Latest / Chirping Zebras / GENO, MARK & PJ THIBODEAU | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep #117

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GENO, MARK & PJ THIBODEAU | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep #117 · Chirping Zebras

• Mark Riley: A zebra on the ice, Bill. How did he get on the ice? They still can't get him off the ice. This is crazy. Here comes all the zebras. It's a zoo out there. You can't do that. Welcome everyone to chirping sovers, we'll all embrace the zebra side. Welcome everyone to chirping zebras. Mark Riley virtually alongside Gino Binda. Coming to you from the interwebs. And we want to ⁓ right off the hop thank our sponsor, the referees, Chris, you one stop shop for all your refereeing needs from training and assigning to payment. They do it all. Also want to ⁓ give a ⁓ reminder to like and subscribe on YouTube and also follow us on all the social medias, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course, the TikTok. Thank you, Gino. ⁓ we also want to give a shout out to AOA Studios up in Beverly. And also give a shout out, ⁓ before we get into anything, ⁓ Iliak Golf. They were involved with the T Off of Heroes. ⁓ matter of fact, they were on ⁓ they were part of the the chirping hole we did, Gino. Yeah, they were there for a bit. And they made these incredible head covers for the Warrior for Life Fund. ⁓ And so I got in touch with ⁓ with them. They reached out and said, How about a chirping zebras head cover? And I said, That would be awesome. And ⁓ here's what they designed and came up with. ⁓ sick. Got the chirping zebras down the side. We got our logo there, and then the cool part on the back, we got the C Z P which matches my tattoo on the back of my calf. So ⁓ very cool. ⁓ all handmade ⁓ Italian leather. All done out ⁓ all done in the ⁓ US out in San Diego. And so a big shout out to Iliak Golf for hooking us up with ⁓ our custom head covers, which is very cool. And ⁓ Yeah, those things are sick. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, they do a nice job. You gonna use them tomorrow with the Lynx? I am. I'm ⁓ gonna head out to Granite Lynx tomorrow, one of our favorite courses. Shout out to Granite Lynx and ⁓ Kevin Mason and and and the Cronnell family over there that take good care of us. ⁓ heading over there with your dad and ⁓ our buddy Brian McDonald, B Mac. B Mac. And we'll see ⁓ we'll see how it goes. My back's kinda iffy. So ⁓ I'm a little worried about swinging my club a hundred and twenty times. So In the heat. My yeah, and it's a one o'clock tea time. It won't be that hot. ⁓ but we played with Brick. Remember when we played with Brick? Andy. We play yeah. We played at Harman Golf and ⁓ give them a shout out too. They're great. And ⁓ that was a hundred and four I think that day. That was a that was a rough I d I think you're right. ⁓ there was a lot of Bud Lights drank. There was. A lot a lot a lot of drinks were had by all that day. It'll be a di ⁓ it'll be different when we get our next guest ⁓ out there. We'll have another one out there soon. Yeah, we will. We're gonna be heading to Harmon soon and we'll be back over at Grand Lynch before you know it. We got some ⁓ some people on the docket coming up. ⁓ and today we're gonna have a special guest join us to talk ⁓ a little bit of the ⁓ current events that ⁓ is going on right now in the Boston sports world and also with the World Cup. ⁓ w we'll have him on in a little bit. But before we have him jump on, ⁓ our buddy PJ Thibodeau, ⁓ who is not only one of the best comedians around. Also he's so funny. Huge ⁓ he he he's one of my favorite people. ⁓ that reel on the on the golf with the Do you believe in miracles? I mean like what a well we put with Mike Aruzioni, do you believe in miracles? Well we have those other two that I the the two ones I took with my phone, we with L I Afrady and McCarty. We gotta release those ones too. Yes. So we'll be we'll be sending those out ⁓ very soon. And L I L I was legit pissed at his golf shot. No, he was like he was like he was f like not like no joke, like the competitive nature in those guys, it's absolutely incredible. Like he was It is like I'm like, Wow, he fucked me really kid. Yeah, no, he I mean I would have done the same thing too, like I I I'm the same way, but like, yeah, that was funny. Like it was that's what makes those guys great. You mentioned pro athletes. Like you know, McCarty borrowed my clubs and he stuck it on the green. ⁓ Bob Sweeney jumping in and we chirped him and he stuck it on the green. ⁓ Adam McQuaid, PJ had a great one with him and you know, I think he said something about wanting to watch him and his wife and he stuck it on the green, you know. ⁓ but then Mark twenty yards to the right. No, ⁓ I th I thought McQuaid missed it. Did he? Yeah, thought he missed it. Yeah, he missed hit. Yeah. That was too it was too funny to for him to swing. That's right. You said he this guy this guy pounds people for a living. For a living. And you're the ⁓ that was great. But ⁓ we'll we'll we'll be releasing those reels from the trap box. I'm just putting the finishing touches on him. ⁓ Mike Scafo at AOA did a nice job putting them all together. So That was a lot of lot of a lot of film. That w and that was a lot of fun that day. ⁓ at the T Off of Heroes. ⁓ so PJ will be joining us soon. As soon as he ⁓ jumps on, we'll bring him in. But before we get into that, you're ⁓ you've been running over camp. Yeah, I'm at I I'm actually at Foxboro ⁓ ice arena right now. My my daughter's doing the stop at gold tendon camp for the week. So, you know, I called Tyler ⁓ Holsky, the coach for the South Shore Kings. ⁓ They just won the ⁓ USPHL N C D C. ⁓ they won that championship this year, back to back champ. So ⁓ they got a great program here. They support the officials. ⁓ they do a great job. ⁓ you know, they get us ice, they let us use this back classroom any anytime we want. And the best part about that the whole the whole deal is at night we have ⁓ junior highs and high school leagues ⁓ that play. They have three games and we'll throw the referees out there and we'll evaluate ⁓ for, you know, three hours. And they you know, split the games to halves and they come off, get supervised and whatnot, and then