Latest / The Vikings Tailgate / Vikings Tailgate: James Roday Rodriguez Titan's Up, Announces At The 2022 NFL Draft - TEN - Episode 45

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Vikings Tailgate: James Roday Rodriguez Titan's Up, Announces At The 2022 NFL Draft - TEN - Episode 45 · The Vikings Tailgate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Unreal is back with their limited edition Vikings drop, so
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: head over to Younarl dot com for more details. Hey guys,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: it is Titans Week here on the Tailgate and I
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: could not be more pumped for this week's guest. I know,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I know, I say that every single week, but boy,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: oh boy, do we have a treat this week. Every
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: once in a while, we step out of the stand
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: up comedy world and into the Hollywood world, and we
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: have a diehard Titans fan this week. You might know
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: him from I believe, one of the best comedies of
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: all time, the show Psych. He also was in A
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Million Little Things.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: He directs.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: He was in Buddy Games with Josh Dumel and Nick Schwartzen.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: We have the incredible James Rode Rodriguez. This is a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: really fun one.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Guys.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: If you like the show, please make sure you're subscribed
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to it and maybe leave a little review that would
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: really really help us. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the show.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Everybody today Recket Reckett for bad man, I mean, all right, everybody.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We are lucky enough to be joined by the great
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: James Rode Rodriguez, die hard Titans fan, James, But you
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: are not a Tennessee guy. Right, you are one of
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: You are one of the rare fans who have followed
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a team from their old place to their new place.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's it's a rare breed of us
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: who whose loyalties are so myopically dedicated to a group
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: of men on the grid iron that when they change uniforms,
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: we change with them. And the truth is, I lived
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: in San Antonio. I grew up in San Antonio, so
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I had no I had no real affiliation or loyalty
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: to the city of Houston. I picked the Oilers as
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: a very very young child, primarily because everyone else in
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: my family were Cowboys fans, and I was found and determined,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: even at that early age, to become the black sheep
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: of my own family. It was very important to me,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: and it just so happened that Earl Campbell was sort
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: of the face of the franchise back then, who had
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: like a player to latch onto. Before I even really
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: understood what, you know, the rules or how football worked,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I just knew there was this guy and when they
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: handed him the ball, he ran like over people upright,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: And you know, until you know guys like Jamal Lewis
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: and now Derrick Henry came around, Like, there just aren't
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: a lot of running backs who punished defenders, you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: the way that Earl Campbell did. That was sort of
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: my introduction to football, because Dallas was like, you know,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know, I felt like there were a bunch
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of pretty boys and their cheerleaders had almost as much
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: attention as they did, and they were America His team,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and I don't know, none of that appealed to me, right,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: And the more that I was chastised for being an
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Oiler fan, you know, the more my love for the
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: team grew and my hatred for the Cowboys grew, and
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: then I became very attached to all those teams of
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: the eighties and early nineties. You know, run and Shoot
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: was a great time for us. We underachieved, but it
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: was still a really fun team to watch. And then
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: you know, Steve and Eddie were the team, but those
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: were the guys that took us, you know, to Tennessee.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: So there was no way I was going to abandon
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: those guys. Those were my guys. And frankly, it's more fun,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: you know, to watch a game in Nashville than it
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: ever was, you know.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: In Houston. Yeah, it's funny you said a couple of things.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: You know, we have a strong connection to a punishing
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: running back here. I just remember some of the moments
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: in AP's career where he would run a guy over
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and it's almost this primal, like you can't even understand
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: why you connect with it so hard. Yeah, but it's
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it's just so competitive and aggressive and the it's nuts.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: But I also connect to that the finding a play.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: We were so lucky. I was a kid in ninety
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: eight when Randy Moss came on the scene, and when
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you have one of the people who's the greatest to
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: ever do it, and they do it in almost this
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: sounds corny to say, but almost this artistic way that
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: yet you just you just sink into it, in that
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: moment where the world isn't the world yet as it
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: actually you're still full of hope as a kid. It
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: just having a guy like an Earl Campbell or a
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Randy Moss really makes you a different sort of fan
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of a team.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: I hardcore agree, and I wonder like if Campbell hadn't
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: been on those Oilers teams when I was, you know,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: figuring out how to live and take care of myself
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: in very basic ways. If I had, if I would
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: have perhaps migrated to another, you know, another team altogether
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: out I wasn't going to be a Cowboys fan. That's
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: that's what I knew. So I kind of owe it's
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a campbell for like, oh, well, there's this other team
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: in Texas and they have this guy. I'll just go
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: with them. Otherwise those man, I might be sitting here
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: as a fellow Vikings fan on this pod.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: You know that'd be better you. But we also shared
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: a guy. I mean I Warren Moon. I mean, I
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: don't know what your complete experience was with him as
