Episode 289: Pregame - Your Mom Must Be Proud

Kendrick one considering a non traditional Christmas dinner? Any suggestions Chinese from a Christmas story that's adorable? Yeah, Kara, you do you? I yeah, I don't know. I mean, do you do traditional Christmas dinner? We don't do anything traditional during the holidays because I can't wait for my honey big tam. Wait, can I have one honey baked haam. Well, Well here's my rationale. I don't really get to have a Thanksgiving dinner because of we're working, So this is

where I like to have a turkey. I like to have a honey bag camp. Honey bag camp, can you send me one, can we figure that out? And yeah, that's I love it. I love to do the mashed potatoes. I'm gonna sneeze really quick on areas. At night of Thanksgiving, we didn't have to. We did have a good celebration, but I was way too late, excuse me, a little under the weather. So any who, what was I going to say? Yeah, so I like to have a traditional one?

What do you do? I don't. I mean, growing up, we always went to my grandparents' house, like we did, like the circuit, like my grand my dad's mom and dad in the morning, our house obviously my parents, and like then my Grandma's in the afternoon for dinner. But like as an adult, I've never had like a like traditional dinner because yeah, unless I go home to my parent Like, yeah, I don't know. I guess I need to start a tradition. I'm going to be in Chicago

this year. I'm going I'm going to be in Chicago for our last game, our games on the twenty six, So Steve and I are going to fly on Christmas Eve and just make like a Chicago Christmas. So yeah, I don't know, is there like a rules to the dinner? Like what you're supposed to have or not have? No, but you guys are going to be out Chicago fabulous. Tell oh yeah, but I just need for fantastic dinner. Like for Kara, what's a non traditional like when she's

just thinking, like, go to a restaurant. I love that. Go to a restaurant, have Chinese? Have Italian? Having? Thing you want? Do it? Girl. I have a very good friend who used to invite us over for Thanksgiving when we did a game in his town, Troy, and he used to be like, hey, y'all want to come over for Thanksgiving? And we did and he's like, we're having Italian. Oh great, as long as you're together. It's a door totally mixed. Oh god, hello, here she comes anonymous. Yes,

we love you. Help ladies. Not attracted to my partner? Intimacy is hard? Leave? Oh is this Jarrett? No, I'm kidding, joking. I wouldn't be attracted to myself right now. These past four months, I've been a bear. Okay, stop, that's enough. That's hard. I would try to vo to counseling. Mm hmmm. I would say, why did you all out of unattracted with him? What happened Yeah, there's a lot of factors here. So I will say obviously, like my parents have been

your parents have been married forever. My parents have been married forever. I don't need to know the details of my parents' private life, that's fine, but I do know this that my father would always make a point to like put my mom as a priority, and I like I did. I didn't seem like make it out, but I always saw them like, okay, as are like hug or whatever, and like show that intimacy. Look, if you

don't have that, then you're just best friends. And I'm full encouraging of being best friends with your partner, like that's Steve's my best friend, Jared's your best friend. Like that's great to have that, But if you don't have the other side, then you just are like roommates. And I have a real problem with that. So if you're not getting the attention or the intimacy that you want, like saying intimacy is hard, like try to like spice it up for you, like make the effort and see

if he meets you halfway. And if he doesn't meet you halfway, then we got a bigger issue. And then she's saying she's not even attracted to him. I know she may not even want to spice it up. I know, spce meter. Maybe maybe you got to remember like how you first like became attracted to him, like if is it go on a date maybe maybe uh, you know, have a glass of wine and see if it's like let me just see if I can get back in the mood or whatever. I don't know. That's really hard,

so I know you're asking us for suggestions. I would say that just you try to make an extra effort and see if he meets you halfway and if he doesn't, like then you just have to talk about to be like, hey, look, we haven't had seen you going through six months or whatever, like what's happening? Like what can I do? Because if we get here's the thing. Ladies and gentlemen do not get too comfortable with not doing that, because then the longer and longer you go, no, you gotta like want

to throw it in. And I get it if you've been together a while, like after a while you're like, okay, I got to do something, but no, you got to make sure that you know what's going on foe outside the sheets before you jump in the sheets. Chelsea Blackney adopting my first Golden Retriever puppies this weekend. Any advice, Oh my god. First of all, I'm so jealous, Chelsea. Yeah, I would just saying the other day I want another puppy.