they go, you know, on their way and they sit up and watch with us and ask questions and it's good ⁓ good FaceTime. It's a good good day. So Monday I ran brand new officials. We had about twelve to fourteen brand new brand new kids that never ref and you know, the way USA's doing it now, it's everything's online. And ⁓ you know, all of us, we're like the whole country, you do secondary training everywhere. So ⁓ Y you have to. If not, ⁓ you know, that's you see the state of officials right now across the country, right? ⁓ so ⁓ you know, it was it was good just to get ⁓ on the like we basically just ran your your basic USA ice whatever, right? Like typical like a very simple offside drill, icing drill. But I had Phil Garcia here. ⁓ he ran through some power skating and how to skate like a referee because you don't you're not a player. You don't have a stick in your hand, right? A lot different. So ⁓ yeah, Monday was great. And then ⁓ Tuesday we had new like officials with like a foundation under them that want to get into the three and four man. ⁓ we had an hour ice, we ramped it up a little bit, ⁓ you know, walked through some positioning and things of that nature and did some, you know, basic four man and three man drills and like a linesman full package drill. ⁓ and then we had them in the class for two hours and then on the ice and then and then watched them. ⁓ it was very interesting to see two linesmen on the same side of the ice and referees lining up on the wrong sides. But I mean that's the perfect place to to train, right? It's a it's a Tuesday night. It's a ⁓ middle school league. You know, like these kids are it's they're just going up and down to to to play. They they knew no no difference. Nothing in the game changed. It was, you know, they just went and played and there was, you know offsides icons and everything was called. It was good. No controversy, which is which is nice. So I mean that that's the best part about learning 'cause you're nervous, you really don't know. It's like this is a no pressure situation, right? And it's just practice. And ⁓ with the I had about four or five ⁓ you know, people that work for us and a supervisor that came and ⁓ they were, you know, katriquing ⁓ and a answering questions and jumping in in the class. It was it was great. It was a good ⁓ good two days. It's awesome. And and one thing I don't think, you know, people may or may not realize is, you know, the work you and referees create specip specifically, but you know, n i also accrediting the referees, how much work they put in to trying to better the craft, you know, to try to ⁓ better themselves as an official and also better the whole thing as a whole. Because I think, you know, as we've discussed at length here, a lot of people don't get that. referees have to learn too, just like the players. And at the lower ends, they're usually you know, are younger officials. Yeah, right. Like ⁓ we don't get practice, right? ⁓ our practice is the games and like, you know, we we left them with some good concepts and, you know, taking lower level games, working on working on your craft, working on, you know, power skating or whatever it is. Like I I said I used to take, you know, these junior high games and me and Sweeney would come down and I would just like power skate the whole time. Right? Like do C cuts up the ice with one leg. No one knows the difference. You you can you can call off sides icing and and that kind of stuff. The then there's no check. So, you know, there's you're very rarely calling a penalty, you're calling the obvious foul, and if someone runs somebody, you just send them home. They don't they don't mess around with this leak. So it it's ⁓ it's it's a good way to, you know, take advantage of the ice 'cause we don't get free ice as referees. So ⁓ it's so true. It's like and I remember doing the to a two man. Five on five off. Yeah. Well, we we do like five minutes on as a ref and five minutes as a linesman and a two man just to get the skating in. Yep, that's what we told them. Yeah. You just you go up and down the ice as one guy and the other guy just kinda drops all the pox. But you're both calling everything still, right? ⁓ you're not just ignoring things because that's not good. But you have to, you know, you you gotta put your time in. Then you get the then then you get the other the other spectrum of it, right? You get some young kids that are eager and they want everything yesterday and they don't want to, you know, build and get that foundation. And foundation's huge. Like you need a foundation. And you know what Chris Rooney always says is experience, experience, experience, you know? Yep. Game count is so important, right? ⁓ we had a few things happened ⁓ in the last week, one of them being the ⁓ NHL draft. And I gotta say, from a Bruin standpoint, I love what they did trading that pick for JJ Peterka. I think that was a great move, adding that top six forward and a kid I think who's you know, he's i it's three years in a row he scored twenty plus goals. ⁓ and I think putting him with someone like pasta might, you know, push him up into the like geeky thirty forty goal score. Right, exactly. And he's young enough where, you know, he can still develop and become a dirty goal scorer in this league, right? ⁓ you don't don't know where you you can be getting out of Utah and getting better coaching, better better line mates, like you said. And off he goes. And I mean I you know the Yeah, go ahead. No, I was gonna say I think ⁓ you know, they still have to pick up that defenseman like Bob Beers talked about. ⁓ I think we still need a top three defenseman, but they did address the top, you know, the top six forward with with getting him here. Yeah, what do you think of the Will Borgan get though? They got him from the Rangers. Yeah, well, the Corp you know, in that Corpusalo trade, I think that's a great move for a couple of reasons. One, you dump salary, right? The Bruins were, I think, near the top, if not the top, for goalie salary cap hit. ⁓ and you also have the kid Michael Di Pietro down in Providence. The kid's been ⁓ you know, two years in a row, one was was the best goalie in the league, won the MVP. He's ready. You know, bring him up. Swayman and you get rid of Corbassalo. Nothing