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: an Oilers fan, but even the time he spent in Minnesota,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: it has that I never quite understand why he doesn't
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: consistently exist in that greatest quarterback conversation. I mean, I
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: understand why, right, he couldn't come into the league. He
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: spent time in the CFL. But if you just package
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: who he was and how he threw the ball, he's
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite guys to ever watch play.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was a great pure passer, and he was
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: you know, he was a bit of a cerebral assassin
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: as well. I think what keeps him out of that
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: conversation is that at least in Houston, they gave him
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: a lot of toys. Sure, we also had a pretty
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: good defense, and you know, we couldn't even get to
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: an AFC championship game. So there was something, there was
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: some kind of disconnect, There was something lost in translation
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: where he could not lead a great team to the
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: promised land. And I think that's that's ultimately what holds
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: him back. Because the yards obviously are there, the stats
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: are absurd, the mustache was on point.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Haul of fameustash.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: But yeah, man, you gotta win. You gotta win in
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: this league to be considered to be considered one of
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: the best.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Well maybe that's the problem here where we're just so
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: used to, like, you know, on the Statue of Liberty,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: they have the tired and hungry. I feel like we
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: had we should have a like a Viking statue of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Liberty that just says, give us your old and almost
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: retired if you have if you can really throw the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: ball and you're in your elder years as a quarterback,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: We're like, huddle up, man.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: So we didn't.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: It's not like we thought he was going to lead
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a team here. Let me let me ask you this.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I think our two franchises share collectively the two best
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: moments in the last forty years, the Minnesota Miracle and
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the Music City Miracle.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Is does that play for you, guys? Resonate?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I mean both neither of our teams have won a title, right,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: We've both been close us four times you in this
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: painstaking one yard way, So it's this damaging sports trauma thing.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: But do you does your guys fan base hold that moment?
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: And do you hold that moment is like the pinnacle
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: of the franchise, you know here it's kind of everybody's
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: obsessed with it, but every once in a while you
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: find people who they don't quite want to celebrate it
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: because it's not a title, I think for.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Me, and I would know, I wouldn't speak for the
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: for the fan base as a whole. But of course
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: it's a highlight, of course, and it's one of the
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: most unbridled, like singular moments of childlike joy that I
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: enjoyed as a grown man. But I think more than that,
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: for me, it was the scales of football justice somehow
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: balancing out what happened to us against the Bills.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: And the greatest comeback.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: So it was basically just even the playing field again,
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: So it's hard for me to let it exist as
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: on its own island, as like the greatest moment in
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Titan's history, when in reality there was this deep, deep
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: black hole that was sucking us down, and that moment
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: kind of pulled us back up to like terra firma.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: So it's kind of like a palette cleanse. But it
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: was a beautiful It was a beautiful moment, to be sure,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: but the fact that it was against the same team
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: in the playoffs, like, I couldn't have scripted that better
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: in terms of like, hey, let that one go, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: that's sort of what it allowed me to do.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: That's really interesting because as I'm thinking about it in
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: real time, the similarities are wild because the Vikings had
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that far view where I and as a Viking fan,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: you're trained it's almost generational punishment where your dad's like, hey,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: just don't get your hopes up, man, no matter what happens,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: just don't buy in. And when farv hit Sydney Rice
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: up across the fifty in that championship game against the Saints,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I in my head, as a young adult man, went,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: oh my god, we're going to the super Bowl only
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: to only to just be shattered. But yeah, then when
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: they get that Minneapolis miracle, it is against Sean Payton,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: He's in the building doing the skull. So yeah, I
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: think I'm going to take that attitude on and really
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: view it that way, because you're right, it's kind of
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: like it almost makes the universe even.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: That's fun.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: It helps me. It helped me, you know, get over
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: that for sure.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I Mean, it's been a weird couple of years for
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you guys, and it's kind of hard to see where
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: it's going, right.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: That's very it's very kind. That's a very kind way
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: of putting it. I appreciate that.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I'm doing my best.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I saw I'm a die hard hoops fan,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: right and you want to talk about tortured fan bases,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: there isn't a single one across sports that goes through
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: what Timberolves fans have been through and so but yet
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and still, when Cage went to Boston and he won
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a title, I really found myself rooting and was able
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: to get over how much I wish that was our success.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: What is it like to watch Derrick Henry when everybody
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: kind of thought he was washed. I think even some
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: people in Tennessee to watch him like almost be on
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: pace for two thousand and be leading this and like,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: is that hard, especially with it being the Ravens or
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: are you enjoying it a little bit?
