This New Jersey Gym is Trying to Kill You | Slightly Above Average Podcast

In today's episode, We break down the Steelers' insane win over the Ravens and draft our "finalized" Super Bowl LX brackets. Plus, we’re talking the viral intensity of Diamond Gym, the proper way to hydrate like an adult, and why the ending of Stranger Things was a total letdown.

Whether you're here for the football hot takes, the survival strategies, or the "is it normal" debate, we’ve got you covered.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open: Cheese And Hot Sauce Chaos
• 0:21 Show Kickoff And Episode Roadmap
• 1:04 Sam’s Snack Segment: Prime Sour Nova
• 4:40 Hydration, Electrolytes, And Morning Routines
• 6:43 Food Pyramid, Industry Influence, And Nutrition Skepticism
• 6:43 NFL Script Talk And Steelers–Ravens Thriller
• 10:23 Headsets, Situational Football, And Play-Calling Gaffes
• 14:14 Player Performances, Penalties, And Emotions
• 17:09 Playoff Scheduling, Tickets, And Stadium Culture
• 18:50 Best Playoff Atmospheres: Hockey Vs Baseball
• 19:45 Building The Full Playoff Bracket
• 27:52 Coffee Culture: Black, Espresso, And Calories
• 31:18 Alternatives, Creatine For Focus, And Tea
• 34:00 Detoxing Energy Drinks And Diet Soda
• 35:20 Hunger Games Thought Experiment: Survive Or Sprint
• 41:00 The Diamond Gym Phenomenon And Discipline
• 48:10 Stranger Things Finale Reactions
• 54:35 Is It Normal: Energy Drinks, Chewing, Social Hangovers
• 1:04:20 Sports Identity, Streetwear, And Fan Cred
• 1:17:07 Closing Prompt And Subscribe

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Is it normal to eat shredded cheese out of a bag? From time to time.

SPEAKER_03: 0:04

I think it's normal. There's been times in my life where I'm just a handful of cheese in my mouth. Throw it in a bowl with some Frank's red hot. We could all share it. We'll take poles off of it together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:12

Most disgusting thing I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_00: 0:13

That is not normal. I've literally never heard hot sauce hot sauce cheese sandwich. Welcome back to the Slightly Above Average podcast. My name's John Maleki, and I am incredibly pleased to be joined today by none other than Mr. Sam Pula and the illustrious Mr. Joe Minor today. We've got a great one for you in store. We're ready to rock and roll. We've got some NFL talk. The Steelers coming off a big win. We've also got some inside the shop kind of like more or less bullshit. Some uh some coffee talk. We've got a little bit of um reacting to some viral content for you, as well as per usual, we're gonna play is it normal at the end here. But before we get into any of that fun stuff, we always like to start our show with what I know is your favorite segment, Sam. This is Sam's snack segment. Do you got anything good for us today?

SPEAKER_03: 1:09

I I do. Well, I don't know if I would say it's good, but I have something for us. We uh got a got a nice team submission list on the uh on the snack department. Team submission. Yeah, this was submitted by an anonymous team member. Oh toss one of those old Joe. These are primes. Yes, yeah, these are prime hydration drinks. Obviously. Sour Nova. What are special about these? They just came out.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36

They're supposed to be like a sour prime. I heard they were pretty fire. Alright. I've been seeing them everywhere.

SPEAKER_00: 1:41

They've been hard launching this uh Yeah, Prime is uh I've been seeing a lot of content on like the the downfall of Prime, because you know they came out of the gate with like this massive um this like massive I don't know valuation and billion dollars in sales and uh they had like the collectibility, like young kids were like fiending for them, and now they're not no no that fire died out quickly, but they still came out with the old Sour Nova.

SPEAKER_01: 2:12

What do you mean they're they're going crazy? They they have like uh hell yeah, they have like limited edition primes like this. Not this isn't the exact one, but they released like a a three prime kit that was like super sour, it's like three levels of sour. Yeah, it's like selling for like 55 G's because there was a limited release.

SPEAKER_03: 2:30

55 for the L's, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:32

Prime is like insane right now, like hype around.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

I think it's I think I so that'd be interesting to like dig a little deeper if possible, is because like I know that they were insane for that. Like there was a collectibility where people like which is wild when you're early in your in your business cycle to already be seen as collectible, just like those like stupid plush dolls, the thingies, yeah. The the boo-boos, not the whatever. But like um supposedly it's dying out. So I'm not a hater on prime. Uh I I I do like the other ones. Why did we go with a sour? You guys are like are you big on the I just I wanted to try this. Yeah, okay. I just look cool. Alright, well, here we go. Thankfully, I'm not eating like a like a bucket of lard or something that was made in like a kettle that shouldn't be edible, I mean, which is your typical go-to. It smells anything.

SPEAKER_01: 3:17

It actually smells pretty good.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18

It just smells like every other prime. Nothing sour about that. Did you get any sour at all?

SPEAKER_01: 3:27

I I taste like the intention of sour. It tastes like a watered-down warhead. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what it tastes like. It has the intentions to be everything sour, but it's not. What let down that is? Alright, put those away. Yeah. So it's away. Come on, Bass. I I actually like that. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's like I'm not. You gotta get the second sip in. The second sip.

SPEAKER_03: 3:47

I think I'm gonna stick with my coffee. I feel like I've got to the point now where if I'm drinking something, I want it to have a purpose.

SPEAKER_00: 3:53

I either want it to give me a caffeine buzz, I want it to give me an alcohol buzz, I want it to Well, for your sake, we both know that you're drinking almost zero water during the day and you're not replacing any real electrolytes in your diet. Well, we don't know that.

SPEAKER_03: 4:08

Joe. I might be sneaking water in the bathroom. You have no clue what I do in that stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 4:13

I have witnessed days of Sam coming in from the shop and like just grasping for air, and he's like, I need water. Like 100%. I'm like, dude, it's five o'clock. What do you mean you need water?

SPEAKER_03: 4:24

I haven't drink water all day. Well, that's when I get thirsty. That's when I need that purposeful drink. I need to hydrate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:30

So that could fill that gap for you considering I want to hydrate with this. Well, that's the intention. It's a hydration drink. It's got coconuts, it's got electrolytes. The electrolytes would help you. I don't know. This will probably blow your mind. But the first thing I do every morning, I literally take a piss, brush my teeth, and then I go into my kitchen and I fill up a shaker bottle, like a 32-ounce shaker. I put Celtic sea salt in it, I put amino acids in it, and I also put this other like hydration tablet in it and then gas the whole thing. If you think about it, you've been asleep for eight hours. Yeah. Which is your body just depleting any hydration you had. If you feel wake up and you constantly feel like shit and you feel groggy, give it a try. It absolutely changed my life. I think I'm on like year 13 of doing that. I've changed it over the years. You know, I've added some sort of sort of sort of sort of thing? What's the salt, dude? So the Celtic sea salt is actually a natural distributor of minerals and electrolytes. So most of these drinks that like Gatorades and the primes and the things of the world, they're just putting that into the drink for you. It seems like everyone's all about electrolytes nowadays. Like a hot year for electrolytes. Well, I mean, that there as more science comes out, it's like the more more or less stripped out and like awful the American diet is.

SPEAKER_03: 5:54

I remember growing up with the actual like the old school food pyramid where they're like, you want to have a diet based off of bread, lots and lots of bread at the very like peak of it. It's like lean proteins, you want very minimal.

SPEAKER_00: 6:07

You guys want to go down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole? Joe loves a good conspiracy theory. Go into looking, go looking into how the traditional food pyramid came to be. And all of it points back to like big cereal, like Kellogg. It's like it's wild. Well, it's because they were like petitioning to the government, yeah, but it was petitioned by um by businesses that owned more or less like companies that produce carbohydrates. It is wild. It's like the dairy industry. It's like the same thing, like the gut milk sort of thing where they're like pushing dairy. So insane. So, you know, speaking of conspiracy theories, one of the big ones in pop culture today's day and age is believing that the NFL is scripted. Now, we're all football fans here, right? Did a great job. And Joe, can you pull up the Vegas line in the Steelers game last night? This is some wild shit. My buddies were like relaying this to me in real time. Now, it is we're recording this the Monday after the Steelers just beat the Ravens on a missed field goal at the end of the game in order to go to the playoffs. Um and actually win the AFC North. Yeah, what was the over-under? So the the sp it ended up being um uh two points, right? But the Steelers had the ability to literally run away with the game.

SPEAKER_01: 7:25

41 and a half is the under.

SPEAKER_00: 7:28

So uh they're not scoring any points like the whole first half, either team, right? It was 10 to 3, I think. Yeah, and they come back and they're over 40. Yeah, and then in the fourth quarter, all of a sudden both offense just start lighting it up. Yeah, and they're like, what the what the f like seriously was beautiful. It was it was insane, but then you're watching it and you're like, it's first question I had was like, why why in God's name did Arthur Smith call a misdirection play at the end of the first half in order to go in at halftime, knowing you can get the ball back? So I don't know if you can find it quickly, but there's a statistic in football. It's called a double score. And like back when I was playing, ROCs would always hype on a Bruce Arians and Todd Haley. They're like, if you can get a double score going into the second half, you're statistically um like there were it was like so you have a 75% chance of winning the game, right? Like statistically, the odds are in your favor. So more or less that means if you get the ball at the end of the first half and you score, and then you come back at the first series of the second half and you score, 75% chance of winning the game, or something like that, right? And so the Steelers and all their brilliance, you know, they go ahead and run a misdirection play. Meanwhile, they've been pounding the rock in that like literally just straight down the Baltimore's throat. Yeah. I was like, this is insane. And so that those are like I don't know, it was it was a wild game, but that's where you're like this sh like this shit's scripted. And like I know it's not scripted, but like it feels like it when they make decisions like that.

SPEAKER_03: 8:50

But between the Steelers and the Bears, the amount of these like hyper like nail biter games I've witnessed, it's just like it's insane. It was a it was it was an emotional roller coaster to watch, but I loved it. I like whenever I thought we were cooked whenever we got rid of the timeouts. Oh, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 9:07

It was like when you're like, how is it dude?

SPEAKER_01: 9:10

Every statistic pointed at us losing that game. We score with 55 seconds left. They have three timeouts, a former NFL MV. I mean, like everything was saying we scored too quick. Like it was just like up, well, that's the game. Their kicker's been solid all season.