against Corpy, but, you know, that that salary, three million against a lot. He was too much. See ya later. Yeah. And and so much in both ending be good. I love I do too. And I think I think Borgan he'll he'll bring a little grit too. ⁓ I refed him in college at St. Cloud. And you know, he he was aggressive. ⁓ he he's very offensive minded, very skilled. ⁓ you know, that that's those Saint Cloud teams were, you know, one and two in the country, and I think he had a lot to do with it. ⁓ but they had a they had some wagons and they they could never get out of the first round. But ⁓ they were they always played very disciplined, St. Cloud. But ⁓ I I remember him as a player ⁓ in college. So hopefully you can bring some of the B's. They got Ivan Ivan. They've tried myself for Ivan Ivan. I mean, and they got ⁓ Cliff they got they got Cliffy back too. Come on. Yeah, they did. They did. Here's another one I ref. I referee ⁓ in the frozen fool when they lost to ⁓ North Dakota, but I did the B C game. ⁓ I couldn't do the NCAC that year. So I did the semifinal down in Tampa. That was awesome. They played B C ⁓ Quinnipiac played B C Well, real good stuff. And and and there was another trade in in Boston, a big one. And it involved the Celtics. And you gotta bring our expert on for that one. You you and I are hockey guys, right? ⁓ but we do have ⁓ a basketball guy that's a big friend of the show, like we mentioned earlier, PJ Thibodeau. And we wanna bring ⁓ we're gonna bring PJ on right now. P J how's it going? What's up, boys? Is he alive? Do you believe in miracles? Yeah, we we can hear you. We can see you too. Can you hear me? Alright. Cool. Alright. ⁓ No, it's perfect. The mic's perfect. You're a little ⁓ you you look like Gino a little bit from my picture. Pixelated it won't look like that. Yeah, but but it's just on on pixelated for me Yeah, Mark, you're like your your pixelated. You guys are pixelated for me. I'm out in the garage because ⁓ my wife's sleeping. Yeah, but we go I'm in a ring. You need to happy wife, happy life, right, PJ? Yeah. Yeah. Especially after two days in a casino. I'm going to Vegas on Sunday. Sunday to Friday. Giddy up. ⁓ Bellagio. Daughter's playing a hockey tournament out there. Hence while I'm at Foxborough now because she's in goalie skills. Where where do they play out there in Vegas, the kids? Do they play ⁓ No, there's they got rinks out there. There's Place Henderson I I've been to. ⁓ Okay. And then there's an I forget what the other rink is out there, but they're playing in two different rinks. ⁓ Michelle Voye, ⁓ he would run he runs all the men's leagues out there, all the tournaments. So like I was refinged out there one time and a bunch of guys are in town. I was actually refering with him and then we went to the tournament afterwards, went out to I think it like Red Rock or one of those casinos off the strip that's right down the street from the rink and potty there all night. It was awesome. With all with all the boys. Well I know I know PJ doesn't like PJ doesn't like gambling talk, so I I just I get to get in that poker group, you know. Yeah. It says it's uploading, so if I'm still pixelated, I think we're mine's six mine's six percent uploading, so we this might be a while. But we're good. We're good. We're all good. Yeah. It's kinda like last week. Probably good if I'm pixelated. I can say some shit. Say that again? I said it's kinda like the Tartan Army. They were a little ⁓ they were a little delayed and ⁓ at times, you know, w we worried, but we're good. We're all good. ⁓ No. You'd fit right in. Yeah, yeah. Actually actually they sell beer here. I should you both could be drinking right now. It's twelve well in the afternoon. You're good. I'll be drinking by my pool when I get out of here, I'll tell you that much. PJ, I think you would look fantastic in a kilt and ⁓ bagpipes. Right? Next live show. I mean, I haven't called them bagpipes in a while, but sure. I see what you did there. There you go. So we just we just talked a little bit about the Bruins trade, but we want to talk about the Celtics trade and them training Jalen Brown ⁓ to the sixes of all friggin' places. ⁓ and and getting back I mean you Making a team in your division better, making yourself, you know, weaker made no sense to me. But again, I'm What's your thoughts on this? What's that? Yeah. I can I concur. Yeah, I fucking hate it. This is your third time. To the team that fucking just kicked you out of the fucking playoffs. You know? Like it makes no sense. There's something we don't know behind the scenes, or Paul George is a salary dump somewhere else. That they've got something else going on. It makes no sense whatsoever. They have to. You know, you did not make your team better. You know, for Giannis, I can see it because he offers something that you don't have. He's somebody that can attack the paint, which was I thought their major flaw the the last two years, even even when they were successful. ⁓ but you just got an aging star who is a shell of what he used to be, who's not gonna play a full season. You know, for draft picks that are gonna suck because you just made that team better. And now they have resources and assets, you know, and and a championship winning coach. So somebody might go there. There's Taco LeBron going there now because they got Jalen. I hate it. I hate it. I'm When you get some pieces, like that's how the NBA is. And I'm saying right now. It it can't be it can't be a basketball move. I mean, look at the the odds of the trade, right? Like this has to be some type of core I don't think any smart basketball guy would make this trade. Anybody. Like it's the dumbest trade I've it it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. You got an Asian basketball player and you get somebody that's an MVP in his dirties in his prime and you're making basically the same money. You're saving what, a year? Maybe three million dollars in this whole deal for what? It doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah, they're saying for one year. I don't really think he was an ⁓ V P candidate last year. I know that they talked about that. I d I just think he's just a real But he's an ⁓ V P I meant ⁓ V I meant former ⁓ V P ⁓ finals. That's what I meant. Not I don't think he was an ⁓ V P last year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No but yeah, I mean I I do you think you know do you think he's awesome. Do you think Tatum had anything to do with this? Or do you think that's gonna be overblown by ⁓ the fans as far as like why didn't he step in or why didn't he say something or did he ask him to leave? I mean, what's your thoughts on that? 