The anatomy of an officiating controversy

this cool. It's you We audio Joe Madrid, Joe. Are you aware We're gonna get to Joe in a second? Are you wear the leaked Los Angeles ramslong not has not gone over very well. The the the initial reaction has not been positive. It looks kind of it looks more chargerish than ramish um, and it's it's kind of like, I guess supposed to be a wave. I don't kind of looks like a wave, and it's supposed to be

a horn. Here's my theory. Here's my theory is that the the the NFL creative people leaked the photo because they were thinking about it. They leaked it intentionally to get some feedback, and if the feedback was positive, we're gonna go with it. If the feedback is what it is, which is currently not positive, then they'll just say we we didn't that, that wasn't us. That's not us. I don't think I've seen anything positive about it. There hasn't

been any positive feed regarding it. It's interesting. It look it almost looks like if they took the two teams and try to make one logo. It's it's I think, just go back the old rams, like the old Rams held away in the old school. Let's go back to that. Let's go Chargers, powder Blue and and call it a day. But that's just me. Joe. Joe is back. Joe took so Joe needed a little reset time. Joe wanted. He's had a tough season. He's he's worked really hard. He's

looking at the logo. He worked really hard this year and he um, and we're gonna get to how we have someone replacing you in the studio by the way. Um. But but he worked really hard this year and he needs a little arn our. So he went to Costa Rica. How is Costa Rica? Joe was Costa Rica was amazing,

So much fun. I've never been. I've never been, so you know, based on your Instagram stories, it looked like you were you know, there was a lot of um me times, some meditation, there was you were you you actually you found a jiu jitsu gym and you were able to practice chi kickboxing, some surfing, did some you know, hiking up to the waterfalls, drank just a little bit, just a little bit, just a little partying, little partying. Um, what is the what is the kind of the setup?

Like where you were, you were staying in a hotel, You're staying villaver BnB right on like right on the ocean. What are prices to get houses and stuff down so cheap? Like I got a week in a really nice modern place right on the water ocean view for my bead bucks for the week. I feel like I feel like travel right now. Coronavirus is definitely impacting prices, and you probably um getting that well, I do think. Look, Joe's Joe's a half glass, uh glass, half full type of guy.

So he's looking at the palm to um it is. It certainly is impacting travel and and um, but I'm glad to see you at a nice time glad to see your back in one piece. We were working. We were working as usual, going right from college NFL to XFL, and and we actually had our first XFL officiating controversy this past weekend. And so just kind of breaking it down, it's interesting. Um, so the end of the Seattle Houston game,

and I think we anticis debated. Look, the timing rules are different, and Houston had a first down I think, with like one thirteen on the clock and Seattle was out of time outs, which normally in college in the NFL, you could run out the clock and take a knee. Um, in the XFL you can't. And it just it really underscored the the uniqueness of the rule and what you do have to do some different things because you can't just take a knee. So what they did was they

took a knee first down, second down, third down. So now on fourth down, they're they're snapping the ball with about four seconds left and p J. Walker, the quarterback Walker, he takes the snap and takes a knee on fourth down, and there's two seconds on the clock. The clock operator, let's time expire, and there really should have been two

seconds on the clock, and they weren't. They were at like their own twenty three yard line, and and so it's Seattle should have, should have and traveled is doing the thing that I hate. I absolutely hate it, because I don't know what the hell he's doing, and he's taking his computer and he's churning it towards me, and he's like trying to do sign language and point it. I don't know what you're trying to tell me, and you're breaking my my train of thought. So stop it

focused focused anyway, I thought. So anyway, games should have been stopped and they should have put time back on the clock. And so we're in the studio and I'm trying to call the replay booth and they're not picking up, and Travis knows like trying. I was kind of frantic at that point, almost as bad as you were. Just there, Yes, exactly. And by the time we were we were able to communicate with the replay booth. Look, they just missed it.

We missed it, um And by that time the teams have left the field and it was gonna be I made the decision at that point with the communication that we had in place, it was going to be a big, big deal. To try to get these teams back out for one play. Um, and I thought that would be more of a kind of like looked at as more of a this discombobulated effort, and I didn't want that to be what people took away from it. And so look, game over, we blew it and we'll deal with it.

And that's ultimately what happened. And the XFL put out a statement which I think people were were pretty like the response to this statement was was over the general publish. Yeah you so the XFL we put out a statement and crafted this statement that hey, look here's what happened, here's what should have happened. We made a mistake, and um, you know, we regret the error. The officiarty supervisor unfortunately will be reassigned. And and that was it, and and

it kind of put the whole deal to bed. And people said, okay that you know, we appreciate that you you owned up to it and and we can move Vaughan and and there was a lot of you know, the social media and again that's it's part of the deal. Obviously people are gonna say, well, I wish the NFL would do that. And one guy, actually one guy actually tweeted me, Hey, Dean Blandino and his goons can learn something from the XFL. I was like, I was this part. I was part of this whole deal. So how do

