Rainn Wilson & Ryan Zachary

Hi everybody, and welcome back to a very special episode of Off the Beat. As always, I am your host, Brian Baumgartner, but everything else will be a bit different. There's so much going on this week in my world and in the world of the office, and in the world of things that I like, mainly NFL football and fantasy football. I've got my old friend and yours, Rain Wilson, on the podcast today. We're going to be talking about the Office Fantasy Football League now here, I believe in

I love it, Bubble and Squeakna.

Bubble and squeak.

I cook get every month lift from the Nabopo.

Here we go. I'm gonna blow.

Whatever you need. Let's get in. And I'm oh, wow, what's happening? You do you have a cold? Do you have COVID?

I don't think I have COVID.

COVID is everywhere. Everyone's getting COVID again.

Well maybe I do. Maybe I did and didn't test. I don't know. Wow.

Yeah, and yet you're podcasting.

Listen. We just do the best we can. We're professionals. We work with what we got.

You know, if you've got half an ear, you know, and a microphone you got at radio shack, it's fine.

We're rolling. It's no, it's totally fine. That's just the new world. Yes, well, first off, thank you for coming on. Have you been out of the country?

I was, Yes.

Your your Instagram is very confused. It's like, I are you posting like talk backs, like sessions, and then I click on it and it's like in Belgium or something like, they're not even in the United States. You don't announce I'm going on a world tour. You just sort of say, hey, I'm in Amsterdam this week.

That's how I roll. I like to keep it a little mysterious. Do you notice my my get up is a little mysterious.

Yeah, you're a rat? Now are you a hat guy?

Now?

I've kind of become a hat guy.

Well, when you have a very large, rapidly balding dome, such as myself, yeah, sometimes a hat is the only alternative.

Yeah, now do you? Here's here's the thing though, I think hats, those kind of hats don't hide me. I feel like they cause more attention.

Well, that's that's for certain. This is not a hey, I want to walk around and be anonymous hat. This is this is like I want to look incredibly sexy and content temporary right hat. And I think it's working magnificently.

Yes, in your home, it's working great. And for you to do with me here, yeah exactly.

But I definitely do with the baseball I get the baseball cap, going, the sunglasses, baseball cap, even the head noise canceling headphones, and maybe even a COVID mask, and just try and stay as under the radar as possible.

You do, see, I don't do the headphones. The headphones, I don't know, I don't I don't do that.

You just take those headphones you're wearing right now and just wear them around.

It just helps, does it? Yeah?

It helps. Everything helps.

But when you can't hear with them that, it's probably not not good to have them on. All right, We're recording here on September the ninth, Monday, the Monday night football games haven't happened rain. You and I and our office fantasy league are both losing by sixty points.

Your reaction, my reaction is discussed fear, chagrin, overwhelm. I have seventy two points right now.

Well, here's the thing. I think you would be beating me now after tonight. I don't think you would be, but I think you are currently currently lead leading me. I have sixty three points. Now, I've got Breithe Hall tonight, I've got the kicker. But yeah, is the season over for you? Have you given up?

No? I really like my team.

I don't.

I don't understand it. I don't understand how Patrick Mahons only got sixteen, Amon Ross sat Brown, who is a top five wide receivers, got me three points, and Christian Kirk got me three points. He's a top you know, twenty receiver yeah, so I think things are going to turn around. I have Lad McConkie on the bench so I can bring him out.

He's yeah. I like him too. I wanted him. Yeah, I you know, the Chargers looked for The Chargers looked fun all. By the way, all of the principal cast members are are being saddled with an l that are in the office fence meet you. John Soxy, our commissioner. He's gonna win. Andy Buckley, who knows nothing about football, admittedly his son runs his team. He's gonna win. We feel like we know things, yet we're terrible. It's very discouraging, it is. It's very sad.

Uh. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to say. But Mahomes is gonna light it up some more. And he had a tough go. Baltimore defense is tough and just wren up. And I think Kamara and etn and I've got debo tonight. I feel good about my chances. I've got a good team.

Your chances in the future, not this week. Yeah, you're you're destroyed this.

Yeah, that's okay. I have I have learned in the in the great game of Fantasy football. I have there have been multiple seasons where it's like I've lost like five of the first six games, Yes, and then picked up some waiver wire additions and made a late season run and gotten in the playoffs.

So you you do not give You do not give up. There are there are some people who do you do? You do not?

I work the wire till the bitter end.

Yeah. I'm discouraged though, because I liked my team as well. I will ask you this. I was texting during the draft with Uberaga, who drafted third, who built his entire draft on on the assumption that I was going to take Tyreek Hill. Uh, we can't really say how my choice panned out, obviously it's the first week anyway, But I took bres Hall and not Hill. What would you have done?

