not drive into right now. If you see Yonath there and be like maybe don't drive at those guys, maybe on a fast break, don't try to lurch into two people would do that.

[01:39:11]

But I just feel like we're going to see him. I would much rather play Smart and Langford together as the backup backcourt.

[01:39:18]

You and I have been talking about market for it and I wish they would play them together. I think they're a good backcourt and I actually wish they'd be playing one for more. It looks like the game some minutes beginning in the bubble and then the Brooklyn game they played him in. He hasn't been out there. I don't think he's hurt. Tice has been the third best player in the team. Which has pluses and minuses, the pluses are. That's awesome, I'm so glad Tice's that good that we now think of him like I think he's one of the most underrated players in the league, the bad news is that he's right now the third best player in the team like and you like your highlight?

[01:40:04]

Hayward I think that I am a much, much higher. And Hayward, I just think Tice's I think he's irreplaceable when he comes out of the game. It's like noticeable the stuff they lose, you know, whereas like Hayward, they can get by not playing him for a quarter, a quarter. Now, it's we probably disagree because I think what has been the best player in the bubble on the team, I think I think he's doing all those little things, rebounds and assists, block blocking out fields that don't.

[01:40:36]

I mean, I think he's been invaluable. I mean, at times has been very good. Taste when they play. Philadelphia is going to be a problem within the opening day, Genco. There's much more seriously hurt than they're letting on. You're going to you're going to enjoy knocking Phillip out and Al Horford, who ditched us. That would be fun, supportive to. In a. Al Horford, Ray Allen, these guys that let us down left the team last, I mean, they did offer the most money in an extra year and all that stuff.

[01:41:19]

I don't blame him for leaving, but it would just be fun to beat them.

[01:41:24]

I don't think I don't even think about him, I mean, he was acting like a good teammate, like. I'm more interested in the fact that. I put some of the best player and I'm glad that their best player is not going to be there, you know, unfortunately, your theory about what happens when the best player is out the U.N., that worries me a little bit because watching the game the other night, they do have other shooters.

[01:41:55]

I mean, they have guys that can score 30 when they take their identity shifts a little because you have Horford then you have a bunch of swing guys. Richardson seem much more empowered. Thabo They're playing more. Who's one of my favorite players in the league so he can replace some of the Simmons defense. And you know he's terrible in offense here.

[01:42:18]

He's usually ask on offense but he does so many good things that defense. It's worth having him out there. But there are different they obviously are not saying anything. No one else has ever said they're very different teams.

[01:42:31]

That seems to be very worrisome if they were all healthy with them. So you want you want Filey. Well, do you think we could beat Toronto? I want or Indiana and Philly, and it looks like it's looks like it's going to be Philly, then it's going to be Philly, they're not playing for starters today against Phoenix. They were kind of throwing their hurt. The Indiana has the advantage if they tie. So they really they have no real way to pass Indiana unless they win their last two in Indiana loses the last two.

[01:43:09]

But what about Toronto? Toronto's a team that has given us trouble for really a half a decade here. Well, interestingly, the team I really didn't want to play in the first or second round was Miami, and I'm with you.

[01:43:25]

And that's a weird matchup for the same reason they they have some really great three point shooter is it's a bad matchup for us.

[01:43:35]

A bunch of guys who have killed us over the years that Butler Dragic Olynyk Iguodala Iguodala.

[01:43:42]

Right, right. So I think we match up much better against Toronto. You know that's the center of the match up against then all the great shooters that Miami seems to have. So I used to want to play Milwaukee on the second, then obviously we're not going to have to.

[01:44:04]

The crazy thing with Miami is what's happened with Duncan Robinson this season and even in the bubble, a guy the guy now looks like pager's of in the vintage twenty four kings, there's something where he's just it down assassin and he was good all year, but it feels like he's almost gone up a level on top of like all these other guys that they have and they have the ability to defend and protect the rim and Spoelstra like that team. If they could get everyone healthy for Brown to that.

[01:44:35]

That I agree. That's a scary team. Well, they have.

[01:44:37]

They also have. Robinson is obviously a great shooter, but to have the guy that I think both you and I hoped we would pick up in the first round where we had to take Langstrom, which is Ferrell, who went to four lengths to maybe you left out the key part of that story.

[01:44:57]

We lost we lost the. We lost the coin flip, the coin flip, yeah, it was like the twenty first coin flip the Celtics have lost, I think, in the draft for that for those like either or and it's like they don't even show those on TV. It's just like the Seltzer 14th, not 13th. And then Harris on the board at 13 and he's gone.

[01:45:21]

Win. You love to see her coming off the bench?

[01:45:25]

I really enjoy it. Yeah, me too. And I remember I remember when we once had coin flip. I was surprised. As you said, we never win coin flips. We do for good coin flip a good thing. Coin flip luck.