you think they should handle that last two seconds? Well, if the teams are already gone off the field and everything, what are you gonna do bring everyone back, which which was an option and I've been a part of that, and that's what was going through my mind. Like I remember there was a game in in Foxboro, the old you know, before they went to Gillette, and it was it was um they brought they brought the teams back out after they reversed a call or replay, got involved

on something at the end of the game. It took him like almost a half hour to get everybody back and it was just a complete shit show. And that was what was going through my mind and saying, Okay, how are we even going to accomplished this? And the officials were in the locker room, it was just you know, look, we missed it, we blew it, and we've got to be better and we'll learn from it. And it's just

it's just one of those things. And as long as you know, as long as you you're involved in officiating, there's going to be some controversy. There's going to be some issue that comes up. And uh, you know, it was interesting just just walking through it and obviously just trying to put some you know, we do have communication in place from me in the in the I'm in

the l A, the Fox Sports studio. We do have communication. Obviously, we're going to add another layer so we don't get into a situation where I can't communicate, especially at the end of the game. Was going to be my new job. No I'm the other layer. No, you're not the other layer. But but it did. I was. It was interesting. I was talking to I have a one of my mentors um at the NFL is a man named Joel Busser.

And Joel was the head of player personnelity the NFL Office for a long long time and then was pretty much the lead on the Competition Committee from the league office standpoint. And uh, and I've known him. I started at the League office when I was twenty three, and Joel took me under his wing, and I've learned so much from him. And I was talking to him about what happened and just kind of asking his advice, and he told me about a play in a in a NFL.

I think it was a playoff game, but I don't know. It was like in the fifties where the fifties or sixties where it was fourth down and the team on offense was behind, and they threw a pass into the end zone and a fan was on the field knocked the pass down, like ran out to the field, knocked the pass down and kept running and nobody picked it up,

like nobody realized that it was a fan. And because back then, he said, the security was not the same where fans would be on the field, not in the playing field, but on the physical field, like you know,

out of bounds. And this guy just ran on the field, knocked down the pass, kept running and no one realized it till the next day when the coaches were watching their you know, sixteen millimeter game film, and I said, could you imagine that happening today, Like, you know, imagine like Chiefs Patriots playoff game and it's fourth down and Brady drops back to throw and and Edelman's wide opening some fan in like a Chief jersey, like the fan

dressed up like Andy Reid, like comes down pass down, insane. It happened. It happened. I looked it up. It says November three. It was a Patriots game at AFL game at Nickerson Field in Boston versus the Dallas Texans. That's insane. What does it say. It's just it's aid fan ran on the field, um joins Patriots defense. Let's see here, Maybe you should turn your laptop so I'm not doing that good. That's why you have the laptop in front

of you. You take some initiative, Travis. You have the laptop, you have all you have, all of the world's information at your fingertips. Take some initiaip I thought I was just going to share it with you while you were talking, to give you the time and the plays, like I

was giving the play by play before. So it says the man in the trench coat ran into the end of the trench coat, so he knew like he was trying to he he was clearly trying to blend in because that's what you do on a football field and a trench cut. He said, he made the final play of the game. That's so good. He was wearing a trench cut like that's like the dude, he's talking to his friends. He's like, dude, don't ever see why because I'm gonna whear the trench coat. Oh, the trench coat.

He just blend in. You just blend in, and he just I guess back then though, in the sixties, maybe like the security personnel had trench coats. Maybe that's how he blend in. What I love is looking at old NFL films footage of like the Steelers games of the seventies, and he had like the station wagon, the wood penal station parked on the side of the field. It's so amazing.

I I really wish we could go back any more cars on this, Like just like how about like bringing the guy smoking a cigarette on the bench, like just just puffing away on the bed, like I don't care, Like look, I don't smoking kids, smoking is not good for you, but it does look cool, like it it clearly that some of those pictures look pretty damn cool, like of of you know, a guy in the locker room or you know, on the bench smoking it. That was back when it was l right, it was it

was cool, cool cigarettes. That was the whole point. Like I never ever, like I'll tell my boys like don't don't not smoke because it's not cool. Here's a picture of a long after after eighteen years of smoking. Here's why you don't smoke. Or those commercials, they did a great job. Remember those commercials with the anti smoking commercials with a guy like that that is yes, like show

that that will stop me from smoking? Like that? Just play that at bars to when guys drinking and your inhibitions are down a bit and you want to go have a dart out in the parking lot. So what we did, though, we did we did realize that I took my son, my nine year old son, Luca, to the studio on Sunday and he was running the video. And we realized that of the two people that did

it before Janita, who listening before Joe? What's up, Genita, if you're listening and Joe does it now that Luca is far and away better than both of you, Like far and away better than both of you. Like he's not good. He's not as good at getting water free, not as good as getting water. Here's Joe, you have him, You have him your light years ahead of him getting water because he would get water from me and he would put stuff in it. He put like creamer and

like trying to play a joke on me. Yeah, he loved the water machine. The water. He loves a water machine. But he wouldn't just bring me water. He would put stuff in it because he thinks he's funny. And how many bottles have we saved at this point? Did anyone check? I haven't checked in one got to be in the half a mill, I don't know. But somebody jacked my water bottle. Oh the nerve. Somebody jacked it on Saturday