'Cause that's you know, big talk right now. ⁓ w you know, what Tatum I just have to show some respect to that locker room. I know Missoula's dad. ⁓ he's a big part of Rhode Island basketball down here. And, you know, I met Justin when he was younger a few times. And I think he would kind of squash any of that behind the scenes. I don't think he would let that get out. And I don't I don't I'm not crazy about Tatum, believe it or not. Like I just you know, it's it's like the old days when the ball used to stick in Paul Pierce's hands. I feel like goes through Tatum too much sometimes, you know. ⁓ when the Celtics are at their best over the last few years, that ball moves. Right? and if that ball can move and then they can make adjustments t during the game to when they're not shooting it well, which is basically that whole Philly series besides that one game, ⁓ then they're gonna be exceptional. And you just took that away, you know, you just made your team worse. So I I don't I I hope Tatum isn't part of that. And ⁓ you know, I I can't see that, but I yeah, obviously I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. I mean, you don't have to be best friends, but like i I feel like the NBA, like, look at ⁓ those Chicago Bulls teams. Like you telling me like Jordan wasn't a you know, a disruptor, right? But like he was a different level and you know, I think Brown, you know, sees himself at Dak Calibur. I mean he's super max guy and all this kind of stuff. Like and he has that clout and he should, but you all he always has Tatum right there. So I can all but that butt ending is i it's it's almost like a natural thing where you have two superstars in there. So it's like how how do you like Yeah but all the best you want competition but you want superstars now. That's what I'm getting. You want you want those two superstars to have that competition. And that's and that's what makes a team great. And if you if you go in every day and practice and you know you just going through the motions, that's not gonna do anything. If you're in there and you're challenging your team every day like Jordan did and everybody else did, that makes everybody else game level race. And I think that's what round brings. And I think this this type of culture now with with these players, they they don't raise to that occasion. They they that guy is now like, ooh, what like come on, man, we're making millions of dollars. Why do we have to why do we have to do that extra extra oomph? Like Jalen wants he's striving for perf like, you know Perfection and these other guys are just collected a paycheck, is what I think. And and nobody wants to hear from that guy anymore. No one wants to hear from Jordan. No one wants to hear from Brown. Just shut the fuck up, let me do my job, right? And no, nobody wants to get pushed. Yeah, the Jordan's teammates didn't like him, you know, but they also knew that he was pushing them, you know, to higher levels and they were gonna win championships. You know, so they dealt with it. ⁓ you know. So I I might get criticized for for comparing Jalen Brown to Jordan. That's not what I'm doing. I'm just saying that type of character. Yeah, what you're what you're saying is it it it felt like Jalen Brown wanted to win more than some of the other guys on the team in certain moments. And I agree with that. That's why I like him more. You know, I feel like Aim is more worried about himself. You know? Yeah. ⁓ I I think Brown was was just working to get better. Like He couldn't handle the ball in the playoffs two years ago. And he worked on that incessantly. And he became better at it. And he's still not great. He still drives you crazy. But but he cares about the winning. You know? That's what we want here in Boston. We want people that care about winning. Now, I I'm gonna I'm gonna play devil's advocate just on that note. What did you think about Brown saying this was his favorite year when they got knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by a team they shouldn't have lost to? 'Cause a lot of people kinda went up in arms about that. Like, ⁓ it was my favorite season ever. Well, you didn't fucking win. How can it be your favorite season? And that's kind of contradicts him, you know, what you guys just said. And I'm not saying I agree with this line of thought. I'm just throwing it out there. So some of that stuff was people were saying he he was making it about himself, but I don't know when that quote was. When it when did that quote come out? Right after the season ended. ⁓ when they knocked out and they Yeah, they asked. During the season when Tatum wasn't there and they were winning. I if he's talking about during the season when Tatum wasn't there and they were winning, and it wasn't because they were better without Tatum, that's crazy. But they were playing as a team. Like, you know, like that ball was moving. Everybody was involved. There were so many people, you know, that had monster games ⁓ this year that just kind of came out of nowhere. You know, and then when Tatum came back, it went back to that You know, w we're gonna play through two guys. ⁓ it looks like I'm trying to recap. We had to play through two guys when Tatum come back. It the whole thing's stalled. We're just gonna take fifty three pointers in a game, even though we're not shooting it well tonight, you know. ⁓ I think I think Brown was just talking about the the way that ball moved during the season. I hope so anyways. I I I tend to agree. And yeah, I mean it's Yeah, it's tough when you're quoting that right after a playoff loss, right? Like he couldn't he could have waited and like a couple yeah, you know, this was like my my fun ri ⁓ one of the most fun regular seasons and yeah, why? Because it was out without Tatum? Yeah, no shit. Like why wouldn't it be? He became the leader and he didn't have somebody else like, you