Kendrick, Cap & The Fate of Aaron Rodgers

Midlife Marauders is back with another lively episode as hosts Will and Max navigate the twists and turns of midlife—where breakfast with the boys sparks reflection, social drinking gets tricky, and the Super Bowl is more than just a game. They break down Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance, dive into the future of the Marvel Universe with Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and debate whether it’s time for Aaron Rodgers to hang up his cleats. Tune in for a fun, insightful, and culture-packed conversation!

Thanks for listening--keep on marauding!

Transcript

Intro

Speaker 1 0:06

Welcome to Midlife Marauders with Will and Max.

Trip to FL & IHOP

Speaker 2 0:20

So I was down in Florida for my father's birthday, his 81st birthday. How? Many In January 81st, 81st, shout out to my dad 81. Yay, happy birthday and I went down there with a couple of cousins. Now these guys are older than me, they're 65 and up to 70, I believe Okay. So we go to IHOP in the morning and you know we're getting a breakfast and I tease them about oh you guys are about to.

Speaker 2 0:56

you know, can I get in on your senior discounts? Ha ha ha. Little did I know that they have a 55 plus menu. You qualify. I'm like, oh my gosh, this isn't real and I'm sure enough.

Speaker 1 1:13

So the cousins are laughing at you, they're laughing at me like welcome to the club.

Speaker 2 1:19

And I'm like well, you gotta be joking me, but did that make?

Speaker 1 1:22

you excited that you could get a deal.

Speaker 2 1:24

No, I mean when the check came.

Speaker 1 1:28

Yes, you can't change your age.

Speaker 2 1:31

No, you can't. But it wasn't even like I had to show ID. It was just like you know, because what I wanted was on the 55 plus menu. So I just asked for that. I said you know. I said, hey, it's on the 55 plus menu. Can I have this? I don't even remember what it was, probably omelet or something and did they ask for proof?

Speaker 1 1:52

they didn't know?

Speaker 2 1:53

no, they just said yeah, you got it, bud, you got it. Sure enough, my, if you're gonna order it, you're probably yeah, I mean yeah, and sure enough, my check said 55 plus order for me. So I felt some type of way about that. But you know that quickly subsided, I mean I am what I am 55. So can't run from that forever.

Socializing while sober

Speaker 1 2:15

Exactly here we are. I wanted to ask you about I know you're not doing Dry January, but you just stopped drinking cold turkey, right? How's that going?

Speaker 2 2:32

Still going. It's been a challenge, but it is getting easier.

Speaker 1 2:39

I'm getting used to it. It's a challenge because of social pressure.

Speaker 2 2:42

Social, purely social pressure, not so much that you're craving it or missing it. There's a small aspect of that too. But yeah, it's just a social challenge and you know it's just like you have to almost become a different person. I know that sounds terrible.

Speaker 1 3:05

Well, because the history of your relationship with your friends is always going out and drinking. It's an adjustment.

Speaker 2 3:11

I guess it's an adjustment. Yeah, and it's challenging because, at least for me, it makes me realize that when you have drinks it's easier to be social, it's easier for me to be funny and engaging and that sort of thing you know, particularly when people are doing it. But when you're the only one that's not doing it, it's like oh, you have to figure out different social charms and different ways to kind of entertain folks and that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 3:42

And just be kind of annoying, right right, if everybody else is drinking and like 100.

Speaker 2 3:47

So yeah, yeah, so surrounded by drunk people yeah, so I had to do that with the uh super bowl this year, which was interesting, because everybody else is having libations and toasting and everything else and I'm like no, no.

Speaker 1 4:03

I'm good, but it didn't. You're sticking with it.

