Trash Talk, Short Weeks, Chasing Rings and Who Really Scares the NFC

Weight checks, trash talk and playoff dreams collide on Episode 14 of The Inner Circle Podcast for an hour that feels like hanging in the locker room after a win.

The guys open with the scale – literally. AD reveals he’s back near his playing weight on a one-meal-a-day routine, triggering a hilarious deep dive into NFL weigh-ins, “golden gobbler” Thanksgiving awards, weight clauses, fines, and the very real mind games players have with that number on Tuesday mornings. Matt explains how veterans earn the right to play at “their” weight, while Todd breaks down how contracts and guarantees quietly shape those decisions behind the scenes.

From there, they pivot to the field: Dak’s Cowboys, statement wins over the Eagles and Chiefs, and whether momentum is real or just talk. Matt and AD take listeners inside a short week in the NFL — the walkthrough pace, IVs, cold tubs, late-night installs and why Thursday nights feel so different when the lights finally come on.

The crew then dives into Adam Thielen’s late-career bid to chase a ring after being waived by the Vikings: where loyalty ends, business begins, and how vets quietly line up landing spots before asking out. That leads seamlessly into “the art of trash talking” — from Spitgate, “I’ll take your mom to seafood dinner,” and Jeffrey Simmons’ fury, to what really happens at the bottom of piles and why the best chirps never leave the field.

They close on playoff positioning, why nobody’s terrified of the No. 1-seed Bears just yet, AD’s bold Micah Parsons Defensive Player of the Year call, a Chicago vs. New York pizza fight, and a running bit about everyone’s “official” show weigh-in. Football, ego, pain and comedy — all in one episode. Thanks for the love and we appreciate your support!

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Transcript

Zach Klein (00:00)
what's the good word? Thanks for hanging out with us here on the Inner Circle Podcast. I am Zach Klein. Please hit the like and subscribe button. Leave a comment as well. Coming up on this week's edition of the show, AD with an early nominee for his Defensive Player of the Year will have the art of trash talking. And what if Adam Thelen, who was just waved by the Minnesota Vikings, was a teammate of Aaron and Matt?

How would they react for him wanting outs and wanting to play for a contender? We have all of that and more on this week's edition of the Inner Circle Podcast. I hope you enjoy.

AD (00:34)
Yeah, man, I'm in my playing weight. was at Saturday, weighed 263. I weighed in a day, was it a day Tuesday? I weighed at 254. So it's working, it's working. So, you know, I like to look good, man. Just one minute. But I work out, my workouts are pretty intense, sweating a lot, you know, taking care of myself and then, you know, it's just how it works for me. I don't know, it just works.

Matt (00:42)
Ooh, nine pounds. Just from one meal a day? Just from one meal a day?

T$ (00:52)
Matt.

Do you think

his workouts are as intense as ours or?

Matt (00:58)
no, no Todd, he's not putting in the work like we are. There's no way, there's no way.

T$ (01:00)
No chance. Yeah, yeah.

AD (01:02)
⁓ I'm gonna get

out there, I'm gonna come out there work out with y'all one of these days,

T$ (01:05)
⁓ God.

Matt (01:07)
Yeah, I don't know if you want those problems.

I don't know if you want those problems. ⁓ AD, AD, I was gonna ask, hey, how often do you weigh yourself? Like, are you a once a week guy? Are you every day?

T$ (01:10)
We'd have to change ours up.

AD (01:13)
Hahaha

really don't, it depends. If like all things given, I know I was picking out a lot, so had to see where my weight was at. And I'm like, shit, I'm a little heavy. That's like, I'm wearing, when I was playing, I was playing at 263, 265. So I was like, let me cut this down. I like to be around like 255 at the most, to 250 at the lowest. So I don't weigh, it depends how I'm eating.

Matt (01:34)
Okay. So funny story about that.

Funny story about that. When I was, when I first got into the NFL, our head coach was Mike Smith and we used to have to weigh in on Thursdays, know, for everybody would, you'd have to make your weight or whatever it was, be in your range. And we always did that. And on Thanksgiving one year we weighed in like normal Thursday morning. ⁓ and then without us knowing he had us weigh in the next day, the next Friday, and he gave out a golden gobbler award to whoever gained the most weight.

AD (02:01)
Hahaha

Matt (02:02)
And I think it was Grady Jackson ⁓ was, was a defensive lineman for us at the time when the Golden Gobbler, can't remember how much weight he gained in one day, but I remember being appalled by how much weight he had gained overnight.

Zach Klein (02:13)
Ha ha ha.

T$ (02:15)
Wait, when you guys, when they do the weights, they give you the weight or the range, but like, what happens if you don't feel comfortable in that range? there any, you know, can you fight that with the coach or the strength coach or whoever who's putting that weight limit on? Or is it, hey, this is it, sorry. Even if you don't feel comfortable.

AD (02:30)
It depends. Like me, my weight was probably set at like 268, 270, but I was always like 260, 263. And they was okay with it because they knew I took care of myself and how I trained my body. just worked. But everybody's different, right? I was obviously a burning guy that earned the respect to be able to do that. But dudes got guys that's overweight or underweight that's like, if you don't hit this weight, then you might get fine and get yourself in some trouble if you're not hitting your weight.

Matt (02:58)
Todd there.

T$ (02:58)
But

I've had guys that have told me like, coach, they have me at such and such weight, but I don't feel comfortable there. I'm much better at this weight, but they want me at this weight. There's no ability to debate that.

Matt (03:08)
Well, think this goes on, Coach Cowher talks about it all the time. There's a tolerance and a production scale that's over here. And ⁓ you need to tell your guys to produce a little bit more. I think they'll be okay with whatever weight they want to play if they start producing a little bit more, you know, they get a little more lenient. That's right, that's right. I'm sorry. This is a hypothetical, of course. Yeah, hypothetical, of course.

AD (03:08)
It

Yes.

T$ (03:15)
Sure.

Zach Klein (03:21)
you

AD (03:23)
That's what I'm saying, it all depends. Yes. Obviously they don't if they ain't allowed to weigh what they wanna weigh. No, I'm just talking shit.

T$ (03:25)
I wanna be clear, all my guys produce, they all produce.

Zach Klein (03:27)
Yeah.

T$ (03:33)
Okay, good.

Zach Klein (03:34)
Matt,

if my memory serves correct, you used to drop a lot of weight during the year. You're a Sevelt young man, didn't have too much problem losing weight, but did you lose weight throughout the year? How much of a struggle was it, I guess, to keep weight on through the course of three, four, five-month NFL season?

Matt (03:50)
Yeah, I think, you know, usually once I got to the regular season, it was pretty consistent. I always felt like training camp when you're playing in Georgia and it's so hot, you know, it was okay to come in. You know, I played at two 17 basically my entire career. Um, and I was pretty consistent weekend and week out being, know, maybe you were like two 16.8 or two 17.2, but it was always somewhere in that, uh, in that range. But in training camp for me, I always liked to come in, even if it was like at two 20 or two 21.

because inevitably in that first week I was going to go down to 215, 214. You're just sweating so much, it's so hot. And so it seemed like whenever we broke camp, was able to get, you know, kind of that weight back to where it always was. But was always, camp for me was the hardest part. And I couldn't imagine, I wasn't running like our wide receivers and DBs and, you know, even tight ends and backers, those guys. mean, you would have days where they didn't have much weight to lose.

AD (04:21)
Yeah.

