what's going on everybody it is lunch time lunch with the clydesdale tuesday afternoon what's going on I was really struggling today to come up with some things to talk about on the show today and I made some stuff up had some stuff going on put it in the description and now I think we're gonna scrap most of that Um, I watched boys interrupted this morning and now I've got some content, got some content. So we're going to go down that road.
The other thing is, uh, it was announced this morning that my Chicago bears signed Joe Tooney to a two-year extension. We traded for him this off season, got him from the Kansas city chiefs. He is considered to be the best offensive guard in football. And now we have signed him to a two-year extension. So we have him for three years. And that is awesome. I'm really excited about this year's bear season. I was excited last year and got thoroughly disappointed. I'm hoping this year is much better.
The other thing about today is I hopped on here and StreamYard actually worked correctly today for the first time in like a week. So that's good news, right? So that only means that today's dart throw has got to be good. It's got to be. So here we go. If you guys saw where that land, you would laugh your ass off. Oh my gosh. So I have a shelf. I have a shelf below the dartboard where I put like markers and stuff for a whiteboard to like keep track of everything.
I hit the front edge of the shelf with the dart and it is sticking right out of the front. Yeah. Terrible throw today. Jody Lynn says, is Tyson Bajan still with the Bears? He is. And I actually featured an interview with him on Friday's show right off the top. He actually brought up CrossFit in an interview with a local Chicago sports guy that does sports radio in Chicago. Brought up CrossFit as his workout style, what it means. He described it. Great ad for CrossFit.
Talk about the kid preaching what CrossFit is and what it's done for him in his life. It's pretty freaking awesome. But he is still there. They love him there as their backup quarterback. But he's starting to gain interest from other teams. So I don't know what that means for him. So... I hope I would like for him to stay there. But my other hope is that Caleb Williams actually turns out to be a great quarterback as well. And then it's a good problem to have. But but he is still there.
He is still their backup quarterback. But yeah, there's actually talk in some of the local circles that the Bears are trying to assign him to an extension. He'll make a lot more money than he did on his rookie contract, but I have not seen where that is or where that stands at this point. Corey says, if you look up good dude in the dictionary, there's a picture of Tyson. He's a good dude. It was a great interview.
Being a Bears fan and just overall his optimism for everything and the way he looks at things is really, really cool. I really just enjoyed it. It was about thirty five minutes long. If you go back to Friday's show, I quote or I show the video so you can actually see where I got it from. But it's only thirty five minutes long. Super quick. And you can check that out there. It's actually called Recap, R-E-K-A-P. And it's David Kaplan is a sports radio guy on ESPN, one thousand in Chicago.
And he does a podcast on the side. Clark says, given how few quarterbacks went in this draft, you might think some teams would be interested in Bajent. They actually talk about that on that show that I used on Friday, that the New Orleans Saints had contacted the Bears about the availability of Tyson Bajent because of Derek Carr's retirement. And they don't really have much in the quarterback category.
room and they they did draft a quarterback this year but they did contact him about being the starter uh and I don't and I think the bear said no so there is interest in him and there is interest in him being a starter in the league but we'll see where that goes so the first thing I wanted to show real quick today and this isn't really what we're going to dive into but I wanted to show this I went to the CrossFit game site because yesterday in Dave's week in review, he said there's going to be
a big announcement today. So I've been watching to see what that might be. Still nothing on the game site. Um, but I wanted to show this. I thought this was really, really funny. Um, so I go here and I click on the story just to make sure nothing is going on. And I don't know if you guys can see this. This is advertising for twenty twenty five CrossFit Games tickets. And the video they use is an athlete who has chose to sit out the twenty twenty five CrossFit Games season.
I'm sure you have video footage of athletes who are actually participating in this season to sell your tickets. This is Jack Farlow with his big lift at the Games two years ago. It is a heck of a lift, Halpin, but you're advertising a person. It be like... It'd be like the Bears advertising season tickets with a picture of Mitch Trubisky. It just doesn't make sense. I mean, I don't know. That's just a thing I wanted to show.
I just found it very peculiar that of all the video footage you have in the history of the CrossFit Games, I am sure that people that are participating in the season, people who have already qualified, you could use in the promotion to say whatever. I don't know. Andrew Sten says, maybe they did it to say we can use you in advertising our event that you don't want to go to. I guess. Hoppin says, oh, I get it.
I have an article that was supposed to come out today, and I purposely didn't use non-games competing athletes. I think if you want to be topical and you want to talk about the season, you should use athletes that are competing in the season. It just makes sense. I mean, it's not like this huge error that is going to cost them their business or whatever. It just seems like a little bit of laziness or I don't know.