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't have taken Breee Hall. I think he's like number ten or something, So I don't know. I'm not sure what the thinking was there. Is your podcast audience are they really into fantasy football? Because what about your podcast audience that just loves conversations about being an actor and.

Well, we're going to have that conversation too. But I mean it's week one, it's the Office, Fantasy League. I feel like, you know, people are interested in the things that we're interested in. I don't know, Rain, I don't know. It's interesting to me. There's a lot going on, the Emmys coming. Are you watching television?

I watched television sometimes. Yeah, I'm watching Chimp Crazy. Have you seen Chimp Crazy?

I have not seen chimp Crazy. What's chimp Crazy?

Oh my god? It's amazing. It's about the world of people that collect and chimpanzees, and.

We mean collect chimpanzees, like actual chimpanzees.

Yeah, they raise chimpanzees.

Is that called collecting?

I don't know. You collect, you collect them, You collect them in your basement or in your backyard, and they're really crazy and it's just a fascinating train wreck.

So it's this is a reality to me.

It's a docu series on a docu series on HBO Max.

Are you watching? Are you watching Bad Monkey?

I haven't seen Bad Monkey yet? Is it good?

Michelle Monaghan on the podcast a couple of weeks ago. I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoy I mean it's it's Vince Vaughan. Is is Vince Vaughn And he's back and he's doing his thing, and it's entertaining.

To me fair enough, Maybe I'll give it a try.

You should, you should. Here's the thing that strikes me quickly about about the Emmys this year when you look at the comedy show that none of them feel like comedies to me. The bear is the bear a comedy.

The bear is not a comedy. Beef is not a comedy. Palm Royal, it's not a comedy. I don't understand the lack of comedies in the comedy realm. But I don't understand why networks and streamers aren't buying more comedies, developing more comedies. Why they Surely there's an audience for comedies out there somewhere, right, I would think, so, yeah, people

I was going to bring that up, it's not really a comedy. It's a little.

Bit more of a comedy, but it pushes the needle a little bit more towards comedy. There are certainly comedians in it.

That's what I was going to say. It stars too great comedians and even Hacks, which is about stand up comedians. I don't is that a comedy? Is Hacks a comedy?

Yeah, it's it's a little it's a little bit dark. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, but you're you're watching the Chimp thing.

Yes, that's what I'm watching. I watched The House of the Dragon. I love that show. That's over with. I think Slow Horses has a new season out. I really like that show on Apple.

Yes, it's out now. I enjoy that show as well. The limited series stuff is I mean, that's what it feels like everything is these days.

Yeah.

But Baby Reindeer Fargo, I just absolutely love Fargo. Do you watch Fargo.

I couldn't get into this last season. I thought the tone was weird. It got very goofy in ways that earlier Fargo's didn't. So I did not.

I didn't.

I didn't get it. But I know people that thought it was just brilliant and loved it.

I loved it. Ripley, Yeah, I loved Ripley. I was fished. Ripley. Replease the comedy.

Here's my comedy pitch. Serial Killer moves to Italy in nineteen sixty three, very stylish.

We filmed it black and white and it's going to be a riot. All right? Are you are you going? Are you? Are you presenting?

I haven't watched an award show in ten years. Really, I don't. I'm not what are you boycotting? I just don't enjoy award shows. I mean that's not true. I've seen some of the Oscars, not every year, but some of that. But so I don't know. I couldn't tell you what's going on in that in the world of Amys.

Yeah, well we just talked about a lot of shows that are nominated, So I mean, that's okay, that's a start. That's okay. You have a big event going on this weekend, which is really why I wanted to talk to you this week. I was looking at your website for Lead a Haiti, knowing you for a long time, knowing you started it, I didn't realize that you started lead a Haiti as like a temporary thing, according to your website in twenty ten, in response to the earthquake that happened there.

No, Yeah, we came as a temporarily to teach arts and education. To adolescent girls through a program sponsored by the United Nations, and that was a temporary measure and then we just kind of stayed and some Haitian friends of ours and us started this and out in rural Haiti. Haiti is in terrible shape right now. I'm sure you've heard. Gangs are controlling at least forty percent of Porta Prince,

Would go because it's too poor.

So we're able to be functioning and we've actually been thriving as an organization and we're working with almost a thousand girls right now.

It's incredible.

Yeah, it's been great. Yeah. But we're doing a big office get together trivia night event this weekend to fundraise for Haiti and very excited about.

Yeah, so you're bringing in its fan. I know you did a what do you call it.