Matt (04:44)
And you're talking about seven, eight pounds in a practice of water weight being gone. So we always have percentages. When we talked about hydration and kind of fueling, there was percentages that you would go down off of whatever your baseline weight was. And if you were at certain percentages, man, they were getting you IVs, or they were getting you loaded up with electrolytes and those different things. So it's amazing. And now I step on the scale, and I'm like, this is pathetic. I'm either.

AD (05:03)
Yeah.

Matt (05:12)
I'm either like 205 or something like that and I'm softer around the edges than I've ever been. So I'm skinnier and fatter, AD. Skinnier and fatter. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I'll be in the 190s soon.

AD (05:17)
Damn, you light 205, 205.

Zach Klein (05:24)
tied to their weight clause bonuses at all.

T$ (05:27)
I you know, I wouldn't call it a bonus. I could call it a deduction. Yeah, they're, they're, they have more fines if a guy's not maintaining the weight for sure.

Zach Klein (05:30)
or if you've maintained a certain weight that you hit.

Matt (05:30)
That's a fine. That's a fine.

Zach Klein (05:38)
Okay.

Matt (05:38)
I

think we should institute ⁓ a ⁓ weigh-ins on Tuesday mornings. We all gotta send a screenshot of it, yeah? Send it around, we can put our numbers on there. And if you're not, if you don't hit your number, you had a big weekend or something like that, we'll take a little money from you. Let's do it, huh? Todd, are you in for this? Todd, are you in?

Zach Klein (05:46)
Amen.

Let's do it. I'm in.

T$ (05:53)
⁓ that's...

AD (05:53)
Let's do it. So what would be your weight, Hold on, on. Hold

T$ (05:57)
I see I'm not in like here's the deal.

AD (05:59)
on, what would

everybody, what would your weight be, Matt?

T$ (06:02)
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Matt's like six, seven and like 12 pounds. Zach, is emaciated. know, AD, you just told us by cutting a little bit, you lost eight pounds. I'm not necessarily tall. I am, you know, maybe a little thicker. I am a...

Matt (06:04)
No, I'm not.

AD (06:05)
What the piece of-

You

Matt (06:21)
You're not thick.

AD (06:22)
So we gonna

set, we gotta set our weights. That's what I was trying to say. What's the weight we gonna set? Like what's Matt, Todd, what's yours, Zach, what's your weight? What's the weights?

Matt (06:23)
Stop it.

T$ (06:28)
I'll let you know next show.

gotta go weigh my, I haven't weighed myself in forever. So I need to weigh myself nowhere sort of I am and then I'll give you my baseline. No, I swear.

AD (06:32)
Don't be, no you acting shy now. You don't wanna let us know

Zach Klein (06:32)
ads.

Matt (06:35)
That's right,

AD (06:36)
your weight. That's crazy, Tuck. Damn, bro. ⁓

Matt (06:36)
that's right. There's always those guys in the locker room, A.D. There's always those guys where you're like, hey, what'd you weigh today? And they're like, ⁓ you know, I was fine.

T$ (06:39)
⁓ No, no, no. I'll just share with

AD (06:42)
You don't want to say

T$ (06:43)
you.

AD (06:43)
it, right?

T$ (06:44)
I'll share with you my body fat percentage. I'm at 8 % body fat. That's all I'll tell you. ⁓ Okay, fine, fine, fine. Well, we can do that next year. I will go get my baseline weight and then I'll let you know and then I'll hedge my bet and make sure I'm always in the zone.

Matt (06:47)
Yeah, bullshit.

AD (06:49)
I want to know the...

Matt (06:52)
I've never been 8 % in my life.

AD (07:03)
Okay.

Matt (07:05)
Perfect. All right, Zach, you ready to start the actual show? Yeah, perfect. All right, let's go.

Zach Klein (07:08)
Let's do it, man. How about Todd

AD (07:09)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (07:11)
and his Dak led Dallas Cowboys, man? mean, back to back weeks talk about making a statement, right? I mean, you beat the Eagles, you beat the Chiefs. Matt and AD, is momentum a real

Matt (07:23)
I think so for sure. We used to have a center Todd McClure for the Falcons. He used to say all the time, there's no momentum like momentum. And when we would get on a roll, he would go with it. And we would break the team down with that all the time. I think it's real. You get into those spaces as a team, right, AD, where you just have this mindset. And there's this feeling that no matter how a game shakes out, we're going to find a way. We're going to score points when we need to. We're going to get the stop when we need to.

AD (07:24)
Yes.

Yeah.

It is.

Mm-hmm.

Matt (07:49)
So I think it's a real thing and when you're riding it, it's the best feeling in the world. You're out there, you just feel invincible.

AD (07:54)
It is.

Confidence, that's what it is. Confidence, then you win in these big games consistently. They playing good as a team. Defenses playing really good football.

Obviously the offense been playing good ball, man. So that's a confidence

Zach Klein (08:06)
They got a quick turnaround. They got the Detroit Lions on the road, the Vikings, Chargers, Commanders and Giants. you know, momentum is only or what do the coaches say, Matt? Humility is only a week away. So as high as they are right now, you know, the Lions coming off ⁓ a tough few weeks. ⁓ This could be a preview of what many could expect could be for a deeper on the playoffs. Excited to see what these two teams have in store on Thursday Night Football.

Matt (08:32)
it's definitely going to be a playoff atmosphere. ⁓ You know, cause both these teams, think you've got Dallas who dug themselves such a deep hole at the beginning of the year coming into this game, playing the best football that they have in a long time. And then Detroit on the other hand, you know, starts the year off and is playing well in the last couple of weeks. They just have not looked the same and certainly didn't look the same against the Packers on Thanksgiving, but make no mistake, both these teams need it. ⁓ You you look at

AD (08:40)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (09:00)
You look at the records in the NFC, both in the NFC and the AFC, like it's looking like it's going to take 11 wins to get into the wild card. And so, you know, if you're Dallas, that's ripping off five in a row. And so they're going to need it. ⁓ I expect this one to be wild. Usually Thursday night games, they haven't been great. You you watch them, but both these teams have a full week to prepare. I expect this one to be a really good one on Thursday night.

T$ (09:26)
I was going to ask you guys that like short weeks, know, Thursday games, obviously there's a longer gap here because, ⁓ I guess they've had, they had the weekend off. So it's not like a typical Sunday game and then they turn around on Thursday, but the Thanksgiving game was a short week for them. And just in general short weeks, like them, don't like them hard on the body preparation mentally. What, what, what, what goes into all

AD (09:49)
Well, it is harder because it's a short week. You just play Sunday, then you got a game Thursday. It's all about, you know, taking care of your body, getting your body back. Obviously, through the week, ain't really, it's a lot more walk throughs through that week leading up to the game. But, you know, you got the right people, as far as like the training staff and all that, that, you know, know, typically what we did after we played Sunday, we had a Thursday night game coming after the game. Soon as we get in the locker room, you got to do something recovery wise. You got to do something, ⁓ you know, if that's

Game ready, cold tub, hot tub, boots, whatever it is. Sometimes I had the masseuses in there right after the game to work on. Then you come in Monday, short of week. We don't even, I don't even think we even watched the film of the game we played. We probably went through it real quick, couple things we needed to clean up and then we go straight into the next week. But it's more like getting right into it, know, really trying to take care of your body, get your body back where it need to be. know, typically the Tuesday was a longer days, you you had probably.

multiple walk-throughs, right? ⁓ You know, cause it's really, you want to take as much off your body as you can to prepare yourself to play a Thursday night game. But it was a lot, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it cause you know, ⁓ prime time game and then you get that mini bad week on the back end and get your body really relaxed a little bit, get away. So, ⁓ yeah, man.

T$ (11:04)
What about the game plan aspect

of it?