know, up his ass. So I I think that's kind of what he's been tr like striving for or want. So I think the Celtics just gave it to him. Yeah. Especially if they get LeBron. Do you think the S ⁓ shit. Do you think LeBron would come to Boston? No, the Sixers. The Sixers might like might get LeBron. I was like there was talk about someone mentioned LeBron coming to Boston. I'm like, I'm gonna end up having to fight him 'cause I call him a pussy every ten minutes. Well he'll be Yeah when Philly comes into town. No offense, but my money's on LeBron. My money is too. It's all good. ⁓ I don't know. If you bring Frankie Church with you, you might have a chance. Yeah, you might bite him on the ankles and distract him, you know, you never know. Yeah. ⁓ what so where do you see the silk from here? Sorry. No, no. I love it. I love the question. Yeah, where where do you see the soccer scrolling from here? Like do do you see the next year just cashing it in? Is this a future deal? Like Well well, I mean now you now you're almost now you're almost like Tatum might threaten to leave, you know, if you're not if you can't build around him. Like see you later. He's gonna go to LA. Yeah. I I Brad Stevens has got some work to do, right? They're they're just you know, I know they have some great young talent, but they're not ready. You know? This isn't a rebuilding situation. This team right now cannot win it. You know, now Philly, they can win it. Like when the Knicks went out and ⁓ and got ⁓ What's his face from Villanova when they made that trade for ⁓ Josh Howard? ⁓ that made all the difference in the world. That was the one piece, you know? ⁓ then they tweaked again, you know. What they just they they just made Philly better. And if that starting five can stay healthy, they're gonna be nasty. They're gonna be better than the Celtics. Now, see here what do you think about cause Jalen Brown talked about Embiid being a flopper. How do you think that first conversation is gonna go in the locker room? Soon as they start winning games, that's over. Right. Yeah. And they're both intelligent guys, you know, so they they just w they wanna win. And B wants to win. Brown's a smart Yeah, could be. Yeah, he needs it for his for his ⁓ you know, just gotta give it some time. There's gotta be something else there that we don't know. It's like the whole thing when Manny left the Red Sox, you know, they didn't find out he was like sleeping with people people's wives in the organization with Manny Ramirez. Yeah, right. You know? Why would you get rid of him? Yeah, well, maybe Maybe he put his bat in the wrong cage a couple of too many times. ⁓ isn't that what ⁓ Tyler Sagan did too? Isn't that why we shipped him out of here? I think so too. Yeah. I don't know, he was single though, man. He was young and single. Yeah, but but ⁓ Nathan Horton's wife wasn't. I think that was the problem. That was the rumor anyway. Yeah, but the hockey guys, man. You know how you know when Wenders know. Like Yeah. I don't know. I'm going on I I don't know anything. I'm just saying we we brought it up. I've heard the ⁓ what ⁓ now the ⁓ now as far as our other thing that's going on right now, World Cup. I know you're a huge soccer guy. I know that all this soccer all these soccer games you've been watching, I've been watching a bunch too, which is ⁓ you know, I'm as you know, I'm I'm not a soccer guy, but I I consider myself a World Cup guy. I'll tell you that right now. I I'm loving these games. And I love the format now. Yeah, it's it's it's a different ⁓ now last night, because we're dra this is today. we're dropping this tonight. Last night the US beat ⁓ Bosnia and I don't know, Huzek Zenga or whatever that other country. I don't know why they're co op in like high schools, but they won with Manhattan. Yeah. ⁓ now I texted you last night. The red card. ⁓ that was horrible. Like as a referee, I was embarrassed for it. Talk to me about that from from your perspective as far as ⁓ s a soccer guy. All right. So can you hear me right now? Cause it's at my computer says trying to reconnect it. Are you got me now? Yes. I can hear you. Yep. All right. Yeah. ⁓ so there's supposed to be intent involved with something like that. And I think it was clear that Balligan was putting his foot down to the ground and the guy kind of slid in behind him. Was it dangerous? Yes. could it have been more harmful? Yes. But there was no intent. And that ref didn't give a single yellow card the whole game. Like not one. And then all of a sudden you go to V A R. Like you don't call anything on the field and then you go to V A R and you make that a red. You know? ⁓ I I think I think it's just a completely ridiculous call. ⁓ you know, you can't you can't look at the replay and then stop it frame by frame, you know? That's that's just taken away too far. ⁓ yellow, totally understood. my whole take on it was they they didn't have a yellow to begin with, and then they go in and review, you come out with a red. So you saw it live, you didn't think it was vicious, you didn't think there was any tent involved, and then you go and see the ankle roll, and then you're like, ⁓ fuck. Right? But Your whole like you judged it as a non call. And like you said, the yellow cards, how many times did the US players get ripped down with like just ripped down? ⁓ four yellows. Yeah, there should have been four yellows. Like just pulling people back on breakaways, two easy ones. And then you could have picked two out of the five th there were four like fouls that could have been it went either way, but should have been four. Yeah, right. You know, if he called that, if he saw the severity of that and he saw intent in that and he called the yellow and then he went to the VAR and he upgraded it to red, that would be I I would be like, All right, well, you know, that's fine. But to see nothing, you know, and then to stop it frame by frame. The referee expert on when he came on, like he was great. Like he was like, Nope, this probably a yellow card. ⁓ I don't think he's gonna get thrown out. There's no like everything you just said, there's no intent, there's blah blah blah. He's just putting his foot down, explained it perfectly. And then you come out with a red card and you're like, well, this crew's