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: I couldn't be happier for the King Man. I did
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: not want him to spend what was arguably his last
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: one or maybe because the guys seems to be inhuman
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: two years in his prime, you know, stuck, stuck in Tennessee.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: So I was worried that, you know, Jerry was gonna
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: sign him and put him on the Cowboys, because that
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: happened with it, that happened with Eddie George was very
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: tough for me. I wanted it to be the Ravens
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: because I figured, you know, sharing a backfield with Lamar
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Jackson is every running backs you know dream, and you
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: know what it would open up for him as long
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: as he still had something in the tank, like would
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: be formidable. I never thought that he would be on
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: pace for two thousand yards like this is beyond my
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: wildest expectations for him. But short of the Titans winning
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: a Super Bowl, which you know, we know is not happening.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: You know, Derek getting a ring is probably the happiest
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: I could be as as like a you know, in
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: terms of a range of outcomes, like I'd be thrilled
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: for the guy.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fun.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: That gives you kind of a rooting interest in a
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: season that doesn't necessarily feel like it has a huge one.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: It's really interest when teams go through, like the level
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: of change that you guys are going through. The NFL
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: is different than the NBA. Because you're a Spurs fan, right, yeah, Okay,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: you you understand that, Like the NBA is this unique
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: beast where it is so hard to build in a
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: small market, and you know, there's really two teams who've
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: done it and done it well in the last thirty years.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: It's the Warriors and the Spurs. And to.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: All these teams bottom out even as OKC does it
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: right now, you wonder how long will it hold? Is
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it real? Can they get to the level where they
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: truly compete? Same thing we're feeling with ant in Minnesota.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: The NFL kind of you know, do this salary cap.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: It kind of has this parody and this never ending
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: hope of like you generally usually two to three years away,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: do you are you able to sell that to yourself
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: right now?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Have you?
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Like, what are the things that you're seeing in this
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: season that at least go oh man, because I mean
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the Vikings as they kind of got towards the end
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: of the Zimmer area, you know, the narrative was you
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: have a quarterback who you know makes a lot and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the defense doesn't have anything there and then all of
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a sudden, incomes O'Connell, incomes Quasy. Two years later, everybody
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: thought we were gonna be a disaster this year nationally
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and they're I mean, they're seven and two and crushes.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I just think there's this eternal hope in the NFL.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Is there any of that like bought in your mind?