Matt (11:06)
Yeah, I always thought we tried to like sandwich two or three days into one, you know, so it was like Monday, you know, you'd finish up, play your Sunday game. And then Monday was like, okay, like AD said, we weren't going to watch the full game, but we might have a few cutups of things that we need to correct. So there might be, you know, 15 plays that the coaches want to show you and say, Hey, we did this yesterday. We need to get this cleaned up before we head into, you know, game planning of the next team. And so you would finish that meeting. And then it was like, okay,

Here's a quick run through of who we're playing this week. Here's what they do on first and second down. And then we would go walk through and we always did it at night on Mondays. So we would give our coaches, know, coaches all day Monday to prep to get ready for the players to come into the building. And then we would meet at like 4.30 or five o'clock on a Monday afternoon, go through quickly, you know, the game before.

AD (11:38)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (11:59)
And then switch into, you know, install of first and second down stuff on Monday night. And then we would go walk through that Monday night. And then Tuesday was really like, you know, it was a combo of, Thursday and Friday, which are your third down and red zone days. So Tuesday was the installation, maybe a review of the first and second down, then an installation of, of third down and red zone. And then you'd go walk through it again. ⁓ you know, that, that time on, Tuesday night, always.

AD (12:11)
it.

Matt (12:26)
For us, at least we always practice later in the day or closer to nighttime when we were playing those prime time games just to get our bodies ready and to give the coaches time to prep. then Wednesday, was really for us, it was the longest walkthrough we would have all year because it was, you know, it was a review of first and second down. Usually the day before it's a quick walkthrough, maybe, you know, 20 plays, 25 plays run through some situations. But Wednesday for us was a long walkthrough. And then you get to Thursday, you review it one more time in the morning.

You're going through the game plan again. You're making final notes. But then once you go play, I always thought as a player, AD, it was like, once the lights came on, it was time to play. You forget what your body feels like. It doesn't feel great all season. So it's time to go and yeah, and you go out there and you play.

AD (13:02)
Yeah.

Primetime, yeah. It's Primetime ball too. Hell yeah.

T$ (13:10)
When you guys are talking

walkthrough, just like for the average person that doesn't necessarily know like walkthrough, are you literally just calling a play and people are just kind of like light jogging and not wearing helmets? Are they wearing helmets and you're kind of going speed, no contact? What are we talking about?

AD (13:24)
Well, sometimes there was no helmets or sometimes you had helmets on, but most of the time you had a helmet on if it's a short week like that. it's like, you still working your techniques. You just not going full speed. You ain't really striking, but you still working like for a defensive lineman, I'm working my hand placements. I'm working what gap I'm in. If it's a walk through on a pass, I'm working what pass rush I'm going to be. Like it's not, you just not going fast speed. So I don't want to say you ain't like walking, but you, you know, you walking, but you're not walking. If that makes sense. That makes sense what I'm saying. Explain it better than what I'm explaining. Yeah. Not even, yeah.

Matt (13:50)
Yeah, jogging. You're jogging at this point.

Sometimes our guys were in hats. Sometimes we were in helmets. never, there wasn't contact going on during those type of practices. For me, though, as a quarterback, whether it was walkthrough, whether it was whatever, I always had my helmet on because I wanted the communication just like it was in the game.

AD (14:05)
It has the homo no-

Matt (14:11)
you know, even if we were in walkthrough during the season, whatever it may be, I like to have my helmet on so I could go through the communication that we were going to have during the game.

Zach Klein (14:19)
We saw it a couple of times in college this weekend and we saw it in the NFL. And I'd be fascinated from both an offensive and defensive perspective to get your, your take on this, where let's call it, cause you talked about the two point play Matt. So the offense lines up for a two point play or they're going for it late in the game. They run out in the field and then the defensive coaches call timeout. So you had to play, get ready to execute it. And the opposition calls a timeout. How often would you call the exact same play?

And then defensively, Aaron, were you expecting them to run the same play they had lined up You follow me,

Matt (14:51)
Yeah, I gotcha, I gotcha. It depends on how good that play was. Sometimes you have one schemed up so good, you're like, I don't care that they saw the formation, let's go back, it's gonna work. We've got this one schemed up, maybe it's a trick play, maybe it's something we're running off of what we've shown. It's a nice little wrinkle off of something we've shown. ⁓ But I would say more often than not, we probably changed the play. I would say it's probably, yeah, two to one, two to one that we would change the play.

Zach Klein (15:14)
Really?

Matt (15:19)
come out in a different formation or maybe just run the same play we were gonna do, but maybe format it just a little differently. We'd say, hey, instead of lining up in two by two, we're gonna start in three by one motion to two by two, just to give them a little bit different look. We're gonna run what we ran or we were thinking we were gonna call, but we might just give it a little window dressing, make it look a little bit different. But sometimes you just got the right call and you're like, man, let's go for it. We got the right one.

AD (15:32)
No.

Zach Klein (15:43)
So would ever assume that the defense would call a timeout? So you go out with plan B at plan A, we're gonna just gonna, hey, this play means absolutely nothing. Because we know they're gonna call timeout. And then when you come back out of that time, like, yep, we got exactly where we want.

Matt (15:54)
I know because you don't know, you don't know, you don't know what the defense is going to do, right? Like you can't assume they're going to call timeout and then they're like, man, we got a bad play. You know, we're going to burn our own timeout. No.

AD (15:56)
Y'all about to say, don't want to assume that. We're not going to call a play. going to call it. What if they don't?

T$ (16:02)
And that's why Zach is not a coach. Can you imagine Zach's team's

AD (16:06)
Yeah.

T$ (16:07)
out there, they're ready to go. They're all looking at each other. There's no timeout. And he's like, okay, just run somewhere.

Matt (16:09)
This is not it.

AD (16:11)
Hey, man, this is you

in the huddle. we gonna line up there. They gonna call time up. Ready? Break.

Zach Klein (16:12)
or check out of it. Hey, this is the plan we had that we loved.

Matt (16:16)
Yeah,

hey line up line up. We'll go double right Z right let them call timeout on one ready

AD (16:23)
What the hell is that?

T$ (16:24)
Damn call timeout. ⁓

Matt (16:25)
Home

one.

Zach Klein (16:27)
Or

you go with plan A, you check out of it if they don't call timeout and then you go to the money play. Cause you're just telling me how many times you're confident that you got what you like and then you call timeout. If you're so confident, you're not running it. That was a confident play. Todd.

Matt (16:36)
Yeah. Yeah,

you got to have, you got to coach to the lowest common denominator here, Zach. Everybody's got to remember all of this stuff out on the field on the fly, right? And so it's a lot. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. We've got to keep it simple. Make sure on offense in general, we got to make sure we're to know, we know what we're doing before we're worried about what they're doing. Right? And so, you know, I think you start, you know, all things considered, you try and start there.

Zach Klein (16:47)
That's you, but that's why you're in charge.

There you do. All right.

What about you, AD, when you saw a play and you guys called timeout defensively, how often would your coaches say something to you to say, hey, if they run this, we're good. And if they opt out of it, we're going to plan B. that usually how it worked from a defensive side?

AD (17:16)
Well,

yeah, you communicate. You adjust to what they give you, right? If you got a game plan, like he said, they threw about one of their motion to whatever you said they motioned to, two by two, whatever it was, you adjust to that, right? That's called game planning. You understand? It's preparing a week before the game with certain things that they like to run in the red zone and what they possibly can run. You prepare yourself for that. They got certain calls in touch and then you adjust to whatever they come out in, right? And you just play ball. That's all it is. communication is key. So anytime this...