SPEAKER_00: 9:25

What I what I love though, my like, and you're gonna love this, was that like as Sam calls him, Unc Rogers. Yes, literally just put the team on his back. He's like, this play, Colin, I'm going down. He's like, I am going to the playoffs. Yeah. Right? And he like just just literally the offense looked incredible in the fourth quarter. Yeah. I was like, where's this been all season, right? You're running like, they're actually moving the ball downfield, they're throwing the ball in the middle of the field, they're not just running swing pass, swing pass, run the ball, swing pass, run the ball. Jalen Warren ran like an absolute freight truck. He did. And then Gainwell was playing the perfect dynamic next to it. They were had like that power speed combo. Yeah. And you're like, where the hell is this been all season? Right. And then you're then you also gotta ask yourself they played 17 games this year. They didn't have one single issue with with Aaron's helmet. Go figure this game. Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 10:12

Are you kidding me? And the backup didn't even work. I've never seen something like that. Are you kidding me? I don't mean to derail from this, but like I found out in college, apparently, if your headset goes out in college, the other team has to turn their on turn theirs off too. And then the NFL it's it swaps. I found that out uh the uh Alabama game that I was watching over the weekend, someone's headset went out, so the other team had to turn their headsets off. Crazy. I just can't give you an advantage. Yeah, ADD's going there. But um, I thought it was nuts that, like, of course, on that drive at the end of the season, most important time, your headset doesn't work, no problems whatsoever. You can't make that stuff up.

SPEAKER_00: 10:49

Dude, Aaron did and they did the right thing. Like, there's a lot of I haven't seen any of the pressers. You gotta burn it, you've gotta burn it because like there's uh for those of you that are for the for the Sams of the world that are casual football fans, those uh yard markers are are very much practice and scripted. So like they're on the 25, they're going in, like those plays aren't just called on a whim, like they're very practice and scripted because the field is working against your advantage. You can't just run the whole playbook. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that, right? So that's why it's super important to like get the play call because they've done all this work. It's like what's on the script.

SPEAKER_01: 11:24

Aaron probably knows it by heart, but well, we gotta talk about how important that play call book is in the reds. Uh you saw that play they ran before half.

SPEAKER_00: 11:30

That was an interesting the play they ran before half. Honestly, oh my god, okay. So when I was in college, I played with LaShawn McCoy. If you don't know who LaShawn McCoy is, he was a he was a stud, he was incredibly shifty, very quick. And we we would run a uh power offense, right? So that means we were just like pulling a lot of people. It was uh it's like a traditional style of offense. So we ran the ball downhill a lot, and Shady is what we called him. He was uh really good at it, he had great vision, right? And so from time to time, because we pounded the ball so hard downhill, we would fake the dive and then throw the pitch. And LaShawn could the the entire premise of that play call is to make a guy miss.

SPEAKER_01: 12:11

Yeah, it was just one-on-one.

SPEAKER_00: 12:12

That's the whole premise of that kind of make a guy miss. Well, Shady, there's also in his NFL career, like he was really good at it, too. He'd make one guy miss. Gainwell's not bad at making a guy miss, but he's not good at it, in my opinion, from doing it with his feet still. He needs to have a head of speed.

SPEAKER_01: 12:27

Moose kind of missed a block, too. I I I I actually believe that'd be a solid play call if Darnell was healthy.

SPEAKER_00: 12:33

It would have been a solid play call if they weren't pounding the football on the front side with the extra tackle all game long. Yeah. Right? And then just run that. Because they came back in the fourth quarter and they gave him the ball. He just ran a sweep. Yeah. Easy touchdown. Like, run that play. A good old outside zone. Right. That's so uh and so but I don't think Gainwell's not shifty. He is fast, and I think he's elusive, but shifty, I would I wouldn't really put him in the shifty. I would say more elusive. And like that, those are like uh you have that great uh was it a punt return or a kick return? Both him and Jalen had a great special And then they had like 12 penalties on special.

SPEAKER_01: 13:07

Gawell's Gainwell's turned into one of my favorite steelers. Just like underdog, he's phenomenal. He can catch the ball, he can run the ball, he's making blocks.

SPEAKER_00: 13:16

I will say this for the lack of what the Steelers are on offense and defense, they are playing hard as shit. I will say yesterday was hopefully it for him, and it won't happen again, but Jalen's worst game of the season. Like he Jalen Warren Ramsey.

SPEAKER_01: 13:29

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:30

Jeez. Yeah, well, no, he blew those two coverages with flowers. And then he also, the end of the game, he went for the pick. Yeah, murdered him. Like all season long, he's murdering that dude. I don't know why. He might be hurt or something, but like hopefully that doesn't get in his head because he's I think he's played really, really well all year, especially the move to safety. Yes. Um, but dude, insane game. You and now we're all pissed off. Not we, me. Because I was up till midnight, all fired up, and we're here, you know, and it's we're recording super early today to get this to you guys. You reminded me when you're talking about penalties.

SPEAKER_03: 14:03

You know, something I noticed watching because there were so many penalties. I was like, everyone, when they get a penalty, whether it was the Ravens or the Steelers, there's I was like, is there ever any player that takes like like extreme accountability where my bad, sorry, that one was on me.

SPEAKER_00: 14:18

Sometimes I know line coach used to bitch about that hard. He's like, he's like, You get hooked, you get caught on a penalty. I don't see any of this shit. It's your fault. You held the guy. Yeah, you jumped off sides. He's like, What are you going like this for, huh? Then he would call you on it in film sessions. So I I didn't I only had maybe a handful penalties. Like I uh jumped off sides once. I didn't give up a sack in college, like one-on-one. It was so I like was I had a I had a pretty clean slate there, but anybody else on the O line, he would just be down your throat. It was pretty wild. But yeah, crazy game. And then Monday night.

SPEAKER_01: 14:53

Yeah, again, I said that to my wife last night.

SPEAKER_00: 14:56

Monday one night playoffs?

SPEAKER_01: 14:57

When did they start that shit? 8 15 Monday night. 15 Monday night? Like, come on. Why did they get that game out of everybody? Yeah. Give us a one o'clock so we could, you know, go. I was gonna buy tickets. True. I I went on right after they went last night. Haven't had a home playoff game in how long? I was a kid. We played against Jacksonville when I was a child, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 15:16

Yeah, 2016, I think.

SPEAKER_01: 15:17

Yeah. And and so I was like, you know what? I'm I'm spending some money, I'm buying some tickets. I look at 815, I'm like.

SPEAKER_00: 15:24

Yeah, I have season tickets. Yeah, I can't. I'm like, I'm buying them. I was like, Yeah, right. Oh take my first beat the O day ever. Yeah, right. Tuesday. You're like, because you're just out till two in the morning.

SPEAKER_01: 15:36

Now, a Steelers home playoff game, you can't go to that and not have a few drinks. You gotta, you gotta, you know, this is the one time with Sam. You I'll agree with you, you gotta get into the environment.

SPEAKER_00: 15:48

Yeah, you gotta, you gotta be one with the stadium, you gotta have some brews, you gotta with that uh being said, is like I was super blessed as a as a young man that my uh one of my good friends growing up's dad and family had season tickets. So I got to go like when the in like the 2005 through 2010 era to a lot of playoff games. Um the Steelers were really good then. Yeah, it was amazing. But there's uh so the question I have for you guys though is have you ever been to a playoff hockey or baseball game? How do you want to play? And which one are you taking? Get the NBA out of here.

SPEAKER_01: 16:19

No count. I went to a Stanley Cup finals game with for the Penguins a couple years ago. Dude, I will say one of the most elite atmospheres I've ever been to. It was incredible. Have you ever been to any of that?

SPEAKER_03: 16:30

Not a playoff. No, the baseball games, hockey games, not a playoffs.

SPEAKER_00: 16:34

Dude, so I will say, I mean, I was I was quite intoxicated in my my early 20s at the Steelers and both of them, but like the the playoff hockey scene is just a different unreal. I agreed, I agreed. And and then there's so many games. I was at game six into I think it was the 2016 cup run when they were maybe. Um when they when they wanted to send it to um back to San Jose or whatever. Yeah, and like it was insane in there. I remember I'm just like pounding 24 ounce beers. I have no idea how I didn't pee like a thousand times. It was so much fun though. So like uh you're you're totally right, Joe. Like playoff, home playoff football, like it it we it used to come around all the time. We got spoiled. Now it's not coming back that often. I'm like, it is one of those things you gotta kind of go to.

SPEAKER_01: 17:20

Penns had a big win last night. We don't have to go too deep in that, but they they've been, you know, Crosby, Jeff was all a little bit.

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

Oh, yeah, we got a couple Penguins fans in the office that that's all they talk about. Meanwhile, it's literally like the end of playoff football, and you're like, they're talking about hockey.

SPEAKER_01: 17:33

But they don't talk about hockey till like wrapping up the football segment. Before we go anywhere else, I have pulled up the NFL Super Bowl X LX playoff bracket for the year. I think we should go through, pick each matchup, and we will get a bracket at the end of it to see who's bracket the best. All right. Sam, do you want to kick us off? Do you know how this works? Just pick a team for each matchup. You can stop start top left. Uh top left. The Rams and the Panthers. Who you got? Los Angeles. Okay. We got San Fran and Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_03: 18:05

Uh Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_01: 18:06

Green Bay and Chicago. Chicago. You already know. All right, to the right side. Chargers in New England. Uh New England. Uh Buffalo and Jacksonville.

SPEAKER_03: 18:16

I'm I'm gonna give it to Buffalo.

SPEAKER_01: 18:19

And then Houston and Pitt.

SPEAKER_03: 18:22

Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_01: 18:23

Okay. Then staying there, Pittsburgh and Denver. Pittsburgh. Well, actually, no, I lied. It'd be it'd be Buffalo. If you have Buffalo win against Jacksonville, it'd be uh Buffalo and Denver, and then New England and Pittsburgh. So New England or Pittsburgh?

SPEAKER_00: 18:39

Pittsburgh. That would be in New England.

SPEAKER_01: 18:42

Yes. Uh Denver and Buffalo.

SPEAKER_03: 18:46

I want to give it to Buffalo. I know it'll probably be Denver, but I want to. In Denver. So that won't be an advantage.