the first week with my initials on it. With all the coronavirus stuff that you're going to steal a water bottle, it seems like a weird time. Meanwhile, the in d C, have you seen the d so they're talking about XFL have you that's a cool tradition. And when you talk about traditions and what people like happen organically, d C

now has this super cool tradition. Now I know they've only had like three home games, but it's called then So they take the beer cups and they build it throughout the game to see how long they can make it. Here our commissioner took a cup and and it was great though, because because we can hear that video. It's

so cool. But it was funny because I'm not gonna name names, but one of our one of our on air talent, during the break, they were showing it and they were they were getting ready to show it on the air, and one of our on the towns like, yeah,

spreading coronavirus once couple of times. But so let's talk about what the statement said, because Joe doesn't know what the statement said because he didn't see that, and see if he likes what could possibly happen with the last two seconds of that game, Well, the statement didn't, so one of the discussions, so we were discussing, okay, let's put out a statement. Um, let's own up to it.

But one of the discussion points was, you know Seattle in Houston play in week ten of the regular season, so do you do you play the last two seconds the last two seconds of the game before. That's not a bad idea. It was definitely discussed. I don't know if ultimately that's going to happen, but I think definitely, I think it was definitely discussed, and so it would be it would be interesting to have that, to have

that that conversation and see how that's gonna go. Can I say something about the play calling at the end, Yes, Travis, you can. Here's the thing, it's a podcast. You can have whatever. You can say whatever you want, Travis say it. Houston's playing was awful. Okay, So here's I went back. I went back and watched the tape, the TV copy, and here's what. And I think it was just please don't turn it towards I think the timing, the timing

rules are still everybody's still getting used to them. You can never remember the the head coach or the play caller. Can what are you doing? Really, you're really distracting me. Stop cup snake. Okay, stop the Caucasian rattle snake needs to stop any time we're talking snakes, you know. Like, so, the the play caller, and June Jones, who's the head coach of Houston, is the play caller. He can communicate with the quarterback and all scale position players at any point.

So if you watch the TV copy, he's trying to tell p J Walker to throw the ball away. He's just before the snap. He says, throw it over their bench, throw it over their bench, And obviously p J didn't either, didn't hear it or didn't process it because he just took a knee, But Joan June did tell him it was late. But he did tell him because what you do in that situation. Watch the Super Bowl. What did the Chiefs do at the end of the game when

they're trying to run out, run out the clock? My homes just run and ran out and just threw it as far as he as he needed to throw it. And that's what And I'll do it tape this week for the coaches. I do want every week for the coaching steps. And I'll show you know a couple of examples. Hey, look, I know the rules are different. I know we're all getting used to them. No excuse on the officiating side. We gotta make sure we get it. But we want

to avoid this situation altogether. Here's what you can do. You could even you could take the snap, drop back, let time expire, and then just spike the ball on the ground. It's intentional grounding, but it doesn't extend the game. The game's still over. So you can do all of those things versus taking a knee and uh, you know, trying to run out the clock and not and and and risking having time on the clock. So interesting situation. Um, let's go to a break. We come back, we're shift gears.

We'll talk NFL, c b A, NFL rules change proposals, next on good calls. All right, we're back, good calls. Let's shift gears. Let's go to NFL. Obviously, the big thing right now is the c b A. It is out for a vote. Um, and and I wish you let the music go a little longer. I really like the hearer want to listen to the podcast. Just put it. Don't you have it in your phone? You can listen to it. Go work out and listen to the to

the music. We were We were also talking about how shitty an audio guy you were, because you don't we have we have how many sound effects and he never uses them? We have a total looks like eight over there. Every time there's a whistle opportunity, you miss it. Every time there's like I don't know what what what? Other if they're impromptu jokes, how am I supposed to know when to hit the buttom anyway? All right, so the cb A vote, it's out for a vote. What seems

to be the deal and they just extended it. Why did they say just extended it. I don't know. It's interesting deal is not done when I don't Yeah, I don't know what the extension was about. But now I think it's extended through Saturday. Is that I thought I

heard Monday? Can you pull that up, Travis? You have the computer, just turn it towards him and you don't turn it toward But what seems to me, what why, I guess, seems to be that this this deal, there's in the NFL, right, there's the haves and the have mores, I guess, and and so what the whether it's six of the players who are on a minimum salary, that this deal is really good for that core group of players.