Players, coaches, you gotta communicate. Everybody gotta be on the same page because the linebackers gotta communicate, up front, they gotta communicate with the guys up back. Everybody gotta be on the same page for any defense to have any type of success. Red zone, midfield, back up, whatever it is. So communication is always key.

Matt (18:02)
I will tell you, Zach, I think the one situation that's different, and it's not a two point play, but it's end of game, must out of bounds situations or Hail Mary, where you're kind of on the fringe of, hey, if we pick up five or six more yards, we might have a chance, an outside chance at a field goal. ⁓ But that time restriction, maybe it's like four seconds, ⁓ right in there. A lot of times there, you'll line up and you know you're getting a timeout. So you'll line up.

You know, you usually have it two ways. A must out of bounds from two by two or three by one, meaning two guys on each side or three guys on one side and one on the other. ⁓ and they usually have checks, like you said, so we'll have a hail Mary called if they line up and sideline defense, we feel good about it. We're going to take our shot or we'll have our attack, the boundary play called. And if they line up, you know, on, on the boundary defending the boundary, we'll check and we'll go to our hail Mary. That's a lot of times.

AD (18:52)
Yeah.

Matt (18:55)
In those types of situations, you do have those two calls.

Zach Klein (18:58)
What was the Hail Mary call? Do you just go to the huddle and say, all right, Hail Mary. Or is it something really intricate?

AD (19:02)
You

Matt (19:03)
No, ⁓ it depended on the coordinator. had like, sometimes it was just like, know, ⁓ spread right to jet Hail Mary. We had that some places like I read or some offenses we called it middle jump or like, ⁓ you know, sideline jump, whatever it was. Some places it was like Big Ben or Geronimo. I don't know. I don't know why it wasn't just Hail Mary, but that's why that's that's how it was. Geronimo.

Zach Klein (19:25)
Ha ha.

I like Geronimo. I'll help break suits. Just get

down the field.

AD (19:31)
Hahaha

Matt (19:32)
You

Zach Klein (19:32)
How about this guys in Minnesota? They wave Adam Thielen to let the wide receiver find a bigger role and close out his career playing for a contender. If you guys were going through it from training camp, Matt, the dark days, the long days, putting in all that time, that energy bonding with the team, then your wide receiver says, you know what? I appreciate it, but I'm going to bounce.

Matt (19:53)
guys are at different spots of their career, you know, and Adam has been, I think, pretty forthright about, you know, this is or forthcoming about, you know, this, this is it. This is this the last stretch run. And I think everybody in Minnesota, you know, has an idea of where they're at. And ⁓

AD (19:56)
Yeah.

Matt (20:10)
You know, I think from a player's perspective, you know, if that's if that's what a guy wants to do at the end, I think you have a different lens on that than maybe, you know, somebody in your anywhere from year two to 10, right? Like if this isn't the end, I don't agree with that. But if it is the end, ⁓ you know, and I know Adam, he's he's been a team first guy his entire career. ⁓ If it is the end for him, then then I think you feel differently.

AD (20:36)
Yeah, for sure. I want to be with a winning team. Last year, last who, I'm pretty sure he had conversations with the organization. Probably some of the guys knew what was going on. They see what to see, how the season ended up, how it's going down the drain kind of thing. I don't know as far as where he's trying to go or what that looked like. I don't know if this his last year. This is supposed to be his last year, this year? He's sad or we don't know.

Zach Klein (20:58)
Yeah, every indication has led to this is it for him and he will retire one day, AD, as a member of the Vikings. But with them four and eight and basically out of any wild card or division race, he's like, listen, I just want to give it one more go.

AD (21:04)
So when I'm s-

Well, that's his decision. To try to get picked up by somebody that's winning right now. That's what he's trying to do. Well, I'm not mad at him. That's nothing I would want to do, but everybody's different, right? So everybody's different. Like if that was me in his situation, I wouldn't want to just, obviously you upset how the season's going, but I wouldn't want to be like, oh, I appreciate it. I want to leave. I want to go with a team that got an opportunity to win because this is my last year. I'll just finish it strong. But again, everybody's different.

Matt (21:15)
Yes.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, and I saw the statement from the Vikings and their GM. I thought it was classy. know, Adam's been one of the great players for the Vikings of all time. He came in and requested this trade with an understanding that this was the end and we'd like to honor that. You know, we're proud of everything he's done here and respect that.

Zach Klein (21:40)
sure.

AD (21:45)
Yeah.

T$ (21:51)
Typically, like as an agent, you'd want to, I mean, again, hypothetically, you would want to make sure you had a landing spot. I you can do your homework behind the scenes to figure out where there would be mutual interest as opposed to, all right, I wanna be released. then, I mean, how bad would it be if your career just ended and you never got picked up? So I think having a plan and understanding that there might be a home or you can go somewhere or there's somewhere you wanna be and maybe conversations happened.

Matt (22:09)
Yeah.

AD (22:09)
Yeah,

exactly. That's what I'm saying.

T$ (22:19)
maybe it's with permission from the club to have those conversations. So versus just, you know, jumping off blindfolded and hoping for the

AD (22:26)
Somebody

Zach Klein (22:27)
has this opened

AD (22:27)
So.

Zach Klein (22:27)
the door for other vets then to do the same?

T$ (22:30)
I mean, it's out there for sure. I don't think there's anyone necessarily gonna look at it as quote unquote precedent, but I think that if a player wants to do something like that and the team obliges and it's a situation that makes sense, do I think there's just gonna be a mass exodus of guys on losing teams that wanna get moved and get released and go to another team? No, because there's cap implications, there's guarantees, there's money involved and all sorts of other stuff. ⁓ So no, I don't think so.

Matt (22:55)
Yeah, I think it's such a unique situation too, where it's a guy who played a long time for that organization left. I believe he got cut from Carolina during training camp this year and then comes back. so Todd, like you said, it's a guy who has a great lineage with this organization, but is on a contract at the end of his

AD (23:03)
You can't bet,

Matt (23:14)
where there really are no implications for the team. So I think all of those factors have to be, all those stars have to be aligned in order for something like this to

AD (23:17)
Yeah.

Zach Klein (23:23)
contract ramifications started being waived in the middle of the season.

T$ (23:27)
I mean, he's a vested vet. he's got, know, he's been in league for more than four years, four credited seasons. And assuming he was on the roster week one, his salary for the season's guaranteed, even if he's released.

At the end the day, like he's going to make his money if he was on the roster week one. But it's interesting, teams are so smart with things. If there's a veteran that they're not sure that they want all season long, or maybe their depth isn't there, they'll take a guy, cut him at camp, and then bring him back after week one because he's a vested veteran, just to get around the loophole of having to guarantee, without even guaranteeing it, but guarantee that players technically guarantee that salary for the season.

AD (23:57)
you

Matt (24:01)
Yeah, multiple times, ⁓ you you see that as a player and guys know it, right? Like players know it that this is something that's coming up and they're usually like, hey, I'll see you in a week or something like that after they get cut. It doesn't make them happy. ⁓ That's for sure. They're usually pissed when they're headed out the door, but they know, you know, that more than likely they're coming back in a week.