SPEAKER_01: 18:50

It'd be mile high.

SPEAKER_03: 18:51

I'm still giving it. I want Buffalo to win. I'll give it to Buffalo.

SPEAKER_01: 18:54

So you got Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the AFC championship. And then Pittsburgh clears the game. It'd be in Pittsburgh. That would be in Pittsburgh, actually. Wow, what a good thing. Because we're the higher seed, yeah. All right, all right. So you have Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. Absolutely. True Yins are. All right, we got love it. You have, okay, so you got Rams in Seattle, and then San Francisco and Chicago. No, you said Philadelphia, Philadelphia and Chicago. Who you got between Seattle and the Rams?

SPEAKER_03: 19:18

So Seattle's gonna beat the Rams, Bears are gonna beat the Eagles, and the Bears will beat the Seahawks, and then we will see the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears, Super Bowl XL, and I don't know who's gonna win at that point. It's the LX. LX. What did I say? XL XL was uh Super Bowl five. That was a five. That was Super Bowl 40. I remember that one.

SPEAKER_01: 19:41

That's an insane, that's an insane bracket. John, do you want to give this a rip?

SPEAKER_00: 19:45

So, like, dude, my my opinion on all this, a lot of it comes back to first time playoff appearances. You have no idea how some of these teams are going to play, right? So I'm looking at it and and part of me is like, all right, I like a I I like LA. I I I I'm a map huge Matt Stafford advocate fan. We're like the same age and he's been slanging the slanging the thing for a long time. You know, on the NFC side, uh I also like Philly over San Francisco. San Frans have been playing pretty well. They're also super banged up, and I think being in Philadelphia for that game um could bode well for them. Chicago Green Bay, honestly, in my opinion, is a toss-up. Chicago's playing better football. Green Bay can win on any day, and then that's an actual like huge rivalry. Yeah. So throw everything aside, either team can win that. I'll probably take Chicago in a close one there. I don't I just think Chicago's got they've been drafting like second first and second in the draft. Yeah, I think they've got a lot of talent on that team. They do. Um, but then like that's what I go back to is like, is this this is Caleb's first playoff appearance, right? Yeah. So like very interesting. Like, like I think love went to the playoffs last year. That's where things start to get interesting. Uh Carolina's the same thing, first time in the playoffs for a quarterback. You go to New England, first time for the playoffs and a quarterback. You go to Jacksonville, first time for the playoffs for a quarterback. You go to Denver, first time for the playoffs for a quarterback, right? Like Houston, um, second time.

SPEAKER_01: 21:06

Yeah, CJ had one appearance.

SPEAKER_00: 21:08

But they got they got hosed by the Browns. Hosed. So like that's where you're like, that is playoff football, is it's just such a different thing. Yeah. I don't know why, but it just is. And so I'm gonna lean a lot more, I think, on the veterans here. I'm gonna lean into I think Philly edges out Chicago to go to the NFC Championship against LA because I don't, I don't, I think the Seahawks are fake. Like, personally. Sam Darnold has been around a long time. I get it. Um, they they wax the floor with the Steelers like week two, though. So it's like I just don't like I look at them and I'm like, they're I don't know. Like it just doesn't, I don't know. There's no like superstar, or is there? I just don't know who it is because I've never heard of them. And then I I I think I think because I just think Philly is a good playoff football team. Like they just know how to win in the playoffs. And so I think Philly goes to the Super Bowl again. Really? Wow. I I want to say LA, but like I I think I think it's Philly, LA NFT, and then I toss it between those two on the AFC side, shit's gonna be wild. Yeah, you're not wrong. Wild. So like I think I I love Rabel. I think he should be coach of the year easily, hands down. But New England cannot stop a pass rush to save their life, and that destroys you in the playoffs. Yeah, so I think LA edges them out um because they have a better pass rush. And what's crazy is the Steelers played all these teams except for Jacksonville, uh, right? Uh and Houston, obviously, this year.

SPEAKER_01: 22:32

Didn't play Denver. Played the Patriots, we beat the Patriots.

SPEAKER_00: 22:35

We beat they beat the Patriots, they had five sacks, if you remember, like five turnovers. Yeah, we played the Bears. Denver was last year, yeah. Beat the Patriots and lose to the Browns. This the Steelers are a wild card here. I think they can beat Houston. I'm gonna throw my Yunzer hat on here, edge that one out. I like Buffalo over Jacksonville, and then I'm gonna take LA as a sleeper over New England. It is in New England, though, which will be a hard, you know, that that is a massive factor. Then I'll take Buffalo over LA in that bracket. I'm gonna, I mean, I it'd be LA and Denver and then Buffalo, Pittsburgh. Uh, sorry. So Buffalo, Pittsburgh, I think we get a redemption there. Um, wow. I will say it'll be a home game. And if this Steeler team that's been showing up the last a couple quarters of the last couple games uh can can can do it, I really do love Josh Allen. Yeah, I want to see him go deep, but like I'm not gonna pick him over the Steelers. I but then then that's kind of where it gets hard is uh LA and Denver. I I don't Denver to me is just like another fake team. Like I don't think I think Harbaugh's coaching will carry LA further. I don't know. That's a tough one for me. Denver, I I will say the Denver has what's his name coaching? Uh Sean Payton, he knows how to win as well. But like very young, very young offense. Yeah, very young team. Very young team, very talented, good defense. Um I don't know. So I'll just go with like gut stuff. Um do you have Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl then? No, I'll take LA over, and then I'll take Pittsburgh over Buffalo because I'm a homer. Um, but then I think LA ages them out again. Uh and it's in let's just say LA Philly Super Bowl. Philly goes back to that.

SPEAKER_01: 24:13

That's it. That'd be that'd be actually a fun Super Bowl to watch. Yeah. Good old seven seed.

SPEAKER_00: 24:17

I I I think the Steelers can can this the Steelers can make a run because they are they did get the four seed, right? Like if they had to go play Denver in mile high, like Yeah, it'd be a little rough. It'd be a little rough. But I do think that yeah. I haven't watched a ton of the little league though, but yeah, well we'll go with that. You know what I'm saying? I hate thick and brackets.

SPEAKER_01: 24:42

This year is so wide open, I feel like. Yeah, I think anyone could win this.

SPEAKER_00: 24:45

I do I will strongly say though, I do think it's a Philly LA NFC.

SPEAKER_01: 24:51

I think Philly, uh the where I I get lost on Philly is their offense has been so bad some points this year. And it's not like they were in years past where they could just get away with running the ball. They've been struggling running the ball. So like I I go to if you know what I mean, you can't score points, good luck. I think Chicago and Green Bay and the Rams all are so dangerous. I I actually like the Rams coming out of the NFC overall.

SPEAKER_00: 25:14

I like the Rams a lot. I just like I said I love McVay.

SPEAKER_01: 25:18

Super Bowls and four-year like Yeah, I just think the Rams have a I think their offense is clicking Stafford's MVP, hopefully, this year. Like Yeah. I have I have them coming out of there, and then honestly, out of the I probably not to be biased to one seeds, but I think Denver or I like the Chargers too. That's I think Pittsburgh loses first round. I think Houston's defense is very good. I think that's gonna be a struggle. I think we have a chance if like if it's a low-scoring game. I think if Houston is scoring, I think it will be a low-sorcoring game.

SPEAKER_00: 25:45

That's why I think this is.

SPEAKER_01: 25:47

I I think if it isn't and you know Houston starts scoring, it's gonna be a long evening. Um and then I I think Buffalo beats Jacksonville, Chargers beat New England, some upsets. Then I think Denver goes through. I think Denver makes it to the Super Bowl. We have a Denver LA Super Bowl. I hate that. I think the Rams win.

SPEAKER_00: 26:05

I got I think the Rams love to see L LA win.

SPEAKER_01: 26:08

I think they could this year. I think if there's any year, it's probably this year.

SPEAKER_00: 26:11

I mean, I like it. I'll go I I just think Philly has the experience. L LA LA's just like I feel like what's crazy is you usually get like some superstars carrying teams, and there's not really any of that this year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 26:23

Well, think about it, John. They make the Super Bowl, A D comes out of retirement for one more game. Dude, I heard that. Yes, that's been good.

SPEAKER_00: 26:29

Can you imagine? That really happened? I thought he was arrested. No, what? No, no, A D. Not Aaron, Aaron Donald, not Aaron, not Antonio Brown. I was so I was so excited and lost. I will say that like I've I want to say I'd like to see New England run the table. It's like very anti-Steelers, but I love Ray Bull and I love I do love very I I do love that that new team.

SPEAKER_01: 26:51

I I do like Drake May.

SPEAKER_00: 26:52

Yeah, Drake May, excuse me.

SPEAKER_01: 26:54

Honestly, I wouldn't be mad about anybody winning this year except Philly. I don't want Philly to win. I uh we've seen Philly win the past couple years. The Chiefs have lost. I told Sam the other day, I was like, I would love to see the 49ers win a Super Bowl. No, that 49ers I love CMC. I would love to see Captain.

SPEAKER_00: 27:11

I like CMC a lot. And and I also like Shanahan. I just hate that they're in San Francisco. I don't think you put another team at six Super Bowls with the Steelers if they win it.

SPEAKER_01: 27:19

Yeah, I just think CMC needs a ring. Yeah. Solidify him as one of the best. He was too injured. Hey, hey.

SPEAKER_00: 27:25

The ring would help his case, though. You know what I mean? You're not wrong. Yeah, I mean, it's a wild year in the NFL. I know we're like heavy talking NFL here. We're not a sports podcast, but we're all fans. We can wrap that up. Any final thoughts on NFL as the playoffs gets started here? Nothing. I'm excited to watch Steeler football in the playoffs. Steeler in the playoffs, baby. Let's go. So speaking of getting started with the playoffs, I got a question about getting started with your day. I'm a traditionalist here, right? I'm a I'm a wake-up. I already kind of walked you guys through because I hydrate, but then uh I actually have been delaying my caffeine intake about 30 minutes to 30 to 45 minutes after I wake up when I used to be like wake up, pound of water, pound of coffee. Right? And it and it works well. If you're if you're trying to change up a little bit, your uh your cortisol levels come down and then the caffeine actually helps you. But black coffee all day for me. Now there's been a lot of rub on the internet these days about like black coffee drinkers. How are you starting your days, Mr. Pula?