I haven't had a puppy since Willis. All the dogs I've ever had, like after Willis have like come full grown. Oh I haven't had a puppy. And I like, that's like having a baby. Yeah, it is. It's like having a baby that bites and things like baseboards and chairs and shoes. It is a full time job. And one piece of advice my mom game actually about when we had our when we got Howie, was do not allow Howie permission of the entire house at once. Good keep him in a small area because he's got to learn

he is pooping and peeing and all the things. Also, the other thing I highly recommend, and we did a really really really good job house breaking Howie. We took him out all the time, all the time. We always took him out, like we were walk and walk and walk and walk and walk. Like peeing and pooping inside is not an option. Also, create training. I crate trained Willis, and I like was very consistent, like all you want to do is especially like at nights, like snuggle your

puppy and like Heven falls sleep on you and all that. Yeah, his sense to go back in that create and then they learn like that's their little like safe spot. Yeahs, So what do you think about they want to be alone? I didn't realize this too, Like my doc Walker eased to tell me, like the average dog sleeps twelve hours a day sometimes fortunately, like they want to be left

alone sometimes. So yeah, setting boundaries, crate training and oh my god, please send us a picture, sure, because oh my god, a little baby puppy retreat are the keydice. The other thing I would say about create training is it's so important, especially if you have to go out of town and you can't take your puppy. That's like their home that you're bringing to wherever you're taking them, for somebody to look after them. That's what dog trainers. Sure,

and look at us. We can't answer questions about intimacy, but dog training we are. We are on top of it. Go for it, girl, all right. Julia Kennedy. A couple of weeks ago, you talked about how much you study now versus back in college as a current sports reporter, What exactly are you studying? Well, I'm having a bit of anxiety today because I haven't read my articles yet on the Buffalo Bills, who we have this weekend in Los Angeles. I'm studying that. I am reading probably four

different types of periodicals. I don't know. I hit the Athletic, I hit the USA today, I hit ESPN. I read all the Buffalo articles that we get sent to US. I go to the team's website. I watch every single shit. I got to text Derek Boyko with the Buffalo Bills crap, writing it down. This is what I'm talking about. I can't get ahead of shit today doing because I need to interview an offensive and defensive player this week away from talking to Josh Allen, Joe Brady, and Sean McDermott.

I read articles specific to them. I watch all their press conferences in front of their lockers. That's what I do. And I haven't done anything today, and I feel like I'm gonna be so unprepared for my game that's in five days. Okay, Well, you've got lots of time, You're okay, I get it. Though, if you do feel like you're overwhelmed the press conferences, where do you get those from? I don't ever watch any of They are so helpful and so amazing. I watch them on the team site. Oh,

they a lot of teams. Dallas. We just have the Dallas Cowboys this, you know, Thanksgiving. They are so helpful because they usually have like six to seven guys and they're just this scrum in front of their locker with the local media and things like. You know. I talked to CD Lamb over the weekend or before that game, but then I also saw on the scrum that he was like, this is the most banged up I've been

in my career. I have an AC joint, I have this, this and this, and then towards the end of the game he wasn't really used and I was like, I can add ce. D Lamb talked to reporters and me this week and said, this is the most banged Like you never know and that's how you're gonna get Yeah, because there's always so much information, It's like, if one little thing happens in the game, I want to have the answer to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good to have the answer to the test. Yeah, I just I've

never thought about listening to the press. I record a lot of the show. I mean there is like we're inundated with shows, which is great because you love the NFL. I go back, like part of my homework in addition to the sports Scan articles that were set just by being on the list and all like from Amazon is like we have NBC access to like their researchers that information, so they send us out everything for Amazon, and then we have at Fox also our own stuff that's set.