Zach Klein (24:21)
Another week, another week of some trash talking. seems like it's getting out of control, guys. I don't know. I mean, how many times this year have we had Spitgate and, you know, the Jaguars punter, you know, Logan Cook allegedly saying he would kill Tennessee Titans running back Julius Chestnut. All right, you know, you know, heated moment, blah, blah, blah. And then you got the Titans, you know, in the the Jags in this game. You know, they kept the officials busy. Twenty three accepted penalties. And you had Todd's guy.

you had Jeffrey Simmons. He opens up about what set him off at one point during the game that led to more pushing and shoving. So here's Simmons after the

So there you have that from Simmons saying what set him off. You're like, okay, I'm with you here. ⁓ Here's Shelby Harris. All right, so I wanna go back and play what Shelby Harris had to say after his involvement in his game. AD, Matt, take a listen.

Okay, so that's Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Shelby Harris who called out 49ers wide receiver Joanne Jennings after a loss at San Francisco. Now, according to Jason Aponte, he's a writer for Niners Nation. He said Jennings told Shelby that he would take his mother out to a nice seafood dinner and never call her again.

AD (26:06)
That's what he's mad about? Come on man, that's what he's mad about?

Matt (26:07)
Thanks

Zach Klein (26:10)
I'm just reading it AD. As a journalist, I'm trying to read be what's factual here, my man. He's a hoe. And I want the world to know that he's a hoe.

AD (26:11)
I don't know, right?

That can't

be it. That can't be it. That can't be it. Come on man, playing. What else did he say?

Zach Klein (26:23)
That's all he said. That's all I got. That's it.

AD (26:25)
So he

got mad at this guy for saying he gonna take his mom out for a seafood dinner and never call her again. Nice. He gonna wind it down early and never call her again. I don't know, that's some bullshit. That's just cheesy. That's not even, that's just ass. That's not even a good comeback.

Zach Klein (26:30)
a nice seafood dinner and never call her again.

T$ (26:36)
I said, look, so there's a lot of.

Matt (26:37)
I think I might.

Zach Klein (26:37)
So bottom line, these guys getting soft and he's getting soft. Jeffrey Simmons, your guy, I mean, come on.

T$ (26:44)
No, no, time out on Simmons. Simmons has every right to do whatever he wants. He's a beast, he's an animal, yeah.

AD (26:47)
Yeah, that's different. That's different. told another man, you suck it. He tells somebody,

tell you suck your dick. And he's standing there. That's it. I would've.

Matt (26:53)
We need to put a warning at the beginning of this if you're riding in your car with your kids, time out. Like, let's take a little time out right here.

AD (26:56)
⁓ But I understand that

T$ (26:57)
Yeah.

AD (27:00)
part, about the, talking about the mom and take it on a date. I don't see what that can be. It got to be more to it.

T$ (27:06)
Along these lines,

I have a question for you, AD, like on the bottom of a pile, right? After a tackle. I know all sorts of stuff. You hear stuff goes on, grabbing, talking, whatever, like does some of that really go on and what's said? And then Matt, like if AD's on the bottom, you know, I don't know what he's saying or doing or whatever, but like if you're the victim on the bottom, Matt, has anything ever happened to you or conversation or are you just dying to get out of there as fast as possible?

AD (27:15)
Yep.

Yeah, there's a lot of shit that happen under the pile of shit. Sometimes under the power, you gotta give a couple punches like, get your ass up off me. That shit happens, you know, talking. Might be have to pinch a little bit, get the fuck, you know what I'm saying? So, it's a lot of stuff happen, man. It's a dirty game. It's a dirty game, man. That's a part of it, though.

Matt (27:44)
No doubt, like a quarterback sneak or something and you're at the bottom and just everything, it's wild down there. There's a locker. You don't know who did what either. That's like the thing. You get up and you're all frustrated. You can get away with anything down there because you have no idea. You can't see anything. You're just in this ⁓ mess of humans ⁓ all over the place. listen, there's, mean, honestly, I've heard much worse than all of that. ⁓

AD (27:53)
And that's the best part about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Matt (28:12)
that we heard right there. And I think the difference, one of the differences now is I think for a long time, what was said or what wasn't said, just never made the light of day. It didn't leave the field and it's a different time. I'm not saying it's better or worse, it's just a different time. And so for me, I always thought like, AD, I just never wanted anybody to feel like they were getting in my head. And so you could be chirping and...

AD (28:38)
Yeah.

Matt (28:40)
I just chose not to react as much as I could. Sometimes I just tell somebody to shut up and drop an F-bomb in there or something like that to go back. But for the most part, it was that and just not letting them know that you were kind of frustrating me or whatever. But I've seen guys, it gets under certain people's skin and they go back at it. And that's part of it, man. That's part, if people want to be offended by it or whatever, that's the real part that happens out there.

AD (28:47)
Yeah.

Matt (29:09)
you know, how you respond to it like Jeffrey was, I thought he was really good. I was, you know, surprised he went into the level of depth that he did on what was said out there. But at the same time, you know, he was talking about it's about how we respond to it. So it is what it is.

AD (29:23)
Yeah, so I

ain't gonna lie. I had my fair share of scuffles and word going back and forth words, but I played with some guys that said some shit. like, I had, like, hey man, you don't gotta say that. I heard people talking about kids and wives and cutting people. I'm like, man, we playing football. So I heard it all. So this what we hearing today, that ain't nothing compared to another grown man telling a grown man, I'm gonna smack your kids when I see them. I'm like, what the fuck? The kids is in this? In football, really? So I heard a lot of crazy shit.

Matt (29:49)
Yeah, yeah, Particularly when people do their

homework and they know names and then you're like, whoa, yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, hey.

AD (29:56)
I heard

Zach Klein (29:56)
It's like.

AD (29:56)
a bunch of shit out there, man.

T$ (29:57)
I

remember, mean, AD, I don't remember what it was, but I did see a clip somehow on social media the other week or something where they're like, an AD put his helmet back on to go back on the field to go have a words with someone and go get in a scuffle. I vaguely remember AD having some fights.

Matt (30:11)
You

AD (30:12)
I had a couple, I

got a little loose grooves, man. I had to grow up a little bit, man. was a little older, but I was still a little young and I was still a little, know, a little shit ticked me off a little bit. I finished the game, then I just had to have a conversation with somebody, make sure with everything they was trying to do and say, just to let them know where we at. Like, what's up? That's all, that's it. You know.

Matt (30:28)
Just let them know. What do they say? Be humble, but let a mother know. That's what

T$ (30:33)
I remember representing

Matt (30:33)
they say.

T$ (30:34)
Lomas Brown and he was a left tackle. I think he played like 17 years, but at the very tail end, I remember him saying like, ah, T. France, man, like, I don't understand these young cats. He goes, they rile everybody up and get them all pissed off. He goes, not me. He goes, I play against the guy and knock him on his ass. I pick him right up. I talk to him and I don't want to make him that. Why do want to wake a sleep, you know, let a sleeping dog lay like, don't like.

don't fire him up to come back and go crazy on me. Just keep him close and keep him nice. And that was his whole thing. was like, was that your trick over 17 years? He goes, no, but like that was his mindset versus, you know, being crazy and getting everyone all fired up to go at you.

Zach Klein (31:06)
Yeah.

Matt (31:10)
So something along those lines, I was a young player, like AD said, when you come in and you're young, you run a little hotter and you kind of learn the tricks of the trade as you get older. But I was a young player and I remember Tyson Claybo was our right tackle. And I can't remember who the defensive lineman was, but they were talking shit and just kind of going back and forth. And I start chirping back at him. I'm like, know, ⁓ Tyson gets to the line and he's like, hey man, don't do that.

AD (31:19)
Yeah, for sure.

Matt (31:39)
I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, I gotta block them all day. Don't do that. Just keep your mouth shut. I was like, all right, I gotcha, I gotcha, I gotcha, my bad.