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: There always is before the season starts. I'm really good
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: at convincing myself, just just doing the calculus and like,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: all right, well, we have completely overhauled the defense. We
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: have a brand secondary. We brought in an offensive minded
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: head coach who's gonna, you know, install a brand new
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: offense where we're gonna throw the ball, like, even if
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: we suck, we're going to look completely different and we're
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: gonna suck in a new and potentially exciting way. And
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: we're going to put up points and that'll be fun.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Like we go seven in you know, ten or eight
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: to nine or whatever it is, it adds up to
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: seventeen that that's acceptable if we're not making the same
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: mistakes and doing the same you know stuff that we
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: were doing under the previous regime. I just need to
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: be a culture shift, because to me, what's the point
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: of firing Vrabel if you're not going to like blow
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: it up and make make the team a new in
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: somebody else's image. And what's truly fascinating to me this
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: season is that we're hamstrung by the exact same issues
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: that we had last season. We still have an offensive
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: line that can't get it together. We still can't get
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: off the field on defense, So what should be a
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: pretty good defense gets worn out by the end of
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: the first half, and then we just get run up
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: in the second half and we can't score more than
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: seventeen points on offense. And I don't understand how all
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: of those things could have could have carried over.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Through all the changes through a whole new.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Group of dudes, new leadership, new head coach, new offense,
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: like you name it, everything's new, same old problems. It's
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: it's pretty wild.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: You guys have one of the craziest statistics I've seen.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know in one hundred years. You're the number
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: one ranked yards defense, you allow less yards than anybody
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: in professional football, and you give up the twenty ninth
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: most points. I like, when you're researching the game, I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: don't even know what to do with that.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of it came from that game
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: against Detroit where oh shit started, they started every drive
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: inside our thirty because our special the special teams breakdown
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: was like next level. That definitely pumped that stat But
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: to that end, we have we have to have the
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: worst special special teams in the league. And you know
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: that that guy's just hanging on to the gig. I
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: guess you know he's I don't know, Callahan's a loyalist,
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: whatever it is. But it seems almost as if there's
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: like a fatalistic acceptance that, all right, this entire season
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: is going to be dedicated to like learning what we
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: have starting at quarterback, and you know, to that end, great,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: let's let's red shirt the whole season. But by the
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: end of by the end of this year, like I
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: as a fan, I want to know that Will Levis
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: is a guy or not. And you know, I guess
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: that is the measure by which I'll use whether or
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: not this season and held any value you know in
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: the canon of Titan's lore is like, all right, we
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: either found a quarterback, which would surprise me after what
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: I've seen, but I'll give the kid the benefit of
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: the doubt because you know, plenty of guys have started
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: slow in this league. Or you know, we said we
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: we said we were going to do it, and we
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: followed through. But we set this this guy up with
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: weapons and and we gave him a chance to succeed,
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: and he didn't. And so you know, we're moving on.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: And that's that. I guess that's that's what the season
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: is for the Titans. And you know, when you're a
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: diehard fan and it's that kind of mechanical and like perfunctory, Uh,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: that's when I just am very grateful for fantasy because
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: we like what a lame duck season.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: It's hard to invest in that you're exactly right if
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: you if you have a piece of hope, like if
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: even like let's say you drafted a wide receiver in
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the f I remember when we had Stefan Diggs in
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: his first year mid level draft pick game four, he starts,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: we're not a great football team. All of a sudden,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: he takes a couple of balls to the house, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: you go, oh, like you did anything to convince yourself
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that next year is going to be the year. Sports
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Soccer rooms are like really unique places, I think, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: we all kind of joke about the cliches where they're
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: like we're a family and it's us against the world.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: You're like, nobody's against you, but I think they truly
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: believe that it's just You're like, it's such a you know,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: you know, as being such a public figure, it's such
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: a unique place to have everybody looking at you. And
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: then in sports there's a lot of what you do
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: right and wrong that it just cements these places.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: And I wonder early in.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: The season because I didn't know that I didn't know
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: if the Titans were going to be good or bad,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: but I thought they were going to be competitive. And
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: then a couple of those interceptions by Levis early where
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: they were like Sage, they were the interception version of
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Sage Rosenfels helicopter fumbling the ball, and my nephew, who
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: is my adult nephew who is a gambling maniac, was
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: real high on the Titans boy, and he was at
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: my house for one of those interceptions, and I was like,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I'll just go outside for a while.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: I guess I don't want to be a part of this.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: But do you think there was like do you think
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: something like that, because it seems like since those moments
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: it just hasn't come back at all.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: No. I mean, I think Mason Rudolph shows you who
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: the Titans really are sure, which in a way is
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: even more depressing because you realize, oh, here's a guy
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: that will lead this souped up, new designed offense to
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: six wins, like a six win team with a decent
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: backup who will come in and manage the game. So
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: that to me was like watching Levis make mistakes that
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: if you saw, like in a bad football movie, you
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: would be like, well, this is the worst attempt at
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: real football action. Yeah, was one thing, but at least
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: the like I don't at least the mask was still
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: on in a way because you're like, well, he can't
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: do this. Every week he got hurt and Mason Rudolph
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: came in. It was like, oh, well, this is just
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: our ceiling and we suck. And that was really depressing,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Like because if we're a six win team, six win
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: teams you know, aren't close to two winning championships.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Well, and the problem is there's a bunch of two
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: or three win teams. You find yourself and like, what
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I think is the worst place in football is like
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: you're in the no man's land where you can't go
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: get the guy you want necessarily and you can't get
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: out of the spot you're in, and then you just
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: you just get stuck there. Do you You said fantasy?