fired. Like they're not moving on. Like if this officiating crew moves on, like that's it's horrible. I did too, because now the guy's gone for the next game and there's no appeal process, right? Once the r like that's it. Like it's like a DQ. Like ⁓ there is an appeal. They could Can they appeal it? No. Can they rescind it? Here's the thing. Yeah, they so they could appeal they can add appealable, but if they if they push and they ask for it, they can actually FIFA can come back and say, you know what, it was more severe than we thought, and they can add more games to it. That's you know, so they're just gonna Right. I knew that they can add. They can add well they could add a game or two. Well, we all know. So you don't want to run that risk. You know, I think the good part here is the way they responded, right? ⁓ they they added a goal, you know, and then This next game, like you need Timothy Weyer to step up. Like he's been invisible. Like when he played the other day, he was horrible. So you've got a guy that was supposed to be the next guy that has this status, you know, that that we've been waiting for. ⁓ he's he's gotta step up because I love Ricardo Pepe, but ⁓ he's you know, he's he's kinda a little inconsistent and ⁓ he gets pushed around a lot. You know, you need somebody with some speed, with some touch, with some accuracy. I don't think Polisic was great last night either. ⁓ but he definitely does you know, seems to be ⁓ better in that wing. He can't put him inside. So ⁓ you know, Belgium's good. This is gonna be the best team they've played so far. ⁓ I I mean it's exciting. I need this thing to be over though. I made this joke the other day, Mark. I need I've been dr I've been drunk for three days, ⁓ three weeks straight, man. You know? This is like NFL Sunday. Like a a Premier League game that comes on at seven A. ⁓ You start drinking at seven AM. Next thing you know, it's eleven PM and you're drooling in your chair. It's it's a perpetual Sunday afternoon for you. It's ⁓ like what time are we we recorded right now? It's three fifty one. I've got this is my second glass of tequila. It's awesome. Good for you. Love it. It's ⁓ If I didn't have to drive my daughter home, I would have one with you. Yeah. Someday, man, we'll we'll do we'll do the zebras from the from Chiefs from the from the man cave. Well we'll we'll if if if I'm gonna fall off the wagon, it'll have to be in Vegas when we do it. Yeah sun night. Well we've had that we've had that story, Ralphs. We've talked about that. You're falling off the week wagon, there's real zebras involved. Yes, there will be. And ⁓ some unnatural acts. the so what do you s now Germany got knocked out, which ⁓ was a shock to everyone. Now with them on picture ⁓ France w well no, it it it But they weren't they one of the favorites going in? They were, but they did not all four matches they did not play well. Germany was one of the favorites because of reputation. You know? They have some skilled players, you know. ⁓ but they ⁓ that that's not the Germany of the past. France is the best team. Argentina I mean, Fran France is just loaded. Loaded. It's like an all star team. Yeah. ⁓ Ar Argentina's got, you know, phenomenal like chemistry and obviously they won it last time. Spain's super talented, but they're they're struggling right now before we tape this, you know. ⁓ I'm past France, I think it's wide open. ⁓ Germany Germany was because it was Paraguay, because Paraguay is all defense, no offense. You know, and you would think a team like Germany with that structure, with that use system, you know, would be able to just beat them naturally. And ⁓ I mean that's the beauty of soccer. On any given day, anybody can beat anybody, you know? And that's why that sport. goes everywhere around the world, you know? There's there's all these different styles, there's all these different players and on any given day, man. It's like watching England the other day, like when they switched up their their whatever and they came back and won. I was like, wow, I thought they were you know and then you you see ⁓ endurance too. Like you saw the other team just frigging you know, they couldn't keep up. So Yeah. But yeah, it's it's very interesting sport in that that sense. Yes. Yeah the Congo. Well that's I that that's all right. People people shit on me all the time for love and soccer. But there's strategy in every match, you know, like how you're gonna take away something or attack something and then, you know, who can figure it out quickly. like it's just each match is different. Each each team is different, you know. ⁓ different countries play different ways. ⁓ you know, it's just it there's just constantly things to figure out, you know, so it's You know, there's there's a lot that sucks, you know, the flopping, obviously. Like there are nations that just flop all the time and but they you have that in other sports too. You can't tell me Patrick Mahomes doesn't flop, you know? Yeah, yeah. I mean dive ⁓ there's diving all all all over hockey. I mean it's obnoxious, especially in college. Yeah. Yeah, you guys know. Like I mean they're definitely it's the biggest thing I deal with in But it's the biggest thing I deal with as a supervisor, ⁓ is the is the embellishment, you know? And even like when you're refing, that's all they yell, ⁓ it's diving. It's like, come on. Yeah. Yeah, it only takes one guy to flop in soccer and then all of a sudden that goes viral and everybody's like, you know, making jokes and stuff like that. But if you've ever been stepped on by cleats on your ankle, it fucking hurts. Or headbutt. Or headbutt. Yeah. Yeah. Last night when that happened with that guy, right? When Bowigan stepped on him, he's on the ground like flailing and I'm like, Come on, this is ridiculous. And then they showed a replay and I was like, ⁓ fuck, that hurt. Yeah. I'm like, that one was more That's my theory. Like people that complain about that. I'm just gonna put on some cleats and then just go fucking step on your ankle next time I see you and you're like, Now do you understand? Yeah top of your foot. No You could tell when they're When it's legit, it's okay. But sometimes they get bumped and they go down and it's like, Come on, man. But the great ones don't. Messi doesn't