AD (31:41)
Y'all about to see, gotta block this motherfucker. I'll get him riled up. Man,

Zach Klein (31:42)
Hahaha! ⁓

AD (31:46)
I love that shit. See, when people get me mad, I'm like, the best thing about football is I get to fuck you up the right way. I can run through your face. Now I'm really trying to fuck you up. And don't let a quarterback say nothing to me. Now I'm really going to try to knock your damn head off. So that's the best thing about football. They can say anything they want. able to damn near whoop your ass the right way legally and get away with it. Yes.

Matt (31:57)
Yeah. He's like, it's yes.

Yes, legally, legally,

you can get that frustration out.

AD (32:10)
So I ain't never, I don't

think I never had a quarterback that said none to me, but if I had a quarterback that was like, Aaron, you bitch, I'm like, bro, my whole game plan is to knock your head out. Now when I get my hands on you, it's done. I'm gonna make sure that you feel all these aches and pains tomorrow. I ain't gonna lie. You get what I, I start getting riled up now. This a of the game, man. This a part of the game.

Matt (32:15)
They were smart. They knew. They knew.

T$ (32:26)
Aaron's all excited. He's like allowed to, he's getting accolades for hurting somebody. That's great, Aaron.

Matt (32:28)
He's ready to go. He's ready to go.

Yes.

Zach Klein (32:34)
But to your point,

man, like nobody, you didn't want to let somebody get into your head, but it's the art of the trash talk. Because if you are able to get somebody out of their game and where they're so focused on not doing their job and they're emotional, you've won that battle. But on flip side, you talk some shit to AD and it's just, all right, that switch went from eight to 11 real fast.

Matt (32:48)
For sure. Yeah, for sure.

AD (32:49)
It's a fine line. ⁓

Well, it's a difference

from you getting me riled up and now I'm just, my whole mindset is I want to fight. I don't want to play football instead of being like, you just made me mad. I'm going to play football. going to whoop your ass now in the right way. So it all, it's a fine line. It's different. I don't want to be out there. Now if I let somebody affect my play and affect me to the point where I'm no longer thinking about playing football, I'm just thinking about trying to fight and I'm going get my dumb ass kicked out the game. Right. But get me riled up, get me mad. Okay, line up. I got something for you. That's different. Right. So everybody do it different. That's just the way it worked for me.

Matt (33:00)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And

to AD's point, everybody is different. You know, I played with two unbelievable wide receivers, Roddy White and Julio Jones. Couldn't be more different when it came to that. Roddy, what got him going was the back and forth and he wouldn't stop, you know, but it didn't take him out of being able to perform, right? Like it just, made him perform and it got his juices flowing. Julio on the other hand, he was very quiet out there, like didn't say anything, you know, and guys would try and he would just...

AD (33:38)
Yeah.

Matt (33:49)
He was just flat lying all the time. So it really just depends on the guys. think for some, you figure out what works for you and you kind of go with whatever that is, but there's no right or wrong way to do it.

AD (34:00)
And going back and forth, talking a lot, shit get you winded. Damn, you gotta think, you playing up. Sometimes time like, fuck y'all got that. I ain't gonna go back and forth arguing. I need to make sure my breath is good for third down, maybe fourth down. You know what I'm saying? I ain't playing with y'all.

Zach Klein (34:01)
It's different. Yeah.

Matt (34:04)
Yeah, I don't know.

That's right.

Zach Klein (34:13)
touched on it one of earlier episodes about one of the fans and the Seattle game. know, we're very smart with the trash talk and got in with Baker Mayfield and Todd and I grew up on the north side of the Chicago and Sam Smith was a writer who wrote the book The Jordan Rules. And then there was always those these classic clips of a famous fan in Washington for then for the Washington Bullets who would then sit behind the Chicago Bulls bench and just read chapters of the Jordan Rules to the team and everybody, you know, they had to hear it firsthand. So when

Matt (34:28)
Mm-hmm.

T$ (34:38)
heckle.

Matt (34:40)
What?

Zach Klein (34:43)
you're in the NBA and you can get that close, know, the fans can get involved. It can be very smart, a little harder in the NFL.

All right, it's hard to believe, we're in week 14 of the NFL season and the Patriots, the Panthers, the Giants and 49ers are now entering their bi-week guys. Week 14.

AD (34:52)
Mm.

Zach Klein (34:59)
⁓ They just played 13 straight weeks. I mean, how? How is that possible? know how it's possible. I mean, what's harder, I guess on the body? I mean, we've been talking about the mind and how important is when it comes to controlling your emotions, but the physical toll guys, the mental toll 13 straight weeks of NFL ball seems like a lot to comprehend.

T$ (35:18)
Would you rather have an early buy late buy? How does that fly?

AD (35:21)
Midpoint for me. I think midpoint's perfect. If you can get midway, that's the perfect gift you can get. Play up to the midway. But I was always different too. I'm not going to sit here and say, my bad week, I ain't take no days off. I wasn't like, I'm going to take a trip or get a ... I was like, I'm going to take care of my body, but I'm still going to train my body, keep myself in shape, keep myself strong. I'm a little different. guess I ain't really get myself a lot of time off, but through the season anyway, I'm taking care of my body. You got your regimen that you do.

through the week, your cold tubs, your massages, your game ready, your saunas, whatever it is you do before every practice. If that's getting my body gunned down, loosening my body up, or I told you I had a lot of bad toe problems getting my fucking feet massaged before every game or before every practice. So you got your regimen to keep your body attached. But midway point for me, I think that was always perfect, midway for bad week.

Matt (36:12)
Yeah, yeah, I'm with AD. I

think in that week, nine, 10, 11, right, right around there or 12 somewhere in there is usually the best spot. But the early to me, the early by is way worse than the late by. Like the early by when you're week five. Yeah. 100%. Like, Oh dude, we're just getting into a rhythm. Yeah. We're just getting started. And now we've got this, this long road in front of us. But, you know, I think what's interesting to consider is, is the four teams you mentioned, only the giants are out of it. Everybody else.

AD (36:16)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

It's like pointless. Like, I'm still fresh. It's pointless. They shouldn't even do that. Yeah, like golly.

Matt (36:41)
is in great position. Even Carolina, who's been a surprise this year, you talk about getting a little bit of a rest here with how physically they play. They could be dangerous in the last four weeks of the season. you know, I think the Patriots by comes at a great time. You know, they ripped it off and San Francisco comes at a good time. They've put themselves in good positions. I'd error. I'd want to error on the late by. Have it week 14, then I would rather have it week five.

AD (36:55)
Perfect time.

before you go on this run too.

Zach Klein (37:07)
We talked about

AD (37:09)
So that's perfect.

Zach Klein (37:09)
beginning of the show,

momentum, right? What the Dallas Cowboys are doing. And you mentioned, Matt, I know it's late, but the Panthers just coming off that win nobody thought was coming over the LA Rams. Sorry, sorry.

AD (37:16)
Dickman.

Nah, nah, they played a ball. They earned that. You know what saying? I think you got three turnovers, three big turnovers. I think that defense played solid, right? Obviously, I think the Rams defense ain't played too good, right? They've been playing good the last four weeks. This week, I they were missing a lot of tackles. Seemed like they was having some communication things, but it happened. It was a bad week in the office. They had bounce back, credit to the Panthers and the way they played. You know, they had a game plan. They stuck to it. They did a great job on defense and they made plays on offense, right? So, you know, that's what you got to do, you know, and then...

Matt (37:22)
They did.

AD (37:48)
Big game, bad week, now they got some momentum, got some confidence and come out that bad week healthy and go on a little run. Let's see what they do. So it was a big win for them.