SPEAKER_03: 28:22

I I like a black coffee, and I will say, uh, while I do enjoy like an espresso from time to time or like a more potent coffee, I feel like there's no better coffee to start your day with than like a drip diner-esque coffee, like that water coffee that you could just one after another after another after another after another. No, I mean that's what you want. Like if if you're fortunate enough to stop at like a local diner, if you have to settle for like a chain one, so be it. But when they you pay your$199, they bring that coffee to you, and you could just go all day long, unlimited. They keep refilling it over and over again. That's how coffee was made to be consumed in the in the in the United States of America. We kind of ruined it, but I kind of love how we ruined it. You know what I mean? No. Oh Joe.

SPEAKER_01: 29:09

I I have two kinds of coffee. If I'm like on the road or something, I'll get like if I'm going to Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, just a black coffee. If I'm like here, straight espresso. That's it. I I think adding stuff to it, sometimes I want to add a creamer, but mainly to cool it down. I don't ever do creamer for flavor, it's more for like to not have it scalding and burn my mouth. Yeah. So it kind of ruins the coffee for me, but like I house it and do another one, but because by that time the coffee pot has cooled down a little bit. So I think black coffee and straight espresso, I think adding stuff is, you know, I I disagree with like the old frat like the frappuccino, like the milkshake like coffee. Yes, you know, I it's a little too much sugar. It's ruining how coffee should be drank.

unknown: 29:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 29:55

Now I will say that, I feel like it's okay to add stuff as long as when it's the weekend, that's when I'll start throwing some stuff in my coffee. But during the Monday through Friday, you should keep it black because you gotta keep moving, you gotta get where you need to go. But when you have enough time to maybe put a little milk in there, maybe put put frost some stuff up, put it on top, that's when you do it.

SPEAKER_01: 30:15

I could I could just see Sam on the weekend, like, hmm, time to get risky.

SPEAKER_00: 30:19

Like I want I want dog shit old moldy drip coffee that's been in a can that I've had in my grandmother's house for three years every day. But then I also want a high-end luxury uh cappuccino experience. Yeah. Uh, you know, on my weekends. I like to bouge it up a bit. 100%. I think the internet's take on coffee has gotten quite interesting. I saw I saw a take from some random dude while I was taking a dump on scrolling through TikTok, and he was he basically was like, some, you know, because there's guys out there, they'll be like, they'll be like, I'm such a man. If you're drinking your coffee with anything in it, you ain't got any testicles, and you're just like, bro, you're shirtless wearing, like standing out in your field with in your indoors or your indoors with sunglasses on, like you, you're an idiot. Like um, it was like people who like to put things in their coffee are uh they drink their coffee uh for preference of flavor, right? And I always challenge that with like if you have a properly made black coffee, it's delicious. It has like it has all the flavor you need. Um, so that's where I would challenge your like your drip, because like your shitty drip. Because like your coffee shouldn't taste like a s'more or something like that, right? Like that's my opinion, right? But if that's what you like and that's what it takes for you to drink coffee, my only stipulation would be like try and be a little bit cognizant of the calories you're taking in. A lot of people don't realize they're plowing down four, five, six, seven hundred calories because they're making these like concoctions every day with like all this pump stuff in there. That's where the creamer gets you. I was like, my brother used to put creamer in his coffee. I was like, Jeff, you know you're drinking like 250 calories per coffee. And he's like, What? And I was like, Yeah, you're having a thousand calories of coffee a day. Like, you're no wonder you're fat. Like it like it's so hard. So if you can get off of that, don't drink your calories. Yeah, that's one thing with coffee I think has gotten completely out of control is like the calories added to the coffee. That that stuff, yeah. I'm like, God, you don't need it. Good coffee doesn't need it.

SPEAKER_03: 32:07

You know what else I feel like is like a bit out of control with coffee? The amount of coffee alternatives they have. I'm not a huge fan of like this is like chaga, mushroom, lion's mane, blend this up. It tastes like we have tried them, yeah. And it's horrible, it's so bad, you don't get a caffeine buzz off of it. I don't and they're so it's so expensive too. Because I I like try a little bit because I think we have like some sample packs here. I was like, oh, what's this stuff cost? And it's like$40 for like a small tin of it. I guess this is not worth it.

SPEAKER_00: 32:34

Dude, I I'm I'm I'm I'm right with you there. And I'm always willing to try those. Like I mean, I brought them into the office. Yeah, the lion's mane and like the substitutes white water. Yeah, yeah, that was the one. That was the one. And we were, I mean, uh, Sam and I both tried it for like months. It's just like it's because we we both wanted to stop having to plow coffee at like noon or one, two o'clock, right? Yeah, and no, just didn't get it done for us.

SPEAKER_01: 32:54

The best part of that process was I truly think whether it worked or not, I think Sam just convinced himself that it was working, even if it wasn't. He was just like, I feel like liquid he was putting in. He's like, I feel great, Joe. Look at this mud water every morning. He'd mix up a cup and he'd be like, Oh, this is terrible.

SPEAKER_00: 33:10

So so so something I would put you guys on, like that I've been doing uh for the last couple months, is I I took it all the time as a kid and I don't know why I stopped. Um, but creatine monohydrate for cognitive function, right? So if you haven't tried it and you're like looking to get it, like I think all of us here, like we look at coffee as like one, it's something we enjoy. Joe drinks a lot of energy drinks. I'm gonna call you out right now, Joe. Joe likes to Joe's freaking locked in all the time. But all of us drink caffeine for that, we're like, we want to be energized and locked in, and you know, we're adults, so that's a little harder. Try uh uh 10, 5, 10, 15 milligrams of creatine in the morning, dude. What it does cognitively for you just get you kind of just right back up to level. And there's actually been studies done that if you're like sleep deprived like myself with the kids and life and being fat and stupid and all that, you can like eliminate the feeling of sleep deprivation with 10 to 20 milligrams of nine hydrant. So I've been I've been just facing it in the morning, just chasing it with while I take all my supplements and stuff. Um and it and it's been awesome. So if you're if you're looking for like that mental kind of like lock-in, try that. I don't do nick, I don't I'm not a nicotine guy. Um, so I I haven't gone down that rabbit hole. I've always gotten sick, you know, with nicotine. Um I know that works for a lot of people, but um, I think that's a good hack. And and I'll be with I'll go with Sam there is like um coffee has no calories, and it's and it's good, there's good antioxidants in coffee itself. The substitute thing, wild to me. Um but I I understand why it exists. Do you guys get like a caffeine buzz from tea? Because a lot of people say tea gets them going. I will do it for me.

SPEAKER_03: 34:47

I will say it's so weird because like uh the only time I the last time I had a caffeine buzz was like a year ago when I took like a month off. Like I got like a that was an awful month. Can we just put that out there, Joe? That was a good one. You were so useless. Oh, that was great. But I will say, like, I had like after a month off, that first coffee afterwards, I truly felt it for like I would say like hours. I was like, this is great. And then immediately it was just kind of like back where it's at now, or it's like you get like a little something, but green tea for whatever reason, I get like I do feel like yeah, and it's like a very like clean, steady sort of like energy too. It's not like you're jittery, but I just feel like it would make no sense because it's like less caffeine than a coffee, but I do get a different yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:29

You guys know diaphragm is actually does nothing for you except it uh adrenal glands. It activates receptors. Oh, okay. Might restrict your adrenal glands. Or opens your adrenal glands. Yeah, it doesn't there's actually it's just it's not like giving you energy, it's just activating has to be a dopamine effect too. Exactly, act activating um certain things inside it, right? So it's not like food that gives you energy.

SPEAKER_01: 35:51

You know what I mean? When I when I when I went to uh I went to Greece for my honeymoon, they um they don't sell Celsius over there. I didn't find that out until I got over there.

SPEAKER_00: 36:00

So I sunmailing too.

SPEAKER_01: 36:01

Like for you know, I I drink a Celsius a day, right? Every morning, I really keeps a doctor routine. Yeah. It's clear I need to stop. I've heard bad things. If Jake Paul does it, I'm good, right, guys. Um anyways, I went over there, I didn't have any, so I was two weeks without without Celsius. And it was like a big, like all honestly a shock for me. I was drinking like they have Turkish coffee over there. It's so good. Turkish coffee's fire. Um I I'm gonna butcher the name, but I had the best coffee in my life over there. It was like a a a Fedo cappuccino. I've or Freddo Cappuccino. I have to, I'm butchering the name of it. I I genuinely forget, but I've never tasted a better iced coffee in my life. It has cold foam on it and stuff. Yeah, it's it seems like you know, it's something like I I would drink or you wouldn't be into. However, it was just like so clean, it was so good. I came back, drank a Celsius, and I I was just like, this isn't the same. No, I miss the I miss the coffee.

SPEAKER_00: 36:56

Oh yeah. Yeah, dude. Cold brew on nitro though, I I can't get behind. If you're if you like cold coffee, like try cold brew on nitro, you're getting it's more or less like a concentrated coffee with water and then nitrogens added. Yeah. Uh give it a nice smooth silky texture. That that's awesome. I'll uh last thing I'll say on this is I actually so um I don't know what it was, but for some reason I just felt an inclination. I was never been a pop drinker. Like I remember being like 12, one of like the guys I idolized was like doesn't drink pop, so I stopped drinking pop, right? Didn't drink pop literally until I was when do we have our first kid? 30 too. Like didn't never had one. It was only because my wife oh yeah, like never. And my wife uh was pregnant, and like, you know, if they drink you drink diet pop and stuff, it like it helps with the nausea and whatever. And you know, there'd be the time to time, you know, Jack and Coke or like a ginger ale at my grandmother's house because they cure everything, you know. But um never like had pop in the house or whatever. And so my wife's pregnant again. We've had a lot of pop in the house, and over the last couple years I've become like a diet coke kind of fan, not a fiend, but like maybe one a day. I cut it all out the last month, and I also haven't had an energy drink since like the second week of um December. Guys, game changer. I think the detox from diet from cut from pop and the energy drinks has given me a better impact with the caffeine I'm drinking. And then also the fact that like Joan Joe and I are hydrators, maybe Sam can get it. More of a dehydrator myself. But like with your hydration levels, you actually I just feel so much better.