You know that that those minimum salaries are going to get a big bump, that all of those things for that core group of players, this is this seems to be a good deal. Whereas the you know that whatever it is, whatever that number is of your superstar players, this deal is not as good. And I think what the consensus is, and that's what the negotiating committee from the NFL p A side did was there. They're they're trying to get a deal that's going to help the

largest percentage of their membership and uh. And so if I would have to guess, my guess would be that this deal is going to pass. They only have to get they only have to get plus one and uh and so I would imagine that this would pass because of the deal being positive for that core group of players. Um, but you are going to have a very loud minority of players like you're you know, even whether Aaron Rodgers just spoken out about it and some others who have

spoken out about it. But I do think that the core group of players that ultimately will carry the day. Those guys carry more weight because they're kind of the bigger names. No, I mean, you get one vote. So if there's if there's two thousand players in the league, then there's two thousand votes and everybody gets one vote and uh, and that's how it works. That seems to make a whole lot of sense. Maybe the United States

government should should do that. Attention. I don't know what Travis is looking up like he's trying to solve the uh A can aligebra problem over here in his computer. What what are you looking at, Drews. We're just looking at We were just looking for the for the date. I was just waiting for you guys to finish, to jump in. You just speak, all right, let's go to

let's go to do the playing rules proposals. So I have in front of me the playing rule proposals for that are submitted by the clubs, So teams can submit playing rule proposals. These will get discussed the competition committees meeting on on beginning on March twenty one down in Florida, Naples, Florida. And then the league meeting will start on the twenty nine. That's when they'll have more discussions and then they'll actually vote on on any of these proposals that make it,

that don't that don't get withdrawn. So the first proposal I have is from Philadelphia. This this is an expansion or an edit to the blindside block rule. And uh and so what this what this does is it changes the language to say that, uh, it's a FOULVA player initiates a block when his path is toward a parallel to his own end line and makes forcible contact with his former shoulder to an opponent who cannot reasonably expect such contact. And uh, and so what this does is

it it it makes it. It makes it a little less um, it makes a little broader. And this is more or less the College rule. The College rule says that that when a player can anticipate that contact, then it's a blind side blog and the NFL has tried to create a more of a black and white rule where this makes it. It adds an element of discretion on the officials part to say, Okay, that player can reasonably expect that contact in that posture, in that position.

This player can't. And I think you go back to the block in the in the Texans Bills playoff game where it was I think it was Cody Parker, the Bills offensive lineman. It was a big play in the game, got penalized for a blind side block and then they moved out of field goal range fifteen yards and a lot of people felt like that defender in that position should have been able to expect that contact and it shouldn't have been a fact. And I think that's what

this language does. So that's that's playing rule proposal one playing rule proposal too. It just makes the change from last year that UM any try is automatically review you will, But last year that was a one year change Um. This just makes it makes it a permanent rule which will pass. UM. This one's interesting. This is a playing Real proposal Number three. This is an alternative to the

onside kick. Basically, what this says is that a team can can elect to retain to possession no more than two times during the game, and you can notify the referee that you're going to forego a kickoff or a safety kick, and the ball will be placed at the twenty five yard line and you got one play and it's a fourth and fifteen. Basically, this is kind of the same thing the Broncos. This is basically what the Yeah,

this is what the Broncos proposed last year. This is what the the Alliance of American Football had a similar It was a fourth and twelve play from the twenty eight. So this is getting rid of the onsete kick and making a fourth and fifteen the way that you retain possession. Um, Joe's got a quizzical look, Joe, what what's your what's your thought on that? I'm just thinking, I'm just trying to understand what you're saying. So maybe if you had put your phone down earlier and you list into the

whole conversation is not even on the table. Did you lose in Costa Rica? So, oh god, if he did lose my wallet, actually yeah, but that he's not nearly as upset if he would lose his phone. Forget it. So what this does is it takes the onside kick out. You can go for a fourth and fifteen. I don't think this really, I don't think this has a chance. I think you look at the onside kick um this past season and it was, you know, up over ten percent in terms of success rate on the expected on side,

and I think the league is comfortable with that. I just this is a I'm not gonna say gimmick because it's still a football play, but it it does. It's a it's a big departure from what we're used to and and I know the onside kick is is not an easy play to execute. You know, you do have safety concerns, but their safety concerns on every play. But this,

this is a proposal. Um. I think putting a cap on it it too, makes it a little less gimmicky because then it's like you're not up twenty eight points with two minutes to go, and now all of a sudden he's a team scores and they're able to do it three times in a row. On you are the statistics about statistics about the same converting it fo Yeah, the fourth and fifteen that's where you that's where you kind of you would want it to be a distance that is is you know, in the same area, same

ballpark as the onset kick conversion. So you know, a fourth and fifteen play is probably a ten eleven percent play. It's not a it's not a it's not a very high percentage that you're converting on on on fourth and fifteen. I think it's cool just to kind of that they're looking at just changing a couple of things. You know, i'd love to seat in the preseason. Yeah, I think that.

