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Inside the PSL: Bills Fandom & the New Stadium · The 3Ts: Tables, Tailgates, and Toploaders

• TB: What's up, Sydney? Sydney: What's up, Dan? TB: Ready for your random Randy's question out of nowhere? Sydney: Hurt me. TB: All right. Well, here you go. You are the owner of the Buffalo Bills, and you have to make a decision about your starting quarterback, Josh Allen, who just announced that he wants to play for Team USA in the 2028 Flag football team. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna let him play? Or are you gonna say, heck no? Sydney: gonna say hell no, get your ass back TB: Yeah. Sydney: on the field at HighMark Stadium. That's what I'm gonna TB: Now Sydney: say. Flag football. What what are we doing? TB: Now before you jump to conclusions, the twenty twenty eight Olympics will take place prior to training camp even starting. So will does this change your mind at all? Because in a recent interview, he said it is his dream to win a gold medal for Team USA and he would sign up today if he could. Does that change your answer? Sydney: No. Josh, we got a Super Bowl to win. I don't care about your gold medal right now. Sorry. TB: What if he wins the Super Bowl next year? Are you going to allow him to play? Sydney: Sure, 'cause apparently from last week he wins the Super Bowl this year, he's retiring, so he can go play all the flag football he wants after this year. TB: that video is blowing up on TikTok, by the Sydney: Ha ha. TB: way. We are at over 9,000 views. A lot of people, well, I would say 90, 95% of the people have said they agree with you, and the others thought I was complete moron for even asking the question. So hey, that's just the way it goes. You ready to start the show? Sydney: Yeah. Yeah I'm ready. TB: All right, what is up, friends? We are back with another episode of the three Ts, Tables, Tailgates, and Top Loaders. I am your host, TB, and joined yet again by my brand new co-host, Sydney. How are you doing this week? Sydney: It's been a week. I'm ready for this week to be over, but I'm here and I'm ready to go. How are you? TB: All right, fantastic. I hey, you know, it's been it's been a challenge, but I've been looking forward to recording this podcast. So I I'm ready to roll. I'm ready to go. You ready to talk some Buffalo Bills? Sydney: I am. TB: All right, well let's talk about did you see this story? Did you see the story about the Yellowstone National Park bison attack? Sydney: At first I did not think that this was real because no way that guy launched about ten feet in the air, but I did see this video is crazy. TB: What are your thoughts? So for those that don't know, what about two, roughly two weeks ago, there was a 65 year old grandfather who was camping in Yellowstone with his grandson, and he was chased around the woods, this this little wooded area by a bison. And the bison practically, well, it launched this 65 year old. How far in the air do you think he launched this guy? Sydney: I would say at least ten feet in the air. Like it was wild. He got some air on that. TB: Yeah, it was crazy. And the reason I'm laughing is because he's going to be okay, but he flew probably what fifteen feet in the air, we'll go with 10, 10 to 15, at least 10 Sydney: It was TB: to 15 feet in the air. and when he landed, he shattered, broke his femur. So not good, not good. He was in a little bit of pain. from what I read, the story I read, it took them two and a half hours to transport him to the hospital, the closest hospital, which is in. Bozeman, Montana, and he had to have surgery, but it appears all is well and the guy is in pretty good spirits. So yeah, it's just it's an insane story. did you see his grandson though? Sydney: I did see his grandson. TB: And can you tell for the listening audience what the grandson was wearing? Could you tell from the video? Sydney: A Miami Miami Dolphins jersey. Boo. TB: So do you think the dolph the the dolphin, do you think the bison knew that this kid was a dolphins fan and that's why he went after them? Sydney: Hundred percent. He said, Let me give you a snapshot of what this upcoming season's gonna look like TB: Ha ha ha. Sydney: for you guys. And he just gave him a good old sh shove right TB: Mm-hmm. Sydney: ten feet in the air and he said, All right, sit jazz down now. TB: So I give the grandpa all the credit because he basically sent the kid running and then he kind of like did like this hide and seek game through a little wooded area, but the Buffalo was not interested in the kid at all. And once I think the jersey was like 14. So there's some debate whether it was an old school Ryan Fitzpatrick jersey or not, you couldn't really tell. But the kid like got out of there and high high the the bison hightailed it for grandpa. so my question is. Did the bison only charge because this kid was a dolphins wearing a dolphins jersey? And which you already answered, but question two, do we play this video not only at the stadium when it opens, but for every Miami home game for the rest of time? Sydney: Yeah, I mean we might as well just reenact it at this point with the buffaloes that are standing outside the stadium, just you know, give a little shove, kick him out of the family circle, show who's boss. Let's do it. TB: I I thought I thought that was an absolutely insane video. Sydney: It's crazy. TB: And I could not believe that the kid happened to be wearing a dolphins jersey. So it's just insane. Could couldn't believe it. That that was a crazy story. I figured we would start off with having a little fun. But we are going to actually try something new on this episode of the three Ts. We are going to bring in a special guest. And this is none other than my blood, who I've talked about now for episode what, 50? 50 plus episodes. This is my buddy Mike, longtime friend. and he is a co-owner of our season tickets. Let's see if we can get this to work. Mike, are you there? Sydney: There he is. Mike: Here I am. TB: What is up, my friend? How are you doing? Mike: Good, how are you? TB: I'm doing great. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the three T's. Mike: I've been waiting a long time for this opportunity. TB: Well, it is awesome, awesome to have you aboard. can't believe that we're finally doing this. So I thought that we would get a little bit of an intro with you first. But first, but first, I have to hit you with a Randy random question out of nowhere. Are you ready? Mike: I'm ready. TB: On a scale of one to ten, how much did you enjoy the World Cup? Mike: are there negative numbers? Not a big fan of stock. TB: Tell us tell us you hate it without telling us you hated it. Mike: Yeah. I I'm I'm not a fan at all. TB: Did you watch a single minute of any game? How about Sydney, how about you? Did you watch any of the World Cup? Sydney: yeah, I watched a little bit. Mike was really into it with like betting and stuff like that, but I did I watched a little bit of the USA game. Couldn't recall who we played. I'm not a soccer fan either, to be honest. I was just watching the US. TB: Was it Belgium or something? Sydney: That's probably what it was when the the guy got the red card and then he got it, you know, reinstated. It was just a whole mess. So I'm just really not TB: Yeah. Sydney: a fan. TB: Yeah. I was convinced to watch the USA game that they lost and I regretted every second of it. So Mike: Yeah. TB: yeah, I figured, hey, let's bring Mike on this show and hear his take about the World Cup. So hey, you you crushed that one. Way to knock that question Mike: Mm-hmm. TB: out of the park. But wanted to have you on today to kinda give a little overview of your fandom. I know you and I have been friends what? Now it feels like four decades at this point. How long have we known each other? Since we were what, eight, nine, ten years old, something like that? Mike: It's yeah, so yeah, some way there, yeah. TB: Now at true or false, we don't always agree on our hot takes. Mike: we don't agree a lot of the time. TB: In fact, there's a very longstanding argument in which we are on absolute opposite side to this. And this is the great Doug Flutie versus Rob Johnson debate. In fact, I believe you own a Doug Flutie jersey. Is that true? Mike: I sure do. I have a Doug Flutie autograph TB: So Mike: as well. TB: so you are not in Camp Rob Johnson. Mike: No, not at all. TB: And just tell the listening audience why you hate Rob Johnson so much. Mike: 'Cause he's terrible and he should have never played. TB: Wow, you've heard it here. You've heard it here first, folks. He does not like Rob Johnson. yeah, boy TB was planting his flag on Mr. California, the California kid himself, Rob Johnson. Sid, you probably have never heard of this quarterback controversy, but it was an absolute disaster. And it divided, I don't know, Bill's mafia. I don't know. I think what 80 to 85% of Bill's mafia was on team Doug Flutie. Mike: absolutely. TB: Sydney, have you ever heard of fluty flakes? Sydney: Is it a cereal? TB: It is a cereal. Mike: I don't think Rob Johnson had a serial named after him. Sydney: Other than that, never heard of it. TB: That that's true. Rob Johnson never did have a serial. But so back in the late nineties, Doug Flutie, he was what? I don't know, four foot two. Is that how tall he was? I should not be disparaging the great Doug Flutie, but he was a very short statured journeyman quarterback who was a lefty and kind of scrambled around a lot. anyway, he came in to try to save the Bills season. made it made it to the playoffs. And then there was a big controversy with do we keep going and start Doug Flutie in the playoffs or do we go with the young upstart rookie Rob Johnson. Wow, we got all Mike: Mm. TB: all kinds of technical if difficulties here. Sydney: Doug Flutie is coming to haunt you. TB: Yeah, doc the ghost of Dog Mike: Yeah. TB: Flutie is here live. Let's see if I can fix this. All right, give me a give me a second. It's been a long time coming. You are joining us for like episode fifty two, I believe. So sorry for the late invite, but welcome welcome to the three tease Sydney: You TB: party. Mike: I'm digging the reboot, by the way. TB: You're digging the reboot. Sydney: I'm TB: Yeah, this show goes a heck of a lot better with Sydney as the co host. So awesome. You have been one of our biggest, most adamant supporters from the very beginning. Sydney: You TB: So thanks for always listening. But that's why I wanted to have you on the show. So I figured I wanted to have you give a brief overview. Tell us, tell us how long you've been a Bills fan. Give us a rundown of your Bills fandom, if you will. Mike: It's gotta be somewhere around forty years. I vividly rem remember all the Super Bowls. I think the first game I really remember is the the Raiders game and the the AFC championship where they kill to go their first Super Bowl. TB: Absolutely. Mike: But it's better ride. TB: Do you remember your very first game? It has. And you the the fact that you brought up the first four Super Bowls, fantastic. Great way