But I go back and watch a lot. I record them all week and then just watch them like a couple of days. We'll go by and then go back and take notes and do things like that off of shows and just different seeing what different people are saying different stuff like that, because yeah, to your point, you never know where you're going to get the information. Also too, if you're like the over consumption of shows, but like all of the lower thirds sometimes on those shows have

a lot of good information and stats. It's not even just what the people are set like other people are saying, it's the graphics. Does that make sense? I will say this to Julia Kennedy when you are doing your studying. Sometimes it is a problem because you feel like you are overloaded and you're like, holy shit. Sometimes enjoyed like having two games close to each other because you couldn't do all the crazy over prepping. Like I felt like, holy shit, how am I going to do this Dallas game?

Because we just got done doing a Green Bay you know, with the hell they pay San Francisco game. I'm not ready. But it was almost like I had to just concentrate on this stuff that I had to get done and not worry about all the extra stuff. Blah blah blah. Gay's last question, because this is just my curiosity. I don't feel it was a million years ago that I did your job. When did it become a thing where you have to like set up additional conversations with players.

I just feel like I've always done that, But I would like, oh, no, it was I did that before. I did it before, because it's like, here's the thing, like if if something happens on the field, Kevin and well not Tom because he's not on our calls, but Kevin can always add, or Joe and Troy could always add, or Gregan, Kevin could always add. I want to be able to give some information that they didn't have before. No.

I also another thing is like being a thing. Yeah, I just do it just because I like to drive myself crazy, you know. No, I don't know this is all I mean, it's all great stuff. I'm just was curious if that was like a post COVID because you couldn't see them at the facility or whatever. Because that's the other thing too, like being a reporter for a specific team. I'm not sure what Julia is, but like

that's so different. When I was a Rockies reporter, I was traveling with the team, like you're just it's always with the same team and access the information as opposed to like for us every week. It's a different situation. Yeah, okay next Melanie D ten twelve. Do the fans ever distract you from doing your job funny stories? Yeah, people say yell at me and say not yell at me. They're like Aaron, not so much anymore since I cut my hair. But yeah, like they used to like say

like my name that I was you. They don't distract me from doing my job. I think like I love like I love the nonsense. Sometimes you get to like occasional like jackass that wants to say something that thinks like I actually am offended by it, and then I just pretend like I don't hear it. But no, I just look at them and say, your mother has to be proud when they add, like the video, Oh, I've seen your video. Yeah, your mom has to be so

proud of you. Yeah, because back in the day when I worked for ESPN, a fan at the College World Series was talking about how they saw my stocker video yeah, and I turned around. I went right after them and people were videoing it. But I was like, good for you. But now you just do the Your mom must be so proud. That's what I hear. That's very mature of you. Mine's just avoidance. I'm just like like, I don't even hear them. Yes, I love the fans. The fans are great. Yeah.

I get so embarrassed when, you know, sometimes if it's quiet on my side of the field, like if they're not playing well or you know, like yeah, and then they're like, ed, we love you, You're the best, and like they're down by thirty and I'm like, great. I feel bad for players, though I know it's part of the gig, but I always feel really sad when they're just like you suck, you suck, like you know, they start booing guys, And I get it, it's part of the gig. But I'm always like, you get out there

and do it. I think about that one player, Like when I feel sad for guys, they have a family. Look, I mean even with the Daniel Jones situation, Like I felt bad for him and I know that it's like, Okay, you didn't you got all this money and you didn't live up to your you know, expectations, and you disappointed

all that kind of stuff. And this was Rian Fitzpatrick shed a lot of light on this because he most of his career was a backup quarterback and having to go to each new place and being a backup, it's like you're not the starter, and so dealing with like letting your team down or not being the guy, or having to deal with disappointments sometimes he's like that sucks, Like that sucks going into a locker room and been like, oh, you're demoted or like and then you still got to