Speaker 2 4:08

I'm going to stick with it for yeah, because I feel a lot better. I feel like I've lost a little bit of weight, I feel like my body is thanking me every day for abstaining. So it's not going to be a forever thing. It's going to. You know, I figure you know it's not gonna be a forever thing. It's gonna. You know, I figure. You know it's winter, it's cold, you know you're not really out in the sun where you know it's much more fun to have a nice cold cocktail or something like that. So I figure I'm gonna, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I figured I'm gonna wait until the weather gets a little bit better oh, that's good you know at least you have a little bit of a break.

Speaker 1 4:45

Give your body a break.

Speaker 2 4:47

Yeah, yeah for sure. And then you know, at 55, you need those breaks. You know, I'm not a young man, but I'm not an old man either.

Super Bowl LVII blowout, Hamm/Cooper representing, Halftime Show

Speaker 1 4:55

At least I like to think so. Yeah, yeah, no, that's good, all right. Well, you mentioned the Super Bowl. What did you end up doing for that?

Speaker 2 5:07

I went to a buddy's house. It was a small gathering. I would say probably 10 people, maybe, if you call that small, Lots of good food, lots of the host and I think like the traditional kind of Superbowl food.

Speaker 1 5:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:27

Yeah, it was wings and and and that sort of thing. But uh, yeah, there was some, uh, some some Puerto Rican flair to it. Um so yeah, some, some dishes there but mostly traditional Um but it was really good.

Speaker 1 5:41

What were you rooting?

Speaker 2 5:42

for I didn't really have a rooting interest for either team. Shout out to my buddy, sean White, who I know listens. Him and his wife Margarita hosted the Super Bowl party.

Speaker 1 5:53

So shout out to you guys, good party.

Speaker 2 5:56

Thank you for inviting me and having me out, but no, I didn't have a rooting interest for either of the teams. I didn't really Well, let me take that back. I didn't want the Eagles to win, not necessarily meaning I wanted Kansas City to win. I just didn't want the Eagles to dominate like they did.

Speaker 1 6:15

Correct Boy did they dominate, so it ended up being not that exciting.

Speaker 2 6:20

I was rooting for Kansas City. You were Very disappointed yeah yeah, sorry about that man, that was just an ass-kicking, a thorough ass-kicking. How was your Super bowl experience?

Speaker 1 6:33

um, it was good. You know I was gonna. We usually watch at home, but we went to um dave and busters because the kids they have. They have a bunch of deals there and one of them was like the kids could play unlimited games for I don't know like 20, 30 bucks.

Speaker 2 6:47

So I was like sign me up.

Speaker 1 6:48

That's great, you know, because my kids don't really. They don't want to sit through a whole game and so they could run off and do their thing, and the food was good, you know. So we got wings and it was fun. I mean, it was a great venue for it, it's just that the game itself was not was disappointing, you know, since I was rooting for the Chiefs. So, but it was fun. You know, it was fun.

Speaker 1 7:14

I thought it was kind of cool at the beginning when they had the um each team had a different star or actor announcing the team as they came out, you know and so it was john ham was for the chiefs and then um bradley cooper for for the eagles, and it was kind of interesting because it was kind of like you know what we talked about with the olympics how can somebody who's in midlife still be involved? In a sport right, and so I thought it was interesting that they picked those people, even though I think on social media, people were, you know, giving or ridiculing Jon Hamm because his voice cracked.

Speaker 1 7:41

Oh, really it looked a little bit like um, not like the madman Jon Hamm that I remember. So, I hadn't seen him in a while, so um so people were kind of making fun of him on social media, as people do. I didn't really notice the voice cracking, but I thought that was interesting. And then the halftime show. I thought was great. Did you like it A lot?

Speaker 2 8:03

of buzz, I think afterwards A lot of buzz Apparently the most watched Super Bowl halftime show ever. All right, let me go back for a second. It's a lot to process here. Jon Hamm We'll talk about this later, but I thought he looked good on the SNL 50th anniversary. Okay, yeah, he did a sketch on that. I missed that whole part about him and Bradley Cooper. I must have been getting food or something like that.