I think that you could. And what happens in these and what happens in this process is the competition can be discusses it and then a team can elect to withdraw the proposal, or the competition committee could take the proposal, um edit it and propose it themselves, or they could say, hey, we're gonna withdraw it and we're gonna test it in the preseason. All of that's on the table. So I think that's Uh, that's something that that you will you

may see. This next playing rule proposal is very interesting. This is overtime. And we've talked about overtime and getting away from the from the the coin toss, and so what this does is it says if the score is tied at the end of regulation um of any game, that the team that scored the that scored more touchdowns during regulation um will basically get the get the choice. So if you scored more touchdowns than your opponent, you get the choice. UM. And if the teams scored saying,

then we go to a coin toss. So this is this is this is trying to take the the chance out of it and saying you earned this opportunity like that. UM, I'm kind of I I get it. I get the idea. Um, you know, it adds another layer, it adds Okay, now we gotta keep trying. The city had two touchdowns that you know, the Rams had three. Whatever it is to me. The on to see the solve is and look, when you're home, you get the choice. When you're on the road,

you don't. End of the story, you get eight home games, you get eight on the road. In the playoffs or you know, who knows now if we're going to seventeen, but if in the postseason you earn home field advantage, and so you get so the home team gets the choice to start the game and in overtime, and that's that's your So that's how I see it. I get it.

You know, I don't think the numbers necessarily it's very it's a very small percentage of of games that end with the team winning the toss and scoring touchdown on the first drive. It's it's probably um maybe even less than that in recent recent years. But I don't think that. You know, the argument about the chance of the coin tols is not going away. Both teams having possession, you know,

that's not going away. I still like sudden death, and I and I, you know, I don't know if I if we should get into some kind of a statistic goal um area to kind of figure it out. The other part of this proposal is to go back to fifteen minutes in regular season over time, so go from ten to fifteen, which is interesting because they went from fifteen to ten for um safety reasons, and now to go back to fifteen, you're saying, okay, the safety isn't

as important as both teams getting a possession, So that's interesting. UM. And the next one, this is kind of a starting the game clock. So after this two minute warning of the first half and after five minutes inside five minutes of the second half, UM, the clock starts on the snap after a penalty, whether it's decline or accepted. And this is this is a proposal from Miami. They they would say that the defense could elect to have the

game clocks start on the ready for play. And so what this what this is is the offense is behind, they out of time outs, we're inside five minutes of the four worth quarter, and there's a penalty on the offense. Well, they gain a time out in that situation because the clock is going to start on the snap. Well, the counter to that, as a team isn't going to intentionally foul during a down, They're not gonna hold to stop the clock because any game that you get is going

to get negate and you're gonna lose ten yards. But it does accidentally happen and work out for the offense where they gained that advantage. So I get where Miami's coming from. And UH, and it's interesting because why that rule is why why do you think why do you think the game clock? Let's see how let's see let's tell how smart you are both of you? And I know and I already know there's different levels of intelligence

in this room. And um and and funny comedy. That might have been the best line, the best time, hold on, hold on, Yes, that might have been the best line, the best timing that Travis has had since I've known him. That was That's the funniest thing he's ever said. That's up there. So it's the most intentionally funny thing he said that. He said some pretty unintentionally funny things. Um, so why does why does inside two and inside five? Does the clock start on the snap after a penalty?

Why do you think the NFL put that rule in? And that rule has been in for a long time. Is that when um out of bounce stops the clock? Correct? Same thing? Yeah, so that's why. Yeah, to not give Actually, what's the reasons? What's the reason not extra to give no extra time outs to the offense? Right, no extra time outs? No, No, that's what it does. It stops the clock and it and it and it starts on

the snap outside two minutes outside five. If there's a running play and there's a hold, the clock stops to enforce the hold, and then the clock starts on the ready for play because it was running and the foul is the only reason that stopped the clock. Once we get inside two or inside five five, whether it was running or not, it's always gonna start on the snap. There are exceptions ten second runoff things like that, so

it's always going to start on the snap. So the offense that's ahead, they can't run forty seconds off the game flock. It's gonna start on the snap. So the defense same thing. Um. The reason is it conserves plays in those in those time frames, and those time frames are typically when the offense is trying to score points there behind. It promotes closer games, that promotes more exciting finishes.

When you can serve plays in those in that two in that five window, it provides the offense and opportunity to come back, and it creates closer games. That's the reason. Okay, moving on, I have a question for you. Did anyone propose anything to stop that um debacle that happened in that paper? They're gonna they're gonna propose a they're gonna propose a role to make that on sportsmanlike UM. Last two proposals before we take a break. So this is interesting.

Baltimore and l A Chargers have posed two different concepts and this concept is a sky judge concept. So the first concept is there are eight officials on the crew.

So right now we have seven on field. This is adding an eighth official, and the eighth official will will be um in in a in a booth and have the ability um to create an officiating advisor's position somewhere else other than the playing field, has full communication to the on field officials and has access to a television monitor and can just and can look at all the angles. So in essence, an eighth member of the crew that can help in essence, the same thing the XFL is doing.

And then the other one. This just really it just creates UM. They're just calling it different. They're calling it the Senior Technology Advisor to the referee. Okay, let's see how good you guys are. What's the acronym. It's the Senior Technology Advisor to the Referee to the referee Star Star.