SPEAKER_01: 38:30

Probably the aspartame leave in your system.

SPEAKER_00: 38:32

That, yeah, I don't know what it is, but uh, yeah, give that a shot. I know there's there's no like negative side effects, but for me it just worked really well getting getting rid of both of those.

SPEAKER_01: 38:40

Um a lot of good habits, and you know, that transitions us very well into our next little segment that I thought of over the weekend uh into survival instincts. I got served the trailer for a new Hunger Games video. And I read the book, saw the new one online, you know, watched the trailer. And it got me thinking, just for us in our context, if you were in the Hunger Games, one, could you survive? Yes. And then two, what would your strategy be at the start of like coming up out of like the underground? You know, you see everyone. Are you going to the middle or are you booking it to the woods or wherever you're at? I don't know how I thought of that, but I immediately like thought of us and like what each one of us would do. And I'm so curious about the.

SPEAKER_03: 39:24

I read the book a long time ago. You actually there's five Oh no, I didn't read all I read the one I saw the one movie with the remember they had the lady with the wild makeup and she what she said, may the odds be ever in your favors? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've I'm fairly familiar.

SPEAKER_00: 39:39

I think I So essentially what it is is it's like a poka po po poca poca poca poca Pokemon. No, post apocalyptic, um they call Pan Am, which would be like the U United States, think about it, right? Yeah. And in order to keep the um regular people suppressed, they call two kids from each district, which is twelve districts. This right, yeah, okay. And then they send them to a battle to the death. Um makes sense. If you keep the peace every year, and they have like a ton of technology that allows them to like manipulate animals and birds and plants and all this kind of stuff. Anyway, so they send them in the middle of this arena and they have an arena dedicated to this that they have it's called the reaping, it's every year, and then in the middle of the arena, what Joe's talking about is there's a cornucopia every time, and it's just full of like um swords, bows, yeah, everything, yeah, weapons, and food and and and like nutrients and stuff. So every kid starts in their own platform around it, they hit the gun and then they can either run there or leave. That's what Joe's asking.

SPEAKER_03: 40:35

Okay, okay. Yeah, I'm not running to the cornucopia. I don't need any of that. No. You're not? Going to the woods. Going to the woods.

SPEAKER_01: 40:41

But what what are you gonna do? Once the people that get out of the cornucopia alive that have the weapons come and find your ass.

SPEAKER_03: 40:48

I'm gonna go to the woods. I'm gonna use that time to find myself a nice spot in the woods, somewhere peaceful, maybe somewhere with a waterfall. I'll live off the land for a period of time. Maybe I'll befriend a few woods.

SPEAKER_01: 40:58

There's a barrier. Like you can't go past certain limits. You're in an arena, but it's it's vast.

SPEAKER_03: 41:02

It's like a couple miles. There's probably enough. There's probably somewhere where I could set up camp and just relax, enjoy myself, let everyone fight it out for the most part, wait till maybe there's a few people left, maybe befriend one of them, then betray them later, and then you know, take out the final guy. You know? Yeah, I think uh the either I'm not why would you go to the cornucopia? Everyone's rushing there, someone's gonna get a dude.

SPEAKER_01: 41:26

I think if if you're gonna go out, you might as well go out swinging. I mean, the chances of you getting out of probably going to the woods in like a real situation and hiding, and then people coming and finding you with weapons is probably less than making it out with the weapon and still surviving. You probably have a better chance to survive if you go to the middle, get a weapon, make it out alive, and then you're just kind of going from there. I I don't know. That's just how I'm thinking of it.

SPEAKER_00: 41:50

Like I'm a hundred percent gonna use my mass to my advantage. Yeah, I'm running, but I'm gonna like pick something, right? So grabbing, like, you know, there I I'm more like um I I want to get like food and stuff. The weapons not really, I don't really care if I can grab something great, if not, but I'm running to grab a bag or something, hoping there's food in it, give myself a head start, and then I'm booking it straight into the woods, finding a water source, and then like um I'm gonna try to like hide. That's where that hydration's gonna go. I'm not like so. What happens in the sh with in the movie and the books a lot is like people build like um little like factions, and then they like try to survive together, and then they have to do exactly what you said, like there's betrayal. That was the whole thing with like Katniss and her thing. And then they they wrote the this book is actually about uh her mentor the movie. So like um Haymich. Haymitch, really. Yeah, so this is like how Hamish was read. Which is it's it's pretty good. The books the books better than they did one on um the story of um of Snow, who's uh the guy, uh the the like the the president kind of guy. Uh that was the book four that came out after the three book series for the movies and stuff. Um it should be it should be solid, but yeah, I'm running straight to that thing. I'm grabbing a bag of something, killing a person or two if I need to.

SPEAKER_01: 43:02

You just need to grab something. Getting into the woods. I agree with grabbing something. I'm grabbing something that can help me, whether it's food or a weapon, then I'm out. I'm gone. I'm using my speed.

SPEAKER_00: 43:10

Now, here's the better question Are you gonna try to bring down the system while you're in the reaping? No.

SPEAKER_01: 43:18

You're just gonna play the game, you gotta play the long game. You gotta you gotta go with the system, go with the system, and then eventually tear it down. But you you gotta you gotta at least win it, right? You win it once, you gotta look, you gotta look the part, play the part.

SPEAKER_00: 43:30

Create like a coup while you're in there?

SPEAKER_01: 43:32

No, you can't do it. It works for Katniss, that's it. And like I don't think it's worked for many other people.

SPEAKER_00: 43:37

You'll you'll like this movie then. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03: 43:40

I I feel like it'd be hard to to break to break the system with only like a handful of children that have been pulled from the district. All right, there's about 12 of us kids here.

SPEAKER_00: 43:49

I think we can overthrow the government. For this one, I this book came out. I read this book earlier in the middle of last year, whenever it came out. Um this one has 20 uh 48, 24 kids. Because they they take excuse me, they uh has 48 kids because they take two kids from each district, so there's 24. So this one has is double because it's the anniversary or whatever.

SPEAKER_03: 44:10

I mean, I guess I would give it a shot, maybe if things don't put your order your order skills.

SPEAKER_00: 44:16

Sam would you would it would be a good role for you to try to like yeah? I actually think counter like Koog the the system.

SPEAKER_01: 44:22

Yeah, we'd give it a few. Listen, guys, I'd give it a we need to we need to team up here, they're gonna get us. I can see you just flipping sides.

SPEAKER_03: 44:28

Yeah, well, I I'd give it a shot. I'd see what would happen.

SPEAKER_01: 44:32

So to wrap that, who lasts the longest out of us three? I'm gonna be honest. I'll I'll take the burner. I think I die first out of all of I think just like I'm just going. I think I get caught side or something. I'm doing some stupid shit and I get caught.

SPEAKER_03: 44:47

See you actually surviving. I see I can see you making it to the end.

SPEAKER_01: 44:50

I think I'm I'm I'm gone for it. I have more of a chance to probably get got first than you guys.

SPEAKER_00: 44:54

I would say I think uh I think Sam would last the longest, right? Because he would just like he can like hide in a tree and not be seen. But I don't think Sam has the best chance of winning. I think I I'll give myself like I think I'd have the best chance of winning, but then but like if it's a longevity thing, if it's getting drawn out, yeah, Sam's I think the only thing with you, John, is like your size and stature.

SPEAKER_01: 45:19

I think people are gonna like see that and just go for you uh right away. Like, we gotta get we gotta get this dude out, or it's gonna be a long, long, long day in this in this arena.

SPEAKER_03: 45:29

Fact. You guys are both at a disadvantage staying so hydrated, too. You have to be coming out for water and stuff. You held up in a tree with a little mug of Maxwell Howard's disadvantage being heat kings and not being cockroaches.

SPEAKER_01: 45:41

Speaking of dehydration and not being able to drink water, we've talked about this internally. It is something that fires me up, that gets me going. The viral Diamond Gym has been in full force all over the internet. It's a vi it's a viral gym that is over-the-top intensity. One might call it cult-like energy. Um, and they've suddenly like taken the training world by storm with these insane workouts, um, how they're going about training. It's supposed to be motivational and whatnot. I'm curious about your guys' thoughts. We briefly talked about it, but you guys could go first.

SPEAKER_03: 46:17

I I just discovered this like a week and a half ago. Like I was on TikTok and I got like a clip served to me, and I was telling Joe, I was like, have you you heard about this? Like, oh yeah, now I'm down a rabbit hole and like 80% of my feed is the diamond gym. It's not that I even enjoy it that much for like the workout culture of it. Like, I don't really care about that, but I just I find it just like hilarious. I just love it. I love Unk so much. He's just ridiculous. He just gets upset about the most like just minuscule things to be like, uh-uh, no. You drinking water, everyone out to the hill. And it's I just love the everyone out to the hill. It's the most, it's just it's hilarious. It's it's a wild place. There's a man trying to lift weights on a bench. They kept throwing them down, he kept failing. They're like down again, and it's it's a it's a trip. I think it's a wonderful place. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01: 47:05

This podcast ever gets out there to the masses, Hattie. Unk. I would, I would I want to go work out with them so bad. Really? I I would get my ass kicked, I would suffer. I think it'd be one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life. Push me past limits. I absolutely love it with a passion. I think like their their message is great. Like, if you sit down and listen to their interviews after they're done and stuff, like pushing people beyond their own limits and what they thought. I think some of it's crazy, but in a go way. I don't know. I just I've all I I absolutely love it. It gets me going. I'm fired up.

SPEAKER_00: 47:38

It's like a Dexter over here.

SPEAKER_01: 47:39

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00: 47:40

I I I I I love it. Um, I'll say this that like when I got to Pitt as a freshman, we had a strength and conditioning coach, where whatever. The my sophomore year, they brought in another guy, Buddy Morris. He's still the head strength and conditioning coach for the Cardinals. And he instilled like he was a very disciplined first strength coach, right? So a lot of the things it was like, you know, you every person on the team wore the exact same thing. Gold shirt, blue shorts, same socks, same shoes, shirt tucked in, no yawning in his gym, right? And if you yawned, you were doing up downs like immediately, right? So you couldn't like you're walking into like 5 a.m. workouts and you're 19 years old. If you're at all, hit it, right? And then if you did it again, your whole position group did it. And if you did it again, the whole like uh no, the your your if you're on offense or defense, the whole offense would do it. You did it again, the whole team, right? Like he would stop workouts and just like so you understood that the effects of the of your actions. And so I went for like a decades of my life without yawning. Like I'd be like, hi.