The quality checks on these things you would think should be a little bit better than they are. Aaron Frazier says maybe there's NIL deals for CrossFit Games athletes. Yeah. NIL has spread from college football to the CrossFit Games season. But as of yet, the big announcement that's supposed to come out today, I have not seen anything on any of their socials. So still waiting to see if anything comes out from that announcement today.
And that was something that Dave said in his week in review yesterday. And it seemed to be pretty big because he wanted to go into aspects of whatever this is going to be. And he kept stopping himself. So it doesn't seem like it's a simple thing like the lifting shoe is now the official lifting shoe of the CrossFit Games like we saw yesterday. It seems like a much bigger deal that's going to be announced today.
So the other thing I wanted to talk about is Will Morad was on with the Boys Interrupted. And... And they actually talk about something we talked about last Friday when people in the comments here were saying that they didn't like the WFP because athletes were quitting. And so in The Boys Interrupted, Dallin actually speaks to this exact thing of athletes quitting during the WFP. And so I want to share this. So here we go. Again, this is Boys Interrupted.
You can go to their YouTube channel to see the full interview with Will, but I'm going to do a little recap after this. I think some of the craziest comments I've seen is people saying that we're going to show up to these events and not try. There's no incentive to do well because there's the minimums on contract, all of those things, and I promise you, The last thing we want to do is show up and lose to any guy that's on the floor. And two, there are incentives to do well.
Yes. Trust me, the last thing I want to do- The reason you're not out there is because you think that that's a possibility that we would show up and let someone beat us. Yeah. I mean, the last thing I want to do is- Stay out of my comments. Will these two dudes the next day listen to them beating me in a competition? Yeah, I don't know. It's important not to read too much. Dude, you're crazy if you think I'm just cashing a check. I love beating these boys.
So they all speak to there's no way they're quitting on the field. They want to win every event. And... And that there is, there's too much competitiveness between them, uh, that money has no factor into this at all. Um, and so I find that, uh, I thought that was really cool because Justin Kotler jumped into the comments on Friday and said that, you know, these athletes would run over their grandmother to win a game of checkers.
Um, And so I like that they kind of answered to that in kind of a comical way that they want to hear the BS from the other people that they lose to, and they want to beat each other so bad at every competition. Aaron Frazier says, Bethany Flores mailed it in. There are more competitive athletes. I think Bethany is an outlier in this case. Bethany got hurt. It seems like it's bigger than we know about.
If you look at her social media and her YouTube channel, she actually did a long video about what happened, but she has not said what happened. And I think her idea was that she still wants to compete for a pro card, and right now her body just won't do it, but there was a way to go get some points, and then hopefully her body would be ready by tour stop two to then take whatever points she could earn and move forward into the season. But that's like a reoccurring thing with Bethany.
It happened at Rogue. It's happened at the games. They're just... So, yeah. But the idea that people come in the chat and say that Laura quit on that last overhead walking lunge, there's no way in hell that woman would ever quit anything. If anybody's going to run over their grandmother to win a competition, it's Laura Horvat. And her body just gave up. She just couldn't.
She missed on the last step of one of the lunges, and then she kept trying to rush it when she wasn't ready, and her arms gave out. Halpin does make a good point here that there is an incentive to do well, but there's also an incentive just to show up. You get two seventy season points for showing up. You get zero if you don't show up. So, yeah. And I think that that that is what happened with Bethany. But I think if you are healthy and you are there to compete, you don't want to lose.
Aaron Frazier, she blew up like she did at Wazza. She did. And maybe that's a training thing because this has now happened at two events in a row where on the last event, she was unable to finish in a way. She lost to Lucy Campbell on the last event at Wattapalooza after having a lead. And then she loses on the overhead walking lunge because she can't get the twenty five feet in without dropping the dumbbells. Corey Leonard, you've never heard anyone say, I used to have a bad back.
I feel Bethany is saying what Bethany is saying, but she may be done. And so, yeah, I, uh, hope not I think that bethany is the most talented athlete to never podium at the games because her her back has just never let her do it um and it's a shame because what I saw at west coast classic in I think it was she was as good as anybody at that point And it's just a shame that her back has failed her time and time again.