[01:45:40]

We're definitely not due for a ping pong ball. I don't know about that either. But let's say we make the East finals. And Campbell and Kember's eighty five percent, do they have a chance against Milwaukee? I think they have a chance. I think we've played more often. For me, it has a lot to do with what the secondary players like Bledsoe Bledsoe hasn't played well against us. So how will he play this time around? We have a problem with the Lopez brothers to those guys, both of them both always kill us.

[01:46:23]

Yeah, you're right. Particularly the one they got from Chicago.

[01:46:27]

Hope we get them.

[01:46:29]

Yeah, you wanted him for like five years where he kills us. Yeah, he doesn't kill other people. So they a some tough matchup for us. On the other hand, I don't think they have anybody who can stop Tatum. Tatum's a bad matchup for them. And you and I have been so impressed with Jaylen Brown. He's gone to a different level since coming back in the bubble I think is shooting better. He's driving to the basket like a crazy man with a lot of is not in a hurry to lose the ball driving you sloppy handoff.

[01:47:09]

Yeah. Yeah. Well it's also been incredible Ambassador. He's been the last couple of months. I mean one of the all time great off the court Celltex performances, just the fact that he's as young as he is and the responsibility he's taken on as one of the lead voices I think is I think he's like twenty three thousand twenty two or twenty three, these twenty three or something like that.

[01:47:32]

When he's not giving interviews. I must listen in to this, not because he even talks about basketball. Right. But what he has to say about what's happening in society right now. He says it yet is so intelligent. So he's very, very well read to. Yeah. And he's as you said, he's a great ambassador for the NBA right now. And the Celtics. Yeah. I mean. He's certainly one of the smartest Boston athletes we've had, but just in general, just thinking about the context of the NBA, it's so rare to have those guys like that who you you like.

[01:48:14]

He's I don't know what he's going to do after he retires, but it's going to be really interesting. Like if he got into social justice or politics or whatever, whatever his next step is, it feels like it's going to be something like that. And you only see that a few times. The sports we have these guys, you're like that guy is definitely pro sports is going to be doing something right. I feel that way about him. I do, too.

[01:48:37]

And I'd love to see him get into politics because I think he has the message and he's a sincere, intelligent, caring person, so. I wish I was that intelligent at age 23. I get jealous of some of these guys, these guys were so much better put together than me or my friends were at 22 and 23. I mean, just moving into the apartment was like a huge success for me at that age where Brad's giving these press conferences about all these different issues.

[01:49:09]

I don't know how he does it. I mean, he's eight years older than my daughter.

[01:49:13]

Yes. You're selling yourself short. I was so impressed. Twenty three. How you learned to make all those drinks as a bartender?

[01:49:21]

That was I think I was out there. I thought you were going to say you were so impressed that I won the NHL 93 video game title, I think.

[01:49:30]

Yeah. All right. So you sound optimistic on the Celtics, optimistic about Cam Newton. You've written off the Red Sox and the Bruins.

[01:49:39]

You're fired up about I love hockey playoffs, hockey. Regular season hockey, I'm not really into I can watch every minute of the postseason hockey with the Bruins.

[01:49:52]

Did you watch that documentary I told you to watch about the Big Bad Bruins, 1970? Not yet. That was really good. I really think you like that it's all about how hockey changed in Boston in the 60s and just the arrival of or and there's and they interview all the it's Cheevers, Sanderson or and Esposito. And they interviewed the four of them together. But there's like this five minute or section where you're just like, oh, my God, this guy was the greatest player.

[01:50:21]

But he's, you know, they're reminiscing about or as a legend, but he's there. It's really, really. But it's not weird. It's they're almost talking about him like he's one of the guys. They're talking about somebody else. But it's actually him they're talking about. And he's just got this dumb look on his face. But it's really good. I enjoyed it. I will watch it.

[01:50:41]

I remember telling you when you were younger, I did not grow up as a hockey fan and coming to Boston, the only as probably the only the only single player that would keep me home to watch a hockey game. Was Bob your. Yeah, it was it was that special. And we haven't had his likes again. Do you want to watch that? That's a good one. All right. That I'm glad we figured out the zoom. Yeah, I'm glad you figured it out.

[01:51:16]

Now, all your fans in the Boston area, they're excited you're back. I'll I'll talk to you soon. Good to see you. Good to see you. I'll talk to you probably later tonight.

[01:51:29]

All right, thanks to Kevin Clark and Jim Belushi and my dad, thanks to Spotify. Don't forget to listen to the podcast there and you can change speeds, check out the charts, all that good stuff. We are coming back with the WAS on Wednesday, Bad Boys. And then one more podcast on Thursday, New Ringa Edition. Raja Bell, who has been awesome on that podcast with Logan Murdoch every Monday on the Ringer and Show is going to be on and.

[01:51:56]

And I think at least one more guest, so stay tuned for that. See you on Thursday.