SPEAKER_01: 48:43

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 48:44

Right, but if your shirt came untucked or you came in or you were late, or literally all this stuff, yeah. I mean, it instilled a ton of discipline in you, especially as young men when you're like super malleable. Are you familiar with their roles? So, like their roles, I know there's no water, no cell phones, no closing your eyes between sets.

SPEAKER_01: 49:01

Like whenever you're doing a lift and it's super hard, you can't close your eyes. Okay, or or it's push-ups. If you stop between reps, push-ups. Nice after every set, you they're supersetting it with push-ups or burpees. Yeah. If you're late, you're not wearing the proper attire, you're to the phone. Yeah, hoodie, sweatpants.

SPEAKER_00: 49:20

Yeah, they want you sweating. I'm I see, I like that because I you can definitely tell that like they don't I mean, being strong, great. Like super important, but it's like breaking people of their mindset of like what they're actually capable of. Yeah. Right. And it's people in there that like if you see them on the other side of it, like I saw the one interview to the dude that like cut his tail off. Yeah, and and he was like, it transformed everything about his life. Like he stopped approaching everything, like he wasn't approaching the gym. And that's what that's what health and wellness does for a lot of people. Yeah, they're just like very loud, which I think is crazy. Yeah, and then I also you see the same kind of culture. There's like a there's like these like uh factions of of uh I I guess it would be like strength and workout groups that are like on like the uh jungle gyms in New York City, right? Yeah, and they're doing like like uh pull-ups and muscle ups and and stuff, and then there's always like some huge dude that's like the one that like started it all, and then still get called out and he'll still be able to crush everyone, even though he's like 55 years old and like has one arm and blah blah blah. Yeah, and like that's what that so like I I'm uh I'm all about that like mentality shift in regards to like if you're not satisfied with where you're at in life, you need to make dramatic changes because small interval changes um usually what leads to creeping back to where you were, and like that's what that's that's what that gym reflects to me. Now, I would never want to work out there, I'm just too beat up. Like, I know I'd get in there, I'd be mentally wanting to do it, and my body just can't handle it. I need to get in better shape before I would even attempt to do something like that. Mentally, though, I would love the challenge.

SPEAKER_01: 50:51

I think two things. One, Hattie would be a great, great candidate for creator playbook because he's starting YouTube. I think like there's so much that like the like could just help him with like some of their titles and thumbnails and stuff. Yeah, the potential for their content, it always goes viral. Either a few of their clips go viral, but like a lot of when they bring in other people to go viral, yeah. I'm like, I I watch their content and I'm just like, dude, you guys have so much potential for the stuff you're doing first. But second, if I could get us to go work out there, would you guys go?

SPEAKER_00: 51:22

You gotta give me a year.

SPEAKER_01: 51:24

December. I gotta get I gotta get my shoulder surgery or at least you need four to six months of so December. If I could get us to work out there in December next year, yeah, would you go? I'd go. Where is it?

SPEAKER_03: 51:36

Would you get New Jersey? New Jersey. Would you go with Cola? Yeah, the only deterrent is the fact that it's in New Jersey, but uh you don't like New Jersey? No, I like New Jersey. I just wanted to say that.

SPEAKER_01: 51:46

Uh sorry all of our New Jersey listeners pulling up.

SPEAKER_00: 51:50

I think it's uh I it's not for everyone, I get that too, but I think there's an yeah, if like you can accept the fact that these are just people that are trying to push themselves, I think it takes off that whole like oh they're they're mean and they're like angry and blah blah blah. Like get rid of that. You look at it and you're like, no, these are these are just people on a mission. And they're like people call it corny and whatnot.

SPEAKER_01: 52:09

I I I absolutely love it. I would I would love to go die under the feet there.

SPEAKER_00: 52:12

Who did I see? I saw I saw I've only seen clips of of it, and I don't actually I haven't gone down the rabbit hole, but I saw what Ashton Hall in there actually crushing it. Yeah, Larry Wheeler get his ass kicked. Wheels, Larry Wheels. He's gigantic.

SPEAKER_01: 52:24

Yeah, it's an OG diamond gym person. He used to go there when he was in his true bodybuilding and was yeah. And then there's um there was one other guy a young guy. Uh Tennyson. Yeah, Will Tennyson, the Trent twins went. He got destroyed. Yeah, Tennyson got destroyed, but he he's a beast though. Yeah, he he has a big YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_00: 52:42

I mean, destroyed in like like the the workout. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ridiculous. I don't think emotionally he was destroyed. Ah it'd be a bad idea to do it. I think it's cool. And I also think it's amazing to see in like a world where everyone's trying to become like you know, the same the same clone of one another and everyone's accepted and all this and participation trophies and bullshit. It's like that that world is like, no, you either win or you die.

SPEAKER_01: 53:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 53:03

Like there's no in between, which is like how I was raised. It was like, oh, the second place is a first loser kind of mentality, right? Like you you and the first person you lose to every single time is yourself. Yeah. And that's that's what that does. So I think it's great. I'd I if like I said, if 10 years ago my body wasn't destroyed, Joe, I'd be like, Yeah, let's go tomorrow. Like, but I'm gonna just absolutely destroy, like, destroy me emotionally.

SPEAKER_01: 53:24

Unk is incredible. He even gets on the camera people for he'll make them start doing purpose. Yeah, I just want to go through one of those workouts. I think it'd be so much fun.

SPEAKER_00: 53:33

Yeah, I think it's also something to to piggyback that is like um a lot of you guys have been commenting on unscrewed when we're doing any challenges and stuff that there's uh a lot of food, and some people are getting tired of the food. Um, so we're gonna be incorporating some more physical challenges. If you guys got any suggestions, let us know. We'd love to hear them. Um, we've got some ideas, you know. Uh it could be yeah, pretty funny uh and pretty fun.

SPEAKER_01: 53:55

Um maybe some stuff until failure. But speaking of failure, the end of Changer Things. Oh, it is just wrapped. We're we're caught up. Sam and I finished it. John did not watch it. Um John's of the kids. John, don't watch it. Don't watch it.

SPEAKER_03: 54:12

It's not that it's it's not that bad, but it's definitely not good.

SPEAKER_01: 54:16

There were better fan theories for how it was going to end than in how it ended. It was disappointing. We started getting into rabbit holes. We were sending each other TikToks of like these crazy fan theories with like, you know, they're gonna make, they're gonna go back. There was this crazy one of Vecna was controlling everybody's minds because there were some colors of certain, you know, things in the episodes that changed, some memories that were different. So the theory was they were gonna go back, Netflix, and add time onto all the old episodes, and the episodes would have been longer, and then all of our minds were messed with, and we forgot certain things that happened. None of that happened. It was just a complete letdown. They definitely botched a lot of the props and was it was it all right.

SPEAKER_00: 54:59

So without spoiling it, was it more was it more or less of a letdown than like Game of Thrones final season?

SPEAKER_01: 55:05

It's right there with it. No, not that bad. It's right there with it.

SPEAKER_00: 55:08

It's right there with it. I don't think the show itself is in any sort of ballpark compared to Game of Thrones. No, not at all. I think it's not a pimple on Game of Thrones' ass.

SPEAKER_01: 55:17

Not comparing the shows, but comparing like the the hype for the show. I think it's right there with like the the ending's just kind of like all right, like sudden, you know. Yeah, I can't I can't I don't even know how to say it without spoiling it for you.

SPEAKER_00: 55:29

Yeah, the the show has never made sense to me. There's never been like a clear opportunity for what could be the end. So like there's good news is, John, if you had any questions that were left open, they were not closed at the end of the day. Well, that's the thing with Game of Thrones, is like there was multiple open story loops, and the criticism of the end of that show was that a lot of those things were never closed or addressed. And then the way the ones that were were done very poorly, right? I feel like Stranger Things, like I have no clue what's going on in that show. They didn't either make it up as they go, too. Literally, it feels like it's being made up, and also like I don't I literally don't care about like any characters except for the little girl they introduced this season. Holly Holly, that's it. That's the only one where I'm like, ah, if she dies, like Steve's cool, I'd like to. I think Derek's sick. Derek's cool, but it's like if Derek died, you'd be like, Oh, he was always the martyr. I don't know. I don't mean like he that's that's been his MO the whole time. Like, I will die for my kids. Like, I thought you know, and like love him, good character, but you're expecting him to die. So he probably dies.

SPEAKER_03: 56:29

See, that's one thing at least Game of Thrones did that I wish Stranger Things would have done. I thought there was gonna be a lot more. Not that I wanted everyone to die, but like I wanted to be like emotionally like, oh man, I don't know what's gonna happen. Everyone's pretty safe the whole time. Like, it's just that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00: 56:43

It's like Stranger Things ain't killing off anyone.

SPEAKER_01: 56:46

Right? No, and how it ended was just that it was one of those things where you just you there's a thousand different innings they could have done. The Duffer Brothers, they did all these interviews after, and they've been talking so much after the show, trying to like defend it. They finally got to a point where I forget which one released a statement that was like, We're upset that people are critiquing it as hard as they are. You put so much time and effort into something people don't like it. I'm like, what do you expect? Everyone, like, you know, this show was one of the best shows in the past how many years?

SPEAKER_00: 57:13

Like and then it just but that's so that so this is the thing. It's like I don't understand what happened to showrunners and storytellers. I I'm I'm gonna be completely honest. I think a lot of it has to do with shows that have younger people in them. And as the young the show gets older and the younger people get older, they really have a hard time of like bringing that home. Like Peaky Blinders, no issues with that show home. That movie is phenomenal. Movie's gonna be great. You're sitting there at the end of it and you're like, wait, what? You're still like, holy shit, right? There's no children in that show. Stranger Things started and it was a bunch of kids, and now you're like, these are 23-year-old dudes and chicks that are playing 16-year-olds, yeah, and it's weird.