A raffle, right, raffle Yep, there's gonna be raffle winners and there's going to be kind of people bidding to come as well through charity.

Buzz Okay, how many people are they going to be there? Well, so I'm I'm I'm coming.

Yep.

Who else is going to be their Creed.

Creed, Oscar Franery, Oscar, Ellie Kemper Nice, Paul Eberstein, I think, Paul Okay and Andy Buckley nice And yeah, it's going to be It's gonna be a good group.

Very excited. This is going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited about it.

Thank you for attending and supporting. You've always been very supportive of Lee da Haiti and our work, and you know, this is what I do, Brian. I wore myself out as Dwight and do some Dwight related events and T shirts and you know, sales and cameos and stuff like that to raise money for girls' education to some of the kind of poorest, neediest girls on the planet. And it's great. It's a great way to kind of leverage celebrity towards a positive cause. So I'm happy to do it.

Well, what is funny to me about this particular event going back well five years ago on the first incarnation of the podcast when we did an oral history of the Office. How little you remember about our time there. So the fact that you're doing office trivia is very funny to me. I will not get any I am asking the questions. Are you participating?

I have no idea. I don't know how it's working. I really don't. I I have seen every episode once, and I have seen about two thirds of the episodes twice. Okay, and there's whole other seasons I've I have not.

Story life seen in ten years.

So I'm the worst person you can ask, but I'm there. I'm gonna be jovial and it's high fighting.

You're gonna be nice rain. You're gonna be.

Nice bringing on nice rain, not grumpy rain.

Yes, okay, do you have like a off I have a office trivia question that I do you have one that you ask people?

Let's hear yours.

Well. When people come up and they're like, hey, you know I won the office Trivia night at my local community center or whatever, I have one, and I always say to them, I have one question. I have one question only Okay. Here it is, what is Gabe Lewis's middle name? Five? Seconds.

I have no idea, Charles, No.

He yells it one time. It's referenced one time. Gabriel Susan Lewis. That's good.

See that's comedy, folks. Why aren't there comedies on the air? Jokes were someone who's very self serious is named Gabe Susan Lewis.

Gabriel Gabriel Susan Lewis. Well, the other bit that I do is the other than just the straight flat dunder Mifflin T shirt, the one that everybody wears is the fun Run for the Cure thing. And so they'll approach and they'll say something, and I'll say, do you ever do you usually wear clothes that you don't know? What? They say? And I take something and I block their shirt and ask them to tell me what it says? Nice, zero percent correct on that one.

That's right, that's right, Fun Run for the Cure blah blah blah.

Yeah, there's like a Meredith Palmer and a Michael Scott Rabies. Anyway, Well, good luck with the fundraiser this weekend. I look forward to seeing you. It's been since it's been since pre COVID that we've done a charity right with Creed's Benefit concert. I think we're the last. We we did one together.

Well, last year I did one that was a dinner with me and Steven Angela.

Yes, I wasn't invited. No you want I wasn't invited.

You're not a list enough.

Oh boy, I didn't go.

Well, I didn't want to invite Steve Is. Steve is, Yeah, Steve, Steve wasn't like forty episodes.

Come on, that's true, that's true.

So yeah, no, I'm psyched to be there. This is gonna be so much fun and we'll raise a little money and it's all all for a good cause. And it's good to see. How it's a podcast going. How's the golfing going?

Everything's going well. I need to get rid of this like sinus thing and I'll I'll be back in business. But you know, I just did my American Century Championship deal there in Lake Talk, you know what you know. So here's the thing. People are like, oh wow, or like it's impressive or something. For me, it's just that I'm old. You know that American Century Championship thing that you've known. I've been you know, we started this on the eighteen years in a row, Holy moly, eighteen years in a row.

Amazing.

It's unreal. My golf game is a little better.

But did you get free golf clubs out of it?

I have golf clubs. Yeah.

Did you get free ones out of doing that?

Out of that event? No? Okay, Ran, I do a lot. I play a lot of golf.

I know you do.

I know you do. But I enjoy it. Everyone's got to find something they love.

I play tennis, as you know.

I know I love it. Yeah, and Angela's is with the tennis now too.

Angela and I played Steven Nancy and tennis recently a month ago.

Really, yeah, who won?

I think they won in a tiebreak, but I honestly can't remember. And I'm truly saying that. I'm not saying that because we lost. I think Nancy Correll is really good at tennis played. She plays four or five days a week. She's a monster. She's really really good. Yeah. Wow, but we did well, we did well.

Good for you. Yeah, I love hearing that.

Yeah.