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Are you you pretty deep into it? Have you ever
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: heard of guillotine fantasy?
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: I'm in two guillotine leagues this season.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Isn't it it?
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Like so I could never do fantasy because because I
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: just dislike too many teams.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: It's just I'm so bad at it.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I should take this like, oh I'm not I pass
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: up a Packers wide receiver to just draft somebody horrific.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: But the Guillotine league got me in. Man.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I just it is just this different beast that I
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: am obsessed with.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: I love the format, still alive in both in both leagues,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: they're very different leagues. One is kind of a mix
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: of entertainment industry types and a few like fantasy expert types.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of carryover from the Dynasty League that
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I'm in. And the other one is started by Michael Fabiano,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: who is a fantasy expert guy, and it's kind of
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: a mix of like people that follow his show in
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: me and a couple of people that are on his show.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: And it's it's interesting to sort of watch how different
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: fantasy players approach at because like Cabiano for example, for example,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: burned through and he's honestly, he's like the best fantasy
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: player that I know, high stakes, week to week, guote
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: and you name it. He blew through his fab and
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: like the first I think three or four weeks, he
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: loaded up his squad and he just sat back and
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: and he's consistently been, you know, either first or second
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: in points every week. Obviously, the risk that comes along
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: with that are bye weeks and injuries you don't have
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: any money left, you know, Versus the people that are
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: kind of safely you know, maybe you know, nibbling here,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: nibbling here, waiting for a specific player, and then you
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: got the people who go down and get chopped with
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: nine hundred and eighty dollars in the bank and you're like, well,
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: you you clearly didn't know you know, what we're doing here,
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: and and it's fun to kind of watch, you know,
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: people approach this. I think it's the newest format in
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: chantasy and try to figure it out. And it's I
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: love the idea that the stakes on a weekly basis
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: are as high as they can possibly get.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, like being.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Part thirteenth movie, but you're you know, you're instead of
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: a character, you're a fantasy team.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's amazing, and it eliminates that thing that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: sucks about regular fantasy, which is, oh, some guy, Oh
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: we just didn't know that. You know, Romeo Dobbs was
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: going to be the best receiver in the league one
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: year and then all of a sudden, who ever drafted
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: and wins the league, you know, And and you have
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the amount of people who will kind of give up
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: on the league a little bit if things don't go
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: totally right for them, and so I think it eliminates that.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And it's just you're exactly right, it's the highest stake
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: every single week. Let me ask you a fan experience question.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: So you guys to announce a draft pick for the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Titans in twenty twenty two. So now we've been talking
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: long enough that I can see that thing between like
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: that's sitting behind your eyes.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: That I also have. We're like, I'm a psycho, right,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: and when they.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Let me near, Like I say this on the show
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: all the time, it's insane that this organization occasionally lets
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: me on the field without a spotter. What was it
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: like to do? I mean, that had to have been surreal.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: And were you able to pull it together at the draft?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: And have you had any other fan experiences where you're
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: just so close you're like, ah, don't get up, don't
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: say anything.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: That was definitely the one. Then it was an interesting experience.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: I put together a crew of my dudes, like three