to start with that positive energy. I love what you're bringing Mike: Yeah. TB: to the show. So do you have a memory of your first Bills game? Mike: you know, I really don't. there there have been so many of I was in college, I think, when I went to my first game. TB: who is your current or f who's your former favorite player of all time on the Bills? Mike: Jim Kelly. he was just a gamer. He was I mean, quarterbacks back then were different than the quarterbacks of today. They they they would take hits and get beat up and he was always a guy that just kept fighting. TB: Yeah, absolutely. And do you have a current favorite player? Mike: Yeah you gotta go with Josh Allen. TB: Okay, okay. You gotta love it. Gotta love it. Mike: I mean, he he's the best player ever seen. TB: JA seventeen all the way. So obviously it's a big, big gear for for Mafia, for the the the team, for the stadium. Give us your thoughts, first of all, on the old high mark. are you sad to see it go? Are you looking forward to hopping across the street? What what what's your take on the old high mark, first of all? Mike: I got mixed feelings. I mean, there was a lot of memories there. so it's kind of sad to see those go. You see you see pictures every day of them taken down the stadium. so I'm kind of sad to see it go, but and going to other stadiums, you see how big the concourses are, and you know, it it was our stadium, but it was it was rarely run down and just old. I'm looking forward to the new stadium. I'm really interested to see what it's gonna be like there. TB: Yeah, absolutely. So before we dive in and talk about the news stadium, you said that they were tearing it down. Did you happen to grab any souvenirs from old high mark? Mike: I sure did. So I I grabbed our old seats from this past year. so I went there and I picked them up in May. which the way they made it seem like it seemed like it could be a big process. you had a certain time window you had to go there. and I went there and I was like the only person there picking up my seat, but the amount of seats they had in the parking lot was insane. it was just basically all the seats in the stadium were sitting in the parking lot in sections. TB: That's crazy. Mike: and I so I I wrote something on the bottom of our seats the very last game, just to see I want to make sure we got our seats. so I pulled up there and I said, Do you mind if I check under the seat? And he go and he pulled it up, he goes, Yep, your writing's right here. So I was he was amazed the TB: Yeah. Mike: I was amazed the way that they could do that with that many seats. TB: So now this is a family friendly show here at the three T's, but are you able to share with us what you wrote on the bottom of this eats? Mike: I am not. TB: Okay, fair enough. I appreciate the honesty. That's that's fantastic. so these seats, are they still together? Are they like individual? Are they what like what are you gonna first of all, what what's the deal with them? Are the I we were missing cup holders for like five years. Did you get the broken cup holders? Mike: I got the broken cup holders. So they're TB: Ha ha. Mike: they're still together. They they put little bottoms on them so they they sit up straight. so I got down here in my basement. TB: Are you able to actually sit in them then? Mike: Yes. Not that I really not that I really want to. TB: And are they just are they just as comfortable as you remember them being? Mike: I mean, it's a little weird not wearing snow pants and a winter jacket and trying to wedge myself into but yeah, they're just as uncomfortable as they were before. TB: That's that's wild. That's that's crazy. So you bought the seats. What were you thinking about buying anything else? Mike: I saw they had like pieces of the goalpost, which I thought was interesting, but I r really I f I figure I spent enough money on the seats, I really didn't need anything else. TB: You weren't interested in buying the urinal trough from one of the men's restrooms? Mike: it was an interesting concept, but no. Sydney: Thank God for that. Mike: Ha ha ha TB: I mean, Sid, you get your own place. We could, you know, get the urinal, you could put it outside, you could have like fill it with ice, have like a outdoor beverage container. What's the problem? Sydney: Yeah, I can turn my bathroom into an office. Might as well just use that urinal as a toilet. Don't need a bathroom. No need. TB: I I can't believe we can't believe we didn't go halfsies on the one of the urinals. anyway, but yeah, it's time to turn the page. It's been over 50 years in the old high mark, and obviously we are opening the new one just in a few short weeks. So I wanted to have you on, Mike, to kind of talk to the listeners about the the whole PSL thing. Now, obviously there recently there's been some debate, some some recent stories about the back and forth with events at the At the stadium and things like that. And we'll we'll get to that in a few minutes. But I kind of wanted to have you walk through what the whole process was from as a seasoned ticket holder, going from one stadium to the next and kind of what you experienced and and the whole thing. So can you let's start at the beginning. How did the whole PSL process begin for you as a seasoned ticket holder? Mike: So we got an email, I want to say it was February of 2024. And it basically said that we'll call you at some point and you'll come and do the the stadium experience, which they really didn't say what that was at the time, and you'll be able to pick your seats. so they basically said, wait for our phone call. the the phone call eventually came in December. And the way they did it was based on your seating location in the in the old stadium. So they started on the lower bowl at the fifty yard line and just worked their way th worked their way around. we were I w I wanna say twenty, thirty yard line, so we weren't that far off. TB: Right. Mike: I didn't expect it to take ten months though from the calls. And we went and did the stadium experience. TB: Yeah, that that's a long time. Mike: Yeah. When did the stadium experience? there was a lot of mystery with everything. They they there was, you know, transparency is a big keyword these days, but there was none. as far as how much the PSLs were gonna be. everything was spread by rumors on social media is how I got most TB: Yeah. Mike: of my information. so it's it at first there was a big scare of how much these PSLs were gonna be. Because I think before us they actually started with the the suites and the TB: Right. Mike: PSLs for them were insane. but there was really not much of a heads up of how much our PSLs were gonna be when we got to that point. So even going in, we really didn't know. TB: Yeah, if if I remember correctly, when those suite PSLs were being sold, they were upwards of like twenty-five thousand dollars a piece, right? Mike: Yeah. Yeah. TB: Twenty to twenty-five K, something like that, some some crazy amount. Yeah. Mike: Yep. Yep. TB: So there's a lot of mystery, a lot of yeah, and to your point, they were not very forthcoming with with information to anybody. So you were talking about this experience, this storefront. Well, kind of walk us through. how that was set up and and what what happened with that. Mike: it was basically a storefront in a plaza. I think it was in Williamsville. from the parking lot, you you had no idea what you're walking into. once you went in there, they they had a almost kind of like a tour setup of how the stadium was gonna be. they had a mock model of the stadium. they actually had some of the seats that they were gonna put in the stadium so you can see the difference in how big the seats were compared to the old stadium, Then you got the sales pitch from TB: So from start to finish, from the the time you walked in the door to the time you were handed the the sales pitch, what what kind of time are we talking talking about? Mike: I I thought it was maybe like forty-five minutes to an hour, somewhere around there. it wasn't very long, but I mean you you still got a lot of information. I would have liked a little bit more, I think, but TB: Yeah. Mike: there were a lot of things that they didn't know about or if they said they didn't know about it. TB: Was there anything that surprised you or anything you felt you weren't expecting? Mike: I thought it was kind of weird the way they they only had certain sections open at a time. So it was either if you have a couple sections, you're you're not going any higher, and you're not going in the second deck, at least at that time. And they said, Well, if you don't want to buy these seats, we'll put you on a waiting list and you might get a seat, you might not. So it was there was a lot of I thought a lot of pressure when you're in there. almost like buying a house. 'Cause I mean, that's it's a pretty long term term commitment, thirty years. And, you know, if you're making the wrong decision, you the these seats are for thirty years. You're it's gonna be kinda hard to switch. TB: So that's the sales pitch aspect that you were talking about. You felt like they were limited options when it came to actually agreeing to move forward with with the PSL. And did they do you think they gave you an accurate description of what you were actually signing up for? Because there's a lot of misunderstanding around, I think, just the general public as far as what a PSL actually is. Did you know what a PSL was prior to walking in the door? Mike: I did only because I I've lived in the Cleveland area here for about the last twenty five, almost thirty years. TB: Right. Mike: so I moved here when they opened up Cleveland Brown Stadium and they were selling PSLs for their stadium when they first opened up. So that was the first time I learned what a PSL was. and shockingly they're talking about building a new stadium already. TB: In Cleveland. Mike: In Cleveland, yeah, that they're TB: Yeah. Mike: they're not happy that they're they're saying their stadium that they have now, they built it too quickly and it's starting to fall apart already. So there's there's plans TB: Yeah. Mike: to build a dome here now. TB: That's crazy. So were you were you in favor of this PSL idea moving into the new building? Mike: I mean, no. I mean who won who wants to pay an extra fee like that? But if it's if it's gonna get us a new stadium, think it was a a price to pay. they're gonna have to fund the stadium somehow, and you're only gonna get so much money from taxpayers and from the owner. So we could pitch in and if it's gonna get us a new stadium that's really cool, I I'm okay with TB: So you you said you kind of felt a little bit of pressure and you kinda relate it to or compared it to buying a house. is there anything else you could say or or how would you rate the whole overall experience from start to finish? Mike: it was I I thought it was stressful. 