Yeah. No one plays golf. That's the thing. That's my number one question at these things. It's like who else will play? No one plays? I don't know. Well, good luck and Fantasy. I'm gonna try to get Lad McConkey from you because I'm a big fan of his too.

But anyway, you try your best, my friend, you try your best. Uh congression, Oh maybe you can trade me Breeze Hall for him.

He mean, let me at least get Can I get one game under my belt with him? He was my choice. Congratulations on soul Boom. By the way, I'm so happy for you and the success of the book, the new podcast. Where can people hear that anywhere that you listen to podcasts?

Wherever you get your podcasts. Soul Boom our our YouTube channel. Check out the book soul Boom on a bookstore near you, and thank you for all your support. You're the best, Brian. I love you so much.

Thanks Rain, I love you. I'll see you this weekend. Okay, great, all.

Right bye everybody.

Welcome back everybody. You know it is the the inaugural week, the first week, Week one of the NFL season. We're coming to you live on September the ninth, a very very big game tonight between the San Francisco forty nine ers and the Jets Jets. Jets Jets. By the time you hear this podcast, you'll know what happened and likely know whether I'm happy or I'm sad. We're going to bring on a producer of ours here on the podcast, Ryan Papa Zachary to talk with me about the NFL

I did?

I mean pretty much red zoned it all day, okay, and then watch the evening game.

Do you like the red zone?

I do it just it gives you all the information at once. I don't have the NFL ticket, so for me it does a trick.

Who impressed you the most Week one? Week one? Cooper Cup?

Cooper Cup, I I a friend off the podcast there you go. Yes, off a super fan friend of Brian Baumgardner. Your guy, Cooper man Pooka goes down in the first half with the knee injury that he kind of I don't know what it was. I'm not a doctor, but they take him out of the game, and I'm assuming it's the same thing that he kind of had or re retweaked in the preseason. I'm guessing that's what it is. I don't know, I haven't read, I haven't looked this morning.

I mean, I'm going to text him today and ask him if it's due to Dodo Coffee, his coffee company, Like is that? I think his answer is going to be yes. Is there a world?

Is there a world where where see Ki says no to that?

I don't I don't think so.

I mean he also he also gave him, you know, a couple of those inter round sweeps. So I don't know what the I don't know what the Rams call him in their playbook, but you know he ran for ten yards, twelve yards, they're given the ball handing him off to him too.

I was listening to some people this morning who commentate about football. They will remain nameless, but they said that loss by the Rams last night was maybe the best loss in a decade. That they looked really good. Both their tackles were out, three members of their offensive line, and they dominated the second half.

What do you think as a viewer, as a fan of the game, I could see that. I mean, I'm not going to argue. I think going to the Rams facility today and tell them that was the best loss of all time and see how they see how they feel, I think you're going to get a different answer.

But no, I mean it was a great game. It really was.

I mean Matt made some great throws. That was a one throw where the guy was in his face and he was getting pushed back hit, So yeah, it was just I mean in Collinsworth went over and over and over, so I don't have to redo it. But it was incredible. It was a great game. I enjoyed it a lot. It's interesting to see the Lions be good again, because they haven't really since I was a kid and Barry Sanders was running around.

Yeah yeah, I mean.

I think there's there's plenty a Week one headlines to go around.

Well, yeah, I mean it is overreaction Monday. I mean, Monday is always overreaction Monday. But this week, Week one, obviously you can't you can't read too much into it. Obviously, the Bengals were very surprising. What was the biggest surprise game for you this week?

Surprise surprise?

I mean I think New Orleans scoring forty seven points was not on my vision board.

They scored nine possessions in a row.

Yeah, that was not I mean, not trying to be judgmental, I'm not trying to be judgmental, but that was not on my vision board for twenty twenty four.

Well, I was surprised by a lot. I think that how good this early that the Chiefs look that had to put some people on notice. I think I showed on my social media my candle predicted the Ravens were going to win. On Thursday night, I was surprised by how good Kansas City looks better than they did. I know it's overreaction. Monday, they looked as good or better than they did all of last year. They just looked like a more well rounded team to me against what should be a really good Ravens team.

And it is a really good Ravens team. I think, what's the name of the kid Xavier Worthy that they drafted. I mean, I would love to see him in Tyreek Hill.

In a race.

I mean he just yeah, like he just out. I mean he's super fast and will knew it like it's no. But like when you see it in a game, it's it's a different and it's a different story.

People talk about the NFL being the greatest reality show on television, and if you watched the games this week, starting with that the toe being out of bounds on Thursday night, so many of the endings, it sort of lived up to that billing. At one point, there were eight games in the early time slot on Sunday, Six of them, halfway through the fourth quarter were one possession games. Most of the games very very close and compelling till the end, with storylines that abounded.