Matt (37:56)
Yeah,

I agree. I mean, for the Rams, this isn't the end of the world. Like, it's probably a good thing where you had been rolling so much up until this point. And this is a reset, even for Matthew Stafford. You you can throw 28 straight touchdowns without throwing an interception. And it's like, you know, then you get to the point, like throw one or two. Okay, boom, he bounces back. You lose this game. Fine. Let's put this one away. And it's almost like Zach, I mean, you do basketball as well and you cover all sports. It's almost like one of those teams.

AD (38:00)
Yeah, mate.

Yeah, exactly.

Matt (38:24)
drop in one in college basketball prior to the tournament started, know, and they're 25 and three or something like they've been on a run where they've won 20 straight games. And then all of a sudden you drop one and then, okay, let's reset and get back to it. So I don't think it's the end of the world for the Rams. I think they're going to be just fine, AD.

AD (38:42)
Yeah, I already know what Sean's preaching. You already know what he's preaching. It's like, we beat ourselves, we in a good position, we gonna fix this shit we need to fix. We okay. What the, nine and three? Big fucking deal. Like, they okay. They in a great position. They just go out there and keep playing ball, right? Sometimes, look, I think they play good often, but they had three turnovers, right? On defense, playing good last four weeks, they need to clean some things up. That's okay. That's a part of the game. You ain't gonna win them all, but I rather them...

Matt (38:43)
He already knows.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

AD (39:07)
They back, I'm pretty sure they'd rather lose now than when it, it, come on man. Like, it out, just get that shit out your system. All right, let's get back on this run now. Like, let's wake up call. All let's lock back in. ⁓

Matt (39:10)
Then January, 100%. I'd rather have that performance at the end of November than I would in January. Yep, exactly. Plenty

of ammo for Sean too. Plenty of things for him to use moving forward.

AD (39:24)
Yes. What?

Yes, I did.

Zach Klein (39:26)
AD, what are you

saying AD, is that no one's scared of the current number one seed in the NFC, the Chicago Bears?

AD (39:31)
They earned it, but I ain't gonna lie. I was playing, I wasn't mind playing the fucking beers in the playoff game. That's no shade, but they got some young players that never played on that stage yet. So it's different. You know the playoff ball, that, it's a different atmosphere. It's a different, I know people always say it's different. I don't care what nobody say to me. I've been there, I experienced it. It's different than the regular season. The game's a lot more intense. The speed of the game seem a little more faster. Everything.

Matt (39:42)
Take.

AD (39:57)
is amped up a little bit for him, in my opinion. it's...

Matt (40:00)
Let me say this though, if you're a Bears

fan and you look at this and you say, okay, we are in that one speed or one seed and everybody can say whatever they want. They've beaten the teams on their schedule. Maybe they haven't, you whatever. It doesn't matter. You've won the games you should. But if you look at that Carolina game and this is what the Bears do. They take the football away on defense. They run the football and you got a great chance. If you get home field advantage for the Rams to play in bad weather like they did in Carolina, you know.

AD (40:09)
Yeah, but they got it done. Their records, yeah. Yeah.

Matt (40:27)
think there's some optimism there for you too that are from the north side of Chicago.

Zach Klein (40:30)
down, baby.

AD (40:31)
I will play that. I picked the Chicago Bears. I play them all day if I got it. That's what I got to go through. I'll go, I don't mind going there and playing against them young quarterback that never been on that state. I'm with you. But experience is everything too. You know what saying?

Matt (40:34)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (40:35)
Yeah.

Matt (40:39)
I'm just laying it out there. I'm laying it out there from the bears' perspective.

Zach Klein (40:45)
Todd, what do you think?

Bears, Rams, playoff. We take the show on the road. Ordering some pizza. Matt meets us there. You down?

T$ (40:52)
Yeah, I'm good. just if we're doing the pizza, are we doing the weigh in thing again? Because I eat a lot of that pizza. I just need to.

Zach Klein (40:56)
Hahaha! ⁓

AD (40:58)
Hey, look, I'm

gonna tell y'all this. I was doing this prediction thing and it was like, it says, wherever you stop it, this is gonna be the Super Bowl game. And I'm like, so I did it and I stopped, I said, I told my wife, said, whatever I stopped, this is gonna be the, this is gonna be playing in the Super Bowl, boom. And this is what it picked. It had the Broncos and the Rams playing in the Super Bowl as a Super Bowl prediction. I saved it, I screenshotted it. So we gonna see. We gonna see if this shit gonna come to life. So we gonna see, I don't know.

Matt (41:23)
What

a step out on a limb there, AD. You've got the one seed in the AFC and maybe the best team in the NFC. Real, real going out on a limb. my bad, my bad, my bad. Yeah.

AD (41:26)
Hahaha

No, the Patreons is back to number one. Patreons is number one seed again now. ⁓

Zach Klein (41:31)
Yeah, did you did you screen that shit in August? Was that an August

screen grab? Or was that a? ⁓ okay.

AD (41:36)
No, this was just last night. I just did this last night and I screenshotted it.

T$ (41:39)
AD, AD,

Matt (41:39)
Yeah, the algorithm.

T$ (41:41)
Matt'll talk shit. That's cause he's on the zoom. He's not in your building. he's, can, he's not, he's, he's not afraid to taunt you from.

Matt (41:45)
That's right, that's right. 3,000

AD (41:47)
No,

Matt (41:47)
miles away. I could say that.

AD (41:47)
that's my guy. We good. We good. We good.

Zach Klein (41:50)
All right. AD,

hit us up, man. What you got for your Player of Week?

AD (41:54)
Some good ball being played, man. I think my honorable mission will be cornerback with the Bills. Benford had a defensive touchdown interception, but I think Michael Parsons playing some good ball, man. A big performance for him, eight tackles, two and a half sacks. I think he was really productive, but he did a lot of things and opened up a lot of things for other guys that make plays, man. I think he's dominating playing at a high level. ⁓

Matt (42:06)
Mm-hmm.

AD (42:17)
Be honest with you, I think this guy can mess around and have about 15 sacks on a season. His team go to make this playoff run. Defensive player of the year. I know Miles Geard is going for the record, but I don't know. I think Michael Parsons heating up and playing some good football at the right time. And from the team's success and his success, if he can get to like 15 sacks, I think a defensive player of the year is in his future, man. This season possibly. So we gonna see though. We gonna see. So I think Michael Parsons is my guy this week. Let's clap it up for Michael, man.

You know, ⁓ my dog playing some good football, man. Keep it up, big dog. Keep chasing, keep hunting, and keep leading that defense how you doing,

Zach Klein (42:46)
A big for Micah.

I love it.

Matt (42:53)
AD stepping out on a limb again. Micah

AD (42:56)
I'm

Matt (42:57)
Parsons. No, I love it. I agree with you. I agree with you. I agree with you. Give respect where it is earned.

AD (42:57)
going say this. I think Myles Garrett is having a really good year, his team success ain't what it is. And sometimes they go off production and the team success. So I think if Micah can get to that 15 seconds and keep playing how he's playing with his team success they having, they might mess around and get a defensive player of year to somebody else. I don't know. I'm just saying. I only won it three times. So I kind of know the- ⁓

Matt (43:21)
No chance. he breaks that sack, well, okay, that's for

the two minute. That's for the two minute.

AD (43:24)
The way it worked.

Matt (43:28)
Let me start this up, Zach. All right. AD segues us into this very nicely. I'm going to start it. I got the clock running right here. Okay. We'll start. Yeah. Two minute drill. Let's go. All right. AD, one of my first questions for you was, can the defensive player of the year be on a team that finishes in the bottom of the division?