'cause TB: Yeah. Mike: y y you're you're making that decision for the next thirty years. So my my biggest fear is the way the the roof overhangs, that TB: Yeah. Mike: you're you're gonna be caught underneath like a a part that's you know, where where the snow's melting or the water's dripping. and they really couldn't answer that for you when you asked. So I I'm hoping when I'm gonna go there for the red and blue scrimmage. Check out our seats and hopefully nothing's dripping on us when we're TB: Well, I hope it's not snowing for that first red and blue, but you Mike: Ha ha ha. TB: never know up in up up there in Buffalo. Mike: Mm. TB: So is there anything you wish that the organization would have handled differently about the whole PSL onboarding experience? Mike: I I just wish they would l let you know up front what sections were gonna have what PSL so you had a better idea going in. so you you TB: Right. Mike: weren't getting all that information thrown at you all at once to make that decision. TB: that makes sense. because again, you you kind of felt like you had no information. You were kept in the dark prior to even walking in the building, and then you had limited options once you actually got to the buying table. was there a level or did you experience any level of sticker shock at any point? Mike: just from all the stuff I was nosing around on social media, it w it was about what I thought it would be. from everything I saw, but I mean not what I wanted to pay, but about what I thought it would be. TB: Okay. And since you have laid down your hard earned money and and now are a proud owner of one of these PSLs, have you had any buyer's remorse? Mike: No, not at all. I I'm looking forward to going to the the new stadium. make some new memories at that place and h hopefully it's really cool. TB: I'm I'm a little jealous that you're gonna get to be in there way before me, but hey, that that's okay. I can't wait to hear how how you feel about it. We'll have to have you back on and give us an update of your red and blue experience. But can you weigh in on any of the current PSL controversy specifically regarding the the blue and red and the second practice and the back and forth between PSL owners and non PSL owners and kind of where do you stand on that whole deal? Mike: I don't think PSL owners should have first divs at everything. But the red and blue scrimmage being the first time that it's going to be open to the public. I think PSL owners should should get a first crack at that. after that, like the the the practice after that, I'm driving three hours. I'm not gonna drive another three hours just to watch it practice. But TB: Yeah. Mike: I I think at that point you should open it up to everybody. but it Just being the f the first event there, I I see why they put that oil into PSL. TB: Yeah, I mean there's there's season ticket holders who think it's their right that they should have first dibs, first crack at every event that ever occurs in that stadium for the duration Mike: Mm-hmm. TB: of their 30 year contract. and I kind Mike: Mm. TB: of hinted at it, I think, Sydney, when we talked about this in the first episode, I just thought that that was an absolute ridiculous way of thinking about it. And when you and I, Mike, went through the experience, that was never laid out to us. So I don't know where this mentality came from. and while I didn't read every word of that contract, I read a good port a good portion of it. And at no point did Mike: Mm-hmm. TB: I ever see that, you know, we we have the sole right to that seat for every event for the next 30 years. And correct me if I'm wrong, but you you tell me your thoughts. Mike: No, I I agree with that. I mean I if they'd given PSL owners the the first crack at the first event there, I I I'm cool with that. After that, yeah, it ch there shouldn't be any any advantage of that. TB: Yeah, as as far as I'm concerned, and I'll I'll just kind of reiterate and I kinda got a little pushback on this, but we you and I we we we went halves on thirty years of Buffalo Bills games and and the rest, anything else is bonus, but it there's there's no level of expectation, at least from my end, and it seems like you pretty much agree with me. Yeah, that's crazy. Sid, do you have any other further thoughts on on any of that? Sydney: No, I agree. Unless you guys are getting a Noah Con concert out of it, I'm out. TB: Yeah, maybe hey, maybe, maybe now at the new stadium he'll he'll be more than willing to to come up to the the great Western New York there. So we shall see. But Mike, what's your level of Sydney: thing. TB: of excitement heading into the new stadium? Mike: I'm very excited. I'm very excited for the new stadium. a little little nervous about the team. we we didn't have a great finish last year. I don't know if we really improved our roster enough. looking forward to Joe Brady and seeing if he can work some magic with the offense and I think the defense is a big mystery right now, but I I'm I'm very excited. TB: Sweet, sweet. And I'm gonna ask you a few follow up Bill's questions, but before we get to that, what what are you looking forward to the most when you walk into that new high mark for the first time? Mike: just more room. it seemed like everywhere TB: Yeah. Mike: you w you walked in the old high mark, it was crowded everywhere you went. So just a little bit more open space. TB: Yeah, the one thing I keep hearing is the ability to still watch the game no matter where you're walking around the stadium. I think that in and of itself is gonna be fantastic. The these this Mike: Mm. TB: open concourse idea. I mean, look, if you've been in the old high mark, the old concourses are small, they're narrow, and you can't see anything. Once you're out of the the stairway leading out of the the lower bowl. You you are in the dark. And if you're not close to a TV, you got no clue what's going on unless you're standing at the urinal listening to the radio. But it's I I can't wait. Like it'll be nice when we get in there for the preseason stuff to just tour it. Like that's what I'm looking forward to. Just being able to I'm not gonna sit there for four quarters of a preseason game and watch every play. it's it's gonna be a a time for us to get in and kind of Hey, go check out the other side of the stadium and move up and down in the different levels. And I hope we have access to that as fans and we're not kind of limited just to our section or just to our area. I want to go and check everything out. I want to go down to the charge bar and see what that looks like. I want to see the sight lines from other places in the stadium. I think that's going to be really, really cool, really exciting. I want to know what the food options are because my gosh, what? We have like two options in the section we're we're at. It's brutal. The the craziest thing when we did the stadium experience tour was learning that there were no kitchens in the old Hyde Mark. It was literally just they brought food in and they had to warm it up and that's it. That's all you got. So this new stadium actually having the ability to have full kitchens all across and all around the stadium and be able to actually cook food inside the confines of the building is It's like, wow, we're opening up a whole new culinary experience here. So it's gonna be really cool. Mike: I mean explained a lot why the food was so bad there too. TB: Brutal, just freaking brutal. So no, it's gonna be awesome. I I can't wait to to get in there. and we'll all experience it at some point this year. But it's it's gonna be fan fantastic. But all right, a couple more questions if you got a couple more minutes. So Mike: Yeah, go ahead. TB: I don't know, I don't know if you all are following some of the latest ESPN releases. Well, how do you all feel about lists and the lists that they put out every year prior to training camp? And they rank everybody and they tell you who the top 10 are at every position. But have you all seen ESPN's list that they have released recently? Now they they pull coaches and scouts and league executives and they come up with the top 10 at every different every one of the 11 positions on the field. And lo and behold, only two Bills players made any of these top 10 lists. Number one was Josh Allen. He came in at number one, number one quarterback. And James Cook came in at number seven overall on the running back list. But there were no other players, any Bills players that made the top ten. So Sid, I'm gonna start with you. How you feel about list in general? And what are your thoughts on the the lack of bills on any of these top ten lists? Sydney: I don't know. I have mixed emotions about the whole listing. I think that it just, I don't know, it could give you some bad juju. I'm not sure, but it TB: Yeah. Sydney: gave me some joy seeing J 17 above Patty Mahomes. I think that was pretty cool to see. And a lot of media has picked that up and has been dissecting it and telling, you know, their own thoughts. I think a lot of it is opinion-based. So that is what it is. I know I think I can speak for. all of us that we know that Josh Allen is the best player in the world. So that is what it is. That's a fact. But I think only having James Cook and Josh Allen on the list, that makes sense to me. I don't think we have a tremendous amount of depth on our team for there to be multiple of those players on the list. So I think that that's a valid statement. TB: Mike, what do you think? Mike: really don't care about the lists. TB: Yeah. Mike: we're all bored right now. We're all craving football and that's the reason why they come out with these lists. But I I'd much rather have a a a tight team that plays well together rather than a bunch of superstars who play by themselves and don't care about the rest of the team. TB: No, no. Great points. Great points. You don't get any there's no pushback. Like, can you see any pl any other players on this team that should have at least been considered? I think the only honorable mention or runner up was Ed Oliver, from a detect defensive tackle position. He made like honorable mention or whatever the heck it's called, but No there was no other no other player even even close. No Christian Benford, no Cole Bishop. Sydney: Mm. TB: I mean, who how you feel about some of these guys being left off? Or you just we just don't care. Sydney: No, I think that, you know, the Bills fans definitely have their honorable mentions. I think the one that I was thinking in the back of my head would probably be Kincaid. That could have been an honorable mention for the tight ends. I don't even know if they had a tight end list, but TB: Yeah, they did. Yeah, he wasn't on there. Sydney: I was actually watching ESPN a couple of days ago and they were dissecting one of the lists. And one of the analysts did say that her honorable mention would have also been Kincaid. So just a thought. TB: Yeah, and I was thinking about that too, because I think when healthy and when he's actually on the field, Dalton Kincaid is clearly a top 10 tight end. There's no question about it. But I think the reason he didn't make that was because of his just inability to stay on the field. but if you project him out for a