I agree one but two, if you back up, you still want to talk Chiefs Ravens. The drama in the first half, was it like four illegal formations in the first.

Half called on that more.

And I mean, I'm not a not a player, but as far as I know, that's that's a penalty where the ref's always kind of like, hey, you're you're moving a little, you gotta scow it in, or hey, you gotta you gotta scoop back a bitter. For me, that seems like a penalty that the refs always kind of give you a little, uh, a little grace with and kind of warn you and if you if you adhere to what they're saying.

They don't call it. Yeah. I heard this morning a friend of the podcast, Andrew Whitworth, who's been on here obviously having a ton of success on Thursday Night Football as a commentator now that he's retired a Super Bowl champion with the Rams. I heard him talk and he said something that was really interesting to me, and I'm glad you brought this up. What he said is what he doesn't like is the NFL saying this penalty or

I thought, well, and it's one of those things where like, are you you know, everything is reviewed at the end of the year, right, so the ref's performances get reviewed, their calls get reviewed. They probably get reviewed weekly and then yearly and then whatever, I mean, do they look at it and they go, hey, there's a there's a there's a bunch of missing illegal formation penalties here. We need to overcompensate now, Like that's what it's That's what

But I think the.

You know, you talk about the moment, the cringe moment. I think the thing that sucks for fans is like, let them play, right. I want to watch Lamar and Patrick go at it. I want to watch like.

This is what everybody does.

This is why it's the first game of the season and it's a primetime game. Everybody wants to watch these two teams play.

Obviously, you and I have watched a lot of the Green Bay Packers over the years. Ultimately, I don't think the folks at the NFL will be happy that I say this. It felt like going to Brazil. Great, you want to expand the fan base, great, if this is

I I I'm not gonna I'm not a player, so I can't speak for for any of them, but it I mean, how can you be a fan of that flying in on a was it like on a Wednesday or Tuesday night ten hour flight, they're two hours ahead. You practice the next day, and then you have a game the next night, and you turn around and fly home. I mean, when anybody travels internationally getting your bearings, there's always a day or two of kind of just like I feel a little weird from flying across the world.

Yeah, you know, And that's.

That's always been kind of a conversation where like teams like Chicago in Green Bay being in the middle of the country that they have a slight advantage over teams like New York and Seattle that have to travel. If you know, Seattle's playing the Dolphins, or if you know, the Giants are playing the Rams's two.

And a half hour flight as opposed to a six hour flight. Yeah, it felt difficult, a little bit awkward. Hopefully Jordan is okay. Obviously he's very important to their success this year. Also, Josh Allen with an injury that we're sort of waiting to hear back on. Those are a couple of the marquee guys. I want to ask you quickly about the other LA team, the Chargers. Chargers relevant this year. They're one to zero.

I don't think you can count Jim Harbaugh out, with his resume and what he's done everywhere he's gone. I just don't think you can do it.

It felt like if there was a script for what you thought might happen to them, it couldn't have gone any better for them. And yeah, as an offensive coach coming in, what was so surprising to me was how great the defense looked and how tough they the entire team played start to finish. I don't know that it was a fun game to watch, but the results well, I think it's I think it's good for the NFL.

Well, I think too. The other thing in that game is JK. Dobbins towards Achilles, and he came on and played ran for the Chargers, and he played well and didn't get hurt. I think it's the same for Atlanta Kirk Cousins. They lost, maybe not had the game that he wanted to have. But you know, tonight there's also another guy with the same injury coming back. So it's good to see those guys back and healthy, and it's exciting.

What's going to happen tonight? J Ets Jets, Jets, Jets at the Niners, your pick.

I think the Jets take it. I don't think it's gonna be easy on either side. I just hope everyone stays healthy.

Yeah, I do as well. It should be a lot of fun, obviously. I'm excited football is back. Thank you for coming and talking about some of the biggest stories this week. By the way, my fantasy football team sucks. Sorry. Did you play rain this week? No? We just both lost by sixty so we're uh, yeah, we're not good. We have to look ourselves in the face. I don't know, is that what you're saying.

Nobody have to be good at fantasy People are lucky at fantasy.

Well, don't tell me when I win that. Thanks for coming on, appreciate it. I couldn't be more excited about the season being back, and we'll see what happens tonight. I promise you this. I may have a cocktail and watch the game. Yeah, I'm in let's do it all right. Thanks Papa Sob, Thank you everybody for indulging me this week. The last thing is the Emmys this weekend, the seventy sixth edition of the Emmys. You know, it brings back so many great memories for me. Every time I think