And as someone who has had as many back procedures as I've had, I empathize with her in a huge way. So... So there we go. Haley Adams got a zero. Now the most Haley can get is fifteen hundred if she sweeps the next two. Anyone getting zero is behind every pro and challenger for a pro card, as is McQuaid and Kyra Milligan. Well, Kyra, Kyra was a challenger. She wasn't in the pro division, I believe. Um, but she did take a zero instead of taking whatever that was.
But anyway, so I wanted to go over a couple of things that Will said in this interview, because I think it contradicts some other things that we've heard. And it just goes to show you that there's two sides to every story. And probably neither one of them are a hundred percent accurate. There's probably something in the middle that's more accurate.
And so they were talking with will on there and the, and the, and the boys, Dallin, Jason, and Justin were doing a lot of comparisons between CrossFit and the WFP. And one thing they said is that they felt listened to, um, during this, which they don't always feel like that is the case with CrossFit. Uh, when they bring things up there, sometimes you don't get a response.
They said they used one example that Pat Felner, a lot of times in an athlete briefing, uh, when they're told that they cannot do something and he'll say, what happens if I do it anyway? And they just say, don't do it. And there's no real answer as to what happens if you do.
in this case at the wfp they were told those things or they changed the rule to allow it if they couldn't come up with a good reason to not allow it they did will talked about why things why the feed was on their website as opposed to um youtube and it's because If you watch the feed, you saw commercials, which we never see on the CrossFit feeds. Like there were Stri-V ads, there were Adidas ads, there were a lot of different ads. And they can control that on their own website.
They cannot control that in YouTube. And so they were actually, I'm assuming, getting paid for those ads, or there was a deal done for those companies to get those ads, and they couldn't do that on the YouTube platform. They did say that they realized that there is a big problem with not being able to rewind, and they are working on that. The reason they could not rewind is because of the AI translation problem.
but they are looking at doing an English only version that you can rewind for tour stop two. Will also said they had about a half a million viewers. I don't know if there's a way to confirm that because it is self-contained and on their own website. There's no way to really see if those numbers are in fact true. Um, they did, will did say that the lighting at the event was done by the world wrestling entertainment, WWE.
Um, they brought them in to give it a different look, to give it more of a, like a theatrical look to the whole thing. Um, and that's what they did. And the, the boys on the show said that they actually did like the lighting and some of the effects that happened. Um, especially when the lights followed them down the floor, uh, to follow the storyline. Um, And they did not speak to the jerk itself in the lighting that has been brought up a couple times. So there's that.
And then he also answered the question as to, was there a meeting set up with CrossFit, as Dave had said on his Week in Review a week ago, and what happened there?
And that is that there was a meeting set up will was it was will was not the point of contact for that meeting but he was on that initial email the world fitness project according to will wrote back and said could they reschedule because they had some people out of the country at the time that the sit down was to happen when they sent that email back Will never got another email back on anything, but then again, he was not the lead person.
So he can't speak for sure that CrossFit never got back, but they did say that they did ask for a reschedule. And Will said, I never heard another word from that point forward. And he also said that Dave never tried to reach out to him personally, but when asked, would they do that? Would they do, um, and a sit down.
Will said with the pending sale of CrossFit, what's the point in going and having a long discussion with the people that are there when if they sell, it may not be the same people there in a few months, which I thought was actually a pretty excellent point. Why would you meet with people if they're not going to be there in a few months? Um, And again, we don't know what's happening with the sale. We don't know who's gonna be retained. We don't know who's gonna be let go.
And so I do kind of understand when you're trying, when you're busy trying to put this thing on for the first time, why would you waste time having conversations with people that may not be a factor when it comes to that? Andrew Sten says in CrossFit's defense, you don't want to have a negotiation with athletes in a briefing. Yes, there should be some set penalties, but often athletes are looking for ways to skirt the standards.
The other thing that I think the WFP did differently is that they released the event, the events three weeks ahead of time. So there was plenty of time to ask some questions before the briefing to get some things ironed out before the briefing happened. And I think that that was a good thing. And they also let coaches in the briefing, which isn't always allowed by CrossFit. It's the same reason many athletes ask judges when they walk out what they should be doing. Yeah, that should never happen.
As a judge, you're told not to tell them anything. And Corey, of course, doesn't follow the rules. Yeah. The judge is not supposed to clarify anything out there that that should be done by a head judge. Has the jerk been brought up by any athlete that competed? I have not heard a single athlete talk about the lighting. And Andrew, this is what we're taught. And Corey, that is why we tell judges to say, do what you were briefed. Athletes are briefed in the big briefing.