T$ (43:29)
Gosh.

AD (43:29)
I'm serious.

Zach Klein (43:36)
minute drill.

AD (43:47)
If he's mouse geared and he can get 26 sacks, yes, but anybody, no, you don't typically work like that, no.

Matt (43:52)
Okay, Todd, let's go with you right here. Deep dish, we're talking Chicago. Deep dish pizza, deep dish Chicago style pizza or New York, the thin crust. What do you prefer?

T$ (44:03)
I'm going thin crust Chicago instead of deep dish Chicago, thin crust like Paisano's downtown for sure. Love it. Yes, and I order it comes frozen. ⁓ yeah, we get it here in Atlanta too. Yeah, it's great. I I actually ordered Lou Maladi's, but yes, it's great frozen for sure.

AD (44:06)
Hahaha

Matt (44:10)
Paisanos downtown.

Is it good frozen? Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Zach Klein (44:21)
Tavern

style, think it's officially known as Tavern style, Chicago style.

Matt (44:24)
Okay,

so Zach, was going to ask the same thing being from up there deep dish or should I say tavern style pizza?

Zach Klein (44:31)
Tavern style all day. Todd will order it for all of us, Matt. And we'll have a party at his house with Tavern style Chicago

Matt (44:38)
listen, I'm so frustrated right here. I'm so frustrated right here at 143, the game's over. It's New York style pizza all day. What are we talking about? There's no question about this.

AD (44:39)
No, too many time out, too many time out, time out, too many time out. Time out, we had one, we had one, man. ⁓

Now, I

ain't gonna lie, I went to New York a couple months ago and my driver took me to, you know, I don't know what the pizza place was called. They gave me one slice that was fucking the size of this damn towel. I'm like, one slice. And it was delicious. It was delicious. It was delicious. So I'ma just throw that out there.

Matt (44:59)
It was a big slice. Yes.

It's everybody

from Chicago, man. I'm gonna get crushed by everybody in Chicago. But everybody in Chicago tells me the pizza's better there. New York to me, it's the best.

Zach Klein (45:15)
Now

AD (45:16)
Need my time out.

T$ (45:16)
None of us can eat it anyways. We got

Matt (45:16)
Nope, it's gone. It's gone.

T$ (45:18)
this

weight thing going on. None of us can eat it anyways, so forget it. It's irrelevant. It's all good. No, next week I come up with my benchmark and then we weigh.

Zach Klein (45:22)
So we're gonna weigh in next week. Is that what we're doing? We're gonna weigh in, come up with a plan weight?

AD (45:28)
Man, just, just...

Matt (45:28)
Todd

wants to go on an AD fast first before he sets this. But the thing is you gotta blow it out,

AD (45:31)
Todd don't

Zach Klein (45:32)
Hahaha.

T$ (45:32)
No!

Matt (45:35)
it up high. Yes, yes.

AD (45:36)
even want to let us know his weight. He's trying to

T$ (45:35)
Correct. Correct. I don't want to.

AD (45:38)
keep

it a secret. You know what kind of weight you... When was the last time you weighed? How much did you weigh Todd? ⁓ my...

Matt (45:40)
You

T$ (45:41)
I don't remember, but I did just buy something.

I swear to you, I did. I just bought something on Instagram. I got suckered. This thing called like Hume Health or something where you like pull it up. tells you like your visceral fat, your body fat, your weight, your heartbeat, like the whole thing. I have no idea if it works because it's been sitting on my desk in the cardboard box since I got it, but I will do it sometime this weekend and we'll see if my body fat's 8 % or if it's nine. It's probably somewhere between there. I'll tell you right now, 132 max.

Zach Klein (46:04)
you

AD (46:04)
Zach, how much you weigh,

Zach Klein (46:06)
much you think.

AD (46:08)
I'd

Matt (46:09)
No

AD (46:09)
say probably like

Matt (46:10)
way.

AD (46:10)
once, I give you 175 ish.

T$ (46:13)
⁓ no

chance. No chance.

AD (46:15)
You lighter than that?

Zach Klein (46:15)
I'm a Sevelle

168.

Matt (46:18)
168.

AD (46:18)
As a grown

man, you 168. As a grown man.

T$ (46:23)
That's a grown man, you're 168.

Zach Klein (46:24)
Ay, but AD.

AD (46:25)
I

don't remember the last time I was, I probably once, when I was, man, I was fucking 12, once I hit 12, everything just blew up after that. I was gone. I was grown man way up.

Matt (46:27)
Hey, when's the last time you were under 200 pounds, AD?

T$ (46:29)
168.

Matt (46:32)
You

T$ (46:34)
As a grown man, you're 168.

Zach Klein (46:34)
But AD, here's the thing,

AD, here's the problem I have. I was a fat kid. I used to weigh 220 in college, man.

Matt (46:40)
No!

220? Good for you.

AD (46:42)
No, hold on, 220's not

Zach Klein (46:42)
I will have pictures

AD (46:43)
fat, bro.

Hold on, stop. You said 220's not fat.

Zach Klein (46:44)
next week. So mentally, I still think of that.

Matt (46:45)
220 as you have you've gotten down to 265

Zach Klein (46:49)
you

AD (46:50)
220's not fat. I weighed that shit when I was 13. Stop that. I don't wanna hear that shit. I don't wanna hear that. No, I don't wanna hear it. Stop it. I don't know. Probably, fuck, I'd probably like five, eight, probably. That was a little wider. That's why I work out as much as I do. That's why I work out the way I do. I ain't gonna be that kid no more, man. I like to take my shirt off too much. know, I gotta look good.

T$ (46:53)
Hahaha

⁓ it's different, it's different.

Zach Klein (46:59)
How tall were you when you weighed 212? When you weighed 220? At 13, how tall were you?

You were fat, AD. AD, you were fat. 58220's fat, man.

Matt (47:12)
Super.

Zach Klein (47:18)
I'm with you.

That's why I work out the way I do. I don't weigh 220 anymore.

AD (47:19)
I know but...

Matt (47:19)
⁓ man.

T$ (47:22)
But you don't take your shirt off.

Matt (47:22)
Let's be honest, whatever

your weight is, whatever your body type is, everybody's doing great, everybody looks great, we're in a good space. Maybe we shouldn't weigh in, maybe we don't wanna go down this road.

AD (47:30)
Everybody's good, but I ain't gonna lie.

Zach Klein (47:31)
Thanks, Matt, for bringing it in.

hahahaha

T$ (47:35)
starting to see some personal issues coming to the forefront.

Matt (47:37)
I see some

issues going around, going around these little squares right now. I don't think we need to send anybody to therapy.

T$ (47:39)
It was supposed to be fun.

AD (47:42)
That's okay. It's okay.

Zach Klein (47:43)
AD.

T$ (47:45)
Yeah

AD (47:46)
No,

Zach Klein (47:46)
Nah,

AD's my brother from another mother, man. were fat kids back in the day. We're bonding over this shit right now, AD. We're good, man. Love.

AD (47:46)
accountability. There we go. ⁓ Accountability. You

T$ (47:52)
And now you're shredded, both of you, yeah, okay.

AD (47:54)
what I'm saying?

Matt (47:54)
⁓ man.

Zach Klein (47:56)
think it worked all

right for both of us, but yes, there's some deep issues there, Matt.

AD (47:59)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (48:00)
Good stuff, fellas. Enjoy the weekend. Thanks for everybody for tuning in to the Inner Circle podcast. Make sure you like, subscribe, drop a comment in there and we'll see you next week on the show. Much love guys. We'll see you soon.