full healthy season, he's like a top three tight end in the league. It's insane what his stats project to be. It's just his knee and let's Fingers crossed, hope that this issue is gonna be behind him because we can't I can't deal with a load management issue with Dalton Kincaid again. He's one of my favorite players. I love the guy. In fact, I probably have a bit of a PC card collecting problem when it comes to Dalton Kincaid. I can't stop collecting Dalton Kincaid cards. I don't know what the issue is. We'll have to talk about that in another episode. But holy crap, I have a problem. but yeah, it's just It it's it's frustrating. What are your thoughts, Mike, on on DK eighty six? Mike: Wha when he's healthy, he he's one of the best. But like you said, it's he's he's gotta stay healthy. It's a long season, so I'm hoping he can stay healthy this but remains to be seen. TB: Yeah, and and the only other two that I like I said, I thought could have potentially made it, Christian Benford, in my opinion. I think he's at least top 15. The fact that he didn't even get an honorable mention, you could argue he's a top 10 cornerback in the league. I mean, the dude is lights out and he has a fantastic celly yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he makes a good play and he gives God a shout out. I love it. It's fantastic. It's probably one Mike: Yeah. TB: of my favorites. in in the league. So shout out to to Christian Benford. But yeah, I would have liked to seen him get a little more love. But I I'm curious that if we see the growth in some of these guys that we think we're gonna see if this if these preseason lists next year are going to be different. I think Cole Bishop has the ability to be a top five ball out safety in this league. I think he can just be a game changer back there as long as he gets a good stable mate, if you will. If he gets another safety back there that he plays well in tandem with, I think this guy's the limit for this guy. Playing under Jim Leonard, Jim Leonard's gonna have him playing fast and loose and just wreck and shop. And I can't wait to see how well Bishop does this year. What are you what are your guys' thoughts? Sydney: Yeah, I'm excited for him. Mike: I think you could you can put it. He can put to get put together another year, another good year he's on that list. Sydney: Yeah, absolutely. TB: Said. Sydney: Last year was really cool to see him kind of break out of his shell. But I think with the whole list thing, it is kind of cool to see that not a lot of our players are on it just because nobody's really looking at this team as a threat. And I think it's cool because that's when you see a lot of these players kind of break out and make themselves known. I think when you have a bunch of players on these lists or you know. they're being watched out for and they don't perform. It's kind of the opposite effect. So I'd rather not have a lot of players on the list and do really well and have a lot of players that are just breaking out. So I'm excited for him. TB: Yeah. Yeah. But again, even on the offensive line, we're used to seeing Deion Dawkins get national recognition. He didn't make the top ten. Spencer Brown was you know, inching his way towards the top of a lot of people's, you know, top right tackle list. He didn't make it. So I get it. do you think as Bills fans, we are too sensitive? Mike, what do you think? Mike: think so. I I think we're we're just caring about winning. I I'll take a Super Bowl any time over being on a list. TB: And not just necessarily with with a list category or or questions, but when the national media starts talking and they start, you know, pointing the fingers at our team and and saying we're overrated or saying it's just Josh and then a bunch of scrubs or saying we can't win the big one, do you think all in all Bill's Mafia has a little bit of a chip on their shoulder and maybe gets a little too sensitive with some of this stuff? Mike: At times, yes, especially when they talk about our quarterback. You mess with Josh TB: Mm-hmm. Mike: and then we all get angry too. TB: Yeah. Said, what do you think? Sydney: Yeah, I tend to get pretty defensive myself. But I mean, you can't speak for everybody. I think that we do have a chip on our shoulder, but I don't think that that makes us too emotional. I think that we all just want the same thing. So just passion. TB: No, I I get it. It's just it's just I think it's frustrating sometimes to be a member of the mafia because I kind of feel like we fight on two different fronts. I think within the mafia we have these stupid battles, like the current PSL debate. You know, people fans, these are Bills fans chirping back and forth at each other. the OJ debate, which we talked about last week on last week's episode. Just the the whole nonsense going back and forth. And it's like it doesn't make any sense. Why are we kind of turning on each other? but that at the same time when these bigger national stories happen, we all unite and it's like us against the world mentality. So Mike, do you see any of that or or no? Am I just crazy? Mike: I mean with the OJ thing, I I I listened to you guys last week and it's a family circle, so I don't I don't think OJ belongs there. great football player. I mean, if it's like you guys said, if it's a hall of fame or a ring of honor, I think he deserves to be on there. but as a a family guy, not so much. TB: Yeah, yeah. Again, I got a little bit of pushback for that, but that's okay. You know, we're not here to make everyone happy on the three T's. But I kind of wanted to throw one more question at you. And I know I didn't put this on the rundown and that's okay, but I wanted to kind of zoom the camera out a little bit and talk bigger picture in the whole NFL. And I wanted to focus on the AFC for a minute. And I was thinking about this today and I thought, hey, I'm I'm gonna bring it up to the both of you. So I was thinking of a scenario. What's the best AFC Hollywood story? You take the bills out of the equation, but I came up with five options. Now, when we tell a Hollywood story, it doesn't always have to be a feel-good story because sometimes Hollywood makes like disaster films and horror films. So I came up with five kind of out of the blue choices that I thought, hey, I'm gonna pick your brain and see what you think of the best five. Which which of these is the best five Hollywood story for the season? So you you all ready? All Sydney: Ready. TB: right, your first choice. I'm gonna give them to you and then you you decide which one you want. And Sid, I'm gonna start with you. So your choice is number one, you get the Jets and their brand new quarterback, Geno Smith. Seems like he's been playing this game for 30 years. So that's an interesting one. I thought, hey, that it's could could we get some magic there in New Jersey? number two. Miami and their brand new superstar, Malik Willis. What's gonna happen with him? He's he's finally get getting the chance to shine. Number three, the Steelers and 87-year-old Aaron Rodgers. How does Hollywood tell that story that never seems to end? We're on like Rocky 18 with this fiasco. Number four, you have the Browns and Deshaun Watson. Where does that yellow brick road lead? And then finally the Raiders and the number one draft pick. soon to be on the cover of Topps flagship football, which we'll get to down the road. But Fernando Mendoza, the the number one pick. So those are your choices, Sid. Which of those five AFC story AFC quarterbacks make the best Hollywood story? Sydney: think if you're looking for a really good positive feel good story, you have to pick Mendoza. I mean, he's just a super pure soul, genuine person. I don't think he's ever said a bad word. So I think if you're looking for a positive Hollywood feel good story about his life or his, you know, coming to fame or whatever, you'd pick Mendoza. I think if you're looking for a complete dumpster fire of just mess Mike: Yeah. Sydney: and drama and rumors and drugs, you're gonna pick Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, he'll TB: drugs drugs got added to this. Okay. Sydney: be doing some ayahuasca or whatever it's called or doing whatever he does and who knows, he's a mess. TB: No love for the Browns and Deshaun Watson. Sydney: No, he can kick rocks. TB: Okay. All right. Fair enough. So your number one choice is the Raiders and the Golden Child Fernando Mendoza. Is there Sydney: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's my point. TB: a s is there a saga a a a heel turn at some point to this Mendoza character? Are we gonna find he's got a bunch of Mike: Yeah. TB: skeletons in his closet and you know, he went out and like, you know, kicked kicked some puppies on a walk one day or something? Sydney: No, I don't think he has it in him. I don't think he could do a single bad thing. Now, maybe I'm wrong and maybe he like steal some crab legs from a little mom and pop shop like Jamis did. Who knows? Anything could happen, but I just don't foresee it happening. TB: All right. All right. I'm liking your answers. Mike, what you got? Which of those five are you going with to tell the best AFC Hollywood story this year? Mike: I I I think the obvious one because they're the other four are such bad choices is the Raiders. But if I if I gotta choose one other than that, seeing the New Jersey Jets win for once would be interesting. TB: Do we think Gino has any chance to get this team seven or eight wins? Like can we can we go with I don't need I don't need them to, you know, compete for the playoffs. Is there any chance Geno Smith can come in here and lead the Jets to s to eight wins? Sydney says no. Mike: If they get lucky. It'd be nice if TB: Come on, what would fireman Ed say? Mike: It'd be nice if they beat the Patriots twice. TB: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the only reason I'm not picking Miami is because I have no idea who Willis is even gonna throw the ball to. I have no idea who's on that team. I can't name a single player outside of him and HN. So I have no idea who's on that team. and then Aaron Rodgers, I can't believe that he's decided to hold the Steelers hostage for yet another year. It's mind-boggling how any franchise in sports, let alone football, can sign up for this fiasco time and time again and then the Browns and this Deshaun situation. I holy cow, are you serious? You're really gonna like rock him out there? as your starting quarterback? I mean Mike, what's what's Cleveland saying in in your neck of the woods? Mike: And no one knows why they're bringing Watson out there as their perceived starting quarterback. Sanders is showed some promise last year. and how you ever gonna know if he's the guy if you don't play. Deshaun Watson is not your Sydney: Yeah. Mike: long term guy. TB: Can he strike lightning in a bottle from what? four seasons ago at this point? Five? Mike: Terrible. Sydney: understand this humiliation ritual that they're doing to Shador. I really don't understand it. It's like they put him through the absolute mud last year and