There you go, referee. So this star is also is is located and replay booth has access to the video technology, can hear what the officials are doing and can help out in different areas game administration, possession um, location of the football in relation to a boundary line or the goal line. Uh so interesting teams are they want to see some form of a video official and uh and I think this will be a very interesting conversation as the Competition Committee meets. I'm curious as to where they

land on this. Who are those people going to be Ultimately what responsibilities will they have? You know, the XFL we've we've kind of carved out players, safety throughout the game and in the last five minutes of the game, anything. And it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. But those are proposed proposals by Baltimore and the Chargers. So and the next league meeting is I see March

eighteenth is the lead meetings on the twenty nine. I said that earlier you weren't listening, but you probably you were setting up your joke. You were just waiting, you waiting for that joke. All right, let's uh, let's take a break and we come back. We're gonna go inside the cube. We've got a couple of things coming up and uh, oh yeah, we're gonna talk a little uh we're talking a little food coming up next on food calls.

All right, we're back on good calls. Ian Blandino and crew were I made a I made a comment earlier that there's different levels of intelligence in this room, and there are we're all we're all like there's we all have good things and bad things about us about us Summer you know more, you know, intelligent than others. Travis has a lot of street smarts. But we decided, Okay, we're very competitive and we've had this ongoing thing about

who has the best uber rating. Pretty sure I do at this point, and a tastress next to Yeah, no, there's no asterisks. So you're rating is you're rating, and it's an indication of of of who you are as a person, by the way. So we decided that we were gonna we're gonna we're all gonna take a wonder like exam and we'll reveal we'll do it in the

next week or two and we'll reveal the scores. Now, the wonder Like that's a cognitive exam that that the NFL has been using for draft eligible players, and it's kind of like, okay, if if it's it's it's a lot of you have to work through problems, analytical problems like if Bobby has three apples and Sarah has six apples, and and Marcia has eight apples and blah blah blah blah blah how many apples you know whatever, It's not that simple, but it's definitely needs scratch paper for Yeah, yeah,

you've got to work through some some some problems. So we're gonna do a wonder like test. We're gonna see who who has the highest i Q. It was funny because one of the things having a nine year old you kind of learned some of the lingo um that is going around. I'm sure Joe you've experienced this. Your kids are you know, in that same age range. And um,

the Travis's kids just keep him up at night. And so Luca, Luca had he was in the studio and Travis we had that you know, we have that snack table in the back and Travis was like, oh, the snacks are loaded, and Luca was like spring loaded. So so that's like loaded. That's another level, Like it's another that's that's like you're on a whole another level loaded and spring loaded. So now Joe, the next time you have a little too much to drink, I'm gonna double chat.

I'm like, are you loaded or are you spring loaded? And then the other thing he keeps saying is like there's like, if you do something really smart, he's like, Oh, that's a two Q move, And if you do something really dumb, he's like, oh, that's a zero i Q move. And me and Travis are like trying to figure out like where we kind of we live in that. Like I was like, I'm probably probably in that that's a seven the i Q move, you know Joe's and that probably in that same range. So you do you do

pick up the lingo? We did. We had a couple of things Travis. So Travis is, I don't know how we got on the conversation, but he's do you realize Travis likes to sharpen his knives? Okay, were we were talking about something inappropriate? I'm pretty sure involving someone who tweeted some his uh stockpiling of items he bought at Costco, and we were talking about sharpening knives. So o J tweeted about so O J tweeted about going to Costco

and then of course the color comments and Twitter. He has to know, like he's trolling the world, like he has to know the comments people are gonna make when he when he posts that page wearing the mask and everything skind of coronavirus and the comments like like, you know, my favorite, my favorite, my favorite line was that the chances of you killing me are greater than the dying coronavirus.

So obviously, then we went to we we got on the sharpening knives conversation, like you do, and Travis starts telling us that he sharpens his knives before using them, and he's like, you know, if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna like cut grapes, I sharpened my knife and I'm like, I'm like, I don't think you need to sharpen your knife before you're cutting a grape, Like why are you

do you need the razor sharp edge to cut a grape? Well, I was talking about cutting grapes and tomatoes and anything with like a harder outside and a softer inside, And I'm cutting grapes for my daughter who's a toddler, who like grapes are the pediatricians are always talking about how grapes are like the worst thing for kids to eat because they're you know, they can choke on them. You cut. I agree, So when my kids were that age, you cut the grapes. But I wasn't sure. I wasn't sitting

there doing my hans O sword. You've got to sharpen the knife so you can can kill. I could sharp I could go kill the crazy eight e eight. It's like, what the heck did you just scare me? I like having a ship in his background, Like he scares the get out of me. Like, there's definitely there's one. There's definitely there's definitely somebody some that he's sharp with cats. Yeah, he's sharpening knives before he cuts grapes. What's wrong with knives? Like,

I don't know, but okay, jumping subjects. Can we get a little picture of him? Just I'll take a picture. I'll have my wife take it. We we tried, Joe. You were here for that when we tried the Popeye's chicken sandwich, right, you were. I was a chicken fetcher. We we we sent Scott out to check us another chicken sandwich, which, in my opinion, was just not as good. I will, I won't go back. It was the KFC doughnut glazed donut chicken sandwich. That's it was not good.