do that. Mbappe doesn't do that, right? Like you know, those ones that Tillman last great Tillman got that shit. Tillman's foot was bleeding. He got stepped on early in the game. He played the rest of it and and then he had that goal after his foot was stepped on and he was already bleeding out. He had a bloody sock when he took it off after the game, the shilling game. Yep. Yep. Yep. And that free kick goal was incredible. That was awesome. And and he smirked. He liked right before. Did you see it? He like he knew. He knew. He just saw it. Smirk. ⁓ it was so fucking good, dude. It was good. All you need to do is execute now. The Bosnia guy jumped and moved his head trying to head the thing as it went by. And I'm like, that's insane. Yeah. How fascinating ball's moving. They they can fire that thing, huh? That's what I mean. Like you take that right in your face, like, ⁓ the The goalies are incredible too. Yeah. So athletic. Belgium's got an amazing goalie, Court ⁓ Courtois. Okay. Yeah, he's he's phenomenal. Someone has to run him. You gotta get creative. Well, Senegal yesterday earlier we kept Yeah, just kick him in the nuts, get him out of the game. Rifle him right away. I mean you're already down a guy. Just it's another red card. Yeah, yeah, just get rid of that goalie and you got a chance. So who do you who do you like to win it right now at this point? France. I I just I just think th they're their top four, their center backs, their center backs like are just world class athletes. You know, they got size, they got speed, the way they play, ⁓ you know, their spacing ⁓ on the attack, how quickly they attack, you know, and and if they lose anybody for a game, they have three players that can can do it on their own. I mean, Spain's definitely up there, Argentina's definitely up there. I don't think Portugal has enough, but they're talented. You know, I think it really comes down to those three. but like I said before, it the beauty of the sport is anybody can win on any given day. And ⁓ and if you go to PK's, you know, that's when the upsets happen. ⁓ you know, great teams have been knocked out because of PK's, which some people hate and I get that, but you know, it's there's a lot of strategy in that. situation. You know, they're just gonna, you know, you can dump the puck for the whole game. You know what I mean? Like like in a in a hockey match that you just get it and you'd like you trying to trap right. Yeah. So but some teams play like that for a whole many minutes. Right. I mean that's I mean what do you what do you think about Germany when when they were going down for the penalty kicks and nobody wanted to take one? Yeah, that's that's a that's a problem. Like that was wild. That was a big problem. Like how how do you how do you not go out and then they sh Yeah and I feel I feel bad for the guy that took it. It was it Todd, is that his name? Yeah. Yeah, whoever comes in and he just shanks it. Shanks it. Yeah. Like You've never taken one before. Right. How how are you in the World Cup in doing that? I don't know. They got everything they deserve. To me that comes down to coaching. That that comes down to coaching. Yes, coaching. That have been lined up before they even b before they even get to that point. You know? That shouldn't even have been a question. Right, right. Right. They should have put an extra attacker up there, been trying to get more balls in the box against that back five. You know, they just Especially if you know you don't have penalty kickers. Right. Yeah. And the coach was surprised by it. That was awful. I j PJ, I try to do that. I get more balls in the box. I try to do that all the time. ⁓ you're That was too easy. That was too easy. Yeah. That's what I was saying. That's what I was trying to It's you know, you take what you can get. ⁓ Well, that's the genius of the comedians, right? Like like you you guys just heard like when I was telling people about that day we spent on the golf course, I was like, I was with comedians and like the Like I think I'm pretty funny, but like these guys are funny. Like just picking like that little sequence right there is what I mean. We but here's the funny thing, Gino, when we were on the chairbox, right? Like you just said what you said about our ability to do that, but we kept pissing our pants every time you said, No, everyone lies up there. It's okay. Yeah, a lot of guys lie up there. We can lie. We thoroughly enjoyed that. It was the first time they heard it. Hey, it's a new new group every time, Gino. It's like having a pickup line works. You know, back in the day. Yeah, right. It works one time and then you just keep using it. Yeah, mine was how's your bush? Back in the day that would work. Now it wouldn't. ⁓ serious. I used to yell that I used to yell that a c in college, like across campus, right? But like the first time I ever heard it, I was working and my ⁓ my my buddy's uncle had a fleet wash truck. We were washing trucks and you know, it's hot summer. You you go through the city to go to Salty because you go and, you know, people watch. So we're cutting through the city. We go over the ⁓ the bridge, the Notham Bridge, we're the gardens to our right, we're at a red light. And Brian Ashkew's driving, and he Like, you know, the crank windows. So like he, it's hot as balls. He cranks my window down. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, hey, lady, lady, excuse me. Hey, hey. It's broad's hot. Smoke show. And he goes, I got a question for ya. How's your fucking bush? Right. I I had to whisper because people have, but I couldn't stop. I was like, that's one of the funniest things. Like the girl like processed it. I was like, I go, What what the hell did you ask her that far? He goes, I don't know. Look at her, look how confused she was. I was so funny, man. I just wanted a funny answer from it. And you stole that. Yeah. I ⁓ that's my line. Yeah. I should Well was my line. Yeah. That's always on my life. Yes. That's all it took. Yep. ⁓ I don't know how that just got into Thank you for asking. It's it's it's it's quite nice. Yeah. Right. I would like to show it to you somehow. I don't know how that just made it as a podcast, but that's funny. There's so many answers to that question that you could have. Yeah, trim like everything. So many. ⁓ yeah. I've gotten some I've gotten some creative ones, yeah. Creative answers. ⁓ So so try it out in the wild, yeah. Yeah, I'll give it a I'll give it a go. I ⁓ and like when we were growing up, like ⁓ like everybody hangs on the corner and salty, right? Like I'd be driving around like just yelling it out the window. And then and then I I re I realized I was gonna get my ass kicked at some point. So yeah. Yeah. This is this is my favorite this is my favorite episode yet. That last two minutes of how's your bush? Yeah. I don't know how we got here, but we did. ⁓ Like a late night game show, how's your bush? Yeah. Yeah, we could do that. And yeah. And I think I think just being in a ring for four straight days is turning my mind to mush, so I can't wait to get out of here. Or Vegas. All good. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go to Vegas. That'll help. Relax. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah. By the way, Gino, didn't didn't we have a conversation about you're you're going to a a tournament in Las Vegas and staying at the Bellado? Didn't we have this conversation when I was on the pod? Are you playing a team that you played in New England? We are not. These teams are from all over. ⁓ all over Canada. ⁓ like Team Pennsylvania. ⁓ there's a team from Minnesota, then they have Team Minnesota. And then they got Team Illinois, Great Lakes, ⁓ Pacific, some pro hockey thing, whatever. And then a bunch of a bunch of teams from all over Canada that are pretty good. If you see a woman from Canada, you're gonna say, How's your bush? A I'll wear my meta glasses and I'll say it to somebody and see what responses I get out there. ⁓ there you go. I'll be ⁓ those will be reels out in Vegas. We could have a house of reels. How's your bush reels? Dude, I'll s I'll be I'll be shocked if those glasses aren't broken from a sucker punch. They should Yeah, your nose and the glasses. Yep. You can hit a guy with glasses. I don't technically that's not a sucker punch, Gino. Hey, sorry coming, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You should you should expect that punch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good point. Yeah, you yell that at someone, you probably should. You're trying you should be right. You're trying to start that fight. Yeah. The gloves are coming off as soon as you just you're already loosening the gloves, you know what I mean? They're already off. Yeah. ⁓ That's the thing. Well, Gino, wear the gloves, right? Wear the gloves around. Yep. Yell to some woman, how's your bush? And then this. Just throw the gloves off. Be ready. ⁓ I'm glad we had There's a whole lot to up here. We had PJ come on and talk basketball soccer. I think the Jalen Brown trade was a bad one. Yes. I would second that. To recap. In summary, in summary, I think France is gonna win it. France is gonna win. The Jalen Jalen Brown trade was bad. France is gonna win. And how's your bush? That's the summary episode. Get it on a t-shirt. Let's go. Stop laughing. It's funny, isn't it? Isn't it funny? It's hilarious. It's the funniest shit ever. It's so good for so many people, Gina. my god. Everywhere. Yeah. We gotta get how's your bush shirts. Yes, right. Yeah, that's a fake logo. There you go. There it is. How's your bush landscaping? Yeah. We'll trim your bush, your heads. No. No, that's just slogan. And your backyard. But what we're but we're in Neil and Swan Spar. I'll take the weed whacker. All right. ⁓ god. I dated her in college. This thing this thing was this degenerated ready to what I expected to. Yeah, this was ⁓ And now we're at how is your bush? How's your ⁓ bus? I can't. It's four. It's four PM, Donkey Bush. It's See like anybody I went to college with, anybody I I grew up with, they'll get this joke. ⁓ man. So good. It's so good for so many reasons. It really is. Yep. Man. Well like if you have a release. Chick razors. ⁓ sponsor bot. Stop laughing. P2 I feel bad for him. No, don't. Don't feel bad. You get headphones in, you're safe. Yeah, but you know how loud I'm talking and it echoes. I did. I snort I just snorted. I snorted. I'm laughing so hard. Yeah. Unreal. Drink. We just lost him. And just like that, PJ's gone. ⁓ well we want to thank PJ for coming on. And ⁓ he's the best thing, ⁓ Jalen Brown and the Celtics. I tell you, you know, Go check him go check him out there. You gotta check him out. PJ Thibodeau. ⁓ and he's hilarious and one of the best guys you'll ever meet. ⁓ he's helped me move like three times. And who does that? And he's got a bad back and everything, and he helps me move every time I move because apparently I move a lot. ⁓ but yeah, so World Cup's going you and I hockey guys, but you know what? Soccer, I got the I caught the fever. I'm into World Cup and ⁓ and we got some good insight. ⁓ USA. And we learned what your best pickup line is. So I think we've accomplished a lot this episode. ⁓ but that's gonna that's gonna wrap it up. Bruins trades good ⁓ draft. Bruins draft, I think they made the right moves. Jalen Brown trade not good. World Cup France is the favorite until they retreat and ⁓ and give up because that's what that country does. ⁓ and ⁓ we all know now how you and Mary met. Yeah. So at the heart. Outstanding. Also, ⁓ so we want to thank referees Grease, our sponsor. ⁓ as always, ⁓ one stop shop for all your referee needs. Another shout out to Iliak Golf for the very cool zebras head cover. ⁓ wanna remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube and follow us on the social medias, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course The TikTok. Thank you, Geno. ⁓ also check out our merch at chirpingzeebras.com. So that's gonna do it for this episode. ⁓ hope you have a great July fourth. July fourth weekend this weekend. Yes. ⁓ happy two hundred and fiftieth birthday to the ⁓ United States and ⁓ hope you have a great fourth. Enjoy Vegas and the tournaments as well. Can't wait till next week till we hear about how it went. And if you get thrown out, I want video. That's all I'm gonna say. No, I won't I want video connections. All right. Well, Riley. No, don't worry. We're fine. ⁓ Vegino Bender, ⁓ Mark Riley, ⁓ saying so long. We'll see you next time right here on the Tripping Zebras.