show up and be a good teammate and be a good guy. And like, I don't know, I just think about like, wonder if we got demoted in our job, right and still have to go out onto the field. But they're like, Aaron, you can't, you can't be a you can't do your job today, but you got to still show up and sit over here in the corner. Or it's like if I had to show up to

the studio, uh huh. If I had to show up to studio and do different things and I couldn't actually do my job because everyone knew that I was in time out. Oh no, I get it. You're compensated a lot of money though, whatever. I know, but it's still hard. There's still human beings. And here's the other thing, Like I look at Sam Donald and he what did he say in his postgame to Pam Oliver yesterday, Like I'm so grateful for them. That was the right system and

the right situation for him. And you look at like what if that had never happened, Like thank god that happened for Sam Donald, Like look at that so well, look at you not yesterday winning in New York. Satness is a team that got rid of him. It's like if there is some retribution where yeah, if you just find the right situation and the right coach, like a Kevin O'Connell, who's great, you know, in restore a quarterbacks career like Sam Donalds, and look, I get it, and

like you said, sorry, to keep this going. They're paid really well. It's part of the gig. I understand that. But they are human beings and if it was easy to do it, we all would. And I don't know, I I know we're in the business of winners and losers. I feel bad when a team loses. I do. I feel so bad when the kick game, it's like fuck, and it's like, oh, that's why, Like for the Michigan

Ohio State kid. I was so happy for that kid, Like imagine if he hadn't made that field goal, and it's like everyone into in ann Arbor would have been like, if you just made that field goal, we wouldn't like especially for I know. But but the good thing about that is that when it teaches under pressure of that sort of magnitude and you either a come through it or you fall, but then still able to keep going through it, like the Sam Donald's, like the Jamots, you

build up some real tough skin. Sorry, last thing, I can't let this go. I also think it. It's different for us because we're close to this situation. You know, I remember, I have to go out on the field, which I'm grateful to do unless I don't get to and interview the winners, and I remember, you know, there's so many times you walk out there and you walk smack into one of the numberbacks that lost, and it sucks. It sucks. It's their life, it's where their family is

going to live. They may lose their job and have to move. It's just it's I hate the winning and the losing. It makes me sad. AnyWho I'm just thinking about when like walking on the field of the Super Bowl and like watching those guys like cry at the end of it, so like you wait your whole life to get there, if you're even lucky enough to get to one. Totally, Yeah, where are we? My god? We are at? Jennifer t Barek. I work in in an industry where it's important to brand yourself on social media.

I find it difficult to draw the line between how much I share personally mixed in with what I do professionally. How do you distinguish between what you do not share personally yet still remain authentic? Great question, Jennifer. I go back and forth with this a lot me too, people, I always have this thing. Of course, I annoy myself sometimes on social media. This is my dilemma, I always think.

So I end up going down a rabbit hole of like people's accounts where it's like, oh, they're like packing their bag and I'm like want to watch it, or they're doing a makeup to toil or whatever, where I'm like, not something I would ever do, Like I've never done a makeup to toy, like oh, help me get ready or get ready with me of the day, like try on all these different outfits and then have I don't

know whatever, I just like, don't do that. But then I'm like, well, I like watching other people do that, so why wouldn't should I do that? Should I be doing more of that? Does anyone care? Does any want one? Want more? Behind the scenes? And so then that's my issue is like I end up just doing like the bare minimum because it's like, oh I need to tag an outfit or I need to whatever, or it's our job. I mean, I don't know. I go back and forth

with that a lot. When I wasn't happy in my personal life, I definitely limited the amount that I'm sharing. But I don't even share a lot about Steve anywa. It's not like I'm posting a picture every day with Steve. But yeah, what is it like, the more like Instagram love, the less you're happy. I don't know. I think it's I just go back. I vacillate with that idea where it's like, oh, I should share more in my life or maybe people are interested, and then the other side