That's fair food. Yeah, I was gonna say it was something you get it to State Fair and I just didn't like. I didn't like the combination. I didn't like. I was just not not happy with it. And uh, and so don't KFC. It's not gonna last long KFC and talk about our own about the same company. We should be banning both. Now we're out. I haven't been a Taco bell since they eliminated the double decker taco And now the chicken out of the bucket was good. It was good. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie.

The chicken was good. But now Popeyes is better, so we'll go to We'll go to Popeyes from now. Um we did. Then we did get on the conversation of like how who was the first person that decided that I saw a lobster? Was like that's gonna be good? Like who and who was the first person? Like if we melt butter and basically a large insect, like it's it's it's like, I getassity, I get it. I know, we live in this world where I can go like I can go to the supermarket and get whatever I want.

I get it. But who was like saw that thing and was like, that's gonna be good. Are you a lobster fan? I do like lobster. I don't. I don't have to have lobster, but I'll rather do steak with shrimp over steak and love. I think lobster is a little overrated personally. I'm with you on that. I don't think it's like I think it's good. Like if if I'm at a restaurant there's like a lobster option and I'm like, oh, that'd be good to get it, like

a lobster towel, but I just find it. You know, they used to, like in Maine and New Hampshire, like where there's a big lobster population, that they didn't it wasn't always like this fancy food. They used to feed it to the prisoners at the at the prisons, like that's what they used to eating the print and could you imagine like the prisoners like, don't don't tell anybody likes again again not again. I think one guys like

this is amazing. Shut why you exactly. Can you get one of those little nets that goes around the lemon because the seeds keep falling. Um okay. I saw in the story from the bangor Daily News Banger Main that it was consumed briefly by the royal and aristocratic families of France and the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Yeah, but then it was so plentiful that they use it as garden fertilizer and uh in the Northeast at one point.

And then that's around the stay. But the lobster population like just like they're like loving it. There's and then and then like somebody, oh these are Yeah, it's like oh we but we taste so good. Like it's not gonna it's not gonna work. So the mid nineteenth century when it became popular with the New Yorkers and Bostonians, so it was like a Northeast thing obviously, Okay, all right, good, what's and what's you're taking a lobster roll? I like

a lobster roll. Lobster roll is good because I just like the whole, like the bread is always really good and uh yeah, I like it. I like it hot. Though never really got into a bunch of spicy hotter like piping hot temperature. No, you know what. You know what is one of the greatest things on the planet is if you go to like Boston or you go to even San Francisco, they have it. You get a clam chat in the bread bowl with tabasco. Oh my god,

can we find that here? Can we get that? Got the bread bull New England clam chowder it's it's not it's pretty good. And the tabasco, Oh my god, the mouth is watering. And there's not too far from your place. VNS makes a pretty good clam chowder, and you could just get a bread bull. Get a bread bull. You gotta stay away from those Remember that picked that video

we're looking at on this weekend? Oh god, it's it's a guy at one of those buffets with the ladle just drinking soup and then he puts it back and walk puts it back. And if I saw that, I literally would have beat like, are you kidding me? I mean, we don't even have to make a rule because it should have already be known, but that guy breaking the

rule exactly. Finally, boom. We were talking about other weird things that people eat and we're talking like people still eat squirrels like where you live, like people like that. Insects are a great source of protein, like people eat bugs all every insects. Yeah, I mean when you're a kid, you know, I mean like since you coming to Vault, like like I haven't had no, I really haven't been anywhere that that's like you know, like crickets on a set or something like I've never happened. Was at the

night market in China? Yeah, I would try. Did you put a scorpion down? No? I didn't touch any of stuff because they said if you should stay away from the grease if you're you're not used to eating that, because I guess it can be you know, it's reused all the time. So like a friend who's from China, she's like, yeah, you guys probably should stay away from that. I don't think your stomach should be only handle it. I didn't touch it. Do you look like a guy

with a week's stomach? I can see, Travis, Does this have gluten in it? That's I'm telling you glue. I still think people in l A are more scared of gluten than they are the coronavirus. It's still it's still higher. We should put a pole out right. Um, all right, let's this is this is a new thing we want to try. Okay, so try this, Joe. I'm gonna give you a copy just so you can read along. Okay,

don't read the script yet. Okay, But Travis, we're gonna do an audition Travis, this is this is either movie he hasn't Yeah, you can pass that down. Movie. He hasn't seen a movie he's seen a long time ago. Okay. So Travis is coming in for an audition. I'm gonna do the read with him. He's gonna be one character. I'm gonna be another. I'll read with him. Now you are auditioning for the part. I'm gonna give you a background. So the movie is the movie are auditioning for is