made him fight for his spot. He earned the spot finally. And in my opinion, he proved himself like he wasn't amazing, but he did a solid job with what he was given. And here we are again, you're making him fight for his spot again. To I just don't understand what they're doing at all. TB: Yeah, yeah, it it it's wild. I don't know why you you draft so many quarterbacks and then go back to the guy who has I don't know. It's just it's a terrible look. It's a terrible look, but I don't I don't know who looks more incompetent, them or or Pittsburgh. so I I kind of would rather see Pittsburgh just totally fall flat on their face because at this point, in my opinion, you keep signing up for this over and over again, you deserve to have four wins. at at the end of the season. I just think it's absolutely ridiculous. So Sydney: Well, now they not only have one good young quarterback that's sitting on the bench, they have two now. They drafted two young quarterbacks that are completely capable of doing something. put them out there and see what they can do. It has TB: Yeah. Sydney: to be better than Aaron Rodgers. You know you're not winning a Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers. Just give these two young kids a chance. I just, I don't understand what is just a joke. in my opinion. TB: It's like the only thing they care about is making it to the playoffs, but they have no interest in winning. They just want to get to the playoffs. It's just I I don't get it. I don't get it. And if I was a Steelers fan, I would be livid. Mike: Mm-hmm. Sydney: They are. TB: Final question, Mike. You have to start one quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. Are you picking Aaron Rodgers at this age or are you picking Rob Johnson in his prime? Mike: You know, th this is in this situation I'll I'll I'll pick Rob Johnson. TB: Let's go. I finally got you on board the Rob Johnson hype Mike: Yeah. TB: train. That's amazing. awesome. Well, I appreciate you hopping on board with us. You got any anything else you wanna hit from biv Bill's bafia side of things before we before we sign off? Mike: I was watching the the Bills Ravens game on NFL Network this past weekend. And TB: The home opener from last year. Mike: the the home opener, yes, and Keon Coleman showed a lot of flashes in that game. I think it was the last time he showed flashes the whole season. But TB: Yeah. Mike: he's got it in him. I I I want him to bring it this year. I I I think if he has a good season, we're gonna have a good season. TB: So you're pinning the hopes and dreams of the Bills season on none other than number zero, Keon Coleman. I love it. Wow, we are in some trouble. Mike: Yeah. TB: No, that's awesome. But I I I'm hoping to have you on here soon on a future podcast to kind of go over your thoughts on the new stadium. And as we get closer, maybe we'll do a preview, maybe talk a little wrestling and and some other stuff that we got coming up. But yeah, I we we appreciate you joining the show. Thanks thanks for stopping in. Mike: Thanks for having me on. TB: All right, man, we'll we will catch you later. Mike: Right, thanks. TB: All right, said you ready to move on to the next segment and talk some wrestling? Sydney: I'm ready. TB: All right, wrestling marks, you are on the clock. How the heck are we feeling? We are here and it's time for your and my favorite wrestling segment, none other than the return of Sid's homework. So, Sid, tell the listening audience what you were assigned to watch for this episode. Sydney: Yeah, so this was a 2013 SummerSlam Ring of Fire match between Kane, who he is one of a kind, and Bray Wyatt. So, wow. That was crazy. That was TB: All right. Sydney: a crazy match. TB: Have so first question, have you seen this match before? Sydney: I don't think so. I could have, I don't know, this is 13 years ago, so I very well could have, but I don't recall seeing it before. TB: Okay, so give me your overall thoughts of the match. Now, when I send you these matches, to preface it for the listening audience, I don't always send you banger after banger shout out to Seamus. some of these are gonna be duds. So, what is your thought on the 2013 Ring of Fire match? That was, mind you, the first, very first match on the SummerSlam card. Sydney: Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on this match. Going from the last match from Sid's homework, John Cena and CM Punk to this match, it felt like I was just getting whiplash. The level of intensity was definitely not up, I would say. This was a lot slower of a match. But yet again, you have two really big guys. They don't really wrestle the same. I would say they aren't quite as athletic. can't really do a lot of the same caliber of moves, especially Kane. He's huge and he's also just a little bit older. So the match itself with the fire, crazy. TB: Can you set up this match and like actually talk about what you saw, what you observed for the listening audience, for those that don't know exactly what a ring of fire match is? Sydney: Yeah, so it's essentially exactly what it says. The ring is literally on fire. There are no, yeah, it's quite literally on fire. And essentially every time someone hits the mat really hard, the flames kind of burst up. TB: Okay. Sydney: So very interesting. the thought that I have when I was watching this was, They have to be so hot in there. Like it has to be so sweaty and hot. I just couldn't even imagine and you're already sweating so much from just doing all these moves and then the heat from the actual fire is probably crazy. But I feel like this match was slow. Like I didn't find myself being like, my gosh, that was a crazy move. my gosh, what's going to happen next? It was also only about I'd say an eight or nine minute match, it wasn't too long. I don't know, like it was good, but it wasn't one of my favorites if I'm being honest. TB: Would you actually say this was a good match? Sydney: No, I wouldn't say it was a good match. I would say it was an okay match. It didn't leave me feeling anything. Like I didn't, I don't know, I just didn't have that same feeling that I had when I watched the previous match with CM Punk and John Cena. TB: absolutely. Totally, totally different things. But I wanted you to kind of watch this match because it's it's what they call like a gimmick match, a special gimmick match. And sometimes they do this every once in a while. but this is a match that you rarely see. And it's evident from after watching it, you kind of see why they don't do this too too often. But the thing with this match was this was the in ring debut of one of my favorites of all time, Bray Wyatt, R. Ip. this was the first time that he wrestled as In a match as Bray Wyatt, as part of the Wyatt family. Now, his family members, so you have Eric Rowan and Luke Harper, these guys had already wrestled matches before, and he would kind of sit in his rocking chair on the side and and and kind of be like visible, right? And and and like the ringleader of of the family. But he had this was his debut match, and I thought it was kind of it kind of did him a disservice because to your point. So they put this almost like channel of probably fuel that went all the way around the the the ring apron. And once these guys were actually inside the ring, they lit it on fire. And the flames were probably, I don't know, eight to twelve inches high, normal, normal height once they lit this thing on fire. And then to your point again, when they hit a move and and slammed in the mat. These flames would r how how high would you say the flames shot up? Sydney: Yeah, would say at least they probably doubled or tripled in size. They got pretty big. Probably like my height, if I were to guess. Yeah. TB: Yeah, it from the floor, you mean from the floor. Yeah. So I would say a couple feet, like two and a half, Sydney: Mm-hmm. TB: three feet high, where these flames would shoot up, but they couldn't do anything. And I rewatched this match when I when I sent it your way and I rewatched it and I'm like, man, this this kind of sucks. This match sucks. It's slow, it's plotting. But if you think about it, they're so limited because they can't they can't put themselves in the flames. Like right. They're they if you did you notice Around the outside, like on the barricade, how many firefighters were standing by? Sydney: Yeah, I couldn't tell if they were fake or not. But I guess now that you're saying that, yes, they are real, which makes sense. mean, it there was one point in the match where his air, what are their names? Rowan and Luke. They TB: Lou Carper, yeah. Sydney: jumped in the ring. They kind of put a blanket over top of the flame so that they could actually TB: Yeah. Sydney: get into the ring. And they were kind of beating up Kane while Bray Wyatt was laying there. And he has his arm like on the the rope and he is like this close from the fire. I'm like, dude, move your arms so you don't get burned. It's crazy. TB: Yeah. There's a couple points in the match where they're in the corner. Kane is fighting Bray in the corner and their feet are like underneath the ring rope. And I'm like, dude, your foot is almost lit on fire. It's gotta be so hot. And I think they're both wearing pants. they both have very long hair. So I'm one I'm I'm wondering at any time, is their hair gonna catch on fire? It was just crazy. Like, but you know, as you said. Not a lot of action going on. It's very slow. Sydney: Mm-mm. TB: It was very plotting. And I just thought looking back, and they kind of did it was a disservice to Bray for his very first match. so yeah, not not very memorable. But what's also interesting that if you look at the history of Bray Wyatt and he has a lot of these crazy gimmick matches that most wrestlers don't ever will they'll never see in their lifetime now. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get to wrestle that long. And so you see in his, you know, work list of of matches, he has a lot of these crazy off-the-wall matches that he gets to do. But I thought it was an interesting one to look at. I wanted to pick something from it from a SummerSlam that was a little different. Because obviously we have SummerSlam coming up in what, less than nine days, ten days, and it it's super exciting. But so do you think this match holds up today? Sydney: I don't know. See, I would say no, but I am not an avid watcher right now, so I don't know how things have changed. But I'm going to say no just because I feel like wrestlers are getting more athletic and things are getting more fast paced and it's meant to be more exciting. So I don't know how often they do these type of slower paced matches. So no would be my assumption. TB: Yeah, I don't see Triple H and the WWE ever putting these guys in a ring of fire match anytime soon. I just I I I don't see it. I think there's too much risk and it's not worth it because visually there's no there's no payoff. It doesn't make sense to do it. unless you're literally gonna start and catch one of these guys on fire, and that's the whole point of it, which why would you ever do that? I I I can't see them reusing this type of gimmick. I won't even ask you for what your favorite part of the match was because I watched it again and I can't tell you a memorable moment to the match. But so it's rating time and your scale is four turnbuckles. How are you rating twenty thirteen SummerSlam Ring of Fire, Bray Wyatt versus Kane? Sydney: It wasn't the worst match I've ever seen, but it wasn't even close to being the best. I don't want to give it a one, so I'm going to give it a two. Another thing that I thought about just being a potential spectator of this match is I don't even know if you were sitting courtside or courtside, ringside. That's TB: Yeah. Sydney: the basketball. If you were sitting ringside, if you would even be able to see what was going on in the ring because of TB: Yeah. Sydney: the fire. So I don't know. someone needs to speak up about their experience there, I just, not great, so I'm gonna give it a two. TB: Yeah, that's a great point. I would love to talk to somebody who is actually at this match and had a very close, you know, within the first couple rows view of this match. it it would have been crazy. But I've heard stories that the referee in this match did not like it at all. And he was absolutely soaking wet with sweat by the time this thing was over, and he barely did anything. So yeah, I mean, you're you're running around for I think it was only like seven and a half minutes. But you're running around trying to avoid the flames and there's nowhere you can escape. So I can't imagine how hot it was inside that thing. But yeah, insane. Probably not something we're gonna see many times, if ever again. But I thought, hey, that that's a kind of a a cool one to show you, just be to see something a little off the beaten path in wrestling history. And with SummerSlam less than two weeks away, I thought it would be cool to kind of to segue into that. But Saturday night's main event happened over the weekend. I don't know if you caught any of the social media from any of this. Did you hear any of the the fallout from Saturday night's main event? Sydney: No. TB: Yeah, so this took place in Madison Square Garden and it was essentially the New York Knicks show because some of their biggest superstars came out yet again. Danhausen had a huge match against, have you heard of Dominic Mysterio? So Dominic Sydney: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've heard of him. TB: Mysterio and his judgment day partner, JD McDonough, were taking on Danhausen, who we've talked about. Now, Dan Housen is this comedic gimmick wrestler that looks like a mini Dracula figure with a white face paint and a cape and all kinds of stuff. Well, he was getting beat down by these two members of the Judgment Day. And for the last week or so, he's been carrying around this pet carrier with a stuffed cat in it. And everyone had been asking, well, what's the point of this? Well, in previous episodes of TV, he has used A shoot, I'm trying to think of the name. It's called What do you call it when you like replicate someone? Sydney: clone? TB: Cloning machine. Yeah, he calls it like something like a cloning machine. It's this big wooden box that's up on the stage and it has a little door in it. So at some point in the match, he runs up with his little cat in the carrier. He opens the door and he throws it in and he closes the door of this cloning machine. And all this smoke starts billowing out and sparks start flying. And the whole door falls down. And who comes out but none other than Carl Anthony Towns from the Sydney: What the TB: New York Sydney: fuck? TB: careful now, careful. It's it's a family Sydney: Sorry. TB: show, but it's it's a clone of the cat. It's none other than cat. Sydney: or not? That was not easy. TB: It's none other than cat himself, and this dude Sydney: Hahaha TB: standing next to Danhausen is absolutely the the visual of it is fantastic. He comes down, he gets in the ring, and he choke slams JD McDonough and Ray and Ray and Dominic Mysterio. He puts Mysterio through a table and it's awesome. They sell the heck out of it. It looked fantastic. And yeah, it was just just great. Just great. It was a really cool use of him. And then they had a big tag team match with CM Punk pairing up with Cody Rhodes. And they took on Gunther and Sami Zayn because they're all kind of involved in the title. And they had a a really good, exciting match. there was a schmazz at the end, of course. And it's gonna lead to an angle involving the general manager of SmackDown, Nick Algus. He is gonna end up fighting Gunther at SummerSlam. It's gonna be pretty cool. We'll talk about that in a review next week. But anyway, after this really good match, your tribal chief, then the current WWE champion, Roman Reigns, comes down and he's accompanied by Finals MVP, none other than Madison Square Garden's own Jalen Brunson, who happens to be a huge WWE fan. And so they come down. it's a pretty cool moment. then Tyrese Halliburton, not a member of the Knicks, also comes out. He's getting booed. He's a member of the Indiana Pacers and a legit rival to Brunson and the Knicks. And There's a Schmaz and Seth Rollins comes in because he's fighting Roman and they go back and forth. Anyway, there's a big moment when Jalen steps in front of Rollins, prevents him from stomping Roman Reigns, and the crowd goes nuts because their hero has saved the day. And at the end of the show, at the end of Saturday night's main event at Madison Square Garden, you have Roman Reigns, the champ, Jalen Brunson, the champ, standing practically side by side with their prospective trophies and the belts. And everyone goes home happy. So I say all that to to to talk about the use of the New York Knicks. And and we've talked about this before. You've seen it before when you used to watch wrestling. How do you feel about celebrities and athletes being involved in the WWE? What's your take on that as as someone who occasionally participates in watching the project, the the product? Sydney: Yeah, I think it's really cool, honestly, depending on the celebrity, but usually I think that it's pretty tasteful. It's bringing two different communities of people together, essentially. And I think it's really cool, especially when you can bring in celebrities that have an emotional tie to the city that they're in. So I think it was very well played and I know Tyrese Halliburton has been a huge part of WWE within the past few months. So I think it is cool kind of tying in that element of it because they are rivals. TB: Right. Sydney: So I think it's cool. They've done a lot of celebrity appearances in the past. We talked about they did Travis Scott a few months back and I think usually they do it pretty well. So I'm all for it. TB: Is there anyone you would like to see in the celebrity or non wrestling world that would, you know, jump in and participate? Sydney: Ooh, I would like to see Tom Holland. I think that would be kind of cool. Like if they tied TB: Okay. Sydney: in something with like Marvel or something, I think that would be really interesting, especially because the new Spider-Man movie is coming out. I don't know how they could intertwine that in some sort of way, but I think it would be really TB: Right. Sydney: neat to see him get involved. I think he would be about it too. He's usually about those little side quests. TB: No, that that's that's not a bad not a bad option. I like that. I like that. so I wanted to try to debut a brand new game here on the three Ts. Are are you down? Sydney: I'm down. TB: So I came up with this idea called what's the gimmick? And so what this game is is I show you a picture, a picture only, no name, no notes, no nothing. from a wrestler in My childhood. Let let's let's go with that. And I want you to come up with what you would name this character, what you think their backstory is, kind of what what gimmick you think that they should be doing in the WWE. So are you ready? Sydney: I'm ready. TB: All right, let's see if we can go from here. So there you go. Can you see this? Sydney: Yeah. TB: So give me your thoughts first of all. What tell tell a listening audience what exactly you are seeing for those that aren't watching on the video. Sydney: This is a guy that has a mullet. He appears to be pretty strung out. He has a pair of like shears. Is that what that's called? It's like a big pair of scissors that you would use to like trim a bush. This is essentially what I'm seeing here. Yes, yes, yes. Gosh, I don't even know where TB: Like garden gardening shears. Okay, okay. Can you describe Sydney: to start. TB: can you describe his his wrestling attire, if you will? Sydney: Yeah, he's wearing these mesh gloves and they're hot pink and he's wearing striped hot pink and black pants that are mesh on the outsides, which is quite a choice. TB: It is quite a choice indeed. Quite a choice indeed. So first question, do you have have you ever seen this wrestler before? So you have no idea who this is All right, first of all, you Sydney: you TB: have to give this wrestler a name. Seeing how you don't know who this is, what what name would you give this wrestler? Sydney: I don't even know. He's so weird. TB: Well, first of all, before you I'll give you a few minutes to come up with a name, but what gimmick do you think he is trying to invoke here with this picture? Sydney: mean, he's trying to look scary. He's trying to look intimidating with his, like, he's going to cut you up with these scissors or something. But I don't really TB: Okay. Sydney: understand the whole pink vibe. Like, it doesn't really tie in. So TB: Okay. Sydney: pink is not a very intimidating color. So that's where I'm kind of getting thrown off here. TB: Understood. Any guesses on or any thoughts on what you would like to name this guy before I give you one clue? Sydney: I'm gonna name him Ronnie Razorblade. TB: That that's that's actually not too bad. I actually Sydney: you TB: really, really appreciate that guess. So I'm gonna give I'm gonna give you a clue. Now look closely at the handles on the shears and tell me what you see. Sydney: is he a barber? Okay, yeah. TB: Boom, so what do you see on the shears? Sydney: So that's supposed to look like a, what is that called? Like a barber, it's like a barbershop barber parlor. I don't know what that is, but it just reminds me of a barbershop, TB: Yeah, like a barber pole. Sydney: yeah. TB: Yeah, so it's they're red and white striped like the rotating thing that would be perched outside of a barber shop. Sydney: Yeah. TB: So I love it. Ronnie the razor razor blade, is that what you called him? Sydney: Ronnie Razorblade. TB: So truth be told, this character's name is Brutus the Barber Beefcake. Have have you ever heard of this guy before in your life? Sydney: No! That's crazy! Who came up with that? TB: So this guy, Brutus, Brutus Beefcake was his original name. He debuted way back in 1984. So I was five years old. He came in as a bad guy originally. and it was crazy because he teamed with someone called Greg