SPEAKER_03: 57:56

I don't think the issue, at least for me, I don't think it was as much the kids, but if you go back and re-watch it, like the first two seasons have a very different vibe when it was like smaller, when it wasn't as big, like it actually is like creepy. It kind of like it's like like there's not as many like confusing as hell. Oh, it's confusing, but like there's like I feel like this eerie sense of like horror of like what's going on. Like, is Winona Ryder crazy? Is Will actually abducted? Where is he? Like, even the upside down was like horrifying. But like, I feel like by the time they got into the third season, they're like, We got a lot of popularity. Like, you guys want to make some money? Let's start let's like throw like a million pieces of like product placement in there. Let's like cater the story to try to garner. Yeah, that's where they went to California, right? They sent Will in season three to California. Was that or was that season four? Season four wasn't bad, but season three, that was a rough one. It just felt like they were trying to make as much money as they could. Like, I feel like they were literally like making the story like something to be more palatable to like knock making money, but like I I'm gonna I'm just gonna go back to it.

SPEAKER_00: 58:56

Like, Game of Thrones also had that issue, too. Think about it. Yeah, you had all of these young children that grew up on the show and then they become like adults, and then the story that's actually written is for them to still be teens and children. Like it's a weird thing. Um, and I think that was a part that they like couldn't bring home with Game of Thrones. Also, Game of Thrones had like 12-year-old girls getting married and stuff. It was an incest. It was a little different in that world, but like Stranger Things for me has never been like something where I was like, This is phenomenal storytelling. Like, I've never looked at that show and been like, This is this is up there with you know, uh the wires, the Sopranos, breaking bad, like you know, Game of Thrones. Like, never been in that question for me at all. Uh I could agree with that. I think it's there's no point in it. The show has literally no point, it's just like a bunch of kids running from like bad stuff, and you're like, cool, it's entertaining. Yeah. So like the fact that it's not paid off, I'm like, I'm not surprised it was a shitty story from the start.

SPEAKER_01: 59:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 59:49

At least for me. Well, you know who is such a waste of a character, too. So sad because she's such a great actress. It's Sarah Connor, uh, the woman that played Sarah Connor. I don't think she spoke a word the entire fifth season. And she'd come on the screen and just walk around and look pissed off and then walk off. And that was it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:05

I mean, like I said, I'm not done with it. I watched the first four or five, whatever came out before Christmas. I haven't had time since. I'll I'll uh I'll get it on the treadmill. I've been I've been reading while I'm on the treadmill and do it while I'm the treadmill.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:15

Be prepared to get pissed off. He's he's going easy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:18

I don't have any like emotions into it that we can't.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:20

Yeah, but um no, you're gonna be pissed off you wasted your time watching it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:25

It's not that it was like it was bad. It just like it could have been so much worse, though. It could have been way, way worse. So much better. I think the uh there's a uh YouTuber, the Critical Drinker. He he had a good uh uh It's pretty good. Yeah, he did a good line on it. He was like, if I had to sum up the end of stranger things, he's like it was like a man retiring from a job and giving a speech that went on like way too long, a bit too self-aggrandizing. Like, I feel like that was there were just way too many heart to hearts, too. It'd be like like I couldn't take any moment of suspense seriously because in the midst of it, it's like, oh, we're all gonna die. It's like, do you know about believing in yourself? It's like, what are you talking about? Like, they would just poor Holly. What about Holly? They were trying to escape the upside down. I kept wondering, I'm like, what's poor Holly gonna do? Because her body's over there with Vecna. Spoiler. Well, I I thought you oh well, it's too late now. But they're like running and stuff, and it's like, well, Holly, here's my stop. It's my loving friends and family, like uh, believe in yourself, and uh I I've got faith you can make it out of here. You wakes up in a hellscape with Vecna in front of her, like, oh my god, it was uh I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:27

The show makes no sense. No, if you just like ground it in that, one might say it's not a normal show. That's strange. Which is which is I think what made it interesting to Sam's point in the first couple seasons, is there was like you couldn't follow it. There was like nothing made sense, but it was interesting enough to keep you c keep coming back. It did it did lose me a bit there.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:47

There were some stranger things about it. It is not normal. But leads me to my next question. Is it normal? Is it normal? Our favorite segment of our favorite segment. I got some good ones today. First and foremost, kicking off the segment, is it normal to drink more than two energy drinks in a day?

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:05

Is it normal? Yes. Is it healthy?

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:07

No. Say how many not energy drinks. Coffee, yeah. Energy drinks.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:13

That's uh I feel like a lot of people just crush energy drinks. They don't like the taste of coffee. Uh my palates are like adamantly like like being a doll, drink the coffee.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:23

Yeah, my palate gets burnt out from like the even ones that I like. Like if I have one, that's that's pretty much it. Like, I can't. A coffee? No. Energy drink. Yeah. Yeah, the coffee's a good deal.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:32

I mean, I could drink like five of them. I just like my eyeballs twitch out of my head and I feel like I'm like losing my, like I'm gonna have a heart attack.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:38

The ghost energy does that to me. There's d they're delicious. They taste like candy. But ghost.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:42

See, you ever have C4?

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:44

Yeah. C4 gets me like Celsius gives me like a I get like a headache in a part of my brain I didn't know existed.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:50

Yeah, see, I'm numb to it now. I I've I should probably get checked out. Celsius brain. Take my body and use it for science after I've died. Because I mean the amount of Celsius I've is ridiculous. Use I used to drink two a day years ago. Not even here. I wasn't working here. I stopped when I moved back. When I was in Dallas, I drink one in the morning, one in the I've had two energy drinks in a day.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:12

I feel like I've seen it. Yeah, well, no, I don't know. Remember the 24-hour cutting board video?

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:16

That's different. That's 24 hours awake. I got a body prime. I got a Maxwell House and Celsius. Only things I consumed. Just yeah. Um this one I thought was. Do you think it's normal? No, God, no. I think it's very not normal the stuff that I consume probably energy-wise.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:34

I'm no, I think what you do is very normal. Like I know all my buddies. My buddy sent me last night after the Steeler game. He's like, it was an eight zinner. He had eight zins watching the game. Eight zins? It's like I'm like, bro.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:44

I don't know if there are threes, six. No about those days, man. Let me tell you. Good old eight days.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:48

Just like got three kids.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:50

Is it normal to hate the sound of people chewing, but fine when you chew?

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:55

There's actually science to that, that that's it's actually like a neurological disorder. Really? No, it's not normal. It's not normal. Look it up. Is it normal? So you would hate someone else chewing, but you're not. I can't remember what it's called.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:06

It's haloose hull. It's something um I I don't think it's normal. I I I I've been uh critiqued many times for chewing gum too loudly, but I don't really mind hearing someone else chew.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:17

Misphonia, yeah. Yep. You get anxiety or anger. Disgust. It's yeah, so it's scientific. It's why it's what so no, it's not normal.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:28

What are you saying, Pula? I I would say it's not normal. Like I said, I've I've been critiqued many times for many people for chewing gum too loudly. Whenever I was teaching, I remember I was like chewing this gum so loud, this little girl tie age, I was like, that gum's good, isn't it? And I was like, thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:43

You know, yeah. You used to slam gum when you started working here, I remember.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:48

Yeah, I chew a pack of gum a day until I started making YouTube videos, and Sam really Sam Green used to you just yell at me all the time. He's like, dude, spit the gum out. And Mike's I was like, I hate it. I can't, I'm not editing out your gum chewing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:00

I think Danny Smith chews gum loudly. I mean, he has so much gum in his mouth. He has a whole pack of big leakes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:05

Danny Smith was almost about to be chewing no gum. He almost lost that damn.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:08

Yeah, hey, Boswell is the ones without a job, but that's not normal.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:13

He's the only way to call to kick it to him to get it back to the 40. Like that shit in the end zone.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:17

I know. I didn't hey listen, it got dicey last night. Let's go back to is it normal to eat shredded cheese out of a bag? From time to time, yeah. I think it's normal. You pull some sh you pull it out.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:30

Wait, are you talking like in passing? Like um grab something or you're cooking with it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:34

You're you have tacos you're making, it's out and you have a little white people talking. You're waiting. Yeah. And you have some shredded cheese in a bowl for people to like put on their tacos or your family. A little bite.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:45

Oh, yeah. 100%. I mean, I there's there's been times in my life where I'm just a handful of cheese in my mouth. I remember. If you're buying Costco volume cheese, you need to. You got to. Yeah, chip away what you're not.

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:54

When I lived in college, I roomed with like three guys, and the fridge was just like a random assortment of things. I remember getting like a good late night buzz on. You'd go out and get some of the cheese out of the bag, throw it in a bowl with some Frank's red hot, and just go to town on that. That is not normal.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:10

That might be the most disgusting argument I've ever heard. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:14

That's gotta be the extra sharp cheddar. Well, it's whatever's in there, I guess. Just cheese?

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:18

We used to with a little Frank's red hot like we thought was like fine dining ramen. You'd throw an egg in there, you'd throw some cheese on it, some ramen that was like hyped up. Yeah, that's like nice. Yeah, it's nice ramen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:30

Next next podcast. Hot sauce cheese. Dude, I actually got like a chill down my body. I've all just bad for you. We could all share it. We'll take poles off of it together. We get another bowl of that cheese.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:43

I don't want that. This one was interesting because you both can be very social sometimes. Is it normal to need a day to recover from being social? You go out in the town, you're you're you're going to a friend's house, a long night, you need a whole day to do nothing. And recover.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:00

Does it always happen? No, but when it does, it's beautiful. I think if if it can happen, make it happen. Yeah, like I mean, I was like an only child, too. I like just like a day alone sometimes, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:11

I feel like over the holidays. I think most men like just time alone. Like I'm not gonna knock that. I I my my my obligations in life don't allow for it often, but I could I could by myself for a considerable period of time and be perfectly fine. I don't know. I think it depends on if you're an introvert or an extrovert, right? If you're an extroverted person, like some people can like I like I don't know, I don't need a data recharge after being social.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:32

I'll go out, crush it, parties, whatever, right back at it. Yeah. Right. My my my I don't have uh I don't have a social tank. For me, it's a lot more like physical activity tank. Like it depends on what we're doing. If we're just sitting around doing nothing, like no, I'm good. Yeah. But if uh if it's like laborious of whatever's happening, right? Like golfing, you know, 36 holes while being social and getting drunk the whole time, like yes, I need a data recovery.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:59

You know, so I'm I'm gonna say is it normal, yes. But I think it depends on the circumstance. Introvert versus extrovert thing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:08

Alright. Last and not least, is it normal to care way too much about your city's sports teams?