Speaker 1 8:28

It was pretty quick, but I think it was kind of interesting. I don't know if they do that every year. You know have some celebrity. I thought that was good.

Speaker 2 8:36

I did see our president was there. He's the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl, which I thought was fascinating. Kendrick Lamar, where did I even begin with that?

Speaker 1 8:49

I didn't know he's been around for as long as he has. Oh yeah, with that. I didn't know he's been around for as long as he has. I guess he started making music in high school, so he's like late 37 or something like that. Maybe started when he was 16, so he's been in the biz for a long time, you know.

Speaker 2 9:05

Yeah, he has, he has. It was a good show.

Speaker 1 9:08

I love the red, white and blue.

Speaker 2 9:10

Yeah, the visuals were top uh, the choreography was good. I, you know, somebody made fun of me because I talked about it was a live, live event, a live show, uh, but the way the camera, particularly when they were in that like maze or grid thing, whatever they were in, uh, it almost grid thing, whatever they were in, it almost seemed like it was like a video. It didn't seem like a live show to me. I was like how are they tracking?

Speaker 1 9:41

that I mean. Obviously it's been rehearsed and all that other good stuff.

Speaker 2 9:43

But I thought the camera work was phenomenal.

Speaker 1 9:46

Yeah, it was very intentional what they were shooting. Very intentional, they had Serena Williams out there.

Speaker 2 9:50

What did you think?

Speaker 1 9:51

of Uncle Sam Samuel L Jackson.

Speaker 2 9:54

That was shocking. That was shocking and you know, I'm still trying to formulate what I actually saw, still trying to compute what the meaning of the show was, because I don't know if you did this but I, you know, looking on the Internet and social media, everyone has their own interpretation of what happened. At least I'm not going to get into all that. I mean it was very political, obviously.

Speaker 1 10:22

Right, it was political and then it was anti-Drake. I think there was two different teams.

Speaker 2 10:27

Anti-Drake, anti-government current government Taking back the country a little bit.

Speaker 1 10:33

yeah, like I like I had a big issue with um kind of feeling like the american flag was no longer for every american, so I thought it did a good job of that, you know just saying hey, it's not just for yeah, yeah, that's a great point.

Speaker 2 10:49

Um, I thought it was a good show. I thought maybe he could have worked in a couple of hits from prior albums, not just GMAX.

Speaker 1 10:59

Yeah, it did feel a little bit short.

Speaker 2 11:01

Yeah, there were some slaps that I wanted to hear. That he didn't do that, I think would have. But he was trying to tell a story, so the songs he chose were for that story. So I don't really fault him for that. He could have just done his best of, and that would have been fine for me, but I don't think that would have gotten the story over that he wanted to portray.

Speaker 2 11:25

So I'll give him credit for that. For that I'm kind of wishing, and hopefully this deadens the beef. I don't think it will. It actually made me feel a little bit sorry for Drake, to be honest with you.

Speaker 1 11:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:43

But he I mean Drake should never have gone after Kendrick. I don't know what he was thinking, right?

Speaker 1 11:50

Or his wife. I think that's what I meant. Well, they both kind of I don't ever go after the family.

Speaker 2 11:55

Yeah, but they both did that, I'm not saying Drake did it, yeah, they both did that, but obviously Kendrick put the hammer down on that and I think Drake definitely underestimated Kendrick and his influence and that whole West Coast California kind of rallying behind Kendrick and that sort of thing. It's just like it made me feel bad for Drake. But then I realized how stupid, how silly it is to feel bad for a multimillionaire.

Speaker 1 12:29

He's going to be okay.

Speaker 2 12:31

It just kind of like all right, hopefully this is it, Just put a stamp on it.

Speaker 1 12:36

Boom, it's over and let's just move on.

Speaker 2 12:40

It was a good show. It was a good show. I kind of wish, though and I love Kendrick, and I love when Dr Dre and that whole halftime show and even the Weeknd I kind of wish they go back to when they used to merge genres together. You know what I mean. I kind of like those kind of halftime shows too.