the Hammer Valentine. Have you ever heard of Greg the Hammer Valentine? Well, they they were known as this dream team, and they teamed up for about three years. And then it was at WrestleMania III. So WrestleMania three is huge because this was Hulk Hogan versus Andre Andre the Giant in the Pontiac Silverdome at Detroit, Michigan. It's it's the body slam heard round the world anyway. It doesn't matter. That's the main event. We could talk about that at another show, but I've referenced that match numerous times here on the podcast. But Brutus Beefcake had a match earlier in that show. He was the tag team partner, like I said, of Greg the Hammer Valentine. At the end of the match, doesn't matter. There was kind of a schmoz and they left him alone in the ring and he kind of was essentially broken up with his partner at that point. Well, the very next match, it was a match involving Rowdy Roddy Piper. my gosh, I can't it just escaped me. Well, Roddy Piper is fighting a guy called Adrian Adonis, and they were actually involved in a stipulation match where the loser had to get his head shaved. Well, there's one part of the match where Roddy Piper is choked out and Adonis thinks he wins. And so he's kind of celebrating. Well, Brutus Beefcake comes down, comes to Roddy Piper's aid. He who is a good guy at the time. Essentially, Brutus Beefcake turns turns into a face or a good guy. He's no longer a bad guy because he helps out Roddy Piper. And then Roddy chokes out Adonis. And what happens next? But Brutus actually struts around the ring, making the finger snipping sound or motion with his hand, and then he proceeds to cut Adonis' hair right then and there in the ring. And this kind of became his new gimmick. So his thing was he puts he would put someone in a sleeper hold, and once his opponent was asleep in the ring, he would take out his scissors and he would cut their hair in the ring. So Hey, he became he was really good friends with Hulk Hogan. They they were involved in a lot of storylines and they were like best buddies. But yeah, as a kid, when you're like six, seven years old and you see a good guy, once he finally turned into a good guy, you see Brutus the Barber beefcake putting people to sleep and then giving them free haircuts in the ring. It was quite the sight to see when you're when you're a little kid. So I thought that would be a fun exercise. But I think, hey. Ronnie, the razor blade, that that's fantastic. you you you knocked that one out of the park. I I think I think you did you did really well. What do you what do you think? Sydney: I just want to talk to whoever's at WWE that decided to make his outfit pink and black. just, why didn't he go with red and white to match the barber theme? I guess I just, I'm not TB: He had a Sydney: understanding. TB: yeah, he had a lot of very flamboyant color schemes back then. Now, if if you know anything about like 80s wrestling, a lot of the characters wore these over-the-top colors. So Randy Macho Man Savage, a lot of these guys, their colors were very vibrant and very bright and just very expressive with a lot of their outfits, a lot of their a lot of the gear that they wore to the ring. It's not as crazy. as it was back then. a lot of the guys and girls now kind of tone it down a little bit. but but yeah, some of the eighties stuff that some of these guys were rocking is definitely, definitely crazy. But any other thoughts on Brutus Brutus the Barber? Sydney: Was he cutting people's hair with those big old scissors or with a smaller pair? TB: Definitely a smaller pair. Definitely a smaller pair. But he always brought he Sydney: Okay, that's why I I was, needed some clarification. TB: always brought the garden shears with him to the ring because I think they just would translate better on camera. Easier to pick up if you're sitting like in the the back of Madison Square Garden. Sydney: Yeah, that makes sense. TB: So but I I think he did great. but yeah, yeah, that's gonna wrap up the wrestling portion. Are you ready to move on to the next segment and talk some cards? Sydney: Yep, I'm ready. TB: All right. Well, cardboard enthusiasts, you are on the clock. How are we feeling? First question Fanatics Fest has come and gone. Please tell me you've seen some of the social media clips, some of the hubbub surrounding this four day event, also in New York City over the weekend. Have you seen anything? Sydney: You know what's really funny is that two out of the three people that I put on my list, I saw viral videos about. So, Kam Scataboo and Jameis Winston, who I both had on my list that I would pay to meet, they went viral for having crazy moments. So, I would say I had a pretty good list. TB: Can you tell us about the cam moment, please, for those that did not see this? Sydney: my gosh, if I was a Giants fan, I would be pissed off. If I was the Giants coach, I would be pissed off. This man, he practically like snapped his leg in half last season and he was having a really good season. So he had this really unfortunate injury, very extensive injury. And then he goes up on the stage to Fanatic's Fest and does a freaking back flip and doesn't TB: That's right. Sydney: land the back flip. He falls on his ass. on his butt. TB: Yeah. Sydney: yeah, if I'm a Giants fan, I'm like, what are we doing? What are we doing? But that's what you pay to see. He's crazy. He's not, he's not there. So I don't know. What can you say? TB: Yeah, it w it was wild the fact that he tried it. I'm not sure how much activity he's been doing up to this point on his newly repaired knee, but I don't think full backflip was on the bingo card for the coach to see that. wild. This guy's wild. but two he I think he was asked about it and he's like, I've been doing backflips my whole life. But I think he Sydney: Good for you, buddy. TB: I think he said like in while he was mid air, he had a thought that, this isn't going well or something. It was like, yeah, I'm not gonna land this. I don't know. He said the floor was too bouncy. I don't know what the excuse was, but it was very, very strange. Tell me about the Winston moment you saw. Sydney: Yeah, there was a viral moment of Winston. A few months back, he made a W sign with his fingers and he was like eating it. TB: Yeah. Sydney: He was like, we're gonna eat the W's or something. And someone that had paid to meet Jamis at Fanatics Fest made a cake that was in the shape of a W. And he was like, hey Jamis made this cake for you. Like we were gonna eat them W's this year or something TB: Yeah. Sydney: like weird like that. And he was like, can you sign my cake? It's an edible marker. And Jamis TB: Yeah. Sydney: is like, yeah, actually, you know what? Let's go ahead and eat this cake together. And then they TB: Mm-hmm. Sydney: just start eating the cake. Like they put their heads together and start eating the cake. It's just pure Jamis. TB: Yeah, that that was a a funny one. But did you see any other content at all or any other celebs or any anything else? Sydney: I saw one thing, I think this was Spanonix Fest, Logan Paul and Tom Brady. Tom Brady slapped Logan Paul in the face. What was that about? That was crazy. TB: Yeah. Yeah. So Tom Brady, first of all, okay, ninety percent of the social media clips I've seen on Financies Fest involve Tom Brady in some way, shape, or form, whether he's doing the fanatics games or he's revealing a card or he's interacting with this person or that person. And I'm like, is he still this big a deal that so many people care about him that he has to be in ninety percent of the social media clips? I just I don't get it. He's He's doing this. He's coming out the WWE. They put him in a casket. He's doing the Undertaker thing. He's slapping Logan Paul. He's throwing a ball and knocking Gronk in a tank full of raising cane sauce. It's like, my God. Is there anyone else alive on the planet that can be on this show other than Tom Brady? It's absolutely insane. The the amount of content involving Tom Brady is out of control. It's just, it's crazy. But yeah, about the Logan Paul thing. He made some stupid comment last year or earlier this year, talking about, you know, athletes, the WWE guys could never come into the NFL. And basically, NFL guys could always go do what wrestlers do and just run in his mouth and being dumb. And is it probably staged? Yes. But at the end of the day, it's just stupid. you know where this is leading, right? This is gonna lead to Sydney: Yeah. TB: some sort of WWE event. Or or match involving Tom Brady. Why? Because he is a narcissist and he can't stay out of the limelight. It's insane. Sydney: Yeah, I was just about to say this is gonna be some storyline that they have with Logan Paul or someone within the WWE. just, I'm not interested. TB: I I bet you anything, it'll be at a big pay-per-view down the road. Logan Paul is currently hurt, but once he's cleared, definitely this is coming to a WWE ring, to a match, to a event near you because it's just like he can't he can't stay away. Tom Brady has to be front and center of everything, and it just it drives me crazy. But it was him and it was Gronk, and I'm like, how much do we need to see these guys? They were They stopped playing what 10 years ago at this point? I don't even know. I don't, I don't care. I'm just so over it, it's just out of control. And and the other thing I noticed was all these little happenings involving celebrities and at certain booths or certain tables, it all seemed so staged to me. And you start to hear some of the stories of of tops kind of fabricating some of these deals and some of the sales and card trading. And I'm just like, I don't know. The more and more I saw, at first I thought the whole thing would be cool. And I think it I think there'd be portions of this event that would be fun to go do, some of the interactive stuff. But as far as like the celebrities, it it got out of control. And this is probably not an event that I'm really like wanting to go to given the location and the amount of money. I don't know. What what are your thoughts? Sydney: Yeah, like I mentioned, unless this was something that I didn't have to pay for or I was in the area already and I didn't have to figure out travel or anything like that, I don't know if I would go to something like this. It's just not really my thing. I see how it can be very appealing to people, especially if you have a lot of, if you're an expand, for example, I mean, if you're there and you want to meet the players more one on one, you want to get the autographs. I completely understand, especially coming off such a big high. from their recent success, but in my opinion, it's just not something that I would pay money to go to. I'd rather just sit and watch the clips. TB: Yeah. Allegedly Brunson was charging some ridiculo it was like four hundred dollars for an auto and four hundred dollars for a picture. So if you want a picture and auto, it's gonna cost you eight hundred dollars to get a photo and and auto of Jalen Brunson. That's I think that's like the most expensive one I saw, but I Sydney: I'm