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:15

What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:17

I feel like your entire existence is based around oh you go to I Yeah, we'll see. I I think when you get to that level, I I I don't think it's normal. I don't think it's number one, I don't think it's normal. Number two, I don't think it's good for your health. I know I know some people like that. Whenever the teams lose, it's so bad. It's like the world ended, and that can happen every single week for months on end. So I mean, I think you gotta care, but there also has to be a line where it's like it's Monday morning, I'm gonna turn a new leaf now.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:48

I got a we have a family friend, and uh she uh uh was a was a really good soccer player, like played in college and stuff. Her kids play soccer, uh and and and they're great. She doesn't watch or like the sport of football because her dad rode the emotional roller coaster so hard that he would just be like, you know, in a terrible mood if the Steelers lost. Yeah. So like because of that, she has such a negative connotation of football. She'd like literally like she'll she'll be like, you guys want to do lunch? It's like it's it's one o'clock on a Sunday. Like, no, it's one o'clock on a Sunday. Like I'm busy forever. Like, never ask me to do that. Um, so I I'm not I I I think it's funny because it's like I care, I have a lot of pride in like, you know, yeah. And I care a lot. Like, I'm but I'm not someone that's like going out getting in fist fights if you're not a Steeler fan. Yeah. Right. Or if you're not a Penguins fan or a Pirates fan, like whatever. Um, there was a point in my life though where that was like way more important to me for some reason. Um, where it's like you were looking for some community and that's where it was. Um I feel like everyone kind of goes through that, right? Yeah. Um, but I think it's also interesting now to see like how ignorant young people are, and then then trying to claim like that they're like rabbit fans of something. Yeah, they're right, and they'll like whether it's music or sports, they'll be wearing like a Nirvana shirt and they won't even like know a Nirvana song, or like they'll wear they'll wear a Steeler shirt or Pirates vintage shirt and like have no idea that it's a baseball team. Like, I that stuff I desp that's that's what pisses me off as a fan. Like a fan of anything. Yeah, if you're like if you're like rocking like all the Steelers Wagon, you literally just bought it because you think it looks good, I hate you. Like that, but I think so. I feel like it's normal. Yes, that that stuff for me, like I can't get to I I was literally I I got on a call with some guy recently and we're and we're we're bullshitting and at the end of it, I was like, um, I was like, oh so double R. I was like, so you're a rodeo fan. He's like, Oh no, this hat just looked good. And I was just like, bye. I'm like, you're you're wearing a rodeo hat. Like you should live rodeo life, like, or at least be like a fan of rodeo. Yeah, no, my my girlfriend gave it to me, it looked cool. And I was like, oh come on, man. Like I was like, I thought we were gonna go down the rabbit hole of like Western wear and like talking about live the rodeo lifestyle. The rodeo lifestyle. I can't get behind wearing things that reflect being like into something or a fan of something that you're actually not.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:13

Yeah, I'm trying to think of other examples. Gifted stuff sometimes, like return it. Where's the restrained?

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:20

How could you give me this fine gift? Give it a no no doubt, no shit. All right. Why is it not okay? If I Joe, if I was like, hey Joe, here's a Dallas Cowboys jersey. Are you wearing it? What color? What color?

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:34

That was such a good name. Listen, hold on.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:35

Okay, I am the guy. I'll give you an example. I don't watch the NBA anymore. I have a lot of NBA jerseys that like I've collected over the years. Nice like Mitchell and Ness ones that like I just I got gifted to me or I bought and they hang in a closet, but like I like it just because it's some of my favorite players of all time that like are just in my closet. Like I never will wear them ever again, but I I wasn't gonna return them when my brother got me a Jason Kidd jersey. Like I think are you a Jason Kidd fan? I love Jason Kidd's jersey. Yeah, it's a kid.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:09

Jason the kid.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12:10

Maybe this old. Hey, you know what? No, you're not wrong. My mom got me a penguins like sport, like uh, a letterman jacket for Christmas. And I don't know, I it didn't fit me. And instead of like getting another size, I returned it and got these shoes. Yeah. Like, you know, I that maybe that you're not like a huge Pens fan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:26

You aren't a penguins fan.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12:27

But I'm not though.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:28

Yeah. I don't wear penguin stuff. I don't even wear it to the game. So that's where I'm at. It's like I look you'd wear whatever team if you thought it looked cool.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:38

If it was whatever band. No, not definitely not band, but I will say with a team though. I think a team is different. This is where I'll say a team is different, because like I feel like there could be like an iconic player. Like, well, but then I guess I know about that player. I was gonna be like you're a fan of the player. Yeah. It depends what city you're in. You know what's probably an anomaly to this? What about all those people wear pirates' hats? Celebrities, musicians, every for whatever reason, it's always a best looking hat.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:02

You know, you know who you have to wear a pirate hat? Shut it a bit. Shut combs.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:06

Oh rocking a lot of pirates hats.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:08

Go watch that documentary back. Oh, actually, you're right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:10

I remember I know I kept seeing it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:11

I was like, Why are you wearing a pirate hat? I kept saying, like, why is he wearing that pirates?

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:16

Oh no, he's talking about it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:17

That was my favorite game. I loved Fred Durst growing up and like Limp Biscuit. It was my generation all about it. So I had the red Yankees hat because I thought it was cool. But like I they then I thought about it, I was like, I thought it was cool because Fred Durst wore it, right? Yeah, like I've never I've never been able to grasp just like well me, I I'll go to music more because it's like like I would never, if you give me like a cowboy shirt, no. If you give me like literally any other NFL team, I'm not wearing it. I don't I actually don't own like very much Steeler stuff. Like actually, I don't none. Um I have some stuff that carried over from when I played, and then I bought a hat this year for myself.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:53

Um You know what the only thing is with wearing other team stuff? When I lived in Dallas, sometimes I'd go to the gym and I wear Pittsburgh Steelers shit. And like I would dead ass get a lot of shit for it. People would like start like making jokes, calling at me. So I And you were loyal. I literally bought the loyalty goes out the window here. I didn't know anyone I wanted to make friends. So I had literally bought a Dallas Mavericks hoodie that I would wear to the gym and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:16

Yeah, get out of it. Why did you buy the Mavericks?

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:18

Just to kind of like not have Damn it. I thought you were gonna say you're a Mark Cuban fan, who's a Pittsburger, and then you die back. Luca Doncic fan.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:25

That's I love me some Luca. That's what I'm saying, is like there's a reason. Like I can't understand why people were it's like, oh, you're just rocking something because it's like streetwear and it looks like like I actually fing hate streetwear culture. It pisses me off, ruins so many things. We can get into that in another episode. Next episode we can get into streetwear. But but that's where I go back to with like loving your city sports team. Like, so I'm not someone that's like all of your emotions should be tied to sports because your emotions deserve to be tied to other things. Yeah. Right? But I will say that like I'm adamant about I guess I'm a little bit more adamant about some stuff. Like if you're wearing Steelers stuff and you're not a Steelers fan, like I I will not slap you, but I would like to. Um kind of shit, because like I just don't agree with it. I'm like, I just like like I'm not gonna, you don't see me wearing like like hip hop like uh like t-shirts. Yeah. I'm not gonna wear like a uh I don't know, like like a like a Jay-Z shirt and not be a Jay-Z fan. Right? Like I don't understand why it's in one side okay and one in another side's not.

SPEAKER_03: 1:15:21

But I will say though, you're someone that enjoys wearing some cowboy boots though, right? Yeah. What if well what if someone that's actually like you know, like in a like into like horse farm stuff? Like I I you should be allowed to wear cowboy boots without someone being like, oh, you never rode a horse or did I rode a horse. Yeah, but if you I'm not a cowboy by any that's what I mean though.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:41

Yeah, but you're but it's not like uh so that's like a an entire category of clothing. That's like saying t-shirt. No, western wear, I feel like t-shirt, sweatshirt, hat is the same thing as a boot category.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:53

Let's get into this one next week. I think this can be. Next week we talk about Western wear.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:57

So like I'm I'm adamantly like I'm not a cowboy, I'm not trying to be a cowboy. I just want to look like Rip from Yellowstone. Like, I just think I think it looks good. That's what I said. It's like, yeah, if you ask me, like, why you wear cowboy boots? Because Rip looks like a badass. Like, that's it. I like the way the boots look. I like Rip. Like, I'm a fan. Okay, cool. If I was like, why are you wearing that Nirvana t-shirt? And you're like, my life motto is smells like Teen Spirit, I'd be like, cool, great talk. Right? But if you if you if you add it, if you're actually like, I don't know shit about the thing I'm wearing, I just think it's stupid, right? So I go back to Yeah, I do the same thing with sports. It's like if you're not into the team or a player or something, I actually have never worn another player's jersey except my own on my back in any sport, right? I'm the weird like that. Like I literally have my I've been gifted jersey. Never? Nope, gifted jersey came back.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:46

Um I know, I know, I know. I'm gonna get you a good gift next year.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:49

No, you won't see me wear it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:50

Oh, yeah, I will. No, I already know who it is.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:52

And that but there's I think that you'd have to be like a staple player in the organization for me to like care. Like I had a James Harrison jersey, I wore it once, they lost and never bore it again. Um jersey. No, I just feel like because I'm looking at him like as another player, like it's a massive maybe it's different from you. Okay, I kind of get it from having played having played like the Buccaneers at the time. Like Mark, how weird is that? I don't know. I I just I get that one. I also used to like talk shit on my buddies because I never played Madden or NCAA, like football. Yeah, that's it. And they're like, and they like loved it. And I was like, I play real football, I don't I don't play fake football. And it was I don't know, I I got issues. It's every kid's dream to be in one of those games. I know. I was in six of them, so it's like it's cool. Uh but um I still need to go put you in one of those games and make sure you can get some of those vintage ones. But to that being said, do you think it's disrespectful or normal to wear a team's branded literally anything if you're not a fan of the team? Let us know in the comments down below and anything else you'd like us to talk about. We appreciate you guys spending time with us on this episode, and we will see you later on the next one.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:56

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