And right before the event, I tell judges to be a jerk and shut down questions. Um, Aaron Fraser, I don't think that athletes are the only opinion that matters, but I think in this point where they were, Will was talking to athletes. So you're getting, um, he was getting feedback on what they felt was going on with the WFP and what their reactions was from the athletes. But I do know that they also asked spectators, they asked volunteers, they asked other people.
And I know that Dallin even brought up in one of his suggestions that the community event seemed forgotten about back in the corner. And that I guess they are going to work to get the community event, at least a few events on the main competition floor for Mesa.
so um the way I took coaches and briefings was they are allowed that they are allowed just coaches to go to the briefing meaning athletes weren't required to sit through them if they wanted to leave um think what the the guys were referring to is sometimes at the games the coaches are not allowed at the games briefings um and I and I don't and I think I've heard dave say that there are times that they want the athlete to be able to make their own decisions without it without a
coach's um input but I don't think that tests anything If you're going to be more of a pro-ish style sport, then athletes are going to have coaches. That's just what's going to be the case and why. But I know in tennis, like you're not supposed to be allowed to talk to your coaches during a tennis match. Once you're out on the floor, you can't really talk to your coach, but that's tennis.
So. dry your dagger telling my kids I won the first ever WFP community events since there will never be any proof or any eyewitness testimony to say I didn't. I'll clock correct me tennis does allow it now. Yeah. What? And maybe like I just been around too long and too much stuff is cluttered in my head. I think it was a two thousand sixteen games when they went to Aromas. They took the athletes but didn't allow the coaches to go. So when they went to Aromas, they didn't have in the ranch.
They didn't have the coach with them to help them kind of figure out what was going on on the fly. And that was intentional by Dave. So maybe I'm just remembering too many things. But that was what was said by Jason, Justin, and Dallin. And nobody quibbled with it. So I don't know what's going on there.
um d reed says in individual sports the onus is on the athlete to know the rules and what to do yeah but anyway I thought it was just an interesting conversation to kind of hear what will had said especially about uh the communication with crossfit and whether they And the reason why they wouldn't meet with them now until the sale is done, that made a lot of sense to me. I don't know. I think it's a cool concept what they have going on. And I know that I'm probably in the minority.
I do like the season structure that they have. And so, like, I'm all in for that. So... Anyway, what else do we have on the docket today? I saw an interesting, well, I was watching dense updates this morning and she brought up an interesting conversation about teams that. at the regional level or at TFX's last weekend, the vibe when the pro teams were on the floor was higher than when the individual athletes were on the floor because the teams draw more people from the affiliates to the event.
But then when we get to the games, the stadium empties when the teams hit the floor because everybody's there to see the individuals. And so that brings up like a conundrum. Do we need the teams to actually fill the stands on the way up to the games? And then because they helped us get there, we can't ignore them once we get to the games. And I thought she made a great point. I remember back in the regional days, the teams were well attended.
It was as loud for the teams as it was for the individuals because they were associated with an affiliate. The affiliate would drive to the regional event and they would cheer their asses off for those people because it was more the people that they worked out with on a day-to-day basis. And it seemed like that's what happened at TFX.
You had big crowds going to TFX just to see the teams and root on their friends than there was in an individual field where people were from all over the western part of the North America. And Aaron says, that's the difference from regional teams and communities versus super teams not connected to the communities. I think you're right. I think that back then the affiliate teams were a big part of regionals because they did bring in the crowds.
That's when the regionals were way more attended than anything that we have done in the past five years. I think hearing the teams themselves on what would work, I was cheering on local teams even though I don't go to their gym. Yeah, that makes sense. I know in two thousand sixteen when the regionals were here in Columbus, two local Columbus gyms were in the in the race for the last spot to go to the games.
they were like fifth and sixth place it was crossfit grandview and uh cross our friendship crossfit and the place was going ballistic when they were on the floor because it was the two local teams trying to vie for that last spot to the crossfit games and it was so so loud and the funny thing is the guy on crossfit one of the guys on crossfit grandview that year was joey tutoro who is colton's coach now But it was insane. Insane during those events. Coda had five teams there. They did.
Imagine how many people that draws in from Coda. And I know there's like three or four different locations of Coda. So... Yeah. I just... I think she's right. I think that we do need to kind of bring back the teams into these. If we're going to keep the in-person qualifying events, maybe teams should be included in that to get a spot or two to the games. why not?
If, if, if TFX is going to hold a pro division for teams, syndicates holding a pro division for teams, why not give them a spot or two to fill for the CrossFit games? It only makes sense, right? Like, They're already doing it. Why not put the legitimacy on it instead of an online version with no video review and just trust everybody that's doing it? D. Reed, this is why belonging to an affiliate matters. I would include that for individual.