curious to know, is this money going towards the athlete or is it going towards fanatics? TB: I think most of it that they probably have to give a cut to to fanatics, but I think they they take most of it and most of it's dictated by them or their agent or whomever it's their fee. It's crazy to me. Yeah. Sydney: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't like that, but that's just me. TB: No, no, I get it. but because you know the the the secondary market for for memorabilia and merchandise, specifically signed stuff, just is through the roof that Yeah, I mean He just won the Knicks, the NBA title, and he's the MVP Sydney: Yeah. TB: of of the series. He can basically he could probably charge 800 for an auto and people would pay it. So it's Sydney: Mm-hmm. 100%. Yep. TB: crazy. It's crazy. But I did want to give you an update on something we we ran what a brand new segment last week called Price Check, and and we did I showed you the Dr. Doof and Schmerz from Topps Disney Chrome, and this was a numbered card out of 25. And we we kind of talked about it. That card sold for sixty seven dollars. Well, I found a second one. This one's only numbered to five. So there's only five of this card made. And that price, Sydney: Okay. TB: that price is climbing as we speak. It's probably almost about done right now, but what do you think that number was up to? Sydney: Well, maybe it'll be around 400 this time. TB: It's closing it's closing in on it. as of what, two hours ago, the price was two seventy-six for a Dr. Doof numbered to five. So not bad. But I say that to tell you, Sydney: expected to be more TB: yeah, but I we used Dr. D as an example of how even some of the lower characters in this product are are climbing. Topps Disney and Topps Marvel Chrome, these prices are I continuously see them climbing and climbing and climbing. I check on them every couple of days. And some of these cars are just they're they're flying. Their prices are they keep going higher and higher. And it's just it shows me that the non sport market, you know, the the Star Wars, the Disney, the Marvel, all the stuff that's not Pokemon, Pokemon's in a whole world of its own. But the non sports stuff, it's it's coming on fast. And then these prices are are just taking off. So it's kind of cool. It's kind of cool. But I did want to talk about the return of Topps announcing 2026 flagship football. This is the first time Topps have has had the license for the NFL product since 2015. Have you seen any of this? Sydney: No, I don't really... Flag football... it's... Oh! TB: No, not flag football. The product is called flagship football. It's the actual NFL, but they just so so Sydney: Okay, okay. TB: what I what I mean by the word flagship, when they say flagship, it's basically the base product of that sport. So baseball, when I say flagship, they're talking about series one, series two, and update. It's basically they spread baseball out because there's so many players, they spread it out into three different releases over the course of the year. But the whole thing is called the flagship baseball collection. Well, Topps announced that they are releasing flagship football product, and it actually comes out for pre-order today's Wednesday. It comes out Friday. And the cover boy is your Hollywood selection for the AFC Sydney: And doza. TB: for Fernando Mendoza. So, how do you think about him being on the cover of the first Topps football product with the actual licenses? And when I mean that they can actually use the team name and the team logo on the cards because prior to that they weren't allowed to do that. But how do you feel about Mendoza being the the the cover boy for this product? Sydney: I think it's interesting. I think he deserves it 100 % but it is interesting because I don't even think that he's going to play this year. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure he's going to be sitting the entire year so it's just interesting to me that they're putting him on the cover when he might not even play. But he's a good guy. I think he deserves it. Look at him. He's just so nice. He's so genuine. Like he can never do a bad thing. Look at that smile. TB: So what do you think of this card though? Seriously. Now for the listening audience, this is Fernando Mendoza's rookie card tops 2026 flagship football. This is his Raiders rookie card. What do you think? Sydney: It looks like it was taken on a digital camera in like a really dark room that they just kind of blasted him with the flash. I don't know. It's TB: Ha ha. Sydney: not it to me. It doesn't look like a typical sports card, but I think it could be something new. TB: So yeah, so this, this, this the style of this card, the design of this card matches the baseball product to a T. So here's the cover of the box. Obviously, this is not a card. This is what you get when you actually purchase the product. And that's the cover of the box. But yeah, this design here with almost like the stitching in the upper left corner, this is exactly the same design that Topps used through all their 2026 baseball products. So they translated it to a T over to football. It's a little crazy. I don't know how I feel about that, but I get the consistency amongst the sports. Now, if we go down here, we have this is called a true photo variation. So this is essentially Sydney: That's great. TB: just a picture. There's no background added in. There's no like border. It's just the player and the field. And it's a true photo, which kind of takes away everything else except the what do you think of these? These are really cool. Sydney: I think that looks cool. Yeah, that's really, really cool. TB: I think these are going to be very tough to pull out of the box. and then you have so so here I'm showing you a picture of the true team border variation. So obviously the Dallas Cowboys have the silver star as their logo, and they have the star in the blue, kind of around two-thirds of the card on the outside. What do you think of those? Sydney: Yeah, that's neat. think it's a little bit more... I don't want to say basic because I don't think it's basic, but I think the border is what makes the card. TB: Yeah, I would love to see some of the bills with that. Now, this is a throwback card here. These are called the this is this is the design that Topps used in 1991 during the product. So you see in the upper right corner, it has Topps 35th anniversary. So these are kind of they use the design from 35 years ago, but they use the players of today. So I do kind of like these. These are cool. Obviously, this card is a rookie card of the Rams. Number one draft pick, Ty Simpson quarterback. What do you think of that? Sydney: I don't love that. I don't know. Maybe it's just because it's a rookie and it's just kind of funny to me that he's like on a throwback card, but I don't know. They're okay. feel like TB: And because he's probably gonna be terrible. Sydney: that too. Yeah. And also I just feel like you can't see him super clearly, but. TB: I'm just going to scroll through some of these, but this is a huge set. There's Sydney: Ooh. TB: there's a 400 card base set. So if you want to put this whole set together, it's gonna be wild. Yeah, this one here, this is called a Vic. Yeah, Sydney: That one's really cool. TB: that one's that one's pretty wild. This is called a Victory Inc. obviously it has the on card auto here. This one's of JSN from Seattle, so that one's really cool. Sydney: What is that autograph? What is that autogra- TB: Yeah, and we we should talk about that at some point. yeah, I'm I'm talking to you, James Cook. You have one of the worst autos in the history of sports. You just sign your stuff, JC, and that's it. And it's kind of frustrating to me. But here are some of the memorabilia cards. Here's one of Cam Ward with a part of his patch that's from his jersey. so I mean, look, all in all, is it the greatest? I don't know. I don't know how I feel about this. Here's here's one called touchdown. This is gonna be a extremely hard card to pull. These are called super short print inserts, and this touchdown variation is gonna be very difficult to get. And it's kind of has a comic book themed design. Obviously, this is Josh and he looks like he's a superhero coming out of the card. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. Sydney: I don't love that one. TB: Yeah, yeah. But it's interesting. Like I said, this this set is huge. 400 cards. And if I just pull up the Buffalo Bills, I mean you have Keon Coleman, Shakir, Josh Allen, Deion Dawkins, Dalton Kincaid, James Cook, DJ Moore, Ed Oliver, Tyler Bass, Bills team card. You have a lead league leaders card with James Cook on it, a combo card, Skyler Bell rookie, Davison Igbanosa, rookie, TJ Parker rookie, and then like holy cow, like there's a lot of stuff in this product. So I don't know. The pre-release comes out. On Friday, of course, with any pre-release, they don't tell you exactly how much this product is gonna cost. The the rumor is a hobby box is gonna run you anywhere from one thirty to two fifty. That's what people are guessing. And you're guaranteed either one autograph or one memorabilia card. I don't know. I kind of don't. Don't know where I sit. So if money were no object and you had a hundred and thirty free dollars that you found on the sidewalk, would you buy a box of this twenty twenty six Topps flagship football? Sydney: No, I'm sorry I wouldn't. TB: You're not you're not feeling this? Sydney: No. TB: Would you rather have this or artifacts upper deck golf that we talked about? Ha ha Sydney: Probably this, but TB: ha. Sydney: I don't know how much that says. TB: No, I gotcha. I gotcha. We'll see what happens when it comes out on Friday. But I think that's all I got for the car community. Do you got anything else that you wanna you wanna talk about before we wrap up this kind of crazy episode of the three T's? Sydney: No, it looks like you're in a dark dungeon though. TB: I know. I I apologize to everyone in advance. I had two cameras go out on me. I'm now on the computer terrible webcam. And it looks like I'm sitting in, to your point, a prison cell somewhere. I don't know what's going on. So we'll see if this episode ever sees the light of day. I don't know. But I think that's gonna wrap it up for this episode of the three T's. If you have enjoyed This show or any of the other shows, please make sure you follow. Hit that like, hit that subscribe, leave us a rating or review wherever you listen to the pod. Please share it with someone who you know loves the Buffalo Bills, who is an avid card collector, or who just loves the awesome hobby of professional wrestling. It doesn't matter. We're trying to grow this thing one episode at a time. So for Sydney, I'm TB. I appreciate y'all stopping in and checking us out. Thanks for Mike for stopping in. Hopefully, his audio and video. came through. We shall see what happens. But as always, keep doing what you love. be good, do good. God bless. And as always, go Bills. Sydney: Go Bills. TB: We will see you later.