Speaker 1 13:06

Give me an example.

Speaker 2 13:08

You're saying like hip-hop or pop or country, yeah kind of like that kind of deal, like what they did for when Beyonce did the AFC championship game you know what I mean Like she brought out like Post Malone and somebody else. You know I like when they're kind of like different genres, kind of mixed together.

Speaker 1 13:32

You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 13:33

Because it kind of gives, it brings out the best of different audiences. You know what I'm saying? A little something for everybody to enjoy.

Speaker 1 13:43

I think he did a good job of being alone and still I don't know doing something different. I didn't feel the same way Like the Weeknd, I didn't love that one and I didn't love the.

Speaker 2 13:54

Rihanna one either, oh really.

Speaker 1 13:57

No, I just thought it was more like Rihanna's great, but I feel like she just it was like I'm just going to perform this. There's no real big message, you know, and same with the Weeknd.

Speaker 2 14:08

It was entertainment, right you like the messages.

Speaker 1 14:17

I do like the messages, especially at this time. You know this day and age. I think I'm the opposite.

Speaker 2 14:21

Yeah, I think I'm the opposite of you. I think I don't really want a message, I just want to be entertained because, you can get that kind of stuff at least for me anywhere. Can get that kind of stuff, at least for me anywhere social media, the internet, you know, your friends whatever, coworkers, whatever.

Speaker 1 14:39

So yeah, I think we're a little different, I think if you're an artist, you know, I think of musicians as artists, right, and so it's not every entertainer, right, or not every musician that's gonna have a political message, but you know, if that's what they are known for, then and I think kendrick lamar definitely is, you know if you think about his music.

Speaker 2 15:01

So I think it would be odd if he was just out there entertaining only well, well, I, I guess you're right, I guess you're right, I guess you're right on that. But I do think here's my hot take Max, I think we're going to go. I think they're going to do, at least for the foreseeable future, I think they're going to do non-messaging, non-political acts in the Super Bowl for a little while you think they're going to shut it down.

Speaker 1 15:30

acts in the Super Bowl for a little while you think they're going to shut it down.

Speaker 2 15:32

I could see them having a two or three year run where we're just like, all right, let's just entertain the masses of the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 15:44

This wasn't in your face. I guess this Uncle Sam stuff was in your face, but it wasn't. I think it was still very artistic, I guess no, very artistic, very artistic.

Speaker 2 15:57

Uh, yeah, I, I think we're gonna be, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna move on from that a little bit. Uh, you know I was. I kind of nerded myself out at the super bowl too, because for some reason I've become the Marvel expert and I was like, oh yeah, from what I'm hearing, we're supposed to be getting some new trailers for Thunderbolts and Captain America and there might be a new Superman commercial coming out too. There was a Thunderbolts commercial.

Speaker 1 16:32

Is this you, when you're sober?

Anthony Mackie as Cap!

Speaker 2 16:34

Yeah, this is me. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I guess the nerve value goes way up when I'm not drinking. But yeah, whatever I heard was wrong. And those trailers or previews didn't come out. People were looking at me like I thought you said we were going to get a dinner and they didn't really, or previews didn't come out people were looking at me like I thought you said we're gonna get it and they didn't really it didn't happen, but so speaking of.

Speaker 1 17:05

Do you want to talk about? You saw captain america right I did.

Speaker 2 17:09

I did uh shout out to anthony Mackie, who I believe is 46 years old.

Speaker 1 17:17

And he doesn't look a day over what like 30 something. He looks young.

Speaker 2 17:23

Yeah, he looks good. He looks good Pause. But he's the new Captain America now, which is okay. For me, it just seems kind of weird that, and they kind of explained in the movie too. I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but he doesn't have any superpowers. He didn't take the super soldier serum, which is not easy to say by the way, oh interesting. Yeah, he didn't.