The games has to be a showcase for the affiliate and the community. And then, I mean, I do have to jump off here because I do have a one o'clock meeting, but, um, but why, what happens if what Matt Sousa said is right this week and Berkshire decides to sell off the, the games portion of CrossFit to this new group out of Texas who may only want to buy the sports side and not the affiliates. If that happens and there's no connection with the community, we're in trouble. We're in trouble.
And that can be a longer discussion tomorrow when I have Corey on or on Thursday. But it seems insane to me that that would happen. I don't know. Uh, Aaron Frazier agree. Look at the crew Haley brought to semis when she was at the affiliate in Virginia. Um, I would argue that Haley brings a big crowd wherever she goes in semis. And even if she's back at mayhem, that's still an affiliate and they, they ride deep there too.
Um, Austin Hatfield brought a huge number to semis last year, Austin and Haley, uh, Their crowds were so big last year at the affiliate, for sure, at the semifinals. D. Reed says, the sport without the affiliates will die. That's my fear. That's my fear without the connection because... And that's where I think like the WFP might get the upper hand if this does happen, because they're establishing a tour that isn't necessarily community based.
And maybe it will be easier for them to move forward than whatever they're doing on this other side. And again, I don't know what the plan is to do with it.
Um, I've heard some rumblings on the wp stuff that they already have lined up that could help them sustain things and move things forward uh but none of that is confirmed so I don't want to really dive into that too much I I think that splitting the affiliates and the crossfit games is a huge mistake and I wasn't always a thinking on this side um but I do think so now for sure that it's got to get back somehow to a community-based event a t-bird the sport is different than it once was
it's sport not affiliate crossfit it is but the affiliates are what filled the arenas back in the regional days And when we've moved to a different concept, we lost. We lost the crowds. And somehow we've got to get them back. And if that means that you have to find a way for people to come root on their friends, we've got to figure that out. Got to figure that out. But it all comes down to like having a plan.
Um, and I'm, and I'm not sure that CrossFit has sat down and had a long-term plan in a while. That just, it has. And I talked about that Sunday night a little bit at the beginning. I just watching welcome to Rexham and watching how they sit down with their group and have a plan. I don't think that CrossFit has had those discussions. Denise, I feel if the sport gets spun off, then I don't see any reason for affiliates to do the open. You're probably right.
The sport cannot sustain itself without the affiliates. I agree. Especially if it's just another private equity firm coming in and taking it over. Like they're not going to invest enough money into the sport to create something new. Because they're there to make money, not spend money. CrossFit doesn't get to decide who they sell to or at least full control. Selling for parts is very risky. It is. But that is the decision of Berkshire right now.
So everybody's just waiting with bated breath to see who is going to win the bidding war for whatever is there. Aaron, they're just holding on because they don't have a real leader. Well, it's hard to tell who the leader is because you have this private equity firm that really does own them. And they're the ones who make the ground rules for what the CEO can do. So that really handcuffs the CEO in what they want to do on the day-to-day life.
The CEO is just the public-facing figure that takes all the heat. But the rules come from the board. I mean, we can't forget that. And they say what can and cannot be done going forward. Not that WFP is for sale, but if you look at what's been said about TPG, why would someone buy CrossFit Sport versus WFP? I don't think they should. unless they see something in it that we don't. And from what I understand, TPG is buying up a lot of niche sports to put together.
And the only the only like parallel to that that I can see is like the extreme sports category with what Red Bull TV has done to make a lineup of these niche sports in the extreme sports category that they can air on their Red Bull channel.
throughout the day and then they create a conglomerate of stuff that together they kind of support each other and it seems to me that tbg is trying something in that vein um but I don't they were only created a few weeks ago so to understand what their plan and their process is and what they're trying to do we are way too early in the game to figure all that out Love, welcome to Wrexham, and I do too. I can't wait to dive into the rest of the season.
Good point. Red Bull TV was talked about a lot at WFP and Indy. Yep. That's what I call a breadcrumb, Mike. That's what I call a breadcrumb. As I look around, that's a breadcrumb. Just saying. But anyway, I have got to go. I've got a meeting in about four minutes and I've got to get changed into my work clothes. So with that, guys, thank you so much for being here. You knuckleheads get back to work and we will see everybody tomorrow on Cooking Up Cajun with lunch with the Clydesdale. Bye, guys.