of me is like, who gives a shit? No one cares that I'm going to get coffee, No one cares that I'm like wearing you know, these shoes with this shirt. Like No, I don't know. The problem is I can't make shit look cute, like I sit married on the sidelines. Saint Jillian's like, smile, pose, and I all I think about is it wrote? It ends and begins with Rosie right, everything she does, from her hair to hunting. Whitely is who we are talking about. Yeah, and we always goes

at Whitley. Is it Whiteley? I almost meant I forgot to tell you the other day. She said, matter off, it's Whitely, No Whitey, She's just anyhow, She's lovely, She poses so effortlessly. Gillian's like on the field, she's like smile, and I'm like, I just can't. That's not me. I'm not that gal. I can't do it. I can't even in shoots when they're like do a half smile. Nope, it's either no smile or the joker. So I don't know.

I feel like my favorite posts on social media are when I am absolutely like stupid, where it's like drinking coffee and you dumped it all over yourself, like I got to keep pumpkin Lette, Like fuck off, who cares? I just miss the latte on myself. That's not us anyways. First of all, we're not standing in front of me hers like that's not our vibe. Don't even know how to do the sultry face like the no, that's like Taylor who I work with, who I love Taylor Rooks.

She's like really good at that. She like will stand out in the middle of the field and like take these like amazing shots. Meanwhile, I'm like she is, I gotta look. Yeah, She's like great at it always like I just can't do that. The only pictures I ever have are at our desk, like actually, like, no, you look so whatever. It's because there's a professional photographer. Let's not get crazy here A shout out to Kit. I just yeah, I don't know. I don't mind those, but like,

actually I don't know Taylor's thing. Taylor's very good. Okay, Yeah, she's got the look off to the side. I see. I can't take myself serious at all. I can't. I'm looking off to the side, like what am I doing? What? I know? It's that's not you and I thing. But we have she with these great photographers on Thursday night, Coop and Kit, and it's like they're always because sometimes you have to get one for like an outfit, and I'm good on that, but not the overpost stuff. She's

got the leg crussed over. She knows what she's doing. I like candid ones. One came up in a memory yesterday and I sent it to you. It was a really cute picture of all of us that Lily took, and Lily's great about this. At Fox, she'll always get the like candid random ones, like one of me yesterday having seventy five chins but just laughing at Terry Bradshaw because I love them so much. Those are the ones I'm like, candids, but what did you do for your

wedding photos? Because those were beautiful and you weren't like trying too hard. No, well, we just took Christmas photos out on the beach this morning. And the ones I love are the ones that we're not even looking at the camera, like Jared's throwing in the air and I'm like, whoah, Like that's what I love. I hate the post ones. I look like the grinch. You stole Christmas. It's terrible. Okay, not g it off, No you don't, but I know

what you're saying. It feels like overposed. Also, I'm a box now the Yeah, I just can't take myself here, Like it's so bad. I'm like, you're so stupid. That's how I feel about myself. So, Jennifer, again, to answer your question, working in an industry where it's important to brand yourself, I definitely understand that, like it is better to cause these algorithms where it's like are you engaging

with few? You know what we're bad about. I'm bad about responding to comments because first of all, I don't want to see any negative comments, not letting coments you for good comments because it's just like I don't want to at the risk of saying bad ones that will put me in a bad mood. But like you're supposed to respond to that or whatever. I think, Jennifer, that you show what you're comfortable with and just be authentic

in whatever you're posting. If it's something where you look a post picture and you think you look great, then post it. Or if it's like a personal one with your family and you're comfortable doing that, like, yeah, you can mix it in. I think it's all about what you feel comfortable with. Love it, and with that, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to the big show, unless you can't because you've got a bad text. No, I'm just looking at the rest of our question because I love

when people are like actually asking us for advice. I want to make sure we answer it instead of our own tangents. Do we answer your question? Did we answer any of your questions? Yeah, Chelsea said, this picture of your dog. Okay, right now? Bye? Calm down with Erin and Carissa is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.