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: dudes from high school, my best friend, and two other
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: great friends that I've held on too from the high
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: school years. We went to Vegas, which is where the
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: draft was. I knew that Billy White Shee's Johnson was
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: was announcing the first round pick and we didn't have
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: a second round or so I was. I was supposed
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: to do rounds three till like the end. I was
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: like gonna be the utility draft announcer. I go and
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: do the third round pick, which is tackle Nicholas Petite.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Freer, Hall of Fame name, Hall of Fame.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Name has yet to perform like a hall of famer.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: I feel guilty, like maybe if someone else could had
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: had read that draft card, he'd have a different career.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: These are the kind of the kind of pressure that
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: I put on.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Myself that yeah, that's that's what happened.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: But they give you a card that gives you the
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: name phonetically pronounced, so anytime you see someone butcher a
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: name at the NFL draft, there's zero excuse for that.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: Like you, they tell you how to say it, They
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: put it on the card with its with a phonetic
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: spelling beneath it, and you go out there and all
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: you have to do is read off the card. But
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: then I thought I was doing all the other picks
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: and something got lost into translation. And the representative of
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: the NFL, which is a woman whose name escapes me,
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: but she she comes on every year and starts like
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: doing the filler picks, like when there's nobody there to
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: do them, Like God bless her. She comes out. She
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: has absolutely no like emotional awareness whatsoever. Like she reads
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: these cards like as if she's at the DMV asking
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: the next person to come up in line. And I
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: get there, ready to go, and it's the Malik Willis
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: pick and I see the card And at that point
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: we were all kind of excited about about hitting Malik Willis,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, yo, I'm here, I'm I'm here. I
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: got it. She didn't want to give it up, dude.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: This was this she like she presents as someone who's
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: like I am here to represent the NFL. I wish
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: that it was someone for every pick, but in the
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: event that there's not, I have to go out and
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: I have to do this. Then when I was like, yo, dude,
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I got this, Nope, she wanted the Malik Willis. She
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: wanted it.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you never.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Know to hear her say the words. So I just
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: went out there and like video bombed her while she's
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: doing it, Like I don't know if it made the coverage,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: but I'm literally like dancing behind her on both sides
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: as she as she makes the pick, and then as
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: she walks off the stage. I rushed the mic to
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: be like we did it, tighten up, and it took
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: the microphone off on me. Treatment I did I suspect
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: that I might not be invited back to the NFL draft,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: or maybe I'm giving myself like maybe I'm I'm giving
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: myself way too much credit. Like nobody even cared. But
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: I had the weird moment where it was like thumb
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: on one side, thumb on the other, Malik Willis card
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: in the middle, and like I got flexed on.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's there is just something about if you
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: are a real fan I like, and I think that's
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: a good thing.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: You know, you've had a fantastic career and you've been acting.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say right out of school, but
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: you you've had a you know, you've had some success
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: early and it's been going on for a long time.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Did at any point, because you're clearly, you know, a
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: fan of a lot of older television and cinema and stuff,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: At any point, did being on the set, seeing the
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: way it was made, you know, being really in the
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: guts of it, did it affect that childish love for
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it at all?