Speaker 1 17:53

Sorry. But, he doesn't have the what was his old thing? The hawk or whatever.

Speaker 2 17:58

He still has the wings.

Speaker 1 18:00

He still has the wings, he still has the wings, but he is.

Speaker 2 18:01

He combines that with, uh, captain, america's shield, and so he's able to to take or do these superhuman, super human things, because the wakandans made a suit for him out of vibranium.

Speaker 1 18:22

Oh, so is it kind of like Iron man, where it's the suit yeah.

Speaker 2 18:26

So he has a superhero suit, kind of like Iron man. I guess that is a great point, but it's not like Iron man where it covers his entirety, his whole person. He doesn't wear a mask or a shield over his face or anything like that, he just has the wings. And I guess the suit really is superpower too. But his whole thing about not taking the super soldier serum is well, there was a part of of it where people were saying we, we know you're not a captain America, but that makes you great because you're something that we can aspire to be like we can't really be like captain America, because he's all juiced up.

Speaker 2 19:16

You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 19:17

Right. So did they make a point like in the movie? Was he supposed to be midlife or no?

Speaker 2 19:24

no, not really. There's no like well he does, you know, make him he might make a joke about it like I'm getting too old for this or I'm not you know, I'm not as young as I used to be. Uh, it's just for me. It's just like I wanted to highlight him because he is 46 years old and it just seems to me a lot of the and does a great job, but a lot of the actors that are portraying these roles are midlifers now or coming up on midlifers, and I could kind of tell where they're going with this, because there has to be some sort of changing of the guard, so to speak, for sure, yeah.

Speaker 2 20:06

Where these people need to be getting younger. So that's really an interesting aspect of these movies how they're going to turn that over to younger characters.

Speaker 1 20:16

Do you think there's going to be a sequel to this and is he going to stay in that role? Do you think?

Speaker 2 20:21

He'll stay in it for another two or three more movies.

Speaker 1 20:24

Yeah, yeah for sure.

Speaker 2 20:27

But you know, like Mark Ruffalo, even Chris Hemsworth, chris Evans, ryan Reynolds, you know, they're all pushing 50 or maybe.

Speaker 1 20:39

Yeah, Mark Ruffalo, I think is our age, oh, 57.

Speaker 2 20:43

Mm-hmm. It's just an interesting dynamic that these guys are playing these dynamic superheroes with all these physical abilities, but they're midlifers.

Speaker 1 20:54

Yeah, it would be interesting to ask younger people what they think of the casting, if they like him as an actor. You know be interesting, right, because for us, it's like oh cool, you know right, we've got a wolverine and they're older and they're our age, you know it's kind of cool but if you're a younger person, maybe you want to see somebody younger yeah, that is.

Speaker 2 21:16

You know, are these people aging themselves out of their roles? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's fascinating for sure.

Speaker 1 21:23

Well, good, well, I'm glad he's a leading man because he's a good actor.

Speaker 2 21:26

He is a good actor. I think he's one of the better actors in the whole Marvel cinematic universe.

Speaker 1 21:38

But what I wanted to say is that you know, I guess 46 is not too old to be a superhero and being the leading guy. But what about you know? Going back to football, you know there's a lot in the news about Aaron Rodgers. Should he retire, should he not? You know, and as somebody who's an athlete, you know, hitting 40, I mean, he's what? 41? Is that too old, you know? I mean if you're Tom Brady maybe you can stick around for a couple more years, but what are your thoughts on Aaron Rodgers?

Speaker 2 22:08

Well, I've never been an Aaron Rodgers fan. Full disclosure I'm a Minnesota Vikings fan.

Speaker 2 22:15

He played for Green Bay Packers, so never really liked, yeah, big rival, but I always recognize his talent and skill. He's he's probably from a purely throwing aspect of the position of playing quarterback. He's probably the best that's ever done it. Yeah, I guess that could be debatable, but I think you, you know, if anybody that did not have in the top five of him being one of the most talented quarterbacks with his arm, I would think that your top five was trash.