Good Fellas? Okay with Travis thinks he's watched he's seen it years and years ago, unlike the rest of the world who's watching it. I was going to watch it because it just popped up on Amazon Prime, but it was too loud with my son's exactly, there's too much curses. So so I'm gonna give you a little background. You're reading Good Fellas, this is a this is a a mob movie. Okay, this is gonna be a definitely, definitely smartin Scorcesey is the director. You're reading one of your

favorites of Travis. You're at an audition. Who comes in and starts talking to in Alright, I'm done. In this scene, you're playing You're playing Tommy. Okay, Tommy and Henry are having a conversation in a restaurant. Tommy has just told a very funny story. Okay, Tommy is is a very funny guy. He's just told a very funny story. I'm Henry. Okay. My lines are in black, your lines are in red. Okay,

You're you're Tommy. You're a you're a bloodthirsty killer for the mob, but you're you're a kind of a lovable bloodthirsty killer. Okay, alright, alright, You're Italian, Italian American. You're you're kind of got a little bit of a Napoleon complex. You're a little bit shorter in stature. Okay, you're a little bit off. You're a little bit off. You're not all there. Okay, all right, you're Tommy, I'm Henry. All right, here goes. You're a pistol. You're really funny, You're really funny.

What do you mean? I'm funny? It's funny? You know it's a good story. It's funny. You're a fun do you guy? What do you mean? You mean the way I talk? What? It's just? You know, you're just funny. It's funny, the way you tell the story and everything funny? How funny? What's funny about it? Tommy? You got it all wrong? Oh, Anthony, he's a big boy. He knows what he said? What did What did you say? Funny? How? Just? What? Just? You know? You're funny? You mean, let me understand this,

because you know, maybe it's me. I'm a little fucked up. Maybe, but I'm funny. How I mean like I'm a clown. I moves you, I make you laugh. I'm here to fucking amuse you. What do you mean funny? Funny? How? How am I funny? You have a worst actor I've ever seen? Just you know how you tell the story? What? No, No, I don't know you said it? How do I know? You said? I'm funny? How the funk am I funny? What the funk is funny about me? Tell me? Tell me what's funny, Get the funk out of here. Tommy,

you motherfucker almost had him. I almost had him. He's stuttering, tricky. Frankie was he's shaken. I wonder about you sometimes, Henry, you may fold under questioning cut. I don't know if it's if it's his bad acting or his complete unability to read that's the issue. Oh my god, that's so. That's one of the that's a that's an iconic scene in American movie history, and you just set it back like a hundred years. It's amazing. You did good. Um,

you did good. You know what plays that character? Was that? Um? He said, well, well, Joe's gonna Joe's the guy that just read before you was this this actor? His name is Joe Pesci. He's going to get the part. Travis, you're not getting the part. But is it because I'm Norwegian? Yeah, So we're gonna do that list ways against the Normandy. Tweet me if you watch and tweet me movie scenes you want Travis to audition for. Treat me. Tweet me

what roles you want him to audition for. He hasn't seen a lot of movies, so let me know, let me know. Let's go Brandon Blandino, and then we'll wrap it up just saying I never came to l A looking to be an actor, underwear model, underwear model, porn star. Yeah, but all right, here we go. Weed dealers are no longer drug dealers? Do they even have jobs? Okay? So yeah, well what is a weed dealer? Like if you if

you remember the guy like yet a weed dealer? Right, yeah, yet a guy that you know in New York it was just now Yeah, so they can't do the guys or the girls whoever they are who sell weed, what are they? I think they still do it. They call themselves doctors. Now they go into like growing and now they they're still like I guess, is there still a illegal weed? Like can do it? Old school? Can you still have the guys show up? He probably they probably

just expand their product line. I would think, I don't to include other things. Yeah, I don't imagine. Okay, I just that that's not like even like that's just a legitimate question. There's apps now you just get on like just bring it to your house, med men and all that and all that stuff. But is that is the guy that's still kind of the dime bad guy? Is he still a guy. I would imagine they're still around

at some level. I don't know, because well, for a while because you had to get like a medical card or something. Now I think it's just wide open. Right here, I got another one. This one's actually funny. This is gonna be great at pooling Cabo. Lean over to a black guy, white people, am I right, showed him a picture of Travis. Should be the rest of it, so

that actually happens to that. So we were in Cabo and with a group of people and a group of white people and Joe and our friend Steve and these other people, and they were like having the time of their lives, like dancing. Joe had like a bandana around his head that said, like what like sex machine or something sex machine like dancing being completely like ridiculous, and and I was like having a nice time, was taking that. I was taking nap, having a nice time under my umbrella.

And there was this really cool couple that we met that had had, you know, the chairs next to us, and we were talking to them, and then and the one dude, he's a black guy, and I like watching him, and I just leaned over to him, and white people am I right? And he just knew exactly what I was talking about because it was just like, you know, there was maybe like three or four black people in the entire pool area and it was just white people doing white people ship and it was just like that, Yeah,

that's the thing. It was fun. I had a great time. It was a good time. Everyone knows you had a great time. We'll go back to Cabo yeah again. All right, that's the show. This has been Good Calls with Dean Blandino. Please follow me on Twitter at Dean Glendino and Instagram at Dean dop Latino. Followed the show on i g and Twitter, apples podcast, and be sure to radar podcast on the I Heart Radio app and on Apple podcasts. Good Calls with Dean Blandino is a production of I

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