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: I mean it was romantic. You know, I started my
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: career shooting on film. You know, it was it was
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: everything that I hoped it could be and more I
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: got really lucky with my first couple of jobs, and
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: then Psych was the best job ever. There were very
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: few things that like, very few dreams that got shattered
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: by the actual mechanism of filmmaking. I mean, I knew
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: it was you had to be different than theaters, so
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: there was no comparison for me. I was ready to
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: accept a completely different experience and a completely different approach.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean I love them both, but for
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: very different reasons. I I love theater because there's there
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: is no equivalent of you know, jumping out of a
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: plane without a parachute, you know, artistically. And I love
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: film because you know how much magic can be made,
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: and how collaborative of a process it is, and how
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: you know, you really kind of are only as strong
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: as your weakest link in that. And that's a completely
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: different medium.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: That's that's amazing that you've been able to keep that
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: because when you when I kind of related to sports
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: like you, you obviously can carry that, like be that
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: way at the NFL draft, like being here on this
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: show and then being like I think it is I've
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: almost at this building. Had to keep a distance to
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: not learn too much, to not see too like I.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: It has to.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: It has to remain this escape, which I think for
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: everybody who's also on this show that you can't see
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: right now, Like you said, the whole collaborative. Everybody who's
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: paying attention to me right now is like, yeah, we
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: get it. You don't want to get close. You could
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: do a little more of the work that would be helpful,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: but but it is, it is. It is pretty cool
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to be at you know, my dad is that way
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to be at that point in your life doing the
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: draft and still into it enough that hey, like I
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: always say, I'm not gonna let a sports event ruin
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: my life or my family life, or you know, you
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: get disappointed. But to still have that like joy, Yeah,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: to wanna to want to run out and hype up
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: a Malik Willis pick that you're not supposed to be
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: on the stage for that's great.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And and I still have the joy, and I
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: still have the hope. And I think where I've managed
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: to find some balance is you know, I don't, like
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: you said, I'm not down. My life is not over.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: You know, we lose if we lose a bad game,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: if we don't make the playoffs. You know, my best
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: friend who I grew up with, just walked in the
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: apartment and he remembers the days where I would, you know,
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: I would pout like a child we lost, and those
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: days are over. I'm too old for that. So I
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: feel like I'm invested in all the love of it,
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: and I you know, obviously a Titan super Bowl would
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: be a wonderful, wonderful gift for all of the fan
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: base and those of us that have suffered for so long.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, I think sports
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: exist to lift us, not to squash us. So you know,
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: you roll with the punches. By the way, just for
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: the record, a good buddy of mine from college named
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: Wayne also just came into the apartment, and I didn't
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: want you to I didn't want him to think that
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: I was leaving him out by just mentioning my lifelong
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: best friend who goes all the way back to San
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: Antonio with me. There was just there was a moment
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: where I actually thought it, and then and then they
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: texted it to me, like, Hey, there's there's two of
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: us here.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: There's two of us here, and I think it's important
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: just to be super clear to rank your best friends.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well very specifically describe how they came into
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: your life and when, Thus they never lose that desire
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and fire to appease you.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: That's right. And these two both go way, way, way
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: way back. I mean high school and college are both
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: for me and a man of my age. Those are
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: old old friends.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean one of them definitely older.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: It sounds like one's a little ones. Well, one I've
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: known longer. But we're all the stream age, but only
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: one of us consistently pulls off garden gnome chic. And
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: I'll let let them know what I'm talking about.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: So dumb, I'm gonna make you do the thing everybody hates.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Maybe Wayne wants to pitch in.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Here's listening.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Oh thank God, give me a give me a prediction
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: for this weekend. Give me a score prediction. I know
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: people hate that. Yeah, I don't mean to do it,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: but give me a score prediction.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Well, it's an easy question for me because we score
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: seventeen every week, regardless of who we're playing or what
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: the spread is. So I'm going to say Titans seventeen,
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Kings thirty one.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: God, I'd love for you to be right, that's a
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: good score.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: It's a get right game for you guys. I don't
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: know what happened against Jacksonville. This is going to be
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: a nice palette cleansing win. I think the Titans will
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: go up seven to nothing.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, much like Wayne, they will come in late for
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: a victory.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'll say that maybe we finished the
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: half down seventeen ten something like that, and then we finished,
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: you know, we've finished the game. It'll be thirty one ten,
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: and then I'll say either Calvin Ridley or Nick Westbrook
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: Akini catches a absolutely meaningless, you know, touchdown late to
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: make it thirty one to fourteenth.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: I'd really like this to be one of those water
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Boy moments, you know, where the clock strikes and they
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: look over at Kathy Bates, who's correctly predicted the score.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I'd love to run this back next week. Dude, you're
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: the king. Thank you so much for doing this, all right, man,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: go Mike's thanks again to James Rode Rodriguez for joining
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the show. Hey, and if you love this, there's more
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: of it on our podcast feed, along with all of
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: our other episodes, So head over to your favorite podcast
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: app and download the Vikings Tailgate and while you're there,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: maybe you write a review that would be great.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Give us a five stars that would be great.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Also, huge shout out to Ticketmaster, the official ticket marketplace
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: of the Minnesota Vikings, for helping us make this show happen.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: We will see you all again next week.