Speaker 1 22:49

But have you seen the decline over this last season? And then that's why they're letting him go.

Speaker 2 22:56

I mean obviously not so much with his arm. No, the arm talent, the arm strength is still there. I think his downfall or decline is really not necessarily his play on the field. It's just how he goes about his business. I think he is a very arrogant and conceited person. I think he thinks he's Very outspoken.

Speaker 2 23:27

He's very outspoken, super outspoken. He doesn't stay in his own lane. I think he puts himself in situations that he doesn't really need to be in, and I think that really came across. I think the Packers got sick of it. That's why they were willing to move on and he went over.

Speaker 1 23:47

So you're saying he's not a team player.

Speaker 2 23:50

If you asked him, of course he would say yes, he is, but I think no, in my opinion, he's not a team player. I think that's what's currently happening with the jets. I think that's why they're considering moving on. Um, but a question was asked to me would I want him to play for my team? And I would be like, absolutely yes, which is very short-sighted, I get that, but with a bit of an attitude adjustment, I think he can still help a team get to a Super Bowl. Okay, so you're saying purely for?

Speaker 1 24:24

skill and purely for like, just for a couple more years or something like that A hundred percent.

Speaker 2 24:29

Hopefully this year has humbled him and he is willing to kind of let go and just be the best that he can be and not try to run an organization and not try to put himself in positions where he's conflicting with others. And they fired their head coach, they fired the offensive coordinator. That he kind of handpicked. He had his hands in too many pots there. I think he just needs to concern himself with his business, not so much what everybody else is doing. Kind of handpicked.

Speaker 2 25:00

You know he had his hands in too many pots there. I think he just needs to concern himself with his business, not so much what everybody else is doing, and just let the people that were hired to run the team and hired to coach the team do their jobs and he not interfere. Now, if he can do that, I think he can still be a viable quarterback to get you to a Super Bowl for sure, yeah, and it seems like I don't think he's done yet.

Speaker 1 25:21

I mean, I don't. I'm not a big football person. I, you know, I follow all the celebrity news, more so you know his girlfriends. The anti-vax, whatever I that's what attracts me. That's what, you know, I start focusing and paying attention to, but I feel like he's probably not done playing yeah, I think he's.

Speaker 2 25:39

I think he's got such a chip on his shoulder and such arrogance to him, which you need for sports.

Speaker 1 25:44

I'm not saying you shouldn't have arrogance. He still wants to prove himself right.

Speaker 2 25:48

I'm 100%. So I think he'll be back next year, probably on a different team and, you know, if Minnesota wants to give him a trial run for a year, kind of like what they did for Brett Favre it would be interesting because I could see this happening again, because Brett Favre played for the Packers, went to the Jets and then came to Minnesota. So that would be super, super, odd and super weird.

Speaker 1 26:12

Do you think a lot of other Vikings fans would support it?

Speaker 2 26:16

I would, because we're a frustrated fan base.

Speaker 1 26:19

Okay.

Speaker 2 26:20

We just want to get to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 26:22

Right. So as a fan and as a male, you don't really care about that other stuff, right? No? As long as he plays well and brings the team together and gets the win.

Speaker 2 26:31

He gets the win baby. Just win baby, that's it. I don't care about that other stuff anymore.

Speaker 1 26:35

Who cares?

Speaker 2 26:36

You know what I'm saying? I don't care, just get us a W, get us a Super Bowl. Win the Super Bowl, just get us a Super Bowl. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Midlife Marauders. Follow us on social media and wherever you, stream your podcasts.

Speaker 1 26:53

We also want to give a big shout out to Frank Moyne at Moyne Music for providing the beats for our theme music and to our listeners keep on marauding and see you next time.